The kindergarten in the village of Staré Hory. (source: Ivana Kapráliková)
In the village of Staré Hory, the office hours at the municipal office will only be in the morning to allow the local kindergarten to function without restrictions.
Meanwhile in the nearby village of Motyčky, the mayor will work from home three days a week because of the need to save money.
The mayors of the villages near Banská Bystrica are already worried about how to pay not only high energy costs, but also the fuel they have to use for heating in the winter.
Nothing like this
"There is simply no point in saving any more. In the village, we already replaced the original light bulbs with LED bulbs, then with new ones that were even more economical. The public lighting energy consumption has been reduced to the minimum," said Motyčky mayor Maroš Lacko who has led this municipality for almost 20 years.
"In our case, turning the lights off has no meaning, or rather it is questionable whether we would really save, because the supplier will not take into account the savings and we have to fulfil the contractual flat rate," added the mayor.
The mayor is trying to modernize the village with 105 inhabitants. They already replaced an old heating stove in the municipal office for a modern one that uses pellets for heating. However, the price of pellets went up astronomically along with firewood.
"We used to spend about €1,900 for wood per season. If the cost of a pallet of pellets was €190 before a heating season, it was a good price. Now it is between €750 to €800, and we need 10 of them. So we need about €8,000 for heating," said Lacko.
Because of this, the mayor will have to work from home three days a week from the new year and office hours will only be until noon.
"Thus, the heating will also have to be reduced to a minimum, so that we only use tempered heating and not heat unnecessarily," said Lacko.
The changes will also affect the bus driver that arrives in the village with the last bus and sleeps at the municipal office for the first morning departure of the bus.
"It will not be possible to heat the building just for him, and it is also not realistic for him to heat himself with an electric heater," said the mayor. They will rely on tempered heating so that water in the pipes and a fire truck does not freeze.
According to Lacko, there has never been anything like this before. No matter how hard he tries and brainstorms about where and how to save, he is running out of ideas.
"The only option is to take more from my salary, which I have already reduced years ago and I do not earn the amount I am officially supposed to." The mayor works alone and does not even have a secretary. In the coming election no one else is running for the office.
Everything to help kindergarten
The kindergarten in the village of Staré Hory is more than 50 years old. It has never been closed or operated in a limited mode. But that has changed due to the energy crisis and rising prices, and the municipalities cannot bear the burden.
The kindergarten is attended by 20 children not only from the village, but also from the nearby villages of Turecká, Motyčky and others.
"The worst situation will be in the kindergarten," said Mayor Marián Gajdoš.
The municipality has already started saving on street lighting that is turned on for two hours in the evening and two hours in the morning. In order to allow the kindergarten to run without any problems, they will limit office hours until noon, after which they will work from home.
"If we were to turn off the lighting completely, it would affect people a lot and not have the same effect as in big cities," the mayor explained.
Five people work at the municipal office. In order to save money, they themselves transport waste to Banská Bystrica. They pay only for processing.
As they use wood and coal for heating, the significant increase in prices was felt here as well. "Compared to last year, a ton of coal cost around €400, now it is around €600. Wood cost €40 per cubic metre, now it is €80," said Gajdoš.
Expensive energy has also impeded any possibility of development in the village of approximately 500 inhabitants in the near future.
"We will spend money on only the most necessary things," said Gajdoš.
©Sme
Author: Ivana Kapráliková
