Committee sifts through 50 city manager applicants in Poplar Bluff

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Poplar Bluff's City Manager Search Committee is holding closed meetings this week to conduct electronic first interviews of eight more applicants.

That will bring the number of interviews to 12 so far. To date, the committee has received 50 applications.

Committee members were to meet Wednesday evening and are scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. today at Three Rivers College.

"We will interview four applicants each night," said Mayor Pro Tem Jack Rushin, chairman of the 12-member committee. He added that applicants have come forward from as far away as Miami, Florida and Alaska.

Using the electronic equipment at the college helps keep costs down on first interviews, Rushin said.

When the first interviews are completed, the committee will narrow the number of applicants to travel to Poplar Bluff for second interviews.

Council members approved the appointment of interim TRC president Dr. Wesley Payne as a voting member of the search committee to replace Dr. Devin Stephenson, who recently resigned as TRC president.

Two TRC staff members, Janine Heath and Dustin Midyett, who have been helping the committee, were appointed as ad hoc members of the search committee.