Save The Victoria Pool Society

a glorious day for ice skating at the victoria pool, wear your snuggies.

2012-01-14T13:06:00.000-08:00

2012-01-13T14:25:00.000-08:00

First snowy day at victoria pool in weeks. A pristine beauty all its own.

very deep water main break to golfhouse. victoria pool not affected.

2012-01-13T14:19:00.000-08:00

saratoga getting ready to roll the dice again.

2012-01-13T07:04:00.000-08:00

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Area officials caught a glimpse of Las Vegas-style gambling Thursday, when the owners of Saratoga Casino and Raceway announced plans for a $40 million expansion that would bring dice rolling and poker back to this old gaming city.

Saratoga Harness Racing Inc. wants to add 15,000-square-feet to the casino/harness track for table games like blackjack, roulette and craps. The $40 million project also calls for a 130-room hotel, an event center, additional dining options and, possibly, a parking garage.

The "racino" is partly owned by lobbyist James Featherstonhaugh, who, as president of the New York Gaming Association, is fighting to widen gaming options in nine existing state-run racinos. He said the expansion of Saratoga Casino and Raceway depends on state leaders backing an effort to amend New York's constitution to allow for table games. Gov. Andrew Cuomo supports the constitutional amendment, which requires approval from two state legislatures and the voting public.

A full-blown casino with card dealers and pit bosses would attract visitors from outside the Capital Region, and cement the city's status as a destination resort, Featherstonhaugh said.

"I see Saratoga as sort of the Monte Carlo of New York casinos," the Albany attorney said. "It has a wonderfully colored history with gaming and although it's a small city, it's known all over the world."

Thursday's announcement came with an architectural rendering and a shovel-ready date of 2014. Cuomo is reviewing options for expanding gambling in the state. He recently backed a plan to build a $4 billion convention center with money from the Malaysian gaming giant Genting in New York City.

The relatively smaller Saratoga casino expansion would generate 400 permanent new jobs, along with hundreds of additional construction jobs, racino officials said Thursday. Construction would take six to nine months.

Reaction to the proposal was mixed. Everything depends on what changes the governor backs, Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce President Todd Shimkus said. While the New York Gaming Association has recommended table games at the state's existing racinos, Cuomo and legislative leaders have not come out with a plan. One concern among local officials is gaming could be permitted to expand to new locations.

"We're holding off until we hear more details," Shimkus said. "Local and county officials should be approached proactively by the governor to make sure whatever is proposed has no harm. There's way too many unknowns."

Jeff Clark, president of the city's Downtown Business Association, said that Saratoga Casino and Raceway officials have provided generous donations toward the DBA's Victorian Streetwalk, an annual celebration held on Broadway, and other not-for-profit organizations.

"But to a degree, it draws business from downtown," Clark said.

A full-fledged casino in Saratoga Springs would not necessarily harm thoroughbred horse racing at Saratoga Race Course, said trainer Rick Violette, the president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association. It could very well help, he said. "The devil is in the details," Violette said.

Saratoga Casino and Raceway became the state's first non-Native American gaming facility on Jan. 28, 2004. It offers wagering on video lottery terminals and harness racing. The Crescent Avenue facility nearly doubled in size to 100,000-square-feet in 2007, when owners built a two-story nightclub and 325-seat food buffet. It now contains 1,790 video lottery terminals. In 2010, the facility expanded its daily hours of operations to 19 from 16.

The site is the second-highest earning racino in the state. At least two million visitors walked its floors and made bets in 2011.

More than $1.5 billion was bet there from April to December last year, according to the state Lottery Division. The racino's net take in fiscal year 2010-2011 was $140.5 million, $69.9 million of which was dedicated to education in the state, according to the Lottery. That's up from the prior fiscal year, which ended at $136.7 million and $67.7 million.

The expansion plans call for a new three-story hotel, to be designed after Broadway's old landmark hotels. Racino officials said Thursday that New York casinos needed to offer a full range of gaming options to compete with neighboring states that allow full-scale casinos. Rita Cox, a senior vice president at Saratoga Casino and Raceway, said she thinks that momentum is behind a change.

But one seasoned Saratoga County political observer who asked not to be identified said state gambling laws would probably never change, at least for years.

"I'd rather comment on the likelihood of American Samoa beating Brazil in the World Cup," the official said.

Reach Dennis Yusko at 454-5353 or dyusko@timesunion.com.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Racino-betting-big-on-Saratoga-casino-2490225.php#ixzz1jLo6yXfA

pictured here Canfield Casino in Congress Park.

Happy New Year! Sorry, too warm for ice skating so far at Victoria Pool this year. Last year was a different story.

2011-12-31T06:26:00.000-08:00

2010,Victoria Pool lawn.

Our majestic Victoria Pool on Christmas Eve and the fifth night of Chanukah 2011.

2011-12-24T13:56:00.000-08:00

Victoria Pool to race at Aqueduct on thursday, 12/15,race 1.

2011-12-11T13:54:00.000-08:00

Horse name Victoria Pool
Notes
Activity type Entry
Activity date 12-15-2011
Track Aqueduct
Surface Inner track
Distance 6 Furlongs
Race number 1
Purse $21,000
Claim price $15,000
Individual claim price $15,000
Race type Claiming
Post position 3
Jockey Cohen D
Race entry http://www.drf.com/race-entries/AQU/USA/2011-12-15/D/1

Tin and Lint and "american pie" question in nytimes.

2011-11-30T05:53:00.001-08:00

American Pie’ Still Homemade, but With a New Twist
By LIZ LEYDEN
Published: November 29, 2011
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CloseDiggRedditTumblrPermalink SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — To step into the Tin & Lint bar here is to be surrounded by stories. Carved into the wooden walls, booths and benches are 30 years of names, dates and declared loves: Mike was here; Don loves Joanna 4EVER; Amy and Jennifer, 1989.

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Associated Press
Don McLean, seen in 1972, said contrary to the legend, he did not write “American Pie” in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

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Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
A plaque at the Tin & Lint bar in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., claims Mr. McLean wrote the lyrics to “American Pie” there in 1970.
But the biggest story, nearly as much a part of this upstate city’s lore as its racetrack and mineral waters, is revealed on a small, worn plaque above the third booth from the door: “American Pie written by Don McLean, Summer 1970.”

With its low tin ceilings and stained-glass lamps, the bar seems like the type of place where Mr. McLean would have written his generational anthem of rock’s lost innocence.

Or, maybe not.

Mr. McLean put the legend to rest last weekend in an article in The Post-Star of Glens Falls, N.Y. He also debunked a parallel tale that claimed he first performed the song at Caffè Lena around the corner from the Tin & Lint.

Mr. McLean, 66, speaking from his home in Maine, laughed when asked about the story.

“ ‘American Pie’ is a little bit like the Mayflower,” he said on Monday. “Everybody’s on it.”

In the 1960s, Mr. McLean regularly performed at Caffè Lena, which nurtured the early careers of folk artists like Bob Dylan and Arlo Guthrie.

This much is true.

The rest of the story holds that one evening in 1970, after a late performance at the cafe, Mr. McLean retired to the Tin & Lint and set to work writing “American Pie.” In some versions, it was in a notebook; in others, on bar napkins. All end with Mr. McLean’s leaving the notes behind.

Jim Stanley, the Tin & Lint’s current owner, was the bar’s doorman in 1970. Mr. Stanley, 63, said he believed that another employee, a Skidmore College student known as Sloth, grabbed the notes and followed Mr. McLean to the street to return them.

“I agree — he didn’t write it all here,” Mr. Stanley said. “But I do believe he started it here and maybe finished it someplace else.”

Mr. McLean has heard the Saratoga story for years, and while he has tried to correct it — he said he wrote the song in Cold Spring, N.Y., and in Philadelphia — people hang on to their version.

On Monday night, patrons at the Tin & Lint insisted that the beginnings lay at the booth across the room. Mr. McLean said the stories did not bother him.

“People have claimed that song in many places, including New Rochelle, my hometown, but I’m really sure I remember where I wrote it,” he said. “I have vivid memories because I was working so hard on it.”

Sarah Craig, executive director of Caffè Lena since 1995, said, “The ‘American Pie’ story was taken as fact” at the cafe for many years.

“It was one of three things we told people to give them a sense of the place,” she said. “It’s the longest-running folk club in the country. True. It was Bob Dylan’s first gig outside of Greenwich Village. True. ‘American Pie’ debuted on this stage.”

She laughed and said, “O.K., not true.”

Five years ago, the cafe took that story off its Web site after learning that Mr. McLean had disputed the song’s Saratoga Springs debut. He said this week that the song made its debut at Temple University, while he was opening for Laura Nyro.

But the facts should not diminish the importance of Caffè Lena, Mr. McLean said, which, he added, was “like Greenwich Village up the Hudson.”

“Maybe that story isn’t the truth,” he said, “but I would’ve been a lot worse off without that place to go to. It was a stopping place for me at that time in my life.”

At the Tin & Lint, the plaque will remain. The song, No. 83 on the jukebox, will continue to play. And the Saratoga Springs story of “American Pie” might stick around, too.

The city historian, Mary Ann Fitzgerald, likened it to Saratoga Springs’s best-known bit of unproven yet long-believed lore: that potato chips were invented in the city.

“I think people will hold onto what they believe, documentation or not,” Ms. Fitzgerald said. “Although I don’t know if anyone can truly argue with Don McLean himself.”

A version of this article appeared in print on November 30, 2011, on page A33 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘American Pie’: Still Homemade, but With a New Twist.

save the victoria pool society wishes one and all a happy and very healthy Thanksgiving.

2011-11-24T06:47:00.000-08:00

Saratoga's beloved "shirley's" to get a French twist.

2011-11-19T05:54:00.000-08:00

Shirley’s Restaurant gets sold out of the family: Saratoga staple on West Avenue to feature new entrees
Published: Saturday, November 19, 2011

0diggsdigg ShareThis3By SUZANNA LOURIE
slourie@saratogian.com

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Shirley’s Restaurant on West Avenue was recently sold. (ERICA MILLER, emiller@saratogian.com)

SARATOGA SPRINGS — After renting the 74 West Ave. building for their seasonal hot dog stand, Doggie in the Window, Pete and Shirley Bishop purchased the property on the corner of Washington Street in 1961 where they then opened Shirley’s Restaurant.

Shirley’s son, Leland Bishop, took ownership in 1968, keeping the restaurant and its famous homemade pies in the family for 50 years until recently when Bishop sold the restaurant — effective Nov. 15 — for approximately $295,000 to the space’s new owner, Jean Pierre Lareau.

“My father was going to retire and my mother’s health isn’t in the greatest shape so when he got the offer, he decided to take it and retire now rather than wait around for a better offer,” said Jess Bishop, Leland’s son and current restaurant manager.

Jess Bishop and one of his three sisters continue to work at Shirley’s, keeping a strong presence of third-generation Bishops at the restaurant, which locals have come to know and love for its family-owned traditions, menus and friendly service.

Restaurant regulars won’t have to fear any of those traditions disappearing under Lareau’s ownership. The Montreal native is committed to maintaining the business the way it was, but with a few new twists.

“I started looking for a business to buy and I went to 30 or 40 businesses, but I fell in love with little Shirely’s because it was family-oriented and has a great reputation,” Lareau said Friday. “I made my due diligence — I talked to a lot of people and it has a great reputation, it’s a part of the history of Saratoga and I bought it from a great family.”

Lareau, a former president of Montreal’s now-closed harness track, Blue Bonnets Raceway, had been visiting Saratoga Springs and Saratoga Race Course each summer for more than 30 years. About a year ago, he decided to plant his roots in the community he had grown to love throughout the years.

The horse-racing enthusiast also has extensive experience as a restaurateur, owning a five-star restaurant in Montreal and having managed multiple concessions at Blue Bonnets Raceway.

“We’re keeping the same family-oriented business at Shirley’s — the same chef, the same type of food and the same dirt on the floors. We’ll bring a little newness, but we are keeping what makes Shirley’s great,” Lareau said. “I see a lot of potential for the future in bringing some special foods from Montreal, like poutine.” Poutine is a French-Canadian dish of french fries, gravy and cheese curds.

Although Leland Bishop could not be reached for comment, he had just been by Shirley’s for lunch and is still involved in the restaurant his parents built and with his loyal regulars and longtime employees. Jess Bishop also confirmed Lareau’s commitment to tradition and said no changes have been made thus far. Continued...

Victoria Pool deck and Catherine's getting ready to hibernate.

2011-11-16T15:30:00.000-08:00

the continued neglect of our parks and heritage is a real tragedy.

2011-11-13T06:04:00.000-08:00

Ignore our parks, neglect our heritage
paul braY
Published 08:55 p.m., Saturday, November 12, 2011
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A great thing about America is its parks, their diversity and their endurance. Communities proudly have parks, as do states and the nation. Those parks preserve natural and cultural assets for future generations, offer places for recreation and provide civic identity.

New York's state parks and historic preservation system began with acquisition of Gen. George Washington's Revolutionary War headquarters in 1850 and the preservation of natural and historic treasures like Niagara Falls.

Later came the Robert Moses era, which was intended to assure outdoor recreational opportunities within reasonable distance for all New Yorkers. Urban and regional state heritage areas broaden that mission explicitly to include sustainable economic development.

New York courts have protected parks with the public trust doctrine that requires legislative approval before discontinuing or compromising a municipal or state park.

Sadly, for the first time the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation is walking away from responsibility for heritage areas.

These parks, created in our time, were put in jeopardy by former parks Commissioner Carol Ash during the Paterson administration. In 2008, her deputy wrote to heritage area directors declaring that the "agency's approved Financial Management Plan for this year includes the end of agency staff support and technical assistance for the Heritage Area program."

Current Commissioner Rose Harvey has shown no will to change course.

With strong support from state legislators, local officials and many other public and private leaders, most state heritage areas have managed to survive in hard times made harder by the parks agency. Some have done better than survive like the Susquehanna Heritage Area. It recently expanded from two cities and village to include more than 35 towns and villages in Broome and Tioga counties.

In the early 1980s when the state heritage area law was enacted and in the early 1990s there were recessions and cuts in state and federal funds. But state participation in the heritage area partnership continued. In the face of 1981 cuts, then-Commissioner Orin Lehman stated that the heritage area concept "will remain valid and achievable". He did not walk away, as Carol Ash did.

At a 1991 National Park Service conference on "Partnerships in Parks & Preservation" in Albany, heritage areas were referred to as "partnership parks." New York has 18 state heritage areas and 49 national heritage areas.

At that conference, then-Gov. Mario Cuomo said "government -- be it state, federal or local -- cannot by itself assure that our most precious historic and natural resources will survive."

He added, "we now recognize that an entire area or region, like our Hudson River Valley, the Adirondacks or what we now know as the Hudson-Mohawk Urban Cultural Park (known as the Riverspark heritage area) can constitute in its totality a resource of pre-eminent importance."

By law, the state parks agency was to be the leader of a heritage area system with local governments and private organizations playing significant roles in organizing and managing their heritage areas. State agencies were to assist heritage areas as they pursued their integrated goals of conservation, recreation, education and sustainable development pursuant to management plans approved by the state parks commissioner. Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga Springs and the Riverspark (including Troy, Cohoes and five neighboring communities) are state heritage areas.

Throughout New York history, the ball has not been dropped as it was by the state parks agency in withholding support and jeopardizing the continuance of something as important as the state heritage program. It should not get away with this dereliction of duty and tradition.

Paul M. Bray was the founding president of the Albany Roundtable. His email is secsunday@aol.com.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/opinion/article/Ignore-our-parks-neglect-our-heritage-2266234.php#ixzz1datAEtSc

victoria pool in fall.

2011-11-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

sorry we've taken a little post pool closing break but we're baaacck! lots of saratoga news: Brindisi is closed, adelphi hotel for sale for $4.5 mill

2011-11-08T06:08:00.000-08:00

Saratoga Springs' Red Villa sold for $1.98 million
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
By Lee Coleman (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

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SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Red Villa, the 795 N. Broadway mansion once owned by the flamboyant socialite Molly Wilmot, has been sold for $1,982,500, a local Realtor said Monday.

The nine-bedroom house, sometimes called Redstone, is a combination of Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles. It was built in 1883, according to city records.

The 7,000-square-foot building has eight bedrooms and eight baths.

“You couldn’t build it for three times that amount today,” said Realtor Tom Roohan, owner of Roohan Realty in Saratoga Springs. “It’s just a classic house.”

The house was sold by Mildred Ruth Moorman to Redstone Saratoga LLC this summer.

Molly Wilmot, who died in 2002, owned the house during the 1990s. She sold it to Stonebridge Farm LLC in 2000 for $900,000, according to information on file in the city assessor’s office.

Mildred Ruth Moorman acquired it from Stonebridge in 2006. No price is listed for that transaction.

“It was completely renovated and updated,” Roohan said.

Wilmot, who also owned a large stately home at 659 N. Broadway in the 1980s, did some extensive renovations of her own to the Red Villa before she moved in.

Wilmot spent her summers in Saratoga Springs for decades. She also owned an oceanfront house in Palm Beach, Fla., and a large apartment in Manhattan. She was a friend of socialite Marylou Whitney and other wealthy enthusiasts of thoroughbred horse racing and horse ownership.

She gained even more celebrity the day after Thanksgiving in 1984, when a rusty Venezuelan freighter was washed up onto her sea wall in Palm Beach during a storm.

The nearly 200-foot-long ship, the Mercedes, got stuck there. The photo and story about the grounded freighter and the wealthy socialite who welcomed the crew into her lavish home and gave them coffee and sandwiches made news around the world. Wilmot’s Palm Beach home was next door to the estate of Rose Kennedy, mother of former President John F. Kennedy.

Roohan said the person or persons who bought the Red Villa saw an opportunity. Interest rates are low, he said, and “It’s a good time to invest [in a house].”

James K. Kettlewell, a retired Skidmore College professor and author of “Saratoga Springs, An Architectural History,” said Redstone is a “remarkable variant of Queen Anne style.” He said the red brick material and terra-cotta porch columns contain elements of both Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival.

Kettlewell praises the “terra-cotta treatment of the porch and the wonderful way the front chimney cuts straight through the central gable, where it is flanked by windows.”

The house had been on the market for a little less than a year.

Roohan said he did not know the party or parties associated with Redstone Saratoga LLC.

Two other large mansions on North Broadway have been sold over the past 15 months, Roohan said. These include 655 N. Broadway, purchased in late 2010 for $2.1 million, and 743 N. Broadway, purchased in the summer

The beauty of Yaddo and the Vale of Springs is Evermore in the Fall.

2011-10-16T13:25:00.000-07:00

Victoria Pool still looking beautiful in mid-october 2011.

2011-10-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

Saratoga Springs City Hall in need of more repairs to keep its lustre. Built in 1871 it is still the heart of Saratoga.

2011-10-02T15:42:00.000-07:00

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Springs City Hall, now 110 years old and still the home of city government, needs a lot of tender care and regular maintenance.

The roof of the historic building has a leak or two, the police headquarters in the basement needs renovations, and City Court officials would like a little more room on the second floor.

These problems are predictable in a building that opened in 1871 and was expanded with an annex on its east end in 1889, said Assistant City Engineer Deborah LaBreche.

“There are leaks in the music hall,” LaBreche said. “Behind the stage there is a bucket that has to be emptied.”

At a glance
• Saratoga Springs City Hall was opened in 1871 and an annex was added to its east end in 1889.

• The tower and 5,276-pound bell were removed for safety reasons in 1934.

The music hall is on City Hall’s third floor. The city rents out the space that can accommodate at least 300 people for dance festivals, weddings and stage productions. The City Council also uses it for important public meetings.

The roof leak above the music hall will be a thing of the past once the city awards a contract for the replacement of part of the roof in the coming month or so. Part of the roof is copper and a portion is a rubber material that hasn’t been replaced in nearly 25 years.

“These problems aren’t a surprise,” LaBreche said. She said the old rubber roof will be replaced before the end of the year.

LaBreche has been a city employee for 10 years. She coordinates maintenance and renovations projects at City Hall and the city-owned Canfield Casino in Congress Park for the Department of Public Works.

She loves the history behind the old buildings.

“It’s such a privilege working with this building and the Casino,” she said.

Projects done

One of her favorite projects was the replacement in 2008 of old, crumbling steps in front of City Hall at Broadway and Lake Avenue, and the return of two original, refurbished cast-iron lions to the places they stood in 1910. In 2009 the entrance was upgraded with a beautiful mahogany doorway donated by Zanetti Millworks in Middle Grove.

The door project was a major priority of Public Works Commissioner Anthony “Skip” Scirocco when he took office.

“The building is old,” Scirocco said. Things are constantly in need of repair and replacement. His department does much of the work. “The exterior is in good shape,” Scirocco said. Glass in the windows has been replaced with more energy-efficient triple-pane glass.

old tower

When the building was opened it had a lofty bell tower with a 6-foot diameter clock perched atop.

“The plainness in composition was made up for by a rich array of Italian Style Victorian ornament in brick and stone and by an elaborate cornice,” writes Skidmore College professor emeritus James K. Kettlewell in his book, “Saratoga Springs: An Architectural History” (1991, Lyrical Ballad Book Store).

The tower and 5,276-pound bell inside it were removed in 1934 for safety reasons. When the huge bell cast by Menelly Bell Co. of Troy was rung, it would shake the whole building.

Scirocco would like to see the tower replaced some day with a lighter tower of the same design and an electronic bell and clock.

The tower project, at present at least, is still a dream. It is not included in the city’s 2012 to 2016 capital projects budget.

Five years ago, there was a $17 million proposal to build a public safety and court building behind City Hall. The building proposal, which was never approved by the City Council, would have been located where the parking lot off High Rock Avenue now lies.

City officials say they are now satisfied with the space they have in the original building. Public Safety Commissioner Richard Wirth said in these difficult economic times it’s unrealistic to consider such an expensive new facility.

Instead, Wirth has included $46,490 in the recently approved 2012 capital budget that would start renovations of the police headquarters in the basement.

Another $90,000 would be included in the 2013 capital spending plan for improvements to the entrance to the headquarters on Lake Avenue as well improvements to offices and other spaces. Scirocco said the city DPW could perform many of these improvements with its own staff.

upkeep worth it

Mayor Scott Johnson, like assistant city engineer LaBreche, loves the old building. He said the city’s capital budget includes $200,000 every year for care and maintenance of city-owned buildings, including City Hall.

“It’s a very pivotal part of our architectural landscape on Broadway,” Johnson said. “We need to do everything we can to preserve its integrity for future generations. Older buildings need care.”

The courtroom on the building’s second floor is a beautiful example of restored and maintained woodwork. It’s also historic in its own right: On Aug. 21, 1878, some 75 attorneys from 20 states and the District of Columbia founded the American Bar Association right where City Court is held each day.

City Judge Jeffrey Wait said he was against the proposal to build a public safety and court building when it was discussed five or six years ago. But Wait said the court could use more space on the second floor; there is not enough room for the court clerks, storage, or meeting rooms for attorneys and clients.

The state Office of Court Administration rents the courtroom space as well as the state Supreme Court Law Library for the 4th Judicial District on City Hall’s third floor. The library, lined with legal texts of all kinds, is staffed by the Office of Court Administration personnel and used by attorneys. It is open to the public.

Wait said if the Public Safety department, across the hall from the courtroom, could be moved to another space or another building, then the court could expand into this space and even have a second, smaller courtroom.

But until that happens, City Court makes do with its current space. Wait advocated for and finally received a holding cell near the courtroom for prisoners awaiting a hearing or arraignment. The space is located adjacent to Wait’s office behind the courtroom.

When the building opened in 1871 it was called the Saratoga Springs Town Hall and that name remains on the front of the building. Saratoga Springs didn’t become a city until 1915. Four years after the Town Hall opened, the music hall was the scene of the founding of the American Bankers Association on July 20, 1875.

LaBreche said old buildings, such as City Hall and the Canfield Casino, “have a soul.”

But sometimes City Hall can have a cold heart. She said one of the issues is that the steam boiler heating system has only three zones. The steam heat is piped to radiators throughout the building.

“The police are sitting on top of the boiler; it’s right under the police department,” she said, describing winter conditions in City Hall. “Public Safety can be very, very hot, when in the mayor’s office [on the first floor] you can see your breath.” The city has a long-term contract with Johnson Controls of Syracuse for energy management work. She and Scirocco said Johnson Controls has helped the city deal with some of the heating issues.

Back in 2007, then-Finance Commissioner Matthew McCabe proposed selling City Hall to the private sector and using the money to build a new public safety and court facility. This never became a reality.

LaBreche said she’s happy the building was never sold. “I think City Hall should be the heartbeat of the town,” she said. “It has always been here. We make do with our staff and resources here.”

Victoria Pool starting to dress for Fall 2011.

2011-09-24T15:21:00.000-07:00

we know our newest board member, john, will be all well soon.

2011-09-17T06:33:00.000-07:00

kudos to Danny U. who once again keeps all the flowers magnificent at the Victoria Pool and all over Saratoga Spa State Park.

2011-09-10T05:47:00.000-07:00

save the victoria pool society board member, john tighe, as always was the last one in the victoria pool in 2011.

2011-09-06T07:11:00.000-07:00

Labor Day annual farewell Victoria Pool lunch a great success even in the clouds. on to 2012!

2011-09-06T07:04:00.000-07:00

louise, andrew, carole, doug, holly, lily, rob, uri, alice, pete, john, stanton.

labor day 2011 almost here and we'll celebrate another spectacular Victoria Pool season, rain or shine.

2011-09-03T06:15:00.000-07:00

good night irene!!

2011-08-28T18:37:00.000-07:00

Hurricane irene caused victoria pool to be closed along with all nys parks on sunday,august 28,2011. Let us hope all the parks emerge with minimal damage.

New York City Ballet attendance UP in 2011! Time to bring back week three.

2011-08-23T05:52:00.000-07:00

Ballet numbers up at SPAC
Orchestra attendance falls
Monday, August 22, 2011
By Lee Coleman (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

Text Size: A | A | A
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The just-completed classical season at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center is being called a success even though attendance was down for performances of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

On the plus side, the New York City Ballet posted nearly a 7 percent increase in attendance this summer compared to the 2010 season and an 8 percent increase in revenue.

Marcia White, SPAC’s president and executive director, said Monday that attendance at Philadelphia Orchestra performances dropped almost 12 percent from last year, which featured a substantial 21 percent increase over 2009.

“They moved their season dates up a week,” White said about the orchestra’s 2011 season. This earlier start coincided with the first full week of thoroughbred horse racing at the Saratoga Race Course, resulting in competition for the entertainment dollar.

The Philadelphia Orchestra started its three-week SPAC tenure during the last week of July rather than the usual first week of August. Several very rainy nights during the orchestra’s residency also brought the orchestra’s numbers down, especially among those patrons who enjoy sitting on the lawn outside the SPAC amphitheater.

Last year, perfect summer weather blessed the orchestra’s entire stay at SPAC, driving up attendance, White said. The Philadelphia Orchestra still posted a 5 percent increase in attendance this summer over the summer of 2009.

“The second two weeks were strong,” she said.

“Audiences embraced the eight renowned guest conductors who each brought their own unique style and mastery to the podium,” White said in a statement. “Virtuosos including Yo-Yo Ma, Sarah Chang, Emanuel Ax, and Branford Marsalis dazzled us with their gifts.”

The New York City Ballet had a total attendance of 36,784 over two weeks this July as compared with 34,509 in 2010.

Total ballet income was $936,304 this year compared to $863,065 in 2010, an increase of 8.5 percent, according to classical season numbers released by SPAC on Monday.

“Guests embraced fresh new programs like ‘See the Music’ and pre-talks by principal dancers which fostered a greater connection between audience and artist,” White said.

The Philadelphia Orchestra total attendance was 35,765 this year as compared with 40,464 in 2010.

Income from the orchestra was $902,315 this summer as compared to $986,184 in 2010, a decrease of 8.5 percent.

The biggest classical season audience of this 2011 — more than 5,000 people — attended the season finale of the Philadelphia Orchestra on Aug. 13.

White said economic problems — first the debt ceiling debate and then steep stock market drops — dominated the news this summer.

In reaction to this, she said families are embracing the value of seeing world-class entertainment at very reasonable prices close to home.

She said the “GE Kids in Free” program grew by 8 percent and the student discount program has grown by 11 percent between 2010 and 2011.

Todd Shimkus, president of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, said having such excellent classical entertainment in Saratoga “means a ton” for the community.

“We are attracting world-class talent to SPAC,” he said. “These are things you can’t see anywhere else in upstate New York.

“The arts play an integral part of what makes Saratoga Springs so special,” Shimkus said.

He said it’s very important for the greater Saratoga community to do whatever it can to sustain and encourage the orchestra and ballet.

White said she expects both the Philadelphia Orchestra and the New York City Ballet to return to SPAC in 2012. She said discussions are being conducted with both parties about next season but nothing has yet been finalized

BIGGER IS BETTER! saratoga springs 9/11 sculpture very suitable for :art in public places, nytimes, 8/19/11.

2011-08-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Bigger the Better for art in public spaces! SO what is Saratoga's problem with a wonderful 9/11 sculpture ready to go and be placed at the visitor's center?---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------9-11 sculpture will not be in place by 9-11; backers cry 'politics'
SARATOGA SPRINGS - The 9-11 monument won't have a permanent home by 9-11.

Saratoga Arts has been working since the Spring of 2010 to make sure the sculpture, "Tempered by Memory," would be complete, and in place by September 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center.

The sculpture is made from steel beams pulled from the downed towers. It stands 25-feet tall, and now just 25 days before September 11, the city can't decide where to put it.

"It's an election year and things will get stalled. That's what we're facing," says Joel Reed, executive director of Saratoga Arts, the group behind the sculpture.

It was supposed to go outside the newly renovated City Center, but the piece ended up bigger than first planned and the people who run the center decided it was too big. The City Council then suggested the front lawn of the Visitor Center, across Broadway from Congress Park. But the visitor center's advisory board is saying "not in my front yard."

So, now, as the clock ticks toward September 11th, it's a sculpture without a home. Saratoga Arts is crying foul saying the City Council reneged on its plan because it's an election year and leaders are afraid to take a stand.

"I wonder if this were last year, or next year, if this would've gone a little differently," says Reed.

The Republican mayor and the Democratic accounts commissioner dismiss the criticism as "ridiculous."

"It's unfortunate that this is being alleged on this issue. There's no politics involved here," says Mayor Scott Johnson.

"I would just tell Joel I don't own the property in Saratoga Springs. The taxpayers and residents do and they deserve input of where it should go," says John Franck, accounts commissioner.

Saratoga Arts will scramble to unveil the sculpture as part of a temporary display on September 11. A situation Reed says is less than ideal, "It's not meant to be just parked on a corner some place. Having it as a traveling road show, I don't think it does service to the art or the artist."

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It is the outdoor art season in New York and therefore a good time to ask what makes for a successful piece of urban public art. When art ventures away from the nurturing shelter of the white-walled gallery, it must contend with all kinds of distractions: huge buildings; noisy vehicular and pedestrian traffic; spectacular, sexy commercial signs with dizzying video imagery; unpredictable weather; the verdant beauty of a park; and the sheer interestingness and variety of so much else that in the artificial and natural fabric of the city.

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One way for public art to distinguish itself is to be really big. This year’s prize for size should go to Jaume Plensa’s “Echo,” a gigantic, ghostly, white head of a girl in Madison Square Park. Towering 44 feet, it is made of molded fiberglass resin parts fitted together so the seams show. It looks as if it had been carved from a huge, laminated block of marble, and the girl’s features are rendered smoothly as if they had been eroded by the elements over the years. The head is also oddly distorted — flattened in such a way that it resembles a digitally manipulated three-dimensional photograph or a hologram. Viewed from a distance at night, when it is bathed in the bright light of lamps around its base, it seems to glow, a silently plaintive specter conjured, maybe, by the guilty conscience of a rapacious modernity.

Less spectacular but effectively haunting in its own way — partly because of its grand scale — is one of a number of works commissioned by the High Line: a greatly enlarged black-and-white photograph by Robert Adams mounted on a billboard next to that elevated park. Made in 1978 in rural Nebraska, the photograph shows a narrow, much weathered country road running between fields of tall grass and extending from the foreground to the top of a low, faraway hill. Dried, fallen leaves from small trees have gathered at the side of the road. A melancholy mood is enhanced by blocks of funereal black filling in the oblong expanse of the billboard on either side of the picture. Like Mr. Plensa’s sculpture the photograph evokes something neglected, a soulful road not taken. But there is too an eerie feeling of hopefulness, of a possibility not yet foreclosed. (The billboard will regularly present landscapes by eminent photographers selected by the photographer Joel Sternfeld.)

Mr. Adams’s photograph works not only because of its drive-in-movie scale but also because it is so different from the kind of visual material that normally attracts and assaults the public eye. A few yards farther up the High Line, strollers come upon another billboard: not an artwork but a huge advertisement for Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club. With its blaring purple and gold hues and the come-hither expression of the sultry woman it pictures, it must be an embarrassing thorn in the side of the High Line’s administrators, who clearly favor low-key subtlety over high-impact flash. Another expansive piece on the High Line, for example, is a long wall of windows by Spencer Finch called “The River That Flows Both Ways.” Each of hundreds of panes is the color of a pixel from a photograph of the surface of the Hudson River. Jade, wine, teal and other muted hues produce a lovely, quiet symphony of color.

An elephantine sculpture in front of the Seagram Building on Park Avenue at 53rd Street has much going for it: impressive scale, contrast with the normal environment and popularly appealing imagery. Urs Fischer’s “Untitled (Lamp/Bear)” is a 23-foot-tall representation of a lumpy yellow stuffed bear wedged into the space between the base and the shade of an old desk light. Weighing in at almost 17 tons, it is made of painted cast bronze and has table-top size button eyes sewn on with rope. The light glows at night. (Christie’s, the auction house that recently sold the sculpture, organized its outdoor presentation.)

For contemporary art followers the obvious comparisons are Jeff Koons sculptures like the giant shiny “Balloon Dog” and the flower-covered “Puppy.” But the Fischer displays little of the fanatical attention to surface and detail seen in Mr. Koons’s work. It also relates to the tradition of the Duchampian found object and the absurdist Pop Art monuments of Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. Leaving aside its presumptive pedigree, however, it is not very different technically and aesthetically from the kitschy, Pop-realist sculptures of J. Seward Johnson, whose enormous representation of Marilyn Monroe in her upward-billowing dress has caused much debate in Chicago since its recent installation there downtown.

If Mr. Fischer’s sculpture is meant as an ideological Trojan horse, the marauders inside do not seem to be stirring. Nevertheless it is undeniably sweet, and there is something sad about it too. It shares with the works of Mr. Plensa and Mr. Adams a mood of regret for something left behind. It is also notable that Mr. Fischer’s first name is so close to the Latin word for bear; maybe the sculpture is a portrait of the inner child he neglected while pursuing his high-flying career. His Rosebud.

Sol LeWitt, one of the fathers of Conceptualism, made lots of excellent public art during his lifetime (1928-2007), most memorably in the form of colorful, graphically punchy murals gracing the walls of museums and other buildings around the world. His sculptures, on the other hand, do not fare so well outdoors. All but one of the 27 works in “Sol LeWitt: Structures, 1965-2006” in City Hall Park is white or off-white and severely geometric. Too many revolve around variations on open-framed cubes of painted metal. Pyramids made of concrete blocks that would be imposing in a gallery are dwarfed by buildings surrounding the park and look too much like temporary piles of construction material. It is hard to imagine many casual park visitors being captivated by the conceptual systems that gave rise to such rarefied abstractions. (The exhibition was organized by Nicholas Baume, director and chief curator of the Public Art Fund.)

The one sculpture that works here is “Splotch 15,” which is perfectly located just inside the park’s front gate. Painted in Playskool colors, it has slender, smooth peaks rising to different heights from an amoeboid footprint. It might be a three-dimensional graph of some worldly phenomenon, but whatever the mathematics underlying its forms, it has an infectious buoyancy and a hint of sci-fi futurism. A whole outdoor show of Splotches would be something to see.

Returning to the High Line you will find other works of doubtful outdoor effectiveness. For “Digital Empathy,” Julianne Swartz has hidden audio equipment in elevators, bathrooms and drinking fountains that plays digital voices intoning ostensibly informative, affirming and reassuring messages. But if you listen closely, the voices sound like those of aggressive, mind-controlling radio announcers in a dystopian movie based on a story Philip K. Dick. With “Space Available” Kim Beck has positioned what look like old-fashioned billboard scaffolds on the roofs of nearby buildings, which, with some difficulty, can be picked out against the skyline. I could spot only one, high atop the tallest building just south of the High Line’s southern entrance. It looks like a three-dimensional construction, but in reality it is a silhouette cut from flat panels. Such low-visibility, high-concept artworks as these are unlikely to make big impressions on the average High Line visitor.

In short supply this year is a type of public art that engages with the world in some practically beneficial way. An exception is a sculpture in the form of an ultramodern avian habitat by Sarah Sze. Divided in half by the High Line boardwalk, the work consists of faux-wood-covered birdhouses with parallelogram sides built into grids of shiny metal rods that converge to single points like perspective sightlines. There are geometrically shaped stainless-steel cups for seeds and water too. Much to my disappointment there was not a bird in sight. It is like a utopian housing project now awaiting demolition because its accommodations are too sterile for the unenlightened masses. Perhaps the structures are too close to the boardwalk and the passing throng. Or maybe these sharp-edged, coldly artificial houses just are not what birds like. Nevertheless, it is a nice idea. How about a luxury high-rise for squirrels?

ah, beautiful oklahoma.

2011-08-11T05:58:00.000-07:00

As the Sun Rises, Two Legends Murmur

Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Horses who race at Saratoga Race Course work out on the shady Oklahoma training track.

By JOE DRAPE
Published: August 10, 2011
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CloseLinkedinDiggMySpacePermalink SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — The horses look like shadows at dawn as they cross Union Avenue, stopping traffic to shuttle between the Saratoga Race Course on the west side of the street and a timeless oasis on its east side: the Oklahoma training track. Think of it as a Club Med for horsemen who prefer spending their working vacation with their own kind amid an oasis that evokes a bygone year.

Postcards From Saratoga Springs
The Value Man

A weeklong series of vignettes depicting the characters, sights and sounds of Saratoga Race Track.
It was here that Saratoga’s first meeting was held in 1863, a four-day racing festival where horseplayers bet with bookies and watched from their carriages. The Oklahoma is tree-lined and perpetually shady, as are the original board-and-batten barns — elegantly splintered — that form clusters of villages around its perimeter. It is quiet, too, save for the geese honking from its infield and the head-clearing snorts of racehorses circling the track.

Sunshine finally shines on the United Nations of horsemen represented here. Jockey Eddie Castro carries on an animated conversation in Spanish with two exercise riders as three clip-clop their horses along a wooded trail leading to the racetrack’s gap for workouts. There, Christophe Clement, a Frenchman, offers instructions to a brigade of riders in his native language. Irish brogues and Queen’s English echo in the stillness.

The Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas was on horseback Wednesday morning, sitting tall in the saddle, his black leather vest and chaps flapping as the wind blew a cool breath on an already-pleasant 68-degree morning. He was leading a set of horses out for morning gallops but was in no hurry to put them through their paces. Lukas was off to a slow start here, managing a single victory in 30 starts.

He stopped at the sight of a fellow Hall of Fame trainer, Bob Baffert, who was leaning against the rail at the clubhouse. Baffert was watching his colt Prayer for Relief gallop on the deep track.

“None of them in my barn can run anyway,” Lukas said.

Make no mistake — these two are cowboys. Lukas, 75, is from Wisconsin, where as a boy he bought horses en route to the slaughterhouse, cleaned them up, trained them and sold them for a profit. The white-haired Baffert began as a jockey, a bad one by his own admission, in his native New Mexico.

“That’s my big horse, the West Virginia Derby winner,” Baffert said, tongue firmly in cheek.

Between them, Lukas, 75, and Baffert, 58, have won 22 legs of the Triple Crown — the much-coveted classics — including seven victories in the Kentucky Derby.

“He’s got a nice neck,” Lukas offered. “I like the way he moves, Bob. He’s moving really well.”

The two watched Prayer for Relief stride out in silence. Neither of them moved.

Suddenly, a herd of horses and their riders poured onto the track in a rainbow of saddlecloths bearing the initials of their trainers. There was the NPZ logo of the Hall of Famer Nick Zito, the TAP of Todd Pletcher and the CC of Clement, all bouncing by.

Lukas and Baffert remained still.

“I’ve been stabled here for 32 summers,” Lukas said. “There’s no place like it, especially on mornings like these.”

“We’re going to bury you there in the infield when you die, Wayne,” Baffert said, smiling.

“No, put me right here on the track,” Lukas countered. “Just harrow me under.”

Then, he turned his pony back to the track and his work.

“I’d be happy,” he called back over his shoulder, “harrowed right under here.”

A version of this article appeared in print on August 11, 2011, on page B15 of the New York edition with the headline: As the Sun Rises, Two Legends Murmur.
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we spied a strange shiny object on top of a pine tree at the victoria pool. What could it be? a spy satellite?

2011-08-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

New York City Ballet numbers UP at spac for 2011, yippee!!

2011-07-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

Ballet numbers upJuly 28, 2011 at 4:36 pm by Dennis Yusko
Total attendance at the New York City Ballet shows rose 6.2 percent above last year at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, SPAC officials announced Thursday.

Some 36,800 patrons attended the two-week summer season from July 5 – 16, up from 34,509 in 2010 and 34,895 in 2009, when the season was shortened to two weeks from three, according to SPAC.

The ballet attracted 45,034 people in 2007 and 42,354 in 2008, according to SPAC.

Ticket sales for 2011 were projected to reach $936,000, an increase of eight percent, SPAC officials said. They credited the gains to “a season of stellar programming, a highly successful “Gatsby” Ballet Gala and glowing reviews.”

“We are pleased and grateful that dance audiences turned out so strongly for New York City Ballet’s SPAC Season,” said Marcia White, SPAC president and executive director. ”The Ballet presented spectacular programming including Peter Martins’ wonderful production of The Magic Flute, landmark Balanchine works and a fabulous jazz-themed Gala program.” Great weather, popular pre-shows and devoted audiences also played huge roles, she said.

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s season extends from July 27 to August 13.

save the victoria pool society umbrella fundraiser still receiving checks. The generosity of pool fans knows no bounds.

2011-07-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

The Victoria Pool open until 8 pm was glorious with the late afternoon sun. It was beyond special and we hope Governor Cuomo will do it again.

2011-07-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

Double news FLASH! Victoria Pool will be open until 8PM on Fri.,7/22 and Sat., 7/23 due to heat wave! Yeah!!

2011-07-22T15:48:00.000-07:00

Lions are roaring again. Our beloved Lions Heads were turned back on today and have water coming out of their mouths with the most beautiful sound again.

we love the new umbrellas thanks to all your wonderful contributions.

2011-07-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

our lovey Joel here from ct. for his cherished annual visit to the pool and ballet with his buddies, Holly and Lily.

2011-07-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

SPAC is out to get rid of New York City Ballet again???

2011-07-10T17:56:00.000-07:00

Once again the powers-that-be at SPAC are beating the drum to threaten the demise of the greatest ballet company in the world having its summer home in Saratoga as it has for the past glorious 45 years. Instead of charging reasonable prices they do the opposite and ensure the seats will not be full. Then they say people don't want the ballet anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth. Have a few nights at $25 a seat and see what happens. There are many creative approaches that can be enlisted to save the New York City Ballet besides free Meat and Beer that SPAC could try if they cared at all. Saratoga has plenty of rich people that could give to the ballet if it was marketed properly. The ushers act like "Nazi nurses" towards the public and turn people off from wanting to come to SPAC more than ever. SPAC was built for the New York City Ballet in 1966 which the current Board does not seem to care about the Arts at all. For those of us who worked tirelessly the first time to save the New York City Ballet we are ready to fight again for the good of the arts and soul of SPAC.
The article below appeared in today's Saratogian.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Economic uncertainty, decline of fine arts could threaten New York City Ballet's future with SPAC
Published: Sunday, July 10, 2011

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New York City Ballet dancers perform in “Thou Swell” Saturday evening at SPAC. (ERICA MILLER/emiller@saratogian.com)

Fred Wilhelm pours a glass of champagne for his wife, Winnie, on the lawn of Saratoga Performing Arts Center before the Saturday evening performances of “Thou Swell,” “Plainspoken” and “For the Love of Duke.” (ERICA MILLER/emiller@saratogian.com)

By SUZANNA K. LOURIE
slourie@saratogian.com

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Ballet-goers gather on the lawn at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on opening night of New York City Ballet’s two-week 2011 residency. With the economy hurting sponsors and attendance figures and ticket sales suffering, it remains to be seen whether SPAC will be able to continue hosting the ballet’s classical programs. (ERIC JENKS/photos@saratogian.com)

SARATOGA SPRINGS — On a warm July night in 1966, the New York City Ballet lit up the amphitheatre at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center with its version of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for the company’s first performance in Saratoga Springs.

Forty-five years later, the ballet continues its annual summer residency at SPAC despite a tough economic climate and the decline of the fine arts in today’s tech-oriented culture.

After SPAC’s 2008 season, the New York City Ballet board met with SPAC administrators and reached a joint decision to cut the ballet season from three weeks to two weeks every summer.

“The cost of production goes up every year and attendance was going down,” SPAC President Marcia White said. “Life is different now. With the emergence of technology, people are busier and have more choices at their fingertips; there’s not as much time for the arts.”

After testing out the two-week season in 2009, attendance numbers seemed to confirm that shortening the season was the right decision. The shorter season featured seven fewer shows than the previous year’s three-week season did, but the average attendance for each show rose by 24 percent and average ticket income increased by 19 percent.

But with the shorter season, fewer spectators had time to make it to the ballet, as the 2009 total attendance was down nearly 20 percent from the previous year.

The 2010 season pulled nearly flat attendance levels, down just 1 percent from the previous year, and total income fell by 8 percent.

Despite changing times and a trying economy, White made it clear that Saratoga Performing Arts Center values the New York City Ballet’s residency.

Bringing the ballet back for another year is “something we reconsider every year,” White said. “But SPAC is committed to doing everything and anything to keep the ballet.”

Despite SPAC’s dedication, bringing the ballet to Saratoga Springs is not cheap. White reported that the overall cost for SPAC to host the ballet’s two-week residency is $1.8 million — that’s down from the $2.2 million cost of a three-week season. Continued...

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save the victoria pool society board member, Holly and daughter, Liliana spend another perfect day in Paradise. Five weekends in July to enjoy.

2011-07-09T14:35:00.000-07:00

lines to enter all afternoon at the Victoria Pool, 110 in line at opening.

2011-07-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

Capacity was reached at Victoria Pool @12:40 on a perfect 2nd of July, 2011.

2011-07-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

The new Victoria Pool umbrellas are here! All thanks to the incredible generosity of so many Victoria Pool lovers. Thank you.

2011-06-27T06:20:00.000-07:00

Victoria Pool reopens today for the season! Rain, rain, go away!

2011-06-25T06:08:00.000-07:00

Victoria Pool Fundraiser 6/19/11

2011-06-20T05:49:00.000-07:00

Mayor Scott Johnson of Saratoga Springs and Andrew Jennings, co-founder, save the victoria pool society at first fundraiser by the society.

A luckily fit John Tighe first in Victoria Pool on a magnificent opening day.

2011-06-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

Victoria Pool opening day, 6/18/11, less than one hour, yeh!!!

2011-06-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

FLASH! VICTORIA POOL TO OPEN EARLIER FOR FUNDRAISER WEEKEND, JUNE 18,19,2011, WHOOPIE!!!

2011-06-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

Victoria Pool opening early
Published: Thursday, June 16, 2011

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SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Victoria Pool will open Saturday, a week earlier than previously scheduled. The pool, located in Saratoga Spa State Park, will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The Friends of the Victorial Pool Society will hold a fundraiser at the pool from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday.

After this weekend, the pool will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. beginning June 25.

Admission to the pool is $8 for adults and $5 for children.

5 days to go till Victoria Pool fundraiser, come one come all.

2011-06-15T06:44:00.000-07:00

Umbrellas for Victoria Pool
June 14, 2011 at 6:14 pm by Dennis Yusko
The Save the Victoria Pool Society is holding its first fundraising activity to assist the state with improvements at “America’s most historic and beautiful pool” in Saratoga Spa State Park.

The group is hosting a gathering of food, friends and possibly music at the Victoria Pool lobby from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday to help the state with its purchase of 20 large pool umbrellas for the stately pool, which officially opens June 25.

Umbrellas at the Great Depression-era watering hole are popular among sunbathers, who use them for shade. They are taken on a first-come, first-serve basis. But the ones that remain have fallen into disrepair, pool users say.

“The unbrellas at the pool are falling apart or non-existent,” said Louise Goldstein, a founding memory of the society. The state has ordered green umbrellas that are historically accurate for the pool that cost about $200 each, she said.

The suggested donation for Sunday’s fundraiser is $25. Checks should be made to NHT (Natural Heritage Trust) for Saratoga Spa State Park, care of Louise Goldstein, 64 North St., Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.

Posted in At the park, Events, History, Parks, Weekend events | -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Victoria Pool group in search of shade
The Save the Victoria Pool Society is hosting a fundraiser on Sunday that organizers hope will allow them to work with the state and buy a collection of umbrellas to use on the pool deck.

Louise Goldstein, the group’s co-founder, said the hope is that the fundraiser will raise enough money to purchase at least 20 umbrellas. The umbrellas, which cost around $200 a piece, will be purchased through the state using donations from Sunday’s fundraiser, she said.

Visitors to the pool can bring their own umbrellas, of course, but Goldstein said buying a set would give the pool a uniform look that is in keeping with its 76-year-old history.

“There’s a historic look to the pool and if everybody brings their own it starts to look like any other pool,” she said.

Additional proceeds could go towards the purchase of water pumps that recycle water and would allow two water-sprouting lion’s heads inside the pool to be turned back on.

Sunday’s fundraiser will run from noon to 3 p.m. at the pool lobby and include food and beverages. Free entertainment is still being sought. The suggested donation is $25.

The event marks the first time the advocacy group has held a fundraiser to support the pool since forming in 2003 when it was at risk of closing. Group members have previously focused on getting the facility open by Memorial Day — which remains a goal — and pressuring parks officials to make improvements using taxpayer money.

“We always thought it was our money anyways, because we all pay taxes, but times are tough,” Goldstein said.

Parks officials plan to open the Victoria Pool by June 25.

– Drew Kerr

Victoria Pool Fundraiser almost here, Sunday, Father's Day, June 19,2011, Noon-3PM.

2011-06-12T06:14:00.000-07:00

The key to keeping it cool: Spa State Park officials ready Victoria Pool
Published: Thursday, June 09, 2011

0diggsdigg ShareThis0By LUCIAN McCARTY
lmccarty@saratogian.com

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Spa State Park regional plumber Allan Eddy cleans the bottom of Victoria pool after it was filled recently. The pool is set to open June 25. (ERICA MILLER, emiller@saratogian.com)
SARATOGA SPRINGS — With the dog days of summer coming early this year (before summer, in fact), many people in the city are looking for ways to cool off. Soon, they can employ the same method many Saratogians have for the last century.

The Victoria Pool is full of water already and Spa State Park officials are working through the process of opening it for the season, something that is not as easy as it appears.

The pool takes a week to fill, followed by chemical tests and retests to make sure the pH of the pool is good for swimming and there is no bacteria brewing in the water. This year, park officials decided the pool needed to be painted as well.

“That was another added step,” park manager Michael Greenslade said. And of course, the weather plays a big factor in when all of that process can take place.

“It would have been great to have the pool open for the last day or two,” he said. “But three or four days ago, it was only about 50 degrees.”

He said the opening of the park has been an issue this year because of the weather, with mowing and everything else required in the spring at Spa State Park .

Wednesday night, Greenslade met with Saratoga Springs Mayor Scott Johnson and Save Victoria Pool Society Board Chair Louise Goldstein to discuss some of the collaborative potential for the three.

“This was the first time a city mayor ever met with the park manager regarding the Victoria Pool,” Johnson said. “That surprised me.”

“It was a historic meeting,” said Goldstein, mentioning the three have never sat down around a table together. “It was a great dialogue and I hope it can continue.”

Goldstein said she and her group are constantly trying to get the pool open earlier. “For decades, it opened Memorial Day and that’s what we are pushing for.” Continued...

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At this point, Green-slade said the scheduled date for opening is

June 25, but he hopes to have the facility open earlier. And while he said the meeting was a first for the three of them, he stressed, “We already have a good working relationship with the city,” and he sees Goldstein once or twice a week during the summer and periodically at other times. “She loves the park.”

“They are putting a good foot forward by pursuing what is a treasure of the park,” Johnson said.

The Save Victoria Pool Society is also holding a fundraiser June 19 at the pool to raise money for umbrellas to line it. “They are falling apart,” Goldstein said. She said the umbrellas are $200 apiece because they have to adhere to historic specifications that are consistent with the historic pool.

The event will have food and refreshments and Save Victoria Pool Society is asking for a suggested contribution of $25 for the cause. Goldstein said the group is also seeking musical entertainment for the show.

For more information, call Goldstein at 683-8476 or email vicpool@aol.com.

Those who would like to contribute can make checks payable to NHT for Saratoga State Park and mail it to 64 North St., Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.

local blog notes Victoria Pool fundraiser coming up, sunday, june 19,2011, noon to 3.

2011-06-09T15:38:00.000-07:00

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Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Suck it dad...I'm saving the Vic on fathers day

There are a few things in this world we absolutely love and that we'd give our lives for. One being eating stew dogs with an ice cold Coke in the Stewarts parking lot, cute baby photos and spending our days at The Victoria Pool at The Saratoga State Park. Unfortunately the Vic could be taken away from us due to bad state budgeting. Pffft...like we need more fire fighters and cops. Thankfully a bunch of people have banned together to save the pool. They call themselves the Save The Victoria Pool Society and those lovable snooties snoots are throwing a big ol' fundraiser on Sunday June 19th in the lobby of the Vic to help raise enough cash to keep the place nice and clean and the bar full of liquors. $25 is the suggested donation but they'll take whatever you can afford. If for some reason you can't make it but still want to help out, you can send them a check to:
Save The Victoria Pool Society
64 North St
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
Make your check payable to NHT for Saratoga Spa State Park

If you gotz questions you can call Louise at 518.683.8476
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Labels: Saratoga, Saratoga Springs, Save the Victoria Pool

Victoria Pool Fundraiser at Victoria Pool on Sunday, june 19,2011, noon to 3pm. Come spend father's day with us and contribute to your favorite pool.

2011-06-04T06:07:00.000-07:00

Anything you can give will be greatly appreciated with a $25 suggested contribution. Send checks to:
Save the Victoria Pool Society
64 north st.
saratoga Springs, ny 12866

MAKE check payable to:
NHT for Saratoga Spa State Park

any questions call Louise: 518-683-8476

The Riggi house on Saratoga's North Broadway is always a wonder to behold. You be the judge.

2011-05-29T06:11:00.000-07:00

We salute our Vets with our favorite poem from WWI.

2011-05-28T06:13:00.000-07:00

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Inspiration for the poem — In Flanders Fields
During the Second Battle of Ypres a Canadian artillery officer, Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, was killed on 2 May, 1915 by an exploding shell. He was a friend of the Canadian military doctor Major John McCrae.

John was asked to conduct the burial service owing to the chaplain being called away on duty elsewhere. It is believed that later that evening John began the draft for his famous

beautifully restored pavillion at Vale of Springs.

2011-05-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

Restored walkway and pavillion to geyser at Saratoga Spa State Park, 2011.

2011-05-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

Vale of Springs restored at Saratoga Spa State Park spearheaded by Heather Mabee and her mom, Marylou Whitney.

2011-05-25T06:27:00.001-07:00

Vale of Springs renovation complete
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
By Lee Coleman (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

Text Size: A | A | A
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The renovated, enhanced Vale of Springs area of the Saratoga Spa State Park was officially opened Tuesday in celebration of the park’s 100th anniversary.

State parks Commissioner Rose Harvey, along with members of the Saratoga-Capital Region Parks Commission, helped cut the ribbon in the park’s Geyser Spring area. Heather Mabee, commission chair, and her mother, socialite Marylou Whitney, also helped to open the area, which was first developed in the 1930s.

Mabee and Whitney were also among those donating money to the $250,000 Centennial Campaign that paid for much of the work.

“This is a perfect model of a public-private partnership,” said Harvey, who was appointed earlier this year as commissioner of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

“This community identified a need within the park and worked tirelessly with friends and supporters toward its completion,” Harvey said in a prepared statement.

Alane Ball Chinian, director of the state parks’ Saratoga-Capital Region, said the Friends of Saratoga Spa State Park donated many volunteer hours to the project, and local businesses donated money, products and labor. For example, Bonacio Construction of Saratoga Springs rebuilt the Orenda Spring pavilion, Sunnyside Gardens of Saratoga Springs donated flowers and plantings and Moy Enterprises donated a portion of the masonry work it did for the project.

The Hayes Spring pavilion was renovated by volunteers from the Friends of Saratoga Spa State Park, Chinian said. The project includes a new mineral springs trail and a loop that takes a visitor to the park’s springs, and features educational signage.

State parks staff, including engineers and workers, also participated in the rehabilitation work.

Chinian said the plazas and pavilions in the Geyser Spring area were built in the 1930s and had become deteriorated. The state has also funded the updating and renovation of pavilion and restroom complexes in the park’s picnic area.

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2011-05-25T06:17:00.000-07:00

Umbrella fundraiser for Victoria Pool, Father's Day, Sunday, June 19th, noon-3pm.

2011-05-18T06:05:00.000-07:00

Saratoga Spa State Park
Victoria Pool Umbrella Fund-Raiser

Sunday, Father’s Day, June 19, 2011, Noon-3 P.M.

Location: Victoria Pool Lobby at Saratoga Spa State Park.
For more information, call: Louise at 518-683-8476 or email: vicpool@aol.com
Suggested contribution: $25
Checks payable to: Natural Heritage Trust for Saratoga Spa State Park.

lilacs everywhere at the Victoria Pool. Pool getting fluffed up for the season.

2011-05-13T13:16:00.000-07:00

Food for thought from the Post Star Editorial when getting water at the Joe Bruno Spring at Saratoga Spa State Park

2011-05-08T06:27:00.000-07:00

Editorial: Time to end ‘monuments to me’
StoryDiscussionEditorial: Time to end ‘monuments to me’
Posted: Friday, May 6, 2011 7:52 pm | (1) Comments

Font Size:Default font sizeLarger font size.If the Charles R. Wood Foundation donates a million dollars to a hospital wing, they don't put the name of his bank on the building. They put Charles R. Wood's name on it.

So why is it when some politician directs taxpayer money to a building or an athletic field or an educational program, people feel it's appropriate to put the politician's name on it?

What's even worse is that when that politician is later disgraced through unethical or illegal actions, the name of the building in his honor remains.

Retired Sen. Joseph Bruno, a convicted felon who was forced out of office because of allegations he used his powerful Senate majority seat to direct state business to contractors in exchange for "consulting fees," has at least 16 buildings in Rensselear County named after him, one in each town and city in the county.

Among the many buildings bearing his name is Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, home of the Tri-City ValleyCats, a professional minor league baseball team. So did Mr. Bruno donate his personal fortune to help build the stadium, as the aforementioned Mr. Wood did in donating his own money to everything from hospital wings to theaters?

No, he didn't.

Was Mr. Bruno a famous baseball player or a beloved coach or Little League benefactor?

No he wasn't.

Mr. Bruno is so prominently honored because he used his job an elected official to guide $14 million of the taxpayers' money to the people who wanted to build the stadium. That $14 million works out to almost $1 for every man woman and child in the state. But are our names on the side of the building? No they aren't.

Mr. Bruno is the not the first, nor the last, politician to be honored with a facade. He's not the only unethical one. He's not even the most recent one.

Rep. Charles Rangel, a congressman from Harlem, last year was found guilty by a House ethics panel and censured by the full House of ethical violations for, among other things, soliciting millions of dollars in donations from companies doing business before Congress for an academic building at the City College of New York. That episode is just one in a long list of accusations made against Rangel for illegal or unethical conduct. By the way, the name of that academic building for which he was soliciting all that money: The Rangel Center for Public Service. Even after he was censured, the college said it had no plans to remove his name from the building. They're probably not giving the money back either.

There are numerous other examples of politicians being honored for helping direct our tax dollars to a project. In many cases, the politician isn't accused of being corrupt or doing anything wrong. But having a permanent campaign ad on a prominent building is a pretty strong incentive for an incumbent legislator to lobby for funds for a particular project.

In 2007, for example, state Sen. Michael Nozzolio directed $1.5 million of state taxpayer money to an athletic facility in Monroe County. He also secured a $25,000 state grant for a youth soccer program. Guess who the soccer complex is named after. You can't buy that kind of campaign advertising. Or maybe you can.

Not everyone is taking this practice lying down.

In several states, there are movements afoot to outlaw the practice of naming public buildings and other property after incumbent or retired politicians. In addition to buildings, highways and airports are popular places to attach a legislative benefactor's name. Joe Bruno once had a bronze bust prominently displayed in the Albany airport. It's since been relocated.

Ending so-called "monuments to me" has been an uphill battle for New Mexico state Sen. Mark Boitano, who objects on the basis that it's "free 24/7 advertising" for the incumbents. "It's not right," he said. He not only wants the naming practice stopped, he also wants the names of sitting politicians removed from existing buildings. But so far, he's not getting much enthusiastic support from his fellow lawmakers. His bill has been tabled in the New Mexico state Senate.

Congress has also toyed with the idea of banning "monuments to me." The late Sen. Richard Byrd of West Virginia had more than 30 public entities named after him during his tenure in Congress, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Our public officials must reject any practice that makes it appear as if they're trading their office for personal gain.

Rather than naming public buildings after the politicians who secure taxpayer funding, why not name the buildings after the people who actually provide the funding?

John Q. Taxpayer Stadium has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

Local editorials represent the opinion of The Post-Star editorial board, which consists of Publisher Rick Emanuel, Editor Ken Tingley, Editorial Page Editor Mark Mahoney and citizen representative Tom Sullivan.

Copyright 2011 The Post-Star. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

.Posted in Editorial on Friday, May 6, 2011 7:52 pm

Library "brown bag" by Saratoga's City Historian on "ten Springs", th.,5/12/11@noon.

2011-05-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Valley of the Ten Springs

Saratoga Springs’ City Historian Mary Ann Fitzgerald will take us back into time
spotlighting the neighborhood of the Valley of the Ten Springs for the May Brown Bag Lunch Program. Currently home to the Spring Run Trail which runs along the old railroad bed, Mary Ann will bring us back to the days when the railroad travelled to the famous mud baths and mineral springs in the valley and then continued to Saratoga Lake. Industry and tourism once surrounded the residents of this neighborhood, but today one can enjoy the tranquil two mile trail surrounded by the sounds and smell of nature.

The program will be held May 12th from 12 Noon to 1 PM in the Dutcher Community Room at the Saratoga Springs Public Library. The Brown Bag Lunch is cosponsored by the library and the Saratoga Springs Heritage Area Visitor Center.

For further information call 587-3241.

kentucky derby upon us, Saturday,May 7,2011.

2011-05-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

2011 Kentucky Derby Post Positions
This first race in the coveted Triple Crown of horse racing attracts plenty of attention. Since 2005, when the purse went from one million to two million dollars, the "Run For The Roses" offers the biggest prize of all the Stakes races.

The May 7th running of the Kentucky Derby will be the 137th time that the race has been held. Meanwhile, here are the post positions announced at 5PM ET on Wednesday, May 4, 2011 from Churchill Downs:

2011 Kentucky Derby post positions

Horse Jockey Trainer ML Odds
1 Archarcharch Jon Court. Jinks Fires 10-1
2 Brilliant Speed Joel Rosario Tom Albertrani 30-1
3 Twice the Appeal Calvin Borel Jeff Bonde 20-1
4 Stay Thirsty Ramon Dominguez Todd Pletcher 20-1
5 Decisive Moment Kerwin Clark Juan Arias 30-1
6 Comma to the Top Pat Valenzuela Peter Miller 30-1
7 Pants on Fire Rosie Napravnik Kelly Breen 20-1
8 Dialed In Julian Leparoux Nick Zito 4-1
9 Derby Kitten Javier Castellano Michael J. Maker 30-1
10 Twinspired Mike Smith Mike Maker 30-1
11 Master of Hounds Garrett Gomez Aidan O'Brien 30-1
12 Santiva Shaun Bridgmogan Eddie Kenneally 30-1
13 Mucho Macho Man Rajiv Maragh Kathy Ritvo 12-1
14 Shakleford Jesus Castanon Dale Romans 12-1
15 Midnight Interlude Victor Espinoza Bob Baffert 10-1
16 Animal Kingdom Robby Albarado Graham Motion 30-1
17 Soldat Alan Garcia Kiaran McLaughlin 12-1
18 Uncle Moe John Velazquez Todd Pletcher 9-2
19 Nehro Corey Nakatani Steve Asmussen 6-1
20 Watch Me Go Rafael Bejarano Kathleen O'Connell 50-1

Picking a Derby winner

Will the Victoria Pool open on it's traditional Memorial Day date. Post Star wonders, Saratoga Snippets Blog. 4/25/11.

2011-04-25T15:38:00.000-07:00

Sidewalk Swimming in Saratoga Springs
There are 34 days, 12 hours and 34 minutes to go, at this posting, on the countdown clock until the traditional opening of the Victorian Pool, according to an advocacy group monitoring the goings-on at the Saratoga Spa State Park.

On Monday morning, hiding in plain sight, DPW crews were out in force testing the arc and flow rate of city fire hydrants.

On the surface, the two may seem unrelated, but consider that Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who has pledged to cut state costs — grew up in Queens, N.Y., where the swimming options for neighborhood youth were limited to either journeying to the WPA-constructed Astoria Pool, or playing beneath the streaming arcs of cool water unleashed from the neighborhood fire hydrant.

Affectionately nicknamed the Johnny Pump, these three-foot tall water geysers would be uncapped on hot, humid summer days to the joy of neighborhood kids. At minimal cost.

Taking into account the state’s budget woes, the costs to open and operate the amenities at the State Park like the pool AND the mysterious testing of hydrants in Saratoga Springs Monday morning, is there a nefarious effort underway to relocate the Victorian Pool to the city streets this year?

We’ll have to wait and see how this one plays out; Victorian swimmers, you have been warned.

– Thomas Dimopoulos

Geyser Creek being stocked with trout at Saratoga Spa State Park, 4/20/11.

2011-04-21T12:55:00.000-07:00

Jansikwe and hundreds of other children brought buckets to receive a trout to release in geyser creek. A wonderful and unique event with live music, tie dyeing shirts, hot dogs and lots more fun for kids and their adult companions.

Philadelphia Orchestra may declare bankruptcy and two Saratoga Broadway buildings going on the auction block.

2011-04-15T17:34:00.000-07:00

News
Philadelphia Orchestra board to vote on bankruptcy Saturday; concerned musicians oppose the move
Published: Friday, April 15, 2011

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Cellist Yo-Yo Ma joined Charles Dutoit and the Philadelphia Orchestra at SPAC during the orchestra's 2010 residency in Saratoga Springs. Ed Burke file photo/eburke@saratogian.com

PHILADELPHIA — Members of the Philadelphia Orchestra concerned about a bankruptcy vote distributed leaflets to audience members before a concert to express their opposition to what they say would be a devastating blow to the famed ensemble’s future.

The musicians walked into the audience and handed out the leaflets Thursday night. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the crowd applauded as they returned to the stage. The musicians waved their instruments in gratitude.

The orchestra’s board is scheduled to vote Saturday whether to pursue Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The board tells WPVI-TV its $31 million in revenue is $15 million less than its costs.

The orchestra’s management is seeking givebacks including a 16 percent pay cut from the musicians as part of their ongoing contract negotiations.

The orchestra's annual summer residency at Saratoga Performing Arts Center is set to start its 2011 season July 27. At a March 31 meeting of SPAC's board, executive director Marcia White said this season would feature conductor emeritus Charles Dutoit as well as Spa City native and actor David Hyde Pierce as a narrator.

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Two Broadway buildings headed for auction block
April 15, 2011 at 5:33 pm by Dennis Yusko
SARATOGA SPRINGS - Two buildings on Broadway measuring more than 42,000-square-feet will be auctioned off next month, setting the stage for more big changes to the heart of this tourist city’s downtown business district.

Days after a 22,500-square-foot Borders bookstore shut its doors at 395 Broadway, news broke that the popular Saratoga Shoe Depot at 385 Broadway and a three-story building at 322-328 Broadway and the corner of Spring Street will be sold at auction on May 4.

Owned by Frank Panza, the shoe store is 22,252-square-feet, and is located just a few doors from Borders. The multi-story building is 20,678-square-feet. It’s ground-floor retail stores are partially vacant, and it contains residential units and a theater in the upper floor.

“They are kind of important properties,” said Chuck Anderson, owner of Anderson Auction & Realty, which is promoting the properties.

Panza could not be reached for comment, but Anderson called the May sales standard real estate foreclosure auctions due to non-payment of mortgages. Citing a city official who could not be reached late Friday, the Business Review reported that Panza owes $227,850 in taxes on 385 Broadway, and $96,102 on 322-328 Broadway.
The auction will take place at 11 a.m. May 4 at the Saratoga County Courthouse in Ballston Spa. Buyers will need a 10 percent deposit.

The Saratoga Shoe Depot, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year, could close within 30 days after the auction, Anderson said.

The spector of two more giant storefronts on Broadway going vacant will further alarm city officials, who fretted over the closing of Borders. But Anderson thinks that they could change hands soon.

“We’ve already had interest in them from several companies,” he said.

yeh! All good things we want come to Saratoga eventually.

2011-04-07T06:18:00.000-07:00

Table Hopping
Eat, drink and be candid
By Steve Barnes | E-mail | About Table Hopping
Quintessence to open in former Bloomers location in MaltaApril 5, 2011 at 4:48 pm by Steve Barnes, senior writer
The partners responsible for reviving Quintessence in Albany have added another restored silver diner to their portfolio. Joseph Zappone, the local lawyer and developer who, with his business partner, Pat Fiore, restored the New Scotland Avenue Quintessence and reopened it in August 2009, tells me the pair have purchased the former Bloomers an American Bistro location, on Route 9 just south of Northway Exit 13; Bloomers closed in late March. Pre-Bloomers, the building was the longtime home of the former Chez Sophie.

Given that minimal work needs to be done on the new location, Zapponse says, the plan is to open within a couple of months, though alcohol may not be available at first, depending on arrival of the liquor license. As at the Albany Quintessence, management of the Malta business will be under the direction of Nick Riggione, whose family owns the local Inferno Pizzerias and who is a partner with the owners, while Riggione’s brother Gennaro will supervises the kitchen. The menu will be the same as in Albany, and the name will remain simply Quintessence.

Zappone and Fiore last fall bought the former Kirker’s location in Latham with the intention of putting a Quintessence there as well. The availability of the Malta diner has put that project temporarily on hold, Zappone says, as the pair concentrate on opening in Saratoga County. They still plan to develop the Latham property, but not immediately, he tells me.

Posted in News, Recommendations, Restaurants/chefs | 9 Comments
9 Comments »
1.Hip hip hooray.

Comment by dominic colose — April 5th, 2011 @ 6:56 pm

2.I’m excited.

Comment by Mr. Sunshine — April 5th, 2011 @ 7:05 pm

3.WINNING! That’s about 60 seconds from our house!

Comment by Mark H. Delfs — April 5th, 2011 @ 8:50 pm

4.They must have bought it completely as-is, you can still see the bottles behind the bar if you drive by. Glad something is moving in there right away.

Comment by Smythe — April 5th, 2011 @ 8:50 pm

5.Were do I apply?!!

Comment by salvino — April 5th, 2011 @ 9:42 pm

6.Yeah! Bring on the spinach noodles! Can’t wait.

Comment by lakesider — April 6th, 2011 @ 5:35 am

7.Great location

Comment by pw — April 6th, 2011 @ 7:08 am

8.can’t wait!

Comment by mattydread — April 6th, 2011 @ 8:17 am

9.I love the albany location, it brings me back in time, but can only get there maybe once a month leaving in nearby saratoga we will be there more often, GREAT NEWS, CAN’T WAIT

Comment by john — April 6th, 2011 @ 9:54 am

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Siro's to take Manhattan.

2011-04-02T05:55:00.000-07:00

Iconic Saratoga Restaurant is Off To the Races in Turtle Bay April 1, 2011 1:24pm1commentshareprint
Siro's of Saratoga, a trackside landmark restaurant, is opening a new restaurant in Turtle Bay, backed by celebs.
•Story•Comments Siro's of Saratoga is bring its upscale horse race ambiance to Turtle Bay. (www.sirosny.com/)By Amy Zimmer

DNAinfo News Editor

MANHATTAN — A little bit of Saratoga Springs, the bucolic upstate town where New Yorkers like to escape to the horse races, is coming to Turtle Bay.

The famed Siro's of Saratoga is opening a fine dining restaurant and more casual "Club House" at 885 Second Ave., between 47th and 48th streets, and has some heavy hitters behind it.

Yankees relief ace Mariano Rivera is a partner in the Club House and "Entourage" star Kevin Connelly is part of the team behind the upscale half of the eatery, said Keith Kantrowitz, a mortgage banker who is part of the group of investors behind the project.

The popular trackside restaurant has been a staple on the Saratoga social circuit since it opened in 1930.

The Saratoga institution, once described as "a stamping ground for equestrian-minded magnates, grandes dames, dandies and the occasional miscreant," is only open during the six-week racing season.

"In an often repeated line once uttered by a waiter, Siro's is where 'Goodfellas' meets 'Gone With the Wind,'" the New York Times wrote in 2003.

Siro's will not only bring its cassoulet, lamb shanks and raw oysters, it will also bring some horse culture.

Kantrowitz said it will be decorated with pictures of famous horses and other horse-related artwork.

"During the racing season many of our customers are from New York City and many of them are loyal," Kantrowitz said of the impetus for the downstate outpost.

Kantrowitz's group — which included New York Post publisher Paul Carlucci and Steven Schoenfeld, managing partner of a New York-based financial services firm — took over Siro's in 2009.

Kantrowitz expects the New York City restaurant and club house to open in 2 months.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20110401/murray-hill-gramercy/iconic-saratoga-restaurant-is-off-races-turtle-bay#ixzz1IMwFOWaw

We are so ready for Springtime and the snow to go away.

2011-03-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

Victoria Pool is beginning to emerge from its winter cover. Yes, Spring will appear again this year.

2011-03-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

Filly Victoria Pool wins at Aqueduct Racetrack on 3/17/11.

2011-03-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

SECOND RACE: Victoria Pool, 8-1 dropping in for 50G maiden claiming tag after losing her debut vs. NY-bred special weights by 14 lengths at 50-1, gunned to the front under Eurico Da Silva, chased by 30-1 first-time starter Maspeth Princess, Jose Espinoza up, with Dita, third vs. special weights last out, tracking the pace under a snug hold by Channing Hill. Dita made her move turning for home but hung, while Maspeth Princess turned in a strong bid but was repulsed by Victoria Pool in a long stretch duel. Bazinga, even-money favorite in her debut for Linda Rice, never got involved.

This filly is named after our favorite pool.

Waiting for spring at the Warming Hut.

2011-03-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

More cuts for NYS Parks

2011-03-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Officials: Less money, but no ax for state parks (with video)
Published: Wednesday, March 09, 2011

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By PAUL POST
The Saratogian

SARATOGA SPRINGS — State parks will have even less money for much-needed repairs this year, but at least there’s no danger of sites closing, officials said Wednesday.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget calls for a 10 percent — $17.7 million — reduction in parks spending, coming on the heels of a similar-sized cut last year.

Only $25 million is allocated statewide for capital projects, for a system that has more than $1 billion worth of needed repairs and infrastructure improvements pending.

“We’ve got to do more with less,” said Heather Mabee, Saratoga-Capital District Regional Parks Commission chair. “As long as there’s no further reductions we think statewide we can keep all of our parks and historic sites open. As far as we understand from the governor, there should not be any more staffing reductions.”

The commission met Wednesday at Saratoga Spa State Park with regional state parks leaders. The Saratoga-Capital region has 10 parks and 10 historic sites.

Last year, some parks — such as John Boyd Thacher Park in the Heldebergs — were temporarily closed because of the state’s dire fiscal condition, forcing the cancelation of many events and private functions such as weddings. Despite this, attendance at Saratoga-Capital parks and historic sites rose 16 percent, the most of any region in the state.

Officials attributed this to good weather compared to the rainy summer of 2009, an economy that kept people close to home and strong support from “friends” groups at several state parks.

Assistant Regional Commissioner Robert Kuhn said there are no major state-funded capital projects slated for Saratoga Spa State Park this year. However, fundraising has made new walks, steps and interpretive signage possible at the park’s Geyser Springs area. A ribbon-cutting is slated for Tuesday, May 24.

Elsewhere, plans call for replacing old bathhouses and showers at Thompson’s Lake in East Berne and increasing the number of campsites from 20 to 30 at Cherry Plain State Park. Continued...

longing for a nice warm morning and breakfast at the magnificent Saratoga Track.

2011-03-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

oh how we love edward gorey, his spooky sensibility and adoration of New York City Ballet was very Saratoga.

2011-03-06T07:01:00.000-08:00

NEWS bulletin from the spirit world: The specter of Edward Gorey, who died in 2000 at the age of 75, is haunting our collective unconscious.

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In a sense that’s as it should be; Gorey was born to be posthumous. His poisonously funny little picture books — deadpan accounts of murder, disaster and discreet depravity, narrated in a voice that affects the world-weary tone of British novelists like Ronald Firbank and Ivy Compton-Burnett — established him as the master of high-camp macabre.

Told in verse and illustrated in a style that crosses Surrealism with the Victorian true-crime gazette, Gorey stories are set in some unmistakably British place, in a time that is vaguely Victorian, Edwardian and Jazz Age all at once. Though Gorey was a 20th-century American, he conjured a world of gramophones and cars that start with cranks, of boater-hatted men in Eton collars knocking croquet balls across the lawn while sloe-eyed vamps in cloches look on, and sinister things sink, bubbling, into the reflecting pond. His titles are instructive: “The Fatal Lozenge,” “The Deadly Blotter,” “The Hapless Child,” “The Haunted Tea-Cosy.”

A wide audience has long known Gorey’s work from the 31-year-old animations used to introduce the PBS series “Mystery!” (now “Masterpiece Mystery”). The playfully perverse vignettes include a skulking villain in a cape and a swooning ingénue.

Before “Mystery!” Gorey’s set for the 1977 Broadway production of “Dracula” — large-scale versions of his black-and-white drawings, each melodramatically highlighted with a single, blood-red detail — spread his fame far beyond theatergoers.

But until the last few years true Gorey devotees were a secret society, wearing Gorey-philia like a Masonic ring. Now, however, their numbers have swelled. The writer Daniel Handler, better known as Lemony Snicket, said, “When I was first writing ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events,’ I was wandering around everywhere saying, ‘I am a complete rip-off of Edward Gorey,’ and everyone said, ‘Who’s that?’ Now, everyone says, ‘That’s right, you are a complete rip-off of Edward Gorey.’ ”

Tim Burton owes an obvious debt to Gorey, as do Rob Reger, creator of the goth gamine Emily the Strange, and Neil Gaiman, the author of the novella “Coraline.” Mr. Gaiman has an original Gorey drawing of “children gathered around a sickbed” hanging on his bedroom wall; he wanted Gorey to illustrate “Coraline,” he said, but he “died the day I finished it.”

Gorey illustrations are even becoming voguish as tattoos. Last year the ninth-season “American Idol” finalist Siobhan Magnus had a biceps tattoo of Death playing nanny to a flock of soon-to-be-doomed children, from “The Gashlycrumb Tinies,” Gorey’s grimly funny alphabet book.

The market for Gorey books and merchandise buoys indie publishers like Pomegranate, which brings some of Gorey’s books back into print each year, and Fantagraphics, which is releasing a third edition of “The Strange Case of Edward Gorey,” a portrait by the novelist and longtime Gorey friend Alexander Theroux. Attendance has been climbing steadily at the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, Mass., and curators of the first major traveling exhibition of Gorey’s original art, “Elegant Enigmas” — originally shown at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, Pa., and now on view at the Boston Athenaeum — have been stunned by the enthusiasm surrounding the show.

“I knew Gorey had a wide following, but I had no idea of the mania,” said David Dearinger, an Athenaeum curator, before the exhibition opened there in February. News media inquiries and calls from the public had been coming in for months, he said then, “and the show isn’t even here yet.” Since the opening, he said last month, “the response has been phenomenal.”

Opinions differ about why Gorey — whose name increasingly serves as shorthand for a postmodern twist on the gothic that crosses irony, high camp and black comedy — is casting a longer shadow these days. Mr. Handler attributes Gorey’s growing popularity partly to the sophisticated understatement of his hand-cranked world, a sensibility that stands out sharply against the exuberant vulgarity of our age of jeggings, “Bridalplasty” and “Jackass 3D.” “That worldview — that a well-timed scathing remark might shame an uncouth person into acting better — seems worthy to me,” Mr. Handler said.

Undoubtedly such romanticized visions of a more decorous, dapper past, which also inform the neo-Victorian and neo-Edwardian street styles of goths and steampunks, have as much to do with escapism as historical fact. But accurately or not, such subcultures see in Gorey’s work an invitation “to return to a time of gentility,” to quote the promoters of the annual Edwardian Ball, a celebration of Gorey.

In contrast, some fashion designers see Gorey’s anachronistic use of historical references as perfect for our age of mash-ups and remixes. The neo-Victorian couturier Kambriel, whose shows have featured Gorey-inspired sets and models reciting Gorey limericks, said that in her designs, as in Gorey’s tales, “the propriety of the past” is infused with the “playful mischief and irreverence” of the present.

Even a more established designer like Anna Sui has drawn inspiration from him. “My big attraction to Edward Gorey is that he picked up on all those cultures and was inspired by them but kind of spun them in his own brain and made his own world,” she said. Similarly, Martyn Jacques, the singer for the British “dark cabaret” act the Tiger Lillies — whose Grammy-nominated collaboration with the Kronos Quartet, “The Gorey End” (2003), set unpublished Gorey tales to the band’s seasick accordion and castrato vocals — celebrates Gorey’s refusal to bow to a boomer-dominated culture.

“When I was growing up you’d hear all these musicians, and they were all inspired by the Rolling Stones or Jimi Hendrix,” said Mr. Jacques, 51. “I thought to myself: ‘Why only be inspired by the 1960s? Why can’t you be inspired by the 1860s?’ ”

Mr. Dearinger attributes Gorey’s appeal to what he sees as the rise of cynicism in America since the ’60s. “I don’t mean cynicism in a totally negative way,” he said. “It’s the same kind of attitude that would look back and enjoy Jane Austen but enjoy Trollope even more. There wouldn’t be a Gorey, if there hadn’t been this late-20th-century fascination with camp and irony and cynicism.”

Gorey was an early adopter of this sensibility. At Harvard from 1946 to ’50, where he roomed with the poet Frank O’Hara, Gorey borrowed a page from the bourgeois-mocking wit of writers like Firbank and Oscar Wilde to create a deadpan, ironic worldview, one that appears strikingly contemporary in retrospect.

Such historically minded analyses can lose sight of the straightforward delights of Gorey’s art — his astonishing draftsmanship and pitch-perfect composition, informed by a lifelong love of film, theater and ballet. Many of the images “look like theater sets, so there’s that dramatic appeal to it,” Mr. Dearinger said. “They’re very well composed, easy to read, yet there’s enough detail in them that every time you look at them you’ll see something you hadn’t seen before.” Dizzily crosshatched or stippled, Gorey’s exquisitely rendered images reveal an encyclopedic knowledge of period architecture, wallpaper, fashion and interior design. They rejoice in repeated patterns, which contribute to what Mr. Dearinger called their “wonderfully decorative quality.”

Gorey-philes who take in the Boston Athenaeum show may be amazed to learn that Gorey’s original illustrations were no larger than their reproductions in books, typically just a few inches on a side. “You can picture him with his nose right on the paper, practically, and the pen just making tiny, tiny little strokes, each one where it’s supposed to be,” Mr. Dearinger said. “The amazing thing is that the mind that’s creating this already knows what it’s going to look like when you step back from it.”

Intriguingly, explanations for the mounting popularity of Gorey’s art rarely touch on its air of hidden, maybe even unknowable meaning. Whatever Gorey’s work appears to be about, it’s forever insinuating, in its poker-faced way, that it’s really, truly about something else. The philosopher Jacques Derrida might have said it is this very elusiveness — the sense that meaning can never be pinned down by language — that is Gorey’s overarching point.

For his part, Gorey, who rolled his eyes at anyone looking for deep meaning in his work, would doubtless have groaned (theatrically) at any attempt to make intellectual sense of his posthumous popularity.

As he liked to say, “When people are finding meaning in things — beware.”

A version of this article appeared in print on March 6, 2011, on page AR20 of the New York edition.

No Spring yet at Hawthorne Spring #1 on Spring St. or golf at Victoria Pool. We are sick of winter!

2011-03-06T06:36:00.000-08:00

Record February 2011 snowfall for Saratoga.

2011-02-27T14:37:00.000-08:00

A beatle comes to New York City Ballet,nytimes,2/23/11.

2011-02-24T06:28:00.000-08:00

February 23, 2011, 2:17 pm
Paul McCartney Collaborates With City Ballet
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
In an unexpected intersection of celebrity pop music and ballet, that most refined of the performing arts, Paul McCartney has written a major orchestral work for New York City Ballet.

Richard Perry/The New York Times Paul McCartney, above at the Apollo Theater in December, has written an orchestral work for New York City Ballet.
It is a love story titled “Ocean’s Kingdom” and will be performed at the company’s fall gala on Sept. 22 and on other yet-to-be determined dates next season, Mr. McCartney and company officials said. Peter Martins, the company’s ballet master in chief, will create the choreography.

In its current state, the ballet lasts about 45 to 50 minutes, is divided into four acts and will feature a cast of about 40 to 45, including four or five main roles. A composer, John Wilson, is helping with the final orchestration, and the first act is to be played through at the David H. Koch Theater, the company’s home, on Thursday.

The other half of the gala program will consist of George Balanchine’s “Union Jack,” a sprawling work that Mr. Martins said would be a tribute to City Ballet’s latest Liverpudlian contributor.

Mr. McCartney first mentioned that he was working on a ballet score in an interview with the BBC in June, then set off speculative babble among balletomanes and pop music fans this month when he said at an awards ceremony in London that an announcement about the piece was coming soon.

In his first interview about the work, Mr. McCartney on Wednesday called it “basically a romantic story” involving two worlds — the ocean kingdom, representing purity, and the earth kingdom, “the sort of baddies.” The daughter of the ocean king falls in love with the brother of the earth king, and “you’ll have to see whether the couple make it,” Mr. McCartney said. “There’s all sort of troubles along the way.”

Mr. McCartney has long staked a claim in the world of classical music, and branching out into ballet music is just his latest foray into other realms. He has published books of poetry and children’s literature, and mounted shows of his paintings.

Mr. Martins said the idea of a collaboration popped into his head when he ran into Mr. McCartney at a fund-raiser for the School of American Ballet, the company’s training ground, a year ago.

“Of course, being a Beatles fan — because that’s my generation — I was very intrigued,” Mr. Martins said. “I knew of course about his foray into classical music and his interest in it. I said to him, ‘Maybe we could do something together.’ ”

The two men said that over the course of the year they consulted regularly.

“This is Paul’s baby,” Mr. Martins said, adding with tongue in cheek, “The only thing he has left to do is choreograph.” He said Mr. McCartney created the libretto on his own.

“He knows exactly what this is going to look like,” Mr. Martins said. “He even has choreographic suggestions. He did a nice little jump for me. I said, ‘To me, Paul, that needs work.’ ”

Mr. McCartney said he took up the suggestion because “I can’t refuse an offer,” especially one to do something fresh and challenging.

“I’ve come to love working with orchestras,” he said. “It’s a great palette.”

He wrote some “speculative” music and began reading about dance and attending ballet performances.

“For me, the sheer athleticism is the most astounding thing about what I’m seeing,” he said. “It’s like a meeting of the Olympic games and art, and I find that fascinating and challenging for me, to see what can be done.”

Get your suits ready !!!

2011-02-21T17:57:00.000-08:00

100 days until Memorial Day, traditional opening day of the Victoria Pool. Let it be!

2011-02-18T06:12:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day to all our Victoria Pool Lovers.

2011-02-14T06:29:00.000-08:00

Yaddo is Evermore but Saratoga's Broadway McDonalds is Nevermore. Scheduled to rise again in the Spring.

2011-02-12T14:19:00.000-08:00

Opera Saratoga announces 2011 schedule. Tra-la, can Spring be far behind?

2011-02-10T06:06:00.001-08:00

Opera Saratoga reveals season
By Michael Janairo Arts And Entertainment Editor
Published: 12:00 a.m., Thursday, February 10, 2011

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Opera Saratoga, which was formerly known as Lake George Opera, will be celebrating its 50th season this summer with a special anniversary concert and two operas produced in its first year: Strauss' "Die Fledermaus" and Mozart's "Cosi Fan Tutte."

This season marks the company's 14th summer at the Spa Little Theater at the Saratoga Spa State Park. In addition to the performances, the company also offers pre-performance talks about the operas (free for ticketholders), a free concert outdoors, the annual ball and a family-friendly opera to be performed during SaratogaArtsFest.

Subscriptions range in price from $130 to $190 and are now available at 584-6018. Single tickets go on sale mid-February. Visit the Opera's website at http://www.operasaratoga.org for additional information.

Here are the main events of the season:

Main Stage Productions at Spa Little Theater

"Die Fledermaus": 7:30 p.m. June 29, July 2; 2 p.m. July 5, 10. Performed in English and featuring Kyle Pfortmiller ("The Barber of Seville," 2006; "Don Pasquale," 2009) as Eisenstein; Curt Olds ("The Pirate of Penzance," 2008) as Dr. Falke; Elizabeth Pojanowski, a 2010 apprentice artist, as Prince Orlofsky; and Metropolitan Opera soprano Emily Pulley as Rosalinda. Opera Artistic Director Curtis Tucker will conduct and Nelson Sheeley will direct.

"Cosi Fan Tutte": 7:30 p.m. June 30, July 9; 2 p.m. July 3, 6. In Italian with English titles features John Stephens ("Don Pasquale," 2009) as Don Alfonso; Adriana Zabala ("The Barber of Seville," 2006) as Dorabella; and Andrew Garland ("La Boheme," 2007) as Guglielmo. David Lefkowich, who directed the 2008 production of "La Traviata," returns to direct and Albany Symphony Orchestra's Music Director David Alan Miller will conduct.

50th Anniversary Concert: 7:30 p.m. July 8. Artistic Director Curtis Tucker and returning guest conductor Mark Flint will take the audience on a musical journey through the company's first 50 years, with returning guest artists accompanied by the Opera Saratoga Orchestra. Flint has conducted more performances for the company than any other conductor.

Free Opera Insights: There will be free pre-performance opera talks for ticket holders one hour before each performance in the Spa Little Theater. Patrons will hear the history and stories behind each opera, as well as information regarding the casts and director.

Other events

"The Trial of BB Wolf": June 10-12. Opera Artistic Director Curtis Tucker has composed a new family-friendly opera that will be performed during SaratogaArtsFest weekend. The opera features elements of favorite children's stories set to music composed by Curtis Tucker with libretto by Nelson Sheeley. Tickets are available through http://www.SaratogaArtsFest.org.

2011 50th Anniversary Opera Ball: 7 p.m. July 1. The Saratoga Hilton Hotel. Opera Saratoga's gala will feature Albany band Spare Parts and will take place for the first time at the Saratoga Hilton Hotel. Ted and Carol Newlin serve as the 50th anniversary chairpersons and Helen Mastrion and Courtney Smith are auction co-chairs. Proceeds will benefit Opera Saratoga's numerous educational programs.

Free Concert in Congress Park: 5 p.m. July 4. Opera Saratoga will perform a free concert as part of Saratoga's annual Independence Day celebration. Listen to arias prior to the city's firework display.

Reach Janairo at mjanairo@timesunion.com or 454-5629.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Opera-Saratoga-reveals-season-1005466.php#ixzz1DZ1Nx4qV

Hoping for no pool/park closures this year! times union 2/9/11.

2011-02-09T05:59:00.000-08:00

ALBANY -- Don't expect a repeat of last spring's budget-driven threats to close state parks, the acting head of the park system told a panel of state lawmakers Tuesday during a hearing on Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposed 2010-11 budget.

But get ready for a different kind of drama around the beginning of June, when the state Department of Environmental Conservation is slated to release proposed rules to regulate the controversial natural gas drilling technique called hydrofracking.

Andy Beers, acting commissioner of the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, credited layoffs during the waning days of the Paterson administration with giving the park system breathing room to absorb the additional spending cut of 6.2 percent, or $19 million, sought by Cuomo.

"We will not be repeating last year's scenario," Beers said during a hearing of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee. The budget also contains no changes in park fees, with Beers saying fee hikes last year have brought the parks "up to market rates."

A park advocacy group that includes former parks commissioner Carol Ash, who went through the political firestorm that followed last year's closure threats, took Beers' announcement with a grain of salt.

"While it may be reassuring to hear that the agency has no plans to close parks at this time, it is difficult to see how they will be able to achieve required savings without serious service reductions and even closure of some park operations," said Erik Kulleseid, director of the Alliance for New York State Parks.

His group called for the state to impose a 1-cent fee on disposable plastic grocery store shopping bags that would yield $60 million a year help pay for the parks. The group released a poll of 1,000 registered state voters that found 73 percent supported the idea of the bag fee.

"The crisis facing New York's state parks goes far beyond this year's budget proposal. Although parks may be open, there are pools and campsites not open due to the continuing deterioration of the system," Kulleseid said.

Chowderfest was a rip-roaring success today in spite of snow, sleet and lots of slipping/sliding.

2011-02-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

Saratoga Spa State Park attendance up almost 500,000 in 2010. Victoria Pool attendance way up. Umbrella fundraiser being considered.

2011-02-03T14:38:00.000-08:00

State parks see rise in attendance, but lose budget money
Story Discussion State parks see rise in attendance, but lose budget money
DREW KERR - dkerr@poststar.com The Post-Star | Posted: Thursday, February 3, 2011 11:45 am | (3) Comments

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Jason McKibben
Jason McKibben - jmckibben@poststar.com Moreau Lake State Park nature educator Rebecca Mullins, center, leads a snowshoe hike through the park's Red Oak Ridge trail Tuesday, January 25, 2011. The park maintains an active calendar with events targeting people of all ages. Attendance at state parks in the Saratoga-Capital region jumped significantly last year.

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Snowshoe through Moreau Lake State Park
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Parks attendance by the numbers
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's 2011-12 budget proposal calls for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to cut spending by more than 8 percent in the next budget cycle.

The total budget would fall from $228 million to $209 million. The proposed reduction comes as attendance at state parks reaches record highs.

In 2010, officials reported that attendance at state parks topped 56.9 million, up more than 1 million visitors from the year before.

Attendance is also growing locally.

A look at the numbers:

Saratoga Spa State Park

2010 - 1,948,587

2009 - 1,480,000

2008 - 1,449,000

2007 - 1,742,545

2006 - 1,483,000

2005 - 835,000

Moreau Lake State Park

2010 - 425,167

2009 - 396,000

2008 - 368,000

2007 - 357,000

2006 - 268,000

2005 - 338,000
Hard hit over the last several budget cycles, New York's state parks and historical sites are facing another austere year, even as the number of visitors coming to the venues grows.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's 2011-12 budget proposal, released Tuesday, calls for a more than 8 percent cut in spending at the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The department's budget would fall from $228 million to $209 million under the proposal.

Supporters say the parks have absorbed severe cuts each of the last two years and further reductions could compromise infrastructure and deter visitors.

"The integrity of the system that's been built up over generations, really the fabric of our state park system, is just going to be torn," said Robin Dropkin, executive director at Parks and Trails New York.

Dropkin said she has been told that no parks or historic sites are expected to close, but parks officials on Wednesday refused to say how they would absorb the funding cuts, if approved by state lawmakers.

Testimony from parks leaders is due Feb. 8, and more details should be revealed about the budget impact at that time, officials said.

Last year, asked to cut $11 million from their budget, state parks officials said they would need to close more than 50 state parks and historic sites, while cutting back at another 24 parks.

The John Brown Historical Site near Lake Placid, where the abolitionist lived and is buried, was among the sites threatened with closure. Officials also considered shuttering the Victoria Pool at Saratoga Spa State Park.

Fierce opposition led to the withdrawal of the closure plans, but supporters say the parks system is, nonetheless, suffering from a lack of state support.

Even if no parks are closed this year, Dropkin and others say they are concerned that infrastructure is not being maintained and that putting off repairs could lead to more costly work in the future.

"The bottom line is parks are still hurting, they're still operating on a shoestring budget and they're in trouble," Dropkin said.

The cuts are surprising, supporters say, because attendance at parks is at an all-time high and parks have been shown to generate tax revenue for the communities where they're located.

In 2010, officials reported that 56.9 million visitors visited the state's 213 parks and historic sites, up by more than 1 million visitors from 2009.

Locally, Saratoga Spa State Park and Moreau Lake State Park drew more than 2.37 million visitors last year - up

more than 27 percent from 2009.

Parks supporters say they might have to begin augmenting the state budget with outside dollars.

Corporate donors or foundation money should be sought, or a dedicated funding stream created to help offset losses in state aid, they say.

The funding stream could come from a voluntary surcharge on motor vehicle registrations or a penny tax on plastic bags, according to Erik Kulleseid, the director of a new parks advocacy group, the Alliance for New York State Parks.

"You can debate whether the state should or should not be paying for these things, but at the end of the day if you want things to change we have to start looking elsewhere," he said.

Louise Goldstien of Saratoga Springs, a leader of the Save the Victoria Pool Society, said group members are considering an money-raising effort to support a project unlikely to get state support.

Group members want to bring in as many as 40 new umbrellas they believe are needed at the pool but which could cost up to $15,000, and they are thinking about holding a fundraiser to support the effort.

"We always felt like we were paying for the parks already with our tax dollars," she said. "But this year I don't think we have a chance. These are different times."

Not everyone is on board with the idea of expanding public-private partnerships.

Martha Swan, director of John Brown Lives, which supports education efforts at the John Brown Historic Site, said she is uncomfortable with the idea of raising money for the site.

The site, which will be particularly important this year as the country celebrates the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, should be supported by the state, she said.

"It's a very troubling scenario for me because I feel like parks and historic sites are a part of the public good, they're part of what makes people feel like part of this place," Swan said. "And it feels like the state is diminishing their commitment to the common good."

Copyright 2011 The Post-Star. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Posted in Local, Saratoga on Thursday, February 3, 2011 11:45 am Updated: 5:11 pm. | Tags: New York, Andrew Cuo

come chowder-up on Saturday everybody.

2011-01-30T06:12:00.001-08:00

Saratoga Springs set to welcome chowder heads again
Sunday, January 30, 2011
By Jeff Wilkin (Contact)
Gazette Reporter

Photographer: Bruce Squiers

Connie Crudo relaxes at Bailey’s in Saratoga Springs with chowders prepared to promote next month’s Chowderfest in the city.Text Size: A | A | A
As queen of Saratoga Springs’ summer society, Marylou Whitney knows all about haute cuisine.

Quail in puff pastry shells — served with foie gras and truffle sauce — is a natural for an August party.

As a queen of Saratoga Springs’ winter society, Connie Crudo is an expert on hot cuisine. Clam chowder, sausage chowder, corn chowder and shrimp chowder are naturals for the February party Crudo puts together every year.

The gathering is Saratoga’s 13th annual Chowderfest, part of the city’s Winterfest. This year’s pilgrimage for potatoes, clams and assorted vegetables will be held Saturday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. About 60 restaurants will serve chowder in 3-ounce cups for $1 a sample, and about 60 chefs hope their concoctions are convicted of culinary excellence — and win one of six “best of” categories.

“I think Chowderfest is an affordable, fun thing to do on a cold day,” said Crudo, membership and services coordinator for the Saratoga Convention and Tourism Bureau and unofficial queen of the party. “I think we’ve got great restaurants and these restaurants have great reputations. There are diverse offerings, and there are a lot of bars that sell chowder, too.”

Saratoga Springs 13th annual Chowderfest
WHEN: Saturday

WHERE: Assorted restaurants in Saratoga Springs

HOW MUCH: $1 per 3-ounce sample of chowder

MORE INFO: www.discoversaratoga.org/chowderfest
The festival is a big deal for both restaurants and chowder lovers. “It’s a very family-oriented event,” Crudo said. “You see a lot of large groups, it’s great for the kids and it’s great for the older people. Everybody comes bundled up and prepared to stand in line.”

They pick up their ballots first, from any bar or restaurant on the chowder roster. They’ll taste the thick soups, and vote for favorites in categories that include “Best on Broadway,” “Best off Broadway,” “Best Newcomer” and “Best Non-Downtown.” Ballots will be dropped off at the Saratoga County Arts Council and the Saratoga Springs Visitor Center and tabulated later in the day.

Exploration and discovery
Exploration and discovery are two reasons people decide to try dozens of chowders, depending on their appetites. “There’s everything,” Crudo said. “There’s vegetable, there’s chicken chowders, clam chowders, shrimp chowders, Southwestern chowders. I can’t tell you who is serving what because that is top-secret, confidential information until the last minute.”

The event started small. “I have records that go back to 2002, and in that year there were 18 participants,” Crudo said. “In 2010, we had 56 participants.”

This year, Sperry’s, Lillian’s, the Parting Glass, Gaffney’s, Maestro’s and Stadium Cafe are in. So are Wheatfields, the Wishing Well, Cantina, the Grey Gelding, Hattie’s and the Seven Horse Pub. Even Ben & Jerry’s ice cream on Phila Street gets a piece of the action. Scoops of the store’s “Phish Food” ice cream were sold as dessert chowder in 2010. There are even chowders for dogs — pooch-friendly stores “Dawgdom,” “Impressions of Saratoga” and “Sloppy Kisses” will have bowls for the bark set.

Money raised by the convention bureau — each restaurant pays a $150 participation fee — is given to charity.

Joe Richardson, who owns both Bailey’s Cafe on Phila Street and the adjoining Peabody’s Sports Bar and Grille, said Chowderfest provides a boost for the community the same way Saratoga’s popular First Night does on New Year’s Eve. Other restaurant owners say the same thing — chowder attracts people to city kitchens during what is traditionally a slow time.

John Capelli, executive chef at the Olde Bryan Inn on Maple Avenue, said competitive spirit mixes with community spirit.

“It’s not necessarily about us winning,” Capelli said. “We all win. It’s a situation where Saratoga is known for a lot of things, horse racing, the spring waters and such, but we also have an excellent variety of restaurants. There are over 100 places to eat in this city. It’s an opportunity for people to maybe go to a restaurant they’ve never tried before.”

Sizing up the competition
Chefs can also check out what’s happening in other kitchens.

“You want to find out where they’ve got something better than you,” Capelli said. “So you can figure out what they did a little bit different. You’re sharing recipes. As competitive as it is, it’s a lot of fun. I’ve got chefs that come down and try ours after they wrap up and vice versa. One of the things I’m saying if I’m serving is, ‘Who’s the best so far? What do they have out there?’ We’re all curious about what each other is doing.”

Capelli said it’s also fun to watch people during the chowder Saturday. On snowy days, he’s seen people slide up to the Olde Bryan on cross-country skis. They park them next to the fireplace and sip the hot stuff. “It’s kind of like a live-action Norman Rockwell moment,” Capelli said.

Louis Maggiore, operating partner at Longfellows on Union Avenue, also appreciates the crush for chowder.

“If you walk down Broadway during the Chowderfest, there are people everywhere,” he said. “It’s great for the restaurants, people are talking to each other, everybody’s tasting a bowl of chowder, they’re having a good time. They make an all-day thing out of it, it’s almost like tailgating at a football game.

Richardson expects a lot of people and a lot of chowder at his two locations. “Last year, we did 1,911 cups at Bailey’s and 1,260 at Peabody’s — we ran out at 3:30 there,” Richardson said. He’s planning on between 60 and 70 gallons for the two restaurants this Saturday. And crackers — all Chowderfest participants get two cases of oyster crackers from the Westminster Cracker Co. in Rutland, Vt.

Crudo begins preparing for Chowderfest around the middle of December. Restaurants sign up, the party starts rolling and Connie is soon spending most of her time on chowder business. Office colleague Angela LaTerra takes care of advertising in newspapers, radio and magazines.

While chili contests still outnumber chowder parties, Crudo said soup shows are catching up. “They’re becoming more common,” she said. “Ballston Spa does a chowderfest now, Troy does a chowderfest now. I’ve got people calling me, ‘How do you do it? How can I have a chowderfest?’ I’ll share. Just don’t have it on the same day as ours.”

Because chowder heads are on the streets during the winter party, weather can be a concern. “A couple years ago, we had an ice storm the night before,” Crudo said. “By the time we got downtown, it was all cleaned up. The city has been very cooperative.”

Tabulating the votes
This year, Chowderfest has a new wrinkle. Instead of counting ballots over the weekend and announcing winners on Monday — the practice in past years — chowder fans are invited to a second party at the Saratoga City Center at 5:30 p.m. Ballots will be tabulated, and a cash bar and disc jockey will keep people occupied until results are announced.

“We’re trying to keep them downtown for a couple extra hours,” Crudo said.

And the event is becoming more ecologically friendly. A reusable mug with lid and spoon is available for $5, so people who make the purchase won’t be using and tossing bunches of disposable cups and spoons. The mugs are being sold at Celtic Treasures, Crafters Gallery, Crush and Cask Wine and Liquors, Impressions of Saratoga and Just Plain Good/Life Is Good.

Chowderfest is designed to warm interiors, but Crudo said some people want to warm exteriors, too. That’s why festival long-sleeve T-shirts have always been popular. The 2011 model costs $7.

“I once got an e-mail from a man in Florida who had always attended, but said he couldn’t make Chowderfest because of illness,” Crudo said. “He said, ‘I need my shirt. Can you mail me one?’ So I did. Can’t break up his collection.”

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major antique show at Dance Museum/Washington Baths, Ice hockey at warming hut. Love our Spa Park.

2011-01-29T15:19:00.000-08:00

Saratoga Spa State Park. candlelight ski and snowshoe, friday, february 4,2011,6pm-8:30pm at the Warming Hut.

2011-01-28T17:03:00.000-08:00

1.5 miles of candlelit trail

hot food and drinks!

ice skating!

snowshoes and skis available for rent.

call Alli at 518-584-2000 Ext. 116 for more information

New Parks Commissioner to be named, Rose Harvey.

2011-01-28T06:06:00.000-08:00

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Harvey is new parks commissioner
Posted on January 27, 2011 at 2:11 pm by Rick Karlin, Capitol bureau in Environment
1 Share 6 share E-mail We heard the naming of a new Commissioner of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation was in the works today and here she is: Rose Harvey. She comes from the Jonathan Rose Companies most recently, which describes itself as a green real estate firm that does a lot of municipal work, and she’s got a long resume of working on open space issues. It’s unclear what this means in terms of the speculation that Parks and Rec might be somehow merged with the Dept. of Environmental Conservation, although a merged outfit would presumably still need a parks chief. Here are the details:

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the nomination of Rose H. Harvey as commissioner of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

“Rose Harvey’s experience and knowledge as well as her expertise creating countless cost-effective parks, playgrounds and open spaces in underserved communities with efficiency makes her the person we need to lead this agency,” Governor Cuomo said. “I thank her for her public service and look forward to working with her.”

Currently, Ms. Harvey is a senior fellow at the Jonathan Rose Companies, where she acts as an advisor and researcher on parks and open space issues, and launched a non-profit organization to fund, design and develop safe, well-managed parks in urban neighborhoods. She was also recently a McCluskey Fellow and Lecturer at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

For 27 years, Ms. Harvey held multiple leadership positions with The Trust for Public Land, most recently as Senior Vice President and National Director of Urban Programs. There, she oversaw all real estate acquisitions, urban park design and developments, managed the finances of a $20 million annual operating budget, and closed between $50 and $75 million worth of land and parks transactions each year across 8 states – a total of nearly $1 billion and more than a thousand new and enhanced parks, gardens and playgrounds in underserved neighborhoods in New York City, Newark, N.J. and Baltimore. She has also established large landscape woodlands and natural areas throughout New York State and the Mid-Atlantic region.

Ms. Harvey began her tenure in the parks and open space arena as the Assistant Director for Conservation Easement at the Maryland Environmental Trust, where she negotiated protections of private lands holding environmental significance.

Ms. Harvey received her B.A. from Colorado College in 1977 and M.E.S. at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 1984. She currently serves on the Board of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the Yale Leadership Advisory Council. In the past she has served on many conservation organizations, including the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Hudson River Institute and Walsh Park Low Income Housing. In addition to multiple state and national awards for her environmental stewardship and advocacy for open space and parks, Ms. Harvey has written multiple articles and op/eds in numerous national media outlets and industry trade journals.

Lucy Rockefeller Waletzky, M.D., Chair of the New York State Council of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, said, “Ms. Harvey has been key to many of the great additions to state parks of the past 20 years. I look forward to working with her to foster strong private-public partnerships that protect and enhance New York’s parks, open spaces and heritage. I am also deeply committed to working with Governor Cuomo’s administration in preserving our state’s recreational landscapes and natural resources.”

Frances Beinecke, President of Natural Resource Defense Council, said, “Ms. Harvey’s decades of experience in creating hundreds of parks and thousands of acres of open space makes her the perfect choice to lead New York’s agency tasked with protecting and preserving public land. I applaud Governor Cuomo for selecting such a dedicated professional.

Ned Sullivan, President of Scenic Hudson, said, “Rose Harvey brings to this critical job sterling credentials and experience in land conservation and in creating and managing urban gardens and parks. Governor Cuomo has selected an outstanding candidate to help him implement his broad reform agenda and to meet the state’s responsibilities as steward of our unparalleled parkland.”

Kim Elliman, CEO of the Open Space Institute, said, “Rose brings an unparalleled passion for providing all New Yorkers with access to parks and open space. Throughout her 30 year career, she has built an incredible track record of creating and protecting parks, from vest-pocket parks in cities to landscape parks like Sterling Forest. She is singularly qualified for the job and I commend Governor Cuomo for his selection.”

Leslie Wright, New York State Director for The Trust for Public Land, said, “Governor Cuomo’s selection of Ms. Harvey as Commissioner for the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation shows that he is serious about maintaining open space and making it accessible to as many New Yorkers as possible. Ms. Harvey’s storied career in establishing parks, playgrounds and gardens in urban areas, combined with her ongoing advocacy for open space makes her the ideal candidate to lead this agency.”
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we need an umbrella fundraiser for the Victoria Pool soon. Any ideas?? Preliminary estimate for beautiful pool umbrellas about $15,000.

2011-01-23T06:11:00.000-08:00

Will this winter 2011 ever end?

2011-01-20T05:54:00.000-08:00

High Winter is upon us, Avenue of the Pines, Lawrence White,photo.

2011-01-15T05:50:00.000-08:00

Geyser restoration continuing, PostStar, Saratoga Blog.

2011-01-12T09:27:00.001-08:00

Restoration plan sprouting up
StoryDiscussionImage (3)Restoration plan sprouting up
By DREW KERR dkerr@poststar.com The Post-Star | Posted: Friday, December 3, 2010 12:05 am | (1) Comments

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DEREK PRUITT
Derek Pruitt - dpruitt@poststar.com Lester Beninati and his grandson Scott Beninati sample mineral spring water near the island spouter spring at Saratoga Spa State Park on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010. Beninati brought his grandson along who was visiting from Alaska and hadn't been to the park in years. The geyser spring, at right, and the surrounding visitor area have been restored through a public-private partnership with donations near $150,000. .
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..SARATOGA SPRINGS — When state parks officials set out to restore the area around the mineral-water spouting geyser that served as the genesis of the city's tourism industry there was one project they didn't anticipate having to tackle - fixing the geyser itself.

But, in overhauling the area around the so-called island spouter this summer, officials at Saratoga Spa State Park discovered the 300-foot-deep well bore dug to reach the limestone layer where the mineral waters percolate had been compromised.

The geyser - the only such formation east of the Rockies - would sit dormant unless a new well casing was installed.

It was, and this week the geyser was shooting a 10-foot arch of mineral water fresh from the fault line on which it sits.

The repaired spout is among several efforts made over the last five months to beautify the area surrounding the geyser and other mineral springs that dot the 100-year-old state park.

Workers have also cleaned up an area near the geyser where visitors can fill glasses with mineral water, put in new sidewalks so the area is handicapped-accessible and rebuilt a pavilion next to the geyser.

Future plans call for adding signs that will explain the history of the park, its springs and their role in the city's tourism industry, and putting in an extended trail network and a new overlook area.

Those efforts will be taken up again in the spring, and officials said this week they hope to have most of the work done by this time next year.

"People have been very excited about the whole process," park manager Michael Greenslade said. "I think having this area cleaned up and dressed up will just make it that much more attractive to people."

Work to restore the area around the geyser began in May, when officials kicked off a fund-raising effort as part of the park's centennial celebration.

More than $150,000 in donations has since been collected, and officials are seeking another $100,000 to finish the renovations.

Heather Mabee, a volunteer parks commissioner who represents the Saratoga region, said the money that has been raised shows people are willing to step in and support parks when their tax money will not.

Public funding for state parks across New York has diminished in recent years because of budget shortfalls, and officials said they sought private money for the restoration because it was unlikely tax dollars would be spent on such a project.

"People are still contributing, whether it's $5 or $1,000," Mabee said. "We've really been overwhelmed by the public's realization of how important these springs are."

Mabee said restoring the springs is important because they played a critical role in the development of the park, and are such a part of the community's history.

The state bought the land around the springs in 1910 as industry moved to exploit natural gases beneath the surface, threatening the environment.

The area later became a mecca for tourists who sought the mineral water's restorative powers, and park visitors remain enthralled by the water today.

"This is the place in the park that attracts the most tourists, which is really why we picked this place to focus on," said Alane Ball Chinian, director of the Saratoga-Capital region for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Another project in the park was undertaken this year through a public-private partnership.

Two dozen white pines were planted along the Avenue of the Pines last month through a program in which the drink company Odwalla distributes money for tree-plantings in parks.

And a group of resident volunteers, part of a "friends" group that supports the park, has restored a pair of pavilions this year.

Chinian said the efforts show that parks can find ways to make improvements despite limited resources.

"What I think this work really shows is that we're moving on, even in this very difficult economic time," she said.

Copyright 2011 The Post-Star. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

.Posted in Local, Saratoga on Friday, December 3, 2010 12:05 am Updated: 12:06 pm. | Tags: Saratoga Springs, Saratoga Spa State Park, Geyser, Mineral Water

Our beautiful Spa Park after the first big snowfall of 2011.

2011-01-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

New York City Ballet to tour the world for third week of ballet lost to Saratoga and SPAC.

2011-01-07T06:21:00.001-08:00

City Ballet Creates A Troupe For Touring
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: January 6, 2011
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CloseLinkedinDiggMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalink New York City Ballet is creating a small and nimble touring ensemble in the hopes of broadening its appeal around the country and the world.

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While the company’s stars often perform elsewhere on their own, establishing an official spinoff is a departure for the company. Performances by the new group, called New York City Ballet Moves, will also replace work days lost when the company shortened its summer season at the Saratoga Performing Arts Centerto two weeks from three weeks several years ago.

In an interview this week the ballet master in chief, Peter Martins, said the small works that Moves will perform can easily be accommodated by more modest sites, like university auditoriums. “There’s a whole market we haven’t been exposed to,” Mr. Martins said.

He said that he envisioned the possibility of more than one small company operating at the same time, and that he saw the European summer festival circuit as fertile ground.

Without solicitation Mr. Martins took pains to emphasize that the new company would not be an apprentice or grade-B group.

“This is not a diminished product in any way,” he said. “These are not students that I’m training to get in the company. These are top-notch dancers. You’re getting the real thing when you hire this group.”

A rotating group of dancers will make up Moves, and it will include members from every level of the company. The roster for the first season consists of the principal dancers Jared Angle, Joaquin De Luz, Robert Fairchild, Sterling Hyltin, Maria Kowroski, Tiler Peck, Amar Ramasar, Daniel Ulbricht and Wendy Whelan; the soloists Adrian Danchig-Waring, Erica Pereira and Rebecca Krohn; and the corps de ballet members Chase Finlay, Anthony Huxley, Lauren Lovette, Brittany Pollack and Taylor Stanley.

Musicians will be drawn from the New York City Ballet Orchestra. Moves will have its first performances this summer at the Vail International Dance Festival, on July 31 and Aug. 1 and 2, followed by four performances, Aug. 5 to 7 at the Center for the Arts in Jackson, Wyo., where a group of City Ballet dancers performed last summer in what the company called a trial run.

They will present two programs, consisting of George Balanchine’s “Duo Concertant,” Jerome Robbins’s “Dances at a Gathering,” Mr. Martins’s “Fool for You,” “Hallelujah Junction” and “Zakouski,” and Christopher Wheeldon’s “After the Rain” pas de deux and “Polyphonia.” The musical accompaniment includes one and two pianos, piano and violin and taped voice.

A natural connection links the Vail festival to City Ballet: the festival’s artistic director is a former City Ballet star, Damian Woetzel. “Knowing that they were starting to look at this as a way to present the company differently, I looked at it and thought this would be fantastic at Vail,” Mr. Woetzel said.

In Vail the dancers will present a program that Mr. Martins called a lecture-demonstration and the festival called a “rehearsal-style romp.” It will be devoted to solos for male dancers by Balanchine, who is perceived has having focused more on female dancers. (“Ballet is woman,” went his famous line.) “The irony is he choreographed great material for men,” Mr. Martins said.

The new program is a return to City Ballet’s history of touring, especially its frequent travels in the United States in the 1950s through the early ’80s. That helped build a following and expanded the pool of potential dancers, Mr. Martins said. But when a musicians’ contract after 1986 required the orchestra to perform with the dancers in any North American engagements, traveling with large-scale works became too expensive, he said.

Most of the recent touring has thus been abroad. City Ballet also appears regularly at the Kennedy Center in Washington. While visiting companies there are required to use the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, a deal was worked out in 2002 allowing the two orchestras to alternate.

Mr. Martins said the touring would not be a source of revenue, but was expected to break even.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 7, 2011, on page C3 of the New York edition.
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Save the Victoria Pool Society exploring more umbrella possibilities for summer 2011. Stay tuned.

2011-01-06T05:51:00.000-08:00

vintage Golf House photo at Victoria Pool.

2011-01-03T05:41:00.000-08:00

Save the Victoria Pool Society wishes everyone a 2011 full of answered hopes and dreams.

2010-12-31T12:41:00.000-08:00

vintage Victoria Pool, 150 something days and counting.

2010-12-29T05:23:00.000-08:00

we hope you all had a warm and wonderful Christmas surrounded by loved ones and are getting hunkered down for the snowstorm.

2010-12-26T15:28:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. A gift from Marylou to Saratoga.

2010-12-24T05:45:00.001-08:00

The Marylou Whitney Rose unveiled (with video)
Published: Friday, December 24, 2010

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Longtime friend Marlene Okby greets Marylou Whitney at her birthday luncheon at the Saratoga Golf and Polo Club Thursday. The Saratoga Springs philanthropist has been honored with the commission of a rose in her name. The first crop of the Marylou Whitney rose is being grown now. (ERICA MILLER, The Saratogian)

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Marylou Whitney, at a birthday luncheon held in her honor Thursday, holds a bouquet of roses similar to the new rose in her name that was commissioned as a gift from her husband, John Hendrickson. Her friends have arranged with the city to donate a Marylou Whitney rose garden outside the Canfield Casino in Saratoga Springs’ Congress Park. (ERICA MILLER, The Saratogian)

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A rose garden honoring Marylou Whitney will be created in Congress Park near the entrance where the local philanthropist and horse owner traditionally enters the Canfield Casino for her annual black-tie gala celebrating the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Race Course.

The garden will feature a new specially bred, long-stem pink tea rose named in her honor, an 85th birthday gift from her husband, John Hendrickson, who commissioned it as "an endearing legacy."

Missing our Victoria Pool on these long winter nights.

2010-12-21T06:20:00.000-08:00

A great opportunity to meet a Saratoga Icon, Minnie Bolster and buy her wonderful book and great Saratoga vintage photos, Sat.,12/18-10-1,Casino.

2010-12-15T06:33:00.000-08:00

Bolster Collection Day and Meet the Authors
December 18, 10-1
'Have you ever been in a home, shop or business in Saratoga Springs that had old time photos of Saratoga Springs displayed and you wondered where they came from? Chances are they are copies of images from the George S. Bolster Collection of the Saratoga Springs History Museum.

On Saturday, December 18 from 10-1, the museum will hold Bolster Collection Day and a local author book signing in the History Museum. If you haven't heard of the Bolster Collection, now is your chance to get acquainted. The Bolster Collection is an archive of over 300,000 negatives of Saratoga Springs, 1855 to the 1980's. This major photographic collection is one of the largest of its type in the country and is filled with striking and important images from Saratoga Springs past.

In this fundraising event, the History Museum will have hundreds of different images copied from the collection on display and available for purchase at discounted rates. Visitors can also check to see if we have an historic image of their own home on the spot with a museum curator.

The Museum will also feature four local authors selling and signing their recent books in the Museum's Holiday Shop. Minnie Clark Bolster will sign her latest book: The Way We Were and What They Said About us 1822 - 1896. This book tells a fascinating story of early Saratoga Springs through the eyes of visitors and the media. Journalist Paul Post's Soldiers of Saratoga County: From Concord to Kabul looks deeply into contributions Saratoga County residents have made in defense of our country. Thomas Wood III's latest book Saratoga is a post card view of the Town of Saratoga. This book includes many rare and recently discovered images of Schuylerville, Victory, and Saratoga Lake. Hollis Palmer's most recent book, See and Be Seen Saratoga in the Victoria Era is a look at Saratoga Springs in the gilded age when grand hotels lined Broadway and visitors came to take the water .

These books and photographs of Saratoga Springs make perfect gifts.