SARANAC LAKE — Katie Stiles and Sean Ryan will represent the Republican Party in the March 19 election to fill two village trustee seats.

Stiles and Ryan were the only two candidates for this party line at the GOP caucus on Monday, so no vote was needed among the 40 Republicans who attended. Both candidates are not affiliated with a party, but they were accepted as the GOP’s candidates after registered Republicans spoke on their behalf.

Currently, there are five candidates in the race for two open seats on the Saranac Lake Village Board of Trustees — Paul Van Cott, Aurora White, Fred Balzac, Stiles and Ryan.

Last week, Democrats chose White and Van Cott, who are registered Democrats running on a joint ticket, to represent their party in the race.

Balzac, a Democrat, initially filed paperwork to run on the Working Families party line, but missed a deadline to be accepted and is not running on the WFP line. He is filing paperwork to petition independently on the self-created “Anti-Corruption Party” line.

Village Clerk Amanda Hopf said it takes 100 signatures to obtain an independent party line. These signatures must come from village residents who have not participated in a caucus or signed petitions for more than one other candidate. People can file to run as an independent candidate by Feb. 13.

Incumbents Rich Shapiro and Tom Catillaz are not running for reelection.

Monday’s caucus was run by Harrietstown Republican Party Chair Bob Bevilacqua.

Stiles said she’s encouraged to have the Republican line and has indicated she will also petition to run on an independent party line.

Ryan and White have also indicated they will file petitions to run on independent party lines, but which lines exactly, they were not sure yet.

Ryan said the most important thing in the Saranac Lake community is the Saranac Lake community — collaboration, civility and building a better future for their children. Ryan himself has a daughter who turned 6 months old on the day of the caucus. Children watch and learn from their leaders, he said.

“Actually being on the ticket now, the real work begins,” Ryan said.

He said he was nominated as a Republican but he also wants to work with Democrats as he is an independently registered candidate.

Stiles said she will be “professional, unbiased and productive” in her race to join the village board.

Phil LeBlanc, who nominated Stiles, said his friend of 20 years has the “tenacity” to address the issues the village faces.

Shawn Rohe, who nominated Ryan, said his longtime friend has a “new perspective” for the future and a “gentle” demeanor which would allow him to work with anyone on the board.

“You’ll never find a more genuine human person than you will with Sean,” Rohe said. “Let’s make things start working. Let’s stop the fighting. It’s obnoxious.”

GOP caucus secretary Ray Scollin said he was glad to see this crop of “young, vibrant” candidates the GOP was putting up.

“Would I like to see more Republicans? Sure. But this isn’t 1987 anymore — when I first got in. This is a different time. And we’re seeing more younger independent candidates,” Scollin said. “As long as they do the right thing for the village, and we don’t have acrimony and name-calling and that kind of stuff going on at board meetings, and we’re focused on what’s important — which is all of us — I’m all for it.”

Scollin clarified the rules of this season of the election.

Any Republican or Democrat who signed into their respective caucuses cannot also sign a petition for a candidate to run on an independent line. Those who have not signed in to any caucus can sign petitions for up to two candidates, since there are two open seats on the ballot. But if two candidates file a joint independent petition, they can only sign this one petition, since it covers two candidates. If they sign a petition for a third candidate, it will be invalidated.

People who signed into caucuses can carry petitions for independent candidates and sign as a witness to other people signing these petitions, but they cannot sign them themselves since they’ve already voted.

According to voter registration data from both Franklin and Essex counties, which each include a portion of Saranac Lake, there are 2,909 total registered voters in Saranac Lake. Of these, 621 are Republicans and 1,341 are Democrats. The rest of the 947 are registered outside of the two major parties.

Around 6.5% of Saranac Lake’s registered Republicans participated in Monday’s caucus.

Last week, 145 Saranac Lake Democrats, around 10% of the party’s Saranac Lake population, met at their party’s caucus where all five candidates had sought the Democratic line. Van Cott took the most votes with 98. White took 72 votes. Ryan came closest to the top two with 46 votes. Stiles took 26 and Balzac took 23 votes.

The five candidates, for the most part, have the same village issues in mind — the need for more housing, filling downtown storefronts and improving village infrastructure. And they’re all saying they have the chops to do away with the divisiveness and in-fighting they’ve seen on the current board.