In a year’s time, Westerwolde will already be making decisions about the future of village and community centers and other real estate in its possession.
Initially, 2 years were allocated for this. But the city council wanted a faster pace, also to spend less time dealing with the million-dollar deficits caused by the maintenance of all that real estate.
“In one year’s time we will therefore present a list of which buildings we want to keep and which we want to dispose of,” says councilor Henk van der Goot (Municipal Interests).
Deficit of 4 million euros
The extensive municipality of Westerwolde, which was formed in 2018, has more than 100 buildings in its possession. This includes sports and gymnasiums and also some village and community centers. The municipality’s budget includes 2 million euros for the maintenance of all that real estate. But it takes 6 million. To reduce that ‘gap’ of 4 million, the mayor and aldermen want to dispose of buildings. A provisional list includes the village houses in Wedde, Veelerveen and Rhederbrug.
“We want to provide clarity to the users and managers of it and also of other buildings in a year’s time,” says Van der Goot. “Suppose we decide to dispose of a village hall, then we will look at how we can keep that facility going, and we will also allocate a year for that. Because disposing of a building does not mean that the village hall function has to disappear. In fact, our goal is to keep it.”
Castle in Wedde
A special ‘case’ is the medieval castle in Wedde. It is also on the provisional list of buildings to be disposed of. Some politicians in the municipal council have the greatest difficulty with this, wanting Westerwolde to keep control of such an important building.
“I recognize the importance of the Castle, but if a new organization comes along that wants to take it over, then we will enter into that conversation,” said Van der Goot.
De Burcht is currently managed by a foundation that has a long lease on the building and partly uses it as a children’s hotel. Chairman Frank Ferrari is clear: “I think the municipality should keep a building with such a history.”