The cornerstone for the new kindergarten, which the people of Bar have been waiting for for six years since the decades-old cypress trees in the city center were cut down, will be laid next week, the Minister of Education, Science and Innovation confirmed to "Vijesti". Anđela Jakšić Stojanović.
It has been more than six years since the felling of around 90 century-old cypress trees in the courtyard of the Bar Gymnasium, in order to build a kindergarten. Before dawn, the machines began cutting down despite the loud opposition of the people of Bar. Mass protests followed...
The cypress trees were cut down with the help of security, secretly from the Barans and Barankas who protested against this decision by the then government. Duško Marković.
The new yard, shared by two secondary schools and one elementary school, is not yet there, but after years of waiting, work on building a kindergarten is beginning.
As Jakšić Stojanović told "Vijesti", at the end of last year, the Capital Projects Administration concluded a contract with a contractor for the construction of a new kindergarten in Bar, in the first phase. The value of the initial phase is almost 3,2 million euros.
"With the start of the works, which are planned to last 18 months through all phases, the children of Bar would finally receive a modern facility that, with its area of about 3.500 square meters, would satisfy most of the needs of preschool education in the territory of this municipality. At the same time, one of the major problems of educational infrastructure in Montenegro will be solved. The project in question is being implemented through cooperation with the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB), "she stated.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation (MESI) previously announced that the groundbreaking ceremony for this project would take place at the beginning of this year.
When asked why they waited four months longer than planned, Jakšić Stojonović replied that the deadline for the start of the works was realistic after signing the contract with the contractor. Other prerequisites had to be met, she added, primarily in the selection of professional supervision of the works. As part of the aforementioned tender procedure, two complaints were filed with the Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures, on the last day of 2024 and at the end of February this year, which prolonged the very start of the works.
"Given that there was no appeal against the third decision on the selection of April 2025, XNUMX, the conditions have been created for colleagues from the newly formed Ministry of Public Works to conclude a contract for professional supervision and thus remove the last obstacle to starting work on this facility," the minister announced.
The project includes the execution of works on the first phase, namely the building structure of the building, the construction of the building's basic insulation with complete protection, the closure of the building with facade and roof hardware, the construction of the complete facade, as well as complete roofing with completed roof planes with all layers, on a building with a gross area of 3.400 square meters.
The project is one of those included in the Memorandum of Cooperation on the implementation of priority infrastructure projects in the field of educational infrastructure in the municipality of Bar, signed by Minister Jakšić Stojanović and the Mayor of the Municipality of Bar. Dušan Raičević, whose value is more than 18 million euros.
The value of the contract for the first phase is 3.194.149,32 euros, while the deadline for the execution of the works is 240 days.
From the “cypress revolution”, as the protests for the preservation of the yard of the “Niko Rolović” Gymnasium and the demand for a new location for the kindergarten were called, some young cypresses remained, whose seedlings were planted after the old ones were cut down. The yard was left bare. Tenders, conceptual designs, the Ministry of Education, next year, the people of Bar have heard all this in the past five years. The new yard and kindergarten are still waiting.
"This government will not work against the will of the citizens, and in particular, we will not build kindergartens next to police cordons. We will learn from this situation," said then-Prime Minister Duško Marković, after three months of civil protests.
The contract value is 3,19 million euros.
After Marković, three new prime ministers sat in the chair Zdravko Krivokapic, Dritan Abazovic i Milojko SpajicDespite this, the will of the citizens has not yet been fulfilled, claim participants in the former protests from the city under Rumija.
With the start of the works, which are planned to last 18 months through all phases, the children of Bar would finally receive a modern facility that, with its area of about 3.500 square meters, would satisfy the majority of the needs of preschool education in the territory of this municipality...
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