The village of Panama discussed their budget at the April meeting, which includes seeing a small increase in garbage collection rates. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

PANAMA — As the village of Panama continues to work on and look over their planned budget for next year, set to be voted on in May, one slight change that the board is seeing is a slight increase in garbage collection rates.

The village board discussed the budget during the April meeting, which is set to see taxes increase about 1.9%. Other aspects of the budget that the board discussed was insurance, sales tax, CHIPS funds — which they will not know for sure until the end of April — fixing roads and potholes, sidewalks, winter recovery, zoning changes, snow equipment and removal, and public safety.

As far as the garbage collection rate goes, village treasurer Larissa Enlow said it will be only a slight increase.

“I did have Bill talk to them, and the rates are going up a little bit, about $106 a month,” Enlow said.

Mayor William Schneider said the rates are going from $2657 to $2763 a month for the village, which is a $106 increase. Enlow said the new figure included in the village’s budget includes this increase, but that it will not take effect until October.

“They really have worked with us, because there hasn’t been an increase since 2021,” Schneider said.

Schneider said the garbage collection team told him that they had to increase rates due to the general increases in cost of things like fuel and materials. Schneider said with them having about 242 stops in the village, that’s about an increase of 42 cents a month per household.

A public hearing to discuss the budget is scheduled for May 6 at 6:45 p.m., with a vote scheduled following that at the next meeting that same night, which begins at 7 p.m.