The fountain known as the Monument to Franco has been out of service for almost 20 years. It stopped doing so around 2003, and since then not a single drop of water has circulated around the sculptural ensemble signed by Juan de Ávalos. The Santa Cruz City Council wants to reverse this situation and put the fountain into operation, and for this, the Public Services area, directed by Guillermo Díaz Guerra, has commissioned a project to find out the needs and the cost of putting it into operation. Along with this fountain, two others will also have a project for the water to flow back into them. These are the fountain in the Plaza de Weyler and the one in Castillo Negro. Díaz Guerra defends that, in the case of the three fountains, it is municipal heritage that needs to be repaired and put into use, “I do not enter political evaluations of any kind,” he explained to DIARIO DE AVISOS in relation to the controversy surrounding the Monument to Franco or Monument of La Victoria, as it is officially known.
“We are talking about a fountain that has been standing still for about 20 years, and no maintenance has been done to it,” explained Díaz Guerra about the fountain at the Monument of La Victoria. “According to the first technical analyses, the three fountains are repairable, but what the technicians tell me is that the worst one is the Almeyda fountain, which is how I have always known it, and of which I have spectacular memories when I was working”.
The mayor admits that the fountain that accompanies the Ávalos monument “is completely destroyed, with broken pumps, so they will have to be replaced, as well as the pipes. Díaz Guerra even points out that “the service’s agronomist has explained to us that one of the reasons behind the death of the laurels of the Navy Command was the loss of water that occurred when this source was cut off, since they stopped drinking from the losses they had.”
The Councilor for Public Services details that the technicians have told him that doubts about the Monument to Franco, whether it is BIC or not (which it is not), and whether or not it is affected by the Historical Memory Law, have led them to delay any type of intervention at the source. “I consider this sculptural ensemble as part of the historical and cultural heritage of the city, and as long as there is no resolution that prevents acting or starting that fountain, I will take the steps to put it into operation.”
rehabilitation project
These steps have consisted of commissioning a project from the company Ircare Canarias, one of the four that was invited to participate in the tender, detailing the actions that may be necessary to put the fountain into operation sculpture by Almeyda, and ranging from the replacement of the electrical and hydraulic installations, incorporation of ornamental lighting and waterproofing of the basin, to the adaptation of the environment. The cost of this contract is about 12,000 euros.
“Meanwhile, what is appropriate, and we have received a request from a cultural association that reminds us that this fountain is valued at 41 million euros, which makes it the most valuable in Santa Cruz, is that we should at least keep the decoration and correct the vandalism it has suffered. With which I am going to order that at least the appearance be decent, “added the first deputy mayor.
Díaz Guerra insists that he does not want to arouse any type of controversy with this arrangement. “I do not enter into any type of assessment of his affection for the Historical Memory Law. For me it is part of the heritage and history of Santa Cruz, I have never linked it to any political meaning, for me it is a spectacle to see it in operation in that environment, and I think it is my obligation as the person in charge of maintenance and services. of the city, it is my responsibility, that the sources are in operation, and I am going to take all the steps so that it is so”.
Regarding the project for the Weyler square fountain, “in this case we have a problem of leaks and continuous breakage of the pumps. The Foundation of the University of La Laguna will be in charge of carrying out the project, which will have to obtain the approval of the Cabildo as it is located within the historic complex of Los Hoteles-Pino del Oro.
Hydrocarbons in the Black Castle
Of the three fountains to be put into use, that of the Black Castle is the one that is most delayed in terms of commissioning the project for its recovery. And it is that, as Díaz Guerra explains, “although we also have a pump problem, here, in addition, there is an action in the environment that is the decontamination of the soil by Cepsa, which prevents us from acting until that is defined”.
As detailed by the mayor of Public Services, “next to the Auditorium there is a small industrial facility to which everything that is collected through the system of pipes that is under the Black Castle goes, and that sucks up the hydrocarbon that by gravity is coming down from the Refinery towards the sea. He collects it, treats it in that plant, and takes it out of vats”. “When I arrived as a councilman -he continued- they told me that there was a project to expand that sanitation network, so I authorized the occupation of public roads, and that has allowed the entire sanitation and absorption network to be duplicated.”
