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North Elba residents were assured Tuesday night that their taxes will not be raised to support the state Olympic Regional Development Authority.

They will also have an opportunity to read an agreement between the town and the authority before it is signed. The agreement will lease the town’s Olympic venues to ORDA.

About 100 people attended the public informational meeting held by the town board.

Supervisor Jack Shea said that local programs connected with the Olympic facilities will be protected and continued with the same provisions as before.

He also told Lake Placid School Board President Fred Dennin that every effort will be made to resolve the problems which now exist — between the school district and the town — regarding the speedskating oval and the proposed athletic fields at the horse show grounds.

“It is either now or never,” Shea said of the complex legal matter.

At the opening of the meeting, Mr. Shea explained that ORDA is necessary to insure that those owed money by the Lake Placid Olympic Organizing Committee will be paid.

The legislation, he said, is the key which will unlock the $3 million in state funds held by the state’s Urban Development Corporation to pay off the Olympic creditors. The funds were allocated for that purpose in the state budget.

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‘Happy Jack’ passes

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — John Harvey “Happy Jack” Wikoff, 59, who lived in Lake Placid for most of his life, died suddenly Tuesday, Aug. 4, while recovering from bypass surgery at the Veterans Hospital there.

Born in Palmer, Massachusetts, on Jan. 14, 1922, the son of Harvey and Climena Alford Wikoff, Mr. Wikoff was raised in Lake Placid and attended Lake Placid schools. He graduated from Manlius School in Manlius.

He was awarded the Atlantic Monthly scholarship to attend the Breadloaf Conference, where he studied poetry under Robert Frost. A veteran of World War II, he was a member of the 10th Mountain Division and a mountain climbing instructor at Camp Hale, Colorado.

He attended Hotel School at Cornell University and then returned to Lake Placid to serve as general manager of the Mirror Lake Inn, a business owned by his family. He also taught skiing in the Lake Placid area.

After working in the family business for about 10 years, Mr. Wikoff purchased the Adams property on the Wilmington Road and operated it as the Sun and Ski Lodge. It was better known as Happy Jack’s. He also served the community as a member of the Lake Placid Auxiliary Police.

For a short period of time, Mr. Wikoff wrote a column titled “I, Capricorn” for the Lake Placid News.

In 1975, he sold the business. The last six years of his life were spent traveling, giving poetry readings and writing. At the time of his death, he was the poet-in-residence at RECDA, which provides college-level courses in the humanities throughout the country.

Survivors included a son, Jan (Naj) Wikoff, who is currently a columnist for the Lake Placid News.