Bravo! Friends!

Spa park tennis players lucky to have Friends
Monday, June 16, 2008
By Lee Coleman (Contact)
Gazette Reporter



Text Size: A | A | A
In the mid-1990s the four clay tennis courts at the Saratoga Spa State Park were starting to show their age.

The four courts, which are located off Roosevelt Drive across from the Homemade Theater and park administration building and are free to park visitors, were installed in the 1930s, according to Stephen Miller of Wilton. Miller is a member of the Friends of Saratoga Spa State Park.

The Har-Tru type clay courts require a considerable amount of maintenance. Such things as sweeping, watering and rolling the green clay surface are needed on a daily basis.

Some tennis enthusiasts, who were also members of the Friends of Saratoga Spa State Park, received permission eight years ago to start maintaining the courts, which are open, free-of-charge, to the public.

Today the courts are in pristine condition, thanks to the efforts of the Friends, which is a nonprofit group of about 70 people who provide a variety of volunteer services and some private funding to the 2,200-acre state park in Saratoga Springs.

“It’s really a partnership with Saratoga Spa State Park,” Miller said.

“We provide volunteer labor and maintain the courts.”

The park provides a new load of Har-Tru clay surface for the courts each spring. Har-Tru tennis court clay is made from “billion year old, Precambrian metabasalt found in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia,” according to the Collins Company Web site (www.collinscompany.com).

Once the new clay surface is down, a subcommittee of the Friends starts its almost daily maintenance of the courts.

The Friends nail down the fabric lines, they sweep and roll the courts, they even installed an inground watering system so the Har-Tru can be properly watered down before rolling.

“Water and rolling are the two keys to a good clay court,” Miller said.

Dan Blanchfield of Saratoga Springs, a member of the Friends board of directors like Miller, and Jeff Thompson of Clifton Park, have been key players in bringing the four tennis courts back to their former glory, Miller said.

Tennis players like clay courts because the surface is easier on the players’ legs and the tennis games last longer because the ball comes off the clay surface at a much slower pace than off asphalt or composition-surface tennis courts.

About a year ago, the Friends put in a new entrance gate and slate entrance walkway to the courts, complete with a small garden.

“We share the responsibility,” said Michael Greenslade, manager of the Saratoga Spa State Park.

“Our responsibility ends in the spring when a company comes and levels the courts and puts down the Har-Tru,” Greenslade said.

“They do every bit of the daily maintenance over there,” he said about the Friends.

“They have a tennis subcommittee to watch over the courts,” Greenslade said. “It’s unique to Spa State Park.”

Greenslade said the volunteer work on the tennis courts frees up park employees to do other work around the state park.

Greenslade said the Friends of Saratoga Spa State Park incorporated in the late 1990s. James Kettlewell, a retired Skidmore College professor, is current Friends president.

“It’s a very active friends group,” Greenslade said. “They have been extremely helpful.”

Over the past few years the Friends have rebuilt the Hathorn No. 3 pavilion and have finished the Hayes pavilion near the Spouter spring.

“They also help support different environmental education programs,” he said. For example, the Friends are active during the popular spring tradition of stocking trout in the Geyser stream that runs through the park.

“They are a real good bunch of people to have around, very positive,” Greenslade said.

People interested in joining the Friends group can become members by paying a small fee each year. For example, individuals pay $25 per year or a family $40. Students and senior citizens become members by paying just $5 per year. Contributions and membership fees can be sent to: The Friends of the Spa State Park, 19 Roosevelt Drive, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Share story: print email +digg
+fark +reddit
+facebook +del.icio.us
+stumbleupon

comments
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Username:
Password:
(Forgot your password?) Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)
Advertisement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Today's Gazette...
June 16, 2008 500 earn Union College diplomas
$5M project to make Schoharie intersections safer
Spa park tennis players lucky to have Friends
Crowd says goodbye to St. Clare’s
Duanesburg Planning Board member retires after 33 years

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Poll
Should school districts be allowed to adopt contingency budgets without voter approval? Yes
No
Not sure


See the results


Submit news tip
66°

Rain
08:51 AM EDT
Weather Forecast



Advertisement









© The Daily Gazette Co. 2008 Terms of Service Advertising Information

86 degrees, Saturday, June 14, 2008

84 degrees, Friday, 6/13/08 Party time at victoria Pool that taxpayers paid to renovate but public locked out.

give us a sign?

We asked the Park today to at least post a sign that Victoria Pool is not open since the public comes from all over the city,state and country at this time of year assuming it is open and it would be the kind thing to do. In the SARATOGIAN today and yesterday readers posted the following comments unfortunately anonymously:

OPEN THE POOLS
On Sunday I hosted a bridal shower in front of the Victoria Pool and I saw many families with children trying to walk up and enjoy the pool on these hot days. I am in favor of opening the pools now and I think many people woud agree.

OPEN POOLS
What a shame that the pools in Saratoga aren't open for Saratoga residents. As hot as it has been, you would think they would open the pools, but instead they just save them for the tourist.

80 degrees, 4:50 PM, Thursday, June 12,2008, Pool water is sky blue

83 degrees, Wednesday, june 11,2008, pool crystal clear and no people allowed

alloveralbany.com

check out :

www.alloveralbany.com

Hot and Bothered about the Victoria Pool

95 degrees again, tuesday, june 10,2008 and the pool sits with water and no people allowed.

95 degrees, Monday, June 9,2008 and still no pool.

Sunday, June 8, 2008 92 degrees again and no pool

Weather and Victoria Pool status for Saturday, June 7, 2008

92 degrees, sunny and still no pool.

Triple Crown

Good luck to Big Brown and Saratoga's own Macho Again in the Belmont Stakes today.

1st weekend in June 2008 will be in the 90's, people would be lined up by the 100's to go to Victoria Pool again

Springs Walkabout at Saratoga Spa State Park

For Immediate Release: Contact: Andy Fyfe
June 2, 2008 (518) 584-2000 x 119


Spa Park to Host Historic Springs Walkabout for National Trails Day


Saratoga Spa State Park announces a walking tour to showcase the park’s historic springs and celebrate National Trails Day on Saturday, June 7th, from 1 to 4 pm.

Park staff, in collaboration with The Friends of Saratoga Spa State Park will lead a walking tour of several active springs, and search for other springs that have disappeared through the years. Participants will have the opportunity to sample the springs, learn about their historical use and the legend and lore surrounding them.

As this event is also a celebration of National Trails Day, Park staff will hand out garbage bags to any volunteers willing to help clean our wonderful trails. Please come dressed appropriately.

This event is free and open to the public; however, registration is required. Please call the education office at (518) 584-2000, ext. 119, for registration and directions.

Saratoga Spa State Park, “The Public’s Resort,” is proud to have many miles of trails for walking, running or hiking. Maps are available at the Park Office. For our walk locations and other public hikes and classes, see our events calendar our web site at www.nysparks.com and also www.saratogaspastatepark.org.




###

Public meeting to discuss Master Plan for Saratoga Spa State Park

We received a notice that a public information meeting will be held on Monday, June 16,2008 at 6:30 pm in the ballroom of the Gideon Putnam Hotel to get public input and questions on the development of a Master Plan for the Saratoga Spa State Park.
Park staff will give a brief overview of the planning effort and resources of the Park. Park Staff will answer questions and receive comments.

Finally? we've been working for this for years at Roosevelt Baths

SPA: For the purists
May 28th, 2008
Mineral bath purists can bathe easy once again.

Two of the bathing rooms at the Roosevelt Bathhouse were converted into fully heated, fully mineral water-based havens of water luxury last week. The move comes months after it was discovered warm tap water was being mixed with the mineral variety to bring what would otherwise be a frigid dip to lukewarm temperatures.

Two more baths are also expected to get mineral water heating equipment by the summer’s end, said Michael Barnes, the general manager at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Spa State Park.

They are among a litany of renovations planned by Delaware North, which took over management of the hotel and the bathhouse in January. They are currently in the beginning planning stages of the renovation process.

– Drew Kerr

Posted in Saratoga Snippets | No Comments (Add a Comment) »

A sad and lonely sight post Memorial Day 2008

85 degrees, Memorial Day 2008

Broadway protest to get Victoria Pool open, Saratogian, 5/25/08

A small crowd gathered in front of Mrs. London’s bakery on Broadway in Saratoga Springs to protest the Victoria pool not being open by Memorial Day weekend. (ERICA MILLER/The Saratogian)
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Approximately a dozen people, some in bathing suits, gathered together on Broadway Saturday afternoon to protest the late opening of the Victoria Pool in Saratoga Spa State Park.

“We don’t want to be here,” said Louise Goldstein, co-founder of the Save the Victoria Pool Society. “We’d rather be at the pool.”

Goldstein was joined by Andrew Jennings of Ballston Spa, who co-founded the group with her. Each held signs; Jennings spent much of his time sitting in a blue kiddie pool. The pair is part of a group who wanted to use the visible Broadway sidewalk as a means to attract attention from state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, the state Parks Department, and taxpayers.

The Victoria Pool first opened in 1934 and is said to have been the first heated public pool in the country. While the pool is no longer heated, Goldstein said traditionally the pool was always opened on Memorial Day weekend, but in recent years, the Parks Department has declined to open the pool until late June, typically after school finishes for the year.

While the pool’s open to people of all ages, few children are found there. Most children and families utilize the Peerless Pool, which includes a main pool with zero-depth entry, a children’s wading pool area and a separate pool dedicated to a double slide. The atmosphere at Victoria Pool is significantly different, as it is surrounded by historical architecture with a café and bar easily accessible.

In addition to the history it offers, Jennings said Victoria Pool offers those who make their way there the opportunity to create lifelong friendships. For Holly Swits, a board member of the Save the Victoria Pool Society, the atmosphere makes it special.

“It is like being at a resort,” she said. “You feel like you’ve gotten away.”

The society members said they collected hundreds of signatures last year from people who wanted to see the Parks Department open the pool earlier this year. Saying they have been given a variety of reasons, all unacceptable to them, from the Parks Department as to why the pool can not return to the Memorial Day weekend opening, the group held their signs high and spoke with passersby regarding the situation.

The Save the Victoria Pool Society was founded in 2003 as a grassroots group dedicated to restoring, maintaining and preserving the historic pool. The group publicized the pool’s state of disrepair and lobbied for improvements. In December 2003, park officials announced a $1.5 million restoration and revitalization project which addressed the needs of the Victoria Pool. Repairs were made to the masonry work, the roof, the locker rooms, showers and bathrooms were improved; a filtration system was replaced and a multitude of exterior renovations were made

Can't wait until Saturday... Come join us.

Andrew Jennings, Co-Founder, Save the Victoria Pool Society preparing for assembly on 5/24/08

Victoria Pool rally gains steam

Spa State Park cuts mowing to save on fuel, labor
Critics blasts decision to let some acres go wild

By DENNIS YUSKO, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
Last updated: 11:15 a.m., Wednesday, May 21, 2008

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- The Saratoga Spa State Park's manicured lawns are the latest casualty of sky-high fuel prices.
To save money on gas, the state will allow parts of the park to grow wild this year.

Under a new initiative also designed to save on labor and cut emissions, 11 1/2 acres of lawns at the park will be allowed to become meadows, Park Manager Michael Greenslate said.

Areas along the road connecting routes 9 and 50, a grassy acre or so located across Route 9 from the Lincoln Bath House and other low-use spots will go uncut, he said.

Reducing mowing will cut down on fuel and maintenance costs, and is a smart environmental move, park officials said. Mowing reductions may be introduced at some of the other 177 state parks, too.

``While there is no official statewide policy per se, we are always looking at ways to improve our efficiency and sustainability,'' said Eileen Larrabee, communications director for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

The 2,200-acre Saratoga Spa State Park is distinguished by its classical architecture, entertainment venues, pine forest and natural geysers. It is listed as a National Historic Landmark, and locals are famously protective of it.

In an interview this week, Louise Goldstein, co-founder of a group that worked to keep the park's Victoria Pool open, called the decision to cease mowing ``ridiculous.'' The park and some of its buildings already are ``in a horribly deteriorated state,'' she said.

Save the Victoria Pool Society members will gather at 5 p.m. Saturday on Broadway near City Hall to push the state to open the stately pool prior to this year's first day, June 28, Goldstein said.

Park officials volunteered information about the changes in grass cutting because they wanted the public to know that they are not neglecting lawns, but making positive environmental adjustments, said Alli Schweizer, park naturalist.

``I think people might be surprised how beautiful the fields will look when they come back to their natural state,'' she said.

Last week, the state committed $5.2 million to the park, which will build a new facade for the Saratoga Performing Arts amphitheater, renovate picnic and parking areas, repair the Peerless Pool and more.

Greenslate could not say how much money the mowing initiative would save. The park's staff of 12 groundspeople, plus seasonal workers in the summer, will be free to work on other projects, he said. The 11.5 uncut acres will be mowed once at the end of the season, he said.

The Victoria Pool is opening the same date as all state pools, Greenslate said. The date has been pushed back a few days because school schedules are running later this year, he said.




All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2008, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.

HOME | CONTACT US | SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSPAPER | HOW TO ADVERTISE | PRIVACY RIGHTS | COPYRIGHT | CLASSROOM ENRICHMENT

Rally to open Victoria Pool As soon as POSSIBLE

Save the Victoria Pool Society needs your help to let NYS Parks know that an end of June opening of the Victoria Pool is outrageous. Your taxpayer dollars recently paid $1.5 million to save the Victoria Pool and it is opened later every year for a variety of excuses that change daily. One-third of our precious summer is over by the end of June and the traditional opening date is Memorial Day.
Join us in your bathing suits(optional but preferred) with signs on:
Saturday, May 24 at 5PM in front of Mrs. Londons, 464 Broadway, Saratoga Springs.

or Call:
NYS Parks:518-486-1868
Senator Bruno:518-455-3191

Victoria Pool demonstration, Glens Falls Post Star 5/16/08

Even if the gravedigger isn't busy, Broadway is still buzzing
Published: Friday, May 16, 2008



On the corner of Broadway and Lake Avenue, shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday, a woman leans into the display window of Menges & Curtis Pharmacy and re-arranges a blue-veined floral display in the storefront window. SNAP.

Across the street, in front of City Hall, blue-suited public defender Andrew Blumenberg leaps onto the curb just as the small traffic box above him lights up with a giant red hand that proceeds to perform a countdown in the crosswalk for pedestrians: 3, 2, 1. SNAP.

Before the end of the business day inside the courtroom on the second floor of City Hall, 54 cases would pass in front of the judge, and on this day, most seemed to arise in the aftermath of alcohol, or drugs, or a sudden fit of madness.

On Caroline Street, where a community board is fixed to a wall, flyers announcing weekend events jockey for position: Ice cream and a free dance lesson at the Saratoga Music Hall, reads one. Brazilian fusion guitarist Ulisses at Cafe Lena, reads another. There is also a benefit dinner in Ballston Spa for a 2-year-old girl battling a rare, life-threatening disease.

Across the avenue, where Washington Street crosses Broadway, a group of smokers gathers beneath a canopy to shield themselves from nickel-sized drops of rain that suddenly begin falling from the sky.

Two blocks away, Louise Goldstein, co-founder of the Save the Victoria Pool Society, is seated at her favorite table inside Mrs. London's Bakery and Cafe, which she laughingly calls her "winter office." She wonders what she can do to get state parks officials to open the Victorian Pool earlier this year.

"We'll stage a protest on Broadway with people wearing bathing suits," she says, finally. "We just need to get a permit."

On Thursday, many of the staff of this newspaper set out on the streets of Glens Falls to capture "A Day in the Life" of that city.

There is a story about young newspaperman Jimmy Breslin looking for an angle from which to cover the Kennedy assassination in Dallas in 1963. He talked to the gravedigger.

So when the "Day in the Life" project came up, the gravedigger naturally came to mind.

Unfortunately, setting up an appointment to find a gravedigger busy doing actual digging on Thursday would prove to be challenging.

Instead, I spent an afternoon trying to capture images of Broadway in Saratoga Springs.

The gravedigger's reasoning, though, for being unable to provide an exact schedule was classic.

Sorry, the man said.

"We don't generally get that much advance notice."

Saratoga Bureau writer Thomas Dimopoulos can be reached at tdimopoulos@poststar.com.

SPAC to get new facade in the fall

SARATOGA SPRINGS
SPAC to get new facade $2.5M renovation includes sound system, lighting
BY TATIANA ZARNOWSKI Gazette Reporter


Undulating sand-colored waves cover the outside of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center amphitheater in a design revealed on Wednesday.
Construction on the $2.5 million facade renovation is scheduled to begin this October after the 2008 SPAC season ends and be finished by next May before the new season.
The renovation designed by Saratoga Associates is expected to go out to bid in about a month. Under the plan, the deteriorating 43-year-old wooden siding would be replaced with a new facade made of recycled paper and forest products. New lighting and sound systems also would be added.
That means people on the lawn won’t be able to see big black speakers anymore, said Bob Bristol, chief executive officer of Saratoga Associates. And new fiber-optic lights directed at the floors and exits will light the way without blinding SPAC patrons, he added.
“The light that you see is going to be remarkably impressive,” said SPAC Chairman William Dake.
The lights are energy-efficient and will reduce light pollution in Saratoga Spa State Park, he added. The SPAC renovation is one of a slate of state park projects this year that include $1.5 million to renovate six restrooms in picnic areas, $625,000 to repave roads and parking lots, $263,000 for bike and pedestrian improvements, $169,000 to repaint and fix concrete at Peerless Pool and $147,000 to remove asbestos at Spa Little Theater.
State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R- Brunswick, said that it’s money well-spent. “This is a priority.”
The money for the project was provided in a $132 million package for the state park system in Gov. David Paterson’s budget that was approved by the state Legislature, said Carol Ash, state parks commissioner. In all, the park system needs $650 million to bring its facilities up to snuff, Ash said.
Bruno noted that he and the new governor are big supporters of the state parks, adding he’s enjoying working with Paterson. “It’s like a honeymoon,” Bruno said. “It’s almost indecent, we’re getting along so well.”
Since 2005, the state has pumped nearly $7 million into SPAC’s facilities, including padded seats, a new roof and a better backstage to the amphitheater.
The latest renovation sketch was unveiled Wednesday as part of SPAC’s annual meeting at the Hall of Springs in Congress Park.
The amphitheater renovation will be a “green” building, Bristol said. It’s the second such environmentally friendly building Saratoga Associates has designed for SPAC.
The box office was designed in 1973 partially underground to shield it from public view. As an unintentional result, it stays cool without air conditioning, Bristol said.
“Where it was situated, the back end of the building would have been visible,” he said.
SPAC’s new marketing initiatives this year include a redesigned Web site and “previews” of future acts that will be played during performance intermissions and on video screens downtown. “The idea is that people have a better idea of what the performance is about,” Dake said.
SPAC officials also are marketing the center, with music, the New York City Ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra, as a close-to-home option for summer fun that won’t require paying the high price of gas to get out of town.
The performing arts center enjoyed $2.9 million in total ticket sales last year compared to $2.6 million in 2006. In all, it had $3.4 million operating income, $4.4 million in contribution income and $7.7 million in expenses.
“This marks the third year in a row that SPAC has operated in the black,” said board member Arthur Roth.
It even has almost a $150,000 surplus from last year.
Other announcements Wednesday include:
Sonny and Julie Bonacio will serve as honorary chairs of the Saratoga Wine and Food Festival with co-chairs Jasper and Beth Alexander.
“West Side Story” star Rita Moreno will be the chairwoman of the New York City Ballet gala on July 19.
Heather Mabee, chairwoman of the Saratoga-Capital District region of the state Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commission, and Susan Phillips Read, associate judge of the state Court of Appeals, were elected as new SPAC board members.


RENDERING COURTESY SARATOGA ASSOCIATES
An artist’s rendering shows the planned facade face-lift for the Saratoga Performing Arts Center amphitheatre.

Saratoga's Roosevelt Baths in NYTimes,5/8/08

They Came to New York for the Waters

James Rajotte for The New York Times
Janice Hall takes a soak at Clifton Springs, near her home in Rochester. Many of the mineral-springs spas that once dotted New York are being rejuvenated.


E-Mail
Print
Reprints
Save
Share
Digg
Facebook
Mixx
Yahoo! Buzz
Permalink

By EVE M. KAHN
Published: May 9, 2008
PUNGENTLY sulfurous waters burble up from the ground alongside a concrete 1970s hospital building in Clifton Springs, N.Y., southeast of Rochester, and I’m soaking in them. That is, waters from a mineral spring renowned in the 19th century for healing properties have been pumped from a stream running beneath the hospital lawn into a new spa wing, where I’ve gone more for relaxation than anything curative, and a nurse has prepared a hot bath for me.

Skip to next paragraph
New York Travel Guide
Go to the New York Travel Guide »
Multimedia
Map
New York State

James Rajotte for The New York Times
Even Europeans now come to Clifton Springs for the waters.


James Rajotte for The New York Times
A range of additives is available at Clifton Springs, top. The décor at Roosevelt is testimony to its Depression-era origin, above.


James Rajotte for The New York Times
Clifton Springs recently uncapped its waters. Qi gong exercise in the chapel of a sanitarium that once occupied the grounds.

Enlarge This Image

Stewart Cairns for The New York Times
Since the 1930s, the state-run Roosevelt Baths have been a fixture at Saratoga Spa State Park in Saratoga Springs, a k a Spa City.

In a serene pale-purple treatment room, I step gingerly into the tea-colored water. The vapors clear my head, and I soon feel tingly and light, yet strangely immobile. The sound of the spring outside, gurgling into tiers of concrete fountain pools, mingles with the indoor soundtrack of pan flutes. When a knock on the door comes for my scheduled massage, I’m sorry to let the water drain.

Upstate New York is hardly known as a center of mineral springs. But in the 19th century, the golden age of mineral-water spas, at least 50 New York towns, scattered from Long Island to Lake Ontario, had resorts or sanitariums drawing on water emerging from rocky places underground and laced with elements like magnesium, calcium, potassium, iron and sulfur. “There were more mineral baths available in New York than in any other state,” said Charlotte Wytias, the program manager at the Clifton Springs Hospital’s spa.

All sorts of healing powers were claimed for the waters, which often carry a metallic or swampy taste and smell. But primarily, the resorts were places to go on vacation. “Life at the springs is a perpetual festival,” an 1850s guidebook said.

Most of the resorts failed after World War II. Clifton Springs is one of a handful of towns left in New York with licensed facilities for soaking in mineral water. But with spas again a hot tourist draw (though in a 21st-century guise), interest is growing again. “Towns are realizing that they’re sitting on gold mines,” said Ms. Wytias, who, as a board member of the five-year-old New York Spa Alliance, is active among spa owners, medical workers, government officials and preservationists trying to revive the state’s mineral springs. For now, there are a few quirky vintage and new New York facilities to bask in, and some eerie spa ruins to visit.

Caveat before you go: drinking or lounging in the waters is calming, entertaining and nostalgic, but don’t expect much healing. “There are no studies I’m aware of that actually prove any medical benefit,” said Wallace Sampson, a professor emeritus at Stanford University’s medical school and editor of The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine.

At the springs at Clifton Springs Hospital, spa customers enter via an unexpectedly charming lobby stocked with exhibitions of antique medical equipment, like ivory-handled surgical knives and a woven-cane wheelchair — relics of the Clifton Springs Water-Cure, a once-popular Victorian sanitarium on the property. The town capped those waters in the 1950s, but in 2004, the hospital laid new pipes. Since then, word of the new spa has gotten around. “We’ve had visitors from as far away as Latvia and Germany,” Ms. Wytias said. “They’ll walk in and tell us, ‘Thank goodness there’s a place like this again!’ ”

In the heyday of the waters, New York’s mineral springs resorts were “the poshest,” said Thomas A. Chambers, an associate professor of history at Niagara University in Lewiston, N.Y., and author of “Drinking the Waters: Creating an American Leisure Class at Nineteenth-Century Mineral Springs” (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002). And perhaps poshest of all were those in Saratoga. “They set a standard for luxury and conspicuous consumption,” he said.

The official nickname of Saratoga Springs is Spa City, and a few Victorian hotels there still have wraparound porches for lounging between baths. Only two spas in town still draw on certified mineral water: the privately owned, 20-year-old Crystal Spa just outside Saratoga Spa State Park and the state-run 1930s Roosevelt Baths deep in pine groves inside the park. My husband and I opted for the latter, a sprawling Georgian-style brick complex with black-and-white tiled hallways and bright ceiling lights, built during the Depression and used ever since. Wounded World War II veterans frequented it, and the German government paid for Holocaust survivors’ treatments there.

We waited 40 minutes after the staff mislaid our appointment record, but irritation faded when we sank into white tubs in adjacent treatment rooms separated by thick wooden doors. My husband had lavender oil sprinkled into his bath, almost entirely concealing the mineral smell, while my choice of Adirondack Woods flavoring resulted in a pleasant fresh-peat smell.

We rehydrated afterward with naturally carbonated spring water from a black-ceramic wall fountain. It tasted a little like Campari (and would be great with cranberry juice). We were curious about it. Which of the park’s dozens of subterranean springs did it come from? Why did it seem fizzier than the bath water? There were no explanatory panels and no one to answer questions, just a small sign: “Mineral Drinking Water.” No labeled bottles are on sale either — just generic beauty products. (You can fill your own bottles with various kinds of Saratoga water, however, at a dozen springs in gazebos scattered around the state park and the town. Maps are available at the visitor center at 297 Broadway.)

Enlightenment may be easier at the Roosevelt Baths after this summer. Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts, a company with management contracts in publicly owned locations from Niagara Falls to Yosemite National Park, has taken on a 20-year lease at the Saratoga park. “We’ll be putting in beautifully well-done interpretive boards, like you’d see in a museum, with photos and drawings and verbiage telling the story we need to be telling,” said Michael Barnes, the general manager for the baths and the adjacent Gideon Putnam Resort. The clinical bathhouse palette will also be softened, he added: “It seems kind of institutional a little bit. We think we can warm it up.”

An already romantic mineral-springs bath is available just south of Saratoga, at the 1804 Medbery Inn & Spa in the slightly tattered town of Ballston Spa. (Richard Russo, in his 1993 novel “Nobody’s Fool,” parodied Ballston Spa as a town “waiting for its luck to change.”) According to Professor Chambers’s book, by the early 1800s, “Ballston Spa had become the premier resort of American gentry from both North and South.” But eventually its springs were partly tapped out, and its grandest hotel, the Sans Souci, was demolished in 1887. The Medbery, a long-vacant rooming house when the innkeepers, Jim and Dolores Taisey, bought it in 2002, is now linked by piping to the Sans Souci spring and has 11 guest rooms and a spa suite in a woozy palette of mauve, burgundy and rose.

In my treatment room, a mural depicted a garden vista and tiles were embossed with ferns and seashells. I didn’t recognize the mineral water at first because of a spicy added scent and a thick coating of bubble bath. But the familiar odor and tea tint gradually came through. Crickets and birds chirped on the sound track as my hands broke the bubbles. I polished off a tray of cranberry juice and cantaloupe and a Hershey’s Kiss left on the bathtub rim.

Mr. Taisey, when I called for an interview a few weeks later, explained that "a lot of people definitely believe in the healing, therapeutic qualities of the waters, and the baths make great pretreatments" for massages and other body work. “People call us so happy and relieved to find out they can have access to the waters again,” he said.

Within the next few years, a few other mineral-springs facilities are expected to open. In Dansville, 45 miles south of Rochester, the Krog Corporation received a $2.5 million state grant in January to convert the Castle on the Hill, an abandoned sanitarium on a slope riddled with mineral springs, into a wellness center with public spa. In the center of Clyde, 40 miles east of Rochester, the town government is digging a well into its long-dormant spring and planning to provide public faucets and signs.

And in Sharon Springs, 45 miles west of Albany, Sharon Springs Inc., a group of primarily South Korean investors, paid $750,000 in 2005 for a moldering complex built between the 1870s and 1930s, including two bathhouses and three hotels. It has plans for amenities ranging from ginseng saunas, outdoor pools and Korean barbecue stands to a convention center and helipad.

“We will also have signs in many languages, explaining the kinds of water and how it is good for you,” Kyusung Cho, chief executive of the investment group, said in an interview at his office in Queens. The village government has not yet approved the proposals. Locals are concerned that historic buildings may be demolished or renovated beyond recognition.

“There’s a wonderful weird magic to this town, a confluence of geology and climate and architecture, that we want to keep,” said Tony Daou, owner of the Black Cat Cafe and Bakery in Sharon Springs. “This was the Baden-Baden of America, and it could be fabulous again, if the project’s done right.”

The investors have preserved one drinking well under an octagonal 1920s gazebo called the White Sulphur Temple. As I leaned over the railing around the gurgling source, the stinging smell kept me from scooping up a drink. But I couldn’t help imagining a long soak under the stars.

VISITOR INFORMATRION

THE Springs Integrative Medicine Center & Spa (2 Coulter Road, Clifton Springs, N.Y.; 315-462-0390; www.thespringsofclifton.com) is at Clifton Springs Hospital, 25 miles southeast of Rochester. From Interstate 90, take Exit 43 to Route 96 east and turn south on Kendall Street to reach Clifton Springs. Mineral bath soaks start at $20, and an hour massage costs $60. The spa also has beauty treatments and offerings like aroma therapy ($30) and craniosacral therapy ($60).

Just up the street is the Clifton Pearl (46 East Main Street; 315-462-5050), a newly restored Victorian bed-and-breakfast. Doubles start at $179; a package including treatments at the Springs starts at $309.

Medbery Inn & Spa (48 Front Street, Ballston Spa; 518-885-7727; www.medberyinnandspa.com) is in a former rooming house from the early 19th century. It is on Route 50, accessible from Exit 12 on Interstate 87. The inn has 11 rooms, starting at $150 and offers mineral baths starting at $16 and massages starting at $65. Beauty treatments include the black Baltic mud wrap for $85.

The Roosevelt Baths (39 Roosevelt Drive in Saratoga Spa State Park, on Route 9 off Exit 13 on I-87; 518-226-4790) is a state-owned Georgian-style complex built in the 1930s as a clinic. It has mineral baths (from $25), an array of massage styles (Swedish, from $85) and body wraps (mountain maple sugar scrub, $95). Adjacent is the colonnaded Gideon Putnam Resort (24 Gideon Putnam Road; 866-890-1171; doubles from $209). The hotel and baths share the Web site www.gideonputnam.com.

A short drive from the park, the Crystal Spa (120 South Broadway, Saratoga Springs; 518-584-2556; www.thecrystalspa.com) offers mineral baths for $21, massages starting at $45 and assorted flavors of wraps and aroma skin therapy, including the chocolate addiction for $85.

In Sharon Springs, accessible from Exit 29 of I-90 or Exit 21 on I-88, the bathhouses are closed, but visitors can drink from the still-open sulfur springs under a 1920s pavilion along Main Street. At the restored 1840s American Hotel (192 Main Street; 518-284-2105; www.americanhotelny.com) rates start at $130.


More Articles in Travel »

Saratoga's painted horses on display in NYC Museum 5/17/08

SARATOGA SPRINGS
Painted horses make debut at Museum of Natural History
BY TATIANA ZARNOWSKI Gazette Reporter



If you visit Manhattan this summer, you just might see a sight familiar from your jaunts in downtown Saratoga Springs last summer.
Seven of the “Horses Saratoga Style” fiberglass art pieces are being showcased outdoors at the American Museum of Natural History as part of the museum’s exhibit on “The Horse,” which opens May 17.
Four of the painted ponies stand on the plaza at the museum’s front entrance, which faces Central Park; one graces the gateway leading to Roosevelt Park at 81st Street and Columbus Avenue; and two are at the Weston Pavilion at Columbus Avenue and 78th Street, said Joel Reed, executive director of the Saratoga County Arts Council. They are: “Horse Power II” — painted by George Frayne for the Saratoga Automobile Museum; “Polo” — Frankie Flores’ creation for the Saratoga Polo Association; “Pony X Press” — The Times Union’s horse painted by Michael Lewandowski; “Horse of a Different Color” — another Flores work owned by Adirondack Trust Co.; “Starry Night” — created by artist Gerri Bowden for Courtyard Marriott;
“Paleo” — which Ida Pagano painted for Saratoga Sotheby’s International Realty; and
“Nocturnal Landscape” — owned by Alcove Marina in Schuylerville and painted by Heather Martin.
While thoroughbreds that race at Saratoga are well-traveled, the fiberglass ones are a little tougher to coax onto a truck. The horses themselves weigh only about 80 pounds but with their attached concrete bases weigh about 300 or 400 pounds, Reed said.
And the horses are all privately owned now, so they were located throughout Saratoga Springs, in Schuylerville and Albany.
Luckily for the museum’s movers, Bob Guay, owner of the Alcove Marina, offered to herd the horses to the marina so the movers only had to make one stop.
“I don’t know how Bob put them in his truck,” Reed said.
On Tuesday, the horses were loaded and shipped downstate.
“To load them into the movers’ van to go to New York, we used a bulldozer that Bob has,” he said. “Once they got to New York, they had five moving guys who were able to use straps and dollies to move them around.”
The horses were chosen for the exhibit after Reed sent the museum a calendar that pictured the horses. “They gave me a list of 10,” Reed said.
Of those, the owners of seven horses agreed to the necessary loan.
While they’re displayed, each horse is mounted to its concrete base with a marble plaque listing the horse’s name, the artist and owner.
Reed doesn’t know whether the museum operators plan to display an explanation of the horses and the project, but he hopes they’ll set out new maps that will describe the project and list the horses that are displayed both in the New York City and Saratoga areas.
The maps will be available here by the end of this month at the Arts Center and the Saratoga Springs Visitor Center downtown and are updated with the 31 horses from the 2007 and 2002 shows that will be on public view in Saratoga Springs and Schuylerville this summer.
The 34 horses from the 2007 show were displayed last summer on the sidewalks of Saratoga Springs and Schuylerville.
They were stored for the winter, and some are already back out, Reed said, including one in front of the Inn at Saratoga on Broadway. The rest will be back in the sun by the end of May, he said.
The exhibit in New York runs through Jan. 4, 2009, but the horses will be there only until the end of October and will leave earlier if an ice storm threatens, Reed said.
To see photos of the horses being loaded and set up in New York and for more information about the exhibit, visit www.amnh.org.


DENNIS FINNIN/ THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Painted fiberglass horses stand in front of the American Museum of Natural History on Wednesday.





Photo Gallery: Saratoga Horses Outside the AMNH



Seven life-size fiberglass horses, each over 6½ feet tall, were delivered to the American Museum of Natural History from the Saratoga County Arts Council in upstate New York on Wednesday, May 7, for display in conjunction with the Museum's upcoming exhibition The Horse, which opens to the public on Saturday, May 17.

Racetrack Backstretch Workers need help

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: Backstretech workers - items badly needed


Dear Friends,

As you may know I have been passionate about the dire needs of the backstretch workers right here in our own backyard. Many of the behind the scenes workers arrived this week - some with just the clothes on their backs. I have been working for the last year with the Race Track Chaplaincy who administer to the emotional and physical needs of the backstretch workers and any help you can offer would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.

The following items are in desperate need:

BLANKETS, COMFORTERS, OR SLEEPING BAGS
TOWELS
PILLOWS & PILLOWCASES
SHEETS
WARM JACKETS
SWEATSHIRTS
BLUE JEANS, ESPECIALLY MEN'S
T-SHIRTS AND POLO SHIRTS
SNEAKERS, WORK BOOTS
(Note: x-large is the biggest size we can accept)

If you are able to donate any items I will gladly get them to the workers for you. I am located at 38 Adams Street which is 2 blocks off of Nelson, adjacent to the side entrance to the track and 1 block off of Lincoln....over in the "President" streets. I have a screened porch and items can be left there. Please leave your name so the Chaplaincy can thank you for your donation.

Please feel free to pass this email on to friends who may also want to help.

With my thanks and deep appreciation,

Nancy Fritch
306-4819
nfritch@nycap.rr.com

Go to www.gopetition.com and put Victoria Pool 2008 new petition into search for petitions

Victoria Pool in Saratoga Spa State Park should open on Memorial Day 1 Signatures

Published by vicpool on Apr 19, 2008
Category: Health
Region: United States of America
Target: patrons of the Victoria Pool and Saratoga Spa State Park
Web site: http://www.save-the-victoria-pool-society.blogspot.c
om
Description/History:
Save the Victoria Pool Society
Location: Saratoga Springs, New York, United States

Save The Victoria Pool Society is a grass-roots group formed in June 2003 to restore, maintain and preserve the Historic Victoria Pool and Saratoga Spa State Park with its architectural treasures opened July 26, 1935.

The Victoria Pool was known originally as the Recreation Center then the Spa Pool and sometimes The Pool in the Pines. In December 2003, Parks Commissioner Bernadette Castro announced that $1.5 million would be spent on the restoration of the Victoria Pool over the next two years.

Senator Bruno and Assemblyman Tedisco, our local federal, state and city elected officials also helped to get the money to rehabilitate the Victoria Pool. Warren Holliday, Regional Director, was in charge of the restoration. With the election of Governor Spitzer the Parks Commissioner is now Carol Ash. In March 2008,Alane Ball Chinian, became the new Regional Director under Governor Patterson.

Current Board members are: Louise, Andrew, Stanton, Carole, Maureen, Barbara, Roger, Doug, Paul, Peter, Virginia&Ed,Anita, Bob, Holly, Rick,Tom.
Petition:
We, the undersigned, call on the New York State Parks Department to open the newly restored Victoria Pool in Saratoga Spa State Park, Saratoga Springs, NY from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Save the Victoria Pool Society and the Undersigned:
Sign the petitionThe Victoria Pool in Saratoga Spa State Park should open on Memorial Day petition to patrons of the Victoria Pool and Saratoga Spa State Park was written by vicpool and is hosted free of charge at GoPetition.

Tell a friend | Signature list | Contact author | Forum | Page Views | Bookmark


Promote this petition with a popular social bookmarking service [?]:

If you want to promote this petition and share it with others on the web, we've made it easy for you to do.

At the bottom of this petition you'll see icons (links) to various bookmarking services. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and important things on the web.

Clicking the links will automatically add the address of this petition to the selected sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share petitions and comments. Registration is free and once a member, you can store and recommend important petitions and other issues of importance to you.

So please select a bookmarking service from the icons below and promote this petition.

Save the Victoria Pool Society meets with Mayor Johnson, Saratoga Springs, to discuss concerns about Victoria Pool and Saratoga Spa State Park

Louise Goldstein, Andrew Jennings, Mayor Scott Johnson, Maureen O'Connell Godlewski, Peter Tulin

They're OFF at Oklahoma! April 15,2008

Posted on Tue, Apr 15, 2008 Zoom + | Zoom -
Let the training begin
Horses arrive for spring training at the Oklahoma Training Track
By PAUL POST, The Saratogian

Spring training gets underway today at the Oklahoma Training Track. Monday was move-in day at the track. Numerous totes are stacked outside Barn 54. (MATTHEW TURRI/The Saratogian)SARATOGA SPRINGS — Hugh McDonald has transported horses all over the world, from Dubai to Japan.

Monday morning was no different for the Syosset, Long Island, resident who got up long before dawn to get ready for a job moving horses from Belmont Park to Saratoga Race Course in anticipation of today’s Oklahoma Training Track opening.

Gary Contessa, a leading New York trainer, shipped 80 horses upstate, where they are slated to work out from 5 to 11 a.m. today.

“I’ve been around them all my life,” said McDonald, owner of Fox Lair Horse Transport. “My father was in the business. My grandfather was a dealer.”

One time, he accompanied 11 thoroughbreds on a flight from Florida to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. One of them was Secretariat, another Riva Ridge.

“I treat cheap horses the same as expensive ones,” he said. “You’ve got to be very careful driving. You can’t be hitting the brakes. If they’ve got hair on ’em, I’ll take care of them and love them.”

Monday’s new arrivals included a group of 2-year-olds, each trying to become another champion. A brisk wind whipped dust through Horse Haven, where Contessa has seven barns full of horses, another sure sign of spring and a reminder that track season isn’t that far off — 99 days to be exact.

“Over the next two weeks, there will be about 975 horses in Saratoga,” said John Lee, New York Racing Association spokesman.

The big horse vans rolled in not just with animals, but all kinds of equipment — bridles, saddles, hay nets, rakes, wheel barrows and dozens of green feed buckets.

Fifteen grooms and an equal number of hot walkers also made the trip north, moving into training track dorms where they’ll be spending the next several months. The scene looked like a college campus on Labor Day weekend, with personal belongings ready to be moved in — bicycles, refrigerators, TVs, mattresses and bed springs.

Advertisement
“All the staff that was at Belmont is moving up here today,” said Melvin Winney, one of Contessa’s assistant trainers.

Today, they’ll be up at 4 a.m. to clean stalls, water and feed horses. Each groom is assigned a handful of horses and they hit the track in sets at different predetermined times.

Contessa still has 40 horses at Aqueduct, about half of which will eventually make their way to Saratoga.

“I only train in New York,” he said. “I ship to race at other tracks, but I don’t train anywhere else.”

He was the first trainer to move horses north, because his Belmont Park barn is used for a race-day drug testing program and the Belmont spring and summer meet is scheduled to start April 30, Winney said.

The process of getting horses ready for transport began Sunday. Meanwhile, workers in Saratoga Springs got stables ready with fresh supplies of hay and straw.

A year ago, no one knew who would be running the tracks as NYRA faced challenges from three other firms seeking the next racing contract. In February, NYRA threatened to close its tracks, possibly throwing people out of work, because the franchise situation still hadn’t been resolved. Now, it’s got a new 25-year contract to work with, which becomes effective as soon as its bankruptcy situation is resolved.

Today’s Oklahoma Training Track opener is one sure sign that there will be a 2008 Saratoga Race Course season after all. There’s an unmistakable air of excitement when the horses arrive back in town, while for those who handle them, it’s all just part of the business.

“For us, it’s a career, it’s a job,” Winney said.

The Sheik speaks

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Posted on Sat, Apr 12, 2008 Zoom + | Zoom -
Fasig-Tipton auction house purchased by Dubai sheik
By PAUL POST, The Saratogian

A sales announcer calls out auction-goers’ bids during the Fasig-Tipton yearling sales in Saratoga Springs in August 2007. (MATTHEW TURRI file photo/The Saratogian)SARATOGA SPRINGS — One of the Spa City’s most important industries could be in store for major improvements from one of the world’s richest investors.

Dubai-based Synergy Investments Ltd., closely allied with Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed, has purchased Kentucky-based Fasig-Tipton Co., whose Saratoga sales each August are among the world’s most prestigious thoroughbred horse auctions.

But the firm’s goal isn’t just to improve sales, but to enhance the entire North American racing experience, in which the sheikh has already has invested more than $1 billion, a spokesman said.

“There are lots of things we can do,” said Terence Collier, Fasig-Tipton’s director of marketing. “Saratoga is one of the most important horse markets in the world. We want to bring a higher level of service to the industry and yes, we intend to grow the business.

“That’s our objective.”

New York State Racing Commissioner Harry Snyder, of Saratoga Springs, said Synergy’s investment should mean good things for the Spa City.

“It means there’s going to be an unlimited supply of capital to put into the business,” he said. “Whatever they take on, they do a first-class job. It should be good for the town and for the entire thoroughbred industry. It’s (Fasig-Tipton) a well-run company. I’m sure it will be even more so with the Moktoums involved.”

The sheik, believed to be among the world’s five richest people, spent a reported

$17.5 million for an exclusive thoroughbred training center on Nelson Avenue last year. His net worth is estimated at nearly $30 billion and he owns Godolphin Racing, among the world’s most successful stables, and Darley breeding operation.

At the 2007 Fasig-Tipton November mixed sale, he paid $5.75 million for bought multiple Grade I winner Round Pond and $4 million for Eclipse Award finalist Octave.

Advertisement
The Fasig-Tipton sale becomes official in May, Collier said. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. He said that no immediate personnel or operations changes are anticipated. The Fasig Tipton name will stay the same, too.

Fasig-Tipton’s principal owner John Hettinger, who’s had serious health problems in recent years, is a part-time Saratoga Springs resident with a house on Circular Street. Snyder credited him with rescuing and restoring integrity to Fasig-Tipton.

“Our agreement includes an understanding that Fasig-Tipton will be operated in a manner consistent with the principles of integrity, customer service, and industry service which have been so critical to our success since controlling interest was obtained by the Hettinger family in 1991,” board Chairman D.G. Van Clief Jr. said in a prepared statement. “Those assurances were critical to John and his son Bill Hettinger, and our entire board of directors, in agreeing to this transaction.”

Founded in 1898, Fasig Tipton is North America’s oldest thoroughbred auction company. In addition to Saratoga Springs, it conducts auctions in Lexington, Ky., Timonium, Md., Miami, Fla. and Grand Prairie, Texas.

Its main two-day Saratoga sale is surpassed only by the September Keeneland sale, Collier said.

“Most people around here, if you ask what the highlight of the Saratoga meet is, they’ll say Travers Week,” said Mike Kane, communications director at the National Museum of Racing & Hall of Fame. “For the industry its sales week. It’s a really important part of the fabric of the Saratoga season. We’re not just racing here in Saratoga.

“Many of the greatest horses that have gone through the auction ring have been sold here in Saratoga. It’s a fun, interesting thing just to see that part of the business.”

Sales are held at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion on East Avenue, where Hall of Fame inductions also take place. Kane said he’s been assured by Fasig Tipton officials that Hall of Fame ceremonies can stay there.

“I talked to Boyd Browning (executive vice president/COO) and he told me that everything would continue as it has in the past,” Kane said Friday. “It’s a great venue for us.”

This year’s inductions are slated for Monday, Aug. 4. Fasig-Tipton’s main two-day sale kicks off that night. Last year’s sales totaled more than $41 million, an average of $289,000 per horse. Gross sales have ranged from $40 million to $60 million each of the past 10 years, Collier said.

“That’s a lot of business for the small town of Saratoga to enjoy in two nights,” he said.

However, demand for hotel space is so great that buyers, sellers and bloodstock agents sometimes have difficulty finding a room.

Holiday Inn General Manager Cindy Hollowood said that demand for rooms is normally highest from Wednesday through Saturday during the racing meet. During Fasig-Tipton sales, Monday and Tuesday are equally busy, she said.

“That does place a great amount of demand,” she said.

Collier said that Synergy will take immediate steps, beginning this year, to help people with everything from lodging to restaurant reservations and getting a box at the track. The company’s goal is to bring new buyers, sellers and more horses into the business, he said.

“We’ll be working very closely with NYRA (New York Racing Association) and their hospitality people to help people get through the Saratoga experience in the best possible way,” Collier said.

NYRA President and CEO Charles Hayward said, “Fasig-Tipton is an integral part of the Saratoga Race Course meet. We’re sure that tradition will continue under new ownership.”

Chairwoman Mabee, Saratoga-Capital District region of Parks sends letter to Saratogian

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Posted on Sat, Apr 12, 2008 Zoom + | Zoom -
Letter: Help keep New York state park system alive
By Heather Mabee, chairwoman, Saratoga-Capital District region, New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commission
New York state’s heralded state park system — widely regarded as one of the finest in the nation — is at a crossroads. Over the past 15 years the system expanded 27 percent, with 29 new parks, which is great news for millions of people who visit our state parks.

However, as owners of these irreplaceable assets, we New Yorkers have not kept up with our obligation to keep our parks in good condition. Adjusted for inflation, the system’s capital budget in the last 15 years has shrunk in half.

As a result, state parks and historic sites now face a backlog of over $600 million in capital projects and overdue repairs that threaten the high quality, safety and public access to these wonderful facilities.

The Executive Budget proposes a $100-million capital initiative to revitalize our state parks system. This proposal is the first step in a long-term, comprehensive effort necessary to keep the system contributing to the state’s economy and New Yorkers’ quality of life.

Advertisement

The initiative will address the system’s most urgent needs — particularly the public health and safety risks such as out-of-compliance drinking water and sewage treatment systems and potentially hazardous dams and bridges. It also includes projects to make long-deferred repairs, open newly acquired parkland to the public, and protect sensitive environments.

New York state has a long history of protecting our abundance of scenic beauty, recreational opportunity and historic significance through our world-class parks system.

Now it is up to the members of the state Senate and Assembly to carry on that tradition. I urge them to support this proposal to help keep our state parks safe, beautiful and exciting.








--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms

Post Star Blog on Park improvements, 4/9/08

SPA: Park improvements coming
The state budget contained some good news for state park advocates, who argue leaders have neglected to fund the bastions of outdoor recreation for years (even the state admits a $650 million backlog of projects statewide).

Locally, Saratoga Spa State Park is looking at getting about $3.6 million and Moreau Lake State Park around $1.83 million to fund capital projects this year. The money will be generally going towards infrastructure — like roads, trails, electric lines and bathrooms (officially called “comfort stations”) — instead of more services or longer seasons (much to the chagrin of at least one group).

At Spa Park, the most visible projects include new siding on the exterior of SPAC, which is original to the performance venue, and new playground equipment (see Post-Star photographer Erin Reid Coker’s photo below).



– Drew Kerr

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Saratoga Snippets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Trying for an earlier opening for Victoria Pool once again!

Parks funding to get boost from state
By DREW KERR
dkerr@poststar.com
Published: Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Larger Text
Smaller Text
Print
Email
RSS





To order copies of staff-produced photos from The Post-Star, please visit http://reprints.poststar.com/. SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Louise Goldstein is hoping New York's state budget translates into a June dip at Saratoga Spa State Park's Victoria Pool.

Her enthusiasm is based on a $95 million commitment to state parks included in New York's tentative 2008-09 budget -- an investment the governor's office is calling the largest monetary dedication to capital projects in state history.

"They're always crying about money, so this certainly gives us a push when we call for an early opening," said Goldstein, the co-founder of the Save the Victoria Pool Society, a group formed in 2003 to fight for the park and lengthen the season at Saratoga Springs' only public pool.

But Alane Ball Chinian, the director for the Saratoga-Capital parks region, said the money is more likely to go toward maintenance and repair projects that have been put off during years of lesser financial support.

"The park system has been very underfunded for years, and it's been a real Band-Aid approach to keeping them open," Chinian said Monday. "The infrastructure was really suffering, and this is just playing catch-up."

The state estimates there is a $650 million backlog of necessary work statewide, and Chinian said this year's budget is only a starting point.

"This covers a tiny fraction of the needs the park has," she said. "There's still a lot of work to do."

Improvements at Saratoga Spa State Park, which are already under way and will continue this summer, total $3.6 million this fiscal year. Moreau Lake State Park is getting $1.83 million. The money will be used to update and replace restrooms, install new playground equipment, repair water and electric lines and improve roadways and trails.

Money to replace rotting siding on the exterior of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center is also expected to be delivered, allowing the project to begin this fall.

Though they may not seem like terribly exciting projects, Chinian said, combined, they will ultimately lead to a safer, more comfortable park experience.

"When bathrooms are in disrepair and lights don't work -- those are the kinds of things that discourage people from coming," she said.

The funding comes as officials at Saratoga Spa State Park begin to devise a new master plan, among the first in the state.

But Chinian said that process is directed toward the park's future -- whether or not it will invite camping, for example -- and shouldn't be affected by the work afforded in the budget.

In statements, both Carol Ash, commissioner of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation, and Gov. David Paterson lauded the state's increasing commitment to park funding.

With fuel prices peaking, Ash said, she is expecting an increasing number of people to frequent close-to-home parks.

"In light of climbing gas prices, this coming summer season may be the perfect time to explore a new destination or visit a familiar spot," she said.

Paterson, who sought to rein in spending given a projected $4 billion budget gap, said the investment could also help rejuvenate the state and local economies in the long run.

"Making long-overdue investments in our state parks will not only preserve New York's natural resources and protect our environment, but it will also serve as a critical engine of economic growth," he said. "A first-class parks system will draw residents, tourists and private investment to communities around our state."

"Depression-Era Saratoga", Library, 4/13/08, 1:30 PM, FREE Tickets required

Saratoga Reads event explores local lore of Depression era

"Tales from the Watering Hole: Remembering Depression-Era Saratoga" is
the title of a Saratoga Reads panel discussion to be held
from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 13 in the H. Dutcher Community Room at
the Saratoga Springs Public Library. The event is sponsored
by the Saratoga Springs Public Library, Friends of the Library, and the
Saratoga Springs History Museum.

The panel is part of a series of events exploring the themes of the
best-selling novel Water for Elephants, selected by a public vote as
this year's Saratoga Reads book of choice. The novel tells the tale of a
ragtag traveling circus during the Great Depression.

Through presentations and discussion, panelists will cover a range of
topics related to Depression-era Saratoga, from the colorful
entertainment and occasionally notorious figures of the times to the
impact of the Depression on the local community.

Panelists will include Mary Ann Fitzgerald, city historian and
co-founder of the West Side Oral Narrative Project; Ellen de Lalla,
former
historian for the public library; and writer Maria McBride Bucciferro.
The moderator will be David Patterson, past president of the
Historical Society (now the History Museum) and a teacher at Saratoga
Springs High School.

Admission is free, but tickets are required and are available at the
Information Desk at the library. Refreshments will be served.

Victoria Pool by marvelous photographer, Larry White

What lurks under the Victoria Pool Cover?

What is wrong with the Victoria Pool? Cover has never been sunk so low.

New Management at Gideon Putnam Hotel

SARATOGA SPRINGS
Changes under way at park hotel
New management installing exhibits, information panels at Gideon Putnam
BY LEE COLEMAN Gazette Reporter



The new management of the Gideon Putnam Resort is already making changes at the historic hotel in the Saratoga Spa State Park.
“We want to tell the story of this place where we are,” said Michael Barnes, the new manager for the 125-room luxury hotel and health spa.
Work has already started on interpretive exhibits and information panels about the hotel, who Gideon Putnam was and the Spa State Park. The material will be erected in the hotel’s portico area near the main entrance.
Gideon Putnam was a founding father of Saratoga Springs who settled near the High Rock Spring in 1789 and later built the city’s fi rst tavern and hotel.
The interpretive materials will tell the story of the hotel, the park itself and the history of the Geyser spring, among other things, he said.
Barnes works for Delaware North Parks and Resorts.
Delaware North was awarded a 20-year contract last fall by the state to operate the hotel and nearby health spa, replacing Xanterra Parks and Resorts of Colorado.
Barnes said Gideon Putnam LLC, the new company formed by Delaware North, Saratoga Gaming and Raceway, and Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts, plans to invest $20 million in capital improvements in the hotel and nearby Roosevelt bathhouse in the coming years.
Barnes’ last position for the Buffalo-based Delaware North was as general manager of Niagara Falls State Park.
He said engineers and architects are currently developing a floor plan of the hotel, which was built in 1934, to detail the way the systems and layout exist today.
“We need a good foundation to get good [renovation] estimates and a good plan,” Barnes said.
Once the improvement plan is completed over the next four months, it will be shared with the state Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation for approval.
In addition to the interpretive initiative, the new management is also buying brand new bedspreads, blankets, sheets and towels.
Nearly 90 percent of the hotel employees who worked at the Gideon Putnam last year were hired by Gideon Putnam LLC. Barnes said the hotel currently employs about 150 people, but this number jumps to 225 people during the summer tourism season.
Delaware North is also spending $500,000 in marketing the hotel as the “Gideon Putnam Resort,” which includes the Roosevelt bathhouse health spa as well as the other amenities in the 2,000-acre Spa State Park.
“We want to get the word out that this is a different place,” Barnes said.
The hotel’s Web site (www.gideonputnam.com) has been changed to include the broader approach the new management is taking.
Barnes said the Saratoga Spa State Park has so many special attractions that it’s a natural thing to mention these when describing the Gideon Putnam hotel and Roosevelt baths.
Barnes, a 1987 graduate of St. Bonaventure University in Olean, has moved with his wife and four children to a home in Queensbury.
He was general manager of the Niagara Falls State Park for 10 years, during which a new visitor center and retail shops were opened there.
Delaware North also operates the gaming portion of Saratoga Gaming and Raceway on Crescent Avenue in Saratoga Springs as well as luxury resorts at the Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.


BRUCE SQUIERS/ GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER Mike Barnes, general manager of the Gideon Putnam Hotel, stands in the Arches room, pointing out some of the changes the hotel will be undergoing.

New York City Ballet lovers, this one is for you.

http://youtube.com/nycballet

Metroland readers pick best swimming pool for 2008

Swimming Pool

1. Victoria Pool, Saratoga

2. YMCA

3. Colonie Town Pool

This is one of those categories in which the Best Of and Readers’ Picks issues agree: Victoria Pool is the best.






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's Tax Time! Get tips, forms and advice on AOL Money & Finance

Skating at the Victoria Pool, Winter 2008

Good news for Saratoga Spa State Park

SARATOGA SPRINGS
State makes parks renovation plans
Nearly $18M will be spent on projects
BY LEE COLEMAN Gazette Reporter



From swimming pool renovations to new restrooms, the state plans to spend nearly $18 million this year in improvements to state parks in the Saratoga-Capital District.
At Saratoga Spa State Park, for example, $2.5 million has been earmarked for exterior and walkway improvements to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
At the John Boyd Thacher State Park in Albany County, $3 million has been set aside for the redesign and reconstruction of the former pool area, according to a project list released Wednesday by state parks officials.
“We are thrilled,” said Heather Mabee, chairwoman of the Saratoga-Capital District State Park, Recreation and Historic Preservation Commission.
The state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation asked the 10 state parks and seven state historic sites in the Saratoga-Capital District to submit requests for much-needed maintenance and renovation projects at their facilities.
Robert Kuhn, acting regional director, said the Saratoga-Capital District parks and historic sites received a substantial share of the $100 million Gov. Eliot Spitzer put in his 2008-09 state budget for the state park system.
“The moment we get the money we can start hiring contractors,” Mabee said at a park commission meeting Wednesday in the Saratoga Spa State Park’s administration building.
Mabee said many of these contractors will be local businesses.
Kurt Kress, capital facilities regional manager for the state parks office, said seven of the proposed projects have already been put out to bid.
“We are assuming the money will come,” Kress said.
Spitzer included the $100 million in his executive state budget, but the money must also be part of the final state budget expected to be approved by the state Legislature by April 1.
“You are going to notice a lot of work going on everywhere,” Kuhn said about the state parks in the region.
Some of the larger projects in the Saratoga-Capital District are:
$1.75 million for new comfort stations at the Moreau Lake State Park.
$3 million to demolish a vacant “Bleachery” building at the Peebles Island State Park near Waterford. $500,000 to build a park police station at Grafton Lakes State Park in Rensselaer County.
$1.5 million to stabilize the historic Erie Canal aqueduct on Schoharie Creek at the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in Schoharie County.
The governor’s $100 million commitment is “the single largest capital investment in the history of the New York State Park System,” according to Eileen Larrabee, a spokeswoman for the state parks office.
She said the spending is part of the governor’s upstate revitalization plan.
The idea is to make long overdue capital improvements to state parks across the state.
“The Spa State Park is a great draw,” Larrabee said Wednesday about tourism in the Saratoga region.
“We need to make sure it’s in great shape,” she said.
The projects on the revitalization list were selected to address “the agency’s highest priority capital needs,” according to a state parks statement. “The list includes a strong emphasis on public health and safety, as well as rehabilitation of deteriorated park and historic site facilities.”

the quiet majesty and beauty of winter 3/4/08

A "Lion in Winter" at the Victoria Pool awaits Spring

New Regional Director named at Saratoga Spa State Park

SARATOGA SPRINGS
PLAN director gets parks post Alane Ball Chinian praised for work ‘on the front lines’
BY LEE COLEMAN Gazette Reporter



Alane Ball Chinian, currently director of Saratoga PLAN, was appointed Wednesday the new director of the Saratoga-Capital Region of the state park system.
Saratoga PLAN (Preserving Land and Nature) is a nonprofit land trust organization that has protected more than 2,400 acres of open space in Saratoga County since its creation five years ago.
Chinian, whose office will be in the Saratoga Spa State Park in Saratoga Springs, will fill the regional director position with the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation that has been vacant since the retirement of Warren Holliday in 2006.
Robert Kuhn, assistant regional director, had been acting regional director during this period.
“For decades, Alane Ball Chinian has been working on the front lines to build sustainable communities through her work improving public access to the outdoors, preserving irreplaceable natural assets and promoting livable neighborhoods,” said state parks Commissioner Carol Ash in a statement.
The Saratoga-Capital Region of the state park system includes the Saratoga Spa State Park and 11 other state parks such as Moreau Lake, Grafton Lake, John Boyd Thatcher, and Cherry Plain as well as numerous historic sites stretching from Crown Point in Essex County to the Schuyler Mansion in Albany. “Parks reached out to me in January,” Chinian said on Wednesday. “I worked with [commissioner] Carol Ash at The Nature Conservancy.” “I’m looking forward to it,” Chinian said about her new job. She will start with the state in the $88,443 position on March 20. “I feel good about where Saratoga PLAN is,” Chinian said. Chinian is the first director of Saratoga PLAN. She was also the director of its pre- decessor, the Saratoga Springs Open Space Project.
The Open Space Project merged with the Land Trust of the Saratoga Region in 2003 to form the Saratoga PLAN.
Laura Welles, Saratoga PLAN’s conservation program manager, will be acting director while a national search is conducted to fi nd a replacement for Chinian.
Julia Stokes, chairwoman of Saratoga PLAN’s board of directors, said an executive committee meeting was held Wednesday to start the director search.
Stokes said that advertisements for the position have already been posted on various national land trust and planning Web sites.
Stokes said her organization wants to receive resumes by the end of March and start interviewing candidates by mid-April.
“We are pleased for Alane,” Stokes said.
She said Chinian has taken Saratoga PLAN from a one-employee organization to one with a staff of four people, plus Chinian.
“She has brought the organization a long way,” Stokes said about Chinian. “We wish her all the best.”
Chinian, who lives in Cambridge, Washington County, with her family, said she is excited about working with the region’s state park system.
“I’m looking forward to getting to know these places,” she said.
Ash said, in announcing Chinian’s appointment, that she joins the agency at a time when Gov. Eliot Spitzer has proposed a major initiative to address decades of “under investment” in the state park system. This initiative includes $14.8 million to upgrade facilities in the Saratoga-Capital Region, Ash said.
Chinian has a master’s degree in environmental management and policy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy and a bachelor’s in art history and anthropology from Hamilton College.
She has served in volunteer community roles with the Cambridge Village Planning Board, Friends of West Hoosick Hills, the Rensselaer-Taconic Land Conservancy and The Arts Center of the Capital Region.

Save the Victoria Pool Society on radio show, 2/17/08

How to think WARM & SUNNY thoughts on a very frigid February morning. Former Saratoga Mayor, J. Michael O'Connell, interviews Andrew Jennings and Louise Goldstein on his weekly radio show, "The Capital District Forum " on Star 101.3 FM at 8AM on Sunday, february 17, 2008.
Discussion is centered on the latest on the Victoria Pool and Saratoga Spa State Park.

crown jewel of racing to shine brighter than ever

Friday, February 15, 2008

Posted on Thu, Feb 14, 2008 Zoom + | Zoom -
Leaving the starting gate of a 'new era' of racing
By JIM KINNEY, The Saratogian

Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno talks about the passage of the new NYRA franchise, flanked by State Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco, left, and Saratoga Springs Mayor Scott Johnson. (RICK GARGIULO/The Saratogian)SARATOGA SPRINGS — State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno congratulated others and was congratulated himself Thursday when he held a news conference to discuss NYRA’s new deal with the state to run Saratoga Race Course and two downstate tracks.

“It truly is a new day,” Bruno, R-Brunswick, said at the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame, across the street from the Race Course. “A new era.”

The deal gives NYRA a new board of directors, an oversight board and an advisory committee for each track. Saratoga’s advisory board will have jurisdiction over capital improvements at the track. It will have five members each appointed by the mayor of Saratoga Springs, the county Board of Supervisors and NYRA itself.

The state will also give NYRA $105 million to get the racing firm out of bankruptcy and tide it over until money-making video lottery terminals are up and running at Aqueduct.

Horse owner Daniel Stone said NYRA has been in turmoil over the past few years and the new deal will help. But NYRA still needs more income to stay out of bankruptcy. That money will have to come from VLTs and Off-track betting. The OTBs themselves have to be reorganized.

“The OTB issue is still out there,” Stone, whose wife Carole Stone is on NYRA’s oversight board, said. “But today we are happy.”

Bruno said if it were up to him he would have included VLTs at Belmont as well as Aqueduct in this deal, along with a provision to merge off-track betting operations with NYRA under one leadership.

“We didn’t get there,” Bruno said.

City Accounts Commissioner John Franck said he’s also concerned that the city and county continue to receive a share of VLT revenue from Saratoga Gaming and Raceway. Currently, the localities get $5.1 million a year in VLT money: $3.8 million to the city and $1.3 million to the county.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s proposed budget eliminates that money from the budget.

Advertisement
“We’ll have to fight for it,” Franck said. “But it isn’t going up. I’ve accepted that our share of that money won’t go up.”

NYRA will continue to pay property taxes both at Saratoga Springs and downstate. NYRA currently pays $500,000 a year in property taxes to the county, city and school district.

Martin Kinsella, executive director of the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding Fund said the deal works for the breeding industry, a big employer and user of farmland in Saratoga County, because the breeding fund is guaranteed 1.5 percent of VLT revenues.

“It basically goes back to the agreement we had four years ago,” he said.

That agreement never went into effect because development of VLTs at Aqueduct stopped as NYRA dealt with financial and legal troubles.



Reach Jim Kinney at jkinney@saratogian.com or 518-583-8729 ext.216.



Video: Sen. Bruno's remarks during the press conference

Video: Bruno fields questions about the deal

doomsday scenario for track

Posted on Tue, Feb 12, 2008 Zoom + | Zoom -
Scott: Doomsday scenario arrives in New York
By JEFF SCOTT, From off the pace
In recent weeks, as NYRA’s franchise and its first short-term extension were about to expire, it still didn’t seem possible that racing in New York would be shut down. There was simply too much at stake for everyone involved.

Based on statements issued Monday by NYRA, however, it now appears a shutdown is all but inevitable. If a new long-term agreement is not reached in the meantime, NYRA will suspend racing following Wednesday’s card at Aqueduct.

The delay in getting the franchise issue settled has primarily been because of Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno’s opposition to recommendations put forward by Gov. Eliot Spitzer (and approved by NYRA) last September. Protracted negotiations resulted in a new proposed bill that was reviewed by NYRA officials over the weekend.

On Monday, NYRA Chairman C. Steven Duncker expressed dissatisfaction with the new legislation. According to Duncker, the proposed bill “does not provide the proper business model and economic terms that permits (sic) NYRA to emerge from bankruptcy, nor does it correct the broken business model of thoroughbred racing in New York, a broken model that can only worsen and further imperil the industry under the legislation currently proposed.”

Advertisement
Since everyone agrees that the business model under which NYRA has operated no longer works — if in fact it ever did — one would hope any new franchise agreement would be sure to provide a more acceptable framework. NYRA officials obviously don’t think that has happened. And since they’re the ones who would have to live with the thing, their opinion has to be respected.

NYRA also has to be careful not to sign on to an agreement which, in effect, might set it up to fail. Because there are plenty of people who would like to see that happen, beginning with those who have been associated with rival bidders on the franchise.

Which brings us back to Senator Bruno, who has been an outspoken critic of Spitzer’s recommendations (and NYRA) from the beginning. But what exactly is behind his opposition?

To what degree has Bruno’s stance been based on his ongoing feud with the governor and a desire to put his own stamp on the franchise process? Why was Bruno so adamant about splitting the racing aspect of the franchise among different operators — an idea opposed by virtually everyone — even as NYRA emerged as the only entity with a serious interest in the job?

Finally, what connection, if any, does Bruno have with Capital Play Inc, one of the

four original bidders on the franchise?

Excelsior Racing and Empire Racing, the other two non-NYRA bidders, have effectively ceased to exist. The Australia-based Capital Play, however, is still very much on the scene and (according to Bruno) is one of two finalists being considered to run the proposed slots operation at Aqueduct. Bruno’s son Kenneth, by the way, is reportedly employed as a lobbyist for — you guessed it — Capital Play.

Capital Play’s website includes bold claims about all the wonderful things it would do for New York racing if given the chance. All of this racing talk, however, is strictly for show. If the Aqueduct slots were taken off the table, those Aussies would be on the next plane back to Sydney.

One of the scariest aspects of this whole sorry situation is that if no agreement is reached, and racing is indeed halted, no one is sure what would happen next. With NYRA no longer having the legal right to operate racing, authority would pass to an oversight board dominated by political appointees from the Pataki administration.

Any attempt to continue racing under another operator would be countered by NYRA’s contention that it, not the State of New York, actually owns the tracks. The matter then would disappear into the courts, perhaps for years, with racing forced into indefinite hiatus.

This doomsday scenario, of course, is something no one who really cares about horse racing wants to see happen. At this late hour, however, it may take a miracle to keep the process from being set in motion.



Jeff Scott writes about horse racing Tuesday in The Saratogian. He may be reached at utahpine1@aol.com.

It's getting scary out there Folks

print story
back
NYRA trustee quits, blasting Bruno

By JAMES M. ODATO, Staff writer
Click byline for more stories by writer.
Last updated: 11:12 a.m., Friday, February 1, 2008

ALBANY -- Saratoga Springs lost its representative on the New York Racing Association board today when Adirondack Trust President Charles Wait quit as a trustee, criticizing Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno for not serving the best interests of racing and the community.
Wait said he could not stay quiet about his frustration with Bruno's refusal to go along with an agreement between Gov. Eliot Spitzer and NYRA for an extension of the racing franchise. He suggested that racing could go dark in Saratoga, as well as at Aqueduct and Belmont, if Bruno continues his demands for new elements beyond those agreed to in a September deal with Spitzer.

Bruno has blasted that agreement because it was worked out privately and without legislators' input. He has sought assurances that NYRA would be held accountable. He also wants to shrink the size of the NYRA board and increase the number of trustees appointed by the governor, Senate and Assembly.

"I believe that it is important for Saratogians to understand that we are facing a crisis in racing," Wait said in news release. "I know that Senator Bruno is powerful and popular and I know that criticizing him in public may bring retribution."

In an interview, Wait said he had to resign to make his feelings known because trustees shouldn't be acting independently, particularly when they criticize the leading Republican in New York. A trustee for 23 years, Wait was a NYRA stockholder appointed to the board by the racing association itself.

"It is also my opinion that there is no plausible reason for the New York state Senate to continue to delay ratification of the memorandum of understanding first proposed by Gov. Spitzer," he said. "I urge my senator, Sen. Bruno, to use his power and popularity to end the discord and uncertainty clouding the future of the Saratoga race meet. I urge him to encourage the Senate to agree to the memorandum of understanding. I urge him to safeguard the most important engine of economic prosperity in his district."

Representatives of Bruno, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Spitzer have been trying to negotiate a resolution for months.

A Feb. 13 deadline looms and NYRA can't wait much longer before it runs out of money and will have to take actions such as cessation of racing, Wait said. NYRA would continue to sue to prove it owns the track properties, which it must clarify to either sell real estate or borrow against it to pay off more than $300 million in debt, he said.

The racing association entered bankruptcy court almost 14 months ago to shield itself from creditors, including the state of New York.

Bruno's office had no immediate response.

Wait's resignation leaves the NYRA board with 23 members.



All Times Union materials copyright 1996-2008, Capital Newspapers Division of The Hearst Corporation, Albany, N.Y.

HOME | CONTACT US | SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSPAPER | HOW TO ADVERTISE | PRIVACY RIGHTS | COPYRIGHT | CLASSROOM ENRICHMENT










--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Who's never won? Biggest Grammy Award surprises