In the old town of Kėdainiai, the wood panel booth was erected illegally by businessmen

The municipality explains that businessmen built such a structure in Gaubiai Old Town illegally, that they needed a permit, but it was neither requested nor granted. In the meantime, the owner of the dome explains that there is no problem, that everything has been coordinated, and that his competitors are the most angry about his new structure.

When you see the dome, you wonder – is there a place for such a thing in the old town?

The “DG dome” itself is built in the Great Market Square with the approval and permission of the municipality. 159 euros were paid for the construction of the dome, and the annual fee for trading in it is 29 euros.

The dome delighted the residents during the holidays, and it also became a place to stop for coffee or a treat while walking around the old town. However, as already mentioned, these days, an extension made of pressed wood panels of an unclear shape, which has risen near the dome, has upset many people – the extremely unaesthetic-looking building has made many residents of Kedai think that the municipal employees no longer care at all about what is being built in the central city square.

True, in the end it turned out that the owner of the dome, Gytis Gaubys, built the strange extension arbitrarily, without informing the municipality about it and without obtaining permission.

“In order to introduce additional premises to the dome, it is necessary to obtain the approval of the administration for expansion, prepare a project proposal, visualization and coordinate with the chief architect of the city of Kėdainiai. A building with such an extension as it is now has no possibility to legally stand in the Market Square”, he said to “Market Square” Kėdainiai district municipality.

It was also added that the Gaubias were ordered to resolve the aesthetic misunderstanding by March 25, and failure to do so may result in administrative liability under Article 505 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Republic of Lithuania (Failure to comply with legal requirements or instructions of officials).

Eglė Kuktiene’s photo. / Illegal building in Kėdainiai’s Big Market Square

“We know what is happening in the Great Market Square. The businessman, from our point of view, arbitrarily does everything to that dome, and the municipality needs to absorb all the negativity, which is not right. After all, you can’t be arbitrary”, said the mayor Valentin Tamulis.

G. Gaubys: the structure was temporary

Meanwhile, G. Gaubys says that the wooden panels are not an extension, and in general the building was just a temporary solution to safely prepare for the summer season in the dome.

“We are preparing for the summer season, we put together furniture, equipment, freezers, I made the furniture myself, because no one took it upon themselves to make them, and I was simply tired of traveling, so I made a shelter nearby and in it for three days, and I even worked overnight.

Everyone from public order knew about it, but someone stumbled on it, said G. Gaubys, saying that he closely cooperates with the municipality’s public order department and vice mayor Danuta Mykolaitiene, so every decision and action they make is well known to the municipality. – No one even asked us, we would have explained and shown that this is not an extension. This is not an extension, it is a permit for it, it is clear that there is none. This is just a shelter, because I made the furniture for the dome myself, and in order not to pollute the square and protect the children, I made a box like this and worked in it for three days. We were in a great hurry to finish everything before the Kaziuk fair”, said G. Gaubys and said that anyway, he planned to keep the structure only until Monday.

“We don’t even need it anyway. It’s empty, there’s no storage there,” added the interlocutor.

Blame the dessert shop for putting sticks in circles

G. Gaubys says he knows that all this dissatisfaction with the shelter was sparked by none other than a nearby dessert shop.

“Today, we found out that everything got stuck here at Mon Petit. Now I can say for sure that the dessert shop got caught, because their coffee is 5 euros, ours is 1.5 euros, so people started talking a lot”, G. Gaubys is convinced.

“We brought something to Kėdainii that did not exist and does not exist elsewhere. Let’s say high-end Premium ice cream that no one else sells, wine, beer – today we launched a full trade. We plan French evenings with wine for seniors on weekends, wine tastings and the like. There are many ideas, we do our work, we come up with everything”, says the owner of the dome, although he does not hide that the last few months have been unprofitable for them.

Meanwhile, the manager of the Mon Petit dessert shop, Indrė, disagrees with G. Gaubis’s accusations, saying that the clientele of his dome and her dessert shop are generally different.

“We certainly did not apply anywhere, nor did we write to anyone about that extension. Of course, people who came to us commented, asked who is here, why does it look like that, but, well, it doesn’t bother us or anything”, said Indrė and added that although the coffee in their dessert room is more expensive than in the dome, but certainly less than 5 euros, and due to the fact that it focuses on different quality products, the dome is not a competitor for the dessert in general, because the clientele is different.

They explained it one way to the locals, and another way to the journalists

Despite the fact that G. Gaubys explained to “Rinkas aikšte” today that the gazebo was never planned as a long-term structure and that it was only a temporary shelter, which was planned to be dismantled anyway before the Kaziuk fair, a completely different version was circulated on social networks – that this OSB is a long-term structure that should be glazed and store beanbags.

“All objects during construction do not look like they are unfinished. So why not wait until it’s done? This room will also be glazed and it was intended to store beanbags that we simply give to local residents and a space for “chilling” has been created for young people…” – writes G.Gaubys in the comment (the language has not been corrected).

“And who created the story that those plates are the final result?” Have you lost sight of the panels in the building? And after that with the decoration?”, the businessman eagerly argued with the skeptics.