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Town of North Elba officials are hoping a 293-acre plot of town-owned land at the horse show grounds can be transformed into a year-round sports training complex within the next three years. The facilities would be controlled and utilized by the United States Olympic Committee of the committee and corporate sponsors go for the plan.

“As you know, the USOC’s Olympic training center here is in need of training space,” Lake Placid Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Peter Moreau told the chamber board Tuesday night.

“At the training center in Colorado Springs, they have several different buildings, housing different facilities. Here we could have corporate sponsors fund pavilions for various sports,” he said.

Both the chamber and the town board approved the concept of the plan.

National governing body athletes from Olympic sports would use the complex, working with the USOC and George Kalber, Lake Placid’s training center director.

Moreau contacted Col. Don Miller, executive director of the USOC, about the plan earlier this month.

In a letter dated June 1, Moreau asked for USOC endorsement of the plan.

“The USOC could play a major role or a passive role, according to its wishes,” Moreau wrote.

“What we do wish from the USOC, as well as the Athletes Advisory Committee, is an endorsement of our efforts, which, of course, implies the utilization of the center once it is established.”

If the USOC approves the plan, and if sponsors are found, corporations could fund construction of the training facilities they’d like, with the USOC and the NGBs acting as advisers throughout construction.

If a sponsor funds the construction of an administration or housing facility instead, the corporation would be granted a “hospitality room” for displays or entertainment. The sponsor’s name would also appear prominently in the building or facility’s title.

Chamber member Kris Hansen voiced a concern about the Lake Placid Central School District sports facilities — baseball diamonds and track and field space — at the horse show grounds now. Students should be guaranteed training space, too, Hansen said.

“If we are going to build what Colorado Springs has now, we’re going to have to go about it with discretion,” Hansen said.

“We have to look out for our own kids and make sure they have what they need for facilities.”

With the complex, students would still retain use of the new facilities at the horse show grounds, Moreau told the board.

“The whole idea is that it is good for everybody,” Moreau said.

“It’s good for the USOC because it provides training facilities.

“It’s good for the community because it brings international attention.

“It’s good for corporations because they get the best possible exposure for good citizenship in supporting athletes.

“And it’s good for the Olympic Regional Development Authority because it makes the training center a year-round operation, and the events and competitions coming out of the training center will be utilizing Olympic Authority facilities.”

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1932 arena job

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The Olympic Regional Development Authority has hired a Plattsburgh contractor to renovate the ceiling of the 1932 Olympic Arena.

The paint on the ceiling of the arena peeled only months after the completion of the 1980 Olympic Winter Games.

The problem developed when the ceiling was painted during extremely cold weather and the paint did not hold, ORDA officials said.

Theodore Stay & Sons of Plattsburgh has replaced the sheet rock panels in the ceiling of the arena.

The company recently finished sand blasting the ceiling’s structural steel and is now applying a two-part epoxy paint.

The new ceiling tiles will also receive a new coat of off-white paint, maintaining the existing color scheme.

ORDA employees plan to paint the walls of the arena following completion of the ceiling work.

The ceiling renovation is scheduled to cost $25,000.

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Browse past issues of the Lake Placid News from 1914 to 2008 online at NYS Historic Newspapers.