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The history of the new gym in Pilaitė began with disputes over whether a Catholic or state school should spring up here. The issue cut through part of the local community as some sided with St. Joseph’s pastor, Richard Doveika, when he called for the church to be given land and a Catholic school built here, while others advocated vehemently the desire to send children to a municipal secular school.
Children and parents were included in the working group
In the end, the latter won. The adjustments and the design were carried out over several years, last July it became clear what the future school will look like: the studio “DO architects” won the architecture competition. Its architects worked in a working group together with representatives of the municipality, the Vilnius Development Company, the Pilaitė Gymnasium Student Parliament and the Association for Pilaitė State School.
How 15 minutes said Paulius Jakutavičius, who was included in this group, the group was formed a year and a half ago and they actively participated in it by observing, asking questions and proposing solutions for the future school. Now we can be happy with the result – a coordinated building permit, for which a tender will be held soon, the winners of which will build a new school.
However, representatives of the association say there is no reason to rejoice at the moment. Until now, they really felt that their word was heard, comments were taken into account, suggestions were listened to, but now all responsibility of the designers passes to Vilnius Development Company (VVK), a company that oversees almost all objects built by the Vilnius municipality.
This stage depends largely on how well you prepared for the acquisition and how normally you sat on the neck and breathed on the contractor’s back afterward.
“This stage depends a lot on how well you prepare for the acquisition (you can have delays and brakes at every stage: from requests to extend the deadline for bidding to appealing the results) and how you normally sat on your neck and turned your back on it. to the contractor later.
And here you can already see a great contrast. The architects and designers in the working group were proactive – they communicated, asked, suggested, listened – and we have seen Vilnius Development Company all those years and a half as if they were involved, but they also kept their distance, ”said P. Jakutavičius.
I felt inaudible
According to him, the VVK seems to take the position that what its responsibility is is not discussed with the working group unless the results are reported after something has been done.
“Questions and suggestions are unanswered or are answered formally, not essentially with the subtitle ‘this is none of your business,” said the Pilaite resident.
Photo of Vilnius City Municipality / Plot where it is planned to build a gym in Pilaitė
And representatives of the association of proposals say they have had. For example, they say they have proposed to shorten the construction timeframe so that market participants can be consulted before contracting, name project timelines and other requirements.
Here is an example from Queen Martha School, when the building was built and installed in just 13 months, and in Pilaitė it is planned to allow the construction of a new educational institution, albeit three times larger, for 20 months. The parents only managed to get the VVK to listen to the proposals on the range of deadlines and decide to evaluate the tender offers not only in terms of price, but also in terms of working time, etc. criteria, but you don’t know to what extent those other criteria will determine the winner announcement.
The members of the working group also wanted to contribute to the preparation of the conditions of the competition, but, they say, they did not say anything either, that the VVK said it was their responsibility. The proposal to include an obligation for the contractor’s representative to participate and report to the working group was also not supported. All of this makes parents, as they say, question the transparency of the process and the willingness to negotiate with a formally formed working group.
Therefore, in such a situation in the working group, we no longer see any sense in continuing to participate in it. If nothing changes, we will not see the leadership of the Vilnius municipality, we will officially withdraw, ”said Fr Jakutavičius.
The permission is, there will be a contest soon.
Vilnius Deputy Mayor Vytautas Mitalas, who is in charge of education, confirmed that the building permit has already been agreed, although several difficulties have arisen with the National Center for Public Health (NVSC).
“There is a coordinated building permit with all the parties that need to be coordinated with, although there have been comments, mostly from the NVSC, but those comments have been exceeded. A tender for a project to build a gym will be announced in about a week.
We calculate this with some care so that the bidding process can take 4-5 months and then the contract is signed with the winner.
There are several cases where the bidding process takes longer, if there are disputed conditions and various legal processes, we understand, I hope not. There are cases where it is really possible to do it faster than in our planned 4-5 months, then maybe here we will smile successfully and everything will work out really well, “he said.
Photo by Luke April / 15 minutes / Vytautas Mitalas
According to V. Mitalas, who has been elected deputy mayor of Vilnius in recent weeks, according to a realistic scenario, a contract should be signed in April next year and then construction will begin.
“According to the project, the total duration of the employment contract is approximately 18 months, so it is realistic to have a school in the fall of 2022. It will depend on several things: [pirmas dalykas]if the recruitment procedures themselves take time, the month in one way or another determines a lot; the second is the duration of the employment contract.
We have been drafting the terms of the tender for 18 months, realizing that according to the project, that deadline is realistic, but here and during the construction of the Balsiai school it could be seen that the contractors themselves are interested in making their work ASAP. Sometimes it does it faster than the contractual terms require. Since September 1, more than a month of cases of vocal progymnasium have been eradicated. We opened it, and according to the contract, the deadline was November, as far as I remember, ”said V. Mitalas.
We have been drafting the terms of the tender for 18 months, realizing that that timeline is realistic under the project, but during the construction of the Balsiai school, it became clear that the contractors were interested in getting the job done as soon as possible. possible.
The working group calms down: help is still needed
Asked about the complaints of the members of the working group for their kind contempt at the current stage of the project, V. Mitalas agreed that the working group to which he belongs, was really successful before and during the preparation of the project, and now there is a stage. submit them to a contest.
“I believe that the participation of community representatives will continue to be important. We will resolve the issues that arise, “promised V. Mitalas and admitted that he could not answer who would give the leadership of this working group when it left for Seimas.
He emphasized that the contribution of the Pilaitė community working group members was and is very important: “Both in terms of the design of the school itself and the connection to the surrounding areas, there is a lot of work to be done around this school. , on the streets. from parking lots to future public spaces, bike lanes and more. So I think there will be opportunities to resolve a number of issues together. I urge you to do so. “
DO architects / DO architects offer
VVK talks about responsibility
VVK representatives, who were asked to comment on the preparations for the construction of the new Pilaitė gym, stated that the conditions for the contracting of the contract works are being prepared and that the tender will be announced in 2020. mid-November. Once the contract with the contractor is signed, the preparation of the work project will be carried out, and the deadline for completion of the work and construction contract is up to 18 months.
“On September 22, we received proposals from parents in the working group on the profitability of the competition. In part, they were taken into account as far as possible. It is very important to emphasize that the hiring conditions are approved and are responsibility of the commission, the working group and its individual members do not assume any responsibility.
Who will respond if we set a time frame within which the work cannot be done? Parents Who will be responsible for the other conditions, also parents? We took into account what we could.
We constantly receive requests from the working group, but others must take full responsibility for those wishes and requirements, ”VVK said in his comment.
Regarding construction deadlines, VVK states that in addition to the construction process, there is also a preparation of a work project that takes more than a month. “After the construction works, the construction completion procedures are carried out, which also take at least a month. Given our practice of knowing how many terms they last, we evaluate the minimum and maximum possible terms and we will be responsible for that.
Who will respond if we set a deadline in which the work cannot be done? Parents Who will be responsible for the other conditions, also parents? We took into account what we could.
Regarding the proposal of the working group to include a representative of the contractor in the working group, also on September 22. It was responded that there is never a problem with the contractor attending a group meeting when necessary. On behalf of the client, the contractor must always attend meetings, so who else can discuss it, if this is a settled issue? ”- argued the representatives of VVK.
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