(CHADRON)-Members of the Chadron city council are finding themselves much closer to choosing a city manager than they might have expected two weeks ago. At their last meeting, it was decided that each council member would select two names from the pool of 36 applicants to help narrow down the field. Eleven names were carried over from before and 25 new applicants, and with each council member picking two, there was a possibility of having up to 10 finalists.

Incredibly, every council member chose the same individuals. When asked how that could happen, city clerk Donna Rust said, “I don’t know. But interesting enough, all five council members reviewed all the applications separately, all five council members came in separately, and all five came in with the same two names.”

Council member Bill Barth couldn’t quite believe it either. “Yeah, when Donna called me and said, ‘You’re not going to believe this, but we only have two people to interview,’ I said you’re kidding,” said Barth. “’No,’ she said. So, that’s neat. I guess we’re all kinda looking for the same thing, and we all saw it in what we read in the résumés.”

Rust said those two candidates somehow struck a chord with each council member. “It must be that they are very strong candidates in the eyes of the council members,” said Rust. “The one individual is from out-of-state and has experience as a city administrator, and the other candidate is a local resident who has a strong interest in the position. And not knowing what the council was looking for when they reviewed all those applications, there must have been something there that stuck out that all five council members with this particular issue were all on the same page as to what they were looking for.”

The two candidates are Barry Cook, who most recently worked as an administrator for the city of Green River, Wyo., for 18 years, and local resident Wayne Anderson, who works as a program director at the Northwest Community Action Partnership in Chadron.

            Barth says with a chuckle that the outcome of having only two finalists means, “It won’t take very long maybe to find a city manager. I hope so. It depends on when the time frame works for the individuals to come in to be interviewed.”

The council’s next step is to hold a public interview session with both candidates. The interviews will most likely be held on the same evening, but separately back-to-back. The session will be open to the public, but will not allow for public comments or questions. It’s possible that the council will delay a decision after meeting with both candidates or they may decide on a candidate that evening. As council member Donny Grantham said, “If we want to make a decision (that evening), we will.” Mayor Karin Fischer said the council does want to go forward and doesn’t want to drag the process out any longer. Rust will be contacting the candidates to set up a date and time later this week.

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