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ALBANY, GA -- The top pick to head the Albany Civic Center has turned down the job. Now city officials have to tackle the issue of drawing a new candidate to the Good Life City.

“He was more than an applicant. He was actually our top and best candidate and he would have been a really good asset to the city. And it is rather disappointing that he backed out,” said Albany City Manager Al Lott.

That candidate, Shannon McCullough, from Athens, sent City Manager Al Lott an e-mail late last week.

In it he said Lott’s decision to leave Albany next year, affected his decision to not take the job. Another one of McCullough’s reason's for turning down the job was because he felt like he had more opportunity if he stayed where he was at.

City leaders said getting top candidates to pick up stakes and move to Albany has been a major challenge.

“It’s not easy. Albany is in a rather remote region, part of the state, in Southwest Georgia. And we're not close to interstates and we're not close to Atlanta. So it's tougher to recruit,” said Lott.

Despite those drawbacks chamber of commerce officials say there are plenty of reasons for professionals to consider Albany.

”we have a beautiful river that many, many folks from many cities in this state wish that they had running through their downtown. We have a lot of opportunities from art to higher education, advancement of your current education. We have one of the best healthcare systems in the state,” said Chamber of Commerce President Catherine Glover.

Now, the city will have to start the hiring process all over with new applicants. It's one of several major city positions, still left to fill.

“Downtown Manager and the Civic Center Director are two positions that I intend to fill. There are two other vacancies the H.R. Director and the Planning Director that I do not intend to fill while I am here, I’ll let the next manager fill them,” said Lott.

The previous Civic Center Director, John Mazzola, stepped down from the position in March for a job in Kansas.