Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - The municipal government of Puerto Vallarta and the Instituto Vallartense de Cultura (IVC) are working on a project to recreate one of the city's most recognized icons: the large colorful letters that spell out "Puerto Vallarta" and welcomes visitors who enter the city on the highway from the north.

At a recent ordinary session of the IVC Governing Board, chaired by Puerto Vallarta Mayor Arturo Dávalos Peña, in which the budget reallocation and modification of budget items for fiscal year 2020 was approved, the head of this institute, Marina de los Santos Álvarez, announced that part of the resources saved last year by the cancellation of cultural events due to the pandemic, will be used for said project.

Álvarez, who is also the technical secretary of the Governing Board, explained that the development of the new welcome letters, which will replace those currently at the Las Juntas intersection, will have a cost of just over 847,000 pesos. She pointed out that three project proposals were analyzed, and the one that was selected not only had lowest cost, but also guarantees greater durability and less maintenance.

She specified that local sculptor Héctor Montes, also known as 'El Chino Ballenas,' will be in charge of the creation of the Puerto Vallarta letters, which she said will be made of a fiberglass material that's resistant to the local environment of salt air and sun, and could last 15 to 20 years with minimal cleaning maintenance.

De los Santos Álvarez added that a transparent call will be opened to the city's artistic community for the creation of the new "welcome" sign, and with the savings generated from last year, the artist who is selected could be awarded as much as 150,000 pesos.

Mayor Arturo Dávalos recalled that the current letters were installed some administrations ago, when a group of businessmen organized with the then Puerto Vallarta Tourism Trust, for the preparation of the current letters, which are very deteriorated and expensive to maintain, so a new project like the one described by Marina de los Santos was sought.

He pointed out that there is still no set date for the placement of the new letters, but he estimated that they could be installed for the double anniversary of Puerto Vallarta as a municipality and a city in late May.

Source: Puerto Vallarta municipal government news bulletin translated and edited by María Francesca for BanderasNews.com.