Lake Placid Village Board members Tuesday, Feb. 9 voted to pay for prepaid envelopes that will allow the village’s 1,555 registered voters to not only mail back their application for an absentee ballot for free, but also mail the absentee ballot itself back for free.

“We will certainly encourage people to vote absentee,” Mayor Craig Randall said Tuesday. “We have people that will have to be social distanced, masked, all of that is a management problem.”

Randall added that if the line to vote stretches outdoors because of social distancing rules, it could be uncomfortable for voters because it’s winter.

Village Trustee Jason Leon said the cost to purchase the prepaid envelopes — about $370 — is “a bargain” considering what the money will do for voters.

“I think we’ve spent exponentially more on things that are much less important,” Leon said.

Village Clerk Anita Estling said the village will work on sending out the initial absentee ballot applications on Friday, and most residents should see that application arrive in their mailbox next week. Residents who aren’t registered to vote can still register through the Essex County Board of Elections before the village election.

The village election is Tuesday, March 16. There are four open positions: mayor, two village trustee seats and one village justice seat. All of the positions carry four-year terms.

Current Trustee and Deputy Mayor Art Devlin is running for mayor on the Republican and independent Teamwork Party lines. Former mayor Jamie Rogers is running on the independent Common Sense Party line.

Devlin has been a village trustee since 2009. He has reached the maximum amount of consecutive terms as trustee, meaning he can’t run for reelection as a trustee. Devlin operates Art Devlin’s Olympic Motor Inn, named after his father, who was an Olympic ski jumper.

Rogers was mayor from 2005 to 2009. He currently works at the Steve Sama Construction company and Tri-Lakes Marine, seasonally.

The village’s current mayor, Craig Randall, is retiring. Randall also cannot run for reelection because he has served the maximum amount of three consecutive four-year terms.

Trustee Scott Monroe is seeking a third term on the village board on the independent Common Sense Party line. Colin Hayes is running for a seat on the independent A New Vision Party line. Bookstore Plus owner Marc Galvin is running on the Teamwork Party line for a seat, and Jacquelyn Kelly is running on the independent Teamwork Party line.

Current Village Justice David J. Coursen, a former village police officer who was appointed to his seat after the resignation of justice David Chapman in 2019, is running for reelection unopposed on the Justice Party line.