WILLMAR -- The Kandiyohi County and City of Willmar Economic Development Commission has chosen Jean Spaulding as the agency's new assistant director.
Members of the operations board voted Thursday to recommend to the joint powers board that Spaulding be hired. A special meeting of the joint powers board will be scheduled next week to take formal action.
Spaulding, of Spicer, is currently the executive director of the Spicer Economic Development Authority.
The position at the Economic Development Commission opened up at the end of December, when Kathy Schwantes, the former assistant director, left to take a position at Ridgewater College.
Steve Renquist, executive director of the EDC, said there were 28 applications.
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Many of them were highly qualified, he said. "We were just delighted with the quality of the applications we've received," he said.
A selection committee narrowed the field to four semifinalists and interviewed two of them before recommending Spaulding.
The new assistant director comes with a strong background in economic development. She was director of the Kandiyohi County Convention and Visitors Bureau for 10 years before going to work in 2000 for the Spicer Economic Development Authority.
She also is on the EDC's business retention and expansion committee, serves as chairman of the technology task force, and is an ex officio member of the EDC operations board.
Renquist called her "a well-experienced professional in her trade."
"I think she'll be great," said operations board member Bev Dougherty.
The Economic Development Commission will offer Spaulding a salary of $55,000 a year.
She will start transitioning into her new position part time over the next couple of weeks, becoming full time in mid-March.
