BUSINESS

Investing Into

Infrastructure is Key

For a City in the Middle of a Crisis,

It Is an Investment Into the Future

What is his evaluation of the four years he spent as mayor? What were and are the strategic

priorities in the city’s development? We probed Josef Bělica, mayor of Havířov, for some answers.

Josef Bělica

Primátor Havířova

Mayor of Havířov

Do you still remember the moment when

you first sat down in your office as mayor?

Yes I do, I remember being very honored by

the fact that the voters trusted me. From my

first moments in the position, and throughout

the four years that followed, I conducted

my work with a great sense of respect that

I have for the city as a native Havířov citizen

and patriot. Being mayor also comes with

a great deal of responsibility, being able to

have the ability to develop the city.

What were your plans?

There were many of them, and I am happy

to say that we managed to complete, or

at least begin the realization of most of

them. Of course, I am not the only one

to be credited for this - the town hall has

a great team at its disposal and I consider

it an honor to be surrounded by so many

highly competent people that all play

their part in realizing our visions. One

of our main priorities was elevating the

train station and its surroundings to

another level.

What other accomplishments have

you achieved throughout your four

years as mayor?

It is common knowledge that money plays

an important role, and so we directed

a lot of our efforts into properly managing

our budget. We limited unnecessary

expenses and invested into issues that

trouble our citizens and came up with

solutions that would improve their lives.

Some may object and say that we need

to save money during a crisis, however,

I believe that investing into infrastructure

is key for a city in the middle of a crisis, it is

an investment into the future.

Can you tell us more specifically about

what you did as mayor?

I will try to be as concise as possible.

First, we invested into housing that had

been previously neglected. This involved

the replacement of a total of 139 lifts in

apartment complexes, which was part

of a country-wide contract. In addition

to that, we also completely renovated

a number of apartments, and invested

into the distribution of electricity in

our city. A large amount of funds were

also invested into IT infrastructure for

the municipality, and this program is now

continuing to involve schools and other

city organizations. This, of course, does not

directly involve citizens, however, if we did

not properly deal with this now, it would

cost us a lot in the future. We renovated

the Hlavní třída, Dlouhá třída and Dělnická

třída streets, and are now working on

Národní třída street. Almost a thousand

new parking spots were constructed and

we invested into the development of our

schools and kindergartens. I would also

like to highlight the modernization of our

healthcare centers, which remained largely

untouched after the revolution, and I was

frankly embarrassed about their previous

state. Today, everything is different. I am

truly proud of these accomplishments and

they bring me a lot of joy.

Mr Mayor, thank you for the interview.

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