Thea Answers Corozal Civic Center Critics

In Corozal, frustration over the Civic Center’s crumbling condition is boiling over and Area Representative Thea Garcia‑Ramirez is pushing back. Residents say the building shouldn’t be falling apart barely a year after more than a hundred thousand dollars went into repairs, and many are questioning whether that investment delivered real value. But Garcia‑Ramirez says critics are missing the bigger picture. She argues her team inherited a facility in far worse shape than most people realize, a building that needed major rehabilitation, not just cosmetic fixes. She also notes that the project wasn’t carried out by government alone; community fundraising helped get it off the ground. And while she admits the results aren’t perfect, she insists the repairs reflect the best possible outcome given the condition of the building and the limited resources available.

 

Thea Garcia Ramirez, Area Representative, Corozal

“It was left in complete ruin by the previous government. It was falling apart. The structure, certainly the hundred and fifteen dollars because a hundred thousand dollars, sorry, a hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, a hundred thousand dollars came from BWS. Fifteen thousand dollars was fundraised by a group of concerned Corozalenos. And so we sold Pibil and we sold tamales and we sold raffles in order to get that fifteen thousand dollars together. We made sure that the money gave to paint the inside, the outside. The bathrooms and the plumbing system were completely revamped. There had, there was some structural damage because the rust was not only on the zinc roofing, it was actually on the structure. And all of that had to be sandblasted, repainted. The beams that were rusting and falling down had to be replaced and refurbished, all of it. So certainly when you have something that from the structure, the bones of the civic center were falling apart. A hundred and fifteen thousand dollars is a drop in the bucket. It’s not going to get you a new facility. It’s not perfect. I’m not going to lie and say it is but it’s the best that we could do. And I will make no apologies to anyone and to say, if we can’t get a new one then we just don’t do anything. That’s not my style.”

 

Garcia‑Ramirez says she’ll keep the Civic Center running with whatever resources Corozal can pull together until a full rebuild is finally possible.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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