Železná Ruda will build an environmental center from the former school

Železná Ruda (Klatovy) - Železná Ruda will begin transforming an abandoned primary school into an environmental and visitor center within a month. It will increase the attractiveness of the area, which seeks to ensure that tourists stay for more days. The renovation of the three-story building in the center will cost nearly 40 million crowns, most of which will come from the Operational Program Environment, with the city and the Šumava National Park sharing the remaining three million; it must be completed by the end of November, said Michal Šnebergr (ODS), the mayor of the largest Šumava resort with 2,000 inhabitants.
    "The center will be very important. Because visitors and tourists will have things to do on rainy days and will know what is happening in the area, what they can see, and how nature works here," he stated.
    In the first floor of the more than 100-year-old building, an exhibition of the park's flora and fauna will be created. The ground floor will house an information center, a skiing museum, which the city will relocate from the chateau and expand, and in the clubrooms, they want to present local authors. The basement will feature a lecture room for 70 to 80 people and facilities. Most of the total amount will be spent on equipment, including exhibits, computers, projection technology, and furniture.
    The nearly 13-year-abandoned building, which was replaced by a new school for 450 students, was used by the city hall as commercial spaces responding to the opening of borders. "With the decrease in German visitors, it is empty," said the mayor. The last time there was a baker two years ago.
    "We received a grant of 50 million crowns, but we won a lower price in the tender. The contractor has already been selected. Next week, we will submit contracts with the contractor to the State Environmental Fund," said the mayor. Construction work will begin within a month. "The National Park wants to contribute to our share of funding the project and to operations with two employees," said the mayor. Four people will work in the environmental center. Operations will be fully covered by rent, which the city will receive from a Czech company that will lease the ground floor of the former customs house, where a store with quality goods will be established. Energy costs at the center will amount to 300,000 to 400,000 crowns annually.
    The center will not take the form of a museum against the Coop shopping center; the city hall wants to inform about natural, tourist, and historical destinations in an attractive manner, mainly through interactive communication. The building is in very good static condition.
    The city information center has been operating for three years in the vacated spaces of the town hall. Each year, it serves up to 30,000 people.