§ 10-26. Qualifications of employees.

(a)

No member of the city fire department shall serve as a firefighter (full-time or part-time) until he or she has reached their twenty-first (21st) birthday and is a citizen of the United States. No person shall continue to serve as a firefighter after his sixty-fifth (65th) birthday. No person shall serve as a firefighter with the city fire department unless he/she possess and maintains a telephone (landline or cell) and resides within a fifteen (15) mile radius of the Fire Station located at 401 W. Chestnut in the City of Carthage. Any employee assigned a city owned emergency response type vehicle shall reside within the city limits or the designated boundaries of the city fire protection district.

(b)

The term "resides/residence" as used in this section, shall be defined as the true, fixed and permanent home and principal establishment, and to which whenever he/she is absent he/she has the intention of returning.

(c)

Applicants/current employees. Applicants or current employees who do not conform to the residency requirements established by this section, shall establish residence within the boundaries specified in this section within nine (9) months after the date of appointment for new hires or effective date of the ordinance from which this section is derived for current employees. In the discretion of the city administrator, person who, at the time the nine (9) months expires, have entered into a contract to purchase a residence for their use and who are prepared to move in within a reasonable time not to exceed six (6) months may be deemed to have met this requirement.

(Code 1978, § 205.060; Ord. No. 10-39, § I, 11-9-2010; Ord. No. 11-07, § I, 2-8-2011; Ord. No. 18-08, § I, 2-27-2018)