$1 million annual price tag for Strip

PANAMA. The Coastal Strip has generated a lot of controversy from the beginning and nobody really knows who is going to pay for the maintenance of the new park and its facilities.

According to the current mayor of Panama, Juan Carlos Navarro, the maintenance of the Coastal Strip (Cinta Costera) will cost taxpayers around $1 million a year.

Navarro said in a television interview with Telemetro, that the municipality will not have sufficient funds to pay for the maintenance of the new park, and some other institution should be responsible for those expenses.

He added that to pay for the electricity, the upkeep of the sport facilities and sidewalks will be too much for Panama’s municipality to bear, taking into account that it is operating with a minuscule budget.

The municipality of Panama and the Refuse Collection Service is currently at war with the central government over a bill for $28 million for the collection of hazardous waste from hospitals and public clinics in the capital city.

Meanwhile the director of Special Projects of the Ministry of Public Works, Carlos Ho said during a radio interview with RPC that a possibility exists that a special organization could be created to administer and maintain the Coastal Strip.

The other option is to give a financing source to the Panama’s municipality so it can take care of the park. The third alternative is to give concessions to private individuals for them to administer specific parts of the parks.

However, if the government decides to go through the concession route, it could mean that the people would have to pay for a facility that President Martin Torrijos’ administration sold to Panamanians as a free park that would be enjoyed for everybody.

At the beginning of the year there were talks about having a special tax imposed to inhabitants of the areas close to the Coastal Strip to pay for part of the project, but it was discarded after residents protested over the fairness of this measure.

It could be possible that the next administration could decide revive the tax as a way to pay for its maintenance, but nothing has been decided yet.

This week, the Minister of Public Works, Benjamin Colamarco said that the Coastal Strip will not be completed by June 20 as previously announced due to delays caused by legal problems related to right of ways.

Colamarco did not say when the Coastal Strip would be inaugurated, but President Martin Torrijos would not realized his dream to open the development to the public before the end of his administration on June 30.

The Minister of Public Works requested the General Comptroller pay in full, $189 million to the Brazilian company Odebrecht, which is constructing the Coastal Strip.

The Comptroller, Carlos Vallarino refused to do that on the grounds that the company has not completed the work and therefore the contract has not been fulfilled.

The Panama Star called the Ministry of Public Works to ask if the construction company Odebrecht was going to receive extra money due to the delay, and for the proposed date for the inauguration of the Coastal Strip, but did not get an answer.

It will mean that President-elect Ricardo Martinelli, who was opposed to the development, will open the Coastal Strip that has meant months of gridlock and havoc for users of Balboa Avenue. There are still a few questions marks about the quality of the construction of the project and the environmental impact it could have on the Panama Bay in the future.

The flooding on Balboa Avenue appear to be more frequent than in the past and some people are blaming the Coastal Strip for it.

It will take time to find out if the sea will try to recover what has been taken from it.