By Tamarindo News Staff
The attempts to renovate Oneida Park continue, but according to architect Mauricio Salas it’s still been very difficult to obtain the necessary funds to complete the plans. Salas, of 5Destudio, was approached in early 2016 by Asociación de Desarrollo Integral de Tamarindo (ADI) to give the park a complete overhaul, and it’s been a long hard road to accomplish their goals.
“We are not currently receiving monetary donations for the park,” said Salas. “Donations that have been made are mostly of time and some materials like plants and gravel that you can see in the park as of today. Some people go sometimes to clean up beer cans and other trash that some shops and individuals leave there. Also, we have been contacted by a neighbor who is very interested in donating some benches as well. So all donations are of this kind.”
Just recently, Oneida Park’s plans were entered in a national competition from MIVAH (Ministerio de Vivienda y Asentamientos Humanos) called “Segundo Concurso de Bono Colectivo 2016 – Áreas Verdes Recreativas”. This was a contest that rewards money to build public spaces. However, Salas explained that the contest was very rigorous with many requisites and “we needed to show the current state of the park and make a strong case on how such a renovation would benefit the whole community and in what ways.”
Unfortunately, even passing the third stage, Oneida lost in the final rounds.
“Among the criteria they saw against our case, was that this area has relatively little population and little poverty incidence, even when we included during our investigation, workshops and design, the communities of Santa Rosa, Villarreal and El Llanito, all as part of the District of Tamarindo. Among the winners were projects in Alajuelita, Upala and Los Chiles,” he continued.
Undeterred, Salas and his committee keep looking for ways to obtain necessary funding. At present, they are planning to present the project to DINADECO (Dirección Nacional de Desarrollo de la Comunidad) before October 2017. This institution has different evaluation criteria and “we are working with that to present the project as best as we can regarding those standards and our reality. We know there is still probability our project does not get selected because there is a limited national budget, but we are trying to leave no stone unturned. The reality is that we need money for the project and this is one of the possibilities available, so we are going for it,” Salas said.
In additions the US Embassy in Costa Rica has been contacted to assist with paying for the work on the park, and there are also some private funding possibilities.
“Besides the government, there are private institutions, individuals, NGOs, Cooperativas, Embassies, Foundations, etc. that could help, and we are trying to cover as much of that as we can. The reality is we need outside cooperation and that’s what we are working on. That’s all we can do right now,” he concluded.