Following several months of negotiations, members of the Dunbar Fire Department and Dunbar Police Department will receive pay raises, effective July 1, 2016.
City Council members approved the pay increase for both departments during its Tuesday night council meeting.
"No town can really pay [its fire and police departments] what they are worth," Dunbar Mayor Terry Greenlee said. "But you try and compensate them as much as you can. It is a year, I feel, that we can financially do it."
Fire Chief Butch Ellis and Police Chief Jesse Bailes were both pleased with the decision.
"It's always encouraging to get steady raises to keep up with inflation - we all know the cost of everything is going up," Ellis said. "It just keeps the morale high that they can get some kind of steady raise no matter how small. It helps keep guys interested in the job."
Dunbar firefighters' pay will increase 28 cents per hour. The unit has 15 firefighters, and will soon hire another.
"We've finally got our starting pay up to standards with everyone around us," Ellis said. "We were having a recruitment and retention problem, but now that our starting pay is the same as everyone else's, it makes it a lot easier."
Ellis noted Greenlee's administration and the last administration have supported the force well.
"Both [administrations] tried to give us small but steady pay increases," Ellis said. "Sometimes in years past, especially before they had a contract, they might go eight years without getting a raise."
Police pay increases vary by rank. Dunbar currently has 16 police officers.
A Dunbar probationary patrolman will earn $14.37 an hour and its highest-ranking officer next to the police chief - a captain - will earn $17.80.
"We will never be up to the level playing field when you've got officers that are making - as a two to three year-old patrolmen - as much as the captain of the city of Dunbar," police Capt. Scott Elliot said referencing nearby Charleston and the Kanawha County Sherriff's Office. "They've got bigger tax bases, they've got a whole lot of different things. The thing we have going for us is our retirement."
Elliot said the team of negotiating officers - with each rank being represented - aimed for a big raise in hopes they would receive something.
"It's a small tax base in the city," Elliot said. "We knew the amount they wanted to spend."
No one from either department received a raise last year, Greenlee said. He added it was a "rough year."
But now the city's revenues are up and its expenses down.
"We have kind of restructured the way we do everything in the city," Greenlee said. "We are getting rid of what I call 'dead weed.'"
He's hopeful for a better year next year.
Also on Tuesday, City Clerk Connie Fulknier updated council on the city's efforts to collect delinquent municipal fees. Another 30 notices were sent out to property owners informing them of outstanding fees.
"[The notices] are still flowing out there," Fulknier said. "We are getting some results."
The effort to place liens on properties whose owners do not pay outstanding municipal fees within 90 days or receiving a letter from the city started in early May with about $300,000 in delinquent municipal fees.