The city of Chadron now has a policy allowing it to offer incentives to applicants for hard to fill positions such as police officers and water plant operators.

The council unanimously approved the policy Monday night.

City manager Greg Yanker says Chadron has struggled in recent years to replace police officers who’ve retired or left because the city’s wage and benefit package have become inferior to those in many other communities.

Under the new policy, Chadron can offer an incentive of up to 5% of base salary, excluding benefits, for the first year on a case-by-case basis for all full-time positions including non-certified sworn police officers and up to 10% for certified sworn officers.

Employees aren’t able to use vacation days until after they’ve been with the city for a year, but the incentive policy allows the city offer – again on a case-by-case basis – vacation from day one of employment.

Certified police officers could get up to 32 hours of vacation from day one and possibly accrue vacation at up to the rate of 5th-year employees.

All other city positions could be eligible to start with 16 hours of vacation with an accrual rate of up to that of a 3rd-year employee.