LITTLE VALLEY—The Cattaraugus County Legislature Wednesday approved a three-year contract with the Seneca Nation of Indians for $1 million to combat increasing drug and alcohol abuse on the nation’s two territories.

The contract “supports preventive, proactive law enforcement to target and deter criminal activity within the Seneca Nation territories,” the Allegany and Cattaraugus reservations.

The money will provide school resource officers in the Salamanca and Gowanda school districts. Salamanca has been without an officer for three years due to budget constraints.

The contract, effective Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, 2014, calls for quarterly payments to the county to cover the costs of four deputy sheriffs. Two will be in the schools and the others in offices. Expenses include uniforms, vehicles and maintenance, training and health benefits. Pay will range from $19.03 to $23.06 per hour.

The recent action by the Seneca Tribal Council to allocate the money marks the first time the nation has taken that type of action to fight drugs and crime on its lands.

In Salamanca the police force was cut in September 2010 by three full-time and 10 part-time officers, one a school resource officer, as the result of a dispute between the Senecas and the state over distribution of casino slot machine revenues paid to casino host communities in Salamanca, Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

On Tuesday the Salamanca Board of Education also voted to approve a resource officer in the school.

Currently the local police department answers calls at the school regarding drug and alcohol abuse, sometimes more than once a day, said Police Chief Gary Wind.

In other business, the legislators approved a contract with Wilmac Co. of Rochester to provide preventive maintenance for the 911 digital voice recorder for the sheriff’s office.

The system was purchased in 2004 and annual maintenance in 2007 was approved at $12,595 a year.

The new contract calls for $30,303 through November and annual increases bringing it to $32,800 by Nov. 30, 2016.

With only Legislator William

H. Weller Sr., R-Franklinville, absent, legislators approved several appointments. They named:

• Chairman Norman L. Marsh, R-Little Valley, to the county Jury Board through Dec. 31, 2015.

• Legislator James J. Snyder, ROlean, to the Board of Health through Dec. 31, 2015.

•Legislator Susan Labuhn, D-Salamanca, to the Seneca Trail Project through Dec. 31, 2012.

• Minority Leader William Sprague, D-Yorkshire, to the board of Cornell Cooperative Extension through Dec. 31, 2012.

• Former legislators Jon Baker of Olean and Kenneth McClune of Salamanca, Machias Town Supervisor Matt Bull, Russell Hahn of Allegany and Legislator Linda Edstrom, R-Olean, to the Community Services Board through Dec. 31, 2015.