San Jacinto plaza to be completed March 18

the progress … or lack thereof .. at the san jacinto plaza. these are monthly snap shots beginning in early 20-15. three years ago, the city said the renovation of the downtown el paso square would take 18 months… and was set to be finished in december 20-14 deadline came and the work was nowhere near finished. so the new deadline became february… then may… then the city said hopefully by the end of the year. we rang in the new year… and still construction crews worked on the plaza. today, abc-seven video and pictures show it’s just about finished! the elevated canopy in place… and now, the final touches are the focus. as for why the project was pushed back so many times… the city added work to the project – so it extended the contract … the city says it will fine the contractor one-thousand dollars a day for not finishing on time. that’s a claim the contractor plans to dispute. abc-seven’s darren hunt broke the news of a completion date earlier today on twitter. he is live with a story you’ll see… only on abc-seven… bob/estela, when i broke this story on twitter earlier today, i got a lot of humorous tweets back like … “apri fools!” and “wanna bet?” even “not holding my breath.” but city officials tell me, it’s true, san jacinto plaza will be ready in 10 days and counting! “if i told you the countdown is on, we’re 10 days away and counting now until it being open, what do you think of that?” “i would say i’d have to look a my calendar 10 days from now.” ira batt has bee coming to san jacinto plaza since 1948. but he hasn’t set foot in it for more than two and a half years, since a 4-point-5 million dollar renovation began. “this is where everybody met, this is where we became friends with a lot of people.” “it’s dear to your heart then?” “it really meant a lot … we’v had finishing dates on the market for quite a long time now … it’s a shame, it’s gonna beautiful when it’s done, when it’s done it’ll be back to where i saw it in 1948, without the live alligators.” “we’re very very close … yo can see that the contractor is on track to hopefully make that date.” monica lombrana is director of the city’s capital improvements department. “they are in the final stages o completing the cafe, working with the tenant and getting that done … so it looks like we’re going to meet march 18th … april is where we’re looking at having the official opening of the park.” lombrana said contractor basic i-d-i-q will be fined a thousand dollars for every day past the deadline … the two are reviewing who’s at fault. “it’s still something that’ under negotiation in terms of the number of days that they’re owed, versus the number of days they’re actually over.” “the countdown is on … 10 day and they’re gonna open the plaza.” “well, as you see, there’ nobody there right now, so i don’t know.” the plaza should be ready for two big may events: the mariachi festival and neon desert. after telling neon desert producer zach paul the plaza is almost complete, he said: “that’ really exciting for us! san jacinto is the heart of el paso and the heart of our festival.” bob and estela good news tonight! the abc-seven