Presentation  of
“Comune di Ozzano dell’Emilia”

Location
Ozzano is only 12 kilometres far from the centre of Bologna (chief town of Province and of Region Emilia – Romagna), located on the famous and important Route Emilia, direction south – east.

Surface
The Municipal territory has nowadays a surface area of 64.94 square kilometres and it seems like a long and narrow rectangle. More than one century ago, in 1880, the surface area was smaller (62.44 square kilometres).

Morphology
The hills are mostly made in clay and marl and the plain has alluvial origin.

The north side of Route Emilia
The Route Emilia crosses the territory in its length; in the north side, we have a large plain with a particularly rich soil used for a large kind of growing. Romans used to call this plain as the “granary of Bologna”.

The south side of Route Emilia
In the south side we have piedmont hills and hills. Piedmont hills territory is mostly used for vineyard and others types of growing, hills have a max. Height of 370 metres above sea level and present a lot of  gully so the growing is not possible.
Even if the gully hills of Ozzano often produce landslides during the rainy seasons, they present a beautiful landscape, and they also present a lot of fossils and shells findings due to the fact that at the beginning of the world, this land were under the sea.

Rivers
Ozzano has two little rivers: the Quaderna stream that has its spring in Quarneto below the “Settefonti hill” and the Centonara Stream.

OZZANO IN THE MIRROR OF TODAY

Nowadays Ozzano has 11.066 inhabitants:

The whole municipal territory is divided in the following districts:

• Down – town Ozzano (Ozzano centre) :is the main district directly surrounding the Route Emilia. This is the districts where the main services are located (i.e. Town hall, most of the school, most of shops, etc.)

• Mercatale district: above the hills, in the south part of the territory;

• Maggio district (to the east toward  Castel San Pietro),

• Ponte Rizzoli district: located 4 Km north of Ozzano Centre just crossed the A 14 highway.

More than this we also have big area of park among the hills and the ravines, involved in the main area of the “ Parco dei Gessi e dei Calanchi dell’Abbadessa”. The area has many woods and meadows, crossed by a lot of paths and with the ravines giving to the visitor a beautiful and amazing landscape to admire.
Ozzano is also seat of the Faculty of Veterinary  of the University of Bologna.

Territory and economy
In the northern part of the territory, not far from Ponte Rizzoli a wide industrial area is set and a lot of firms and company have there theirs head offices and theirs plants. Others smaller industrial districts are located in Maggio and in Ozzano Centre along the Route Emilia.

The following schedule shows the main types of firms located in Ozzano:

The main services allocated by the Municipality of Ozzano:

A. Services allocated directly to the public

Office for the relationship with the public:
It is the office that welcomes the people who enter the Town Hall. Its aim is to help persons in making their formalities and papers. The office also delivers the mail and gives out documents and forms and it is in charge of the distribution of registers certificates and identity cards.

Registers, conscription and electoral services:
The Registers service manage with all operations concerning births, deaths, marriages, immigrations and emigrations, change of address, and so on.
The conscription and electoral services manages with electoral practices,  calls – up and since 2003 it also manages the municipal cemeteries.

Local Police
The main tasks of local police are:

• management of road and traffic signs;

• ordinances and decrees in matter of traffic regulations

• fines for transgression of traffic regulations (i.e. parking, speeding,..)

• assistance in case of road accident

• criminal police (if requested)

• inspections in building yards

• general control of the territory: roads, parks, buildings, etc.

• Administrative  police (permissions, licences, etc.)

Social Services:
This is a very big sector, composed by the following activities:

EDUCATION AND TEACHING SERVICE: is in charge of the planning and management (including the budget) of the educational services and it also directs the youth activities. It is responsible for the “Quality system UNI-EN.ISO” for the municipal “crèche” and nursery school. In particular the education and teaching service coordinate the following complexes:

• Municipal “crèche”

• Municipal nursery school

• School meal activity

• School buses

• Pre – post school activity

• Summer camps for children and youths

• Youth centres

• Cleaning services in municipal offices and complexes

Schools located in Ozzano Emilia

SOCIAL SECURITY: The service is in charge of the management of the complexes and welfare institutions. Among them we have for instance:

• The diurnal centre for people aged over 65

• The house assistance for weakness and sickness and not self – sufficient people;

• Assistance activities for elderly and disabled people;

• Organisation of charity activities and benefit performances.

HOUSE/SPORT/GENDER ISSUES: The main tasks are:

• allocation of the council – houses;

• planning and management of the sport activities in co-operation with local sport teams and associations

• Gender and equal opportunities issues with the “Gender Council”

• The following are the main municipals sport facilities available in Ozzano and its districts:

• Soccer (football) complex with field, stands and changing /locker rooms;

• Baseball field;

• Indoor tennis grounds and outdoor basket grounds;

• Indoor stadium with basket ground and gym:

• Indoor/outdoor skating rink;

• Bowls grounds;

• Football ground in Mercatale

• Football ground in Quaderna/Ponte Rizzoli

• School gyms.

CULTURE: Main task of the service is to build and manage the “Annual plan for cultural activities”, that include all the cultural initiatives and performance to carry out during the year. The service is done in co – operation with the local cultural associations and the municipal library. The cultural service also provide to the editing of the cultural monthly magazine “Voci della Cultura” (Voices of Culture), and is also involved in the publishing of the quarterly review “Amministrare Insieme”, the official magazine of the Town Councillors. The service also keeps in touch with the twinned towns and uses to collaborate in the European projections.

MUNICIPAL LIBRARY: It has just joined the “National Library System”. The library owns more than 36.000 books available for borrowing and reading; it also owns a “multimedia” sections with compact discs and videocassettes and a kids section with books and movies for children and younger. In the library are also available many computers enabled for the “Internet surfing” and are often held various courses and performances for kids and adults (i.e. reading of fairy tales, lectures, meeting, etc.). Totally in 2003 more than 17.200 books and 2.300 c.d. and videos were borrowed.

Local taxes office
The main tasks are:
Application and control of the following local taxes:
Waste disposal tax;
Estate local tax;
Occupancy of public areas tax;
Advertising e bill posting tax
Others administrative activities  

Public Works, Maintenance and Environment
In matter of public works the service is in charge of all the procedures related to the design, supervisions and awarding of contracts to build new works (as roads, bridges, public buildings, etc.)
The maintenance staff is keen on the upkeep activities necessary to guarantee  the good work of the equipment and facilities of the municipal buildings, schools, parks, roads, etc.
The environment service manages the waste disposal activity, the dumping activities and all the matters related to industrial unloading and smokes.

Town planning, housing building and help desk for firms
The tasks of this department are:

• HOUSING BUILDING -  Its aims are:
  Granting of building permissions;
  Inspections in building yards and repression of unauthorised  buildings.

• TOWN PLANNING: The service has the task to prepare and apply the long – terms plans of building and urbanisation.

• HELP DESK FOR FIRMS: The service welcomes and works for all the entrepreneurs that need to make formalities and papers for their firms or that need to ask for permissions or authorisations.

B. Internal and staff services:

General Management
The General Manager of the Municipality has the main task to coordinate and direct  the department managers and to connect their activities to the plans and ideas expressed by the politicians. The General Manager is also in charge of the business management and organisations of the Town Hall. The General Manager is also in charge of the direction of two other services: the internal computer service and the internal auditing and controlling.

General Municipal Secretary
The Secretary gives support to the work of the organs of government (Mayor, Councillors and so on), records on minutes, files and checks all the proceedings and documents prepared by the councillors and the managers. The Secretary is in charge of the press officers activities and gives support in call for tenders and contracts.

Personnel Office
The Personnel office main tasks are to provide the regular pay of salaries and to administrate the record of service of the municipal employees (engagements, resigns, etc.) . The office also keeps in touch with the trade unions.

Accountancy and treasurer’s office
The service is in charge to draw up the general budget, to manage with incomes and payments and to prepare the balance sheet.