With Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association President Michael White, the leaders of different sports leagues attended the meeting last Tuesday at the Gilbert C. Ada Gym.
Lizama called for a meeting to discuss with the sports organizers, the Sports & Recreation’s concern on usage and utility fees.
He said there are some organizers who do not fully understand how usage and utility fees are charged.
As a result there are sports organizations that have not paid their obligations.
Those who attended the meeting are the leaders and representatives of different sports groups—soccer, baseball, badminton and basketball—using the sports facilities.
Amidst continuous power outages that delay sports activities at the Ada Gym and the surrounding ballfields, the Sports and Recreation Division is facing difficulty of collecting utility fees.
Every month, the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation provides the Sports and Recreation with rate for the spotlights and lamps that operate during games.
The cost per hour for the spotlights is the number of operational units multiplied by the monthly rate which is equal the rate per hour for its usage.
The softball field with 20 operational spotlights for example will cost the league an amount based on the monthly rate of power.
For the track and field which has 24 operational spotlights, the user will have to pay the cost based on the monthly rate which fluctuates multiplied by the number of hours used.
The same way goes for Ada Gym which has 35 lamps at 400 watts each.
The Sports and Recreation started having some problems when some sports leagues running in two months or more do not pay until the end of the league.
