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Thomas Dimopoulos

Thomas Dimopoulos

City Beat and Arts & Entertainment Editor
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Friday, 12 April 2019 12:10

North Broadway Masonic Lodge for Sale

SARATOGA SPRINGS – The North Broadway building that has served as a Masonic Lodge for the past 65 years is being placed up for sale.  

Rising Sun Lodge No. 103 was founded in 1809 and first held meetings at Reynolds Corners, located about four miles north of Gansevoort. The lodge moved to Wilton a decade later and in the 1820s relocated to Saratoga Springs, long before Saratoga Springs became a city. Several different venues  in and around Saratoga Springs were used for more than a century that followed, before eventually purchasing the building at 687 North Broadway in the early 1950s, where the Rising Sun lodge has been located ever since. 

“Past Masters” of the local organization have included prominent 19th century Saratogians Reuben Hyde Walworth, Carey B. Moon - of the invention of the potato chip fame , and Edgar Truman Brackett, among others.    

The lodge sits on just under one-half acre of land on a corner lot, features two floors, an attic, an unfinished basement and is listed at $1.3 million.

“It’s 8,000 square feet with an unfinished floor in the attic that could be amazing. We believe whoever buys this is going to finish that third floor,” said Joann Potrzuski Cassidy, licensed associate real estate broker at Julie & Co. Realty.

The main floor features 10-1/2-foot-tall ceilings in a Lady's Sitting Room, and a butler's pantry. There are a quartet of fireplaces throughout – although some work will be required to get them re-functioning. Its potential future uses are seemingly endless: from a single-family home with nanny quarters or a neighborhood bed-and-breakfast, to an organization’s use as a private school, religious institution, or senior housing facility. A unique split staircase to the second floor lends itself to potential as a condominium project – although that would require Special Use variance from the city’s Land Use Boards.

The single staircase splits on the first landing and leads into two, opposite direction leading staircases, each feeding into a different and separate wing upstairs. One leads to a big, unfinished attic that boasts arched windows; the other to a massive meeting room where members meet and sites an altar in the center of the room, seating for the Worshipful Master against the east wall, the Senior Warden against the west wall and symmetrical rows along the north and south areas where members are seated. The Masons use ritual in their meetings and a Volume of the Sacred Law – usually the Bible, King James translation sits atop the center-room altar, but Masonry is not a religion. 

The home was built in about 1904 for Harry S. Ludlow, of Troy, and designed by architect R. Newton Brezee – designer of dozens of Saratoga Springs buildings, including many residences still standing along Union Avenue and North Broadway.

The Masons, or Freemasons, call themselves members of the largest and oldest fraternity in the world. Specific details regarding the group’s origins are murky, although it is believed likely to have come from the guilds of the stonemasons in the Middle Ages, and possibly influenced by the Knights of Templar – described by the Masonic Information Center in Maryland as Christian warrior monks formed in 1118 to help protect pilgrims making trips to the Holy Land.  A formal organization was initiated in England in 1717 and spread to the colonies within a few short years.

Masonry has a reputation of being “secretive” – there are grips and passwords that Masons share with one another – but Amy Lynch, president of the Masonic Hall Association of Saratoga Springs, says the biggest secret is the good work they do, particularly in the medical field.

“We’re the best-kept secret and we do a lot of good in the community,” Lynch said.

Under the banner of the Masonic Family, the Rising Sun Lodge is involved with the Masonic Medical Research Laboratory in Utica; the Washington Commandry is part of the Knights Templar – whose  philanthropic projects involves the Knights Templar Eye Foundation; the Cryptic council works with Parkinson’s disease research, and the Royal Arch Masons are also part of a medical research program.

Of the women’s groups – the Order of the Eastern Star – whose members include women and men, has had a regional chapter for the past 122 years and maintains a campus in Oriskany that houses a day care facility for children and independent living accommodations. The Order of the Amaranth focuses its philanthropic energies on diabetes research.

Perhaps best know are Shriners International – the fraternity based on Masonic principles and support of Shriners Hospitals for Children, at 22 locations throughout North America.

Masonic Hall Association Board Member Harold Goodsell says Rising Sun Lodge No. 103 – which is not a tax-exempt organization - is looking to relocate close to but not in the city of Saratoga Springs, to a smaller building that would be more accommodating to members and may actually construct an entirely new building to suit its purposes. 

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SARATOGA SPRINGS – Renowned performance artist and practicing Buddhist Laurie Anderson will take part in the Tang Museum’s Dunkerley Dialogues on April 17 – night two of the museum’s three-night “Bardo Now” events.

Anderson first gained widespread attention with her song "O Superman," in the early 1980s. Other major recordings include “Big Science,” “Mister Heartbreak,” “Strange Angels,” and “Home of the Brave,” among others.  Major performance pieces include United States I-V, Empty Places, The Nerve Bible, and Songs and Stories for Moby Dick.

Anderson spent time in the early 1970s as an artist-in-residence at the ZBS Foundation’s 33-acre complex on the Hudson River between the villages of Schuylerville and Fort Edward. Anderson met songwriter Lou Reed in the 1990’s and the two were later wed. She released her emotionally moving and highly acclaimed documentary film “Heart of A Dog” in 2015.

The Tang Museum, “Bardo Now,” April 16-18.

Schedule:

- 6 p.m., Tuesday, April 16 - A discussion of George Saunders’ acclaimed novel, "Lincoln in the Bardo."

- 6 p.m., Wednesday, April 17 - A talk with performance artist and practicing Buddhist, Laurie Anderson and Benjamin Bogin, director of the Asian studies program at Skidmore College.

- 6 p.m., Thursday, April 18 - Concert by guitarist, Tashi Dorji and percussionist, Susie Ibarra, performing an experimental duet conceived for this event as a musical Bardo exploration.

Events are free and open to the public and are held in conjunction with the exhibition “The Second Buddha: Master of Time,” which explores the life, legend, and legacy of Padmasambhava, a tantric master who is an iconic figure in Tibetan culture, celebrated as “The Second Buddha” and credited for bringing Buddhism to Tibet. The concept of the bardo is described in “The Tibetan Book of the Dead,” which is attributed to Padmasambhava.

The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, 815 North Broadway. For more information, call 518-580-8080.

Friday, 12 April 2019 11:52

Yo La Tengo in Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS – Yo La Tengo is bringing their wondrous mix of sweetness and noise to the Spa City June 6 for a performance at the Zankel Music Center, on the campus of Skidmore College

The event is billed as an hour-long “live documentary,” with filmmaker Sam Green narrating the film and cue-ing images for “The Love Song of R. Buckminster Fuller,” while Yo La Tengo performs their original score live. Tickets are $25. For more information, go to: skidmore.edu/zankel.

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Saratoga Guitar presents ​The Capital Region Guitar Show​ 5-8 p.m. ​Friday, April 12​ and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, April 13.​

Dealers from across the Northeast will be on hand to buy, sell, & trade new, used, and vintage guitars and music gear. There will also be a handful of luthiers selling and displaying their handmade guitars. New this year is the exhibit “Les Paul: From Start to Finish.” This exhibit is put on by some of Les Paul’s lifelong friends who bring some of Les Paul’s original equipment and instruments to share with the guitar-loving universe. 

The public is encouraged to bring in a guitar or amplifier to show off, trade, sell or have appraised. Attendees receive a discount off the admission when they do so. 

Admission:​ $7 with a $2 discount when you bring along a guitar or amplifier to show off, trade or sell. Kids 12 and under admitted free when accompanied by a paid adult.  

As Saratoga Guitar begins to celebrate their 25th year in business in Saratoga Springs, this marks the 23rd year in a row of promoting Guitar Shows in Downtown Saratoga Springs, Vermont, and Central New York.

SARATOGA SPRINGS – The historic Yaddo Mansion – original home of Spencer and Katrina Trask and gathering space to thousands of literary guests since 1926 – is set to reopen after being restored to its original splendor, following a multimillion-dollar renovation.

Immortalized by one-time artist-in-residence Sylvia Plath in her poem “Yaddo: The Grand Manor” (“…Guests in the studios/Muse, compose. Indoors, Tiffany's phoenix rises/ Above the fireplace; Two carved sleighs…”) the reopening of the Mansion will be toasted during the estate’s annual June fundraiser.

The event takes place June 20 and includes appetizers, specialty drinks, an auction, and an action-packed evening with singer-songwriter, producer, author and Yaddo alum Mike Doughty, founder of the’90s band Soul Coughing. Tickets vary in price and may be purchased at: https://www.yaddo.org/tickets-2019-yaddo-summer-benefit/.

SARATOGA SPRINGS- The statistics: one in six American adults takes at least one psychiatric drug over the course of a year. Hundreds of millions of prescriptions for psychiatric medication are written annually.

Depression and anxiety disorders affect millions of Americans. To that point, Saratoga based psychiatrist Bick Wanck, MD, has authored “Mind Easing: 3-Layered Healing Plan for Anxiety and Depression” - a new book that introduces a holistic approach to mental health treatment. Wanck will lead a discussion about his book and the topic at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 6 at Northshire Bookstore Saratoga, 424 Broadway.

“It became clear to me when I was about 15 years old that helping to relieve suffering was a mission of mine. I wasn’t sure what that would look like, but I wanted to help people to get out of a bad situation, no matter what that bad situation may be,” says Wanck, who has practiced in Saratoga since 1986.

While at medical school he grew increasingly intrigued in the specifics of how the mind works. “It brings in issues of literature, philosophy, science, biology – everything. That captivated me. I decided psychiatry it would be, but I became disenchanted with medicine, because there didn’t seem to be an adequate focus on healing for my purposes,” Wanck says. “The primary issue in regard to getting well is healing. Healing happens naturally. I said: wow, why aren’t we studying that? Why aren’t we putting more emphasis on how healing works and assist that process, rather than jumping right into treating symptoms. I made trouble for myself talking about that a lot.”

Wanck grew frustrated over the lack of emphasis on healing. “I just got fed up. So, I graduated from medical school, got an old van, fixed it up and hit the road. Eventually I ended up in Peru, in the jungle. I was looking for answers about healing and it was the experience in the jungle with the shaman that put it together for me,” says Wanck, who grew up in a rural area of Pennsylvania and spent a lot of time in the wilderness as well as on reservations. His grandmother was an herbalist.

“Sometimes the psychiatric providers are so rushed that when someone walks into their office and looks upset, the first thing they think about is: ‘I wonder what I can prescribe for this person, so they’ll feel better?’” Wanck says.  “When someone walks into the office of a healing person who takes more time that person sees someone upset walking into their office - and they’re not going to think, what can I prescribe for them; They’re going ask: I wonder what’s wrong? And then take some time to find which of the three essential causes of anxiety and depression might be happening here.”

Wanck describes the three essential causes as: excessive current stress, early adversity and trauma, and genetics. “Two things that mimic them are medical problems like low thyroid, or addiction problems that can look like anything,” he says. “People can have any one of them, or all three of them.”

“Mind Easing” explores, among other things, when medicine might help with anxiety and depression, and when it might hinder the healing process. The use of psychiatric medication, for example, comes in to play when the degree of suffering from anxiety or depression is so severe that it interferes with a person’s capacity to make use of healing methods such as diet, exercise and stress management.

“The subtitle is the three-layered healing plan for anxiety and depression. And I do show in the book how to apply the three-layered healing model to anything: dental, cancer, heart disease…I think it’s an approach that can be helpful and empower people to promote healing,” he says. “I only include the wellness approaches and therapy approaches that have some scientific merit, where there are outcome studies that show it works for a sufficient percentage of people.”

Wanck studied at Penn State and eventually relocated Princeton, New Jersey where he ran the addiction programs for a private hospital and helped start the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.  

“I suggest that everybody put together a package of wellness activities for themselves so either they don’t get anxious or depressed or sick in some physical way, or if they do that whatever they do with therapy, or western medicine will be more effective,” he says.    

“The body and the mind constantly heal themselves. You cut yourself, it heals. If there’s some dirt in it: wash it out. It’ll need some help, but it will heal on its own. If it’s a bad enough cut, you might need a couple of stitches - that would be layer three - a medical intervention to assist the natural process of healing,” Wanck says. “It’s the same way with the mind: every day there are times when people feel empty, scared, sad. You might not even know why. But the mind adjusts, it copes. So, there’s a natural healing process that happens all the time. The goal of this three-layered healing plan is to assist that process, to empower the strength of healing.”

Northshire Bookstore Presents: Saturday, April 6 at 7 p.m. - Bick Wanck - Mind Easing: The Three-Layered Healing Plan for Anxiety and Depression.  Author and psychiatrist Bick Wanck will share his book and his healing plan for the three essential causes of anxiety and depression. This book is intended as a guide for both mental health practitioners and for general readers. Bick Wanck is one of the founders of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.

Northshire Bookstore Saratoga, is located at 424 Broadway. Also this month, the bookstore will present:

6 p.m. Monday, April 8 - Pulitzer Prize Finalist Luis Alberto Urrea – “The House of Broken Angels,” Pulitzer Prize-finalist Luis Alberto Urrea will share his riveting novel about the De La Cruzes, a family on the Mexican-American border, celebrating two of their most beloved relatives during a joyous and bittersweet weekend.

7 p.m.  Friday, April 12 - Matt Lesniewsky in conversation – “The Freak.” Author and artist Matt Lesniewsky will celebrate the publication of his debut graphic novel. Lesniewsky will discuss the book and his art with Chris Martinez of the Evil Geek Podcast. The Freak tells the story of a man thought of as the world’s ugliest man.

Noon, Thursday, April 18 - Lunch at Hattie’s Restaurant with Juliette Fay – “City of Flickering Light.” A special lunch at Hattie’s with bestselling historical fiction author Juliette Fay. Her new novel transports us back to the Golden Age of Hollywood and the raucous Roaring Twenties, as three friends struggle to earn their places among the stars of the silent screen—perfect for fans of La La Land and Rules of Civility. Tickets required for this event.

For more information, call 518-682-4200 or 1-855-339-5990, or visit the Northshire Bookstore website at www.northshire.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS – It was shortly before the Summer of Love, just before the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967 and around the time Muhammad Ali was stripped of his boxing world championship for refusing to be inducted into the U.S. Army.

Eric Andersen, by that time, already had a couple of albums to his credit. He’d made an appearance in an Andy Warhol film alongside “Girl of the Year" Edie Sedgwick, and was being recruited by Brian Epstein to be taken under the Beatles’ manager’s wing. Epstein arrived in New York with an advance copy of “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,” and invited Andersen to give it a preview listen.   

“He had just flown over from London and was at the Waldorf Astoria,” Andersen recalls. “We had a little record player and he just played it. We heard ‘A Day In The Life.’ We heard a bunch of tracks, there, in the dark, with only a little light coming from the bathroom that was open just a crack.”   

Three years later, Andersen journeyed alongside Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead atop the rails of their legendary trans-Canadian train tour, and a handful of years after that was on stage harmonizing with Patti Smith in a prequel to Bob Dylan's equally legendary Rolling Thunder Revue. Legendary status finds him resting easily.

“Live long enough and you’ll get to meet everybody,” he says with a laugh.

Fast-forward to the present day where on an early spring afternoon, the singer-songwriter-poet is motoring between a booking in Philadelphia – where he sang about Lou Reed in Anthony DeCurtis' music journalism class – and Montclair, New Jersey, where a 1960s themed concert is being staged. Over the past two weeks, he’s appeared in Greece to give a speech to a psychoanalytic convention – “I know, go figure,” – and celebrated Lawrence Ferlinghetti's 100th birthday on the Lower East Side alongside Anne Waldman, Ed Sanders and Laurie Anderson.

Now, he begins a springtime tour, which visits Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs on Sunday, April 7.  Andersen will be accompanied by percussionist Cheryl Prashker, producer, musician, and audio engineer extraordinaire Steve Addabbo, and violinist Scarlet Rivera - whose majestical bowing is forever sonically imprinted on the Bob Dylan tracks “Hurricane,” and “One More Cup of Coffee,” and on David Johansen’s “Lonely Tenement,” among others. 

Twenty or so years ago, Andersen co-wrote a song titled "You Can't Relive the Past" with Lou Reed. And while maybe you can’t relive the past, he seems mostly OK talking about it, albeit amid all kinds of mayhem going on around him. 

“We just missed an accident. Just got by it. Collision of two cars right on the street. Two firetrucks. Two ambulances. And a freight train going by overhead,” Andersen says. Further complicating matters is he is being navigated in a vehicle with an apparently wonky tire. “The car is vibrating,” he reports. Or, it could be the making of a song.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1943, Andersen received his early schooling in Buffalo, where he taught himself guitar and piano, watched Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers play at his high school gym and saw Elvis Presley perform in a gold suit at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

“What do you remember about Elvis in Buffalo in 1956?”  

“When that first chord hit, the chairs were kicked away within one nanosecond and everyone was standing,” he responds.

In the early 1960s, Andersen hitchhiked west and landed at job at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, where he attended a party following a Haight-Ashbury poetry reading on a memorable November night in 1963.  “I wrote a 26-minute-long tone poem called ‘Beat Avenue,’ about it,” he says.  “The day John Kennedy was killed. I was at a party with Allen Ginsberg and Ferlinghetti, and (Kerouac’s friend) Neal Cassady – the protagonist of ‘On The Road.’ They were all there. And Allen was walking around with no clothes on. That was funny. Like a naked Buddha.”  The double CD set, “Beat Avenue,” features 14 original compositions in all, and was released in 2003.

At the invitation of Tom Paxton, Andersen headed to New York City where a flourishing Greenwich Village songwriting circle included Phil Ochs, Dave Van Ronk, Bob Dylan and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott. His first New York gig was opening for John Lee Hooker. He performed at a plethora folk and jazz clubs. And when not performing, was watching others - the Velvet Underground, the Doors, and John Coltrane, among them – stage their own performances.  

“John Coltrane… on stage he could put himself in a trance and play. And eventually he’d put you in a trance,” Andersen says.  

During the 1970’s, Andersen divided his time between California and New York, the latter being where a new scene was unfolding with people like Sam Sheppard and Leonard Cohen, Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith. “Patti Smith: she was working at the book store, and we were all living at The Chelsea Hotel.” Manhattan, meanwhile, isn’t what it used to be. “It’s so gentrified and expensive,” he says.

The early ‘70s also delivered the release of “Blue River,” perhaps his best-known and best-selling record. “One crazy (concert) was when my album ‘Blue River’ came out. I did a show with the Jefferson Airplane in front of 400,00 people. They had a band. I had a guitar. I mean, I figured if I didn’t get a heart attack that day… I’ll live forever.”

More recently, Sony/Legacy Recordings issued “The Essential Eric Andersen” last spring. The 42-track retrospective covers 50 years of Andersen’s recorded history. A retrospective documentary, titled “The Songpoet,” is slated for release later this year. (The trailer, which looks awesome, may be viewed HEREHERE

On April 7, Andersen returns to Caffe Lena, where he last performed 12 months ago.

"Saratoga. If I had done better at the track, I could be living in my Range Rover on my small estate in Saratoga Springs, one of those houses with the pillars with a chandelier 100 miles up over the front door," he says with a laugh. Of Sarah Craig, Caffe Lena’s executive director, Andersen says: “she’s one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. She’s a repository of arcana. She knows all kinds of facts and figures about the world; a reservoir of fascinating information,” he says. “You can print that for everybody to know.”  So, there it is.

Eric Andersen, with Scarlet Rivera and Cheryl Prashker, performs 7 p.m.  Sunday, April 7 at  Caffe Lena, 47 Phila St., Saratoga Springs. Tickets are $35 general admission, $32 café members, $17.50 students and kids. More information and tickets, go to: caffelena.org, or call 518-583-0022. 

SARATOGA SPRINGS – An eyesore that stood for decades on Putnam Street was demolished Monday afternoon. In its place will rise a five-story mixed-use building with plans calling for a restaurant at the street level and approximately two-dozen condominium apartments upstairs.

“Everyone I know has loathed that building for decades,” said Jason Letts, shortly after a massive excavator, boasting more than 80,000 lbs. of operating weight, extended its 20-foot boom and clawed at the architecture, laying to waste the last wall standing and leaving a debris field comprised of twisted metal and broken bricks, splintered wood and chunks of concrete.     

“Before I got involved with this, whenever I’d take my son to the library (across the street) I’d think: somebody’s got to do something about that, so I’m glad to be doing something about it,” said Letts, one of the co-owners of the proposed “Five-Three” development that will be located at 53 Putnam St., opposite the Saratoga Springs Public Library. 

The initial intent was to revamp the existing two-story building and create a performance venue with a food service component. Those plans changed after the site was revealed to be contaminated from its earlier use as a dry clean facility as well as sustaining oil contamination from an offsite source.

“When we learned about all the environmental conditions, it wasn’t feasible,” Letts said. “The building had asbestos and was completely dilapidated. It had to go. The next step is removing five feet of soil, and also some oil.”

Environmental remediation is being conducted via the state’s Brownfield Cleanup Program –an alternative to greenfield development and intended to remove some of the barriers to, and provide tax incentives for, the redevelopment of urban brownfields.

Late in 2018, the group proposed the development of a six-story building featuring 40 condominium units in the $400,000 to $800,000 price range topped by a roof deck, pergola and a stair tower – which would top-off at 84 feet above ground-level.

Those plans have since been scaled back to a proposal of four floors and a partial “setback” fifth floor, Letts said. The number of condo units has also been amended to about 23 apartments in all. The price point will stay the same as initially proposed.

Earlier plans for a ground floor communal-type kitchen have also been amended and will instead likely feature a restaurant. Letts said there is strong interest from Capital Region based restaurants seeking to move into Saratoga.

The group is currently responding to some unresolved questions posed by the city’s Land Use boards, but the hope is that approvals will be secured in short order.

“We’re hoping to really get going in the fall. From that point, our construction manager is talking about an 18-month construction period,” Letts said. There are no plans for on-site parking. “That’s something we’re still working out,” he added. “We’re excited about making our city cleaner and more vibrant and we think this will be a big revitalization to some of the slightly off-Broadway areas.” 

  

SARATOGA SPRINGS – The development of a new, multi-story parking structure adjacent to the City Center could begin as early as this summer. The structure would provide spaces for about 600 vehicles and could be fully operational by the summer of 2020.

“As far as design goes, a building permit in June would be great. That’s what we’re pushing towards,” said Ryan McMahon, who joined the staff of the City Center in 2011 as the operations manager before taking over as executive director in 2017.

The development of the parking facility, located on city-owned land between Maple and High Rock avenues, would mark the first use of a multi-phase project that could see the development of the entire 2.6-acre parcel of land extending to Lake Avenue, behind City Hall. Discussions about potential uses regarding the development of that particular stretch of land have been ongoing for several years, and through many different City Hall administrations.

On Thursday, March 21, the Design Review Commission and the Planning Board will stage a joint meeting to hear a presentation from the LA Group regarding details of the Flat Rock Centre Parking Structure. The public meeting will take place 5:30 p.m. at the City Recreation Center, 15 Vanderbilt Ave. 

An initial concept plan was publicly unveiled late last year.  “We’ve narrowed down what we’re working on, and it’s in the same mold as the concept drawings the LA Group did for the city,” McMahon said. “While one structure overall, it’s going to have different looks and feels to it, so it will look like multiple structures, multiple types of architecture from the outside. There are sections that are conventional, sections that are more glass, and sections – while it’s not really the right term - of what I call a brownstone look.” 

In May 2018, city Mayor Meg Kelly created the Flat Rock Working Group – comprised of area residents, City Center Authority representatives, county leaders, city officials and other community members – who were tasked with developing a Concept Plan for the 2.6-acre parcel. Last November, members of the City Council unanimously agreed to a resolution regarding the Flat Rock Centre Concept Plan.

That Concept Plan includes: the establishment of a public park at the south end of the parcel along Lake Avenue; the continuation of the park at the easterly side of the parcel along High Rock Avenue, which will connect Flat Rock Park to High Rock Park and include the Greenbelt trail, Downtown Connector; and the development of a municipal parking structure.

The design and development of the Greenbelt Trail, Downtown Connector, and a municipal parking structure were identified as a priority to be included in Phase One of the project’s development. 

The City Council also recommended the Saratoga Springs City Center Authority proceed with design proposals for the municipal parking structure, albeit with a number of parking spaces reduced from the 754 originally proposed.  

The updated plan calls for “600-ish parking spaces,” said McMahon said, with the height of the structure being four to five levels. Currently there is no retail space dedicated, but approximately 70 percent of the structure is “flat” – that is, having level decks, which offers the possibility of an altered usage for the structure should the future usher in the age of autonomous vehicles, coach lobby roundabouts, and VIP rideshares.

“If the time came where there were not as many cars coming to conventions, it could be repurposed,” said McMahon, adding that there are existing communities that have already repurposed former parking garages into shopping areas and condominiums.

The 600 or so new spaces in the parking structure would be designated “paid” parking spots. Motorists’ costs to park have not yet been decided. Eliminated would be more than 200 “free” parking spots on the current paved lot, where the future structure will stand. That paved lot holds 277 spaces in all.

“As of late spring or early summer this year, the city is probably going to be losing a large number of parking spaces because of the construction that’s going to go on for the City Center garage, the Flat Rock lot,” Public Safety Commissioner Peter Martin informed the City Council last week.  Martin said his department will soon suggest changes to the existing time limits of other existing spaces “to accommodate our merchants and to take into account that we’re losing 210 spaces for a period of approximately one year.”       

There are currently about 1,300 spaces of public on-street parking and 1,480 public off-street parking spaces in the city, including lots and decks, according to a city-issued request for proposals in 2018.

“Starting doesn’t mean you immediately tear up the whole thing; it could be sectional work,” McMahon said. “There’s never going to be an ideal time, we’re busy year-round now, it’s not just the summer place to be (anymore). We’re working on some alternative parking places with some shuttles.” The duration of construction would take approximately 10 months, he added, while persuing designs for the proposed structure at his office this week.       

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The City Center will be funding the structure, its specified level of ownership not yet decided, although a land-lease arrangement with the city maintaining ownership of the land is a likely scenario. The total cost is likely to be higher than the estimated $11 million price tag of a standalone parking garage the City Center had previously explored. 

“The biggest thing about the financing is that this will be something that is built without local taxpayer money going into it. This is not going to be raising anyone’s property tax. And it will be maintained by the City Center – plowing, salting and upkeep,” McMahon said.  

The City Center Authority has long stated it needs additional parking for its venue to remain competitive with other regions in drawing visiting tourists for conventions and other events. McMahon said the lack of parking has already cost the center millions of dollars. The hope is that a parking structure could be fully operational by the summer of 2020.

Flat Rock Centre Parking Structure aside, Phase II of the overall project - which stretches to the southern end of the parcel closest to Lake Avenue - will look to increase and reconfigure the public park and green space. City Mayor Kelly said she will seek to reconvene the Flat Rock Working Group in the future to address Phase II of the project, although there is no specific timeline as to when that group will get back together.   

SARATOGA SPRINGS – The Veitch name traces a path through city history that extends over several decades.

City Police Chief Greg Veitch’s great-grandfather’s generation were comprised of horsemen and jockeys, his grandfather serves as director of the city Urban Renewal Agency, and his dad was a schoolteacher in the Saratoga Springs School district for more than 30 years. A number of siblings, including Supervisor Matt Veitch, currently work for the city in a variety of departments.   

For Greg Veitch, his career path was revealed to him one day as the teen sat in a local church.

“There was no law enforcement in my background, but like a lot of little boys, you grow up wanting to be a cowboy, a fireman, an army man,” Veitch recalls.  

“I was 15 or 16 and sitting in St. Mary’s Church. The priest was quoting from Matthew,” he says. The verse that jumped out at him reads: Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. 

“That really clicked with me. When you’re 16 or so you want to be on God’s Team, you want to have an exciting life,” Veitch says. “That’s when it dawned on me: that’s what cops do. So, it’s really been a calling for me from that point on.”  

Veitch began his law enforcement career in Burlington, Vermont where he worked just shy of a year before getting hired in his Saratoga Springs hometown in 1995. He moved through the ranks of the police department – from patrol officer and narcotics investigator to sergeant and was named chief of police in May 2013. The date is significant.

“Last year, I felt I was being called to do something else. I was on a Mission Trip to inner-city Miami and I started to get the feeling: hey, listen, you’ve got to do something other than what you’re doing.” Veitch expressed his thoughts to his wife, Jen, and May 31, 2019 was chosen as his retirement date from the Saratoga Springs Police Department. The date marks his six-year anniversary of his appointment chief.   

Veitch plans to continue to teach criminal justice courses at SUNY Adirondack -which he has done the past five years, as well as instructing officers on a variety of topics at the regional Zone 5 Police Academy. In the fall, he plans to publish a follow-up book to his initial publication - “All the Law in the World Won't Stop Them,” featuring stories of criminals in the Saratoga Springs of yesteryear.

Veitch says he’s most proud of the police department. “The officers, the supervisors who every day go out and do the job they’re supposed to in an honorable way. I’m also proud of the relationships we’ve built with all the local enforcement agencies and the victims’ advocacy groups, because without good relationships it can be a disaster.”

He credits his colleagues, partners and mentors in law enforcement and the love and support of his family for providing him love and encouragement over his 23-year career.

Technology, says the chief, is the biggest change he’s witnessed over the decades, providing officers with rapid access to records and information. “Anyone in a job 20 or 30 years will see those types of changes. For us, I never would have thought that you would be recording yourself all the time,” he says of the body cameras with which that all city officers are equipped. “Not that I’m opposed to it.  When I was starting out as an officer, I would have liked that.”

Chief Veitch’s retirement is effective May 31. Public Safety Commissioner Peter Martin will appoint a new police chief.      

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