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MVA board takes up public restroom issue
In order to give tourists a better impression of the Commonwealth, the Marianas Visitors Authority deliberated on whether or not it should maintain public restrooms, especially those in Marpi.
In their regular board meeting yesterday, MVA board members, through its China Ad-Hoc Committee, requested to have a portable restroom installed at the Bird Island Lookout.
Bad experiences with portable restrooms, however, changed the board’s minds and the topic shifted into MVA actually constructing and maintaining public restrooms up in Marpi.
MVA managing director Perry Tenorio told board members that public restrooms in Marpi need to meet exceptional standards for tourists.
MVA board member Jerry Tan said that if the money is there, the agency should step in and maintain the permanent restrooms.
“Before we can do anything, we can’t just put anything in if it’s not permanent… We can put our resources into one or two bathrooms and fund it while maintaining it. I personally don’t like to use portables, it’s not a nice experience and also personally I don’t agree to build one if it won’t be maintained,” Tan said.
So far, not everyone is pleased with the state of public restrooms in the Commonwealth.
MVA board member Chris Nelson said the MVA should also take a look at the public restroom situation in the entire CNMI.
Majority of the areas that Nelson mentioned include the public restrooms at the American Memorial Park, beaches, and other public restrooms that are barely maintained or worse, closed.
Tenorio said they hope to resolve this problem by having the private sector come in and help. He noted that MVA is already “reviewing submissions.”
One other issue is the comparison of restrooms to other countries such as Korea and Japan.
MVA board chair Marian Aldan-Pierce said that instead of putting a notice in restrooms, they can communicate this issue with the travel agencies.
All board members agreed to discuss this further in future meetings.
