City, firefighters agree to three-year contract

NORWALK — In what Norwalk Mayor Dave Light called record speed, the city and the firefighters have agreed on a new three-year contract. "That was literally about three meetings," Light said about the negotiations. "I am very happy. (Law director) Stu O'Hara and (Safety service director) Mike White did the work on the part of the city and they brought it to me. They came in and made a request and we countered. Their request was very reasonable. The rest was cleaning up some language in the contract. "Stu worked it out. He has been around along time and he has been through it before. Stu said this is the quickest a contract has been settled." Light said it is a three-year contract with a two percent raise in 2022 and a 2 1/2 percent raise in 2023 and 2024. "We agreed to have it go Jan. 1 to the end of the year," Light said. "It's a three-year contract, officially starting in January." The contract will be made official at Tuesday's city council meeting at Ernsthausen Community Center. It has been a tough month between the two sides as they have had a public dispute over overtime. Last year the department's overtime budget was about $200,000. "I think this is all behind us and we want to move forward," Light said about the dispute. "It is not good for us, them or the community." Where do the two sides stand now? "Things are going well between us and them," Light said. "We are going to meet this week to discus it again. "(Chief) Ron (Luttrell) and (assistant chief) Dan (Strayer) have been working hard to get through that overtime situation. We want to get that fixed. "One of the things we are going to talk about is part-timers."