Weatherly Borough is working on a long-term agreement with Packer Township to continue funding their shared fire department.

Rising insurance costs have forced both municipalities to look closely into what they pay for fire protection.Borough council this week discussed a proposal that Packer Township officials made at a recent meeting regarding Citizens Fire Co. No. 1.Packer proposed a five-year contract where their payments will increase from $12,600 in the first year to $14,300 in the final year.Weatherly borough officials said they would work on a counterproposal. Councilman Harold Farrow said that the proposal was a good start."We had talked about possibly checking whether this would work on a per capita basis," he said.Farrow said he would like to see a commitment from Packer to retroactively pay more for the last three years, when Weatherly increased its contribution but the township did not.The two sides agreed to a one-year contract in April, after Weatherly threatened to stop providing fire coverage to Packer if it didn't formalize an agreement.Under the agreement, Packer will pay $9,765 this year for fire coverage. For more than a decade, it had paid $7,765.Weatherly asked Packer to increase the amount that it paid after the price of workman's compensation insurance jumped dramatically in 2015. The price of insurance was $11,000 more in 2015 than it was in 2014.