Village Board meeting cut short by sudden illness of a member
BOYCEVILE — The Village Board Meeting on Monday evening was cut short by the sudden illness of one of its members.
As the meeting was beginning at its regular seven o’clock starting time, Village President Gib Krueger lead the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and then Village Clerk/Treasurer Cindy Swanepoel did the roll call, which showed all members present except Jo Palmer. Krueger questioned, “Where is Jo?”
Board member Jonathan Farrell spoke to indicate that Palmer had been at another meeting at the Community Center a few minutes before the Village Board meeting and another board member, Mary Lagerstrom, stated that as she was coming into the Village Hall, she walked past Palmer’s car, noting that Palmer was in her car looking over paper work.
As the meeting continued, Village Maintenance Head, Don Rose was presenting his monthly report to the board when Farrell rose and said that he was going out to check on Palmer. He quickly returned saying, “we need help, she’s slumped over in her car.”
Several members of the board and the police chief left the meeting and the ambulance was quickly summoned. Palmer was transported to a local hospital. Word was received Tuesday morning by this newspaper that Jo Palmer passed away at an Eau Claire Hospital.
As the board members returned to the meeting, it was obvious that they were very distraught over the event that just happened. Village President Krueger, his voice choked up, asked for “a moment of silent prayer.”
Board member Bud Gilbertson suggested that they postpone the meeting until a later date, but Swanepoel noted that they had published a public hearing on the Village’s floodplain Zoning Ordinance Revisions. Krueger said, “We will address the ordinance revisions and pay the bills.”
Gilbertson explained the revisions in the floodplain ordinance and Krueger asked if anyone in the audience would like to speak about the changes. No one spoke up and the board approved the changes and then Krueger moved to table all other village business until next Monday evening, October 19th.