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