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Eric DeGrechie, Executive editor

City budget passed

The City Council green lit a 2008 budget of $62.3 million on Tuesday, Nov. 20 by a vote of 3-2. The budget’s approval will cause property taxes to rise 8.6 percent.

Mayor Valerie Keehn and Commissioners Matt McCabe and Ron Kim voted in favor of the budget, while Commissioner John Franck and Thomas McTygue opposed it.

The budget includes $8 million in capital spending for a new public safety facility. However, to approve that bonding the new City Council would have to cast four votes in favor of it.

Franck believes that scenario is very unlikely, and said with the possibility of losing gaming and racing revenues he couldn’t support the budget. Kim agreed that it’s a “very uncertain economic time” both for Saratoga Springs and America, but said he reluctantly must support the motion because there are needs that can’t wait any longer.

Corinth loses popular youth center

The Spot, an after-school youth center located on Main Street in Corinth, held its last session on Wednesday, Nov. 21. The center was forced to close its doors after the agency running it didn’t get a vital grant this year.

CAPTAIN Youth and Family Services discovered in September that it wouldn’t receive a three-year federal grant, which would have provided the center with approximately $100,000 a year.

The total budget of The Spot and its street outreach program was $175,000.

CAPTAIN’s street outreach program allows social workers to scour Saratoga County’s streets, parks and camp sites to search for homeless youths. The program has been drastically cut, but some resources remain available for a rare excursion to bring homeless young people to a CAPTAIN-run shelter in Malta.

Even with no revenue, The Spot managed to stay open for two months.

Staffed by social workers, the center provided activities, help with homework and meals to at-risk kids with no other place to go. The town of Corinth is currently seeking a location to run a similar program, which CAPTAIN would assist in setting up.

Flint pleads not guilty in killing of child

A Glens Falls man faces five charges after he allegedly bit, choked and beat a 7-month-old baby last week.

Michael Flint Jr., 23, is accused of killing Colbi Bullock. Flint pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, endangering the welfare of a child and first-degree manslaughter charges on Tuesday, Nov. 20.

Bullock died at Albany Medical Center on Nov. 14. The baby’s mother, Alicia Lewie, 22, of 121 Bay St., Glens Falls faces manslaughter and reckless endangerment charges.

Flint is not Bullock’s biological father. Flint is in Warren County Jail without bail.

Search continues for Greenwich boy

The search for 12-year-old Jaliek Rainwalker has been unsuccessful thus far, but police are trying something new.

It’s been reported police have issued subpoenas of documents and videotapes to see if family members played a part in his disappearance, more than two weeks ago.

Rainwalker was last seen at a house owned by his adoptive grandfather on Hill Street in Greenwich.

The search has now expanded to Vermont and a camp that the family used to visit.

Rainwalker is described as a light-skinned black male, about 5-foot-6 and 105 pounds, with green eyes. Anyone with information in the case is asked to call 692-9332.

Boy left on bus in Saratoga Springs

A 4-year-old was left on a school bus for about four hours last week before being found.

Nicholas Wainright, a Head Start Saratoga student, was not hurt.

It’s been reported that criminal charges will not be prosecuted on the bus driver, but the boy’s mother could pursue legal action.

O’Neill serves suspension for DPW incident

Joseph O’Neill Jr., an employee of the Department of Public Works and president of its union, recently served a five-day unpaid suspension for dumping human waste on city property.

The New York State Department of Environmental Protection responded to an anonymous tip on Thursday, Nov. 1. DEC officials cited the DPW for dumping between 600 and 800 gallons of human waste onto filter paper laid out at a compost facility located on Weibel Avenue.

O’Neill Jr. has received a great deal of criticism for the pre-election dumping for obvious reasons, but also because he campaigned for Republican Anthony J. “Skip” Scirocco. The DPW employee maintains he was given written instructions on where to bring the waste from McTygue and his brother, Public Works Director William McTygue.

If O'Neill had contested, he would have faced the possibility of a 30-day unpaid suspension.