Public Safety Committee

MEETING MINUTES Village of Palmyra Budget & Finance and Public Safety Committee Wednesday June 11, 2025 Public Safety Building 126 N. First St. 5:30 P.M. Called to Order at 5:30 pm by Chairperson Wallace and Ball. Roll call: Ball, Petruska, Smith, Wallace Tucker. Tim Gorsegner also present. Dan Schiller, Mike Gartzke, Scott Pavlock, Dylan Callas, Town Supervisor Josh Gajewsk. New Business 1. Review of Public Safety Building conditions and recommendations for action. Everyone did a walkthrough of the inside and outside of the building. There needs to be more rooms for the men and women to sleep that are on duty, the smell of the drugs from the evidence room are entering the Chief’s office. The bell tower water is leaking into the Police room, the building is not ADA compliant, some mold in the basement, water leaks in the basement from outside, front office windows leak, the floor in the bays are sinking and cracked, duct cleaning needs to be done. On the outside back wall there is significant erosion of the soil. There is a report from a structural engineer from 2015, SHE and further back MSA did a report. The dept. also said they think there are issues with the roof. The roof was installed in 2020 so there should be a warranty on it still. Dan Schiller presented a power point on the state of the building. It was built in 1957 with the newest addition done in 1997. In 2024 there were feasibility studies done to address repair, remodel or build new. Repair = $450k, remodel $1.3-2 million and build new possibly $3-5 million. Chief Pavlock is looking for some direction on what the committee wants next. Petruska worries about funding and where would we build it? Hwy H? Gorsegner’s concern is if we remodel and they find more problems then what. Ball/Wallace motion to recommend to the Board that the board begin the process to look into new building options. All ayes-motion carried. Scott would like it to be on the 1st mtg in July. 2. Review of Fee schedule as it relates to staffing of special events and the required Palmyra Public Safety Departments/JCSO Department requirements for staffing. A list of different events was given by Scott and the estimated police EMS/Fire coverage needed for each event, all would be overtime hours. Scott wants to get the permit requests given sooner so his dept has time to review them better. If alcohol is being served then there needs to be a police presence. The next issue is will these organizations pay for the cost of our staff to be at their events, if they don’t want them there then it will be up to the board to approve their request or not. A FF/EMT get $26.75/hr. at OT rate and $45/hr. OT rate for police. One question was could we fund half of these costs because it’s important to the Village to have these events. Petruska wants comparisons from other communities. Tammie Smith asked if the employees could take time off during the week and then work the events and have the County work instead. Scott said that wouldn’t work, would cost money. Scott will get us a new event form for the July meeting. Petruska says to do an average fee if possible. The Clerk said that the form will come from the public safety building and not the clerk’s office any longer. 3. Discussion of budget for current 2025 and future 2026 and the requirements for Town contract negotiations. Mike goes over his letter requesting more staff immediately. It is hard to even get PT people here, we are underpaid. Pay should be at least $20/hr. and we are at $17.50. We can’t go into a burning bldg. with 2 people. The only solution at this point is to attempt to hire more people but must pay more. Can guarantee an ambulance out if another call comes in then we call for mutual aid. Everyone around us is in the same boat. We need to do something now. He wants advice. Budget committee is to find more money for this year. Mike will get a number of what they would like to have this year and the budget committee will meet to discuss. Pavlock also touched on the negotiations with the Town for the fire/ems contract. He said he and his staff have been working on 2026 budget and where they are for 2025. He wants to get with the Budget Committee to start going over this. There have been no numbers given to the Town of Palmyra yet. Josh Gajewski spoke and stated that he was shocked that we are almost into July and there have been no numbers given to the town of Palmyra, and that it sounds like our department doesn’t seem to have numbers either yet for the contract negotiations. He explained that like the village the town also has to “sell” the increase that they anticipate is coming. The Budget committee set a meeting on June 26th at 5:30 pm to review Scott’s budgets. Petruska/Smith motion to adjourn the Public Works Committee at 8:30 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Tucker/Wallace motion to adjourn the Budget Committee at 8:30 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Laurie Mueller, Village Clerk/Treasurer Minutes approved without corrections on June 16, 2025