SARATOGA SPRINGS – A battle between toy soldiers and mischievous mice, a blizzard of ballerinas, and a wonderful world of confection will come alive at SPAC’s popular “Nutcracker Tea,” slated for Sunday, Nov.

A Capital Region holiday tradition for families, both performances - at 11 a.m. and at 3 p.m. - feature excerpts from The Nutcracker by Northeast Ballet Company, a traditional English Christmas Tea, American Girl doll giveaways, boutique shopping, and a visit from Santa Claus.

Held at the Hall of Springs, tickets are $75 for adults and $35 for children 15 and under. Proceeds benefit arts education programs at SPAC.

The Nutcracker, composed in 1891 by Tchaikovsky, is a fairy tale ballet that tells the story of a little girl’s journey through a fantasy world of fairies, princes, toy soldiers and an army of mice. First performed in 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia, it has become an American classic since choreographer George Balanchine introduced his production in 1954 in New York City.

 Features of the event include: ballet excerpts from The Nutcracker performed by Northeast Ballet Company; a raffle for an American Girl Doll; tea, mini sandwiches, cookies and light edibles; a visit from Santa Claus, and more.

Tickets for the Nutcracker Tea will go on sale at 10 a.m. on Oct. 23. and are available at spac.org or by calling 518-584-9330 ext.101.

SARATOGA SPRINGS - The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College has been honored with three awards in the 2019 American Alliance of Museums Publications Design Competition.

The Museum won:

- First Prize in the Posters category for a poster created for the exhibition Rose Ocean: Living with Duchamp, designed by Jean Tschanz-Egger, Head of Design at the Tang Museum. The 2- by 3-foot poster features screen-printed text on clear mylar with the letters of the exhibition title made of orange circles with white dots in homage to the typography on a 1934 artist book by the legendary Dada artist Marcel Duchamp.

- Second Prize in the Exhibition Collateral Materials category for an interactive project produced in conjunction with the Tang exhibition Give a damn. Also designed by Tschanz-Egger, the project includes four 6- by 10-foot banners that announced the project and invited visitors to write to their federal, state and local elected representatives about a variety of topics on specially-designed postcards that were mailed by the museum during the run of the show.

- Innovations in Print for the exhibition catalogue Sixfold Symmetry: Pattern in Art & Science, designed by Barbara Glauber, principal of the New York City design firm Heavy Meta. The 128-page catalogue features new scholarship by Skidmore faculty members, contributions from Skidmore students, and a translucent dust jacket and open binding.

Also announced: Important works at the Tang by acclaimed contemporary artists Nayland Blake and Lari Pittman have hit the road and are now on view as central works in career-spanning surveys at two prestigious Los Angeles museums.

 No Wrong Holes: Thirty Years of Nayland Blake is at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and will be on view through Jan. 26, 2020. Lari Pittman: Declaration of Independence will be on view through Jan. 5, 2020, at the Hammer Museum at UCLA.

 “We are honored to have Tang works included in these important exhibitions,” said Dayton Director Ian Berry, in a statement. “Blake’s monumental Feeder and Pittman’s epic history painting represent key periods in each artist’s body of work.  As stewards of these important late-twentieth-century artworks, and as the Tang collection grows and deepens, we are gratified to share them with new audiences and to see that they resonate with today’s art historians, who are inspired to write new art histories. These new contexts for the collection teach us all a great deal.”

 The Tang collection includes more than 16,500 objects, and the works by Blake and Pittman exemplify part of the Museum’s mission of acquiring important work by artists from underrepresented identities and that reflect the museum’s exhibition history: Pittman was born in Los Angeles from an American father and a Columbian mother, and his work often addresses issues of inequality and sexual identity. Blake’s work addresses his own queer and biracial identity, as both African American and white. Both of their works are fueled by history and biography and deftly combine narrative and form.

 Located on the campus of Skidmore college, admission to the museum is free (donation suggested). Hours are Tuesday through Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., with extended hours until 9 p.m. Thursday. http://tang.skidmore.edu.

BALLSTON SPA – A 25-year-old Clifton Park man was charged in connection with multiple burglaries and thefts in residential neighborhoods in the Crescent Road, Moe Road, Lapp Road and Grooms Road areas of Clifton Park.   

The Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office has investigated the incidents since Oct. 4 during which residents have reported that their homes have been entered during the overnight hours while they were sleeping and items, including purses and wallets, have been stolen. Other residents reported that items were stolen from their vehicles and/or they saw a suspicious subject near their home on their home security systems, according to authorities. Most of the stolen items, excluding the cash, were located discarded in the area after the thefts.

In the early morning hours of Oc. 15, the Sheriff’s Office responded to several residences in the Moe Road area of Clifton Park who reported burglaries and thefts. An alert deputy sheriff in the area spotted a man walking on Moe Road and stopped to speak to him. Sheriff’s Office investigators also responded and resulted in Tyler E. Lester being charged with 8 counts of Burglary in the Second-Degree, 3 counts of Attempted Burglary in the Second-Degree, 1 count of Grand Larceny in the Fourth-Degree, 1 count of Petit Larceny and 1 count of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the Seventh-Degree.

Lester was arraigned by Judge Hughes in Clifton Park Town Court and is currently being held in the Saratoga County Jail on no bail. NYS Parole has also lodged a parole warrant for Lester for violating his parole. Lester is currently on parole for burglary.

The Sheriff’s Office issued a public thank you to the residents of the Town of Clifton Park for assisting with this investigation by reporting the suspicious circumstances.

SARATOGA SPRINGS – In less than one month, voters will head to the polls to choose from a pool of 11 candidates who are vying for seven city positions.  Election Day is Nov. 5. The seven seats each carry two-year terms and begin in January 2020.

The two candidates seeking the office of public safety commissioner - Robin Dalton (R,C,I), and Kendall Hicks (D) - met face-to-face this week, engaging in a discussion forum at the Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church on Oct. 7

The focus topic: “Immigration, Public Safety and Community.” Terry Diggory, of the Saratoga Immigration Coalition, acted as event moderator. “Although immigration is currently debated as an issue of national security, public safety at the local level requires fostering a community where everyone, including immigrants, can feel safe and welcome,” Diggory said.

Both candidates were basically in agreement regarding the safety of all city residents, regardless of status, and each praised a recent document documented by former Chief of Police Greg Veitch that essentially said local police would not stop people on the street to ask their immigration status.

“If ICE comes to our town and asks for our cooperation, we are obliged to cooperate with them…but aside from that, immigration (status) will not be the priority of Saratoga Springs Police Department,” said Dalton.

“Being black in America, I can remember when stop-and-search was a rampant thing, and I’ve been stopped many times just because of the color of my skin, so I can relate to what undocumented citizens are going through,” said Hicks, a Democrat who retired from the U.S. military after 30 years of active duty service with the National Guard. “We need to make sure our citizens - whether they’re documented or not – don’t have to live through that. We need to stand up and speak for those who can’t speak for themselves.”

“I have from day one been very pro-immigrant,” Dalton, a Republican, told the crowd of approximately 40 people. “Back in 2017, when we had ICE in our community it was one of the most profoundly disturbing experiences I had as an American…they were stopping people on the street on their way to work, based on the color of their skin, and rounding them up. It really created an atmosphere of fear and terror for people that I know, who I love, who I work with, who I see every day.”

In response to her stated position, one of the attendees of the forum loudly bellowed from the back of the church at Dalton: “You are an embarrassment to the Republican Party,” and promptly exited the room.

“There are some areas where I’m not going to toe a party line, and one of those areas is immigration,” Dalton said.

There was a brief discussion regarding a 2013 Gloversville police department report charging Hicks with assault following an alleged altercation with his girlfriend.

“What you see in the police report is the beginning of an investigation. It doesn’t tell the whole story,” Hicks said. “I was investigated, I was charged, I had a court hearing and the charges were dismissed. Not only that, I was in uniform at the time, so I was investigated by the military authorities as well and there were no charges pressed or filed in that respect as well. So, I finished a full 30-year career decorated career because I carried the bronze star. I don’t know of any soldier who has been under those type of serious charges and can retire with the bronze star.”

 “Those documents raised a lot of questions, and to date those questions have not been answered,” Dalton responded. “I hear him say now that he was cleared of the charges, that he was cleared by the military of these charges, but I have yet to see any documents that supports that narrative.”

Hicks was not endorsed by the Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee, and after news of the 2013 report became known, previous endorsements of Hicks by local Democrats Carrie Woerner, Tara Gaston, and Dillon Moran were retracted. 

“I would love to put these questions to bed, but the only way to do that, in my mind, is to see some documentation from the military, and some documentation from the Gloversville Police Department, or the court, that he was indeed cleared,” Dalton said.   

Hicks responded that he is willing to share the documents from Gloversville court dismissing the charges against him. “I have them. I carry them with me in my car at all times and I’d be happy to sit down and show them to you,” Hicks said. “As for the military, They did an investigation and I even had to redo my security clearance. Those documents are not privy to the public – I can’t go get them and show them to everyone – but me having a fully decorated retirement with the bronze star from Afghanistan – I think that should stand for itself.” 

Current Public Safety Commissioner - Democrat Peter Martin, is not seeking re-election. Among the responsibilities of the post is the overall operation of the Police Department, the Fire Department, Code Administration, Animal Control, and Parking Enforcement. The Commissioner of Public Safety is also responsible for emergency planning.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Up for vote are all five City Council positions – mayor, and commissioners of Accounts, Finance, Public Works, and Public Safety – in addition to two city Supervisor seats, whose elected officials will represent the city’s interests at the county level. 

Voter registration deadline is Friday, Oct. 11. Applications must be postmarked no later than October 11, 2019 and received by a board of elections no later than October 16, 2019 to be eligible to vote in the General Election. For information, go to: https://www.elections.ny.gov/VotingDeadlines.html.

The League of Women Voters of Saratoga County has announced they are hosting two Saratoga Springs “Meet the Candidates” nights – to be held Oct. 21-22.
 

SARATOGA SPRINGS — On Tuesday night, at 9:30 p.m., Saratoga Springs Police were called for a motor vehicle accident on Route 9 South in the area of the Homewood Suites.  The accident occurred in the north bound lane of travel and involved TWO vehicles approximately 1/10 of a mile south of the hotel.  The vehicles involved both sustained heavy front end damage. The vehicles involved are a  2017 Nissan Altima and a 2019 Toyota Rav 4.

Based upon the initial investigation it appears that the Nissan exited the Homewood Suites parking lot traveling south in the north bound lane for unknown reasons and then struck the Toyota, traveling north in the north bound lane. The operator of the Nissan Altima, Derrick Devonish age 44 of Albany, NY, was unresponsive at the scene and was later pronounced dead at the Saratoga Hospital. The operator of the Toyota, William Halpin age 34 of Saratoga Springs, was transported to Saratoga Hospital with non life threatening injuries. The Saratoga County Sheriff's Office and the New York State Park Police assisted at the accident.  

The cause of the accident is still under investigation.  Alcohol is not believed to be a contributing factor at this time.