Officials hope to fill the director's position with the Columbia County Development Authority this week.

"We narrowed down our candidates to four about three weeks ago and started a formal process of interviewing, face to face, those four," Chairman Stan Shepherd said. "We are in the final stages of that interview process. We'll be making an offer this week to our final candidate."

Because all four candidates are currently employed, Mr. Shepherd would not reveal their names. But he said they live in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas. More than 40 candidates applied for the position, he said.

"We were very, very pleased with the response," he said. "We were looking for somebody with experience in economic development -- not necessarily a pure economic developer but somebody with a broad knowledge of economic development."

Once a job offer is extended, Mr. Shepherd said, he hopes the new executive director can start before the end of September.

The new director will replace Zack Daffin, who resigned in July, initially to take a position with the Augusta office of Smith Barney. He landed at Georgia Bank and Trust.

A search committee formed to find a new director.

"Georgia Bank and Trust has been very gracious in allowing Zack the time to continue working with us on some of our projects," said Mr. Shepherd, the regional manager of AT&T. "So it's not like no one has been doing that job."

Reach Donnie Fetter at (706) 868-1222, ext. 115, or donnie.fetter@augustachronicle.com.