Licata – It was presented in the Council Chamber in Palazzo del Carmine, by the Mayor, lawyer. Angelo Balsamo, in the presence of the President of the City Council, Anna Triglia and the Councilor for Toponymy Dr. Stefania Rolla, the new Toponymy Commission.
Present at the press meeting were Prof. Francesco Pira, President Delegated by the Mayor; the surveyor. Lorenzo Peritore, the Notary Arianna Armenio, Members appointed by the Mayor; Professor Giuseppina Incorvaia, Rag. Pierangelo Timoneri, Members appointed by the City Council. Prof. absent. Francesco La Perna, Member by right.
Mayor Angelo Balsamo expressed satisfaction with the return of an important body to which economic resources and personnel will be allocated in order to play an important role. President Francesco Pira was moved and recalled that the last time he attended a Toponymy Commission, he was a child and had followed his father Gino, municipal councilor.
“There is a lot of work to do – he said – all the Contrade from the city, many suburban areas, and even in some neighborhoods the names and house numbers are missing. I have already met the surveyor. Antonio Ruvio (present at the meeting), with which we have already traced a path that will have to be shared by the Commission. We will have the first meeting at the beginning of July.” The Commission’s headquarters in Piazza Elena will be reopened to the public, the Mayor announced.
“We will ask with the help of Mayor Balsamo, who I thank for the nomination – Pira continued – a meeting with His Excellency the Prefect of Agrigento, Dr. Filippo Romano, because for several years there have been naming proposals put forward by the Municipality which have not yet been authorised. We will try to understand the reasons and work to unblock this situation. We know that in many neighborhoods many people have problems because the mail does not arrive, and it is impossible for even an ambulance or the police to reach their homes quickly.”
The word then passed to all the members of the Commission. Giuseppina Incorvaia, thanked the Mayor and the City Council for the nomination because Licata, together with very few Italian cities, has a representative of the Female Toponymy Association as a member of the Commission. “Only the cities of Rome, Udine, Turin, Verona, Cremona, Florence and Ponte Buggianese (Pisa) have made this choice. In many Municipalities, thanks to the activities of disseminating issues on gender equality, Female Toponymy is an important point of reference for the promotion of a more equitable and representative toponymy”.
All the other members of the commission were ready to get to work immediately Arianna Armenio, Lorenzo Peritore and Pierangelo Timoneri, who intervened as well as the Councilor Stefania Rolla and the municipal employee Antonio Ruvio.
The Toponymy Commission is the consultative body which has the task of examining and expressing a reasoned opinion on all proposals for names and changes to names concerning municipal toponymy: traffic areas, schools, sports facilities, headstones, memorial stones and in general places and structures that are public or open to the public belonging to the municipality.
This function must be exercised taking care to protect the toponymic history of Licata and its territory, with particular attention to the fact that the proposed names respect, first and foremost, the cultural, social and civil identity of the local community.
The Toponymy Commission appointed by the Mayor and will remain in office for the entire duration of his mandate. The members do not receive any emolument.
