Last Thursday, the reconsideration act was signed, which marks the beginning of this new attempt to condition the recreational part of the Parque de Las Mesasthat is, the cafeteria, the bathrooms, as well as the children’s and family recreation area, with stoves included, in the absence of a more ambitious intervention, pending for a second phase.
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, and the councilor for Infrastructure and Works of the Capital City Council, Dámaso Arteaga, visited a wonderful place yesterday, as the head of the Island Corporation said, that “we hope that both the residents of Santa Cruz and other localities can enjoy it in about five months.” The municipal representative highlighted the attraction for the residents of the capital “to enjoy the mountain ten minutes from home.”
«All this space is going to be transformed in a short time; among all we will help to take care of it»
The conditioning of the Parque de Las Mesas represents a new attempt to put this area into service, which has been involved in many vicissitudes, despite the various attempts to improve the landscape made by both the Cabildo and the Santa Cruz City Council.
In 2008, the joint venture formed by Miguel Hernández Ventura and Tinerfeña de Obras Públicas wins the competition and is awarded the works corresponding to the winning project of the ideas competition, whose authors are the architects Mónica Esteban and Rafael Escobedo de la Riva. It was divided into two phases. A term of 26 months and an investment of 3.8 million is set. The first phase of the work to recover The Whole Mountain –as the project was titled– contemplated intervening in the improvement of the terraces, walls, toilets, furniture, vegetation and paths. The second, the children’s play area and cafeterias, other more ambitious milestones. The contest was tendered for five million and was awarded for 3,810,000 euros. The stakeout act was signed in April 2009.
On December 27, 2016, the work was completed, with an act that warns that it is not suitable for public use, due to the lack of agreement between the project management and the contractor. The works are paralyzed.
In 2019, with Patricia Hernández as mayor, an attempt is made to resume the work of the Parque de Las Mesas with a collaboration agreement between the Cabildo and the City Council. The objective of recovering this recreational area contemplates that the Cabildo is in charge of contracting the works to execute the project drawn up by Gestur in 2017, designed to start up the recreational area -cafeteria, bar and recreation area-. From there, it will be the Santa Cruz City Council that will face the second stage, which affects the rest of the area. Before resuming the work, in 2020, the project had to be modified to resolve the damage recorded as a result of vandalism.
what is done
The remodeling underway focuses on the adaptation and incorporation of new furniture and shaded areas to the recreational area, including the part destined for the barbecue, the promenade, the gazebo as well as the children’s play area and the parking area, explained the Island Director of Territorial Planning, Emilio Fariña, in reference to the objectives of the project of “the second part of the first phase”.
On this occasion, the project has been awarded to the joint venture made up of Construcciones Víctor e Hijos and VVO Construcciones, for an amount of 861,813 euros and an execution period of six months.
As a result of the abandonment and the stoppage of the works, the Las Mesas park has remained in oblivion for more than ten years and has been vandalized, for which reason the Gestur project has had to include modifications that allow the commissioning of the recreational area, from which lights, switches and cables have disappeared from the facilities, with evidence that they even forced the armored door of the bunker that was designed as a cafeteria, as the president of the Cabildo showed yesterday at the site.
“We ask for 4 million ‘Next Generation’ funds for a renaturalization project”
But Pedro Martín wanted to send an optimistic message: «The works are beginning and in five months we hope that it will be available to the neighbors and they can enjoy these wonderful views». “We want to recover this long-awaited place and bring it out of oblivion.” Almost as a recommendation, he proposed to the City Council that it process the concession for the operation of the cafeteria as a factor to provide more vigilance to the place and avoid vandalism, in addition to appealing to citizens to take care of it as their own.
From the City Council, Dámaso Arteaga bet that “we can enjoy this park for everyone”, while announcing that “the municipal claim will not culminate with this action, but rather Santa Cruz has presented a project to the Next Generation funds, for value of 4 million, which will allow its final completion.
During the visit to the Las Mesas park, the president of the Cabildo left his recommendations to the technical team, such as encouraging the planting of barbuzanos and viñátigos to the detriment of eucalyptus, after asking about the structures located next to the tables for chops. “Some coat racks”, explained the technician Pía Oramas, to which Pedro Martín could not help but reply: “Only the umbrella stand is missing”, to which Oramas specified that these structures were conceived so that users could place canvases and create shadows , impossible with the prevailing wind in the area and that forced to banish the installation of pergolas.
Pedro Martín did not seem very convinced with the solution given to the railings and proposed Las Mesas as a model, the fences of worked wood, with an irregular shape and creating a pattern, used on the seafront of Guía de Isora. Oramas gave an argument by way of apology: «It is that the work only lasts three months».
It was not the only reference to Guía de Isora, since Martín could not avoid alluding to the economic effort of his City Council, while he was mayor, to attack the nursing home, which was vandalized by professionals who were accompanied by a monkey and a truck to take material worth half a million. In Las Mesas they have not been so delicate and, now, the Cabildo and the City Council want to avoid going back to the litter.
