NORWAY — Selectmen voted unanimously Thursday night to sign a three-year contract with the Norway Police Department bargaining unit as soon as they receive the document.

“It’s not as clean as I would like to see it,” Selectman Russell Newcomb said. He negotiated the contract for the Board of Selectmen with Police Department shop steward Ronald Cole and a representative from the Teamsters union, which represents the department’s officers.

The new contract, which will be signed at an unspecified date, provides 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.

Additionally, the new contract agrees to give all department employees holiday pay at a rate of 1½ times the regular rate for hours actually worked. That stipulation is effective at the date of the contract signing.

Officers Holli Pullen and Jeff Campbell will receive their respective step increase retroactive to Aug. 1, 2010.

Pullen’s pay will be increased from $16.77 an hour to $17.31, retroactive to Aug. 1. On Jan. 1, 2011, her pay will increase to $17.66 an hour.

Campbell’s pay rate will go from $16.23 to $16.77, retroactive to Aug. 1, then to $17.11 on Jan. 1, 2011.

Effective Jan. 1, 2011, a new officer joining the department will be paid $14.53 an hour. By the third year of this new contract, officers who have been with the department for five years will receive $19.23. Those serving their second, third and fourth years with the department will be paid at rates based on their years of service.

The longevity schedule ranges from a $350 bonus after five years of continuous service to $750 for 15 years of continuous service.

Town Manager David Holt called it a “tough year,” saying the town lost some ground in being competitive with many other police departments’ contracts.

Newcomb said considering the tough financial situation, he felt the union’s contract “is still fairly competitive” with neighboring departments.

Holt said the police union was reluctant to provide a document to sign.

“It’s been a tough negotiation and even tough to get something to vote on,” he said. The union was nervous that selectmen would not sign it, “so they were not forthcoming in giving us documents.”

Cole could not be reached for comment after the meeting.

Newcomb said there was no question that the specifics hammered out during negotiations were agreed on by all.

“We’ve done everything we need to get this settled,” board Chairman Irene Millett said.

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