Bowmanstown council filled a vacant seat with a former council member on Tuesday.

A nomination took place at the monthly meeting at the Emmanuel United Church of Christ on Hamilton Street to fill the vacant seat of former council member Barbara Eastland.

Nominees included Candace Rodrigues, Kristy Spairana and Norman Engle Jr.

Rodrigues was appointed to the council seat after receiving four out of six votes during the nomination process. Members including President William Ravert, Vice President Pam Leiby, Darren Thomas and Donna Winter voted in her favor. Spairana received one vote from Rob Moyer and Engle received one vote from Kara Scott as well.

Rodrigues previously served on the council from February until October after replacing her father’s position, Joseph Rodrigues. In October she resigned due to plans to move out of state and her position was filled by council member Donna Winter. With Rodrigues now coming back to Bowmanstown, she will fill the vacant position of Eastland moving forward.

Additionally, Leiby made a motion to go back to holding council meetings at council chambers starting in January.

Scott disagreed and believed that it was unreasonable to potentially expose people to the COVID-19 virus with cases rising as of late. She said Zoom meetings could prevent residents from coming into contact with the virus and they could also improve community engagement.

“I think that the responsible thing to do would be to have our meetings via Zoom and we can all come to the meeting from home and also all our residents can attend. We can put the link on the Facebook page.”

In a voice vote, all members voted in favor of returning to council chambers except for Scott, resulting in Leiby’s motion passing.

A motion was also made by Thomas to purchase a large 2021 van for the borough in order to promote mobile and accessible transport of tools for both water repairs and sewer testing.

Leiby, member of the Street Committee, recommended the larger van over the smaller one in consideration because of the greater amount of space available as well as the larger rebate which would ultimately save the borough money.

Scott voiced her disapproval of the purchase and believed it was unnecessary to spend the money on a 2021 vehicle just to haul tools for the borough.

“I still don’t understand why we’re looking at a 2021 vehicle to lug tools around. I don’t know why we can’t get a gently used one with low miles. I think we could save the borough thousands of dollars.”

Moyer responded, stating the benefits of a newer vehicle as opposed to a used one.

“Because it’s new it’s gonna have value over the long haul. I mean the last van we had lasted 21 years, so if we even got 20 years out of this we would be looking at a cost of not much more than $1,500 a year. It’s gonna have a longer life and it’s gonna have warranties.”

Ultimately Thomas’ motion to purchase the larger van carried in a voice vote, with only Scott voting against the purchase.