Village Board

MEETING MINUTES Village of Palmyra REGULAR VILLAGE BOARD MEETING Monday July 7, 2025 Village Hall 100 W. Taft Street 6:00 P.M. The meeting was called to order by President Gorsegner at 6:00 pm. Roll call: Ball, Deichl, Gorsegner, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Wallace-present. Pledge of Allegiance Communications: President Gorsegner mentioned a couple of upcoming meetings. Jefferson County is offering free nitrate testing on July 9th – 11th 9:30 am -7:30 pm at the fairgrounds Expo building. Monthly Reports: Public Works- Halbrucker said that the guys are still working on sidewalk repairs in between everything else, should be done in about 2 weeks. Update on Hwy 106- they will be working on cross walks for the next 3 weeks. DOT wants to put a bike & pedestrian counter on Second and Main Street for 2 weeks. Halbrucker says he needs to come up with a different way to handle sludge in ponds. New weed harvester employee is working out good. Public Safety- none Recreation Dept.- none Library-Directors typed report for June Clerk/Treasurer- She, Chief Gartzke and Dan Schiller attended a virtual meeting with EMS/MC to go over their monthly reports and discussed TRIP reporting. She, President Gorsegner and Trustee Petruska met with 2 members from the UW Extension-Community Needs Program to discuss what our community needs help with, what is lacking, helping local businesses and tourism, how to network. Will meet again in about a month. There is a budgeting webinar on July 15th if anyone wants to come to Village Hall and watch it with me it starts at 9 am-noon. Job posting for deputy clerk has gone out, I’ve gotten about 4 resumes from Indeed. Joint review board meeting Fri. July 11th at 9 am to review the TID 3 & 4 annual reports, 2nd Qtr water/sewer billings went out. Public Forum: none 1. Consent Agenda: All items listed are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Board member so requests, in which event the item will be removed from the Consent agenda and be considered on the regular agenda. A. Petruska/Smith motion to approve of the following minutes: June 16, 2025 Committee of the Whole meeting, the June 3, 2025 Board of Review meeting, and the June 26, 2025 Special Village Board meeting with a correction to the June 26th special board meeting. All ayes-motion carried. B. Tucker/Wallace motion to approve of the renewal of operator’s licenses for Ron Simmons, Isabella Contreras, and Christine Loeffler. All ayes-motion carried. 2. Building Permits June report for info. only 3. Committee/Commission reports: President Gorsegner gave an update from the Plan Commission meeting of June 30th. They held a public hearing on the rezone for the new development. Listened to the public comments. Made a recommendation to the Village Board to rezone from RH to PUD and GDP. More will be presented to the Plan Commission and to the Village board in August. 4. New Business Discussion and Possible Action on the Following Items A. The 2025 Water Rate Study Phase 1 and 2, Ariana Schmidt from Ehlers presented. The last full rate case was done in 2002, and the last simplified rate case was last done in 2013. The Utility is preparing for PFAS project as well as applying for a Safe Drinking Water Loan, so a full rate case is needed for these 2 items. Phase 1 was the long-range cash flow analysis looking at debt vs cash. Phase 2: projected rate impact, debt coverage for the loan and the Village wants to convert the public fire protection fee from the budget to the utility bills. Ehlers is projecting a 53.12% rate increase to the water rates but the PSC ultimately determines what the rate will be. This needs to be submitted to the PSC before July 31st and once received the PSC will audit the utility. This will be a lot of work for staff. The Village wants to do this BEFORE the PFA’s project is done or our rates would increase much more. Gorsegner/Petruska motion to direct Ehlers to file the rate study phase 1 and 2 to the PSC. The Village will adopt a resolution at a meeting in the Fall. Roll call vote: Ball, Deichl, Gorsegner, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Wallace-aye. Motion carried. Village Clerk Mueller said that she would like the Board to work with her office and Scott Halbrucker to get information out to residents well in advance of the rate increase that will take place in the 2 nd quarter of 2026. Brian Roemer with Ehlers said that the board could hold an informative session to educate residents, and also discussing the hydrant portion that will go on the water bills to residents as well. B. Smith/Wallace motion to approve the 2024 FINAL audit of the Village’s financials. All ayes- motion carried. C. Tucker/Smith motion to adopt Resolution 2025-05, adopting the Jefferson County Natural Hazards Mitigation plan 2025-2029. All ayes-motion carried. D. Wallace/Ball motion to approve the May Treasurer’s report, bank statement and cash account balances as presented by the Clerk/Treasurer. All ayes-motion carried. E. Petruska/Wallace motion to approve the proposal from Town Web Design for a 3 yr. renewal contract for the Village’s website at a cost of $920 per year. Roll call vote: Ball, Deichl, Gorsegner, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Wallace-aye. Motion carried. F. Petruska/Smith motion to approve the payment of bills totaling $203,859.88 as presented on the bill list with one extra to Pointe Concrete for the sidewalk repairs. Roll call vote: Ball, Deichl, Gorsegner, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Wallace-aye. Motion carried. G. Wallace/Tucker motion to refund real estate taxes to the Town of Palmyra for parcel 171-051-2222- 000 in the amount of $125.69 and to Michael Williamson for parcel 171-0516-1544-015 in the amount of $567.86 for the 2024 taxes due to Assessor Error. This was explained at the Board of Review by the assessor as well. The Town’s refund is for Hangar 23A, the square footage was wrong and the Williamson home was assessed at 100% instead of 93% like the rest of the properties in the Village. Roll call vote: Ball, Deichl, Gorsegner, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Wallace-aye. Motion carried. Wallace/Smith motion to adjourn at 6:55 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Laurie Mueller, Village Clerk/Treasurer Minutes approved without corrections July 21, 2025