Verena Reithmann has been mayor of Icking for two and a half years.
In an interview with our newspaper, she talks about tough meetings - and about future plans.
Icking - mobile communications and no end to the discussion, the difficult rain drainage in the community, various committee meetings with a surprising course: In the third year of her term of office, the Ickinger town hall chief Verena Reithmann (UBI) had to learn that local politics can be tough.
Her joy in the job is still unbroken, as she says.
Ms. Reithmann, you have been in office for two and a half years now, next May will be half-time. Do you still enjoy your job as much as when you started?
Icking: Mayor Verena Reithmann in an interview - "I still enjoy my work"
Yes, I enjoy my work unabated, the diversity of what I have to do still inspires me.
Working here, with this work intensity, also suits my phase of life.
Is there anything you didn't expect from your job at City Hall that surprised you?
Maybe I didn't expect to get involved so much in other people's personal affairs.
Even if I can't always help.
I don't have an antechamber, phone calls are put through to me straight away.
The meetings can be quite long in Icking. No signs of fatigue in that regard either?
no
For me there is no room for tiredness.
When I chair the session, I am under tension, I want to give impetus to the respective discussion and bring it to a goal without stalling it.
How long was the longest session? The public part is always followed by a non-public part.
It's good that our manager catches his S-Bahn and then has to change again.
This means that the deadline is inevitably before midnight.
It's good that our manager has to catch his S-Bahn (...).
This means that the deadline is inevitably before midnight.
Icking's Mayor Verena Reithmann on the length of the municipal council meetings.
In the fall there was a meeting that was difficult. It was only about a catalog of criteria for PV systems. How do you feel after such an evening? UBI members have also questioned the catalog you proposed.
I think that was the most difficult meeting of the year, the communication just didn't work.
I didn't expect the council's reaction.
I was sure that such a catalog would make sense.
Because then later, when it comes to specific projects, we'll tear each other apart less.
The catalog has now been approved and the community has already received three applications for ground-mounted PV systems. How do you feel about them?
I also find the location between the autobahn and Attenhausen too close to the village.
Originally only a 200 meter wide PV strip next to the autobahn was planned there, which I would have supported.
Now it's getting difficult.
Incidentally, you can hear PV systems when they produce a lot of electricity and the cooling of the inverters is working.
Icking: Mayor comments on applications for ground-mounted PV systems
And the other locations, the ones on the B 11 and on the former geothermal area?
I take a critical view of the geothermal area if we also want to set up ancillary systems there, such as battery storage or electrolysers for conversion into hydrogen.
It quickly becomes something industrial.
I think the property on the B 11 is well suited.
Here, too, the question is how and where and to what extent we accommodate ancillary systems.
At the last meeting in 2022, there were many Attenhausers who were against the village location. Does that stress you out?
No, and in this case even less so since those affected had previously visited me at City Hall.
Everyone knew that we would not make a decision yet.
Has the council made a decision this year that disappointed you?
In November we had an environment committee meeting, to which I also invited farmers – the aim was, among other things, to plant more fruit trees in the community.
There are even funding programs for that.
An exclusively positive topic!
But the farmers just said they wouldn't campaign for their cause - and that's probably why the committee members didn't want to have anything to do with it either.
I was alone with the wish.
I couldn't understand that at all.
A decision that made you very happy?
That we have equipped all municipal properties with air conditioning.
And that the high school is connected to the district's wood chip plant.
Neither of these sounds very spectacular, but they are groundbreaking and a challenge to implement.
A major project that is pending now is the construction of the gymnasium on the primary school grounds.
We even want to build a double gymnasium that the high school uses and the district pays for.
The project is beyond what our small staffed town hall can handle, so we will be hiring a project controller.
One of Icking's problems is rainwater management, which also kept you busy this year.
Here we get to feel what post-compaction and increased rain make up.
We will have to solve the problem with various small measures based on an overall concept.
And if roads are torn up somewhere, that means from now on that consideration is being given to installing rainwater systems there as well - like we did on the lower Wenzberg.
Ickings mayor in an interview: "Mobile phones are still not my favorite topic"
Mobile communications has popped up again as a topic this year, in the meantime the Ickinger Initiative is against the current location, not just the SPD.
Mobile communications is still not my favorite topic.
A location at the edge of the forest is not possible - and would not really be ecological, you would have to intervene massively in the old tree population.
Briefly on Corona: What is village life doing in Icking?
It is noticeable that everyone is happy that life is picking up speed again.
We had a really nice May Day celebration in Irschenhausen in the spring.
There were concerts again.
The Ickinger concert cycle could take place in elementary schools and protestant churches.
I'm also happy that the senior citizens' lunch is taking place again - and not, which could have been, has fallen asleep.
What do you wish the municipality of Icking for 2023?
That what defines Icking remains noticeable: togetherness.
And what are you looking forward to in the new year?
What I'm most looking forward to is getting the gym up and running and being able to say: Now things are moving forward.
You can read the latest news from Icking here.