As also announced in our newspaper, a public meeting took place yesterday on the age-old issue of decision of the Cecchi Council Of give away for free a portion of the former hostel at ODCEC. The meeting was organized by the Committee “Come on Marino!” and led by its President, Dr. Ivano Morettiwith a nourished and animated participation especially in the finale, when Marco Comandinipro-tempore coordinator of Marino Centro PD Club and returning from the national demonstration in Rome against the premiership and differentiated autonomy, he took the floor and that by reversing the typical temporal rules of narratives we are going to report first:
- as of December 2023 the ODCEC has inaugurated its headquarters in Velletriin Palazzo Romani;
- therefore, according to Comandini, the problem of the former hostel (closed since 2013) is no longer whether to give it to the ODCEC or not, but that of start planning its destination with a broader perspective of relaunching the city which in any case must go in the direction of culture and tourism.
Beyond the news given, the intervention of Commands it produced a certain excitement that we won’t go into here, but it gave way to a question: in all these months of discussions, articles, complaints, how come no one knew or wanted to make it known that the problem has disappeared, assuming it has?
But we will return to the questions later and now let’s give you a brief list, this time in chronological order, of the interventions carried out during the meeting, which lasted almost 3 hours.
Let’s start from Ivano Moretti who, as host of the event, did the honors by introducing the topic with a long excursus of the affair that began with Resolution 118/2023 – a his say passed in the silence of the Councilors – highlighting all the formal irregularities as well as the inappropriateness of the decision.
They then spoke as “technicians”:
- the Architect Rockdesigner together with his colleague Batocchi of the restorations carried out on the former hostel on the occasion of the Italia 90 World Cup (1.6 billion lire) and the Jubilee of 2000 (5.4 billion lire), the year of its inauguration until its definitive closure. The architect illustrated in great detail the complex works carried out with the aim of creating an accommodation facility;
- the professor. Francucciart historian, who with a succinct but engaging exposition described the meaning ofidentity of the places of Marinostarting right from the Hostel;
- the doctor Abbotof Italia Nostra, who wanted to report what the Councilor told him Venanzoni (former mayoral candidate of the PD and center-left and part of the right in 2021) from which the proposal started: upon the establishment of the ODCEC it would be followed by that of other professional ordersall together they would have set up their offices inside the Hostel leaving the ground floor for the marine cultural associations. Furthermore, as head of the Italia Nostra section of Marino, he expressed doubts about the conservation of the structure where it was intended as a hostel and recalled the proposal to host the conservatory (also in memory of the great Mozart who was hosted here). However, he also asked to see a “business plan” that could illustrate the profitability of a hostel, also given the disappointing results of those in Rome and Ciampino.
Once the “technical” interventions were completed, we moved on to what we would call more “political” ones:
- Fabio Mestici, PSI Secretary of Marino, after having denounced the absence of representatives of the other parties (but it must be said that those of the opposition were in Rome at a national demonstration, including Comandini who then returned late in the evening to Marino center where he lives) highlighted the conflict of interests in which Gianfranco Venanzoni (editor’s note: his candidate for mayor in 2021… sic!) as opposition councilor/creator of the proposal/treasurer of the ODCEC, then encouraged Moretti to continue the fight by calling the political forces to unity;
- Carlo ZelinottiPresident of the Proloco Marino, who underlined the importance of a project that relaunches the whole city not only for the former hostel, but also for the other Marino jewels;
- Ada Santamaitaformer Councilor for Productive Activities and Commerce in Colizza M5S council and representative of the Borgo Garibaldi Neighborhood Committee, who at the end of a heartfelt intervention launched the idea to form a Management Committee to accompany the rebirth of the former Hostel;
- Gianni Bottaof the Association for Change and editor of our newspaper, who wanted to recall the attention paid to the affair of the former Hostel We change since before the petition of the “Avanti Marino!” Committee (and its President Moretti will forgive us), when in the aftermath of Resolution 118/2023 he highlighted the inconsistencies of this decision compared to Mayor Cecchi’s electoral program and the commitment made by the Association for Change in collecting signatures on the petition. Finally, he also recalled the proposal put forward to use it as a “student” (in reality the 2025 Jubilee would also have been an excellent opportunity, but it is now too late);
- Alberto CanestriPresident of the Citizen Committee Celebrations for the Hundredth Anniversary of the death of Giacomo Matteotti, who followed the speech of Zelinotti urging a plan for the restart of the city;
- Mirko Laurenti, of the Circolo Legambiente Appia Sud – Il Riccio, who focused a lot on the concept of “shared management” of public goods, especially in light of the agreements signed with the Lazio Region, among others, also by the Municipality of Marino. Starting from this concept, he claimed the need for the Municipality to open up to discussions with the community by making the decision on the destination of the former hostel participatory.
Returning to the intervention of Marco Comandini which we gave you an account of in the introduction, a question now arises: now that, as it seems, theODCEC already has its own headquarters in Velletri Is there still a need to sell the former hostel?
Unlike him, we still have some doubts because the content of the infamous Resolution 118/2023 (which you can consult at the end of this article) would seem to say a different thing where it is decided:
- To express a favorable political direction to the concession for use by the ODCEC of Velletri of a portion of the property located in Marino – Via Borgo Stazione n. 11 identified on sheet MU parcel 36 sub 1 (Hostel) for the purposes of carrying out by the latter, within the same, of its institutional activitythrough a subsequent specific agreement for the enjoyment of the property.
Therefore, the sale would be aimed at an unspecified “institutional activity” which, Commands allow us, it is something a little different from an “institutional headquarters”.
As you will have understood, the question is complex: because the Hostel (or former, given that there are those who question its effectiveness) is a jewel of history which, like many others, forms the identity of our city ; because beyond the costs, restarting it could get the whole city moving again; because, finally, this transfer still agitates the minds of many and certainly does not help the silence of an Administration which, starting with the Mayor, called into question several times, has never shown respect for the citizens’ requests, ignoring them (but this also applies to many other cases).
So all that remains is to hope that the Mayor Cecchistopping treating the Marines as subjects (or, at worst, as the Marquis did…) but as fellow citizensexplain what your plans are for this important piece of “public affairs”.
To this end, we look forward to hearing the outcome of the meeting motion promoted by the minority councillors, which was not discussed in the meeting, to see if in a public assembly, if convened, the Mayor and his council will say finally how things are and, perhaps, we will also be able to know if there is aMarino’s ideathe famous planning, which goes beyond neighborhood parties for selfies of the mayor and the annual Grape Festival.
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