The Evolution of the Future Koblerville Community Park

KUDOS TO PARTNERS PAROLE VOLUNTEERS, REP. KAIPAT'S OFFICE, AND OTHER BEAUTIFY CNMI! VOLUNTEERS

Phase I. I consider Phase I of the clean up of the Koblerville substation/Youth Center Park to be the reclamation of this area from the jungle it had grown into. Those who participated in this initial cleanup included the Parole Office volunteers, who were led by Chief Lee Guerero; co-area adoptee Rep. Cinta Kaipat's Office and Family; Friends of the Mariana Islands members (formerly MOVER), led by their president, Ms. Marites Castillo; super volunteers Juanita Fajardo and Adam Sablan; our volunteers from the Church of Latter Day Saints; Angelo Villagomez, representing Beautify CNMI!'s Restoration Committee and RC&D;and other community volunteers.

Phase II. Since then, co-adoptees Parole Office and Rep. Kaipat's Office and Family have either worked independently or with others, such as the National Honor Society students from Saipan Southern High School and the JROTC Manta Rays to maintain this area. This is a major project that is sure to go on perpetually until our goal of building a Koblerville Community Park is realized. DLNR Forestry and DPL have pledged their support to work with us on this plan.

Phase III. I consider Phase III to be the expansion of our maintenance of this area into the middle part of the park. The Parolees removed weed and debris. This is good because people were creating an illegal dumpsite area because of the overgrown weed. Below are some pictures which provide an update of this project thus far.

UPDATE, IN REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

PHASE III -- REMOVAL OF WEED FROM MIDDLE SECTION OF PARK AREA


















PHASE II -- PERIODIC MAINTENANCE

The Parole volunteers received additional help from Rep. Waki and staff. Thank you!



Here are some pictures of my crew during the hugely successful "1020 on 10/20 Island-wide Cleanup."










PHASE I -- RECLAMATION OF THE KOBLERVILLE SUBSTATION/YOUTH CENTER PARK AREA

Koblerville Village Cleanup

Saipan Southern High School and the Board of Parole did an excellent job cleaning up the Village of Koblerville this morning. Thank you!

Rep. Kaipat will post pictures. I just wanted to share this little video I took.

Just another weekend

With the sheer volume of Beautify CNMI! activities going on every week, it is getting cumbersome keeping up with this website by myself. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the new Beautify CNMI! contributors Cinta, Bree, Bev, Walt, and Steve for helping me post pictures and tell our stories.

Event #1:

Cinta has already published a post detailing Saturday's cleanup of Koblerville. Her office and the Board of Parole were at it again. Great work!

Event #2:

Friends of the Mariana Islands (website coming soon!) also hosted a cleanup on Saturday. They removed 3000 lbs of litter from Isa Drive between the Botanical Gardens and San Vicente Elementary School. Holy cow! Thank you!

Event #3:

Also on Saturday, Mariana Islands Nature Alliance hosted their monthly cleanup of Wing Beach. The 15 volunteers from MINA, ISA CNMI, and Ecosaipan scoured the beach for tiny bits of plastic and glass littering the beach.

Some of the volunteers found a rusted out engine on the beach. It was much too heavy to move, so we left it where we found it. Here are a few more pictures:

The MINA adoption of Wing Beach has been the shining star of the Beautify CNMI Adopt-a-Spot program. Not only is MINA picking up trash every other month, but they are also paying for regular trash pickup at the beach, planting native tree species, keeping the grass along the road cut, and removing invasion vines (while under the supervision of CNMI Forestry, of course).

In the span of less than a year, MINA has turned Wing Beach into the cleanest beach in Micronesia (feel free to use that MVA). Thank you MINA for coordinating this great cleanup, ISA CNMI and Ecosaipan for providing volunteers (and for promoting our activities on your Japanese language websites), and special thanks to Brad Doerr for hauling our trash.

Event #4:

Beautify CNMI! made it to the shores of Tinian over the weekend! PSS and NMC teacher Bree Reynolds led a group of Tinian NMC students on their first beach cleanup. She reported on her weekend activities on this post. Thank you Bree and thank you NMC students!

Event #5:

Friends of the Mariana Islands hosted their fifth consecutive cleanup of Laulau Beach on Sunday. They had volunteers from Rep. Kaipat's Office and the SDA Dental Clinic. They removed 580 lbs of beach litter. Thank you, Everybody!

Event #6:

Department of Public Safety Crime Prevention Unit led some of their Law Enforement Explorer Program and Junior Police Officer students on a cleanup of Coral Ocean Point Beach. I was supposed to participate in this cleanup, but I missed it because they changed the time without telling me! The kids wanted to go swimming in the afternoon, so they did the cleanup in the morning! As I drove up, they were already loading the pickup truck with bags and bags of garbage. Thank you to the officers, the students, and their teachers from Hopwood JHS and Koblerville ES.

Event #7:

On Sunday morning, Mike Tripp and several divers participated in a cleanup of the water surrounding the Garapan Fishing Base. This was the least favorite thing I have done since I moved to Saipan in April. The water over there is NASTY. Garbage has been piling up there since WWII. Don't beleive me? When was the last time you saw a Schlitz Malt Liquor can or a Sprite glass bottle:

This event was the first Micronesia Challenge event for Beautify CNMI! It will be the first of many.

Again, thank you to every single person that is helping to make these islands a better place to live and visit. Your work is not going unnoticed.

Angelo