The Lewiston Police Department’s new 10-year contract now has approval from both the Town and Village of Lewiston, with funding amounts and sources codified.
The Lewiston Town Council approved it at its Nov. 25 meeting, one week after the village did so.
“I think it’s a very good agreement for the town,” said Councilman John Jacoby, a town representative in these negotiations. “We didn’t break the back of the village because they really don’t have a lot of extra money to spend.”
The previous agreement came about when the current consolidated police department covering the town and village was created in 1995. Funding that department’s budget was originally a 66% to 34% split between the town and village, though the village had paid as little as 11%, $284,000 according to Broderick, and its contribution had not increased for the past 12 years.
Town Supervisor Steve Broderick said there had been two previous attempts to come to a new contract replacing the original one from 1995, with parts of it not being followed. This included negotiating on it every five years which did not happen, a new contract that was never signed, and the village passing a resolution three years ago increasing its contribution by $20,000 with a new contract.
The agreement solidifies the amount the village contributes to funding the department for the next 10 years. The payments will be made in July at the beginning of the village’s fiscal year.
The amount will go up by 2% from years two to six and then remain flat from years seven to 10, with the town contributing the remaining amount. The listed amounts are as follows:
• 2025: $304,000
• 2026: $310,080
• 2027: $316,281.60
• 2028: $322,607.23
• 2029: $329,059.38
• 2030: $335,640.56
• 2031-2034: $342,353.38
Reasons previously given for the village not increasing its contribution were the town had a bigger tax base, more developments, and was more involved with department employment, pay, and collective bargaining.
Broderick added as part of the new contract, there will be three police cars patrolling both the town and village from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.