The Cabildo de Tenerife will invest more than 57 million in the coming years in La Orotava with the execution of important projects such as the comprehensive reform of the Teobaldo Power Auditorium (between 6 and 7 million); the new socio-sanitary center (9 million) that will be located in the La Boruga area; the completion of the Los Altos highway (about 40 million; the Las Palmeras urbanization; the improvement of the San Jerónimo industrial estate, and other more immediate ones, such as the asphalting of the road that connects the municipality with Santa Úrsula, whose tender it’s already done (2 million).
This was confirmed yesterday by the island president, Pedro Martín, and the mayor of the Villa, Francisco Linares, during the visit that the first made to the municipality to review the main projects that will be executed with investment from the Cabildo, the exact amount of which is very difficult to determine. determine why in some cases these are projects that are already underway or are included in island plans with specific items for the municipalities and leaving the doors open to multi-year programs that will be included in the next budgets, said Martín.
Some of these actions were projected in the previous term and that is why the mayor stressed “the institutional loyalty” of the Cabildo to “keep intact the great projects of the town, some of which did not even have a financial record.”
Linares stressed the importance of paving the section of road that connects La Orotava with Santa Úrsula, passing through the Humboldt viewpoint and the town center, because “it is very dangerous since in addition to cars it is traveled by many people.” An “urgent” need – he said – just like the asphalt on Nelson Mandela Avenue.
In the longer term, the comprehensive reform of the Teobaldo Power Auditorium will be undertaken, a work that could have already been carried out but the City Council ruled out doing “just a facelift” and opted for a more complete action adapted to current regulations. For this reason, he asked the Cabildo to extend the term of the Cultural Infrastructure Plan, which expires in 2023, since it will be impossible to complete the reports, the projects, bid them and execute the work.
For his part, Martín also considered this reform essential and assured that “deadlines and margin will have to be found so that this work is not left out of the Plan” and to do so, in addition, “looking for the regulatory fit and solving the paperwork you need, because we are talking about a space that has a special protection for being a historical heritage of undoubted value ”.
One of the most complex and expensive actions is the one hundred kilometers that remain to be executed on the TF-21, a road that crosses eight neighborhoods and which is the access to the Teide National Park. It is a “macro work” that will take several years and an investment of 40 million. The commitment between both administrations is that at least next year the agreement is signed.
An outstanding debt
Another project that has been slowing down is the future socio-sanitary center, for whose construction, the City Council has granted a plot of 27,000 square meters in the area of La Boruga, next to the TF-5, and which Pedro Martín described as a necessity for citizens and also, “an outstanding debt with La Orotava.”
In this sense, he considered that “it does not seem reasonable to be happy to have found a location in the Hospital del Norte” for the elderly who were transferred in 2013 from the old Hospital de la Santísima Trinidad due to the fact that its facilities were obsolete. “The Hospital del Norte needs to have a space to provide hospital service, not to be a residence,” he added. “We will leave the door open so that it can fit into the projects it has in progress and we are also going to try that there may be economic items that can be carried out,” he said.
“I have made real commitments, I am not here to promise impossible”, emphasized Pedro Martín, who at the same time made it clear that “there is still a lot of work to be done” but that he is “on the right track, working with a regional and island vision, and of course, assuming the acquired commitments ”.
Linares and Martín were accompanied by the second vice president of the Cabildo, Berta Pérez; the Councilor for Municipal Cooperation, Zebezui Chinea; the insular director of Heritage, Emilio Fariña; and the spokespersons for the municipal groups of the PSOE, Assembly for La Orotava and CC, María Jesús Alonso, Aida Salazar and Narciso Pérez, respectively.
After the institutional meeting, the leaders toured some of the points where the planned actions are located, such as the Teobaldo Power Auditorium, the Las Palmeras urbanization, the site of the future social health center and the San Jerónimo Industrial Park.
