In the recent municipal council meeting, topics were discussed in numerous agenda items (TOP), which are also important in the new year. We summarize the most important points from the public session.
TOP 1: Announcements
The mayor informed about several decisions from the non-public part of the meeting, including decisions on land sales. In addition, the planned funds for the purchase of further land in the new development area ‘Oberm Kappesgarten’ are to be deferred for the time being.
In addition, it was announced that one of the previous hunting tenants is withdrawing from the contract. This means that only one hunting tenant will be contractually bound for Dernbach in the future.
Item 2: Establishment plan of the municipality
On 1 January 2026, a new gardening post is to be advertised. At the same time, two existing part-time jobs will be cut in 2026.
Since many community workers are of a similar age, several age-related retirements are to be expected in the next three years. In order to allow for the necessary training periods flexibly, an additional position should be taken into account – in return, an existing position will be omitted thereafter.
This means that the community should be well prepared for the upcoming developments in terms of personnel.
TOP 3: Emergency generator für the Municipalitycentre
Funding is available for the purchase of an emergency power generator, which costs around € 28,000 plus feed-in and other parts of the system, until 31. 12. We need to apply for 2025.
The community center is to be upgraded as an emergency meeting point in order to strengthen the crisis preparedness of the community.
TOP 4: Tax levies – revenue-neutral adjustment decided
Without an adjustment of the tax levies, losses in tax revenues would be around 18 percent. % was to be expected. This would have had serious consequences, including possible disadvantages in general allocations (practically compensatory payments from the Land).
The Council has therefore adopted a proposal to compensate for the tax losses caused by the reform of the property tax, which some Council members have referred to as a ‘socially acceptable variant’.
We regret that no action was taken in May – we had already pointed out the tax shortfalls at that time. For example, the 2025 budget slipped even more into deficit.
Item 5: Development plan ‘Upper Cap Garden“
The current draft development plan was unanimously approved. The plans are now entering the next phase, and the documents will be made available for public inspection.
TOP 6: Development plan ‘Cross-border route“
The outstanding formal objections of various organisations and companies were heard. However, they have no relevance for the execution of the construction project.
TOP 7: Firewood prices
In the future, the release of firewood will take place exclusively in solid meters, no longer in room meters.
For orientation: 5 room meters correspond to about 3.5 solid meters.
The Land’s price fixing – €73 per fixed meter – was taken over and unanimously adopted by the municipal council.
TOP 8: Meadow of orchards – Request from Joint für Dernbach
Our application to clarify the care responsibility of the orchard was discussed.
The area serves as a compensatory measure for the ‘Steinkaut’. Research by the local mayor also revealed that additional trees had to be planted in the course of the ‘Südring’ construction area.
The municipality will now check the actual care costs.
A local visit by the municipal council is planned for 2026.
Preparatory work and further elaboration will be carried out by the Construction Committee.
TOP 9: notifications
The work on fiber optic expansion is coming to an end. However, many errors of the previously used subcontractors still need to be corrected, which is why the remaining work will still be carried out.
The transfer of the network to Vodafone is planned for 2026.
English (UK)