Tölz citizens' assembly: How war and Corona affect the city

Created: 09/28/2022, 14:46

By: Daniel Wegscheider

Around 50 Tölzer attended the citizens' meeting in the parish hall of the Holy Family.

At the lectern mayor Ingo Mehner and town hall spokeswoman Birte Otterbach.

© Daniel Wegscheider

Bad Tölz – At this year's Tölz citizens' meeting on Thursday evening in the parish hall of the Holy Family, around 50 citizens listened to Mayor Ingo Mehner, who summarized important developments in the district town.

Mayor Ingo Mehner couldn't avoid three major topics anyway, so he addressed himself right at the beginning of his speech: It's Corona, war, and the energy crisis - because municipalities and cities are just as affected as private individuals.

"We also consume energy and have to pay more for it," stressed Mehner.

At the same time, the district town is also responsible for providing its own municipal utility with an infrastructure “that works safely even in crisis situations”.

The pandemic has also hit Bad Tölz financially, which thrives on tourism in particular and thus creates jobs.

Therefore, the absence of day and overnight guests during the lockdown was bitter, emphasized Mehner and remembers: "Market Street was empty", to the chagrin of the local bakers, butchers and clothes shops.

And due to government restrictions, public guarantors such as the nationally known Leonhardi or the Christkindlmarkt could not take place in recent years.

Tölz citizens' assembly: War and Corona affect the city

Tourism only got better again in 2022.

As Mehner reported, the starting signal for the cultural industry and leisure activities was given at the end of May, followed by “an amazing summer”.

Around 250 times "the stage was clear and the curtain was up" in the city area.

According to Mehner, special highlights were the Tölz Rose Days, which attracted around 15,000 visitors, and the "Four Days - Four Bands" event in the Bürgergarten with around 3,000 spectators.

"In addition to the costs for the city events, we also made 160,000 euros available in our culture fund to support private events that would not have taken place otherwise."

Since the events could take place again, the guests came again.

"In the summer months, the 2,075 beds in the city were fully booked," emphasized Mehner.

However, the situation remains tense.

"The lack of staff is very noticeable, as are the cost increases in many areas." In addition, the flight movement from the Ukraine has "resulted in individual hoteliers using their houses as refugee accommodation".

This further reduces the number of beds available for overnight guests.

Tölz' big construction sites: Hotel on the Wackersbergerhöhe and broadband expansion

But even without this fact, the county seat has seen “a drastic drop in beds” over the past 20 years.

It is therefore all the more gratifying for Mehner to be able to say "that the Hotel Bergeblick on the Wackersbergerhöhe is making good progress" and is thus creating new capacities.

A lot has happened here since the town meeting in 2021, when Mehner reported on the preparation of the development plan.

The 100-bed building, which is scheduled to be completed by 2023, is now underway.

There are currently many construction sites in the city, which, according to Mehner, have different causes.

Many are related to broadband expansion.

“This year again, millions will be transacted in the city area.

While in previous years this was mostly the upgrade of junction boxes, this year it is almost exclusively fiber optic cables that bring gigabit speeds directly into homes.”

The telecommunications companies are responsible for this - Telekom alone plans to supply around 4,000 households by 2022.

Telekom was also recently awarded the contract for the expansion to implement connections in Obermühlberg and Untermühlberg as well as in hamlets and courtyards in the vicinity of Ellbach and Kirchbichl.

The Free State and the state are subsidizing this infrastructure measure with around 580,000 euros.

Broadband expansion in the city of Bad Tölz is progressing

The Lettenholz and Südschule as well as the Jahn elementary school are also connected to the high-speed Internet, and according to Mehner, the connection will be completed this year.

"Even if the schools in the district comparison were quite well supplied, the broadband requirement continues to increase," said Mehner.

This is also standard on the labor market today and a prerequisite for your employees to be able to work from their home office.

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District administrator Josef Niedermaier also stopped by at the citizens' meeting: "We are facing huge challenges," he said, referring to the ongoing war.

"We urgently need refugee accommodation." Therefore, the district must probably access real estate, "not every municipality will like that and it will lead to tensions in society".

Niedermaier is also concerned about the energy crisis: "The crazy price increases will also affect care and the social sector." For the next few years, the district administrator fears: "We will have to incur more debt again."