GRANITE QUARRY — The decades-old partnership between the town of Faith and town of Granite Quarry will continue, after both towns agreed to set the cost for police coverage of Faith at $195,798.

The agreement, which has allowed the Granite Quarry police to cover Faith since 2007, had been in jeopardy after the Faith Board of Aldermen voted to discontinue the contract due to a requested $50,000 increase in cost.

At the time, Granite Quarry officials said they would proceed with their budget process as if there would be no agreement, but officials from both towns decided to come back to the table and continue negotiations.

That decision proved fruitful, as they were able to agree on a cost of $195,798, splitting the difference between Granite Quarry’s requested $225,000 and the previous year’s agreement of $175,000.

“(Faith Town Clerk) Karen (Fink) did reach back out to me and said that committee had met and discussed $195,798 for the year, which would be a one-year deal, to get them in the right direction of where they’re going to go next and with us as well,” said Granite Quarry Town Manager Jason Hord during their meeting on Monday.

Hord said that he believed that both towns should be able to “come back to the table” by the first of February and be able to know how they wanted to proceed on a discussed three- or four-year contract for police coverage.

The members of the Faith board agreed to most of the terms of the proposed contract, only providing Police Chief Todd Taylor with two requested changes: making the deadline to cancel the contract between the two even and changing the official name to the Granite Quarry-Faith Police Department, removing the word joint from its name. Granite Quarry’s proposed contract gave Faith 60 days upon written notice and Granite Quarry 120 days.

“I don’t want to see it changed, that when we go anywhere we represent both towns and the communities we patrol. We represent both towns, no matter what it is or where we go,” said Taylor on Tuesday.

Other than those two “small changes,” Faith Mayor Randall Barger said the members of the board agreed to the terms of the contract, including the $195,798 price point.

Members of both boards have disagreed about the dollars and argued that there needs to be more transparency on how the money is spent.

“I think what is concerning is that after all these years we don’t have a simple understanding of what the costs are for what each town’s provided. I think we can all agree that for one person to pay a dollar for something and someone else to buy it back for 80 cents makes no sense. As long as we are fully transparent that, this is what it costs Granite Quarry to provide what it provides for Faith, than I’m fine with this,” said Granite Quarry Council Member Rich Luhrs.

Faith Alderman Gary Gardner expressed a similar sentiment at a previous Faith meeting, saying that he wanted to be able to see the “information as to how they spend the money.”

One thing both towns have said the whole time is that the disagreement is about dollars, contracts and coverages, not the people on either board or in the department.

“We appreciate Todd (Taylor), and I’ll say a lot of these decisions are based on who (Taylor is) and what we think (Taylor) can do,” said Faith Mayor Pro Tem Dale Peeler.