Boscos’s Christmas follies threatened
Opponents of what they sometimes describe as “Bosco’s follies,”. officially titled “Christmas Villages” may have found a new ally in Panama's Ministry of Public Works (MOP).
The Ministry has laid down strict conditions on the Mayor Bosco Vallarino’s pet scheme of once again erecting plastic models on the Cinta Costera which city representatives feel they are unable to meet, and the Christmas follies may be dead.
On Friday, the the secretary general of MOP, Mitzila Espino, met with officials from the Mayor’s office to inform them you that they could make use of the coastal strip from December 1.
But the permit is only for the use of parking areas not the grass, which has suffered severely in the past two years. In addition, the MOP has demanded a damage deposit.
Thw Mayor's staff believes that the conditions are almost impossible to meet.
Nadgee Bonilla, director of the Management Service of the municipality, said that at least need they coastal strip from November 1, as the holiday villas require the installation of electrical equipment, pallets and other items that form part of the event .
Bonilla, who attended the meeting in the MOP, asks where to put the villages now, if they are are prohibited from using the grass..
"The parking lots are not the ideal place to organize the event," she said,
Mayor Bosco believes that the authorities are putting obstacles in the way the municipality cannot organize the event.
"Several institutions informed me that they will not participate in the activity, and companies want to make the villages on the coastal strip, otherwise they will withdraw their support," he said.
In the meantime, the organizers of the Carols By Candlelight event, which will be held in The Plaza de Francia, Casco Viejo, are applying to the MOP for the use of parking areas on the Cinta Costera, for the night of December 3 when the event will be held in Casco Viejo to raise funds for charity. (Click the ad at the top of the page to get full details).
