The Butler County Commissioners on Wednesday approved a collective bargaining agreement with SEIU Local 668, which covers county administrative professional employees.

The four-year deal, which is retroactive to Jan. 1, has a 2 percent pay increase for the first year and 3 percent pay increases for the remaining three years.

Employees have two health care options. From Oct. 1 to Dec. 30, 2017, they will pay either 5 percent or 10 percent of their premiums. Starting Jan. 1, 2018, they will pay 5.5 percent or 12 percent.

The administrative professional unit covers about 70 employees.

The SEIU has three other units in the county. County solicitor Mike English said other units have rejected the county’s offer.

All three commissioners voted for the contract. But Commissioner Jim Eckstein said that the pay raises granted are unreasonable, saying they are too high.

He said that the decision to vote for the agreement was the hardest he has had to make as a commissioner.

“I don’t like this,” Eckstein said. However, he noted this unit is the only SEIU unit that did not reject the offer.

All county union contracts expired Dec. 31, 2014.

Last month, the county and the county’s four detectives agreed on a contract that will run until Dec. 31, 2017.

Traffic study update

The commissioners hired Gibson-Thomas Engineering of Wexford to study truck traffic on Main Street in Butler.

The study is being paid for with a more than $400,000 grant from the state Department of Transportation. The grant was awarded to the county last year, and the commissioners approved the grant in October. No county money is involved in the study.

The study is administered through a PennDOT program that aims to reduce truck traffic in congested areas in the state. The goal is to look for ways to reduce truck traffic on Main Street and to improve traffic flow.

Assessment appeals

The commissioners approved three tax settlement assessment appeals.

The Clearview Mall in Center Township has a new fair market value of $38 million, down from $57.4 million. The county will lose more than $54,000 in property tax revenue from this change.

Home Depot in Butler Township has a new fair market value of $6.6 million, down from $7.9 million. The county could lose about $3,700 in property tax revenue from this.

Home Depot in Cranberry Township has a new fair market value of $8.1 million, down from $9.6 million. The county could lose about $4,200 in tax revenue from this change.