The local parliament at a session on Thursday should consider the civic initiative in relation to Kalimanj, which was submitted by a group of voters "Arsenal for Tivat". In its initiative sponsored by 315 adult citizens from Tivat, it is requested that the Municipality retain the management or use of the marina Kalimanj and that the activities of the use and provision of marine services be entrusted to its Utility Company. The signatories of the initiative require that the marina retain the status of a utility rather than a commercial marina that will provide services to all citizens of Tivat. It is also sought that the Municipal Assembly "makes a conclusion in accordance with this initiative, in order to protect the interests of the citizens of Tivat who built the marina Kalimanj exclusively from the funds collected by self-financing".
The town marina Kalimanj has ten piers and 377 berths mostly for small boats and motor boats of the citizens from Tivat and has so far been managed by the local Utility Company. In the actual form, the town marina was built in the mid-eighties with the self-financing resources that were set up by the citizens from Tivat themselves. Nevertheless, the Government declared Kalimanj to be a marina of local significance and entrusted the management to JP "Morsko dobro" from Budva, obliging that the state-owned firm offer the town marina of Tivat on the tender for the selection of a new concessionaire, which will enable part of Kalimanj's capacity to obtain a commercial purpose and to be rented to nautical tourists.
"The marina Kalimanj is an important resource that should certainly remain the municipality’s property or in the inherence of the Utility company, which has maintained this marina so far. We are confident that this will be the case in the future as well," Kusovac said yesterday, not pointing out, however, why he believes that the state will give the concession to the Municipality of Tivat of its own town harbor in a situation where there are some private entrepreneurs interested in taking over Kalimanj. The concession is usually granted for five years with the possibility of extension, and it is expected that the tender will be announced by the end of the year. The bidder is obliged to submit a business plan and investment program with an estimate of the financial and technical feasibility of building infrastructure and port superstructure, its maintenance as well as the development and modernization of port services, construction of supporting facilities and other economic activities. The concessionaire is obliged to, within three years from the signing of the contract on concession, carry out the investment whose value is estimated at about 200 thousand euros. Its obligation is to produce a report on the existing environmental status within six months from the beginning of the concession, as well as an assessment of the environmental impact assessment, which will define the measures during the execution of the works and the operation of the marina.
Image from the town’s marina Kalimanj
"The concession aims to improve the economic use of the marina with local importance for Marina Tivat - Kalimanj with the obligation to give priority to the berths for the current users, registered owners of vessels owned by residents in the municipality of Tivat. The tender is foreseen that only five berths have commercial status and the rest, 372 are utility berths. A small percentage of berths are for commercial use, while most are for communal berths, where we see a chance that the Utility company Tivat will get the concession," said Kusovac.
From the Municipality, it is stated that the annual revenue generated by the future concessionaire of Kalimanj "from renting the berths to the existing users" will be "no less than 60 thousand euros, while the fixed part of the concession fee is defined in the amount of 12 thousand euros per year." Translated, this means that the local government is prepared to pay at least as much money plus a variable amount as a percentage of all realized income to "Morsko dobro" and to the state in order to own the town marina built by the funds of the citizens themselves. Kusovac, however, did not say whether the local administration intends to take legal action because the state had made declarations and laws at their own convenience, effectively depriving the municipal valuable property and bringing the town into a situation to compete with the private companies in order to be able to rent its own property - the small-town marina Kalimanj.
Text by Boka news, on October 10th, 2018, read more at Boka news
