City to Commemorate Matt McCabe and Remigia Foy

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Matt McCabe – who served as city Finance Commissioner from 2004 to 2007, and Remigia Foy, who held the seat for three terms in the 1970s and in the 1990s, will be commemorated, current city Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan announced.     

“Matt McCabe had provided remarkable services to the city as a commissioner of finance as well as his unflagging assistance of city events, the city’s downtown business organizations,” Madigan told the City Council while bringing a resolution to the table to commemorate both McCabe and Foy. 

Visual ideas floated to honor McCabe included the potential renaming of a street, a memorial statue in the shape of a guitar – similar in substance to the clock which stands in front of Fox Jewelers, said Madigan said, or the creation of a plaque and a dedicated bench on Broadway. 

“A bench on Broadway, where we are all familiar seeing Matt seated on one of those benches, outside his guitar shop,” she said.

“Matt was a Martin (guitar) guy, and the guitar he played was one he got from Jerry Jeff Walker. Matt was a big fan of Jerry Jeff’s,” said McCabe’s friend, and popular Saratoga musician Rick Bolton. Walker, who died in October 2020, is perhaps best known for writing the much-covered ballad “Mr. Bojangles.” 

McCabe opened his first local guitar shop on Flag Day, 1994 with 48 used guitars and 10 amplifiers for sale inside of a small 160 square-foot hole in the wall space on Caroline Street. He would subsequently grow to a bigger space, increase the number of his Saratoga Guitar shops, and become the host of The Capital Region Guitar Show – one of the longest running guitar shows in the country – in addition to performing his own shows and serving as a two-term city Finance Commissioner. McCabe died earlier this year from complications of COVID-19.

Remigia Foy, who died June 2020, served as city finance commissioner for three terms, two in the ‘70s and one on the ‘90s, Madigan said. The idea is to honor Foy by potentially placing charcoal ink and oil works of Foy created by local artist Sharon Bolton – creator of the colorful First Night Saratoga posters – inside of City Hall by the finance department office. 

“I’m going to float the idea of the Foy Foyer. It’s got a nice ring to it,” Madigan said.