THE ROAD TO LANGOSTA – STATUS UPDATE

Due to a series of problems and inconveniences that had to be solved in order to start with the construction of the new road to Langosta, this article had to be modified three times before publishing.

"At the last meeting, the expenditure of 14 million colones required to have the road ready so that the Ministry of Public Works and Transport could begin completion, was approved," said Marcial García.

Acting as representative for the investors, Jean Schiettekatte, provided the information that led to the third version of this article. He stated that, “In order to deal with the situation regarding the road infrastructure of the Road to Langosta, a meeting was arranged with Francisco Jimenez, the new Minister of Transport – thanks to the support of the former Minister of the Presidency, Rodrigo Arias. The President of the Association of Developers and Entrepreneurs of Guanacaste, Gerardo Brenes, represented the investors of Langosta. His objective was to rescue the agreement previously reached pertaining to the street issue.

“At that meeting, the municipality was resolved to complete the preparatory work. MOPT will apply the asphalt layer, as planned. We came to an agreement on the Villarreal–Hernandez track. We have problems with the contribution payment from Barceló and Hotel Diriá, though. They will not pay until seeing the road completed. Therefore, we have no funds until the project is completed. We hope that Mata de Caña, the company that the investors hired, will honor the contract and not ask for an additional 25% to complete the civil works. For now, I think we will not be able to return the money to anybody, except for Mark Schneider, since he paid Mata de Caña in advance. Personally, I find Mata de Caña’s contract somewhat difficult, because with all the changes that were implemented since November 2008, they have a hundred reasons to justify that their machinery was on hold… among other claims. The problem with Mata de Caña is two-fold: we were forced to perform part of their work (the intersection) and now they are asking for more money, even if their contract is for a fixed amount."

Although everything seems to be in order, Julio Viales brought to light a new problem, saying, "The municipality has asked for a budget to determine the cost of the material removed from Cartagena’s pit and for the haulage. About 110 million colones will be spent in transport, and another 14 million colones in the removal of the material. Therefore, moving the material, manufacturing the cement, and placing it will cost over 200 million colones. The Ministry has the equipment, but we do not have that amount of money. We would need to sign an agreement in which the Municipality and MOPT agree to contribute 50% each of that amount, as established by the Comptroller’s Office."

Disagreements between the three parties involved (investors, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, and the Municipality of Santa Cruz) prevented the agreement to be enforced. Given the delay, March 11 was the date set by MOPT to pick up the cement. "I've helped anyway, because I'm very interested in Langosta finally having its streets paved. However, there is an inconvenience after every negotiation or agreement,” said engineer Julio Viales, MOPT Regional Director for Guanacaste. He added, "According to what we’ve agreed on, the investors were supposed to give us the street with the base ready and the fluvial system completed."

As to this regards, Jean Schiettekatte wrote to The Tamarindo News to say that it seems best for them to pick up the cement and return when there is a solution that we may consider acceptable. We have no control over how they handle and spend the money. It seems that paying more for the base and sub-base materials is not that big of a deal for them.

Another investor, Mark Schneider, said, "The contractor, Mata de Caña, required being paid in advance each week before working. We said no, but compromised at 50% of the balance at the end of the week (around $2,500). We found that Mata de Caña was not doing the work as scheduled, so we asked MUNI to agree to the work schedule and oversee their work. We could not get MUNI to commit to this. Bottom line is that this is a job that MUNI needs to do, by coordinating with MOPT and getting the job finished. The community, as a whole, should not be in the road construction business. My job initially was to spearhead for the government and get financial support from the community to help raise funds. Jean was assisting me with the government. The project was thrown into our laps… when it should be the government’s responsibility. I think we have accomplished this now. We are short the funding we invested but look for those who committed to the project to come thru when the asphalt is ready to be applied. If the Municipality of Santa Cruz allows us to keep our tax revenue, I can assure you that we would not be asking them for help in construction of roads, infrastructure, or other improvements. We want to pay for everything ourselves from the tax revenue of Tamarindo. It is time for our voices to be heard, because we should have our rightful share of taxes, paved roads, and quality surveillance. If that were our reality, we would generate more tax revenue for the municipality, and we would help to stimulate our economy by restoring lost jobs. Everybody would win!"

In brief, the last word on the road to Langosta has not been written…