As recorded in newspapers, below is
a list of links to online newspapers in Costa Rica that have followed the Marina
Flamingo since its closure. To go to the detailed article click on the
underlined link below. It starts with the most recent newspaper article.
Council
Backtracks on Flamingo Marina The
Municipality of Santa Cruz has backtracked on a decision to adjudicate the
Flamingo Marina, instead suspending a municipal accord which had awarded the
concession to an international consortium.
Flamingo Marina
Project Finally Anchors Developer
Buy Now
April 18, 2008 - by TT Staff
Municipal authorities in Santa Cruz, in the northwestern Guanacaste
province, have chosen a concessionaire for the Flamingo Marina revamp,
the firm Desarrollos de Marinas Matapalo Demm S.A., ending a drawn-out
process to bring the boats back to Flamingo, on the northern Pacific
coast. Marinas Mat...
The Municipality of Santa Cruz is demanding the
Mayor sign an agreement with a consulting firm to revise the terms under
which a concession will be awarded to develop and operate the Flamingo
Marina.
Marina Commission Reformed, Deadline
Within the Month
The President of the Municipality of Santa Cruz
moved this week to put a stop to the political infighting within his
council, using his executive powers to appoint a new commission to oversee
decision-making on the Flamingo Marina.
PLAYA FLAMINGO, Guanacaste –
Two years after the government shut down the Flamingo Marina,
authorities say they are getting closer to choosing a new company to
rebuild and operate the marina.
with no progress
on a new marina. Municipality of Santa Cruz goes to San Jose and pleads with
Environmental commission to allow the Municipality to issue a new concession
for the Marina Flamingo
PROGRESS is finally being made in the
slow-moving effort to select a new private operator for the Flamingo
Marina, but boat owners won’t see an end any time soon to their troubles
operating without the marina they were kicked out of last June.
Officials are putting the final touches on the marina’s master plan,
which delineates the marina’s boundaries and development possibilities.
It should be co <...
More>
AFTER more than 15 years of
operation, authorities shut down the Flamingo Marina, in the
northwestern province of Guanacaste, in June, following through
with an order made last year by an administrative court of the
Environment Ministry. Boat owners were forced to moor their boats
in the bay outside the marina. Santa Cruz Mayor Pastor Gómez, who
has jurisdiction over the marina, announced that mon
<... More>
For more than five years, the
15-year-old Flamingo Marina has operated outside the 1998 marina
law. In just three months, a new concessionaire could be chosen to
put it in legal order. More than 2,000 jobs may be on the line.
Yet the government is jumping through hoops, using trickery and
expending valuable Coast Guard resources to close down the marina
for what could be a mere 90 days. The number
<... More>
DESPITE previous
assurances from government officials, boats have been blocked from
entering the Flamingo Marina in Guanacaste to pick up passengers,
effectively putting a halt to boating related tourist activity in the
area and threatening thousands of jobs. “It was a lie. We left
peacefully, and then they rejected the negotiations,” said Felipe
Fernández, who moored two sportfishing boats at the
<... More>
2004, June 18
Tico Times
Flamingo Marina Officially Closed,
FLAMINGO, Guanacaste – Yellow signs have been posted stamping the
marina “closed.” Coast Guard officials stand watch to make sure no one uses
the waters against court order. Boat owners and captains in the area lament
the closure of the Flamingo Marina after more than 15 years of operation.
Police move in to
physically close Flamingo marina
The Servicio
Nacional de Guardacostas and the Fuerza Pública closed down the Flamingo
marina Friday, the latest in the continuing drama of the facility.
After the marina was taken over by the
Municipality, boats were still allowed to use the facilities - UNTIL THIS
NEW ORDER CAME!
Jim McKee
2004, June 11
Tico Times
Flamingo Marina Boaters Face Eviction
BOATERS in the Flamingo Marina, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste,
were rocked again this week by an order to cease using the marina, this time
coming from the Coast Guard and Security Ministry. The Pacific coast marina
has been the center of controversy for more than two years. A Coast Guard
cutter arrived Monday and handed out a flyer warning boat owners and
captains they must remove the boats...
At this time the Municipality and Coast Guard
were operating the Marina!
LAST week, the Environmental Tribunal ordered the
Municipality of
Santa Cruz to shut down the Flamingo
Marina, in the northwestern
province of
<...
More>
In a surprise action, the Municipality of Santa Cruz has
taken over by force the Flamingo marina from Jim McKee and his partners.
McKee criticized the action that included municipal
officials and an estimated 25 police officers from nearby Santa Cruz. He
said his long-running legal dispute still is in an appeals court where his
lawyer is seeking to enjoin the government from taking the exact action it
did.
My losses with the Brothers, or the debacles I've
experienced attempting to operate a business or the lunacy of everyday
illogical life in Costa Rica have never motivated me to write a periodical
until I read your article regarding the closure of the marina at Flamingo.
Summary by Jim McKee
of the problems facing the Marina
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Marina Flamingo "In the Soup"?
Flamingo Beach Costa Rica
10 December, 2003 --
The Marina Flamingo appears to be "in the soup" after 4
months of legal maneuvering by the local Municipality (backed by wealthy private
interest groups), Jim McKee (representing the Marina investors since the early
1990's) and the local Boat Owners Association that has assumed the
responsibility to maintain the docks and keep it operational. Also
in the "Soup Pot" is the Flamingo Beach Development Association.
The current status appears to be:
Municipality of Santa Cruz - abandoned their effort to "manage the marina"
and is now attempting to evict the boats from the marina - including cutting
the electricity.
McKee and marina investors - in a hold mode, waiting to see who or what
surfaces after the soup is cooked
Boat owners association - attempting to keep open the minimum facilities
so they can earn a living
Flamingo Beach Development Association - concerned about the effect on
tourism if the marina is closed for construction or any other reason
Wealthy private interest groups - reported to be getting tired of the
"soup pot" and may be going away or at best stepping back with a "wait and
see" attitude.
In spite of all this, the marina docks continue to function in
support of the Sport Fishing and Sailing Charter fleets that operate out
of the marina. Most of the boats are continuing to "chip in" in order to make
necessary repairs and pay guards.
Clients wishing to go fishing or sailing will not have
problems from the boiling soup pot. The problems are for the
boat owners and crew. The fuel dock pumps and Ice fabrication plant has
been shut down by the government, therefore boat owners now must bring fuel from
the local service station or if it is a large yacht arrangements may be made to
bring in a tanker truck. Blocks of Ice are no longer available so the
boaters are purchasing bags of ice cubes (do not last as long and cost more).
The unfortunate part of the current fueling method is that it virtually assures
contamination of the sea, whereby the pumps had all the safety precautions
installed - including spill pans under the pumps. Where is the logic in
this?
Municipality of Santa Cruz notifies boats to "get out of the
marina" At the beginning of December, the Municipality
of Santa Cruz delivered notices to the boats that they had 8 days to "get out of
the marina". They claimed that the marina was polluted and that it also
did not have the correct permits. The boat owners association responded
with a lawsuit in the supreme court stating the government had never presented
any evidence of pollution and that if there were pollution, the boats were
not the ones polluting the marina. As proof of this the boaters submitted
photo's of sewage coming out of a pipe from behind the Flamingo Beach Hotel
going directly into the estuary which leads into the marina. Approximately
1 week later, the supreme court rejected the case. Now the boat
owners are turning to the Pueblos for help and it seems they are getting the
support from all the local Pueblos. So far the Municipality has attempted
to enforce their order to leave the marina by cutting off the electricity.
This occurred on the day the Association was replacing a section of the main
dock and needed electricity. One of the Sailboat owners started a
generator aboard the boat and the work continued.
The basic problem is that the Municipality wants to
sell the Marina Concession to a powerful group (possibly the same owners of the
Marina Los Suenas) The group will not complete the deal until the Marina
Flamingo is vacated. They do not want problems with the local boaters,
plus they want the marina empty so they can begin construction without
interference from the local boats. No-one has talked with the 50+ boats
and more than 200 people that depend upon a functioning marina in order to earn
a day-to-day living and feed their families. No-one is offering any solutions as
to what would happen during the 1 year construction period. Also if the
new Marina Flamingo is operated in the same manner as the Marina Los Suenas, the
local fishing boats will not be welcome, nor could they afford to pay the rates
required to dock a boat at the marina.
Here is a collection of "Before and After" shots of
the Marina Flamingo. The
before being
prior to the closure of August 2003 and the AFTER
being July 17, 2008, still closed.
COMMENTS
BEFORE
AFTER
Before: Shot of the Marina
Flamingo main dock area with over 70 boats
After:
View of the main dock area with a couple of disabled boats at the docks
Before: A boat "hauling out"
for maintenance at the Marina "Boat Yard"
After:
Boat ramp still exists, but is closed by the Coast Guard
Before: More of Flamingo's
first class Sportfishing fleet, safely tied at the dock - with power and
water.
After: What is left of the
Sportfishing fleet is moored outside the marina
Before: Clients walk down the
dock and board the "Shannon" for an afternoon sail
After: Shannon also is moored outside the marina and has to use a
dinghy to load and unload clients from the beach.
Before: The marina Flamingo
safely fueled boats at a special fuel dock
After:
The fuel dock was removed by the Coast Guard and now boats run a long hose
out to the anchored boat in order to take on fuel from a tanker truck.
