Five-year police contract approved

LOWER SALFORD >> Lower Salford Township and its police officers have a new five-year contract running 2022 through 2026.

Lower Salford Township Board of Supervisors gave its approval at the board’s Sept. 1 meeting, held as a Zoom meeting as rain poured down and there was flash flooding throughout the region from the remnants of Hurricane Ida.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Jim Garrity, the board’s solicitor, joked that he should get paid extra for taking part in the meeting while using his cell phone and a camping lamp because the electricity was out at his home.

The contract includes pay

raises of 3% in 2022, 3.25% in 2023, 3.5% in 2024, 3.5% in 2025 and 3.75% in 2026.

“Those numbers are right in the middle of where we’re seeing other collective bargaining agreements in the area. We’re happy with that,” Township Manager Joe Czajkowski said.

The new contract also increases the amount of life insurance on the officers, he said.

“The life insurance policy for the officers had been two times salary up to $100,000,” he said. “As most of the officers at the end of this agreement will exceed $100,000 in pay, we thought it appropriate to raise that limit.”

Under the new agreement, the life insurance will be two times salary up to $250,000, he said.

Under the contract, the base starting salary for a patrol officer in 2022 will be $66,574, with the base for patrol officers who have four or more years on the job at $110,940. In 2026, the starting salary will be $76,395, with the base for officers with four or more years service at $127,305.

Corporals, sergeants and detectives receive additional pay and all officers with five or more years service receive longevity payments.

In another matter at the meeting, a proposed change to the mixed-use Mainland Pointe development plans was presented.

“This is not a new building on the Mainland Pointe plan. It is a footprint that was shown on there that was listed as either to be a retail or an office building and they decided to make it an apartment building,” said Rick Mast, Mainland Pointe’s engineer.

“There would be seven units in there total. Three of the units would be fully handicapped accessible,” he said.

The existing plans are for five 12-unit apartment buildings totaling 60 apartments, single family homes and commercial spaces. Two of the commercial buildings, for a Wawa and a Taco Bell, are currently under construction, as are four of the apartment buildings. Adding the other proposed apartment building would mean the fifth apartment building in the initial plans could be exactly the same as the other four, Mast said.

“From a construction standpoint, it’s gonna be easier to keep them all the same,” he said.

“There’s been no changes to the site layout, the parking layout, anything like that, the impervious cover,” Mast said. “It’s more or less exactly as the plan was approved other than the change of use.”

There are Americans with Disabilities Act accessible units in each of the previously-approved five apartment buildings and the plan exceeds the minimum requirements for the number of ADA accessible apartments, he said.

With only three of the five board members in the meeting, board Chairman Doug Gifford and board member Keith Bergman voted in favor of approving the amended plan and board member Kevin Shelly voted against it.

That means the motion wasn’t approved because a majority of the full board — at least three members — are required to vote for the approval, Gifford said.

The proposed change could be voted on again at a future meeting, however, Gifford and Garrity said.

Shelly said he would have preferred a different layout and had heard from residents concerned about the proposed change.

“They didn’t want to see any more residential buildings,” he said.

Mast said the proposed change will increase the number of ADA accessible apartments.

The proposed change meets the ratio requirements for the mix of residential and commercial development at the site, Mast and Michele Fountain, the township’s engineer, said.

“The only thing that’s different is we now exceed the parking requirements because the parking requirement for the seven residential units is less than it was for the non-residential,” Mast said.

Mainland Pointe is along Main Street (Route 63/Sumneytown Pike) at an extension of Quarry Road. A traffic light has been added at the intersection as part of the development plans.