BOWMAN – New councilwoman Shaquetta Pelzer took the oath of office during Bowman Town Council’s January meeting.

Mayor Patsy Rhett also welcomed Bowman’s new town clerk, Antoinette Glover, and assistant clerk Lagwenda Berry.

Members of the town’s water department talked to council about a new system of meter reading that the town would possibly use in a future upgrade. With the Automated Meter Reading system, the meters emit a signal that can be read by a device in the town employee’s vehicle. The new system would allow people to detect when a leak began by checking when the meter was reading any water usage on any day of the scanned month. The AMR data would be viewable once the driver returned to the office and connected to a computer.

In other business:

• The town is hosting a bingo night starting at 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, in the banquet hall, with the benefits going toward the Harvest Festival fund. This year’s Harvest Festival will be Bowman’s 18th and will occur on the second weekend of September.

• The town is hosting a church security seminar at 9:15 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 11. The event will cover keeping churches and congregations safe and will feature speakers from the police department. Also present will be representatives from the United States Census to help people fill out their census information to allow for people to be counted properly.

• Council approved second reading of the 2020 budget. Third and final reading will take place at noon Jan. 24 at Bowman Town Hall. Rhett said that she wants to hear from the town and said town hall’s office hours are Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

• The next meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 4, at the town hall at 131 Poplar St.

This article is courtesy of COREY BRECHLIN T&D Correspondent