President Vice President Vice President Treasurer Secretary Stacy Simmons Sandy Hassfurter Kelly Ostrander Christine Kernochan Kathi Leigh Resident Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Contour Mortgage Corp. Saratoga National Bank Ballston Area Comm. Ctr. December 2020 Ellen Mottola, Editor [email protected]The Ballston Spa Business and Professional Association is making every effort to keep the holiday spirit alive even if COVID-19 restrictions to large gatherings require a different approach to the celebrations. On Friday, December 4 at 6-6:30 pm, Santa will light the village Christmas tree from the bucket of a fire truck in Wiswall Park. The tree lighting will be live-streamed on the BSBPA Facebook Page. For those who may choose to come to the park, New York State COVID-19 social distancing and mask requirements will be followed. Following the tree lighting, residents should be sure to peek out their front win- dows or stand at the end of their driveways as Santa will parade through neighborhoods in the village, along with the Ballston Spa Police and Fire Departments and Community Emergency Corps’ ambulance collecting Toys for Tots. The route will be posted on the BSBPA Facebook Page and on ballston.org The BSBPA sponsors a downtown holiday window decorating contest, which inspires some beautiful displays in shop windows along the main streets. Additionally, the vil- lage-sponsored annual holiday community art project “5,278 Points of Light”, under the direction of local artist Mark Blech, will feature hand-painted banners displayed on lampposts throughout the village and an ornament decorating competition. So never fear, Santa IS coming to town, there will be a tree lighting and whimsical community-made decorations. Village shop windows will be decorated, and good cheer will abound. Special thanks to our sponsors, Curtis Lumber and Ballston Spa National Bank, for their generous support!
Transcript
President Vice President Vice President Treasurer Secretary
Stacy Simmons Sandy Hassfurter Kelly Ostrander Christine Kernochan Kathi Leigh
Resident Berkshire Hathaway Home Services Contour Mortgage Corp. Saratoga National Bank Ballston Area Comm. Ctr.
The Ballston Spa Business and Professional Association is making every effort to keep the holiday spirit alive even if COVID-19 restrictions to large gatherings require a different approach to the celebrations. On Friday, December 4 at 6-6:30 pm, Santa will light the village Christmas tree from the bucket of a fire truck in Wiswall Park. The tree lighting will be live-streamed on the BSBPA Facebook Page. For those who may choose to come to the park, New York State COVID-19 social distancing and mask requirements will be followed. Following the tree lighting, residents should be sure to peek out their front win-dows or stand at the end of their driveways as Santa will parade through neighborhoods in the village, along with the Ballston Spa Police and Fire Departments and Community Emergency Corps’ ambulance collecting
Toys for Tots. The route will be posted on the BSBPA Facebook Page and on ballston.org The BSBPA sponsors a downtown holiday window decorating contest, which inspires some beautiful displays in shop windows along the main streets. Additionally, the vil-lage-sponsored annual holiday community art project “5,278 Points of Light”, under the direction of local artist Mark Blech, will feature hand-painted banners displayed on lampposts throughout the village and an ornament decorating competition. So never fear, Santa IS coming to town, there will be a tree lighting and whimsical community-made decorations. Village shop windows will be decorated, and good cheer will abound.
Special thanks to our sponsors, Curtis Lumber and Ballston Spa National Bank, for their generous support!
Thank you to the following for their donations to the Adopt A Plot pro-gram Sherman Tile Associates, TCT Federal Credit Union, VFW Post 358: You help to make our village more beautiful! Ballston Spa Rotary Club It's now after Thanksgiving so the next big thing will be the BIG holi-days of the year. And what better way to celebrate the holidays than to decorate your house with a beautiful, fresh cut tree? Our Annual Holiday Tree Sale is going on now until we are sold out at the Curtis Lumber lot on Rt. 67 in Ballston Spa just west of I-87. All trees are fresh cut and all profits go right back into the Com-munity through our many projects
that we are involved in each year. This has been a rough year for every-one and we depend on these trees to generate most of our funding each year. Make this "Feel Good" season extra special this year and know that you are helping to support your Community at the same time. Hope to see you soon! Community Emergency Corps We have just a short time left but you can still make a donation of a new, unused toy to the Toys For Tots 2020 Campaign at our station at 78 Thompson St. Also, if you have a col-lection box that you need picked up, just let us know at 518-885-1478 and we will make arrangements for that. With COVID 19 still ramping up
around the world it looks like there will be no quick relief from the "New Normal" as some are calling it (we hope not). Please review all the infor-mation and recommendations that are out there and follow them as best you can. Stay at home as much as possible. Wash your hands properly. Use hand sanitizer when needed. And MOST OF ALL, WEAR YOUR MASK! IF NOT FOR YOU, DO IT FOR EVERYONE ELSE. Ballston Spa School District December News 12/2- Board of Education Meeting, High School Library, 7:00 pm 12/3-4-Elementary Parent-Teacher Conference Days (½ day of Remote Learning in am, Grades K-5)
Renewing members this month: A Little Help Computer Service; Ballston Spa Veterinary Clinic; Brookside Nursery; Canvas Hair Salon; North Country Printing & Graphics; Oboy Baking; Sherman Tile Associates; Springer Holdings, LLC; TCT Federal Credit Union; Yana Yoga; Ballston Spa Cemetery As-sociation; Saratoga Convention & Tourism Bureau; VFW Post 358. Thank you for your continued sup-port!
BSBPA Members: Do you have upcoming events or news that you would like to share in our next issue? Contact Ellen Mottola, [email protected], 518 885-2772 or mail to BSBPA, PO Box 386, Ballston Spa, NY 12020. The deadline for the January 2021 issue is December 28, 2020. Promptness is always appreciated, questions answered with a smile!
12/16- Board of Education Meeting, High School Library, 7:00 pm 12/17- High School Interim Reports Posted 12/23- Middle School Interim Re-ports Posted 12/23-31 – No School – Holiday Re-cess Please visit www.bscsd.org for the latest news and/or event information. Joining the bevy of antiques and vin-tage stores that the village has be-come renowned for, is Waverly Square Antiques, now open at 19 Low Street. Located in the former Tufflite factory, owners Kyle and Michele have paid homage to local history by naming their shop after Waverly Hall, the opera house origi-nally located on the Bath Street end of the block. Stop in and shop the ever growing selection of treasures from every era and design movement in the welcoming, relaxed space that is Waverly Square! Open 7 days, 10 am – 5 pm Village Photo is excited to an-nounce their move from 104 Milton Avenue to 199 Milton Avenue, suite #8 on December 15. You can still reach Pete and Donna Martin for scheduling portraits and arranging pickups at 518-885-0396 or Pete's cell phone 518-330-4090 throughout the transition. New things are happening at Dun-ning Street Station. Beer specials, prime rib Thursdays, $30 dollar 3 course menu and brunch is back. Now offering growlers. Open Wednesday- Saturday 4 to 9 pm, Sunday 10:30 am to 8 pm. Reserva-tions are available for immediate seating without waiting. Walk ins will be allowed as long as there is availa-bility and can follow all the rules. Bar is open. Call 518-587-2000 for more information or visit dunning-streetstation.com. Thank you for your support!
From Adirondack Health Initia-tive (AHI); We are in to our normal “open enrollment” for health insur-ance thru the NYS of Health Market-place that will go until 1/31/21. Our enrollment specialists continue to handle these free health insurance enrollment appointments by phone. As appointments are made, clients are made aware that they will receive a phone call from their enrollment spe-cialist who will assist them in com-pleting or updating their health insur-ance application or in providing edu-cation regarding coverage options available thru the NYS Marketplace. Interested individuals can contact us directly at 1-866-872-3740. The spe-cial COVID open enrollment for a qualified health plan has also been extended by the state thru 12/31/20. Balet Flowers greenhouse and flow-er farm will be open through Sunday, December 13 from 10 am to 3 pm dai-ly. Given the importance of safety and social distancing this season, hours have been extended to give everyone more time to shop during the holiday season. Please wear a mask while in-side the greenhouse and outside in the garden. The Saratoga County Economic Opportunity Council (EOC) pro-vided more than 1,000 Thanksgiving baskets to residents from Corinth to Clifton Park with the help of commu-nity partners before the Thanksgiving holiday, reaching approximately 5,000 people. There has been a dra-matic increase in food insecurity throughout Saratoga County this year. For many families this was the first time receiving a basket like this. Sara-toga County EOC provides meals year round through its food pantry and soup kitchen. These community part-ners helped make this year’s Thanks-giving basket initiative possible: Fi-delis Care, Val’s Sporting Goods, Quad Graphics, Ballston Spa Na-tional Bank, Corinth Elementary School, The Salvation Army, the
Ballston Spa Business & Professional Association
Presbyterian-New England Congregational Church and Harvest Church. In addition, more than 500 neighbors provided financial support to EOC’s annual Adopt-A-Family Thanksgiving Bas-ket Project. Two lucky shoppers won Ballston Spa gift certificates as part of No-vember’s First Friday Anniversary scavenger hunt raffle. Chad Hickok won the $75 certificate and Ryan McKinley the $25 certificate. As we enter the Holiday Season, we tend to always be looking for that perfect gift to get loved ones. But for many this season, there is a need for just the basics—food, a warm place to live, a safe haven, the comfort of companionship. Please consider giv-ing the gift of love by donating to any of our local community service and nonprofit members. Please go to https://www.ballston.org/directory/categories/community-organizationsschoolschurches and click on any organization’s name. You’ll find links to learn more about them and how you can help their efforts. Feels good to do good! A reminder that we will be digging into the active part of the village’s economic development plan in 2021. Among the initiatives the BSBPA will be working on are inventory and availability of village properties to help attract new businesses, con-sistent marketing and branding, ac-cessing current business needs and resources and engaging residents and others to help determine what makes this community livable and vital, and what would bring it to the next level. All of this requires the input of many stakeholders so look for more information on how you can be a part of one or more of these areas.
The BSBPA would like to thank the hardworking volunteers who have donated their valuable time and efforts throughout the year and our sponsors for making our special events possible by their generosity. We want to com-mend our business owners for their tenacity and perseverance this year, non-profit organizations who continue their work in the face of increasing challenges and you, our members, for your continued support of them and of the Association and its endeavors, as together we keep Ballston Spa a vibrant community all year long. Warmest wishes for this season of hope!
BSBPA Board News We are pleased to welcome Chris Sorell as a new member of the BSBPA board of directors. Chris co-owns Lockettes The Salon with his wife Melanie. Chris has a wealth of skills. Besides being a licensed cosmetologist and running all aspects of his salon business, he is also a licensed home
inspector in NYS. Former work experience includes director of operations for Northeastern Fine Jewelry for 21 years. Chris is a proud Navy veteran and would like to do more for local veterans in our community. He is interested in working on the membership, budget and ribbon cutting committees, among others. We are excited to have Chris on board! Board Nominations: We are looking for nominations for board member posi-tions. Prospective nominees should be BSBPA members in good standing. Particularly needed are representatives from the downtown business district: retail and restaurant members and commercial property owners. With our ongoing collaboration with the SCPP and the village on Ballston Spa’s eco-nomic development plan , it is crucial to have those voices at the table. If you or someone you know is interested in giving back to the community by join-ing this busy group, please contact Bernadette VanDeinse.
Ribbon Cuttings! November was a very busy month for ribbon cuttings as we welcomed new business-es, new locations and milestones. We started off the month with a trio of celebrations on November 6 (First Friday) marking a new location for dbTrends, brand new business Petal + Hive and, with the Capital Region Chamber, the grand open-ing of The Garage on Washington Street, the new home of Corina Contemporary Jewelry and Glint Glassworks Studio. On November 17, we joined with the Saratoga County Cham-ber to mark a successful year for Oboy Baking’s Ballston Spa location which has been producing and distributing the popular savory pastries made famous at Espe-ranto in Saratoga to retail outlets. One November 21, we officially marked Wel-come Relief Massage Therapy’s re-location from Malta to downtown Ballston Spa. And on November 28, we helped celebrate the 20th year of Brookside Museum’s annual holiday Artisan’s Market, which kicked off another Small Business Satur-
day. It is gratifying to see local busi-nesses not only persevering but thriving in these challenging times and we are so thrilled to have them call Ballston Spa home.
There is no December board meeting. The next BSBPA Board of Directors Meeting
will be held Monday, January 18,2021 at 6:30 pm,
via Zoom You are welcome to attend. Contact the BSBPA office
for more information.
Page 5 Ballston Spa Business & Professional Association
BSBPA Marketing: Group Ads: The Holiday Issue of Southern Saratoga Magazine with our fea-ture article and group ad display went out as an insert to 15,000 Daily Ga-zette subscribers and as a stand alone publication on November 25. We find that this advertising exposure has been very effective especially in at-tracting shoppers and visitors from the Schenectady/Albany region. Addi-tionally, the Gazette ran a Ballston Spa Small Business (SBS) Saturday col-
or insert in the November 27 edition of the paper (at left). The Express Newspa-per also ran a SBS group ad. Group ads are an inex-pensive way to advertise and BSBPA members enjoy discounted rates. Small Business Saturday: Our Small Business Saturday social media promo-tional blitz hit Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and posted on the ballston.org website in the week leading up to the event on November 28. Twenty BSBPA member businesses took advantage of the FREE promotional graphics (see examples below) and printable shopping map guide.
Ballston Spa Business & Professional Association
2020-21 Officers Stacy Simmons, President (garden with Stacy) [email protected]
Sandy Hassfurter, Vice President (Berkshire Hathaway Home Services) [email protected]
Kelly Ostrander, Vice President (Contour Mortgage Corp.) [email protected]
Christine Kernochan, Treasurer (Saratoga National Bank) [email protected]
Kathi Leigh, Secretary (Ballston Area Community Center) [email protected]
2020-21 Board of Directors Jason Armer (Armer Funeral Home, Inc.) [email protected]
Ballston Spa Merchandise Just in time for the Holidays, the BSBPA Merchandise committee has a new supply of our signature Ballston Spa Skyline t-shirts in white and black. Look for them at select retail outlets like O’Brien Pharmacy, A Bead Just So and Ballston Spa Public Li-brary, as well as on our website soon. As always, you can find our vintage style hats and bistro mugs as well. Create a “Ballston Spa basket” with mugs and a sam-ple of coffee or tea from one of our local shops, a t-shirt, hat and a Ballston gift cer-tificate. Celebrate your hometown this Christmas!
Now through Christmas, become a new Community/Resident Member of the BSBPA for the limited discount price of just $20 ($5 off the regular
membership fee). You can also take advantage of this offer to give the gift of membership to family and
friends. Visit Ballston.org to join!
Ballston Spa—Fair Trade Town
You may have noticed under this newsletter’s front page header the words “Ballston Spa—New York’s First Fair Trade Town”. Indeed, the Village of Ballston Spa was the first municipality in the state to earn that designation from the Fair Trade Cam-paigns organization in the early 2000’s after a cam-paign initiated by Kim Andersen, who owned Mango Tree Imports in the village at the time. In order to achieve Far Trade Town status, Ballston Spa formed a fair trade committee, worked with retailers to offer Fair Trade products, enlisted local commu-nity groups and organizations to use or serve fair trade products like tea and coffee, raised awareness of Fair Trade through educational events, media coverage, and other activities and passed a resolu-tion in support of Fair Trade through the village government. While Ballston Spa had completed each task, and while fair trade items continue to be offered in many village businesses, there are as-pects of our designation that have fallen by the wayside, including an active committee and an edu-cation and awareness outreach. Kim Andersen recently spoke to the BSBPA board about reengaging our efforts to keep our Fair Trade status current and up to date. Look for more infor-mation in the coming months. In the meantime you can learn more about Fair Trade: https://www.fairtradefederation.org/what-is-fair-trade/ and Ballston Spa’s Fair Trade Town status: https://fairtradecampaigns.org/campaign/ballston-spa-ny/
Page 7 Ballston Spa Business & Professional Association
2020 Beautification Award Winners The BSBPA in partnership with Curtis Lumber, honored business owners and residents whose renovation, restoration, and beautification efforts have enhanced the Ballston Spa community over the past year. The winners were chosen from nominations submit-ted by others in the community. Each award recipient was given a framed certificate along with a Curtis Lumber gift card in recognition of their efforts. In lieu of the awards ceremony this year, the presentations were made by members of the Beautification Awards Committee and members of the BSBPA Board of Directors. The BSBPA would like to thank all of our recipients for their hard work to improve our community, as well as the many community members who submitted nominations. Special appreciation to Curtis Lumber for their generous support. Congratulations to the following winners: Best Residential New Build: 24 Galleon Drive-Malta Development Co/Patrick Rowan & Christopher Cavanaugh Best Residential Redevelopment:54 Grove Street-High Rock Realty/Ron Murphy Best Residential Renovation: 28 Chapman Street-Carrie McNeil & Scott Von Duhn Residential – Honorable Mention New Build:7 Oakwood Court-Travis Fitzgerald Best Commercial Interior Renovation: The Front Street Social Club, 52 Front Street-Jamie Fronk Best Commercial Exterior Renovation: Amazing Finds Boutique, 53 Milton Avenue-Christine Jamison Best Commercial Complete Renovation: Rilassare at 18 Front, 18 Front Street -Alicia TenEyck Commercial Renovation Honorable Mentions: dbTrends Boutique, 32 Front Street-Dayanis Bowie Inspire Hair Salon, 207 Milton Avenue-Dana Flinton Seraphina Devine Beauty, 215 B Milton Avenue Autumn Wright The Real McCoy Beer Co Ballston Spa, 28 Washington Street-Michael & Bona Schaffer Best Community Renovation: St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, 167 Milton Avenue #518RainbowHunt Winner: Saratoga County Historical Society at Brookside Museum, 6 Charlton Street
Page 8
Sandwich Boards and Winter Weather Sandwich boards are a great way to direct custom-ers to your business. Several of our downtown shops and restaurants have these boards on display at cor-ners and on sidewalks. Ideally, the boards should be removed each evening when your business closes and set up the next day. With the winter weather approaching, the Ballston Spa DPW is reminding businesses to bring their signs in when the forecast calls for measurable snow. The snowplows will often end up burying the boards left on the sidewalks and the DPW does not have the manpower to keep dig-ging them out. The buried boards may also cause a hazard to pedestrians and may become damaged, which could bring about the need for replacement (and its cost) to the business. Thank you for your cooperation!
Ballston Spa Business & Professional Association Page 9
RESTAURANTS, FOOD & BEVERAGES
Ballston Spa Deli/Sunoco Doubleday Ave.
The Brickyard Tavern
Front Street Deli
Front Street Social Club
Iron Roost
Midtown Wine & Spirits
Nani’s Indian Kitchen
Next Door Kitchen & Bar
Pizza Works
Ribbon Café
The Real McCoy Beer Company
Ballston Spa
The Ripe Tomato
Sage Wine & Spirits
Saratoga Cookie Company
Sunset Grill
The Whistling Kettle
The Whitehouse Restaurant
RETAIL BUSINESSES
A Bead Just So All Farmers Market Vendors Amazing Finds Boutique Boho Chic Boutique Brookside Museum Gift Shop Brookside Nursery The Bundle Store Certain Age Antiques Corina Contemporary Jewelry & Fine Crafts Curtis Lumber Co., Inc. Daisy Dry Goods dbTrends Double M Western Store
Front Street Home Glint Glassworks Studio Green Witch Vape Nourish Designs Petal + Hive O’Brien Pharmacy Schenectady Distilling Co. The Store at Rebuilding Together Saratoga County Stone Soup Antiques Gallery Two If By Sea Gallery Waverly Square Antiques Wildhaven Bakery
SERVICES, LODGING & ENTERTAINMENT
Adirondack Health Institute Allison Karoly Integrative Energy Healing & Coaching Ballston Spa Country Club Ballston Spa Veterinary Clinic Canty Financial Management Canvas Hair Salon, LLC Christine Carsky, Attorney Cole’s Collision Centers Crystal Cuts D&R Lawn & Landscaping Digital Imaging Technologies Earth Care Plus Excelsior Therapeutics Generations Auto Repair Goddess Hands Massage Hardwired PC Repair
JDC Dance Center Lansing Enterprises Mangino Chevrolet Buick GMC Medbery Inn Medbery Day Spa Michael’s Automotive Paint-n-Gogh Pioneer Hills Golf Course Rilassare at 18 Front Saha Yoga T-Shirt GraphicsVillage Photo, LLCWe Rock the SpectrumWelcome Relief MassageTherapyYana Yoga
Gift Certificate Participant List Current as of November 25, 2020
Subject to change-please check ballston.org for most current list
Check our website for participating business addresses,
phone and website information
Ballston Spa Gift Certificates are redeemable at participating
merchants village-wide.
Purchase at any branch of Ballston Spa National Bank or
online at ballston.org
Your purchase supports local businesses.Thank you!
Page 10
Need Health
Insurance?
We can help!
Call to schedule a free appointment.
1-866-872-3740
Adirondack Health
Institute
https://ahihealth.org/
Village Board meetings are held the second and fourth Mondays of each month at 7 pm. This month’s meetings are December 14 and 28. The meetings will to be held via Zoom. For more information on village meetings, call the village office at 518-885-5711 or email
First Friday is December 4 We want to make this holiday season merry and bright whether you are here in person with us or in the comfort of your home! This First Friday will bring Santa and a live stream of the tree
lighting in Wiswall Park, an in-person downtown business scavenger hunt observing social dis-
tancing, and the beginning of our online Ballston Spa Holiday Shopping Event, with our local businesses showing off some of their fa-
vorite holiday gifts – allowing you to shop local at home to support your favorite Ballston Spa small businesses, and maybe discover a new
December 4 Tree Lighting & Neighborhood Holiday Parade First Friday in Ballston Spa December 10 Drive Thru Food Pantry, 10 am, BSNB Corporate Office December 11 Take Out Spaghetti Dinner, 4:30-6:30 pm, Ballston Spa Elks Lodge December 14 & 28 Village of Ballston Spa Board Meetings, 7 pm, via Zoom Through December 24 Artisan’s Market, Thursdays– Sundays, Brookside Museum
![12020/12/1 08 2020/12/14' 02; 12020/12/16" [15 : 06 :z211120J71 12020/12/19] 05 20 i 202082/19 02:05è55 20 7 2020/12/10 20.7 2020/12Ž14 20 12020/11 2/1 V] 10; 09 1209, 2020/12/16](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/60b132874317f551c152efd5/12020121-08-20201214-02-120201216-15-06-z211120j71-120201219.jpg)
