By Dave Thompson
Bismarck, ND – The North Dakota Racing Commission will soon pick a new state Director of Racing.
Applications for the job closed last week. Now, Commission chairman Jim Boehm says a search committee will start looking at the applicants.
Boehm says the Commission had hoped to have the new director on board January 1st, but he says that probably won't happen.
"It all depends on the applications now," Boehm said. "We'e only got five or six. I was hoping for a whole lot more. It's a fulltime job, and we're paying $50,000 or more, depending on experience."
The commission decided to make the job fulltime because of the increased workload in supervising horse racing. The previous director -- Paul Bowlinger -- was a three-quarter time employee.
Boehm says one of the applicants is former State Senator and state Treasurer candidate Dean Meyer. During the campaign, Meyer proposed moving the Racing Commission from the Attorney General's office to the the Treasurer's office.