Victory in sight for incumbents in Streamwood trustee race

Incumbents were cruising to victory in the race for three available seats on the Streamwood village board Tuesday.

With 18 of 20 precincts reporting, the unofficial returns showed Trustee Mary Thon with 1,102 votes, Trustee James Cecille with 951, and Trustee Lawrence Schmidt with 810. Second-time candidate Rezwanul Haque, a local entrepreneur, was trailing with 520 votes.

The election for three four-year terms included a rematch between Haque and Schmidt from a write-in race for a two-year term that Schmidt won in 2017. But incumbents Cecille and Thon's re-election bids were also in play in this year's race.

As in neighboring Bartlett, the importance of furthering the village's economic growth was a key issue in the election. But Haque, a local businessman himself, raised the possibility of financial incentives to draw new residents to the village, a suggestion Cecille and Thon questioned.

Haque defended the idea by saying that new residents would lower existing residents' share of the property tax. Among the possibilities for such an incentive would be six months of free water service, he said.