SILVERHILL, Alabama — Assistant clerk Nikki Haigler was confirmed as the new town clerk in Silverhill May 21, replacing longtime clerk Patricia Bankester who resigned last month.

Officials announced May 7 that they had received a dozen applications for the position and would pick the top three to be interviewed during a special meeting Monday, May 14.

“We had a good meeting with all the candidates,” said Mayor Tim Wilson, “and I would still like to recommend we hire Nikki for the position.”

Council members asked legal representative Josh Myrick if they could consider candidates for both the positions of town clerk and assistant clerk, should the council decide to promote current assistant clerk Nikki Haigler to the position of town clerk.

Myrick said the council is required to appoint the position of town clerk, but the position of assistant clerk could be hired by the mayor without the need for council approval.

It is unclear at this time if any of those candidates will be considered for the assistant clerk’s position.

Bankester, a native of Mobile and a resident of Loxley, was hired as a part-time temporary assistant to Town Clerk Bonnie McNeil in March of 2008 before taking over the position following McNeil’s retirement in May of 2009.

The council also voted Monday to allow Haigler to transfer funds from one account to another at United Bank. Transfers require the signature of either the mayor, mayor pro-tem (Jared Lyles), or town clerk.

In other business Monday, the council voted unanimously to update the town’s Police Department Standard Operating Procedure.

Silverhill’s Acting Police Chief Michael Taylor addressed council members at the April 2 meeting after town prosecutor Mike Dasinger was supposed to review the SOP and present a report to council members. The item has been on the agenda for the last two meetings, but has been tabled because Dasinger has not been able to attend the meetings.

“I have met with Dassinger and gone over all the changes,” Taylor said, “and I think we now have something we can work with.”

While he stated at previous meetings that he had no problem with the S.O.P. as a whole, Taylor said there are some things that simply don’t apply to Silverhill.

“What we have now is about half the size of the previous document,” Taylor said. “Every department has to operate with an S.O.P. and essentially, we were violating ours every day because of those items.”

Taylor also addressed council members regarding police department uniforms and was authorized to purchase uniforms from a company based in Mobile.