Trustee David Pileski poised to become Roselle's youngest mayor

David Pileski is poised to become the youngest mayor in Roselle's history.

The 29-year-old village trustee is the apparent winner of a three-way race to replace departing Mayor Andy Maglio. As of Thursday, Pileski had 1,266 votes, fellow Trustee Wayne Domke had 1,091 votes, and newcomer Pete Pellegrino had 272 votes, according to unofficial tallies from Cook and DuPage counties.

Election officials are still counting mail-in and provisional ballots. Mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day will be counted as long as they arrive by April 20.

"This was a really hard-fought and exhausting campaign due to COVID, but we made it through," Pileski said this week. "We ran an issue-based campaign, and we're excited to see it paid off."

Pileski, a longtime Roselle resident, was first elected as a village trustee in 2017. He says he decided to run for mayor after thinking about the future of the village and campaigned on having a strong community, strong local businesses and strong public safety.

During the campaign, Pileski said Roselle needs to devote more resources to improving roads, water mains and sewer lines.

Pileski, a regional inventory manager, also said he would work to support Roselle businesses. One idea is to create a business entrepreneurship program that would provide resources to small businesses.

But Pileski says his current priority will be to ensure Roselle takes steps to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control. He said he plans to work with the village staff to ramp up vaccinations for residents.

Three new faces are expected to join the village board after Tuesday's election: Thomas Piorkowski, Cheryl Lenisa and Tom Della Penna.

Pileski said all three will be valuable trustees because they each have extensive financial experience.

Meanwhile, Pileski said he plans to work with Maglio during the transition into his new role as mayor. Maglio decided to retire and not run for reelection this year.

Domke, whose term on the board runs through 2023, said he is happy to serve the village in any capacity.

"I have plenty of things to keep me going and still want to serve the community in any way that I can," Domke said. "We've all got work to do and we gotta keep moving forward."

Roselle elected officials are expected to be sworn in on May 10.