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Lesznowola's Leap into the Future
Interview with Maria Jolanta Batycka-Wąsik,
Chief Officer of the Municipality of Lesznowola
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- How significant are investments
in the development strategy for the approaching
four years in the Municipality of Lesznowola?
- Our budget for 2007 was already passed in December
last year. It is a standard in Lesznowola to pass
the budget for the upcoming year at the end of
the passing one. This gives us the winter to prepare
ourselves for launching all investment tasks in
the spring. The budget for this year is impressive:
we have planned expenses worth 118 million zlotys,
and investments constitute 56 percent of these,
i.e. approximately 66million zlotys. This is an
enormous leap in our budget since we have increased
the expenses by 44 percent. The priorities this
year, as far as investments are concerned, include
the continuation of the process of providing a
sewage system in the municipality (to date 75percent
of the area has access to such a system), building
roads and pavements, as well as designing a Sports
and Education Center in Mysiadło.
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ZSP im. Jana Pawła II w Łazach/
John Paul II School Compound in Łazy
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- To what extent does the Municipality take
advantage of EU funding?
- When I took my office in 1998, one of the priorities
was to establish a professional team of local
government officers. Consequently, we are now
capable of handling all stages of funding acquisition
on our own. The pre-accession and structural funds
gave us over 20 million zlotys. We used them for
building 50 kilometers of the sewage system, two
wastewater treatment plants and a sports hall
in Łazy. In 2005, together with the SYNAPSIS Foundation
and other non-governmental organizations, we launched
a project called Partnership for Rain Man, Rain
Man for Partnership'. This has been co-financed
to the amount of 3 million euros by the European
Social Fund as part of the EQUAL Community Initiative.
It was chosen for funding from a very large number
of applications and it was very highly rated.
The program pertains to the problem of discrimination
of people suffering from autism and other disabilities
in the employment market. As a result, our municipality
is home to a flagship community-run company that
combines the needs of the local community with
the potential of people suffering from autism.
This innovative enterprise is the first of this
type in Poland. We believe that if the community
can deal with the disability of its members, it
will be able to cope with any other problem or
challenge.
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Stadion w Lesznowoli/
Stadium in Lesznowola
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Ośrodek zdrowia w Mrokowie/Health
care center in Mrokowo
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The European Social Fund, together with the
SOP Development of Human Resources Broadening
Access to Education, Promotion of Lifelong Education',
has also given a grant to our four middle schools.
The Dream School' Program, run by the Center
for Citizenship Education, is an assistance program
for children from rural municipalities aimed at
increasing their chances for accomplishing their
educational and life goals.
We are also providing language training as part
of an EU project, which is also being financed
by the European Social Fund. The project is called
Foreign Language as a Chance to Raise the Qualifications
of Local Government Officers in the Municipality
of Lesznowola'.
- What do you consider to be a major factor
in the development of your Municipality?
The key asset in the development of our Municipality
is the fact that we have up-to-date spatial development
plans for 98 percent of the whole area. These
plans determine the investment potential both
in terms of housing development and opening businesses
in the light industry and services sector. Passing
these plans was a spot-on decision because there
are many people who are willing to settle or open
their businesses here. In 1998, only 30 companies
operated in the area and now there are over 3.5
thousand, besides several dozens of large Polish
and foreign corporations that operate as commercial
companies.
But changing spatial development plans alone would
not be sufficient. This is a much wider process
comprising many other activities, for example
building a technological infrastructure and an
excellently developed communal one. The Municipality
of Lesznowola has a very high standard of educational
services and healthcare. The latter has been transformed
into a non-public healthcare center offering basic
and specialist medical services. Another important
element is our friendly municipal council and
its competent personnel. Nearly all of our officers
have university degrees and the atmosphere within
the office is excellent. One of the reasons for
this is the fact that it is a non-political organization.
Our role is to serve the people. We work together
well and we respect one another. And this is a
major asset.
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