Mayor Yiorgos Nikolakakis, in one of the brighter council meetings last month, announced that one of the goals with the Education Ministry has been attained and that Center for Environmental Studies will be founded at the old base. The mayor noted “the input and efforts of New Democracy MP Lefteris Avyenakis towards achieving the approval of this project were invaluable," and Mr. Nikolakakis publicly thanked the MP who was a surprise guest at the meeting.

Mr. Avyenakis said this center will be the only one in Greece specializing in sea matters, and the Hellenic Center for Marine Research, also on the base, will support the new center in many ways with its amazing laboratories and research facilities.

The mayor said the municipality will offer two building facilities, the church and the doctor’s offices, both on the base, with plans for guest quarters for students and visitors. He added: "Certainly an alternative tourism destination is taking shape."

About 23 different issues were on the docket, not counting the extras, and many of these items dealt with reforming of existing technical programs and re-calculating the budget, creating code for . . . followed by listings of village road maintenance, laying of asphalt and tiles, municipal vehicles maintenance, new municipal police uniforms and many other projects followed by a whole bunch of Euros. A bit puzzling to the layman at first until, until you realize that “re-formation of …” is just another way of saying that the year is coming to an end, some of the programs we voted on will never materialize now, so let’s take from here patch that spot over there and next year we start anew.

The issue to paint the town hall building, however, was approved, with the funds – 1.500 Euros – coming from that seemingly bottomless well of wealth, Municipal Reserve.

Then, council president Manolis Anagnostakis suggested that the Pano Gouves doctor’s office needed a new coat of paint, and another 500 Euros was pulled from the well.  

(By the way, has any one noticed the Kokkini Hani municipal doctor’s office recently?)