Metsäkankaan shopping centre is facing a demolition order

The City of Lahti and property owner Bonava have agreed to demolish the Metsäkangas shopping centre and landscape the area.

The Metsäkankaan shopping centre, once a bustling commercial area, is disappearing from the cityscape. Most of the property has been vacant for years and is being replaced by apartment blocks.

Now the City of Lahti and the owner of the property, Bonava, have agreed that the dilapidated building will be demolished and the owner will clean up and landscape the area. The building is still occupied by a pizzeria and the Wanha Mestari pub.

In 2013, the city and the former owner of the property, NCC Rakennus oy, entered into a land use agreement, which included construction obligations. The construction obligation was given an extension so that all houses would have to be built by the end of 2019.

The land use agreement specified a fine for neglecting the construction obligation, but the city has not collected it.

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The 25-year-old Sibelius House facade is crumbling and cracking – repairs will start in spring

The brick and glass walls of the Concert and Event Hall need to be renovated to meet the needs of this unique building.

Work will begin this spring on the facade of the Sibelius House in Lahti. Both the brick and glass walls have begun to deteriorate in the building, which turns 25 in April.

Some of the bricks are damaged or loose. The glass façade of the concert hall is also damaged and the seals need to be replaced.

The facade renovation is due to start in April and will last until September. The Sibelius House will be open for normal access throughout the renovation. The building areas will be fenced off from public access, and noise-generating works will be timed to coincide with the use of the premises.

The purpose is to reattach poorly placed bricks. At the same time, changes are made to prevent rainwater from flowing into the brick wall structures, so that they can withstand better.

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Lahti plans to appeal the Teboil site decision to the Supreme Administrative Court

The City of Lahti is dissatisfied with the decision of the Hämeenlinna Administrative Court in Teboil’s appeal against the non-renewal of the lease agreements for the plots.

The City of Lahti intends to take the dispute over the termination of the lease agreements for Teboil plots to the Supreme Administrative Court. Teboil appealed to the Administrative Court of Hämeenlinna against the City’s decision not to extend the lease of two plots of land to the company in 2022.

Lahti justified the non-renewal of the leases on the grounds that it did not want to potentially support Russia’s war of aggression through the Russian-owned Teboil. The city also cited potential financial risks.

The Hämeelinna Administrative Court annulled the decisions. It held, inter alia, that the Lahti City Environment Committee, which had taken the decisions, had no jurisdiction in the matter.

However, the Helsinki Administrative Court has given a quite different solution six months earlier in a similar dispute in Loviisa. The Helsinki Administrative Court considered, among other things, that the Loviisa City Council could not be considered to have exceeded its authority based on the arguments presented in the appeal.

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Continuous faults have plagued Lahti’s new library bus – Saaga remains off the road for now

The supplier of an electric library van is investigating a malfunction. The library is developing a replacement service for the library van.

For the time being, the Gulf library bus Saaga will be completely off the road.

The new library van has had a malfunctioning fault that has not been successfully located. The car has now been taken to a supplier to have the problem sorted out.

The library is trying to replace the library van service temporarily by other means, in order to be able to deliver bookings to customers and to take materials to schools and kindergartens.

– The car has had various problems throughout the fall. Now we hope that with a more thorough investigation the fault can be fixed.

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Lahti Kisapuisto’s new artificial turf tender is in the final stages

An error was discovered in the call for tenders last week, which was quickly corrected.

A tender is currently underway to find a new artificial turf builder for Lahti’s Kisapuisto stadium.

The procurement procedure was suspended on 8 January after an error was discovered in the tender specifications relating to the field fillers.

According to the revised request, the artificial turf, the flex layer and the heating pipes and irrigation system of the Kisapuisto stadium will be replaced. The old artificial turf at Kisapuisto stadium will be moved and installed at Karisto field.

Bids must be submitted no later than January 29.

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What makes grown-up women want to jump up a hill? “I was hooked from the first time”

Ski jumping is not just a sport for young daredevils. Soili Hirvonen and Elina Hölttä, who have found a new hobby as adults, explain why they want to go hill skiing.

Päijät-Häme joins the new centre of vitality in South-East Finland

The Häme Regional Development Centre will cease to exist when the new centres of vitality start operating. Kanta-Häme will become part of the Inner Finland region.

Päijät-Häme will become part of the new centre of vitality in South-East Finland. In addition to Päijät-Häme, the area includes South Karelia and Kymenlaakso.

The South-East Finland Centre for Vitality is based in Kouvola. The other offices are located in Lahti and Lappeenranta. The location of Päijät-Häme was decided at the political steering group of the project on Tuesday 14 January.

According to the Government’s earlier draft proposal, the Häme Region would have been fully included in the Uusimaa Centre of Vitality Region. Earlier in the autumn, it was decided that Kanta-Häme, together with Pirkanmaa, would form the vitality centre region of Sisä-Suomi.

The Häme ely center says in its press release that the joint preparation between Southeast Finland and the Häme ely center will start as soon as this week.

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New instruction: the City of Lahti banned the pride flag from the City Hall

The City of Lahti’s new flagging policy aims to make City Hall neutral and fair to all citizens.

The pride flag symbolising sexual pluralism, equality and equality will no longer be flown in the hall of Lahti City Hall.

On Monday, the City Council decided on a new flagging rule for the flagpoles at City Hall.

From now on, only the flag of an official status, such as Finland, a foreign country, the European Union or NATO, will be displayed on the bar.

The goal is to make the city’s role neutral and equal towards all city residents. The guidelines support the official and symbolic status of the town hall.

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Xylitol production struggles, but Fazer asserts its commitment to the Lahti plant

According to Fazer’s information, the oat husk xylitol plant is the only one of its kind in the world.

Last week, Fazer announced that it would start negotiations on changes at its xylitol plant. The plant has not been able to produce xylitol in line with its targets.

The xylitol plant started operations in Lahti about three years ago. It produces xylitol from oat husks. The investment was more than €50 million.

The motivation is strong as the demand for healthy food is growing and so is the demand for alternative sweeteners.

Coughing in production is not due to a single issue, but there have been several problems.

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Low empowerment was a disappointment for some social policy makers – boards are being made more attractive

Some decision-makers in the Päijät-Häme welfare region have been annoyed by the limited power of the boards. For example, budget powers cannot be transferred, but the content of the boards can be shaped.

The aim is to make decision-making in the Päijät-Häme welfare area more meaningful by streamlining decision-making bodies. A survey of regional councillors a year ago revealed that some of them were disappointed by the poor capacity to make decisions with concrete effects.

In municipalities, decision-makers can also influence how money is spent in the boards, but the boards in the welfare regions have no budgetary power. However, in order to motivate the work of the boards, their content will be renewed in the next period.

The reforms were prepared by a political steering group with representation from the regional council groups, and the new democratic structure was approved by the regional council in December. The reforms will come into force when the new regional council term starts after the spring 2025 elections.

Three boards will still remain in the region, but they will be reformed in terms of content. For example, the Safety and Preparedness Board today largely deals with rescue operations, but in the future the focus will also be more on overall preparedness for crises, which is more up-to-date than before.

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