— — Interviews were conducted Friday of three finalists vying to serve as the next property assessor to serve both the town and City of Tonawanda.

Town of Tonawanda Councilman Joe Emminger, a member of a selection committee, said a decision on the shared services plan is expected sometime in the first week of February.

That said, he indicated the details of the arrangement are still far from settled — including whether or not a third or even fourth municipality could be added to the new job description, and what portion of the salary obligation would fall to each.

“We’re open to discussions with any community moving forward,” he said of the job expected to pay between $80,000 and $90,000.

Emminger, however, stressed that media reports earlier this week suggesting that current Town of Lancaster Assessor Dave Marrano — who is one of the three finalists — would work for all three municipalities are a long way from fruition.

“We were just talking out loud,” he said, adding that no official discussions at all have been held with Lancaster on the matter.

Instead, Marrano simply applied.

That wasn’t enough to keep a Lancaster councilman from publicly embracing the idea, leading to rumors of a pact.

“That caused a lot of problems in the town,” Emminger said, wanting to set the record straight. “It was cause for a lot of hurt feelings.”

Interviews held Friday, he said, were only among candidates for a role to be shared by the town and city.

But Emminger said the committee is still reaching out to communities in both Erie and Niagara counties to potentially add to the duties, in which case new interviews would be conducted.

“It’s all about shared services for less money,” he said.

Narrowed down from an original list of 11 candidates selected for interviews, Marrano is the only of three finalists working locally as an assessor.

In terms of money, the town would almost certainly pay more of the successful candidate’s salary.

That’s because of the 35,000 parcels spanning both municipalities, the majority, 28,500, are located in the town.

Emminger, however, said that doesn’t necessarily mean an assessor working for both would be paid an 80/20 split among the respective taxpayers.

“Obviously that’s one way you could look at doing it, but I don’t think that’s the way it’s going to end up. It’s not going to be 50/50, obviously, the town will have to pay more,” he said.

Plans to form a shared services pact emerged largely as a result of circumstance.

When city Assessor Pat Bacon retired in May, the city contacted the town with the idea, after interviewing a replacement candidate who ultimately backed out.

Left without an assessor, Emminger said the city then retained the services of former town Assessor Dave Unmack as a fill-in.

But when Unmack retired from the town at the end of the year, conditions were right to pursue a shared role, he said.

After the job opportunity was posted on state and county Web sites in recent months, 21 responses were culled. A questionnaire including questions designed to weed out some candidates was returned Jan 16, resulting in the reduced list of 11 names. Of those, four were considered finalists, while one dropped out.