My recollection of the Carter family came in the late 1970s. It was of Amy Carter and she is best known for getting her dad Jimmy to install solar panels to the White House roof.

The Mario Cuomo administration wanted to widen Route 73 going to Lake Placid, particularly the area a few miles south; which had at that time, rock formations hanging near the highway.

I can recall a number of times when the road was closed due to rockslides. There was opposition to this however. The Sierra Club, which I might add has an exemplary record protecting the environment, was being lobbied by Amy to not allow New York to widen the road.

It came down to this: The Club decided to put the Cuomo proposal to a vote. There was a three man executive committee and the Club agreed to go by a majority vote of said body. The vote was 2-1 against the Sierra Club actively opposing the road expansion.

The rest of the story is that my uncle Francis Ryan was the deciding vote that carried the day. He was a tenured accounting professor at the University of Connecticut and an avid conservationist.

I can still recall the mid 1960s being introduced to the magazine of the same name, as he often left off the publication which is still going.

David Ryan

Saranac Lake