In January, the Town of North Elba, which includes the village of Lake Placid, will have a new supervisor. Supervisor Robi Politi, who has served since 2008, decided not to run for re-election, setting up a four-way race for the seat. WAMC North County Bureau Chief Pat Bradley reports former Olympian Jay Rand will take over the position.
Jay Rand was a member of the 1968 Olympic Ski Jumping team and one of many athletes who make the Lake Placid area home. He worked for the Olympic Regional Development Authority for over 30 years, half of it spent managing the ski jumping, bobsled, luge, cross country and biathalon complexes and the other 15 years managing the Whiteface Mountain Ski Center. After his retirement from ORDA he spent seven years leading the New York Ski Educational Foundation. Rand also sits on the North Elba Town Board. “I’m coming to a point in my life where for the first time I’ve had the time I think that the job of supervisor will take. I think it’s a very demanding job with a lot of issues coming at us in the future and I very much look forward to it.”
A top issue among voters in the four-way race was the need to regulate short term rental properties. Rand, a Republican, says the Town Board has been working on creating a joint law for the town and village of Lake Placid and it’s past time for concrete action. “We hope to get this into effect very soon. I think it’s overdue. But we need to get a handle on registrations and numbers and address some of the problems such as parking and noise and overcrowding, basic safety issues. So I think it just deserved a lot of comment, public comment. We’re trying to make sure that we’re doing the very best for the entire community and something that I’m hoping will be put into effect shortly after the turn of the year.”
In a letter to voters published in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Rand thanked everyone who took part in the electoral process and noted “there are many challenges ahead.” He outlined a few that will need attention. “There’s a salt issue, you know salting of highways, especially around Mirror Lake and in the village that are going into Mirror Lake. Ausable River Association has been working with us and we see the salt build up in Mirror Lake. That definitely is a big issue and we’ve got our sidewalk around Mirror Lake that needs replacing. Those are two that stand out. And we’ve got a lot of preparation for the World University Games in 2023. It’s not really in the hands of the town but we certainly want to be responsive along with the village in making sure that those games go off very well.”
Rand will be sworn in as North Elba’s Town Supervisor during the first Town Board meeting of 2020 on January 14th.