Waakirchner Municipal Council approves financial planning: investments drive up debt

Fire station, kindergarten, water supply: the municipality of Waakirchen has invested a lot.

This is reflected in the debt level.

The council unanimously approved the 2022 budget.

Waakirchen

– The Waakirchen fire station with three apartments (3.8 million euros) is in place, the Schaftlach kindergarten (2.5 million euros) is in operation, the Schaftlach and Waakirchen cemeteries have new morgues, paths and toilet facilities (700,000 euros), the A water pipe has been laid between Schaftlach and Piesenkam (500,000 euros). The municipality of Waakirchen has done a lot in recent times, which, however, has also pushed up the level of debt.

In 2020, the per capita debt was still 918 euros per inhabitant, in 2022 it will be 1765 euros according to the current budget.

The financial plan presented by Treasurer Michael Moosmair met with unanimous approval from the Waakirchen municipal council.

"We have implemented large projects," made clear Mayor Norbert Kerkel (FWG).

“We have to be moderate in the future”

The Finance Committee had already dealt intensively with the figures in advance.

Alexander Mayr (CSU) is not entirely happy with the situation.

“We have to be moderate in the future,” he said.

Procuring the necessary money by selling land is not a sustainable way of doing business in the long term.

An objection that Kerkel did not accept.

In the past year, the municipality - in addition to the land sales in the new commercial area - sold only one area.

"We have created values," said Michael Mohrenweiser (ABV).

You can agree with the budget with a clear conscience.

Gisela Hölscher (FW) sees it that way too.

"We didn't create castles in the air, we created something tangible," she explained.

In the years before, "some things had backed up" that had to be done now.

Investments for the energy transition

Cornelia Riepe (Greens) also found words of praise.

The new budget includes investments that serve the energy transition, such as installing a photovoltaic system on the roof of the fire station and switching to LED lamps.

"That's important, because the municipality has a role model function," emphasized Riepe. However, one must soon deal with encouraging citizens to save energy: "That's the big chunk."

In total, the Waakirchner budget for 2022 comprises 20.9 million euros, with 12.8 million going to the administrative budget and 8.1 million to the property budget.

The level of debt should amount to 10.3 million euros by the end of the year.

In 2020 it was 5.3 million.

The current budget provides for borrowing of 2.5 million euros.

The allocation to the capital budget is 524,470 euros.

"The ordinary repayments of municipal loans can thus continue to be denied," says the report by treasurer Moosmair.

This means that the requirements of the municipal budget ordinance will also be met in 2022.

Some investments are planned in the asset budget for 2022, which were commissioned at the beginning of 2021.

This includes measures at the cemetery, such as the renovation of the roof and the facade of the funeral parlor in Waakirchen, new windows and doors for the gym and the partial renovation of the old town hall of Schaftlach.

The replacement procurement of a construction depot vehicle and the purchase of a fire service vehicle are still pending.

There were corona-related delays, as Moosmair reports.

Residential construction planned in Schaftlach

High on the agenda for 2022 is the planning of a complex with an inn and apartments on Michael-Schreiber-Weg in Schaftlach.

As reported, the municipality acquired the property in 2021.

A pizzeria was previously located there as the only inn in the area.

In addition, there are rental apartments that are to be demolished.

A water emergency network to the municipality of Gmund, the expansion of the network in the Waakirchen school building, cycle paths between Schaftlach and Piesenkam and between Schaftlach and the Krai sports facility are also planned.

The refurbishment of the pipe network of the Waakirchen gymnasium is also to be tackled this year.

Concrete sums for the realization of these projects could not be given at the moment, explains Moosmair.

"It's all in the early stages."

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