With a fourth term under his belt, Patrick Genre, mayor of Pontarlier and president of the CCGP, is used to presenting wishes to the population. This Friday, January 10, he returned in one hour to 2024 and discussed the broad outlines of 2025, which should be the year of “continuity”.
Establishing a budget in a specific context
If in one year, the geopolitical context has not evolved much “with conflicts in the world which continue to hurt and which have consequences on economic activity”Patrick Genre especially noted the national political instability. “We must think of a budget without having any national budget. We do not know the measures that will be taken by the Finance Law and therefore we do not know the impacts on local communities. The difficulty we face is to imagine a budget to continue investing and imagine the future. We will certainly have to make trade-offs”.
Work planned for the aquatic center and the Lallemand islet
The year 2025 will mark the start of work before the end of the first semester of a major project, the aquatic center, whose location is planned next to Espace Pourny. In downtown Pontarlier, we will have to say goodbye to the Lallemand block and call it from now on “The Agora of the Ramparts”. A 1000m2 media library will be created and the car park will become a “place to live”.
As for the Chevalier house, “we have almost concluded a specification. A call for projects will be launched and the consultation will be carried out in the coming months”underlines Patrick Genre. The mayor also recalled the various master plans with investments over fifteen years such as 100 million euros for drinking water and sanitation at the intercommunal level, and 60 million euros at the municipal level for the energy real estate master plan. planned « for the 125,000 m2 of buildings owned by Pontarlier ».
-The mayor was keen to put forward a figure when discussing the territorial coherence plan (SCOT): “We have a vision by 2040. According to INSEE, there will be 15,000 more inhabitants in Haut-Doubs. If we are to welcome, how will we do it? The SCOT's response is to consider the territory in its development. Of course we are building, because if we don’t, there will be an increase in the price per m2”.
“Provide a significant rhythm of events”
After developing the various investments, Patrick Genre focused on the different activities that will punctuate 2025. “We will continue to offer a significant pace of events”. It is undoubtedly the arrival of a stage of the Tour de France on July 26, the day before the arrival on the Champs-Elysées, which will constitute the key point of the year in Pontarlier. “But it won’t just be July 26”underlines Patrick Genre.
2025 will mark ten years of Ponta'Beach. The Haute Foire, the Grandes Estivales, the intercultural festival will be back this year, without forgetting the Super Comice on October 25. “We have a range of events which also create heritage wealth”assures the mayor.
Health, “major element of the territory”
Patrick Genre ended his vows by addressing the issue of health. “We must be aware that health is a major element of the territory. We must have a health offer adapted to the attractiveness of the territory. We are fighting so that the CHIHC (Haute-Comté intercommunal hospital center) is in cooperation with the CHU”. The mayor stressed the need to work on the relationship between hospital medicine and community medicine. “The creation of on-call medicine supported by the CPTS (territorial professional health community) has made it possible to reduce emergency attendance by 20 to 30%”.
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