NORWAY – The Board of Selectmen and Police Department union will begin negotiations shortly for a new police contract.

Their current contract ends June 30.

Selectman Russ Newcomb, who negotiated the last police contract for selectmen, and Micheal Twitchell have been appointed to negotiate for the board.

Town Manager David Holt said the board members could hire a consultant, but he recommended they do so only on an as-needed basis.

The Police Department shop steward and a representative from the Teamsters union, which represents the department’s officers, is expected to negotiate for police.

In November 2010, selectmen voted unanimously to sign a three-year contract with the Norway Police Department bargaining unit. The contract provided union members with a 2 percent pay increase effective Jan. 1, 2011; a 2.5 percent increase on July 1, 2011; and a 3 percent raise effective July 1, 2012.

The contract also said a new officer joining the department after January 2011 was paid $14.53 an hour. By the third year of the contract, officers who have been with the department for five years received $19.23. Those serving their second, third and fourth years with the department were to be paid at rates based on their years of service.

Some of the other provisions were a $350 bonus after five years of continuous service to $750 for 15 years of continuous service; and time and a half pay for working holidays.

ldixon@sunjournal.com