Tamaqua Borough Council welcomed a new face, filled a vacancy and made a change at the top during Monday night's reorganizational meeting.

Ron Bowman, a newcomer to politics, was sworn in before the meeting by District Judge Stephen Bayer, as were other council members who were re-elected to their positions in the November elections. Returning members include Brian Connely, Dan Evans and Tom Cara.Connely actually won two seats in the election, a four-year and a two-year term. He selected the four-year term, leaving a vacancy on council.Tamaqua Mayor Chris Morrison called the meeting to order, then presided over the election for president and vice president.Councilman Micah Gursky, who has held the president's position for the past eight years, nominated Councilman Dave Mace for the position of president. With no other nominations presented, Mace was unanimously elected to the top spot. Gursky had a prepared statement, citing his views on the government's need for the "constant development and training of the next generation of leaders. Peaceful democracy can sometimes be difficult as some leaders may clutch too long to their positions of authority."He also voiced his confidence in Mace. Gursky also noted he would not be seeking re-election in 2018 and planned to spend the final two years of his term working on a few items he would like to see Tamaqua accomplish.Mace then made a motion to elect Connely as vice president, which was also unanimously approved.The new president's first order of business was to seek a motion to fill the vacancy on council. Cara noted there were two applications from interested residents - Brad Sanders and Kerry Dowd-Lasky. He then nominated Lasky for the position. That perplexed Bowman, who wondered why, if Lasky was interested in continuing to serve on council, she didn't just run for re-election in 2015. Cara's response was that "she was registered as an Independent."Bowman then suggested she would continue to be an Independent, but Cara quickly pointed out she had recently changed her party affiliation to Republican.Bowman was the lone dissenter as Lasky's name was put to a vote. She was able to participate in the rest of the meeting after being sworn in by District Judge Bayer.During the public participation part of the meeting, Tamaqua Police Chief Richard Weaver was asked about a robocall received by residents earlier in the evening.The call was made by Tamaqua Public Works Director Rob Jones, who warned residents about a white pickup whose driver is taking trash. The driver of the truck was seen picking up several bags of trash that had been placed curbside for pickup. He is not an employee of the borough's trash hauler, Tamaqua Transfer and Recycling.Officials are concerned that someone is searching through the trash in an attempt to commit identity fraud. Jones noted that trucks used by the borough's trash hauler are all visibly marked.Chief Weaver advises residents to shred any paperwork containing private information, such as Social Security and/or bank account/credit card numbers. Anyone who sees suspicious activity is asked to call police at 570-668-6100 or 570-668-5000.Anyone who did not receive a call and would like to be added to the borough's emergency notification list may contact Jones at 570-668-3444. This service is available for landline and cellphone numbers.