The Corozal Town Board and incumbent area representative for Corozal Bay Vildo Marin are in quite a tangle in that northern town. Over the weekend the area representative erected a beachfront structure. Marin says it was for a civic purpose to raise funds for schools to offer services such as food and restrooms near the beach. But the town government didn't want to hear that; they say they run things, and Mr. Marin, incumbent though he may be, had no authority. Today the Mayor told us his side of the story.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
On Saturday this prefabricated house was installed on the beach at the southern end of the Corozal Bay. But by yesterday afternoon Mayor Hilberto Campos had work crews digging out the poles, a front end loader lifting the house and a low-boy removing it. Campos says the house was placed on the beach by area representative Vildo Marin for reasons unknown to the Mayor.
Hilberto Campos, Corozal Mayor
"Because according to him he has some project in mind, some funds form the Ministry of Foreign Affairs I believe, and obviously he doesn't want to channel those funds through the Corozal Town Council. It is a shame that it had to get to that extent to move the house because if he would be interested in working along with us, he would have approached the Corozal Town Council, approached my office and discuss this project to make it a joint venture. Let us work together for the people of Corozal. You don't expect one morning to wake up and find a house in the middle of the beach and have no idea, you cannot explain to the Corozalenos what is the purpose of the house. We didn't know about this project, we didn't have any idea. All we know is that a house was in the middle of the beach and the Corozalenos were upset with the idea that they were going to take over the beachside."
Campos says the move smacks of abuse and he claims that as the Mayor of Corozal Town he simply cannot allow this kind of thing to happen.
Hilberto Campos
"I cannot why the area representative would disrespect the office of the Mayor and in this case he would be disrespecting the entire Corozal people. It is not only me he is disrespecting because I am representing the people of Corozal. We have an architect from Quintana Roo working on that area. He is developing a plan that we could present to the people. Once again it would prove the way we work unlike the way he wants to work. We're not going to impose anything on the people of Corozal, we're going to present a plan."
And that plan did not include the placing of a house on the beach front, at least not like this and with that the house was trucked away to the Corozal Bay offices, far away from the beach side.
We were unable to reach area representative Vildo Marin for comment. But he has told CTV-3 in Orange Walk, as we said, that the house was for fund raising by students. But he says he doesn't want a fight with town hall and will now put computers in it and use it as an education center for those same students.
