Struthers OKs three-year contract with its police dispatchers.

Staff report

struthers

The Struthers city council passed a three- year contract with its police dispatchers Wednesday.

The contract includes lump sums of $500 in each year.

In the third year, $1,500 will be added to their salaries, said city safety-services director Ed Wildes.

That will amount to a 72-cent-an-hour raise in the third year, Wildes said.

The city’s three dispatchers make $11.24 an hour now.

Besides the raise, the dispatchers got an increase in holiday pay from time-and-a-half to double time.

They can accumulate up to two years’ vacation pay, which amounts to 10 weeks of pay, to collect upon retirement, Wildes said.

“They’re the lowest-paid people in the city, and we felt we needed to do something,” said Mayor Terry Stocker.

“We didn’t have a lot of money with uncertainty of the future, but we tried to give our employees something,” Wildes said.

Negotiations took place last month.