Phase 1 of Kagman park completed

The Kagman Community Park now has a full basketball court.

The first phase of the project has been completed and the Rotary Club of Saipan, which is spearheading the park’s rehabilitation, plans to hold a groundbreaking within 15 days.

The Rotary Club started work on rebuilding the park since 2016.

According to Sonya Dancoe, the community service director of the Rotary Club, they have been working on the project for over seven months now since receiving funding from the Northern Marianas Housing Corp.’s Community Development Block grant program.

Dancoe told Saipan Tribune that the idea to rebuild the park was discussed for nearly five years within the Rotary but the project only took off after she discovered a source of funding last year.

Dancoe said that the intention was to build a full park with playground equipment for children of all ages, sidewalks, and exercise equipment for the adult. Unfortunately, the allotted funding did not suffice.

“We wanted to construct a full park with playground equipment for the toddlers and older toddlers. We also wanted to include sidewalks and benches, some exercise equipment for adults, swing sets, a full basketball court, bleachers…and some activities for the kids but due to some funding limitations we decided to reduce the size of the project,” said Dancoe.

She declined to state the amount allotted for the project but did disclose that they got only half of the amount they asked for.

“We only got probably half of what we requested for originally so we decided to reduce the s project into two phases,” she said.

That included reducing the first phase of the project too.

Phase 1—which consists of a basketball court, two bleachers, two swing sets, a balance beam, a hopscotch area, a tire mound, wooden stumps, and solar lights—was completed several weeks ago.

Dancoe is still not certain when she and her team will be able to carry out Phase 2. That includes the sidewalks and equipment that can be used by adults.

Dancoe has already submitted another grant application with NMHC and she has yet to get a response.

Dancoe hopes the Kagman community will make full use of the park, especially the youth, and that they will take advantage of the facilities.

Aside from using the park, Dancoe hopes the community can work to keep the park in good condition and to ensure that the park is used correctly to prevent vandalism.

“Our goal for this park is to keep the kids off of the streets and that they find something to do in their free time,” she said.

The community is invited to the groundbreaking on Aug. 23, 2017 at 9am.