There will be at least one new face on the Niles Township Board of Trustees after Tuesday’s primary election.

Richard Noble chose not to run for reelection after serving on the board since 1990.

The 87-year-old said he has always wanted to travel, but never had the chance because he devoted so much time to the township over the course of seven terms in office.

“I hate to do it because I love the township and all the people I work with. … but it is time for me,” he said.

With Noble not on the ticket, five people are vying for four open seats on the Niles Township Board of Trustees. All candidates are Republican. Since there are no Democratic challengers, the four Republicans receiving the most votes Tuesday will all but certainly join Supervisor Jim Stover, Treasurer Jim Ringler and Clerk Terry Eull on the board.

Stover, Ringler and Eull are uncontested.

Incumbents Richard Cooper, Herschel Hoese and Chris Vella are all running to stay on the board.

The challengers are August Kuehn and Daniel Pulaski Jr.

Cooper has served on the board since 2000. He is retired from owning an appliance repair business in the community and serving as a volunteer firefighter for more than 40 years.

He said he chose to run again because he wants to continue working on the township’s many good projects.

“I think that I am doing good for the community by serving the people,” he said. “You could say I’ve been a public servant for a long time by serving the fire department as a volunteer and being on the board. I feel I still have something to contribute to that.”

Hoese has served on the board since 2012. He has worked in interior construction for more than 30 years.

Hoese said he believes he helped the board get through turmoil early on in his first term and wants to continue serving township residents.

“I am on the finance committee for the landfill and I feel like I’ve done a good job of helping stabilize the finances there,” he said. “On the township board, I think I’ve brought a lot of peace to the board so I’ve stayed there. I think for my part I have benefited by government all these years and now it is my turn to give back.”

Vella has served on the board since 2012. She has also served on the park board and Niles Senior Center board of directors in the past. She is retired from Lakeland Hospital where she managed the volunteers and chaplains.

Vella said she is running so she can be around to help finish the Indiana-Michigan River Valley Trail and to help Southwestern Michigan Ambulance Service (SMCAS) become fiscally sound again. Vella is the council’s representative on the park board and SMCAS board.

“I want to see this through, I want to see SMCAS do well, I want to see them get this right,” she said. “I really want to see them sticking to their budget and not overspending and building policies so that the cash things are done correctly everything else is done correctly.”

Kuehn is a former trustee who was appointed to the board in 2010 and served until 2012 when he was unable to win a reelection bid. He also served eight years on the township’s park board. He works as the director of support services for Grace Church in Granger, Indiana.

“The time I’ve spent serving on the park board and as trustee — I really enjoyed the opportunity to help the residents in the township with the needs that they have,” he said. “We have plenty of opportunity with road improvements and state revenue sharing, so those are things that I want to continue to improve upon.”

Pulaski said he has no previous experience serving in a public office. He is the owner of Integra-Tec Machining in South Bend, Indiana.

After attending recent township board meetings, Pulaski said he was impressed by what he saw and wants to be part of it.

“I’ve been to a couple of board meetings and those guys seem very sincere and cared about what is going on in the township,” he said. “They answer a lot of the people’s questions and complaints and you could see they cared about what was going on. I heard Mr. Noble was retiring and thought I would throw my name in the mix. I hope to get elected and be part of that.”