New swimming pool still closed: in Loria ten years passed in vain

LORIA

At first glance, everything seems to be ready for opening: even with the parking lighting and related road signs. But for it to go into business the times are not expected to be short. On the contrary. The pool of Loria – in via Colombara – a pool of 25 meters and two other smaller ones, is located a few steps from the Ronchi quarry. Their fate, in fact, is strongly intertwined: the decision to build a swimming facility here was taken following an agreement between the Municipality and the Geonova company for the landfill activity, which in 2016 was taken over by the Emilian multi-utility Hera Ambiente spa.

The agreement provided for two and a half million euros at the time (2011) to be invested in public works: and the choice of the administration of Loria, then led by the mayor Roberto Vendrasco, went towards a swimming pool.

Everything seemed to be going well: the walls had arisen in a short time, the project that had also taken into account not to impact on the surrounding environment, since it was built in a “trench”. Then, in 2012, the Municipality of Riese “handed over” to Loria a regional bonus of 350 thousand euros, granted for the construction of a swimming pool in the town of Pius X: two plants not far from each other would hardly have achieved economic benefits. At full speed.

But then the difficult part came: using the Riesino bonus for the electrical systems, it was necessary to find who would take charge of the technological systems, even in exchange for managing the system. But so far every attempt has failed. And to find himself with the match in hand, after ten years, is now the mayor Simone Baggio. His was a paradoxical situation, because from the opposition benches Baggio had repeatedly shouted his opposition to a project that was not sustainable. Unless the City put us, and a lot, of his: well over the two million that now are needed to finish the pool. “Our budget now does not allow us to take risks and this is the only reason why the discussion on the swimming pool has slowed down, not because I was once against it,” he explains. “Unfortunately, a sword of Damocles hangs, linked to the reclamation of the Cusinato site.” This is the area where hundreds of shells of bombs have emerged in recent months, judged to be highly polluted: «The reclamation costs two million and 800 thousand euros», continues Baggio, «we have already requested regional funds for environmental remediation. But until we have answers it is better to keep this sum aside so as not to find ourselves in trouble if it is the Municipality to take care of this operation ».

In short, the swimming pool remains in the background with respect to this urgency: «We cannot bleed the budget for the swimming pool: if we had the resources it is logical that we would go on, because this cannot be left unfinished. But with these moonshines, who invests in the management of a swimming pool? We keep in mind that if we had entrusted its management in January 2020, the plant would have been closed for over a year and a half due to the Covid emergency with consequent loss of revenues and expenses “. Davide Nordio