The Bath City Council welcomed two new councilors and one returning member on Wednesday.

Councilor-At-Large Julie Ambrosino and Ward 1 Councilor Phyllis Bailey both defeated incumbent councilors in November to win their first three-year terms. Ward 6 Councilor Susan Bauer defeated a challenger to begin her second three-year term. All three were sworn in Wednesday and took their seats on the council.

Councilor-At-Large Mari Eosco was unanimously reelected as chairwoman by the council, and Ward 2 Councilor Sean Paulhus was similarly re-elected as vice chairman.

“I would just like to take a moment to say thank you again for your confidence,” said Eosco. “I do feel like the city is in the midst of a transition or evolution. And I’m really excited to continue on in this role because I feel strongly that we should be steering the City of Ships, and not just following the storms that come to us.”

“I appreciate the support,” said Paulhus. “I’d also like to thank our new councilors for joining us tonight, and I look forward to work with both of you in the future. Get ready: It’s going to be an interesting ride, but it’s a lot of fun.”

In other business, following repeated complaints of speeding from residents of Richardson Street and Western Avenue, the council voted unanimously to prohibit commercial vehicles with more than two axles from using the roads.

“They are obviously high density residential neighborhoods, and these streets are used quite often to be a short cut from Route 1 to get to High Street,” said Police Chief Michael Field.

He said the department will work to alert the public of the change and put signs on both ends of the roads. The ban does not apply to non-commercial vehicles.

“This is a step in the right direction,” said Dan Dunne, a Richardson Street resident who has brought the issue before the council multiple times. “Thank you, we appreciate it.”

“This was considered the quickest mitigation we could do to the traffic,” said interim City Manager Peter Owen. “However, we are taking it a step further and we’ve hired a consultant to actually do a traffic study out there to look at traffic calming measures.”

He also noted that there will be a meeting on the subject in the future.

The council also voted unanimously to ban parking on the south side of Pearl Street from Willow Street to Washington Street.

nstrout@timesrecord.com