BALLSTON SPA — Framed by a spire-topped church erected in 1835 that heralds a letterboard reading “God’s House, All Are Welcome,” and a single-story family home where a human figure in flannel clothes is, on this day busily shoveling away a late January snowfall, stands the county Board of Election complex, where inside a sublevel vault that runs maybe 50 feet long, ballots will be counted to presumably decide the winner of Saratoga Springs’ Special Election. 

Following nine days of Early Voting, and a 15-hour Special Election Day across Saratoga Springs on Jan. 28, the contest to decide the city’s DPW Commissioner/fifth City Council member through calendar year 2025 returned no known victor.   

Democrat Hank Kuczynski, the interim DPW Commissioner, ran as a write-in candidate. A total of 1,725 write-in votes were secured, although it is not yet known how many of those write-ins carried Kuczynski’s name. 

Republican Chuck Marshall secured 1,684 ballot votes.  

It is anticipated that a winner will not be known until at least next week. The counting of ballots will take place at the county Board of Elections complex in Ballston Spa. At press time, no date for the start of the counting process had been announced. 

Also of note: there are just under 300 absentee ballots yet to be returned. Regular absentee ballots need to be received at the BOE by Feb. 4; Military ballots by Feb. 10. 

A total of 3,409 votes have been tallied, according to unofficial reports from the Board of Elections. That represents about 16% of all active registered voters in Saratoga Springs. 

The next City Council meeting is Tuesday, Feb. 4. 

In November all five city council seats will be up for vote.

“We celebrate the idea that our city is not just
 a collection of streets and buildings, but a living, breathing symphony…”

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A new commission will be appointed to review the City Charter and recommend potential changes, and an earlier Last Call for local bars were among the 2025 agenda items announced during the mayor’s State of the City Address at the Skip Scirocco/ Saratoga Music Hall in Saratoga Springs on Jan. 23. 

All five council members and both city supervisors were each allotted time to address the assembled crowd, which included former city Mayor Scott Johnson and current state Sen. Jim Tedisco. 

Framed by a trio of flags, one each representing city, state and country, city council members and supervisors reflected upon achievements in 2024 – the opening of a new fire station among them, potential future challenges, and plans for 2025, from addressing heavy truck traffic navigating local streets to anticipating the return of the Belmont on Broadway festival.  

City Mayor John Safford announced he will be establishing a commission that will be chaired by Vince DeLeonardis to review the City Charter “and make recommendations for improvement.” 

Supervisor Matt Veitch spoke about a decades-long debate involving attempts to institute earlier bar closing times in Saratoga Springs, explaining that any such measure may only be achieved if first adopted on a countywide basis with county support. 

“The time is right for this to be discussed with my fellow colleagues on the Board of Supervisors,” said Veitch, who serves as vice chairperson of the county supervisors board. “I believe we will have some momentum on this moving forward in 2025.” Veitch additionally reported that in the county’s just-received year-over-year sales tax numbers for January, “we are trending negative for the first time since 2020.” 

Supervisor Michele Madigan highlighted a report released by the state comptroller on Jan. 22 detailing that homelessness in New York state has more than doubled between January 2022 and January 2024, specifically increasing 138% in Glens Falls, Saratoga Springs and surrounding counties. 

This year’s SOTC Address takes place during a week when Early Voting is underway for a special city election to seat an elected DPW Commissioner for the remainder of the 2025 calendar year. The DPW department spearheaded last year’s inaugural paid parking program in the city; nothing was said during the SOTC regarding whether that parking plan may return this year.  

City Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi confirmed that she will not seek re-election in November.

Poet Laureate Joseph Bruchac opened the evening with two poems – one named “Harmony,” another “Civility” – two themes city Mayor Safford has riffed on since taking office in January 2024. 

“Words spoken calmly with others in mind, like the instruments in an orchestra, they blend into a symphony that finds a good place,” said Bruchac to begin the night. It was a theme city Mayor Sanford returned to at the night’s conclusion one hour and fifteen minutes later. 

“We celebrate the idea that our city is not just a collection of streets and buildings, but a living, breathing symphony…the great composition of our shared life,” the mayor said. “This year, our song continues.” 

by Thomas Dimopoulos

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The new year brought with it the rattle and hum of heavy machinery whose metal limbs poked at the sky above Saratoga where Route 50 crosses with Marion Ave. 

The cause of the scene is a $9 million project to address aging infrastructure in a remediation of the deficiencies of the Loughberry Lake Dam. 

The project initially got underway in October 2024 and is slated to continue to its “substantial completion” in October 2025. The goal is to return the dam to a safe working condition per the New York State DEC, says Saratoga Springs City Engineer James Salaway.  

A state DEC inspection classified the dam as a “High Hazard,” a classification the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation based on the potential impact that a dam failure may have on downstream areas. By definition, the estimated consequences were the dam to fail: “may result in widespread or serious damage to home(s); damage to main highways, industrial or commercial buildings, railroads, and/or important utilities, including water supply, sewage treatment, fuel, power, cable or telephone infrastructure; or substantial environmental damage; such that the loss of human life or widespread substantial economic loss is likely.”  The reclassification was made sometime during the past few years due to increased development.

Last September, the Saratoga Springs City Council awarded a bid to rehab the Loughberry Lake Dam to Winn Construction, of Waterford. Winn Construction was the lowest bidder on the project, and the project bid was awarded at $7.612 million. The $9 million overall project cost includes about $7.5 million in construction and the balance in design and engineering costs, Salaway said.    

Loughberry Lake has been the principal potable water supply for Saratoga Springs since 1871 – the lake itself developed sometime between 1850 and 1865, by damming a surface stream channel and valley. 

Originally constructed as a railroad embankment, in 1967 the dam crest was widened after state Department of Transportation constructed Route 50.  

The lake spans a length approximately 5,700 feet long with a maximum width of 1,050 feet, with three local governments – the city of Saratoga Springs and the towns of Wilton and Greenfield, occurring within the watershed, according to the June 1988 report “Water Quality and Watershed Study of Loughberry Lake” published by the Division of Water in Albany. 

Interim DPW Commissioner Hank Kuczynski said every two weeks the engineering staff of the city – led by City Engineer James Salaway, assistant City Engineer Matt Zeno, and Water Plant Operator Brett Johnson – tour the construction site and mark the project progress according to plans submitted by the engineers. 

Note: an earlier version of this story referred to the Loughberry Lake Dam as having an “Intermediate Hazard” classification. It was reclassified as “High Hazard” sometime during the past few years due to increased development.