At the present time, the Municipality is protected by the Volunteer Fire Department of Columbiana. The Fire Chief and other officers are elected by the members of the Fire Department. This arrangement shall continue under the Charter unless changed, abrogated or cancelled by the Constitution or laws of the State of Ohio, or by ordinance passed by Council of this Municipality. If any of the above conditions should come to pass, then there shall be set up automatically a Municipal Fire Department as follows: The Fire Department shall consist of a Fire Chief and such other officers, firemen and personnel as the Director of Public Safety shall deem advisable, and the Fire Chief and all other officers, firemen, and personnel shall be appointed by the Director of Public Safety, subject to the approval of the Manager and Council, and when applicable the civil service provisions of this Charter. Until the civil service provisions of this Charter are put into effect, if a Fire Department shall be set up, as above noted, the members thereof shall have tenure, all as set out in the statutes of the Revised Code of Ohio providing for tenure for members of a village fire department. A member of the Fire Department may, during this period, be removed pursuant to the procedures set up in the Revised Code of Ohio for the removal of members of village fire departments, provided that the Village Manager shall bear the responsibility for filing the written charges against such member whereby said removal procedures are initiated. Whenever the applicable civil service provisions of this Charter become operative, all members of the Fire Department who have served their six (6) months probationary period and an additional period of not less than ninety (90) days, shall be automatically placed under the applicable civil service provisions in the appropriate category and classification, without being required to take an examination for the position held at that time.
(Amended Nov. 2, 1976)