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Funding for swimming pool reprogrammed for new gym
The much-awaited construction of a swimming pool at Saipan Southern High School will not happen anytime soon after funding for the project was reprogrammed again for another project—this time for a gymnasium adjacent to the proposed Koblerville Junior High School.
“We’re a little bit concerned that the SSHS swimming pool money, I believe, has been reprogrammed to provide additional funding for the gymnasium for the new proposed Koblerville Junior High and that was done by the [Northern Marianas] Housing Corp.,” said Board of Education chair Herman T. Guerrero at a recent meeting.
The board approved the swimming pool project in September 2009 after SSHS secured a $200,000 grant from NMHC’s community development block grant. However, this amount was reprogrammed by NMHC in 2011 to pay a portion of the government’s utility expenses. SSHS was promised the inclusion of the project in future CDBG funding.
But at the March 4 board meeting, Guerrero told his peers that the housing agency had redirected the money to the new gymnasium. He did not elaborate.
The gymnasium project is part of the master plan for the proposed Koblerville Junior High School. Funding for the school project has yet to be identified but PSS has already been approved $1.2 million in CDBG funds to build the school’s gymnasium.
Saipan Tribune learned that PSS will lose this CDBG funding if the housing agency fails to see a complete and functional gymnasium by September 2014. It was learned that the CBDG funding has been approved since 2012.
During the March 4 board meeting, Capital Improvement Project committee chair Marylou S. Ada reported that funding for the proposed Koblerville Junior High remains unidentified up to now.
“We’re still in the planning stage, trying to look for the best way to build a junior high, possibly through borrowing money,” said Ada, adding that a committee is negotiating this issue. The committee’s members are financial consultant Ed Tenorio, finance director Derek Sasamoto, federal programs officer Tim Thornburgh, Ada, and CIP committee member Herman Guerrero.
