SARATOGA SPRINGS — Joseph Grillo cut his teeth working at trendy Brooklyn wine shops, and now he’s brought his experience and sensibilities to By the Bottle, a wine store located in downtown Saratoga.

The shop was previously owned by Annmarie Guglielmo, who now works at the Kindred wine bar on Henry Street. Grillow took over By the Bottle in July of 2023. His goal is to create an unpretentious neighborhood shop where customers don’t feel intimidated by wine.

“I just want people to be at ease in the shop and ask questions,” Grillo said. “I’m more concerned with people and building a sense of community.”

By the Bottle offers a large selection of orange wines, as well as biodynamic and organic wines. The shop tends to favor smaller production bottles, hoping to offer customers a unique selection. “There are tens of thousands of wines in the world and I’m happy to represent different things, maybe things people don’t see every day,” Grillo said.

“Everything I have, other than maybe two wines, is between $12 and $40,” Grillo said. “I don’t have a lot of expensive stuff because I think that there’s so much wonderful stuff out there that you don’t have to break the bank to try.”

Grillo previously ran Northside Discount Liquors & Wine in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He still goes there regularly to check in, but is now managing By the Bottle full time. Prior to owning Northside, he worked at Trojanowski Liquor in Williamsburg. “That’s where I learned about wine,” Grillo said.

Grillo and his wife were married in the Spa City twelve years ago, and when the pandemic hit, they decided to move their kids to Saratoga in search of a safer, gentler city. “It has a cinema, it has a beautiful book store, it has Caffe Lena, it has all these great things,” Grillo said. “I do like it up here.”

By the Bottle is located at 11 Spring Street in downtown Saratoga Springs.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The U.S. State Department estimates that, at any given time, there are 27.6 million victims of human trafficking across the globe. There are even victims right here in Saratoga County. Susana Lehan, the Salvation Army’s Eastern Territory Anti-Human Trafficking Director, knows some of them personally. “This is everywhere,” Lehan said. “This is happening in everyone’s backyard.”

Human trafficking is defined as the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel a person into commercial sex acts or labor services against his or her will.

To raise awareness of this issue, the Salvation Army is hosting an event on January 11 from 12pm to 3pm at 27 Woodlawn Ave in Saratoga Springs. “There’s not a lot of awareness in the communities and all the counties in this area,” Lehan said.

The Human Trafficking Awareness Day event includes a free lunch and a presentation by Julie Chapus, LMSW. Chapus is from Rochester, New York and works with both hair and nail salons, where trafficking victims often interact with workers. “Those are people that have intimate connections with victims,” Lehan said. Traffickers often bring their victims to salons, where workers can see scars and other signs of physical violence.

Lehan said that evidence of trafficking can be hard to spot, even among trained professionals and police officers. “I’ve been in the field for thirty years and I even was not aware of the nuances until I started working with the clients,” she said. 

Lehan’s Anti-Human Trafficking program at the Salvation Army helps to stabilize victims’ lives with housing, employment, clothing, food, and other basic needs. Since she first began working on this program four months ago, Lehan has already acquired at least twenty clients.

According to Lehan, only about 1% of victims report trafficking to anyone, and reports to law enforcement occur even less frequently. While trafficking can be organized by criminal groups, it can also happen in intimate partner relationships. “Individuals are coercing people to enter these situations that they can’t get out of, and it’s by use of force, coercion, or fraud,” Lehan said. The Polaris Project, a nonprofit that aims to combat human trafficking, estimates that in 2020, 39% of victims were recruited via an intimate partner or marriage proposal. 

The objective of the Human Trafficking Awareness Day event in Saratoga is to bring awareness of this ongoing issue to community members and leaders.

“We’re not asking people to intervene or anything in any kind of situation because it’s dangerous,” Lehan said. “However, we’re asking people to just be aware and to be able to pass on a phone number, and if the client feels safe enough to come to us, they can.”

To contact Susana Lehan, call 518-584-1640 or send her an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

BALLSTON SPA — Stewart’s Shops’ annual Holiday Match program raised $2 million for local children’s charities this year. Customers donated $1 million, with Stewart’s contributing the rest. The money will be distributed over the next few months across New York and Vermont.

“Even during uncertain economic times, our customers continue to amaze me with their generosity,” said Stewart’s COO Chad Kiesow.

Stewart’s Holiday Match fundraiser began in 1986, and has raised more than $38 million since then. According to Stewart’s, the company does not charge any administrative fees, meaning that all of the funds are re-distributed into the community. 

Stewart’s is currently accepting applications for Holiday Match funds until the end of the month. Local 501c3 charitable groups that benefit children can apply online at stewartsshops.com. The funds will be distributed by the end of March.

MALTA — The Ballston Spa Central School District received $16,000 in grant awards from the GLOBALFOUNDRIES-Town of Malta Foundation. The bulk of the funds ($10,000 to be exact) will support the Robotics Team and Competitions. $5,000 will be devoted to Senior Class activities and the annual After Prom event. The final $1,000 will help fund a digital safety program for students and parents.

“We are thrilled to receive the support of the GLOBALFOUNDRIES-Town of Malta Foundation to enhance our programs throughout the district,” said Superintendent Dr. Gianleo Duca in a statement. “We appreciate their ongoing investment in providing the best learning experiences and opportunities for students.”

The GLOBALFOUNDRIES -Town of Malta Foundation funds organizations, programs, and projects that benefit Malta residents. For more information, visit sites.google.com/site/gfmaltafoundationorg/home.

BALLSTON SPA — A Broadway veteran who has appeared in productions of “Wicked” and “Newsies” visited Ballston Spa last month to offer students some pointers on nailing their auditions.

The Ballston Spa High School’s Troupe Booster Club hosted performer Danny Quadrino for an audition workshop that helped students improve their musical talents. Pianist Jesse Cohen-Greenberg accompanied Quadrino.

The Troupe Booster Club sponsored the event with partial funding provided by the Ballston Spa Partnership for Innovation in Education Fund. For additional information on the fund, visit www.bscsd.org/CRPS.

ROUND LAKE — Guilderland grad and Saratoga resident Dylan Collett played baseball at the high school, college, and professional levels. A few weeks ago, he opened the Collett Baseball training facility in Round Lake so that he can pass on his experience to future generations of ball players.

The 8,000-square-foot, all-turf warehouse features some high tech gadgets. “We have the TrackMan sensor, which is a high-end sensor that MLB uses now,” Collett said. “It gives you a tremendous amount of data on every hit and every pitch.” TrackMan allows Collett to analyze and track the development of every player. 

The facility also houses a pitching lab with Plyo Ball throwing, which improves arm strengthening and conditioning. “The beauty of pitching is you’ve got to know a lot about hitting to be a good pitcher,” Collett said. “So I actually give just as much hitting instruction as pitching.”

The bulk of Collett’s playing experience was on the mound, where the southpaw was a starter in college, before coming out of the bullpen in the pros. After three years at Saint Leo University near Tampa, Florida, Collett transferred to UMass Dartmouth, where he finished with a 4-1 record and 4.30 ERA. 

Collett expected to be drafted, but an injury during his senior year put those plans on hold. He took a year off before playing two years of independent pro ball for the Birmingham-Bloomfield Beavers outside Detroit, Michigan. As a reliever, Collett pitched 47.2 innings, earning an impressive ERA of 2.45.

“I ended up going to spring training with the Boston Red Sox the first year of COVID,” Collett said. But when he didn’t receive an invitation from the Sox to return, he decided to retire as a player. “I was kind of old for baseball at that point, for the level I was at,” he said.

Nowadays, Collett instructs all levels of players, from five-year-olds to professionals. He also leads group clinics.“Teams will actually give me five or six pitchers at a time, or five or six hitters at a time,” he said.

By his estimate, Collett has coached at least 100 players so far, with more on the horizon.

The Collett Baseball training facility is located at 17 Wood Road in Round Lake. For more information, visit www.collettbaseball.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Freezing temperatures couldn’t stop hundreds of runners from participating in the Saratoga First Day 5K on New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 2024.

Only 16 minutes and 15 seconds after the race began, Cameron Davis became the first runner to cross the finish line, followed seconds later by Nicholas Conway. Emily Bush, a standout on the Saratoga Springs girls cross-country team, finished first among all female runners and fourth overall. 

According to the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, nearly 800 people registered for this year’s race. 651 officially finished the race, leaving about a hundred people who decided not to brave the cold and/or their New Year’s Eve hangover.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A new student-designed lunch truck will make its debut this spring on the Saratoga Springs High School campus.

Eric Bush, the district’s School Lunch Program Director, said the truck was designed by students from the high school’s graphic arts class. “They worked on all the signage, all the graphics, the look, the name; everything came from the high school students designing it,” Bush said.

High School seniors are allowed to leave the campus for lunch, and the goal of the food truck, Bush said, is to entice them to stick around for what Bush called “a different, unique experience.”

A promotional image from the district described the truck as “a novel dining experience that will expand meal options for students and staff.” The image also stated that the truck will embody “a fusion of culinary diversity.”

In terms of cost to students, the truck will essentially operate the same as the existing cafeteria. Free meal packages will be available at the truck, along with a la carte items that can be purchased for an additional fee. Proceeds from those purchases will go back into the school’s cafeteria fund.

“The more kids that participate, then the more money I can put back into the program,” Bush said.

Despite claims to the contrary found on a local Facebook page, Bush said that no “COVID money” was used to purchase the truck. According to Bush, the vehicle was bought using money from the school’s self-sufficient cafeteria fund, which is separate from the school’s general fund. “I did see that [Facebook post], which I thought was pretty funny,” Bush said.

The high school’s cafeteria is currently undergoing renovations, but is set to re-open in mid January. Then, Bush will turn his attention to getting the lunch truck up and running. “We’ve been working on it for a couple months,” Bush said, “doing the [request for proposal], going out to bid, then getting it delivered, and now it will have to go to Glens Falls for the health inspection.”

The school will create menus for the truck in the coming months. Bush estimated that the truck will be operational by April.