Demolition of the former B&M train depot in Schuylerville on Monday, Jan. 29, 2024. Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos.
SCHUYLERVILLE —A train depot which stood for nearly 150 years in the historic village of Schuylerville was demolished this week.
Located on state Route 29, the Boston & Maine depot was constructed in the late 1800s. By the mid-20th century, as the Saratoga and Schuylerville Railroad, it served as a connecting point between the city of Saratoga Springs to the village of Schuylerville eight miles away. A roundtrip ticket on the S&S Railroad – which visited Saratoga Springs, Schuylerville and Mechanicville cost $2 when purchased in advance, $2.50 if riders waited to purchase the ticket while aboard the train.
The depot ceased to operate as a rail station in the 1950s, and the structure converted into a 2,033 square foot residence with three bedrooms and one bathroom on a 0.41 acre lot, according to a Redfin realty listing. It is not known when the building – located adjacent to a Schuylerville Central School District practice field – was last inhabited.
The Schuylerville CSD purchased the land in 2022. Voters approved the land purchase proposition in May 2022 by a 400 to 87 vote, authorizing the school district to acquire the property at a cost of approximately $200,000. The initial plan was to explore options for creating easier access from the main road to the school campus.
“Anytime the district can purchase land that is adjacent to school property is a great opportunity,” said then-Schuylerville School Superintendent Ryan Sherman, in the months leading up to the vote. “The land purchase will allow the district to work with architects and the Department of Transportation to research a possible second outlet to reroute campus traffic and allow a better traffic flow in the future.”
A second outlet road may still happen in the future, but there are no specific plans to do so currently, said Gregg Barthelmas, who was appointed Schuylerville CSD Superintendent in 2022.
“We want to get through the (current) budget process and then we’ll revisit the conversation and try to determine the best use for it moving forward,” Barthelmas said this week. “We may revisit it in the summertime to come up with an educated decision on what we want to do.” The NYS Department of Transportation will be involved in the process, he added.
The building was condemned and taken down at this time for safety reasons, Barthelmas said. The Jersen Construction Group of Waterford was hired for the demolition work.
Jack Quinn at the 75th Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles. Quinn, who grew up in Saratoga Springs, was awarded an Emmy for his work on HBO’s “Succession.” Photo provided.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —Jack Quinn grew up on the city’s west side near Saratoga Hospital. The pages of his high school yearbook – Saratoga Springs Class of 2008 – unveil images of the young man’s smiling face alongside a list of pursuits of his teenage years: ski club and SPAC, fun, lacrosse and film club among them.
“I was always the kid with the video camera,” he says. “It just grew from there.”
Three weeks ago, Quinn walked onto a Los Angeles stage and was presented with an award that recognized the achievements of the kid with the video camera from Saratoga Springs.
“It was crazy,” says Quinn about attending the 75th Creative Arts Emmy Awards. “Just a wild night.” The images depict a smiling man cradling that most famous of statuettes depicting a winged woman holding an atom. “I watch the Emmys every year and it was a great opportunity to go.”
Quinn and his team were nominated for and the eventual winners of the Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction Or Reality Series award based on their work with the HBO series “Succession” (Controlling The Narrative). They faced competition from Saturday Night Live (Presents Behind The Sketch), and The White Lotus (Unpacking The Episode), among others.
“The night we got to attend was geared toward unscripted shows – a lot of documentary series, a lot of Reality Shows, and our category fell into that because we were nominated for the Inside the Episode series, which is basically a mini-documentary,” Quinn says. The Creative Arts Emmys presentations are among a small handful of events held during the multiple nights of Emmy ceremonies.
“Jeff Probst – the host of Survivor, was presenting that award. It was funny to see him onstage and to have him hand us the trophy,” Quinn says. “It was a whirlwind night.”
Quinn was born in 1990 and spent his formative years in Saratoga Springs, leaving for four years to attend classes at SUNY Oswego – where he earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcasting in 2012 – and returned to Saratoga Springs for a handful of years before heading to Georgia, where he earned a Master of Arts – Film & Television Production, at Savannah College of Art & Design.
“I was hired right out of school to work for Turner Broadcasting,” Quinn says. He joined HBO in the summer 2021, where he has worked with the shows “Room 104,” and “Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union,” “The Gilded Age,” and the current running series “True Detective: Night Country.”
“When I started at HBO, season 2 of Succession was wrapping up. When season 3 came around, I told my boss: hey, I really love Succession and I would love to work as much as possible on this show. Thankfully I got the opportunity to do that,” Quinn says.
“I work for HBO in the marketing department on the corporate side. Within my team we get assigned certain shows to handle the marketing campaign,” he explains. “We do these little episodic promos – basically a trailer for the next episode. So, after the episode ends it’s: Next Week on Succession… and there are the little trailers we put together. Or, after the episode there will be an Inside the Episode featurette – an interview with the cast and crew, and that’s something my department does as well. That involves us interviewing everyone and putting together these little featurettes for every episode.”
You can find Quinn’s specific editing work on a number of “Succession” Inside The Episode broadcasts as well as in a variety of series trailers. The series, as described by the television network itself: “A bitingly funny drama series exploring themes of power and family through the eyes of an aging media mogul and his four grown children.”
It is for “Succession: Controlling The Narrative,” that Quinn as producer secured the Creative Arts Emmy award.
“When season 4 came along, I guess my boss trusted me a little more and we worked closely putting together the interviews – assisted in writing questions for every cast member and crew member who we would interview per episode, and actually worked on a cast interview,” Quinn says. “When it came time to work on the campaign in terms of editing everything together, I got the opportunity to do the most consequential episode featurettes – the Inside the episodes of the season and the series finale.”
How does he approach the work? “When I’m working on those Inside the episode pieces – you watch as many episodes as are available, and you read the scripts. You’re not looking at the finished product, but you’re trying to find as much subtext and drama and identify the most exciting and interesting moments and try to create questions that might give answers that people are interested in,” says Quinn.
“I’m really glad to be working with HBO because I feel they have the best programming department in the business. They’re really good at picking projects and they give people a considerable budget to work with so I’m always excited to see what HBO gives us next to work with,” says Quinn, who these days calls Brooklyn home.
It was during his time growing up in Saratoga Springs that Quinn says he came to the realization that the craft of editing – as opposed to shooting or anything else in the realm of videography – was a path he wanted to follow.
“I grew up messing around with the family camcorder – we had this Sony Handycam that probably most families had at that point – and I just started messing with it, shooting videos with my friends, little skits. I figured out how to edit on my own,” Quinn says. “I got professional software and I had no idea what to do, but eventually I just sort of figured it out.”
What’s up next? “Right now, I’m wrapping up some work on the series True Detective – which just started a few weeks ago – and the next thing is a show called The Regime, which was given to our team to handle because some of the same people from Succession are producing and writing it, so it’s a good fit.
“I was always the kid with the video camera and luckily, I now have a career in the same field.”
SARATOGA COUNTY —There are $18.4 billion in unclaimed funds turned over to the Office of the State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli – and more than 82,000 Saratoga County residents and businesses currently account for more than $34 million in total value of those unclaimed funds.
The state has posted a “Search For Lost Money” page on its website that allows individuals or organizations to search for lost money that is rightfully theirs. Every day New York State returns $1.5 million to those who file claims through the webpage.
Where the money comes from: Banks, insurance companies, corporations and the courts are among the many organizations required by law to report dormant accounts to the State Comptroller. These organizations must attempt to notify people by mail and publish the information in newspapers. Despite efforts, many funds remain unclaimed and are turned over to the Office of the State Comptroller.
To plug your name, or business name into the search form, go to: www.osc.ny.gov/unclaimed-funds.
65 Ash St., as per documents on file at Saratoga Springs Jan. 22, 2024.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —A public hearing will be held 6:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 29 regarding the seeking of an Area Variance to permit the demolition and reconstruction of a residence on the city’s west side.
The new business in front of the Saratoga Springs Zoning Board of Appeals Proposes the demolition of a single-family, two-story residence at 65 Ash St., and the construction of a new, single-family two-story residence with a detached garage in its place.
The current owners acquired the property last September.
The City Council has announced its 2024 meeting dates.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The State of the City address will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 30, in the Saratoga City Music Hall, located on the third floor of City Hall.
The SOTC address will also be available via live stream on the City of Saratoga Springs website at: saratoga-springs.org.
The City Council has announced its meeting schedule for the 2024 calendar year.
Pre-agenda meetings are typically held at City Hall 9:30 a.m. on the first and third Monday each month, with regular meetings held one day later – at 7 p.m. on the first and third Tuesday of each month, with the following exceptions: Pre-agenda meeting variations are Friday, Feb. 16 in lieu of Presidents’ Day (Feb. 19), and Friday, Aug. 30 in lieu of Labor Day (Sept. 2). General meeting variation – Wednesday, Nov. 6 in lieu of Election Day (Nov. 5).
All Pre-Agenda meetings will take place in the Council Meeting Room – located on the first floor in City Hall.
Regular City Council meeting locations will be held either in Council Meeting Room, or in the larger capacity Music Hall, located on the third floor of City Hall, and will be announced in advance of each meeting.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — During the month of February, The Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library will present a traveling exhibit, Messages From Survivors: One Family’s Holocaust Legacy. The exhibit will then travel to Saratoga Springs Public Library during the month of March.
The exhibit is built on 40 years of filming a family of Holocaust survivors in the Bronx, Miami, and a bungalow colony in the Catskills between 1962 and 2016.
In the exhibit, six short videos introduce the Holocaust through powerful personal stories of a family of Holocaust survivors. Six exhibit panels researched using the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s resources provide historical context for the video footage. The exhibit covers the family’s experiences from 1938 through the 21st century.
A feature of the exhibit is the use of QR codes to bring the Holocaust survivors’ voices directly into people’s lives, both onsite and at home. Take-home cards keep the story alive once visitors return home. Each card contains stories of family members–-some who survived and some who didn’t, along with QR code links to the videos.
The Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library will also present Never Forget: Conversations with a Holocaust Survivor at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 6. The live-streamed conversation hosted by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. will be followed by a live Q & A session. All ages are encouraged to attend and no registration is required.
Saratoga Springs Public Library will host two programs while the exhibit is on display during the month of March. A Child’s Memories of the Holocaust: A Conversation with Survivor Ivan Vamos on March 10 and a book discussion March 18 – Finding Kalman: A Boy in Six Million, with a viewing of the accompanying documentary. Finding Kalman is written by Roz Jacobs, creator of The Memory Project.
The Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library is located at 475 Moe Road in Clifton Park, and can be reached by phone at 518-371-8622 and online at www.cphlibrary.org.
The Memory Project Productions, Inc. creators of Messages From Survivors is a New York-based non-profit organization that creates exhibits and programs devoted to social justice, art and remembrance. Its exhibits have toured the U.S., Poland, and Hungary. Their award-winning film, Finding Kalman, has been broadcast nationally on PBS stations.
BALLSTON SPA — A 45-year-old Johnstown man was sentenced Jan. 19 to an indeterminate term of 2 to 6 years in a state correctional facility in connection with an incident that occurred on July 30, 2023, in the Town of Wilton.
Richard T. Irelan, of Johnstown, had previously entered a guilty plea to vehicular manslaughter in the second-degree, a felony, related to the incident.
The charges against Irelan originated from his operating a Harley Davidson motorcycle erratically and rear-ending a pickup truck on the Exit 15 I-87 southbound off-ramp, according to a statement released by county District Attorney Karen Heggen. The impact resulted in the ejection of the passenger on Irelan’s motorcycle, who was rushed to Saratoga Hospital and later succumbed to her injuries.
An investigation by the New York State Police at the scene determined that Irelan was intoxicated at the time of the crash, and a subsequent blood test revealed a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .09% and the presence of cannabis in his system.
The investigation was conducted by the New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigations and the Troop G Collision Reconstruction Unit.
FORT EDWARD —A Washington County jury on Jan. 23 found 66-year-old Kevin Monahan guilty of second-degree murder in the shooting of Kaylin Gillis – the Schuylerville woman killed in April 2023 after the vehicle in which she was a passenger mistakenly pulled into Monahan’s driveway in the town of Hebron.
Gillis was 20 years old. She attended Schuylerville Elementary School in kindergarten and first grade and returned to the district in high school for grades 10-12.
“It’s a very rural area with dirt roads. It’s easy to get lost,” Washington County Sheriff Jeffrey Murphy explained during a press conference staged shortly after the April 15 incident. “They had been looking for their friend’s house, got mistaken and drove up this driveway,” the sheriff said. “While they were leaving the residence, once they had determined they were at the wrong house, the subject came out on his porch, for whatever reason, and fired two shots – one of which struck the vehicle that Kaylin was in… there was clearly no threat from anyone in the vehicle.”
Sentencing is scheduled for March 1.
“We will never have full closure from the events of that fateful day but do feel justice has prevailed,” Kaylin Gillis’ father, Andrew, reportedly posted on Facebook shortly after the verdict. “While we would trade anything to bring Kaylin back, this was the best possible outcome short of her still being here with us. Kaylin got her justice.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS —A Saratoga Springs man accused of unlawfully entering a residence through a window while armed with a deadly weapon and stabbing one of the residents with a knife, is facing multiple charges for his alleged actions.
The suspected incident occurred while a minor child was present, and the victim – an adult female victim – was transported to Saratoga Hospital by EMS for evaluation and treatment of non-threatening injury.
George S. Tinoco, 48, of Saratoga Springs, was charged with felony burglary, and possession of burglar’s tools and endangering the welfare of a child – both misdemeanors, according to a press release issued by the Saratoga County Sheriff’s on Jan. 22.
The alleged incident relates to a disturbance call in the town of Malta shortly after midnight on Jan. 12 received by the sheriff’s office. An investigation led to the arrest of Tinoco four days later, after he was released from Albany Medical Center where he had been hospitalized for self-inflicted injuries.
Tinoco was arraigned and sent to the Saratoga County Jail in lieu of bail or bond pending further action in the matter.
Swan Lake. The NYCB stages at SPAC July 9-13. Photo Erin Baiano.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The 75th anniversary celebration of the New York City Ballet will continue with its seasonal return to Saratoga Performing Arts Center this summer.
From July 9 – 13, the company’s 58th season at SPAC features more than 90 dancers under the direction of Artistic Director Jonathan Stafford and Associate Artistic Director Wendy Whelan, accompanied by the New York City Ballet Orchestra, led by Music Director Andrew Litton.
Opening the season on July 9 is “NYCB On and Off Stage,” hosted by NYCB principal dancers for a unique “behind the curtain” experience featuring excerpts from the week’s ballets and culminating with a celebratory after party. Highlighting the residency is George Balanchine’s three-act work Jewels, returning for the first time since 2016 and featuring Fauré’s elegant Emeralds, Stravinsky’s jazz-inflected Rubies, and Tschaikovsky’s symphonic Diamonds.
Also featured are two evenings dedicated to works by contemporary choreographers including a new work by Amy Hall Garner, which is set to hold its world premiere as part of NYCB’s 2024 spring season; Gustave le Gray No. 1, a SPAC debut choreographed by Pam Tanowitz and set to the music of Caroline Shaw; Ulysses Dove’s dynamically charged, abstract work Red Angels, set to a riveting score for electric violin, and Justin Peck’s sneaker ballet The Times are Racing, heralded by audiences and critics alike since its premiere in 2017.
Rounding out the season will be two performances of some of Balanchine’s most beloved works, including the classic story ballet Swan Lake; the exuberantly patriotic Stars and Stripes; the SPAC-commissioned work The Steadfast Tin Soldier, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s charming fairytale; and scenes from Coppélia, featuring children from the Capital Region, in celebration of the work’s 50th anniversary, which held its world premiere at SPAC in 1974.
New York City Ballet: July 9 – 13
NYCB On and Off Stage – Tuesday, July 9 @ 7:30 p.m. NYCB principal dancers host a unique “behind the curtain” experience featuring excerpts from the week’s ballets. A compelling evening for newcomers and aficionados alike. Immediately following the program is a celebratory “dance party” in the Hall of Springs.
Jewels – Wednesday, July 10 @ 7:30 p.m. and Thursday, July 11 @ 2 p.m. Emeralds (Fauré/Balanchine); Rubies (Stravinsky/Balanchine); Diamonds (Tschaikovsky/Balanchine)
Contemporary
Choreographers – Thursday, July 11 @ 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, July 13 @ 7:30 p.m. New Garner* (TBA/Garner); Red Angels (Einhorn/Dove); Gustave le Gray No. 1* (Shaw/Tanowitz); The Times Are Racing (Deacon/Peck).
Swan Lake & Stars and Stripes – Friday, July 12 @ 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, July 13 @ 2 p.m. Swan Lake (Tschaikovsky/Balanchine); Scenes from Coppélia (Delibes/Balanchine and Danilova, after Petipa); The Steadfast Tin Soldier (Bizet/Balanchine); Stars and Stripes (Sousa, orch. by Kay/Balanchine).
*Indicates SPAC premiere
Tickets will be available beginning on Feb. 9 at 10 a.m. for members (tiered by level) and on Feb. 22 at 10 a.m. for the general public. Visit spac.org for details.
