WEST PARIS – The panel searching for the town’s first manager has started interviewing candidates.

Committee members will make a hiring recommendation to selectmen before the March 2004 town meeting.

According to committee Chairman and Selectman Jim Johnston, more than two dozen applications have been sent to the town.

“It’s going to be a difficult job making a recommendation of three to five choices to the full board,” said Johnston.

“We have a long list of quality applicants who are interested in the town manager position. And it’s going to take a lot of thought to come up with a list for the board to consider,” he added. “We are carefully screening all applicants in order to come up with those we feel best fit the needs of the town.”

He said the committee is interested in candidates who are familiar with towns with populations that closely resemble West Paris, with its 1,700 residents, and who have the educational background and experience for the job.

Still, those requirements aren’t an absolute must, Johnston said. A major consideration will be who the town can hire for a salary and benefits acceptable to both sides.

Candidates “are from all over the place.” Johnston said. “Some are from Maine, some from New Hampshire and Vermont, and we have one candidate from as far away as California. And there are several women who are interested and they are also quality people we will be considering very carefully.”

Johnston said a list of three to five candidates should be sent to the full Board of Selectmen by mid January.

The go-ahead to search for a town manager and change the town’s government to include a town manager was given overwhelmingly by voters at the March 2003 annual town meeting after several attempts to get the people to accept the change had failed throughout the 1990s.

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