Covington will hire a new fire chief to replace Chief Don Floyd whose last day will be June 15.

The position is being advertised in The News and is posted on the city's website and will pay between $62,296 and $83,491, depending on an applicant's experience.

The city is looking for applicants with a bachelor's degree in public management, business administration, fire science technology or fire safety engineering or who have a related degree and have taken college level courses in fire administration. Applicants should also have 10 years of high level command experience, three years of which must have been equivalent to fire captain or higher rank, including at least one year performing administrative type work. Full requirements can be found on the city's website at cityofcovington.org/DEPARTMENTS/HR/Pages/CurrentCareerOpportunities.aspx.

City Manager Steve Horton said Monday that the city will miss Floyd's nearly 40 years of experience. Horton said the city would like to make a hire by March to give the new chief a few months to work with Floyd to become acquainted with the city and the department's organizational structure.

"I've said this before, we can go out and hire anybody for any job, who has the (necessary) educational background or expertise from another city, but when they come in, they know nothing about Covington. They need time to get acclimated to our organizational structure, but also the layout of town," he said.

The city is looking at both internal and external candidates.

"That's just one of those things, in fairness to public and the taxpayer who pays our bills, to look in both those places. We want to make sure taking we're taking a responsible approach," Horton said.

Officials with the ranks of deputy chief, battalion chief and captain could be qualified to apply for the position.