City Hall, climate protection and the consequences of war: Berg's challenges in 2023

Created: 12/27/2022, 4:00 p.m

By: Sandra Sedlmaier

The construction site of the year 2023 in Berg: Mayor Rupert Steigenberger is standing at the future town hall of his community.

The basement is almost done.

The move-in is planned for the end of 2024.

© Dagmar Rutt

The new construction of the town hall is the key issue for the municipality of Berg in 2023. And climate protection: Mayor Rupert Steigenberger wants to promote the local heating supply and photovoltaic free space systems.

Berg – At the beginning of the year that is now coming to an end, no one imagined that war could break out in Europe.

When asked about the five most important issues that will occupy Berg in the new year, Mayor Rupert Steigenberger's answer comes quickly and clearly: the Ukraine war.

The community is clearly feeling its effects.

Refugees seek refuge in Berg, and planned projects are becoming more expensive.

Ukraine war and the aftermath

The consequences of the war in Ukraine are felt almost every day.

"We have massive price increases in the energy sector," says Steigenberger.

"We had to put the electricity out to tender at a time when prices were at their highest." The municipality of Berg will pay 59 cents for the kilowatt hour in the coming year instead of around 25 cents as before.

The mayor says that a part can be compensated for by the higher yields from the four wind turbines in the municipality of Berg.

The additional costs are one thing, the need to accommodate the refugees is another.

The district office is looking for additional parking spaces for refugee accommodation.

"We could connect more containers to the existing ones in Berg," says Steigenberger.

"There's still a bit of meadow there." It's not just about refugees from Ukraine, but from all over the world.

"The government of Upper Bavaria wrote to us that we should take in 250 people," says Steigenberger.

The privately accommodated Ukrainians are not included in this number.

New construction and organization of the town hall

Work on the new town hall is proceeding according to plan.

The lead time of six months has shrunk by two months due to delays in the earthworks, as the mayor says.

The move-in date of the end of 2024 is still realistic.

And the costs are actually not developing badly given the general conditions.

"In the past two years, prices have risen by 30 percent - nobody had that in mind, just as little as the immense increase in energy prices caused by a despot in Russia," says Steigenberger.

“But we have only now torn our nine percent buffer.

In other words, we actually saved 20 percent.” By reducing the underground car park, the solution to the problems surrounding possible floating of the structure and also a bit of luck – the soil conditions were better than expected.

The City Hall staff will not only change spatially with the move, but also organizationally.

Steigenberger and his employees reconsider the organizational structure.

There should be help from external experts.

Not everything that is done in the town hall belongs to the original tasks of an administration.

"People can get advice on pensions elsewhere, for example," says Steigenberger.

"We will limit ourselves to providing advice."

Restructuring is also necessary because it is becoming increasingly difficult to find staff.

The post of community manager will be filled at the beginning of the year.

But there is still an important position open in the regulatory office.

Steigenberger sees two options for recruiting employees: train them yourself or become more flexible as an administration.

"Then we can also employ career changers."

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My space

Mörlbach: canal, stream and local heating

A big topic in the coming year is the conversion of the sewage system in Mörlbach.

The sewage association Starnberger See wants to lay a two-channel system.

So far, Mörlbach has disposed of its waste water via a constructed wetland.

The pump house and the pressure line to Farchach already exist, and the Mörlbach houses are to be connected to the pump house in 2023.

The municipality of Berg wants to uncover the Mörlbach as part of the work.

"And we will be busy cleaning up the ponds," announces the mayor.

"It is still unclear to what extent they have experienced a burden from the reed-bed sewage treatment plant."

If all roads are torn up, one could install a local heating system: the planning for this is already well advanced.

After all, there are so many interested parties that state funding would be possible.

"No one should drop out, otherwise funding will be lost," warns Steigenberger, who would like more support for the project.

It is still unclear where the energy producer, a wood chip boiler, is to be located.

There are also no management rights, according to the mayor.

An operator should come from outside, Steigenberger thinks little of the community running the local heating project.

Climate protection and energy supply

The Mörlbach local heating project is a contribution to climate protection, a private project in Bachhaus will also relieve the climate.

"If everyone who promised in Bachhausen stays with us, then it will be something," said the mayor.

Thanks to the four wind turbines, Berg is already doing quite well when it comes to electricity production.

The mayor would like to promote further production facilities in the form of open-space photovoltaic systems.

"We want to look at where photovoltaics works in the municipal area and where it makes sense." That's not easy given the large nature reserve and also depends on the options for feeding the electricity into the grid.

Charging stations for electric cars were launched in the year that is drawing to a close.

Similar to the local heating project in Mörlbach, Berg's citizen participation also made a major contribution.

Some columns are already there, says the mayor, and the rest will be installed in 2023.

Climate protection is important to Steigenberger.

Looking at a graph of primary energy consumption "makes me feel different," he says.

"During my lifetime, emissions have increased from 60,000 to 160,000 terawatt hours." The effects can be clearly felt in Berg, for example in the heavy rain events that occur regularly.

Heavy rain management is a project that the administration wants to tackle in the new year.

"Our goal is to give citizens a handout as to whether and in what form they are affected by heavy rain," says Steigenberger.

"Then they can do something themselves, such as checking basement shafts or getting sandbags."

childcare and housing

Mountain is growing: 8,385 people currently live there, and the trend is rising.

"We were building on the Sonnenweg, opposite the town hall - the houses will probably be occupied before Christmas," estimates the mayor.

Other construction projects, including the very narrow terraced houses on Seeshaupter Strasse, are expected to be completed in the coming year.

Families usually come to Berg, which is why there should be enough childcare places, says the mayor.

In Berg, an extension to the existing kindergarten could be possible.

The neighbor to the west, the Wittelsbach Ausgsleichsfonds, is cooperative.

"Then we will draw up a development plan for the area," says Steigenberger.

Another crèche building is to be built near the Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Höhenrain.

And in Aufkirchen, containers are to be set up at the old school so that the Montessori facility there can offer more crèche places.

In the medium term, Steigenberger imagines making the rooms in the old school available to all Montessori and moving the after-school care center closer to the school.