But it is exactly that kind of drive that makes the big things happen and that is what Lake Placid is all about.

Here are excerpts from the lead story by Enterprise reporter Rebecca Steffan: “Lake Placid is going for the gold once again by putting in a request to host the winter version of the recently created Youth Olympics, which would be open to international competitors ages 14 to 18, in 2012.

“On July 6 at its meeting in Guatemala City, the International Olympic Committee officially endorsed the Youth Olympics as a future international event. Now the Lake Placid Regional Winter Sports Committee wants Lake Placid to host the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics.

” ‘We are recommending that New York state and ORDA consider working with us on promoting the Lake Placid region as the venue for the first Youth Winter Olympic Games,’ Alexander ‘Sandy’ Treadwell, chairman of that Sports Committee said in a phone interview Wednesday.

“ORDA spokesman Sandy Caligiore said Wednesday that the authority is certainly on board with hosting the first Youth Olympics.

” ‘The Olympic venues around Lake Placid are updated on a yearly basis to the tune of about $20 million over the past several years, Treadwell said, and ORDA stands poised to begin preparations for the games, if awarded to New York.’ “

Well, that $20 million Mr. Treadwell mentioned is a mere drop in the bucket. A recent Enterprise story has the price tag at about $107 million for the ‘renovations’ or ‘reconstruction’ of the 1980 Olympic venues that it going on right now.

It is a complicated story which I know little about that doomed the Youth Olympic Games.

It is right up there with the many subjects that I write about that I know little about.

All the hard work that is going on all the time in Lake Placid, much of it powered by Jim McKenna and his staff at ROOST pays off big time.

And that big time and a very big deal is almost upon us as Lake Placid is set to host the FISU World University Games in 2023, which Lake Placid hosted in 1972.

Here are a few facts from the I Love NY World University Games site: Events for 11 days, January 12 to 22 – 2500 Athletes and Coaches – 12 Sports – 86 Medal Events – 600 Universities – 50 Countries.

Gee, whiz, there were only 1,072 athletes representing 37 National Olympic Committees at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid.

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Another event that never happened

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Enterprise reporter Heather Sackett covered this story: I was serving on the Harrietstown Board with my friend Brian McDonnell in 2007 when Saranac Lake Village Trustee Susan Waters resurrected the idea, she said that “has been around since 1963”. She suggested the village and town form a recreation commission under the umbrella of the Town and Village Comprehensive plan.

The Town Board asked McDonnell to serve on the committee as he had managed Dewey Mountain for many years Waters said it had been too complex a project to tackle in its original concept and that the “key to success” would be in starting small.

“We want to start with winter sports at municipal-owned venues first,” she said, referring to the village owned Mt. Pisgah and the Town’s Dewey Mountain Cross-Country ski area. She added, “we can control how we manage those, it’s a good place to start.”

Well, Susan, I thought I was a good idea and a good place to start but as with many ideas it apparently was also a good place to finish. Too bad but it never happened.

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Who knew?

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Lady Bird Johnson died July 11, 2007 at age 94 in her home in Austin, Texas. “Born Claudia Alta Taylor, Dec. 22, 1912, in Karnack, Texas; nicknamed by a family maid who said she was ‘as cute as a ladybird’.

“She held a Bachelor’s degree in history and journalism from the University of Texas.

“A quiet woman who once turned down a class valedictorian’s award because she feared public speaking, Lady Bird found herself pulled suddenly into the public eye as first lady when her husband Lyndon B. Johnson became president amid tragedy.'”