The E-911 Commission will ring in the new year without having hired the next director of the Warren County E-911 Dispatch Center.

Wednesday was to have been the day that one of four finalists might have gotten the nod to head the $1.4 million city-county agency, but commissioners showing up for a scheduled meeting learned interviews had not been scheduled.

“I was gone last month and all of us really didn’t do a very good job of communicating about what was going on,” said Vicksburg Fire Chief Keith Rogers, who chairs the panel. “We still need to notify the remaining candidates to see if they are still interested in the position and then start doing background checks.”

Former Director Geoffrey Greetham was fired for unspecified reasons June 18. Twenty-one people applied for the job before the Oct. 26 deadline and the list was narrowed at a Nov. 14 meeting. At the conclusion of a Nov. 28 meeting, commissioners said interviews with four finalists, none of whom have been identified except interim director Michael Gaul, would be held before Wednesday’s scheduled meeting.

The interviews did not materialize, however, and Rogers, who missed the Nov. 28 meeting, said only that the process would carry into January. After last month’s meeting, David McDonald, commission member and Warren County District 1 supervisor, said he was anticipating the commission to have the entire process completed by the end of the year.

Regardless of delays in the hiring process, commissioners continued to say they have been pleased with Gaul’s performance.

“Overall, he has really done well and he continues to improve,” Rogers said.

After the meeting Wednesday, Gaul said he is still “very interested in the job.”

Responsibilities of the director include overseeing the dispatch center’s budget, which has been as high as $1.8 million annually, training its employees and developing and implementing policies. A salary for the new director had not yet been determined. Greetham’s salary was $45,000.

Greetham, a retired Army major, was chosen from more than 70 applicants for the post in March 2005 to take over an operation then beset by personnel and morale problems. For five months in 2006, Greetham also served as interim director of the Warren County Emergency Management Agency as supervisors sought, briefly, to consolidate the function of hazard mitigation and emergency dispatch.

After his firing, Greetham attributed at least some of the reason for his departure to difficulties flowing from attempts to move equipment and operations into a new location. The still-pending move comes after years of operating in a former break room at the county jail and since then in a basement room under the steps of the courthouse. In a bid to improve those conditions and upgrade equipment for dispatchers, supervisors purchased from the City of Vicksburg the former Southern Printing building at Clay and First North streets for $230,000 in March 2006.

Progress on the new dispatch center was discussed by the commission Wednesday. During the meeting, Gaul reported that the project, which he said consisted mostly of electrical work, was still on schedule and operations may move in late winter or early spring.

Gaul said the new facility would provide more than double the space of the current dispatch center and, because of the commission’s approval Wednesday, will feature a new dispatch system that Gaul said would save about $150,000.

Myrant and Associates is the company that was awarded the contract for adapting the building in October. Gaul noted that the entirety of the project, the building purchase included, would be about $1 million.

Voters authorized the agency in 1989 and agreed to pay for it through their phone bills, plus general fund supplements. Trained dispatchers who staff the center answer all calls for assistance.

Also at the meeting Wednesday:

* The commission approved a proposal by Warren County Address Coordinator Kenny Staggs Jr. to give names to more private roads in Warren County. Right now, Staggs said, the county has the authority only to mark private roads connected to public roads, not private roads that fork off of other private roads. These unmarked roads can cause delays in emergency response, Staggs said. Supervisors must approve the proposal before further steps are taken.

* In executive session, the commission approved a pay increase for Gaul. Next pay period, he will be paid as the active director instead of receiving the pay of deputy chief, which was the position he held before taking over as interim director.

Commissioners in attendance Wednesday, in addition to Rogers and McDonald, were Warren County Fire Coordinator Kelly Worthy, Vicksburg Mayor Laurence Leyens, Warren County Emergency Management Director Gwen Coleman and Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace. Absent was Vicksburg Police Chief Tommy Moffett.