Township Council OKs four-year police contract

Pact calls for annual 3.75 percent raises

By: Matt Chiappardi
   EAST WINDSOR — A new, four-year police contract for police was approved, as expected, by the Township Council this week.
   By a 6-0 vote Tuesday, the council OK’d the pact which grants police 3.75-percent annual pay hikes retroactive to January 2006.
   The contract means that the annual salary range for officers for 2006 is $62,258 to $80,493, and sergeants were paid $92,805.
   Chief William Spain and the four department lieutenants are not included in the deal.
   Police had been working without a contract since their previous five-year deal expired at the end of 2005.
   The council on Tuesday also granted police an upgrade of their 911 emergency call center.
   By 6-0 vote, council members purchased two new computers for the call center and ordered replacements of the cabinetry and some of the furniture. The purchase will be funded by a $25,000 grant the township received from the state Office of Technology and Information, said Ms. Mironov.
   The council also voted 6-0 to grant the police department a two-year technical support agreement for the computers with Empire Technology Group, which has its New Jersey office in Midland Park.
   In other business, the council agreed to reappropriate $70,000 from a 1995 bond ordinance originally earmarked for a new street paver and trailer for the Public Works Department to rebuild the Bear Brook Pathway.
   Flooding from heavy rain in April destroyed the 1-mile walking path that connects the Hickory Corner Library, Anker and Wiltshire parks, and the Melvin H. Kreps Middle School.
   Councilman Marc Lippman did not attend the meeting.