Penny Arcade, photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Legendary performance artist Penny Arcade will serve as the visiting artist showcased in the Tang Museum’s final Dunkerley Dialogue of the 2024-25 season.
The event – Penny Arcade in conversation with Skidmore professor Joseph Cermatori – will take place at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 24 at the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College.
Penny Arcade, aka Susana Ventura, was a teenage superstar for Andy Warhol’s Factory, featured in the film Women in Revolt. She is an international icon of artistic resistance whose social practice is focused on the support of other artists and on the preservation of artist legacies, including the work of Sheyla Baykal (1944-1997) whose photographs are part of the Tang Museum’s monumental exhibition of 100 years of queer art, a field of bloom and hum.
She has co-helmed The Lower East Side Biography Project, a video oral history of downtown New York that broadcasts and streams every Monday at 11 p.m., and is the author of 16 full-length works, hundreds of performances pieces, lectures, and interviews, all available online.
She last visited Saratoga Springs in June 2018 during a 10-day residency in Saratoga Springs organized by the Orchard Project. An interview conducted with this reporter during her stay at a Spring Street apartment may be read at: https://www.punkglobe.com/pennyarcade1218.php.
The dialogue April 24 will take place in the exhibition, a field of bloom and hum, which fills the Museum’s two floors with work by more than 160 artists in a celebration of queer identities and communities. The Tang’s upstairs gallery, the Malloy Wing, features two stages created for exhibition-related events like the Dunkerley Dialogues. Dunkerley Dialogues pair Skidmore professors with artists in a conversational format.
Admission to the museum and to the events is free. For more information, contact the Tang Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080 or visit https://tang.skidmore.edu.
BALLSTON SPA — A decades-long effort to curtail drinking hours in Saratoga Springs was narrowly rejected by Supervisors at the county table this week. The resolution requested the state Liquor Authority restrict the hours of sale of alcoholic beverages countywide.
The proposal to alter “Last Call’ hours had, in one form or another, been forwarded from the city of Saratoga Springs to the county three previous times during the past 20 or so years. In each case, the measure never secured necessary approval at the county subcommittee level to be brought for a full board discussion.
The April 15 Board of Supervisors meeting marked the first time the resolution came to a full board vote, even as more than one-third of the supervisors were absent from the meeting.
Supervisors, in number, voted 9-6 against the proposal to potentially alter Last Call hours in Saratoga County, with 8 of the 23 supervisors absent. The Board uses a weighted voting system based on population numbers in which county specific supervisors serve. Approximate calculations utilizing that system indicate that the measure failed 83,000 to 75,000, with 77,500 others left absent in the vote.
“The Saratoga Springs City Council has been debating this for almost two decades,” Saratoga Springs city Supervisor Michele Madigan told the Board prior to the vote, citing measures initiated by former commissioners John Franck – in 2010, and Chris Mathiesen – two years later. “I don’t believe were trying to limit businesses, but to ensure and enhance public safety,” she said.
To that point, city Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll and county Sheriff Michael Zurlo had each expressed support for earlier Last Call times at bars.
“We went back four years and when you look at our use-of-force incidents in the nightlife district in Saratoga Springs, 55% of those incidents happened after 2 a.m.,” said Commissioner Coll. “Reducing the hours with earlier closing times has the potential for us to reduce overtime as well as to keep officers more safe.”
The New York State Alcoholic Beverage Control Law prohibits sales of alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption between the hours of 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Sunday, and between the hours of 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. on any other day.
The proposed resolution requested the SLA implement changes effective Jan. 1, 2026 across Saratoga County that would set Last Call at 2 a.m. from Nov. 1 to April 30 (with a 4 a.m. exception on New Year’s Eve), and at 3 a.m. from May 1 to Oct. 31. The “Last Call” proposal specified that bars may stay open beyond the stipulated “Last Call” time and continue to serve food and drinks – merely that they may not involve alcohol.
Carving out the time change solely for the city of Saratoga Springs requires state approval and is not believed to be a viable option.
A Public Hearing was held at the county complex in Ballston Spa on April 9 to solicit community input on the proposed changes. Three people spoke in-person and four letters were received. Six of the seven public responses were in favor of the change. All six favoring the change came from Saratoga Springs city residents.
“The city (of Saratoga Springs) is asking for this, so maybe there’s more work to be done to try to show the impact on each town,” city Supervisor Matt Veitch said immediately following the Board vote on April 15.
“We are a Board of Supervisors and we all look at our own towns first. They’re looking out for what happens in their towns, so I don’t hold any ‘no’ votes against those towns. They’re doing what they feel is right by their constituents,” Veitch said. “I’m not sure what the process would be to re-introduce it.”
“I don’t know if we’re going to see earlier bar closings any time soon, but we’re going to discuss it,” Supervisor Madigan added.
How They Voted
There are 23 supervisors on the board representing Saratoga County’s 21 municipalities. Each county is represented by at least one supervisor, with Clifton Park and Saratoga Springs – the two municipalities with the largest populations – each represented by two supervisors.
The board had established a population of 25,000 residents as the threshold for the number of supervisors each county would have to represent them; less than 25,000 residents meant one supervisor, more than 25,000 meant two. When 2022 census reports showed the population in the town of Halfmoon had risen above that 25,000 population threshold – indicating a second supervisor would be required, the board instead voted to approve raising the population threshold to 27,500, essentially maintaining one supervisor for the town.
As such, current Halfmoon Supervisor Kevin Tollisen carries the board’s single most powerful weighted vote, counting as more than 25,600, with the two supervisors in Clifton Park – counting at just over 19,000 each, closest behind.
The results of this week’s vote, calculated using Saratoga County Board of Supervisors Weighted Vote, Local Law No. 1 of 2022 is as follows:
In Favor: Charlton Joe Grasso 4,328; Clifton Park Philip Barrett 19,014.5; Saratoga Ian Murray 5,808; Saratoga Springs Michele Madigan 14,245.5; Saratoga Springs Matthew Veitch 14,245.5; Wilton John Lant 17,361.
Total In Favor: 75,002.5
Against: Corinth Eric Butler 6,500; Day Harry Brennan 819; Edinburg Robert Anderson 1,333; Hadley Arthur Wright 1,976; Halfmoon Kevin Tollisen 25,662; Malta Cynthia Young 17,130; Mechanicville Thomas Richardson 5,163; Moreau Jesse Fish 16,202; Waterford David Ball 8,208.
Total Against: 82,993
Absent: Ballston Eric Connolly 11,831; Clifton Park Angela Thompson 19,014.5; Galway J.D. Arnold 3,525; Greenfield Kevin Veitch 8,004; Milton Scott Ostrander 18,800; Northumberland Willard H. Peck 5,242; Providence Sandra Winney 2,075; Stillwater Edward Kinowski 9,022.
BALLSTON SPA — A public hearing will take place May 13 regarding a proposed lease agreement with Alexi’s at the Airport Inc. for the exclusive operation as a restaurant space at Saratoga County Airport.
The restaurant would be sited in the Terminal Building, which includes a newly constructed commercial-grade kitchen, bar, dining area, back-of-house storage, and catering area and would add to the operations, concessions, facilities, and services at the airport.
If the agreement is approved, Alexi’s at the Airport Inc. would be the exclusive provider of food services -which includes dining, catering, and takeout to airport clients, customers, and passengers.
Alexi’s at the Airport Inc. has proposed leasing the Restaurant Space for an initial term of one year, with two additional five-year renewal options. The annual lease rate would be $26,040 for the first two years, with a five percent annual increase thereafter.
The Board of Supervisors will stage the Public Hearing at 4:30 p.m. on May 13, in the Meeting Room of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors in Ballston Spa.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — A 27-year-old city man is dead, and a 26-year-old Saratoga Springs man was taken into custody and charged with manslaughter in connection with the incident, which is believed to have involved a pellet gun.
According to Saratoga Springs Police, Emergency Dispatch received a distress call early Sunday reporting that a man had shot his roommate with a BB gun at their residence on Warren Street. The caller stated that the victim was bleeding and experiencing difficulty breathing.
Upon arrival, police officers found the victim unconscious and unresponsive. Emergency medical personnel transported the victim to Albany Medical Center for urgent care, however, despite life-saving efforts, he was pronounced deceased shortly after arrival at the hospital.
Police have identified the victim as 27-year-old Michael Collins of Saratoga Springs.
Following the incident, 26-year-old Brendan Carl, also of Saratoga Springs, was charged with manslaughter in the second-degree – a felony, and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth-degree – a misdemeanor. Carl was arraigned in city court and sent to custody of the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office. Bail was set at $25,000 cash, $50,000 partial bond, or $300,000 bond.
The incident is under active investigation by the Saratoga Springs Police Department, and anyone with additional information related to the case is urged to call the police department at 518-584-1800.
Saratoga Springs Polce Department has been awarded a $100,000 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant. Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The man went simply by the name Arjune – his identity secreted away to first-name status only, best evidenced by the patrol car that sat outside his residence to provide protection. Inside the police car sat rookie officer Edward Byrne. Everyone called him “Eddie.”
Nine months earlier Officer Byrne became a member of the New York City Police Department, accomplishing a life-goal that began with his studies as a criminal justice major at Nassau Community College, and led to a path through the Police Academy, the transit police and eventually his being assigned to the 103rd Precinct serving the Jamaica area of Queens.
What links the near 40-year-gap between the events of February 1987 in Queens and Saratoga Springs in April 2025 were the recent statements of Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll at the council table.
“Edward Byrne. I’m very familiar with the case,” Coll explained to his fellow councilmembers last week.
1987
Five days after celebrating his 22nd birthday, Officer Byrne sat alone in his patrol car on 107th Avenue in South Jamaica in the early morning hours of a Friday that February, guarding the house where Arjune lived, located about three miles north of JFK Airport.
The previous year, Arjune, a Guyanese immigrant, had moved into the vacant three-story house in the once peaceful neighborhood growing increasingly plagued with drug trafficking. The police department’s recently initiated crackdown, called “Operation Queens,” resulted in 2,350 drug arrests during its first four months of operation covering seven southeastern Queens precincts.
Immediately after moving into the neighborhood, Arjune repainted the home and cleaned up the adjoining lot left “unkempt and overgrown with weeds and littered with whisky bottles and vials for crack,” the New York Times reported Feb. 27, 1988. Arjune’s complaints about the drug dealers returned threats from the dealers themselves. His house was firebombed on at least one occasion and when he became a key witness in a trial involving crack dealing Officer Byrne was assigned to park his patrol car outside the home to act as a deterrent to whomever may have wanted to cause the witness harm.
Byrne sat alone behind the wheel of the idling radio car when a brown 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass glided up alongside it at 3:30 a.m. that Friday in February, reported the Daily News. Five shots were fired at close range. Byrne was rushed to a nearby hospital where he died of his wounds.
A $30,000 reward was announced the next day for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those involved in the slaying. The private organization COP-SHOT, city Mayor Ed Koch, and the Daily News each contributed equally to the reward fund.
Four suspects were captured within a week of the murder. The four men were found to be members of a gang instructed by a jailed drug dealer to kill a police officer. Each was sentenced to serve 25 years to life. The man who had given the order was later sentenced to life in prison for his conviction on drug-racketeering charges that included ordering the officer’s murder. Four of the men remain incarcerated to this day. The getaway driver was paroled in 2023.
Aftermath
In the immediate aftermath of the killing, then-President Ronald Reagan personally called the Byrne family to offer his condolences. Vice President George H.W. Bush carried Byrne’s badge with him during his 1988 presidential campaign and later kept it on his desk in the Oval Office.
Byrne’s death motivated the creation of the Tactical Narcotics Team in South Jamaica. The program’s success led to its expansion throughout the city. Local government allocated nearly $2 million to turn a debris-filled lot in Queens where drug dealings were known to occur into a community park named in honor of the slain officer. The park opened in 1995 and today its nearly five acres site multiple basketball, tennis and handball courts, a running track and a playground for children. In 2018, the NYPD rededicated the street sign in front of the 103rd Precinct honoring Byrne’s service and sacrifice to the city.
The U.S. Department of Justice named a local police funding program the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program. It is the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions and since 2005 has awarded more than 20,000 grants that total more than $7 billion, according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Byrne JAG grants have helped launch a program in Connecticut that prepares incarcerated women ages 18–25 for reentry into society, and another in California that enables youthful offenders to avoid incarceration by completing rigorous, individually tailored rehabilitation programs. The grants have supported and promoted improvements in every aspect of the justice system and provide critical funding necessary to support a range of program areas.
The city of Saratoga Springs was awarded a $100,000 New York State FY 2024 Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant, which it will use to fund law enforcement equipment Commissioner Coll told the council.
“Edward Byrne in 1988 was executed by drug dealers in South Jamaica Queens. He was a rookie. Twenty-two years old.” said Coll, explaining the origins of the grant. “It will be used to provide additional tactical equipment – such as helmets, shields and vests – and in the spirit of the grant will provide additional equipment to keep our officers safe.”
Moonlight Benjamin performing at UPH in Saratoga Springs on March 29, 2025. Multi exposure iPhone: Thomas Dimopoulos.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — “When was the last time we had a Haitian voodoo priestess in town?” Proctors Collaborative Passport Series curator Mona Golub asked the crowd, introducing Moonlight Benjamin to the stage at Universal Preservation Hall on March 29.
Infused with the guttural boogie of two guitars, bass and drums, Moonlight Benjamin spilled Haitian Creole syllables backed by a catchy beat during a rollicking 90-minute performance with multiple encores in Saratoga Springs on Saturday night.
The lyrics fused French and African languages with a dash of Spanish, here, Portuguese and Aramaic, there. The music: a pastiche revelry merging garage blues with searing guitar runs. The audience expressed their love for every minute of it.
High marks to Universal Preservation Hall and Proctors Collaborative for bringing the seldom-heard-in-these-parts sounds to town and for providing audiences the opportunity to engage in the shared joy of music as being the ultimate coalescence of all souls.
Saratoga Springs Bike Park Pump Track. Image: city of Saratoga Springs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Springs’ Bike Park Pump Track will host a groundbreaking event April 21, city Mayor John Safford announced this week.
The park is located behind the city ice rinks at 30 Weibel Ave.
The outdoor recreation facility with sculpted terrain will include a paved pump track with berms and rollers, designed for use by beginners and experts alike, according to Shredders MTB – a regional 501(c)(3) organization that started in 2020.
The bike park will also include a skills training area with prefabricated features, a Flow Zone to practice jumping skills, and a Dual Slalom Course for more advanced riding, according to the group, adding that it is hopeful future phases will include a jumps progression area and bike playground.
The Groundbreaking event is slated to be held Monday, April 21 at 12:30 p.m.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —The development of a new city police station inched forward toward reality this week with the City Council’s approval to sign a contract addendum with LaBella Associates of Rochester at a cost of $214,500.
The council had approved $500,000 in the Capital Budget plan for use in 2025 to initiate designs for a new public safety facility.
“There are three phases,” Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll explained to the council during its April 1 meeting. “The first is the basic drawings to make sure it will fit on the site. The second phase – which we’re entering now – is the schematic design phase, and the third phase would be the construction documents. “
The overall estimated cost for the new facility is approximately $25 million. It will be sited on city-owned land behind City Hall that is currently used as a parking lot by city employees. The lot had previously been the focus of numerous design plans during the past several decades – a cinema, a 500-car parking garage and a public safety facility, among them.
The new facility, at approximately 30,000 square feet, is slated to include a sally port and a walkway to transport prisoners directly to City Hall and eliminate their being transported through pedestrian traffic, as is currently the case. A connector bridge is anticipated to extend over Maple Avenue to adjoin the facility with City Hall – where the courts are located, not dissimilar to the connector bridge atop Maple Avenue a few blocks north that connects the parking garage with the Saratoga Springs City Center.
The police department’s current home is in the basement of City Hall. It has served as its headquarters for nearly 150 years. Feasibility studies for the development of a new public safety facility in the city date to the mid-1970s, and more than a half-dozen reports were conducted during the decades that have followed.
In 2006, a committee was formed to help develop a new station and the City Council seated at the time explored multiple proposals for a new facility, but no majority approval could be secured for any of the plans. Subsequently no action was taken. Renovations and upgrades have been made to City Hall in the time since, but the restrictive space of the current police department is less than ideal, officials say.
Commissioner Coll said the public safety department is anticipating making a public presentation to the council regarding the proposal status in the coming weeks, and Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi is anticipating staging a subsequent presentation to be made by financial advisors who will explain to the council the finances and timing involved in funding the $25 million station.
The council is in agreement that a new station is needed. Coll said Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner is working to attempt to secure some of the funding for the project, although it is not currently known whether such funding will be available.
BALLSTON SPA — A Public Hearing will take place at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 9 regarding a proposed resolution to modify Last Call hours across Saratoga County. The hearing will be staged in the Meeting Room of the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors at 40 McMaster St., Ballston Spa.
The measure, which was officially approved by the Board during its monthly meeting on March 19, requests the NY State Liquor Authority amend the hours that alcoholic beverages for on-premise consumption may be sold in Saratoga County beginning Jan. 1, 2026.
Under current New York State Alcoholic Beverage Control Law, the sale of alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption is prohibited in Saratoga County between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Sundays, and between 4 a.m. and 8 a.m. on all other days.
The proposed resolution requests the New York State Liquor Authority implement the following changes, effective January 1, 2026:
Nov. 1 – April 30: Last call at 2 a.m.
May 1 – Oct. 31: Last call at 3 a.m.
A Special Exception is in place on New Year’s Eve, when Last Call is extended to 4 a.m.
The full Board of Supervisors could potentially vote to approve the resolution at its subsequent monthly meeting on April 15.
If approved, the measure will be forwarded to the SLA, which holds the final authority to enact the proposed changes affecting serving times throughout Saratoga County.
Those not able to attend in person may send their comments via email to: publiccomment@saratogacountyny.gov.
SARATOGA — Congresswoman Elise Stefanik will maintain her seat in the 21st Congressional District, which includes portions of Saratoga County and runs hundreds of miles along the Canadian border.
Stefanik was first elected to the office in 2014. On Nov. 11, 2024, six days after being elected to her sixth term to represent NY-21, then-President Elect Donald Trump picked the town of Saratoga resident to serve as his ambassador to the United Nations.
On March 27, President Donald Trump clawed back his nomination of Stefanik to serve in his Cabinet.
“It is imperative that we maintain EVERY seat in Congress,” President Donald Trump posted, in part, on the Truth Social platform March 27, explaining the reasoning for Stefanik’s staying put in Congress. “With a very tight Majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat…therefore, Elise will stay in Congress.”
A Senate confirmation vote approving Stefanik’s appointment was anticipated to take place sometime this month, subsequently triggering a process for a special election regionally – expected to take place during the summer – to fill Stefanik’s seat. Multiple party chairs across numerous upstate municipalities had been planning in preparation of launching a campaign for potential candidates for that special election in NY-21.
The current term for the House seat goes until December 2026. The district represented by Stefanik includes multiple Saratoga County towns – Corinth, Greenfield, Moreau, Northumberland, Saratoga, and portions of Wilton among them.
“The reality is this is a historically slim House majority,” Stefanik told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on March 30. “The political realities are what they are, and it’s very important that we have every single vote in the House. So I’m proud to be stepping up as a team to support the American people, to get this done and to continue to support President Trump.”
