This Thursday, the Saint-Paul city council met to validate several projects, including the purchase of plots for the new town hall, as well as the restoration work on the historic town hall. In total, nearly 4.6 million euros were released for these two projects.
Written by MB – Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 06:21
With sparse municipal opposition, the 31 matters on this municipal council’s agenda should have been decided relatively quickly. This was without counting on Alain Bénard, who took advantage of each case to criticize the city’s management team, to the point that the annoyance will be heard on the benches of the municipal majority.
Despite its interruptions, the municipal council managed to validate the release of a first tranche of 70,000 euros out of the 198,000 euros planned, to finance the organization of the “Club 2024” of these Olympic Games. This “fan zone” which does not say its name will be located at the sports complex in the city center and will offer entertainment around sport, as well as numerous seats to watch the show. “Exceptionally, the broadcast will start at 3 p.m. for the surfing events, in order to be able to encourage Johanne Defay”specifies Patrick Legros, municipal councilor responsible for the development of sport and sports equipment.
The extension of the Sarda Garrigua nursery school was also completed, with the purchase by the town hall, via its right of pre-emption, of an adjacent plot. The future increase in students justifies this work for the majority. Cost of purchase: 232,000 euros.
More than 6000 m² for the new town hall
It had been in the pipeline for a few years, and now it is a done deal. The city is buying the former premises of the Gabriel Martin hospital to build the future town hall of the commune. In total, two plots, one of 3275 m² and another of 2769 m², will be sold to the city for 2.2 million euros. “City services are scattered across around twenty sites throughout the city center. That means twenty water and electricity subscriptions, not to mention the loss of efficiency when everyone is on the other side of town. Our objective is to bring all these services into one place, and thus be able to free up space on the seafront to continue its development”explains Emmanuel Séraphin.
“I deplore the fact that we are still in a logic of centralization. We are still in the logic of a large central town hall”contests Alain Bénard. “We have 15 sites in different living areas to maintain links with residents. It is not a question of closing annexed town halls, but of bringing back services which are far from each other. We are still assessing the needs of each department to then be able to distribute them in the spaces we have, but this will still take time,” specifies the mayor of Saint-Paul. It is still difficult to establish a timetable for the delivery of this building. “We will undoubtedly be in a project which will end after the horizon of 2026, therefore after the end of this mandate”, adds the mayor.
Finally, it is also the current town hall which will soon undergo a facelift. The restoration work is expected to cost nearly 2.3 million and would allow the building to regain its former glory. Air conditioning, creation of a waiting area, refurbishment of the wedding hall and the municipal council…, the renovation promises to be extensive. “These are delicate jobs, especially in historic buildings like this,” explains Emmanuel Séraphin. Here again, no precise timetable has been put forward.
