Valtenesi Mayors and Officials Explore Sports and Tourism Hub in Manerba

Great consultation yesterday morning in the vast area undergoing recovery at the Manerba quarry site, located in Campagnola. The presence of such a large group of notable figures: provincial assessor, mayors of Valtenesi and Salò or their delegates, presidents of sports federations, etc., was of course quite noticeable. It was in fact the beginning of a discussion on the future of this area, which not long ago had been widely discussed and at the center of attention for both environmentalists and public administrators, filling newspaper pages due to the large sand excavations, which left landscape-damaging scars or pits abandoned after mining and, in the worst cases, turned into illegal dumps. Just a few months prior, these same pages reported the proposal by the Mayor of Manerba, Isidoro Bertini, to use the area for an indoor velodrome. The Province, through its Sports Assessor, Alessandro Sala, identified the planned sports complex in Montichiari as the ideal location for this cycling track, while leaving some slim hope for the possibility of relocating this project to Manerba. With the final approval of the Montichiari sports center, which includes the stadium and cycling track, the hopes of Valtenesi faded. Nevertheless, all seven mayors of Valtenesi, joined by their colleague from Salò, sent a request to the provincial assessor for a feasibility check to develop a tourist-sport center in Campagnola. “Our presence,” he stated during his meeting with public officials held at the Manerba town hall, “signifies our interest in establishing a sports and hospitality center in Valtenesi. I’ve invited — continued Sala — Gianni Pozzani, President of the Brescia Cycling Federation, his colleague from the Bocce Federation, and Vincenzo Tenchini from the Brescia Automobile Club, to initiate a series of discussions that should continue into the near future. We are not here to play or waste time! Instead, I believe that projects and ideas about the future of this administrative area should be finalized within the next few months, two at the most three. After that, with the involvement of private groups or companies, we should move to the concrete phase of detailed design and implementation.”

The assessor was shown a preliminary project in which the environmental recovery part, nearly complete, was distinguished from the surrounding area of the recently cleaned artificial pond, free from unlikely debris. “It could become a pond dedicated to sport fishing,” stated Mayor Bertini, on behalf of all the signatories of the intent, “while another part of the area,” he added, “could be dedicated to those automotive practice circuits developing in various Italian locations.” The extensive area, 450,000 square meters, partly owned by the municipality and partly private, could soon be transformed into a truly exceptional place where, after the era of trucks and excavation equipment—some still operational—has passed, outdoor sports activities can be practiced. Details will become clearer in the coming weeks when representatives of sports federations and officials from both provincial and municipal administrations meet around a table, regardless of its form. The will is clear, and the path forward seems quite feasible, especially with the transfer of certain competencies from the Regione to the Provincia. On this, for once, everyone was perfectly in full agreement.