Mayor Rudolf Jacob had invited the members of the association council to the last meeting of the association council before the summer vacation on Thursday, 26.06.2025.
The first item on the agenda was the presentation of the school development plan for the elementary school in the municipality of Winnweiler. Mayor Jacob explained that such a school development plan for elementary school had to be drawn up for the first time, as this had been made mandatory as part of the amendment to the Education Act. After obtaining corresponding fee offers, the planning office GEBIT Münster GmbH & Co KG had been commissioned to prepare the work. He then gave the floor to a representative of this office, who presented the results of the study in detail. The GEBIT office praised the construction project at Sippersfeld elementary school in particular as very successful and future-oriented. In addition, the childcare services at the elementary school in the municipality of Winnweiler were described as very flexible and affordable. As a result, the office came to the conclusion that the facilities are basically good and adequate. At Winnweiler elementary school and Münchweiler elementary school, the addition of a kitchen and canteen would need to be examined.
At the proposal of the mayor and recommendation of the school board committee, the association council unanimously decided to adopt the school development plan as presented.
This was followed by a discussion and resolution on the use of basic funds for the introduction of all-day care at elementary school. Mayor Jacob explained that the introduction of the entitlement to all-day care from 2026 would result in the federal government providing corresponding basic funds to create the corresponding framework conditions. The municipality of Winnweiler would be responsible for at least €505,000.00. After consultation with the head teachers, the basic funds are to be used for the schoolyard design (including a roof structure to protect against rain and sun) and the purchase of equipment (cupboards, chairs, tables). The School Board Committee had already discussed this issue at its meeting on 3 June 2025 and unanimously recommended proceeding as proposed by the administration. This was also confirmed by the association council with a unanimous resolution to this effect.
The next item on the agenda was the discussion and resolution on the topic of meal allowances in the VG Winnweiler facilities. Mayor Rudolf Jacob explained that the current cost situation had been evaluated at the beginning of 2025 using the figures from 2024. This had led to the conclusion that a lunch currently costs €5.56. The current price for lunch is €5.30 in daycare centers and €5.50 in elementary school. For this reason, the administration had proposed not to implement the already decided increase of €1.00 as of 01.09.2025 and instead to review the cost situation again at the beginning of 2026 with the figure for 2025. The School Board Committee had already dealt with this issue and unanimously recommended that the Association Municipal Council follow the administrative proposal, which the members of the Association Municipal Council then did unanimously. In addition, it was also unanimously decided not to change the current constellation of kitchens from which the food is obtained.
This was followed by a discussion and resolution on the topic of parental contributions to the elementary school providing childcare. The mayor pointed out that with costs totaling €247,207.00, after deduction of the state subsidies, a personal contribution of €222,391.00 remained, which, after taking into account the current parental contributions of €20.00 for the 2:20 p.m. offer and €40.00 for the 4:00 p.m. offer, resulted in a deficit of around €117,000.00. The cost situation in the neighboring municipalities had also been evaluated. It was found that there are school authorities that charge by the day, which in some cases leads to significantly higher costs for parents. For this reason, the switch to daily billing should not take place. This would also cause a disproportionately high administrative burden. Alternatively, the flat rate could be increased. The association council followed the recommendation of the administration and the school board committee to increase the fees to €30.00 for the 2:20 pm offer and €60.00 for the 4:00 pm offer from the 2025/2026 school year, with 1 vote against. This will lead to additional income of around € 53,000.00, which will reduce the deficit to € 64,351.00.
The municipal council then unanimously decided to join the cooperation agreement for the implementation and management of a newly structured network of circular hiking trails for the Palatinate Forest Biosphere Reserve. The mayor was authorized to sign the corresponding agreements.
Without discussion, the municipal council then unanimously decided to include the development plans "Schöne Aussicht", OG Breunigweiler, open-space PV plant "Solarpark Heuberg", OG Wartenberg-Rohrbach and "GI Hintertal", OG Winnweiler, OT Alsenbrück-Langmeil, in the land use plan for the 2nd update of the land use plan of the VG Winnweiler. This is done in order to comply with the requirement to develop development plans from the land use plan.
Without further discussion, the association council decided to award the contract for the demolition planning with pollutant analysis to Peschla & Rochmes GmbH, Kaiserslautern, at a gross bid price of €28,455.58 for the conversion of the former Catholic parish hall in Imsbach for temporary use as a daycare center during the construction work on the daycare center.
Mayor Rudolf Jacob then provided information on the awarding of contracts in the heating/ventilation/sanitary and electrical trades for the construction of 3 new fire stations in the local communities of Breunigweiler, Börrstadt and Steinbach. The mayor was authorized to do so at the previous meeting. The municipal council also unanimously decided to award the dry construction and painting work to the lowest bidder, the company Heinrich Graf, Börrstadt, for a bid amount of € 39,060.68 per building. The cost estimate was €59,000.00 in each case. In addition, the mayor was unanimously authorized to award the work on the outdoor facilities to the lowest bidder following the tendering process.
The municipal council then decided to participate in a collective procurement of a total of 13 portable water pumps (TSF-W) together with the municipalities of Rüdesheim (Nahe) and Langenlonsheim-Stromberg. The mayor was also authorized to conclude the corresponding service contract with Kommunalberatung Rheinland-Pfalz for a gross amount of € 19,635.00 to carry out the award procedure. The mayor was also authorized to conclude the corresponding public law agreement with the other two municipalities. This collective procurement is intended to replace the TSFs in Börrstadt, Breunigweiler, Schweisweiler, Höringen and Wartenberg-Rohrbach. The replacement of the TSF-W in Gonbach and Lohnsfeld is also planned. The TSFs were built between 1991 and 2003. The TSFW in Gonbach was built in 1997, while the TSF-W in Lohnsfeld was built in 2002. The latter vehicle is to be used as a replacement vehicle for all fire brigades in future, as the current replacement vehicle from 1995 is no longer needed. By implementing this project, the association municipality will ensure that water-carrying vehicles with a tank capacity of at least 750 liters of extinguishing water are stationed in all local communities. This also makes sense in view of the increasing number of vegetation and forest fires, as the first unit to arrive can then always start a fire-fighting attack, which is currently not possible with the TSF. This means that fires can be successfully fought or at least contained while they are still in the initial stages. The collective procurement of a total of 13 vehicles is expected to result in significantly lower prices. This will give the manufacturers the opportunity to build the 13 identical vehicles in a small series, which will result in considerable savings. Each vehicle is budgeted at € 210,000.00 in the municipality's budget. The delivery time is around 24 months after the contract is awarded, which means that the vehicles are not expected to be delivered until the end of 2027.
The mayor also presented the final overview of measures for the state's "Regional Future and Sustainable Development" funding program to the association council. This includes a total of 35 measures in all municipalities of the association municipality. A total amount of around € 2.137 million is available. The eligibility of the individual projects had been agreed with the state in advance. The list had already been agreed and discussed with the local mayors at the last local mayors' meeting.
This was followed by a non-public part in which the promotion of a civil servant and the upgrading of 2 employees were decided.