PLAIN ENGLISH
Maureen N. Maratita
Thank you to the HR professional who sent me tips on
dealing with procrastination and deadlines — the subject of the
previous issue’s “Plain English.”
Very interesting it looks too. I am going to read it thoroughly — sometime soon — it’s on the to-do list. …
My thanks to Congressman Mike San Nicolas who organized a lunch for stakeholders to hear directly from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on thoughts for a new hospital to replace Guam
Memorial Hospital.
Due to the pending storm in August, the lunch became a virtual event, but none the less interesting for that. Present were people from the Guam Legislature, the Guam Economic Development Authority, the Guam Chamber, and the Guam Memorial Hospital. Many of us had a lot of questions, and the Congressman and the USACE people patiently and expertly answered them all.
We have not only written about the hospital and its woes; we have also included in our coverage a list of all the prior studies, reports and recommendations on the hospital and how to fix those woes that came out through the years — a nice big fat file of them. …
I was a little distracted at the beginning of the meeting, because I got texts on the word USACE uses for its working
groups: charrette.
Maureen’s contact: Sheret???
Maureen: No, Charrette. Rhymes with baguette.
Maureen (again): The French bread.
Maureen’s contact: Charrette is a French bread? …
USACE could have simply said “planning group.” I don’t remember them using “charrette” when we wrote about the 53-mile Compact Road in Palau, which the Honolulu District office also oversaw. We wrote about that road all the time — the planning, the delays, the rain, and finally the opening in 2007. Then the cracking and two collapsed sections of the road, the repairs, a related lawsuit — we wrote about the road till 2014.
It’s not a bad thing to have USACE on your team for the duration.
When you drive along the Compact Road it’s impressive.
The road was built for the future and allows for development.
I hope we’ll be able to say the same about the hospital when it’s built. …
I’ve driven through Mangilao using Route 15 — the “back road” to get home to Yigo quite a few times lately and passed Eagle’s Field, the proposed site for the hospital. The alternative would have been to drive along Marine Drive during construction. Where the traffic went down to one lane what happened is a fine example of all the road warriors and road warrior-ettes who have apparently never heard the word “merge” and don’t intend to do so. …
Route 15 has seen growth and development, but it still has a
rural air.
I passed the road to the KEPCO solar farm on Rte. 15, and until the runoff into Marboro Cave became an issue, I was probably one of the few people who had seen the solar farm, though the reason was to visit Marcel Camacho’s nearby property development, also pleasingly rural.
The vice mayor of Mangilao is aware of the distinction of having his village considered for the hospital. He said the village has a municipal planning council and will keep an eye on what happens. I am sure USACE will have no problem sharing. …
P.S.: Lorgnettes have nothing to do with this column. They are opera glasses, available to improve your view at many theaters throughout the U.K. But just because you can use a word doesn’t mean that you always should (See charette and planning group earlier). …
— Maureen N. Maratita is the publisher at Glimpses Media. Publications at Glimpses Media include the Marianas Business Journal, MBJ Life, The Real Estate Journal, Guam Business Magazine, Beach Road Magazine, Buenas and Drive Guam.
