#fencing #gym #action
CREMONA – At the fencing gym, the knockout thrust comes from the building next door, the one where a mortuary will be built. In the Red Cross square, with the storms of recent days, the work in progress has flooded the headquarters of the Academy of Arms named after Gino Bellonithe first athlete from Cremona to participate in the Olympics, in Stockholm in 1912, and his brothers Alfredo e Antonio Di Dio EmmaChristian partisans, soldiers who fell during the War of Liberation and fencers of a good competitive level.
Angelo Garioni
Two centimeters of water on the ground, the electrical panel out of order, lessons missed. And internal damage for around 10 thousand euros in the headquarters of the Academy of Arms: 35 members, of which about fifteen children «The Academy was founded in 1835 and is the fifth oldest society in Italy», says an «angry as a beast” Angelo Garioni, architect and president of the Academy. In 2021, the main body of the former Red Cross headquarters was sold to the Pietra funeral home.
One of the flooded offices
The building where the Academy is located «is owned by the Municipality of Cremona; Since 2019 we have had it on loan for use, we don’t pay the rent, but the utilities – explains Garioni -. However, the Municipality takes on the burden of carrying out the maintenance work. Meanwhile, there were small losses. Discussions with the Municipality, a thousand promises, zero jobs in several years. Every now and then we patch it up, but the building is restricted.” Having made the premise, Garioni explains: «In the building next door they began work in February this year and they erected the scaffolding on our roof, but not only did they assemble it. What is the problem? Our roof is a century old, it was redone in 1986, but it does not have the corrugation that protects against infiltration and above the tiles. It has directly supported Marseille tiles. What does it mean? It means that if you break a tile, it rains directly inside, also because there isn’t a dead attic: I have plasterboard, it rains directly. They not only put up the scaffolding, they remove the tiles probably to go directly onto the joists, they put in cellophane which, promptly, blew away at the first storm.”
Damage caused by water infiltration
At the beginning of February, «the first minimal flooding. I call the company, I call the property: ‘Settle up’. Nothing”. At the beginning of April, «the second flood: I call back more and more angrily, meanwhile I write to the Municipality who knows everything. They send a bricklayer who, laconically. he tells me: ‘But we will dismantle in June, July’. Yesterday (Saturday, ed.) they wrote to me that they will dismantle tomorrow (today, ed.), but it’s impossible. They just say that to keep me calm. The other day, mega storm: I had the rooms completely flooded with two centimeters of water in the presidency room and in the armory room. They got wet, hopefully not destroyed, with the historical documents I had in my archive. Some important things also got wet, such as the first sash embroidered by the Academy’s First World War orphans, because we had fallen soldiers. Now it’s all soaked, I hope it doesn’t have to be thrown away.”
The floor flooded
«The furniture has gone – he continues -, obviously the plasterboard needs to be changed. The biggest damage? The entire electrical system blew out. And if the electrical system fails, the score counter, all the electronic machinery and fencing computers fail. So, I can’t teach. I find my parents furious, rightly so. If there is no score, how can you tell the child you’re wrong here, you’re wrong there. I no longer have light in the gym, because the cables probably got wet. 12 lamps burned out as soon as they were changed. There is no electricity, because the company has closed my meter on its construction site, to which I have no access at all. I called the company, nothing. I notified the architect Corbari, he told me that he doesn’t know anything, they gave me the client’s number, but he doesn’t answer.” Garioni did not stand still. “I took action, I carried out an appraisal, I notified the Municipality.”
Work in progress on the building next to the Academy of Arms in the Red Cross square
Talks about “lot of damage: the electrical system has failed, everything needs to be redone. Who pays 8 thousand euros? The damages are between 8 and 10 thousand euros. And then there is also a safety problem, in the sense that there is a leaky roof, it was soaked for four months. The roof will need to be removed. Ten thousand euros are the internal damages. Because then you have to check the beams, repaint them all and change all the tiles. It would appear that no one on the other side wants to do it. No one came to tell me: ‘Don’t worry, architect, we will repair the damage’. They simply told me: ‘When we dismantle the scaffolding, we put the tiles in place’. Yes, fine, but what about internal damage? I warned them in February, March and April. Now that’s enough, because I’m angry like a beast.” Now, the rooms are dry: rags and buckets. «I paid for the undertaking», concludes Garioni, taking a look at the weather forecast. Wednesday rain, thunderstorms. “It will flood again.”
