BALLSTON SPA, NY — The Second Annual Summer Kickoff Festival launches on Sunday, June 18 in Wiswall Park, Ballston Spa.
The event takes place 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. and will be hosted by Natalia Martinez – owner of the children’s retail and play space Play Hollow, and Dayanis Bowie, owner of DB Trends, a gift studio featuring home decor and tropical plants.
This year, there will be 30+ vendors selling baked goods, specialty foods, clothing, handmade gifts, jewelry as well as promoting local services including pet boarding, home needs, childcare, child development education and more. The Kids’ Free Activity Tent will have a yoga class, face painting, surprise visits from special characters, as well as bubble and water play stations.
The first 25 shoppers will receive FREE swag bags full of local goodies and every purchase recorded on the event stamp pass will be entered to win several giveaways.
For more information, go to: https://www.playhollow.com/pages/summer-kick-off-2023
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation will present via Zoom “Historic Preservation & Lost Histories of Saratoga Springs,” at 7 p.m. on Monday, June 19.
In celebration of Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, the Foundation will partner with Dr. Myra Young Armstead of Bard College for a community conversation about Black history in Saratoga Springs, the effects of Urban Renewal, and the role historic preservation plays with lost histories within a community.
The program will take place on Zoom for a suggested donation of $10 or more. For additional information or to register for the virtual program, visit www.saratogapreservation.org or call 518-587-5030.
The Frederick Allen Elks Lodge #609 has additionally scheduled a weekend of local public events celebrating Juneteenth in Saratoga Springs.
Events: Friday, June 16 – The Slingshot Band, 9 p.m., at 69 Beekman St.
Sunday, June 18 – Author Carol Daggs’ “Brandtville Boogie Neighborhood Walking Tours,” 3 – 4 p.m. (also 10-11 a.m. June 19), $25/person (proceeds to benefit Frederick Allen Elks Lodge #609). Tours begin and end at 29 Doten Ave.
Monday, June 19 – 2nd Annual National Holiday Juneteenth Celebration, 1 – 3 p.m. Hosted at UU Congregation of Saratoga Springs 624 Broadway; Saratoga BLM’s “Poetic Community,” 4-7 p.m. at 69 Beekman St., with Spoken Word, Art, African cuisine. For additional events and updates, go to: https://www.frederickallenlodge.org/juneteenth-week
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Dake Foundation for Children raised more than $180,000 to support local children with disabilities during their May 31 annual Child’s Play fundraiser.
Founded by Gary Dake, President of Stewart’s Shops, the Foundation has provided grants to local children with disabilities since 2009 with a focus on inclusion, independence, and fun. The Foundation announced it will now additionally be offering assistance to local 501c3 nonprofit organizations seeking to make their spaces or programming more accessible and inclusive.
The first recipient of the Community Grant program will be the Saratoga Springs Children’s Museum, who will be provided with up to $25,000 towards building an inclusive playground.
To apply, donate, or to learn more about the Dake Foundation for Children, visit http://www.dakefoundation.org.
BALLSTON SPA — The Ballston Spa Business and Professional Association (BSBPA), along with the Saratoga County Department of Health, will host a Narcan Training event Monday, June 19. This training session aims to equip the community with life-saving skills and knowledge to combat opioid overdoses effectively.
The event will take place from 5:30-7:30 on the lawn of Brookside Museum, located at 21 Fairground Ave. in Ballston Spa. Admission is free to all members of the public who wish to participate. Participants will receive valuable instruction on recognizing signs of an opioid overdose and administering naloxone, commonly known as Narcan, an FDA-approved medication that can reverse the effects of an overdose. Narcan kits will be given away, and each training session lasts about 10 minutes.
To receive further information about Narcan Training in Saratoga County, please contact the Saratoga County Health at 518-584-7460.
SARATOGA — The Saratoga County 250th American Revolution Commission recently hosted 75 attendees for its Women in War Symposium at Saratoga Town Hall in Schuylerville.
Saratoga County Historian Lauren Roberts, Saratoga Deputy Supervisor Ian Murray, State Historian Devin Lander, and Saratoga National Historical Park Superintendent Leslie Morlock were among the distinguished guests at the event.
Attendees and participants came from across the local community as well as from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
The symposium provided a platform to honor and relate the invaluable contributions of women during wartime.
In a related matter, America’s Turning Point will present the summer speaking series Revolution on the Hudson – on June 27, July 25, and Aug. 1. The series invites the public to enjoy beautiful public parks located along the Hudson River while learning about America’s revolutionary past.
All three events begin at 6 p.m. and the public is invited to bring a picnic dinner and enjoy the grounds. Eighteenth century living historians will answer questions and provide demonstrations. The speaker program begins at 7 p.m. and 18th Century toys and games along with replica colonial clothing will be available for children to try. Please bring your own chairs.
Speaker series:
– June 27 at Halfmoon Lighthouse Park, 597 Hudson River Road, Halfmoon. Living Historians: 24th Regiment of Foot; Speakers: Sean Kelleher, “Incident at Jones Mill”; Don Carola, “Sanbun Ford: Forgotten Patriot Rediscovered”; Rick Reynolds, “Joe Bettys: Patriot and Traitor.”
– July 25 at Stillwater Riverfront Park 1940 US Route 4, Stillwater. Living Historians: 2nd Continental Artillery. Please note: There will be cannon firing as part of this demonstration. Speaker: David Pitlyk, Revisiting the Battle of Bennington.
– Aug. 1 at Hudson Crossing Park County Road 42, Schuylerville. Living Historian: Anne Clothier, Camp Followers of Burgoyne’s Army. Speaker: Bruce Venter, “The Battle of Hubbardton: The Rear Guard Action that Saved America.”
Black mesh fencing wraps around the new 24/7 homeless shelter at 4 Adelphi St. in Saratoga Springs. Photo by Thomas Dimopoulos.
SARATOGA SPRINGS – A new homeless shelter opened on Adelphi Street this week, the first low barrier facility in Saratoga Springs to be open year-round.
The shelter will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and house 30 beds. Monday, June 12 marked the first day of operation. It was filled to capacity.
“It’s been calm,” Sybil Newell said Tuesday. Newell is the executive director of RISE Housing and Support Services – the agency operating the shelter. “We have some people staying here who go to work, so we had a handful of folks who got up this morning, had breakfast, and went to work.”
The shelter is located just west of South Broadway – in close proximity to the Saratoga County Mental Health Clinic building on South Broadway, and RISE’s main office on Union Street – and since 2020 operated seasonally on an emergency basis as a cold-weather “Code Blue” winter venue.
The new shelter involved a public-private partnership and the collaborative effort of many hands that saw to its fruition.
On June 9, the City Council staged a Special Meeting during which it unanimously approved an agreement with RISE to operate the shelter. The agency was the sole bidder for the project during the RFP process. The contract calls for the city to pay just under $240,000 for RISE to hire, train and staff the program, as well as maintain the facility through the balance of the 2023 calendar year.
Local developer Sonny Bonacio secured a five-year lease on the property, renovated the building, and is providing it rent free to RISE until 2025.
“We have a sublease with him for the next two years,” Newell said. “They [Bonacio Construction] also installed the fence and installed the air conditioning. They got us the laundry machines, built the staff office,” she said. Interior couches and the tables came from Stephen Sullivan at Longfellows. The Corinth Central School District donated 32 numbered lockers. Metal detectors are stationed at the entryway.
“We also had a private donor, who wants to remain anonymous, who bought all the beds. The outpouring of donations that has come from people has really helped us,” Newell said. The shelter offers breakfast, lunch and dinner and privacy fencing circling the exterior of the property bookends a collection of chairs and canopies.
In recent years, the city’s parking garage on Woodlawn Avenue has been pointed to as a central location where those lacking housing have congregated for extended periods of time. The hope is providing ample space, meals and beds at the 24/7 shelter location will help deliver people congregating at the parking garage and elsewhere to the Adelphi Street venue.
“The program will be low-barrier, which means that anyone is welcome and they are not required to participate in case management or any other services,” Newell said, adding that advocacy services will be available on-site for anyone seeking to use those services.
Former city mayor Meg Kelly says the idea was born while brainstorming ideas with Sonny Bonacio earlier this spring.
“The people who were really at the core of this are Sonny, myself, Sybil and (Rise Associate Executive Director) Lindsay Conners,” said Kelly, who is president of the Bonacio company West Side Management of Saratoga. “I said, let’s see if we take the Code Blue shelter and make it a year-round shelter. I talked to the owner of the property, and he said he had somebody else that wanted to rent it, so Sonny outbid him.
“I think the building is so nice that people want to be there, and they’ll get healthier in a healthy environment,” Kelly said. “Some people say: ‘You need to just give them the bare minimum.’ Well, how did that work out with Code Blue? They shut the doors and they all go over to the garage.”
Sheltering Saratoga Began A Decade Ago
The Code Blue Saratoga program was born from the tragic death of Nancy Pitts. The 54-year-old mother of two sought shelter on a Williams Street porch during a frigid December night in 2013. She was discovered by police the next morning. Within days of the homeless woman’s death, a cooperative partnership between then mayor-elect Joanne Yepsen, non-profit organizations, and members of the community was initiated and a plan set in motion to site an emergency shelter in the city.
A series of cold-weather shelters have followed, each on a temporary winter-to-spring basis. Numerous plans to site a permanent shelter in the city have been rejected at every turn by those living close-by or with nearby interests.
Most recently, plans to site a permanent shelter at a city-owned building at 5 Williams St. were stunted after some members of the Saratoga Central Catholic School, which partially borders the proposed shelter, expressed opposition to the siting of a shelter in close proximity to the private school. Shelters of Saratoga – the organization involved in the operations of the Code Blue shelter as well as long-term shelter plans – subsequently announced that “after hearing the concerns of the community, we’ve decided not to move forward with a shelter at 5 Williams St.”
“I think this new temporary shelter that was passed is a step in the right direction for Saratoga,” says Chris Pitts, son of Nancy Pitts, adding he was disappointed the Williams Street idea was “kicked to the curb.”
“I think it was/is the correct place for the permanent shelter. It’s in a great location where a significant amount of homeless people are anyways. And it would probably help convince some people who are otherwise on the fence of seeking help if it were convenient like that,” Pitts said. “I think they need to get some kind of permanent shelter ASAP. This temporary stuff is probably frustrating for some people who may be looking for help.”
The recently created Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness is currently searching for a permanent site for a homeless shelter and navigation center and is expected to make its recommendations to the City Council in July. Any permanent site, however, may require new construction and take significant time to complete, which factored into the city’s recent actions to issue an RFP and award the bid to RISE to operate the shelter on Adelphi Street.
“This is not intended to replace Code Blue…this is meant to be a temporary program until the Task Force and the city, the county, or any other agency comes up with a more permanent solution,” RISE’s Sybill Newell said.
It is not at this point known the role the county will play in the shelter, financially or otherwise. City Mayor Ron Kim suggested this week that members of the council meet monthly with residents and businesses living and working in the immediate area of the shelter to discuss any issues that may arise and to plan mitigation strategies.
For more information about the new shelter, RISE Housing and Support Services or how to help, go to: riseservices.org.
Proposed three-story addition on Broadway. Rendering: Dalpos Architects & Integrators.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — A downtown section of Broadway may be getting taller.
Proprietors of 453 Broadway are looking to construct a new three-story addition over the existing one-story retail Cooperstown Distillery on the west side of Broadway.
The proposed structure, which would house 15 apartments, stands just south of Compton’s Restaurant and would combine the properties – 453 and 457 Broadway – by removing the existing legal property line. Angelo Ingrassia is reportedly the owner of both properties.
The one-story structure at 453 Broadway was constructed in the circa-1940s, and the adjacent 457 Broadway dates back to about the 1850s, according to the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation.
A Social Club for Businesspersons
At the Planning Board, a Special Use permit and Site Plan approval is sought at 118 and 121-125 Woodlawn Ave. for a “private/social club.”
The two parcels measure .14 acres and .23 acres, respectively. For more than a century, the property at 118 Woodlawn Ave. was owned by various religious operations and operated as a religious house of worship, according to documents submitted to the city. It has remained vacant since its latest purchase by EC Woodlawn Van Dam Property LLC in 2022.
The applicant is seeking to use 118 as a private/social club for businesspersons to be operated by a not-for-profit entity, with 121-125 Woodlawn to serve as off-street parking for club members. The building at 118 is located on the corner of Woodlawn Avenue and Van Dam Street, just east of the convergence of Broadway/Route 9 and the Saratoga Hilton.
Lt. Tyler McIntosh has been promoted to Saratoga Springs Chief of Police.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Springs Police Lt. Tyler McIntosh has been appointed the city’s new Chief of Police, Commissioner of Public Safety Jim Montagnino said in a statement.
A 2012 graduate of Plattsburgh State University summa cum laude, McIntosh joined the Saratoga Springs Police Department later that same year. He also continued his education and earned a Masters Degree in Public Administration (with a Leadership Concentration) from Marist College in 2019, with a cumulative Grade Point Average of 4.0. He also recently earned a Graduate Certificate in Criminal Justice Education from the University of Virginia. McIntosh is currently enrolled in the FBI National Academy and will be graduating on June 8.
Current city Police Chief Shane Crooks has filed retirement papers effective June 30.
“After many years of faithful service to our community, we gratefully wish Chief Crooks and his family the very best for the future,” said Montagnino, in a statement.
In the Saratoga Springs Police Department, McIntosh rose through the ranks from Patrol Officer to Patrol Sergeant; was later promoted to Patrol Lieutenant; and was then assigned the duties of Accreditation Lieutenant upon the retirement of Lt. Robert Jillson.
Since 2006, McIntosh has served in the United States Army Reserve and the New York Army National Guard, where he currently holds the rank of Major.
BALLSTON SPA — The Saratoga County Department of Probation and the county Sherriff’s Office received a $35,000 grant from the Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee for enforcement of the State’s DWI-Ignition Interlock Device (IID) Enforcement Initiative.
The funding will be used to enforce the state program aimed at catching convicted drunk drivers who break the law by operating vehicles without ignition interlock devices or by circumventing or tampering with the devices to make them inoperable.
The program’s goal is to increase compliance with the state’s DWI laws, while helping law enforcement identify and arrest those individuals attempting to operate a motor vehicle without a court-ordered interlock device. The grant funds training as well as overtime costs for law enforcement, allowing agencies to conduct targeted sweeps aimed at catching offenders between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Interlock devices are installed on the ignition of a vehicle to prevent the operator from starting it if they’ve been drinking. An individual must first blow into the device, which can then prevent the vehicle from starting if the presence of alcohol is detected.
Individuals convicted of drunk driving must install an ignition interlock device installation on any vehicle they intend to operate as a result of Leandra’s Law, which also makes it a felony to drive drunk with a child under 16 in the vehicle. The law took effect in December 2009 and is named in memory of 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, a passenger in an SUV who died when the vehicle’s intoxicated driver crashed on the Henry Hudson Parkway in New York City.
Under Leandra’s Law, judges are required to order all drivers convicted of misdemeanor or felony drunk driving charges to install and maintain ignition interlock devices on any vehicles they own or operate for at least six months at their own expense.
Individuals who attest under oath that they have sold or transferred title to their vehicles – and as a result aren’t ordered to install the device – still have the ignition interlock condition on their New York driver’s license and DMV license file. These individuals are still prohibited from driving a vehicle without an interlock, but some continue to do so in violation of Leandra’s Law.
The law also makes it illegal to tamper with or circumvent an ignition interlock device. Individuals may face jail time if convicted of any offense under the law. In addition, individuals on probation may be charged with a violation of their sentence if charged with an ignition interlock offense.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The City Council staged its first meeting of the month on Tuesday, June 6. The meeting began at 6 p.m., a one-hour earlier start-time than the regular 7 p.m. start of meetings during the past several years. The new 6 p.m. start is expected to remain in place in future meetings.
Proposal to Prohibit Firearm Possession While Intoxicated Tabled, For Now
A vote to create a new section in the City Code to prohibit possession of firearms in a public place while intoxicated or impaired by drugs, was tabled Tuesday night.
The proposal currently instructs that no person shall be intoxicated or impaired by alcohol or drugs or a combination of alcohol or drugs in a public place while possessing a firearm. A “public place” is defined as any public highway, public street, public sidewalk, public parking area or in any vehicle or vessel or premise open or accessible to the public. Intoxicated and impaired by alcohol and/or drugs is defined under NY DWI and related case law.
Some revisions to the proposal are anticipated to take place and the measure is expected to return to the council table at a future meeting.
Co-Chairs Appointed to Restorative Justice Panel
-City Mayor Ron Kim announced the appointment of Rev. Heather Williams and Camille Davis as co-chairs of the newly approved Restorative Justice Panel.
Last month, the City Council, by a 4-1 vote, approved a resolution that acknowledges “Saratoga Springs has supported and allowed racism and hate” during its history, and set the groundwork for the formation of an 11-member Restorative Justice review panel. That panel is charged with providing the council recommendations of what form restorative justice in the city should take. A report is anticipated to be presented to the council by late December 2023.
Rules for Homeless Shelter: minimum of 1,000 feet from schools
-The city seeks to create a Local Law ensuring any homeless shelter sited in Saratoga Springs be located a minimum of 1,000 feet from the grounds of any Primary or Secondary educational facility. As such, the council approved forwarding its intent to the city Planning Board to amend the Unified Development Ordinance. The UDO is the so-called “rule book” for land development in Saratoga Springs.
City Receives AA+ Rating
-Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi provided the council with Standard & Poor’s Report, in which S&P Global Ratings assigned to Saratoga Springs an ‘AA+’ rating.
“This is great news,” Commissioner Sanghvi told the council. “What this means is Saratoga Springs has a strong economy.”
“After some revenue disruption in fiscal 2020, the city has returned to positive operations,” reads the report in its credit overview.
It also documents a stable outlook for the city: “The stable outlook reflects S&P Global Ratings’ opinion of Saratoga Spring’s strong budgetary performance, supported by good financial-management policies, practices, resulting in very strong reserves, which we expect will likely continue during our two-year outlook,” according to the report.
City Climate Action Plan Draws Multiple Bidders
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The City received seven bids in response to its call for consultants to collaborate with the city to define and create a Climate Action Plan.
The bids, unsealed on June 6, ranged from a low of $57,500 (from Climate Action Associates LLC) to a high of $75,000 (Anchor QEA Engineering PLLC).
The scope of services request that the consultant engage city staff and commissioners to secure feedback on planning aspects that impact various city departments. Additionally, its requests consultants host a Public Meeting to present general information and benefits to the public, develop an inventory and gather data related to city emissions, identify climate action goals, set GHG reduction targets for city operations, and finalize a Climate Action Plan.
On December 20, 2011, the Saratoga Springs City Council unanimously approved the Climate Smart Communities Resolution and pledged to be a Climate Smart City.
