LORDSTOWN Council at work on city contracts

Council plans to address the remaining contracts at a special meeting next week.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LORDSTOWN -- Contract negotiations are coming down to the wire, but council hopes to have everything in place before the first of the year.
"We do not have all the contracts completed yet. In some cases, we still need to talk to some people to clear things up, and in others, we're not sure we will have a contract," said Councilman William Dray.
Employee contracts expires Dec. 31.
After introducing legislation for three-year contracts for the village's 30-plus employees at the last regular meeting, council approved ordinances dealing with the assistant income tax administrator, part-time fire department and recreation department administration and full-time employees of the planning and zoning, street and parks, grounds and buildings departments.
Most of the ordinances call for 4-percent raises the first and second years and a 3-percent raise the third year.
Negotiations are still in the works with other departments, as well as with the unions of the police and fire departments. "It's still a work in progress," Dray said.
Dray said negotiations with the remaining departments will continue, and council should be able to approve the remaining contracts at a special, year-end meeting at 4 p.m. Dec. 26.
Other action
Under recommendation from Law Director Paul Dutton, council also agreed to create an ordinance for employees of the police department to get paid in January in the event a contract is not agreed upon.
No such ordinance was addressed for the fire department. Dray explained he didn't feel it was necessary since negotiations with that union were going so well.
Council also rejected an ordinance allowing village offices to upgrade to high-speed Internet access through a cable hookup from Time Warner. The deal called for the village to pay more than $10,000 to install the lines to each of the seven departments and a monthly fee of $444.
D. James London and Richard Morgan were the only supporters of the pact, which was voted down by Dray, Richard Biggs, Dan Cuckovich and Karen Jones.
London, who sponsored the bill, said there is a backup plan that will allow the village to connect the police and fire departments to the cable access line at a monthly cost of about $160.
Other departments would continue to rely on dial-up access.
The village uses three Internet providers.
slshaulis@vindy.com