This is a link to the David Lombardo story from the Times Union on Friday night’s city hall fire. Apparently, while the fire was quickly contained, the smoke and water damage was extensive to the Lake Avenue side of the building. This included the city council chambers. The damage was sufficiently severe that city hall will be closed on Monday and meetings of the council are being moved to other locations. The Council’s Monday morning pre-agenda meeting will be held at 9:30 at the Rec Center. Tuesday’s City Council meeting will be at the City Center including the Charter Review Commission’s public hearing which will begin at 6PM. Any further changes will be posted on the city website.
I understand that the members of the council have risen to this occasion by working closely to develop short term plans about where to relocate the staff of offices that were particularly severely damaged. They have established an emergency task force to help manage the crisis. Public Safety Commissioner Peter Martin told Lombardo that while the city is insured, the cost of addressing the damage will be substantial, especially in light of the fact that city hall is an historic building.
Saratoga Springs Politics 
The most unpopular post ever: sell that black mold and asbestos filled mausoleum and build a truly accessible city hall. It should have been done a LONG time ago. And I may be wrong here, but it’s NOT a historical building since they took out the theater and bell tower. It just sentimental to many people. But that place is an armpit.
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Just heard that there is discussion and possible meeting today (Tuesday 08.21.2018) or tomorrow on eliminating the stage and dance hall to be replaced by a SECOND city court. Pretty pathetic statement for Saratoga Springs when the city needs to eliminate a historic element that is used for the monthly Diamond Dance, Dance Flurry, New Years Eve, large meetings, design charrettes, and other venues to address a rapidly growing criminal log – or maybe they are just anticipating the situation once the Code Blue shelter is bedded up to hold 100 year round. More judges, police and payroll – welcome to Saratoga Springs. Of course they could turn the entire building into condos and build a new city hall as ugly as the City Center with lots of colored LED lights. Anyone know of a good realtor?
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“Just heard”?
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Two Decades….
In the August 24-30 edition of Saratoga Today Tom Dimopoulos asked Mayor Meg Kelly about changing the dance hall space in city hall into a second city court room. Her reply: “There’s no plan right now…..Right now we’re in the recovery stage, so we are not making any plans for the building at this time.”
The state of New York is requiring that the city add a second courtroom.
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