CATANIA – The PalaNesima will soon be recovered and delivered to the city of Catania. Yesterday morning in the Council Room of Palazzo degli Elefanti, the mayor of Catania Enrico Trantino and Sergio Parisi (councillor for Public Works and Infrastructure, Community Policies and European Investment Fund Programming, Sport of the Municipality of Etna) illustrated the redevelopment project of the futuristic structure , whose work will begin in the next few days, with an investment of almost 15 million community funds from the Pact for Catania. The meeting was attended by Sebastiano Manzoni, federal councilor of the Italian Fencing Federation.
The executive project developed by the contracting company with the supervision of the director of Public Works Fabio Finocchiaro, just approved by the Trantino council on the proposal of councilor Parisi, will allow giving new life to the structure which was supposed to be ready for the 1997 Universiade but in fact completed only in 2001, subject to repeated acts of vandalism in the following years which made it unusable.
Thanks to the intervention desired by the Municipal Administration, with 14.8 million euros of appropriately remodeled community funds from the Pact for Catania, it will be possible to return to the citizens an important center providing sports services also suitable for large events, avoiding it remaining a great unfinished.
«We have achieved an important goal not only for sport but for the whole city which will finally see the completion of a structure that has been abandoned for many years – declared the mayor Enrico Trantino – A goal long pursued by the councilor Parisi and the municipal management for Sport and public works, led by the engineer Finocchiaro and the manager Paolo Di Caro, who following our direction have recovered the funds necessary to set up the process by working with great skill and determination. A structure that will be at the service of the city, in a populous and strategic area for the development of the metropolitan area.” «In recent days – said councilor Parisi – I have felt the great emotion of closing this long journey with a resolution of the council chaired by Mayor Trantino to regenerate this great sports facility for which we have worked with the lights off and without making announcements as he wants Mayor. An additional service for the world of city sports which is giving great satisfaction in terms of sporting results and popular following. We are happy that federal councilor Sebastiano Manzoni intervened, because the FIS, thanks to Manzoni, has organized major events in Catania in recent years».
«The Fencing World Championship that we organized in 2011 achieved record numbers for the city of Catania: there were over 45,000 overnight stays – declared Sebastiano Manzoni – If I think of the most recent race, the qualifying test in March, there were over 2000 overnight stays. In short, we believe that sport can do a lot for Catania, in this sense the PalaNesima redevelopment project we are sure can represent a turning point for our territory».
