Author: Saratoga TODAY

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The City of Saratoga Springs has accepted a donation by the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation to make a repair to the architectural surround of the Spirit of Life and Spencer Trask Memorial in Congress Park, a National Historic Landmark. 

Congress Park has seen increased use, in part, due to the many restoration projects that the City of Saratoga Springs Department of Public Works has undertaken over the years.  In 2015, the Foundation, in partnership with the City of Saratoga Springs, completed a $750,000 restoration of the Spirit of Life and Spencer Trask Memorial and, most recently, the Katrina Trask Gateway Memorial was restored by the city. 

With increased use of the park, however, there can also be an increase in vandalism. In 2019 a baluster of the surround was stolen.  With the City facing economic challenges as a result of COVID, the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation will restore the missing baluster in the upcoming months, with the assistance of PCC Contracting, and have two additional balusters replicated should a repair be needed in the future. 

This donation was made possible through funding provided by the Adirondack Trust Company Community Fund, which maintains a Donor Advised Fund for the preservation of the Spirit of Life and Spencer Trask Memorial. 

In keeping with the spirit of the memorial’s inscription, “His one object in life was to do right and serve his fellow men, he gave himself abundantly to hasten the coming of a new and better day…” this donation ensures that the beauty of the Spirit of Life and Spencer Trask Memorial is maintained. Since the completion of the restoration in 2015, the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation has donated lighting, geraniums, and regularly schedules volunteers to assist with maintaining the landscape of the Memorial.  Within the past year, volunteers have donated 250 hours to maintain the landscape. 

The Memorial was unveiled and gifted to the City of Saratoga Springs on June 26, 1915 by Katrina Trask and George Foster Peabody to memorialize Spencer Trask who played a critical role in preserving the spring waters of Saratoga. It was designed by sculptor Daniel Chester French and architect Henry Bacon, who were also responsible for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., as well as Charles Leavitt Jr. who designed the
surrounding landscape.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A large-scale development targeting Washington Street continues to make inroads through the city’s Land Use boards. 

The proposed Washington Street Development project – 19  Washington St./ 365 Broadway – features a 200,000 square foot mixed-use building with 90 residential units and 31 hotel rooms, and includes the demolition of the existing candy store adjacent to the Starbucks coffee shop, the latter of which will remain.   

A Historic Review determination of historic/architectural significance is currently under consideration by the city’s Design Review Commission, which next meets on July 21. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — On July 14, city Assistant Chief of Police John Catone released a statement regarding a June 28 press conference at City Hall. The statement, in its entirety, reads: 

“At the June 28th press conference with Public Safety Commissioner Robin Dalton, I allowed anger and frustration to interfere with my intended message. 

The conference was called to address and inform the public on the recent stabbing and gunfire incidents in our downtown, to discuss the increasing presence of identified gang members, and to detail the department’s efforts in investigating and responding to those issues. We are not a city known for this type of criminal activity, but we should appreciate that we re not immune to it either. Addressing it will require the entire community working together with our police department, and this requires mutual trust. 

While I fully appreciate the Police Department must always work toward building and maintaining that trust, my frustration at the conference stemmed from the fact that certain misinformation has unfairly eroded it. My comments were not meant to cast blame, or serve as a threat. My comments were made as a call upon every member of this community to work together. 

I have spent my entire professional career serving and protecting the people who live, work and visit our great city and I will always remain committed to that mission.”  -John T. Catone.

BALLSTON — Local veteran Michael Bayer is in the running to win a cash prize of $10,000 on behalf of Sparkling Ice for his volunteer work in the community. 

Michael Bayer has served our country in the US Navy for 25 years, and moved to the Capital Region in 1995. In retirement, he serves the community by volunteering his time to a local cemetery, food pantry, his neighbors, and his church.

His volunteer work at the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga Cemetery consists of assisting in organizing the processionals for his fellow veterans and offering support to those visiting the cemetery. He collects groceries for a local food pantry. In his neighborhood, Bayer does some landscaping and helps his elderly neighbors with general repairs. He has also turned his love of singing into a great opportunity to volunteer his time to the kid’s choir at his church, and he sings with the Clifton Park Community Chorus. 

“What really got me started [in volunteering] was retiring,” said Bayer. “I’ve been very fortunate and very blessed throughout my life, so I’ve always thought it was important to figure out a way, or to look for opportunities, to give back.”

Back in April, the Talking Rain Beverage Company®, the maker of Sparkling Ice® beverages, teamed up with Olympic Gold Medalist Gabby Douglas to kick-off the 2nd annual Cheers to Heroes campaign and contest. The Cheers to Heroes campaign and contest celebrates everyday heroes – first line responders, health care workers, community activists, teachers, friends, neighbors, and more – for the work they have done and their dedication to their local communities. The winner of the contest will receive a $10,000 cash prize. Bayer’s wife nominated him, and he was selected out of thousands of nominations across the country to be a finalist. 

“I feel really fortunate,” said Bayer on being a finalist. “There are a lot of people in this area that I’ve come to know that volunteer a lot. They are the same kind of people that the contest is looking to honor. My only difference is that I had somebody close to me that knew about the contest.” 

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Bayer continued to say, “I am honored and thankful to have been nominated. I am humbled to even have been chosen from so many of the other nominations I have seen online.”

Once he was selected as a finalist, contest organizers sent a video crew to the Capital Region to film him at the various sites he volunteers at. In the video, Bayer explains what he does and why it is important to volunteer. 

“What I’ve experienced, number one, is the generosity of people is overwhelming,” said Bayer. “The other thing is – that’s a little bit sad – is that the need is so overwhelming. It’s the knowledge that you’ve helped somebody out at a very difficult time.

What would he do with the prize money? Bayer’s third youngest son is in the Army and stationed in Hawaii. At the beginning of next year, he will be promoted, and Bayer would like to take his family to Hawaii to attend his son’s promotion. Additionally, he would like to put money towards increasing services the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga Cemetery provides, such as putting wreaths out in the winter. 

Right now, people across the country are voting for one of the finalists – you can cast your vote at www.sparklingicerewards.com/cheerstoheroes through the end of July. The winner will be announced on Aug. 13, and the nominator of the winning hero will also receive a $500 prize. For more information on Sparkling Ice and the Cheers to Heroes contest, visit: www.sparklingicerewards.com/cheerstoheroes.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — It is a place where local businesses thrive and share their prosperity with the community. It is where full-time employees receive free healthcare benefits and competitive salaries, and where entrepreneurs are provided tools to help them succeed and flourish. 

It is a model called The Business for Good and a vision presented by Ed and Lisa Mitzen and their “team of motivated do-gooders” who believe that equity is key to a brighter future. The idea behind the Business for Good Foundation is in using the team’s successful business skills and experience to help make the world a better place.   

“We’ve experienced a level of prosperity that’s still hard to get our minds around. We’re living our dream. And we’re very grateful for it. But we believe dreams should be accessible to everyone,” the Mitzens say. 

They established The Business for Good Foundation, a 501c3 charitable organization to assist others in the pursuit of their own dreams. “Help as many people as we could. Do as much good as we could do.”

Lisa said she and Ed have long shared an interest in giving back. 

“We always dreamed of starting a foundation,” said Lisa Mitzen, at the foundation’s public launch on July 13 at the Brackett House on North Broadway in Saratoga Springs. The site, which includes offices and a conference center will serve as the organization’s headquarters. 

Ed Mitzen was raised in Voorheesville and spent nearly a decade growing Palio Communications into a success before subsequently co-founding Fingerpaint Marketing in Saratoga Springs in 2008. 

The Foundation is built on a set of different pillars, Ed Mitzen explained. Owning businesses and taking care of employees while donating all that business’ profits to local charitable causes is one; providing capital and other useable tools such as marketing and mentorship to entrepreneurs, is another. Since its official launch last October, the Foundation has donated $4.4 million in grants and resources across the state.    

“We like to describe Business For Good as sort of an umbrella over each of the businesses that are acquired, which are still for-profit businesses, just the profits are then donated to Business For Good so we can then do better for the communities we live and work in,” said Lisa Mitzen, who grew up in nearby Hudson Falls. 

The Mitzens acquired the Bread Basket Bakery, which overlooks Congress Park, late last year. “The goal there was to give the staff great pay, great benefits, keep them all there, but change the mission – instead of it being a for-profit business, to donate all the profits to charity,” Ed Mitzen said. Revenue the bakery generates goes directly to fight food insecurity in local communities. A second Bread Basket location is planned to be sited on Weibel Avenue in Saratoga Springs, which will grow the foundation mission by also donating all profits to charity. 

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HATTIE’S

The addition to the foundation of the Spa City’s famed Hattie’s Restaurant & Chicken Shack is in the process of being finalized. Employees will be provided “great pay, great benefits, and have 100% of their health care covered,” Mitzen said.  An additional Hattie’s Restaurant is slated to open in the former Lombardo’s Restaurant on Madison Avenue in Albany next year. 

Lombardo’s Restaurant served as a cornerstone business in Albany for nearly a century, and its closure left a service and employment gap in an already economically challenged neighborhood. By renovating the building and installing a business such as Hattie’s that will employ locally and return all profits to local charities, the foundation is hoping that both – a piece of Albany history will be preserved, and that it will be a positive contributor to the South End community for years to come.

“The idea of being a part of a consortium of businesses that have tremendous synergy in working together and trying to elevate as many people as possible was really perfect for Hattie’s,” said Jasper Alexander, sporting his buttoned-up white chef uniform as he spoke at Tuesday’s foundation announcement. 

Hattie Mosely Austin founded her self-named chicken shack in Saratoga Springs in 1938. Alexander bought Hattie’s in 2001. Jasper and Beth Alexander will remain in charge of the restaurant. 

“Hattie was tremendously generous in the community. It was always a driving mission of hers and a driving mission of ours,” Alexander said.

“When I first met with Ed (Mitzen) I was so taken aback because he so bluntly said: I just want to do good. We all say that: ‘I want to do good,’ but here are two people who are, quite frankly, putting their money where their mouth is, and doing good,” said Beth Alexander. 

Year-round, Hattie’s employs about 45 workers, a number that grows to about 75 during the summer.    In addition to wage raises, employees will receive health benefits – “a game-changer and something very few restaurants are able to do,” Alexander said. 

“It’s a dream come true, and it’s quite frankly saving a historical restaurant. You know the restaurant business is a tough business and Hattie’s has been in Saratoga for 85 years. We just weren’t sure how much longer we were going to be able to do it,” she said. 

The foundation recently closed on a building in downtown Voorheesville that had been vacant and previously housed a Stewart’s Shop. In Voorheesville, which is where Ed Mitzen grew up, the community will be surveyed to learn what type of business it is interested in being sited there. That business will be built around the same initiative of donating all the profits to charity. 

Additional Business for Good Foundation projects include incorporating what Mitzen calls Accelerated Entrepreneurship. “What we want to do there is use our business backgrounds and skills to help aspiring entrepreneurs in underserved communities realize their dreams of starting their business,” he explained. “There are a lot of really smart, hungry and passionate folks but they don’t really have access to resources. So, what we want to do with the Foundation is provide them with capital, provide them with advice and guidance, provide them with marketing support, IT support, HR, office space and really get them going. We don’t own the businesses; we’re just really trying to help them to become entrepreneurs.” 

The first business undertaken in that mode was a brownstone located at 134 Central Ave. in Albany that formerly served as the law offices of prominent African American civil rights attorney Peter Pryor. The building had fallen into disrepair, and the project entailed renovating the building so it may function as an office space for the Wallace Turner Law firm. When completed in the coming months, the project will connect the past and the future by ensuring the continuation of its legacy. 

The goal is finding a path of enduring giving to help provide sustained support that leads to lasting change. As the foundation umbrella grows, Mitzen says: “We’re not looking for turn-arounds, it’s too hard. We want people who have been successful, who show a passion for what they do, who believe in our model.” 

Mitzen’s father worked for the Albany VA Hospital. His mom worked as a respiratory therapist and nurse at Saratoga Hospital and Albany Medical Center. Mitzen was asked what drives his passion of wanting to give back.   

“My father worked at the VA and passed away when I was 18. He was 41. I think the one thing that got instilled in me is: I’m on the clock, right? I’m 54,” he said.  “I want to do as much as I can before I leave this place.”