Mayor of Larga village of Briceni district Radu Urechean uses an innovative method of informing the villagers about the events taking place in the settlement – the SMS system. As many as 2,300 mobile phone numbers have being included in the mayor’s database so far. But the database continues to be updated as, according to the last census, the village has 5,000 residents.

Contacted by IPN, Radu Urechean said the idea appeared after a concert staged at the local home of culture was attended by a few people only. When he asked villagers why they didn’t come to see it, many said they didn’t know about the concert. Thus, the mayor, who has technical education, decided to solve the problem with the help of an application that allows sending SMSes to different groups from the database with mobile phone numbers that he loaded into his tablet PC.

“The people not always read the posters at the mayor’s office. Now, if there is a concert, we invite all the women. If there is a football match, we inform all the men. Only a monthly subscription of 250 lei, with an unlimited number of messages included, is needed. The costs are not significant for the village, but the benefits are visible,” he stated.

Within a press tour organized to show how the mechanism works, the mayor sent SMSes to all the employees of the mayor’s office, summoning them for an emergency meeting. In less than a minute, the meeting hall was full of functionaries.

The mayor from Larga also fixed a video camera in his office to record all the discussions with villagers who ask for meetings with him. Radu Urechean said that in case of a conflict, the video recordings can serve as a proof. However, since the system was installed, no conflicts happened.