The Municipality of Nicoya hopes to develop an environmentally-friendly theme park in Samara to foster tourism, commerce, culture and sports.
The design for the project was presented during the municipal session on Monday, October 13 by Josue Ruiz, director of the municipal engineering department. He indicated that the design was made by Carlos Cabalceta and Ericka Martinez, both Nicoyan students of architecture at the Latina University, who presented the initiative as part of their University Communal Work (TCU –
Trabajo Comunal Universitario) through the Municipality.
“The initiative to do the TCU was because they are people with all the initiative in design and creativity, and to not have them do the same as usual in the municipality, which was filing and completing inspections with us, but instead to enable them to develop a specific project that could be a potential design that can be developed by the municipality,” explained Ruiz.
Among other highlighted features, the theme park will have nature trails, picnic areas, areas for kids’ games, hanging bridges, an amphitheater, a restaurant and cafeteria, a skateboard ramp, commercial spaces, a parking lot and bathrooms.
The municipality intends to build the park in 4350 square meters of property in downtown Samara, close to the restaurant La Vela Latina.
The property belongs to the municipality and is within the Maritime-Land Zone.
Ruiz said that the first phase will consist of lighting and security for the park, as well as grading and earthmoving, which will cost ₵41 million ($76,000) and begin in December of this year.
Afterwards would come the construction phase, and although an exact cost for the project has not been specified, Ruiz estimated that the total will not be more than ₵100 million ($185,000) and that it would be completed in the first few months of 2015.
“The hope is for the park to be self-sustaining, which is to say that the commercial spaces will be leased by the municipality in order to pay for maintenance. Ruiz stated that on Friday, October 10, a meeting was held in the community center in Samara and that the majority of those in attendance were in agreement with the project. “We want people to give their ideas from now until the end of November to have all of them clear,” he said.
Designs for the park are available here: http://parquesamara.blogspot.com/
It is worth noting that, two years ago, a similar project was presented by two university students for the construction of a cultural center in Samara. However, the initiative never came to fruition, due to the high cost it required (₵288 million, or $532,000) and because the property where the park would be located did not belong to the municipality.
Syndic Requests Urgent Intervention for Casitas-La Mansion Route
Another proposal brought up during the session was a request made by David Caravaca, a syndic for La Mansion, who appealed to the national government for intervention on the 9 kilometers of road between the community of Casitas and La Mansion, which is national route 157.
“We are not asking for a super highway, but something that allows us to pass with vehicles and people who come to sell at the Las Guayabitas market. All of those people in that area can only do so by bus that goes through Hojancha, but the bus gets bogged down. The highway has never been in such bad shape,” explained Caravaca.
The syndic reminded the council that the highway has not received any kind of maintenance by CONAVI for more than two years, which is why repairs with gravel material are necessary.
“We want this to be declared an emergency. On July 25 we gave time [to the government] because they had recently come into power. But currently they are not answering us in any way; they’ve abandoned us,” Caravaca said indignantly.
He did not discard a possible closure of the route as a means of protest.
Council Elects New Sports Committee
Finally, the council elected new members of the Canton’s Sports Committee, including Ruth Paniagua and Eduardo Lian, the proposed representatives of the Municipal Council, Juan Rafael, representing social organizations, and Hannia Hernandez and Manuel Chacon in representation of the canton’s sports organizations.
The committee has a one-year term and the makeup of the board of directors will be decided by its members.
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