Edgar passes 2022 budget
Trustees agree to update the village’s plow truck for $170,000
The Edgar Village Board on Monday passed a $1.034 million budget for 2022 that includes purchase of a $170,000 plow truck.
The truck, to be purchased from Monroe Truck Equipment, Marshfield, will be funded with regular street department monies saved by pushing off completion of Thomas Hill Rd. and CTH H parking lanes to 2023. It also will be funded by taking $89,782 in payments made from the village’s Tax Incremental Finance districts to the village’s general fund.
The village’s street program will be minimal next year: installing a culvert on Willow Street and crack filling and sealing blacktop streets.
Streets and Recycling Committee chairman Jon Streit urged board members to purchase an available plow truck rather than wait to replace the village’s 1993 Ford plow truck with a 2023 model, when manufacturers will have to change emissions systems.
“I strongly, strongly, strongly suggest you take advantage of this,” he said.
The plow truck will be available for use in January 2022. Board members agreed to budget a five percent contingency for customizing the truck as needed.
With purchase of the plow and other minor maintenance expenses, the village’s capital streets improvement budget will carry forward $360,754 to 2023. This sum includes an anticipated Local Road Improvement Project county grant of at least $24,000.
The approved village budget increases property taxes by 1.63 percent, from $376,404 to $382,539.
At a public hearing, no member of the public commented on the proposed 2022 budget. Board members themselves did not suggest any changes.
In other board business:
_ Board members agreed to close streets in the village to facilitate the Edgar Holiday Parade on Dec. 5. In this year’s event, the parade will move north after assembling on Redwood Street east and west of Third Ave. The parade will end at Oak Street Park where Santa and Mrs. Claus will greet children in a village shelter accompanied by live reindeer.
_ Trustees agreed to change its ATV/UTV ordinance in regards to hours of operations to match whatever ordinance finally gets approved by the Marathon County Board of Supervisors. The board members said matching ordinances would be easier to enforce and less confusing to the public.
_ Village administrator Jennifer Lopez suggested a special board meeting to figure out how to charge village residents for sewer service provided by a new wastewater treatment plant that will soon be under construction. She said the village may need to raise rates by over 30 percent over the course of three years to raise enough money to make loan payments on the plant, but that restructuring the village rate system, as recommended by Gary Strand, Cooper Engineering, Rice Lake, could also significantly increase homeowner sewer bills. Lopez said village businesses and public organizations, such as schools and churches, have been subsidizing residential rates for decades.
Since the 1980’s, Lopez said, the village’s sewer base charge has been based not on meter size, but on residential equivalents. These equivalents, however, have not been updated. Strand is recommending that each sewer user’s residential equivalents be adjusted each year based on prior year use. These annual adjustments will likely increase sewer charges for regular household customers, she warned.
Lopez said she has talked to surrounding communities about what their average household sewer rates are. She reported that Edgar’s current charges sit in the middle of the pack.
_ Police Chief Tyler Geske informed board members he decided to purchase Talon Incident Management System police reporting software to replace the system offered by the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department. The new system is sold by Core Technologies, a Michigan company.
He said he also signed a contract to purchase an Explorer new squad car. The vehicle is set to be available within 110 to 120 days.
