Baldo Mountain Community Final Accounts and Budget Plans for 2000

1999 Final Account and Budget Variations for 2000 were on the agenda of the Baldo Mountain Community council, held at the Caprino town hall. “During the previous administration, the Community focused on specific themes,” explained councilor Luigi Castelletti while illustrating the final account. “In particular, the enhancement of the Novezzina botanical garden and the renovation of Villa Nichesola, which will be the future headquarters of the Community. The same applies to the planned interventions on the mountain huts.

There is a need, in fact, to create a network of services to enable livestock farming at high altitudes to persist and to coexist with an increasingly populous tourism industry.” Other initiatives are also included within this logic, such as promoting local products and establishing a network of aqueducts serving multiple municipalities. “The goal was to ensure continuity in interventions but also to keep some issues open so they could be approved by the current council.”

As evidence of this, according to Castelletti, is the administrative surplus of 80 million lire. However, this version has not entirely convinced minority councilors. “Excluding the indemnity given to breeders, the management costs of the entity exceed the income,” declared Ferdinando Sbizzera from Malcesine. “The entity needs to think about activities and services that imply a different kind of development. Unfortunately, the tools available to us are limited compared to complex issues.”

“The final account is a political evaluation of the choices made in the previous four-year term; I was also part of that administration, and I do not deny my work,” said Maria Teresa Girardi, Mayor of Caprino. “But the current president, who was then in the minority, has always declared that the entity is self-serving. I wonder how they intend to act now. The fundamental problem is that our Community is torn apart: unless the relationships are strengthened, nothing can be done.”

Cipriano Castellani, president of the Community, described the attitude of the minorities as “irresponsible,” because they risk further impairing the functioning of the organization. “We have always been willing to open dialogue on the most sensitive issues. Fragmentation, in fact, risks creating discomfort, even psychological, which in the long run jeopardizes the possibility of achieving any goal. For us, revitalizing the organization to enhance our areas is essential.”