DEQ Monthly Cleanup Brigade

Due to the Annual Environmental Awareness Month (EAM) Island Wide Cleanup in April 23, 2010, the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) cleanup brigade will again be deviating from its regular 1st Saturday of each month cleanup and instead encourages volunteers to join the Koblerville Neighborhood Watch Old Runway Cleanup scheduled for May 15, 2010 at 8:00 am Saturday.

If you would like to volunteer your time to clean and beautify our island, please meet at the old runway beside the Tototville and “Pick it Up!” Volunteers will start cleaning for about 2 hours or when finished.

This is a cleanup that should not be missed, so join DEQ’s Cleanup Brigade and the Neighborhood Watch and “Pick It Up!” Let us work together for the health of our coral reefs and cleanliness of our beaches and village communities for everyone to enjoy.

For more information about volunteering, please contact the DEQ office at 664-8500.

Neighborhood Watch to clean up old airfield

Reported and reposted from: Marianas Variety
Wednesday, April 28 2010 - By Junhan B. Todeno - Reporter

THE Koblerville Community Coalition Neighborhood Watch Group will conduct a cleanup operation on Saturday, starting at 10 a.m., at the old airfield behind Tottotville that has become a dumping ground for trash.

Task force block captain Rose Ada-Hocog said the project, which is their first, aims to make Koblerville a beautiful, peaceful and crime-free place.

She said they want their village to become a “place that they can be proud of — a sanctuary where families don’t need to worry too much about being victims of senseless crimes.”

In Kagman, task force block captains Eric Magofna and Glenn Dikito will meet with community members, parents and teachers at Kagman High School at 6 p.m. today.

Dikito said they will discuss their upcoming community cleanup and recruitment program.

During a recent meeting with parents and teachers, 14 individuals joined the task force, he said.

Today, the block captains and other task force members are planning to discuss the Neighborhood Watch Task Force program with Head Start parents and teachers.

Dikito said they will also help the Kagman Kommunidat Association in its campaign to remove poker arcades from their village.

On Saturday, Ada-Hocog expects a lot of community members to join their cleanup campaign.

Their group’s motto is, “Moving in to kick crime out.”

They also plan to conduct community meetings, events, and other activities aimed at bringing village residents together.

“This group will serve as a support or backbone for families, businesses and most especially the schools and church groups,” Ada-Hocog said.

She has approached members of the Koblerville community individually and many have expressed interested to join the group.

“However, interest alone does not accomplish anything. Interest, involvement and action, together, are the keys to making Koblerville a better and safer place to live in,” she said.

Their group has requested the Youth Affairs Office to allow them to establish their headquarters at the Koblerville Youth Center.

Their presence, Ada-Hocog said, will be beneficial to the center and will make them more accessible to the Koblerville community.

She said they have also sought help from Precinct 1 House members and Sen. Ralph DLG. Torres, R-Saipan.

They also asked the mayor’s office to provide equipment, backhoe, water, manpower, bush cutters for the cleanup drive.

Those interested to join the group may call 287-0818 or e-mail rosetada@yahoo.com.

Making Koblerville Beautiful

Today we planted 28 more Flame Trees and 10 Plumeria in and around the Koblerville Youth Center. These 38 trees are in addition to the 36 trees we planted last week. Wee also continued removing little, picking up trash thrown out of people's car windows.

Seriously, can we stop throwing things out of the window as we drive? How hard would it to be to hold on to that beer can?

The Flame Trees planted today are part of our Adopt-a-Flame Tree program. We finished planting in front of the Youth Center, then planted a row in front of Koblerville Elementary, and then planted a row along Monsignor Martinez where it intersects Koblerville Road.

Cinta took a lot of pictures; look for her post!

36 Flame Trees Planted in Koblerville

Beautify CNMI has several long term goals. We want to promote Ecotourism in the CNMI (there is currently no Ecotourism here), we want to restore and promote many of our historical landmarks (i.e. the Japanese Jail and the Lighthouse) as tourist/historical sites, we want to reduce illegal dumping and littering, and we want to create an interconnected system of parks and trails.

One of those parks is going to be located on top of the old airstrip in Koblerville, currently the site of the Koberville Youth Center and Substation.

We started work on this project last year. We took an overgrown old abandoned airstrip littered with trash and grafitti and simply started cleaning.

We mowed the grass. We got rid of the weeds. We painted over the grafitti.

We've kept this up for almost a year.

Last month, with the involvement of several government entities, we helped open up the Koblerville Youth Center. For almost a month now, we've participated in Family Fun Night, held at the Youth Center every Friday night for the residents of Koblerville.

Little by little, we are getting people to use the park and we are continuously improving it.

Yesterday morning we planted 36 Flame Trees along the street. They are small now, but in a year they will be over 10 feet tall. In three years they will be tall enough to provide shade.

About six months ago I asked one of the Mariana Island Nature Alliance members, Brad Doerr, to start growing Flame Trees. I told him that I didn't have money to pay him then, but by the time they were tall enough to plant, I would.

I came up with an Adopt-a-Flame tree program. For $20 via cash, check or paypal, anyone in the world could purchase a Flame Tree. I promised the adoptee a certificate and a picture of their tree posted on the Internet along with the GPS coordinates of their tree.

I use the money to purchase the trees, soil, flagging tape, shovels, and whatever else we need to get the trees planted. Then I recruit volunteers to help me plant the trees and invite the people who adopted the trees to tag along.

Yesterday I had help from Ken Kramer, his mom, his wife and two kids, Missy and Jim Highfill and their kid, Rep. Cinta Kaipat, Gus Kaipat and his 30-40 nephews, Marites Castillo and the Friends of the Mariana Islands, Captain Carl and his two shipmates, Neta and Flurina, Brad Doerr, and Laura Williams and her son Caleb.

All it took for us to get these 36 trees planted were 26 tree planting volunteers (including myself), a little pre-planning on my part to ensure that we would have Flame Trees to plant during the rainy season (coordinating with Brad), and 36 generous donors to spend $20 to adopt a Flame Tree. In getting the trees adopted, we also had help from everyone who helped us man our booth at the Flame Tree Arts Festival back in April and MINA, which takes care of Beautify CNMI's finances.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that planting these 36 trees was a community effort. Probably well over 100 people had a hand in coordinating the planting, from making sure that we had trees, shovels, soil, finances, water, snacks for volunteers, to getting people to adopt the trees, to actually planting the trees, and so on and so on.

Thanks to every single one of you who helped out. These 36 trees are a significant contribution to the community of Koblerville. In 5 years, we'll all be able to say that we had a hand in providing shade, beauty, and cooler temperatures to the residents of Koblerville.

One last thing, Cinta told me to get in the group picture, so I did this:

Flame Trees!

We are planting Flame Trees in Koblerville today!

If you want to help out, come to the Koblerville Youth Center TODAY at 9 AM. We'll be there until about noon.