Culture, Sports

Editorial – How Can We All Help to Improve Nicoya’s Sports Center?

Esta publicación también está disponible en: Español

Ever since it started raining, The Voice of Guanacaste has received a flood of complaints on social networks and to our editorial staff. Some tell us how the gym floods, interrupting basketball games; others bemoan the pool closure just before the qualifying rounds of the national games.

 

Read also: Poor Condition of Sports Center Limits Training for Nicoya’s Swimmers

 

Journalists at The Voice have confirmed these complaints. We have seen how deteriorated the buildings are, how much the locker rooms stink, the cracks on the running track However, we are pleased to see how Nicoyans are taking over this public space, where they run, walk, or play tennis in the mornings or afternoons.

 

While the Cantonal Sports Committee alleges that the center’s income isn’t enough and the Municipality of Nicoya says that they don’t have enough money to give the Committee 5% of the budget, the rest of us who use the facilities can take action.

 

For example, some of us could “sponsor” the sports center by donating 5,000 colones monthly for a specific repair. If your son plays basketball there all the time or uses the pool and they only charge 5,000 – but you could pay a little more – would you be willing to so so?

 

Of course, for this to happen, the Committee would have to run an orderly campaign and increase transparency of how everyone’s money is used. We citizens deserve to have all information regarding how this money is spent, how much income is derived from selling services, and what comes from the municipality.

 

In this month’s article we asked for that information. One day later, in a PDF document, it arrived (although we asked for it in an editable format, such as Excel). This information should be available in online documents that everyone can download and analyze.

 

Those of us who use the sports center cannot just complain and watch the building crumble. And this doesn’t just apply to Nicoya’s sports center. It also applies to other cases, like how Santa Cruz is suffering even greater problems.

 

We all must do something. What ideas do you have? Discuss them with friends, take them to the Committee, and propose them. That’s where change begins.

 

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