SARATOGA SPRINGS — LOVE COMPOST Saratoga Collaborative photographer Terri-Lynn Pellegri will be joined by community composters for a lively hour of conversation at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8 in the Dining Room “Gallery” at the Saratoga Senior Center, 290 West Ave.
The informal “Compost Conversation” will include Mark Miller, Director of Dining Services at Skidmore College, Jennifer Armstrong, Sustainable Saratoga’s Compost Committee Chairperson, Kim Klopstock from Lily and the Rose, and Hope LaBontey, of Loving Earth Compost.
Terri-Lynn Pellegri is a 2023 Saratoga Arts Grant Recipient. As a special community program, in conjunction with her Grant this event is Free and Open to the Public. Her artwork is currently on exhibit at the Saratoga Senior Center. For more information about the exhibition, go to: https://saratogatodaynewspaper.com/today-in-saratoga/pulse/item/20184-once-living-matter-repurposed-in-art-show.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —The Saratoga Springs History Museum presents a talk on “Clarence Dart and the Tuskegee Airmen” by Warren Dart, taking place Thursday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. in the Canfield Casino parlor.
During World War II, Lt. Col. Clarence Dart served in the Tuskegee Airmen, a special group trained at the airfield near the famed Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. He was shot down twice, earning two Purple Hearts, and he received the Distinguished Flying Cross award. He passed away in 2012 and is buried in Greenridge Cemetery in Saratoga Springs.
His son, Warren Dart, will present a history of the introduction of African Americans into the Army Air Corps, and the inspiring personal story of his father. Join us in the Canfield Casino for this enlightening talk on a unique piece of American history.
Free admission for History Museum Members, $10 for non-Members – reserve at saratogahistory.org/events. The Saratoga Springs History Museum is located in the Canfield Casino in Congress Park.
BALLSTON SPA — In recognition of the 105th anniversary of the armistice that ended what has come to be called the first world war, Saratoga County History Center will host Paul Perreault, Malta Town Historian, for a program entitled “Men and Women of Saratoga County Who Answered the Call in World War One” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 8 in the Long Room at Brookside Museum.
Perreault has served as town historian since 2009 and has conducted extensive research about local volunteers who fought in the war.
“Ten percent of the men and women who joined the American Expeditionary Force were from New York State including many who lived in Saratoga County” said Perreault, in a statement. “Seventy-two from the county died from either combat wounds or disease contracted while serving.”
The presentation will include stories of those who served during and after the war. Pre-registration for the Nov. 8 program is available at: https://brooksidemuseum.networkforgood.com/events/63454-call-in-world-war-1.
BALLSTON SPA —Saratoga County officials announced this week its Seniors Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program, administered by the Department of Aging and Youth Services, provided $11,095 in fresh, local produce to Saratoga County seniors during the recently ended 2022 season.
Each year, the Saratoga County Department of Aging and Youth Services distributes coupon booklets to qualifying seniors through its Elderly Nutrition Program. Qualified individuals are those age 60 or older who earn a monthly income of no more than $2,096 a month for a one-person household or no more than $2,823 a month for a two-person household. The coupons can be redeemed at participating farmers’ market locations throughout Saratoga County.
Last year, the Department distributed 3,325 coupons valued at $16,625. Saratoga County seniors redeemed 2,219 of these coupons, which provided them with a total of $11,095 in fresh, local produce to support their health and nutrition. 2022 is the most recently completed season for which statistics are available.
The Seniors Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program (SFMNP) is designed to provide low-income seniors with access to locally grown fruits, vegetables, and cut herbs; increase the domestic consumption of agricultural commodities through farmers’ markets.
Saratoga County polling sites on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 7. Source: Saratoga County Board of Elections.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —All five City Council seats – one mayor and four commissioners – as well as both city Supervision positions are up for vote to new, two-year terms that will take effect in January.
City Council
Three of the five council positions are uncontested, and each of the currently sitting commissioners – Jason Golub (Public Safety), Dillon Moran (Accounts), and Minita Sanghvi (Finance) – are expected to return. All three are Democrats.
The contested seats are for city Mayor, and for Commissioner of Public Safety.
Incumbent Mayor Ron Kim and incumbent Public Safety Commissioner Jim Montagnino are both seeking re-election. Each is facing a contested three-person race. Both incumbents are Democrats, but unlike the political polarization that prevails in many elections across the U.S., party lines and political divisions in the Spa City are somewhat blurred.
Mayor
Ron Kim – running on the Democratic line, is facing a challenge for the mayoral seat from Republican candidate John Safford, and One Saratoga independent party candidate Chris Mathiesen. Mathiesen previously sat the council table as city Public Safety Commissioner, from 2012 to 2017.
Public Safety Commissioner
Jim Montagnino – running on the Democratic line, faces a challenge for Public Safety Commissioner from Timothy Coll – who is running on the Republican, and One Saratoga line, and Kristen Dart – who is running on the independent Community First line.
A Parting of Party Lines
In the city of Saratoga Springs, there are just over 20,000 voters actively registered.
Registered Democrats account for approximately 40% of voters, registered Republicans about 28%, and Blanks – that is, those registered to vote but purposely unaffiliated with any party, count for about 26.5%. The remaining 5.5% balance of voters are comprised of those registered with either the Conservative Party, Working Families Party, or a variety of independent lines. Overall, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in 21 of 25 city voting districts, according to the state Board of Elections’ latest available enrollment figures.
Despite that sitting Public Safety Commissioner Montagnino is a Democrat, city Mayor Ron Kim and three other incumbent Democrat council members have expressed their backing of independent Kristen Dart for the seat.
Tim Coll, who is a registered Democrat, has been endorsed by the city Republican committee and is running on the Republican line as a candidate of choice for Public Safety Commissioner.
And this week, on a rain-soaked Monday afternoon in front of City Hall, Democrat ballot candidate Montagnino held a press conference to announce he would be crossing party lines to endorse Republican Party candidate John Safford for Mayor in the election. When asked about his support for Safford, Montagnino denied that his endorsement was of any retaliatory nature against Mayor Kim’s endorsing of Kirsten Dart, instead citing “discord and chaos” at recent City Council meetings as a motivator.
“This IS an unusual endorsement,” Safford said, acknowledging the crossing of party lines during Monday’s 20-minute presser, “but I’m grateful for it.”
This Year’s Contested City Seats – The Last Time Around
In 2021, nearly 9,000 city votes were counted in the mayoral race. Democrat Ron Kim was elected after securing 4,319 votes to the 3,943 cast for Republican candidate Heidi West and 632 voted for other party challengers.
Democrat Jim Montagnino was elected Public Safety Commissioner after besting Republican candidate Tracey LaBelle 4,783 to 3,859, with an additional 95 votes cast for a third-party challenger.
In the race for the two Supervisor seats, Democrat Tara Gaston (4,460) and Republican Matthew Veitch (4,334 votes) were elected. Democrat Shaun Wiggins received 3,828 votes, and Republican John Safford – this year’s mayoral challenger – received 3,775 votes.
This year in Saratoga Springs, voters have a choice of three candidates from which to select two supervisors to represent the city at the county level.
They are: Gordon Boyd (D, WF); Michele Madigan (D, One Saratoga), and incumbent Supervisor Matthew Veitch (R, One Saratoga). Madigan previously served five two-year terms as city Finance Commissioner, from 2012-2021; Veitch, who is seeking re-election, has served as supervisor since 2008.
For more information about county supervisor races, please see last week’s edition of Saratoga TODAY, which may be viewed at: https://saratogatodaynewspaper.com/home/item/20476-election-primer-saratoga-county-five-contested-supervisor-races-early-voting-begins-oct-28.
Party Registration Breakdown
Countywide, active registered voter numbers have grown from 169,756 in November 2021 to 174,991 actively registered in 2023 – an increase of 5,235.
Specific to active voter party affiliation across Saratoga County: Conservative Party registration is up 281 compared to year 2021, Republican Party registration is up 934, and Democratic Party registration is up 1,456. The largest increase – up 3,203 – are those registered to vote but unaffiliated with any party, or “blank.” Working Families Party and other/ independent parties each have less active registered voters this time around.
Statewide Ballot Proposals
Proposal One: Removal Of Small City School Districts From Special Constitutional Debt Limitation. The proposed amendment to Article 8, section 4 of the Constitution seeks to remove the special constitutional debt limitation now placed on small city school districts, so they will be treated the same as all other school districts.
Proposal Two: Extending Sewage Project Debt Exclusion From Debt Limit. The proposed amendment to Article 8, section 5 of the Constitution seeks to extends for 10 years the authority of counties, cities, towns, and villages to remove from their constitutional debt limits debt for the construction of sewage facilities.
For full text of the two ballot proposals, go to the state BOE website at: https://www.elections.ny.gov/2023BallotProposals.html.
SARATOGA COUNTY — Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake, announced that her cellphone collection drive had collected 23 cellphones for domestic violence survivors.
Working with the Stillwater Police Department, the domestic violence services resource, Wellspring, and the Domestic Violence Advocacy Program of the Mechanicville Area Community Services Center (MACSC), these cellphones will be reprogramed for emergency 911 calls and will be distributed to domestic violence survivors.
The phones will allow them to contact authorities in the event and help prevent future acts of violence.
On a typical day, local domestic violence hotlines receive more than 19,000 calls statewide, which is 13 calls every minute.
“Silence hides violence. Domestic violence crimes happen behind closed doors. If we want to end abuse, we need to break the silence, to speak up and to talk about how prevalent these issues are,” said Maggie Fronk, Executive Director of Wellspring.
AMC, which took over operations of the former Bow Tie theater in 2022 is planning changes of its facial exterior.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —The Spa City’s movie theater on Railroad Place may soon have a new face.
AMC Theatres has filed an application with the city Zoning Board of Appeals seeking a re-branding of its exterior signs at 19 Railroad Place.
The proposed action includes larger letter signs – although the overall square footage will not be increased – to read “AMC,” as well as the removal of currently existing metal “bowtie” accents.
Bow Tie Cinemas opened in Wilton and in Saratoga Springs in 2013. The Wilton location closed in 2020 and in April 2022 AMC announced it had struck a deal with Bow Tie to take over operations of the Saratoga Springs theater.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The City Council unanimously approved a contract with SHI International Corp. of New Jersey, which will implement SHI software to allow the city to retain text messages from all city cell phones and automatically capture text messages.
“This is part of an initiative to improve our transparency and our ability to respond to FOIL requests,” said city Mayor Ron Kim, who brought the measure to the council table.
The SHI software, SMARSH, will use its automated carrier-integrated capture solution that retains all SMS/MMS data from the carrier the day SMARSH is implemented going forward.
Employees will text normally and the text messages will be captured as they pass through the carrier. The text messages are automatically pushed into SMARSH’s cloud-based records portal on the backend in an immutable format.
All data is indexed as it is pulled into the archive and will be searchable with parameters such as keyword, sender and/or recipients, and date range. The total recurring subtotal cost is just over $11,000, with a one-time subtotal cost of about $1,850.
“The use of SMARSH will provide an efficient and cost-effective way for the city to retain text messages from cellular devices,” Kim said. “Up until now, the city has really had no way to do this automatically. This will provide a seamless way for our city attorneys to efficiently, transparently and accurately respond to FOIL requests in the future.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS —The City of Saratoga Springs completed its purchase of cobra head street lights, which will convert the city’s street lights to LED, dark-sky compliant fixtures, city Mayor Ron Kim and Commissioner of Finance Minita Sanghvi announced Oct. 25.
The New York Power Authority (NYPA) will manage the upgrade of the street lights through a contract with the construction management firm Guth DeConzo, with the entire project slated for completion by June.
“This allows us to replace our streetlights with energy efficient LED technology, reduce street light energy use by as much as 65%, provide a safer and well-lit community, and reduce energy use,” Mayor Kim said in a statement.
Commissioner Sanghvi called the project “a major step toward reducing the city’s carbon footprint,” as well as generating an annual cost savings of about $270,000.
The technology will better allow the city to enhance public safety with cameras, install traffic management devices to facilitate traffic flow and use smart parking devices which can interface with smart phone apps allowing resident and visitor parking in downtown Saratoga Springs.
MECHANICVILLE —The United States Marine Corps Reserve and Dunkin’ on Oct. 20 launched the 2023 edition of the Capital Region Toys for Tots program with the groundbreaking announcement of the return of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Dunkin’ Toys for Tots Train.
The return of the train follows a four-year hiatus during which toys and holiday cheer were delivered to children and families in need by way of a tractor-trailer convoy.
The announcement was punctuated by a $25,000 donation from Dunkin’ and its Capital Region franchisees, which will be used by the Marine Corps Reserve to help deliver toys to children in communities throughout Upstate New York, and brings Dunkin’s total support of the holiday collection campaign to $425,000 since 2009. This year also marks the 76th anniversary of the Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Toys program.
The Marine Corps Reserve Dunkin’ Toys for Tots Train, which made its last journey in 2018, became a cherished tradition for more than a decade. Large crowds of children and adults turned out at each designated depot to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus, and receive toys in addition to hot chocolate and baked goods from Dunkin’. However, in 2019 delivery of the toys fully transitioned from the rails to the highway and a convoy of trucks.
The holiday train will take to the rails on Dec. 2 and 3.
The 2023 toy collection drive will take place at approximately 400 locations throughout the area.
Capital Region Toys for Tots and the Marine Corps Reserve will work with more than 250 community agencies in 14 counties across the state to serve more than 200,000 children this holiday season.
Businesses or individuals interested in making donations can contact Toys for Tots at info@capitalregiontoysfortots.org.
