Author: Thomas Dimopoulos

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Colors were presented, and anthems sung. Words of prayer were spoken, and local political leaders sat to join about 100 other attendees in the hot summer sun to celebrate the city’s unveiling of its long-awaited opening of Fire Station no. 3 this week. 

“It’s been over 20 years in the making – and some would argue it’s been over 30,” former Chief Joseph Dolan noted on an August afternoon in 2022 when the ceremonial shovels first broke ground on Henning Road. On July 9, 2024, the new fire station was officially declared open for business. 

Aaron Dyer, current Acting Chief of the Saratoga Springs Fire Department, watched as nine of his firefighters physically muscled a 38,000-pound engine truck back in to its bay. The activity is a practice that dates back to the early 19th century days of the then-Village of Saratoga Springs, when a group of local volunteers first got organized with a mission of fighting fires. 

“It’s a tradition that dates back to when fire equipment was pulled around by horse-drawn carriages,” Dyer explained. “When firefighters returned from service, they would unhook the horses and then have to manually push that fire carriage or trailer back into the fire station to get it prepared for the next call for service,” he said. 

The city’s two other existing stations were both built in the 20th century and are located, respectively, on Lake Avenue in the downtown district, and on West Avenue on the city’s west side. 

The location of Station 3, which stands directly behind Saratoga Race Course, provides rapid access to the north-and-south running Northway, the east-west running state Route 29, and will dramatically improve the response times to the city’s eastern ridge. 

The city of Saratoga Springs is comprised of approximately 29 total square miles, with about 13,400 housing units and a population of just under 29,000, according to the Department of Public Safety’s annual report released in March 2024.  In 2023, the Saratoga Springs Fire Department responded to 6,990 calls for service – a 9.2% increase compared to 2022.

The $8.7 million Station 3 stands on land donated by NYRA and includes an apparatus bay and support/administrative area with a 1,500 sq. ft. mezzanine, according to details provided by the Hueber-Breuer Construction Company. It includes a kitchen, a fitness room, a classroom and also houses the Saratoga County Hazmat vehicle.

“With this building we also have an emergency operation center which gives us the ability to oversee and handle any large incident in the city or the county if the need arises,” Dyer said. 

The station houses one engine and an ambulance staffed 24 hours a day, a reserve ladder truck as well as the county hazmat truck. Six firefighters work at the station daily. Overall, 84 firefighters work in the city’s three stations, which are open 24/7. To best provide coverage for the city, a total of 112 to 115 firefighters would be ideal, Dryer said, and the process of staffing the city’s three firehouses is ongoing. 

City Supervisor Michele Madigan served as Saratoga Springs Finance Commissioner from 2012-2021, when the city made the push to turn thoughts of an eastside station into a reality.  “It was a long time coming,” Madigan said. “We put the financing in place in 2019, and we are finally now seeing the fruition of our labor coming true.” 

Regarding the county’s commitment, City Supervisor Matt Veitch said the county pays for the supplies and service calls made that involve the hazmat team. “With a little bit of negotiation and a little bit of discussion, the county board approved $300,000 toward this project – essentially the cost of a bay for one of the vehicles which would be our hazmat vehicle,” Veitch said. 

“The individuals who are called on to do the work, to face those things that are unknown, are willing to put their lives on the line for all of us,” city Mayor John Safford said during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “I think we need to keep in mind that it’s the willingness of people to do this that makes a city work.”

BALLSTON SPA— For the first time in decades, the Village of Ballston Spa Zoning Advisory Committee is in the process of updating their Zoning Code and is seeking public input. 

In advance of the village’s Rezoning Workshop, planned to take place in early October, a public informational presentation on zoning basics will be presented 7 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 18 and again on Thursday, Aug. 15 at the Cornell Cooperative Extension Auditorium, 50 West High St. 

The presentation builds on the 2023 Comprehensive Plan and the discussions of the Zoning Advisory Committee, or ZAC, an 11-member committee charged with updating zoning recommendations for Village Board consideration with the primary goal of preserving the village character, enhancing its quality of life, and promoting economic growth as per the village Comprehensive Plan.

The meeting space is accessible and there is ample parking on site. Attendees unable to meet in person can participate through a Zoom link posted to the village website at: ballstonspa.gov.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The truck is currently in storage in an undisclosed location, the near century-old recipe a secret, known only to a select few. 

To this day, generations of Saratogians react with a hint of a smile or an expression of emotional delight in their memories of glimpsing that white 1954 International Harvester truck rolling down their street. 

In a place where nostalgia melts inside recollections of the warm summer days of childhood, descendants of the family who created a local 20th century tradition have undertaken an effort to preserve a tradition and potentially create new memories in the future by placing that 1954 truck back on the road.

To that point, the Grasso Family has initiated a crowdfunding effort on the Gofundme platform titled: “Help Revive Saratoga’s Iconic Grasso’s Italian Ice Truck.”

The story’s origins trace back to the 1920’s when Ralph Grasso emigrated from his native Tufino, Italy and settled in Brooklyn with his brother, landing in Saratoga Springs a few years later. Grasso worked in the construction and masonry trades and began making lemon ice which he sold on his off-days and weekends as a side business. 

“My great-grandfather, Ralph Sr., got the original recipe from a friend in Brooklyn when he came over from Italy,” says Sophia Grasso. “He would hand-crank the ice. Obviously, there weren’t premade flavors back then, so he squeezed fresh lemons and oranges.”

After an accident at work left Grasso seeking other areas of employment, the side-business became a full-time venture. By the late 1930’s, he dispatched with the pull wagon from which he operated his ice business and purchased his first truck. 

The white 1954 Metro International truck would later follow.

“Their lemon ice was always part of our time at St. Michael’s back in the 1950’s. It was always part of our play time at St. Peter’s Academy,” says Mary Ann Fitzgerald, who grew up on the city’s west side and today serves as Saratoga Springs City Historian. “He used to pull up at the corner by Williams and Hamilton and park right there. We would be playing in the playground and always make sure we had five cents with us to go get lemon ice.”   

For several decades, the ice cream truck was an iconic fixture in the city, and while the frame of the truck is intact, years of wear and tear have left it in desperate need of restoration. Enter The Grasso Family and the gofundme effort. 

The Plan: Things like the brake system will be completely overhauled, with a 6V system changed to a 12V system, making possible better lighting options. The same motor will be rebuilt. The body will have all the dents removed and painted the colors that it has had for 50 years – red, white and blue. As far as the freezers, compressor, storage areas – things needed to make it fully operational – they will be incorporated into the project.

The cost of the project is $28,300. Just over $2,000 has been raised toward that goal.  Renovation is anticipated to start in the fall with the truck ready to roll in time for the 2025 season.

The Grassos used to make spumoni and ice cream sandwiches mostly from scratch in earlier days. The plan moving forward does not currently include serving ice cream, although the ice will return as per Ralph Grasso’s secret recipe.   

“He perfected the recipe and it’s the same one we’ve been using in our family ever since,” says Sophia Grasso. “Only a few of us even know the recipe and those people are my father, Ralph the 3rd, my grandfather, Ralph Jr., and myself. It will be the only recipe we use.” 

Ralphy Grasso Sr. passed away on Christmas Eve in 1985 at the age of 86, and was still making and vending the ‘lemon ice’ the previous summer. Today, it is his grandchildren and great-grandchildren continuing to carry on the family tradition.

“When we went to the football game, we could count on it being there. When we went to the baseball game, we could count on it. Lemon ice,” recalls Fitzgerald, whose 1999 interview with Ralph Grasso, Jr. is preserved as valued source material as part of the West Side Oral Narrative Project, and housed at the Saratoga Springs Public Library. 

 Fitzgerald recounted a more recent event that occurred while the truck was still on the road. 

“I was going up Lake Avenue and saw the truck for the first time after many years. It was parked outside the East Side Rec and I just pulled right over. I got two lemon ices to go, for my husband and I. I could not just go by the truck,” she says. “If you see lemon ice you pull over! That’s just what you do.” 

For more information about the gofundme project to revive Saratoga’s Iconic Grasso’s Italian Ice Truck, GO HERE. .