Last council meeting with Mayor Péus: Focus on museum handover
Bestwig. For outgoing Bestwig Mayor Ralf Péus, it was the last council meeting that he chaired: "It's a bit of a strange feeling," he admitted at the end of the meeting. He had been a member of the council for 31 years, including the first 11 years as a councillor and the last 20 years as mayor. In total, he had attended around 200 council meetings. Ralf Péus thanked all current and former council members for their "constructive and very fair cooperation." He summarised: "The meetings were very factual, there were no show debates. It was always very focussed for the benefit of the citizens."
The mayor will be officially bid farewell at a ceremony on 2 November. 10 of the 28 councillors will also be leaving the council. Their farewells will take place at the constituent meeting of the new council.
A central topic of the last council meeting of the old council was the takeover of the Sauerland visitor mine by the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL). Legal questions and liability issues have dominated the last few months, according to museum director Friederica Ihling in the council. One problem is the so-called "perpetual obligations" - this is about who is responsible for the underground mine should the museum be closed and the underground facilities no longer be used. As the potential owner, the LWL would be fully liable for this.
A solution has now been found: The mine itself remains the property of Sauerländer Besucherbergwerk GmbH, as does the responsibility under mining law. There is a contract of utilisation with the LWL, which thus assumes responsibility for operating the mine. The LWL buys the plot of land with the museum building - and therefore also bears the costs for the urgently needed renovation of the building. All employees will be taken on by the LWL, including the museum director.
The timetable has been finalised: The takeover contracts will be signed on 28 October; the LWL will then take over museum operations on 1.1.26; the Sauerland visitor mine will then reopen as the LWL Museum of Industrial Culture on 1.2.26.
Mayor Ralf Péus explained to the council: "It would have been nice to transfer the entire package, then we wouldn't have this large number of contracts now." But: "I think we can live with it overall." Even if the takeover is now taking place differently than originally planned and has become a "rather difficult birth": "It is and remains a huge opportunity," said Ralf Péus, adding that this is the only way to preserve the Sauerland visitor mine as a "sustainable industrial museum".
The council of the municipality of Bestwig voted unanimously in favour of the takeover solution that has now been worked out.