Port City Council Approves Boat Discount Amid Water Rate Increase
If no one is spared when it comes to potable water rates, there is more leniency towards those twenty-five Rivani who have a boat docked at Porto S. Nicolo, and who this year will enjoy a significant discount: this was decided by the city council the other evening, before breaking off to study, in its essence, the programmatic speeches of the mayor and vice-mayor, who were busy illustrating the 2000 budget forecast. The two circumstances, truth be told, are scarcely related: it was fate that wanted them to be debated in council during the same session, and it was majority councillor Bombardelli who emphasized their extreme potential for critique.
Had it not been for his intervention, many councillors would have supported more lightly the proposal by Bassetti (later approved with 17 votes in favor, 6 abstentions, and 4 against: Bertoldi, Lotti, Zucchelli, and Calza) to raise from 10% to 15% the deduction granted to Rivani residents on the mooring fee at Porto S. Nicolo. There was even someone before who exaggerated (Zambotti), proposing a 50% discount increase.
Analysis of the second part of the rates
All this happened just minutes after fifteen hands had been raised to approve, by majority, a 20% increase in water rates for all Rivani families. “But there is coherence,” then asked Bombardelli to the majority, “between raising the cost of water and simultaneously decreasing that of boat mooring?”: the interventions of majority colleagues, provoked by opposition challenges, were unhelpful as they tried to specify that firstly, this is an increase imposed by the Province, and secondly, that, ultimately, for a low-income family, the impact will not exceed 1,400 lire per month.
The issue of the port rates has thus transformed into a problem more complex than it initially appeared, partly because many councillors have proposed improvements to a system that, as it is, truly leaks from all sides. The proposal to increase deductions for residents should thus be seen in the context of promoting an activity that is becoming less and less felt: “The Rivani,” said Bassetti, “feel more connected to the mountain than to the lake: it is necessary for the Carda to become an inherent part of the city’s inhabitants’ character.”
It was then Prati who raised the flaws in the boat space allocation system, advocating for the rewriting of a clear and precise regulation within the appropriate commission, favoring residents: currently, only 25 boats out of 147 moored are “registered” in Riva. Finally, less provincialist in attitude was Ballardini, who suggested applying discounts to those who indeed use their boat Sunday after Sunday, and not to those who, perhaps also Rivani, keep a vessel worth two hundred million lire docked at the port just to be able to say they own it.
One possible solution could be the development of a new marina: but perhaps it’s better to keep grounded. Or better yet, in the water.
