BALLSTON SPA — The Saratoga County History Center presents Fridays in the Herb Garden program “Pungent Perfection: Garlic and Rosemary” on May 19 at 2 p.m.

Kathleen Royka and Marilyn Stephenson will talk about types of garlic and rosemary. This program will take place outside, in the beautiful gardens of Brookside Museum, weather permitting. As always, questions and discussions about any aspect of gardening, historic or otherwise, will be welcome. Programs are free, and open, though registration and donations are appreciated. Visit www.brooksidemuseum.networkforgood.com/events/56551-herb-garden-garlic-and-rosemary.

Fridays in the Herb Garden will continue with two programs next month: “Hear the Buzz – Launching a Pollinator Garden” on June 9 and “Step into a Colonial Door Garden” on June 16. Both events will take place from 2:30 – 4 p.m. 

Brookside Museum is located at 21 Fairground Ave., Ballston Spa. Visit www.brooksidemuseum.org for more information.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Friends of the Ulysses S. Grant Cottage Board of Trustees will discuss the plans for the future of Ulysses S. Grant Cottage State Historic Site & National Historic Landmark.

The public is invited to the event, which will take place 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 23 in the Gideon Putnam Room (Saratoga Regional Offices) at Saratoga Spa State Park. 

Mt. McGregor and Grant Cottage Historic Site have seen dramatic changes over the last 136 years since the Grant family lived here. 

The organization is embarking on the next phase in that journey crafting a new vision for the future of the Historic Site – a vision that allows everyone to access and enjoy the site in new and meaningful ways while striving for historical integrity. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Saratoga County Code Blue Shelter, that serves the winter shelter needs of people facing street homelessness in the Saratoga Springs area, recently wrapped up the 9th season. 

In 2022-23, Code Blue offered 61 nightly cots at the temporary 4 Adelphi St. shelter. 271 unduplicated guests sought shelter from October 2022 until it closed in April. Shelter utilization rate was 87%. Over 11,000 meals were donated by area restaurants and civic organizations. Community volunteers spent 600 hours providing guest assistance throughout the season.  

The program is operated by Shelters of Saratoga in accordance with NYS Emergency Measures for the Homeless During Inclement Winter Weather. The regulation mitigates the effects of inclement winter weather, and the resulting impacts of such weather on individuals experiencing homelessness, as the responsibility of each social service district.   

Staff case management provided guest navigation services to those interested which resulted in 23 clients placed in housing, 22 transferring to SOS’ year-round emergency shelter, and 12 seeking treatment. 

The 4 Adelphi Street lease with Saratoga County ended on April 30 and SOS has worked continuously to site a permanent shelter within the city, according to a statement released by the organization. Each location has been blocked, including the last effort to open a daytime Navigation Center at 5 Williams St. The next Code Blue location will be announced later this summer.  

Shelters of Saratoga opened the low barrier Code Blue winter shelter in 2013 after the freezing death of Nancy Pitts. The agency has operated programs designed with the ultimate goal of ending a person’s homelessness in the city since 1991. In addition to operating 9 seasons of Code Blue, the agency manages the Emergency Shelter on Walworth Street which provides 24/7/365 housing-focused shelter as well as 11 supportive housing units. 

For more information about Shelters of Saratoga visit: www.sheltersofsaratoga.org

SARATOGA SPRINGS — During its meeting on May 2, 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 review panel to provide the council recommendations of what form restorative justice in the city should take. 

Immediately following the vote, approximately 20 Saratoga BLM members and supporters stood and engaged in a collective chanting that disrupted the meeting and eventually caused an abrupt adjournment. The meeting would resume two days later. 

May 2 marked the second time this year that a City Council meeting was shut down early.  

On Feb. 7, during the Public Comment session, Saratoga BLM supporter Chandler Hickenbottom refused to “wrap up” her time at the mic after repeatedly being asked by Mayor Kim to do so. Official city meeting notes detail the activity: “chaos ensued.” Hickenbottom was later charged with disorderly conduct. Public Safety Commissioner Jim Montagnino was the complainant in the violation charge, and the four other council members subsequently expressed disapproval of the action brought by their fellow Democrat.

The City Council’s April 4 meeting, while not concluded early, included a fracas which led to additional charges of two people. During that evening’s Public Comment session, as former Public Safety Commissioner and current city mayor candidate Chris Mathiesen referenced the Feb. 7 meeting as “mob rule,” Saratoga BLM founder Alexis Figuereo approached the mic and spoke into it. A subsequent commotion continued for several minutes. The meeting eventually resumed to conclusion. 

Figuereo was subsequently charged with obstructing governmental administration – a misdemeanor, and disorderly conduct – a violation in connection with actions during the meeting. Local resident Bridgette Barr, who unfastened a thin barrier separating members of the council and the public and approached the council table while yelling at its members was similarly charged. 

Asked whether charges related to the May 2 meeting might follow, Montagnino replied: “The truthful answer is: I don’t know.” 

Police Prescence

Five Saratoga County Sheriff’s department patrols were brought in at the request of the city police department and staged on Maple Avenue during the council meeting at City Hall, Saratoga County Sheriff Michael Zurlo said. 

“The Saratoga Springs City Police Department requested the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Departments assistance within the city to respond to residents’ public safety needs,” Sheriff Zurlo said. “I arranged for Saratoga County Sheriff’s Deputies to be present in the city so they could quickly respond to an emergency situation should Saratoga Springs residents or visitors need assistance that evening.” The deputies were never inside of the City Hall building, Zurlo added. 

Additionally, Saratoga Springs City Police officers stood in a hallway adjacent to Saratoga Music Hall where the council meeting was held. Those officers remained in the hallway and did not enter the hall where the meeting was staged. Footage from two officer body-worn camera videos were released at the direction of Commissioner Montagnino detailing what went on behind the scenes as the meeting was taking place. 

Montagnino said he held conversations with his deputy commissioner and the command staff of the police department “in response to significant activity on social media that indicated an intent to bring and recruit a large number of individuals to Tuesday’s City Council meeting.”

Members of the council expressed displeasure that they had not been made aware of the presence of officers in and outside the building prior to the meeting. 

Mayor Ron Kim said that no information was presented regarding any security arrangement. “The mayor’s office, under the (City) Charter is the presiding officer. We weren’t aware of anything. I literally walked up the back stairway and bumped into three riot-geared police officers,” said Kim, adding that “10 sheriffs” had also been stationed nearby.  

“No one was in riot gear; you’re making things up,” Montagnino told Kim. Saratoga Springs PBA released a statement this week specifying that the mayor “made false statements” regarding officers being dressed in “full riot gear” and that “ten” Sheriff’s Deputies were also in the building to make arrests, pointing to the body worn camera videos released as showing the statements to be untrue. The statements, the PBA said, “do nothing to further positive community relations between the police and members of the public,” and alleged behavior by “some elected officials and their open hostility to the mission of the Department of Public Safety and members of the police department.” 

Thursday, May 4

The postponed May 2 meeting resumed on May 4, during which Mayor Kim discussed a threat he received from a member of the public and his dissatisfaction by Commissioner Montagnino’s reactions to it. 

“I sent you an email several days ago that essentially threatens me, by a person who’s sitting in this room. And the reason I’m comfortable right now…is he’s sitting here in this room, so I can see him, and I don’t have to worry about the fact that my wife is home alone,” said Kim. 

The interaction carried after the meeting over into the hallways of City Hall and a verbal altercation that ensued was released by the city police department as captured by city cameras and an officer’s body cam. The video depicts city Mayor Ron Kim using vulgar language in a confrontation with Public Safety Deputy Commissioner Jason Tetu, saying that his family is being threatened and apparently displeased about how the matter was being handled. 

“He hasn’t even responded to me. I don’t want special treatment, I just want treatment that any other citizen I think would get,” Kim said in an interview. “When I did talk to an officer, he said: ‘oh yeah, we know that guy.’” 

“The incident resulted in the filing of an incident report with the Saratoga Springs Police Department,” according to city police, in a statement issued alongside the footage. “At the present time, there are no criminal charges pending and the investigation has been closed.” 

Post-Meet

Former city Director of Risk And Safety Marilyn Rivers filed a lawsuit on May 8 against Mayor Ron Kim and Public Safety Commissioner James Montagnino claiming a discriminatory and hostile work environment, the Daily Gazette reported this week. In the lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Saratoga County, Rivers claims her reputation was maligned by Kim. 

Subsequent to the event, Saratoga Springs Republican Committee Chairman Mike Brandi released a statement calling on the council to act “to protect city employees and stop Kim’s abusive conduct,” and attached a FOIL response of two city emails penned by Kim – on Feb. 26, and on March 27 – with multiple usages of the f-word. 

“They asked for every single email that I ever sent. So, I think that’s a pretty low percentage. I’m not excusing myself, but sometimes you see something and that’s how I react.”  

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Jewish Community Arts presents a Zoom panel discussion of the 2013 film Hannah Arendt, by Margarethe von Trotta, at 7 p.m. on May 18.  

Arendt coined the phrase “the banality of evil” to describe the ordinariness of the Holocaust’s perpetrators; a thinker and writer, often referred to as a philosopher, considered herself a political theorist. She was struck by the danger of thoughtlessness and spent her life thinking about thinking.

The German-born Jewish American intellectual and Jewish activist covered the infamous Nazi SS officer Adolf Eichmann trial in Jerusalem for The New Yorker magazine in 1961. 

“Arendt’s articles and her later book, Eichmann in Jerusalem, across the years became something to defend or condemn,” said Phyllis Wang, Coordinator of SJCA. “Her work unleashed a civil war amongst intellectuals. She was cursed as a self-hating Jew, a Nazi lover, and damaged her friendships.”

Trotta’s film has been praised for portraying thinking on-screen in a manner that is not boring. Hannah Arendt herself remains controversial even today.

Registration is required for the zoom discussion event at sjca.sjcf@gmail.com

GREENFIELD — The Town of Greenfield will open its community center to any parents looking for an education on identifying teenage drug use on May 15 from 6 p.m.-7:30 p.m. 

The Prevention Council’s “Right Under Your Nose” program provides a nuts and bolts demonstration of how a parent can recognize signs of current drug culture and trends. Greenfield is the first municipality to hold the program, which is typically held at schools throughout the region.

The program will be held at the Greenfield Community Center, 25 Wilton Rd. in Greenfield and is open to residents and non-residents. The program will be offered first-come first served to a maximum of 75 people (adults only), or to secure a spot you can register in advance by calling 518-893-7432 ext. 307.

Participants will walk through a mock teen bedroom and try to identify signs of drug or alcohol use or drug culture. At the program, Greenfield Ambulance will share a 15-minute training on how to recognize an opioid overdose and how to use a Narcan rescue kit. Free Narcan rescue kits will be distributed. The nasal spray, Naloxone, is administered to reverse the effects of an opioid. 

The Town of Greenfield is home to 8,200 residents in Greenfield, Porter Corners, Middle Grove, Lake Desolation and Maple Ave. It spans more than 41,000 acres of land bordering the Adirondacks and is the largest town in Saratoga County, by square mile.