Consejo Empresarial Meeting
 


San Felipe, Baja, Mexico

March 2, 2011

The newly elected Mayor of Mexicali has taken over and his administration is taking a very active role in the issues affecting all of San Felipe. He has appointed young aggressive people to be the San Felipe Mayor, head of Cotuco, and tourism.

One of the first things they have done is form the Consejo Empresarial De San Felipe. This is a group of business people and local people that will address the issues and make recommendations to the Mayor to help improve the area. It is based on the Mexicali business alliance that has been highly successful in growing Mexicali.

The first meeting was held and a president, secretary and treasurer were elected. Rafael Navaro of Pete's Camp was elected President with Pat Butler Secretary and Octovio Ascolani – Baja Mar- as Treasurer. They then set up groups representing the following: Public safety, Developers, Ejidos, hotels, bars/restaurants, commercial/sport fishing, commercial/retail, professionals/realtors, events, Gold mine, and the San Felipe first. Each group is to meet every 2 weeks and report at the general meeting held once a month. I am on the Public Safety group and the Developer group and the meetings are open to everyone that wants to get involved.

Areas they are looking at for improvement is cleaning up the area, rebuilding of the Malecon, Marina and airport. The tourism Dept. has started a campaign to advertise the corridor from Mexicali to San Felipe as a safe corridor. They are advertising in the states and are working with the events to bring down TV and news crews to report about San Felipe.
The ex-mayor reported to us the income and expense of running San Felipe. Currently they receive 60 million pesos from the property taxes and expenses are app. 80 million pesos. They have to make it up from other sources so don't have a lot of $$ to do any new projects. The new Mexicali administration will be approached to fund more to San Felipe.

The airport was discussed and it looks like the land dispute with the people who own all the land around it is close to being resolved. This should allow for expansion if things fall into place. The current airport is run by the tourism board and has an operating deficit of app. $200,000 dollars according to the report.

The medical issues were talked about and the government has secured money to build or remodel one of the existing hospitals. Pat Butler said the medical center by the Pemex is negotiating with the El Centro Hospital to provide helicopter service and they will put up a heli-pad south of town and 1 north of town. They have to work with the Mexican Gov. as the airport cannot have night flights.

The next meeting was held on March 1st. There was a very good turn out and the main issues were trying to find funding for the projects. The group will be working with a consulting firm out of Mexicali to find and secure funds. This is available for all groups in the council.

The head of the commercial fishing reported on the activities they are working on. All funding-subsidies- have been discontinued for the fisherman and the new rules for fishing have taken 60% of the fishing area out of production. This has really had a huge impact on the industry. They have secured $$ for 2 major projects that will begin soon that will have an impact on all of us. They have engineered a new marina for the Malecon area and showed a picture of the proposed project. They also are going to be extending the 2 boat ramps at the Marina for easier access. They plan on installing 2 new ramps 1 each in Puertocietus and Gonzoga by 2012.

Pat Butler has donated the use of the old century 21 building for the Consejo as headquarters.

The problem the road construction has caused was brought up and what can we do? After a lot of discussion Octovio Ascolani is to contact the head of the road department and schedule a meeting with him to voice the concerns. He will be invited to speak at the next meeting.

The last problem was the funding of the Baja 250. The Cotuco reported that the total cost to bring it here was just over $49,000 dollars and they were short $14,600 and anyone willing to donate to contact Cotuco.

The other groups will report at the next meeting on March 15 at 10am at the building by the soccer field. Open to all interested people who want to be involved.

The Consejo Empresarial De San Felipe goal is to make San Felipe a better place to live and work by having all groups work together to improve San Felipe.

Scott Parkman
Member: Consejo Empresarial de San Felipe