Mayor Belen shopping for new city hall and fishport sites
MAYOR Belen Fernandez is already shopping for a possible site for a new Dagupan City hall and a fishport.
In addition to the prospect of rehabilitating MC Adore Hotel as the city hall, the mayor expressed the urgency for having another site for a new city hall since the pre-war building currently used is already dilapidated and some sections are showing signs of possible collapse any time soon.
Fernandez, with City Engineer Virginia Rosario and City Planning and Development Officer Romeo Rosario, visited a potential site Thursday along De Venecia Expressway in Barangay Pantal.
The mayor said the downtown area where the city hall is currently located no longer offers any ideal site, unless the city recovers the MC Adore Hotel building sold by the past administration at P119 million.
The MC Adore Hotel is 100 meters away the current city hall and was originally purchased by the Lim administration for the purpose.
There is a pending case on the sale of the property after Regional Trial Court Judge Mervin Jovito Samadan issued a ruling that the resolution authorizing then Mayor Benjamin Lim to initiate the sale is null and void.
Fernandez said notwithstanding the present low cash position of Dagupan owing to fiscal mismanagement of the past administration, she must plan for the new city hall which she said is long overdue.
She was informed that the wooden floor of the present city hall could collapse anytime due to the big number of visitors trooping daily to her office since she assumed the post of acting mayor on May 16.
The mayor, who is still holding office at the city hall’s conference room, said her staff have been forced to limit the number of callers waiting at the second floor of city hall to prevent an accident.
City Engineer Rosario has recommended to the mayor that she holds office temporarily at the first floor of the city museum to allow for some major repairs at city hall but the mayor said it is not spacious enough to accommodate the number of visitors daily.
The mayor said 4th District Congresswoman Gina de Venecia has offered to help source funds for a new city hall since Dagupan has no funds for it.
Fernandez said they are also considering to ask President Benigno Aquino III, to lend financial help.
City Planning and Development Officer Rosario said if a city hall is built along the De Venecia Expressway, it will create a new growth area that could extend to Bonuan Binloc from Barangay Lucao.
FISHPORT
The first site being studied by Fernandez Thursday is a private property which can also be considered as a possible site for the planned Dagupan Fishport.
Fernandez said she is amenable to the suggestion of locating the fishport in the area provided the proposed fish port will not emit offensive odor that will affect motorists passing the De Venecia Expressway Extension.
The bill establishing the Dagupan Fish Port, authored by De Venecia, was already passed into law.
This will be only the second fish port to be built by the government in Pangasinan, the first being in Sual, constructed in 1990.
Another proposed site for the fish port is in Bonuan Binloc, just beside the Bangus Processing Plant, but this was deemed too far for wholesale fish vendors.
Dr. Westly Rosario, interim manager of the Seafood Processing Plant, has also recommended that the proposed fish port be built near the market rather than the plant.
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