Committee of the Whole

MEETING MINUTES Village of Palmyra Committee of the Whole Meeting Monday February 17, 2025 6:00 pm Public Safety Building 126 N. First St. Palmyra, WI. The meeting was called to order by Village President Kathy Weiss at 6:00 p.m. Roll call: Ball, Gorsegner, Kinjerski, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Weiss-present. Pledge of Allegiance Communications: President Weiss mention that there is an Election tomorrow and it will be held at Village Hall. Trustee Petruska said that the Library is having an author at the library on Feb. 24th that wrote about 3 brothers who joined the army together, local family is Congdon. Department Reports: Building Inspection -typed report Clerk / Treasurer- all of the items are in for the boardroom for the new camera system. This is going to require some extra time for me as all meeting will now be a TEAMS meeting. The recording will then go on the Village’s website. The Clerk also went over how the Positive pay will work with the bank. This will help prevent check fraud but again, it will be more work for our office. Library- Trustee Petruska attended their meeting earlier tonight. Also, the Village & Town are officially an Ice Age Trail community. There will be a ceremony on May 18th at Horseman’s Park. The Village and Town will each receive 2 signs to install. Parks & Recreation- nothing Public Safety – Chief Pavlock mentioned that the Board has been give a yearly report from Lieutenant Durham. There will an audit of the 2% dues on March 5th. The Dept continues to work with EMS/MC (formerly LifeQuest), our EMS billing company. Pavlock said they are reviewing the last 18 months of runs we reported vs. income. There will be a change to the Organizational chart. Sam Meier has resigned, and Dan Schiller has taken over her duties. The building was inspected by an engineer recently and the Board will be getting that report/estimate at the next meeting. To make this building usable the cost will be approx. $1 and $1.5 million. We will have all estimates in writing before the next village board meeting. This has no effect on the referendum. There will be 3 separate bids: external/internal/adjustments to the roof area and remediation of the mold. The Engineer said the walls are stable. No settling in the building. More details at the next meeting. Public Works- Halbrucker said we are in month 2 of PFAS pilot study. He wants a public works meeting for the construction of the building for the PFAS on how it will look. There is a new generator for the pump station coming and someone might want our old generator. Zoom meeting with MSA to discuss the Marsh Road development. One of the dump trucks has broken down today so it will go to Janesville for repair. People are not shoveling sidewalks so a few notices were hung on doors. He would like to see an ordinance change regarding putting snow into the streets at the next meeting. Committee Reports: None Building Permits: Monthly report was submitted New Business: 1. Entire Committee of the Whole- Item C was taken out of order. C. Discussion/possible action on the draft agreement with Lower Spring Lake Management District for weed harvester staff and weed harvesting equipment. President Weiss drafted something that she has given to the board and she wants them to review this and contact the Clerk for any ideas or changes by Wed Feb. 19th. Her and Scott Halbrucker will be a meeting on Feb. 21st with a few lake district people. No action taken. A. Smith/Petruska motion to approve the Feb. 3, 2025 Village Board meeting minutes. All ayes-motion carried. B. Discussion/possible action on the Town of Palmyra’s request for the Village to help pay for their airport land survey in order to tax hangar owners. President Weiss summarized how the Dept. of Revenue did away with personal property tax and now this has become a real estate tax for the Town of Palmyra. The Town owns the land and the hangars are taxable but not the land. Town Board Chairman Frank Sauter is present. He stated that the Town has paid the Real Estate tax bill but now they have to invoice the hangar owners. The Airport Commission voted to pay $2000 toward the cost of getting the airport surveyed so that each hangar will have its own tax id number or parcel. The total approx. cost for this is $7000. Frank is asking if the Village could also support paying a portion. There were over 40 pages of email correspondence in the Village Board packets regarding this matter from 2024 for their review. Trustee Petruska spoke, stating that she has gone to both an airport commission meeting and a Town board meeting where this was discussed. She went on to say that the Airport Commission was sent a letter from the County back in Jan. of 2024 telling them about this change to the law and the Town Board knew the steps that had to be taken back in Sept of 2024 in order for these hangar owners to get individual tax bills. She has done a lot of research. In Sept & Nov there was lot correspondence from the County Treasurer, the County Zoning Dept. and the County Register of Deeds along with our Assessor to the Town Clerk and Town Board explaining what they needed to do. Petruska said that this is not our Village taxpayer’s responsibility to help pay for this. Petruska finds it very odd, but the County Treasurer says when a hangar is sold in the State of WI they do not need to do a deed. There are no current leases either. This makes it difficult for the town to know who owns what. Trustee Tucker said that from a budget standpoint if Frank is asking for money what wasn’t budgeted for, where will this money come from? And what benefit will doing this be for the Village taxpayers. Petruska says that the town does own the airport, and they could have done this in the Fall to get parcels split. The County says the other 2 airports in Jefferson County are splitting the land and getting the airport hangar owners to pay. The County Treasurer says this is up to the airport. Frank says the difference is that the town owns the land and it sits in the village. Pilots are upset- that they get nothing for the taxes. Village Clerk said that they get fire/ems/police protection. Petrusksa asked again what benefit the village residents will get for helping to pay for this. She said that the Village has already paid fees to our village lawyer from the work he was asked to do regarding this matter. Trustee Ball says that they were notified plenty in advance. This should have been split between all hangar owners. No action taken. D. Discussion/possible action on drafting an informational letter to go out to Village residents regarding the referendum for the Public Safety Dept. President Weiss suggested getting a small group together to prepare a letter to go out before March 12th. Scott Pavlock said that the Clerk supplied them with a letter from Cedarburg that he thinks is very good. He and Mike Gartzke and Penny LePak will draft a letter to present to the Board. Trustee Tucker would like to see another meeting scheduled beside the March 12th one. She offered to help with the PowerPoint. Tucker would like to have the possible consequences put in the letter explaining what the Dept would face if it doesn’t pass. The Clerk will see if the Community Center is available either March 20th or the 27th for another meeting. 2. Budget & Finance Committee: Chairperson Tucker A. Smith/Ball motion to approve the payment of the bills totaling $504,475.12 that were on the bill list along with the extras for basketball referees, WE Energies bills,, Guetzke and & Associates, Morton Salt, and MSA. Trustee Petruska had a question about the legal bill for court, she never noticed this before. The Clerk said this is for the court attorney. She also asked if there has been any progress on a new court clerk. President Weiss said that she spoke to the court attorney and Attorney Riffle about this and she will revisit this with him. Roll call vote: Ball, Gorsegner, Kinjerski, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Weiss-aye. Motion carried. B. Petruska/Kinjerski motion to accept the Dec. 2024 Financial statement, bank statement and cash account balances as presented by the Clerk. All ayes-motion carried. C. Petruska/Gorsegner motion to spend no more than $11,750 on Fire/EMS equipment for a matching 50/50 DNR WI State Forestry SEG Grant for Fire equipment and gear. Whatever we spend the DNR will match half up to $5875.00. Chief Gartzke says they applied for a grant and it was awarded to the department. He can use this money to purchase much needed gear/equipment at half the cost, with the DNR’s reimbursement. We can apply every year if we wish. There hasn’t been a grant applied for since 2012. The money must be spent by April 15th. Where in the budget would it come from Trustee Tucker asks. Roll call vote: Ball, Gorsegner, Kinjerski, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Weiss- aye-motion carried. 3. Administration & Planning: Chairperson Gorsegner A. Gorsegner/Tucker motion to approve the operator’s license for Amanda Volkaitis. Trustee Gorsegner asked Chief Pavlock if there were any concerns, Pavlock stated there were not. All ayes-motion carried. Gorsegner/Smith motion to adjourn at 7:21 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Laurie Mueller Village Clerk/Treasurer Minutes approved with corrections March 3, 2025