by Krystal Paco

Guam - There's a bumpy road ahead for 2013 as the Department of Public Works is currently challenged by an aging and overworked bus fleet, aging facilities, funding prior year obligations, and a lack of heavy equipment for road construction maintenance on top of the need to fill critical vacancies such as a chief engineer, inspectors, automotive mechanics, and engineers.

At Thursday night's information briefing, DPW acting director Carl Dominguez and deputy director Jay Rojas asked island leaders to help by imposing and increasing fines and fees, specifically, to impose fines on zoning violations, to increase fines on highway encroachment violations - which is presently only $10 a day - and increase DPW's share of building permit fees as 65% presently goes to the Guam Preservation Trust.

DPW is also looking to create an asset recovery fund for claims recovered from damages to DPW highway assets like guardrails and traffic signals.