Twenty-five people want to become Lawrence’s next city manager.

The deadline for people to apply to become the city’s next top executive was 5 p.m. Friday. The city’s management search firm gathered the submitted applications this morning and reported that 25 people had met the deadline.

Names of the applicants have not been released.

City commissioners are scheduled to conduct an executive session on Sept. 7 with members of Bennett Yarger Associates, the city’s Massachusetts-based consulting firm. Commissioners may narrow the list of applicants down to five or six finalists at that meeting.

Interviews are expected to occur in the third or fourth week of September. Mayor Mike Amyx said he is still optimistic the city will be able to offer the job to someone by the first week of October.

City commissioners have been searching for a new city manager since Mike Wildgen was asked to resign in early March after serving as the city’s top non-elected official for the last 16 years.