Craig announces re-election bid, candidate slate in Hanover Park

Hanover Park Village President Rodney Craig has announced his bid for reelection next spring. He's running with a slate that includes four trustee candidates with two other incumbents among them and a new candidate for village clerk.

Identifying themselves as members of the Hanover Park Strong party, the slate includes incumbent Bob Prigge and newcomers Tonya Frosheiser and Syed Hussaini running for 4-year trustee terms, Liza Guterriez seeking a 2-year trustee term to complete the term she was previously appointed to, and Kristy Merrill for village clerk.

Hanover Park Trustee Herb Porter, whose term is not up for election in 2021, was named as president of the local party.

In announcing the candidacies Friday, Craig touted the accomplishments of the village board's current leadership, which he said included unchanged municipal property tax and water rates for the past four years and a consistently declining crime rate for the past eight years.

"I'm really proud of our police department," Craig said.

Frosheiser is a six-year village resident who retired from the Navy in 2006 and already serves on the Hanover Park Development Commission.

Hussaini has lived in Hanover Park since 2003 and is a senior vice president of commercial lending in the banking industry. He is president of the Indo American Center in Chicago.

Gutierrez has lived in the village for 12 years and has undergraduate and graduate degrees in criminology from Loyola University. She works for the Partners for Our Communities, where she coordinates the women's program known as ROLE.

Prigge, who is seeking his second elected term on the board, has lived in the village since 1994 and volunteered for the Hanover Park Little League Program and Boy Scouts Troop 398. He has represented the village board at the Northwest Municipal Conference and the Joint Action Water Association board.

Merrill grew up in Schaumburg and has lived in Hanover Park since 2015. She has leadership experience working for the Campanelli YMCA and Mission Church, and joined the village's Special Events Committee last year.

Craig was first elected village president in 2007 after six years as a trustee. He retired from the FAA in 2009 as manager of operations, Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center. He has lived in Hanover Park since completing six years in the Navy that included three tours of Vietnam.