Mr. Mayor, congratulations on your election. You are the first mayor of Sotira. How difficult is the task you have to perform in a newly established Municipality?
First of all, thank you for giving me the opportunity to contact our liaisons and congratulate you on the website you have uploaded. I am sure that there are several of our fellow citizens who visit it regularly, seeing both from the articles and from her visits. Certainly being the first Mayor of a newly formed Municipality is first of all honorable because people choose you for the first five years of a Municipality, but at the same time it is quite difficult and requires special knowledge regarding the organization of a Municipality, so that it can stand on its own two feet. the new obligations it has as a City Hall.
Our work, I can say, is quite difficult because in principle there is no staff to be able to work in an organized way. In order to understand the difficulty of our work, I must confess to you that the Mayor, unfortunately, is currently doing the job of secretary, since the four staff members are in charge of many responsibilities. But these are the problems of switching from one system to another. From the Community to the Municipal Council. Also, our big problem is the delay in approving the budgets by the Ministry of Interior. Even our Municipality, because it is newly established, does not have an approved budget.
Your motto in your election campaign was "The Savior Changes". Will the Savior change? That is, will you adhere to your Pre-Election Program to the end or do you see any difficulties that you did not anticipate before?
Our motto, indeed, was "the Savior is Changing" and I am sure that it has already begun to change and the election plan will definitely be fully implemented. There are difficulties. The first and greatest difficulty is the economic crisis which afflicts both the global and Cyprus. This is evident especially in the budgets which have not yet been implemented and there are fears that many cuts will be made and certainly this directly affects the operation of the Municipality and the projects that need to be done. Because when there is no liquidity, no projects can be done. We are also afraid of the possibility, which has reached our ears, that this year's budget will be reduced to one third, which will be disastrous, since we will only be able to pay the salaries of our employees and nothing else. That is why time credit must be given. It is still too early to judge the future difficulties of this position.
At the same time, however, there were things that we had promised the world and that are inexpensive and that we are already promoting, such as the issue of volunteering. An initial session was held, the Municipal Savior Volunteer Group was created and there is a lot of enthusiasm and great interest from the people who want to participate. One of the most important things I noticed at the beginning is that there is solidarity in the world of the Savior. Problems have emerged, such as needy families, which other citizens have realized and want to help. In my view, this is a very important step forward. Through solidarity, selflessness and unity we can cope with any difficulties in our small society.
As the founder and CEO of Internapa College, you know for sure that the studies for a young person must be accompanied by his professional rehabilitation. Will the Municipality of Sotiras take care of the solution of the phenomenon of unemployment and especially of the young people?
Certainly in our election program we had referred to this phenomenon, realizing that there is, especially in Sotira, increased unemployment and especially among young people. It is indeed a very acute problem that we face with bodies that are experts and can help, such as the unions, but we will also try to create jobs where possible. A small number, as of course provided by law, through the Municipality but also with the promotion of Sotira as a tourist destination we will be able to give some jobs to our youth. The issue of unemployment is our primary concern and with the Municipal Council we try to take all necessary actions and proper planning to address it.
I will stick to the last thing you said about the promotion of the Savior as a tourist destination because there was always a lot of talk about not using the beach front in Agia Thekla. Is it that hard to achieve? Can we at some point compete with neighboring tourist destinations such as Protaras and Ayia Napa? What are your plans?
Definitely the coastal front is a big capital in which we all look forward and realize that we can invest. Unfortunately, so far they have not become what they should have been. To be honest, a process was started by the previous Community Council to make a design of the coastal front. We will proceed, however, in addition to an area plan. The area plan will prioritize all the details to give guidelines on what and how to do. But this is something that will last 2-3 years. It is not something that happens immediately.
Also, if we want to enter the game of tourism and have some benefits, we must give to the way the Municipality operates (and this is our main difference), something different. We can not give the same things as Paralimni and Ayia Napa. Our philosophy is to create something traditional. Do not be satisfied with the architecture of Ayia Napa and Paralimni but give the feeling that the Municipality of Sotiras is the traditional Municipality of the area with similar architecture which will be decided and implemented on the seafront and the design of the Municipality Square Savior.
Will the already existing buildings in the area of Agia Thekla be a problem in the design of this traditional architecture?
It will be a little difficult to "marry" the existing buildings with our traditional architectural design. However, we hope that with the help of the architects who will undertake the design of the area to have a good result.
Will there be regulation by our Municipality for the performance of civil weddings in Sotira and in this way the attraction of the tourist interest?
Certainly we see the issue of civil marriages as a serious source of income for our Municipality. We have already started our study to see what needs to be done to be able to start this service. Some places have already been proposed in which the wedding ceremony will take place and we will proceed with a decision regarding the spaces and the promotion of the image of the Municipality of Sotira as a destination for civil weddings. Most importantly, because there is no staff to be able to operate this service, we may proceed to a temporary purchase of services.
The pre-election plan of the other candidate for Mayor in the Municipal Elections, Mr. Adamos Kaikkis, was the construction of a new stadium in Sotira through sponsorships from the COM and the European Union and without any additional burden on the Municipality but also with employment (through the stadium) of Citizens . Is it possible to build and maintain a second Stage in Sotira?
Indeed, one of the slogans of the pre-election period was the issue of building a new stadium. First of all, there are two problems: One is the issue of non-approval of this year's budget for the Municipality of Sotira. Secondly, the budget of the CMO has not been approved by the Government and from what I have been informed there are big cuts and so they do not even know if there is a fund for the construction of a second Stadium in Sotira. I have the opinion that we do not need a second stadium because the truth is that Sotira can not support such a thing due to the high costs that will exist.
I have to admit that the existing stadium costs 80 thousand euros a year just for maintenance. Not to mention the money given to Sotira's team, the ONISILOS Youth Center which is 30 to 50 thousand euros per year. You realize that we are talking about 10% of the budget spent on stadiums, a percentage which is very large. We must first take care of our finances through the Finance Committee, which will start operating very soon and since we have the budget for the Municipality, to see in numbers what is happening and then to make decisions. I am not absolute about the subject of the stadium. That is, I would also like a new modern stadium to be built in Sotira. But we must be realistic.
Common sense says that if you do not have the income, you do not need luxuries or showcases. The policy we must have is to invest in projects that will offer income to the Municipality. And in finance, one of the first things one learns is that one's home is called "dead capital" because in essence it is not an investment and in addition the householder needs money every year to maintain it. I am not saying, then, that such projects should not be done, but in the period we are in, investments are definitely needed and not dead funds.
In closing, is there any message you want to convey to the Citizens of the Savior?
This period of almost two months that I am at the City Hall is a period when we try to draw our own conclusions about how there will be a smooth operation in the Municipality. There are difficulties and the biggest of them is the fact that there is no staff to meet the requirements of the Municipality. Unfortunately this is something I had mentioned for a number of years but I was not listened to and the recruitments that had to be made were not made and unfortunately now we are having a hard time coping with the new tasks.
The message I want to give is that we want to offer and we work too many hours to be able to do it. We want to offer to the citizen of Sotira. Decisions are made democratically and the sessions are held in a very good atmosphere. It is necessary to have sympathy but also to give the information to the world of the Savior about what is happening so that he can understand the work that needs to be done through the Municipality. We want to work through the pillars of solidarity, understanding, information, transparency and democracy.
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