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Community Briefs

RURAL DEVELOPMENT FUNDED AM.SAMOA PROJECTS

 

The Hawai’i office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development says that in fiscal year 2013, a total of 52 families received $345,000 in assistance under the agency’s Home Improvement and Repair Loan and Grant program (which is administered locally by the Development Bank of American Samoa).

 

“These elderly families with very low household incomes were able to improve their quality of living through the funding assistance used to remove health and safety hazards or to make improvements and renovations to accommodate household members with disabilities,” the agency said in a report to the federal Interagency Group on Insular Areas (IGIA).

 

Under its Community Programs, Rural Development provided to LBJ Medical Center a $72,000 Community Facilities Grant to fund the purchase of two Dual-First Responder vehicles to provide much needed service to remote islands of Ofu and Olosega that are only connected by bridge, the report says.

 

These vehicles, specifically designed to enable access on narrow unpaved roads, are the first of its kind in American Samoa, it says. (The First Responder vehicles come under the jurisdiction of the Emergency Medical Service, or EMS).

 

The report then revealed that a separate grant of $68,585 was awarded to the local Department of Health for the purchase an ambulance. It says that this project provides emergency services not served by LBJ hospital for the “the remote island of Ta’u”.

 

BLAST GRANT THROUGH RURAL UTILITIES SERVICES

 

As for funding through the Rural Utilities Services, the report noted that as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the American Samoa TeleCommunications Authority received an $81 million grant and a $10 million direct loan under the Broadband Initiative Program for ASTCA’s Broadband Linking the American Samoa Territory (BLAST).

 

As of the end of fiscal year 2013, Rural Development has disbursed $66 million to ASTCA for design, equipment and construction contracts, the report said and noted that the project is on schedule to be completed by July 2015.

 

It is currently installing new fiber optic cables that will eventually connect upgraded electronics to the network and this project has retained or created 21 jobs and will eventually add an addition 50 new permanent jobs once completed, the report says.

 

USDOI HIGHLIGHTS FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO AMERICAN SAMOA

 

In a report presented to last month’s meeting of the federal Interagency Group on Insular Areas, the Interior Department’s Office of Insular Affairs highlighted what it calls a “substantial amount of financial assistance in fiscal year 2013 to assist American Samoa in a variety of areas ranging from infrastructure improvements to individual technical assistance projects.”

 

For Capital Improvement Projects, which the territory was awarded $10 million, OIA says $5.2 million is for design and build of a new ferry boat for the Manu’a Islands; $1 million to purchase a CAT Scan machine for the LBJ Medical Center; and $1.3 million for a construction of a new building at the Tafuna Correctional Facility to address overcrowding.

 

Under “Empowering Insular Communities Grants”, OIA says the American Samoa Power Authority was awarded $640,000 for the investigation of the feasibility of geothermal power development and $225,000 for the development of a wind study using wind data collected from anemometers located throughout the territory.

 

Under Technical Assistance Grant, a total of $801,600 was provided to American Samoa Government for the following projects:

 

•            $100,000 awarded for the Governor’s Economic Development Implementation Plan.

 

•            $350,000 awarded for the Pago Pago Inner Harbor Development Plan.

 

•            $100,000 awarded to ASG for the Planned Use Development Project. The purpose of this project is to create ordinances, policies, and work with the Office of Samoan Affairs and the villages to create a community plan.

 

•            $200,000 awarded to ASG for demolition of the Rainmaker Hotel. (In his conference call from Honolulu on Wednesday with his cabinet, Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga cited this project as one that should be moving forward.)