Author: Thomas Dimopoulos

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The building is mostly vacant now on Adelphi Street.  Gone are those who sought sanctuary from the elements of winter as well as those who committed their time and efforts to provide care at the space that has served as a Code Blue emergency homeless shelter. The tally for the November to April season: 160 nights open, 6,800 meals served.

The Code Blue shelter – which opens when the temperature dips below 32 degrees Fahrenheit – has most recently been located just off South Broadway as a 61-bed facility on Adelphi Street. On April 30, the current lease on the Adelphi Street space will expire – it is already listed with realtors as a commercial spot for lease – leaving the city, for the time being, without a venue to point to as a shelter for next winter’s season.     

Earlier this year, Saratoga Springs Mayor Ron Kim initiated the formation of a Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness. The group is tasked with presenting a proposal for a shelter location to the council by early summer.   

“By our July 6 (council) meeting, we’re asking them to report back. I think they’re on schedule and should be able to complete their mission. I’ve been incredibly impressed by their discussions. They’ve been thoughtful, thought-provoking and also respectful. They’ve sort of come to the conclusion that we need a 24-hour shelter,” said city Mayor Ron Kim. 

“By hook-or-crook we’re going to have to offer something. I hope we can move quickly, but that’s all about location and agency.  What I think the Homelessness Task Force will be able to do is give is responses to the three questions we’ve asked: what do we need? Where could it be, and who will provide it?” Kim said.  “It’s going to then be up to the City Council when we get those recommendations in early July to move the ball forward. So, we’ll have our work cut out for us.” 

Since late 2013, St. Peter’s Parish Center, the Salvation Army building, the Soul Saving Station Church and the “overflow” Presbyterian New England Congregational Church have all served as a regional emergency winter shelter at one time or another. Adelphi Street was first activated in 2020. All have been on a temporary basis. Each time a permanent venue was thought to be found, loud opposition from those with interests near the proposed siting spot has negated its coming to fruition. 

The most recent future-looking plans eyed a permanent 24/7 year-round shelter at the soon-to-be-vacated Senior Center on Williams Street. Last October, the City Council unanimously approved a resolution in favor of the project at the Williams Street property which the city owns. Shortly afterwards, however, some public opposition was raised and Shelters of Saratoga – which co-operates the Code Blue shelter with Saratoga County and The NYS Office of Temporary Disability and Assistance – announced it was canceling its plans to site a permanent center on Williams Street.   

The building continues to serve as the Saratoga Senior Center for now. Relocation will occur when a new senior center structure on West Avenue becomes operational this summer, Saratoga Senior Center Executive Director Lois Celeste said.  

There has been no determination yet made about what may become of the city owned site on Williams Street when it becomes vacant.

“There are no plans whatsoever,” said Mayor Kim, adding that plans to site a shelter there are not completely off the table. “On the other hand, if the (Homelessness) Task Force sees another possibility, it could be something that we use to rent, for other purposes. Another possibility is that it could help us fund something in another location. So, nothing is firm about that. But in July that will be a major thing for the City Council to address once we get the recommendations.”  

Discussions by the task force include whether an outside agency would be involved to provide services (such as Shelters of Saratoga had been in the past), the geographic area where a potential shelter would best be sited, whether it would have 24/7 capabilities, and specifics regarding whether the shelter be of a low-barrier status. The definition of a “low barrier shelter” and of a “navigation center” vary from state-to-state and having a “low barrier” points to things such as potentially eliminating curfews and not requiring background checks, sobriety or mandatory treatment.

“Those are open questions,” Kim said.  “That’s one of those things they’re still debating. One of the viewpoints is: maybe we should have an aspiration goal of low-barrier with the very particular details of that left to an agency. On the other hand, some have said maybe we should do more of the defining. So, I don’t think they’ve reached that (consensus) yet,” Kim said.  

Kim said he would prefer siting a permanent shelter rather than continuing along the path of having a series of temporary rentals as has been the case for nearly a decade. “I think we need to do this, but I don’t know in the end where it will land.” 

Funding is also a key piece. 

“The funding comes through the state and passes through the county, so the county has a huge funding role in this,” Kim said. “The county, I hope and expect, will play a huge role in this; it’s more of a partnership because the city has become the central place where you need a homeless shelter. I don’t know of any other parts of Saratoga County where this has become a huge need.”   

In July 2022, the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement for the short-term lease – at $8,000 per month – of the Adelphi Street venue to be used as a “Code Blue” emergency homeless shelter thru April 30, 2023. 

“The county has not been presented yet with any plans to-date for a year-round shelter,” Saratoga County Board of Supervisors Chair Theodore Kusnierz said when asked about the future status of a shelter in Saratoga Springs.  “We will entertain any proposal that is provided to us.”  

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The City Council by a 4-1 vote on April 18, approved a resolution that bans no-knock warrants except “in the most extreme circumstances.”  

“I think it’s really important sometimes to take a stand on some things,” said city Mayor Ron Kim. “And this is one of them.”

An Executive Order issued in June 2020 by then-N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo required local governments to perform a comprehensive review of its existing police force deployments, strategies, policies, procedures, practices and develop a plan for improvement with community input. 

The Saratoga Springs Police Reform Task Force was initiated two months later and tasked with developing recommendations along with the police chief and the city attorney to present to the City Council. Portions of the subsequent “Reinvention Plan: Toward a Community-Centered Justice Initiative” was accepted by the previous council in March 2021, although it refrained from action regarding the plan’s recommendation to ban non-knock search warrants.

“This City Council’s goal is to make our community safer and protect the rights and safety of all residents, including black residents who have historically experienced systemic racism,” read the resolution presented by the council this week.  “Restrictions on no-knock search warrants will enhance safety for both the citizens of Saratoga Springs and the law enforcement officers who protect them.” 

“Restrictions” on no-knock search warrants was a late-added revision, replacing an earlier version which stated intent for an outright “ban.”  The revised version added a handful of new paragraphs and revisions and was read aloud prior to the resolution vote, but not available for public viewing on the city’s website. The updated resolution, still titled as a “ban,” allowed for exceptions “in the most extreme circumstances.”     

“This restricts no-knock warrants. There is still the extreme circumstance where the police can in fact ask a judge for a no-knock warrant, so it does not remove no-knock warrants from law,” said DPW Commissioner Jason Golub, who served as co-chair of Saratoga’s Police Reform Task Force prior to his appointment, and subsequent election, to the council. 

“It simply says: we are restricting them to the most extreme circumstances where they might be required. “The ask by Gov. Cuomo was for every city to reimagine police reform…I think that is reimagining what we can do to protect our community, and that’s where we need to be going,” Golub said.  

The issues were discussed and debated by the city Police Reform Task Force for about nine months Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran reminded those at the council meeting, during which a great majority of those making public comments voiced their support for the city’s adoption of the resolution.

“There was a comment earlier today that there hadn’t been enough community conversation. I just don’t think that’s true,” Moran said. “The recommendation has been out there for a while and there has been plenty of opportunity for people to come forward, voice their support for – as we’ve heard this evening – and folks to use their voice against.” 

At the council table, Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi verbally supplied data that showcased: dozens of deaths involving civilians and police had occurred in the U.S. over a six-year period during no-knock raids; funds paid by municipalities due to resulting lawsuits, and statistics that highlighted a high percentage of no-knock warrants executed upon blacks and Hispanics indicating that “race is clearly an issue.”

“No-knock warrants have been banned in Florida – which I don’t think anyone would think is a liberal state – they have been banned in Virginia, which has a Republican governor, and in Oregon,” Sanghvi said. “They don’t make sense for the safety and security of our police or our community, and it doesn’t make sense financially either for our local government.” 

The New York State Legislature is considering a bill that would sharply limit the use of no-knock warrants.

Public Safety Commissioner James Montagnino cast the lone council vote opposed to the resolution, citing procedural issues – including that the revised measure was not available to the public – as well as current state law. “Unless and until either our legislature amends article 690 (Search Warrants) or we go through the proper process to amend the City Charter, I don’t think this resolution should be adopted.” 

Montagnino said as best he could discern, while “a number of” no-knock warrants were issued by city judges, most of those city police opted to execute as standard announce warrants. “As best as we can tell, one warrant was executed as a no-knock warrant in the city of Saratoga Springs, about 7 years ago… so the process itself is extremely rare.”

The condition providing exception to the ban reads as follows: SSPD will only initiate no-knock warrants in the most extreme circumstances where officers detail specific facts in the search warrant application that explain why giving notice would create an imminent danger to a person’s life.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — “We loved the painted horses, we loved the ballet slippers when they came out and we loved Lip Dub,” says Tracey Shannon. “Coming out of COVID, we’re looking for that next activity to bring our community together.“

That activity: Find the Hidden Horseshoe. The treasure hunt begins Saturday, April 21 when 300 of them, formerly worn by Saratoga racehorses, may be sought in a variety of city parks and trails. Find it, and it’s yours for keeps. 

The event is the brainchild of adventure partners Tracey Shannon and Jen Clasen and is inspired by the Glass Float project that began on Block Island, Rhode Island a decade ago. There, glassblower Eben Horton creates more than 500 glass orbs that are dated, numbered and stamped and measure about the size of an orange which he calls “glass floats.” The glass floats are hidden on the beaches and greenway trails across Block Island and provide a community scavenger hunt. 

Here, the 300 horseshoes – keeping with the Spa City theme of health, history and horses – are placed on public property in the city’s parks and trails.  

The specific venues are anticipated to be High Rock Park, Congress Park, Spring Run, Waterfront Park, and Bog Meadow Trail. 

“If you find it, you get to keep it. It’s a finder’s keeper’s kind of scavenger hunt event,” Clasen says. “Three hundred will be hidden in all, of the 300, 30 will be decorated by local artists. So, if you find one, it tells you what number you found and asks you to scan it. Take a bragging picture and we’ll post it to social media and post it to our site.”   

Local artists were involved in decorating 30 of the horseshoes. Shannon and Clasen reached out to Saratoga Bridges, AIM, and the high school for that purpose, the organizers told the members of the City Council during a recent presentation promoting the event. 

All horseshoes will be accessible between ground and eye-level within three feet of a trail, so no ladders or shovels are required. It’s also important to note that the horseshoes will not be on private property, so no public or preserved property should be disturbed to find a horseshoe. It is a finder’s keepers’ activity, but organizers ask if someone is fortunate to find more than one, that they leave it be for others to find.  

The event is looking to launch in Congress Park on Earth Day, April 22.

“I think it’s a real positive activity. We want everybody to have something to get excited about and bring nature in,” Shannon said.   

For more information and “hunt” rules, go to: saratogahiddenhorseshoes.com. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Ray O’Conor has worked as a financial consultant with a major Wall Street investment firm, a United States Border Patrol Agent and a Special Agent with the U.S. Department of Defense. He has served on the boards of several not for profit organizations, and is the CEO of a not for profit community development company.  

Close to home, you may know O’Conor as a former local bank CEO, a Wilton Town Board Councilmember, an avid mountain climber, the author of the book “She Called Him Raymond.” 

That’s a lot of lives for one existence, now here’s one more:  on Saturday, April 15 Saratoga Arts Center will host the debut screening of Veda Films’ documentary “An Above Average Day,” featuring longtime friends Ray O’Conor and Joe Murphy on their hiking and wilderness adventures while seeking answers the question: What could two men with a 30-year difference in age possibly have in common that would compel them to climb more than 400 mountains and hike in excess of 4,000 miles of trails?

Q. Where did the idea for the film come from? 

A. My good buddy Joe and I have done a lot of hiking and climbing over the last 15 years. We j hiked more than 400 different mountains, most of them together and more than 5,000 miles of trail. 

About 2-1/2 years ago I got a message from Katera Kapoor – one of the founders of the Veda Films company – who said, “I’ve been following your adventures with your buddy Joe and was wondering if you had any interest in doing a documentary film together.” Katara is originally from Saratoga Springs. She told me how she and her husband (Aviral), both graduates of the New York Film Academy where they’d met, started this documentary film company. So, Joe and I said: sure. That’s how it all started.

Q. How did the filming work?

A. The husband-and-wife team followed us around when we went out. They were generally long days because in addition to the hiking itself, there was the setting up to take shots, second shots, third shots, and the interviewing. It’s taken a couple of years to get done. Joe and I had a lot of fun with Katera and Avi. They are exceptional people and superb storytellers.

Q. What is the focus of the documentary?

A. There are two sides to the story. One is the adventure side about hiking and mountain climbing. The other is about the relationship between Joe and I. There are 30 years between us – I’m 68 and he’s 38. My wife Mary has always said that my behavior is worse than a child, and Joe is like an old soul kind of person. So, one of the focal points is the relationship between these two guys who met by chance and spent a lot of time together over the past 15 years on mountains and on trails.

Q. You go up a city kid. Where did your fondness for hiking and climbing come from?

A. Back in the late 1980s, I decided to run for the town board in Wilton and Roy McDonald was our town supervisor. Unbeknownst to me, Roy was big on hiking at the time. He had climbed Mount Marcy like 10 times. So, Roy calls me and says, “I’m going to pick you up at 5:30 in the morning and we’re going to go on a hike.” I didn’t even know where we were going, or what I needed. It was a real nice weekend, so I had on a pair of gym shorts, a T-shirt, and some work boots that I wore when doing yardwork. We wound up hiking Mount Marcy. We had a great time. On subsequent hikes, I came much better prepared.

Q. How do you decide where to climb?

A. We have a list we work on. The first was the 46 high peaks of the Adirondacks. There’s a fire tower challenge  – 32 mountains between the Catskills and the Adirondacks that have fire towers on them.  And we’ve done all those. There’s a broader list called the Northeast 115, the tallest mountains in the northeast United States. And there are other smaller mountains – the Lake George 12ster, the Saranac Lake 6er.

The next list is the 50 highest points and peaks in the United States. I’ve already got 17 states done and Joe’s a couple shy of that. I’ve got a plan mapped out for a southern swing next month where we go to Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Indiana. Nine states, high points or peaks in six days.

Q. For people inspired to go on a hike or climb, what local resources are available to learn more?

A. If you’re a beginner there is the Adirondack Mountain Club, the Appalachian Mountain Club, Saratoga Plan. You know you don’t have to climb Mount Everest to get the benefits emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Q. What do you get from hiking, emotionally, physically or otherwise?

A. I’d like to say it’s as good for the mind and the soul as it is for the body. There’s something special about being out in the wilderness. The Japanese have a term they call it: Forest Bathing. Being out in the woods, on the trail, in isolation. Getting away from all the world’s troubles is magical.

The debut screening of “An Above Average Day” will take place at the Saratoga Arts Center, 320 Broadway, Saratoga Springs on Saturday, April 15. Shows at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Tickets are $5 and available at: www.saratoga-arts.org/events. Produced and directed by Katera and Aviral Kapoor, founders of Veda Films.