Believe in restoring Grindavík

“We realize that this is a double-edged sword,” said Hjálmar Hallgrímsson, who is on the town council of Grindavík, when asked if the town council doesn’t fear that few people will return after the government buys Grindvík’s apartment buildings at a council meeting held in Laugardalshöll yesterday.

“We’re here to ask the council about the situation and the Finance Minister’s proposal to buy the Grindvík residents’ housing. “We believe we can build the town so that people want to come back,” said Birgitta Káradóttir Ramsay, who is also on the town council.

Want five years first rights of refusal

Among the issues raised at the meeting was residents’ dissatisfaction with the time that the residents have for first rights of refusal in buying back their property in the town. In the Finance Minister’s bill, that right is to be waived two years after the law takes effect. Residents want to extend the period to at least five years.

“The town’s representatives agreed with the residents that the time frame was too short. “We passed these suggestions,” said town representative Helga Dís Jakobsdóttir. She says that the town’s representatives raised the issue at a meeting with the Economic and Trade Committee last week that there was a great deal of uncertainty about the nature of the real estate company that will take over the assets of Grindavík residents.

“People have a problem with not knowing where they are going to sell their property, it needs to be made clear,” she said.

Hallgrímsson said that the meeting between the local government and the Economic and Trade Committee had been a success. “I think we have been very effective in getting all the suggestions across.”