Interviews to fill the vacant director’s job at the Warren County Extension Service could take place by mid- to late January — provided a recent job posting receives interest, officials say.

The office has been without a titled director since John Coccaro retired July 1.

Criteria listed by Mississippi State University for the position on a job-finder link on its website include working knowledge of row-crop farming, horticulture, and natural resources. Sometimes called county agents, the directors are employees of the university and its Extension Service.

This summer, plans to scrap individual directors and restructuring county offices into clusters of three or four with multiple agents were discussed as a way to trim costs after the Extension Service budget was cut by more than $1.4 million. But, postings for the leadership job of the local office on Grove Street mean an eventual hire will be based there, said Dr. Stephen Dicke, interim head of the Central Mississippi Research and Extension Center in Raymond, of which Warren County’s office is a part.

“The position was successful before,” Dicke said, adding that the Extension also favors continuing the newspaper columns written by recent past directors. “It’ll be the same type of job John Coccaro and Terry Rector were so good at before.”

Dicke said a committee of Extension directors from Copiah, Claiborne, Hinds and Yazoo will help vet the field of applicants, along with a representative chosen by Warren County Board of Supervisors President Richard George.

Counties fund part of the director’s annual salary. In November, supervisors OK’d $21,363 toward the position’s salary of about $50,000 and benefits this fiscal year.

Extension directors coordinate the service’s educational efforts in agriculture and natural resources, family and consumer education, 4-H youth development, and enterprise and community resources development.