Voters for the City Council’s Ward 5 seat have candidates with very different skills to choose from when replacing incumbent Bill Reynolds.

Dan Hickman, the endorsed Republican, has spent the past nearly 10 years working with the Small Business Development Center at Jamestown Community College, and Hannah Jaroszynski, a licensed mental health counselor whose father is the mayor of Falconer and whose mother is a judge in the town of Ellicott.

Both have skills that could be useful on the council.

Hickman has a background in small business development, something that could be helpful for a city that is still looking to fill vacant storefronts and that has seen one of its marketing arms limited with the closure of the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation. Having a council member with some experience in small business creation could be helpful.

Jaroszynski, much like Doug Scotchmer in Ward 4, is a mental health counselor and would bring a viewpoint and work experience that could be helpful in a city. Having a council member with experience in mental health counseling could bring a policy viewpoint that could help the city deal with some of the neighborhood and quality of life issues that have plagued some neighborhoods.

As we’ve heard from other candidates, both Hickman and Jaroszynski want to improve neighborhoods, though they have differing ways of doing so. Hickman wants to do more to hold absentee landlords accountable while Jaroszynski thinks one way the city could help is by becoming a hub for agencies that help deal with the root causes of neighborhood issues – mental health, substance abuse issues and other services.

As we said, Ward 5 residents are looking at two candidates with different skills and experiences. Either Hickman or Jaroszynski would be a fine addition to the council. We have no doubt that either would be responsive to Ward 5 residents.

We endorse Jaroszynski because, in our opinion, she would bring a fresh viewpoint to the council that isn’t readily represented by the council’s other members.