EVANS CITY — The new joint police department for Evans City and Seven Fields should be operating on Jan. 1 as planned, but the details of the contract with union police officers still must be worked out.

Seven Fields uses Cranberry Township police for coverage. That contract will end Dec. 31, when the new regional police force will take effect.

Evans City has its own police force, and those officers will start covering Seven Fields on Jan. 1.

Lee Dyer, president of the Evans City council, said negotiations with the police bargaining unit regarding the regionalization are ongoing.

He said the team coordinating the new department has given the bargaining unit four or five proposals, none of which has been accepted.

While he would not go into detail, Dyer said the language in the contract proposals has been the biggest stumbling block.

“We have ironed out many issues between us,” Dyer said.

But Dyer said everything else, such as buying start-up equipment and hiring of any new officers, is on hold until a contract is reached with the police.

“We’re still in serious negotiations,” Dyer said, “but it is absolutely my desire to have it start in 2015.”

Sgt. Don Myers, the chief negotiator for the Evans City Police bargaining unit, also hesitated to comment while talks go on.

He said the hurdles in putting together the new force are “too many to number.”

Still, he hopes that the new department will take effect Jan. 1.

“We’re at cruising altitude,” Myers said. “We don’t know what turbulence is going to come because it’s a work in progress.”