Two Rivers City Manager Greg Buckley
A recent back-and-forth between the Manitowoc Common Council and two Fire Department employees is raising questions in the community about residency requirements.
The council voted to allow the firefighters to live outside of the 25-mile residency limit, but Alderman Steve Czekala adamantly opposed it, saying “Every single person behind the scenes and every single department head lives in the city of Manitowoc, why? Because we obviously like it here, we’re all here.”
We reached out to Two Rivers City Manager Greg Buckley to see if his city has similar residency requirements, and he said “Our city, for emergency response personnel, which includes police, fire, ambulance, people like public works, we require residency within 15 miles of the city’s corporate limits.”
To clarify, that means that the 15-mile limit is from the edge of the city, not from the city center.
Buckley noted that state law requires that such employees be allowed to live at least 15 miles outside of the cities they serve.
He also explained that 25 years ago, all full-time employees were required to live within the city limits.
As for why they need to be so close, Buckley said, “We have at most 6 firefighter/paramedics on a shift, but we can be running with as few as four firefighter/paramedics on a shift. That by its very nature means if you are a firefighter/paramedic in Two Rivers, you are subject to frequent recall to the station to provide needed services to the community.”
While Buckley is a supporter of residency limits, at least in Two Rivers, he also understands that reality can sometimes get in the way.
“With two-income families, you sometimes have spouses that are dealing with different community patterns and needs,” he admitted. “And within the last two or three years, you have a crazy real estate market where it is slim pickings, and of course, it has become very very expensive, making it a decision you want to make very very carefully.”
Buckley said that each case is different and that he and the City Council have made approvals based on the exact case brought before them.
