Mayor Rudolf Jacob had invited the members of the Association of Municipalities Council to a meeting at the town hall on Thursday, March 19, 2026 at 7:00 pm.
First on the agenda was the announcement of the 2024 annual results of the GEFOWI investment. Mayor Jacob explained that the association municipal council must be informed in a public meeting about the adopted annual results of the companies in which the association municipality holds a stake. For the 2024 financial year, only the investment report for GEFOWI GmbH&CoKG and GEFOWI Verwaltungs GmbH was still outstanding. At a shareholders' meeting on 25.02.2026, these had been approved with an annual loss of € 43,968.87 and an annual profit of € 1,521.90 respectively.
This was followed by the unanimous discussion and resolution on the 2nd supplementary budget bylaws 2025/2026 of the municipality of Winnweiler. Here, only the amounts for borrowing already stipulated in the business plans of the municipal utilities for 2026 were adjusted accordingly.
In the next item on the agenda, the mayor welcomed architect Alexander Blanz, who has the planning contract for the expansion and basic renovation of the Imsbach daycare center. He first presented the plans for the conversion of the former Catholic parish hall in Imsbach, which is to be used as an alternative location for the construction period of the daycare center of around 2 years. Mayor Jacob and architect Blanz explained that this would be much more economical than renting a container facility as a temporary solution. The mayor also pointed out that the members of the School Board Committee and the Building Committee had already dealt with the issue in advance and had unanimously recommended a resolution to instruct the administration to put the necessary trades for the conversion of the former Catholic parish hall in Imsbach out to tender and to start the corresponding work in the summer. After a brief discussion of the matter, the Association Council unanimously followed the recommendation of the administration and the committees.
Architect Blanz then presented the plans for the expansion and basic renovation of the Imsbach daycare center. He explained these and answered any questions that arose. The mayor also referred to the corresponding resolution recommendation of the building and school board committee. This recommendation to finalize the presented plans for the expansion and complete renovation of the Imsbach daycare center, to apply for a building permit and to submit the corresponding funding applications was unanimously approved by the association council.
The final item was the presentation of the plans for the new Sippersfeld daycare center by architect Blanz. The basic decision to build a new daycare center in Sippersfeld had already been made in the course of the decision to expand and completely renovate the Sippersfeld elementary school. The existing Sippersfeld daycare center no longer meets the requirements of a modern daycare center in terms of spatial conditions. The location in the area of the elementary school appears to be ideal, provided that new traffic access is created via the development of the "Auf der Bühne" development area. Mayor Jacob once again expressly pointed out that the construction of the daycare center can only begin once the local community of Sippersfeld has created the access road in the future development area. He ruled out serving the school and the construction site via Amtsstraße at the same time for safety reasons. Architect Blanz presented the corresponding plans for the new construction of a four-group daycare center. Questions from the members of the association council were answered. The association council unanimously followed the recommendation of the two committees to instruct the administration to finalize the planning, apply for a building permit and submit the corresponding funding applications.
Next, the municipal council unanimously decided, without discussion, to take into account the comments on the draft land use plan in the course of the partial update of the land use plan of the VG Winnweiler "PV plant Stockwiese in the Münchweiler district" after weighing up the public and private interests among themselves and against each other in accordance with the weighing proposal presented to the council members. The effectiveness of the partial update of the land use plan with regard to this partial update, in the version dated February 2026, was established and approved. The administration was also instructed to initiate the further procedural steps.
The next item on the agenda was the renaturation of the Alsenz in the Weiherwiesen area in the local municipality of Winnweiler. The mayor informed the meeting that the district administration had now granted permission under water law to implement this project. The administration had submitted an application for funding for the measure as part of the "Aktion Blau" state program in accordance with the resolution of the local council. In a letter dated 12.03.2025, the administration was informed by the state that the application had been returned due to staff shortages and could not be processed in a timely manner. At the same time, reference was made to the possibility of submitting a funding application to the KFW. Cumulation with state funds is permissible here. The administration had examined this in the meantime and had come to the conclusion that funding of 80% could be expected from the KFW. The remaining 20% could be topped up with state funds. After a brief discussion, the municipal council unanimously decided to instruct the administration to submit a corresponding funding application to the KFW and to update the necessary documents accordingly. Once a funding decision has been received from the KFW, an application should be made to the state for an increase in state funding.
The next item on the agenda was the Pfrimmstrasse bridge in Breunigweiler, which is currently restricted to a maximum load of 3.5 tons by a height limiter. This bridge has corresponding defects, meaning that it urgently needs to be replaced. To speed up the process, an application is to be submitted to the state for funding with an early start to the measures. As soon as approval for the early start of the measures has been granted, the corresponding work is to be put out to tender and carried out. The cost estimate for the overall measure amounts to € 144,244.00. Without discussion, the municipal council unanimously decided to instruct the mayor to take the appropriate steps.
This was followed by a discussion and resolution on the replacement procurement of a used fire engine for the Steinbach fire department. The Steinbach fire department has a fire-fighting vehicle on a Unimog, which can only accommodate 3 fire-fighters. The crew vehicle also available in Steinbach, which was purchased by the support association at a time when there was still a relay vehicle in Steinbach, is due for an MOT and already has a mileage of over 215,000 km, as it was used for school transport before being used as a fire engine. Recently, there have been repeated problems with the exhaust control system. It can be assumed that the vehicle will fail at some point and that repairs would be uneconomical. For this reason, the mayor was instructed to purchase a used fire engine with a relay or group cab at a maximum price of € 20,000.00 on a corresponding auction platform where public bodies offer such vehicles.
Under the agenda item "Miscellaneous", the mayor reported that the transfer of ownership of the former brewery property to the new owners, Immo 150 GmbH and Schultz GmbH, had taken place on the morning of the meeting. The renovation and conversion of the former administration building would now begin in the near future. The demolition of the former brewery buildings is scheduled to begin in May of this year. The preparation of the development plan by the local municipality of Winnweiler will also enter the process shortly.
This was followed by a non-public part, in which the municipal council awarded a planning contract for the expansion and modernization of the Winnweiler elementary school. In addition, two appointments of employees in the senior civil service were approved. In both cases, vacant positions were refilled.