Firefighters will pay 7% of insurance cost

Fire department members agreed to start paying a portion of their health care costs.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
SALEM -- An agreement between the city and the fire department may be an indication of better relations.
City Auditor James Armeni told city council Tuesday that firefighters have agreed to start paying a share of their health insurance cost.
Members will pay 7 percent of the cost. That works out to $21 a month for a single person and $91 a month for those with wives or children. Firemen had been paying nothing.
Armeni said all other city workers except the police department, which is in negotiations, will now be paying the same amounts.
Council and the fire department have been at odds in recent years over an effort to replace the fire department with a fire district that would include Perry Township. The State Employment Relations Board is expected to hear the case Thursday.
Armeni, who handled the negotiations for the city, thanked Michael Burns, the union president, and the firefighters.
Armeni told council, "Maybe this will be the start of something in the future."
The city, like private companies, has been hit with rising health care costs in recent years, Armeni said.
In return for the agreement, each firefighter will receive a $650 payment in both 2006 and 2007. Armeni said that's not unusual in city negotiations.
Burns noted that firefighters took a two-year wage freeze in their two-year contract that started in 2005.
Burns and Armeni said the agreement could lead to more talks with other city workers over health care or other common issues.
Formalizing tourism board
In other action, council approved legislation to give a formal structure to its tourism board. The board gets 25 percent or more of the city's bed tax.
The board will have seven members serving staggered terms, will have its spending overseen by administration officials or council, and will meet at city hall.
Marvin Sutcliffe of Salem told council he is representing the Voices & amp; Choices program in Columbiana County. The initiative, based in Brooklyn, Ohio, is designed to get people and segments of the communities throughout northeastern Ohio communicating and working together to solve problems and promote economic development.
Councilman Justin Palmer said he would schedule a meeting with Sutcliffe.
For more information on the program, visit www.voiceschoices.org.
wilkinson@vindy.com