Judging by the traffic and influx of visitors in recent days, summer is definitely in full swing in the Tri-Lakes region. The annual Lake Placid Horse Shows and Youth Summit lacrosse event are a welcome sight after a 15-month malaise due to the pandemic.

Earlier this week, the village of Lake Placid and town of North Elba took one more step in a return to normalcy. Both the town and village, in a joint announcement, noted it would no longer require participants in local large-scale events to be vaccinated.

“We will no longer mandate COVID-19 vaccination,” a joint statement from the village and town read. “It is requested and encouraged that all participants, their family members, officials, volunteers, and vendors be fully vaccinated on or before the dates of the events. In the event a participant is not vaccinated we will require you to have a negative COVID test within 72 hours of your arrival to the event.”

Our region has fared much better than others when it came to the virus. Cases here are, and have been, much lower when compared to other portions of the state.

However, the joint decision seems fairly unprecedented. Many other state municipalities remain cautious on issuing COVID-19 edicts. That is, in most part, due to state Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He likes to be in the lead on these decisions and sometimes chastises localities when he believes they may have overstepped their authority.

We all understand the suffering the virus brought. We agree with Lake Placid Summit Classic Lacrosse tournament Co-founder George Leveille in summing up the decision. It is “another positive step to returning to the days we remember before COVID.”