COVID Positivity Rate: 7-Day Average

• New York State overall: 3.7%
• Capital Region (eight regional counties including Saratoga): 2.3% 
• Saratoga County: 2.2%. 
* The total number of Saratoga County residents to date who have tested positive for COVID-19: 11,415. 

Hospitalization Capacity: 7-Day average
• Capital Region Beds available: 31%. New York Statewide average: 34%. 
• Capital Region ICU Beds available: 22%. New York Statewide average: 26%. 

Vaccines Administered
• Saratoga County residents – First Dose: 31,265.  Both Doses: 15,713.   
* Statistics provided by Saratoga County Public Health Department and New York State Department of Health, as of Feb. 16, 2021.

Jobs – Saratoga County’s Department of 

Public Health currently seeking individuals:
• CONTACT TRACERS – interviewing positive patients, identifying their close contacts, interviewing and alerting those contacts to the risk of infection, instructing those contacts to quarantine or isolate for 14 days.  “Contract” positions at $25/Hour.
• LEAD CONTACT TRACER – lead a team of contact tracers. Temporary, per diem-based position at $30/Hour.
• COVID Support Personnel – work is primarily routine in nature, standardized clerical tasks, working alongside vaccinators, health care providers and public health staff engaged in the COVID-19 vaccination effort. temporary, per diem-based position at $22/Hour.
• COVID Response Coordinator – under general supervision, responsible for performing a wide variety of administrative tasks required to ensure the efficient and effective operation of the Public Health emergency response effort. Temporary, per diem-based position at $25/Hour.
• All jobs: No remote capability – onsite required. 

More information, go to: saratogacountyny.gov. 

SARATOGA — Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing accusations that he covered up the true death toll of the pandemic on nursing home residents. 

Local Democrat Assembly-woman Carrie Woerner said that the state Legislature must fully investigate the governor’s actions and take immediate steps to protect vulnerable populations.    

In a statement released last week, Woerner, D-Round Lake, said: “like many of my constituents, I’m outraged by the revelations that the Cuomo administration purposefully withheld critical information about nursing home deaths because they were afraid of the Department of Justice.Regardless of whether such an investigation would have been politically motivated, that doesn’t justify what the governor did.  At this moment of crisis, transparency and accountability are absolutely paramount.  Without it, there can be no basis for trusting our government.”

Earlier this month, Woerner was one of only two Democrats who voted against a bill to rename Donald J. Trump State Park. The justification cited by the assembly measure for the renaming of the largely underutilized park on the border of Putnam and Westchester counties expressed that “the park should embody the goals of uplifting and unifying New Yorkers. For these reasons the Donald J.  Trump State Park should be renamed.”  Despite Woerner’s “nay vote,” the state Assembly opted to move forward with the bill in a 14-7 vote. 

BALLSTON SPA — Shawn Raymond and Ben Baskin are candidates for the two open trustee positions on the Village of Ballston Spa Board.  The election will be held on Tuesday, March 16.  They are running as a team under the local, non-partisan A Better BSpa line.

Raymond, a civil engineer, has served as Village Trustee over the past four years and is running for re-election. Baskin, a non-profit and public health professional, is a long-time community volunteer, is running with Raymond. The motto of the campaign is: Keep Moving Forward. 

Baskin and Raymond’s four key campaign issues are: preserving village character; promoting smart growth; providing fiscal responsibility and protecting village services. 

WASHINGTON—Congressman Paul Tonko released local impact figures under the Fiscal Year 2021 Reconciliation Act currently moving through the House and Senate. The rescue package would deliver an estimated $440 million in direct federal COVID-19 relief funding to counties, cities, towns, and villages in New York’s 20th Congressional District—which is represented by Tonko—to maintain essential services and staff including teachers, nurses, firefighters, water systems managers and countless others in the Capital Region. Under this bill:

Public services in Saratoga County – within the boundary lines of Tonko’s 20th Congressional District – would receive a total of $49,867,173. Albany County would receive a total of nearly $174 million, Schenectady County about $117 million, and Rensselaer County more than $82 million. 

“Capital Region communities have showed incredible strength and resilience in the face of this dangerous pandemic, but this fight has weighed on our spirits and depleted our family, municipal, county and state budgets; our local communities may not all survive long months of further economic hardship without federal help,” said Tonko, in a statement. 

“As more contagious new COVID variants continue to spread throughout the country, and with vaccinations still coming far too slowly and herd immunity still months away, we need bold leadership now to deliver that relief. Our COVID package does just that. This plan puts money in the pockets of millions of Americans, scales up vaccination production and distribution and delivers a lifeline to state and local governments to ensure local teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses and other essential workers are supported while they work to keep our communities going. The end of this pandemic is in sight, but we still have much work ahead to crush this virus and rebuild our economy. Advancing this legislation will give us a clear path to achieve these goals and save countless lives.”

The Reconciliation Act provision includes: $195.3 billion to states and the District of Columbia with $25.5 billion of that total equally divided among the states and $169 billion based on the state share of total unemployed workers, $130.2 billion to local governments, divided evenly between cities and counties, and $19.53 billion for municipalities with populations of less than 50,000. An additional $117 million in funds is targeted for oversight entities to promote transparency and accountability of all federal coronavirus relief funds. 

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ALBANY — Problems surrounding eligibility prioritization, excluded essential workers, limited access to available appointments, and more related to the rollout of New York State’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution program continue to persist. An easily accessible, statewide pre-registration tool available for every New Yorker’s use, would tackle these issues and provide much-needed peace of mind to an increasingly-anxious population.

Assembly members Patricia Fahy (D-109), John McDonald (D-108), and Carrie Woerner (D-113) released a joint statement urging the state to create a pre-registration tool. 

The pre-registration registration process would capture an individual’s age, occupation, any underlying health conditions, and how they’d like to be contacted. The state would reprioritize the list based on eligibility phases — healthcare, frontline, essential workers first, those with comorbidities, over 75 next, over 65, and so on. 

As the vaccine arrives in the state, the Department of Health would allocate a number of doses to each county, pharmacy, and other providers, and provide the list of the same number of people who are next up on the eligibility list. The County Public Health department would then reach out to those specific people, and schedule them for an appointment, making sure to schedule sufficient people on any given day so that no vaccine dose goes to waste. 

“The vaccine distribution process is confusing, frustrating, and makes an already-anxious populace even more so. We need a straightforward system that matches supply with demand,” reads the statement. “We recommend the Governor and the Department of Health move to a pre-registration system that will allow the state and counties to simplify the scheduling process, eliminate the competition for vaccine appointments, reduce the need to travel several hours to secure a vaccination, and overall reduce the stress people are experiencing.” 

The 2021 Saratoga Showcase of Homes Committee is now planning this year’s edition of the area’s premiere new home tour. Now in its 25th year and celebrating its “Silver Anniversary”, this annual community tradition has contributed over $1.3 million dollars to our local charities. 

The 2021 Saratoga Showcase of Homes will be over three spectacular weekends this fall on September 18-19, 25-26 & October 2-3 featuring the regions finest, award-winning builders showcasing their new construction. Please stay tuned for other special events surrounding this milestone event anniversary. We look forward to presenting an outstanding line-up of magnificent homes on display in Saratoga County attracting some 4000 visitors this coming fall. 

Be a part of the area’s premiere new home tour!
The Showcase of Homes Committee has an extensive marketing and promotional campaign in development, which includes official media sponsors in newspapers, magazines, television, online, social media and more! If you are interested in entering a new home in the event or becoming a showcase sponsor, please contact Barry Potoker, Executive Director at 518.366.0946 or bpotoker@saratogabuilders.org. 

The 2021 Saratoga Showcase of Homes event will benefit Rebuilding Together Saratoga County and Habitat for Humanity of Northern Saratoga, Warren and Washington Counties. Due to the pandemic, the 2020 Saratoga Showcase of Homes tour was reimagined in the form of a Showcase TV Special.  Last year, $10,000 was raised for to these charities from the proceeds. This event has now contributed over $1.3 million for our two designated local charities. 

For more information, please visit www.saratogashowcaseofhomes.com. Follow us this year on our blog & Facebook for all the details and updates!

About Saratoga Builders Association
The Saratoga Builders Association, Inc. (SBA) is a specialized professional trade association representing an industry basic to the wellbeing and economy of the people of Saratoga County. Its membership includes residential and commercial builders, developers, remodelers, building material suppliers, sub-contractors, financial institutions, architects, engineers, realtors, attorneys and other industry professionals. SBA is committed to the continued growth, prosperity and quality of life in Saratoga County. 

WILTON — Kirklin Woodcock has served as Highway Superintendent in the town of Wilton since the 1980s, overseeing a crew charged with the maintenance of approximately 100 center-line miles of town roads. 

The lifelong Wilton resident has decided this year will be his last as Highway Superintendent. This week, Woodcock spent some time to talk about accomplishments of the position, his personal life, and how Wilton has changed in the years since his earliest days of growing up in the town during the 1940s. 

Q. Tell us about your personal life. 

Woodcock: I’m a native, from Wilton. I’ll be 80 in March and I’ve been married 57 years. My wife’s name is Sandra and I have one daughter, Deborah. She’s married with one daughter, so I have one grand-daughter – that’s Caitlyn. She’s in college and going for her master’s at MIT.  I grew up as a country boy with a huge family. Three sets of twins, and I am a twin. 

Q. How has Wilton changed over the years? 

Woodcock: I would say the biggest change was when the Northway came through in the ‘60s. It split our town in half. There were some farms, and I’m talking some real nice farms, years ago along that Northway corridor, and the Northway split them in half. Since then, it’s pretty much grown into a residential area. 

Also, if you look at the growth around the mall area, back when we used to have Pyramid Mall, and the growth with Target and Ace Hardware distribution places in Wilton, it brought in a lot of jobs. It’s been quite a change. But, you have to go with the change. 

Q. Tell us about your long-held position as Highway Superintendent. 

Woodcock: The thing you have to remember with the job is that you work for the residents of Wilton. That’s always been my goal, to satisfy them and to work with all the other departments. 

I’ve been the highway superintendent for more than 30 years, re-elected every two years.  I had eight years on the town board prior to that when I was also working for UPS – where I had a 20-year career. 

We do all the maintenance of the roads – building, construction, and during the wintertime of course we maintain the plowing.  We also work with a lot of the other departments. We have been a major player in Gavin Park, Camp Saratoga, and we’ve put some effort in at Grant’s Cottage; we worked on the Maple Avenue Firehouse when they were getting going with their new building. 

We had a major fire in 2002. The fire was a major catastrophe for me because I put so many years in and then in three or four hours it was all gone, and boy that’s devastating, That kind of set us back for a little while, but we got through that and here we are today with a major town along the Northway corridor. My crew is second to none. They’re a phenomenal crew.

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Q: You’ve decided to not seek re-election for another term in November? 

Woodcock: I have a couple of projects I want to see finished, but I will not seek re-election in November. I built it up to where it is today. When I started out it was nothing, we had a pile of dirt roads and I want to turn this job over to someone who I’ve been training for a while. I don’t want to get to get too much into the politics of it, but I certainly would like my deputy Mike Monroe to take my job, if that would be the wishes of the residents of Wilton. He’s been in my department about 20 years and can certainly do the job. 

Q: What will you most miss? 

Woodcock: I’ll miss the guys and I’ll miss my colleagues. But it’s time to turn it over to someone who’s younger and I want to set aside some time for myself.  I have some hobbies – I do some auctions, I’m going to try and play some golf maybe, weather permitting.  All of my friends are here. I’ll miss it, but I won’t have to get up at 2 or 3 in the morning and I can sleep in if I want. 

I’ve also been dedicating my time and what I can do for the Double H (Ranch) Hole in The Woods. We do a fundraiser for them every year and try to help out. I would imagine, in the 25-plus years, we probably raised $200,000 to $300,000, I would think. 

Q. That’s the camp Paul Newman was involved with? 

Woodcock: Paul Newman and Charlie Wood. I knew Charlie Wood from before. Paul Newman joined forces with him and got that all going. It’s unbelievable because back in the ‘60s before I settled down, I worked at the Double H Hole in the Woods, in what used to be Hidden Valley Dude Ranch. Our crew back then we did the first thousand feet of grubbing for the ski slope up there, drilling the rock and blasting. That’s when I was a young guy. You know, it’s funny when you realize what you did then, and you see what it is today – it’s a big change.

I’ve had a great run and I think it’s maybe time to sit on the side and enjoy some other things.  At least I can ride by and say I was a part of it. 

Robin Dalton grew up in a Republican household, and it is the one party she’s been affiliated with during her adult life.

In 2019, after announcing her candidacy for the position of Public Safety Commissioner, she successfully ran as a Republican on the Republican, Independence, Libertarian, Conservative, and SAM party lines, besting Democrat challenger Kendall Hicks by 7 points, and taking office in January 2020.

A week-and-a-half ago, she submitted paperwork seeking to change her status as a registered member of the Republican Party to having no official party affiliation. The move comes at the same time that Dalton has announced her bid for re-election in November.

“The Republican Party on a national level has taken a very extreme turn. That’s not a reflection of any one thing in Saratoga Springs. It is my discomfort with Donald Trump and his presidency and where it was leading the party – devolving into a party that represents a very anti-democratic sentiment. I could not identify the fundamental principles of the Republican Party as I knew it, growing up,” Dalton says.  

“Challenging the votes of a fair and democratic election. The insurrection at the Capitol. The way the party has allowed itself to be represented by Marjorie Taylor Greene. That’s just not who I am,” Dalton says. “I didn’t leave the party, the party left me, and I know that there are a lot of other people out there that feel the same way.”  

She first began closely observing city council meetings about a decade ago and says she was encouraged that political partisanship did not seem to play a factor in the way the city council presented themselves or the ways in which they voted. It is something she is adamant about wanting to see continue.   

“Being at the City Council table in Saratoga Springs has no correlation to any particular political ideology and my party affiliation has never had anything to do with any decision in my position in Saratoga Springs, it’s not going to affect my dealings with things in Saratoga Springs at all,” she says. 

There are five at-large City Council members – one mayor and four commissioners responsible for the variety of different city departments, with decisions made during twice-a-month public meetings by simple majority rule. In Saratoga County, 2021 Primary Elections are slated to take place June 22 and the General Election on Nov. 2 – at which time all five council seats will be up for vote.  

“I am seeking re-election in the fall and I did have five party lines in 2019, which was awesome. I also had this incredible coalition of bi-partisan support. I campaigned with people from different parties and it went very well because we all prioritized city over party,” Dalton says. “I do have to get the endorsement of a party, or people will have to write me in – so I am seeking any endorsement opportunity that I am approached with, and any party that’s willing to interview me I will interview with and seek the endorsement of.”

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Moving forward, she will be independent of any party – not to be confused with the Independence Party, which actually is a party. Being independent of party is a situation former council member Matt McCabe was previously successful in, serving two terms as Commissioner of Finance.     

The Commissioner of Public Safety position is an especially challenging one since 2020 as it directly addresses issues of social justice and the response to the pandemic – the latter being charged with issues of adapting safety compliance measures, re-opening plans and disseminating local vaccine information as it trickles from the federal government to the state, the state to the county, and then into local municipalities. For Dalton, this has included setting her alarm to two-hour intervals overnight to refresh online vaccination site availabilities for residents who have contacted her office, and successfully facilitating scores of appointments for some of those residents in the process.

Regarding social justice issues, a politically charged environment trickling down from the federal level has made solving complicated issues even more so. “I support our police department, and I also recognize white privilege and want to fight for social justice and equality and inclusion, and address race and bias in a comprehensive way. To not be able to have both of those things in one person is just absurd to me,” Dalton says.

 “I am so appreciative of every party that supported me in 2019, especially the Republican city committee. They were incredible. They got me elected. And I’m deeply appreciative of their support and hope I will continue to have that support,” Dalton says. “The philosophy I’ve always had going into politics here was that I was going to be my most sincere and authentic self, and that if I couldn’t do that I wasn’t going to pursue this line of work. Fortunately, I’ve been able to maintain that and people who have known me politically here know that I’m (politically) moderate. I’ve never been someone who swings hard right or left.

“Right now, it’s a really hard time to be a moderate (and) in this political climate, I have no idea where either party is headed. People expect you to be one extreme or the other. Suddenly national issues have also become local, but I just don’t feel comfortable keeping an association with a party based on their actions on a national level,” Dalton says. “Even though that puts my political future here in jeopardy – because I risk not having a line at all on the ballot in November – I needed to be comfortable with myself and my choices.”   

Overall, in Saratoga County, there were about 62,700 active registered Republican Party voters, 49,600 Democrat Party voters, and 43,200 voters unaffiliated with any party on Election Day 2020. Despite that majority of registered Republicans, the Democrat-led Biden/Harris ultimately bested the GOP’s Trump/Pence ticket, in the process keeping alive Saratoga’s reputation as a bellwether county with a voting streak of accurately selecting the nation’s next president across this entire century, and at least into the 1990’s. For comparison purposes, voters of Clallam County, Washington, have voted the winning candidate in every presidential election since 1980.

The state Board of Elections publishes updated party enrollment statistics three times each year with the next due report date slated for April 1, at which time it will be possible to gauge if there has been any switching of parties among local voters.