To the editor:

I write to endorse the campaign of Jay Rand for town supervisor. I believe that he is both the best and most qualified candidate for the job.

As a lifelong member of the community and an Olympic athlete of great distinction, Jay knows the community and its people as well as any candidate could. He knows what the community needs and wants, and what makes the economic engine of the community hum as well as it does.

Jay’s experiences as a general manager, first at the MacKenzie Ski Jump Complex and then at Whiteface Mountain, gave him the experience and skills to effectively lead tens of dozens of employees, department heads and volunteers at a time. He was responsible for preparing annual multi-million-dollar budgets and then living within the means of those budgets year in and out. In particular, the facilities and the skiing product at Whiteface noticeably improved year after year while Jay was GM. In short, he did a great job.

Jay has been a member of the town board for many years. He knows the town’s operations inside and out. This knowledge — coupled with Jay’s longtime managerial experience and his lifelong familiarity with and dedication to his hometown and to what Lake Placid/North Elba mean to the community, the county, the state and indeed the world — leave him far and away as the best man for the supervisor’s job.

I am also impressed with the candidacies of Doug Hoffman and Dick Cummings. Doug is a smart fiscal conservative with a keen eye for the bottom line. And Dick has a careful and precise mind. As a package, these men offer a wonderful opportunity to place businessmen back in leadership positions in our community, and, to me, harkens back to the boards of the ’60s and ’70s that guided our community to the Olympics and beyond.

Please vote for Jay Rand, supervisior, and Doug Hoffman and Dick Cummings for town board.

John Wilkins

Lake Placid