BALLSTON SPA — A post in a local Facebook group has sparked awareness of ongoing power outages occurring in the area of Ballston Spa and Malta.
The outages, while brief, have been impacting homes and businesses. Residents reported that air conditioning units turned off, lights flickered, and appliances needed to be reset.
One business owner said the outages disrupt her company’s credit card machine.
It’s unclear exactly how long the outages have been occurring, but some residents said it’s been an ongoing issue for at least the past few months, if not longer.
Patrick Stella, the National Grid Communications Manager for Eastern New York, told Saratoga TODAY that National Grid would be “installing monitoring equipment in the area to better diagnose the root cause of these shorter outages. We will use this information in the coming weeks to come up with a more permanent fix.” Stella also said that the outages appear to be contained to the area of Ballston Spa and Malta.
Ballston Spa Mayor Frank Rossi said he’s previously reached out to his municipal contact at National Grid regarding an outage in Malta and another one at the Village Green Apartments in Ballston Spa. On Monday, he created a Google Form asking Ballston Spa residents to share details about any outages they’ve experienced. The form can be found on his Facebook page.
“While it is not in the Village’s abilities to resolve such issues,” Rossi wrote, “we have a good working relationship with National Grid — and they have historically worked with us to try to identify issues and resolve them.”
Malta Town Supervisor Cynthia Young also said she had contacted National Grid. She requested that Malta residents email supervisor@malta-town.org with their address and the exact time and duration of any outages.
Tempered by Memory Sculpture at High Rock Park in Saratoga Springs. Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —The City of Saratoga Springs will host a 9/11 Commemoration and Remembrance Ceremony at High Rock Park on Wednesday, Sept. 11 at the Tempered by Memory Sculpture. Attendees are asked to arrive at 8:15 a.m., with the ceremony slated to promptly begin at 8:30.
On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists killed nearly 3,000 people and injured more than 6,000 others in what the U.S. Department of State refers to as “the worst attack against the homeland in our nation’s history.”
The ceremony in Saratoga Springs will take place at High Rock Park, which since 2012 has been host site to a 25-foot-tall sculpture created from 9/11 steel.
The sculpture was commissioned by Saratoga Arts and created by artists Noah Savett and John Van Alstine from five twisted pieces of Trade Center steel. Four pieces came from the North Tower, one came from the South Tower.
The High Rock site was selected after a lengthy public and political discourse regarding the location placement of the “Tempered By Memory” sculpture.
Initially slated to stand in front of the Saratoga Springs City Center and to be unveiled on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, that location was nixed shortly before the ceremony was to take place when some officials said it would interfere with the view from out front of the center.
Instead, the sculpture remained in a parking lot in Northumberland at artist Noah Savett’s metal company yard, awaiting a permanent home. It was there that a ceremony was held to mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks in 2011.
“We took the broken pieces of that day, we raised them up, we let them soar – we gave them a place to rest,” Yaddo poet Joan Murray read during the 10th anniversary ceremony attended by more than 100 steelworkers and celebrating the healing power of art to transcend grief and sorrow.
Then-city Mayor Scott Johnson appointed a committee that same month and charged it with recommending a location for the sculpture. Sites next to the state military museum, the city firehouse and near the city school campus had been considered, as well as alongside the Saratoga Springs Heritage Area Visitor Center on Broadway and in Congress Park.
High Rock Park was eventually selected which has since September 2012 served as the city’s annual remembrance ceremony location.
“Pay To Park” signs were removed from the brick-face entryway at the Woodlawn Ave. garage; This standing meter is soon to follow. Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos Sept. 3, 2024.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The “Pay To Park” signs have been removed and the standing meters soon to follow with the conclusion of the Spa City’s first seasonal paid parking program.
The $2 per hour to park plan involved several city-owned garages and surface lots and offered city residents and downtown businesses free parking permits. Those residing outside Saratoga Springs were required to pay for parking in the garages and atop the lots.
The pay stations were unanimously approved by the City Council in April, and installed and implemented into service in mid-June, with a post-Labor Day Weekend conclusion date.
An initial plan – titled the “tourism parking” program – proposed converting more than 1,300 on-street and nearly 800 garage parking spaces into either “permit” or “paid” spots for a five-month run annually between May and September. That proposal was scaled back to involve city-owned garages and surface lots only, with all on-street parking remaining unchanged.
When it approved the plan in April, the city reported it anticipated nearly $1.6 million as first-year estimated revenue, with about $450,000 in expenses.
In mid-July, roughly one month into operation, the city announced it had to that point generated approximately $82,000 in new revenue, and issued just over 11,250 “free” parking permits. Updated revenue amounts have yet to be announced.
The city’s Public Works and Public Safety departments collaborated to get the plan up and running. Its initial year concluded, it is expected the program will be evaluated regarding its effectiveness and for any potential changes deemed need to be made prior to 2025.
5 Williams St., existing building view from the front on Aug. 28,2024. A multi-space parking lot is to the rear of the building. Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos. City Police, photograph from Our Boys In Blue: A History of the Saratoga Springs Police Department, small pamphlet in archives of The Saratoga Room SSPL, published 2003.
SARATOGA SPRINGS – The city of Saratoga Springs is exploring building a new police station to replace its current home in the basement of City Hall which has served as its headquarters for nearly 150 years.
“The discussions are preliminary but it’s clear that eventually we need to plan for a new police station, and that’s what the Capital Budget (Plan) is for,” said city Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll. “We’re looking at two possible locations at this time –one is right behind City Hall where the city employees park, and the other would be the old Senior Center.”
The city owns the land at both locations.
The 7,800 square-foot former Senior Center site at 5 Williams St. is currently in use on a short-term lease by RISE Housing and Support Services as the human services agency’s administration offices, while their own offices are under construction.
A plan eyeing 5 Williams St. would seek to demolish the building on site and construct a new three-story facility and relocating all police services and the communications center from City Hall to Williams Street. The general cost estimate – which includes demolition, construction, and the furnishing of a new 30,000-plus square foot facility lists $14 million as a Base Budget Estimate, with contingencies and allowances at a total cost of $23 million to $25 million.
The lot behind City Hall meanwhile has seen many designs that had previously proposed it as a location for a new public safety facility. At various times those plans have included a multi-parcel public-private collaboration to include a cinema, a 500-car parking garage, and other amenities. A City Center Parking garage and pocket park have since been developed along a good segment of the location, and a cinema sited a few blocks away.
The Public Safety Department’s long-range proposal specifically details $21.8 million in a Capital Plan over a five-year period beginning in 2025 to fund a police department facility, according to documents submitted by the 2025 Capital Program Committee to address priority city needs from 2025-2030.
Historically
On April 26 1887, the State Legislature approved an act that created the Saratoga Springs Police Department. The department employed 8 men to serve and protect a population of 11,500 in the days prior to fingerprinting systems, computer databases, radio communications and DNA technology, when police technology largely consisted of the gun and the nightstick. The annual salary of the men started at $500, with higher-ranking officials earning as much as $1,300 per year.
More than a century later, the department in 2024 staffs 98 men and women to serve and protect a city of about 30,000 residents year-round, with a visitors’ capacity that grows in multitudes when the temperature grows warmer and the sun hangs longer in the sky. In 2023 SSPD officers handled 27,643 calls for service, 3,606 cases, and made 851 arrests.
The growth of the department has resulted in significant operational challenges inhibiting organizational efficiency and effectiveness in the current station location, according to officials. The lack of workspace forces the sharing of desks and the usage of single spaces for multiple public safety purposes not always conducive or in concert with one another. As well, it places SSPD’s Command Staff Offices in the century-old basement of City Hall in windowless rooms.
Feasibility studies related to 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.
“It’s not a modern-functioning police station,” Commissioner Coll said.
“I take insurance company recommendations to heart, and their recommendation was that we need to have a new facility. We can’t have prisoners walking up and down Broadway – you look at modern policing, they have a sally-port,” said Coll, referring to a secure area used to load and unload prisoners. “The police department is in the basement of City Hall (and) It’s really not conducive to modern policing.”
Every year, the city prepares a six-year Capital Budget plan that includes a prioritized list of capital projects the city wishes to get done and costs associated with those projects. Even as the plan stretches over a six-year period, the council votes on the Capital Budget one year at a time and may be altered year-to-year.
Overall, the construction cost for the new police headquarters facility is estimated to range from $23 million to $25.5 million. About $1.5 million in sitework and demolition costs are anticipated to be required at the department’s existing space at City Hall.
The preliminary long-range plan for a new police station looks to set aside funds in this proposed timeline: $1.5 million (in 2025), $5 million (in 2026 and again in 2027), $10 million (in 2028), and $300,000 in 2029. The City Council is expected to host a Public Hearing and hold a discussion and potentially vote on the 2025 Capital Budget and Capital Program at its meeting on Tuesday night Sept. 3.
The first of six new cashless collection boxes was installed on Broadway Aug. 23, 2024. Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —Following an effort initiated in 2016, the first of six new collection boxes encouraging the public to contribute to local agencies who help those who are homeless, was installed Aug. 23.
“Originally we had 12, but after they were installed in 2016, they got broken into because there was a slot for cash,” said city Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll, who alongside city Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi jointly unveiled the new box located in front of Roohan Realty, at 519 Broadway. “We have six (of the 12) left that got refurbished. If it’s successful, it’s a pilot program, we’re going to add more.”
The difference in the boxes this time around is the collection boxes will not accept cash. Instead, they sport QR codes – one directed to Shelters of Saratoga and the other to RISE Housing & Support Services – so the public can decide which local agency they want to support. The funds go directly to the non-profit agencies.
The purpose of the boxes is to encourage the public to contribute directly to local agencies to help people get off the street and into safe housing.
Each box sports a message that reads: “There’s a Better Way to Give…Don’t Encourage Panhandling,” a message developed with input and agreement from both local nonprofit agencies.
The Saratoga Springs City Council on Aug. 6 unanimously approved an agreement with the Downtown Special Assessment District to install the six collection boxes.
The location of the six boxes are in front of: Roohan Realty, Compton’s Restaurant, Bluebird Spa City Motor Lodge, Uncommon Grounds, Saratoga Springs City Hall, and Impressions of Saratoga.
Joe Bokan Jr. and his wife Kathleen pose with their three children in front of Anne’s Washington Inn in Saratoga Springs. Photo by Lawrence White.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Many businesses advertise themselves as “family owned and operated,” but Anne’s Washington Inn takes the concept to another level.
In 1943, hotelier Charles Russell purchased what was then the McCarty Hospital in Saratoga Springs for $7,500 and transformed it into the The Washington Inn. His daughter, Anne (Russell) Bokan ran the place for more than forty years. In 1985, Anne’s son and daughter-in-law, Joe Jr. and Kathleen Bokan, took over operations. Today, the couple’s oldest daughter Madeleine oversees the inn’s wedding and events operations with her toddler in tow. That’s five generations of family members who have sat on the inn’s famous front porch across 80 years of busy Saratoga summers.
If Anne’s Washington Inn feels more like a family residence than a resort, that’s probably because it was. Joe Jr., the current owner/operator, spent his childhood there with his five sisters.
“All of us ran the front desk, all of us made beds, all of us cleaned bathrooms; whatever it took,” Joe Jr. said. “As kids, we all grew up doing it.”
As the decades have gone by, not much has changed in the way the Bokans do business.
“We all pitch in,” said Joe Jr.’s daughter Madeleine. “One day we’ll be in the rooms. One day we’ll be in the dining room, doing events, checking people in. It’s kind of all-hands-on-deck.”
Originally called The Washington Inn, the business was renamed in honor of Anne (Russell) Bokan in 2007. “It’s amazing to hear from longtime Saratogians. They’ll say, ‘Your mom was one of the first women to have a business in Saratoga.’ She really ran it. She’d always done it, but it never hit me. Back in the 50s, women were not running businesses,” Joe Jr. said.
There were a couple other reasons for the name change as well. Adding “Anne’s” made the inn easier to find in web searches. It also moved the business up the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce’s list of lodging establishments, which resulted in more referrals. In the first year following the name change, Joe Jr. said his sales went up 30%.
Nowadays, Joe Jr. said he leaves much of the marketing and public relations work to Madeleine. Although an heir to the inn has not been officially proclaimed, Joe Jr. said that his daughter may one day emerge as his successor. “She loves the hotel. She loves the people. She gets it,” he said.
“But he’s not allowed to retire anytime soon,” said Madeleine. “This place runs because of him.”
“I’m having too much fun [to retire],” said Joe Jr.
Anne’s Washington Inn, currently celebrating its 80th year in business, is open April through October. Events are offered year-round. Located on four acres of land off South Broadway, the inn is within walking distance of the Saratoga Spa State Park and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC). For more information, visit www.anneswi.com.
As the Travers showcased rising champions, Saratoga enters the transitional phrase of ending the racing season with some people heading back to the classroom
This year’s 155th running of the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course provided another exciting finish with 2-year-old champion Fierceness holding off a determined run from 3-year-old filly divisional leader Thorpedo Anna.
The Travers is somewhat of the transitional point for the Saratoga meet, especially going into the last week and Labor Day weekend, for horses, those involved in the industry, and even seasonal and retired employees around the track.
While Fierceness and Thorpedo Anna, as well as Sierra Leone, Dornoch, and perhaps a couple of the other finishers coming out of the race, transition into the fall by preparing the Breeders’ Cup in November at Del Mar, many people in the Saratoga Springs region are also getting ready for the upcoming school year, whether it is being a student or a teacher.
One of those people is legendary track announcer, broadcaster, and speaker Tom Durkin, who is teaching public speaking at Saratoga Catholic High School starting in September.
This is not the first time that Durkin has taught a public speaking course. Shortly after retiring with a 24-year career as the track announcer for the New York Racing Association in 2014, he taught a public speaking class for the Saratoga Springs High School Continuing Education program.
“This is something that I always that I always wanted to do,” he said. “I did one for adults in the continuing education, and I liked that. I really wanted to teach high school-aged kids about public speaking.”
Durkin approached Saratoga Catholic principal and alumni Chris Signor about teaching the class. While Durkin’s approach and idea came as a surprise for Signor, he is excited about this learning opportunity for the students, which is a joint project in both the English and Business Departments.
“This came out of the blue. I never planned this in my wildest dreams,” Signor said. “He has some great ideas about teaching a course that he wanted to expand upon when he taught it as an adult continuing education class. This is going to be a popular course with the kids. This has been very well received.”
Durkin’s interest in public speaking started in a class at a catholic high school in Chicago where he grew up. Not only did Durkin only enjoy the small-sized class, he also found it beneficial as those skills became the foundation to his race calling for NYRA and the Breeders’ Cup, his sportscasting for NBC and ESPN, and speaking engagements that include the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame Inductions.
While race calling, broadcasting, and being an emcee for the Hall of Fame inductions reflect an aspect of entertainment in public speaking, Durkin believes that rhetoric and discourse are important to both persuasion and analysis.
“There are all different kinds of discourse,” he said. “Rhetoric is the art or science on convincing someone to your point of view by the means of speech. If you want to ask your parents to borrow the car, you can use a lot of rhetorical skills to try to persuade them.”
By taking a student-centered approach to his teaching, one of Durkin’s objectives is providing students the skills and experience they need, which includes writing speeches, appearance, and body language, so they can deliver an effective speech.
“I will give them many of the tools,” he said. “The primary objective will be having the students get in front of other people and speak at least once every class. It’s just getting that experience of getting in front of people and communicate to them. It’s important for them to sound good. If you don’t sound good, it’s much harder to keep the audience’s attention.”
Durkin’s lesson plans also include teaching students about when to memorize speeches, how to use adrenaline to their benefit, and how to overcome perhaps the common challenge many public speakers – fear.
“It’s the No. 1 phobia in America,” Durkin said about fear. “People are more afraid of public speaking than they are afraid of dying. If there is any of that, we are going to deal with that off the bat. If you make a mistake, so what? The ceiling didn’t fall. You didn’t get struck by lightning.”
As part of the lesson, Durkin plans to emphasize that one of the ways for students to overcome the paralysis of fear and being confident is preparation.
“If you are over-the-top totally prepared, you are going to have a good experience because you will be confident,” he said. “If you are not prepared, all you will be thinking about is the mistakes that you are going to make.”
Durkin plans to share plenty of personal examples for being prepared, as well as other concepts covered in this class. Some of these include his retirement speech in the Saratoga Winner’s Circle, his speech for receiving the Eclipse Award for Merit, and his mother’s eulogy – all of which required a thorough revision process.
“The key to writing a good speech is rewrite and brevity,” he said. “Part of rewriting is editing out extraneous stuff, but adding stuff by using various rhetorical tropes to make it a good speech.”
While Durkin plans to cover the objectives for the course, he would also like to work with students on cultivating their creativity over the academic year.
“I really like to take somebody who was intrepid on public speaking. I want to foster creativity.” he said. “This course is going to teach creativity and conviction. I will point them in certain directions on how they can do that and how to convince people. There are several ways to do it: pathos, ethos, and logos.”
With a student-centered classroom, teaching can be a two-way street as the students gain knowledge and skills from the teacher, and the teacher learns from them as well. Durkin indicated that he wants to learn something from the students.
“I would like to have an ability to connect to younger people,” he said. “There is a lot of stuff that they do, which I don’t understand. I’m sure there is a lot of stuff that I do that they don’t understand. It’s just being around young people and open up my understanding about the real person behind the teenager.”
If the class goes well and he learns something from the students, Durkin said he would “absolutely” come back to do it again next year.
