The Village of Withee held a special meeting on Monday, September 23, 2024. First, Clerk Ellen Niemi went over a rough draft of a 2025 budget for the village. She assumed a three percent wage increase, included the new fire assessment, and the DPW looked at his numbers. They still don’t know what the health insurance numbers will be, but Niemi assumed a seven percent increase. She cut donations, economic development, municipal building savings, and comprehensive plan savings all to zero. This will leave approximately $36,000 available for savings or unplanned expenses. Niemi said that number will drop every year. She said the village could sustain paying for a third officer along with their expenses for about three years if they didn’t have to borrow any money. Niemi felt that after that the village would have to make cuts to their budget, seek a referendum, or take money from savings. She also pointed out that the municipal building will be paid off in six years. She said the Comprehensive Plan should have been done in 2015 and they still haven’t done it. Trustee Heather Mueller asked if they could put some money into these accounts rather than zero. Niemi said they are projected to get $42,687 in supplemental aid. There was a vote to postpone any decision on the budget until the next meeting.

The board voted to approve the Union Contract for the police.

Then they moved on to the police budget. Mueller asked what changed. Chief of Police Patrick Fehlman said that Wisconsin Retirement (WRS) wasn’t in the budget and neither was workman’s compensation insurance. Those were added and he made a few cuts elsewhere that covered the addition of the workman’s compensation insurance and a little bit of WRS. Niemi said that employees pay a portion of WRS and Owen and Withee pay a portion. She felt that Withee paid their share in 2023. Fehlman said it wasn’t paid in 2024 and the auditors caught it. The budget was approved with the third officer included.

Before the third officer was discussed by the board, resident Grace Dale asked if she could speak. She said there have been increases in assaults and thefts, she even had a package stolen off her deck. She said the supplemental aid is specifically for fire, police and public works. Dale talked about what the fire district had done adding extra payment for on-call time in the hopes of getting more people to sign up. She said the $42,000 would cover fire plus most of the police increase. Niemi pointed out that they had a Tax Incremental District close, so they are getting $35,000 less in revenue. She said they are trying to maintain, not cut. Dale said the supplemental aid isn’t for supplementing other budget items. Niemi replied that they don’t have that money and there is no way to get other money. Dale said the supplemental aid will be maintained. Niemi said that in three years the village’s cushion will be gone, that they have to look long range. Dale then asked if having a third officer would cut police overtime. Fehlman said yes. Mueller felt that the supplemental aid didn’t come close to covering the cost, but Dale said they were already budgeting for the old portion of both the assessment and the police budget. Mueller said she would hate to see them get rid of the third person in the future, but she doesn’t want to see them cut other things either. Mueller said Clark County deputies are here all the time. Fehlman said that is because they have an office here. They also go to the gas pumps at the county shop.

Village President Everett Lindgren ended the discussion. The board voted to hire a third officer with Mueller voting no.