One administrator for all five parishes in Valka county for reasons of economy / Article

Floods and rainwater have flooded one of the country roads, washing out the driving part, and for the manager of five parishes of Valkas Pēteris Pētersons, this is one of the problems to be solved. The municipality has a total of 200 kilometers of roads in the parishes.

“The region is vast. Every morning before seven o’clock, seven buses start work to take the children [uz izglītības iestādēm]. There are more than ten heating units, boiler houses, there are seven water preparation stations, deep wells, where care must be taken to ensure that they are in technical condition. Then, of course, cemeteries and all public areas,” Pētersons enumerates the farm.

Previously, the heads of five parish administrations were responsible for these issues, later their number was reduced to three, but now only one remains. Pētersons is no stranger to work in the municipality, as until now he was the manager of two parishes – Ārgēme and Kārķu, so he agreed to try to manage five parishes.

Gita Avote, chairman of the Valka county council, stated that one reason for reducing the number of managers is to save money, and the other is to create a small and efficient municipality.

“It’s no secret that the financial situation is as it is in all of Latvia. We hear in neighboring municipalities what is happening, how many employees are being laid off and working hours are shortened.

We try to arrange the interior a little differently, we review what can be saved, economized, and optimized internally. This is a kind of experiment,” Avota admitted.

The head of the county municipality also did not hide that people expressed their concern, what will happen now if the parish manager cannot be met on the spot when he wants.

“Actually, very high expectations are placed on the parish manager – there are people who want to talk, there are people who want him to be there from morning to evening and even during lunch. But he absolutely does not have to fulfill the functions of a social worker, but it is work organization, projects, small LEADER projects, economic actions,” Avota explained.

She pointed out that currently customer service centers have been established in the parishes and therefore all services are available.

“People will lose absolutely nothing. The fact that there is one manager is very good, because then all parishes will develop more equally, instead of one being more powerfully developed, more maintained, while another is more neglected. If you see the whole picture, not just what is mine , then it is necessary to go for growth,” assessed the head of the region.

In Peterson’s estimation, there is a lot of work, and he cannot be present in all situations, his time is also taken up by document management. The main problem is the current financial situation in municipalities.

“We are in such a difficult economic situation. Let’s not say that we don’t have enough funds to perform our functions, but no such serious infrastructure object is planned in the parishes this year. We will not change a single roof, we will not build a single newly constructed sewer meter,” said Petersons.

After several months, the municipality will evaluate whether the new model of economic life in the county has been justified.