Simakov and Zhuravlev explained why no one is allocating funds to repair the Nevsky Center.

      At today’s meeting of a commission of the Kirov City Duma, the condition of the building on Profsoyuznaya Street that houses the A. Nevsky Children’s and Youth Center — where, among other activities, the kids do rock climbing — was raised. According to the center’s director, the building requires urgent repairs — the gym is in a deplorable state, there are no changing rooms or toilets, and the windows have long needed replacement. The roof used to leak as well, but a couple of years ago it was patched up somewhat and part of the floor that had rotted was replaced. Nevertheless, it is very uncomfortable to train in the building, but climbers and junior army cadets have to do so because the center has no other gym.

      Since the building is essentially municipal, the management has repeatedly appealed to the authorities for budget funds to carry out repairs. They did not ask for much — for example, last year the estimate was only 700,000 rubles — but the money was never allocated. In addition, the center appealed to City Duma deputy Vladimir Zhuravlev, who in theory could allocate funds to fulfill constituents’ requests, but that also led nowhere.

      After hearing the speaker, Zhuravlev said that, in his opinion, 700,000 is “just plugging holes.” He noted that as far back as 2013, when Kirov was run by Dmitry Drany, it was decided that repairing the building was impractical because the foundation and load-bearing walls were in poor condition. However, the site contains a hectare of land. Zhuravlev proposed demolishing the building and building a kindergarten on the site, and finding another premises for the center. The reason for proposing a kindergarten is that repairing the old building would have to be paid for by the municipality, whereas a kindergarten can be built with federal funds, with the municipality only having to pay for the demolition. The deputy added that it would at least make sense to carry out an expert assessment of the building to determine whether it can indeed be demolished and how dangerous it is.

      The head of Kirov’s administration, Vyacheslav Simakov, for his part said that the city has many similar problems and every institution requires attention, so the center’s building has not yet been reached for repairs. He urged setting priorities wisely, spending money first on what is most urgently needed. As for the demolition-and-kindergarten proposal, the city manager noted that Kirov has three kindergarten projects that the city has so far been unable to get into the federal program, and a fourth is not needed — at least in the near future.

      In the end, the Duma commission asked for the cost estimate for the repairs to be updated. After that it will reconsider the issue.