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Reconstructing City Hall: $11.2 Million Price Tag Includes New Elevator, State-Mandated Courts
SARATOGA SPRINGS – The cost to reconstruct and restore City Hall is anticipated to carry an approximate $11.2 million price tag, city officials said this week. Insurance proceeds are expected to cover roughly half of the total project cost.
City Hall was rendered unusable following a mid-August lightning strike after a drainage pipe on the roof was struck and melted, causing heavy rains to pour into the building which has served as the center of Saratoga Springs’ government since 1871.
The plans call for a new public elevator, which is not covered by insurance, to be installed in the building - with the existing elevator designated for employee use – the relocation and re-design of city department offices, and an audio/visual booth, concession area and entryway lobby installed in an upgraded Music Hall on the building’s top floor. Costs associated with the Music Hall and new lobby are estimated at $1 million.
Additional changes include state-mandated renovations of city courts and a new energy compliant heating and cooling system for all of City Hall. Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan said there are rebates available from National Grid to help offset the utility costs on the back-end, and that the improvements will help reduce utility costs in the future.
MEP (mechanical, electrical and plumbing) systems are expected to account for about $1.4 million of the overall costs, court-related development costs account for just over $1 million, and cost of the new four-stop elevator set at about $200,000.
The work is slated to take place in two phases, explained DPW Commissioner Anthony “Skip” Scirocco. The job of asbestos abatement, which will take four to six weeks to complete, will be put to bid in early December and awarded prior to the end of the calendar year, Scirocco said. The construction renovation phase of the job is anticipated to be put to bid in March, with construction to commence in the spring. The council is hopeful City Hall will be set to re-open by late 2019.
Since the building’s closure, city employees have mainly been relocated to the southside city recreation facility on Vanderbilt Avenue. Saratoga Springs City Court sessions have been moved to 65 South Broadway, in the Lincoln bath building house, and public city meetings are currently staged at the Saratoga Springs City Center on Broadway.
The building’s ground floor will largely be occupied by the public safety department; The first floor will be comprised of the Mayor’s office, City Clerks office, Finance and Accounts departments and City Council room – all of which have traditionally been located on the first floor, as well as the addition of the DPW offices. Floor two will showcase the city court, as well as house offices of the city attorneys, the human resources department and the public safety commissioner and deputy commissioner. The top floor will feature the Music Hall and lobby, as well as several building department and Land Use offices. The existing Saratoga Supreme Court Law Library will be relocated elsewhere.
Finance Commissioner Michele Madigan, who this week brought to the council the proposed $47.1 million general operating budget for 2019, said the impact of the lightning strike was most evidently felt in the City's Capital Budget – with $5.3 million of the 2019 Capital Budget attributable to the reconstruction and restoration of City Hall. “The remaining $5.9 million for the reconstruction of City Hall will come from capital already bonded, city reserves, and insurance proceeds,” Madigan said. “The lightning strike at City Hall on August 17 resulted in a 2019 City Budget process unlike any I've experienced before.”
The proposed general operating budget for 2019 shows an increase of roughly 2.1 percent, or $960,000, over the 2018 budget. Contractual wages and new hires account for the bulk of the year-over-year change, with personnel up 4.4 percent in total in 2019, said Madigan, adding that the city is in excellent financial health.
The Collector: Greenfield Couple Possess One-Of-A-Kind Collection
GREENFIELD – Photographs and figurines line the shelves of the room accented by a wide assortment of blazers and blouses, masks and uniforms, framed posters, furniture and one particularly wicked looking doll that sits beneath a wall hanging that reads: Chinga.
The collection of items, many of them iconic one-of-a-kind, are related specifically to “The X-Files” television series. It is Jim Thornton’s passion-project.
“The X-Files,” featuring Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully, and David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder, debuted in September 1993. Thornton has been a fan since the first episode was broadcast.
“I loved the show and thought: wow, I’d like to own something from it, but back in ’93, ’94, there wasn’t a lot of stuff out there,” Thornton says. A mid-90’s visit to a store called That’s Entertainment at Crossgates Mall brought him in contact with X-Files trading cards. Thus began his collecting. “That’s when I first thought: I own a piece of the show,” he says.
Thornton has collected items related to the show ever since. “I have commercial stuff, I have promotional stuff, I have things given out to crew members as gifts, screen-used props, wardrobe,” he says. “It’s hard to pick my favorite, but one of them would probably have to be from the (1998) episode ‘Chinga.’ It was (co-)written by Stephen King and there’s a doll in it that the lead actress throws in the microwave and it burns it all up. I have that doll.”
Thornton grew up a fan of the 1970’s show “Kolchak: The Night Stalker,” watching the show with his brother. “That got my hooked on the horror genre and when the X-Files came out, that brought me right back to the Kolchak days, it sucked me right in,” says Thornton, who is a professional painter by day. His kids, he says, for the most part think the collection is “pretty cool.” His wife, Kelly Anthony, is an office administrator.
“I do most of the collecting. If my wife sees stuff, she lets me know. She supports me a lot,” Thornotn says.
“The whole point is to preserve this part of American television history as much as possible,” says Kelly Anthony. “It’s a part of our life. When we find a piece, it’s like: it’s found its forever home. It’s not going anywhere.”
Among the one-of-a-kind items are props used on the show, obtained through the couple’s networking skills. “We’ve acquired some pieces from one of the prop-masters who had worked on the show when it was still up in Vancouver.”
The first five years of the show’s run, which was filmed in Vancouver, are among the toughest pieces to find.
“The Vancouver years are the absolute hardest stuff to get. Some of the wardrobe from the first five years is on a dream list. It’s out there, somewhere. If anyone’s got any contacts, or any stuff: let us know.”
Saratoga Mom's Experience at U.S. Mexico Border
SARATOGA SPRINGS – Josey Kakaty joined a “caravan of moms” earlier this month on a trip to the Texas-Mexico border where she hoped to gain first-person insight of activities occurring at one of this country’s southern boundaries.
“The whole purpose of this event was to witness and interview people who have been affected by undocumented or illegal immigrants crossing the border,” says Kakaty, a mother of three who lives in Saratoga. She was joined by her 15-year-old son on the journey. The caravan migrants, who are largely from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, are fleeing their native lands to escape violence and political upheaval.
“If you listen to just what the media says, I think the whole truth is not presented. We need to have some more awareness. I wanted to see with my own eyes.”
One of the lead sponsoring groups for the trip was Moms for America, a non-profit educational corporation which explains that its purpose is to teach families how to nurture a love and understanding of liberty within their own homes. The purpose of the trip to the border, said MFA President Kimberly Fletcher: “to meet with families who experience the impact of illegal crossings first-hand, in an effort to share their stories with the American people.”
“It was a full day of travel and we spent two days of going to different locations,” Kakaty says. “We went to an elementary school that was close to the border – Rio Grande Valley, Texas – where the entire perimeter of the school was surrounded by fencing. We also walked to the border and got close to the Rio Grande River just to see what kind of barriers we do have set up.
“There was barbed wire fencing and somewhat of a wall. You keep hearing about this wall – or lack thereof – so it was interesting to witness what’s there. It looks like rusted steel, maybe about 15 feet tall, but this was only 100 feet of it, and then the river just had some barbed wire fencing, no taller than five or six feet,” she says.
“This was an organized group and I think they asked me to go along because I was on a Fox News panel for Security Moms, so I already had a public voice in this matter,” Kakaty says. The Security Moms are featured on segments of the broadcast network that showcases “a panel of moms” discussing timely issues with a host.
“The ‘caravan’ is what prompted it and I was there to learn and get my own perspective,” Kakaty says.
The “Caravan”
Across the U.S. border, more than 2,000 people arrived in Tijuana this week, with another 7,000 not far behind, according to Mexican authorities. And that doesn’t include the roughly 3,000 migrants already in Tijuana seeking legal entry into the United States, according to The Washington Post.
“I don’t know what the solution is, but I believe we do need a wall. We have nothing to protect us right now. We live in a bubble in Saratoga, we’re not affected on a daily basis, but it is in our backyard,” Kakaty says. “This is America and we should all be safe. We welcome immigrants, clearly, this is a land of immigrants, but we have a lot of new social issues we have to address and enforcing our security will help with that. It’s a security matter, protecting our national security, that’s the main concern.”
President Donald Trump recently ordered 5,200 active-duty troops to join about 2,100 National Guard forces sent earlier this year to bolster the border, according to Military Times.com, an independent news source which focuses on news and information for service members and their families. The active-duty troops are limited in what function they may perform, however, under federal law, which restricts military engagement in law enforcement on American soil.
The president has also been accused by some of ramping-up the rhetoric strictly for political purposes. For three weeks leading up to Election Day, President Trump posted nearly four dozen tweets mentioning the U.S. border – a number of times specifically referencing the approach of the migrant "caravan" – a practice mostly non-existent since the election. Trump did resume posting about the matter briefly this past week, tweeting that “illegal Immigrants” asking for U.S. asylum will be detained or turned away and that “the U.S. is ill-prepared for this invasion, and will not stand for it…Go Home!”
The timing corresponds with a Trump-issued proclamation - “Addressing Mass Migration Through the Southern Border of the United States” which institutes new rules for those seeking asylum by insisting “aliens” must test their eligibility for admission into the country at an official entry port, rather than presenting themselves to Border Patrol after crossing into the country illegally. The American Civil Liberties Union has since filed a lawsuit to challenge the president’s new asylum ban, claiming it violates federal law, which recognizes the right of people to seek asylum regardless of where and how they entered the country.
After more than a month on the move, the caravan of migrants from Central America has come to a halt just a few yards from the border wall that divides Mexico and the United States, the New York Times reported this week. It could take several months for the claims of migrants seeking asylum to be heard at ports of entry.
Kakaty says she visited with mothers whose children were killed by people who entered the U.S. illegally and shares the natural considerations of any mom, regardless of where they live.
“There’s a concern for moms and children on both sides of the border. The people who are coming, they are in jeopardy too, for so many things, including human trafficking,” Kakaty says.
Before even reaching the U.S. border, migrants making an often long and perilous journey suffer assaults, robberies, and abductions – the latter as many as 20,000 each year - by criminal gangs, as well as becoming victims of extortion by police and immigration officials in Mexico, says Salil Shetty, who served as Secretary General for the human rights organization, Amnesty International, from 2010 to 2018. “Health professionals report that as many as six in 10 migrant women and girls are raped on the journey,” writes Shetty, “and activists repeatedly raise concerns that abducted women and girls are vulnerable to trafficking.”
“One thing we saw at the border, it was just horrific; they call it ‘the rape tree,’” Kakaty says. “Some of the stories were just appalling.”
The Moms group visited a local dentist who told them she caters to many clients living in the U.S. without legal permission but who nonetheless are able to obtain medical coverage for dental work, and with local women who say they sleep with a shotgun under their bed, because, they say, people come into their homes at night.
The group also visited a bridge, which has a walkway above ground, where people with their documents in order are legally checked in and allowed to cross the border. Below the bridge, strands of barbed wire cling to posts spiked into the earth. It is here where the group witnessed a border patrol apprehension of a man and woman who tried to mingle in with the visiting group. “We had about 35 people there. One of the women let the border patrol know (about the people attempting to mingle in). They went to hide in the bushes and were trying to call someone, and they were apprehended.
“What is the impact on US citizens who live close to the border? They say the border is supposed to be the safest place, but it’s not what we understand by talking to people there,” Kakaty says.
“The bottom line is: illegal immigration is illegal. I’m a proud immigrant and my family emigrated here (from Sicily) and we came the right way. We used the right process. Why is there all of a sudden a discussion of having people come here not legally?” she says.
“We know these things happen; we just need to create an awareness, because it’s just not working the way it is. I’m glad that I went. I think it’s time we are informed and learn on our own. We need to educate ourselves to know what’s really going on.”
Saratoga Election 2018
SARATOGA SPRINGS – Similar to the higher-than-normal turnout of voters across the country Tuesday, the tallied number of locals casting ballots in Saratoga County on Election Day is expected to register among some of the highest in recent local midterm history.
County-wide, more than 91,000 votes were counted regarding the 2018 vote - nearly 60 percent of active county voters, and dwarfing previous mid-term election tallies. Those elections - held in 2014, 2010 and 2006 – typically have returned 70,000 to 84,000 voters.
Those 2018 figures have yet to include absentee or affidavit ballots. When the Board of Elections officially certifies the vote, the tally could reach triple figures, which is typically in range with Presidential Election years.
The county Board of Elections is currently organizing data related specifically to city voters on Election Day 2018, but those figures are not yet available for comparison to previous years.
PROPOSAL TO CHANGE CITY CHARTER DEFEATED
In Saratoga Springs, a proposal to amend the City Charter was soundly defeated, with 6,537 votes against the change and 3,610 in favor. A second ballot question to further amend the Charter by providing two additional City Council members for decision-making purposes met a similar fate.
“I respect the outcome and the will of the people and the votes cast,” said city Attorney Vincent DeLeonardis, chairman of the Charter Review Commission.
A 2017 City Charter referendum which proposed a greater change – to change the city’s form of government - was narrowly defeated last November, by a 4,458 - 4,448 vote. That Charter Commission was headed by city residents and conducted 16 months of study. This time around, the commission board was run by City Council members and city staff as selected by the mayor, and proposed more modest changes.
“The very subject of Charter is contentious in this city. It has a very long-rooted and deep history and I respect that,” DeLeonardis said Tuesday night. “I respect that the debate over our form of government is going to continue, but I think there was some confusion over this round as to what was on the ballot. This year, the ‘form’ of our government was not on the ballot. It was just an effort to update and amend the current form of government we have and the form of government the voters decided to keep, just last year.”
DeLeonardis said he was pleased with the group’s effort in regard to public awareness and education, but that those efforts of providing information “had to compete with misinformation and disinformation.” The status of any future study and public vote regarding the City Charter, DeLeonardis said, “is up to the people and up to the elected officials.”
DEMOCRAT, REPUBLICAN SEATS MAINTAIN STATUS QUO
In the 20th Congressional District – which includes parts of Saratoga Springs as well as Charlton, Clifton Park, Halfmoon, Malta, Mechanicville, Stillwater and Ballston, Democrat incumbent Paul Tonko bested GOP challenger Joe Vitollo by a near 2-to-1 margin.
“I am very thankful and humbled for the support of the voters,” Tonko told supports at the Inn at Saratoga, where Democrats gathered on Election Night. “Whether they voted for me or not, whether they voted or not, I’m there and I want to bring us together in the 20th Congressional District to address the issues of our times.”
With Democrats set to regain control of the House in January, Tonko offered a glimpse of the party’s priorities moving forward.
“We have pledged as a Democratic Caucus in the House, If chosen to lead the House of Representatives, we need most certainly to not repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, but to strengthen it, and to strengthen it in a way that absolutely includes protecting the pre-existing clause,” he said.
In the 21st Congressional District – which includes parts of Saratoga, Galway, Greenfield, Milton, Moreau, Northumberland, Providence, Wilton, and some parts of Stillwater and Ballston – Republican incumbent Elise Stefanik defeated Democrat challenger Tedra Cobb by a 55.9 percent to 41.2 percent margin.
In the 43rd Senate District – which includes parts of Saratoga Springs as well as Greenfield, Halfmoon, Mechanicville, Moreau, Northumberland, Saratoga, Stillwater, and Wilton – Daphne Jordan – a prodigy of Kathy Marchione, garnered 63,540 votes to defeat Democrat Aaron Gladd – who secured 53,902 votes. The seat is currently occupied by Kathy Marchione, who received the GOP nod in 2012 after fellow Republican Sen. Roy McDonald voted to back gay marriage.
At the Holiday Inn in Saratoga Springs where Republicans gathered on Election Night, Jordan thanked Marchione - “my friend and mentor” - as well as fellow Republicans Chris Gibson and Joe Bruno.
“I’m a mom, a former small business person and a community leader,” Jordan told supporters. “I’m a real fighter for upstate.”
In the 49th Senate District – which includes Ballston, Charlton, Clifton Park, Galway, Malta, Milton, Providence and parts of Saratoga Springs, Republican incumbent Jim Tedisco secured more than 58 percent of the vote to defeat Democrat challenger Michelle Ostrelich.
Republican Mary Beth Walsh, running unopposed, secured the 112th Assembly District. The district includes Ballston, Charlton, Clifton Park, Galway, Greenfield, Halfmoon, Milton and Providence. And Democrat incumbent Carrie Woerner retained her seat in the 113th Assembly District, defeating Republican challenger Morgan Zegers by a 28,199 – 21,737 vote tally.
“It truly takes a village to win a campaign and you are my village,” Woerner told supporters of the district, which includes Malta, Mechanicville, Moreau, Northumberland, Saratoga Springs, Saratoga, Stillwater and Wilton.
“I am so looking forward to working with my colleagues in the Assembly and my new colleagues in the State Senate…to fight for women’s reproductive health, to ensure quality health care, to once and for all fix the funding formula so our rural schools, our schools that have high rates of poverty - get the kind of funding they need,” Woerner said. “And to make sure that we have quality farms that are viable and continue to produce good, locally-produced nutritious food for all of us to eat.”
Republicans Karen A. Heggen and Andrew B. Jarosh, retained their seats as County District Attorney, and county Treasurer, respectively, after running unopposed.
STATE
Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo was re-elected to a third term by statewide voters – although Saratoga County voters rejected Cuomo, instead choosing Republican Marc Molinaro with 54.5 percent of the vote to Cuomo’s 37.6 percent
Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand was re-elected to the U.S. Senate, defeating Republican challenger Chele Farley by a 2-to-1 margin statewide, although in Saratoga County, that margin of victory was significantly closer, with Gillibrand securing 49,000 votes to Farley’s 40,900.
Democrat incumbents state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli and Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul also won re-election; Democrat Letitia James was elected as the attorney general.
According to the New York State Board of Elections, as of Nov. 1, Saratoga County counts 153,325 active registered voters. The breakdown: 39.2 percent are registered as Republicans, 27.5 are registered as Democrats, 25.1 percent registered voters opted for no specific party affiliation, and the remaining approximate 8 percent are comprised of members who designated their affiliation with the Independence, Conservative, Green, Working Families, or other party.
In the city of Saratoga Springs specifically, the 2016 Presidential Election 14,239 city votes cast their ballot.
Neighbors: Jeff Goodell
Who: Jeff Goodell, Award-Winning Author, Energy and Environment Expert and Contributing Editor to Rolling Stone Magazine
Q. How long have you been in Saratoga Springs?
A. Sixteen years.
Q. How has the city changed during that time?
A. I like the progress in Saratoga and the changes that I’ve seen here. It’s become more prosperous, but it feels healthy and alive. I love the mix of nature and culture: I can go skiing at Gore, hiking in the Adirondacks and get on a train and go to Manhattan. I do wish there was more live music, besides SPAC.
Q. You grew up in California. How have you adapted to the change of seasons in the Northeast?
A. I always think of myself as a westerner, so I can’t figure out how I’ve spent the last 30 years on the east coast – but for work, at Rolling Stone, it’s the place to be. I do miss the west, but I travel so much so I get there a lot. And I like cold weather, too. I’m a freaky California guy. It still feels exotic to me: Oh, look, there’s snow!
Q. You spent some time with President Barack Obama in 2015 for a Rolling Stone interview piece. What can you say about the former president that people may not know?
A. That time with Obama seems very surreal now, even though it was only a couple of years ago. I spent three days with him in Alaska and we spent a lot of time together. The thing about Obama that struck me was his essential humanness. He was so unpretentious in how he carried his power, the way he treated me and the way he treated people around him. There was no sense of: I’m the President and you’re not and so what I have to say is more important than what you have to say. That may sound like a such a simple thing and a cliché, but it was very powerful and true.
I spent a couple of hours talking with him about climate change and it was just amazing the degree to which he was engaged in the conversation – not checking his watch, not looking for aids to help him. He’s a very intellectually serious person.
Q. What are you working on now?
A. I literally just finished a story about the new EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler for Rolling Stone, it’ll be out in a couple of weeks. And I am planning a trip to Antarctica in January, where I’ll be for two months with British Antarctic Survey scientists who are looking at the melting ice sheets there.
Annual Saratoga Restaurant Week Kicks-Off Monday, Nov. 5
SARATOGA SPRINGS — A week-long celebration of Saratoga culinary delights will take place Nov. 5-11 during the 14th Annual Restaurant Week, offering a glimpse into the unique dining options within Saratoga County.
Nearly 50 participating restaurants will participate in the event - presented by Discover Saratoga and Spa City Brew Bus – which serves up a variety of prix fixe menu options ranging from $20 and $30 three-course dinners to $10 lunch specials, plus tax & tip.
As opposed to last year, when the event took place Dec. 1-7, this season’s staging will be held prior to the Thanksgiving holiday and begins Monday, Nov. 5.
For more information about Saratoga Restaurant Week, go to: www.discoversaratoga.org/restaurantweek, or call 518-584-1531.
THE FOLLOWING RESTAURANTS WILL
BE PARTICIPATING IN THE EVENT:
$10 Lunches
BurgerFi - 460 Broadway
Diamond Club Grill - 86 Congress Street
Esperanto - 4 Caroline Street
Falafel Den - 10 Phila Street
Gaffney's Restaurant - 16 Caroline Street
Local Pub & Teahouse - 142 Grand Avenue
PJ's Bar-B-QSA - 1 Kaydeross Avenue West
Saratoga Stadium - 389 Broadway
Sweet Mimi's Café - 47 Phila Street
Thirsty Owl Bistro - 184 South Broadway
$20 Dinner
2 West Bar And Grille - 2 West Avenue
Boca Bistro - 384 Broadway
BWP Your Local Bar & Grille - 74 Weibel Avenue
Cantina - 430 Broadway
Chianti Il Ristorante - The Lofts @ 18 Division Street
Diamond Club Grill - 86 Congress Street
Dizzy Chicken Wood Fired Rotisserie - 102 Congress Street
Forno Bistro - 541 Broadway
Gaffney's Restaurant - 16 Caroline Street
Jacob & Anthony's American Grille - 38 High Rock
Local Pub & Teahouse - 142 Grand Avenue
Longfellows Restaurant - 500 Union Avenue
Olde Bryan Inn - 123 Maple Avenue
PJ's Bar-B-QSA - 1 Kaydeross Avenue West
Ravenous - 21 Phila Street
Saratoga Stadium - 389 Broadway
Scallions Restaurant - 44 Lake Avenue
The Brook Tavern - 139 Union Avenue
$30 Dinner
Braeburn Tavern - 390 Broadway
Chez Pierre - 979 Rt. 9 (Saratoga Road), Gansevoort
Hamlet And Ghost - 24 Caroline Street, Suite 1
Hattie's Restaurant - 45 Phila Street
Jacob & Anthony's American Grille - 38 High Rock
Lake Ridge Restaurant - 35 Burlington Avenue, Round Lake
Morton's The Steakhouse Saratoga Casino Hotel - 342 Jefferson Street
Mouzon House - 1 York Street
Prime at Saratoga National Golf Club - 458 Union Avenue
R & R Kitchen + Bar - 43 Phila Street
Salt & Char - 353 Broadway
Sperry's – 30-1/2 Caroline Street
The Blue Hen - 365 Broadway
Thirsty Owl Bistro - 184 South Broadway
Wheatfields Bistro & Wine Bar - 54 Crossing Blvd., Clifton Park
Wheatfields Restaurant & Bar - 440 Broadway
Wishing Well Restaurant - 745 Route 9, Gansevoort
NYS Military Museum Hosts Veteran of the Year Ceremony Saturday
SARATOGA SPRINGS - The Friends of the New York State Military Museum will host its annual Veteran of the Year Ceremony at noon on Saturday, Oct. 27 at the museum, on Lake Avenue.
The 2018 Awardee is LTC (Ret) Nicholas M. Laiacona, who served as a Platoon Leader and Company Commander in the Mobile Riverine Force (MRF), 9th Infantry Division, Mekong Delta, Republic of Vietnam.
Laiacona entered the Army in 1966, graduated from Infantry Officers Candidate School in 1967 and upon returning to the US after Vietnam transferred to the Ordnance Corps. He served in a number of Ordnance assignments in the US, Germany and Korea. In 1985 he was selected as one of the first certified US Army Material Acquisition Managers and became one of the first officers in the Army Acquisition Corps. He retired in 1991.
The event is free and open to the public. U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik is anticipated to make the award presentation.
Dedication to Honor The Legacy Of Sam Aldrich Saturday
SARATOGA SPRINGS - The legacy of Alexander “Sam” Aldrich will be honored on Saturday with the dedication of a custom designed bench along the Geyser Creek Trail at Saratoga Spa State Park. It is a location that Aldrich enjoyed visiting with his wife, Phyllis.
Sam Aldrich was first cousins with Nelson Rockefeller and served as the then-governor’s executive assistant during the 1960s.
Aldrich was dispatched to Washington, D.C. in 1963 – where he was up on the dais during Martin Luther King’s "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and was sent to Alabama two years later to join King on a historic 54-mile march from Selma to Montgomery.
The speech - “so moving and so peaceful, extraordinary," Aldrich told this reporter, during a visit to his Saratoga home in January 2012. "I think (King) knew that he was a symbol, that he was at risk and that he would probably die on this mission."
The bench dedication ceremony in honor of Aldrich will take place at noon Saturday, Oct. 27 at Creekside Classroom, Saratoga Spa State Park – located on the Geyser Loop Road in the south end of the Park. Aldrich died in 2017.
Dress Up as Your Favorite Queen on Halloween at Caffe Lena
SARATOGA SPRINGS – The Rochmon Record Club will dress up for a Special Halloween Encore edition of Queen’s 4th album: “Night at the Opera, Wednesday, Oct. 31 at Caffe Lena.
Attendees are encouraged to dress up as the Queen of their choice to listen to and learn about the classic album filled with pomp and circumstance.
Queen’s 1975 album “A Night at the Opera” features the ground-breaking mini suite, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” “You’re My Best Friend,” and 10 other tracks.
The Rochmon Record Club Listening Party begins at 7 p.m. – doors open 6:30 p.m. - with a live audio and video presentation by Chuck Vosganian aka Rochmon. A Rochmon Record Club Listening Party is meant to inform and deepen our understanding of the history of the individual performers, the songs and the stories that went into the making of this iconic album. Tickets are $8 and available at: caffelena.org.
Future Rochmon record events: Carole King “Tapestry,” Nov. 20 and 25 at Caffe Lena; Aretha Franklin “Queen of Soul Retrospective” Dec. 18 at Caffe Lena; Fleetwood Mac “Rumors” Nov. 23 at Proctors in Schenectady; The Beatles “Revolver” (Oct. 25), Rolling Stones “Sticky Fingers” (Nov. 29), and The Doors’ “The Doors” (Dec. 27) at The Linda Performing Arts Center in Albany.
Artist Returns to Spa City for Major Art Show at Tang
SARATOGA SPRINGS - Tim Davis roams the corridors of the Tang Museum, surveying the gallery landscape where the work is ongoing in preparation of this weekend’s opening of his new show.
“This is the first time I’ve ever really done a show on this scale of things - things that aren’t just pictures that I took on a wall,” he says, the sonic echo of swinging hammers and buzzing drills flowing all around him. “This has a lot more going on.”
There are photographs – which he calls cartoons, selfies captured in the South Sea, videos of radios that he filmed in Tunisia; There is a self-portrait sculpture composed of multiple copies of Bob Dylan’s “Self Portrait” album, and a multitude of grave rubbings of people with funny names. “I can’t believe that I spent all this time in the summer doing these grave-rubbings,” Davis says, with a laugh. “It just seems insane.”
“While I’m out there making photographs about the immediate moment, I’m also collecting stuff all the time,” he explains, posing for a photograph in front of his Library of Ideas. Here, the book shelves are lined with titles that boast the word “Idea.”
"It all started with the sheet music of the song ‘(When We Are Dancing) I get ideas,’ Davis says. “I started collecting printed matter that has the word IDEAS in it, thinking that if I ever needed more ideas…”
Davis had staged solo exhibitions in Italy and France, Belgium and Canada. He has been involved in group exhibitions in spaces like the Metropolitan Museum of Art. “When We Are Dancing (I Get Ideas),” - which opens on Saturday at the Tang Museum - marks the first large-scale exhibit in Saratoga Springs for the artist who spent his childhood here.
Davis grew up in Saratoga where at a young age he went around town with his friends making home movies with a Super 8 camera. He played in local bands. He created handwritten stories that were published in a homemade newspaper created by his friends. The TV news was their inspiration. “We were all obsessed with this weekend news anchor in Albany named Joe Moskowitz,” he recalls. “We got his 8x10 glossy, signed. We were in his fan club…”
The artist’s father, longtime Saratogian Peter Davis, was the program director of the Flurry Festival and plays a variety of instruments with numerous bands in the region, from Annie and the Hedonists to Saratoga Race Course house band Reggie’s Red Hot Feetwarmers. Music also plays a prominent rule in the exhibition. A monitor inside the museum displays music videos the younger Davis created for each of the 11 songs that he wrote for an album titled “It’s OK to Hate Yourself.”
“It’s got many of Saratoga’s finest musicians on it,” says the artist who spent many years writing lyrics for his brother’s band, Cuddle Magic. On Dec. 6, Tim Davis will perform all new material with his all new band. “We’re called Severely Brothers. not THE. Just called Severely Brothers, OK?”
He is an artist, writer and a musician who makes photographs, video, drawings, sound, and installations. Humor plays a vital role.
One of his earlier videos - “The Upstate New York Olympics” - depicts Davis leap-frogging over lawn jockeys. Sixteen different lawn jockeys in fact and some of which would be readily recognizable to residents of the Spa City.
“On my 40th birthday, I said: I’m going to go out and just make something that’s super fun, something I enjoy. My birthday is Nov. 5 and it’s always cold and miserable and I came up with idea of making new sports. And I love playing sports, so I was like: Can I make art as fun as playing sports? For a year I made this thing – The Upstate New York Olympics - and I went all around upstate scanning the landscape,” says Davis, who is 48. “The lawn jockey leapfrog seemed logical. I get a rush out of doing something I’m not supposed to do. I never really got in trouble,” he says. “And I only went to the hospital once.”
Another early video features 12 minutes of various Dollar General stores that accompany the lonesome traveler on a journey across the upstate landscape.
“I was visiting a friend in Chenango County, out near Binghamton. You’re driving around an realize there are these Dollar General stores in like every town, these amazing glowing things where they leave the lights on really late at night. You’re like: Oh, there goes another one. He fixed his camera to the side window of his car and continued on his journey. ”I enjoy being out in the world and being dedicated to capturing something about the immediacy of the moment.”
In the Tang Museum exhibition, two fixed walls play moving images that showcase, respectively, the formative beginnings of the hope-filled power of creativity - called “Counting In” - and its successful conclusion, called “Curtain Calls.”
“This is all footage I shot. Counting In took a year of going to band practices and waiting for them to say: one, two, three, four. Filmed in their rehearsal spaces, I just take the part where they go: one, two, three, four and string all of those together, before the song even starts. Curtain Calls are of amateur theatrical plays. It’s the ecstasy of the thing being over. Different plays from all over the country, shot from the same vantage point,” Davis says.
“A curtain call is what everyone is aiming for in a play - especially an amateur play that’s three hours long. Everyone’s like: can we get it there without messing it up? And Counting In is something that’s necessary to make music happen. I feel these two pieces are the real American Dream – which is playing in a band in your basement and doing an elaborate theater production. It’s not making a million dollars on Wall Street. “
Another music-meets-culture depiction - Un-Easy Listening - takes up a glass housed section of the museum’s second-floor space.
“There are about seven or eight hundred easy listening record in here - records you pick up when you go digging through the Salvation Army,” Davis says. “Elevator music. Music meant to be in the background in a suburban house in the ‘50s, when people moved from urban ethnic-type apartment tenements to the suburbs, where they created all this music to fill up that space. That happened at the same time of the invention of the long-playing record and hi-fi stereo. So, it was the perfect storm of blandness.” A trio of record players simultaneously spin three different easy listening selections. “It’s interactive. People can come in and take records, put them on, change them out, take them home if they want. I would be grateful to get rid of them.”
Davis lives in Tivoli, N.Y., near Kingston and teaches photography at Bard College. He previously taught a different generation of students at Yale, from 2001 to 2004. It was an era before Google, before Facebook and prior to Instagram. The technological changes of the past 15 years have been massive.
“One thing that’s harder and harder is going out into the world (for a new generation of students). Computers and the Internet are things that make us… we know where we can go to get answers. Every question can be answered in one place. The idea of moving through the world randomly may lead you to your answers, and unexpected answers, but it’s harder for them to do that. So, I give an assignment that’s called ‘Let’s Get Lost’ and the idea is you have to be completely lost before you can take any pictures, and you can’t have a phone with you. For me, the idea is that there’s a heightened attention when we’re lost, a feeling of being hyper-aware,” Davis explains.
“On the other hand, the idea of their lives being something they want to share with other people is something that’s totally familiar to them. It’s easier for them to make work that’s more personal, that’s more connected, because they’re used to it. It’s something they’ve done their whole lives. Not only making art about their whole lives - but publishing it, for all to see.”
The exhibition reflects the wide variety of the artist’s works. “I’m paying attention all the time,” Davis says. “The thing is, we may run out of a lot of things, but we’re never going to run out of significance. We’re never going to run out of something to say. As long as there are human beings, there is going to be significance in a sense that: this is really important, let me tell you this. And that’s what I’m here for.”
(photo: the artist in the spotlight, at the Tang Museum, Oct. 17, 2018. Photo: Thomas Dimopoulos)
Tim Davis - When We Are Dancing (I Get Ideas), a solo exhibition opens Saturday. Oct. 20 at
The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. Opening reception is at 5 p.m.
On Tuesday, Oct. 30, Davis hosts an evening at the museum of storytelling about how and why people collect things. he will also stage a musical performance on Dec. 6. For more information, go to: tang.skidmore.edu.
