Beautification on a Saturday Morning

Even though our island wide cleanup day, "1020 on 10/20," isn't for another 20 days, Beautify CNMI! cleaned up two areas of the island this morning.

The first group of Beautifiers consisted of the Church of Latter Day Saints and the Marianas Resource Conservation & Development Council. They removed litter from Marine Beach and painted over graffiti on the three pala palas in the park.

Most of the litter on Marine Beach was marine based (no pun intended). While there was some litter obviously left over from residents barbecuing on the beach, illegal dumping does not seem to be an issue here; Most of it just washes in from the Pacific Ocean. There isn't much we can do about this source of litter but to remove it periodically, which is really time consuming because it is mainly in the form of small bits of plastic. We could wait for the next big storm to come and wash away all the bits of litter, but then we'd also have to tell the tourists to stay on hold and that we'll let them know when we have clean beaches again.

In total we removed 80 pounds of litter. The garbage bags and paint supplies were provided by RC&D.

While one team was busy painting and picking up garbage on Marine Beach, on the South end of the island the Board of Parole was busy cutting grass and clearing brush at the Koblerville Substation.

The two pictures above were taken right in front of the substation, one looking left and the other looking right. Man, do those guys work hard or what!?

This substation and abandoned airfield is going to be turned into a neighborhood park over the course of the next year. Beautify CNMI! member DNLR is working with our partners to make this a reality. We will announce more plans on Arbor Day, which is October 16.

Finally, Beautify CNMI! members are not the only ones in these islands who have been working to make this a nicer place to live and visit. This past week, the Saipan Lion's Club refurbished the beach park area in San Antonio, just south of the Pacific Islands Club (they're the other P.I.C.) They painted over the graffiti and replaced the roofs of several pala palas along the beach. Thank you, Saipan Lion's Club...and, oh yeah, would you like to join us?