BTB and Corozal Council Collaborate to Revitalize Chactemal Plaza for Local Business

 The Belize Tourism Board and the Corozal Town Council are collaborating in enhancing an area known as the Chactemal Plaza at the entrance of that municipality.  Correspondent Rafael Dominguez spoke with Mayor Rigo Vellos who says the aim is to promote business opportunities for residence whilst providing a safe space for families.

Rigo Vellos, Mayor of Corozal Town: “We had the idea and the goal of modernizing the area a bit more. I mean many Belizeans have been to different countries where we see these wonderful parks and I’m sure that at some point we dream we had it at home. The idea is to have a park where we have young people, old people, elderly people wanting to go and to relax. You will see some benches that are already built they can relax and the chaos where they can go and buy. For the town council the main idea was to create some type of economic development. Recently what we have seen we have seen that the expenses of the town council have increased so we need to come up with new ideas on how we can create revenues back to the town council and by having these spaces developed it’s always where we can achieve that. We can give the opportunity to the person that is at the corner selling rice and beans to have a set designated area by renting one of those kiosks and be able to sell their rice and beans. We can ask one of those persons at the market that sells probably the shakes, the protein shakes to have one of the kiosks to go out there and sell those things to the people and go and exercise. So it’s creating an economic development not only for the town council but for the residents of Corozal also because they will have a designated spot to go and sell and they know at the end of the week or at the end of the day they can achieve by making some type of finances to be able to take home.”

As it relates to the actual infrastructure, Mayor Vellos explained that there are three ares of the project that will see improvements.

Rigo Vellos, Mayor of Corozal Town: “We had the idea and the goal of modernizing the area a bit more. I mean many Belizeans have been to different countries where we see these wonderful parks and I’m sure that at some point we dream we had it at home. The idea is to have a park where we have young people, old people, elderly people wanting to go and to relax. You will see some benches that are already built they can relax and the chaos where they can go and buy. For the town council the main idea was to create some type of economic development. Recently what we have seen we have seen that the expenses of the town council have increased so we need to come up with new ideas on how we can create revenues back to the town council and by having these spaces developed it’s always where we can achieve that. We can give the opportunity to the person that is at the corner selling rice and beans to have a set designated area by renting one of those kiosks and be able to sell their rice and beans. We can ask one of those persons at the market that sells probably the shakes, the protein shakes to have one of the kiosks to go out there and sell those things to the people and go and exercise. So it’s creating an economic development not only for the town council but for the residents of Corozal also because they will have a designated spot to go and sell and they know at the end of the week or at the end of the day they can achieve by making some type of finances to be able to take home.”