Beaver Dam Approves Contract With Fire Union

(Beaver Dam) The Beaver Dam Common Council last Monday night approved a three-year contract with the firefighter’s union. The document runs through 2021 and is retroactive to January first. It includes a two-and-a-half percent salary increase in each of the next three years. The contract also continues to give firefighter-paramedics 25-percent of the cost of the premium for their city-provided health insurance for the first ten years of retirement. A draft of the employee handbook, which is currently being hammered out, would remove wording extending the same benefit to non-represented management: the chiefs and captains. The council is expected to vote at an upcoming meeting on the updated handbook, which includes wording that strips the benefit for management. The cost to provide the benefit for non-represented translates to around $38-thousand dollars per person – for eleven current management positions — based on today’s healthcare dollars. Some city officials have expressed concerns that stripping the benefit would not be fair to those who were internally promoted to management and say it would stifle future promotions. The three-year contract approved last night also includes a $1000 stipend for represented employees for schooling.