Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Prince Edward County Board of Supervisors’ Personnel Committee will soon begin interviewing candidates for the county administrator position.

The board voted in April not to renew current county administrator Wade Bartlett’s contract. Bartlett has agreed to stay on until Sept. 30.

Farmville 701 District Supervisor Jim Wilck said only the supervisors who are part of the Personnel Committee are involved in the search for the new administrator at this early point in the process. In addition to Wilck, the committee’s other members are Hampden District Supervisor Dr. Odessa Pride and Leigh District Supervisor and Board Chairman Jerry R. Townsend.

“We are in the process of gathering applications now, and I believe we have eight so far,” Wilck said in a Wednesday, June 17, interview. “Interviews will start by the committee later this month.”

He said the committee will narrow the field down to the strongest candidates, possibly two or three.

“And then those people will be interviewed by the whole board, and that’s how the process will work,” he said.

Wilck said he had not really had a chance to look at any of the eight applications yet.

“We just got them a day or two (ago),” he said.

By a 5-3 vote, the board voted not renew Bartlett’s contract, which was originally set to expire June 30. However, May 5 the board voted unanimously to extend Bartlett’s contract by three months.

“I wanted Mr. Bartlett’s contract to be extended three months in order to ensure that we have an appropriate amount of time to seek applicants for the position of county administrator,” Townsend said following the May 5 meeting. “The extension will allow this and may even allow for him to assist in the transition process, as well. I am glad he decided to extend his contract and appreciate his dedication to the county.”