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Voices in the wilderness

Brdy area leaders debate funds for the U.S. radar borderlands

By Markéta Hulpachová
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
October 17th, 2007 issue

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Strašice Mayor František Nerad by the derelict former army barracks that he says are a "plague" on a town unable to afford their upkeep.
Jince Mayor Josef Hála's town lies just outside of the region receiving funding.
Spálené Poříčí Mayor Pavel Čížek says the funds won't fully cover needs.
"The U.S. should think about building a radar base of that caliber on their own soil before they decide to put it here." Václav Hála, 34, passing through Míšov
"I'm afraid that it will affect the health of the people who live here. They say that there aren't any health risks, but we'll only find that out with time." Marie Sedláková, 75, pensioner, Spálené Poříč
"We're worried about the effects this radar is going to have on nature. They're our forests — we go camping here all the time." Michal Šimelík, 43, passing through Míšov
"I'm all for the radar base. In this God-forsaken region, we have a lot to gain." Jana Hodková, 49, waitress and Míšov resident
"I'm not all that concerned about the radar — I'm too old. What we do need is some sort of (financial) support." Josef Cígler, 84, Spálené Poříčí resident
When the government chose a military base in Brdy, a 70-km forest highland stretching from central to west Bohemia, as a likely location for the proposed U.S. radar base, the announcement was met with skepticism from many locals, who view the base as a threat to their personal health and security .
But the presence of foreign troops is nothing new for Brdy residents. Since 1926, they have lived on the periphery of a 260-square-kilometer patch of military grounds that occupies more than two-thirds of the region. Civilians are prohibited from entering a majority of the land and a strategic lack of roads cuts off communication between neighboring villages, leading Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek to nickname the region “the country’s internal borderland.”
Spotlighted by continuing Czech-U.S. negotiations around the planned radar base, the Brdy region may soon benefit from the Oct. 3 appointment of a special government committee to revitalize the area through aid from the state budget and increased access to European funds.
One day after the committee’s first meeting Oct. 12, Brdy-area mayors talked to The Prague Post about regional development, their perception of the planned radar base, and the economic burdens of small towns.
Spálené Poříčí, west Bohemia
Population: 2,544
Mayor: Pavel Čížek
Prompted by criticism from Brdy mayors, who said they felt collectively under-informed about the radar base, a group of top government officials, including Topolánek, traveled to Spálené Poříčí — a town south of the military base — to discuss local concerns about the radar base’s possible effects.
“In his address to the mayors, Topolánek hit the nail on the head when he told us ‘I am not interested in your opinions about the radar base — that’s for the government to decide’,” says Spálené Poříčí -Mayor Pavel Čížek.
While mayors like Jan Neoral, the outspoken mayor of nearby Trokavec, have launched international campaigns in protest of the planned radar base, Čížek exempts himself from the ongoing political debate.
“Whether or not the U.S. decides to build a radar base here is none of my business — it’s a national security concern,” he says. “My job is to make sure the local municipalities get the money they so desperately need.”
The special government committee announced Oct. 12 it would allocate from 200 to 250 million Kč [$10–13 million] of the state budget and up to 1 billion Kč of EU funding to towns within 10 kilometers from the planned radar base. According to Čížek, the committee aims to primarily invest these funds into local infrastructure. “When you take into account the scope of the projects the region needs, 250 million Kč isn’t very much money,” he says.
As one of two mayors on the committee, Čížek’s priority is to allocate as much funding as possible for regional infrastructure and for municipalities like Míšov, a tiny village less than 2 kilometers from the planned radar base.
“Towns like Míšov don’t have the budget to fix up their cultural center, much less pay for infrastructural projects and sewage systems,” he says. “People are getting their water from homemade wells that don’t meet regulations and are often riddled with radon.”
While high-ranking members of the government opposition including Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) deputy chairman Jiří Dolejš say the government’s offer to revamp the region is an “expedient” to suppress regional resistance to the radar base, Čížek says it is not his place to ask questions.
“Topolánek has promised to give us those funds regardless of whether or not the radar base will be built here,” he says. “The current debate has simply drawn the government’s attention to a region that has suffered from long-term neglect.”
Strašice, west Bohemia
Population: 2,548
Mayor: František Nerad
After spending his work day poring over the town budget, Strašice Mayor František Nerad walks through the remnants of a defunct military base whose 46 dilapidated buildings represent what he calls “the plague of Strašice.”
He pauses in front of the old Military Health Center, a crumbling building with bashed-in windows where two girls frolic in a game of hide-and seek.
“It’s depressing,” he says.
The old military barracks are a gift from the Czech army, which closed the base in 2004 and relocated deeper into the Brdy Military Grounds. “Rather than paying for the demolition, it was easier to just transfer the responsibility onto us,” Nerad says.
After adding up costs for projects like sewer cleanup, boiler station and soil rehabilitation projects, Strašice is saddled with million-crown expenditures that well exceed the town’s budget.
According to Nerad, these necessary investments make the buildings “impossible to sell,” and force the town to invest most of its funds into keeping the area from posing a public safety hazard, which siphons money away from plans to revamp the town hall, the sewer system and the school.
Due to the town’s notorious financial problems, the planned radar base is a welcome development for Nerad.
“We’ve tried to call attention to this situation countless times, but before talks of a radar base began, no one talked to us,” he says. “If they offer to give us money like they promised, we’re taking it, and we don’t care why it’s being given to us.”
Jince, central Bohemia
Population: 2,214
Mayor: Josef Hála
Adjacent to the shooting range in the northern part of the Brdy Military Grounds, Jince is located approximately 19 kilometers from the planned radar base, making it ineligible for the government commission’s funding.
“I suppose some of those forgotten little villages need the help more than we do,” says Jince mayor Josef Hála.
Nevertheless, Hála says Jince would welcome funds to modernize its decrepit cultural center, rehabilitate a stretch of unused army barracks and reorient the town to gas heat to eliminate the pollution caused by burning coal.
“With the money [the government] is offering, anything over the 10 kilometer cutoff would probably disperse it too much,” he says.
Over the past few months, Hála has been a staunch opponent of the planned radar base. Aside from sympathizing with citizen concerns that the signals emitted by the radar will have a negative impact on their health, he worries that strategic changes caused by its construction will relocate the nearby army base. “The army belongs here — they’ve always been a huge help to the town,” he says. “They built the preschool and came to the rescue when the [2002] floods came. If they leave, we’ll have nothing but our bare hands.”

Markéta Hulpachová can be reached at mhulpachova@praguepost.com


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