Lewis County approved two more union collective bargaining agreements (CBA) this week that approve small salary increases for Lewis County dispatchers as well as sergeants and lieutenants in the Lewis County Jail.
The Lewis County Board of Commissioners approved the two new contracts during its weekly business meeting on Tuesday morning. The county signed the agreements with the Lewis County Dispatchers Guild, which represents dispatcher staff working for Lewis County 911, and Teamsters Local #252 representing Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Corrections Bureau sergeants and lieutenants.
Both contracts, according to the versions available through the board's agenda, are effective immediately but for different terms. The collective bargaining agreement with the dispatchers extends through December 2027 while the contract with Teamsters Local #252 will stretch just through the end of 2026.
Union contracts carry extra significance this year as the county is renegotiating all 14 contracts and also faces a challenging budget year. The contracts add a certain level of uncertainty to the Lewis County 2026 budget that was approved at the beginning of December last year.
The county’s true financial standings for this year likely won't be clear until the CBAs are finalized. According to Lewis County Budget Administrator Becky Butler, the county expects to have a more clear idea of how the contracts impact the budget by the end of the first financial quarter at the end of March.
Lewis County Dispatchers Guild
The new contract between the Lewis County Dispatchers Guild and the county secures modest salary increases for 2026 and 2027, just slightly above their previous percentage increases. This year, telecommunications officers and their supervisors represented by the union will see a 5% wage increase.
The contract also secures a 4% wage increase for the same employees starting next year, Jan. 1, 2027. The increase is relatively modest and similar to what this union and others have received in the past. In the previous two years, the employees represented by the dispatchers guild received 3% overall salary increases and the year before that received a 4% salary increase.
In 2025, the monthly salary range for a standard telecommunications officer was from $4,876 to $6,560 along a 13-step salary scale. But the recent increase bumps that range up to $5,120 to $6,888 in 2026.
Telecommunications officer supervisors in 2025 saw a salary range of $5,837 to $7,846 along the same 13-step salary scale. In 2026, that range will sit at $6,129 on the bottom end and $8,238 on the high end.
Teamsters Local #252
Much like their deputy counterparts, the corrections department sergeants and lieutenants negotiated a 10% salary increase headed into 2026. Also like their deputy counterparts, the represented employees negotiated a shorter contract than most other county employee unions. The contract extends just through the end of 2026.
In 2025, corrections sergeants and lieutenants earned monthly salaries ranging from $6,686 to $7,917. With the negotiated salary increase, that range gets a bump in 2026, moving to $7,355 to $8,709.
That increase is the largest percent increase the group of county employees has received in a long time and one of the two largest percent increases signed so far for 2026 salaries among Lewis County employees.
In previous years, corrections officers — deputies, sergeants and lieutenants — have received relatively average salary increases when compared with other groups of county employees. In 2024 and 2025, they received 3% general salary increases. They got a 4% general salary increase the year prior in 2023.
