DEQ Monthly Cleanup Brigade - International Coastal Cleanup

The Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) Cleanup Brigade will deviate from its regular first Saturday of the monthly beach cleanup brigade in order to join the Coastal Resource Management’s (CRM) celebration of the 28th Annual International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) which is scheduled for Friday, September 20th and Saturday, September 21st on Saipan. Rota will be participating on September 20th and Tinian will be hosting theirs on September 18th.

DEQ encourages all regular volunteer individuals or groups to sign up and take part in this very good deed. If you would like to volunteer your time to clean and beautify our island by participating in the ICC, please contact a CRM ICC coordinator to sign up.

Saipan Coordinator: Nicole Schafer, 664-8312
Rota Coordinator: Bill Pendergrass, 532-0466
Tinian Coordinator: Edwin Hofschneider, 433-0494

Last month’s Aquarius Beach Cleanup was successful with 27 volunteers participating. Thanks to, NMC, WSR, KHS, HJHS, SSHS, Zoning, KKMP, and other volunteers about 300 pounds of trash was removed from the beach and properly disposed of.

The DEQ is looking forward to a repeat success, so join DEQ’s monthly cleanup brigade and “Pick It Up!” Let us work together for the health of our coral reefs and cleanliness of our beaches for everyone to enjoy.

For more information about volunteering, please contact the DEQ office at 664-8500/1.

Draft Meeting Minutes for May 13, 2010

MEETING MINUTES
Thursday, May 13, 2010 – 6:00PM
CIC Conference Room - JP Bldg, Beach Road, Garapan

SPECIAL THANK YOU TO CENTURY INSURANCE (TAN HOLDINGS) FOR HOSTING THIS MONTH'S MEETING!

Sign In – please make sure you get your name on the sign in sheet
I. Introductions – around the table (3-mins)
1) Cinta Kaipat – founder, volunteer
2) Noriko Watanabe – representing Hard Rock Café
3) Marites Castillo – representing FMI
4) Lina Dimaano– representing iServeiGive (Tan Holdings)
5) Steve Woodruff - volunteer
6) Laurie Peterka – volunteer PR Coordinator
7) N. Horiguchi – volunteer
8) Kathy Yuknavage – Marine Debris PM, MINA
II. Adopt agenda and last meeting’s minutes (2-mins)
1) Cinta motioned to adopt agenda – none opposed
2) Kathy motioned to adopt minutes – none opposed
III. Committee reports (20-mins or 2-3 mins each)
1) DEQ – tabled; Joe is off island
2) PDM Promoters – Laurie reported based on website submission
i. May 8th Clean up reported on website
ii. 780 lbs of trash collected
iii. 15 volunteers
3) TSL - iServe-iGive back - Lina
i. In April - 6 groups participated in IWC
ii. Total 235 people
iii. Booth at Environmental Expo – shared what the company is focused on for projects; the 3-Rs for the kids
4) Neighborhood Watch – tabled; Frank/Eric didn’t make it
5) Mariana Islands Nature Alliance (MINA) – Kathy
i. Marine Debris project is moving smoothly
ii. As school comes to a close, things will slow down a little
iii. Kagman high school is looking for a corporate partner to help with marine debris project ….maybe Hard Rock Café?
iv. Additional funding is available to do more bins
1. PauPau
2. Aquarius Beach
3. Chalan Pio (behind CKBC)
4. Marine Beach
5. Schools are a possibility
6. Bins don’t have to be “on the beach” – all of the island qualifies
v. Need to invite Karen Cabrera – ckalena@gmail.com or Fran Castro to represent MINA at regular meetings
6) Friends of the Marianas Islands (FMI) - Marites
i. Monthly clean ups at LauLau Beach South to Picnic area
ii. $2,000 Mobil donation for equipment to cut the grass away from the road (5th year)
7) Graffiti – Cinta, Laurie, Marites
i. $2,500 NMC grant is available
ii. Project is ready to go to next steps, but needs a project leader
iii. Cinta/FMI going to take over lead of the committee
8) Junk Cars – Laurie reported update per news
i. Zoning announced last month that it would begin tagging cars
ii. Zoning reported that they will be working with mayor’s office
iii. Cinta mentioned that Zoning would like a BCNMI volunteers to inform them via a survey or report of some kind to help identify junk cars for removal
9) Hard Rock Café is interested in forming a group or finding a way to be involved with some type of environmental projects
IV. Coalition Initiatives (15 mins)
1) Signature Events
i. Laurie suggested that coalition partners share their calendar for the remainder of the year
ii. Laurie observed that several groups all have their cleanup on the first Saturday of the month –
iii. Discussion about possibly encouraging groups to spread out their regularly monthly cleanup plans so that something is going on every weekend
2) Identify a “calendar” person
i. Laurie suggested that each coalition member/partner should make the effort to join the BCNMI calendar and add their events
ii. Laurie suggested that someone could take responsibility for sending out weekly reminders on calendar items with an invitation to the public to join
V. Announcements (2-mins) - none
VI. Next monthly meeting - 2nd Thursday of the Month (2-mins)
1) June 10th - Time: 5:30pm
2) Location: CIC Conference Room (or other if volunteered)
3) Discussion and decision to keep the CIC Conference as the regular meeting place for the remainder of this year
i. Everyone agreed that consistency could help attendance
ii. Lina indicated that keeping the meetings at CIC is acceptable

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.

Zoning Workshop

The Zoning Office will present a workshop to educate the development community about the Saipan Zoning Law. The workshop will be held at the Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe from 8 am to noon on Thursday, August 2. Please contact the Zoning Office to reserve space at the workshop.

Phone: 670-234-9663

Mail: PMB 861, PO Box 10006, Saipan, MP 96950

E-mail: staff@zoning.gov.mp

You can download the Saipan Zoning Law, the Zoning Map and other materials at:

www.zoning.gov.mp