LAKE PLACID – This village’s insurance policy expired at midnight Tuesday without a finalized renewal, resulting in a Tuesday morning and early afternoon when almost all village workers were instructed not to use their village vehicles.

Lake Placid Mayor Craig Randall described it as a “momentary gap,” as he and village trustees used the first part of their regularly scheduled Tuesday afternoon work session to iron out final details in the village insurance policy.

“I did ask our departments, with exception of essential services, to step down temporarily,” Randall said. “Just a precautionary move.

“It affected people working for the department of public works,” the mayor added, “the electric department. Nobody was ff the job. We simply told them to stand-by until we got the renewals in place and coverage bound.”

Randall said the new policy was finalized around 2 p.m. Tuesday. He added that the lapse in coverage and subsequent holding back of vehicles affected all village employees except the Lake Placid Police Department and the Lake Placid Fire Department. Randall clarified that the fire department is on a separate policy. He also said though the police department was affected by the expiration in coverage, officers did not have to respond to any major calls before 2 p.m.

Randall attributed the lapse in coverage to competitive bids, subsequent negotiations and trustees waiting to receive additional information. He added that Village Treasurer Paul Ellis worked “significant” hours over the weekend and into early Tuesday morning to respond to questions trustees had raised. The Mayor also said the final details of the insurance agreement will be on the agenda for Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting.

“We actually put the insurance package out to bid,” the mayor said. “There were many different pieces to it. The intent was to determine whether or not there was a savings for the taxpayer. As it turns out, the bids received were competitive to the point where they were very, very close and it required a much closer analysis of the dollars involved and the coverage involved, and that took them until (today).

“Briefly,” he continued, “I had all of the board members together today for a work session, we brought them in earlier to review the findings of the treasurer’s office and to have an opportunity to ask any additional questions before the renewals were determined.”