Trustees to narrow library chief hopefuls

Eight applicants will be scrutinized today as replacements for Mike Wirt, who will retire Feb. 24 as director of the Spokane County Library District.

Trustees will meet in a closed session to discuss the candidates with a recruiting consultant.

Spokeswoman Bethany Luck-Hutson said the trustees plan to select semifinalists for video-conference interviews Friday.

The field will be narrowed to perhaps three finalists who will be invited here for face-to-face interviews from Dec. 1 to Dec. 3. Trustees don’t plan to release names until the finalists are selected.

Luck-Hutson said the applicants include men and women from across the nation.

“We’ve got all four corners covered,” but none of the applicants is from Spokane, she said.

Although the candidates aren’t all library directors, “they are all high-level library employees” and all have degrees in library science, Luck-Hutson said.

She said trustees want the new director to start work March 1.

The job will pay $97,864 to $112,345 a year. Wirt, who has joined the district in 1972 and became director in 1980, is paid $122,345.