The Tyachivska amalgamated hromada builds roads and schools, investing millions of hryvnias in infrastructure projects. People are convinced here that well-being will follow the infrastructure growth as a shadow.

Author: Dmytro Synyak

Some cities and towns have certain core architecture – the place around which the life revolves. In medieval Lviv the Market Square was such a core, and in Kyiv there were several places of this kind: Maidan, governmental triangle, St. Sophia’s square... And prior to the World War II a major road bridge across the Tysa river was the centre of life in the town of Tyachiv, located in the Zakarpattya Oblast. It connected the town extended on both banks of the river, with the black Maramorosh mountain range rising above. The road through Tysa has always been the key one for the town ...

"The bridge was blown up by the retiring German units in October 1944, and since then it has not been restored," said Ivan Krychfalushyi, secretary of the Tyachivska amalgamated hromada. “We repeatedly initiated its restoration, but all in vain. We are the best friends with the Romanians, who live on the other bank of the Tysa. By the way, the local Romanian authorities are also absolutely in favour of the bridge reconstruction as it will breathe life in the decadent villages there.

“Well, Sir, has the life changed for better or worse after amalgamation?” I asked the gray-haired man who was about to cross the road opposite the Lazy village council. He looks at me with distrust, and then points to the new asphalt-surfaced road.

“Do you see it?” he asks. “Since I remember myself, the road at this place was like a knee-high swamp. And now look! In recent years, we used to walk to Tyachiv on foot, because there were no route buses – no one wanted to reach us along such a road. And getting certificates was like a horror task. And now everything can be received in…, in this ... ehh ...”

“In TsNAP (ASC)?”

“Exactly! What a word! Of German origin or what? They say, the TsNAP (ASC) was opened by the Germans in Tyachiv.”

Probably now, we do not have too much of everything in our village council, but we hope that everything will change for the better. Thus, step by step, everything will improve here, and, maybe, in some ten years, the Romanians will start coming to us for work,” said Vasyl Klyuchkey, starosta of Lazy.

He laughs at his own joke, and then adds seriously: “And what? They themselves will ask to open our cross point. You will see.”

“Then we will restore the old Tyachiv bridge," Ivan Krychfalushyi smiled. “There was time, when bridges were being destroyed, and now it's time to rebuild them.”

The full version is available in Ukrainian – please click HERE