Brookfield Road Department full-time employees get 4-percent raises in each of the two years of their new contract with the township.
The department superintendent, known as the highway supervisor in the contract, will be paid $32.92 an hour in 2026 and $34.23 in 2027. The foreman/mechanic will be paid $28.61 an hour this year and $30.33 next year. The equipment operator/mechanic will be paid $26.78 per hour in 2026 and $28.38 in 2027. The truck driver/mechanic will be paid an hourly wage of $25.72 this year and $27.26 next year. The cemetery groundskeeper gets $18.02 an hour this year and $19.10 next year.
The position of truck driver/mechanic is new to this contract. Trustee Dan Suttles said the department had two employees at the same level, one of whom was a recent hire and another who has been with the department for some time. The longer term employee has filled in when the superintendent and foreman were off, he said. The new position was created to separate a new hire from an experienced employee.
Unlike the longer-term contracts with the police and fire departments, the road pact is only for two years.
“We want to stagger them so that they’re not all expiring at the same time,” Suttles said. “They agreed to a two (year contract), and then we said the next one will be three (year contract).”
Also new in this contract:
- It grants holiday pay to seasonal workers who are not on laid-off status.
- It grants each employee their birthday off, or a day close to it. This day and any personal days must be taken within the calendar year earned.
- It increased the annual bonus for full-time, non-probationary employees who hold a current commercial driver’s license from $500 to $700.
- The employees agreed to take on more of the employee obligation to pay into the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, a long-standing goal of the trustees. The employees will pay all of their obligations in the second year, with the township therefore paying nothing.
- It sets a one-year time limit for employees to file for reimbursement of medical service.
- It increases the service time for an employee to receive a death or retirement benefit from 10 to 20 years, and increases the number of sick days that can be cashed out upon death or retirement from 30 to 45.
