THE Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has reviewed 12,682 utility accounts of which 12,000 received the $500 stimulus payment, CUC Executive Director Gary Camacho said Wednesday.
Camacho said the funding source is the American Rescue Plan Act.
The CNMI Department of Finance, he added, “provided us the ARPA funds to distribute and they also provided us the restrictions and requirements to qualify for the $500 utility stimulus…it has to be an active account…among others.”
On Dec. 13, 2021, Finance began releasing and crediting the $500 stimulus payments to qualified CUC ratepayers.
According to Finance, the $500 utility stimulus is one of the ways the CNMI government is utilizing the federal funds from ARPA that the Commonwealth received last year to help ease the residents’ financial burden caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“As we are still in a Covid-19 pandemic, these are challenging times for everybody,” Camacho said. “So we recommend, if possible, that consumers make online payments, utilize Nighthawk meters or ‘Paygo,’ and in that way, you reduce your contact with anyone whether it be by waiting in line or inside the CUC office.”
Water and wastewater
For its part, Camacho said, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “will continue to support and increase the funding source for our water and wastewater programs for the next five years…as stated by [U.S.] Congressman [Gregorio] Kilili [Camacho Sablan] — that’s $21 million per year for five years.”
Camacho added, “That really should give us the ability to achieve 24-hour ‘palatable’ drinking water on Saipan so we are very excited about that and it’s a goal undertaken by many, many, people throughout these years…and it looks like finally, we’re starting to see an opportunity…to be able to provide these improved services.”
Gary Camacho
