Niles Township Firefighters will receive a small raise according to a new contract approved by the township’s board of trustees during Monday’s regular meeting.

Township Treasurer Jim Ringler said the three-year contract includes a 2.5-percent raise each year for the township’s six full-time firefighters.

“This is the first time in a long while that we’ve had a contract settled prior to the current one expiring,” Ringler said. “This is a good thing.”

The contract will run from 2015 through 2017. The firefighters union will need to ratify the contract before it takes effect.

“Once that happens it is a valid contract,” Ringler said, adding that he expects ratification to occur in the next week or two.

Both sides have been negotiating a new contract the past couple months. The current contract is set to expire at the end of the year.

Ringler said there were not a lot of issues on the table from either side and that he is pleased the process is almost over.

“Now we know where we are at going into the budget,” he said.

Also Monday, the trustees approved a request by Chuck Lord, owner of Innovation Machining Corp., for an industrial facilities tax exemption. Lord is purchasing two new machines at a cost of approximately $320,000. He said the equipment would help make the manufacturing company competitive on a global scale. No new jobs will be added.

Innovation Machining, located at 1461 S. Third St. in Niles, employs five people.

The township also heard a report from a Berrien County Sheriff’s Department Deputy that his department has seen a rise in retail fraud at Walmart and thefts from unlocked cars in the area.

Trustees Chris Vella and Dick Noble were absent.