“THE rumor that divert lease proceeds have been expended on Saipan is false,” Commonwealth Ports Authority Chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds said.
She was asked to comment on Tinian historian and educator Don Farrell’s statement regarding the $21.6 million that the Department of Defense paid CPA for leasing a portion of West Field for the development of a divert facility.
“The people of Tinian were pleased because those funds would cover the cost of simultaneously developing the Tinian Commuter Terminal into a Federal Aviation Administration-approved international airport,” Farrell said. “However, rumor mill has it that the money has already been spent on Saipan operations,” he added.
According to King-Hinds, who represents Tinian on the CPA board, $1 million of the funds apportioned to the seaport has been expended on the Tinian Marina beautification project which will soon be completed.
She said, “$2,863,450 has been obligated to the Tinian parking lot expansion project, the A&E for the Custom Border Patrol & Transportation Security Administration implementation, and purchase of equipment to fix and maintain the runway. An additional $74,000 has been expended on administrative costs which include the actual divert negotiation meetings, construction meetings and advertising for projects directly connected to Tinian projects.”
King-Hinds said they will “obligate” the remaining $17,962,197.96.
The funds will be “expended on projects that will generate revenue for CPA, to include building of several warehouses, improvements for resiliency at the commuter terminal and accommodations for future direct international flights, to include construction related to TSA & CBP requirements.”
For the record, she added, “CPA obligates and expends these funds in consultation with the Tinian leadership.”
She noted that Farrell wants CPA to use the funds to build fuel storage tanks and an Instrument Landing System for the Tinian airport.
“When the [Tinian] Dynasty Hotel was still open, that was the investment request from the casino operator so that they could fly direct from China to Tinian,” she said.
“Since then, Dynasty has closed and there is no demand to fly direct international flights to Tinian. More importantly, the estimate of building a fuel storage tank back in 2009 was around $10 million,” she added.
“If the cost back in 2009 was around $10 million, we can assume that building just that will gobble up all the funds. That is not a prudent or wise use of those funds especially when you don’t have any hotel rooms. There’s no interest in servicing that fuel tank even when we did have a casino and have the traffic from the China market,” King-Hinds added.
“We must adjust our goals to fit the reality of our situation, and the fact is, military development on Tinian is growing and this is not Waikiki or Tumon Bay where you can go shopping and hang at the beach without seeing military presence. On Tinian, it’s glaring. That in and of itself is a challenge to further growing the tourism industry on Tinian. Much less, attract investment for direct international travel,” she said.
Kimberlyn King-Hinds
