SARANAC LAKE — There are now five candidates running for two seats on the Saranac Lake Village Board of Trustees.

Two days before the Democratic caucus, incumbent Rich Shapiro announced Sunday that he is no longer running and instead endorsing two new candidates, Paul Van Cott and Aurora White. Another candidate, Fred Balzac, also recently filed paperwork to enter the race. These new candidates join two independent candidates, Katie Stiles and Sean Ryan, who announced their candidacy this past Friday.

Shapiro, a Democrat, has served two terms on the Saranac Lake Village Board of Trustees. In a letter to voters, he said Sunday that he feels with Van Cott and White entering the race, he is “relieved from (his) duty and obligation to run again.”

Incumbent Tom Catillaz told the Enterprise Friday that he is also not running for re-election.

A Democratic caucus is scheduled for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Harrietstown Town Hall auditorium with Harrietstown Democratic Party Chair and town Supervisor Jordanna Mallach presiding over the meeting.

A Republican caucus is scheduled for Jan. 29 at 5:30 p.m. at the Harrietstown Town Hall auditorium with Harrietstown Republican Party Chair Bob Bevilacqua presiding.

At the two caucuses, only party members can vote.

Village Clerk Amanda Hopf said the deadline to file as an independent candidate is Feb. 13. Between the two caucuses this month and that February deadline, voters should know who will be on the ballot by Feb. 14. The election is March 19.

In New York, anyone who participates in a caucus for a village office cannot also sign an independent nominating petition. Voters signing petitions for independent candidates may only sign a petition for one candidate. If they sign a second petition for another candidate it will be invalidated.

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Van Cott

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Van Cott plans to run on the Democratic party line. He is a registered Democrat.

“In order to have a competitive election, you need to have candidates on separate party lines,” he said. “If you don’t, there is no competition and no opportunity for the discussion of issues or for all of the villagers to have a voice in who is selected as their representative.”

He said that he decided to run for the board again because he “knows the village inside and out.”

Van Cott is a former Saranac Lake village trustee who resigned in 2019 for personal reasons after serving for seven-and-a-half years. He also served the Saranac Lake village attorney and attorney to the Saranac Lake Development Board. He has more than 30 years of government experience as a land use and environmental attorney for the Adirondack Park Agency, state Department of Environmental Conservation and the state Office of the Attorney General. In 2019, Van Cott joined Whiteman, Osterman and Hanna, a law firm based in Albany. With the Saranac Lake Local Development Corporation, Van Cott helped spearhead a New York Main Street grant program for the village in 2015, which led to facade renovations to multiple buildings including Origin Coffee, Nori’s Village Market and Blue Line Sports, among other work.

“I’d like to help out. I love the village. I love my family, who live in the village,” Van Cott said. “We made a lot of progress back in the 2010s when I was on the village board for two terms, and I’d like to help build on that success. I’m also concerned about some of the divisiveness and dysfunction that has plagued some of the work of the village board over the past few years.”

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Balzac

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Balzac is an arts grant coordinator who has run for office eight times previously in the towns of Jay and North Elba and the village of Saranac Lake, most recently running for the North Elba Town Council last fall. He moved to Saranac Lake in 2018 after living in Jay for two decades and last ran for the Saranac Lake village board in 2020 on the Green Party line. Balzac filed a petition to run on the Working Families party line last week, but hopes to also run on the Democratic party line following Tuesday’s caucus.

“I’ve been a Democrat most of my adult life, from the time I registered at age 18,” Balzac said. He added that, while he stepped away from the party for a while due to corruption concerns, he returned last year out of concern for “the right-wing extremism we’re seeing in the Republican party and nationally.”

Balzac said that he is running for the board because he believes he is “well-qualified.”

“I think I have a combination of experience and perspective that can bring a lot to the board. I know I can work closely with (trustees) Kelly Brunette and Matt Scollin. I can work well with Mayor (Jimmy) Williams,” he said. “I will also be an independent voice, and when I think the mayor or anyone else is wrong or pursuing the wrong policy, I will speak out.”

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White

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White is a former member and president of the Saranac Lake Central School District Board of Education. She resigned from the board in 2022. She moved to Saranac Lake from Utah more than 10 years ago and has a background in finance and analytics.

In his letter to the editor, Shapiro said that White would be running on the Democratic party line.

White could not be reached by deadline Sunday.

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Stiles

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Stiles, a lifelong resident of Saranac Lake, is currently a member of the village’s Downtown Advisory Board, Housing Task Force and is an alternate on the Development Board. She is a realtor and a small business owner. She said she is running in the hopes of bringing a stronger level of cooperation to the board.

“I’m excited about the momentum I see for our village, but I’m concerned it could be jeopardized by the current board’s inability to work together,” Stiles said in an email Friday. “Saranac Lake deserves better than the lack of professionalism demonstrated by certain trustees.”

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Ryan

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Ryan, another lifelong Saranac Lake resident, is the dean of students at Saranac Lake Middle School and lieutenant for the Saranac Lake Volunteer Rescue Squad. He is also a high school football coach, a longtime member of the Mountaineers Rugby Club and a regular Ice Palace Workers 101 volunteer. He served in the Marines. He said he is running because he is unhappy with the “constant bickering” he sees on the village board.

“I’ve gotten to know the people of Saranac Lake very well. And one thing I know for sure is that we deserve better than what we’ve been getting from the current members of the village board,” Ryan said in an email. “Like many, I am unhappy with the constant bickering, the unwillingness to hear opposing viewpoints and the take-all and give-nothing attitudes.”