Saipan Mayor Ramon “RB” Camacho joins Atkins Kroll General Manager Clark Boswell and his staffers for a souvenir photo at the Capital Hill basketball court, which AK has “adopted.” Also in photo: House Speaker Edmund Villagomez.
ATKINS Kroll Saipan led by its general manager Clark Boswell “adopted” the Capital Hill basketball court Wednesday afternoon.
“We pledged our commitment to maintain and beautify our community basketball court here on Capital Hill,” Boswell said in his remarks.
“Atkins Kroll has a long history of providing community support and sponsorship throughout our 57 years of doing business in the NMI, a place we call home. At AK we are a responsible business, which means we are committed to supporting the community we serve, and we don’t take that lightly,” Boswell added.
He said he heard about the adopt-a-place program in March when Saipan Mayor Ramon “RB” Camacho gave a speech at the Saipan Chamber of Commerce and talked about it.
Through the adopt-a-place program, the Saipan Mayor’s Office encourages businesses, community groups, government agencies, non-profit organizations and private individuals to “adopt” any place on island and commit to cleaning, maintaining and, if possible, developing the area.
“Right away I grabbed Mayor Camacho after the meeting, and I said I wanted to participate and he told me how,” Boswell said. “A few weeks later, we chose this court and here we are today. I wanted to thank your office for the quick work in putting this together,” he added, referring to the mayor and his staff.
“This basketball court really stood out for me — it is in a great place on Capital Hill. And when you look around, you know you can’t even put a game right now because of the way the rims and the nets are, and so we are really committed to giving this place some love and taking care of it because the people of Saipan and community deserve more,” Boswell said.
“Our entire AK team will lend a hand in maintaining and beautifying this place. We promise it will be a place that our residents and visitors will enjoy. We are thankful to Mayor Camacho for introducing this program. We agree that enhancing and maintaining our island leaves a long-lasting impression to our residents and visitors. You have our commitment,” Boswell added.
For his part, Mayor Camacho said, “The government cannot do it alone. Collaboration and partnership with the private sector, businesses, and non-profit organizations can make a difference.”
“With a strong partnership with businesses, I strongly believe there’s nothing impossible for us here in the CNMI,” he added. “Together we can make a difference in promoting a safe community, a safe village, and a safe island.”
Camacho said, “This is how we will entice visitors to come and visit us — let’s fix up ourselves first and then open the doors for tourists to come in. Show them who we are and what we are; show them that we all work together for the community.”
House Speaker Edmund Villagomez, Parks and Recreation Director Mike Cruz and Atkins Kroll staffers also attended the “adopting” ceremony.
Villagomez expressed his appreciation to Mayor Camacho for initiating the adopt-a-place program, and Atkins Kroll for adopting the Capital Hill basketball court.
“When we appropriate money, whether it’s for non-profit organizations or community projects, the renovation, and fixing the place up is the easy part. It’s the maintenance that gets a little difficult, and then on top of that, like what Mayor Camacho mentioned, we have the youth that for whatever reason they feel like they got to destroy the property,” Villagomez said.
“We always push for the community to take ownership [of] everything that we invest in, and by community I don’t just mean folks living in the area. I want to give a shoutout to AK for stepping up and partnering with the mayor’s office in adopting the Capital Hill basketball court. I am hopeful that it will entice more youth to come out and play in the basketball court,” Villagomez added.
