The councils of Petrești and Todirești approved their merger on 31 August, the last day the government had announced for voluntary files. Of the district's 33 town halls, 32 now have a merger decision published in the state register.
Ungheni District Council allocated 976,800 lei between 2023 and 2026 to the building of the «Elada» Theoretical High School in the village of Măcărești: the façade, 68 radiators, the heating pipes, one wall, the canteen's sewerage and the joinery in the bathroom and toilet. The public decisions showed only how much had been approved. The acceptance certificates, obtained by the newsroom from the school and from the District Council, now show who did the work and how much was paid: 976,270 lei, seven works, five contractors.
The president of Ungheni district, Dionisie Ternovschi, published a video on Tuesday from the «Elada» Theoretical High School in Măcărești, saying that the district traditionally allocates money for current repairs there. The District Council's decisions put figures on that statement: 150,000 lei for 40 radiators in August 2025, 265,500 for the outdoor heating pipes in March and another 90,000 for rebuilding the standalone heating system in November — 505,500 lei in a single year, for heating alone. Added to the façade in 2023 and to the canteen wall and sewerage in May 2026, the allocations reach 976,800 lei in four years, for a school left with 19 pupils in grades X and XI.
In the House of Culture of Măcărești village, built in 1972 and closed since 2005, survives «Hora cu cinci fete» (the round dance of five girls) — a monumental mosaic that also gave its name to a book by writer Ștefan Susai. A recent Moldova 1 reportage and a public appeal to the Minister of Culture put the ruined building back in the spotlight. Less has been said, though, that neither the mosaic nor the building appears in the state register of protected monuments — and that a village which drew over 8 million lei through «European Village» for a kindergarten and water lacks the roughly 30 million the mayor puts on paper for restoration.
Ungheni District Council opened the second session of the “Prietenia” (Friendship) camp on 6 July — a “day camp” for children, in Ungheni and Măcărești. Behind the ceremony lie concrete figures that matter to parents: 1.26 million lei from the district budget, 400 places spread across four 10-day sessions, free for children from vulnerable families and a 15% fee for everyone else. The programme has become the district's main form of organised holiday after the “Codreanca” camp was liquidated in February.
In the summer of 1949, the Soviet regime seized an entire family from the village of Măcărești and sent it more than 5,000 kilometres away, to the Irkutsk region. One of the deported children, Teodor Șișcanu, survives in an archival photograph published in The Book of Memory (Cartea Memoriei) — the official catalogue of the victims of totalitarianism. In the Ungheni district, the catalogue gathers around 2,900 names, and for those seized in 1949 the collective “address” had a single name — Irkutsk.
Eugen Șarpațchii, a name from the town team's squad two decades ago, has given back to the football he grew up in: he donated 16 pairs of boots and 12 training bibs to the girls of Măcărești and 2,000 lei to FCM Ungheni's U11 and U12 groups. This is no donation to a „charity case” — the girls' team of the „Elada” high school in Măcărești reached the national final of the „Speranța” tournament this spring. A former player helping those who come after him, and a village girls' side that already plays in the country's age-group elite.
The General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations reports three drowning deaths in three days, two of them minors, all in unsupervised spots. The first case, on 26 June, is at Măcărești, in Ungheni district: a 16-year-old boy bathing with friends in a forbidden zone. The 2026 drowning toll has climbed to 31 people, 7 of them minors — up from 18 just ten days earlier. The tragedy came four days after the Ungheni Emergency Situations Commission ordered water patrols, but far from the municipality's two lifeguard-staffed beaches.
«Brain Power», the robotics team of the «Elada» theoretical high school in the village of Măcărești, and «Techno Storm», from the District Centre for Educational Support and Performance in Ungheni, are competing at the «Istanbul Premier Event» — an international FIRST Tech Challenge competition held from 26 to 28 June with 74 teams. Of the four Republic of Moldova teams in Istanbul, two come from Ungheni district. For «Brain Power», which won the Design Award at the national championship in Chișinău in February, this is a first international outing.
