Something remains after every person
I think that whatever a person does, if they are also hardworking, something remains after them. I think that something also remains after my work in local government. After all, I was deputy mayor, and I was also county governor for less than one term. I was also Director of the Infrastructure Department at the Marshal's Office. Everyone does something, and something remains after them. I would like to mention some of the most important things from my work for local government. Simply to talk about them.
Renovation and reconstruction of the sewerage system in the city and municipality
First, when I was deputy mayor, I served as Head of the Investment Implementation Office. The project was titled Expansion and Modernization of the Sewerage Network in the City and Municipality of Bolesławiec. It was a PLN 90 million project financed by the Cohesion Fund. Thanks to its implementation, most of Bolesławiec Municipality and the city of Bolesławiec have a proper sewerage system and simply do not pollute the environment.
Every major investment encounters some kind of “black hole,” and I had to deal with one here as well. The then PWiK was created as a result of the municipalization of a Jelenia Góra enterprise with a similar name. Water and sewerage companies were simply established at county level, and this municipalization was carried out in violation of the law. It involved municipalizing both state-owned property and the company's property. Most of the companies established in this way
did not challenge this. However, the president of the Bolesławiec company appealed, and while all the other companies were owned by municipalities, this one company was returned to its previous status and became a state-owned company.
And this is how things stood: when we were given the opportunity to receive PLN 90 million in funding for the expansion of the sewerage system, in order to obtain the money, we as the city of Bolesławiec had to demonstrate that we had a water and sewerage company. We could not demonstrate this because it had become state-owned. For an entire year, there were various attempts to resolve the matter. We asked the then Minister of National Defence, Mr Szmajdziński, for help. We went to various ministers and to Warsaw, trying to solve the problem. It could be said that the funding was hanging by a thread. At one point, we came up with the idea that, for the duration of the investment, the water and sewerage company would make the treatment plant and sewerage network available to the city, for example through a lease. That is what happened. At that point, temporarily, the city became the operator of the treatment plant and sewerage system. It therefore had the right to carry out the investment on that sewerage network. During my time as deputy mayor, about two-thirds of the project was completed. The remaining part was completed during the following term.
To be continued soon, in the next article.