Par serge.velain
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The Mayor of Bernay (Eure) Marie-Lyne Vagner was barely joking when she said at a city council meeting, this Thursday, June 6, 2023.
With Pierre (Bibet), we have been asked many times to buy us the Gabelle. Since I didn’t want to be burned in the forecourt like Joan of Arc, I said no.
Unless you want to end up as a martyr, we do not see why the mayor of Bernay would change his mind in the years to come and we can therefore think that the Gabelle, Establishment protected by Historic Monuments, will remain in the municipal fold. But the future of the building seems more complicated than at first glance.
A grant application
Concretely, the municipal council authorized this Thursday, April 6 the mayor to apply for a grantunder the program Small towns of tomorrow, for “programmative, legal and financial study for the reconversion of the Gabelle site. »
The ORT is part of Small towns of tomorrow
In 2021, Broglie, Bernay, Brionne, Mesnil-en-Ouche and Beaumont-le-Roger were selected for the national program Small towns of tomorrow. The five municipalities have validated a common application, around the Intercom Bernay Terres de Normandie.
Launched in 2020 by the government, this system allows cities with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants to benefit from state support for projects concerning the improvement of the lives of inhabitants with a view to ecological transition. The projects resulting from the agreement of the operation of revitalization of the territory (ORT) are therefore part of this logic of revitalization of the territory, with as a central point, a new development of the town centers on the question of housing and shops.
A total of 1,600 municipalities have been selected in France, for a total budget of three billion euros.
Grant applications are a classic in municipal life. But this request-to was an opportunity to take stock of “the Gabelle file”, of which the mayor had not revealed much until now.
Marie-Lyne Vagner indicated this Thursday, April 6 that “We did an initial study which enabled us to quantify the amount of work to save the Gabelle”, that is to say, to restore the status of a building that can accommodate the public. Concretely, the municipality wishes to revive this place with the project of creating a hotel and seminar rooms therewhile retaining ownership of this property.
4.9 million euros of works
How much will it cost to achieve this? 4.9 million excluding taxes! This is indeed the sum that emerges from the first study mentioned above.
On the basis of the results of this first study, it is necessary to undertake a second study to consolidate and refine the programming envisaged by the municipality on the basis of a market study and define the necessary and most suitable legal and financial arrangements to allow the implementation and management of this project, we can also read in the municipal deliberation. This study, at an estimated cost of €34,000 including tax, could be financed up to 50% by the Bank of territories under the Small Towns of Tomorrow scheme.
Concretely, it is a question of finding a financial arrangement (public money, sponsorship…) in order to carry out the mayor’s plans: to remain the owner of the Gabelle, to find a new use for it and thereby, don’t end up on a stakegiven the attachment that some Bernayens seem to have for the building.
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