EPHRATA - The Grant County commissioners are interviewing five candidates for the fairgrounds manager position.

They are replacing former Fairgrounds Manager Vern Cummings, who retired from the position at the end of October. The commissioners are interviewing five candidates this week.

The county received 37 applications for the position, and the human resources department narrowed the list, Commissioner Carolann Swartz said.

"Luckily we have a great (human resources) department who goes through these and tries to ferret out the top ones that meet the bill," she said. "I mean there are a lot of great candidates, but sometimes they don't qualify for exactly what we're looking for."

The job description calls for a minimum of six years of education or experience in operations and facilities maintenance management, Swartz said.

"There really isn't a degree you get in this," she said. "It's such a broad job. They maintain the crew and everything out there at the fairgrounds and oversee it. They also have to take care of the fair (and) work closely with the fair advisory board."

Swartz didn't want to release the names of the people being interviewed for the job, saying they were from Warden, Moses Lake, Yakima and East Wenatchee.

"We hope they are (qualified candidates,)" she said. "If these are all disappointing, I don't know what we're going to do. I guess we'll go back to the drawing board. I'd like to think there's going to be a winner amongst this group."

Swartz and Commissioner Richard Stevens want to have someone hired for the position by the beginning of the year, they said.

"We've got interviews for the next two days and if we see a clear winner, then we have to offer him the job and they have to accept the job. We have to do background checks," Stevens said. "So it takes a while."