GERMANTOWN, Wis. — The Germantown Village Board has approved moving forward with two major public safety projects, as the Police Department and Fire Department separately pushed for the board to finance and help them build new stations.
The board voted to approve Path 2 for the Fire Department, with 8 trustees in favor and 1 against. Trustees also approved a motion to move the new police facility into the design development phase, with 5 in favor and 4 against.
The Police Department project's estimated construction cost is $26.5 million, and the Fire Department's is $30.5 million.
At Thursday night's Village Board meeting, both the police and fire departments made their case for new facilities.
Ahead of the votes, TMJ4 News spoke to residents like Julie Anne Schneider, who hoped the village would give both police and fire the go-ahead.
"I'm all for it," Schneider. "They've been in that building since I've lived here, almost 30 years, so I think it's time. I've been in that building and they are on top of each other."
"I think they do need new facilities," Schneider said. "Being proactive, knowing that they're going to have to grow because Germantown keeps building."
She hoped they would pick the middle-of-the-road options when it comes to pricing, understanding whatever happens could impact her tax dollars.
"I'm sure they want the best of the best, but not everybody wants to pay for that," she said."So, I think that we can come to some type of compromise."
Carolyn Dodge didn't know about the proposals but wanted to weigh in. "I don't mind supporting the police, but most of our taxes, I think, go to the school system," she said. "I don't have any kids. I've seen my taxes go up almost $6,000."
She hoped the village would re-allocate tax dollars rather than taxing residents more.
"So, it's frustrating seeing taxes go up," she said. "And they really aren't building up the town."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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