Grupo Pro-Sayulita SAYULIMPIA fundraiser report and pictures

We wanted to let you know how successful the benefit event, held on Tuesday, March 20, 2007, was for Grupo Pro-Sayulita, A.C.

This benefit event gave us a great START for the Garbage/Dust Control project. The benefit event, including the raffle and silent auction, brought in a little more than 123,000 pesos. Including the benefit event, the raffle, the silent auction, donations and homeowner contributions we have collected almost enough to purchase the garbage truck. THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING!!! We still need to continue to collect homeowner contributions in order to finance the garbage cans, street cleaning crew and dust control portions of this project along with other projects in the future. The dust control products we have found cost between $5,000 and $10,000 US Dollars per tanker truck and will treat between 3 and 5 kilometers of dirt road per tanker, so, the greater portion of our dust control project has yet to begin.

After our request was made for homeowners to contribute $250 US Dollars per household to fund this groups planned projects, there have been three questions that have been raised with increasing frequency.

1. What has happened with the funds collected for the Wastewater Treatment Plant?

The answer is, NOTHING has happened with these funds.....YET. These funds are safe and secure in an interest bearing account waiting to be put to use. The funds were collected last year as the town's portion of the government WWTP project. We were expecting to be asked for these funds some time last summer once the construction of the WWTP had started. As is typical of most government projects, here as well as elsewhere, there were delays in getting the project started. The actual project didn't start until early September even though the projected date had been in early July. This start delay is also what has caused the delay in completion. The project was scheduled to have been completed by December 31, 2006 but with the start delay the completion date had to be pushed back accordingly.

During the construction of the WWTP there was an election and a change in government. The new government decided, with tourism being the biggest income revenue in Mexico, especially here in the State of Nayarit on the Mexican Riviera, that building Wastewater Treatment Plants in towns big with tourism would look good on their resume. This new government decided that they would fund the whole project without using the town's portion that we had collected. This decision is now allowing us to use our funds to complete Phase II of the WWTP project, the expansion of the sewer lines into neighborhoods that aren't connected to the WWTP, without soliciting for additional funds. This will also allow us to fund other water and wastewater projects such as cleaning up the arroyo that runs parallel to Calle Revolución and public restrooms in the central plaza and other strategic locations.

2. Why can't we use those funds for this project?

A promise was made at the Sayulita Wastewater Treatment Plant Benefit Event last year that these funds that were being collected WOULD NOT be spent on anything but water and wastewater related projects. We are holding to this promise that was made in order to keep our reputation intact so that the people of this town will continue to have faith in us that we will safeguard any funds contributed to us and spend them only on stated projects. Garbage and Dust Control DO NOT fall under this catagory.

3. The WWTP being built seems to already be under capacity, why isn't it bigger?

The WWTP, now built, is a state of the art facility that is big enough to process the town's wastewater for the next 3 or 4 years. It has been built using a modular system so that the plant can be expanded easily when it is needed. A second reactor (Phase III) will be built in the next two years or so which should give us the capacity to handle the town's output for the next 10 years. There is a government plan underway to have a central WWTP near Valle de Banderas that will handle the wastewater from all the towns in the Municipio de Bahia de Banderas. This would mean that eventually, in 8 - 10 years or so, Sayulita would no longer need its WWTP as all the wastewater would be pumped to a central location for processing.

None of us pay very much in property taxes here in Sayulita Mexico. Because of this, we don't have much in the way of infrastructure. Consider these requests for homowner contributions in lieu of paying property taxes as these contributions are going towards the set up and maintenance of our town's new infrastructure. Everyone of you, whether you live in town, up on the hills or out in the jungle, when you come to town you benefit from these services we are trying to provide. Please contribute generously and help us make Sayulita a cleaner and more beautiful town to live in. Give back a little of the benefit that you have received from owning a home and living here in Sayulita. There was some reason that you chose to be here. Take pride in your community and be a part of something good.

Thank you for your continued support of our efforts on behalf of the town of Sayulita and its residents.

Grupo Pro-Sayulita, A.C.

Its Officers and Members