Budget & Finance Committee

MEETING MINUTES Village of Palmyra Budget Committee Meeting Monday Oct. 28, 2024 100 W. Taft St. Village Board meeting room 6:00 p.m. The meeting was called to order at 6:00 pm by Chairperson Troiola: Roll call: Troiola, Gorsegner- present. Smith-excused. Also present: Kathy Weiss, Scott Pavlock, Scott Halbrucker, Mike Gartzke, Sam Meier, Kristine Dexheimer, Angela Petruska. Business 1. Kristine Dexheimer, Library Director went over her budget. She said that she and her board feel they needed to put a lot of money into the building maintenance line due to some issues that have not been taken care of over the years regarding building maintenance. She also wants to purchase more zoo passes and maybe for the Domes and the Betty Brin Museum for patrons to check out. The funding from Jefferson County has doubled, which is based on circulation, so this is great news. And if the County were to ever reduce this amount is can only be reduced by 5% each year. ACT 420 funding has increased 10%. The Clerk asked if the library board has considered using any of their LGIP funds for the building maintenance costs. Dexheimer said no they hadn’t discussed that. Their technology budget line has increased because she would like to purchase 4 laptop computers. The ones that are at the library that patrons can use are very old. She stated that the wages went up less than 5% for 2025 but there was a substantial increase for staff in 2024. Scott Halbrucker presented the Public Works park and streets budgets. He explained his thoughts on wanting to purchase a new mower, which would be split between General Fund and the utilities. However, general fund will be getting the biggest share of the cost due to the amount of park acreage that is mowed vs. any of the utilities. The back up mower is 8 yrs old, and the other mower is 20 yrs old. Scott said that mowing takes up a lot of time and he has a part time person budgeted for summer months to do this. Halbrucker said that the infrastructure of the village needs some attention and will be taking up a lot of his department’s time. He would like to go back to their daily time sheets so the guys can write down what they worked on during the day and he could keep better track of where the time is being spent. Trustee Troiola asked if Scott has a plan to get the utilities caught up? Halbrucker also said that the beach house roof repair quote is approx. $30,000.00 which we will need to either borrow entirely for or use some of the Rec. LGIP money and borrow for the rest. Halbrucker said he is estimating about $70,000 to grind off and repave Main St. next year. Scott Pavlock reviewed the wage sheet for all fire/ems and police employees and answered questions line for line. Pavlock explained how many employees they need to staff an ambulance and a fire truck safely. Samantha Meier and Mike Gartzke are also looking into the cost of a new ambulance that we can order now and get in 2026. Our ambulance is very old and needs a lot of repairs. We could possibly get $10,000 for that and split the revenue with the town of Palmyra as this vehicle is jointly owned. He is also proposing that we sell the 2nd ambulance because realistically we can’t staff 2 ambulances and the medication on the 2nd ambulance expires before we can use it. If we need another ambulance to go out on a call then we get mutual aid. He and Meier are also trying to have a meeting with our current billing company to find out what percentage of our EMS revenue they are keeping, etc. They are looking into other billing companies to compare. Gartzke says that in 2025 the State of WI will have a lot more funds available for ACT 102 that is distributed to municipalities so he is guessing we will get a lot more in 2025 than we have in previous years. Pavlock discussed the PD budget briefly. Wages are down due to only having 3 Officers. We are contracting with the Jefferson County Humane Society in 2025 and the Clerk said that expense is the animal pound line. Pavlock said he is hoping to raise dog license fees and dogs at large fees and he also wants to discuss the citation fees with the Judge. The Court was discussed briefly, the Judge was not present. There needs to be revenue number put in the court budget but at this time no one is sure what is going on with the court. The Court Clerk left at the end of August and there has not been a replacement chosen. The Beach budget was looked at. Rec. Director Butler wasn’t present but gave the Committee 2 proposals. One with the beach being staffed with lifeguards and one with no lifeguards. Instead, there would be a beach house attendant who would sell concessions. It would be a swim at your own risk. The clerk explained that it is very difficult to find lifeguards and to find responsible ones. The Committee was swaying to opening the beach with just the beach house attendant and no lifeguards. The Clerk explained that she has budgeted for the hiring of a PT Deputy Clerk towards the end of 2025 as Dee Dee is leaving in the Spring of 2026. Mueller said she only budgeted 100 hours at $12/hour but feels this is way too low. The committee agrees and would like her to ask other Clerk’s what they pay their PT Deputies. The next budget meeting will be on Monday Nov. 11, 2024 at 6 pm. Troiola/Gorsegner motion to adjourn at 8:23 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Laurie Mueller, Village Clerk/Treasurer Minutes approved without corrections Nov. 4, 2024