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Measure to reclaim AMP heads to Senate
A House measure to reclaim the American Memorial Park heads to the Senate after the House voted in favor of the bill during a session on Capitol Hill last Friday.
Rep. Donald Barcinas (R-Saipan), author of House Bill 20-152, believes that the local government is capable of maintaining and developing the American Memorial Park instead of the National Park Service, the federal agency that currently has jurisdiction over it.
The bill’s intention is to authorize Gov. Ralph DLG Torres to ask the Interior secretary to transfer administration of the park to the CNMI government.
“The CNMI government was able—with the help of federal agencies, of course—to clean the entire CNMI. The American Memorial Park was never cleaned,” said Barcinas, recalling the onslaught of Typhoon Soudelor back in August 2015 and emphasizing that the local government could do a better job than the NPS.
He pointed out that the mess left by Typhoon Soudelor at the park was not addressed until Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) asked people to volunteer to clean the area.
Barcinas believes that CNMI residents should be able to use the park without first securing several requirements.
When pointed out that Typhoon Soudelor was a one-time thing and that it would cost the CNMI government more for its upkeep in the long run, Barcinas replied that he embedded within the bill a system that would allow the park to extract revenue from leasing the park.
He added that the money, which is currently with the Marianas Public Land Trust fund, would incur interest that could be used for the maintenance and development of the park.
The legislation now heads to the Senate for review and action.
