In order to preserve these natural wonders, last year we have declared half of the area to be a natural park. The father of the 19th century Czech poet Karel Hynek Macha came from the Mesetice district of Sedlec-Prcice and the poet himself used to spend summers here. This is an absolute dead certainty - those words simply could not have occurred to him anywhere else. Sedlec-Prcice and the surrounding villages are home to around 3,000 people. A lot of people have to commute to other towns for work, but at 1,7 percent, the unemployment rate is not the main problem.
Many people work on farms.
We were lucky in that the people who restituted our land are decent, just as were lucky that when the giant state farm Votice fell apart, a group of young and entrepreneurial young men took it over. Even so, we have been able to accomplish many things. We have a solid library, a movie house, a school for 380 children, a music school, a nur- sery school, two barber shops, a retirement home, a software firm, and a bookstore, which is the best thing in town, because it's mine. However, when I became mayor, Olinka Cerna had to assume respon- sibility for it or else it would fall into disrepair. Olinka is the brains behind the operation, she writes for Literarni noviny.