Peter Stern announces record loss at budget meeting

Peter Stern, mayor of the Birwinken political community, belongs to the speedy species. In just sixty minutes he dealt with nine items on the agenda at the community meeting in the gym in Andwil on Monday evening. The focus of the event was the 2025 budget, which expects a loss of 220,000 francs with expenses of 5,334,600 francs and income of 5,114,600 francs. “This is a record loss in my career,” explained the community leader and added: “With around 2 million francs in equity, we can afford it.”

Contrary to the 2024 budget, the “executive” item in the current budget is around 10,000 francs higher. According to Peter Stern, this is because the Birwinken community will celebrate its 30th anniversary on August 1, 2025. “It’s going to be a blast, save the date,” he said. The municipality of Birwinken is now contributing 22,000 francs to the Open Youth Work (OJA) offering in Erlen. The 70 voters present (participation 7.2 percent) approved the 2025 budget without discussion and unanimously. The same applied to the constant tax rate of 57 percent. “The financial plan shows that, if nothing significant changes, the tax rate can remain unchanged until 2029,” noted Peter Stern.

Renovation loan approved for municipal road

The sovereign also unanimously approved a loan of almost 1.4 million francs for the renovation of the municipal road in Happerswil Unterdorf. In connection with the road renovation, the utility lines (electricity and water) are being replaced at the same time, which means a significant improvement in security of supply. The renovation work will be divided into two stages so that the post bus can continue to run. “Only Eckartshausen has to forego bus service for a short time,” specified Peter Stern.

After the approval by the assembly, the circulation as well as the advertisement and the award of work will take place in December. Construction work will begin in February or March next year, depending on weather conditions. If everything goes according to plan, the shell construction will be completed by October 2025, and the decking work is scheduled for summer 2026.

The 1400th Birwinker is born

The application to approve the new municipal regulations also met with approval. “This has put a lot of strain on the local council over the last four years,” explained Peter Stern. Among other things, it was determined that the number of local council members could be reduced to five. “But if we can continue to find people for the office, we will stay with seven,” said the mayor.

The fee regulations and the contribution and fee regulations were also approved. “You can imagine that costs have changed over the last twenty years,” said Peter Stern. He further explained that the price monitor to whom the price increases had to be submitted had described them as “moderate”. Last but not least, the voters approved the new fire protection regulations, which replace the ones from 1994. “It no longer met the latest requirements,” said Peter Stern.

At the end of the meeting, Peter Stern announced that Johannes Martin, the 1400th Birwinker, was born on August 8th. “It’s also Roger Federer’s birthday,” he remarked with a laugh.