Follow the will of the people

Here we go again … the Lehighton Area school board fails to select a new board member to fill a vacancy. So, now the voters and taxpayers will end up relying on a county judge to make that determination.

This happened several years ago. The voters elected board members who would take the school district in a different direction. Then a county judge appointed an individual who was partial to the direction of the former board. This decision went against the “will of the people.” Now, for the second time, voters elected to change the direction of the school board and we find ourselves in that same boat.

This time, I will offer some advice to the judge. It occurs to me there are two common-sense solutions to this situation. First, appoint the person who received the next highest number of votes. That would be Mr. Richard Beltz Sr. Or secondly, allow the person who won the seat (and vacated it because they won two seats) to select a replacement.

Clearly, the “will of the people” in the election process would dictate the seat go to the person with the next highest vote count for that seat. Let’s hope this common-sense approach of following the “will of the people” prevails.

Duane Dellecker

Lehighton