BALLSTON SPA — A post in a local Facebook group has sparked awareness of ongoing power outages occurring in the area of Ballston Spa and Malta. 

The outages, while brief, have been impacting homes and businesses. Residents reported that air conditioning units turned off, lights flickered, and appliances needed to be reset. 

One business owner said the outages disrupt her company’s credit card machine.

It’s unclear exactly how long the outages have been occurring, but some residents said it’s been an ongoing issue for at least the past few months, if not longer.

Patrick Stella, the National Grid Communications Manager for Eastern New York, told Saratoga TODAY that National Grid would be “installing monitoring equipment in the area to better diagnose the root cause of these shorter outages. We will use this information in the coming weeks to come up with a more permanent fix.” Stella also said that the outages appear to be contained to the area of Ballston Spa and Malta.

Ballston Spa Mayor Frank Rossi said he’s previously reached out to his municipal contact at National Grid regarding an outage in Malta and another one at the Village Green Apartments in Ballston Spa. On Monday, he created a Google Form asking Ballston Spa residents to share details about any outages they’ve experienced. The form can be found on his Facebook page.

“While it is not in the Village’s abilities to resolve such issues,” Rossi wrote, “we have a good working relationship with National Grid — and they have historically worked with us to try to identify issues and resolve them.”

Malta Town Supervisor Cynthia Young also said she had contacted National Grid. She requested that Malta residents email supervisor@malta-town.org with their address and the exact time and duration of any outages.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Many businesses advertise themselves as “family owned and operated,” but Anne’s Washington Inn takes the concept to another level.

In 1943, hotelier Charles Russell purchased what was then the McCarty Hospital in Saratoga Springs for $7,500 and transformed it into the The Washington Inn. His daughter, Anne (Russell) Bokan ran the place for more than forty years. In 1985, Anne’s son and daughter-in-law, Joe Jr. and Kathleen Bokan, took over operations. Today, the couple’s oldest daughter Madeleine oversees the inn’s wedding and events operations with her toddler in tow. That’s five generations of family members who have sat on the inn’s famous front porch across 80 years of busy Saratoga summers.

If Anne’s Washington Inn feels more like a family residence than a resort, that’s probably because it was. Joe Jr., the current owner/operator, spent his childhood there with his five sisters.

“All of us ran the front desk, all of us made beds, all of us cleaned bathrooms; whatever it took,” Joe Jr. said. “As kids, we all grew up doing it.”

As the decades have gone by, not much has changed in the way the Bokans do business.  

“We all pitch in,” said Joe Jr.’s daughter Madeleine. “One day we’ll be in the rooms. One day we’ll be in the dining room, doing events, checking people in. It’s kind of all-hands-on-deck.”

Originally called The Washington Inn, the business was renamed in honor of Anne (Russell) Bokan in 2007. “It’s amazing to hear from longtime Saratogians. They’ll say, ‘Your mom was one of the first women to have a business in Saratoga.’ She really ran it. She’d always done it, but it never hit me. Back in the 50s, women were not running businesses,” Joe Jr. said.

There were a couple other reasons for the name change as well. Adding “Anne’s” made the inn easier to find in web searches. It also moved the business up the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce’s list of lodging establishments, which resulted in more referrals. In the first year following the name change, Joe Jr. said his sales went up 30%.

Nowadays, Joe Jr. said he leaves much of the marketing and public relations work to Madeleine. Although an heir to the inn has not been officially proclaimed, Joe Jr. said that his daughter may one day emerge as his successor. “She loves the hotel. She loves the people. She gets it,” he said.

“But he’s not allowed to retire anytime soon,” said Madeleine. “This place runs because of him.”

“I’m having too much fun [to retire],” said Joe Jr.

Anne’s Washington Inn, currently celebrating its 80th year in business, is open April through October. Events are offered year-round. Located on four acres of land off South Broadway, the inn is within walking distance of the Saratoga Spa State Park and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC). For more information, visit www.anneswi.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Technology hasn’t yet advanced to the point that history buffs can simply hop in a DeLorean to explore the past, but it’s getting pretty close.

At the Saratoga Springs History Museum, artificial intelligence was used to generate more than four hours of audio content designed to help visitors immerse themselves in historic Saratoga. Ambient sounds and period-appropriate music abound in the museum’s new self-guided audio tour, which aims to transport museum goers back to the Gilded Age. 

“The stories we want to conserve in this museum are really important, and conserving them for a modern audience is definitely a priority,” said Museum Director James Parillo. “Trying to express this through artificial intelligence is something we really wanted to explore, and so far, I think we’ve created something really unique.”

The spoken part of the audio tour was created by simply feeding existing text into AI software; various male and female-sounding voices narrate the text seen on placards throughout the museum. But the rest of the tour’s soundscape is the result of AI’s more creative capabilities. This is most apparent on the third floor of the museum, where exhibits about the notorious Walworth family murder are accompanied by Haunted House-esque sounds of rainstorms, creaking floorboards, howling winds, and disembodied voices. (To fully capture the experience, headphones are recommended.) 

The audio tour was the brainchild of L.F. Leon, the museum’s director of communications. AI allowed Leon to create narration without having to hire someone to spend hours in a recording studio. The AI software, Leon said, also allows its user to own all of the material it creates. Classical music and jazz tunes heard throughout the tour were acquired from copyright-free sources.

As for ensuring historical accuracy, since all of the spoken audio was simply adapted from existing text, the information has already been verified by the museum. In other words, there’s no risk of AI simply making something up, as it sometimes is known to do. (That said, the AI narrators did seem to struggle a bit with the pronunciations of a couple Saratoga-specific names, such as Travers and Adelphi.)

QR codes stationed throughout the museum link visitors to a webpage that contains all of the audio tour files in numerical order. No app is needed. Each exhibit or item in the museum with a corresponding audio file has a number next to it, and the files can be played in any order. The audio tour also has the added benefit of allowing people who may not be physically able to climb the museum’s stairs to experience all of the exhibits auditorily from the ground floor. 

Visitors can experience the new audio tour for themselves at the Saratoga Springs History Museum, which is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for seniors, and $8 for students. The museum is located at 1 E Congress Street in Congress Park.