AUBURN — With only 14 resumes, acting City Manager Don Gerrish said it might be wise to extend the deadline in the city’s search for a permanent manager.

“We’ve received three or four calls this week from people that said they were interested,” Gerrish said. “One way we can tell when people are interested is when they ask to talk to the acting manager to find out what it’s like to work in the community. But we have not had the numbers we were hoping for.”

The deadline for applications is Friday, but Gerrish said it could be pushed back to March 16.

“But we have plenty of time to extend the deadline if we’re going to get more applications,” Gerrish said. “I like to tell elected officials that all you really need is one application if it’s the right one.”

Councilors are scheduled to begin reviewing resumes at a special meeting Wednesday, March 28.

The city began advertising for a new manager in February. They hope to have at least 75 resumes to sort through.

“It’s been disappointing,” he said. “We just have not seen the numbers that we’ve seen in other job searches.”

The previous City Council voted to terminate City Manager Glenn Aho’s contract in October. It voted in November to hire consultants Eaton Peabody to lead the search for Aho’s replacement and manage the city in the meantime.

Gerrish said he did not know why applications were so sparse.

“I don’t think anybody has said they are not applying for X Y Z reason,” Gerrish said. “I think people are certainly trying to understand where the community is going today, compared to where it’s been in the past. And certainly people today do more homework on the communities they are looking at than they did.”

Gerrish said the tough real estate market could be a problem.

“Families that work have to move spouses and find schools for their kids,” Gerrish said.

“All of those can come into play. I wish I could tell you more, but that’s what we’re seeing.”

Gerrish said the city has received six applications from within Maine. The other eight were from out of state.

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