The candidates for the municipal seat assure that the current state of the Central Market is due to the poor municipal management of Álvaro Ortiz. The latter denies it. He says that in 2018 resources were approved for its improvement. To date, it has not yet been rebuilt.
Candidates for mayor of Concepción attributed the abandonment of the block where the Central Market is located, destroyed by the fire that occurred 11 years ago, to the lack of municipal management. Although the Regional Government has committed 17 billion pesos for expropriation and recovery of the property, the project is advancing at a slow pace.
The independent mayoral candidate supported by the Republican Party, James Argo, arrived at the Central Market, pointing to the inaction of the current municipal administration on the state of the traditional shopping center.
There he spoke with tenants who work outside the market, emphasizing the importance of rescuing the block as a starting point to improve the central area of Concepción.
“After 11 years since the fire occurred, this municipal management has been unable to resolve the Central Market of Concepción. TO 11 years we don’t even have a design, we don’t know what the next market is going to be like. And the mayor is going to leave without providing a solution to this problem,” he said.
Another candidate for mayor, also independent, Camilo Riffo, accused the block of abandonment and attributed this reality to a lack of management and also in decision-making.
The response came from the Penquista mayor himself, Álvaro Ortiz, pointing out that what Argo pointed out is a lie, accusing him of not having advanced as a Seremi of Housing in the expropriation of the Central Market with the resources approved by the Regional Council in March 2018.
Note that a Supreme Court ruling in 2012 left Mayor Ortiz with the responsibility of recovering the Central Market, for which the tenants had to transfer ownership of the property to the municipality, which never materialized.
