Today’s joint session of the City Council and the Bolesławiec Municipal Council, held on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the return of the Bolesławiec Region to the Motherland, is an opportunity to once again pay due tribute to all the soldiers who fell during its liberation.
The sacrifice of their lives, made for society, opened the way for a broad wave of settlers arriving in these lands from various parts of liberated Poland.
The overwhelming majority of the incoming population came from the pre-war Galician wave of emigration returning from Yugoslav lands.
It also included a considerable number of settlers from the East and the smallest group, in numerical terms, from the central regions of Poland.
It was these people, together with the forced laborers who remained in the Bolesławiec Region, who undertook the pioneering task of developing these lands and stimulating their economy. This overriding objective and the determination to achieve it were the most important factors integrating the arriving population.
This made it possible to erase civilizational and cultural differences, even though the latter continue to be carefully cultivated to this day.
Speaking of the civilizational progress of the Bolesławiec Region, it should be noted that this process did not proceed at the same pace throughout the area. The development and urbanization of rural areas progressed much more slowly than in the towns and covered a narrower and poorer range of technical infrastructure.
It should be emphasized here that this had nothing to do with any lesser activity or commitment on the part of the rural population, but resulted from the general conditions of our State’s policy. Over time, this led to widening disparities in the living conditions of urban and rural populations.
DISTINGUISHED GATHERING!
Faster civilizational development in the area of today’s Bolesławiec Municipality began after 1973. It was at that time that the present administrative boundaries of our municipality were established.
The decision to establish it made it possible to take a comprehensive view and attempt to resolve the individual problems troubling our residents in an integrated manner.
It was then that we began the slow, owing to limited financial resources, but systematic process of supplying villages with water and creating a local road network of decent standard.
The pace of single-family housing construction also increased noticeably, as did the related concern for the aesthetic appearance of areas around homes.
However, it was only 1990 that brought the desired qualitative changes in the ability of local authorities to influence the municipality’s economic development.
A normal situation emerged in which the municipality’s statutory bodies determined its development directions, rather than arbitrarily made administrative decisions that did not always fully take local needs and conditions into account.
The empowerment of municipalities made it possible to intensify investment processes, which fundamentally improved the living conditions of our residents.
Establishing the right balance and allocating substantial funds each year to infrastructure investments within the overall structure of budget expenditure made possible a systematic and noticeable transformation in the appearance of the Bolesławiec countryside.
In the overwhelming majority of the villages of our municipality, the traditional village well ceased to be the sole source of water for households and became more an element of the rural landscape and its distinctive character.
We created an extensive network of new asphalt local roads connecting the individual villages of our municipality. We also significantly—and noticeably to everyone—improved the technical condition of roads within village-built-up areas.
We have undertaken and continue to undertake effective measures aimed at improving road safety and enhancing the appearance of transport routes, including the construction of bus bays and the purchase and installation of new bus shelters.
We are making a particular effort to care for school-age youth. This objective is served by large-scale investment and renovation projects in our rural schools, intended to noticeably improve students’ educational and social-living conditions. The effects of these measures are clearly perceptible.
By beginning the construction of gymnasiums, systematically organizing a broad summer-camp program, and equipping rural health centers with medical and dental equipment, we are striving to create suitable conditions for young people’s physical development and health protection. We are taking these measures even though the municipality has not yet formally assumed responsibility for these matters.
In our view, since taking over administrative duties, we have effectively sought to halt the deterioration of the housing stock and to modernize and expand the functionality of rural cultural institutions, whose appearance should be nothing for us to be ashamed of.
Over the past two years, we have begun implementing large-scale environmentally oriented investment projects in the municipality. Counteracting the advancing degradation of the natural human environment is also one of the more important measures adopted by the Municipal Council for implementation during the current term. This objective will be served by continuing the municipality’s gasification process, as well as by the long-term program, launched this year, to build sewage networks and wastewater-treatment facilities. With similar determination, we will strive to comprehensively organize solid-waste management.
ESTEEMED COUNCILLORS! ESTEEMED VETERANS! ESTEEMED DISTINGUISHED GUESTS!
The spatial layout of the city and municipality of Bolesławiec means that we are compelled to resolve many problems affecting our communities together, both in the past and especially today. This is due to the existence of natural ties and the mutual complementarity of our local-government communities.
Examples include the administration of water and sewage facilities, public transport, and the urgent need to resolve solid-waste management jointly. Today’s joint session of both Councils is also an eloquent symbol of the ties existing between our communities.
In making today a very general assessment of the actions that have shaped the present character of both the municipality and the entire Bolesławiec Region, we must not forget those who fifty years ago restored these territories to the Motherland and began building the foundations of our statehood there, nor those thanks to whom, over the past half-century, we have often struggled to achieve what we have already accomplished.
Allow me to express my conviction that the blood shed by soldiers for this land and the sweat of the first settlers were not sacrifices made in vain.
How long the memory of their heroic work survives in society will depend entirely on us, who have a duty to pass on the truth about this historic pioneering period of these lands to future generations.