Overlooked by central planners during Soviet times, the district has seen little in the way of industrialization. Officially, half of the area's labor force of 7,000 is employed in forestry, textile production, and seasonal work while the other half comprises civil servants. Many residents subsist by working in tourism or forestry during the summer, receiving unemployment benefits in winter and feeding their families by working their small parcels of land. There are also 9,000 retired people living on pensions.
Elections for all of Lithuania's municipalities are coming up on March 19. In Zarasai, the electorate will choose from 10 different parties in order to fill 25 seats in the local taryba or town council. Voters can select one party and then pick candidates listed next to the party on the ballot. The town council then elects a mayor and deputy mayor from within its ranks.
The present mayor of the district, Arnoldas Abramavicius, a former schoolteacher, is at the end of his second term. He serves the 10,000 citizens of the city of Zarasai, 3,000 people in the village of Dusetos and 12,000 farmers and their families in the surrounding area. He represents a coalition of Conservatives, Christian Democrats and Center Union while seven Lithuanian Democratic Labor Party (LDDP) members are in opposition.
"Because of our electoral system, every vote counts. A single party could win the largest number of seats but could be isolated in opposition if members of the smaller parties form a coalition," Abramavicius said.
The main issue in Zarasai today is jobs.
"Frankly, in my platform I am offering the least promises. It's easy for the other parties to offer more as they've been out of power for five years. I think it's absurd for the municipal government to fund make-work projects as we've seen a steady erosion in transfer funds from Vilnius. You can't create jobs out of thin air. With the present economic conditions it's more realistic to focus on keeping the ones that we have," said Abramavicius. He realizes that a winning a third term as mayor is a tough challenge simply because the electorate may want change regardless of his track record.
In his five years in office, Abramavicius has purchased new buses, improved the water supply by introducing an iron filtration system and managed to attract new investment to the area. By offering a Danish textile company a holiday on property taxes, he managed to convince them to move 150 jobs from Portugal to Zarasai. He is also behind a new business information center that is being partially funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and a small business development fund that offers interest free loans to people who want to convert their homes to bed & breakfasts. Although forestry has seen some improvement in the area with 10 sawmills presently in operation, Abramavicius laments the fact that presently there is not enough value-added processing in this industry.
Another focus has been the consolidation of schools in the area. "Lithuania has the highest student-teacher ratio in all of Europe. This is makes no sense when one considers that we have 1 million more people than Latvia for instance. There is simply a surplus of teachers in the country," Abramavicius said.
This year's budget for the Zarasai district is 25,500,000 litas ($6,375,000) with 60 percent of expenditures going toward education. The rest is divided among healthcare, municipal administration, utilities and culture. This is a decrease of 1,500,000 litas from 1999 because of government cuts and a decrease in municipal taxes collected, owing to fall-out from the Russia crisis. Half the budget comprises transfer funds from the central government. In Lithuania, only the larger cities are self-financing while the smaller ones (about two-thirds of all cities) are dependent on Vilnius.
Petras Papovas is the Member of Parliament representing Zarasai in Vilnius and chairman of the local LDDP party.
"Zarasai faces some of the toughest farming conditions in all of Lithuania as the land here is just not as fertile as in other parts of the country," he said.
Tourism infrastructure and the closing of the nearby Ignalina power plant are foremost in Papovas' mind.
"What this area needs is major government investment in tourism infrastructure in partnership with private business. Another need is a compensation package for local residents because of the forthcoming closure of Ignalina. Zarasai is within the 50 kilometers zone of the plant and will see a significant drop in people coming to the area because of this closure. Without compensation, we will see a steep drop in the local population," Papovas said.
Presently, the only subsidy in place is a 50 percent reduction in the cost of electricity for householders within the 50 kilometers zone. This does not include businesses. At present, the population is declining by 200 people a year from young adults leaving for the cities and the ageing of the farming community.
There is a glimmer of hope for the district with the announcement of a grant of 12,000,000 litas ($3,000,000) from the European Union's PHARE 2000 program that will be spread over two years starting in 2001. Most of these funds are slated for investment in private business and tourism.
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