Upper Yoder Township officers get pay raises; acting police chief gets top job full-time

Russ O Reilly, The Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown, Pa.
·2 min read

May 20—JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Upper Yoder Township Police Department officers will have an option for a $5- or $7-an-hour increase starting May 29, when a new five-year contract goes into effect, police Chief John Blake said.

The larger of the raises is for individual officers who opt out of the township's health care plan. Two smaller increases through the final years of the contract are set to bring wages to $22.95 per hour for officers enrolled in the township's health care and $25.50 for officers who opt out of health care.

Those wages are an increase from the current rate of roughly $17 an hour, Blake said. The new contract raises officers' pay to reflect rates of surrounding departments in the region, he said.

"Patrolman wages were significantly increased in this contract," he said. "We've been negotiating with the township supervisors since the first week of February, and now we are just hoping to move the department forward. We are now fully staffed, and officers are planning on staying with the new contract. We have some good years ahead of us now."

The township's board of supervisors unanimously approved the contract Thursday during its regular monthly meeting at the township municipal building, 110 Sunray Drive.

The board also promoted Blake to the position of chief from assistant/acting chief with a salary of $65,000 for the first three years of his contract and $67,000 for the last two years ending in 2027. The township also hired a new part-time officer, Karissa Grossman, and promoted part-time officer William Gonzalez to a full-time spot vacated by an officer in March.

"We will now have five full-time officers, including myself, and four part-time officers," Blake said. "We are fully staffed now, and it feels great. The contract negotiations helped bring us along to a full department."

To offset the cost of increasing patrol wages, the township's supervisors have chosen not to fill the assistant chief office vacated as Blake becomes chief, Supervisor Paul Pioli said.

Blake has been serving as acting chief since the April departure of then-chief Donald Hess for the Johnstown Police Department.

"We all came together and both sides are happy," Pioli said. "I think we made a good pick for chief. He has a lot of experience under his belt."