Thursday marked 30 days since a vacancy was created on Lehighton Area School District’s board of directors and with the post still unfilled, district residents can now ask a Carbon County judge to take action.

As of presstime, eight people had already filed a petition to fill the vacancy.

Former school board members Gloria J. Bowman, Duane Eidem and David Krause have filed a petition.

Francis Flickinger and Richard Beltz Sr., both of whom ran but were defeated in November’s general election, have tossed their name in the ring.

Other applicants are Rita L. Spinelli, Timothy M. Wagner and Nathan Foeller.

Flickinger got 9.53 percent of the vote for a four-year term, while Beltz Sr. got 22.77 percent of the vote for a two-year term. Both changed their registration to Libertarian between the 2017 primary and general elections and received enough signatures to get their names on the November ballot.

The vacancy was created after Gail Maholick won both a four-year and a two-year term in November’s general election and chose to take the four-year term at Lehighton’s reorganization meeting on Dec. 4.

Remaining board members deadlocked 4-4 on the appointment of Beltz Sr. Directors Larry Stern, Wayne Wentz, Andrew Yenser and Steve Holland opposed the appointment, while Maholick, Joy Beers, David Bradley Sr. and Richard Beltz Jr. were in favor.

Lehighton’s board found itself in a similar situation in 2016 following the death of director William Hill Jr.

At that time, President Judge Roger Nanovic heard from five candidates and ultimately chose David Krause to fill the seat.