According to state officials, use of the main jetty of Oketol Dock was closed about 14 months ago to allow for Surangel and Sons Company to make significant improvements to the dock – approximately a million dollars stimulus package funded by the Taiwan government.
The project was completed according to its scheduled completion date – December 2008; however, state officials said that due committed obligations of relevant officials and stakeholders of the project, the official ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate its completion and official opening was delayed until today.Ngarchelong State employees were at the dock yesterday to make arrangements for the ceremony today.The cutting ribbon ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. According to state officials, Governor Browny Salvador, members of the Ngarchelong State Assembly, representatives of the Taiwan Embassy in Palau, representatives of Surangel and Sons Co., representatives of the Capital Improvement Projects office, representatives of the Ministry of Resource and Development, the people of Ngarchelong state, and many significant others will be at the ceremony to witness the opening of the dock.The new and improved Oketol Dock features more and accessible mooring pins, a new boat ramp, a swimming pool, a fenced and lighted basketball court, new bathroom facilities and showers, a waiting house and an office space, and a greater parking lot.Surangel and Sons Company began mobilizing to work on the project in late November 2007 and successfully complete it before Christmas 2008. During the duration of work on the project, the company had hired residents of the state to work.One of the resident employees had commented that Oketol Dock is probably the best of all docks in Babeldaob so far; and Surangel and Sons Company should be credited and honored for a job excellently accomplished.
