Porto Vecchio to Get New Elementary School in Historic Site
The City Council has approved the preliminary project for the new elementary schools in the town center, which will be built in Porto Vecchio. The intervention has been described by Mayor Umberto Chincarini as one of the most important undertaken by the administration, because ” a public building must be meaningful: it is a work meant to last over time, and here we have numerous testimonies of the great works of the past.”
Site Selection and Motivations
The construction we will undertake must coexist with these existing elements and consider the diverse contexts in which it will be integrated: the identified area is located adjacent to one of the Austrian forts and borders the spaces of the more recent urban expansion.
Chincarini further explained how the Administration decided to discard the hypothesis, on which much time had been spent, of renovating the building facing the Canale di Mezzo and Piazza d’Armi, which currently houses the town’s elementary schools.
Decision to Build from Scratch
“This was our primary choice,” says the mayor. “However, the project would have required at least two years of work, and finding suitable accommodation for students during that period proved to be a much more complex problem than expected.”
“At that point, for the same budget, we decided to opt for constructing the building entirely new: the approval of the preliminary project authorizes us to proceed with the expropriation of the land, and the Superintendency has already issued a preliminary positive opinion because the work complies with the building limits imposed by the protected zone.”
The opinion naturally includes green interventions that will allow the separation of the historical part of that area from the new school. The estimated cost is about five billion euros, half of which will come from the sale of the municipal land in Pioppi and the other half will be funded through own resources or by taking out a loan.
Reactions and Debate in the Council
The positive opinion on the Administration‘s decision to build the new school was expressed by the Consiglio dell’Istituto comprensivo, which encompasses the various school branches in Peschiera.
However, in the City Council, the issue was contested by opposition councilor Giovanni Gallizioli, who abstained from voting, emphasizing “the delay with which the Administration considered an project that should have been addressed earlier and with a seriousness and conviction I do not see.”
Gallizioli also raised doubts about whether the municipal technical office can plan an intervention of such scale and whether it is merely a facade hiding an external professional studio. The councilor recalled that there is already a project made a few years ago, which could have been considered before thinking about a new one.
With the abstention of councilor Luigi Guadagnini, a vote was then held on the expansion or slight increase of about a thousand cubic meters to the Pederzoli Clinic. All opposition councilors voted with a blank ballot, except for Gallizioli, who did not participate in the vote for the appointment of the audit board, Giorgio Maria Cambié, Claudio Altina, and Simonetta Riolfi.