Major upgrading of principal roads in the Twin Towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elena Town are now ongoing, along with the almost completion of a Welcome Center. Close to one million dollars is being spent on the improvements of 18th and West Streets in San Ignacio and Eden Drive in Santa Elena, Cayo with funding coming from the World Bank under a Municipal Project. The latter has been geared to assisting some seven municipalities in Belize. At least, a first coating has been done on 18th Street and a tractor is now working on West Street. The paving of Eden Drive – good news to the students at the Eden Seventh Day Adventist High School – is expected to begin shortly.
But the San Ignacio and Santa Elena Town Council is not relying solely on foreign funds to do urgently needed works. The Town Council, using its own funds and with some help from the Government of Belize, will also be upgrading Church, Eve, and Victoria Streets and a portion of the Bullet Tree Road in San Ignacio Town. Those works will cost the Council and the Government of Belize some $275,000.
A portion of Burns Avenue in central San Ignacio, from the Belmoral Hotel to the Anglican Church has been fully laid with bricks. Indeed, it has already become a tradition for this newly renovated avenue to be an entertainment hub for both locals and tourists on Saturday nights, with eateries making space to the center of the avenue. Burns Avenue will be opened sometime in December.
The much anticipated Cayo Welcome Center will also be opened in December. Both the improvements to Burns Avenue and the construction of the Cayo Welcome Center have been made possible through a loan from the Inter-American Development Bank, with the San Ignacio and Santa Elena Town Council placing counterpart funding. Some three million dollars has been spent on these two major projects, says John August, the Mayor of San Ignacio and Santa Elena.
Other street work has seen the involvement of private individuals, working in partnership with the San Ignacio and Santa Elena Town Council. About a week ago, the cementing of Independence and Dove Streets and a portion of Flamingo Street begun in earnest in San Ignacio Town. Pete Lizarraga from Cessa Cement has incurred most of the cost for these works. Mayor John August wishes to applaud those efforts and says that at the completion of these roads, some $200,000 would have been spent.
Already, there are plans to utilize these aforementioned public places and to put them to good use. Mayor John August wishes to invite all Belizeans to attend the first of a kind ‘Taste of Belize Competition’, which will be held on December 1, 2012. This annual event, which will be sponsored by the Belize Tourist Board, will be an all day event in central San Ignacio. Mayor August is also inviting everyone to a food festival on December 2, 2012, which will be held on the Savannah, Burns Avenue and Cayo Welcome Center areas. The food festival will be featuring a barbecue cook-off competition in downtown San Ignacio.
