The Instituto Costarricense de Ferrocarriles (INCOFER) expects regulatory approval before Semana Santa so that it can start rolling the commuter train between San José and Cartago in April.

The railway is waiting on the Autoridad Reguladora de los Servicios Públicos (Aresep) to approve the fare of ¢570 colones (one way) for the trip.

The commuter train will connect the city of Cartago to San José’s east side and will be an excellent transportation option for many sectors, including university students at the UCR and Universidad Latina,.

The INCOFER would not give a specific date when the whistle blowing will be to Cartago, only would say it will be in April.

In a few weeks the rules of parking on the streets of San José will change with the introduction of the modern parking meters.

Currently, street parking in San José is charged only between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm weekdays. However, with the introduction of the new meters, parking will be charged between 7:00 am and 7:00 pm from Monday to Saturday.

The cost for street parking – at least for now – will be ¢255 colones for every 30 minutes. The fine for violation is ¢4.500 colones.

The Municipalidad de San José (Muni) expects to take in some ¢500 million colones a year from parking – charge for parking space and fines.

Currently, there are 1.450 street parking spaces in San José, with plans to double that with more like in areas around the Hospital Mexico, La Sabana, La Uruca, Zapote and San Francisco de Dos Rios.

The new parking meters will start working after Semana Santa (Easter Week), when the Muni begins operating 67 machines that are used to obtain parking slips by way of electronic payment.

The machines will spit out a printed slip to be placed on a car’s windshield (on the dash really so as not to be stolen).

The concept is not much different than the current system of slips for parking. What is different is that users do not have to go looking for a vendor, the slips are obtained from the machines.

To get a slip, a user has to set up an account, which can by issued by way of a text message from a cellular phone or the internet or a prepaid card.

Fuegos Artificiales Cavica, S.A, was the company awarded the original contract for the fireworks display for the opening of the Juegos Centroamericanos (Cental American Games) Sunday night at the national stadium, backing out of the contract three weeks feeling the permit granted by the Ministrio de Salud was “irregular”.

The company’s general manager, Carlos Villavicencio, spoke to the press on Monday, saying that the company withdrew from the contract for fear that the distances allowed “were too close”.

Fuegos Artificiales Cavica ran into a similar experience during the Zapote fair last December, explained Villavicencio, when the ministerio de Salud refused to issue it a permit because their plan breached the safety gap between powder and public.

Villavicencio explained that the distances for Sunday’s show were shorter than that requested by the Ministerio de Salud in Zapote only a couple of months back.

For her part, the head of the regional office of Salud, Silvia Herrera, said “all the permits are in order and met the necessary regulations”.

Whatever, San José mayor, Johnny Araya and the secretary of the games organinizing committe, Jorge Villalobos,  ordered an investigation, especially following the comments by Fire Chief, Hector Chavez, who said the fire was “caused by carelessness”.

The stadium does not have a fire insurance policy.

The company, Fuegos Artificiales Internacionales Custodio Calvo, S.A. (FAISA) was responsible for the fireworks display and now may be responsible for the damage, as the preliminary investigation reveals the company did not implement the original plan for the show called “Pura vida”.

The manager of the Estadio National (National Stadium), Edgar Barrantes, confirms that the stadium does not have insurance against fire. The state property only has third party liability insurance.

Given this, the cost of repairing the structure damaged by the fire Sunday night will come out of the operating budget, for now, while the legal process is started against the company hired to put on the fireworks display.

Barrantes told CRHOY.com that it was evaluating  the purchase of a fire policy, but the cost is prohibitive.

The stadium  is managed by the Instituto Costarricense del Deportes (ICODER), an autonomous state agency.

Costa Rica’s Cuerpo de Bomeros – Firefighters – had a busy weekend attending to more than 100 emergencies, the majority fires, due to the strong winds and gusts reaching 110 km/h that began Saturday.

Besides the fires caused by short circuits, falling trees and signs, the Bomberos responded to calls of brush fires spreading wildly, fueled by the winds, homes with raised or damaged roofs, walls and fences.

According to the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional (IMN) – national weather service – the gusts topped at 110 kilometres per hour in the mountains of the Central Valley.

The winds also brought cold air into the valley and rain in some parts. A sweater or jacket was a must since Saturday night.

The IMN is predicting that the strong cold winds will continue through today Monday and leave the area by tomorrow.

Some 20.000 people in the area of La Uruca and Pavas were without water Saturday, due to a break in a 40 year old water main in front of Pozuelo cookie factory in La Uruca.

The AyA (water and sewer utility) worked all day on the problem, restoring water service about 5:00pm Saturday.

Drivers in the area had to go around the water, which one eye witness told the Q, “it was like during a rain storm”.

All of La Uruca, Rohrmoser and Pavas were without water from a little after 9:00am.

AyA authorities blame the deteriorated water pipe.

For those visiting the La Sabana to take in the Juegos Centroamericanos celebrations, best not to park illegally in the immediate area of the stadium.

Drivers have been accustomed to paking on the streets, boulevards, even the medians, rather than the pay the ¢10.000 or more for a space in the private lots created since the opening of the stadium.

The Policía de Tránsito is adamant that they will fine and/or tow illegally parked vehicles.

The subdirector de la Policía de Tránsito, Huanelgue Gutiérrez, said there will be no street closures for now, depending on the flow of pedestrian traffic.

At least 100 traffic officials (+/- 10% of the total police force) have been assigned to the stadium detail.

Costa Rican truckers have blocked and are keeping closed the passage of cargo at the Panama border crossing of Paso Canoas, demanding that Panama stop the “abuse of authority”.

The president of the Cámara de Transportistas Unitarios de Costa Rica, Marjorie Lizano, said that the crossing of tourism and light vehicles is NOT impeded by the blockade, only trucks carrying cargo are being stopped from making the crossing.

The blockade or strike began on Thursday and so far there are some 400 trucks parked by the roadside on both the Panamanian and Costa Rican border.

“There is an abuse of authority by the SENAFRONT. They stop vehicles (cargo and passenger) with Costa Rica license plates for up to three and four hours, then the traffic police issues them a ticket and takes away the keys and documents”, said Lizano.

According to the union leader, the keys and documents are returned if and only when the fine is paid, even though Panamanian laws allows up to one month to pay the fine.

Lizano was firm that the blockade will continue until authorities in Panama demonstrate a willingness to remedy the situation.

Letters have been sent to Costa Rica’s Foreign Ministry, the Presidencia, the Ministry of Foreign Trade (Comex) and the Costa Rica consulate in Panama, according to Lizano. The union leader confirmed that the only reply is from the Comex, with a “we are very attentive of the situation”.

Last October, Costa Rica and Panama authorities agrees to resolve the dispute of overcharging of fines issued by Costa Rican authorities to Panamanian drivers. But the situation continues.

On February 6, Presidenta Laura Chinchilla, after meeting with Panama’s president, Ricardo Martinelli, said there would be a review on the detention of Costa Rican vehicles in Panamanian territory, though she did not elaborate on the details.

The Organismo de Investigación Judicial (OIJ) has revealed a frightening statistic, every 90 minutes a person claims to be a victim of a a home burglary.

According to the report by the OIJ released on Thursday, though crime in general decreased in 2012 over the previous year, burglaries of homes in in fact rose.

What did decrease the OIJ report indicates is assaults on homes (home invasions).

Liberia, Limón, Guápiles and Péres Zeledón are places with the most complaints of burglaries. Pavas, Limón and Guápiles top the list with assaults on homes.

As to car theft, Alajuela is the province with the most vehicles stolen or car thieves, depending on your point of view.

The fire trucks race to the scene, but, as in most cases, there wasn’t a fire hydrant nearby and if there is, good chance it is not working.  Such was the case on Thursday when a child died as fire consumed a small shanty town home in La Carpio.

Hector Chavez, director of the Cuerpo de Bomberos (Costa Rica’s fire department), is quick to tell the horror stories of missing or not working fire hydrants.

So far this year ten people had died in a fire. The latest, Villatoro Mairena was only 18 months old.

Director Chavez explains  that in San José’s La Carpio there are only two hydrants: one at the only entrance to the barrio and the other at the very end and that neither hydrant can effectively meet the needs of the community or the fire trucks in an emergency.

“Unfortunately in all marginal areas water supply (hydrants) is very difficult”, says Chavez.

The fire chief explains that in cases like that of Thursday, water tankers are dispatched to the scene, but that in many cases access is difficult, the large units are unable to enter many areas and/or get close enough to the fire. Chavez added that many bridges in the marginal areas cannot support the size and weight of the tanker trucks.

In Thursday’s fire, authorities found a lighter near the young child. Authorities also learned that the child and her brother, who survived the fire, were under the care of a teenager.

Authorities are making a special appeal to parents and guadians to keep a close eye on their young children to avoid regrettable situations.

The SUTEL – the Superintendency of Telecommunications – is warning consumers to be careful when buying cellular phones lines on the street from street vendors.

Although the selling of cell lines on the street is not illegal, authorities say consumers should be careful and ask for the seller’s ID (cedula), that is required in most cases to activate the line.

In most cases, the street vendors are selling already activated lines. However, if the line is not activated, a customer with a line purchased on the street cannot activate it unless they have the cedula of the original buyer of the line.