Two first-time candidates emerged as the top vote-getters in Tuesday’s primary races for the Harmar Board of Supervisors.

Two nominations were up for grabs in both the Democratic and Republican races. Samuel Boak collected 228 votes to win the three-way Democratic race, while Neal Farkas picked up 107 votes to win the four-way Republican race, according to unofficial results.

Incumbent Harry Lenhart finished second among Democrats with 204 votes, and incumbent Bob Seibert was the runner-up among Republicans with 105 votes, just two votes behind Farkas, unofficial tallies showed.

Two seats will be up for election in November.

Neither Farkas nor Boak previously had sought elected office, but both have been involved with township government — Farkas as the current chairman of the township’s zoning board and Boak in a number of roles, including as a former code enforcement officer, zoning officer, zoning board member and assistant emergency management official and current planning commissioner.

“I love Harmar Township, obviously, having grown up there and staying in the community. I want to see it continue to grow and be successful,” said Boak, 44.

Farkas described his first run for office as exciting and credited his success to neighbors in the Forest Highlands plan where he lives who turned out to vote for him.

“They put me over the top, I’m sure,” he said.

Lenhart, 77, also expressed gratitude to those who voted for him in the Democratic primary. Lenhart, who spent 35 years working for the CIA as an intelligence operations officer, said he hopes that relations improve on the current board of supervisors.

Most recently, there was some disagreement on the board over this month’s termination of Manager Ian Fitzgerald and hiring of Anthony Rozzano to replace him.

“We’ll be trying to keep the township on a smooth course and try to have a harmonious relationship with the other people on the board,” Lenhart said.

The odd person out in the three-way Democratic primary race was incumbent Supervisor Linda Exler, 69, who was appointed to the board to finish Jim Devlin’s term following his resignation last year.

“I only lost by 18 votes,” said Exler, who is married to Harmar Supervisor Bob Exler. “We did our best. So, we’ll move forward until the end of the (term). The Exlers always put their best foot forward no matter what.”

The two Republican candidates who lost in the primary were Frank Hatterer and Rick Kleiger, both having been defeated by Farkas and Siebert.

“I was very pleased with the result,” said Siebert, 68. “We ran a good campaign. We kept it focused on the issues. It will, hopefully, give us an opportunity to win in the fall, and I would like to aggressively pursue a program to get our roads resurfaced in Harmar.”

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