It’s official! Sorin Chelmu, AUR candidate for the presidency of CJ Vaslui: “the county is facing major problems, the current administration has kept us blocked for 34 years” – Vremea noua

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LAUNCH… The former Secretary General of the Romanian Government, Sorin Chelmu from Vaslui, returned home, determined more than ever to change the face of the county for the better. He was presented yesterday, during a press conference, as the candidate of the Alliance Party for the Union of Romanians (AUR) for the presidency of the Vaslui County Council. Although he worked in Bucharest for years, Chelmu did not distance himself from the problems facing Vaslui county, and at yesterday’s meeting with the press, he not only presented three of them, but also came up with solutions to solve them. The most pressing topic of discussion was the ever-increasing cost that Vasluians have to bear for water and sewer services. Costs that, draws Sorin Chelmu’s attention, will increase even more after this basic utility expands to all the communes of the county.

Over the years, Sorin Chelmu has held several important positions in the Government of Romania and the Ministry of Agriculture, but now he has left Bucharest to run for the position of president of the Vaslui County Council. “I come after more than 30 years of experience in public administration, at the highest level, to my connections that I had and still have with Brussels. In the pre-accession period and in the post-accession period, we contributed to the construction of large projects for Romania, and here I would only mention the payment agencies, financing, guarantee, counter-guarantee mechanisms in agriculture, where the results can be seen today. We are the only segment of the Romanian economy where the absorption of European funds is 100%. Results that I am proud of, obtained of course in a team, as here, in Vaslui, we will probably need a team, a strong team, which knows how to create the mechanisms, on the other hand, how to attract the funds and from where to attract them, so as to shorten that chain of weaknesses and excessively large bureaucracy, which have blocked Vaslui for the last 34 years. I don’t want to make a black book of the administration of the last 34 years, because the people of Vaslui see and feel it on their own skin. Instead, as I promised, I will make a very clear analysis of what is happening and I will also come up with solutions to the problems that exist today”, said the AUR candidate.

Another vision of developing water and canal networks

In yesterday’s press conference, Sorin Chelmu addressed three of the problems facing Vaslui county. “The first of them is a big investment. Probably not even the pharaohs of Egypt would have dared to make this big investment without having all the calculations done. I’m thinking about Aquavas and the almost 500 million euros that should be attracted to build water and sewer networks throughout Vaslui county. The investment is huge, it bodes well and must be done. Instead, it has a few small problems. As it was thought and I tell you from experience because, as a consultant, I helped two counties, and here I mean Prahova and Călărași, who asked me for advice on how the documentation should be done and what approvals should be obtained in order to could develop the projects in the respective counties. Therefore, when I talk about what such a project entails, I do so knowingly. Unfortunately, the project in our county went badly because it was done in a centralized system. Similar to the centralized heating system of Vaslui from the communist period. When we had hot water, we had no light. When we had light, we had no heat. I remember that in the days when we had hot water, there was a fight for the tub to last longer. This system designed by the Buzatu & comp administration is super-centralized. They thought of making a sewage treatment plant 20-30 km away from some localities. Obviously, the following question arises: how can you transport waste water over such a long distance? I give an example of the Bogdana – Găvan area and all those hills. How do you bring those pipes to Lipovaţ for transporting waste water and especially at what cost? I ask because in the coming period two elements will be essential for humanity: water and energy. At what energy costs does a waste water have to be pumped to travel a distance of 20-30 kilometers? Energy is no longer cheap and we need to know who will bear all these expenses. And to continue with the examples, it must be said that the municipality of Vaslui has approximately 26 kilometers of canal water network, with a population of 60,000 inhabitants. The same network will have to be built in Bogdănești, for example, where there will be 700 subscribers. Who will bear the costs of these huge networks built across hills and valleys? All these costs will be reflected in the invoices and will be paid out of the pocket of the potential subscriber. We have the solution and, if necessary, I will go to Brussels to renegotiate the contract so that these systems are designed and built locally. The French are already working in this sense, they call this type of organization the “basin of life”, in the sense that a community must secure all its resources, both water and energy, or a percentage as high as possible so as to reduce as much more carbon footprint. This megalomaniacal project conceived by Aquavas will generate enormous energy consumption, which will be borne by the citizens of Vaslui county”, Sorin Chelmu also stated.

Garbage tax, paid per home and not per person

THE RIGHT FEE… The second topic addressed by the AUR candidate for the headship of CJ Vaslui was the one regarding waste management in the county, which at this moment does not support the citizen, especially the one from the rural environment. “These days I have been through several communes and found elements on how this waste management is done. It must be said that it started wrongly from the negotiation that was made. Today, a family with 12 members pays a tax of, say, 12 lei per member. From my experience, I can say that a family of 12 does not generate six times as much garbage as a family of two. That large family hoards every match, doesn’t throw it away, in the hope that they can light something else with it. At the same time, it is known that, in general, large families have lower incomes and spend their money very well. Solutions must be found because garbage is a big problem, not only for Vaslui county, but for all of Europe. Coincidentally, I am good friends with a Romanian researcher, his name is Costin Frâncu, who has the solution to this problem. It is about a Romanian invention through which garbage is used to generate energy. Such a factory exists, it is being built in Brașov county, and electricity and thermal energy are already produced there. I understood that in the past someone came to us in the county with a proposal to develop such a project, but it was refused because there is a lot of money in the garbage area”.

A new stagnation on the Strategic Road

DELAY… Sorin Chelmu seemed to be quite connected to another major project currently underway in Vaslui County, that of the Bârlad – Laza – Codăești Strategic Road. According to the AUR leader, the works on two sections of this road are moving slowly, because the contract with a consultant has not been extended. “Another topic that we must address, because it is of major interest for our county, refers to the Bârlad-Laza-Codăești Strategic Road. Vasluiul needs road infrastructure because we all go through the county and see the condition of our roads. In order for Vaslui to develop, we need a fast connection with the highway, an express road with the Republic of Moldova, a fast road on the railway that connects us to Iași. This Strategic Road is currently, from the information I have, blocked. At the moment, construction on Section 3 is at full speed and will probably be completed within the terms of the contract, but on Sections 1 and 2, the works are moving slowly because the consultant’s contract has not been extended, as well as happened on Section 3. For this reason, construction on the first two sections is blocked. It will probably be another three or four months before they go out to tender again for a consultant, which is delaying the work a lot. There is a risk that the works on the two Sections will not be completed on time, and this means that the county budget will be subjected to a new expenditure. A negligence of the local authorities and the petty interests of some will lead us to this situation. These three topics that I have spoken to you about must not be resolved tomorrow, when the AUR party comes to government, but starting today, which is why I want to sound an alarm to those who are still in power to take all measures because otherwise only the people of Vaslui have to lose”, said the AUR candidate for the presidency of the Vaslui County Council.

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