But we are a bit troubled by the work that would be required in connecting these traffic lights to electrical sources. Are all of these lights located next to electrical sources buried underground, or would they require extensive new excavations to bring them to existing underground electrical sources? If they are installed next to existing electrical sources, that is good and fine; but if they would require new excavations to bring them to electrical sources, that would probably cause delays and additional paving works for the main roads, which seem to be on the verge of completion at this time.
There is another angle to the use of these new street lights. Who will bear the electrical costs for these street lights? Will the Koror State Government pick up the electrical bills for the powers consumed by these street lights or will the National Government pick up the tab? Incidentally, which authoritypays for the electrical costs of the few street lights now in service throughout Koror? And who is responsible for their maintenance? A number of these street lights have been burning at night and during day light hours for many months. The situation must be changed for the better.The Pension Plan Program should be extended to educators and health workers in private organizationsWe wrote on the above topic some years ago, so we would like to bring the subject back to the attention of our elected officials and the general public once again.In fairness to Palauan citizens working in the private sector, who are providing essential services directly and solely to the citizens of the Republic, the Civil Service Pension Plan should be amended to allow educators working in private schools and medical workers working in private medical clinics to enroll in the Plan so that they, too, would be eligible for its benefits when they retire. These people work with their counterparts in the public service for the same category of clients—the children and the sick citizens of the Republic. Like their counterparts in public employment, they receive salaries, not profits, and they should be treated by their government just like their fellow professionals who are in the public service system.Educated young Palauan children from all public schools, SDA, Maris Stella, Ibobang, Mindszenty, Emmaus, or Bethania, are first and foremost the assets of the Republic. Therefore, their teachers should be allowed to participate in the Pension Plan just like their fellow teachers in the public schools. Sick citizens require from the doctors and nurses of private clinics the same level of medical services as those that are provided for in public health services. In this case, as in the case of teachers, it is the medical worker not the private clinic itself, who would become a contributing member of the Pension Plan. These new contributing members would become big assets for the Pension Plan immediately upon enrollment.
