Launch of newly renovated B.T.L. Park delayed, but park 90% done

The newly-renovated, quite spiffy looking B.T.L. Park was to have launched on Friday, and the first event to greet that launch would have been City Hall’s annual Christmas event. But the rain which shows no signs of stopping anytime soon has put paid to that idea. Because the works were slowed down, the Park will not be ready this Friday. Mayor Bradley is disappointed, but insistent that rain can’t stop City Hall’s Christmas bash. So he’s moving the whole shebang over to the Memorial Park. Today he told News Five that the park will be finished soon, as it is close to ninety percent done.

Darrell Bradley, Belize City Mayor

Darrell Bradley

“We had to announce this morning and I had a discussion with our Planning Committee and our architects and engineers doing B.T.L. Park and we had to put off the launch of B.T.L. Park. I was very, very disappointed. We were planning this launch on the twentieth which is Friday. The City Council does a Christmas program anyway so what we will do is we will move our Christmas program to Memorial Park. All the activities have already been contracted so we will still have a massive party. We’ve already engaged fireworks…that’s going to take place at six o’clock. We’ve already engaged Demarco…he’s going to perform at eleven. As you can see in the City Council room here we’re wrapping fifteen hundred gifts that we usually give out at Christmas time. We have goody bags. We’re encouraging all the vendors who were supposed to sell at B.T.L. Park to occupy temporary facilities at memorial park on this twentieth night, which is Friday…and to still sell whatever they were going to sell so that we are going to move the entire party from one location to the next. We also have engaged the rides…a Mexican company will set up the Ferris Wheel, roller-coaster and different things like that and the celebrations are going to kick off at four thirty in the evening and will go to midnight. We are still anxiously awaiting the completion of B.T.L. Park. The architects are continuing to work even in the rain. They have indicated to us that they will work as fast as possible. The park is about ninety percent completed. The superstructure in terms of the pier, the seawall, the land reclamation, the stage, everything, the kiosks, the walkway, everything is finished but the Park is really muck. We have to allow the soil to set, the landscaping, the electrical work, all of those things, the plumbing work…all of those things still need to be finished. And while its ninety percent complete that last ten percent has to do with the aesthetics and the look of it, and we didn’t want to have the launch and not have the park be in the pristine condition that the architects say it will be when it launches.”

Mayor Bradley says that City Hall will be closed on Christmas Eve and on the twenty-seventh, so while he wished residents Season’s Greetings, he also sends wishes that they’ll come in early to pay taxes which are due by the first of January 2014.