Quarter century of good practice
This
year is exceptional – it has been 25 years since a partnership was entered into
between Radotín and Burglengenfeld. Celebrations are spread throughout the year,
the last of which will be a Concert for Friendship held in Radotín on 4
November.
However, several other extraordinary events took place
before this. The first one on 1 April, during which, a festive act was held in
the Burglengenfeld City Hall as a joint celebration of 25 years of local people
partnership not only with Radotín, but also with Johanngeorgenstadt (located on
the German side of the Ore Mountains (Krušné hory) – both contracts were
practically concluded at the same time, and were to symbolize the opening of
Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain. In addition to the management of the
City District of Prague 16 and its office, we were also represented by students
and teachers from the Primary Arts School of Klement Slavický.
The next step in a journey together, the exchange of
information and the so-called introduction of examples of good practice came a
few days ago: a study tour on 5 and 6 October of the management and other staff
of the Radotín Town Hall to discover and find inspiration in a partner city, which
had been planned many months in advance.
Contemporary witnesses say that the
last time Radotín residents had taken up a similar “campaign” was 18 years ago.It was also proven that those who regularly go to Upper
Palatinate (Horní Falc) as part of work visits, exhibitions or concerts are not
aware of many things, as these are “operational” matters that do not belong to
the speaker’s desk. A total of 17 people from the Town Hall (led by Mgr. Karel
Hanzlík and his First Deputy Mgr. Miroslav Knotek) were given a tour by the
town’s mayor Thomas Gesche and his colleagues of the local office during regular
opening hours.
An interesting observation was the rather different system of
the exercising of delegated powers in Bavaria and of the town’s independent powers
– the mayor (who is elected directly by citizens for a 6-year term of office) makes
direct decisions on certain smaller building projects in the city without the
need for further consultation or approval of colleagues from the city council.Another interesting location was a stop at the local
Technical Services (“Stadtwerke”). As in Radotín, the Technical Services are
responsible for maintenance of roads, greenery, town cleaning and management of
cemeteries, but they also have production facilities (at the time of the visit,
the production of wooden stalls for the Christmas markets was underway, and the
information that the local workshop made the shelters for bus stops was also
interesting).
The programme also included Bulmare, the local indoor and outdoor
pool with extensive relaxation and entertainment zones, especially for
children. However, it will not be a model for Radotín, which is just starting
to build a pool – the investment cost amounted to almost half a billion crowns,
and in addition to the repayment of the loan, the town subsidizes the operation
of the pool with another 40 million CZK annually!The local firefighters provided for the final event on
Friday afternoon. The Burglengenfeld Fire Station is roughly twice as large as
the Radotín station for professional firefighters in V Sudech street, yet
it is entirely full of equipment, and what’s more – all of the local firefighters
there are volunteers (88 of them are active and 10 of them are women)! The
closest professional corps is in Regensburg, so fires or technical
interventions in the town and the surrounding area must be handled by the local
firefighters, and the first vehicle has to arrive within 5–6 minutes of the announcement
of a fire!
The
Concert for Friendship will be held in Radotín on 4 November from 5 p.m. at the
ČCE church in Na Betonce street. The culmination of the celebrations on this
day will also include accompanying events.