Ivrea
With the resolution of the council which establishes the loan for use and the symbolic delivery of the keys, the Castellazzo building – once the seat of the Besieged social center evicted in 2019 – becomes to all intents and purposes the new home of the Pifferi e tamburi of the Carnival of Ivrea. Inside, however, the premises are in really bad shape after decades of neglect and the renovations can no longer be postponed. The administration has therefore made available to the association, chaired by Roberto Stevanella, by way of reimbursement of expenses, the sum of 75 thousand euros (taken from the administrative surplus), certainly not sufficient to cover all the redevelopment costs that they are around, according to a first estimate, over one hundred thousand euros.
The Pifferi e tamburi are part of the dozen associations that in September 2021 were evicted from the former Valcalcino barracks in via Dora Baltea (no longer safe due to the false ceilings) and have since been left without a headquarters. The loan agreement stipulated with the Municipality for the premises in via Arduino has a duration of nine years. Furthermore, the administration undertakes to bear the costs for heating, electricity and water utilities in the amount of 90%, up to a maximum of 7 thousand euros in total per year (in the former Valcalcino the costs of the utilities were borne of the Municipality at 100%).
Returning to the renovation work it will be necessary to redo the electrical system. On the ground floor, the current toilet will be demolished to build a new one for the disabled. The toilets on the first floor also need to be redone, just as the current kitchen needs to be demolished. An intervention of acoustic insulation of the premises will also be essential to allow pipes and drums to rehearse their melodies without disturbing the residents of the area. Interventions that exceed the amount allocated by the Municipality and which can be carried out over time or with further allocations or with a fundraiser by the association.
Once the works have been completed, there will be a hall, with a capacity of 40 people, which Pifferi e tamburi will make available to the Municipality free of charge for 45 days a year, however they will bear the costs of custody, cleaning and maintenance. An alternative room in Santa Marta that the city badly needs for exhibitions, small meetings and book presentations.
«The Pifferi represent a heritage for all the citizens of Ivrea and Canavese and needed to finally have their own headquarters – explains the deputy mayor and councilor for Heritage Elisabetta Piccoli -. With this operation we will be able to renovate one of the buildings that are part of the Municipality’s real estate assets and which has been lying in an unprecedented state of decay for decades. The path of reimbursement for the work at the association was chosen to halve execution times and save almost half the money, without further burdening the technical office already busy on a thousand fronts. It is an urban regeneration intervention and can be a turning point for enhancing via Arduino from an economic, tourist and cultural point of view».
A solution which, however, does not convince the opposition forces who will present a question to the city council on the subject. «The reuse of the Castellazzo and the assignment of a seat to Pipes and Drums are welcome – explains Maurizio Perinetti (Pd) -. What is not convincing is the allocation of money to a private individual to carry out a job that the Municipality should have done. In this way, a significant precedent is created because in the future there could be other associations that request the same treatment. I am well aware that in the past the Municipality had Ivrea Parcheggi, one of its companies, carry out the rearrangement of streets and squares but it did so through a public company. This is a private individual. The truth is that after five years of Sertoli administration, the technical office has become even more impoverished». «This affair needs to be investigated further – Francesco Comotto (Viviamo Ivrea) adds -. I’m not at all sure that what the Municipality is doing, without taking anything away from Pipes and Drums and what they represent, is entirely legitimate. It seems to me that the procurement rules are being circumvented. This is not the way to manage public assets.