Alek­si Hau­ta­mä­ki, a stu­dent at La­pu­an lu­kio, has trans­la­ted news for our Eng­lish-spe­a­king re­a­ders.

La­pua got a net zero – plan­ning of swim­ming hall com­men­ces

The city coun­ci­lors couldn’t hold their chuck­les when they fi­nis­hed their bud­get over­view.

In se­ve­ral of the coun­cil’s eve­ning mee­tings and ser­vi­ce cen­ter’s di­rec­tor’s mee­tings the stack of pa­pers was so done over "stuff" that there was no re­a­son to make any chan­ges du­ring the ye­ar’s last mon­day mee­ting.

Last ye­ars’ ba­sic so­ci­al se­cu­ri­ty didn’t bur­den the draf­ters – it would be pas­sed over to the wel­fa­re sec­tor in a ye­ar.

The big­gest in­vest­ment in next ye­ar’s bud­get is the 2,7 mil­li­on eu­ro re­ser­ved for buil­ding a da­y­ca­re for 105 child­ren at Ri­ta­vuo­ri. In ad­di­ti­on the plan­ning for swim­ming hall/sports cen­ter’s re­pairs will be star­ted next ye­ar, with 400 000 eu­ros re­ser­ved. The pro­ject will be brought up to the tab­le du­ring spring. City ma­na­ger Satu Kan­ka­re said that be­fo­re it hap­pens, the size and cost of the re­pairs and in­vest­ments, and if a new one will be built all to­get­her.

Con­cern of debt

Kan­ka­re went over the bud­get’s num­bers con­fir­ming its ba­lan­ce and the net being zero

– The in­vest­ments are a bit over nine mil­li­on eu­ros and it me­ans that ca­pi­tal from el­sew­he­re will be withd­rawn for 11 mil­li­on eu­ros. I al­so want to high­light that the town will re­pay its lo­ans so that the inc­re­a­se is 2,1 mil­li­ons.

Pek­ka Hel­la (Cent­re Par­ty) and Las­se Ra­ja­la (Na­ti­o­nal Co­a­li­ti­on Par­ty) brought up the inc­re­a­se in lo­ans du­ring dis­cus­si­ons. Hel­la found the whole amount to be qui­te high, which will be 69.6 mil­li­on eu­ros at the end of next ye­ar ac­cor­ding to cal­cu­la­ti­ons.

– This me­ans that there are lo­ans for 5 000 eu­ros per re­si­dent. It should be re­paid and not inc­re­a­sed going for­ward.

Hel­la found it ex­cel­lent that the amount of aid for pri­va­te ro­ads was inc­re­a­sed by 50 000 eu­ros for next ye­ar.

– The bud­get isn’t over the top, but it is neit­her un­re­a­lis­tic, com­men­ted Ra­ja­la.

Debt isn’t gob­b­led and the amount of lo­ans inc­re­a­ses on­ly slight­ly with about two mil­li­on eu­ros.

– Even though the amount of debt un­der­ne­ath is al­re­a­dy subs­tan­ti­al, Ra­ja­la re­min­ded.

Riit­ta Kan­gas­luo­ma (Fin­ns Par­ty), who used group 10’s spe­a­king turn, found it im­por­tant to find more plans and re­sour­ces for pre-emp­ti­ve work. She brought up that bul­lying of eve­ry kind must be over­co­me in all sec­tors.

Talk about mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ty grant

He­le­na Lah­ti­nen (NCP) was thank­ful that the bud­get inc­lu­ded a mu­ni­ci­pa­li­ty grant in ad­di­ti­on to the do­mi­ci­li­a­ry care aid, even though it is de­ba­ted from time to time. The 300 eu­ro sup­port paid for ca­ring for a child of un­der 3 ye­ars at home isn’t se­con­da­ry mo­ney wise.

– This shows res­pect for fa­mi­lies’ choi­ces. The bud­get has es­ti­ma­ted there will be 135 who will use this grant. The amount ad­ds up to six da­y­ca­re groups and hi­ring 24 wor­kers. This me­ans that the amount of kids ca­red for at a da­y­ca­re will be ca­red for at home, no­tes Lah­ti­nen.

Han­nu Saa­re­la (Cen­ter) thinks it's good that the town looks in­to the con­di­ti­on and grants of these smal­ler ro­ads. He still thinks that the main fo­cus should be on the lar­ger ro­ads going through vil­la­ges. Ol­li Lah­den­suo (NCP) ag­reed, that the ro­ads should be loo­ked through more ca­re­ful­ly and ones that see much use should be com­pen­sa­ted ac­cor­ding­ly.

Thanks to Ko­so­la al­so

Christ­mas spi­ri­ted de­le­ga­tes al­so than­ked eve­ry­o­ne. Most im­por­tant­ly than­king he­alth­ca­re per­son­nel for their de­vo­ti­on, but al­so all of those who co­ro­na has af­fec­ted. Gra­ti­tu­de was al­so shown for those who were in the bud­get cre­a­ti­on pro­cess, which was seen as ef­fi­cient.

One of those na­med was Jari Ve­sa­nen, who is re­pai­ring The Ko­so­la hou­se. The prai­se was con­nec­ted to the la­yout chan­ges that were int­ro­du­ced by de­le­ga­te Esa Rin­ta­la (Cen­ter). The bo­ard ap­p­ro­ved ad­di­ti­o­nal small const­ruc­ti­on on the pro­per­ty. Anot­her ap­p­ro­ved la­yout plan was for the STEP school La­pua cam­pus. The new la­yout will al­low pro­vi­ding so­ci­al- and he­alth­ca­re ser­vi­ces to con­nec­ted hou­sing ser­vi­ces.

Trans­la­ti­on: Alek­si Hau­ta­mä­ki