Displaying items by tag: Saratoga County
Saratoga County 4-H Announces Winners of Youth Video Challenge
BALLSTON SPA – Saratoga 4-H staff delivered trophies to winners of the Youth Video Challenge for the Virtual Saratoga County Fair. 4-H members were asked to submit videos about the animal species they would typically bring to the Saratoga County Fair. The Video challenge provided youth an opportunity to showcase their animals and knowledge of the species they care for. Educators and animal science professionals judged the videos on Wednesday, July 22 and winners were awarded on Thursday the 24.
The Saratoga County Fair is the most anticipated event of the year for 4-H members. Youth work year round to breed, care for, and prepare their animals to be shown at this annual event. In the past, around 200 youth across the county participate in animal shows, species including: dairy cattle, beef cattle, horses, rabbits, sheep, goats and more. Youth and their animals are judged for cleanliness, animal confirmation, genetics, and other aspects of animal health. The cancelation of the Saratoga County Fair was devastating, yet youth came together to exhibit their animal in a fun and educational way.
The Youth Video Challenge for the Virtual Saratoga County Fair had three categories, Cloverbud, ages 8 and under, Jr., ages 9-12, and Sr., ages 13-18. Cloverbuds receive participation awards and first, second and third place trophies were given to the top three videos submitted.
Trophy Winners are as follows:
Senior Division:
First- Kohlby Himelrick with his Goat
Second- Julia Bodien with her Rabbit
Third- Collin Anderson with his Sheep
Junior Division
First- Eva Anderson with her Rabbit
Congrats to our winners! Despite the County Fair being canceled, Saratoga County 4-H has been working to create and renew our diverse educational opportunities to fit the changing educational climate. For more information about 4-H Animal Science opportunities, please contact Brieanna Hughes at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit our website at ccesaratoga.org.
Saratoga County’s Largest Ribbon Cutting Ever
It’s Friday, June 19, 2020, and we’re about to hold the largest ribbon cutting celebration Saratoga County has ever seen.
It will take place today at 11 a.m. We really have no idea how many people will participate. We’ve invited everyone!
BUT, this ribbon cutting will feature the same ribbon being cut in more than 2 dozen locations across Saratoga County simultaneously. That’s what makes it the biggest.
Normally when we do a ribbon cutting, it is for one business in recognition of an investment they’ve made in our community. It can be for a new business or an expansion or a relocation or a significant milestone anniversary.
Today’s ribbon cutting at multiple locations simultaneously is designed to celebrate the reopening of Saratoga County’s economy.
The Chamber and our partners at the Saratoga County Reopening Advisory Board as well as Discover Saratoga, Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership, the Saratoga Springs DBA, the Saratoga Springs City Center and SEDC will all be involved in one place or another.
We’ll be in downtown Saratoga Springs as well as the Villages of Ballston Spa, Schuylerville and Mechanicville. We’ll be in the Town of Day and Edinburg to the North and Waterford, Halfmoon and Clifton Park to the South.
We’re now in Phase 3 of Saratoga County’s reopening. And while there are still some sectors that remain closed, we simply cannot wait two more weeks to share the news that Saratoga County is open for business for those who are wondering what is open and what is not.
The ribbon we are using features the Stronger Together Saratoga County logo created a month or so ago to celebrate the many collaborations we’ve seen that have helped us get to this point.
We’re also providing every City, Town, Village and Hamlet with two Stronger Together signs personalized for their local community to use in the ribbon cutting photos.
We’ve created a Saratoga County Ribbon Cutting event on Facebook. There, everyone will be able to see all of the ribbon cutting photos and videos our staff, partners and volunteers shoot capturing this historic day.
This ribbon cutting celebrates the investment of time we’ve all made during New York’s PAUSE as we sheltered at home to put health first while placing our economy in jeopardy. Today is the day where we hopefully can feel the freedom and safely start to return to the businesses we know and love more regularly.
We believe every ribbon cutting is the celebration of a dream come true. For us here in Saratoga County as I write this, we dreamed of a day when there was no one in Saratoga Hospital fighting for their life versus COVID-19.
That day came a week ago, on Thursday, June 11. That was the day when we decided to break out the ribbon on June 19. That was the dream come true. Now we cannot let down our guard.
As Angelo Calbone, the President of Saratoga Hospital told a group of local leaders the other day, we still must be vigilant. We need to social distance. When we can’t, we need to wear a mask. We need to wash our hands. We need to disinfect surfaces. We need to take special care of our seniors and those with underlying conditions.
But if we continue to do this, this countywide ribbon cutting today will go down in history as the day we turned the corner.
The day we celebrated the sacrifices so many have made to get here as well as the potential of what we can do together going forward to rebuild our economy.
County Officials Discuss Saratoga COVID-19: Infections, Hospitalizations, Testing Sites
BALSTON SPA — Saratoga County officials - featuring staff from the Department of Public Health, the Office of Mental Health and Office of Emergency Services - hosted a Facebook Live event April 14. Among the information they shared is the following:
• As of April 14: 229 county patients had tested positive for the coronavirus and 122 of those 229 have recovered at this time.
• Fifteen people were hospitalized, and of those, five people were on ventilators. This number is down from the eight people who were on ventilators one day earlier; the three people who came off the ventilators were in stable condition. All those hospitalized are Saratoga County residents.
• Approximately 1,000 people had been quarantined under a mandatory quarantine/isolation order. Those 1,000 people had been in contact with the 229 people who had tested positive. Of those, 539 had since been cleared, released from quarantine and have recovered.
“What the public health department is doing is when someone is positive there is an infectability period and we look at every move that person made during that time frame. They identify to us where they’d been and who they’d been in contact with. We then reach out to each individual who is then at a high risk of contracting COVID-19 and we place them in isolation. That way if they become ill, they will not infect others.”
Testing sites: Saratoga Hospital has limited capacity; Albany has a drive-thru at the campus of SUNY- Albany campus, and Warren County has a testing site at their municipal site.
How to take a test: “Warren County requires a prescription from a doctor and an appointment. For Albany, you can go to the New York State Department of Health website where you can fill out a form to receive the test. However, they’re not testing everybody. There is a priority for someone who is ill and showing symptoms of illness, as well as health care workers. If you’re asymptomatic and you just want to have a test because you’re worried, then you may not be tested at this time. If you’re asymptomatic – you’ve had no symptoms, but you’ve been in contact with someone who’s tested positive, you’d be higher on the list.”
Is testing for antibodies available in the area? Not yet. Antibody testing is coming along, and there is a ramping up and developing of capabilities to widely disseminate testing, but it hasn’t come to the area yet. There is a trial underway at Albany Med St. Peter’s that gives plasma from people who have recovered from COVID to patients who are actively affected. People who have recovered can also have their antibodies tested as part of being a donor for that program.
Why has there been no disclosure of specific municipalities within the county where residents have tested positive? “We have cases in every area of our county, cases in every zip code. Giving zip codes at this point could be giving out a false sense of security of people are thinking: ‘oh there’s only one case that lives in my area.’ You have to assume that everyone has (the potential) to be positive at this time.”
The Department of Public Health encourages all individuals to wear a mask any time they are out in public. Given mask shortages, it directs residents to the CDC website as a helpful resource that outlines how to wear a mask and instructions on how to make a homemade mask. That link can be accessed at: www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/diy-cloth-face-coverings.html
The Next Generation Needs You: Be a Mentor
SARATOGA COUNTY —January is National Mentoring Month. The Saratoga Mentoring Program would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the current mentors who generously give of their time, friendship and wisdom.
The Saratoga Mentoring Program has been matching caring adults with children in Saratoga County for 27 years. Mentors can make a profound difference in the life of a child. Studies show that young people with mentors have more positive outcomes in school and in the workplace. This in turn strengthens our community, our economy and our country.
Mentors are screened and trained before working with a child. Mentors meet with their mentees once a week for about two hours. In order to develop trust and consistency, a one-year commitment is required.
For more information visit www.saratogamentoring.org or call 518-581-1487. Saratoga Mentoring is a program of Catholic Charities.
Saratoga County Office for the Aging Celebrates Selection as a Hannaford Helps Reusable Bag Program Beneficiary
SARATOGA COUNTY — The Saratoga County Office for the Aging has been selected as a beneficiary of the Hannaford Helps Reusable Bag Program for the month of January. The Hannaford Helps Reusable Bag Program, which launched in April 2014, is a reusable bag program that facilitates community support with the goal to make a difference in the communities where shoppers live and work. Saratoga County Office for the Aging was selected as the January beneficiary of the program by store leadership at the Hannaford located at 3 Via Rossi Way, Ballston Spa NY. Saratoga County Office for the Aging will receive a $1 donation every time the $2.50 reusable Fight Hunger Bag is purchased at this location during January. For more information on the Hannaford Helps Reusable Bag Program, visit hannaford.bags4mycause.com
For additional information, please call The Office for the Aging, 518-884-4996.
Council Announces 2020 Schedule
The Business Owners Council of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce has announced its 2020 meeting schedule. Meetings will take place on the first Tuesday of every month at the Saratoga County Chamber Offices. Speakers and meeting topics will be announced closer to meeting times. The first meeting will take place on Jan. 7, 2020 from 4-5 p.m.
Bah Humbug: Wilton A.C. Moore Closing
WILTON — A.C. Moore recently announced that it would close all stores nationwide, including their Wilton Square location. In a statement, CEO Anthony Piperno stated, “For over 30 years, our stores have been servicing the creative community with a vast selection of art and craft materials, with one common focus, the customer. Unfortunately, given the headwinds facing many retailers in today’s environment, it made it very difficult for us to operate and compete on a national level.”
The store stopped accepting online orders as of Nov. 25. The company statement also said that store closing specifics could be found on their website. However, no further information on closing dates could be found by press time, and it is unclear when the Wilton store will close. Both the Wilton Square location and corporate office were not available for any comment.
On Wednesday, the store was bustling with shoppers taking advantage of the closing sales. Many customers were unconcerned or unaware of the upcoming closing. “I prefer Michaels, if I do come here it’s mostly for convenience,” said Aimee Miller-Reinhardt while leaving the store. Another shopper, Eileen Biers, agreed: “It [the closing] doesn’t bother me.”
Other shoppers said that they were disappointed to see the store go. “I get a lot of supplies for school projects here, so I’m sad about it. I didn’t even realize they were closing,” said Killeen Schmitz, an assistant supervisor at a before and after school program.
A.C. Moore’s statement also revealed that 40 store locations would be taken over by The Michaels CompaniesInc., owner of Michaels craft stores. It is still unclear whether the Wilton location is one of these 40 stores. The A.C. Moore website should provide this information in the following weeks.
A.C. Moore originally announced its Wilton Square location in April 2000 and opened later that year. It was one of the final big-box tenants to move into the then newly built Wilton Square site.
July 2019 Saratoga County Real Estate Market Report
The Summer of Ice Cream
When school ended in June I declared that this would be The Summer of Ice Cream. I love the memories from growing up of going out for ice cream on summer days, but it’s not something my husband and I have done too much with our boys—for many years, it was just too complicated, too messy, and too much of a headache—more of a chore than a treat.
But this year, everyone can feed themselves and not make a mess! The big boys can even help carry the ice cream from the order window to their little brothers, so the whole process goes quicker and more smoothly, and my husband and I can enjoy our ice cream before it melts, since no one needs our help (especially since the baby’s still little enough that he doesn’t expect to have any). We’ve made a point to visit several of the local ice cream places over the past month and a half, and I thought you all (especially our summer visitors) might like a quick rundown, presented here in alphabetical order:
Dairy Haus
We avoided Dairy Haus for years because of how busy it always is and how big our van is for its small parking lot, but we’ve figured out how to make it work by going during off times. Not only is the ice cream delicious, made fresh on the premises, but one of my boys doesn’t care for ice cream, and was thrilled to see they have “Edible Cookie Dough” on the menu. Several of my boys—even ones who like ice cream—have gotten the cookie dough and love it.
Website: dairyhaus.com
Hard Ice Cream: Yes
Soft Ice Cream: Yes
My Favorite: Peanut Butter and Jelly
Farmer’s Daughters’ Drive-In
We’ve actually found Farmer’s Daughters more manageable than other places in the past, and so we hadn’t gone this summer until last week, having favored the newer options in our quest to try as many places as possible. I’m so glad we finally went! They have both hard and soft ice cream, which made all the ice cream eaters happy, and my non-ice-cream boy was happy with a soda. We also enjoy riding out to it—I love that we live so close to more rural areas.
Website: farmersdaughtersdrivein.com
Hard Ice Cream: Yes
Soft Ice Cream: Yes
My Favorite: Peanut Butter and Jelly
Humpty Dumpty
Like Dairy Haus, we’ve always avoided Humpty Dumpty because of its constant crowd and extra small parking lot, and also because they only serve soft ice cream (I prefer hard). But I brought the boys there recently at around 11 on a Wednesday morning and there were no lines and lots of parking (take note!), and the boys loved the soft serve—they’ve been begging me to take them back, as they all want more of the mango ice cream. (My non-ice-cream boy wasn’t with us that time.)
Website: humptydumptyicecream.weebly.com
Hard Ice Cream: No
Soft Ice Cream: Yes
My Favorite: Still deciding
King Brothers Dairy
Reading about King Brothers Dairy’s new on-site store with its daily homemade ice cream was actually my incentive to making this The Summer of Ice Cream. I’d done a spotlight of the farm and the family for the 2013 Holiday Edition of Simply Saratoga and remembered being impressed with its business and products, so I couldn’t wait to try its ice cream. We have not been disappointed! My non-ice-cream boy has beverages and baked goods to consider instead, and there’s meat and other local items to buy as well.
Website: kingbrothers.deliverybizpro.com/our-farm-store
Hard Ice Cream: Yes
Soft Ice Cream: No
My Favorite: Nutter Butter Blast
Stewart’s
Stewart’s is my usual go-to spot for ice cream year-round—sometimes a girl and her boys just need some ice cream or a milkshake, no matter what season! It never disappoints, and its multiple locations makes it easy to go to. My non-ice-cream boy is happy to get a drink or a bag of chips instead.
Website: stewartsshops.com/ice-cream/flavors
Hard Ice Cream: Yes
Soft Ice Cream: No
My Favorite: Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup
This is certainly not a comprehensive review of each of these places, nor even of all the ice cream places Saratoga Springs and surrounding areas has to offer, but if you’re in the mood for ice cream, you can’t go wrong with these.
Kate and her husband have seven sons ages 14, 13, 11, 9, 7, 5, and 10 months. Follow her at facebook.com/kmtowne23, or email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
