Vecinos Update

Dear Vecinos Members and Akumal Norte Community:

After my last letter giving our forecasted budget including the final cost of the center, I have decided that the final cost of the community center should be handled through donations as we did for the road, street lights, topes and underground water system. This way the future operating budget will be a more reasonable cost for the community. For three years community members have kept faith with me and my decisions for the choosing and completion of those infrastructure projects needed to complete our community’s service systems. As these systems come on line, we become a better functioning community. Each service is important in its own right, whether it is security, roads, street lights, trash removal. recycling, central sewage, underground internet cable and electrical systems: to function we need them all to work.

CIVIL ADMINSTRATIVE CENTER

This month we completed phase one of the building of the new community center/police station with the pouring of concrete for the second floor. The question has been put to me by a few in the community as to why we need the center: will it be worth the cost? This will be your civic building where we have community meetings or, if your HOA needs a meeting space, it will be available when scheduled. Over the past three years Akumal Norte has had a continuing growth with new buildings and addition of new property owners. This has increased the issues Vecinos needs to confront. As community issues increase so does the need for Vecinos involvement with various government offices. Our days of dealing with community problems as volunteers from private homes is changing. Our responsibilities representing Akumal Norte are increasing and we are maturing into the civil organization recognized and reached out to by Tulum Municipality and various state and federal offices.

The center will be the heart of the community, where environmental and political issues are dealt with, where you can come to get help with community service problems, to request uniform and concise answers for their tax and licensing programs, or to find proper answers from the government, answers that are well defined and uniform for everyone. We have a lawyer on retainer to deal with community legal questions. Whether you are a home or condo owner, these services are open to you as members. We, Vecinos de Akumal Norte, represent you to the municipality.

POLICE STATION

The municipality of Tulum sees us as a model community, the first to build a police station and civil administrative center in the state. The current administration is enthusiastically supportive of our plans and anxious to work with us to achieve effective security in North Akumal. This requires central coordination of private security with a municipal police presence. The plan is to assign police to the new station and pluma. Target will still have a man at the pluma. But the police will be stationed only within our community, not rotating among several locations. In this way they become a working part of the community. Right now private security must contact Akumal Pueblo for police response and wait. Under the new program the onsite police will respond immediately. This will be more effective.

For Vecinos to assume the responsibility for the security program, we need the center to be open and operational. Without a centrally coordinated and efficiently functioning system, it would become a useless drain on our human and monetary resources, psychologically comforting, but realistically ineffective.

Attached is a donation form. We need to raise another $12,000.00. Please help finish this project and bring Vecinos to a total professional status.