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Author: Thomas Dimopoulos

9-Year-Old Missing Girl Found Safe; Saratoga Man Charged with Kidnapping 

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in News.

SARATOGA COUNTY — Nine-year-old Charlotte Sena, who went missing Sept. 30 while on a bike ride in Moreau Lake State Park, was located safe and in good health by state police shortly after 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 2.  

Craig N. Ross Jr., of Ballston Spa, was charged with kidnapping in the first degree, a felony, on the suspicion of abducting the girl. Ross, 46, was taken into custody, arraigned at Milton Town Court and sent to Saratoga County Correctional Facility without bail. Additional charges are anticipated. 

The Oct. 2 arrest followed the issue of an AMBER alert on Oct. 1, and an investigative “search of multiple residences where (Ross) is known to reside,” authorities said. 

“When you hit that 48-hour moment, you realize it’s going to be tough, and you start thinking the worst. But what happened was extraordinary,” NY Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a press conference following the arrest. 

Timeline of arrest: at 4:20 a.m. Oct.2, a car pulled up to the Sena family home, which was being guarded by State Police, and a ransom note was left in the mailbox. Fingerprints on the letter were entered into the New York State database in search of a possible match. 

“The hit came at 2:30 (Monday) afternoon. There had been a DWI in 1999 in the city of Saratoga (Springs),” Gov. Hochul said. “A fingerprint was found that matched what was found on the ransom note.”

Further research led police to a residence with a camper located behind it. Ross’ mother lives in the residence – described as a double wide house, and Ross lived in the camper. 

“They have what they call a dynamic entry, a tactical maneuver, and within the camper, they located the suspect,” the governor said. “After some resistance, the suspect was taken into custody, and immediately the little girl was found in a cabinet, cupboard. She was rescued. And she knew she was being rescued. She knew that she was in safe hands.” 

“Ultimately, it was the two SWAT teams, one federal and one state, that landed in helicopters in Ballston Spa to rescue Charlotte,” said Hochul, who thanked law enforcement officials, several fire departments, city, county, state and federal agencies, and some 400 volunteers for their diligence in the search for the girl.

New Development, Demolition Proposals

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in News.


Station Lane at Southwest corner of property, facing east, as submitted to Saratoga Springs ZBA. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — New business presented to the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals this week include the seeking of an area variance to permit the construction of a mixed-use building at Station Lane, and another to permit the demolition and construction of a new single-family modular home on South Franklin Street. 

Station Lane: at the northwest corner of West Avenue and Station Lane, the “West Ave Site Plan” project proposes the development of a four-story mixed-use building, with a footprint of approximately 23,500 square feet. 

The first floor is proposed to house retail space, a restaurant, and nine apartments. The remaining three floors will provide 59 multi-family rental units. The basement level will provide 60 parking spaces.  

At 72 South Franklin St., the applicants are seeking to remove the existing structure and build a new modular home on the property. New setbacks would be needed for the development of the new home. 

Travels With Darley – Saratoga To Be Featured in National PBS Broadcast

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in Featured, News.

Darley Newman at High Rock Springs with Charlie Keunzel. 
Photo provided.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The region’s contributions to American history and its role in the birth of the nation will receive a prominent boost in the new year with an appearance on a nationally broadcast popular PBS series. 

Darley Newman – producer and host of the long-running “Travels with Darley,” was in town this week, filming segments for the series that will launch in January. 

“This area is interesting because it’s a big part of the story,” said Newman, taking advantage of some down-time during filming to speak with journalists at the Old Bryan Inn in Saratoga Springs this week. “Saratoga was a turning point and really is significant in the shaping of America. It was a big part of what turned the American Revolution.“

Newman was in town with a film crew for a five-day run, arriving Sunday, Sept. 24 and working through Thursday, Sept. 28. 

Monday’s filming tour took place along the eastern edge of the county and visited Saratoga National Historical Park – home of the battlefield and the infamous Benedict Arnold “Boot” monument. Tuesday explored Hadley’s Revolution Rail and Saratoga Springs, and Wednesday’s focus captured the historic Schuylerville region and adjoining communities, with pre-planned visits to the Schuyler House, the Saratoga Monument, and the sword Surrender Site.   

Saratoga County Historian Lauren Roberts accompanied Newman for much of the visit. Roberts also serves as Chair of the Saratoga County 250th Anniversary Commission. The 250th anniversary celebrating the Turning Point of the American Revolution will reach full fruition in 2027.

“I think it’s great when we can be more educated about culture and history in the world. What people see, how people dress,” Newman said.

“All these things play into knowing more about ourselves because this is all part of our past. I mean, my grandparents came from Sweden and Finland. They were immigrants. So I haven’t been in America that long but I still feel that it’s all part of my history, too,“ she said. 

Newman began showcasing her work on PBS in 2007 with the series “Equitrekking” – “I went horseback riding around the world,” she explained – and her latest long-running series, “Travels with Darley,” has been broadcast on PBS since 2016 and depicts 10 seasons which have included episode visits to everywhere from Istanbul, Turkey to Seoul, South Korea.   

The Revolutionary War Trip segments launch in January 2024. Newman’s visit to Saratoga County follows earlier journeys to South Carolina, Virginia and New Jersey for the series. 

“We’re taking a look back at the history of the American Revolution, but from the perspective of places that you can still visit today,“ Newman said. “We still find there are so many mysteries – things people are thinking about and still trying to solve. You read your normal history that you might learn about school – when I learned about the American Revolution I felt like it might be a little dry, but now when you get to go out and meet people you get new things coming to light.”

Saratoga New Year’s Fest Announced

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in Featured, News.


Photo: Robert Millis announces the lineup for this year’s Saratoga New Year’s Fest during presser at Bailey’s Saratoga on Sept. 26, 2023. Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS —Joan Osborne, Robert Randolph, and the Gibson Brothers will be some among the many performers to stage live events during this year’s Saratoga New Year’s festival. The events take place Dec. 29 to Jan. 1.  

“This is a joint presentation: the city the Chamber, Discover Saratoga, the City Center and myself,” said producer Robert Millis of the 398Group, during this week’s festival announcement. “We put this idea together last year to bring back First Night – and it worked. We met our milestones. It’s all part of a three-year-plan to make this thing get bigger and bigger.”    

This year’s events will feature more than 30 performers on nearly two dozen stages. In addition to live music performances there will be a 5K run, fireworks show, a family-friendly pre-fireworks block party and other events. Standard tickets are $25 in advance, kids under 16 are admitted free of charge, and Shelters of Saratoga will serve as this year’s beneficiary of a portion of the proceeds. 

The musical lineup includes Joan Osborne, Robert Randolph, Gibson Brothers, Dogs In A Plie, DJ Logic, Toubab Krewe, Organ Fairchild, Tracy Bonham, and others. For a full lineup and/or to purchase tickets, go to: facebook.com/saratogafirstnight, or www.saratoga.org/tourism/saratoga-new-years-fest/.    

Traffic Safety & Pedestrian Connectivity Project on Grand Avenue Anticipated in 2024

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in News.

SARATOGA SPRINGS —The city of Saratoga Springs is seeking proposals from professional consulting engineering firms to prepare preliminary engineering feasibility studies and detailed design services related to bicycle and pedestrian accommodations along Grand Ave. between West Ave. and Rowland St. 

The project description calls for the development of final construction plans and specifications for bicycle and pedestrian accommodations and/or improvements that provide for safe and efficient transportation of vehicles, pedestrians, and bicycles along Grand Avenue.

Returned bids for the RFP (Request For Proposal) will be opened Oct. 12, and subsequently awarded.  Construction is anticipated to begin in 2024.

Man Accused of Posting Images of Female Runners in Saratoga Springs Charged with Stalking

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in News.

SARATOGA SPRINGS —A 62-year-old Albany man accused of posting videos and photographs of female runners in and around Saratoga Springs to an Instagram account has been charged with stalking in the fourth-degree.  

Charles A. Ross, of Grant Avenue in Albany, was taken into custody and processed on the active arrest warrant for the charged misdemeanor and subsequently released without bail to pre-trial services. 

In August, the Saratoga Springs Police Department reported it had been made aware of the social media account that displayed videos and photographs taken in public places and that it began to investigate the matter to determine if any crime has occurred. Police also asked anyone recognizing themselves on the social media website regarding the case to contact them. One such person has apparently stepped forward. 

According to court documents, the suspect is alleged on Aug. 18 to have “intentionally and for no legitimate purpose” followed a woman from the Saratoga Spa State Park to Broadway near Caroline Street, conduct which – the report adds – was likely to cause reasonable fear of material harm to the woman’s health and safety. 

“I felt like someone was watching me or following me and I felt unsafe,” the unnamed woman, who is in her early 20s, told police related to her run that began in the Saratoga Spa State Park. She added that she felt sufficiently unsafe to the point that she moved off of her normal running path to get away from the road.   

The woman was later informed by a friend of the social media website and recognized herself in multiple images and/or videos, according to court documents. 

An apparent 2018 arrest image, widely circulated on social media without attribution, allegedly depicts Ross with short gray hair.  The fall 2018 image is connected with a felony stalking charge of Charles A. Ross of Whitehall – then 57 years old – who was arrested shortly after South Glens Falls Police received complaints that he followed a group of 12- and 13-year-old girls near a middle school while driving a Mr. Ding-A-Ling ice cream truck, the Post-Star reported at the time. The girls believed he was either videotaping or taking photos of them, and the man had also been the subject of a similar complaint in Lake George earlier in the year, but no charges were filed.

A more recent image, posted by NewsChannel 13 and filmed inside Saratoga Springs city court, depicts Ross with shoulder-length lightened hair and black-frame eyeglasses, nearly unrecognizable from the image of five years ago. Given the current charge in Saratoga Springs is a misdemeanor, city police said they will not be releasing a current arrest image.   

James Patterson and Mike Lupica Celebrate New Book Publication in Spa City

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in Entertainment.


Authors Mike Lupica and James Patterson, and interview host
Joe Donohue at the Saratoga Springs City Center on Oct. 24, 2023.
Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — “Hi, I’m Stephen King,” author James Patterson said to the audience, packed the inside the Saratoga Springs City Center Sunday afternoon. 

“And I’m Mich Albom,” added longtime Daily News sportswriter and novelist Mike Lupica. 

Lupica and Patterson were in town celebrating the release of their novel “12 Months To Live,” in an event sponsored by Northshire Bookstore Saratoga. 

A brief interview with WAMC’s In Conversation host Joe Donahue was followed by a session during which the two authors answered questions solicited from the audience.    

“This is fantastic,” Donohue said. “This is better than football.” 

Once Living Matter Repurposed in Art Show

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in Entertainment, Featured.


Terri-Lynn Pellegri. Photo provided.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Ten works line the wall inside Dining Room Gallery of the new Saratoga Senior Center. Gaze upon them intensely, for they seem to trick the eye. Or do they? They boast appearances of multi-dimensional proportion. They look alive.

“Renewal,” says Terri-Lynn Pellegri. “Once-living energy, repurposed.”  

Love Compost Saratoga Collaborative depicts 10 new original works captured by Pellegri’s camera eye. The exhibition, on display at the new Saratoga Senior Center, opens with an artists’ reception on Sunday.   

“Composting is really pretty simple,” Pellegri says. “Nature knows what to do. For me, it’s the breakdown of once-living matter – food waste, vegetables, tea bags, eggshells – and the natural decomposition of that which then aids and nourishes soil.  For me, it’s identifying living/ non-living. Of the earth/ not of the earth. I saw the difference between living and non-living matter.” 

The photographer’s passion for her composted subjects began in earnest on a spring day in 2014 during a seemingly random moment alongside her kitchen sink, where a batch of collected peels and scraps sat in a small compost container.

“I remember the light shining through, and I had this moment. I saw something and it just stopped me. I thought: Oh, there’s something here that looks beautiful,” Pellegri says. “For me, photographing is about seeing, about being absorbed in the moment. I got lost in that moment, looking into my compost, into this food waste. I was stunned. I went and got my camera and started photographing.”

She has learned to look at the by-product of what we consume; We eat the eggs, for example, but dispose of the eggshells, the gnarly ends of broccoli and render the nubby parts of carrots as simple discard. 

 “It’s about the light and it’s about allowing yourself to have that moment,” Pellegri says. “To be in the moment without judging it, without analyzing it; Just giving myself that moment To Be. To see.”

“We put in one big bundle anything that is not useful to us anymore. Trash. We don’t want to see it. It all goes in a bag and off to the landfill,” Pellegri says. “I just couldn’t put any more in the landfill, so I started composting. And I really fell in love with it. It’s hard to explain. Just watching these things go back to the earth, where it had come from.”

She began showcasing her composting photography work in 2019, visiting area businesses that were composting – Caffe Lena, Saratoga Tea & Honey, and Four Seasons among them – and creating compositions with the materials presented. 

“It’s allowed me to shift my thinking. It has totally changed my relationship with food, and with waste,” she says. 

This past spring, Saratoga Arts announced Pellegri was awarded a grant as part of a NYSCA regrant program for LOVE COMPOST Saratoga Collaborative, to include 10 new pieces of photographic artwork – Compost COMPOSiTions – featuring five works that honor and celebrate entities and businesses that have a compost program in place, and five works of her own, all with companion narratives.

“Skidmore College has an amazing program, Lily and The Rose, The Mouzon House, Hattie’s and Corina Contemporary Jewelry in Ballston Spa – even though she’s a jewelry shop, she takes food waste from other businesses and composts.  So many things are interwoven and what I really want to share is the feeling of connectedness: what we do, who we are as people, what we do in our community, and how we communicate with one another,” Pellegri says. “The thread of commonality between the businesses, all taking food waste and compostable material and creating something.”

Across the ten works there are unlikely pairings. Tea bags collaborate with pistachio shells, clementine peels become dance partners with dried irises, scraps of carrot, and the paper casing of garlic cloves – all colorfully captured and repurposed even as they fluctuate through the varied points of their own natural decay.  

“My attempt was to bring them together, to life,” Pellegri says, “to celebrate them in this visual expression.  

An Artist’s Reception will take place 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24 in the Dining Room Gallery of the new Saratoga Senior Center, located at 290 West Ave., adjacent to the Y.

City’s First Cannabis Growers Showcase Brings In $70K

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in News.

Saratoga Springs’s Cannabis Growers Showcase on Sept. 3.
Photo: Upstate Canna Co. Facebook.

SARATOGA SPRINGS —Saratoga Springs’s first Cannabis Growers Showcase, which took place Sunday, Sept. 3 and Tuesday, Sept. 5 returned over $70,000 in gross sales, city Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran said.  

The local showcase will take place 2 to 8 p.m. at the City Center Parking Garage Friday and Sunday, Sept. 15 and 17, and every Saturday and Sunday through the end of the year beginning Sept. 30, according to the NYS Office of Cannabis Management. 

Nine farms presented their products in addition to a processor – who essentially makes edible goods and drinks – during the Saratoga Springs showcase, which returned more than 300 transactions on each of its first two days. 

Municipalities receive a 3% tax on cannabis sales, under New York State law. That formula indicates a return of about $2,100 for the first two days of operations in Saratoga Springs.  

“When you start to look at what potential ramifications can be on a full roll-out or a full-market basis, it’s very obvious…the cannabis market on a tax basis is going to be transformative,” Commissioner Moran said. 

Saratoga Springs Under Development

Written by Thomas Dimopoulos on . Posted in News.

Proposed development at 126 West Ave. Image: Cotler Architecture. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A revised plan, submitted to the city for an existing demolition and proposed mixed-use development at 126 West Ave., is among the items under consideration by the city Design Review Board this week. 

Additional applications under consideration include a two-story addition to an existing commercial structure at 395 Broadway, and a three-story addition to a commercial structure at 453 Broadway. 

For meeting times and dates of the three city Land Use Boards, go to: saratoga-springs.org.