To the editor:

The average attention span for an adult is 8.25 seconds (less than that of a goldfish). I’ll make this quick, I promise.

The zip code where you are raised can determine your future. I was born and raised here. Although I left for many years as an adult, I chose to return with my wife and four children because I want to raise our kids in this amazing community.

Living here, we all have an abundance of natural beauty and outdoor opportunities, but we lack a youth recreation center. I could rattle off countless studies and longitudinal statistics showing the benefit of youth programming, but fear not, goldfish, I won’t bore you.

Simply put, our community needs a YMCA. Malone has one. Ticonderoga has one. Plattsburgh has two! Where would we house such a facility, you ask? Why not inside the Pius X building? I will not wade into the controversy surrounding that project; however, I see no reason why including a YMCA in the remodel — if that is indeed what comes to pass — is not possible. In fact, it may do much to assuage many of the concerns expressed by those in opposition.

Imagine kids interacting with police officers, firefighters and emergency services personnel as they engage in after-school and weekend activities. Or we could simply install a stand-alone YMCA on that footprint. Either way, we would have a source of revenue in the Y and a place for children and adults alike to engage in healthy activities during those rainy shoulder seasons we all know too well.

Is this complicated? I am sure it is. But anything worth doing is never easy. As the Saranac Lake Village Board considers the next 100 years for our community, I encourage them to ponder the words of Nelson Mandela: “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”

Justin D. Garwood

Saranac Lake