We are aware of our responsibilities - says mayor after plans for asylum-seeker centre are withdrawn

It was reported at the end of the last week that Roman Hotz of the Hotz Obermühle AG company had pulled out of a project to build container-style accommodation for up to 100 refugees in the centre of the municipality, not least because the project has been dogged with planning issues  since he offered to build it almost five years ago. Of note is that, according to a system of allocation of asylum-seekers in the canton, the municipality of Baar should be accommodating 188 of them whereas at present it is only looking after 127.

When asked by a journalist of the Zuger Zeitung about the afore-mentioned company pulling out of the project, the mayor of Baar, Walter Lipp, said he could fully understand the reasons why, after all it was clear the company needed planning certainty and wanted to go on to develop the site.

When he was reminded the Department of Inner-Cantonal Affairs was confident alterative accommodation would be able to be found in Baar, Lipp had to concede that, at present, there was nowhere he could think of. “The council will be considering this after the summer holidays,” he said.

As to whether it was planned to house the asylum-seekers in a new building or divide them up in to various centres across the municipality, Lipp said this latter idea was the one they were pursuing, though naturally they were dependent on the goodwill of the owners of such properties.

Bearing in mind the council should be accommodating more refuges to meet its commitments, the journalist asked Lipp if he was conscious of this shortcoming. “Had the Obermühle project been built, we would have more than fulfilled our obligations, which is why no other solutions have been considered. We are very much aware of our responsibilities,” he replied.