After six years with the City of Blue Earth, Ben Martig could be leaving to fill a position in Marshall.

After eight hours of interviews, the Marshall City Council offered the city administrator position to Ben Martig, currently the city administrator in Blue Earth.

The council and other community members interviewed four candidates Tuesday, May 13. Two of the original six candidates had dropped out.

At the end of the day, Martig was offered the position, although he did not immediately accept the offer. The Blue Earth administrator told councilmembers he would ‘get back to them’ in a day or two with an answer.

Martig told the Register Thursday he plans to accept the position if he and the Marshall council can come to terms on the contract. The Marshall council could accept the contract as early as today, Monday, at their regular meeting.

“I am cautiously optimistic that will happen,” he said.

An article in the Marshall Independent said Martig was the unanimous choice for the position.

One councilman suggested having a second choice in case Martig did not accept their offer, but the council declined to do so, saying Martig was the candidate they wanted.

All four candidates had been interviewed three times that day — once by the council, once by department heads, and once by a community leaders committee.

One community leader said Martig was the only candidate of the four who scored with superior marks.

Martig told the Marshall council if he accepted the position he would need to give his current employer at least 30 days notice and would not be able to start in Marshall until June.

Blue Earth Mayor Rob Hammond said he spent ‘quite a while’ on Wednesday afternoon discussing the situation with Martig.

“We went over current city operations and how they will be covered on a day to day basis if Ben leaves,” Hammond said. He added that they also discussed how a successor would be chosen.

Hammond said that he was sure all of the items would be discussed at Monday night’s city council meeting.

“I’m happy for Ben,” Hammond said. “This is a great opportunity for him, a chance to work in a bigger city.” Hammond also praised Martig for all the hard work and long hours he had worked for the city of Blue Earth.

Martig has been the city administrator in Blue Earth since 2001.

“Unfortunately, in a city the size of Blue Earth, this is going to happen (lose an administrator after a few years),” Hammond said “We have some experience with this (hiring a new administrator), and we have some ideas on how to go about it.”

Hammond said he would hope that a new city administrator could be hired as quickly as possible.