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January
• Three ethics complaints are leveled against Town of Malta Supervisor Paul Sausville, alleging he went around the town board when negotiating with contractors about a pool in the David R. Meager Community Center upgrade and independently asked for an $8,000 feasibility study. A similar complaint involves the town’s downtown plans. The third complaint alleges that Sausville used his office inappropriately in a letter to the Ballston Journal supporting Republican town board candidate Tara Thomas in the November election.
The town’s ethics committee reviewed the charges for months before announcing its findings in July. They determined Sausville’s actions in regard to the community center were violations of the ethics code, but recommended no punishment, and cleared his conduct on the two other complaints. The board recommended changes to the town’s employee manual that were still being discussed by year’s end.
• The Ballston Spa School District makes the change to full-day kindergarten, to begin in the fall. A grant from the State Education Department made the switch possible. The move kicks off discussion about reconfiguring the district’s elementary schools and acquiring land to build a new school to replace the aging Malta Avenue Elementary.
• Former Shenendehowa teacher Christopher Culver is sentenced to 12 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty to 49 charges relating to his sexually abusing eight boys in his classroom. Culver says his plea had been coerced and that he was the subject of a “witch hunt.”
February
• Gov. Eliot Spitzer threatens to cut video lottery terminal aid to host municipalities statewide, including Saratoga Springs. His plan calls for a 50 percent reduction in the coming year, followed by complete elimination in 2010. The Spa City is expecting $3.8 million in 2009, and local leaders successfully scramble to lobby for retention of the funds. The scene is repeated later in the year under Gov. David Paterson, and Saratoga Springs ultimately passes a budget assuming $1.9 in VLT aid.
• A recently closed pizza parlor in the Milton Arts Center is engulfed by flames on Thursday, Feb 14. Just four weeks before the fire the building was the home of Ferrara Pizza. Multiple fire companies fought the blaze for a half hour.
• Saratoga Springs bonds more than $4.7 million for 20 projects from infrastructure improvements to emergency trucks. Public Safety Commissioner Ron Kim casts the only dissenting vote on the bonding, chagrined that $8 million for a public safety building was not included.
• The Town of Ballston appoints Murry Brower to the post of town attorney, replacing 12-year veteran Charlton Potts. Freshman Supervisor Patti Southworth is the sole dissenter on the appointment, saying she believes other candidates to be better suited for the position.
• Clifton Park adopts a property tax exemption for Cold War veterans, becoming one of the first municipalities to adopt the town law handed down by the state. Under the law, veterans who were on active duty for more than one year between Sept. 2, 1945, and Dec. 26, 1991, are eligible for a 15 percent property tax reduction, with a $12,000 cap.
• Former Secretary of State Alexander “Sandy” Treadwell is selected by Republican Party leaders to face off against freshman Kirsten Gillibrand, D-Greenport, in the party’s efforts to win back the 20th District congressional seat. The independently wealthy Treadwell went on to wage the most expensive congressional campaign in the state, spending over $5.5 million, and lost to Gillibrand by nearly a 2-to-1 margin in November.
• The Town of Malta and the Saratoga Preserving Land and Nature group announce the purchase of 92 acres of land to create the Round Lake Nature Preserve. PLAN organized the $850,000 needed to buy the land, comprised mostly of grants and a $340,000 contribution from Malta.
March
• Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigns amidst a scandal involving his link to a high-priced prostitution ring. Though prosecutors later decide not to press charges, the fracas effectively ends Spitzer’s political career and sent his lieutenant, David Paterson, to the executive’s office.
• The Town of Malta is brought up to a 100 percent assessment, ending a nearly two-year process and drawing the ire of some residents seeing up to 60 percent increases in the assessed value of their homes. Malta Assessor Sue Otis points to the stability of the housing market in Saratoga County as a reason for high home values.
• In part of a multi-year process of preparing for the arrival of chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices, the Town of Malta forms a Luther Forest Technology Campus Community Response Board to serve as liaison between AMD and the town and work as a mouthpiece for residents.
Resident Carol Henry is chosen to chair the 12-person board, which is made up of other residents and local figures.
• The Saratoga County Water Authority is granted a water supply permit by the state Department of Ecologic Conservation, legally clearing the way for construction of the $67 million pipeline that will deliver water to a number of communities and the Luther Forest Technology Campus, where chipmaker AMD plans to build a manufacturing facility.
April
• The Saratoga Springs City School District Board of Education adopts a 2008-2009 budget of just over $107 million, a 2.92 percent increase over the previous year’s budget. Superintendent Janice White said the proposed budget increase is on par with the projected consumer price index change of 2.8 percent.
• The state Appellate Court dismisses a lawsuit against the Clifton Park Planning Board over the protection of a Karner blue butterfly habitat within the town. Save the Pine Bush Inc. and 11 other individuals challenged an initial ruling to dismiss the case by acting state Supreme Court Justice Barry Kramer in November 2006, who said the plaintiffs did not have standing to lodge a lawsuit.
Save the Pine Bush Inc. filed their lawsuit in the wake of the Planning Board’s approval of plans to build seven industrial warehouses and hundreds of parking spaces adjacent to the Karner blue butterfly habitat.
• Saratoga Springs Mayor Scott Johnson unveils plans to build an indoor recreation facility on the city’s Southside Recreation Fields along Vanderbilt Avenue. Previous plans for the facility had placed it on Weibel Avenue, but Johnson argued the Southside location would allow for easier and safer access for residents. The proposal kicked off a controversy over the facility’s placement and later, when the city faced budget shortfalls, whether it should be built at all. The city eventually put off funding the project until 2010.
• Mitchell Draina, 55, owner and operator of Ballston Lake’s Academy Lumber, and father of two, dies in what Glenville Police call a “very unfortunate accident” on Scotch Bush Road. Draina is struck on the head as he and his assistant Adam Hayhurst fell trees to make way for a residential building project. He is immediately taken to Ellis Hospital by Mohawk Ambulance, where he is pronounced dead.
May
• Seth Dawson is sentenced to 14 years in prison for the September 2007 slashing of Saratoga Springs Police Officer Adam Baker’s throat with a razor blade. Dawson had fled the Four Winds Mental Health Center and Baker was attempting to return him to the facility when the incident occurred in downtown Saratoga. Quick action by emergency services and a middle school girl who stopped Baker’s bleeding with a towel were credited with saving his life.
• Joseph Dragone is chosen as the superintendent for the Ballston Spa School District, ending a search process that lasted between four and six months. Dragone left his position as assistant superintendent for the City School District at Albany, where he headed up secondary education.
• The Town of Malta Planning Board is sued by a developer whose plans to construct a CVS Pharmacy on Route 9 were rejected. Paul and Joan Constantine, along with their contractor, Malta Properties, LLC, allege the town did not provide sufficient reason for rejection of their proposal. The dispute is basically whether the town’s downtown design standards can be used as a reason for refusal of plans. The Constantines submitted another plan later in the year that was approved, and the litigation was dropped.
• Decorated Adirondack rocking chairs begin appearing on the streets of Ballston Spa as part of the village’s business and professionals association’s “Ballston Rocks” campaign. Over 100 are eventually sold to help raise funds for community events, and $3,500 is raised during a September auction, where 35 were sold.
June
• Charles Huff steps down from his position on the Shenendehowa Central School District Board of Education, ending eight years of service. Huff ran in 2000 on a platform opposing plans to split the high school into two buildings. Once elected, he and his running mate, Kim Paulsen, helped to create a referendum to make one school for ninth graders and one for grades 10 to 12.
• A series of historical plaques are unveiled in the Town of Malta gazebo at the Dunning Street Corners. The plaques focus on the history of the corners, and one includes a list of all the town’s supervisors since its founding in 1802. The opening of the gazebo exhibit is one of Town Historian Teri Gay’s last official actions before she resigns to focus on her writing and family. She held the position for four years.
• The Spa City sees a nationally known speaker at The Hall of Springs in Saratoga Spa State Park when former White House Press Secretary for Bill Clinton and author of “Why Women Should Rule the World,” Dee Dee Myers, is the keynote speaker at KeyBank’s annual Key4Women forum. Myers speaks of the difficulties she faced as a woman in her own career and fields questions from the gathered businesswomen.
• The second SaratogaArtsFest arrives in Saratoga Springs, featuring three days of artistic expression across the city. Popular jazz pianist Gerald Clayton gives a performance at the Universal Preservation Hall, The Equus Projects: Dancing With Horses, performs at Saratoga Polo Grounds and on Sunday, painters from all over the state converge on downtown for a collaborative effort with the “Paint Out” event.
• State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, shocks the region with the announcement he will not be seeking reelection in November. Bruno, who represents the 43rd Senate District including Rensselaer County and much of Saratoga County, had held the seat for 32 years and was instrumental in many deals benefiting the area, including the assembly of a $1.2 billion state incentive package for an AMD microchip manufacturing facility in Malta. Voters select Roy McDonald, of the 112th Assembly District, as his successor in November’s election.
• The Town of Ballston looks to make revisions to its Ballston Lake Overlay District (BLOD) map after some residents included in the district say their properties do not actually drain into the lake. The BLOD was devised as a legal measure to protect the lake by bolstering environmental regulations and offering density bonuses to developers building in the BLOD who hook up to public sewer and water systems. The initial boundary was essentially a best guess — a walking of the boundary would be costly — so the town is still looking for residents who believe the border is inaccurate.
• The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School District signs a new contract with its teachers that will increase teacher salaries approximately 6 percent over three years, resulting in an average 4.7 percent increase in cost of services for the district. Both sides say they are pleased with the result and that the negotiations were collegial and constructive.
• The Town of Charlton signs a contract with a new company in hopes of finishing up work on their new town hall. Long Island-based Rockmore Contracting Corporation submitted a bid of just over $1 million to finish work started by local contractor Schmidt & Schmidt, whom the town fired when work fell dramatically behind schedule. Schmidt filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Charlton. The 15,000-square-foot town hall was slated to cost $3.1 million, but the delays will likely increase that figure.
