The Formentera Council reports that this morning a delegation of local officials that included President Jaume Ferrer, Vice-President/tax office secretary Bartomeu Escandell and assorted staff specialists sat down at the Ministry of Public Works in Madrid to meet with officials there about closing out the so-called “highways partnership” signed between the two agencies in 2009. Participants on the other side included Rosalia Bravo, who is deputy project director of the department of motorways, as well as other spokespeople for the tax office and the Ministry of Public Works.

2009 agreement
The original partnership unlocked an investment of €13.4 million which was used to build roundabouts in es Pujols and Sant Francesc. The money also drove upgrades of local roads, like those near the Sant Francesc primary school or the arterials that cut across Formentera's salterns from la Savina to es Pujols. Most recently, in 2015, money from the fund went to improvements on the road that descends to es Cap de Barbaria.

President Ferrer congratulated his island for being the “first to fulfil our end of the 2009 highway covenants”. He noted the agreements drove upgrades across a significant portion of Formentera's roads, plus brought about new infrastructure which made possible the switch to pedestrian-only paths in Sant Francesc, Sant Ferran and es Pujols. Formentera's chief framed the efforts as “new groundwork for the island's mobility strategy moving forward”.

Call for new agreement
Council officials seized the opportunity of the commission's gathering to request a new partnership be considered. Valued at nearly €2.3 million, the planned agreement would enable local authorities to train their focus on highway upgrades, including fresh asphalt and undergrounded utility lines, from la Savina to la Mola. Other improvements envisioned would take place along the road to cala Saona and the stretch of highway from Restaurant es Cap to the island's southern tip.

The Formentera Council's Office of Culture reports that this Friday, February 16 at 6.00pm, youngsters of the island are invited to attend an evening of storytelling at the Marià Villangómez library.

This week kids are treated to Les joguines de la Martina (something like “Martina's toys” for English-speaking audiences), a performance by Cristina Brunet which, through puppet-work and compositions that Brunet performs live on a host of instruments-turned-stage props, encompasses a breadth of artistic and theatrical forms of expression.

Martina, a tale-teller, prowls the world for new stories that she can spin for children. Not just any old story tale will do, though. Martina was born with a gift: she can talk with toys, and listens as they recount their roving and playful adventures whilst the tots of the world sleep.

We'll meet Toni, whose teddy bear is a bit of a scaredy-cat; a bean-bag frog whose fillings are foiled by some nibbling house-mice; a wee race-horse who, somewhat absent-mindedly, takes a tumble down a staircase and a piglet who guards religiously the coins Aineta slips into her back.

It's a music- and colour-filled show that will get school-children into the spirit and singing along to the tunes of Martina.