THE Commonwealth Ports Authority has made a commitment to build a fuel storage facility and upgrade the Tinian airport facilities, including the expansion of its parking lot, CPA Board Chairwoman Kimberlyn King-Hinds said.
She was asked to comment on Tinian resident Don Farrell’s request to Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider to call for a public hearing and “explain CPA’s decision not to complete our airport terminal for direct international flights.”
“I am sure you are just as disappointed as the rest of us with CPA’s decision not to use the $21 plus million they received for the lease on Tinian lands to improve the Tinian Commuter Terminal sufficiently to receive direct [international] flights, a dream we have all long held,” Farrell told the Senate president in an email.
King-Hinds, who also received Farrell’s email, said: “I’m not sure where in my statement gave the impression that CPA will not be using the [U.S. Air Force divert airfield’s] proceeds to make improvements that would allow for direct international flights.”
To be clear, she added, CPA will be expending all those funds for those purposes, “just not to the scale that people were dreaming about 20 years ago.”
She said the CPA board did not make the decisions on its own, but in consultation with the Tinian leadership.
Moreover, CPA cannot make plans based on a hope that someone is going to build a hotel, she said. “Policy decisions should be driven by data and the realities of the tourism industry,” she added.
In November 2018, the CNMI government and the Department of Defense signed a $21.9 million agreement authorizing a 40-year lease of the Tinian airport for divert airfield purposes.
King-Hinds said the $21.9 million lease payment “is not a pot of money when you’re talking about construction on Tinian.”
She added, “We’ve committed to building a fuel storage facility, upgrading the facility to incorporate federal requirements for the Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection, and parking expansion which is already ongoing. I’m not sure if $21.9 million is enough to do all that but that’s the focus in terms of priorities.”
In his email, Farrell also requested Hofschneider to ask CPA Executive Director Christopher Tenorio to provide a copy of the study on what will be required to make the Tinian Commuter Terminal Federal Aviation Administration-approved to receive international flights.
He also wants to know with which bank CPA deposited the $21.9 million and how much interest it has earned; what has been spent from those funds; and which military office on Guam CPA has been coordinating with for construction of the divert facility, especially the pipeline and fuel tank.
