The Essex County Republican Committee has a new roster of leaders following a time of turnover. They include Jay Heald of Lewis as the new chair, Wayne Taylor of Ticonderoga as the first vice chair, Derinda Sherman of Westport as the second vice chair and Gene Gilbert of Jay as the third vice chair.

Taylor is the only one of the chair positions to carry over from a restructuring that happened in November 2024. He then became the acting chair of the committee in August when former chair, John Gereau, stepped down in July to become the publisher of the Enterprise.

Heald grew up in Keene Valley and has spent most of his life in the North Country — except for a brief stint in Westchester County. He has been involved with the GOP committee since 2017, serving as both the Elizabethtown and Lewis GOP chairman.

He also served as a councilman on the town of Elizabethtown board. He was elected Essex County Coroner in 2017 and has served in that role since. He is on the ballot for re-election this November.

“I see opportunities to reach out to every town appealing to our constituency to get involved. It is my goal to make our committee a grassroots effort,” he said. “The tragedy this past week must be seen as a turning point for respectful dialogue.”

In August, Taylor told the Enterprise he would be drawing from his many years of leadership in the town of Ticonderoga to balance the demands of increasing prices and a need for tangible benefits to citizens.

He said he would like to see the Republican party defined by the John F. Kennedy quote, “ask not what your country can do (for you). Ask what you can do for your country.” To him, this means a sense of togetherness, never losing sight of the huge costs that can come from providing goods and services while still providing practical and tangible benefits.

“We don’t have a lot of disposable income to waste on things that are nice-to-haves and pie in the sky mentalities,” he said. “We have to be common sense, practical — make your money do something for you, do something for the taxpayer, do something tangible for everybody.”

Vice chairs Sherman and Gilbert could not be reached for comment by press time on Tuesday.

The rest of the board is made up of Lane Sayward, who is serving as treasurer, Chelsea Merrihew as recording secretary and Stacey Hayes as secretary.

The committee is already facing some unusual situations at different levels of government. There’s an impending special election for the Assembly District 115 seat vacated earlier this month by Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateugay Lake, and numerous other towns are expected to have write-in campaigns for open seats.

To read some of the Enterprise’s recent coverage of the Assemby District 115 race, visit tinyurl.com/3abjb73y, tinyurl.com/mjmar7bu and tinyurl.com/2dttadhs.