You can read all sorts of things into election results. You can become analytical and convince yourself you have determined why a candidate won or lost, you can jump to a conclusion, and you can even guess and be totally right or wrong.

An interesting election happened in Lehighton, where five candidates sought three seats on the borough council. Three of the candidates were incumbents.Two of the three candidates presently seated on the council emerged from the election with the lowest vote totals. This means they will no longer be on council after Dec. 31.The two members who lost their seats are Republicans George Kogut and John Wayne Bird.One obvious thing the voters in Lehighton were saying is that they apparently want some sort of change.Kogut worked hard on improving recreation in Lehighton. Maybe too hard.He has been pushing for a second recreation building to be constructed. He said it could be self-supporting from wedding receptions, birthday parties, etc.Perhaps, and it's purely supposition, the residents of Lehighton don't want another building project, one that could potentially cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.The Lehighton Area School District presently has a proposal for a multi-million construction project that could raise millage.Do Lehighton residents want to risk further tax hikes with a second new rec center? Even though there are assurances that such a new building would be self-sustaining, there's really no guarantee.The present Recreation Center is heavily utilized. It's booked virtually solid.When a private firm thinks about expanding by adding new buildings, it looks at financial figures. Are there financial figures in Lehighton that would justify another such building?Beside construction, there are utility costs, insurance, upkeep, and management costs. Are these expenses being considered when it is stated the building would be self-sustaining?It's great to be thinking about the future, which Kogut and some other council members were in proposing the new center. In fact, if you don't plan for the future, you're not going to progress.But maybe the council was moving faster than it should have been on a Rec Building. One of the things the council has done was instruct its engineer to draw up plans for such a building.Maybe with the school district proposal, the council should not be expending any money on planning any major construction projects - unless absolutely necessary.For example, the borough is involved in the expansion of the Lehighton Fire Department building. A lot of the money being spent on this project is coming from the fire department.Besides, there are safety issues which dictated the need for the expansion.The borough is considering a building project for the Light and Power Department. Such a project is long overdue.With so much going on in the community, it makes sense to slow down on a Rec Center project.By RON GOWERrgower@tnonline.com