Chowderfest 25 takes place Saturday in Saratoga Springs.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The 25th Annual Chowderfest will be held 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 10.
“It’s the 25th year of Chowderfest in Saratoga Springs. There will be 80-plus participating restaurants and vendors, there will be live music, kids’ activities, collectable hats and shirts for sale.” Saratoga Springs Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran told the City Council last month.
“The anticipated attendance is between 30,000 and 40,000 in downtown Saratoga. We are ready to bring these crowds into the community to celebrate. Knock on wood we get great weather and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing everybody. We’re going to show the world this is a community that knows how to welcome guests and to show them everything this city has to offer,” Moran said.
The family-friendly event invites participants to savor 4 oz. chowder samples at $2 each from more than 80 Saratoga County establishments.
In addition to chowder, downtown Saratoga Springs will host live entertainment and family-friendly activities. Free shuttles from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. will be available at Saratoga Casino Hotel.
Exclusive 25th-anniversary long-sleeve shirts ($15 or $17 for XXL), beanies ($10) and collectible spoons ($5) will be available for purchase at the Saratoga Springs City Center and Saratoga Springs Heritage Area Visitor Center while supplies last.
“For 25 years, Chowderfest has woven itself into our community’s fabric as a cherished tradition. Join us as we mark this milestone with surprises and unforgettable flavors – it’s destined to make history,” Darryl Leggieri, president at Discover Saratoga said in a statement.
Voting will take place online at discoversaratoga.org/chowderfest/vote. One vote per device will be accepted and voting closes at 5 p.m. Winners will be announced at 6 p.m. at Saratoga Springs Heritage Area Visitor Center.
Discover Saratoga is also conducting a promotion during Chowderfest which allows attendees who download the new mobile app and check-in at participating establishments to earn entries into a drawing for $1,000 in gift cards to Saratoga businesses and restaurants. One winner will be chosen.
The Discover Saratoga mobile app is free and available for download on the App Store and Google Play. For more information regarding Chowderfest, visit discoversaratoga.org/chowderfest or call 518-584-1531.
The 36th annual Flurry Festival is coming this month.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —The 36th Annual Flurry Festival will take place Feb. 16-18 at the Saratoga Springs City Center.
Over the course of the weekend, thousands of attendees will be immersed in dozens of traditional dance and music genres, including swing, contra, blues, square and line dancing, Cajun, Zydeco, English country, Balkan, Scandinavian, Latin, Scottish, tango, fusion, international, Irish, balfolk, African, Appalachian dance, and more.
“The festival is a national treasure among certain communities,” said Jonathan Greene, Program Curator of the festival, in a statement. “People travel from all over the country, even some from abroad, to experience this one-of-a-kind festival. It’s that classic thing where locals don’t always know what we have here.”
More than 300 performers and teachers will present 221 sessions, including concerts, demonstrations, dance instruction, instrument workshops, jams, storytelling, singing, and participatory dances.
Different types of participatory dances are done solo, partnered, or in community groups, and there’s no need to come with a partner as switching is common for many styles. Non-dancers or musicians will be able to participate by attending jams, performances, sing-a-longs, and educational workshops.
Families can join in simple American and international dances, listen to multicultural stories, and attend concerts, Stuntology, and a crankie show. Other youth activities include singing, movement, body percussion, and improv workshops, along with world dance, a Wizard of Oz puppet show and puppet-making workshop, a teen music showcase, and teen jams.
Full or partial weekend tickets can be purchased online through Feb. 11 or throughout the weekend at the door, with discounts available for seniors, under age 26, and military. Scholarship tickets are available for those in need, and children 12 and under are free.
Learn more about the 2024 Flurry Festival and view performers and schedules at www.flurryfestival.org.
Pastor E.J. Taylor, Sr. of Sweet Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church. Photo provided.
ALBANY — WMHT Public Media will hold a free, public screening for the premiere of its new documentary, Echoes of Praise: Gospel Music in NY’s Capital Region.
The event takes place 6 p.m. on Feb. 9 at The Linda, WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio, 339 Central Ave., Albany, featuring preview clips of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s GOSPEL and companion concert Gospel LIVE! and will conclude with a live performance by The Heavenly Echoes Gospel Band. The event is free, but registration is required at: https://bit.ly/48UuQ3W
The WMHT documentary was produced to complement the Black History Month launch of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s four-hour PBS docuseries GOSPEL, and provides a window into local gospel music in NY’s Capital Region. It showcases several area congregations with deep connections to gospel music, including Sweet Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in Albany, Bethel Baptist Church in Troy, Friendship Baptist Church in Schenectady, and Metropolitan New Testament Mission Baptist Church in Albany. It will premiere on WMHT at 9 p.m. on Feb. 12.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —The Saratoga Springs based Racing City Chorus is now accepting your order for Singing Valentines for Wednesday, Feb. 14. A barbershop quartet dressed in tuxedos, will serenade your special someone with a love song, deliver a rose and a sampler of chocolates.
Quartets will go to their workplace, school, restaurant, nursing home, residence or other venue in the Saratoga region and surrounding area.
Rusty Senecal, president of Racing City Chorus states, “this is a great way to provide a unique and lasting gift to your loved one.”
Visit racingcitychorus.org for more details. Contact 518-504-SING (7464) to order your Singing Valentine.
ALBANY — Twenty years ago, the American Heart Association started the Go Red for Women movement to empower women to fight heart disease, their No. 1 killer.
For 20 years, people nationwide have used the first Friday in February, National Wear Red Day, as a day of education and awareness-raising.
This year, National Wear Red Day is Friday, Feb. 2, and across the Capital Region, and across the nation, people will wear red, donate to the Heart Association, and many businesses – and the Empire State Plaza – will illuminate their buildings red to shine a bright light on heart disease in women.
There are many reasons to Go Red on Friday, Feb. 2, primarily:
• Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women.
• Nearly 45% of women over age 20 are living with some form of cardiovascular disease.
• Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of maternal death in the U.S.
• Women are less likely than men to receive bystander CPR in an emergency, and 23% less likely to survive sudden cardiac arrest.
• Only 38% of cardiovascular clinical research trial participants were women as of 2020.
People are encouraged to share their Wear Red Day activities on social media with the hashtags #WearRedDay #WearRedandGive #GoRed518 and tag @AHANewYork on Facebook, Instagram and X.
Drop-in lantern making will be held at CREATE Community Studios to kick-off the Lantern Festival and Stroll on Feb. 3. Photo provided.
SARATOGA SPRINGS —The 2nd Annual Lantern Festival and Stroll will take place on Saturday, Feb. 3 on Beekman St in Saratoga Springs. This is an all-ages event. Come out and celebrate the midpoint between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. Groundhog’s Day, (St.) Brigid’s Day, Imbolc, Lunar New Year, Tu BiShvat (New Year of the Tree), African History Month, and more celebrations that take place around this time of year as we turn toward Spring.
The event begins at 4 p.m. with all ages drop-in lantern-making at the CREATE Community Studio at 70B Beekman Street until 4:45 p.m.; come when you can. At 4:30 p.m. participatory drumming led by Wayne White of The Djembe Lab NY will start up at the Frederick Allen Lodge, 69 Beekman Street. A formal program begins at 5 p.m. with a welcome followed by music, drumming, dance, song, and storytelling. At 5:30 p.m., we’ll head out on to Beekman Street with our lanterns for a stroll around the neighborhood stopping at a couple of historic sites; while the full route is about one-half mile, the final distance and duration is weather-dependent. For additional information, contact Frank A. Lombardo at flombar1@yahoo.com or 518-290-0493.
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.
