Police union members and town officials in Bridgton gave themselves an early Christmas present this week by accepting a three-year contract.

After nearly 18 months without an agreement, the three police officers and four dispatchers who are members of the Bridgton Federation of Public Employees and Bridgton Town Manager Mitchell Berkowitz and the Bridgton Board of Selectmen have agreed on a three-year contract and sidebar agreement that alters working hours, keeps wages competitive with other police departments and extends the contract duration to June 30, 2010.

Officer Bernie King, president of the union, and Berkowitz praised the contract, which had been generally agreed on since the town revised its proposal in late October. Union police officers will see a retroactive $1 an hour raise covering from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007 and up to an additional $1 from July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008. Dispatchers will earn an additional 80 cents per hour for those same dates.

Future increases of 3 percent from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 and 3.25 percent from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010 are also in the contract.

The additional pay and the lack of an increase in co-payments on health benefits pleased King, while the change in shifts from four days at 10 1/2 hours to five days at eight hours met a goal Berkowitz called critical to protecting the town.

He credited Bridgton Police Chief David Lyons and Lt. Peter Madura with devising the schedule because it addresses staffing needs for night and weekend shifts.

“The personnel did a good job of negotiating and everyone is happy,” Berkowitz said. He added the goals for the town, besides addressing staffing needs beyond daytime shifts was to ensure wages were competitive to attract new officers and ensure that the position of police sergeant will be an integral component of supervision in non-daytime shifts.

That position has been vacant since the resignation of Doug Taft, a 30-year veteran, in early October.

Berkowitz said the contract was already paying dividends as Officer T.J. Reese prepares to join the department as a full-time officer. Citing that Reese is a graduate of the Maine Criminal Justice Academy and was one of two academy graduates interviewed for the position, Berkowitz said more qualified applicants are now interested in joining the department.

From the union perspective, King was happy the dispatchers, who work three 12-hour shifts will now be paid 12-hour increments for sick days and compensatory leave. Full-time officers will also be given the first offer to fill open shifts that may occur on a rotating basis.

Both sides agreed in principle to the revised offer that came from labor mediations and precluded a fact-finding session through the Maine Labor Relations Board. While full agreement had been forecast by the end of November, small clerical errors in the final draft stalled the process.

Because the Bridgton Board of Selectmen did hold executive sessions at its meetings to discuss the contract progress, Berkowitz said a final executive session was not needed before Bridgton Board of Selectmen Chairman Arthur Triglione Jr. signed the contract for the town.

The new shifts for patrol officers will be fixed instead of rotating for individual officers, a practice King said is more effective in providing coverage.

Officers and dispatchers will not pay any more for health plans, and could also be paid for staying fit as they can be reimbursed for health club dues should they log 125 or more exercise sessions.

King said he was glad the union and town spared taxpayers the cost of a fact-finding session to settle what the union had called a labor impasse. Contract negotiations between the union and town have been protracted in the past, but the near 18 months without a new agreement was the longest stalemate since the union was formed in 1981.