Avalanche over Lake Placid?

To a peaceful village, the Olympics promise crowds and turmoil

Lake Placid, N. Y., which played host to the Winter Olympics of 1932, has been chosen again for the 1980 Games. And after years of decay and decline, the little (pop. 2,800) Adirondack village is already experiencing a boom that could change the nature of the town forever. TIME Correspondent Peter Staler reports:

As early as 6 a.m., trucks and bulldozers start rumbling out along Route 86, breaking the winter silence. Hard-hatted construction workers, wrapped to the ears in wool and goose down, are sawing, hammering and pouring concrete. Land speculators in search of property have driven prices as high as $5,000 for a one acre building lot. Money is just starting to flow in, but it gives every sign of becoming an avalanche.

Lake Placid's efforts to bring back the Olympics began in 1973, when local voters approved the idea in a referendum. Congress and President Ford pledged their support the following year. The International Olympic Committee then designated Lake Placid as its choice and also approved Lake Placid's plan to keep the Games within a limited frame.

Other countries had long been trying to outdo one another with increasingly elaborate and expensive Olympic facilities, at Innsbruck, Grenoble, Sapporo. Six years ago, however, after Denver was named for the 1976 Olympics, environmentalists organized opposition, and Colorado voters finally rejected the Games. The Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee then decided to reverse the trend. "We could all see the writing on the wall, see that the Games were pricing themselves out of reach for many countries," explains LPOOC President Ronald M. MacKenzie, 75, a former skier and speed skater who was also a member of the 1936 U.S. Olympic bobsled team. "What we're trying to do is give the Games back to the athletes."

Of all the places to do this, Lake Placid is one of the most natural. Home of many world-class skaters and skiers, the village has more than an Olympic heritage; it also has many of the physical elements necessary for the Games. Nearby Mount Van Hoevenberg boasts North America's only bobsled run plus Olympic cross-country skiing courses. Neighboring Whiteface Mountain rises 4,867 ft, and its icy trails can test the knees and nerves of any Olympian. Moreover, the village still has, and uses, the ice arena built for the 1932 Games.

To get ready for 1980, Lake Placid is using $58 million in federal money and $13 million in state funds to upgrade old facilities and build some new ones. The plan calls for installing refrigeration on the bob run; providing snowmaking equipment up to the top of Whiteface; and refurbishing and expanding the ice arena.

It also calls for some new construction. Work has just been completed on a 400-meter speed-skating oval next to the arena in the center of the village. Two towers, one of them soaring 284 ft. into the air, have been built for the 90-and 70-meter ski jumps. Construction also has started on a complex to house 1,800 athletes. Once the Games are over, the athletes' village will be converted into a minimum-security federal prison that should provide jobs for some 200 local residents. "Every facility here will have a viable afteruse," says MacKenzie in an obvious reference to the $80 million athletes' housing that has stood empty since the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. Like many an Olympic planner before him, MacKenzie promises: "We're not building any white elephants."

The impact of these projects on Lake Placid has been enormous. Winter unemployment in Essex County often runs as high as 20% of the work force. This year more than 200 people from the area are employed in Olympic construction, which has, according to Project Manager Ramon Lopez, brought $1.6 million in wages into the region since last spring. Northern New York companies have also benefited, winning 32 of the 38 contracts totaling $25,212,370 awarded by competitive bidding so far.

Most residents of Lake Placid are enthusiastic about the Olympics and pleased at the prospects the Games could provide. "People are really excited," says Sheila Young Ochowicz, 27, a now retired speed skater who won gold, silver and bronze medals at the 1976 Winter Games in Innsbruck. "The competitive facilities are all first-rate, and they're a lot closer together than things were at Innsbruck."

Not everyone agrees that the Games are good for Lake Placid and the Adirondack area. The Adirondack Park Agency and other environmentalists objected to any construction that would detract from the purity of the north country's wooded wilderness. Most of their complaints were taken care of by Olympic planners, who note, as one of them said, that "we live in the Adirondacks too." But the environmentalists are still unhappy about one aspect of Olympic construction: the jump towers are clearly visible from the small farm where Abolitionist John Brown's body lies amoldering in its grave.

Many environmentalists--and more than a few locals--question the ability of the Games' organizers to provide housing and transportation for the 3,000 or more officials, journalists and dignitaries who are to be accommodated in the village itself--let alone handle the 40,000 spectators expected to watch the competitions each day.

Nor are these the only complaints. Some villagers--pointing out that land prices have risen fivefold in the past three years--are worried about the Olympics bringing inflation. "We'd better not get used to this boom," says one villager. "It won't last."

Despite these reservations, however, most of the people in Lake Placid are working hard to make the Olympics a success in the hope that the Games will boost the village's tourist trade in the years to come. Their efforts are understandable. The village's first Olympics in 1932 put Lake Placid on the country's winter sports map; the 1980 Games could change the map itself.

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