2 New Bremen councilors have final meeting

NEW BREMEN — Village council bid farewell to two longtime councilors at its meeting last week as Wednesday marked the last meetings for Jim Kronenberger, who began his term in 2014, and Don Kuck, who had been serving on council since Jan. 1, 1998.

“I just wanted to thank Don and Jim for their many years of service to council. I’ve been very appreciative,” said Mayor Bob Parker. “We’re going to miss you.”

Kronenberger called the experience “very interesting” and, at the end of the meeting, Kuck passed along a photo of when he and Councilor Dennis Burnell were sworn in in 1998.

Kuck also served as council president from 2003 to 2021.

Councilors Wednesday completed a second reading of an ordinance that has been tabled since July regarding wastewater rates in the village.

Following the reading, councilors voted not to move forward with the ordinance, and it will reappear on the agenda as a first reading at council’s first meeting in January.

At council’s last meeting, Nathan Davis, an associate water asset manager with the Great Lakes Community Action Partnership, presented a water and wastewater study to village councilors.

In his presentation, Davis laid out possible sewer and water rates that the village can implement in the future to help pay for improvements at the wastewater plant.

Also Wednesday, councilman Jacob Larger provided the finance report to council with November receipts coming in at $1,172,140.32 and December expenses came in at $3,495,448.16. Larger noted that the expenses were higher than a typical month.

“Three of the biggest contributors to those expenses looking a lot higher than they normally do on a month-tomonth basis is the fact that we were able to, thanks to the good team that we have here at New Bremen, to pay

off the police/EMS building loan,” said Larger. “That has been paid off in the amount of $1.6 million. We had two OPWC grants for the paving program that we have. One coming in at $245,000 and another $200,000 for the loan regarding that paving program and those do have to be memoed as receipt and expense.”

In other business:

• Council passed an ordinance by emergency to amend the 2021 appropriations.

• Council passed an ordinance to approve the village’s appropriations for 2022. The total amount for appropriations comes in at $20,105,124.14.

• Council passed an ordinance approving Jason This as village solicitor for the next two years at $16,000 annually.