Changwon Special City Mayor Hong Nampyo, "We Will Penetrate into Citizens' Lives and Complete Life-Oriented Projects"

Expansion of Urban Parks, Creation of Safe School Zones for Children

Hong Nampyo, Mayor of Changwon Special City in Gyeongnam, expressed his determination to directly engage with citizens this year and complete life-centered projects.

Changwon Special City has set its direction to enhance citizen convenience and satisfaction by focusing on projects directly related to citizens' daily lives while improving citizen benefits through life-centered administration.

On August 10 last year, Mayor Hong Nam-pyo personally rushed to the Ssuljae Tunnel site where soil erosion occurred due to Typhoon Khanun, the 6th typhoon.

To this end, the city will prioritize next year's resident participation budget for life-centered projects and begin cleaning fallen leaves from rainwater inlets in preparation for the summer rainy season. Additionally, it will promote life-centered administration in various fields such as maintenance of children's school routes and park playground equipment, as well as large-scale environmental cleanup around living areas.

◆ Prioritizing Resident Participation Budget for Life-Centered Projects

Starting in March, Changwon City will focus on discovering "life-centered projects that citizens can feel" through a public contest for next year's resident participation budget projects totaling 3 billion KRW.

The resident participation budget system, which allows residents to directly participate in budget allocation, is open to all Changwon citizens. Proposed projects undergo department review, resident opinion collection, evaluation, online voting, budget allocation, and deliberation and approval before being finalized. Projects selected through this process are implemented the following year.

The city plans to first allocate next year's resident participation budget to "life-centered projects" directly related to citizens' lives, such as environmental improvement, safety, road and sidewalk maintenance, and sports and park facility maintenance.

◆ Cleaning Fallen Leaves from Rainwater Inlets in Preparation for Summer Rainy Season

Due to recent rapid changes in weather conditions causing frequent heavy rains and flooding damage, Changwon City will promote a public-private cooperative cleaning of fallen leaves from rainwater inlets in preparation for the upcoming summer season.

Rainwater inlets are important facilities that channel rainwater into drainage pipes during heavy rain, but they often fail to function properly due to various trash and fallen leaves, becoming a major cause of urban flooding. In particular, there are about 150,000 rainwater inlets in the city, making it difficult to manage them solely with administrative personnel.

Accordingly, the city plans to designate local residents such as neighborhood leaders and self-governing organizations as rainwater inlet monitors by district to quickly remove trash and debris entering these inlets through a responsibility management system. This system involves residents regularly inspecting and managing the cleanliness of rainwater inlets in their areas and reporting any deficiencies to the responsible departments for prompt action, forming a public-private cooperative framework.

Along with this, the city will invest 7.6 billion KRW this year to promote additional installation and maintenance of rainwater inlets and will carry out urgent repairs on facilities requiring maintenance.

◆ Expanding Life-Centered Parks and Comprehensive Maintenance of Playground Facilities in the City

Changwon City will invest a total of 6 billion KRW to expand parks, which serve as rest spaces for citizens. Projects include the creation of Dalcheon Eco Green Park, the forest sky path at Huindolme Park, expansion of children's playground facilities at Handeul Park, maintenance of aging facilities at Sogye Sports Park, and the establishment of a barrier-free urban forest at Yongwon Lake Park.

The city will first focus on Dalcheon Park in Buk-myeon, which is gaining attention as a family-friendly recreational facility, aiming to complete the construction of a new restroom and expand the insufficient parking lot by the first half of this year. It will also expand various leisure spaces such as music play areas, tree houses, and picnic spots within the children's forest experience center to create an Eco Green Park.

Additionally, the city plans to promote a barrier-free urban forest project within Yongji Lake Park to enable all citizens to comfortably use park facilities by creating universal design slopes, barrier-free forest trails, and rest areas.

The city will also conduct comprehensive maintenance of facilities to create a safe and pleasant park environment. The targets are aging exercise equipment and playground facilities installed in neighborhood parks and children's playgrounds. Minor issues found during inspections will be repaired internally, while facilities posing safety risks will undergo maintenance work, gradually improving playground facilities.

◆ Accelerating the Creation of Safe School Zones

Changwon City is also accelerating efforts to create a safe commuting environment where children, who are vulnerable to traffic, can walk safely. To this end, it will invest 3.5 billion KRW in projects including improvement of child protection zones (2 billion KRW), improvement of children's school routes (900 million KRW), installation of protective fences (500 million KRW), and improvement of pedestrian path discontinuities in front of schools (100 million KRW).

Using 100 million KRW from last year's traffic administration evaluation award, the city is working on improving crosswalks at pedestrian path discontinuities in front of schools, aiming to complete the project before the new school term.

Furthermore, in 97 child protection zones including Jungdong Elementary School, the city will install or replace traffic safety facilities such as anti-slip pavement, traffic signals, and crosswalks. To directly protect students from vehicles, it will build protective fences totaling 5 km along school routes at 31 locations including Myeongdo Elementary School.

Along with this, the city plans to improve 54 aging sections into safe walking environments by replacing school route pavement blocks and traffic safety facilities.

Hong Nampyo, Mayor of Changwon Special City, said, "The most important thing for citizens to live safely and comfortably is to promptly resolve inconveniences." He added, "Through life-centered projects such as expanding urban parks and installing additional rainwater inlets, we will make citizens feel the changes in Changwon."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.