Part-time Atown firefighters get raises through '09

The cost per township employee for family medical coverage is $1,205 per month.

AUSTINTOWN — The township’s 35 part-time firefighters will receive just over 7 percent more pay over three years under a three-year contract approved by township trustees.

The part-timers make up the sixth person working the six-person fire crews that man the township’s two full-time fire stations. They are also called out to assist the regular firefighters, said Mike Dockry, township administrator.

The part-time firefighters have been working without a contract since their old one expired at the end of 2006. The new contract runs through 2009.

It calls for pay increases of 2 percent, 2 percent and 3 percent, raising their pay rate from $10.02 per hour in 2006 for the lowest pay grade of firefighter to $10.73 per hour in the third year of the contract.

Captains/emergency medical technicians, at the high end, will see their pay increase from $12.34 per hour in 2006 to $13.23 per hour in the third year.

Part-time firefighters get no health care benefits.

Trustees also approved a new three-year contract for the township’s full-time assistant zoning inspector, Eric Harris, who will receive a 4 percent increase in pay over three years — all of it in the third year — and the township will contribute more toward his public employee retirement.

Harris’ pay will rise from $17.31 per hour in 2006 to $18 per hour in 2009.

The township contributes an amount equal to 3 percent of his salary into the state pension fund now but will increase that to 10 percent in 2009.

Any overtime Harris works is paid at time and a half, Dockry said. Harris uses a township vehicle to conduct township business but does not take the car home and doesn’t get paid a car allowance.

As with other township employees, Harris will pay a larger percentage of his health care starting in 2007 — 5 percent of his single coverage policy of $306 per month, 7.5 percent in 2008 and 10 percent in 2009.

In his previous contract, Harris paid a fixed dollar amount for health care.

The cost of health care for an employee with a spouse and children is $1,205 per month; for an employee and spouse, $643 per month; and for an employee and children, $521.

That policy includes dental, vision and prescription coverage.

All other unionized employees are under contract through 2009, Dockry said.