Supported by almost the entire council (only councilor Salvatore Monteleone was absent for personal reasons), the mayor of Vibo Valentia, Enzo Romeoheld the end-of-year press conference this morning in the town hall to take stock of what has been achieved in the few months since he took office, but above all to outline which objectives are priorities in 2025. “These five effective months of administration – he began the mayor – they allowed us to have a clear picture of the situation from multiple points of view, from the economic one to that of the staff with which to implement our program. On this aspect, I would like to highlight the contribution we have obtained from the volunteers of the Civil Service as well as from some ex-prisoners employed thanks to the agreement with the Court which we implemented. Aspects that might appear secondary but which actually give the idea of our inclusive and participatory approach to building our society”.
From an economic point of view, the mayor spoke of a “non-flexible, extremely rigid budget, but in which we managed to find the right solution by reshaping the Save the City Pact. To make collection more efficient we then defined a collaborative path with Soget, which among other things will have a new headquarters near the Municipality and will implement the staff”. The first major goal of 2025 was then set: “At the end of January we will discuss water issuesstarting from a municipal council to which I intend to also invite the managers of Sorical and the newly created Arrical. This and purification are two of the problems to which we intend to give absolute priority, to avoid the situations experienced last summer”.
A passage also on the squares “which are now redeveloped and this is an extremely positive aspect, but without controversy and net of the design choices which perhaps could have been different and more identifying, just think of the lighting installed”.
Regarding the theatre, however, the mayor recalled the 500 thousand euro loan obtained to overcome those objective limits regarding the absence, for example, of all the technical equipment capable of making it work: “Our priority today is to proceed with the obtaining of the necessary authorizations which we hope will be concluded shortly and with the subsequent regulations for management and use, for which we intend to start a fruitful comparison with the other provincial capitals”.
The Beach Plan is also almost at the finish line, “soon we will have the final services conference”, while on the urban mobility front “I intend to call both the president of Ferrovie della Calabria and the regional councilor Gallo to the discussion table, because the our idea is of modern and functional mobility: we must put an end to these buses that wander uselessly empty around the city, so it’s just a waste of kilometres”. Of great importance for the Romeo administration is the industrial and port development: “I am very happy with the relationship established with Admiral Agostinelli, for the first time the Port Authority will invest 40 million euros in the new programming”.
Equal importance is also given by the administration to the issue of coastal deposits, to the Meridionale Petroli affair with the authorizations expiring in 2025 and again to the transaction with Cadi Srl: “I am very happy with the outcome of this twenty-year affair, and I sincerely hope that the company wants to implement that investment planned many years ago”. On the safety of the coastal hamlets, the mayor recalled the signing of the agreement for the safety of the streams (a total of 22 million euros), interventions that will be integrated with the Pennello recovery plan.
There were also passages on the great work carried out in the public education sector (with the delivery of school textbooks and the launch of the canteen), on Tourism and Culture, which saw the active participation of all the majority councilors as well as of the council, on social policies, a key sector in which the right order is finally being given, restarting a virtuous process capable of attracting new funding, and again on Commerce with the large participation of shops also in these Christmas holidays, and again on Digitalisation as well as on the Environment, sector in which extraordinary results are being achieved in terms of separate waste collection.
“This Christmas – concluded Mayor Romeo – was an opportunity for us to demonstrate that through planning we are able to achieve the objectives we have set ourselves, this Christmas is just a preview of what we will do, but we are not the glittering administration, we are and want to be the administration that through organic processes and clear ideas will lead to the economic and social rebirth of the city. In a few months we have done a great job, as you can see we are not inclined to make announcements, but we like to be proactive, we like, as I said at the time of the inauguration making some people turn up their noses, to be worker-politicians . People who roll up their sleeves and work for their city.”