Piedra de rio, the traditional raw material employed locally for cobblestone streets, was the overwhelming people’s choice option registered in last week’s public opinion survey to pick the best method to construct pedestrian crosswalks in central Ajijic.
Participants were asked to select their preference from terracotta-colored embossed concrete, flagstone, river rock or adoquín blocks. The poll was conducted by printed ballots filled out at a voting station at the village plaza or in door-to-door visits by Chapala government personnel and via a Facebook online survey.
During the official vote count held Tuesday, November 19, at Ajijic’s Delegación office, river rock was declared the hand-downs winner, garnering 377 out of the total tally of 1,004 valid votes. Adoquín placed second with 259 votes, followed by concrete with 193, and flagstone with 175. Ballots counted as null and void totaled 49, while the surplus of unused ballots was 225. Only 248 votes were registered electronically.
The count was carried out by Chapala’s Citizen Participation Director Brenda Villafaña, Ajijic’s representative councilwoman Cristina Padilla, town administrator Juan Ramón Flores, Participación Ciudadana Consejo President Victor Manuel Aguilar and Ajijic spokesperson Victoria Gutiérrez, with Chapala Secretary General Sergio Cuevas standing in to supervise the process.
According to Mayor Moisés Anaya and Public Works Director Francisco Lucas, crosswalk construction at 15 intersections and continuation of the rehabilitation of Calle Constitución-Ocampo will get under way once Ajijic’s fiestas patronales are over at the end of this month.