Flashback – May 29, 2000-2002

May 29, 2000

PSS gets $154K fed grant via Internet

Commissioner of Education Rita Hocog Inos has announced that the PSS has successfully completed its first Internet application for federal funds. The PSS has been electronically notified by the Federal Transit Administration that its first all electronic application for federal funds has been awarded. The PSS now has access again to $154,000 in federal funds that will be used to pay for the leases on the 13 busses procured by the PSS in 1996. As those annual payments amount to $145,000, the federal money is sufficient to assure that the PSS will not need to use CNMI dollars to meet the lease costs. Receiving these funds via Internet also underscores the future of transacting grants with federal agencies.

CNMI seeks funding to boost reading program

The local education sector has applied for additional federal funding of $100,000 which is envisioned to boost the reading program in the Northern Marianas. While the Public School System awaits the approval of the FY 2000 budget package, Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos said PSS still wants to tap federal money for this purpose through the Reading Excellence program offered by the U.S. Department of Education. Should the CNMI gets these federal resource, PSS would be able to put in place new reading strategies in its program for kindergarten through third grade students.

May 29, 2001

Businessman defends Splash Island relocation

Sea Ventures Island, Inc. President Anthony Pellegrino deplored a recent National Park Service report on Splash Island, claiming it was copied from a manual and was conducted without proper investigation. Mr. Pellegrino questioned claims that the Splash Island will be detrimental to the aesthetic and soundscape value of the American Memorial Park, “when it only rises as high as a meter above the water, not counting the eight-foot tall water slide.” The businessman also defended that Splash Island would not affect the soundscape of the park because it is moored a “good” mile away from its shore.

Saipan aircraft traffic soar 8%

International aircraft traffic to the Northern Marianas increased eight percent in March 2001 to 289 flights from last year of the same month’s 267, according to the Commonwealth Ports Authority. This came even in the wake of Mandarin Airlines’ suspension of nonstop flights between Saipan and Taipei in March, which was anticipated to cost CPA an average monthly revenue of $4,000. International arrivals at the Saipan airport soared 13 percent during the same period to 44,110 passengers from March last year’s 38,968 passengers. Departure figures increased two percent from 43,642 to 44,482 passengers.

May 29, 2002

Army Corps to foot $1.7M in ports projects

Efforts to upgrade the Tinian and Rota harbors took a step closer to reality after the CNMI government and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed during preliminary discussions yesterday to pool a total of $2.6 million for the next phase, which is to conduct a feasibility study for both projects. Of the amount, the CNMI government would only foot $900,000, while the Corps would shoulder the remaining $1.7 million, or more than 65 percent of the cost for the study. This comes soon after Jim Hatashima of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers disclosed that the Corps’s headquarters in Washington D.C. finally approved about three weeks ago the reconnaissance report on the two projects.

Possible deficit spending prompts House to shelve joint resolution

The House of Representatives has decided, for the moment, to sit on a joint resolution that would have granted Gov. Juan N. Babauta the authority to reprogram government money in excess of the 25 percent statutory limit. House Speaker Heinz S. Hofschneider said that, although both the House and the Senate have already passed House Joint Resolution 13-5, the House opted to recall the measure for two reasons. “First, the joint resolution was ill drafted. Second, because of recent contradictions between the Executive Branch’s actions and the positions of the House or the Executive Branch’s inconsistent application of a particular public policy,” he said.