“A number of local writers have been throwing around an idea to create a compilation of local work for years now,” said Angelo O’Connor Villagomez. “A group of us have been meeting together over spicy tofu and chiliburgers at Wild Bills these last few months and we’ve finally decided to put it together.”
When asked how long the anthology would be and how many writers would be included, Villagomez said that the book would be “about 200 pages, which will probably fit about 15 to 20 writers.”
The editors of Wild Bills Café are Jane Mack, Joe Race, Jaime Vergara, and Villagomez.
The inspiration for the name of the anthology comes from Wild Bills Café on Beach Road in Garapan.
“I talked to the owner Bill about the name, and he’s allowing us to use it,” explained Race, a local novelist and former police officer. “Our idea is to focus the attention on a physical place to ground all the stories.”
Race also said that the book would promote the Northern Marianas and might even turn Wild Bills into a destination for tourists, readers, and writers.
“Saipan, Tinian and Rota are home to several dozen newspaper reporters, bloggers, novelists, poets and amateur writers,” said Mack, a novelist and lawyer. “There are also a number of writers from the Northern Mariana Islands living and working abroad, but who write about home. These are the people we want to include in this first edition of Wild Bills.”
Writers interested in submitting work for the anthology can contact the editors at WildBillStories@gmail.com. Submission guidelines are available upon request. Writers whose work is chosen for submission will receive two copies of “Stories from Wild Bills Café.”
Water System operators reminded to report on water quality
(DEQ) — The Division of Environmental Quality’s Safe Drinking Water Branch would like to remind operators of Community Water Systems to submit their Consumer Confidence Report, or CCR, Certification forms to DEQ by Oct. 1, 2010 that they have distributed the CCR to their customers and that the information is correct and consistent with the compliance monitoring data previously submitted to DEQ. [40 CFR 141.155(c)]
CCR distribution methods include:
• Mail or deliver one copy of the report to each customer [40 CFR 141.155(a)]
• Systems that bill customers by mail should mail a copy of the CCR to each billed customer. Enough copies of the CCR should be sent to single billed customers that have multiple residential units, such as apartment buildings, so that each residential unit can receive a copy. [40 CFR 141.155(b)]
• Bottle water companies should direct deliver the CCR to each of their customer’s homes during home delivery of water [40 CFR 141.155(a)], deliver copies of the CCR to retail outlets for distribution with retail sales [40 CFR 141.155(b)], and post notices on bulk water retail tanks that the CCR is available upon request [40 CFR 141.155(g)(2)].
• Community water systems serving 500 or fewer people (hotels, garment factories, etc.) may either post the CCR in an appropriate location for their resident workers, or post a notice that the CCR is available upon request [40 CFR 141.155(g)(2)].
• Every community water system must makes its CCR available to the public upon request [40 CFR 141.155(e)].
Please contact CCR coordinator Julie De la Rosa at 664-8500/01 for any questions regarding your CCR certification.
Red flag at 5 Saipan sites
(DEQ) — The Division of Environmental Quality says water samples collected from Jeffries Beach, Old Man By the Sea, Obyan Beach, Ladder Beach and Unai Dangkulo contained excessive concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria that exceeded the CNMI’s marine water quality standards.
DEQ has given these locations a red flag and advises the public not to fish or swim within 300 feet of the locations for the next 48 hours or until otherwise notified.
