The Itbud Reporter

Alapad Pass and the renowned South-paw Throw Bend (Pangsidan Mahuli) at Imnajbu Point in Itbud, Batanes

Rain! Rain! Go Away!

When you all come for your summer vacations you will have nice Cabanas, Restrooms, and best of all a nice beach. When the weather clears a little I'll take a picture and paste it in my article.

This last weekend I walked over to Imnajbu and checked out the old station and the rock farm - a place where rocks are stored in anticipation of use. According to some of the engineers here, the rocks from Imnajbu are the best rocks available for construction. If I need to I'll buy some. With all of the sand that is available you would think that it wouldn't be a problem, but it's becoming a problem for the pouring crews at the construction sites. Permits are required to quarry in the locations now, and since we have more than one job in progress more than one site is required. But, everyone wants the best sand available, so that's only one site, and more than one of us has a permit for working the site.

Ivatan Sea Bees

I have the best crew working for me and the Lead man is Chris Cobico and seven of the best skilled craftsmen on the south end of the island. The walls are up and beams are being formed. Maybe in a couple of weeks we'll pour the roof/floor for the first/second floor. I don't know about you, but I have never found a way to say it clearly that we are pouring the roof of the first floor, but it is also the floor to the second floor.

In Basco, we have three, maybe more locations that are now providing Internet service. The police were out in force last week catching the kids that were skipping school to play games at the different locations. It's good to know that truancy is one of the major crimes here.

If you all have questions you want answered, I'll be happy to do so. An example would be; you would like to find out if your favorite Aunt and Uncle are doing OK. I'll be happy to find out and drop a line to you.

Well that's enough for now. The steady arriving of supply boats makes things change fast around here so think of a vacation soon.

Oh, guess what!? They're fixing the pier in Basco. They are going to make it thicker! Surprise, I wonder what got that going? Hope to see you all soon. - Mike Griffin, The Itbud Reporter

been cut yet we have had several small slides that have reduced the traffic to one lane, and on a one-lane highway that's a major slide.

There is some major cracking in the highway between Mahatao and Ivana and I hope that I'm not the only one seeing them. I'm not sure, but it looks like left over damage from the earthquake, and the rain is causing settling.

I walked by the park outside of Uyugan last week and it is really coming along nicely.

ITBUD, Batanes - Good day to you all. It's been raining for the first two weeks of January and things are gray all over. But, surprise, we still have electrical power. A big thank you to the crews that are working so hard to keep electricity flowing, especially since the generators are not big enough for the power consumption required. The rain is soaking everything, and like California we are having slide problems. Although the road hasn't