It is well known that people in Zorneding spend their money very carefully. It is not for nothing that the community has been debt-free for years. In the preliminary discussions of the budget for the current year, the municipal councils had to bring an extra portion of discipline with them, after all, given the corona pandemic, Zorneding is also looking financially into an uncertain future. At their most recent meeting on Tuesday evening, the members of the Main, Finance and Social Committee (HFS) had the difficult task of reducing the investment program for 2021 to the bare minimum.
The town hall administration had already done preparatory work, as Mayor Piet Mayr (CSU) said. The individual items had been carefully weighed in advance and each individual was checked for urgency. This measure was necessary because the administrative budget will “not look rosy” this year, as chamberlain Gabriele Laschka said. Although not all the figures are available yet, the forecasts for income and trade tax are looking rather bleak. Those who earn little have to save more in order to remain financially sound.
In the case of Zorneding, this means, among other things, that institutions such as fire departments and kindergartens have been asked in advance to limit their needs to what is really necessary, as Mayr said. Ferdinand Glasl (CSU) wanted to know whether it was possible to put a concrete figure on the amount saved as a result – and received the answer that this was not possible because the difference was not documented individually. “The items have already been greatly reduced,” assured Mayor Mayr.
Nevertheless, the remaining individual measures add up to a proud planned sum of just over eight million euros, which the municipality will spend in 2021. The largest item by far is the new construction of the daycare center on Schmiedweg, which costs 2.2 million euros. But there are two positive things to add: As Mayr said, this is the gross amount, i.e. without funding. These will flow as soon as the building is finished – and that should be the case next summer after some delays. “It’s running now,” said the mayor.
This also applies to the construction work on the town hall, where the meeting room and the wedding room are to be converted, among other things. For the current year, the municipality is therefore reckoning with costs of 700,000 euros. Around 100,000 euros are also to flow into IT equipment in order to equip more administrative employees with laptops and thus enable mobile working.
The same amount is earmarked as planning costs for the renovation of the Zornedingen fire station. How it will continue is still unclear. According to Mayr, experts would recommend a new building rather than a renovation. The final decision on this – and thus also on the costs – will be made by the municipal council. The exact concept for the redevelopment of the sports park will soon be presented in the same committee. Among other things, fire protection, ventilation and accessibility must be improved there, which will cost the community around 450,000 euros in 2021.
According to Mayr Mayr, however, there is potential for savings in the municipal roads, for the renovation of which a lump sum of 500,000 euros has been set in the investment program. One will see how much of the sum is needed. The renovation in the area around Obere Bahnhofstrasse and Pfarrstrasse has already been canceled due to a lack of urgency. The community is also likely to redeploy the red pencil at the Zorneding fire brigade. This had wanted a traffic safety trailer. Such is not necessary on site, as Marian Nowosad (SPD) said. “We don’t have the streets where something like this is needed.”
Other larger items included in the investment program include the renovation of the building yard for 300,000 euros, the toilets at the train station for 150,000 euros or the rest of the conversion of the street lighting to LED for 615,000 euros. The Greens wanted to set a sum for PV systems on municipal buildings. “There is still something going on,” as Stefan Obermaier said. The administration will now incorporate these and other suggestions from the committee into the program before it is presented to the members of the HFS for final examination in the next meeting.
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