Endorsement: Gandsey, Gunsteen, Reinke for Bartlett village board

Voters in Bartlett will be electing four trustees to the village board in the April 6 election. One will be Renee Suwanski, who was appointed to the village board last fall and is running unopposed to fill a 2-year term.

The other three trustees will come from a field of five candidates seeking 4-year terms - incumbents Vince Carbonaro, Stephanie Gandsey and Aaron Reinke and challengers Daniel Gunsteen and Theresa Materna.

Two of those choices seem clear, Gandsey and Reinke.

Gandsey, appointed to the board last August, is an energetic marketing and communications professional, and she is committed to developing a branding campaign for the village that will set Bartlett apart and help attract the kind of economic development the town needs.

Reinke, an attorney seeking his third term on the village board, brings financial discipline and a focus on planning and zoning to the board, and his experience is important as the community moves forward.

Both Gandsey and Reinke have our endorsement and deserve the support of the voters.

The third incumbent, Carbonaro, has been unresponsive both to our repeated requests that he complete a candidate questionnaire to allow the public to assess his views and to repeated invitations to participate in a joint candidate interview to discuss the issues. Under those circumstances, since Carbonaro has failed to submit his candidacy for review, it's impossible for us to endorse him.

That leaves two other candidates - Gunsteen and Materna - and both are highly capable. We are confident that either would be solid trustees, if elected.

Our endorsement goes to lifelong resident Gunsteen, whose work on the village plan commission and previously with the economic development commission, prepares him to help shepherd Bartlett's efforts to grow economically.