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City Reassessment Complete

SYKTYVKAR - On 16 October, the Uralican Daily News published an article about several city applicants having been rejected for various reasons. Now, some six weeks later, a reassessment has been done, which includes a whole slew of new applicants. This time, the applicants will not receive official city status until 1 January 2010.

Of the 22 cities rejected last time, only nine actually re-applied:

Sarapul - 109,000, charter needs re-write

Kirovo-Chepetsk - 89,000, too few public music schools, schools too crowded

Lysva - 72,000, charter needs re-write

Punaturjin - 62,000, hospitals too small

Chusovoi - 51,000, charter needs re-write

Novodvinsk - 49,000, still needs to adjust charter to that of Arkhangel'sk-Severodvinsk UA

Usinsk - 45,000, told to come back when the highway access plan was finished.

Gubakha - 30,000, road system and commercial district insufficient

Kudymkar - 18,000, too small

All were accepted and will get city status on 1 January 2010, with the exception of Gubakha, whose road system upgrade is still under construction. Kudymkar's census data was apparently flawed due to the city limits not being properly defined, something which has been handled. The actual population of Kudymkar proper is 33,000.

However, a further sixty-two towns sent their charters and census data to the Tribal Council. Those in bold-type have already been accepted.

Kamensk - 200,000

Novocheboksarsk - 129,000

Novouralsk - 95,500

Asbest - 77,000

Severomorsk - 75,500

Polevskoy - 70,000

Apatity - 64,000

Revda - 63,000

Verkhnaya Pyshma - 58,000

Kogalym - 58,000

Nyagan - 54,000

Lesnoy - 53,500

Montsa - 52,500

Verkhnaya Salda - 52,000

Megion - 51,500

Kanash - 51,000

Orozai - 50,000

Beryozovski - 47,000

Raduzhny - 46,500

Nyaidem - 46,000

Kachkanar - 45,000

Alapayevsk - 44,000

Krasnoufimsk - 43,500

Irbit - 43,500

Ulator - 43,000

Pyt-Yakh - 42,000

Langepas - 41,000

Käddluhtt - 40,500

Viche Alan - 40,000

Tavda - 40,000

Rezh - 40,000

Urai - 39,000

Salyakharad - 37,000

Sukhoy Log - 36,500

Shumerlya - 36,000

Muravlenko - 36,000

Chernushka - 36,000

Dobryanka - 36,000

Yugorsk - 35,000

Artyomovsky - 35,000

Kondopohju - 34,500

Kushva - 34,000

Segezha - 34,000

Slobodskoy - 33,500

Severouralsk - 33,000

Bogdanovich - 32,500

Karpinsk - 31,000

Hiipinä - 31,000

Kostomuksha - 30,000

Krasnouralsk - 29,000

Kamyshlov - 29,000

Käkshär - 28,000

Zarechnyy - 28,000

Lapyt-Nank - 27,000

Nevyansk - 26,500

Omutninsk - 26,000

Olenegorsk - 25,000

Nizhnaya Tura - 24,000

Kizel - 24,000

Kirovgrad - 23,000

Tsykmä - 22,500

Not one of these fell under the mark of 20,000 people, and according to those working on the Council's behalf, no less than half of these will likely be granted city status come the new year. Of particular note is Kamensk, formerly Kamensk-Uralskiy, whose population of roughly 200,000 and extended urban area population of 235,500 has it ranked amongst Uralica's 20 largest settlements and as its 18th-largest urban area, but whose charter had not yet been rewritten, therefore keeping them at town status.

According to Jarkko Salomäki, however, the status of some depends on amalgamation referenda. Verkhnaya Pyshma and Beryozovski may be denied city status because of the fact that they may instead become satellite boroughs of the city of Yekaterinburg. The same can be said of Novocheboksarsk - if this were to merge into Cheboksary, it would become the 5th-largest city proper in Uralica, passing the capital Syktyvkar (even though the urban area would still be slightly smaller). Finally, there is talk of Pervouralsk (already a city) and Revda merging into one city and taking the name of the larger of the two, although according to the latest reports, this seems rather unlikely.

Uralican Social Security System Already A Success - Kuik

SYKTYVKAR - One of Uralica's most prominent government members has declared the recent implementation of a Social Security System to be a "massive success." Vaido Kuik, who along with Sergey Kolpakov is considered to be the co-founder of the Uralicist Movement, spoke with the Uralican Daily News about it.

"With the extra revenue from tax dollars, we can pay more workers to construct roads, and more teachers to teach in schools," Kuik said. "The checks and balances on it prevent it from being abused by government officials. For those of you outside of Uralica, I'm talking about the illegality of any Council or Board members voting themselves pay raises. It is a practice that is somewhat frowned upon in Uralican business as well. But anyway, some areas have really been improved because of it. Take Kirovo-Chepetsk for example. They were probably the first to get on board, because they knew it would help their overcrowded school system. Now the city school board has hired an additional five hundred teachers, and is in the wrapping-up process of building several new schools. We took that into account when we started doing a reassessment of city applicants."

Sports

Four-Game League Winning Streak Has ZavU Out Of The Red

SOLIKAMSK - Zavod Ural Solikamsk has had an interesting season in Siberian Trophy. After losing five in a row to start the season, they finally got their first points of the season against Tigris Altaica, then they lost against Bamburgh FC. But since the amazingly close tilt with one of Planet Bob's best football clubs, they have won four straight - once against Togashire, once against Team Waycool, and most recently, back-to-back wins against Rebel United.

While not completely safe by any means, ZavU needed the surge in form, according to manager Dmitry Makarov.

"All our [butts] were on the line," he said. "If we kept that rotten streak going for much longer, surely half the team would have been transferred and I would have lost my managerial job. But now I think we're in the clear even though we aren't above .500 football yet - in my opinion we played six good matches in a row. So we lost one. Bamburgh is the kind of team you wouldn't be too gutted by losing to, because they're that good."

The next match goes on 1 December, against Team Waycool, who have only won once this season, against fellow red-zoners Rebel United.