[HISTORY: Adopted by the City of Council of the City of Chester 5-9-2012 by Ord. No. 6-2012 (Art. 933 of the 1978 Codified Ordinances). Amendments noted where applicable.]
A. 
Findings. The City of Chester recognizes that the duties of the Chester Fire Department require the use of specialized emergency rescue tools and equipment, emergency rescue materials, hazardous material abatement equipment, and hazardous abatement materials during their emergency responses. The City of Chester also recognizes that the costs of the maintenance and replacement of this equipment added to the replacement costs of damaged or expended materials places an increasing financial burden on the City of Chester.
B. 
City council intent. It is intended to grant the City of Chester the authority to seek recovery of all reasonable costs of responding to such emergency incidents, as allowed by applicable law.
As used in this chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings given to them in this section:
REASONABLE COSTS
The reasonable costs incurred by the City pursuant to the Rate Schedule for recovery of costs for the Chester City Fire Department.
A. 
The City of Chester is hereby authorized to recover reasonable costs of the use of emergency rescue tools, equipment and materials; hazardous material abatement tools and equipment, hazardous abatement materials; and personnel hours involving any hazardous material, environmental, fire safety, and/or rescue incident or operation, including vehicular accidents.
B. 
A Rate Schedule of reasonable costs, for the aforementioned tools, equipment, materials and hourly rates for personnel, shall be set by the Chester Fire Department from time to time, and shall only be applied to the recovery of costs arising out of incidents that occurred subsequent to the setting of the rate schedule. A copy of this rate schedule shall be on file for review at the business offices of Chester City.
C. 
The reasonable costs outlined above may be recovered from any identified insurance carrier or person or persons, directly by the City or by an attorney, or through a third-party billing service acting as a contracted authorized agent for the collection of such costs. In addition to the reasonable costs as set forth in the above-mentioned Rate Schedule, the City, or an attorney, or the third-party billing service shall hereby be authorized to collect, in addition to the reasonable costs, reasonable interest and administration fees for collecting the said costs and fees.
D. 
In the event that any insurance carrier or person or persons should fail to pay any bill or invoice within 30 days of the mailing or delivery of such notice of charges, the City, or an attorney, or the third-party billing service who mailed or delivered the bill or invoice may enforce the provisions of this chapter by filing a civil action at law in a court of competent jurisdiction for the collection of any amounts due to the City, together with statutory interest, court costs, collection fees and associated reasonable attorney's fees.
A. 
Any insurance carrier or person shall be liable for the reimbursement of reasonable costs incurred by the City, as outlined in this chapter, unless that person has paid to the City of Chester a tax which funds, at least in part, the services which the Chester Fire Department provides.
B. 
The City shall not be obligated to pursue collection efforts against any insurance company or person in the event that the City reasonably determines that collection efforts will not be successful or that the costs of collection will exceed the amount due hereunder.