Committee of the Whole

MEETING MINUTES Village of Palmyra Committee of the Whole Meeting Monday August 18, 2025 6:00 pm Village Hall 100 W. Taft St. Palmyra, WI. The meeting was called to order by Gorsegner at 6:00 p.m. Roll call: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner-present. Also present: Public Safety Director Paul Blount, Fire Chief Mike Gartzke, Assistant Fire Chief Dan Schiller, Scott Halbrucker, Stephanie Butler Pledge of Allegiance Communications: The Allyukes are playing this Friday at the Music on Main Event. The Village Baord will meet on Sept 4th at 6 pm the Keller group for discussions on the public safety building. Department Reports: Building Inspection Clerk / Treasurer- the Clerk’s office will be working to answer a lot of the PSC’s questions regarding the water rate study case, it will be a lot of work. Budgets are coming in. Library- Trustee Petruska said their budget should be done soon. Parks & Recreation- soccer will start this weekend. We are joining with Eagle, playing in Eagle practicing here, 4 flag football teams, Palmyra will be hosting some soccer games. There are 2 more receipts for final numbers on the party in the park and gun raffle events. Good reviews on the party in the park. Public Safety – Director Blount said that there had been an incident of road racing on Little Prairie Road recently and it ended with the driver being stopped at Zion Road and Hwy 59. Blount gave updated monthly numbers on calls, wages, critical call activity, training certificates. The Hot dogs & Heroes event was a pretty good success. Public Works- had to leave for a storm emergency Committee Reports: Trustee Wallace wants to set up a budget meeting Aug. 28th at. 6 pm. New Business: 1. Entire Committee of the Whole A. Discussion/possible action on the Rural Energy Startup Program grant. Patrick Diedrich presented. The company, Upper 90, looks at energy savings grants. They have recently worked with Edgerton, Evansville and Milton, they are located in Sun Prairie. This grant is through the PSC from the Office of Energy innovation. Grants help rural communities. Upper 90 would do an investment grade audit of our village. We apply for a $20,000 grant which will pay for the audit and then if the village decides they want to do any of the projects from the audit list the Village can apply for another grant next year to do the projects. We pay up front project costs but will be reimbursed. The Village signs 1 contract with Upper 90 and they get other contractors, RFP’s etc. for any of our projects and make sure they are completed properly. The Village should know this Nov. if we have gotten the grant or not. We can re-apply each year. Tucker/Smith motion to apply for the grant with Upper 90., Roll call vote: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner- aye. Motion carried.  B. Discussion/possible action on a quote from the Wisconsin Historical Society for an Archeological survey on the Marsh Road property. Approx. 17-18 acres need to be tilled in order for them to do the Pedestrian Study otherwise the Shovel test study is much more expensive. The Village Clerk will talk to Mr. Poulson and see if he can till it up, cut the hay, the Village might have to pay for any crop loss. Wallace/Ball motion to do the pedestrian survey in the amount of $4,100 and contact Mr. Poulson for tilling and ask MSA why it wasn’t included before and will they foot the bill. Roll call vote: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner- aye. Motion carried. C. Petruska/Smith motion to ask MSA to pay for the geotechnical investigation for the Marsh Road Development, the Village Board feels MSA should have known this needed to be done and should have been included in their contract for the project. All ayes-motion carried. D. Tucker/Ball motion to approve the minutes from August 4, 2025 Village Board meeting, August 7th and August 13th, 2025 Special Village Board meeting as presented. All ayes- motion carried. E. Smith/Wallace motion to move the first meeting in September to Sept. 2nd as Sept 1st is Labor Day. All ayes-motion carried. 2. Budget & Finance Committee: Chairperson Wallace A. Petruska/Smith motion to approve the payment of the bills totaling $36,373.96 from the bill list with extras to UNUM and Ehlers for the 2025 continuing disclosure reporting. Roll call vote: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner-aye. Motion carried. B. Discussion/possible action on Resolution 2025-08, budget carryover in the amount of $87,836 from the Police Dept 2024 unused budget funds into the 2025 budget for Police and Fire/EMS departments. Wallace/Tucker motion to table this until budget committee can look at this. She wants to look at why the numbers are being used and where the money is going to and did the auditor make a recommendation. Paul Blount said it was in action before he took over, he just continued the action. He welcomes some discussion on it. This will be discussed at the budget meeting on Aug. 28th. All ayes-motion carried. 3. Personnel Committee: Chairperson Tucker A. Trustee Tucker said that she doesn’t have the new employee evaluation forms completed yet but will have them done by the next COW meeting. B. Wallace/Petruska motion to make the changes to the job posting as requested by the Village Clerk and re-post this position starting Dec. 15th – Feb. 1st, 2026. This will be a FT position, there will be a pay range on the posting as well. Roll call vote: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner – aye. Motion carried. 4. Administration and Planning: Chairperson Deichl A. Petruska/Wallace motion to approve the Operator’s license for Hunter Graham. All ayes motion carried. B. Petruska/Smith motion to approve the replacement of village board Ipads to be put in the 2026 budget. Roll call vote: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner-aye. Motion carried. C. Petruska/Tucker motion to purchase 2 radio dishes to increase the band width for the Village Hall network between that building and the Public Safety Building. $279 each. Roll call vote: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner-aye. Motion carried. 5. Entire Committee of the Whole: A. Smith/Wallace motion to convene into closed session at 7:34 pm pursuant to State Statute 19.85(1)(c) Considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. Specifically, the Public Safety Director and Police Chief’s position and Public Safety Personnel. AND  pursuant to State Statute 19.85(1)(e) Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business, whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session. Specifically, the Fire/EMS contract with the Town of Palmyra. Roll call vote: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner-aye. Motion carried. A. Petruska/Tucker motion to convene in open session at 9:08 pm pursuant to §19.85(2), Stats., for possible additional discussion and action concerning any matter discussed. Roll call vote: Ball, Wallace, Petruska, Smith, Deichl, Tucker, Gorsegner-aye. Motion carried. Petruska/Smith motion to adjourn at 9:09 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Laurie Mueller Village Clerk, Treasurer Minutes approved without corrections Sept. 2, 2025