By Jessie Burchette
Salisbury Post
County commissioners have unanimously agreed on a candidate for the vacant county manager’s job.
Commissioners voted Monday night to begin negotiations with the unnamed candidate.
The board has held several closed sessions to interview candidates in the past several weeks.
Last week, commissioners reinterviewed one or more candidates. Commissioners came to agreement on the top candidate at the Thursday session.
Arnold Chamberlain, chairman of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners, described the candidate as 45 to 55 years old with 20 or more years in county management in North Carolina.
He has been in his current position for more than 10 years.
Chamberlain said he expects to have a deal worked out and be able to announce the hiring within 10 days.
Since all commissioners have been involved in the interview process, Chamberlain said it may take a called meeting of the board to finalize the deal.
Commissioners began the search for a manager shortly after Bill Cowan left to take a job as development director of a Pinehurst resort project.
Cowan, who had retired as manager in Lee County, came to Rowan on an interim basis following the firing of longtime County Manager Tim Russell.
Cowan ended up taking the job full time for two years.
Leslie Heidrick, finance director, has been serving as interim county manager since Jan. 1.
Heidrick missed the board meeting Monday night due to a family medical emergency.
In other business Monday night, commissioners unanimously agreed to accept a log cabin from the family of the late Rep. Eugene McCombs for placement at Dan Nicholas Park.
Parks officials said no tax money will be used to move the cabin which McCombs built from logs estimated to be more than 100 years old.