Pljevlja: Tenants will definitely not allow work on Omladinska Street

Rade Potpara from Pljevlja submitted an initiative to the Municipal Assembly on behalf of the citizens of III Sandžačke brigade, Kralja Petra I and Narodna omladine streets, requesting the suspension of works on Omladinska street and changes to the planning documentation on the basis of which the project was initiated.

The municipality plans to dig up part of the land and connect Omladinska Street with Ulica III Sandžačke brigade, which is opposed by the tenants of the surrounding buildings, preventing the contractor from starting the work.

They claim that they submitted the initiative after none of the authorities from the Municipality responded to the petition submitted on 12. 8. 2024.

They demand that the President of the Municipal Assembly, Jovana Tošić, forward the Initiative to all councilor clubs and, in the event of a parliamentary debate, allow the presence of an elected citizen representative at the Assembly session based on the free chair principle. They asked the councilors to tour the route of the planned street together and see for themselves the harmfulness of the project.

Potpara states that they learned about the Municipality's intentions to build the continuation of the street in August 2024, when workers from the construction company "Ving" placed markers on private plots to mark the new route of the street.

"Without the expropriation procedure and declaration of public interest, they illegally entered private property measuring 45 meters long and two meters wide. On this occasion, the local government officials present claimed that the land in question was owned by the state. After opposition from members of the Dragašević family, the Municipality withdrew. We submitted a petition opposing the Municipality's plans on 12 August 8. Sixty-nine residents living on the route of the planned street signed the petition," Potpara said.

He claims that there is no feasibility study regarding traffic relief and that there is no study on the impact assessment on the environment and quality of life, given that the entire length of the road is planned to be directly adjacent to existing residential buildings, with retaining walls up to 4,5 meters high on the right and two meters on the left.

“In addition, the roadway and retaining walls are planned above the level of the apartments located on the ground floor of the residential buildings, which puts the residents at risk and negatively affects the quality of life. Neither the main nor the revised project includes a single-storey residential building (barracks) with two residential units at the address Narodne omladine 4, which is located directly next to the upper edge of the retaining wall, whose height at that point is 4,5 m and is the most endangered in terms of terrain stability. No geotechnical soil tests have been conducted.”

They point out that with these works, the Municipality is destroying and concrete-ing the rare remaining green area 40 meters from the city heating plant, which further endangers the health of residents, which has already been impaired for decades.

The project, Potpara adds, does not provide for a single parking space, and the only remaining arranged parking lot, which was built by the Pljevlja Thermal Power Plant in the 80s for the needs of tenants employed at the thermal power plant, is being destroyed.

"The municipality is planning to build new streets, but is unable to maintain the existing ones. An example is the part of Omladinska Street that leads to the city heating plant, which, according to the elders, was last completely paved in the late 90s, which has no storm sewer, pedestrian paths, curbs, is full of holes, and has been dug up countless times by the heating company," Potpara said.

He also claims that residents living on the planned street route have experienced a series of inconveniences from the Mayor, the Head of the Municipal Police, municipal police officers and municipal guards, employees of the construction company and the Water Company.

"Issuing misdemeanor warrants for parking on the "earth-green surface" to all residents who were parked in the parking lot that is asphalted and that we have been using for about 40 years. Because of such actions, we filed a criminal complaint with the Pljevlja ODT against the Municipal Police for abuse of official position. We have been falsely reported several times for physical assault, both against members of the municipal police and the president of the municipality. There are video recordings of all the events and all the reports have been dismissed as unfounded...", the Initiative states.

He claims that each time, based on reports, they were called to the police, which the contractor used to fraudulently begin earthworks.

"The Mayor even reported an emergency, which turned out to be a fake malfunction, in the water supply network and called the team from the municipal company Vodovod to fix it. At first, we allowed them to dig a trench 5 m long and 1 m wide, but when we realized that the malfunction did not exist and that it was an attempt to carry out work on breaking through the street route, we stopped them and called the director of Vodovod, Mladen Jaćimović, to check if he knew where his employees and machinery were...", Potpara pointed out.

He also recalled that on June 19 at 30 a.m., a group of about 5 unknown individuals, assisted by 6-XNUMX members of the Municipal Police and the Chief of the Municipal Police, attempted to forcefully evict them from the parking lot in front of the building they live in. He noted that the population here is predominantly elderly with serious chronic illnesses, so engaging unknown individuals in the dead of night was a reckless move that could have ended tragically due to the stress they endured.

He adds that since June 26, the entrance to the parking lot in front of the building at Ulica III Sandžačke brigade 14 has been blocked by three cars, which are both disrupting traffic and endangering the safety of pedestrians.

"After refusing the Traffic Police's order to move, as they were violating Article 56 of the Traffic Safety Law, the Traffic Police patrol issued a misdemeanor order to the Municipal Police for illegal parking. These three vehicles are still parked in the same place, despite the residents' requests to the Municipal Police to call the city's sanitation department themselves and remove the vehicles only until the garbage truck empties the containers that have not been emptied since May 28, i.e. for more than a month and from which an unbearable stench is spreading," the Initiative states.