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Police wage matter main topic for village council

LISBON — The revolving door at the village police department has reached the point where the police chief believes the salaries paid his officers needs to be increased to compete with other departments.

The issue came up at this week’s Village Council meeting after police chief Mike Abraham reported officer Chase Askounes had submitted his resignation after six weeks on the job. He said the 21-year-old Askounes left for a better paying job with a police department near Wheeling, W.Va.

The police department has 10 full-time positions and several part-time officers, and councilman Jerry Cox wondered how many officers had left this year. Abraham said it seems like he lost 10 officers this year, and a quick check by the newspaper found at least six full-time officers have quit this year — three to take better paying jobs with other departments.

Cox asked if raising wages to a competitive level would help, and Abraham said it is something that should certainly be given serious consideration. Abraham has already begun contacting area police departments to find out what they are paying their officers and plans to present his findings to council.

“We need to come up with a way to keep people,” he said. “We need to see what we need to do to get comparable to other municipalities because that’s why we’re losing people.”

Abraham raised the issue last year, saying he believed pay raises and restoring health insurance coverage for employee family members would go a long way toward resolving the problem. Council began restricting insurance coverage to employees only as a way to save money, and he believes that is another reason why his department is having trouble keeping officers for very long.

Council then authorized Abraham to hire police officer Anthony Konders to replace Askounes. Konders, who is from Austintown, has four years experience and mostly recently worked for the Perry Township Police Department.

In other action at the meeting, fiscal officer Tracey Wonner, who also serves as council clerk, reported that although property owners in town will begin paying taxes in 2019 on the new 2.4-mill fire levy approved by voters on Nov. 6, the village will not see the money from collections until the following year. The money is to help purchase a new truck, and the village may borrow the money if it cannot obtain a federal grant.

Fire Chief Paul Gresh Jr. thanked voters for their support and expressed his surprise how easily the levy passed. “The people in this town support their fire department,” he said.

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