In the coming days, the Formentera Council's office of the presidential cabinet (l'àrea de Presidència) will distribute two thousand decals to be affixed on local rental cars, one thousand brochures to Formentera hotel owners and tradesmen and forty-some posters for placement at strategic locations across the island. The goal, explained councillor of the presidential cabinet Bartomeu Escandell, is to “raise awareness among tourists and residents about the threat wildfires pose to a place as fragile as Formentera”.
In so doing, Formentera jumps head-on into a wildfire awareness campaign which, after an initial launch at summer's start by the Govern Balear, was picked up and championed by the town council of Sant Joan. This year “the risk of fire is still high”, the councillor asserted. Environmental councillor Daisee Aguilera, whose office has also signed on to the campaign, described it as “meant to give some basic tips on how to avoid forest fires”. The recommendations range from “not dumping readily flammable waste, refraining from starting any fires during high-risk seasons and exercising extra caution in at-risk areas” to just “knowing the steps to take should a wildfire occur”. The campaign fulfils the recommendations set by an accord which was ratified in the July plenary session of the Formentera Council.
Invaluable work of Formentera fire brigade
Escandell highlighted the important work of Formentera firefighters, who this year alone have completed 92 missions, 21 of which included wildfires. “From the start of the 2015 season (1 May) up to today's date, the fire brigade has participated in the extinction of 17 small fires”, a fact that Councillor Escandell said proved “we are traversing a period of extreme vulnerability. We need to step up all precautions”. The councillor expressed his gratitude for the work of IBANAT (Institut Balear de la Natura) staff, civil protection services, local police and the Guárdia Civil, among other offices.
Earlier today in the plenary hall of the Formentera Council, councillor of sport Jordi Vidal unveiled details behind the newly-established Escola Municipal d'Atletisme, a centre for athletics. The councillor explained that the municipal escola, or school, was founded with an end toward promoting athletics among island youth and creating alternatives for healthy living.
Veiled, Speed Structure, a new collection of work by Coco Esteve, opened this week at the sala d'exposicions (exhibition gallery) of the Old Town Hall in Sant Francesc. For three years, the Alcoi-born artist has had a number of lengthy stints on Formentera, periods during which she produced a set of work tackling the speed of the island's characteristic landscape and the swiftly-moving change that marks it. As Esteve explained, “they are abstract paintings that couldn't have been framed in rectangular structures, or even in time”. The exhibition can be visited through 29 August, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday at the exhibition hall of the Old Town Hall (l'Ajuntament Vell).
Later today the CiF councillor of town and country planning Alejandra Ferrer will submit a technical report to Demarcació de Costes (the coastal authority in the Balearic region) and request a momentary suspension of the period of public notice for the recently released changes to Formentera's coastal delimitations. The new delimitations were first announced 4 August, from which point the local administration on Formentera was given one month to produce either comments relevant to the changes or just such a report.
The CiF (Consell Insular de Formentera) and Baleària transport company have signed a funding agreement aimed at providing transport during to la Festa Intercultural, a celebration of diversity and local communities. The initiative was made official today despite the fact that the celebration itself took place earlier this year on 18 and 19 April.