Sienkevych believes that the car park next to the unfinished building on 3rd Slobidska Street can be returned to the city

Staff at the car park near the unfinished building on 3rd Slobidska Street, where the fence has been broken down again, are unwilling to patrol the surrounding area. Strangers are gaining access to the site and causing problems for residents of nearby buildings. Therefore, the car park could be returned to the city’s ownership and placed under the security of the municipal enterprise Timeset.

This was stated by Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych during a discussion of the unfinished building at a city council session, according to NikVesti.

At the meeting, councillor Dmytro Sichko noted that residents of six buildings on Tsentralnyi Avenue had approached him regarding the unfinished building on 3rd Slobidska Street. The fence there had been repaired before the war, but it was broken by ‘anti-social elements’.

«The fence was successfully destroyed by anti-social elements: some drug addicts, some teenagers. Now, by and large, it has become a gathering place for teenage culture. I was sent a video: up to 100 people gather there, drinking vodka among other things, throwing stones, and congregating at the long-term construction site. And, accordingly, they pose a threat to all the nearby buildings,» said Dmytro Sichko.

According to him, there was an incident where a bottle fell from the unfinished building onto an elderly woman’s head in the evening. However, the group scatters when the police arrive.

«This has become a major problem for this neighbourhood... The teenagers are making life impossible for the whole area,» said the councillor.

He suggested speaking to the police to get them to sort out the problem with the teenagers gathering there.

Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych pointed out that there is a car park next to the long-stalled construction site, and it is the car park’s management who should be responsible for the area. The preservation of this car park was lobbied for by councillors from the previous term of the city council.

«Let me remind you, in the previous term there were councillors on Mykolaiv City Council who lobbied for this private company and, it seems, prevented us from terminating the contract. The car park is situated near the long-stalled construction site. We said, if you have a car park there, then look after the whole area. They didn’t want to. There were two councillors lobbying for it, from the largest faction. I won’t name names or the faction,» said Oleksandr Sienkevych.

The mayor said that at the session, councillors could hear who is leasing the area and how much money the city receives for it. If the tenants do not wish to manage the area, it can be transferred to the balance sheet of the municipal enterprise Timeset, which operates car parks in Mykolaiv.

«If we find out that the city is receiving a pittance and they do not want to manage the site, we can understand that. We will terminate the contract and transfer the car park to the municipal enterprise Timeset. They have the staff and the expertise to handle this. They will organise security for the perimeter, install CCTV cameras, and everything will be fine,» said the mayor.

Ultimately, the head of the Central District Administration, Oleksandra Bereza, was tasked with preparing information for the next council meeting on what to do next with the unfinished building. They will also contact the police to ensure that patrol officers visit the site several times during the night.

It should be noted that residents of Mykolaiv have also complained about rats near the unfinished building on 3rd Slobidska Street. Residents fear that the dangerous rodents will find their way into nearby courtyards and residential buildings.

The history of the unfinished building

The unfinished building on 3rd Slobidska Street, where a polyclinic had long been planned, has repeatedly been the scene of criminal incidents. Oksana Makar was found on the site in 2012. In 2016, a 12-year-old boy fell from the roof of the unfinished building and died. In 2021, a woman’s body was found in the basement of the unfinished building.

Furthermore, schoolchildren often enter the site and take selfies on the roof.

In June 2016, Leonid Klymenko, rector of Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University (ChNU), approached members of the Mykolaiv City Council and spoke of his readiness to build a university clinic on the site of the unfinished building on 3rd Slobidska Street.

Subsequently, Oleksii Savchenko, head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, approached the city authorities with a proposal to transfer the unfinished building on 3rd Slobidska Street to the Mykolaiv National University free of charge, to house a medical centre and hospital there. Rector Leonid Klymenko and students from Mykolaiv National University spoke several times at sessions of the Mykolaiv City Council, requesting that the unfinished polyclinic building on 3rd Slobidska Street be transferred to the university’s balance sheet.

The councillors did not support the transfer.

On 12 June 2020, at a session of the regional council, councillors approved the transfer of the children’s infectious diseases hospital building to the university. Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Sienkevych stated that ChNU still plans to take the unfinished building on 3rd Slobidska Street onto its balance sheet.

In July 2021, deputies of the Mykolaiv City Council once again failed to pass a resolution on the transfer of the unfinished building on 3 Slobidska Street to the ownership of Mykolaiv National University. The resolution fell short by just three votes.

In August 2021, members of the standing deputy commission on housing and communal services of the Mykolaiv City Council refused to approve the draft resolution of the session regarding the inclusion of the unfinished building on 3 Slobidska Street in the list of small-scale privatisation properties for sale at auction. They also did not support the draft resolution on the free transfer of the property to ChNU for the establishment of a medical centre and hospital there.

In October 2021, the issue of the unfinished building was removed from the agenda of the City Council session.

In 2023, it was reported that documentation was being prepared in Mykolaiv for the future construction of a cluster hospital on 3rd Slobidska Street. However, the issue has remained unresolved since then.