The annual Orange Walk Fiesta Rama is one of the biggest events in the North. For 2 days straight the streets of Orange Walk are flooded with hundreds of people who partake in the event. This year's Firestarama is still in its planning stage, but even now, two months before the actual date, trouble already seems to be brewing.
Late last week, the Mayor of Orange Walk made an impassioned facebook post criticizing the Sports Council for wanting to charge them a fee of $3,000 dollars for use of the People's stadium- the venue for the annual fiesta rama. Today we asked the Director of the National Sports Council Ritchel Dominguez about it:
Ritchel Dominguez, Director - Sports Council
"What happen is that we have a little problem there, because what happen is that after the fair was done the rides are stayed there for almost 2 weeks and they have been used every night and that's more currant being incurred. But what happened at this time we will be inviting the mayor to come on board and speak to me and see where we can come to an agreement. After the fair is done that the rides can leave because if they stay another 2 weeks, that's more electricity being incur on the sports council bill and they walk away from the fair and leave the rides there and then we are the one in task in paying the bills after they are gone. I think it's just fair that if you are going to use the place and have these expenses after they are gone, it's just fitting for them to foot the bills for these things."
Emanuel Pech
"So this was in no way sort of an intent to make a buck out of our community which involves this?"
Ritchel Dominguez, Director - Sports Council
"No we were not going to make a buck out of it. What we are going to do were exactly charging what we set the price overall for the facilities to be. We have come up in a task in saying this is the amount of money we run these facilities for a near and these are what we need to charge to make that. Just to keep the facility so that we make money. We are semi-government. What we are trying to is keep the facility whereby it's usable. What's the use of using the facility one time for the year then its left run down. I don't think it makes sense in doing that because we are still criticized at the end of the day that the facilities are run down, abandoned and these sort of stuff. So what we have done is looking at the whole picture, what it will be a year to run these facilities and that was the price we came up with."
Emanuel Pech
"So you don't think that asking for $3,000 is unfair?"
Ritchel Dominguez, Director - Sports Council
"I don't think so, I think it was just fair with them keeping the riding, the merry go round and that's sort of stuff there so long, it will incur electricity on our part and the electricity that they are using and the water, I think it's just fair for the price that we had set but we have now agreed that it's going to be a thousand dollars."
Dominguez said that in past years the Town Council had been charged an undisclosed amount of money to cover the expenses of hosting the Fiesta Rama. However he asserts that the council never paid up. To this end the Mayor said: not so. Mayor Kevin Bernard said this was in fact the first time they have ever been charged for using the facility. However, he remains committed to paying the $1,000 dollars as agreed. Also of note is that the mayor has in the past quoted Fiesta Rama earnings of up to $20 thousand dollars- monies he says are used for community projects.
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