By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
With continued population growth envisioned in the future, Village of East Troy officials are gearing up for the likely prospect of a new appointed body – a police and fire commission.
Under state statutes, municipalities with 5,500 or more persons need to have a commission in place that acts independent of the main governing body. Commissioners take up a range of issues, including personnel matters.
The village’s population currently hovers around 4,300 people.
During a discussion Aug. 24 of a 10-year plan for the village’s emergency medical services department, the Village Board discussed the logistics of assembling a commission, particularly for the EMS department, which serves other municipalities outside the village.
While the village and town of East Troy have a long history of sharing an EMS department, Village Board President Randy Timms said a joint police department between the two communities is not out of the question.
Should such a scenario come to fruition, the Police and Fire Commission could be composed of members living in the village and town.
During the discussion of the village’s 10-year plan, board members also discussed a string of capital expenses, including a new ladder truck. EMS staffers are budgeting for that expense.
In other recent business, the Village Board:
- Discussed the practice of imposing impact fees upon new developers to help fund such services as public works, police and parks and recreation functions.
“It’s a complicated topic,” Clerk-Treasurer Eileen Suhm said. “There’s only so many ways (impact fees) can be spent.”
The Village Board again discussed possibly doing away with some of the impact fees to be more developer-friendly.
- Discussed a proposal to pay members of the appointed Plan Commission a stipend. Timms said he believed the group should be paid for meeting attendance because of the amount of time invested in reviewing development plans.
The payment issued will be reviewed as the board digs into the 2016 municipal budget.
