By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
GARAPAN Central Park has been vandalized again and will be closed to the public, Division of Parks and Recreation Director Mike Cruz said. His office received a call Wednesday night from a Zumba group reporting that there was no electricity at the park.
Cruz said Thursday that staff checked the park that night and were still assessing the damage. Repairs will be made as soon as possible so the venue can reopen to the community, he added.
“It’s very frustrating because we just completed repairs two weeks ago, and now we need to fix this again as soon as possible,” Cruz said. “Vandalism is rapidly happening across our public spaces, and this incident is causing a lot of cancellations of events for our community.”
Garapan Central Park reopened to the public two weeks ago after Parks and Recreation staff repaired power lines that had been deliberately cut.
According to Cruz, when the park reopened, they also installed a locked iron grill and chain to secure the electrical panel.
“But they still broke into it,” he said, adding that the park remains without power.
Cruz said the incident has been reported to the Department of Public Safety. Parks and Recreation will provide updates on when the park can reopen for community activities.
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.
