Residents living happily in scenic Saarenkylä

Saarenkylä is a district of Rovaniemi located in the northeastern part of the city. It is comprised of Saarenkylä, Syväsenvaara, and Nivavaara areas in a nice natural beauty.

The residents of the district are provided with all kind of civic facilities through various services units. There are schools, day-care centres, pharmacy, library, playgrounds, super markets- K-City Market, Lidl, grocery stores R-kiosk, health centre, optical shop, dental hospital, gymnasium, fuel stations, restaurants, activities parks HopLop and Rollohalli, etc.

The Rovaniemi Week will be observed from September 2 to September 8 and the theme of this year is ‘Kotikulmilla’ (city districts and its outskirts).

Ahead of the celebration, The Daily Finland correspondents talked to some residents of the Saarenkylä districts to know their opinions about the locality and their neighbourhood. Most of the residents expressed their satisfaction at the existing civic facilities in the district. A few also pointed out the need of some more facilities to make their daily lives smoother in the area. The opinions of some residents are described here.

Library Assistant of Saarenkylä Library Satu Inkerö, also a resident of the Saarenkylä locality expressed her satisfaction at the existing facilities and services being provided in the district. She, however, emphasised the necessity for improvement of the public bus services for better public transport communication.

“We have all kind of facilities here including excellent schools (elementary schools etc), library, beautiful nature, peaceful atmosphere, nice market places and food stores. The beautiful nature includes Kemijoki and Ounasjoki rivers. The nice things during the summer are swimming and fishing in the rivers and walking in the forest. Summertime swimming is the best thing to me. I need not anything else for myself. But bus connection should be better to improve communication,” Satu Inkerö, a woman of 50 years old told the Daily Finland.

A young ICT specialist Harri Saarijärvi, who likes his locality very much, also expressed satisfaction at the existing facilities and services.

“Our Saarenkylä area is very nice to live. We have childcare home, food services, healthcare, library and outdoor activity services nearby. The best thing is very peaceful area to live but the city centre is also easily accessible. More parks and bigger outdoor activity areas where we can go for a walk and explore nature could be more effective to develop the area,” said the 34-years old ICT specialist.

Another elderly man, who is a mason by profession and introduced himself as Hannu, a resident of Nivavaara area, also found to be happy with his life in the locality.

“I like to live here. I get everything here what I need. In my area there are many good shops, pharmacy, health care centre, library etc. I live the overall environment of the area. I can fulfil my each and every desire from here and I need not to go to the city for anything. But sometimes I feel it would be great, if there is a special bar to spend my leisure period,” said the 58 years old Hannu.