CREMONA – It is natural find tall grass this time of year, less natural to find the grass so tall around the graves of loved ones. monumental cemetery of Cremona Not everything is in this condition, but there are many areas where weeds make it difficult to tiring if not complicated to go forward: not in the main avenues, where the gravel does its job, but certainly in the paths that outline the different sections, because they obstruct the passage and hide the graves. Weeds are everywhere, here just a tuft, there a wildly grown blanket. In the empty spaces between the graves, weeds have grown that the family members on visits they try to eradicate, with uncertain results.
Yesterday three workers from the Tuscan cooperative Luce, which has contracted the maintenance, were at work armed with tractor, grass trimmer e dandelions. An intervention that had been planned and scheduled for some time, but slowed down compared to the timetable by the weather conditions dictated by a summer that, compared to last year, has been more delayed and still has many surprises in store, according to meteorologists. Last year, the mowing had already started between April and May, facilitated by a grassy surface of just a few centimeters, now the tall grass is an obstacle and slows down the operations. Especially between one grave and another, it is necessary to proceed with caution so as not to damage the marbles and the same goes for the gutters clogged with grass and pine cones.
Just one week after his appointment, the mayor Andrea Virgil has already started a series of meetings and discussions with the managers of the various areas to take stock of the situation, evaluate the work done so far and identify the most urgent interventions to be undertaken as soon as possible. Cemetery services are among the priorities.
The cemetery of Cremona was inaugurated on 1 July 1809, initially as a large field, later linked to a specific architectural project, a real open-air museum where you can meet personalities who have made the history of the city, for better or for worse. «It is shameful keeping the tombstones in these conditions, there is no respect for our dead“, says a lady. And she adds: “Luckily my loved ones are buried in skyscraper. The elevators have finally been fixed, do you know how many times I’ve complained?” While some areas of the cemetery have already been cut and cleaned, others appear like a thick carpet of little white flowers. There, patiently waiting to disappear at the hands of the brush cutter. An elderly gentleman parks his car at the entrance to the fifth entrance hall, enters cautiously, his eyes on the floor. “There’s no guano, thank goodness… so the safety nets work…” and he sets off, a bunch of flowers in his hands.
Bicycle in hand, small bag with scissors, rags, sponges and a bottle of Vetril hanging from the handlebars, a woman makes her way through the tombs of section H: «I also have to do the gardenerI do it with pleasure, of course, I do it for my deceased. And who doesn’t have relatives? Then there are those who complain and do nothing, waiting for others to do it. A little collaboration wouldn’t hurt”. The lady-gardener, a regular at the cemetery, was among the protagonists of the misadventure that happened on Easter Monday 2022, ‘trapped’ with other visitors inside because the bell that warns everyone of closing time didn’t work. It still doesn’t work, but since then an unlock button has been placed on the gate towards via dei Cipressi and a sign has been posted with two telephone numbers to call in case of emergency: the caretaker and the municipal police. However, new electronic bells are on their way to replace the old system. The Fulgor company should take care of it, having presented an estimate considered appropriate. It is hoped that the commissioning will happen at lightning speed.
SAN FELICE GYM. NEW ‘SLIM’ COMPETITION
San Felice Gymnasiumwe start again. But not from scratch. The Municipality has in fact started the market survey to identify the company to which to entrust the construction site contracted on January 10, 2020 to the consortium Energos di Torino and never finished. The Municipality will proceed with the assignment through a negotiated procedure without a call for tenders. A ‘leaner’ path, therefore. The offices will invite ten companies to a ‘restricted’ tender that will be identified on the basis of some criteria: the first is the global turnover in the last three years; then the total amount relating to a maximum of three similar works to the one subject of the contract carried out regularly and successfully; finally the number of employees. Expressions of interest must be received by 8am on Monday. After that, the Municipality will proceed with the negotiated procedure and the criterion for evaluating the offers will be that of the lowest price by reducing the list of processes.
The time required to complete the works included in the contract is set in 160 natural and consecutive days. 60% of the work has been completed. A new stage, hopefully decisive in a story in which four extensions have unfolded, the Covidthe adjustment of prices to the increase in costs of raw materialil change of executing company within the consortium that won the tender, the ultimatum from the Municipality and, finally, the termination of the contract with Energos. The construction site is still there in the meantime, amidst protests and bitterness from residents.
IN CASTELLO SQUARE JUNGLE AND HOLES
Who has January and Italian Of 53 years old had stabbed a man in the abdomen twenty year old foreignerSince then, Piazza Castello has been kept under greater observation by the police. The attention of the maintenance services of the Municipality has not yet arrived, however. The benches on which many people sit in the shade of the trees elderly people of the neighborhood in search of coolness are in fact broken. The leaves cover the paths, besieged by a sort of urban jungle. The bins regurgitate waste of all kinds. In fact, to access the gardens you have to avoid the offshoots of the hedge which invaded the gap. On pavements around they bloom lushly from the cracks thorny shrubs. It’s a Buca which opened up between the asphalt and the sidewalk was fenced off and has been waiting peacefully since April to be repaired.
THE NEIGHBORHOODS ‘CURED’ BY THE YOUNG PEOPLE
To take care of the city these days are also the boys of Am I in? Business Fatigue. ‘Captained’ by the tutor Dominic Granata and from the educator Federica Salia ‘team’ made up of ten boys and girls between 14 and 18 years old is at work in River Square. Brushes and cans of red paint in hand, the boys are repainting the benches. But the whole garden will be cleaned and tidied up. One of the flowerbeds, among other things, hosts a phillyrea latifoliacalled olivastro, of such dimensions as to make it a botanical rarity. The ‘team’ will then move to the nearby Piazza Castello where the situation requires a more significant intervention. The boys and girls will therefore limit themselves to cleaning the benches and collecting abandoned waste and leaves. Started in 2021the project is managed through a partnership between the Cosper Cooperative (leader), the Neighborhood and Common Goods Center of the Municipality hey Neighborhood committees and enjoys funding of Community Foundation of the Province of Cremona. In these years it has involved more than 250 between girls and boys. The edition 2024 sees 80 young people ‘deployed’ in seven neighborhoods (Cascinetto, Castello, Boschetto, Centro, San Felice, Cadore, Porta Romana).
