O Tae-wan, Uiryeong County Governor, Requests Approval of Supplementary Budget Including Residents' Long-cherished Project '4.26 Memorial Park'

Request to Approve the Supplementary Budget Bill as Originally Proposed

To Address Livelihood Measures and Revive the Economy

On the 2nd, O Tae-wan, the governor of Uiryeong-gun, Gyeongnam, requested the Uiryeong County Council to pass the supplementary budget as originally proposed during the executive meeting.

Governor O emphasized that this budget is a long-awaited project that the residents have endured inconvenience for a long time, and asked the county council to support the completion of the historic task of building the ‘4·26 Memorial Park’.

On the 2nd, O Tae-wan, the governor of Uiryeong County, requested the Uiryeong County Council to pass the supplementary budget as originally proposed during the executive meeting.
[Image provided by Uiryeong County]

At the meeting, Governor O explained the background of the supplementary budget proposal and sought cooperation for its original approval. He especially mentioned the necessity of this supplementary budget to the department heads, explained the importance of the project one by one, and ordered them to actively explain it to the council members and seek their consent.

Governor O stated, “To protect the lives of the residents and revive Uiryeong’s economy, proactive and bold responses are urgently needed at this time,” and explained, “This supplementary budget is the emergency measure.”

He added, “We cannot ignore the heartfelt stories of the residents that came out during conversations with them. The sooner the livelihood measures are implemented, the better. This supplementary budget will be the starting point,” and said, “The executive branch and the council are a community of fate with the same goal of improving residents’ welfare. We must not ignore the sighs of the residents. I earnestly request that you approve the supplementary budget as originally proposed.”

The county held ‘Conversations with Residents’ across all 13 towns and townships from January 29 to February 2 together with the county council, receiving 199 suggestions. Among these, the county reflected 3.9 billion KRW for 56 urgent cases in this supplementary budget proposal. The supplementary budget includes projects for residents’ convenience as well as various disaster prevention projects related to resident safety.

Representative convenience projects include the installation of a public blanket laundry facility (120 million KRW) and the supply of small LPG storage tanks for rural fishing villages (500 million KRW). Additionally, river disaster prevention (1.5 billion KRW), disaster risk improvement district maintenance projects (300 million KRW) were added, and 900 million KRW was urgently allocated for agricultural infrastructure maintenance.

In particular, this supplementary budget includes the regional specialty item development project and the youth village shared housing creation project, which are core strategic tasks of Uiryeong-gun’s 8th elected administration, raising expectations for regional economic development.

Meanwhile, Governor O requested the county council to participate with a historic sense of mission in the historic task of building the ‘Uiryeong 4·26 Memorial Park.’ He especially urged that it should be expedited without delay, considering the feelings of the bereaved families who have endured over 40 years of heartbreaking hardship.

The 4·26 Memorial Park was originally planned to be built with a total project cost of 1.8 billion KRW, including 700 million KRW from the national government, 200 million KRW from the provincial government, and 800 million KRW from the county. However, it is known that the increase in this budget was caused by the demands of the bereaved families and the expansion of infrastructure within the park.

Meanwhile, the supplementary budget proposal will be submitted to the final plenary session on the 9th of this month after review by the standing committee, where the final approval will be decided. If passed as originally proposed, the scale of Uiryeong-gun’s budget this year will increase to a total of 541.5 billion KRW, up 7.39% from the original budget (504.3 billion KRW).