It was a busy year in the Southern Adirondacks, from a murder trial that garnered national attention, to the third leg of the Triple Crown being run in Saratoga Springs for the first time ever.
The year began with a swift verdict against Kevin Monahan, the Hebron man a Washington County jury spent less than two hours to find guilty in the shooting death of Kaylin Gillis after weeks of testimony.
Monahan and his lawyers said the 66-year-old had feared for his life when he shot at a caravan of cars that had briefly pulled up his rural driveway. Gillis, a 20-year-old from Schuylerville, and her friends had taken a wrong turn on the way to a party in the spring of 2023.
Judge Adam Michelini sentenced Monahan to the maximum 25 years to life for murder, with potentially four additional years for tampering with evidence, in March.
“It’s obvious to me that you feel justified. You don’t take any responsibility for the outcome of your actions. You just don’t get it. The first thing you do on the witness stand when you come up here and testify, is you made a joke to the jury about them finally being able to see your face,” said Michelini. “You senselessly took the life of Kaylin Gillis, and you have the gall to sit here and talk about how you plan to finish up the work on your house, and race motor-cross in the future? You don’t deserve that. What would make you think that you deserve those things?”
In August, Saratoga Springs’ Public Works Commissioner Jason Golub left his post for a governor-appointed role at the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
“It’s difficult for me because I love the work we’re doing at DPW I love working for the city but at some point they have to address the fact that, you know, I have two children. I can’t live off of $14,000, that’s not realistic,” said Golub.
Golub left the council split — with two Democrats pushing to set up a special election, and a Republican and public safety commissioner who won his seat with GOP backing wanted to appoint someone to fill the role on an interim basis.
After weeks without progress, the council approved an election calendar in September, setting a date for January 28th. Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran celebrated.
“We’re having an election, people,” said Moran.
Republican Saratoga County Board of Elections Commissioner Joe Suhrada was slow to give his approval to the mid-winter election. City Democrats missed the October 27th candidate nomination deadline, while the Republicans nominated planning board member Chuck Marshall.
The city council then seemingly nixed the election by deciding to have the interim commissioner Hank Kuczynski, a Democrat, fill the role through the end of the 2025 term.
“So, I’m unsettled by the actions of the board in Ballston Spa and I think it’s unfortunate that the citizens of this city can’t vote to see who will finish the term of the Public Works Commissioner. So, I guess you have me,” said Kuczynski.
City Republican Committee Chair Mike Brandi brought an appeal to the county Supreme Court to uphold the one-candidate-election and won.
“These timelines are set under New York state law, under the election law, and once the proclamation is passed the dominoes start falling. So, we followed the election law in nominating Chuck, and we’re happy to support him and think he’ll do a great job,” said Brandi.
Spa City politics were also rocked when a long-awaited Attorney General’s report was released two years after WAMC broke the news that Letitia James’ office was investigating the city’s interaction with Black Lives Matter demonstrators.
The report faults former city Mayor Meg Kelly, former Public Safety Commissioner Robin Dalton, former police chief Shane Crooks and assistant chief John Catone for retaliating against and violating the civil rights of BLM protesters in 2020 and 2021.
Mark Mishler, the attorney for multiple Saratoga BLM members, was not surprised by the report’s findings.
“What is so significant is that this is the New York State Attorney General’s office. That they put the level of time and effort into this and have been able to document, in a very clear way, that there were policies and practices of the city of Saratoga Springs that were designed to and did interfere with and infringe upon the First Amendment rights of activists,” said Mishler.
In better news for Saratoga Springs, its horse racing season got an early boost when The Belmont Stakes drew massive crowds in June.
Saratoga Race Course easily met its 50,000 fan capacity and the four-day racing festival broke the all-sources handle record for a non-Triple Crown weekend.
Joe Scoville was one of the lucky contributors to that figure.
“So, here’s what I learned today; I’m a novice better, my brother’s a capper. He won early, and I was getting beat down. But I said to myself, ‘he might be up a couple bucks, but lose early, win late.’ I’m telling you right now. And we got two more races. We’re about to beat the bricks off this place, and we’ll see you downtown later,” said Joe.
The Belmont will be back at The Spa in 2025 as its regular home is renovated, and the New York Racing Association also added a July 4 weekend of racing in Saratoga.
In November the Great Meadow Correctional Facility was shuttered by Governor Kathy Hochul. More than 500 correctional officers have been transferred to facilities across the state.
Democratic State Assemblywoman Carrie Woerner of the 113th district spoke at an August rally in support of those impacted by the closure.
“And I talked to an officer last night and he told me about a couple, she has a bit more seniority and will probably go to Coxsackie and he doesn’t, he’s probably going out west. So how does this work? Is somebody going to think about how to schedule their shifts so that one parent can always be home? I don’t think so. So how does this work? We measure the impacts in the children, and what the state is doing is destroying their family life,” said Woerner.
In November's election, Republican Peter Vroman won the Montgomery county executive seat with nearly 60% of the vote defeating Democratic incumbent Robert Purtell. And Saratoga Springs' Finance Commissioner Minita Sanghvi fell short in her challenge against Republican Jim Tedisco of the 44th New York state Senate district.