7 News Belize

Corozal Council Repairing Roads
posted (January 10, 2014)
While we had the opportunity, we asked Mayor Campos about street upgrading works his council has embarked on in the town. 7 streets which provide access to school in Corozal Town are being upgraded, which will give much needed relief to school children who are forced to travel in mud, muck and water whenever it rains.

After consultations with the Parent Teacher Associations of these schools, it was decided that these streets needed urgent attention. The Town Council began working on them this week, and today, Campos told us about the project.

Mayor Hilberto Campos
"It is a project undertaken by the Corozal Town Council. In the month on November, we had compromise with the parents/teachers association of certain schools that streets that had access to their schools were going to be paved. We made a pledge to them, we did a consultation with them and this is one of the streets that were directly involved in that consultation and this is a project undertaken by the Corozal Town Council. This is not from central government; of course we have on board the area representative or the Minister of Health Pablo Marin who will be assisting in finding the finances to take care of these streets. There are a total of 7 streets that will be paved as long as the weather permits."

Daniel Ortiz
"What do you mean when you say specifically paved? Do you mean chip sealed, what is it?"

Mayor Hilberto Campos
"Yes, we will do double chip sealed. If you do one layer its practically wasting your money. I know that we are evolving and we have to start looking at other options when it comes to hot mix and concrete, but for right now we will be working with double chip seal."

Daniel Ortiz
"How much will this project cost for these 7 streets sir?"

Mayor Hilberto Campos
"We have estimated somewhere about $700,000 - $800,000. It's 7 streets and it's about 2.7 miles. It is streets that will be directly affecting people that have access to Mary Hill, to Xavier, to Guadalupe School, to Methodist school, that's about."

But as we showed you in our interview, today we saw that it was employees of Imer Hernandez Development Company. If that name sounds familiar to you it should. It was revealed last year that Imer Hernandez, the contractor who owns that company, and who is also the nephew of the Deputy Prime Minister, was allegedly paid $200,000 in February 2012 to pave the San Antonio Road in Orange Walk. That road never got paved, and currently it is still untouched because the Ministry of Works hasn't made a budget for it as yet.

That scandal is still unresolved, but Imer Hernandez is once again the contractor working on this street upgrading works. Today, we asked Campos about the decision to hire his company to upgrade these 7 streets, and he told us that it was based on a long-standing working relationship he has had with the council:

Mayor Hilberto Campos
"Imer Hernandez is a very good friend of the Corozal Town Council. We have a long history behind us. He did one of our first streets in 2007, it's the street right behind the camera man here and that's a street that is impeccable; it's not have even a single hole on it. We have had very good streets done by him with decent contracts and as a matter of fact we have a very good working relationship which is why he is going to be the one that will be facilitating the Corozal Town Council with these streets."

Daniel Ortiz
"Have you guys considered the appearances which are very important in these particular instances where Mr. Imer Hernandez - there was a recent scandal that his company's name was called in which they are saying he didn't paved roads that he was paid for. Has that been any consideration in your working relationship with Mr. Imer? Like I said, appearances are important; people want to know that their works will be done properly and that when the town council awards a contract to a particular contractor they will get value for money."

Mayor Hilberto Campos
"You mentioned just now about appearances and everything. I am telling you and this is from 2007 we are working with this contractor; we have streets that have been guaranteed by him. We have a history and depending on that history is what we are working with. Whatever is said about him and it is not proven in court I cannot take that for granted. The people of Corozal will be getting proper streets as they have always been getting from Imer Hernandez. Imer Hernandez is a friend of the Corozal Town Council and we have always been accountable to our people."

The 7 streets which will be fixed amounts to 2.7 miles of road, and will cost approximately eight hundred thousand dollars.

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