In 1966, the Paul Smith’s Electric Company conceded that it could not supply its service area with enough electricity and sold out to the Niagara Mohawk Corporation, the second largest investor-owned utility in New York state. To get even more complete control over this area, Niagara Mohawk offered Lake Placid $500,000 for its municipality-owned electric company.

The Republican-controlled village board hired a consultant to advise them on whether or not to accept this offer, which he suggested they should not. To sell or not to sell became the hot-button issue in the 1967 municipal elections, with the incumbent Republicans on one side and their Democratic challengers on the other. Republican Mayor Robert Peacock secured a landslide victory in the election with a vote of 806 to 233.

According to the Enterprise (March 22, 1967), this “overwhelming victory was considered by some a mandate for his position opposing the sale of the municipal electrical system.” Today, with electricity rates in Lake Placid almost one-third of what they are in Saranac Lake, it is hard to find fault with this decision.

Currently, Saranac Lake faces a similarly controversial issue with respect to the combined public safety building for the village’s fire, rescue and police departments. The 33 Petrova Ave. project has obviously become a highly contested site, and it is safe to assume that the delays in implementing it will invariably raise its cost well beyond the already very steep $27.5 million price tag.

In a similar fashion to Lake Placid’s opportunity in 1967 to decide, in essence, by a popular vote whether to accept or decline Niagara Mohawk’s offer, the voters of Saranac Lake should also get to do so for the Petrova project. It cannot simply be a yea or nay vote, but must also offer alternatives to the combined village safety building.

Here is what I suggest: The police department should remain in the Paul Smith’s building. This will ensure that the police will be very much in the center of the village where they should be, rather than in the current position on its outskirts.

The building clearly needs upgrading with additional toilets and bathroom facilities, and whatever else the police feel they need to make it a more complete headquarters. There is more than enough space around it for this to be possible without zoning easements, and it will not come close to costing $27.5 million.

Rather than the police, the fire department should occupy the old armory building. Here, there is ample space for their equipment. The cost of upgrades, such as reinforced parking areas for their pumper trucks, will also be minimal. This location will only add a minute or two in response time in comparison to the Petrova site. It will not require an access road to the LaPan Highway, which undoubtedly will be contested since it is likely to displace an existing business and encroach on wetlands as well as sewer and electric lines. The ambulance/rescue service should then take over the present location of the fire department. This will keep them close to the Adirondack Medical Center, which will be an advantage to them.

The Adirondack Park Agency’s plan to move its headquarters into Saranac Lake is an unfortunate muddying of the water. The Ray Brook site, equidistant from the two most important communities in the Adirondack Park, Saranac Lake and Lake Placid, is far more practical than trying to shoehorn a new, expanded headquarters into the village of Saranac Lake. It shares a campus with two other sister agencies. The recently installed high-efficiency low-emission boiler that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions is an excellent example of how these three agencies can work together. If a few acres of forest will need to be cut down for constructing an additional 18,000 square foot building, it will potentially be far less controversial and costly than the overall cost of over $40 million for moving to Saranac Lake. It is not surprising that more than 50 percent of the agency’s staff have indicated their opposition to moving.

In a similar fashion to the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, who wanted larger, more elaborate pyramids than their predecessors, officials today can also have a comparable “Pharaonic Complex.” The sprawling 33 Petrova Ave. project is a contemporary example of what should be modest solutions being upstaged by the allure of the more grandiose.

Saranac Lake is hardly in the midst of a major crime uptick, a firefighting explosion or an ambulance upsurge. There is definitely no sign that there will be a significant increase in its tax base. Modest public spending must remain the norm. We must “cut our coat according to our cloth.”

As is the case in democratic societies of today, the critical check and balance must come from popular participation in the decision-making process. This is well established in Saranac Lake, as evidenced by the recent ratepayers’ vote on whether to allow the Saranac Lake Central School District to replace its main playing field with artificial turf.

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Roger Gocking lives in Saranac Lake.