Large number turn up to attend community meeting

Much to the delight of the mayor of Unterägeri, Josef Ribary, almost 300 locals, 295 to be exact, attended a community meeting in the Aegeri Hall on Monday evening to air their concerns about a number of aspects, including one where suspicion had been aroused.

This concerned the “Am Baumgartl” building project on the St Anna site, where further old people’s flats are now expected to be built, rather than a “children’s hotel” as originally planned. Locals objected to this change of purpose without being informed. Responding to their reservations, the mayor said he recognised people were looking forward to a family hotel being built and shared their disappointment to discover this was no longer to be the case. The suspicion among some locals is that such a hotel was never really intended in the first place, and that it was just a pretext to be able to get planning permission more easily. Not that the council were any more informed about all this than the locals themselves. Of note was that no representative of the developing company was present at the meeting.

The mayor reassured those present, however, that no permission would be granted to develop the site where the hotel was to be built without the council knowing fully what was planned. Until this time, nothing could be done, hence much patience was called for.

While it was clear there were some anger about this among those present, calm prevailed, the council being called upon to remain firm in any further negotiations. One resident, Thomas Hess, who had tabled a related question in advance of the meeting, was at least relieved to see the council was at one with the locals over this matter, as he confirmed he and others would be monitoring the situation very closely.

Other matters discussed included demands for improved bus services to Menzingen, with councillor Fridolin Bossard saying that, to this end, talks with the council in Oberägeri and other cantonal bodies had already taken place.
 
While on Unterägeri, a 69-year-old woman cyclist was injured as she fell off her bicycle on Mitteldorfstrasse, between Oberägeri and Unterägeri, shortly after 6 pm on Monday evening. She was duly taken to hospital but fortunately her injuries proved to be slight only.