The referendum on the Karlovy Vary colonnade would cost about 900,000 crowns

Karlovy Vary - Organizing a referendum on the construction of a replica of the Vřídlo Colonnade in Karlovy Vary would cost 900,000 korunas according to the city hall. The referendum, if the signatures can be supplemented, would not be completed in time for the parliamentary elections in October, said Mayor Petr Kulhánek (KOA) to ČTK.

"We will make a budgetary measure to allocate funds for holding the referendum, even though the proposal for the referendum has been returned to the organizers, because when checking the signatures, about 1,200 invalid ones were found," Kulhánek stated.

According to him, the city leadership has agreed with the petition committee to try to complete the missing signatures by the end of October. For the petition to meet the legal requirements for announcing the referendum, the organizers need about 990 valid signatures out of the approximately 3,870 required. If enough votes are found to announce the referendum, it could take place simultaneously with the presidential elections in January.

The petition requests the city to announce a referendum on the demolition of the Vřídlo Colonnade from the 1970s and replacing it with a replica of the colonnade based on the design by architects Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer from the late 19th century.

Kulhánek had previously stated that the option of a replica of the cast-iron colonnade from the 19th century should be one of the options. Another should be provided by an open architectural competition, which the city is simultaneously preparing.