Fall Creek Village Board holds recent special meetings
FALL CREEK - The Fall Creek Village Board held two recent special meetings along with its regular board meeting in November. All of which took place at the Village Hall.
The first special meeting took place back on Nov. 20. Approved unanimously by the Board was a Certified Survey Map (CSM) for land northwest of the Fall Creek Pond and north of Highway 12. This will be the site for the new library and village center. Along with this CSM approval was also the unanimous vote in favor of granting the rezoning request to rezone Lot 4 of that CSM map from UT to PPD. Also approved was the first reading of an amendment to Ordinance Title 10 on Motor Vehicles and Parking Regulations concerning traffic flow near the school building.
The second special board meeting was held on Dec. 4. The Board unanimously approved authorizing the submission of a Community Development Investment Grant application to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. They also approved a Certified Survey Map (CSM) for Part of Parcel #127-1033-06.
During the regular meeting of the Board for November back on the 11th. The Board several contractor invoices and pay requests. The Board also approved a sewer rate increase after public hearing. along with the 2025 village budget after going into closed session for a performance evaluation which they took no action coming out of that session. The Board voted unanimously to approve the budget which spends $1,202,034, up 3.22 percent from 2024 budget of $1,164,586. It also set the village's levy at $537,920. The Board also approved motions to authorizing the Clerk/Treasurer to place the delinquent utility, special charges, and special assessments on the tax roll and also approving the placement of a recycling charge as determined by Eau Claire County on the tax roll.
During the public hearing on the village's sewer rates, Village President Tim Raap explained the village's budget situation in regards to state aid to the village according to the meeting minutes:
"Fall Creek is at a disadvantage when it comes to receiving grant funds, as the Village’s high median-household-income disqualifies us from many funding programs. Another disadvantage for Fall Creek is the State of Wisconsin’s mechanism for calculating State Aid. Per the survey, you can see that Fall Creek receives the lowest amount of State Aid of all the 21 municipalities surveyed. To understand the significance of that comparison, Fall Creek’s state aid in 2024 was only $360,000 in relation to Augusta’s at $736,000. Like services are needed in both communities but Augusta received more than twice the amount of Fall Creek. Even higher state aid amounts (of over $800,000 each) were given to eight other communities. The huge disparity between the financial aid given to like-sized communities is not an equitable way to allocate funds.
Raap encouraged citizens to speak with their State Representatives about this situation, requesting they come up with a better way to distribute state funds fairly.
