Lohn-Lüterkofen train station
Loans approved for schools and train stations: The Lohn-Ammannsegger have big plans
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The municipal council approves planning credits for “School +” and the train station for the attention of the municipal assembly.
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Railway crossing at Lohn-Lüterkofen station.
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The Lohn-Ammannssegg community assembly will decide on two large loans on June 18. One concerns the Lohn-Lüterkofen train station, which is an important option for the village and the Bucheggberg district to switch from bus and car to train.
The federal government and the cantons expect a significant increase in passengers. This is why the Bern-Solothurn regional traffic (RBS) has worked out improvements for the rail network. For the Lohn-Lüterkofen train station, whose historic building will be preserved, this means optimizing the track and platform systems, redesigning the bus station and the driveways and parking spaces. The budget as a whole is between CHF 24 and 30 million.
A cost splitter determines who from the canton (37 percent), railways (28 percent) and municipality (35 percent) is responsible for which tasks. The community takes over the creek passage, the level crossing, the Bike + Ride facility and the expansion of the community road and works to 100 percent. Subsidies are to be expected for this.
The planning costs for all three partners amount to 1.8 million francs. The municipal council then unanimously applied for CHF 600,000 to work out the preliminary project for the expansion and renovation of the station. The loan is presented to the community meeting. Construction work is scheduled to begin in 2025.
Lohn-Ammannsegg needs more school space
At an information event in October 2020, the population was already informed about guideline projects for the new “Schule +” building on the Stöckliacker and for the construction of a single gym on the school premises in addition to the existing multi-purpose hall. Because of the construction activity, Lohn-Ammannsegg, which currently has 2900 inhabitants, is growing. School and sports facilities are already too small for the current school youth, it said.
The municipal council has now decided to design the preliminary project as part of a study assignment «in an open dialogue process with the community population». The municipal council unanimously supported the embassy with the planning loan of CHF 500,000.
What should the village do in the energy sector?
“Should the community of Lohn-Ammannsegg make their way to the energy city?” In any case, its legislative goals stipulate that it wants to get involved in the energy sector. The environmental protection commission, represented at the council meeting by President Rolf Howald and consulted advisor Patrick Bussmann, had worked out in an extensive basic paper what goals, strategies and concrete measures could look like.
It gradually records an initial inventory of the municipality’s «energy check» and principles that correspond to international, national and cantonal goals. The “Climate Charter” of Swiss cities and municipalities is also mentioned.
Specifically, after the formulation of energy policy guidelines, the commission proposed two variants. The first (72,200 francs) plans to become a member of the sponsoring association until certification as an energy city in 2025. Option 2 (75,000 francs) does not participate and thus at the same time waives contributions from the canton and the federal government and seeks an independent path.
The municipal council discussed intensively how the municipality could actively use the lever. In the end, it was decided to wait until the experiences of other Energy City participants after the summer vacation would bring more clarity before deciding on the variant.
“We have our costs under control”
Mayor Markus Sieber was happy about the positive result of the 2020 annual accounts, which resulted in a surplus of CHF 668,200.90 with income of CHF 13.09 million. Tax revenue came to CHF 10.2 million and equity increased to around CHF 4.5 million. He is particularly pleased after the difficult result in the previous year, “which was due to the accumulation of disadvantageous situations,” said Sieber. Additional credits of around 757,000 francs were approved within the competence of the municipal council. Noticeable here are the additional costs of 196,000 francs caused by “additional loops” in the local planning revision. A net amount of CHF 1.4 million was invested. The self-financing rate in the reporting period was 84.46 percent. The auditing commission had analyzed and confirmed the invoice compiled by financial administrator Anita Begert-Ammon from all the submissions, and provided extensive comments at the meeting, which were supplemented by information from the council members. For example, about the need for additional information on the job descriptions and the capacities in the workload of employees and officials. Jörg Stalder, President of the Auditing Commission, announced that Vice President Remo von Burg would succeed him on the vacancies in his own commission.
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