Members of the Saranac Lake Department of Public Works speak to the village board on Monday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Employees with the village Department of Public Works and Water/Sewer Department are seeking to reopen their contract early to renegotiate wages, as members say they are seeking employment elsewhere as village wages lag behind other municipalities.

A group of village employees attended a board meeting on Monday to make the request.

DPW Superintendent Dustin Martin said he met with his crew a few weeks ago and asked how many of them are actively looking for other jobs. More than half are, he said.

Their union-negotiated labor contract typically lasts three years. It is set to expire on May 31 next year. But DPW member Jacob O’Brien said they are seeking approval to reopen the contract early. The contract includes the DPW, the water and sewer department, the highway department, the parks department and a number of office staff.

When asked how soon they want to do this, all DPW employees said “as soon as possible.”

Teamsters Local 687 President Nate Hough said they’d like to have a new contract by the end of this year — sooner if possible.

Mayor Jimmy Williams said they usually negotiate contracts before they lapse, so he felt doing it a little earlier was reasonable.

Trustee Aurora White said she wanted to make sure they follow the process and laws around labor negotiations being opened earlier than usual. She didn’t want to commit to reopening the contract before they talk to the village labor attorneys, but said, if it’s done the right way, she’d consider it.

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The pay

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Martin said the average DPW pay is $24 per hour. Employees have the chance to get licensed in different skills to get more pay, but he said it is hard to get them trained for those licenses with the large workload they have.

DPW member Blake Darrah said they earn $2 to $4 per hour behind comparable municipalities in the area.

“We feel like we’re very, very far behind the times,” DPW member David Sofield said.

The DPW is currently working on a major infrastructure overhaul on Ampersand Avenue. Coming up, they have planned work to extend the sewer up AMA Way, do a facelift on Woodruff Street and start the reconstruction of Baldwin Park.

Martin said if he loses half of his crew, the price of all of these projects will “skyrocket” and hurt taxpayers. Doing this work in-house saves the village lots of money since they it is much cheaper than hiring a private contractor.

David Sofield said contractor laborers get paid $56 per hour and equipment operators get paid $84 per hour. Mechanic Richard Sofield said vehicle repairs elsewhere cost $180 per hour.

Hough said people join the DPW as a way to build experience to get higher-paying contractor jobs. But he said they need pay that is competitive with other municipalities, and right now, they are behind.

In 2022, the DPW was down six employees, on the verge of losing two more. The village was sending projects out to bid instead of taking them on in-house. That year’s budget put $88,000 toward retention pay raises — a $0.50-per-hour raise across the board for all union members, as well as further raises for employees licensed in special skills.

But in the years since then, inflation has driven the price of living up, and Williams said they’re getting to the point where they’re behind again. He said the village doesn’t just need people in these positions — it needs people who have experience in them. The expertise of institutional knowledge getting passed down to new hires is valuable, he said.

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The work

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Darrah said they pave roads, fix broken storm lines, pour new sidewalks, trim trees, cut down trees, maintain village parks and plow roads. DPW member Tristin Fitzgerald said they close off parade routes on holidays and for special events. They love doing this, but it also means time away from their families on holidays.

They are on-call on weekends and holidays if there are any emergencies.

Fitzgerald said he loves working for the community he grew up in and chose to live in.

Tanner Manning said they have saved the village a lot of money.

Williams said the Main Street overhaul last year would have cost more than $2 million through a contractor, but the DPW did it for a little more than $200,000.

“It wasn’t easy,” Manning said.

They work long, late hours to take on these projects.

“We love doing this stuff because we all want to live here, we all have families here,” Manning said.

It’s not the scope of the work that’s the problem — they’re happy to do it, they said — it’s the compensation.

Manning said the village will save money, even if they give them a pay bump.

O’Brien said construction work can be disruptive to life and local business, but the DPW tries to go the extra mile to keep everyone happy. Manning said during the Main Street project, they took measures to minimize the work’s mess by spraying down the dirt and dust to keep it from blowing around, worked with businesses to limit disruption to commerce by opening up both lanes of the road each night and allowed concerts to go on as scheduled.

David Sofield said they installed a snowmaking line at the village-owned Mount Pisgah Ski Area, a “huge undertaking,” in a week.

Board members thanked the DPW workers for their sweat and time spent improving, fixing and maintaining the village.