2024 annual meeting minutes

1. Town of Vermont Annual Meeting Minutes April 16, 2024 7:00 p.m. To attend in person: 4017 County Road JJ, Black Earth, WI 53515 To dial into the meeting: (U S) +1 862-231-4027 PIN: 853 434 889# 1. Call to order Karen called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm 2. Proof of posting Katie stated that the meeting was noticed in at least three physical locations, on the website and emailed to subscribers. 3. Approval of the 2023 Annual Meeting Minutes Mary made a motion to accept the minutes from 2023. Motion carried 11-0 4. Oaths of Office Doug Meier and Nick Balster were sworn in for their 2024-2025 term as supervisors in seats 2 and 4. 5. Overview of Property Taxes, Levies, Mill rate and Equalized Values Karen provided a presentation on how the Mill Rate and Levy work in determining the amounts for property taxes. She walked through the calendar year explaining when each step in the process takes place, from the public safety and school budgets being set to the town doing its budget, as well as the mill rate worksheet being completed, to the tax bills being generated and sent out in December. David Stanfield asked about how Act 10 affected the tax levy for the schools and local taxpayers. He feels the local government should do more. She also walked through the Open Book and Board of Review process for property owners. 6. Annual Financial Report for 2023 Heather gave an overview of the 2023 Financial Report. The total revenue for property taxes 2023 was $2,547,933. Intergovernmental revenues we $128,409. Licenses and permits totalled $9184. Public charges for services 1109. Miscellaneous Revenues were 20,771. Mandated expenditures were 2038449. This covers the levies for schools, etc. Our budgeted expenditures for general government 88,322. Public safety 499,049, Health and Human Services 5134, culture recreation 7. Proposed offer to purchase land adjacent to Town Hall Because the town hall parcel is quite small and the side of the lot where the fuel tank is located is already encroaching on the adjacent parcel and because there is an eventual need for additional storage for equipment, the town would like to make an offer to purchase roughly .75 acres from the adjoining property. The town has prepared a letter with an offer to purchase this land. Tim made a motion to authorize the town to offer up to $7000 to purchase the land. Sharon says she is concerned about the option to build a storage shed because of the topography. Marc made the point that the survey should extend to the centerline of the road. Connie asked what the town knew about the current owners’ plans for the land. Motion carried 11-0. 8. Comprehensive Plan Update & Ridgetop Protection Tim and Alex presented some information about the cooperative boundary agreement process. Discussions are ongoing with Mount Horeb and Black Earth. Tim began discussing Ridgetop Protection. A resident brought up Tyrol’s nightime lighting. Tim continued to explain that if Ridgetop protection were to be made enforceable, the town would need to petition the county to implement a zoning overlay to legally enforce the ridgetop height limit. The other option would be to eliminate the height limit altogether. 9. Road Maintenance Report 10.Discussion regarding Town Picnic planning 11.Discussion of any other business to come before the meeting - individual comments will be limited to 10 minutes 12.Set date of 2025 Annual Meeting: Proposal per statute - April 15th at 7:00 p.m. 13.Adjournment