As darkness fell, the community party-mass service center of Olive City Community in Anyi District, Yanhu, remained brightly lit. On the evening of August 4, an urgent coordination meeting was held regarding the heating pipe network project for the Pudong Community. Representatives from the community, the property management committee, the property management company, the construction team, the design firm, and the auditing firm gathered around a table to discuss construction details one by one, unify construction standards, and eliminate project bottlenecks to ensure that 1,408 households can use district heating smoothly this winter. This meeting, which lasted late into the night, was a vivid microcosm of the collaboration between the community, the property management committee, and the property management company to tackle the heating issue.

Facing residents' heating concerns head-on, the initiative to promote heating projects was a public welfare effort. The Pudong Community is an economically affordable housing complex, with centralized handovers occurring between 2015 and 2016, and an occupancy rate exceeding 90%. At the time of construction, due to the lack of supporting municipal infrastructure in the surrounding area, the community was unable to connect to the central heating network. Only indoor heating pipes within the buildings were laid, and the developer provided monetary compensation to residents. A resident named Ms. Wang, who moved into the community in 2016, has long been troubled by heating issues: “Over the years, we could only use wall-mounted gas boilers for heating. The annual gas cost during winter exceeds 4,000 yuan, and the home is not warm, with room temperatures barely reaching 21 degrees Celsius. Everyone is looking forward to connecting to district heating as soon as possible.”

With the public's expectations, grassroots action was taken. The Olive City Community adhered to the principle of party building leading grassroots governance, establishing a tripartite linkage mechanism involving the community, the property management committee, and the property management company. They coordinated efforts across the entire process, from collecting public opinion, overseeing funds, and managing bidding, to mediating disputes, gradually tackling this “hard nut.” Since July and August of last year, the property management company of the Pudong Community began collecting public opinion on the heating project, visiting households door-to-door to gauge willingness to connect to district heating. The approval rate among residents reached 95%. However, difficulties arose during the fund-raising phase. Most residents agreed to connect, so why was the money not being collected? The reason was residents' concerns about fund safety, fearing a lack of supervision over funds, project suspension, and no guarantee of refunds. Additionally, the previous term of the community's property management committee had expired, leaving no oversight for the work. To address this, the community found a breakthrough point, guiding the community to re-establish a new property management committee according to regulations. They set up a joint fund account, with multiple people holding payment passwords and requiring signatures from all committee members for any disbursement. All bidding documents, financial transactions, and construction progress were regularly disclosed in resident groups and on the community bulletin board, ensuring full transparency and oversight by all residents, completely dispelling their financial concerns.

With the foundation of public opinion solidified, the tripartite linkage task force accelerated the preliminary preparations at full speed. Just after the Spring Festival this year, the community deployed eight staff members to work in the community, going door-to-door to answer residents' questions. After half a month of sustained effort, the number of fee-paying households increased from over 200 to over 1,000. Representatives from the property management committee participated in the entire process of engineering cost negotiations, comparing quotes from multiple design firms to save costs for residents. Meanwhile, the property management company coordinated with the heating company and bidding platforms to improve project approval procedures. Throughout the preparatory phase, the tripartite group held more than 50 coordination meetings, resolving various preliminary issues related to public opinion, funds, and bidding one by one. On July 28, the heating pipe network project for the Pudong Community held a successful groundbreaking ceremony, officially entering the construction phase. The site construction manager explained that the project covers a total residential area of 160,000 square meters, laying 1,200 meters of primary heating pipes and over 13,000 meters of secondary pipes, along with the construction of zoned heat exchange stations. The total construction period is 90 days, with all work and pressure testing scheduled to be completed by October 25, leaving ample time for maintenance to ensure stable operation during the heating season.

During the construction process, details were the most critical, and disagreements were most likely to arise. Just a few days after construction began, members of the property management committee discovered during daily inspections that the on-site welding process for the pipes differed from the connection method indicated in the drawings. This involved engineering quality, later costs, and the lifespan of the pipe network, so the committee immediately raised questions. The construction team, based on actual site conditions, believed the current construction method was more suitable and insisted on proceeding with the on-site plan. With both sides having different considerations and unable to reach a consensus, the project progress was temporarily delayed. To avoid delays and quickly resolve the impasse, Duan Luting, the community party branch secretary, quickly took the lead in organizing mediation discussions. All parties involved sat down together to face the issue and communicate openly. The construction team referred to professional technical manuals to explain the reasons for the process adjustment one by one, clarifying that the on-site welding process fully meets industry construction standards. It not only kept costs essentially the same but also effectively extended the service life of the pipes, ensuring residents could use the heating system with greater peace of mind in the future. Doubts were gradually dispelled, and consensus slowly formed. Subsequently, the parties involved reviewed and negotiated multiple details of the project construction, finalizing a unified construction standard. After the bottlenecks were cleared, the project resumed orderly construction. “Heating projects concern the winter warmth of every household, and no detail can be overlooked,” said a representative from the property management committee overseeing the project. The community took the initiative to mediate, resolve issues, the property management company provided full logistical support, and the property management committee stayed on the front line for full supervision. The three parties fulfilled their respective duties and complemented each other, smoothly resolving each challenge.

Public welfare matters warm people's hearts. The steady progress of the heating project in the Pudong Community is a vivid practice of the tripartite linkage governance model in the Olive City Community. Moving forward, the community will continue to play a leading and bridging role, regularly coordinating with the property management committee and the property management company for discussions, closely monitoring construction progress, and strictly ensuring project quality, so that the winter warmth for over a thousand households arrives as scheduled. Some images sourced from: First Time.