JACKSON TWP — The township police department is projected to have more than $926,200 in expenses in 2016, according to the township's preliminary budget.

The expenses are nearly $66,000 more than what is projected for this year.

Nearly all of the increase — $65,500 — is being taken up by wage increases and hiring a resource officer for the Seneca Valley School District. The spending on police will top out at about $580,000.

The salary increases are based on the township's collective bargaining agreement. That agreement also maintains the same level of health care premiums. The township and police department are in the third year of the contract, which runs through 2018.

The school district resource officer's salary and benefits are reimbursed by the district.

Township manager Chris Rearick said there's an overall 3 percent increase in wages for police officers next year.

“The police have been increasingly relied upon to provide security or other types of services,” he said. “Those are all billed to the requesting party and reimbursed to the township.”

For the remaining two years, the increases will be 3.25 percent and 3.5 percent, respectively.

The police chief's salary, meanwhile, is expected to increase by about $4,000 to about $81,000.

He gets the same percentage increase and same benefits as his officers.

The police department employs nine full-time officers who cover 23 square miles.

The proposed budget also includes an office administrator who will spend half of their time in the police department. The position is to become full-time by next summer.

Some possible duties for the new position also would be payroll and managing the township's website.

Seilhamer said the police department has been busier this year than last and the new position would relieve him and the sergeant from clerical work.

“It's kind of a waste of resources,” he said. “You're paying a wage for us to supervise and when we're performing clerical functions, we're not really supervising.”

Through the end of October, the department has handled 3,251 incidents compared to 2,880 last year, with 80 arrests being made this year compared to 68 last year.

Seilhamer said the increase can be attributed to more development coming into the area.

“This whole area around us is growing,” he said.

However, the number of reportable and nonreportable crashes was down this year.

The number of traffic citations issued in 2014 exceed that of Cranberry Township last year, 603 to 601.