Village Board

MEETING MINUTES Village of Palmyra SPECIAL VILLAGE BOARD MEETING Thursday, March 27, 2025 Palmyra Eagle High School Community Center 123 Burr Oak St. 6:30 P.M. The meeting was called to order by President Weiss at 6:30 pm. Roll call: Ball, Gorsegner, Kinjerski, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Weiss-present. Also present Casey Griffiths from Ehlers, Pavlock, LePak, Gartzke Schiller, Blount. New Business 1. Discussion/presentation on the Referendum for the Public Safety Dept. that will be on the April 1, 2025 Ballot. Kathy Weiss presented a PowerPoint (see attached) and hit on the problem that we are not alone in this predicament. Palmyra’s geographic location doesn’t help, and the cost of readiness is expensive. Weiss also stated that it is a one-time jump of $350,000 and then it would stay at that level. Scott Pavlock talked about current response time and staffing. Penny Lepak talked about current staffing and proposed staffing for 2026. Mike Gartzke talked about why you can’t use volunteers anymore and told the audience that he had forms if anyone is interested. Pavlock talked about salary comparisons. Palmyra’s FF/EMT are currently making $17.50/hr., which is the lowest in the area, especially compared to other industries. Schiller stated in 2008 that a fire truck would cost $608,000 and would take 1 year to receive compared to now the same truck would cost 1.6 million and take 4 years to receive. Pavlock invited the audience to attend the budget meeting to see where we are spending our dollars. If we don’t raise the FF/EMT rate to $20 next year we won’t have a department. Casey Griffiths from Ehlers presented. The Village’s revenues are not keeping up with there expenses. There was a $176,000 gap this year and with the PS needs it is an additional $500,000. Griffiths explained the levy and levy limits. The Village does have alternative revenue source including moving Public Fire Protection Fees ($118,000) that would be put on the water bill the recycling ($163,268) could be put on the tax bill. Griffiths touched on the fact that there are 25 referendums statewide with 13 of them including levy increases. 8 of them are for public safety services and 3 of them are partial PS services. Residents asked questions: What are other Capital expenses that are upcoming? Weiss stated that there are PFAS and roads are a constant project. One person asked about how the school district debt plays into this? Weiss said you must ask the school. We have nothing to do with them. Casey said that the school would have to do a referendum for any capital expenses. Is public safety applying for the Safer Grant? Gartzke said that they were but with certain grants they pay for the first year then less every year and then by year 5 the Village would have to pick up the whole tab. Where are we with the Town negotiations? Tim Gorsegner said that as soon as we have the results from the referendum, we will be meeting with them. With no further questions at this time, Gorsegner/Smith made a motion to adjourn at 7:55 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Dee Dee Morateck, Village Deputy Clerk/Treasurer Minutes approved without corrections on April 7, 2025.