Weathersfield, Niles to swap land

By Mary Smith

Police have a new contract with 2 percent wage increases in 2010 and 2011.

MINERAL RIDGE — Weathersfield Township and the city of Niles have reached an agreement on a land-swap of property in Waddell Park and Kerr Cemetery.

A final agreement has yet to be drafted for the annexation of land in Waddell Park from Weathersfield to Niles, and the detachment of land from Niles and annexation to the township of property in Kerr Cemetery.

The park land to be annexed to Niles is 16.7 acres, and the cemetery land to be annexed to Weathersfield is 16.5 acres, said township Trustee James Stoddard, board chairman.

The Trumbull County Engineer’s office has agreed to the switch of land ownership, and formal paperwork is being prepared for the deal, according to township attorney Daniel Daniluk in a report to trustees.

Trustees have long sought such an agreement.

Waddell Park is located off West Park Avenue and Warren Avenue, and the cemetery is at 1249 Salt Springs Road.

Trustees approved a new two-year contract Tuesday with the township’s police officers of the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, which includes a wage freeze from July 1 to the end of December. A 2 percent increase will be given in both the 2010 and 2011 year of the contract, bringing patrolmen from their current $19.42 an hour to $20.11 in 2010 and $20.53 in 2011; and lieutenants, $22.39 in 2010 and $22.84 in 2011.

The agreement was reached after talks stalled July 1 and a fact-finder was brought in who wound up mediating a new agreement, Stoddard said. He added that the two-year contract means police and road-department employees will be negotiating at the same time for new contracts.

The new contract affects six patrolmen and two lieutenants, and starts retroactively to July 1 and runs to June 30, 2011. The officers’ old, three-year contract expired July 1, and was approved in July 2006. It had included 3 percent wage increases in each year.

Trustees also approved a contract with the McKinley Heights Mutual Benevolent Association for lease of the McKinley Heights Fire Station, which is owned by the association.

Township firetrucks and fire equipment are stored at the building.

A five-year lease agreement will have the township paying $6,500 a year for 2009 and 3 percent more for each new year of the five-year pact. In addition, the township will pay $10,000 annually for maintenance and repairs of the building, to be done by the association.

Previously, the township had been maintaining the building and making repairs.

Trustees also learned from township attorneys that an age-discrimination complaint lodged with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission by former trustee and current trustee candidate James Price after the appointment of Steve Gerberry as trustee in March has been dismissed. The commission said it had no jurisdiction over the complaint.