Village Board meeting

MEETING MINUTES Village of Palmyra SPECIAL VILLAGE BOARD MEETING Joint meeting with the Town Board of the Town of Palmyra Thursday November 20, 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. Ball-excused. Also, Village attorney Luke Martell, Public Safety Director Blount, Sgt. LePak, Fire Chief Gartzke. Members of the Town Board: Josh Gajewksi, Rob Martens and Town Attorney is present. New Business 1. Discussion/possible action on the Fire/EMS Contract. Oct 7th town contract we declined. Oct 23rd town resubmitted. Josh took the calculations out from 33% to 33.333% closer to 100% and removed mutual aid call. Town’s opinion is that by including MA calls the amount of call volume. This will change the percentage then. The dollar amount goes up for the Town. They are requesting a maximum increase for the 2027 budget year not to go higher than 10%. And refunding any budgetary surplus. It could be a fund balance applied not an actual refund to the town. Also, under section 12 to meet and evaluate fire/ems services together- this was added. More clarification on page 4 to termination. Petruska- said the part of “not to go higher than 10%”, health insurance alone goes up more than 10%. Petruska asks what if we went over budget will the town help pay for any overage. She agrees that we should get together to talk about what other services with other communities would look like, but she doesn’t think this wording needs to be in the contract. Wallace says that the Village would use surplus for a 3rd position that we can’t afford right now and would they pay any shortage on the budget. Wallace said that the village has paid over $347,000 over the last 3 yrs. for being over budget. Wallace also asked who pays the cost of the feasibility study she doesn’t want it as part of the contract. Even though she agrees it should be done. Gorsegner-10% increase, what if it goes up only slightly higher. If it exceeds 10% it can go to automatic negotiations. Health insurance increases so much. Wallace said about exploring other options, it is a good idea, but the other entities would have to agree to take us. Smith’s concern over merging with another entity what will the wait time be for a rescue/fire truck to get here. Rob- not his intent that the feasibility study be a hired thing but just board members meeting with other districts. Martens says we need to know what other districts have to offer. Wallace wants our public safety director involved in this process as well. Josh asked how the village would come up with $37,500, half of a 10% increase. Wallace says probably through cuts here and there. Petruska says through levy limits. She went on to say that the current fire/ems staff is underpaid. If we don’t increase wages, then people will leave if it is not competitive. Martens said that they are getting a lot of push back from their residents over the $125,000 increase from the prior year. They need to agree on a cap, or it could go anywhere. More discussions on should the 10% be more, who knows what the economy will do, etc. Blount says we are at state minimum now for number of crew on a call and if considered the 3rd  person it would eat up the $75,000 and more with wages and benefits alone. Petruska asked again if we go over budget will they pay? Gajewski said if we are trending to go over throughout the year then we should address that and let the town know. Gorsegner asked Chief Mike Gartzke if anything comes up out of the blue that would cause our expenses to go way up. Gartzke stated not usually unless there would be something happen to one of the vehicles. Martens suggests changing the wording to “negotiate” the increase over 10%. Fund balance applied to any surplus that language will change. Blount says they, public safety director and fire chief want to be included when looking at going to other depts. Blount says to simplify the language. Petruska says to make a committee. Tucker says to just put the language in there and form a committee, 1 from town and 1 from village and the public safety director/fire chief. The Village agreed on the following, 1. The board agreed to use Josh's calculations without mutual aid $376,793 2. Not to go over budget from 2026 to 2027 by more than 10% and if it does both the village and town will discuss. If the village's 2027 budget is higher, both parties are to communicate early in the budget discussions, preferably August/September. 3. Refund - no on any refund. Wording to change, if there is a surplus, the village will add to the town's portion for the following year. Laurie mentioned that she would need to get specifics from our financial people about how that would work. As we are operating at a deficit now. 4. Agree to form a committee to investigate combining with other municipalities. The town and village each have one person, the fire chief, the PS director, to meet in March prior to election. The Town’s attorney will write up a draft, send it to the Village attorney no later than Wednesday Nov. 26th, the Village attorney will review the changes, and it will go to the Village Board Dec. 1st at their regular meeting. There was no closed session. Martens/Gajewksi motion to make changes to us by 2 pm Nov. 26th and send them to the Village Attorney for review for our Dec. 1st meeting. Petruska/Smith motion to adjourn at 7:30 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Laurie Mueller, Village Clerk/Treasurer Minutes approved without corrections Dec. 1, 2025