I understand it is custmary for us to registrar as members of a village, which we did last year The Mayor drew up documents and we had to sign them and we became official members of the village. When you leave the village or sell your house you have to notifiy the Mayor so you can be taken off the registrar.  

Well I am not sure what being a member of the village means but we have a bit of a shock yesterday when we went into the community hall, it appears the floor in the small room and the kitchen area has sunk and is very dangerous.  Dotch is very worried about the cost of it I don't understan why as this is a municipality building and it is their responsibility to make the repairs but from what I gathered so far it is down to the members to contribute for any repairs From what one of the villagers said when they hall was painted it appears each household paid around 2000lev each  I  cannot believe this and maybe I MISUNDERSTOOD so I ask more questions.  

Dotch went down under the floor and he said it will cave in before long so we had to move everthing our and we are awaiting the obstina to come and take photos.  They think it will be around 30 to 40k lev to make the repairs.  This is totally stupid as the hall is in a bad condition anway, we have tried all sorts to make it look nice but the water still gets in under the ground and destroys the floors, looks like they build the building on earth and wood no concrete base but again I don't know that only seen down the hole and it is like a tunnel earth walls.

There is no way I will give them money for repairs this is not the communities responsibility an I will make sure they know it too.   I do hope I have got this wrong and the community families are not paying for the upkeep of this place.  For that sort of money they would be better knocking it down to where the new toilet was built last year and then building onto that a large room and a small kitchen.  Would cost far less.

Personally I doubt anything will be done only they will lock those two rooms off.  There are only about 30 people in our village now and only a hand ful come to the hall for events

At 2000 leva per household to paint the hall, I'd imagine they were using paint loaded with gold flakes!!! You've seen the size of my house and it cost me less than 250 leva for the whole job...2 coats, inside and out. That was me using top shelf paint with a 15 year warranty. Someone is having a lend of you.

Aparenty it cost 29k lev to paint the outside of the hall some years ago so I understand. Actually I will check with Dotcho. The new toilet and small washbasin built onto the side of the hall cloakroom cost 4000k lev, we were not asked for money for that so maybe I misunderstood. Funny when the builder built this he forgot to put ventilation in and when we opened it all up ready for the festival it was covered in water and mildew, took us days to clean it all off, Some builder eh!

justbazz wrote:

At 2000 leva per household to paint the hall, I'd imagine they were using paint loaded with gold flakes!!! You've seen the size of my house and it cost me less than 250 leva for the whole job...2 coats, inside and out. That was me using top shelf paint with a 15 year warranty. Someone is having a lend of you.

They note you are British (Irish) and they all believe that we walk around with £20.00 notes attached to our foreheads. I have also had the same sort of problems with the water board in Dobrich who think we are rich English

Berni If everybody in the village paid 2000 leva they would have enough to build an estate of Bulgarian standard properties

You hang on to your money, but it must be hard to do when you are such kind hearted people

willowsend wrote:

justbazz wrote:

At 2000 leva per household to paint the hall, I'd imagine they were using paint loaded with gold flakes!!! You've seen the size of my house and it cost me less than 250 leva for the whole job...2 coats, inside and out. That was me using top shelf paint with a 15 year warranty. Someone is having a lend of you.

They note you are British (Irish) and they all believe that we walk around with £20.00 notes attached to our foreheads. I have also had the same sort of problems with the water board in Dobrich who think we are rich English

Berni If everybody in the village paid 2000 leva they would have enough to build an estate of Bulgarian standard properties

You hang on to your money, but it must be hard to do when you are such kind hearted people

Rather than thinking they are ripping me off I will assume I misunderstood, which is probably the case, I find it very hard to believe they would pay that sort of money.  No the municipality will not be getting money from me to fix the hall up, we do a lot of work ourselves, they call on Dougie to do lots of maintenance work even strim the grounds as the mayor says there is not enough money. Funny I once spoke with a Bulgarian and said the people in the village are poor, he soon put me right How are they poor, they have land, house, animals and pensions they eat what they grow and lots of meat, they work outside all the time so house bills are very low, they don't need for anything.  So there you have it, even the villagers are rich

and how many donkey and carts do you see now, not forgetting the old lada cars

Since Bulgaria joined the EU there have been many improvements into their life styles and their way of life

willowsend wrote:

and how many donkey and carts do you see now, not forgetting the old lada cars

Since Bulgaria joined the EU there have been many improvements into their life styles and their way of life

In our village there is only one donkey now and a few more cars and even one lada, but you know these lada seem to go on forever.

As I said earlier...someone is having a lend of you. I've been part of our village for almost 12 years now (my wife was born here) and I've never been asked for money for the upkeep of village facilities...various village projects have been attended to, and completed by most of us banding together and just mucking in. I have helped the odd person, now and then, with a bit of cash....but it's more likely to have been with the loan of tools etc. They have always paid me back in kind...not that I ever demanded or expected it to be. They tend to either ring the doorbell and leave a basket of fresh trout or a dozen eggs...that sort of thing.

Just a small comment....most of my neighbours and villagers are Muslim folk and I would not swap them for the world!!

Update: Well the mayor came down and looked at the damage in the hall, took some photos and I understood went to the city Mayor. It appears they will not repair the damage but close those two rooms off and open what was the shop just knock a wall down and make a doorway. They did no submit funds for this I got a call to say they are working on the hall when I went down Marin our neigbbour had knocked the wall though and another neighbour had given them a door with a frame. So it appears they will be doing it all themselves after all. We were clearing, tiding and moving stuff most of yesterday so yet again the obstina have got away with not spending money. Oh and no, members are not asked to contribute to repairs so I think you were right [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] SOMEONE was having a lend of me.