City officials named Kenneth Lay as Gastonia's new fire chief Tuesday, marking the first time a minority will hold that position.
Lay, 43, is chief of the Jackson Fire Department in Tennessee and will start his new job May 16. He fills the position left by Robert Ridgeway, who announced his retirement last November.
Lay did not return several calls for comment.
City officials said they received more than 120 applications and interviewed 26 candidates, five of them internal ones, before choosing Lay.
"He has very good communication skills, very good management skills," said City Manager Ed Munn. "We think Ken's background will coordinate very well with what we have here."
Lay currently oversees 174 employees, six fire stations and a $7.5 million budget.
In Gastonia, he'll oversee 147 employees, eight fire stations and an $8.9 million budget. He'll make about $85,000, said Dave Henderson, Gastonia's human resources director.
Lay was fire chief in Muskegon Heights, Mich., before becoming chief in Jackson, where he serves almost 60,000 residents.
He's studying for his MBA at Belhaven College in Mississippi, and has a bachelor's degree in education psychology from Mississippi's Alcorn State University and an associate's degree in fire science from Michigan's Lansing Community College.
Distributed by the Associated Press
