NATCHEZ — The City of Natchez has hired a new information technology director and an assistant.

Mayor Butch Brown said Thursday the city finalized paperwork this week to hire Ed Bowser as the city’s IT director. Brown said the city has also hired Bridget Chappell as an assistant for Bowser.

The city fired former IT director Eric Junkin in April.

Brown said the city evaluated approximately six or eight candidates before choosing Bowser, with who the city contracted shortly after Junkin’s departure to help with IT needs in the interim.

Some of the candidates applied for the job last year when Junkin was hired, and some applied for the latest round of interviews.

Bowser was one of two or three candidates the city recruited to interview for the job, Brown said.

Before taking the job at the city, Bowser served as Natchez Community Hospital’s IT director. He has eight years of experience handling municipal IT needs in the Chicago area and served on the Mayor’s Advisory Committee for Technology, which recommended candidates for the IT director position when Junkin was hired in March 2012.

Brown said he is confident Bowser is the right choice for IT director.

“He has got extensive governmental experience … and is quite knowledgeable with accounting practices, as well as the hardware and software side of IT,” Brown said. “I think we’re very lucky to have found him.”

Bowser said he is excited to begin working at the city and will immediately start assessing IT needs and wants among the various departments.

“I’ll be meeting with all the different department heads, and they’re working on lists now of want they want in their departments as far as technology and where they want to see their departments go,” Bowser said. “I’ll also be meeting with the mayor and aldermen to see where they want the city to go technology-wise.”

Bowser said he has been working to get laptops installed in Natchez police cars, a project the city has been trying to complete for nearly a year.

“We have made great strides toward that in the last few weeks,” he said.

Bowser chose Chappell, a recent Copiah-Lincoln Community College graduate, as his assistant.

Junkin did not have an assistant, but Brown said the city feels a second person in the IT department is needed.

Bowser said he asked the city to look at hiring an assistant to have another set of hands to help out.

“And it’s always nice to train someone right out of school and give them some experience so they can continue to grow,” Bowser said.

Bowser said he believes that Junkin did a good job developing and building a network for the city from scratch.

“There was pretty much nothing there,” he said. “From what I’ve seen so far, it will be easy to work with and continue his work and continue to develop the network.”

Bowser’s salary will be $75,000, $25,000 more than Junkin’s salary. Chappell salary will be approximately $25,000.

Brown said he believes Bowser is worth the extra $25,000.

“We can’t afford not to hire him,” Brown said.

Brown said he believes there is money in the IT budget for both salaries.

“We have not done an in-depth look,” he said. “We’re working on a revised budget, and we will move and shove and loan and transfer to make sure we can pay our bills, and we will pay all of them,” Brown said.