Salem council to give workers pay raise

SALEM -- More than a dozen city employees have a new labor contract that provides for an 11.75 percent pay increase, spread over three years.
City council approved the agreement Thursday with city parks, streets, custodial and clerical employees. The workers are represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 2701.
The contract provides a pay increase of 3.75 percent in its first year and raises of 4 percent in the second and third years.
Over its life, the contract will cost the city about $132,000, Auditor Jim Armeni said.
In other matters, council agreed to lease to Columbiana County for a token $1 annually about an acre of city-owned property along Eagleton Road in Salem Township. The county wants to convert the rural property into a parking lot for visitors to the Teegarden Centennial Covered Bridge, which is near the site.
Using a nearly $270,000 federal grant, the county plans to restore the bridge in 2002. The span is on the National Register of Historic Places. The bridge also is near the Greenway Trail, a nearly 12-mile-long hike-bike path that runs from Lisbon to Leetonia.