Village Board

MEETING MINUTES Village of Palmyra SPECIAL VILLAGE BOARD MEETING Wednesday January 15, 2025 Village Hall 100 W. Taft Street 6:00 P.M. The meeting was called to order by Village Trustee Gorsegner at 6:00 pm. Roll call: Ball, Gorsegner, Kinjerski, Petruska, Smith, -present. Weiss-excused. Also Present: Scott Pavlock, Mike Gartzke, Town of Palmyra Board members and several members of the public. New Business 1. Discussion/possible action with the Town of Palmyra Board regarding the Fire/EMS contract renewal. Trustee Gorsegner mentioned the Village Board meeting from Monday Jan. 13th. The Village Clerk gave the town board copies of budget comparisons 2023 & 2024 and Sgt. LePak’s 2025/2026 payroll sheets. Frank Sauter said that Rob Martens will head up the negotiations. His assumption is that there would be a small group that meet to discuss things and take these discussions back to their prospective boards. Trustee Gorsegner and Martens will meet at least once or twice a month as needed. Trustee Ball said as the public safety committee chair he would like to be in on the meetings as well. Then everything would be reviewed by Attorneys. Chief Pavlock explained that the Village is moving ahead with a referendum on the April ballot for the 2026 budget. If that referendum passes this will determine what some of our fundings will be. If it fails, Pavlock says there could be a loss of the Police Dept. Whatever remains of budget funds would be for the fire/ems. If the referendum fails then it will determine the level of service to the town of palmyra, we will be operating at the minimums. Martens said if there are no discussions until after referendum in April that is disappointing. Chief Pavlock said when doing the budget for 2025 he had no idea how the past functioned. Once the 2025 budget was passed and we saw how bad things were, the Village Board acted extremely quickly on moving forward with a referendum. Pavlock tells the town board that they should be getting numbers from other places if they feel they need to. Josh Gajewski asked what the referendum amount is. Gorsegner said the board hasn’t voted on that yet, that will be on Jan. 20th but the 2 options are $325,000 or $350,000. Martens asked how much is for public safety, Gorsegner and Petruska said the entire amount is for public safety. Pavlock says that most of this is for personnel costs. Operational costs should remain the same. Sauter asked what pieces of equipment are jointly owned. Gartzke named them off: 4 pieces of equipment are jointly owned. Gajewski asked if the village is going to move the public fire protection onto the water bills. Gorsegner said yes and also possibly the recycling costs which would go on the tax bills. Without doing this the referendum amount would have been much larger. Martens asked if the village would be willing to look into contracting with other depts? Members of the village said we tried that last time and no one wanted to be part of it. Chief Gartzke said that other places are in the same position we are, but he said to NOT look forward would be a mistake. Trustee Smith says that a lot of communities are having the same problems as we are. Sauter spoke about what the County is trying to do to help with EMS services. There would money distributed out County wide but there is no time table yet, they are just establishing a new committee. Trustee Kinjerski says the cost of everything just soars, equipment, wages, insurance. Gartzke said the current wait time on a new engine is 4 years and it is nearly a million dollars. Martens suggests to Gorsegner that they start meeting every couple of weeks and put some dates on the calendar. Pavlock and Gartzke can join them if they choose. Then after the referendum they can get into the meatier things. Martens says they understand that the Town is a customer. He wants to keep communication open and it works out better for everyone. Pavlock mentions his resignation that he rescinded, and he has an open-door policy if there are any questions. Sauter said that the village has to save the police dept and fulfill the fire/ems. Sauter said that the County is down 50% on deputies and if they can’t get there they call Palmyra. Kinjerski says it is hard to keep employees. They go to other places for more pay. Gajewski asks if the referendum doesn’t pass, is it likely the Village will not have a Police Dept.? Gorsegner said no this has not been a final decision. But it is $400,000 of budget money that might have to be used for fire/ems. Trustee Ball says most other communities don’t want to service us they can’t service themselves. He said that everyone’s Homeowners insurance could increase if our ISO rating goes down. Sauter will reach out to the county supervisor again to see where they are at. Ball/Smith motion to adjourn at 7:55 pm. All ayes-motion carried. The Town Board adjourned as well. Respectfully submitted, Laurie Mueller, Village Clerk/Treasurer Minutes approved without corrections Jan. 20, 2025