Three closed military towns merge into one
The three closed military towns Snezhnogorsk, Polyarny and Skalisty are about to be merged into one single closed military town, called Aleksandrovsk. On Sunday the first elections to Aleksandrovsk town council are held.
On Sunday March 1, the 50 000 inhabitants of the three towns, two of them homes to Northern Fleet submarine units and one to a major ship repair yard, will elect deputies to the newly established Aleksandrovsk town council.
It is still not clear where the new town’s administration will be located, TV company RTR-Murmansk reports. Inhabitants of Snezhnogorsk argue that they have the largest enterprise – the ship repair yard Nerpa – while inhabitants of Polyarny argue that they have the highest number of inhabitants. It will be up to the Aleksandrovsk town council to decide where to place the administration. The town council deputies will also elect a mayor amongst their ranks.
115 candidates are competing for the 21 seats in the council. 70 of the candidates are party independent, while United Russia is the largest party with 17 candidates.
The Polyarny newspaper Severnaya Subbotnyaya Gazeta recently published a survey on the inhabitant’s position toward the merger, web site mbnews reports. 51 percent answered that they were negative to the reform. 24 percent were positive and 22 percent had not yet made up their mind. Nine out of ten think that information about the merger has been poor.
When asked who their favourite to the post of Mayor of Aleksandrovsk is, 34 percent answered Head of Snezhnogorsk administration Yury Yurlin.
