By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
BEER bottles and cans were dumped near Johnny’s Bar, between the plants along Palm Street and Beach Road, by workers of a company contracted to clean the main Garapan tourist district, attorney David Banes told Variety on Tuesday afternoon.
Banes, whose law firm Banes, Horey, Nie & Miller LLC is located along Beach Road, pointed out where the trash had been discarded. He said the company responsible for the area is tasked with weeding and maintaining the grounds.
“Whoever is in charge of maintaining that area is doing a horrible job — weeds have overtaken the planted area,” Banes said. “Worse, they pick up beer cans and bottles from along the path, but then throw them into a small, planted area that taxpayers paid good money to maintain. The employees hired to make Garapan beautiful…their solution is to throw garbage into the plants. I have been cleaning up the beer cans myself, but not the bottles — there are too many.”
“We rely on tourists coming to Saipan, and Garapan should be one of the most popular areas. This is the time to work together — not just leave beer bottles and neglect the plants, which will die if not maintained,” he added.
On the same day, the offices of Reps. Angelo and Joel Camacho, Ralph Yumul, and John Paul Sablan conducted a cleanup near the former DFS Galleria building.
According to the Marianas Visitors Authority, a company had been hired last year to maintain the area, but the contract was discontinued in September due to budget cuts.
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.
