Just about a year after naming John Abrew the interim city manager for Escalon, the search is on for his replacement.

Abrew, formally named city manager in January of this year, has resigned from the post to take a job elsewhere. His last scheduled day on the job in Escalon is July 15.

City Finance Director Tammy Alcantor will assume the interim title, as the search gets started for a new manager.

“The deadline for applicants is July 31,” explained Alcantor. “It’s only listing a city manager title but they will still also oversee engineering.”

Abrew, who initially came to the city as the City Engineer, later assumed the Public Works Director duties and then City Manager.

Alcantor said they might bring a new city manager on board for the day to day operations, then contract out some of the other duties Abrew had been handling. That is not a certainty, but is one of the options being considered by the city council members.

“The new city manager will help figure that out,” Alcantor said of the arrangement going forward.

July 31 is the deadline for applications for the post, with interviews anticipated by mid-August and a hoped-for early October start date for the new manager. Abrew wanted to stay long enough to get the 2013-14 budget in place and that has been done, with the council approving the spending plan at its regular June 17 meeting. The budget was approved as initially presented in a workshop in late May, a roughly $2.9 million spending plan. The only change made – one that doesn’t affect the general fund budget – was approval of an $8,500 project to install security gates at the city’s Main Street Public Works Corporation Yard. The budget was approved in plenty of time for the July 1 start of the new fiscal year.

Alcantor said that the job opening has been posted in several newspapers, trade publications and online to hopefully draw a good pool of candidates.

She also said that she feels comfortable filling in during the short term, especially with former interim City Manager Henry Hesling agreeing to come back in an advisory role, to assist her and the council with any questions or concerns.

“He will assist me in running the ship, he will be my ‘go to’ guy,” Alcantor said of Hesling. “We’re not in turmoil. John is leaving us in a good position, we’re fairly stable, things are going on the right track.”