Village Board meeting

MEETING MINUTES Village of Palmyra REGULAR VILLAGE BOARD MEETING Monday February 2, 2026 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. Also present: Paul Blount, Mike Gartzke, Scott Halbrucker, Stephanie Butler. Pledge of Allegiance Communications: Josh Meherhofer with MSA gave a typed and verbal update the Westfield Development. Bid documents will go to the newspaper for Feb. 13, bid opening is March 2nd, MSA will make a recommendation to the Village board March 16th. April construction to begin. Outstanding items are the jurisdictional agreement with the Town regarding Hwy H. They want to make sure there will not be an island. There also needs to be a meeting with BSLMD on the force main. Feb 12th either Joe DeYoung or Josh will attend their meeting. MSA has been going over the lighting, light poles, etc. with Scott H. WE Energies estimate will be coming in. The bid package will be available online for contractors through Bidquest, electronically. The Lake drawdown reports were put in the board packets. President Gorsegner said that the District will not be asking for a draw down unless the milfoil gets greater than 40%, they will continue to do weed harvesting. Monthly Reports: Typed Reports submitted by Public Works, Library, Public Safety, and Recreation Departments. Clerk/Treasurer- has the financial report on the agenda. 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. Smith/Deichl motion to approve the following minutes as presented without corrections: Jan. 19, 2026 Committee of the Whole meeting and reapprove the Recreation Committee minutes from Jan. 12, 2026. All ayes-motion carried. 2. Building Permits: None 3. Old Business; Discussion and Possible Action on the Following Items A. Lease agreement between St. Mary Church and the Village of Palmyra for 1.775 acres of parcel. 171-0516-2234-010. No action needed. The contract has been signed by both parties and payment to St. Mary Church is on the bill list. B. Recreation Director Job Description. Trustee Tucker said the Board doesn’t need to consider her draft of the job description, she was just trying to update it, but it had items that didn’t pertain to our Recreation Director position. Trustee Smith says that the Recreation Committee would like public works to maintain more of the fields. Halbrucker says he doesn’t have time to do this; he would need to hire another PT person to do things like dragging ball diamonds and spraying weeds. Trustee Petruska asks Stephanie Butler how many hours to drag the fields during ball season. Butler says about 5 – 10 hours a week, April - August. The rest of the year public works will drag the fields with their big drag. 2 fields are owned by the Elementary school, but we use them, so we have to maintain them. It would make more sense to add additional hours to the Rec. Direcotr’s position than have public works hire another person. Tucker/Wallace motion to approve the current Rec.  Director’s job description with the noted changes from Trustee Smith and Butler. All ayes motion carried. C. Wallace/Smith motion to approve the 2 wage categories and rates for Dylan Callas and Daniel Schiller and Chief Gartzke for the 2026 Wage Scale. All ayes-motion carried. New Business: Discussion and Possible Action on the Following Items A. Settling the charges to the Palmyra Airport Commission for costs the Village incurred by MSA Professional Services for discussions regarding Airport projects. Trustee Ball said that their engineer incurred this cost to us and they are employed by the airport commission, he doesn’t see why we should share this cost. Trustee Petruska says what if we pay 10% and they pay 90%. President Gorsegner asks what if we drop the interest charges. Wallace/Ball motion to drop the interest charges and the airport commission pays the initial bill by April 1st. All ayes – motion carried. B. Gorsegner/Smith motion to approve the recommendation from the Plan Commission for an extraterritorial land division for Jasmine & Mira Elhindi, Vincent Swartz and Charles Schlessinger, to create two-2 acre parcels from 024-0516-2341-000, W566 Carlin Trail. All ayes- motion carried. C. Gorsegner/Ball motion to approve the recommendation from the Plan Commission for an extraterritorial land division on parcel 024-0516-3342-001, N252 & N254 County Road H, for John & Michelle Mehring, create a new 3.204-acre parcel. All ayes- motion carried. D. Smith/Tucker motion to approve the payment of bills totaling $47,145.79 on the bill list with the extras presented tonight to John’s Disposal, WEX Bank for fuel, MSA invoices, Hydro Corp., Core & Main, Menards, Palmyra True Value, Premium Waters, and Johnson Block-auditors. Trustee Wallace had a question on an invoice for radios and Chief Gartzke explained that they purchased refurbished batteries at a much lower cost. Roll call vote: Ball, Deichl, Gorsegner, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Wallace-aye. Motion carried. E. Petruska/Smith motion to approve the renewal of a Home Business license for Angelica Ridgewell at 340 Spring Valley Court to sell baked goods. All ayes- motion carried. F. Ball/Wallace motion to approve the December 2025 financial statement, bank statement and cash account balances as reported by the Clerk/Treasurer. All ayes- motion carried. G. Petruska/Smith motion to adopt Ordinance 2026-02 to repeal ordinance 2016-07 that created section 2.04 (3) and 2.09(2) Committee of the Whole. There will be no more Committee of the Whole meetings, the ordinance will revert to 2 village board meetings a month. All ayes-motion carried. H. Discussions with the PEASD regarding the Village’s Recreation programs. President Gorsegner asks the board if we want to give the school a list of programs. Petruska/Wallace motion to have Tammie Smith respond to Ryan Krohn at the school district. All ayes – motion carried. I. Tucker/Wallace motion to convene into closed session at 6:55 pm with staff, pursuant to §19.85(1)(c), Considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility. Specifically, the Fire Chief Position. Roll call vote: Ball, Deichl, Gorsegner, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Wallace-aye. Motion carried. J. Smith/Wallace motion to convene into open session at 7:45 pm pursuant to §19.85(2), Stats., for possible additional discussion and action concerning any matter discussed. Roll call vote: Ball, Deichl, Gorsegner, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Wallace-aye. Motion carried. K. Wallace/Petruska motion to give Mike Gartzke, Fire Chief, $50,000 annual salary with a $10,000 stipend which will be paid quarterly. If he leaves mid quarter the stipend will not be pro-rated and paid. Wallace will type up the draft contract and send it to Attorney Ryan Heiden. Roll call vote: Ball, Deichl, Gorsegner, Petruska, Smith, Tucker, Wallace-aye. Motion carried. Petruska/Ball motion to adjourn at 7:47 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Laurie Mueller, Village Clerk/Treasurer Minutes approvedwithout corrections Feb. 16, 2026