Boyceville Village Board approves 2025 tax levy at $227,034
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
BOYCEVILLE-At their meeting held on Monday evening the Boyceville village board unanimously approved the 2025 levy limit, which is the maximum amount of property taxes the village can collect in a year, at $227,034 with board trustee Ben Hitz absent.
Village clerk treasurer Brittany Halvorson presented the 2025 budget to the board. In 2025 the village expects to spend $1,441,747.07. The 2025 budget is a bit smaller than the 2024 budget which was $1,527,156.16. Halvorson noted that quite a lot of work went into the budget and no significant cuts were made.
“I’m done with the budget, so hopefully you guys like it,” she said.
The board approved the budget and thanked Halvorson for her work on it.
During his report to the board Boyceville police chief Greg Lamkin said the department received 131 calls for service in the month of October and BPD handled 89% of them. Sixteen citations were issued and four arrests were made.
Lamkin highlighted a few significant cases that recently occurred in the village. In one case officer Vodenlich was dispatched to the cemetery to investigate a complaint of vandalism. Upon inspection Vodenlich discovered evidence that a motorist likely struck either another vehicle on highway 170 or an animal and then lost control resulting in damage to the turf at the cemetery.
He said there are currently no leads as to the identity of a suspect for failure to report an accident. Board trustee Jo Dormanen asked Lamkin if a recently installed camera at the cemetery caught any footage of the incident. Lamkin said it had not and they may look into repositioning the camera.
This is the second time the cemetery has been damaged this year and the board expressed frustration with that fact.
Later in the meeting Lamkin went over the 2025 village fine and fee schedule. Some increases in the fine and fee schedule include: concession and pavilion rental, junk vehicles on private property, public nuisance, damage turf on public property, park hours violation and safe and sanitary maintenance of property. After some discussion the board approved the new schedule.
Lamkin also spoke about the possibility of installing crosswalk lights at the intersection of highway 170 and county road K. He said that one crossing guard is retiring soon and installing the lights may save money in the long run. The cost for four crossing guards is $27,000 per year and the school pays half of that cost, said Lamkin.
According to Lamkin, the cost to install the solar powered button operated flashing lights would be between $10,000 and $15,000 and the school may be willing to help with the cost. He said that installing the lights would give the crossing 24 hour coverage instead of the current two hours per day during school operation coverage.
“We could have something there 24/7,” said Lamkin.
The board voted to approve going forward with the project pending the support of the school.
In her report to the board, Halvorson said that the village was randomly selected for an election audit. As a result Halvorson along with deputy clerk treasurer Samantha Bird spent about half a day hand-counting all 540 ballots that were cast in last month’s election. They found no discrepancies from the election night total.
She also said that it is election season again and if anyone wants to pull nomination papers they are available at the village office. Interested parties should stop by the office or call, nomination papers are due by January 7.
“If you know of anyone who is interested, have them reach out to me,” she said.
Later in the meeting Halvorson told the board that the village’s application to increase the water rate by 4.1% was approved by the Public Service Commission. She said the increase will take effect on January 1 and residents will see the increase in their bills in April. This is the first time in 21 years that the village has increased the water rate. The board approved the increase.
Batting Cages
Jon Talmage and Michele Williams of the Boyceville Baseball Association spoke to the board about the possibility of installing two batting cages and extending the infield at the baseball diamond at Andy Pafko Park. They presented a map of the park which displayed their ideas of where the cages could be located and how far to extend the infield.
Talmage noted that more baseball games could be played at Pafko Park if the infield were to be extended. Currently the infield is not up to Babe Ruth League specifications. Williams said the baseball association would start fundraising if the board would give them permission to install the cages and do the work on the infield.
After some discussion on where to put the cages and what type of maintenance the village would be responsible for in regards to the improvements, the board unanimously voted to approve the association to continue moving forward with fundraising.
In other business the Boyceville village board:
-Learned from Dotseth about various winter projects his department has completed including putting up Christmas decorations and the repair of a snowplow.
-Learned from Lamkin that the police department is 92% through the budget year and they have spent 82% of their budget.
-Learned from a report submitted by library director, Kallie Anderson that 60 attended story hour in November, 33 participated in the monthly scavenger hunt, 9 attended book club and 10 attended movie night.
-Heard from the village’s building inspector and zoning administrator, Josh Melstrom about some slight changes in his fee schedule, the board approved the new fee schedule.
-After hearing from airport manager Joel Timblin, voted to enter into a petition process to recoup 80% of the cost of the new airport fuel system and use some of that money to develop an airport long range plan per Federal Aviation Administration regulation.
