STILLWATER — Saratoga National Historical Park is planning a series of prescribed fires in the coming weeks.  The areas to be burned this year include approximately 40 acres of grasses, shrubs, and woodlands on the hillsides around Stop 3 and Stop 9 on the Park Tour Road. 

Depending on favorable weather and site conditions, the first burns could take place during the second or third week in April. Because certain prescription parameters must be met (including wind speed, relative humidity, fuel moisture, and drought index), it is not possible to precisely schedule prescribed fires in advance. Roads, visitor use facilities, and hiking trails may be temporarily closed while burns are underway.

Prescribed fire is an approved tool for natural resource management throughout the National Park System and is part of Saratoga National Historical Park’s fire management program. The primary objectives of the prescribed fire program are: restoration and perpetuation of scenic and cultural landscapes, including native plant species; reduction of wildland fuel loading; and enhancement of wildlife habitat.

Assistance may be provided by firefighters from other National Park Service units, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the New York State Forest Rangers and The Albany Pine Bush Preserve.

For more information about Saratoga National Historical Park, please call the Visitor Center at 518-670-2985, visit www.nps.gov/sara, or find the park on Facebook or Twitter @SaratogaNHP. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The local non-profit Sustainable Saratoga invites you to team up with them on Saturday, April 24, and Sunday, April 25, to clean up neighborhoods, streets and trails for Earth Day. 

“We’re seeing extra plastic pollution and pandemic-related litter this year – things like masks and gloves – littering our streets and sidewalks,” said Whitney Davis, a Sustainable Saratoga board member and co-chair of their Zero Waste Committee, in a statement. “We were looking for a COVID-safe activity to both reduce the impact of the litter on the environment and raise awareness about the chronic problem of litter pollution in our local communities. This event lets us do that.” 

While COVID has limited the opportunity for large groups to gather, Sustainable Saratoga has designed this event so that anyone can participate by volunteering an hour or two to clean up an area of their choosing. 

So, grab some trash bags, gloves and friends to clean our roadsides and neighborhoods on Earth Day weekend! 

Sustainable Saratoga requests that you register (forms.gle/AoyQsUK9v3wA8wWY6) for the event so they can keep track of the impact that participants collectively make that weekend. They will also have free ice cream certificates, donated by Stewart’s, for the first 100 confirmed participants. 

To learn more visit: www.sustainablesaratoga.org.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A large, two-story building owned by Saratoga County on Woodlawn Avenue is currently up for auction. 

The building, which stands at 31 Woodlawn Ave., was completed in 1927 and used as a clothing factory until 1936 when the County first rented it from the City of Saratoga Springs. The county purchased the building in 1940 and has served a variety of purposes. Currently, one floor of the building is leased to Shelters of Saratoga for use as an overflow homeless shelter. That lease expired March 31.

The building has approximately 10,300 square feet of useable space, two parking lots, a finished basement, and frontage on Woodlawn Ave. and Railroad Pl. 

In 2020, the land was assessed at $459,200, the total assessment at just over $1.7 million, and the full market value at $2.754 million. 

The Saratoga County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution to hire a company to put up for auction the building in late February. Bidding, which began April 6, concludes on April 28, according to Auctions International. 

For more information about the auction, go to: auctionsinternational.com and search Saratoga.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Current city Public Safety Commissioner Robin Dalton this week officially announced her candidacy for Mayor of Saratoga Springs. Dalton, who left the Republican Party line earlier this year to become independent of any party – will run on the newly created Saratoga Stronger Together ballot line. 

“Right now, we need someone leading the city in the mayor’s position who truly understands the extremely precarious position we’re in,” Dalton explained. “The only person who can understand that is someone who has been on the City Council the past two years and who has gone through this crisis, from the inside.”

City voters in November will elect a new mayor and four commissioners – which comprise the five-member City Council – as well as two Supervisors to represent the city at the county level. Of those seven positions, at least four will see new faces; three incumbents are not seeking re-election, and Dalton is vying for a different seat.       

In New York state this year, several party ballot lines have been eliminated. The remaining parties are Democrat, Republican, Conservative and Working Families – the latter of which is currently being litigated among potential candidates. 

Candidates may also create their own ballot lines, but those must secure a specific number of signatures for that line to be valid in November. In Saratoga Springs, the number of required signatures is 305, and the dates to secure signatures is April 13 to May 25.   

This week, Dalton unveiled the ballot line Saratoga Stronger Together, which lists as candidates: Robin Dalton – Mayor; Adam Israel – Commissioner of Finance; Colin Klepetar – Commissioner of Accounts, and Tara Gaston – County Supervisor, the latter a position that Gaston currently holds. More candidates may be added in the future. Any additional candidates would require additional signatures to the 305 that the four currently listed as candidates must secure as a group. 

“The way we will treat each other, and how we treat politics in Saratoga Springs will be with civility and with respect,” Dalton said, of candidates on the Saratoga Stronger Together ballot line. “We can agree to disagree. We can build consensus together and still hear every voice. We’re not really concerned with people’s former political party. We’re united in – not policy necessarily – but how we treat legislating at the City Council table.” 

Like Dalton, finance commissioner candidate Adam Israel is a former registered Republican. “I was always a registered Republican, but I did not agree with the previous administration nationally, so I switched my party to NOP (No Party Preference).” 

“As we started developing things for the election cycle in November, it became clear to me that the representative parties locally represent what the parties represent nationally, which is, fairly extreme positions,” Dalton said. “What I hear over and over from Saratogians is they’re not looking for (extremes), they’re looking for a middle ground, and someplace that focuses on the city of Saratoga and not on the politics dividing us as a country.” 

As of this week, city Democrat, Republican, and Working Families candidates on file with the Board of Elections include:  Mayor: Ronald Kim (D), Heidi Owen (R, C); Accounts: Dillon Moran (D), Samantha Guerra (R,C); DPW: Domenique Yermolayev (D), Anthony “Skip” Scirocco INCUMBENT (R, C); Finance: Minita Sanghvi (D), Joanne Kiernan (R,C), Sierra Hunt (WF); Public Safety:  James Montagnino (D), Tracey Labelle (R,C). For Supervisor (two seats): Tara Gaston INCUMBENT (D, WF), Shaun Wiggins (D), Matthew Veitch INCUMBENT (R,C), John Safford (R,C), Bruce Altimar (WF), Gabriel O’Brien (WF). 

Petitions regarding some Working Families Party line candidates are reportedly being challenged at Saratoga County Supreme Court. 

“There’s been a faction of Republicans who have disaffiliated from the Republican Party and re-registered as the Working Families Party, so when people go to vote in November there’s a fairly high likelihood that they’re not actually voting for the people who stand for the Working Families ideology – they’re voting for people who represent something different,” Dalton said. 

The majority of the city WF line is comprised of new members who came from various previous affiliations and recently registered with the party. Of those, previously registered Republicans outnumber previously registered Democrats by a near 2-to-1 margin. 

“We’re going toward an election season in November where we really only have two options. For Saratoga Springs, I feel that it’s incredibly necessary for us as a community to have a third option, one that prioritizes city over party,” Dalton said. “Once I began articulating that, I had a lot of other voices join in and want to participate in this effort to create an actual independent party line, where people can run free of the constraints of our traditional two-party system.”

Israel, the line’s Finance Commissioner candidate, earned a degree in finance at RPI, and said politics was always in the back of his mind. 

“It was really becoming bothersome to me that the moderates in the middle are losing their say at the table. I got to talking with Robin and my view is that there should be a line where people are beholden to the people they serve and not to the party line. That’s really what brought us together. The idea that we may not always agree, but that’s OK, because we are going to do what’s best for the people of Saratoga,” Israel said. 

Dalton and Israel say one way they connected was in sharing their experiences of answering a call to duty under unpredictable and challenging circumstances. Israel found himself working on humanitarian efforts in 2017 in the Virgin Islands after being hit with back-to-back Category 5 hurricanes. Dalton’s experience came when the city went on PAUSE due to COVID-19. “I was thinking: how are we going to survive this from a public health perspective, how are we going to survive this as a city, and knowing that I was in charge of that response. It was terrifying, but it was: am I going to rise to the occasion and give it everything I’ve got? Of course.” 

“Robin and I quickly learned that we jelled. We didn’t know we would, but we can share these experiences – standing at the cliff’s edge, looking at this impending doom and the fear that grips you. And you can either bow to the fear, or, do the work. It really turned out we had a lot in common,” Israel said.      

A grassroots effort to secure signatures began this week and will continue into May. The group says it will look to secure those signatures in open air locations, utilizing drive-by methods, and in other protocol-safe ways. Any registered voter in Saratoga Springs can sign the petition regardless of their political affiliation, as long as they have not signed the petition of one of the endorsed candidates of any of the other parties. For more information about signing petitions or the ballot line, go to: www.saratogastrong.com

Click Here for Glowegee Creek Trails Open in Galway

Click Here for Glowegee Creek Trails Open in Galway

BALLSTON SPA — Village of Ballston Spa is conducting a Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan and Linkage Study. 

The Village, with consultants VHB and Planning 4 Places, and the Capital District Transportation Committee are developing a master plan for a multi-use pedestrian and bicycle access and a link from the Zim Smith Trail to downtown Ballston Spa. The Ballston Spa Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan (The Plan) will help the Village continue to pursue its goals of promoting economic development, improving safety, and creating a connected and integrated transportation network for users of all ages and abilities. The Plan will provide clear direction on priority locations and desired design treatments for repair and construction of sidewalks, bike paths, street restriping, signage, repaving or reconstruction projects, based on a representative public input process.

A project website has been developed to keep the community fully informed of the progress of the study and to solicit input. Visit the project website at: projects.vhb.com/BallstonSpaPBMP/default.htm. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — All five seats on the City Council, as well as both supervisor positions, will be up for vote in November. Of those five council positions, at least four will look different, effectively creating a major overhaul of governing powers in City Hall. 

To date, 11 potential candidates have filed “designated petitions” to run for the five council seats. Six candidates have similarly filed regarding the city’s two supervisor positions up for election. 

This week, Democrat Ron Kim announced his candidacy for city mayor. 

“We have gone through difficult times.  We’ve lost good friends.  We have seen suffering. We have witnessed injustice.  As a community we will only recover if we come together,” Kim said, during his announcement staged in front of Saratoga Springs’ 9/11 Memorial in High Rock Park. Former elected city Democrats Peter Martin and Tom McTygue were in attendance.   

“I want to help this community come together. I will do it as your next mayor, as the People’s Mayor working for all of us,” Kim said. “In this new post-pandemic era, we need to have a kinder and more effective city government.” 

Kim, a local lawyer who served as Saratoga Springs’ Commissioner of Public Safety from 2006 to 2010, said If elected mayor, his top priorities would include building a long-discussed eastside public safety station, assisting city businesses in reopening safely while also developing long-term strategies to protect their viability, “reimagining” the city police force so there is accountability and transparency, and working with federal and state funding to develop green policies that create a carbon neutral Saratoga Springs by 2030.

The position of city mayor is one of several seats on the city council that will be inhabited by new candidates.  Eight-term Accounts Commissioner John Franck, five-term Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan and two-term Mayor Meg Kelly have each announced they will not seek reelection.  Additionally, current Public Safety Commissioner Robin Dalton recently announced she will seek re-election, but that she will do so as a “no party” member, after changing her party registration to no longer being an active member of the GOP. 

WHO IS RUNNING:

The 17 designated petitions filed by candidates are aligned with the four currently existing political parties. Recent changes in election law have altered the landscape regarding the number of political parties. Voters previously registered with the Green, Libertarian, Independence, or SAM party, are now considered No Party (NOP). The four political parties that now remain in New York State are Democratic, Republican, Conservative, and Working Families. 

The deadline for candidates to file designated petitions was March 25.  Independent petitions – that is, potential candidates interested in running for a city position under a newly created party – may still actively pursue their candidacy. In Saratoga Springs specifically, these independent candidates would need to secure 305 signatures. The timing-window to secure those signatures begins April 13, and they must be filed the week of May 18-25. 

What this means is that in addition to the 17 candidates aligned with existing parties vying for seven city seats, additional candidates, independent of the four existing parties, are expected to soon come forward. Of the 17, only three currently hold office and are seeking re-election.       

According to the Saratoga County Board of Elections, the 17 candidates who have filed designated petitions, their party affiliation, and the seat they seek is as follows: 

Mayor: Ronald Kim (D), Heidi Owen (R, C).
Accounts: Dillon Moran (D), Samantha Guerra (R,C).
DPW: Domenique Yermolayev (D), Anthony “Skip” Scirocco INCUMBENT (R, C). 
Finance: Minita Sanghvi (D), Joanne Kiernan (R,C), Sierra Hunt (WF).
Public Safety:  James Montagnino (D), Tracey Labelle (R,C).
Supervisor (two seats): Tara Gaston INCUMBENT (D, WF), Shaun Wiggins (D), Matthew Veitch INCUMBENT (R,C), John Safford (R,C), Bruce Altimar (WF), Gabriel O’Brien (WF). 

Supervisor seats will be up for vote in nearly all county municipalities in November, as well as an array of council and justice positions. County Sheriff and County Clerk will also be up for vote at Saratoga County. 

In Saratoga Springs, among approximately 20,000 registered voters, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by about 2,000, according to the most recent (Feb. 21) party affiliation enrollment report from the New York State Board of Elections. That percent breakdown is roughly registered Democrats: 42%, registered Republicans: 32%, registered but unaffiliated with any party: 25%. City voters registered with the Conservative, and the Working Families parties account for the remaining less than 1%.   

NEW YORK STATE — The New York State Police want to warn New Yorkers, especially parents, following cases of teens being targeted by criminals while online.      

Investigators say the suspect(s) locate teen victims on social media, friending or following the teens, then gaining their trust. When trust is established, investigators say the suspects ask for photos and/or videos of the teen, usually provocative in nature. Once the videos are secured by these predators, they demand payment, sometimes thousands of dollars, or they threaten to release the images on social media. 

At least one case has resulted in a teen victim committing suicide.   

State Police offer the following internet safety tips, for teens, or anyone who goes online: 

For parents – talk to your children about going online and set rules about where and when they are surfing or chatting, and monitor your children’s social media accounts. 

For kids and teens: Be careful what you post. Never share personal information online. This includes full name, address, or phone number. Don’t accept friend requests from strangers.  Don’t open emails, click on links, or download anything from unknown senders. Never share photos online or through texts or direct message with people you don’t know.  If you, or someone you know is having thoughts of harming yourself, talk to someone who can help.

If you feel you have been a victim of this type of crime, contact your local police. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Department of Public Works provides curbside leaf and lawn debris pick up. Leaves/lawn clippings must be in a reusable container or paper bag and placed at the curb May 15 to Sept. 30, after which leaves can be raked to the curb in small piles. 

Crews will not go on private property to retrieve or clean up leaves. Small limbs no longer than 3 feet can also be bundled and placed at the curbside. Be sure to keep containers and limb piles to a weight manageable by one person. DPW does not take stumps, lot clearing, tree take-downs on private property, dirt/sod or rocks. Additionally, no plastic bags, and no chemical barrels.