"Direct Line" with Nikolai Sherstnev: the improvement of cities of district subordination must be in the focus of local authorities
The topic of improving small settlements was raised by a resident of the city of Baran, Orsha district. She appealed to the head of the region on behalf of all local young mothers. According to her, significant areas of the city are not mowed and are overgrown with bushes, so much so that it is scary to walk in places. In addition, children's infrastructure is almost completely absent, and the existing playgrounds are not adapted for walking with children. "Two sandboxes, one carousel, two slides and 4-5 benches - that's probably all, there isn't even a simple playground," the young woman shared.
The validity of the raised problem was acknowledged by the first deputy chairman of the Orsha District Executive Committee, Sergey Pats. "Indeed, we concentrated our efforts on the district center, Bolbasovo, Kopys, but we missed Baran," he said.
Nikolai Sherstnev instructed to form a working program for the improvement of the city in the near future, providing for measures to restore order in public areas and the residential sector.
"I am taking this issue under my personal control, and I will visit Baran in the near future to assess the situation on the spot," said the chairman of the regional executive committee. According to him, there are few cities of district subordination in the Vitebsk region. At the same time, local authorities, concentrating their efforts on key facilities, sometimes forget to maintain elementary order there. "And who will be engaged in the arrangement of playgrounds for children, the repair of benches, the pruning of plants? It is the local authorities that should organize this work, including in cooperation with enterprises whose employees use the infrastructure," noted Nikolai Sherstnev.
Issues of urban area improvement and road surfacing predominated during the region head's communication with citizens. A total of 27 appeals were received during the direct line, almost 60% of which, in one way or another, concerned the topic of tidying up. Residents of Vitebsk (about 67%), as well as Polotsk and Orsha, called most often. For example, residents of houses on Lokomotivnaya Street in the regional center asked the governor to assist in restoring the green zone on the adjacent territory. During the construction of the Polotsky overpass, a temporary road ran through it, and after the completion of construction, no one is in a hurry to restore order.
A number of other calls concerned issues of road surfacing improvement in the private sector of the regional center. Nikolai Sherstnev instructed the leadership of the Vitebsk City Executive Committee to allocate resources for measures to maintain roads and sidewalks in remote residential areas in proper condition when planning road network improvement works.
According to Ilona Shulga, head of the department for work with citizens' and legal entities' appeals of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, 24 instructions were given during the previous telephone line of the chairman of the Regional Executive Committee in March, of which almost 88% were fulfilled. In total, over six months of the current year, 325 appeals were received during direct telephone lines organized by the Regional Executive Committee, which is about 10% more than in the same period of 2019. As Ilona Shulga noted, this year, residents of the region prefer remote communication, as indicated by the reduction in appeals at personal appointments at the Regional Executive Committee. The subject matter of the issues remains traditional - these are housing and communal services, healthcare, road infrastructure, social services, land use, labor, and employment.