Village of Arena pushes forward on Fire and EMS agreement despite trustee objections and questions

Despite Arena Village Trustees Becca Raven Uminowicz’s pleas for more information and Matthew Schroeder’s sobering restatement of the facts, the rest of the board hit the accelerator in its race against the clock with the Township over a Fire and EMS agreement. With both trustees opposing, the board voted they do “not agree[] to extend [the agreement] to May 1, 2025, and that [they] want a signed agreement by November 8 2024, for budget purposes.” The Village and Town have been negotiating over the agreement for the past few months. The series of events have been confusing at times, and Schroeder summarized them for all at the meeting with, “to be completely fair, you sent a notice of amendment, then you sent a notice of termination, then you send an amendment, which was received and dated after the date in which it was required to be sent.” “We’ve already had this discussion,” interjected a trustee. “It doesn’t matter if we’ve had the discussion,” Schroeder continued, “it matters that they then sent a letter asking for clarification. And our response was to send them two separate agreements without answering their question.” Uminowicz’s concerns were more palpable. Despite the agenda reading “Fire & EMS Agreements--Town of Arena response,” the actual Town of Arena response was not included in the board packet. It appeared that some or all board members saw the communication for the first time at the meeting. “Okay, why wasn’t this put in our packet? This was this should have been put in our packet,” said Uminowicz. That packet, provided to trustees prior to the meeting and available from the clerk by request ahead of time, contained scant information. Not only was the letter in question not included, but the actual agreement was also absent as well, although in discussion Village President Kate Reimann did say it was in a packet “a few meetings ago.” A lack of information was the crux of Uminowicz’s opposition. There was an extended discussion between several trustees concerning alleged issues with the Fire and EMS services, including accusations of overcharging. At least once in the past the present board voted on the rates in the agreement, but “it was voted on, like I told you before, with incorrect information. [There was] manipulation,” explained a trustee. “Well, where’s that evidence?” asked Uminowicz. She was told to “go back six years, and you can look it up.” Uminowicz tried a different tack with the township issue: “So maybe they misunderstood like we misunderstood? Well, we didn’t answer their questions. So maybe we should reach out and say, ‘Hey, let’s talk about this.’” The idea of a meeting was discussed but ultimately dismissed. The board also discussed a cybersecurity grant at the special meeting, voting to beef up their online security and invest in a partially funded by grants subscription.