Nearly two weeks after the death of Bowdon City Manager Danny Mabry, the city has hired a replacement. But the pick is hardly a new face around town.

Bowdon Mayor Jim Watts and city council members met in a closed meeting on Tuesday to address the issue of finding a city manager to succeed Mabry. In the end, veteran banker and one-time interim city manager for Bowdon Jimmy Meigs was unanimously chosen. Watts said he contacted Meigs after the position became available and that Meigs accepted it after some consideration.

“I was really impressed with Jim, and that’s why we checked to see if he wanted it first,” Watts said.

Meigs, 58, was born and raised in Bowdon. He received his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of West Georgia and attended the Graduate School of Banking at Louisiana State University. Meigs worked 22 years at the Bowdon branch of SunTrust and spent another 10 years working for local branches of Regions, SouthTrust and First National Bank of Georgia. Meigs served as Bowdon’s interim city manager from September through December 2007 after former City Manager Donald Toms resigned and another interim city manager, Betty Jane Landers, gave up the post. Meigs was offered the full-time position in January but declined, instead accepting a position with First National Bank of Georgia’s Bowdon branch.

“It’s a new challenge, and even though I did it on a part-time basis for three months, it’s something different for me,” Meigs said.

Council member Wes McEntyre said in an e-mail that Meigs’ previous experience as interim city manager prepared him well for the full-time position.

“Because of his past service as interim city manager, there will be no time required to get him up to speed on the job,” he said. “He will be able to hit the ground running on his first day.”

McEntyre also said that since Meigs has been a life-long resident of Bowdon, he can view the city’s issues through the eyes of both a resident and an official. Meigs said that his familiarity with Bowdon and his background in finance will help make him an effective city manager. Meigs said that Bowdon has taken some positive steps over the past year, including the addition of several new businesses downtown and elsewhere.

“Any time you have new businesses coming in, I think that’s very positive,” he said.

Watts said that Bowdon has been running smoothly since Mabry’s death but that Meigs will have several projects to catch up on when he takes over as city manager.

“He’ll never be replaced, with his knowledge and background and everything he had,” Watts said of Mabry. “We’ll try to continue some of the things he initiated and the contacts he made.”

Watts said that Bowdon’s water and wastewater projects will be the first major undertakings Meigs will encounter but that other projects will follow quickly. The city’s nuisance ordinance, for example, was in the initial stages of enforcement but was put on the back burner when Mabry became ill. Watts said that anyone who has not corrected violations in the 30- or 60-day allotted time periods will be issued citations starting soon.

“We have several long-term goals that Jim will have to get to work on as soon as possible,” McEntyre said. “He will need to continue the work started by Danny Mabry on our water and sewage projects. Danny left some very large shoes to fill and we felt that [Meigs] was the best person to continue the projects Danny started.”

Meigs plans to move back across the street from the bank to City Hall in two weeks.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “It’s going to be a challenge, but I’m looking forward to it.”