Birnamwood approves new insurance proposal

Premium will cost 20% less than previous insurer
By: 
Luke Reimer
Reporter

The Birnamwood Village Board has a new insurance provider.

The board voted to change their insurance provider during their Oct. 11 meeting.

Board member Jody Dombrowski walked the rest of the board through the proposal from the League of Wisconsin Municipalities Mutual Insurance, including what is insured and what is provided.

“They have a lot of services that they offer,” Dombrowski said. “They have employee safety, risk management, human resource assistance and a league insurance university, if you want to read a lot more about insurance. They also have law enforcement policies and procedure assistance and other services to deal with workers’ compensation.”

Dombrowski said that the total premium on the proposal is $16,271.

“This includes worker’s comp,” said Dombrowski.

She added that a variety of grants are available through LWMMI.

“One of the grants that they do is an up to $500 grant annually for safety equipment,” said Dombrowski. “So, if Chris Jensen (director of public works) needs cones to put around his truck when he parks in the street, or if he needs gloves, a safety vest or goggles — that grant would be kind of nice.”

Board president Mike Sprague said he thinks having grants available for safety, as well as training information, is a positive for the village.

He said that LWMMI insures many municipalities around Birnamwood, including Amherst, Bonduel, Eland and Shawano, among others.

Village clerk Lauri Klumpyan said that Birnamwood used to go with LWMMI, before Resch Insurance gave a better quote.

Dombrowski also said that LWMMI sends someone in once a year to appraise the buildings in the village.

“This is to make sure that we are insured for the right amount of money, at no cost to us,” said Dombrowski.

She said that there is also police professional liability included.

“Although, we do not have a police force — if something happens, we call the sheriff,” said Dombrowski. “If the sheriff comes and does something crazy that a citizen might sue them for, they could possibly sue us, too. We would be covered for that too. It is only $250, but we are covered if an officer does something silly.”

Sprague brought up one issue with going with LWMMI, which is based in Wausau.

“If we have a problem, we can’t walk across the street to the office and talk to them,” said Sprague.

Sprague said that the coverage that the village would receive would be the same as Resch’s, but with a 20% drop in the cost of the premium with LWMMI.

“If it was a 5% drop or $1,000 or something like that, we would consider staying with Resch. But I think it is too much,” said Sprague. “With the best interest of the village, I think we should go with LWMMI.”

The board unanimously voted to approve the policy proposal from the League of Wisconsin Municipalities Mutual Insurance. This will go into effect Nov. 1.


lreimer@newmedia-wi.com