new nature center opened at moreau state park.

Park officials celebrate new nature center space Story Discussion SCOTT DONNELLY - sdonnelly@poststar.com | Posted: Tuesday, April 24, 2012 12:21 am | (0) Comments Font Size: Default font size Larger font size . Jason McKibben Moreau Lake State Park naturalist Gary Hill talks with fourth-graders from Harrison Avenue Elementary School about the many wild animals found in the area at the park's newly expanded nature center Monday, April 23, 2012. The addition, which officially opened Monday, features dozens of mounted and stuffed birds, bears and other creatures. (Jason McKibben - jmckibben@poststar.com) . . . Related Galleries Moreau Lake State Park Nature Center (7) Photos . MOREAU -- Local elementary school students were the first to enjoy an 810-square-foot addition to Moreau Lake State Park’s nature center Monday. The new space, featuring displays of stuffed wildlife and educational posters, opened to the public for the first time, as Park Naturalist Gary Hill gave a talk to revolving groups of children from the South Glens Falls Central School District before each class went on a hike around the park. Hill explained the characteristics and habitats of the many animals on display in the new space. A highlight of each group’s session was Hill’s demonstration of turkey and owl calls. In the early afternoon, dignitaries from around the region and state were in the new space to announce its grand opening. The addition cost about $130,000 and effectively doubled the size of the nature center, according to Alane Ball Chinian, director of the Saratoga-Capital region for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. The money came from a fund created with payments made to the park by Saratoga County to offset the impacts of a new waterline that crosses a portion of the park. “It’s beautiful. It’s open. It’s wide. It’s the beginning and the end,” said New York State Parks Commissioner Rose Harvey during Monday’s celebration. “The real nature center is right out there, with 4,000 acres. But then everybody gets to come back and cluster and think about what they saw and learned, so it’s a really great platform for the living laboratory that we have in this magnificent park.” The nature center is the launching point for about 250 educational programs each year. It sees about 6,000 visitors and hosts 30 trips by school groups annually, as well. Harvey said the park as a whole has become one of the state’s more popular parks because of the various programs and offerings. She also said there’s a lot more at stake than supplementing educational programs for schools. “Environmental education is not just an add-on to our parks, but it’s essential, particularly for our children, to get out and touch and feel — to explore, to experience firsthand — nature,” Harvey said. “Our children are the next stewards. They will pass the next legislation to protect our environment. They will pass the next bond act to fund our parks, and there are many social scientists who talk about what is the extinction of the condor to a child who’s never seen a wren?” Also on hand for Monday’s opening were state Sen. Elizabeth Little, R-Queensbury, and representatives of state Sen. Roy McDonald, R-Saratoga, and U.S. Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook. Dave Matteson, a member of the Friends of Moreau Lake State Park group, was also on hand, as each speaker mentioned the important role groups like his play in the success of the state’s parks and historic sites. After the event, he explained how the latest addition is the second for the park’s nature center, which began as a shed-sized structure. About nine years ago, the original structure was expanded for the first time. “It’s a fantastic resource for adults and children to get exposure to all the animals that live in this area but that they may never see,” Matteson said. Friends group volunteers help host nature programs at the park and also work to clear trails and staff park facilities each year. Read more: http://poststar.com/news/local/park-officials-celebrate-new-nature-center-space/article_201363ec-8dc5-11e1-b47a-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz1t529aqIi

let the good times roll at saratoga spa state park and hope for an earlier victoria pool opening.

State parks get a boost
Story
Discussion
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SCOTT DONNELLY -- sdonnelly@poststar.com | Posted: Thursday, April 12, 2012 11:07 pm | (0) Comments
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Jason McKibben - jmckibben@poststar.com
A duck takes flight at Moreau Lake State Park Wednesday April 11, 2012. Wildlife seems to outnumber people at the park right now, but camping reservations are up over last year, and officials are pleased with an allocation of cash from the state budget following two years of austerity. The park opens for camping May 4. (Jason McKibben - jmckibben@poststar.com)
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If you go

What: The Friends of Saratoga Spa State Park will celebrate I Love My Park Day with a day of spring cleaning.

When: 9 a.m. to noon, May 5

Where: Saratoga Spa State Park, in the SPAC parking lot and at the dog park

Details: The spring cleaning that starts in the SPAC parking lot is open to residents of all ages. The dog park effort, which happens at the same time, is open for adults 18 and older. Participants are asked to bring gardening gloves, garden rakes, water, snacks, lunch, bug repellent and sunscreen.

To register: Visit ptny.org or call 434-1583 to register a group of more than 10 volunteers.

What about Moreau Lake State Park?: The I Love My Park Day program isn’t happening there this year, though Robin Dropkin, executive director of Parks and Trails New York, said it may next year. To contact the Friends of Moreau Lake State Park, visit its Facebook page, or email LJKeating2002@yahoo.com.

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State parks in the region are looking forward to a strong season, thanks to a fresh infusion of cash and a warm-weather boost.

Camping reservations at Moreau Lake State Park are up 3 to 5 percent, according to Bob Kuhn, assistant regional director of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation’s Saratoga/Capital District region.

“We feel pretty good about the season,” Kuhn said. “We’ve had a mild winter and a mild spring, and I think that may be one of the reasons we’re ahead of last year. People are already thinking about the summer season because it’s already nice.”

It’s a similar story at the rest of the state’s parks, where camping reservations are up more than 3,000 stays, or 5 percent, from the same time last year, Kuhn said.

At the Moreau park last year, attendance fell by about 1 percent from the year before, though Kuhn attributed most of that decrease to Hurricane Irene, which raked the East Coast over Labor Day weekend.

Campers and visitors to the park will also see some improvements under way this year, thanks to a major funding boost from the state’s New York Works program. The $6.8 million package is being used to fund infrastructure improvements across all regions of the state parks system.

At Moreau Lake, more than $1.27 million will be used to repave the beach parking lot and all the camping loop roads, said Kurt Kress, capital facilities manager for the Saratoga/Capital District region. That work is expected to start in June, but it will be done in such a way as to minimize the impact on park visitors and campers, Kress said.

The money will also be used to demolish the last of the park’s 1960s-era bathrooms. In 2009, all but one of the park’s old comfort stations were replaced; the bathroom in Loop A was not done, due to financing, Kuhn said. That work will happen after the coming camping season, he said.

Also new for Moreau Lake State Park this year is a new lakefront cabin, which was rehabilitated from an old pumping station as part of a project that began in 2010.

“This is the first year that’s available for reservation, and that’s right on the lake,” Kress said, adding the cabin is already booked for much of the coming season.

It’s that kind of demand that has the state planning to add more cabins in the future.

“We don’t have any immediate plans to build cabins this year, but certainly, that’s on our radar screen,” Kuhn said. “It’s something that’s called for in the master plan for the park, and Moreau books up virtually every weekend, so we know that there’s demand.”

Saratoga Spa State Park in Saratoga Springs will also get some infrastructure work, as $1.5 million will be spent from the New York Works program to resurface the Geyser Loop Road and the Columbia parking area.

There are also improvements being made now to the park’s Route 50 trail.

Kress said the bike and pedestrian trail will eventually connect with the Spa City’s Railroad Run Trail and will provide a bike/pedestrian route to the YMCA on the city’s west side.

The Saratoga Spa State Park will also get a new playground, and some aged natural gas lines will be replaced, Kress said.

The New York Works funding is over and above the normal capital budget each region gets every year for improvements, Kuhn said. That funding figure wasn’t available this week, and Kuhn said how much they receive will guide plans for other improvements at the area’s state parks and historic sites.

The funding improvements follow more than two years of austerity for the parks system. In 2010, the parks department threatened to close more than 50 parks and historic sites, as well as cutting resources to 24 other parks, to meet an $11 million state funding cut.

Public outcry resulted in funding restoration to keep the parks open, but capital projects and staffing were still impacted during the downturn.

Kuhn said his region is in the process of hiring four new employees now.

“We went basically two years with no hiring here and a lot of attrition,” he said. “So I think we also feel very good that we’ve sort of turned that corner and are moving in the right direction.”

The new hires will fall far short of bringing the region back to its pre-recession staffing level, Kuhn said.

The developments are encouraging also to Robin Dropkin, executive director of the advocacy group Parks and Trails New York.

“Of course we’re thrilled,” said Dropkin, whose organization issued a report in 2009 that outlined infrastructure deterioration in the state’s parks. Her group has also been active in lobbying the state for improved support of the parks system.

“To have a governor come in in these still pretty bad economic times and say, ‘This is important enough to put some money toward it,’ is very gratifying,” she said. “This is something that people really love and cherish, and it’s part of their New York lifestyle, part of the New York legacy.”


Read more: http://poststar.com/news/local/state-parks-get-a-boost/article_f83b0fee-8515-11e1-a1f1-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz1rvfrLjtO

will the victoria pool open memorial day with the $1.5 million parks is giving to saratoga spa state park?

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Local state parks will get nearly $7 million worth of improvements, including $1.5 million at Saratoga Spa State Park, under a capital plan announced this week.

Plans call for resurfacing Geyser Loop Road and the Columbia parking area, improve the Route 50 trailway and repairing park infrastructure.

Elsewhere in the Saratoga-Capital District region, upgrades will also be made to Moreau Lake, Peebles Island, Grafton Lakes and John Boyd Thacher state parks.

“That’s fabulous, I’m absolutely thrilled,” Saratoga-Capital Region Parks Commission chair Heather Mabee said. “That much infusion to the Capital Region is amazing considering the funds that are needed across the state.”




Statewide, almost $90 million has been allocated to parks and historic sites under Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s “New York Works” initiative.

In Saratoga County, Peebles Island State Park in Waterford will get the largest share — $3 million — that will be used to rehabilitate and improve facilities and infrastructure such as the historic Bleachery building.

“This funding will help to keep history alive and enhance educational opportunities of this historic state park,” Assemblyman Ron Canestrari, D-Cohoes, said.

Moreau Lake State Park will get $1,275,000 to resurface campground roads and the beach parking area, along with restroom rehabilitation.

At Grafton Lakes in Rensselaer County, $625,000 will be used to resurface the park entrance road and rehabilitate restrooms.

Thacher park in the Helderbergs is slated to get $350,000 for improvements to picnic shelters and parking areas. Continued...

spac facade redo continued, 3/23/12.

...more tree stumps outside pool building, disgraceful.

more of our historic trees being cut down in saratoga spa state park to make golfers happy.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Spa State Park employees are clearing trees to make life better for area golfers this summer.

A number of evergreens have been cut to enhance air circulation and let more sunlight in, which are needed to promote healthy turf.

“This is the third year in a row we’ve done a tree project,” said Robert Kuhn, assistant regional parks director.

Current work involves thinning a tree line between the 13th and 14th fairways, to the left of Avenue of the Pines, when entering the park from Route 9.




“It will allow more sun on the 13th fairway,” Kuhn said. “There will still be a tree line. We’re taking out a lot of softwoods and leaving the hardwoods.”

No trees on Avenue of the Pines trees have been or will be cut, he said.

Two years ago, workers did a much larger tree-clearing job in the heart of the front nine near the eighth tee. “A lot of trees between the eighth tee and the fairway behind it were taken out,” Kuhn said.

Last year, crews took down trees near the clubhouse for safety reasons, concerned the trees might topple over in a storm.

“The response we’ve gotten from golfers is that there’s been a noticeable difference in turf quality,” he said. “Aesthetics of the park aren’t being compromised.”

No date has been set for opening the park’s golf courses, however the lack of snow could result in an early start, possibly by the second or third week of April, Kuhn said.

shaun o'brien, dancer extraordinaire and beloved saratogian dead at 86.

Shaun O’Brien dies; was NYC Ballet character dancer

Thursday, March 1, 2012


By Bill Buell (Contact)
Gazette Reporter




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New York City Ballet character dancer Shaun O’Brien is seen here during a curtain call. He died last week in Saratoga Springs at the age of 86. (photo: Paul Kolnik)


Shaun O’Brien, who for 42 years gained legions of New York City Ballet fans for his acting as much as his dancing, died last week in Saratoga Springs at the age of 86.

O’Brien was a character dancer, which meant he seldom got the opportunity to dance with the prima ballerina. He did, however, enjoy an amazingly long professional career for a dancer, getting his start with the New York City Ballet in 1949, the year after its creation by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein.

O’Brien retired from the troupe in 1991 and moved full time to Saratoga Springs with his longtime partner, Cris Alexander. He danced in more than 100 ballets, but was synonymous with the roles of Herr Drosselmeyer in “The Nutcracker” and Dr. Coppélius in “Coppelia.”

“Shaun was the most amazing of character dancers I’ve seen,” said Leslie Roy-Heck, a former soloist with the company who now owns and operates Saratoga Dance in Saratoga Springs. “He captivated the audience in ‘Nutcracker’ as Herr Drosselmeyer and was most memorable as Dr. Coppélius in ‘Coppelia.’ I adored watching him on stage, and although many other dancers did these roles, in my opinion, no one’s performances equaled the brilliance of Shaun’s interpretations.”

Natural performer

“He was just a natural at the character roles,” said Bill Otto, a Glens Falls resident and retired New York City Ballet dancer who danced many of O’Brien’s roles after joining the company in 1983.

“He was past his prime when I saw him, but he was a wonderful dancer and a great actor. He was always very believable. Never a false moment. It was like he was doing pantomime for the ballet.”

Robert Maiorano worked with O’Brien for more than 20 years, and said it was his stage presence that made him such a vital part of the company.

“He played the unbendable father in ‘Prodigal Son,’ who finally gives in, and while he’s known for Drosselmeyer and Dr. Coppélius, it was actually that performance that brought me to tears. That was when I realized he was such a great actor,” said Maiorano.

“In that scene, he has very little to do yet he had such command of the stage,” continued Maiorano. “He just stood there while the prodigal son is going through gyrations and everyone else is dancing and slipping around. Shaun just stood there stoically with this great presence and authority.”

O’Brien was born in Brooklyn on Nov. 28, 1925. He first danced in public at the age of 4 with his older sister and never stopped for more than 60 years. As a youth he studied in Manhattan at the School of American Ballet, the official school of the New York City Ballet.

Broadway debut

He changed his first name from John to Shaun during those years, and in 1945, before he was 20, he made his Broadway debut as a member of the dance ensemble in “Hollywood Pinafore.”

He was on Broadway again in “Polonaise” in 1945 and “Sleepy Hollow” in 1948 before beginning his long career with the New York City Ballet in 1949.

O’Brien first moved to Saratoga around 1975 and split his time between there and New York City until his retirement in 1991. He and Alexander, a photographer, actor and dancer who performed on Broadway in the 1940s, had been living together for 61 years and, according to the New York Times, they were married in a private ceremony soon after New York passed its same-sex marriage act.

“They’d been together since 1949, which is longer than any married couple I know,” said Maiorano, who saw O’Brien since last fall. “I was so happy for him, and [Cris] was no slouch, either. He was an actor and a great photographer, and while they were very private, they were a lot of fun to be around. You could call them up at 1 in the morning, but you dare not call them before 3 in the afternoon.”

Although he was retired, O’Brien would occasionally provide pre-performance talks at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center for SPAC’s education director, Siobhan Dunham.

“He was an absolutely great storyteller,” Dunham said, “and they were never told at someone else’s expense. They were just very funny, personal stories, and it was a thrill for me to not only invite him but to have him say yes. You knew the pre-performance talk would be a success if Shaun did it.”

O’Brien’s failing health had kept him out of the public eye for the past few years, according to Dunham.

“I hadn’t seen him in about four or five years, but I’ll always remember that great warm smile he had,” she said. “He was really warm, and there was no sense of elitism about him. He had this elegance about him, but he was always approachable. He was very generous with his conversation.”

Honored by museum

In July 2009, O’Brien was honored by the National Museum of Dance in Saratoga Springs.

“We had a special program for him when the [New York City] Ballet was here doing ‘Coppelia,’ ” said Susan Edwards, program director at the museum. “I didn’t know him personally that well, but you could tell he was a very elegant man, very gracious. He had been very active in the Saratoga arts community for a long time right up until three or four years ago.”

“He always had a lot of great stories to tell,” said Otto. “I was just a few seats away from him in the dressing room for years. I had known him and his partner for years and had been out to their house, although it’d been a few years. Shaun was just a great guy.”

The William J. Burke & Sons Funeral Home in Saratoga Springs confirmed O’Brien’s death last Thursday, and at this time there are no services scheduled.

ice skating at victoria pool even on an unusually warm and beautiful late february day. what could be better?

SPAC facade changes have begun, 2/22/12.

victoria pool will open in less than 100 days.

SPAC to get its facelift at last.

Dakes donate $500K for new SPAC facade

Tuesday, February 21, 2012


By Lee Coleman (Contact)
Gazette Reporter




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Shown is a computer-generated image of the new amphitheatre façade to be built at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.


SARATOGA SPRINGS — William Dake, board chairman of Stewart’s Shops, and his wife, Susan, are donating a new facade for the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, SPAC officials said Monday.

Renovation of the nearly 50-year-old exterior of the center’s amphitheater in the Saratoga Spa State Park will start immediately and be ready for the upcoming season.

The Dakes said in a statement released Monday their gift was motivated by a recognition of “SPAC’s cultural and economic impact on the greater Capital Region.”

The donation is $500,000, according to SPAC officials.

“Bill [Dake] really sees the need for it,” said Marcia White, president and executive director of SPAC.

Dake is the outgoing chairman of the SPAC Board of Directors. He will be succeeded by Susan Phillips Read, an associate justice on the state Court of Appeals.

White said the current wooden facade of the amphitheater is deteriorating. The new facade will keep the amphitheater’s original “shield” design but enhance and replace the old exterior with weather-resistant materials, White said.

The state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation has already invested more than $4.5 million on improvements to the amphitheater, including new seating and extensive interior work, since 2005.

A renovation of the amphitheater facade was planned in early 2008 but the unpopular proposed design for the facade — some compared the design to a stack of pancakes — and the start of the recession scrapped the project.

The facade being donated by the Dakes will retain the current exterior “shield” design, which has elements of a Medieval festival look, White said.

“We are thrilled to support this new facade project, a terrific example of leveraging state funding with private investments to sustain a magnificent facility,” state parks Commissioner Rose Harvey said in a prepared statement. “We thank the Dake family for their outstanding generosity.”

“We are really grateful they are willing to step up” and replace the facade, said Alane Ball Chinian, executive director of the Saratoga-Capital District Region of the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Chinian said she is pleased the facade work will be completed in time for the upcoming performance season. “As a private partner, they can move forward more quickly [than the state],” Chinian said.

In recent years, the deterioration of the amphitheater’s exterior has become visibly pronounced. The current board-and-batten siding has endured five decades of upstate weather conditions and as a result, there is significant warping, fading, wood rot and disintegration, SPAC officials said in a statement.

Bonacio Construction of Saratoga Springs was selected to do the work after a competitive bidding process, said SPAC officials.

Wood veneer panels of Parklex, a high-density, weather-resistant material, will be fastened to the exterior of each shield frame.

Existing surfaces on the amphitheater side and roof dormers will be replaced with a brown, durable, weather-resistant fiber cement board.

The project also includes replacement and repositioning of the speakers currently mounted on the facade that project sound to the lawn. Upgraded speakers will be built into the shield facade and positioned at a higher level to provide better audio coverage and quality on the lawn.

The current speakers sit too low in the enclosure for the acreage that needs to be reached, resulting in audio gaps in some areas of the lawn, SPAC officials said.

“I am inspired by the extraordinary generosity of this latest gift from the Dake family to Saratoga Performing Arts Center. From the very beginning to the present day, the Dakes have been SPAC’s strongest allies, investing vision, leadership and resources to advance this treasured landmark,” White said in a statement.

The timeline for the construction work is:

-- February-March: Removal of the wooden shields on the amphitheater facade and board and batten on the sides; prefabrication of three-dimensional steel frame followed by attachment of Parklex siding.

-- Early spring: Installation of three-dimensional shields on facade and cement board on sides and dormers and the integration of upgraded speakers into the facade structure.

The work is expected to be complete by the end of May.

The state has invested more than $4.5 million in the SPAC facilities since 2005. The renovations included the installation of a new amphitheater roof, repair of the pedestrian bridge and sewage system upgrades. In 2007, the interior of SPAC’s amphitheater was revamped with all new, larger padded seating and other interior renovations. Recent projects include restroom renovations and improvements

Happy February 1st! We always feel like summer will really come on this date. The countdown to Memorial Day opening of Victoria Pool we hope.

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

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.

saratoga getting ready to roll the dice again.

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.

2010,Victoria Pool lawn.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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



Click to enlarge

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Victoria Pool still looking beautiful in mid-october 2011.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

good night irene!!

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.

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.

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."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.

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?