The Village of Breckenridge has managed to add health insurance to three village employees’ benefit packages while also saving the village money.

During its regular meeting on Monday, December 28 the council approved the implementation of Village Clerk Bridget Suhr and two DPW personnel into the village’s health insurance.

Village Manager Jeff Ostrander said despite adding three new employees onto the insurance policy the village was still able to tweak the policy to still allow for monetary savings.

Officials said that about $340 will be saved by increasing the current employees’ deductibles.

Ostrander said he talked with each of the current employees about the recommendation to raise the deductibles and all but one employee were willing to make the change to be able to give three coworkers health benefits.

Village officials passed the proposal with councilpersons Jeff Anderson and Mike Sterling voting no.

“I bet we’re the only municipality that is raising benefits,” Anderson said.

Council President Charles Seeley said that he felt the village could not offer benefits to one full-time employee and not offer them to another full-time employee.

Ostrander added that the village was still saving money with the new changes and credited the current employees for allowing the change to help fellow staff members.

This is the first change to what Ostrander said is an expensive insurance plan. He added that he hopes to cut the cost of the insurance in half next year.

In other items during the meeting the village revealed bids for two parcels of farm land owned by the village.

One parcel, located on the east side of Breckenridge between McClellan Road and Ransom Road, is 147 acres of land that the village purchased for commercial and industrial expansion.

The winning bid for the 147 acre parcel went to Stoneman Farms LLC.

The other parcel is 17 acres in size and is located south of the cemetery. It was previously purchased for future cemetery expansion.

Huhn Farms put in the winning bid on the 17 acre parcel.

Both pieces of land are currently open farm land.

The village also discussed establishing new water rates. Actual rate changes will be discussed at the regular meeting scheduled for January 25 in the Breckenridge High School media center.