Mount Airy has been without a fire chief for nearly three months, but that could be changing shortly.

Interim City Manager Barbara Jones, the official heading the search process, has reported that she is in the interview stage and anticipates making a decision “soon.” With the city’s next fiscal year starting Thursday, Jones did not cite a date as to when the new fire chief might be named.

About 20 people applied for the post after it was vacated on April 13 with the resignation of Chip Osborne after less than five months on the job.

In the absence of a chief, the captains who head the three work shifts of the city fire department have been sharing administrative responsibilities. This also has been necessitated by the fact that the department has no assistant chief due to that position being eliminated earlier this decade.

“The captains have actually filled the chief’s role,” Trey Leonard, one of those leaders, said Tuesday afternoon. “It’s been a long, hard process, but it’s actually worked as good as it possibly could.”

Leonard added that “communication has been the key.”

Commissioner Teresa Lewis, a member of the city Public Safety Committee, said Tuesday that the fire department has continued to fulfill its duties despite being without a chief.

“From what I’ve seen, it’s going well,” Lewis said. “The three captains have taken on those responsibilities ... and haven’t missed a beat.” In addition to Leonard, they include Chris Fallaw and Danny Vipperman.

Though things have run smoothly, Leonard says he’ll be glad when the new chief comes aboard.

“I’m ready for whoever it is,” he said. “He can’t get here quick enough.”

But Leonard said being pressed into service to fill the role of chief, including helping to assemble a fire department budget for the new fiscal year, has been a growing experience for him and the other captains.

“It was actually a very good learning process.”

Searching for a new fire chief is a relatively rare occurrence for Mount Airy, where those in that position have tended to enjoy lengthy tenures. Before Osborne took the post last fall, Benny Brannock had served as chief for seven years and former chiefs Wes Greene and Bill Joe Woodruff also logged long terms of service.

Jones, the interim city manager, has said that applicants for the position were sought both from within and outside the fire department.

Contact Tom Joyce at tjoyce@mtairynews.com or at 719-1924.