The Arrecife City Council has announced that it will finalize "over the next few weeks" the work that will allow the reopening of the Youth Center building during the month of March, after a decade of being closed. According to the capital's head of Youth, Jacobo Lemes, after the completion of the rehabilitation works, it only remains to clean the different dependencies and provide them with furniture "so that the activity returns to take place in facilities that have been closed since November 2005."
The councilman explained that the City Council "received the works on Friday, February 20 and at this moment adaptation works are being carried out on the exterior of the building and the gardens of the area, where a total of 52,369.28 euros have been allocated, which are added to the budget invested in the rehabilitation works."
Lemes went to the building this Monday to check the final result in situ. On the visit he was accompanied by the deputy mayor of the capital's Consistory, Rafael Juan González Robayna, and by the president of the Island Council, Pedro San Ginés. "The intervention of the Council in these works, as in so many other works in the capital, has been very important," said the councilman, who recalled that "the City Council put the work out to tender for an amount of 176,265 euros, of which the Council contributed 30,000, although finally the execution budget has been 162,868.20 euros."
The works have been carried out over the last four months by the company Aleima Proyectos e Instalaciones S.L. and have been completed within the planned period. "Our intention was that the Youth Center would be fully operational in the first quarter of the year and we have fulfilled it," Lemes stressed.
"Errors" in the original structure and risk of collapse
The facilities remained closed since 2005 due to the risk of collapse of part of the structure, since when it was inaugurated in 1991 errors that existed in the building were not detected, explain from the City Council. Now, the works carried out in the building by the Consistory, in collaboration with the Island Council, "will allow it to be habitable, thus enabling its total recovery," they add.
"Finally, we have a space again where the young people of the municipality can express their concerns and we can begin to respond to many of their demands and needs," said Rafael Juan González Robayna.
The councilman also expressed his satisfaction for the completion of a work "so important for the city", stressing that "we continue working to solve a multitude of problems that were unresolved and to carry out projects that were stuck".
The Youth Center building, located on the Vía Medular de Arrecife, has study and multipurpose rooms, as well as an amphitheater for more than 200 people.
