Ruth, Whaley for Hampshire village board

Daily Herald Editorial Board

Five candidates are running for three seats on the Hampshire village board, and we are in the unusual position of endorsing only two.

Those two are incumbent Orris Ruth and Hampshire Township park board member Rob Whaley. They strike us as the candidates with the clearest ability to serve the residents of Hampshire on the village board.

Ruth is a longtime trustee with a wealth of knowledge about the community’s development and a dedication to its future. Whaley, whose park board term is ending, has performed well on that board and boasts a strong business background that provides solid perspective for the village’s financial issues.

We have no criticism of incumbent Jan Kraus’ tenure on the village board, but she has been unresponsive to our repeated requests for her to participate in interviews or complete questionnaires to assist voters in gauging her candidacy. Therefore, we cannot endorse her.

While Laura Dunbar and Jeanne Holzkamp-Maki bring genuine enthusiasm to the race, we think their performance on the village board would inevitably be complicated by unnecessary conflicts. Reluctantly, we cannot endorse either because of that.