The Liberty Township Fire Department has reached an agreement with the township's trustees that could restore the department's operations in the community.

Increased wages were the main focus of the agreement, which will help the department stay competitive with other departments when hiring new firefighters.

"This is field is not as sought after as it once was," said Union President Ronnie Simone. "That means we need to compete in the same pool of firefighters as other departments that offer more money than we do."

Simone says that other departments offer anywhere between $50K to $60K annually. Before this agreement, the department was only offering a salary of about $48K for firefighters.

This new contract will offer $21 an hour for paramedics and firefighters, or about $52K annually. Meanwhile, EMTs will make $20 an hour, or $49K annually, according to a notice posted both on the union's Facebook page and Liberty Township's website.

The goal is to hire five new firefighters to restore the departments operations within the community, this includes fully reopening the department's Belmont fire station, which gets temporarily closed when the department is short staffed.

Simone says he hopes to return to full staff before the summer.

The union and trustees began negotiating the amendment to their current contracts, which are in affect until 2025, since the beginning of April.

It will be officially signed during a trustees meeting this Friday, Simone said.