A little more time, and a giant hot air balloon will almost hang over Druskininkai, taking visitors to a height of 200 meters. A little more time, and surfers will be attracted to the resort, to the “Sea” – a giant pool that will appear at the Snow Arena.
Druskininkai, once languishing, settled down, straightened up and has been open to business investments for a good two decades. A conversation with the mayor of the resort commemorating its 230th anniversary, Ričardas Malinauskas, about how to overcome challenges and invite business.
– Some three decades ago, Lithuanians turned away from Druskininkai. Sanatoriums managed by trade unions were demolished. How did the transformation begin?
– The worst were the years 1997-2002. When I started working as a mayor in the municipality in 2000, Druskininkai was called a city of pensioners, drug addicts and flies – “mosquitoes” with no future.
It took us years to shake off those epithets. It was very difficult to do.
The sanatorium, like the entire infrastructure of the city, was inhabited, there were no investments in the resort for several decades. Until the 1990s – before the restoration of independence, people still traveled to health services after receiving the so-called trade union passports and they were satisfied with the quality as it was.
Later the situation changed. After seeing the world, visiting Western Europe, our sanatoriums were horrifying. Their condition was so bad that nothing alive could be advertised.
After becoming the mayor, I started going to Vilnius, to the Government, to the then prime minister Algirdas Brazauskas of bright memory. He was a man who knew the farm very well. We discussed what to do. We had to overcome more than one obstacle in order to at least be able to take over those facilities that were vital to the resort.
At that time, municipalities could more freely take over abandoned real estate (NT) – the law allowed the establishment of joint ventures, the sale of part or even all of the shares. Only much later were the self-government’s hands tied.
Unions had abandoned buildings no one needed anymore, and business came with capital. The municipality’s task was to evaluate that real estate so that no one was deceived.
In this way, various clinics were revived. Similarly, we were looking for investors for the water park, but there were no interested ones, so in 2006 we built it ourselves. It is the property of the municipality.
The principle of our activity is that if the city needs a certain project, we talk to invest business. If the business doesn’t do it, we do it ourselves.
The big projects – AQUA center, clinics, large spa centers, “Snow Arena”, cableway – we need them not as business objects, but as centers of attraction of the resort.
– The municipality planned the expansion of the resort territory by including the forests around Druskininki. This is a challenge that has yet to be overcome. What were the obstacles?
– In this case, the obstacle is the distribution of money from the state budget bag allocated to the four resorts. These funds are distributed depending on the size of the resort areas.
No laws, no institutions – neither the Government nor the Ministry of the Interior – oblige to ask the opinion of other municipalities regarding changes in the territory. But we are hindered.
For example, the Neringa resort covers the territory of the entire municipality, the Palanga resort also covers forests, fields, cultivated land, quarries.
When Birštonas changed the borders of its resort seven years ago, no one asked our opinion either.
But when Druskininkai prepared documents for the development of the resort territory, connecting the resort suburbs – Gailiūnus, Neravus and some forests, so that we could preserve them for recreational purposes, because vacationers go there to ride bikes, they started looking for all kinds of legal harassment.
If a certain forest area were to be in the territory of our resort, clear cutting would become impossible. Forests would become recreational for tourism. We were ready to pay compensation to the owners to preserve the forest.
As our resort area would increase, resort funds would be redistributed.
For now, the documents are still stuck in the Government, various obstacles are being erected. For example, transit roads pass through all resorts: through Palanga – to Liepaja in Latvia, through Neringa – to Kaliningrad, through Birštonas – to Priene.
And here is the road that goes past Druskininki from Gardin to Merkina, it is already seen as a problem. As soon as we proved that this is not an obstacle to development, a law was passed last December, which stipulates that there can be no private forests in the city territory.
This is how we were forbidden to add forests to the territory. These are political decisions that cannot even be legally appealed.
– There is no shortage of ideas for the municipal team, but funds are needed to implement them. What determines companies’ decision to invest in Druskininkai?
– First of all – trust. Our municipal team is strong and creative.
For example, we don’t have the sea, but we make it easy to reach it.
Nemunas will be cleaned this summer, because it dries up in the summer and large stones start to obstruct navigation. According to the contract signed with the Directorate of Inland Waterways, half of the funds for the works will be allocated by us, the other half by the Directorate.
The river will be cleaned from the border of Belarus to the territory of Varėna municipality. At the moment, after the aforementioned directorate took care, the lower reaches of the Nemunas, as well as the river at Prienai and in the city of Alytus itself, have already been cleaned.
Later, we will talk to the municipalities of Varėna, Lazdija and other municipalities so that together we can contribute money and clean the section of the Nemunas from Varėna to Alytus.
If this is done, the Kaunas lagoon will become accessible by ships, and from them, if a lock is installed, it will be possible to reach the Baltic Sea.
– What does Druskininkai have that no other resort in the world can boast of? How will the appeal of the 230-year-old resort be further enhanced?
– I know that there are rumors about me that I have gigantomania. Only people who have no idea what tourist attractions are can talk like that.
In 2001, I proved to the then Minister of Economy Petrus Česna that the funds allocated for tourism – it seems, 50 million. litas (about 14 million euros) – should not be distributed to each municipality one bite at a time.
What could they build? Build a good big sauna with a living room? But would it be a city attraction that people from other states would travel to?
I convinced the minister that serious objects also need serious financing.
And the investments continue. We are currently implementing the project of the Chamber of Culture and Congresses, and again, the kind that is needed to develop cultural tourism.
It is not necessary to build a hall with 300 seats for spectators, focusing on cultural tourism.
In order to host international cultural events, the hall must have at least 1,200 seats, as famous performers also invite crowds of people.
– Are you envious of the Latvians who have a new modern concert hall “Latvija” in Ventspils, and an international level culture, conference and cinema center “Gors” in Rėzekne?
– Yes, we are jealous. But in a year and a half, they will also envy us when the new modern Druskininkai Palace of Culture and Congress opens its doors.
According to our project, three halls will be equipped, the largest one has 1175 seats, the smallest one has 153 seats, and the cinema has 151 seats.
And so far, the completion of the project is about 75 percent.
We recently signed a contract for the final works, but so far the contractors, who remained in the second place, do not calm down, they complain about everything to the courts.
– The AQUA center makes Druskininki famous, it is considered quite well in Europe. According to the technical parameters, the ski track is among the top five tracks in the world. What other projects are on the way?
– We plan to build a hotel and equip a unique water and entertainment center next to the Snow Arena.
It would have swimming pools, relaxation oases, padel fields, a place for acrobatic skiing, climbing walls, beach, sea, other entertainment.
It will feature Europe’s only year-round 180-metre indoor swimming pool for amateurs and professionals of the increasingly popular sport of surfing. It will adjust the height, shape and frequency of the waves.
A similar, but open, will soon open in Germany, Munich. We want to cover our own with a roof, so there won’t be another like it in the world.
At the moment, all of this is still being designed. We hope that this will be implemented within a couple of years.
– Was it the entrepreneurs or the municipality who came up with the idea of building the ropeway connecting the water park with the snow arena?
– While discussing what makes Druskininkai different from mountain resorts, we realized: there is no way for skiers to go up the mountain from our city center. So we decided we needed a cable car.
This is ecological transport, the project is financed through the Climate Change Program.
But the ropeway is now a trifle. After a year and a half, a helium balloon will be launched in Druskininkai. It will truly be the only such project in the world.
A giant balloon will lift an observation deck from the renovated bus station, which will turn into a multifunctional center with cafes, shops, and an amphitheater. The hot air balloon will accommodate about 30 people, they will be able to look around the surroundings from a height of 200 meters.
The balloon, which is worth about 1.5 million euros, is already ordered in France.
We consulted with investors and chose the balloon instead of the construction of the Ferris wheel. This is more impressive.
The Kautra company is investing in the renovation of the bus station, the project was created by the same architects led by Gintaras Balčytis, who designed the Kaunas bus station.
We are also talking to the “Rimi” shopping center to invest in it, because for now there is only a tiny store of this chain in the city.
– Will there be more modest changes in the city that will become the cultural capital of Lithuania next year?
– This year we plan to renovate the church square, and next year – Vilnius avenue for pedestrians. It’s been half a dozen years since it was neglected.
The ceramic sculptures of J. and B. Archikauskas located in the alley are to be renovated and moved to another place, and in their place it is planned to place signs of the Zodiac, designed by Mikaloj Konstantinas Čiurlionis.
Druskininkai is full of changes and work never stops – the resort changes every year so that it is good to live there and to come to relax.
Tags: defenses built development resort
-
