Both say they will be seeking the Democratic line at the party’s caucus on Jan. 21.

The Democrats will caucus at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 21 at the town hall auditorium.

To apply to be considered for the ballot, contact party Chair Jordanna Mallach at jordanna.mallach@gmail.com.

The Republicans will caucus at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 27 at the lower lobby of the town hall.

Matt Scollin (Provided photo)

To apply to be considered for the ballot, contact party leaders Ray Scollin at 518-572-3013 or Bob Bevilacqua at 518-354-0199.

Voting in the election will be held on March 18 in the Harrietstown Town Hall auditorium at 39 Main St. from noon to 9 p.m.

Trustee Kelly Brunette announced her candidacy for village mayor on Tuesday, and will be vacating her seat. To read more about this, go to tinyurl.com/3d6dr8up.

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Trudeau

David Trudeau (Provided photo)

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Trudeau said he is running alongside Brunette on the same platform.

Their joint platform is “ACT,” or “affordability, transparency, civility.”

They share concerns about the burden the cost of the proposed public safety building at 33 Petrova Ave. could put on the taxpayers, he said.

“I don’t feel our village can afford that type of building,” Trudeau said.

He said friends asked him to run and that he has lots of construction management experience, managing multi-million-dollar projects for the state Olympic Regional Development Authority and the New York State Energy Development Authority.

“I want to bring my skills in management, transparency, fiscal responsibility, budget management and long-term strategic thinking to the residents of a village that I care deeply about,” Trudeau said in his campaign announcement. “As a retiree, I have the time and am able to relentlessly assist our village residents on quality of life issues, transparency and collaboration.”

He feels there are other options for the emergency service departments, but the board is only going down one path. He said he wants to make the village an affordable place to live. He hasn’t been involved in the project discussions so far, and said he’ll need to do his homework on other options for the emergency departments.

He questions if it’s worth saving the former St. Pius X High School and believes the village may spend more trying to renovate the building than starting from scratch.

Trudeau said he doesn’t like knocking down buildings, but lead and asbestos abatement can be expensive.

Trudeau said he’s overseen large-scale projects for ORDA, including improvements at the Olympic Ski Jumping Complex and all of ORDA’s electrical systems.

He’s familiar with efficient energy systems, including heat pumps and solar, which have been discussed by the village before.

“Although this is my first foray into elected civil service, I have extensive experience in infrastructure development and managing multi-million dollar projects with a focus on bringing them in on time and on budget,” he said in his campaign announcement. “This is the kind of oversight that the village will need to minimize costly impacts and to keep Saranac Lake affordable for all.”

The village has an expensive water and sewer upgrade project coming up, and he said he wants to assist doing it cost-effectively, by getting grants.

Trudeau is retired now and said he has the time needed to do everything a board is responsible for.

“I want to do a lot of listening,” Trudeau said.

Trudeau said he has more than 17 years of volunteer experience in Saranac Lake, serving on or chairing the village Zoning Board of Appeals, Development Board, the Saranac Lake Free Library board and the Habitat for Humanity board.

“We purposefully chose to live in the village for all that it provides; the true sense of community that is found in Saranac Lake,” Trudeau said in his campaign announcement. “My daughters, Katie and Nickie, thrived growing up here with the commitment to volunteerism, civility, education, the outdoors and the arts.”

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Scollin

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Scollin said he is running for reelection because he wants to see a resolution to the public safety building issue.

“I’m not under any illusions it’s going to look exactly like the plans look like today,” he said.

Whatever form it ends up taking, he said he wants to be part of it.

He said he has approached the project in good faith and has worked to maintain the goodwill and trust of the emergency departments who are trying to get better facilities. He hopes the project continues to have a future.

Scollin said he’s been thinking about whether or not to run for months.

“It has not been an easy four years for the village board,” he said.

When he started, there was nearly an entire turnover of the village administration. Still, a lot of big things have been done, he said.

Throughout his four years on the board, he said, meetings have often been contentious. He hopes he does not contribute to that contention, and feels he’s been able to maintain amicable relationships, even when he disagrees with fellow board members.

Scollin said, after these sometimes three- or four-hour long board meetings, when other board members have been arguing heatedly, when he gets home, he kisses his kids goodnight — they’ve already been put to bed — and then he just stares at the wall for a while.

“No TV, no phone. It takes time to decompress and think about everything that happened,” he said.

He questioned running again, but said he believes it’s still worth it. He believes he can still be effective. He said he’s never had a screaming fight with any of the trustees, as other board members have, and that he can make progress on village issues.

“I think that I’ve shown that I can work with every single member of that board to get things done,” Scollin said.

Another goal of his is to keep the village-owned Mount Pisgah ski area viable. Winters are getting warmer, and the village is making upgrades to its snowmaking system, he said. Scollin, who spent years as a professional snowboarder, said he wants to keep the mountain where he learned to ski and snowboard open to future generations and covered in snow.

Scollin said Saranac Lake Police Chief Darin Perrotte has done an “incredible” job of creating a new culture at the department, which Scollin said he likes. He wants to continue that.

An ex-officio member of the village housing task force, he said there’s a lot of momentum in affordable housing that needs to continue. At the next village meeting, he said a consultant hired with a technical assistance grant will be coming to talk about the feasibility of placing homes at the 10-acre village sand pit located off of Will Rogers Drive.

Scollin said his New Year’s resolution was to change his voter registration back from “no party” to Democratic, given what’s happening nationally.

“For me personally, if I’m not part of the formal opposition, I feel like I’m part of the problem,” he said.

He said he may also circulate independent petitions for an independent line on the ballot.

Scollin was elected in 2022 on the Stronger Saranac Lake party line. He ran on this line along with Jeremy Evans and Brunette. Brunette was reelected that year, and Evans lost the mayoral race to Mayor Jimmy Williams. Evans was elected to the Harrietstown council in 2023.

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Election information

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Independent candidates have been able to circulate petitions for two weeks now. These petitions need 100 signatures and must be filed with the village clerk from Feb. 3 and 10 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Voters can support up to two candidates for trustee and only one for mayor. Each candidate should either be supported at a caucus or by signing an independent petition. Voters cannot do both for the same candidate.

Voters signing petitions for independent candidates may also only sign one petition per candidate per seat.

If they attend a caucus and vote for two trustee candidates, they cannot sign any trustee petitions. If they only vote for one trustee candidate at a caucus, then they can sign one trustee petition.

If they vote for a mayoral candidate at a caucus and then sign a petition, or if they sign two mayoral petitions, it will be invalidated. If they sign three petitions for trustee candidates, it will be invalidated.

Only registered members of the Republican or Democratic parties may participate in their caucuses. Non-party members can attend, but must sit separately and cannot speak or vote.

After the caucus begins, the floor will open for nominations. Voters will then voice nominations for the seat. All nominations need to be seconded.

If there are more nominations than open seats, people will be able to vote by paper ballot for one candidate to be on the ballot for the mayoral election and up to two candidates for the trustee election.

The last day to register to vote is March 6. Registering to vote can be done at the Department of Motor Vehicles, online at tinyurl.com/bdfaj9ze or by printing a form found at tinyurl.com/5yxvhtdh, filling it out and mailing it into the county board of elections office.

More information for the Franklin County Board of Elections can be found at tinyurl.com/bdbzacv2. More information for the Essex County Board of Elections can be found at essexcountyny.gov/board-of-elections.

The last day to apply for an absentee ballot is March 10. The last day for the village clerk to mail out an absentee ballot is March 11.