MONTGOMERY: Approval of ordinance means salary hikes for administrators, department heads

By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY — Montgomery Township administrators and department heads are in line for salary hikes of 1.8 percent for 2016, under the terms of a salary ordinance approved by Township Committee.
The Mayor and Township Committee will not receive salary increases, however. Their salaries will remain unchanged at $5,006 for the mayor, and $3,752 each for the deputy mayor and three Township Committee members.
Township Administrator Donato Nieman will earn $151,768 and Chief Financial Officer/Tax Collector Walter Sheppard will be paid $141,327. Township Clerk Donna Kukla will earn $99,754.
Township Engineer Gail Smith will be paid $118,429 and Planning Director Lori Savron will earn $109,806. Superintendent of Public Works Arthur Villano will be paid $116,784.
Police Director Capt. Robert Palmer will be paid $149,659.
In other business at its April 21 meeting, Township Committee awarded a $321,694 contract to Topline Construction for the overlay of a portion of Bridgepoint Road. The township received a grant for $166,000 to cover some of the costs.
The overlay project begins at the intersection of Bridgepoint Road and Updikes Mill Road, and ends about 400 feet south of the Bridgepoint Road- Dead Tree Run Road intersection. It calls for removing the top layer of asphalt and applying a new layer to the road surface.
“We got a nice number of bids,” Mr. Nieman, the township administrator, told Township Committee. Topline Construction was the lowest responsible bidder “by a wide margin,” he said, adding that Topline was the lowest responsible bidder at $321,694.28.
The bids ranged from Topline Construction’s low bid of $321,694.29 to Kylie Conti Construction Co.’s high bid of $520,535.24. Work is expected to begin with in a month.