Voters in Lower Carbon County elected mayors in Palmerton and Bowmanstown, decided borough council races in those two towns, selected a new tax collector for Palmerton and re-elected a Towamensing Township supervisor who faced opposition in Tuesday's General Election.

Mayor Christopher D. Olivia of Palmerton, who was appointed to the position upon the resignation of Brad Doll, won his own four-year term in a contested race.In Bowmanstown, Councilman William H. Ravert gained token votes for the right to succeed Mayor Keith Billig, who is retiring.Meanwhile, Republican Lisa Nemeth won the Palmerton tax collector's race and Supervisor Penny Kleintop of Towamensing Township was returned to office.There are no challenges in either the Lower Towamensing Township or Palmerton Area School Board balloting.PalmertonThe incumbents won re-election in the mayor's office and for four four-year terms in the borough council in Palmerton yesterday.Mayor Olivia won over Jereme J. Barkanic. Olivia, a Democrat, received 372 votes while Republican Barkanic followed with 286."I'd like to thank everybody for putting their trust in me for the next four years," Olivia said. "Some of my goals are to see the continuation of the former New Jersey Zinc West plant we're working with Northface Development on that. I'm excited to see us getting our new Dunkin' Donuts, and I'd like to try to help somebody take over the former Spillane's building."The winners in the council race were Republicans Richard L. Nothstein and Michael J. Ballard, who appeared on both ballots, and Democrats Kris W. Hoffner and Jason J. Behler.Nothstein was the top vote-getter with 523 votes, followed by Hoffner with 438, Ballard, 414, and Behler, 381. Nothstein, Hoffner and Behler are elected incumbents while Ballard is an incumbent via his appointment to the board to fill the unexpired term of Randolph Gursky, who resigned.Losing out in the council race were Barkanic and fellow Republican Gerard J. Alfano, who collected 310 and 243 votes, respectively.There was also an uncontested race for a two-year term on the council. Holly F. Hausman Sell, who holds the position by appointment to the vacancy created when Olivia was named mayor, was unopposed as she won both Democratic and Republican nominations in May. She received 481 token votes yesterday.Meanwhile, Nemeth was selected to succeed Diane Andreas, a Democrat who is retiring from the position she held for many years. Nemeth defeated Democrat Robyn M. Barbosa by a margin of 507 to 158.BowmanstownIncumbent Ravert will be the town's new mayor in 2014. He was unopposed and collected 86 token votes in yesterday's municipal balloting.Ravert did, however, fail to win re-election to a four-year term of office on the borough council, where three Democrats and two Republicans sought the four four-year terms that were up for grabs.Incumbent Democrat Burdell C. Steigerwalt was among them and he finished in fourth place. Winning positions besides Steigerwalt were Republicans John Domant and Darren Thomas and Democrat Robert Moyer.Domant topped the race with 88 votes, three ahead of Thomas' 85 while Moyer followed with 82 and Steigerwalt had 81.Ravert finished in the fifth spot with 57 votes.Meanwhile, tax collector Maria Smith, a Democrat, was unopposed as she sought re-election to another four-year term of office. She garnered 106 complimentary votes.TowamensingTownshipSupervisor Kleintop withstood a challenge from former supervisor Rodney George to win re-election to another six-year term on the board.Kleintop, a Republican, received 339 votes while Democrat George trailed with 250 votes.The township's tax collector, R. Bruce Reiner, who was appointed to the unexpired term of Mary Beers, who resigned, ran for his own four-year term and faced no opposition from the GOP. He received 420 complimentary votes.Township voters were also slated to elect three persons to serve on the board of auditors, one for a six-year term, one for a four-year term and the other for a two-year term. There were no candidates for the positions, although write-in votes received in each of the races will likely determine who fills the positions.PASD boardFour incumbents who sought re-election to the Palmerton Area School District Board of Education were unopposed in Tuesday's election. Each of them appeared on both the Democratic and Republican ballots.The top vote-getter was Barry W. Scherer with 1,240 votes. Darlene Yeakel finished second with 1,203, while Susan Debski and Clarence Myers received 1,133 and 1,119 complimentary votes, respectively.The district includes the boroughs of Palmerton and Bowmanstown and the townships of Towamensing and Lower Towamensing.Lower Towamensing TownshipThere were no municipal races to be decided Tuesday in Lower Towamensing Township.Supervisor Ronald Walbert and Tax Collector Connie D. Brown, both Democrats, ran unopposed for re-election to respective terms of six and four years.Walter received 252 token votes while brown finished with 230 votes.Township voters were also expected to fill two terms on the board of auditors, one for six years and the other for four years. There were no candidates on the ballot for either of the positions, although there were 5-6 write-in votes that are likely to result in the posts being filled.