Speed limits, stove removal, a sculpture show and a court decision

Shumen municipality will ask the Road Infrastructure Agency to raise the speed limit on the stretch from the Industrial Park roundabout to Mătnitsa district from 50 km/h to 70 km/h. The request comes after a meeting of the Regional Road Safety Commission.

New vertical signage has been installed recently because of roadworks on the Hemus motorway diverting traffic through Mătnitsa. The municipality argues the higher limit is justified by road conditions, though any change requires a formal design and inclusion in the General Plan.

The commission also reviewed 2025 accident data for Shumen Oblast: 687 road incidents, 9 deaths, 174 injured. Shumen city accounted for 78 of those crashes (4 deaths, 88 injured). Most fatalities occurred outside built-up areas, where traffic police will concentrate enforcement.

The contractor hired to dismantle old solid-fuel heaters under Shumen's EU-funded air-quality project starts work on 15 June. The demount-and-install process for replacement energy-efficient air conditioners will run in parallel, with a ten-day gap between removal and fitting the new unit.

Legal challenges to the public procurement have been resolved and the contract signed. A second tender to supply the air conditioners closes by the end of May. So far 848 contracts have been signed with residents (1,093 applications in the first round, 457 in the second). Applications continue at the Kooperativen Pazar office and in Grivitsa district; contracts are signed at the central municipal office.

Installation of pellet stoves and heat pumps will follow once the air-conditioner phase is complete.

An exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of sculptor Slavi Donchev has opened at the Eleonora complex in Shumen, the first art event in the city's newest gallery space. The show features 59 bronze and plaster portrait busts of prominent Bulgarians, donated by Donchev's son Orlin Atanasov.

Donchev's original vision was a pantheon of great figures connected to Shumen. Sixteen of the works will become part of the permanent collection at the Elena Karamikhailova gallery; the remainder are on loan to the municipality. Director Desislava Doseva said some pieces may eventually be cast in bronze for outdoor display, creating 'a park of intellectuals'.

The exhibition runs until the end of July. Selected works will then go to schools and cultural institutions named after the figures depicted.

A new STEM centre combining science, technology, engineering and mathematics opened at Panayot Volov school in the village of Madara. The facility comprises two specialist classrooms: one for natural sciences and green technologies, the other for mathematics and IT.

Schoolchildren welcomed guests with songs and dances. Third-grader Georgi tried VR goggles for the first time: 'I was at the bottom of the ocean and saw fish.' Older pupils demonstrated an open maths lesson using the new equipment.

Mayor Prof. Hristo Hristov told the children: 'I hope when I come back next year there will be another new classroom to open together.'

Shumen municipality has closed the road from the edge of the city (villa zone) to Lozevo village on 28 and 29 May for long-term repair work. Drivers should detour via Sedmi Kilometar on route I-2.

Eleventh-graders from the Nancho Popovich mathematics and sciences gymnasium in Shumen visited the city's courthouse as part of the Judicial Authority education programme run by the High Judicial Council.

District prosecutor Orlin Kuzdov and prosecutor Pavlin Vălchev, wearing their red robes, showed the students a courtroom and explained courtroom procedure, dress codes and security. Nine sessions were held this academic year at two Shumen schools. Topics included cybersecurity, traffic offences and drugs.

Each pupil received a certificate of participation.

The Varna Appeals Court has released 28-year-old Bogdan Bogdanov on €1,000 bail. He is accused of causing the death by negligence of 26-year-old Aleksandar Penchev from Shumen, whose body was found in March in an unfinished building in the Boyan Bălgaranov district.

Shumen District Court initially imposed the strictest measure (detention on remand), then changed it to house arrest after two months. Both the prosecution and defence appealed.

The appeals judges ruled that the maximum detention period for an offence of causing death by negligence is two months. Continuing a similarly restrictive measure such as house arrest beyond that would breach the law. The decision is final.