A group of 140 parents of children who use the pool of the Nikšić Sports Center (SC) at the latest on Tuesday, September 24, will make a decision to organize a protest in Nikšić on the same day at 18 p.m., in front of the main entrance to the Sports Center, because they have not received a response from the authorities in the Municipality to official inquiry as to why the pool has been out of service since April 3rd.
As stated in the press release, which was signed by Boško Milović in front of the parents, on September 13, parents and swimming coaches addressed the president of the Municipality of Nikšić, Marko Kovačević, the secretary of the Secretariat for Culture, Sports, Youth and Social Welfare, Dejan Ivanović, and the director of SC, Boško Drašković, to tell them what has been done so far regarding the swimming pool and when it will be put into operation, but no one answered them.
"We would also like to inform you about the proportions of our children's problems. Among them are some of the greatest sports talents in the city in their respective generations, who have already won numerous medals at competitions in their age group. Some of them are already national team members. The parents of some of these children were forced to sign them up for training in clubs in the capital or elsewhere, in order to provide them with further sports development - outside their hometown. This implies a significant financial burden for their families, and burdens the children with long trips outside their city almost every week. Those children at least have the opportunity to continue their sports training in the key stages of physical and mental development for their careers - and a large number of talents, unfortunately, do not have that opportunity for five and a half months - because their parents are not in a position to provide them with membership fees. and transportation for trainings in clubs outside Nikšić", it is written, among other things, in the address of the parents to Kovačević, Ivanović and Drašković.
They paid special attention to children who need a swimming pool as part of a rehabilitation or healing program.
They asked the authorities to answer them whether and who they hired in connection with the repair of the defect.
"If so, please provide us with information about the activities, resulting from the appropriate procedure, that you carry out in such situations. We assume that it is the public procurement process, the tender, the selection of the company, the price, and so on. At this moment, we have no intention to review Your actions in the processes that you are obliged to carry out, in order to work in the service of the citizens, we just want, believing in the good intentions of the responsible persons, to get information about what you have done and when the pool will be in operation," reads the request that the parents of 13 sent to the President of the Municipality in September.
As they stated in the statement sent to the media, they demanded that the requested information be delivered to them by today, and that, if this does not happen, they are ready to organize themselves differently, using all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
The director of SC, Boško Drašković, and the manager of the marketing and public procurement sector in that company, Sanja Lješković, told "Vijesta" last week that they expect the problem with the heat pumps to be resolved soon and that the pool will be opened at the end of October.
"The procurement and installation of the compressor and electronics for the microwave oven with the assembly and modification of the electrical cabinet for the pool heating heat pump is in progress. This is a negotiation procedure without prior publication of a call for public tenders, because it is an urgent procedure. The procedure was announced as soon as we were informed. The municipality provided 35 euros for the procurement. At that moment, the first negotiation procedure was canceled two offers and the offer of 'Frigo sistem' was better than 'Frigo lin' and the negotiation procedure is in progress. Tomorrow (September 2) should be the final offer where we will know the exact price and delivery period, and then the contract will be signed. "According to what we have now received, the delivery deadline is nine weeks and we expect, if everything goes well, that the pool would be put into operation at the end of October," Lješković said at the time.
"I see that there are initiatives by parents and I understand them as much as possible. I think that the initiatives are in place, but I don't think that they are initiatives of only the citizens who signed them, but that every citizen of Nikšić wants the swimming pool to be constantly in operation, and I, as the director, will do our best to ensure that this segment, no matter how expensive it is to maintain, survives. This is for the good of children, citizens and all future generations," said Drašković last week.
The construction of the only Olympic swimming pool in Montenegro began in 1972, and it was put into operation on September 18, 2000. It only worked for a few months, until December 22, 2000, before being activated again the following year, again for a few months. - from May to October. It was closed due to high maintenance costs and was turned into a small sports hall for several years. The reconstructed Olympic pool was opened on May 20, 2016, and the value of the works was around 1,4 million euros.
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