By Jen Otterson,Staff Writer

NORWAY – Two Norway police officers will soon receive a raise.

At their meeting Thursday, selectmen voted unanimously to authorize police Chief Robert Federico to increase the hourly pay of officers Doug McAllister and Kevin Conger. Federico called the vote “a good-faith effort on the town’s part, certainly, that we want to do our best by all the town’s employees.”

Federico stressed that the raises were his idea, and had not been asked for by his employees. In a letter addressed to Town Manager David Holt, he wrote that the two officers had graduated from the academy at the same time as an officer from Paris. The Paris police officer is paid $14.44 per hour. McAllister, on the other hand, is paid $12.60, and Conger receives 30 cents less than that.

Federico told the board that with the cost of training an officer, it would be unwise to risk losing one to another town that pays more. “Neither one have mentioned a thing about going anywhere else at all,” he said, but he wanted to act before that could happen.

Under the town’s contract with police, all newly hired officers start at $12 per hour, which goes up only with cost of living increases. Federico said that an officer with no experience and one with 20 years on the job would each be hired at the same $12 per hour. “My hands are pretty much tied behind my back,” he said.

Selectmen seemed surprised to hear that Federico is not able to start new employees on different steps on a pay scale.

“It’s been a long time since we negotiated,” Selectman George Tibbetts said, “but I didn’t think we negotiated that.”

Federico requested that he be allowed to sit down with the board before the next contract negotiation to discuss wages.

In other business, Selectman William Damon asked Federico to comment on a letter to the editor of a local newspaper. The letter writer complained that a friend had been assessed a parking fine of $137 when she parked on Main Street.

Federico said the car had been parked across the entrance to the municipal parking lot next to Pike’s clothing store. Blocking a parking lot entrance is a state violation, subject to state law, and fines go to the state. As such, the fees are much higher than the usual $15 parking ticket.

Parking zones “can’t be marked any more conspicuously than those great big hash marks,” Federico said, “and if they blatantly park there, they deserve a fine.”