FEBRUARY DIGEST. Most important news articles of „IPN Chișinău” news flow
February 1: The mayor of Chisinau Ion Ceban announced that the Ministry of Education has appointed a new head of the municipal Division of Education, Youth and Sports. According to him, the government, if it appointed the Division’s leader, should now also assume the financial responsibilities for the education sector. “Those from the PAS government want control over state institutions and, more recently, over municipal and local institutions, especially in an election year,” stated the mayor.
February 2: Three groups were formed in the Chisinau Municipal Council, of the parties with the largest number of seats – the National Alternative Movement (MAN), the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) and the Party of Socialists (PSRM). The meeting started at 10.00 a.m. with a scandal and mutual accusations. PAS councilor Zinaida Popa blocked the central rostrum, demanding that several issues be added to the agenda, including the questioning of social sector functionaries. The councilors of MAN and PSRM rejected the proposals, insisting that the groups and permanent commissions of the Council be created first.
February 3: The Chisinau Municipal Youth Center is recruiting young people into the volunteer team. The teenagers will be involved in activities of the Center’s Personal Development and Leisure Activities Service and the Volunteering and Information Service.
February 6: An assessment of the entire spectrum of provided medical-social services will be made in Chisinau so as to later agree the steps that need to be taken to develop them. The focus will be on accessibility, a friendlier infrastructure for people with special needs. The municipality further aims to increase the capacities of the centers that were opened recently.
February 6: The works to rehabilitate the memorial complex “Cemetery of Heroes” located on Decebal Blvd in the capital city have advanced. Teams of workers are now repairing the square in front of the stairs, where curbs and paving are being placed. Also, several elements of the stairs and alleys in the area were already built.
February 7: Three hospitals, five kindergartens and 14 high schools in Chisinau benefited from energy efficiency and thermal rehabilitation projects to the value of €25 million, which were funded by the EBRD and EIB. Another 27 educational institutions were thermally rehabilitated with funds from the municipal budget. Thermal insulation works were carried out in dozens of residential blocks.
February 8: The number of buses that run daily on municipal routes has increased from 85 in 2020 to 145 in February 2024. Of these, 99 units serve suburban routes, while 46 – urban routes. The Chisinau City Hall said that in 2019-2023, it opened, increased and extended the bus routes running to and from the suburban settlements following the procurement of 184 units.
February 9: A new playground with multi-colored slides and swings was set up on Gheorghe Asachi Street in Chisinau’s Telecentru district. The new equipment replaces old playground elements that were “in a deplorable state”, the municipal Directorate for Housing and Public Amenities said in a press release.
February 12: The mayor of Chisinau municipality Ion Ceban said that it would not be bad to install surveillance cameras in school classrooms. The statement was made after a teacher of a Chisinau high school allegedly hit a child.
February 13: Accordionist and conductor Mihai Amihalachioaie will be buried on February 14. The funeral ceremony will take place at “Nicolae Sulac” National Palace, starting at 10 a.m. At noon time, the body will be taken to the Central Cemetery in Chisinau for burial.
February 13: On several trolleybus and bus routes in the capital city, the fare can be paid through stationary validators. Immediately after payment, the traveler receives a notification confirming payment in the bank’s application or by SMS. Payment through the validator can be demonstrated to the ticket collector by bringing the card or device with which the fare was paid close to the POS terminal. The collector will receive a notification confirming the cashless payment.
February 14: The first lane of National Renaissance Boulevard, the section between Florilor and Albișoara streets, towards Albișoara St, will be inaccessible to traffic between February 15 and March 15. The Chisinau City Hall said that the measure was taken in connection with the need to carry out repair works on sidewalks in Râșcani district.
February 14: A fitness and workout ground was built at 17 Igor Vieru St in Ciocana district of the capital city. The works were completed, the General Housing and Amenities Division has said. According to the Division, another similar ground is being put up at 6/6 Mihail Sadoveanu St in the same district. The works have already begun.
February 14: The first lane of National Renaissance Boulevard, the section between Florilor and Albișoara streets, towards Albișoara St, will be inaccessible to traffic between February 15 and March 15.
February 15: The municipality of Chisinau in 2020-2023 allocated over 37 million lei for the repair, modernization and expansion of schools in the suburban settlements. The money went to build new spaces for study, for thermal rehabilitation, to change heating systems, to extensively repair roofs, to build sports grounds and to buy equipment and furniture.
February 16: Students of music and arts schools from all over the country are invited to take part in the national academic music contest “Eugen Doga”. The event is organized on April 13 to promote the artistic creation of composer Eugen Doga and ensure the exchange of experience between artistic education institutions.
February 19: In Chisinau, travel agencies provided tourism services to 324,300 tourists in January-September 2023, an increase of 13.5% compared to the same period of 2022. The number of tourists accommodated in Chisinau grew by 38.8% on 2022 Most of these tourists visited Chisinau for recreational purposes, while 1.1% arrived for business purposes. The tourists coming to the city are predominantly citizens of neighboring countries, such as Romania and Ukraine. The head of the General Division of Economy, Trade and Tourism Roman Vitiuc was asked about the situation in the field of tourism in Chisinau and the development prospects.
February 19: As last year, drawings made by pupils from Chisinau schools will be presented at an exhibition entitled “Children for Peace”. “Saturday marks two years since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. We have condemned from the very first day this war, the invasion of Ukraine. And from the very first day, we, the municipality, have become involved to the maximum to help Ukrainian citizens,” mayor Ion Ceban said at the weekly meeting of officials of municipal services.
February 19: A new block will be put into operation on the territory of Kindergarten-Crèche No. 125 in the Centru district of the capital city. This is an erected annex intended for two more groups. Also, the space for an already existing group within the institution was fully rebuilt. Within the project carried out by the municipality, the territory and playground were redesigned. New pavilions were built for three groups of children.
February 19: In Chisinau there are several types of platforms where waste must be sorted into four fractions or two factions. One of them is the standard platform where there are four containers - green, blue, yellow (for each type of recyclable waste) and galvanized containers for mixed waste. At these platforms, waste is sorted into four fractions – cardboard/paper, metal/plastic/PET/tetra pack, glass, and mixed waste.
February 21: Three groups were inaugurated in a newly built block at Kindergarten-Crèche No. 125 “Romanita” located in Center district of Chisinau. The municipality said the project to build an annex for two groups and the complete renovation of another group cost 9.3 million lei. In the inaugural ceremony, mayor Ion Ceban said that the municipality will continue to support the educational sector in the field of infrastructure – repair, extension and modernization of buildings of institutions – so as to create the best possible conditions for children and educators and to motivate young specialists to work at home and bring up a well-trained generation, tomorrow’s future of the country.
February 21: The General Housing and Amenities Division built 267 playgrounds since 2019 until the end of 2023. About 160 lot improvement requests have been dealt with this year, said the Division’s head Ion Burdiumov. In some cases it is not possible to put up a standard playground in the place where citizens request and actions are taken to identify the optimal solution. “For 2024, we are working on about 160 requests to install playgrounds and technical problems are encountered in the case of half of the remaining ones. For example, there are technical networks, district heating, gas, water, electrical networks in places where it would be convenient for citizens to have these playgrounds and it is thus not technically possible, but in these cases we go on site and find solutions. We do not install standard playgrounds, but fix separately play elements, figurines, which are agreed with the inhabitants and, respectively, we implement this solution,” stated Ion Burdiumov.
February 21: Two hundred residential blocks in Chisinau have been fully repaired since the launch of the municipal program two years ago. The works focused on the renovation of damaged roofs, engineering networks in places of common use and on the replacement of windows in staircases. The head of the General Housing and Amenities Division Ion Burdiumov said the repair works are planned to continue this year. Together with the entry into force of the Condominium Law in 2022, interventions in residential buildings are allowed only through municipal programs. Until now the Division was allowed to intervene based on requests from dwellers of blocks, but now it can intervene only through municipal programs.
February 23: The Chisinau City History Museum hosts two documentary exhibitions dedicated to the dramatic date of February 24, when it will be two years since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. The works present virtual tours with VR technology that render images of infrastructure, residential complexes and monuments of cultural heritage destroyed in Ukraine, but also objects of war that became testimonies for history.
February 28: In four years, the Chisinau City Hall invested over 67 million lei in the building, extension, repair, modernization and equipment of kindergartens situated in suburban settlements. According to mayor Ion Ceban, this is a joint effort of the municipality and the local authorities of the suburban localities, which results in the creation of hundreds of places for children in kindergartens and dozens of new employment opportunities in the education system.
