In a unanimous vote following a 40-minute executive session, the Lewisburg City Council voted Tuesday night to approve Arron Seams as council member in a replacement process following Kim Morgan Dean’s recent submission of her letter of resignation.

Seams will take his seat at the council as her replacement on February 1, 2018, to fulfill the remaining 18 months of Dean’s tenure. The vote was 4/0/1. Council member Mark Etten was absent.

Dean was honored during the meeting with a remembrance poem about her time serving as a council member composed by poet-council member Beverly White.

In other business:

– Public works Director Roger Pence reported on the recent weather-related problems plaguing the department, citing low water pressure in the tanks, a main water line break, power outages and a frozen Greenbrier River, much of which are still issues for the department. With an interim let-up of the temperatures, Pence said, generating a net increase by 100,000 gallons in the system, but, he added, there are still water leaks, which the crews are working hard to find and resolve. Pence said crews have been out at all hours in an effort to contain these water-related issues. As a result, the city is requesting that water customers maintain their volunteer conservation efforts. Pence suggested customers use their own judgment in determining what is deemed essentials-only water use at this time.

-Police Chief Tim Stover reported that there were 38 shoplifting ticket issued during the December holidays, and that the weather contributed to 39 vehicular accidents. He also said the department will participate in a training session on the first of February, along with 15 agencies from six counties, on crime scene evidence collection, sponsored by the F.B.I., Pittsburgh Office, to be held at WVSOM’s Alumni Center.

– Fire Chief Joey Thomas said the department had 79 emergency calls in December with a total of 911 for the year. Thomas proudly announced the final payment for the ladder truck was made last month.

The truck’s cost to the city was a total of $488,000.

The council reviewed four bids to replace the fire department’s computer server system, and voted to approve Pro Net’s bid.

-The second reading of Resolution 453 was read and approved for a hazard mitigation grant for the White Sulphur Springs/Lewisburg water plant backup, which commits the city to the first stage of the project with no up-front funding requirement.

– Mayor John Manchester had a second resolution on the agenda regarding the support for an Appalachian Geo Park featuring Greenbrier, Fayette and Raleigh counties, and highlighting the Appalachian Mountains, focusing on karst, coal heritage and rivers. The purpose of a geo park, Manchester said, is to explore, develop, and celebrate the links between geological heritage and all other aspects of the area’s natural, cultural, and intangible heritages, for example the New River Gorge, Greenbrier River Trail, Organ Cave, Beckley Exhibition Mine, Tamarack, and Beartown State Park.

The council agreed to continue the discussion on the geo park.