<p>Ken Bronson, right, a candidate for the executive director position with Sunset Transportaion Services, shares some of his ideas for providing veterans with transportation help with Patrick Preston, a member of the Senior and Disabled Advisory Committee, during Monday's candidate meet-and-greet event.</p>

After a technical panel interviewed five candidates for the role of executive director at the local bus district, three have been chosen as finalists.

The finalists are Jeff Hazen, Diana Bartolotta and Ken Bronson.

The three will be interviewed today by the Sunset Transportation Services Board of Directors to select the successor of Jay Flint.

Flint was hired in 2011 to replace Cindy Howe after the disgraced former director resigned amid controversy. Flints job was to slowly rebuild the district which was cut back to a skeleton staff and two routes. Sunset Transportation Services, formerly Sunset Empire Transportation District, is undergoing a makeover which included the new name.

Now that the dust has settled and the Transportation Service is back on its wheels, Flint, a licensed attorney, has joined a law firm in Seaside.

Hazen, 51, has worked in retail for the past 34 years. The last 24 have been devoted to Costco, where he served as the assistant manager. He semi-retired from the wholesaler in December and said he felt a career change was right for him.

I saw this is a great opportunity, something to be interested in, Hazen said.

Hazen has served on the Clatsop County Commission and the Warrenton City Commission, where he has also served as mayor.

That got me involved in local government, and I think combining that knowledge with my management experience at Costco I could make a good difference here, he said.

Hazen said he is aware of the issues that occurred when Howe left, and says he has been really impressed with Flint since hes come on board.

I think I was on the county commission when the whole thing blew up, Hazen said. It was really unfortunate, but I have been real impressed with Jay and what hes done, gradually building it back up, cautiously.

Diana Bartolotta, 37, an attorney and business consultant, has lived in Astoria for the last two years. Originally from Connecticut where she owned her own firm, she says she kind of burnt out from practicing law and began consulting work. She now works online, and says while she loves the Astoria community, she would like to become more a part of the community, and feels the position with Sunset Transportation could be just the ticket.

I love public transportation. That is one of the reasons why I moved from Connecticut to Oregon, she said. Because Connecticut really doesnt have public transportation. Ive taken a bus from San Antonio to Cleveland. Ive taken a train from Portland to San Fransisco. Ive taken trains all over Europe and the East Coast.

I really like public transportation and I feel like its an important thing in our community.

She says she wants to be a part of something, like the transportation district, to give back.

Ken Bronson, 58, works in Sweet Home where he managed the private nonprofit senior center.

Three transit programs are run out of the community center so 90 percent of what I do is transportation. And it just so happens that the senior center is the organization that I work for, and I answer to the board of  directors at the senior center, he said.

The three programs are the Linn Shuttle, which links Sweet Home, Lebanon and Albany; the Sweet Home Dial-A-Bus, and a transportation service for developmentally disabled Linn County residents.

But while there are three bus services that Bronson runs, he says to be blunt financial support in Clatsop County is one of the draws for the job locally.

Were very cash starved, thats why there are two full-time people and 15 part-time people, he said of his current job. In the four years that I have been there, the transportation, the shuttle in particular, has more than doubled. It just keeps growing so its a handful. So I am looking for another opportunity and this one I think is a good one.