SARATOGA SPRINGS — The U.S. State Department estimates that, at any given time, there are 27.6 million victims of human trafficking across the globe. There are even victims right here in Saratoga County. Susana Lehan, the Salvation Army’s Eastern Territory Anti-Human Trafficking Director, knows some of them personally. “This is everywhere,” Lehan said. “This is happening in everyone’s backyard.”

Human trafficking is defined as the use of force, fraud, or coercion to compel a person into commercial sex acts or labor services against his or her will.

To raise awareness of this issue, the Salvation Army is hosting an event on January 11 from 12pm to 3pm at 27 Woodlawn Ave in Saratoga Springs. “There’s not a lot of awareness in the communities and all the counties in this area,” Lehan said.

The Human Trafficking Awareness Day event includes a free lunch and a presentation by Julie Chapus, LMSW. Chapus is from Rochester, New York and works with both hair and nail salons, where trafficking victims often interact with workers. “Those are people that have intimate connections with victims,” Lehan said. Traffickers often bring their victims to salons, where workers can see scars and other signs of physical violence.

Lehan said that evidence of trafficking can be hard to spot, even among trained professionals and police officers. “I’ve been in the field for thirty years and I even was not aware of the nuances until I started working with the clients,” she said. 

Lehan’s Anti-Human Trafficking program at the Salvation Army helps to stabilize victims’ lives with housing, employment, clothing, food, and other basic needs. Since she first began working on this program four months ago, Lehan has already acquired at least twenty clients.

According to Lehan, only about 1% of victims report trafficking to anyone, and reports to law enforcement occur even less frequently. While trafficking can be organized by criminal groups, it can also happen in intimate partner relationships. “Individuals are coercing people to enter these situations that they can’t get out of, and it’s by use of force, coercion, or fraud,” Lehan said. The Polaris Project, a nonprofit that aims to combat human trafficking, estimates that in 2020, 39% of victims were recruited via an intimate partner or marriage proposal. 

The objective of the Human Trafficking Awareness Day event in Saratoga is to bring awareness of this ongoing issue to community members and leaders.

“We’re not asking people to intervene or anything in any kind of situation because it’s dangerous,” Lehan said. “However, we’re asking people to just be aware and to be able to pass on a phone number, and if the client feels safe enough to come to us, they can.”

To contact Susana Lehan, call 518-584-1640 or send her an email at susana.lehan@use.salvationarmy.org.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Joseph Grillo cut his teeth working at trendy Brooklyn wine shops, and now he’s brought his experience and sensibilities to By the Bottle, a wine store located in downtown Saratoga.

The shop was previously owned by Annmarie Guglielmo, who now works at the Kindred wine bar on Henry Street. Grillow took over By the Bottle in July of 2023. His goal is to create an unpretentious neighborhood shop where customers don’t feel intimidated by wine.

“I just want people to be at ease in the shop and ask questions,” Grillo said. “I’m more concerned with people and building a sense of community.”

By the Bottle offers a large selection of orange wines, as well as biodynamic and organic wines. The shop tends to favor smaller production bottles, hoping to offer customers a unique selection. “There are tens of thousands of wines in the world and I’m happy to represent different things, maybe things people don’t see every day,” Grillo said.

“Everything I have, other than maybe two wines, is between $12 and $40,” Grillo said. “I don’t have a lot of expensive stuff because I think that there’s so much wonderful stuff out there that you don’t have to break the bank to try.”

Grillo previously ran Northside Discount Liquors & Wine in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He still goes there regularly to check in, but is now managing By the Bottle full time. Prior to owning Northside, he worked at Trojanowski Liquor in Williamsburg. “That’s where I learned about wine,” Grillo said.

Grillo and his wife were married in the Spa City twelve years ago, and when the pandemic hit, they decided to move their kids to Saratoga in search of a safer, gentler city. “It has a cinema, it has a beautiful book store, it has Caffe Lena, it has all these great things,” Grillo said. “I do like it up here.”

By the Bottle is located at 11 Spring Street in downtown Saratoga Springs.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Chad Kiesow, the Chief Operating Officer of Stewart’s Shops, has been elected this year’s Chair of the Board of Directors of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce. He’ll take over the position from Amy Smith, owner of the Saratoga Arms Hotel. Smith will now become the Immediate Past Chair.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to lead the Saratoga County Chamber’s Board of Directors in 2024, a year that will undoubtedly be historic as our community prepares to host the Belmont Stakes this coming June,” Kiesow said in a statement. “While Saratoga’s economy has outperformed many other communities in Upstate New York, we realize that the number one challenge facing local employers across every sector is our historic labor shortage and that is why the Chamber will focus much of its time and resources in 2024 on talent recruitment via our online Job Zone and expansion of our Live Like You’re On Vacation talent recruitment campaign.”

The Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors has 27 members. The Chamber has an annual budget of approximately $1.8 million.

It’s getting to be that time of year again. The gym will be crowded, alcohol and dessert sales will drop, and you’ll see lots of posts dedicated to our annual tradition of New Year’s resolutions. The problem is that for many, two weeks later we will be back in the same routines.  

My goal is to use this article to help you create financial New Year resolutions that you will stick with.  I suggest making SMART resolutions for this New Year.  That is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based goals that you will be more likely to accomplish than the generic resolutions we usually use.  I am going to look at some normal resolutions and offer SMART alternatives.

Save More

I hear this all the time.  I need to save more.  More for retirement, more for emergencies, more for vacations, just more.  The problem is that the goal of saving more is too generic and can be offset by one event.  

Instead, focus on a specific resolution that will just take one action that will grow over time.  For example, make it a New Year’s Resolution to save more into your 401(k) plan at work.  Then, take the specific action of logging into your 401(k)-plan provider and increase your 401(k) contribution rate.  Even increasing that savings rate by 1% will mean that you have fulfilled your resolution!  This action will mean that you continue to fulfill that resolution as the new rate will be set in the future.  The timing of this around the New Year is timely as many people receive a pay increase in the New Year so you may not even notice a decrease in your take-home pay.

Spend Less

Many use the New Year to try and tighten their belt.  They are going to spend less.  So, they go a week or so without stopping at the store for unnecessary items.  They use coupons for a bit and only buy things on sale.  Then a life event happens and it is right back to their regular spending program.

Instead of a resolution to spend less, resolve to be aware of your spending in a non-judgmental way.  This takes the pressure off.  There are tools available to know what your spending is.  If you use a credit card, many will offer an online resource that tracks your monthly spending.  Banks will also offer similar tools.  Take advantage of that and just note how much you spend each month in a journal or spreadsheet.  Do this from a place of curiosity rather than judgment.  The knowledge of how much you spend will be very beneficial in your financial planning journey as you can then realistically project what you will need in the future.

Update Investments

As a wealth advisor, this is one I hear all the time from friends, family, and clients.  I want to change my investments but first I need to take the time to really sit down, study the market, understand stocks, and then make educated decisions.  And of course, this never happens because life is busy, and it takes longer than a couple of minutes at the computer to “understand the markets.”  So, at best people will decide to buy a stock that just went on a good run, or they read about in the news.

Instead, resolve to ensure that your investments are aligned with your future goals.  Predicting the future is hard, so rather than trying to predict which stocks will go up, make sure your investments are aligned with your goals.  If you have money you need in the short term, those dollars should be invested very differently from the money you may need in retirement 20 years from now.

This last one is something we do for our clients all the time.  Aligning values, goals, plans, and implementation is what we do as wealth advisors.  

The New Year is a time for reflection, a natural time for change, and a time to better position yourself for the future.  But making the right resolutions will accomplish a lot more than generic goals.  So, when making those resolutions this year take the time to think SMART.  And if you need an accountability partner, feel free to reach out!

James T. Cox, CFP®, ChFC®, BFA™, is the Senior Vice President of Advanced Planning at Continuum Wealth Advisors in Saratoga Springs. Continuum Wealth Advisors, LLC is a Registered Investment Advisor registered through the Securities and Exchange Commission.For more information, visit contwealth.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A new Chipotle location in downtown Saratoga is one step closer to becoming reality.

The Saratoga Springs Planning Board approved Chipotle’s site plan review application on November 30 after considering the proposal for several months. The board will decide upon issuing a building permit after an easement is filed.

The planned Chipotle at 12 Ballston Avenue will be located next to the Saratoga Strike Zone bowling alley. The site was formerly the home of Paddy Duggan’s Irish Pub.

The location will include an outdoor patio with around 20 seats, in addition to a small outdoor seating area with benches and planters. 23 parking spaces will be created on the .32 acre site.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Adirondack Trust Company Community Fund (ATCCF) awarded $84,070 in grants to 38 local nonprofits this month.

Some of the Lend-A-Hand Grant recipients included A Dapple a Day Equine Center, Camp Abilities Saratoga, Family Services Association of Glens Falls, First Baptist Church of Ballston Spa Summer Lunch Program, and Shelters of Saratoga.

“The awarded grants will support programs for a wide variety of needs as a whole, and will include the areas of the arts, education, health, and family activities,” said Colleen Carlson, Volunteer Chair for the ATCCF Independent Advisory Committee. “Thank you to the organizations, volunteers, and donors who provide support, time, and hard work throughout the year,” Carlson said. “We are honored to be a part of this process.” 

SARATOGA SPRINGS —Roohan Realty announced that Laura Creazzo has joined the team as a Licensed Real Estate Salesperson.

Creazzo was born in Kansas and has lived in five different U.S. states, Holland, and Germany as her dad is a retired Army Major. She graduated summa cum laude from Thomas University with a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies. Before moving to Saratoga Springs in 2023, she spent 11 years in Enterprise, Alabama where she owned a bakery and a real estate brokerage, Wiregrass Home Heroes. Over the last three years Laura has had 166 successful real estate transactions and has been an active real estate investor. She specializes in residential real estate and is certified in military relocation.

Creazzo can be reached at 518-796-4399 or laura@roohanrealty.com.

Roohan Realty is now celebrating 54 years of serving the community’s residential and commercial property needs. Roohan Realty is located at 519 Broadway, Saratoga Springs

SARATOGA SPRINGS — When the owners of Impressions of Saratoga and The Dark Horse Mercantile launched their Adopt a Grandparent gift-giving campaign last month, their goal seemed ambitious. They wanted to sell 350 gift tags in order to buy holiday presents for every senior at the Wesley Community. 

As of December 19, a total of 385 gift tags had been sold, surpassing the initial goal. Although the campaign’s December 17 deadline had technically passed, store co-owners Maddy Zanetti and Marianne Barker were still adding more gifts to their heap of donations.

“We’ll just make more [gift] bags and give them to more people,” Zanetti said. “We had people coming in today that still want to buy them.” Zanetti and Barker said that several people also offered to buy as many gift tags as necessary to hit the 350 goal.

Zanetti said that a group of volunteers would meet at Wesley to prepare the gift bags, which will then be distributed to the seniors in time for Christmas.

Due to the campaign’s success, it may now become an annual event. “We had a lot of fun with it,” Zanetti said. “People have been so, so supportive.”

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga County hotels are seeing notable increases in revenue this year for one primary reason: visitors are willing to spend more money to stay in the area.

From January through October of 2023, hotels in the county reported a RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room) of $110.70, up 6.5% from last year’s numbers, according to the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce.

“The demand was up slightly, the occupancy was up slightly, but the willingness of individuals to pay in order to be here, and to be especially in downtown [Saratoga Springs] was pretty clear,” said Todd Shimkus, president of the Chamber.

Although the flood of summer tourists betting on ponies at the track or dancing the night away at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) is still a big part of hotel revenue, the city is increasingly becoming more than just a seasonal attraction.

“SPAC’s now got a year-round agenda and schedule of events. Live Nation has often now moved into September. This year they’re moving into May so they’ve spread out,” Shimkus said. “And then you can’t count out the City Center. This is the first year where the City Center has been full virtually every day. This is twelve months of success for the leisure and group tourism business.”

With the Belmont Stakes coming to town this spring, horse racing season is also kicking off ahead of schedule. “The Belmont coming here is going to have a huge impact in the month of June, if not a little earlier,” Shimkus said.

The most sought-after bookings might be downtown, but hotels throughout the region continue to profit from the deluge of visitors. “We don’t have enough lodging capacity to handle everyone who is going to want to be here,” Shimkus said. “So they’re going to have to stay in places outside the area.”

Hotels in Malta, Clifton Park, Glens Falls, Queensbury, Lake George, and even Albany benefit from the lodging shortage in Saratoga proper. 

Within city limits, developers are working to create more accommodations. A Marriott AC Hotel is set to open on South Broadway sometime in the next 12 to 18 months. The Brookmere Hotel is expected to open late next year at the former site of the Longfellows Hotel and Restaurant. The Adelphi Hotel is also in the midst of an expansion.