DOVER-FOXCROFT – The local union representing employees in the Piscataquis County Sheriff’s Department, jail and telecommunications approved a three-year contract with the county Thursday.

The Piscataquis County commissioners are expected to act this month on the contract, which is retroactive to Jan. 1.

“We did what we felt was best and fair [for union members],” Investigator Mike Gould, one of the local union negotiators, said Sunday.

The contract allows for wage increases of 2.1 percent in 2004, 2.5 percent in 2005 and 3 percent in 2006, according to Gould.

It also includes $250 a year to each union member for health and physical fitness programs such as the YMCA, diet or stop-smoking programs.

The contract also makes it mandatory that a labor management meeting be held four times a year with the sheriff or his designee.

Another change in the contract changes the pay period from weekly to biweekly starting April 2, Gould said.