Graffiti, chipped walls and broken grass or fences. These are some of the acts of vandalism that have occurred in the new sports areas of the capital of Lanzarote that are under construction. The events have been occurring since the beginning of the summer. However, according to the Councilor for Sports of the Arrecife City Council, Luis Morales, it is still unknown who the perpetrators of these misdeeds are. "We have asked the police to monitor the situation to identify these people," explained Luis Morales.
While the authorities are facing this situation, the Councilor for Sports asks citizens to respect these infrastructures. Firstly, because it is an investment of all the citizens of the municipality, since a part of their taxes is precisely allocated to the construction of these facilities that will result in an improvement of services. On the other hand, it must be taken into account that the damages mean that the City Council has to make new investments to repair the damage. This means that this money cannot be invested in other projects.
Situation
There are three facilities that are in the process of being built. Firstly, it is necessary to finish the sports area of San Francisco Javier where a grass field and multipurpose sports courts are being placed. The forecast is that these works will be completed before the end of the year. For this, an investment of approximately 700,000 euros has been made.
One of the most ambitious projects is the Argana Alta pavilion which will be named the Arrecife Sports Palace. With an investment of nine million euros, it is also in an advanced phase "and will be completed throughout next year," Luis Morales highlighted.
Finally, the second phase of the Puerto de Arrecife sports park is currently being undertaken, "which is where the swimming pool and multipurpose rooms such as gyms, spinning rooms, aerobics, maintenance, along with a cafeteria, the reception or the changing rooms for the pool will be located," explained the Sports Councilor. In this way, only this part of the project has a cost of about 3.5 million euros. Its conclusion is planned for May or June of next year, given the progress of the works.
With these facilities, the City Council hopes that before the end of the legislature the city of Arrecife will have approximately almost 4,000 new athletes, that is, those who are not federated and who are normally individuals who practice sports in directed activities. "We believe that there will be more non-federated athletes who practice sports in municipal facilities than those who are currently federated, who may be about 2,500," said Luis Morales.
On the other hand, these projects allow us to fulfill the important objective of the sports advancement of the capital of the Island "because it will allow us not only to bring the classic sports that have been practiced until now, such as football mainly, but also to people who want to practice other activities," commented the Sports Councilor. In fact, in order to advance in this area, the council has contacted the Ministry of Education of the Government of the Canary Islands, where they have presented a project worth about 160,000 euros to adapt the pavilion of the Las Salinas Secondary Education Institute. "We want to put a new rubber floor where the installation with changing rooms so that it integrates into the sports area of the José Díaz Contreras football field, with which we would make an important sports area in the center of Arrecife together with the Salinas football field," said Luis Morales.