COPLEY TWP.: Fiscal belt tightening will be reflected in township employee contracts as wages will be frozen for the next two years.
New contract agreements that trustees approved unanimously Wednesday also include increased employee health-care contributions.
The agreements contain a provision for talks to be reopened in 2014, but Fiscal Officer Janice L. Marshall said those talks would be limited solely to wages and health-care costs.
Auxiliary police officers, represented by the Ohio Policeman’s Benevolent Association, and service department personnel, members of Teamsters Local 348, were the latest to agree to wage freezes and increased health-care contributions.
The contracts, which run through Dec. 31, 2014, cover approximately six auxiliary officers and six service department employees.
“All of the contracts have been the same,” Marshall said of employee agreements that also cover the police and fire departments. She said employees received a 3 percent wage increase in 2011, the last year of previous contracts.
One example of fiscal uncertainty is the reduction of state funding to local communities. Trustee Helen Humphrys has said Copley Township’s share of Local Government Funds has dropped $500,000.
In other business, John-Paul Paxton, president of the Copley Fire and Rescue Association, and Bryan Ezzie, the organization’s treasurer, presented trustees with a $16,000 check.
The money represents the first of five pledged annual installments totaling $80,000 toward the purchase of a new fire truck to replace a 30-year-old vehicle.
The new truck, tentatively scheduled to be in service in the next year, is expected to cost $525,000.
