By Leland Baxter-Neal
A group of developers has announced plans to build a $3 million boardwalk and promenade along the length of Jacó’s beach.
Pat Hundley, founder of the Central Pacific Chamber of Commerce and owner of Daystar Properties, Jacó’s most prolific condominium developer, made the announcement Tuesday at the chamber’s semi-monthly, town hall-style community meeting.
Speaking to about 40 people, including Garabito Mayor Marvin Elizondo and other members of the municipality, Mr Hundley went line-by-line through the chamber’s 2008 budget, which totals $277,860 in spending.
Of that, $100,000 is earmarked for “safety and security,” and another $50,000 is to be spent on public sewer and water projects and regional marketing.
The promenade and boardwalk will be funded privately, apart from the Chamber of Commerce’s works.
“The promenade will be a private gift to the city from Daystar and a couple investors from the area,” Mr Hundley later told The Beach Times.
A $25,000 topographical study of the beach was expected to be finished late this week, the first step toward getting the project built.
According to Mr Hundley, beachfront streets that already exist would be improved and widened to make a boulevard, and then connected to a pedestrian promenade that would follow along the beach where there are no roads.
Mr Hundley estimated the promenade could be anywhere from eight to 14 feet wide, built with brick pavers or other decorative materials, and would be on the beach side of the palm trees currently lining Jacó’s beach.
“We want it to be well lit and very well landscaped,” he said, adding that he envisions the project increasing public access to the length of the beach. “I think this project will change the face of Jacó.”
The walkway would include four public bathrooms, with their own wastewater treatment plants.
The points where beach entry roads meet the beach would also be cleaned up and included in the boulevard-promenade walkway.
© Leland Baxter-Neal
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PLAN OF ACTION: Local leaders were cautiously optimistic this week about plans for a sewer system and wastewater treatment plant for Jaco. AyA says it will fund the $4 million project with a loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration.
Preliminary designs are already in the mayor’s office, and Mr Elizondo called the project “excellent.”
“I would say that it would be unique in Latin America,” Mr Elizondo said.
The municipal council has seen the plans and also supports the idea, Mr Elizondo said, but acknowledged the project would need permits from both the Environment Ministry and the Port Authority because it enters the 50-meter zone inland from the ocean’s mid-tide line called the zona pública.
The Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, looks to invest the bulk of its money this year in improving security, now that the municipality has paved nearly every road in Jacó, with some funding and assistance from the chamber.
During this week’s meeting, the skeleton crew of the new Municipal Police force was introduced to a round of applause from the attendees. The new force will have police functions, as well as enforce municipal regulations, and answer directly to the municipality.
Currently working from a few desks placed outdoors on the municipality’s third-floor balcony, the force is in the process of purchasing vehicles, weapons and other essential equipment while looking for a place to set up amore permanent, indoor office. Prior to the Chamber meeting, Juan Gabriel Hidalgo, interim commissioner for the force, gave Mr Hundley a list of equipment the police need.
It is understood that much of the $100,000 set aside in the chamber budget for security is to be used to help the municipal police.
“Right now, this chamber is trying to be all things to all people and that’s very demanding on its resource,” Mr Hundley told the meeting. “The couple of hundred thousand dollars we need to raise would be reduced to $30,000 if we were not dealing with issues your government usually deals with for you.”
Mr Hundley went on, however, to praise the mayor and the municipality.
“The township of Jacó has been very fortunate to have the benefit of direct access to one of the most effective local governments in Costa Rica,” Mr Hundley said, adding that the municipality has “set an unprecedented example for how local government and the private sector can work together to ensure a better future.
“I have seen more done in last six months than since the fall of 2002,” he continued. “And when I say things done I mean positive things done for the town.”
Last year, the Chamber of Commerce and the municipality collaborated on importing and operating two beach cleaning machines purchased by Daystar; repairing and paving local streets; and various cultural events. They also brought both President Oscar Arias and Tourism Minister Ricardo Benavides to town, among other top government officials.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
AyA To Build Sewage Treatment Plant in Jacó
By Leland Baxter-Neal
$4 Million Loan to Include Sewer System, Treatment Plant
Costa Rica’s national water authority announced this week it will build a much-needed sewer system and wastewater treatment plant for the central Pacific town of Jacó.
Ricardo Sancho, president of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, or AyA), said in an email late this week the project will cost an estimated $4 million and include both the treatment plant and a sewer system.
“The project will be included in a loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), currently being executed,” he said.
In addition, a new potable water treatment plant for Jacó is under construction, and local developers are establishing a trust fund to privately invest another $3 million in expanding the potable water system’s capacity and distribution.
A 30-year-old Uruguayan engineering firm, SEINCO, has been awarded the $172,000 contract to conduct the feasibility studies and to design both the sewer system and the wastewater treatment plant for Jacó, AyA said. The firm has eight months to finish.
The announcement comes in the wake of wastewater woes in major tourist areas in the province of Guanacaste. In Tamarindo, one of the most popular beach towns in the province, hotel reservations were cancelled and the community expressed outrage after water tests last year found extremely elevated levels of fecal mater in 13 streams feeding the internationally famous beach.
Then, just two weeks ago, the 308-room Occidental Allegro Papagayo Hotel, located further north, on the special government tourism-concession plot known as the Polo Turístico, was shut down for trucking its waste to illegal dump sites.
AyA’s announcement of a plant and sewer system for Jacó came as a surprise to the municipality of Garabito, which is seated in Jacó and has been fighting — unsuccessfully, local leaders believed — for close to a year to get just such a project started.
Mayor Marvin Elizondo and Municipal Council President Damaris Arriola both said they found out about the project through a small article published earlier this week in the daily newspaper La Nación.
“Hopefully this is going to happen now,” Mr Elizondo said. “But the cost doesn’t seem to be in line with our needs.”
Doubts were raised during a Municipal Council meeting Wednesday as to whether $4 million could pay for a sewer system and treatment plant extensive enough to handle Jacó’s booming population and development.
José Miguel Villalobos, former Justice Minister and pro-bono legal advisor to the municipality, noted that AyA is investing $60 million in a sewer system for Puntarenas, the port city north of Jacó, 15 times what is to be spent in Jacó.
Estimates put Puntarenas’ current population at around 112,000 people. During the tourism high season, the population — including visitors — of Jacó and surrounding areas can swell to as many as 60,000 people, according to municipal estimates.
“Either this is an error, or a joke,” Mr Villalobos said.
As a comparison, Guillermo Chin of Consultores Urbanos, who is doing initial surveys for a possible wastewater treatment plant and sewer system in the Quepos-Manuel Antonio area, said just for the small town of Quepos, which isn’t expected to reach 12,000 people until 2025, the investment is estimated at $2.5 million.
That project, which would also include the tourism development around Manuel Antonio, which hasn’t been surveyed yet, is to be funded — investors hope — by a private trust fund and built through a Private-Public Partnership (PPP). Once built, AyA would take over administering the system.
The Quepos-Manuel Antonio area recently saw its potable water system expanded through a PPP, the first of its kind completed in Costa Rica, while similar PPP projects are underway in Playas del Coco and Playa Hermosa, in northern Guanacaste. The $3 million expansion of Jacó’s water system the AyA announced this week would also be a PPP.
PLAN OF ACTION: Local leaders were cautiously optimistic this week about plans for a sewer system and wastewater treatment plant for Jaco. AyA says it will fund the $4 million project with a loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration.
Mr Sancho was unavailable to answer further questions late this week, however, AyA spokeswoman, Gretel Corrales, insisted the investment would be sufficient for the needs of Jacó.
“The AyA is not going to build something so big without having first studied the horizons of future growth,” she said.
The Beach Times attempted to contact SEINCO in Uruguay, but the engineers involved with the project were out of the country. AyA did not have a number for the company in Costa Rica, Ms Corrales said.
The AyA was given authority over local water by the municipality in 2006. In Costa Rica, local government has the possibility of overseeing the local potable and wastewater systems, but can forfeit them to the AyA. Mr Elizondo, who assumed his office about 12 months ago, has called the move a mistake and complained that AyA was not prioritizing Jacó’s wastewater needs.
This week he said he was encouraged by the news, despite his doubts about the total investment.
Currently, businesses and homes in Jacó are responsible for disposing of their own waste, either through septic tanks and leach fields or through private sewage treatment plants. Concerns have been raised that some businesses and homes, however, are dumping waste into streets or rivers, untreated.
Last year, Mr Elizondo ordered all businesses larger than 1200 square meters (12,916 square feet) to obey a long-standing, little enforced health regulation ordering them to have their own wastewater treatment plant. The mayor gave until November 30 of last year to obey, and this week assigned his “two most trusted” municipal inspectors to begin visiting every hotel in Jacó.
“If they haven’t obeyed, they will have to close. They were warned and have had their time, now the time is up,” Mr Elizondo said, saying that he expected that some businesses will be shut down beginning next week.
$4 Million Loan to Include Sewer System, Treatment Plant
Costa Rica’s national water authority announced this week it will build a much-needed sewer system and wastewater treatment plant for the central Pacific town of Jacó.
Ricardo Sancho, president of the Instituto Costarricense de Acueductos y Alcantarillados (Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers, or AyA), said in an email late this week the project will cost an estimated $4 million and include both the treatment plant and a sewer system.
“The project will be included in a loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), currently being executed,” he said.
In addition, a new potable water treatment plant for Jacó is under construction, and local developers are establishing a trust fund to privately invest another $3 million in expanding the potable water system’s capacity and distribution.
A 30-year-old Uruguayan engineering firm, SEINCO, has been awarded the $172,000 contract to conduct the feasibility studies and to design both the sewer system and the wastewater treatment plant for Jacó, AyA said. The firm has eight months to finish.
The announcement comes in the wake of wastewater woes in major tourist areas in the province of Guanacaste. In Tamarindo, one of the most popular beach towns in the province, hotel reservations were cancelled and the community expressed outrage after water tests last year found extremely elevated levels of fecal mater in 13 streams feeding the internationally famous beach.
Then, just two weeks ago, the 308-room Occidental Allegro Papagayo Hotel, located further north, on the special government tourism-concession plot known as the Polo Turístico, was shut down for trucking its waste to illegal dump sites.
AyA’s announcement of a plant and sewer system for Jacó came as a surprise to the municipality of Garabito, which is seated in Jacó and has been fighting — unsuccessfully, local leaders believed — for close to a year to get just such a project started.
Mayor Marvin Elizondo and Municipal Council President Damaris Arriola both said they found out about the project through a small article published earlier this week in the daily newspaper La Nación.
“Hopefully this is going to happen now,” Mr Elizondo said. “But the cost doesn’t seem to be in line with our needs.”
Doubts were raised during a Municipal Council meeting Wednesday as to whether $4 million could pay for a sewer system and treatment plant extensive enough to handle Jacó’s booming population and development.
José Miguel Villalobos, former Justice Minister and pro-bono legal advisor to the municipality, noted that AyA is investing $60 million in a sewer system for Puntarenas, the port city north of Jacó, 15 times what is to be spent in Jacó.
Estimates put Puntarenas’ current population at around 112,000 people. During the tourism high season, the population — including visitors — of Jacó and surrounding areas can swell to as many as 60,000 people, according to municipal estimates.
“Either this is an error, or a joke,” Mr Villalobos said.
As a comparison, Guillermo Chin of Consultores Urbanos, who is doing initial surveys for a possible wastewater treatment plant and sewer system in the Quepos-Manuel Antonio area, said just for the small town of Quepos, which isn’t expected to reach 12,000 people until 2025, the investment is estimated at $2.5 million.
That project, which would also include the tourism development around Manuel Antonio, which hasn’t been surveyed yet, is to be funded — investors hope — by a private trust fund and built through a Private-Public Partnership (PPP). Once built, AyA would take over administering the system.
The Quepos-Manuel Antonio area recently saw its potable water system expanded through a PPP, the first of its kind completed in Costa Rica, while similar PPP projects are underway in Playas del Coco and Playa Hermosa, in northern Guanacaste. The $3 million expansion of Jacó’s water system the AyA announced this week would also be a PPP.
PLAN OF ACTION: Local leaders were cautiously optimistic this week about plans for a sewer system and wastewater treatment plant for Jaco. AyA says it will fund the $4 million project with a loan from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration.
Mr Sancho was unavailable to answer further questions late this week, however, AyA spokeswoman, Gretel Corrales, insisted the investment would be sufficient for the needs of Jacó.
“The AyA is not going to build something so big without having first studied the horizons of future growth,” she said.
The Beach Times attempted to contact SEINCO in Uruguay, but the engineers involved with the project were out of the country. AyA did not have a number for the company in Costa Rica, Ms Corrales said.
The AyA was given authority over local water by the municipality in 2006. In Costa Rica, local government has the possibility of overseeing the local potable and wastewater systems, but can forfeit them to the AyA. Mr Elizondo, who assumed his office about 12 months ago, has called the move a mistake and complained that AyA was not prioritizing Jacó’s wastewater needs.
This week he said he was encouraged by the news, despite his doubts about the total investment.
Currently, businesses and homes in Jacó are responsible for disposing of their own waste, either through septic tanks and leach fields or through private sewage treatment plants. Concerns have been raised that some businesses and homes, however, are dumping waste into streets or rivers, untreated.
Last year, Mr Elizondo ordered all businesses larger than 1200 square meters (12,916 square feet) to obey a long-standing, little enforced health regulation ordering them to have their own wastewater treatment plant. The mayor gave until November 30 of last year to obey, and this week assigned his “two most trusted” municipal inspectors to begin visiting every hotel in Jacó.
“If they haven’t obeyed, they will have to close. They were warned and have had their time, now the time is up,” Mr Elizondo said, saying that he expected that some businesses will be shut down beginning next week.
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