File: New Palestine Town Marshal Bob Ehle
NEW PALESTINE — During a public hearing on preliminary budget figures for 2024, the New Palestine Town Council discussed pay raises for employees, including considerable increases for the town’s police department.
The overall budget for 2024 is projected to be $2.15 million, an increase of $247,112 from the 2023 overall operating budget of $1.91 million. The town’s largest fund is the general fund, which includes salaries, where officials are planning on giving all town employees a 5% cost-of-living increase.
The projected general fund budget is slated to have $1.47 million with the vast amount of that money going toward employee salaries.
Within that budget, the town’s council is projected to give the New Palestine Police Department major increase for officers who have been on the department several years. Town Marshal Bob Ehle was pleased to hear the town’s plans, which call for his officers who have been on staff for three years or more, his deputy marshal positions, to get bumped up to a salary of $72,000 per year.
“These increases are going to put us comparable to Greenfield and places like Fortville and maybe a little higher in some other places,” Ehle said.
He noted the raises for his department will help keep the department from losing officers as other nearby forces are offering large signing bonuses and more pay in order to attract people to the law enforcement profession.
Ehle feels paying town officers a solid paycheck for the work they do will also help New Palestine attract the best candidates when they do have openings.
“We don’t want to settle for just a warm body,” Ehle said.
Ehle went on to say he feels the New Palestine Police Department has some of the best officers in the county, and he wants to keep them long after he’s gone.
“I don’t want to lose any of them because they are a huge asset to me,” Ehle said. “We’ve talked for years about where we need to be and this is where we need to be on pay. I know we will never be the highest paid force in the county, but my goal is to keep who we have.”
Ehle, who has been on the force since 2001, has six deputy marshals under him and one reserve. The deputy marshal total budget is projected to go from $306,000 a year up to $455,000, an increase of $149,000 in 2024.
“I’m not going to be here forever, so I want to set this department up to be in good shape when I’m gone,” Ehle said.
Ehle did not take a raise last year when other town employees received a 7% cost of living increase. He instead wanted any spare money for his officers. His salary for 2024 is however projected to go from $87,164 in 2023 to $100,000 in 2024, an increase of $12,836.
Town officials noted that, while town employees will all get the 5% raise, the town council salary of $7,000 per council member per year will stay the same.
“The most important asset that we have is our employees, so you have to take care of them,” council member Bill Niemier said of the raises for town employees.
Council president Clint Bledsoe stated Ehle had actually hoped to also get another full-time officer added to the force in 2024, but for now the raises for the deputy marshals will have to do.
With so much growth in the town, Ehle said he wants his officers to each have another town officer working the same shift to have blanketed 24/7, two-person coverage on all shifts in the not-too-distant future.
“Of course we can and do rely on the county, but it’s better if we have another officer right here,” Ehle said.
Jared Hall, from Krohn & Associates, is the town’s financial adviser. He along with the town’s clerk treasurer, Yvonne Jonas, both noted the raises the town plans to make, including with the police department, are sustainable.
Hall noted that the budget session was only a public informational meeting and still has several steps to go through, with a final adoption slated for October.
“Changes can be made to the budget between now and then,” Hall said. “We’ll get feedback and make adjustments accordingly.”
However, Hall noted they do not anticipate any major changes of the budget discussed in prior meetings and during the most recent public session held late last week.
