The new Evans City Seven Fields Regional Police Department has a tentative contract.

Lee Dyer, Evans City council president, announced the preliminary deal at Monday night’s borough meeting. The contract comes after several meetings between a panel of three council members from each borough and the Evans City Police bargaining unit.

Once lawyers from both sides review the proposal, it will be voted on by the panel and the police department.

Once finalized, the contract would establish the new force effective Jan. 1.

Seven Fields’ cost in 2015 for the new police force would be about $305,000, and Evans City’s cost would be about $285,000.

In the three-year contract, existing police would see a 4 percent pay increase in the first year, 4 percent in the second year and 3.75 percent in the third year.

For example, a corporal who makes the starting salary of $48,464 would be making $53,086 in 2017, the final year of the contract. A part-time officer now making $17.79 per hour would earn $19.49 in 2017.

That equals a raise of 89 cents per hour for existing part-time officers and 71 cents for new part-time officers. Newly hired officers would start at 80 percent of the current starting salary and climb by 5 percent each year for four years to reach 100 percent pay.

Tom Smith, Seven Fields borough manager, said officers also would pay an 8 percent monthly contribution toward their health care if the contract is approved. They do not currently pay anything for their health insurance other than deductibles.

In the new contract, an officer with a family health care plan would pay $30 per month for medical coverage; a single, parent and child, or parent and children would pay $15 per month; and a two-person policy would cost an officer $26.33 per month.

“They definitely realized that for a regional police department to be successful in the long term, we have to contain the costs,” Smith said.

Dyer said neither of the two full-time officers employed by the borough use the borough’s health insurance. The borough also employs nine part-time officers.

Smith said the 2015 budget includes funds for the hiring of two more full-time officers for the regional department. He said nine candidates were interviewed, then whittled to four.

Smith said another round of interviews will take place in a few weeks.

Regarding negotiations over police compensation, Smith explained the police bargaining unit said they would be protecting 161 percent more residents in the regional police department than they were covering in Evans City alone.

He said the police now cover about 1,800 residents in Evans City and would cover more than 3,000 additional residents in Seven Fields in the regionalization. So the police would go from serving 1,800 people to almost 5,000.

Seven Fields has contracted with Cranberry Township for police services for several years. That contract will expire at the end of December.

Smith said the police budget would be separate from the boroughs’ budgets, although the police chief would submit a budget amount to the two boroughs each year.

Each council could ask police questions about expenditures and other budget items at that time, Smith said.

He said beginning on Jan. 1, a Regional Police Commission will become the governing body of the police department. The commission will be comprised of two council members and the mayor of Evans City and two elected officials and one appointed person from Seven Fields.

Smith said both boroughs and the police bargaining unit worked hard to reach the agreement.

“It wasn’t an easy process, but they never are,” Smith said.

Dyer agreed: “Reaching this agreement after numerous bargaining sessions without a costly arbitration is a testament to the union bargaining committee and the police commission, and their commitment to putting this association together.

“Now that we have a tentative agreement, the commission can go forward with the numerous steps required to be fully in position and ready to go at midnight on Dec. 31.”