The Mayors Association monthly meeting was this today in Orange Walk Town. Mayors from across Belize with the exception of Hilberto Campos and Darrel Bradley attended the meeting. The main topics on the discussion were the progress of the municipal development plan. John August mayor of San Ignacio / Sta. Elena is president of the association.
JOHN AUGUST
“The key issues today that we discussed were the municipal development road plan that presently all councils are working on through the Municipal Development Project being funded through the World Bank. We discussed that and how we are progressing with that and also we discussed the expansion of our town boundaries which is a major issue that is affecting all municipalities in this country. It was brought up by the Ministry of Local Government and they will be looking at it again early in the coming year. So, we are hoping that next year we can address that issue.”
REPORTER
“Tell us first of all the progress of this municipal development project?”
JOHN AUGUST
Well definitely, we have had our local planning; working groups have been working, putting the information together. It’s basically discussing how we will grow towns. Are we sure that towns grow and do we have sufficient land for future expansion? In the next 20 years where will our municipalities be; what are the directions we need to take with our streets, with our drainage and stuff like that. So, that’s what’s been encompassed in this development plan. How we will expand and what service will we be able to offer our people in the next 20 years.”
REPORTER
“What were some of the recommendations that were presented at the meeting?”
JOHN AUGUST
“Well definitely, it’s a work in progress still; so, we still have our local planning working groups working along with the consultants who have been hired to help us with project. So, it’s still a work in progress; we still have a lot of issues to work out.”
We also asked Mayor John August about the development of the new Macal River Crossing that will connect the twin towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elena.
JOHN AUGUST
“That project is well on schedule; that bridge should be ready by the middle of 2016. What we are doing right now is we are working on the Loma Luz Boulevard which is in Santa Elena and as you enter Santa Elena you’ll see a roundabout and along the Loma Luz Boulevard that will be the entrance to San Ignacio. So presently, I think it’s about 75% or more of that. The works have been completed with the sidewalks. They are now paving the road of that section and then presently on San Ignacio side Joseph Andrews Boulevard is presently under construction right now with the sidewalks and stuff like that you know. So we still have another 2 years to go with that project. It’s on schedule.”
ARTURO CANTUN
“There have been complaints from San Ignacio and Santa Elena residents that the streets are in a deplorable condition any attention being given to that?”
JOHN AUGUST
It’s not only San Ignacio, it’s all over the country but the weather doesn’t seem to want to hold up. We will be doing work but as we commence work it starts raining again; so, we are just hoping that very soon the weather will give us some time to get working on those streets. So that’s pretty much that at the present moment but we do have plans to grade many streets in these communities.”
ARTURO CANTUN
“Any street in particular that needs any attention?”
JOHN AUGUST
“Well we have many streets, especially in Santa Elena and San Ignacio not only streets but drainage. Right now we started Far West Street; we are going to cement that street but again we started but we had some problems with the water lines so we are addressing that issue and you know the weather is not holding up also so it’s really hard for us to start doing some work. So I’m praying that the rain will stop very soon and we can get those works commence very soon.”
The New Macal River crossing is funded by the government of Belize through a 50 million dollar loan from the Caribbean Development Bank.
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