Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The second round of interviews with two candidates vying for the open Freeborn County administrator position will take place Wednesday morning in the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners boardroom.

The interviews will take place at 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., with commissioners beginning deliberations at noon. The interviews are open to the public for observation.

The board interviewed four candidates Dec. 18 for the position, and after that initial round, voted to bring back Melanie Aeschliman and David Stiernagle for a second interview.

Aeschliman is the current city administrator of Blooming Prairie and is pursuing a doctorate in public administration.

Before becoming city administrator in Blooming Prairie, she worked for about a year as state supervisor of assessments for the state of North Dakota and as director of planning and as an assessor for 4 1/2 years with the Kenai Peninsula Borough in Soldotna, Alaska.

Stiernagle is originally from Freeborn and has been in the private sector for 37 years and recently retired as vice president of lubrications and corporate accounts at Coastal Chemical Co., running the largest of four revenue focus sectors for the company.

Stiernagle graduated from Freeborn High School and earned a chemical engineering degree before obtaining his Master of Business Administration while working full time.

After working most of his career in Texas, he and his wife bought a house 1 1/2 years ago on Fountain Lake after first renting a house. His wife’s mother has been in Thorne Crest Senior Living Community.

The person hired will fill the opening left after former administrator Ryan Rasmusson resigned in October for a new opportunity.