POLAND — Town officials approved earlier this week a contract with a recently formed firefighter’s union that addresses wage scale and benefits.

“What we were able to do in that contract is fairly compensate our firefighters so that we can retain them and, if required, attract new recruits to our full-time firefighter force,” Town Manager Matthew Garside said.

“It’s also a good deal for the town,” he said.

The town has four full-time firefighters at Poland Fire Rescue Department who are covered under the contract. It doesn’t apply to part-time firefighters nor administrators, Garside said.

The wages and benefits negotiated in the contract are “a bit higher” than what the firefighters have been compensated previously in an effort to make them more competitive with surrounding comparable municipalities, Garside said.

The pact is retroactive to July 1 and expires June 30, 2023, he said.

In other business at Tuesday’s meeting, town officials signed a contract with Great Northern Docks, Inc., a Naples company, to install bridges and walkways along the town’s public trails over wetlands or small streams “so that when you’re hiking, you can actually walk in the woods and enjoy the trail system we have without coming back (with) muddy and wet feet,” Garside said.

“It also lets more of our elderly residents go on these trails and have some confidence that they’re going to be able to negotiate them as well as parents with small kids,” he said.

He said the town has contracted to pay $32,722 for the project, which is expected to be completed before the first snowfall.

That money is being paid through revenue from tax increment financing and not from property taxes, Garside said.

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On this date in Maine history: Sept. 18