Draft Subcommittee Meeting Minutes for Aug 31st

Beautify CNMI Subcommittee Meeting
Monday, August 31, 2009 - 5:30pm
Whispering Palm School, Navy Hill

“Operation Paint Over --- What do we want to do about/with graffiti in our community?”

Present: Frank Camacho, Angelo Villagomez, Tyler Yoshimoto, Rebekah Yost, Mike Pai, Laurie Peterka

Email/Phone/Other: Ichiro Shirata, Nick Nishikawa, Retta Sue Hamilton, Adam Hardwicke, Jim Arenovski, Victor Barrett, John B. Gonzales

Minutes:
1. August 17th meeting minutes reviewed and adopted.
2. Share ideas (3-mins so we can give everyone a chance and allow time for discussion)
a. Frank Camacho – Neighborhood Watch, Dan Dan
i. Multiple projects – focusing on Dan Dan park
ii. Working with sanitation on issuing citations
iii. Working with zoning on issuing citations
iv. Addressing graffiti in Dan Dan Neighborhood Watch
1. Painting over existing graffiti
2. Putting lighting in to deter vandalism
v. Judge Govendo comments
1. Minors – get parents to paint over damages
2. Community service hours
b. Angelo – anti-graffiti team
i. Couple of teams of people who always have paint in their car and paint over graffiti whenever they see it
ii. Team up with Mayor’s office and/or Neighborhood Watch
3. Report from Victor on Zoning village meetings.
a. Kagman meeting
i. Uneventful – not a big showing
ii. People there didn’t seem to think they have a graffiti issue
iii. Driving through the neighborhood, it doesn’t seem too bad
b. Beach Road meeting
i. People were concerned about graffiti around the hotels
ii. Eye sore for tourists and the community
4. Report from Laurie – email communications:
a. Shirata – will come to next meeting, tied up with work obligations
b. HANMI – Nick Nishikawa and the hotel association, work with Catherine Anderson to conduct a survey via email with the hotels
c. PD’s Office – Adam Hardwicke, will provide a write up on property damage laws (graffiti) here in the CNMI.
d. Crime Stoppers - Jim Arenovski, commercial filming schedule; we can consider adding our message or program to their commercials for about $200-400
e. John B. Gonzales – interested, but not able to make this meeting; thinking about how he can incorporate the issue into one of his weekly shows
f. Neighborhood Watch – Frank B. Camacho, Dan Dan
g. NRCS – last week’s meeting; suggested as a potential project for Resource, Conservation & Development Council (RC&D) to consider; Angelo elaborated on what resources are available
5. Consider next steps:
a. Developing a stakeholder list by village; dividing up the list and begin making contact to bring those people into the discussion (Crime Stoppers, Neighborhood Watch) – ACTION ITEM: Laurie
b. Plan out how to achieve a photo journal of the existing graffiti issues village by village – ACTION ITEM: Tyler
c. Assign one person to attend each of the remaining village-by-village Zoning meetings so that we can inquire about "graffiti" in that village – ACTION ITEM: Victor Barrett, Zoning Office to provide an email with remaining village-by-village meeting schedule so that we can share attendance duties.
d. Bring Eric Atalig, Neighborhood Watch – ACTION ITEM: Frank B. Camacho
6. Next meeting date/time/location
- Monday, Sept 14th, 5:30p, Whispering Palms School at Navy Hill

The principle concept is to follow the Beautify CNMI established style of getting things done. We build a coalition, share resources where we can and support individual(s) and/or group(s) that have an action plan.

Note: Current organizational partners already committed include Rotary Club of Saipan, Island SK8 Society, Crime Stoppers and HANMI.

A lot of trash

If only the Friends of the Mariana Islands had cleaned up this area on Dandan on the day of the island-wide cleanup. This has to be one of our biggest hauls of trash in a while!

FMI cleans up Dandan with DEQ

Friends of the Mariana Islands, lead by thier President Marites Castillo, assisted the Division of Environmental Quality with a cleanup on Sunday in DanDan along the Saipan International Airport fence.

In just three hours the volunteers collected an entire trailer full of trash. Some people on Saipan are illegally using the Airport as an area to dispose of their household trash. FMI and DEQ turned this illegal dump site back into an area that the DanDan villagers and Commonwealth Ports Authority can be proud to call their own (and that CPA and MVA don't have to be concerned that our arriving tourist might see).

4th Dan Dan Cleanup

33 Volunteers participated in this month's cleanup of the road between Northern Marianas College and San Vicente Elementary School. This was our fouth consecutive second Sunday of cleaning up this road.

Alex, Nathan, Andy, and Harry from Saipan International School (SIS) participated in their first Beautify CNMI! cleanup on Sunday. Their teacher, Amanda Armstrong, suggested that they come to the cleanup.

Maki Ono, Aya Matsumoto, and Mayumi Nakayama, all members of ISA CNMI, pose for a picture while picking up litter.

Group photo: 1...2...3...BEAUTIFY CNMI!

Thank you to MINA and Marianas RC&D for coordinating the cleanup and to FMI, SIS, ISA CNMI, and Rep. Kaipat for providing volunteers. Thank you Rep. Kaipat for hauling the trash, too.