The Pinehurst Village Council will meet Thursday to discuss filling the vacant position of mayor.

Mayor George Lane, 81, died Feb. 23, a week after falling at his home. Though Mayor Pro Tem Virginia "Ginsey" Fallon is serving as acting mayor on an interim basis, the council must eventually find a permanent replacement for Lane.

While there is no timetable to select one, the council is expected to move fairly quickly. Without a mayor, there is no way to break a potential 2-2 deadlock, though the council votes unanimously on most items.

The special meeting, to be held at 2:30 p.m., is open to the public. Village Manager Andy Wilkison has not been involved in any discussions the current council members may or may not be having about filling the vacancy, saying it is unethical for the manager to do so.

"[A selection] could happen Thursday, it might not," he said. "The four council members have to work it out among themselves."

Fallon said Monday she didn't know what would happen at the meeting and that she hadn't discussed the vacancy with her fellow council members. She didn't indicate if she was interested in the job.

"I would like to make sure George's plans are carried through," she said. "I think that's what should be done."

Fallon served as mayor from 1997-1999. At that time, the mayor was chosen by the council.

Councilman Doug Lapins said Tuesday that he had sent out an e-mail to the other three council members indicating his interest in the position. He ran for mayor in 2007 but dropped out of the race and resigned from the council because of his wife's health problems. He won election to the council last year.

"I have expressed to the other members of the council my interest in serving as mayor," he said.

Like Fallon, Councilwoman Joan Thurman said she was unsure how things would play out at the meeting. She said she had spoken only to Lapins about the vacancy and knew of his interest. She also expected Fallon to be interested in serving as mayor.

She said the council could be at a "stalemate" if each member wants to be mayor.

Thurman said she would accept the mayor's job if it was offered, adding that her years of working on behalf of the village have qualified her to be a "capable" mayor. But she said she isn't actively campaigning for the position.

"This isn't terribly important [to me]," she said. "I don't need a title to feel like I'm functioning well on the council."

Councilwoman Nancy Roy Fiorillo declined to comment on the selection process when contacted Tuesday.

Thurman expects that one of the four current council members will be chosen as mayor. If that's the case, another appointment must be made to fill the vacated council seat. She said she had been contacted by a former council candidate from the last election cycle who expressed an interest in serving if a vacancy arises, but she didn't say who it was.

Lapins and Fiorillo were elected in November. Patrick Barry, Xan Smith, former Councilman Jeff Dawson and Mike McCrann were the other four candidates.

Dawson finished third, narrowly losing to Lapins. Barry finished fourth.

McCrann finished fifth, but said he was running to speak out against the proposed changes to the Village Green property in the village center and wasn't necessarily interested in winning a seat.

Smith withdrew from the race a couple of weeks before the election, citing family and professional obligations.

Seats held by Thurman and Fallon are up for election in 2011, so if the council chooses one or the other to become mayor, the appointed replacement would serve until the next election. The replacement - and any interested candidate - would have the option to seek a full, four-year term then.

If either Lapins or Fiorillo are chosen, the appointed replacement would serve until the 2011 election as well. But because both terms don't expire until 2013, a special election would be held in 2011 to determine who would serve out the remaining two years of that term.

Wilkison said it was important to keep in mind that the only vacancy on council right now is the mayor's position, which is elected separately from the other council seats. Because of that, the council is unable to appoint a fifth council member first and then decide on a new mayor.

"The vacancy is the mayor's seat, and that's the vacancy that needs to be filled first," he said.

But the council also has the option to select a mayor from outside the council - any resident eligible to run for office in the village. Such a move would allow the council to avoid making a second council appointment.

Wilkison said he has not been contacted directly by anyone expressing interest in becoming mayor or a council member, but said they may have contacted individual council members.

"I wouldn't necessarily know that if they have," he added.

Wilkison has offered to make up a list of potential candidates to fill the vacancies, but said he hasn't been asked by the council to do so.

Contact John Krahnert III at (910) 693-2473 or by e-mail at jkrahnert@thepilot.com.