glewin@bluefieldspulse.com

Bluefields, RAAS, Jun. 29-As Bluefields gets ready to celebrate its one-hundredth birthday, the mayor’s office looks for ways to beautify the city for both tourist and the thousands of Bluefields people expected to arrive for the celebration. Mayor Moises Arana said his office is working on several plans to make the celebration memorable. He said his office welcomes any suggestions from the Bluefields people on how the birthday should be celebrated.

Mayor Arana said his office has many projects to make Bluefields a better place to live. However, he is unable to implement them because of lack of funding and participation from the central government. He said, “My hands are tied, I can’t do anything without funding.”  One such project is to clean up the shores in the Old Bank neighborhood and pave Old Bank point to make it a scenic look out. “Cars will not be allowed to go out to the point,” he said. 

The mayor said the municipal building needs repair and painting. He said he previously spoke with Chester Coulson who promised to paint the building. “This is one less project I have to worry about,” the mayor said, “I want to thank Mr. Coulson for his good gesture.” The painting of the municipal building will surely give the area a better look just in time for Bluefields’ birthday celebration.

Mr. Moises Arana said that he has just return from Spain. The purpose of his trip was to seek some financial assistance, but it did not go too well. The city of Bluefields is in desperate need of economical development as unemployment is at a record high. Perhaps the non-participation from the central government is due to the fact that a legally elected member of the Sandinista party runs the mayor’s office and not a Liberal. He said that he is for the people because the people elected him. He does not see himself as anything else other than the people’s mayor while he is in office.

The mayor said that he is schedule to make a trip to Alabama in the near future by invitation of some pastors in that state. I’ve asked the mayor if he plans to take advantage of the trip to meet with the Caribbean community of Nicaragua in the U.S. and he said yes. He said he does not want to make the same mistakes as previous mayors by not meeting with the people who can possibly help the city of Bluefields. He said that he would work side by side with SLC, Inc. to coordinate the meetings once he is in the United States.

Bluefieldspulse has setup an e-mail address for you to send your suggestions and/or contributions toward Bluefields’ birthday celebration. All mails will be forwarded to the mayor’s office. The celebration is scheduled for October of 2003. The e-mail address is bluefieldsbirthday@bluefieldspulse.com