The Vidreres City Council, in La Selva (Girona) has put out to tender the works to build the day center that will be next to the civic center for 1.3 million euros.

The mayor, Jordi Camps, has announced that he hopes to start the works between “mid-May and early June at the latest.”

This is a project that started in 2018 and the council had already presented the model of the finished project. However, when it came to bidding for the works, the pandemic forced it to be delayed and later the war between Russia and Ukraine caused the local government to stop the project again due to the increase in construction materials.

In 2019, the Vidreres City Council demolished the old Sant Iscle school with the aim of speeding up the construction project of the day center, which was to be located in the same space.

The mayor remembers that that year they already had the project commissioned and presented the model to the neighbors. The first complication came the following year, in 2020, when the pandemic broke out and this stopped the project. “Everything was going well,” laments Jordi Camps.

After the Covid-19 pandemic, the council encountered a second problem that hindered the construction: it was necessary to remove the electrical panel from the old school.

Finally, the works were put out to tender, the project was awarded and the first workers began to work on the new building. In the middle, however, the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine broke out and the war generated an increase in the cost of construction products. This implies that the builders asked to compensate for the extra financial cost that purchasing the materials entailed. “We put out to tender the project for almost 990,000 euros and they asked us for practically 1.5 million euros,” says the mayor of Vidreres.

This caused the local government to stop the works. From there, the project prices were reviewed and updated and the bidding restarted from scratch. Now, the council has re-tendered the entire project for 1.3 million euros.

The idea is that the works begin between mid-May and early June. From there the center should be a reality within a year. “We hope there are no more obstacles,” says the mayor.

The day center will have a capacity for 40 people and will allow families to take older people during the day and carry out different activities. In addition, the facility is designed as “a reference point in services for older people” and food delivery will also be offered for people who live alone.

This project has a double objective. The first is “ensuring people have a healthy diet”, the second is monitoring. If food is brought to people who live alone every day, you can check “if they are well or if something is wrong.” In addition, the project contemplates an expansion to double the floors if necessary. The project has plenty of natural lighting to guarantee a friendly space for users.