Bartosz Szeliga, Vice Consul of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Lviv, paid a working visit to Drohobych. The guest of honor met with the city leadership represented by First Deputy Mayor Roman Beizyk, Executive Committee Administrator Vitaliy Vovkiv, Head of the Department of Culture and Tourism Development of the City Council Volodymyr Khanas, Head of the Department of Municipal Economy Andriy Pautkyna, Head of the Municipal Utility Company Volodymyr Suda, and representatives of the Polish community.
The topic that united the participants in the dialog was an unfortunate incident that took place at the old cemetery on Truskavetska Street. The thing is that while performing work on removing hazardous trees in the cemetery, the equipment failed – the cable did not hold out, which led to the fall of the cut tree. As a result, several tombstones were damaged.
Volodymyr Suda, the head of SMU, explained to everyone present that the old cemetery is planted with trees that are 100 years old or more. Many of the trees need to be removed immediately. Since a few years ago the city had an unfortunate incident when a storm caused hazardous trees to fall into the cemetery and cause considerable damage, work is being done to remove them on a regular basis. Since it is impossible to enter the cemetery with special equipment, climbers have to be involved. However, this time the equipment failed, which led to the premature fall of the tree. For this, the city utilities once again apologized to the Polish community.
When Roman Beizyk took the floor, he assured the audience that all damaged headstones would be restored.
In his turn, Bartosz Szeliga, Vice Consul of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Lviv, noted that he had personally visited the cemetery and inspected the damage. The Polish side has no complaints.
“It is certainly unfortunate that such an incident occurred, because cemeteries are primarily places of remembrance and prayer for those who have long been gone. However, we are well aware that it is not possible to drive special equipment along the narrow paths of the cemetery. Therefore, we understand that this was an unfortunate incident. We also see that the cemetery territory needs further improvement and removal of hazardous trees, of which there are still many,” Bartosz Szeliga summarized.
The head of the Department of Municipal Economy, Andriy Pautynka, added that the work to restore the damaged headstones will be carried out as part of the general cemetery improvement and landscaping in cooperation with the Polonika Institute (Poland), which is engaged in the protection and restoration of cultural heritage.
Long before this incident, agreements were reached with the Polonika Institute to carry out large-scale work at this cemetery. This includes the professional removal of hazardous trees, replacement of the fence, installation of new paths in the cemetery, general landscaping and other necessary and urgent work. The project is to start this year. A special working group will be set up for this purpose.