Committee of the Whole

VILLAGE OF HORTONVILLE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE APRIL 2, 2026 MEETING MINUTES APPROVED APRIL 19, 2026 President Jeanne Bellile called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. in the Community Center at 531 N. Nash St., Hortonville, Wisconsin. Trustees present: Bob Jewell, Shauna Keel, Carrie Lathrop, Jim Moeller, Jane Olk, Julie Arendt Vanden Heuvel Trustees excused: Officials/Staff present: Administrator Nathan Treadwell, Clerk-Treasurer Jane Booth, Director of Public Works Aaron Steber, Chief of Police Brian Bahr, and Attorney Tyler Pluff. Discussion on Financial Plan and Water Rate Case Study by Ehlers Ariana Schmidt from Ehlers presented the proposed water rate case study. We need to be sure that the utility can be self-sustaining, and fund not only your existing operations, but also fund your future capital improvement plans. You will see future projects build into here. We are going to look at 5 years previous and use those trends to project forward. We will look at O&M, depreciation and take a look at your PILOT, as well as how we are going to fund the projects. We will start on the water side, water is unfortunately, other than determining when you go in for an increase, is not something where you can pick what that increase is, and the PSC governs the rates. The standard simplified rate is a standard 3% increase. If you need a higher increase the only way is to go in a full rate case. The Utilities’ last increase was in 2016. We are looking at ten years of catch up. The utility has no debt, which is good. If we do a 3% increase for the next five years, that amounts to approximately $3.00 per month per user. Trustee Arendt Vanden Heuvel asked about forcing a future board to act on our decision. Ariana Schmidt (Ehlers) said you are correct, she recommends approving a year at a time. When you file a rate increase you need to file by July 31 and it takes 9 months. Sewer does have debt, but the PSC is not involved with a rate, the Village can set that. If we did a rate case looking at an implementation of 2027, Trustee Moeller asked about why the need for an increase in sewer it the WWTP is paid off. Administrator Treadwell said that there will be updates that we will need to make in the future for the plant. Trustee Jewell asked where we are with the capacity of the WWTP. DPW Director Steber said that at times we are at capacity. Ariane Schmidt (Ehlers) said that to summarize if you are looking at a full rate increase now and get an overall lower increase we would need to file before July 31. If you are not ready to do the full-rate study, we recommend doing a simplified rate increase at 3%. The other option is to do nothing at all. On the sewer side, the first-rate increase would be in 2028, and don’t forget about this. The longer you put it off, the bigger the increase will be. We are on the bottom third for water rate comparison for Outagamie County. Trustee Lathrop said we can reevaluate once we get the increase and look at where we will stand. If we drag it out, we are just pushing it down the road. The recommendation is to do the water rate study for the July 31 deadline and push along the concept of a monthly bill. Adjourn Motion [Jewell/Keel] to adjourn. Unanimous voice vote, motion carried. The Committee adjourned at 6:00 p.m. Minutes submitted by Jane Booth, WCMC Clerk-Treasurer