HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy in Civic Center, NY

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (WCAX) - Plattsburgh officials continue to debate the future of the Crete Civic Center. While the mayor is pushing to tear down the aging center used for community events and indoor winter sports, some council members are pushing to keep it on life support for another season.

“They’re devastated,” said Steve Peters, who runs Adirondack Coast Sports, which hosts adult and kids recreation leagues at the Crete Center from November to May. He says there are about 150 teams with a total of about 1,700 players that depend on the facility. “That field would be full almost one hundred percent of the time.”

The building shut down after an electrical fire in May. Plattsburgh Mayor Chris Rosenquest says the building is looking at a minimum of $45,000 to get it back up and running, $3 million to renovate, or just under $1 million to tear down. He says the building has sewage issues, structural cracks, and a cockroach infestation, among other problems. Plus, the mayor says it costs more to run than it’s bringing in.

“In fairness to them, none of them have made decisions that have created this problem,” Peters said. He says he knows the Crete Center intimately from his time running the rec department for 10 years. He says over time, the little budget cuts added up and led to the current issue. “They cut that but then they never replaced it. But at the time, they thought it was a good decision,” Peters said.

City Councilor Elizabeth Gibbs says there is money out there for a short-term fix to keep the center open one more season and buy the city some time to come up with a plan. She says Assemblyman Billy Jones has offered $100,000 in state funding. “I can’t get behind tearing it down and not remediating when we have people willing to help,” Gibbs said.

Peters recently submitted a full report to the council on how much it would take to keep the Crete alive. “I’m willing to do whatever I can do to take care of these kids, and if that opportunity exists, here’s the pathway to do that,” he said.

The mayor says there are other needs in the city that take priority and would be a better use of taxpayer dollars. In a lengthy document last month, he outlined the various options for the center. He’s also offering public informational tours next Tuesday and Thursday from 5 to 6 p.m.

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SARANAC LAKE — On Friday, technicians from around the world were laying down a layer of ice on the Saranac Lake Civic Center skating rink, prepping the surface that will be the home for all curling competition in the upcoming World University Games, which start Thursday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the completion of the not-for-profit center’s nearly $7 million upgrade project last Thursday.

“Let the games begin!” Project Director Peter Dimmig said on Friday, standing outside the rink on Ampersand Avenue.

He said Civic Center members are excited to show the improved building to the world and urged locals to come watch skilled curlers from around the world compete during the games. He plans to be there himself often, saying he couldn’t miss a “once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Twenty teams representing 13 countries will compete in a “round robin” tournament style — meaning each team plays each team — in men’s and women’s divisions.

There will be plenty of seats. Dimmig said the new bleachers hold 520 people, twice what the old bleachers held.

“It’s going to be fantastic,” Kellie Krake, the curling manager for the games, said as she watched the icemaking Friday. “I just can’t wait.”

The expanded 24,000 square-foot center now has 15,000 square-feet of continuous open floor space, six new locker rooms, a new heated and air-conditioned lobby, a heated second-floor mezzanine, new bleachers and a new ice plant.

Dimmig said a lot of work has happened at the rink in the last few weeks and Krake said that now, they still have a lot to do to prepare the ice and facility for the world of curling. The ice crew, experienced technicians from around the world, need to cover the rink’s hockey lines with white paint, put down layers of water, grind out circles for the curling paint and put in a field of play meeting the World Curling Federation’s configurations.

Curlers don’t compete on just any ice. The sport takes a specific ice surfaced with deionized water with minerals taken out to get more “pure” ice. While hockey is played on as smooth an ice surface as possible, curlers use a “pebbled surface” with ice beads so the stones have less friction resistance.

The rink’s new ice plant will allow them to meet the specific requirements of curling. Dimmig said the new, all-digital controls can be operated and monitored by Civic Center Manager Matt Wolter from his phone. He said the software keeps a record of all data — ice and air temperatures and humidity — to allow Wolter to fine tune the ice to be consistently the best it can and improve efficiency.

The rink also now has a dehumidifier to control humidity levels in the air to calibrate ice quality.

“As New York’s North Country welcomes visitors from around the globe for the World University Games, we have a unique opportunity to showcase our world-class competitive winter sports facilities with the upgraded Saranac Lake Civic Center,” Hochul said in a statement.

This renovation is the culmination of a long history of volunteerism. The Saranac Lake Civic Center was originally built in the 1970s to support youth hockey in the region. In 1989, Saranac Lake Civic Center, Inc. was created to take over the lease of the arena and to operate the facility.

“Since I was a young boy learning to skate, the Civic Center has fought every year for survival on the blood, sweat and tears of volunteers and generous donors,” Saranac Lake Mayor Jimmy Williams said in a statement.

When Lake Placid won the World University Games bid in 2018, the state Economic Development Council asked if the Civic Center could host curling. It couldn’t at the time, but after negotiations with the state, New York offered a 75% matching grant through the North Country Regional Economic Development Council to bring it up to snuff. The state pledged $4.5 million toward the $6 million original project cost, if Civic Center volunteers were able to raise the rest of the $1.5 million themselves.

As projects costs rose, the project was eventually supported by more than $5 million in Upstate Revitalization Initiative funds from Empire State Development, through the North Country Regional Economic Development Council. And the community raised over $1.8 million from more than 320 individuals, businesses and foundations.

Saranac Lake Civic Center Board Member Ollie Burgess said without Hochul, Empire State Development, the North Country Regional Economic Development Council and local supporters, the project would have never happened. He thanked them all.

The project got an early boost last year with a $500,000 gift from retired Goldman Sachs partner Barrie Wigmore and his wife Dee Dee, who have a camp here. There have been other big gifts, including $200,000 from Stewart’s Shops in October.

The project also got grants from the Adirondack Foundation’s Generous Acts fund, the Cloudsplitter Foundation, Community Bank and NBT Bank.

Hochul said the new Civic Center will also “bolster future generations of youth sports groups” and attract more events — weddings, trade shows and auctions. Dimmig said the center can now be used year-round. Before, it would get too hot inside during the summer.

The ice gets a lot of use, he said. It’s home ice for the Saranac Lake Pee Wee Hockey Association, the Saranac Lake Placid high school hockey team and the Paul Smith’s College Bobcats men’s and women’s hockey teams. It also hosts curling, public skates and the occasional Can-Am tournament.

“I cannot express what the Saranac Lake Civic Center has meant to our community for decades,” Williams said. “It has changed countless young lives for the better, and brought us all closer as athletes, proud parents and neighbors.”

Harrietstown Supervisor Jordanna Mallach said she is looking forward to “welcoming the world” during the games next week.

“And I can’t wait to get on the ice for Sunday afternoon public skating,” she added.

Demolition on the former building started in March, with volunteers doing much of the work and saving as many materials as they could to reuse. Luck Brothers Builders started constructing the new atrium and locker room additions to the building the next month.

The building now has a lift to make the second floor accessible to people in wheelchairs, with a glass railing to give a clear view of the ice.

The kitchen has expanded from more or less a snack bar to include more food options.

Six new locker rooms with their own plumbing mean athletes no longer have to use the public restrooms. As of Friday, they still had that fresh locker room smell.

The center got its certificate of occupancy last week.

Krake said curling events will be supported by a coalition of local volunteers, including members of the Lake Placid Curling Club and some from around the country.

Tickets are $15 for curling games, with gold medal competitions in both divisions costing $35. Tickets can be purchased at https://bit.ly/3vMJfOf. Locals can get a 40% discount by using the promotion code LOCALS40. “Locals” basically means anyone who knows about the code.

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SARANAC LAKE — The Lake Champlain-Lake George Regional Planning Board’s 296-page report on the housing crisis ...

Town, volunteers work to make Keene more age friendly

The government building for the Bay Area county is the largest ever designed by the famed architect.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Among the rolling hills in this Bay Area city is what appears to be, at least at first glance, a spaceship.

A sprawling, multilevel structure sports a curved roof painted robin egg blue. At its center are a saucerlike dome and a gold spire rising into the sky.

This otherworldly spectacle is the Marin County Civic Center, the largest building ever designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. As was predicted during its 1962 dedication ceremony, it is “not a profile you will forget.”

Wright began his career in Chicago and is probably most famous for Fallingwater in Pennsylvania or the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. But he spent more than 50 years designing buildings in California.

There are 24 Frank Lloyd Wright creations up and down the state, including an oceanfront house in Carmel-by-the-Sea, a set of shops on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills and a stunning church in Redding. When eight major Wright works were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List a few years ago, the Hollyhock House in Los Angeles’ Barnsdall Art Park was among them.

The Marin County Civic Center was one of the final works of Wright’s career. In 1957, when Wright was 90 years old, Marin County officials hired him to design a government building in San Rafael, the seat of this county just north of San Francisco.

Unlike some of Wright’s other creations that are privately owned or preserved like museum artifacts, the Marin County Civic Center remains open to the public and fully functional.

When I visited recently, a misdemeanor case was being tried in one of the distinctly Wrightian circular courtrooms. People walked down corridors, where the floors are red and the ceilings transparent, to reach human resources offices and printing services. County employees ate lunch on a patio shaded by a blue domed roof lined with gold spheres.

When, in 1957, Wright first drove to see where the civic center was to be built in the San Rafael hills, “he was delighted,” according to Aaron Green, Wright’s Bay Area associate. In his book, Green writes about visiting the site with Wright:

“At one point, we got out, climbed through strands of a barbed-wire fence, and then walked through knee-high grass. From the top of one hill, seeing the entire property, he said, ‘It’s as beautiful as California can have.’ He paused a few moments, then turned to me and without the slightest hesitation said, ‘I know exactly what I’m going to do here.”’

Wright’s vision was to work in harmony with the landscape, and build between the hills instead of leveling them. He drew up plans for county offices, a library, a post office, a jail and more, and presented them to the county supervisors. Construction on these buildings, however, wasn’t completed until after his death in 1959.

In the more than half-century since, the civic center has been named a National Historic Landmark. Tourists still come to take photos of its Art Deco entry gates, circular library and scalloped balconies. Multiple science fiction movies have been filmed here, and it even served as inspiration for the architecture on planet Naboo in the Star Wars movies — created by George Lucas, who started Lucasfilm in San Rafael.

Wright’s Bay Area works — of which there are 28, built and unbuilt — “demonstrate, perhaps more than his buildings in any other location, the amazing variety and innovation of his creations, and the fertility of his imagination,” the architecture expert Paul V. Turner wrote in his book “Frank Lloyd Wright and San Francisco.” These designs include a skyscraper, a gift shop, a bridge across the San Francisco Bay and even a doghouse.

Among them, the Marin County Civic Center buildings, Turner wrote, “constitute one of his most powerful works.”

The rest of the news

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

What you get

For $1.6 million: A Norwegian-style chalet in Bear Valley, a two-bedroom townhouse in Malibu and a brand-new four-bedroom home in Oakland.

What we’re eating

Squash blossom quesadillas.

Where we’re traveling

Today’s tip comes from Drew Villierme-Lightfoot, who lives in Oakland. Drew recommends a desert escape along the eastern edge of the state:

“There is nowhere like the Eastern Sierras, the local name for the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, where the ice-capped mountains of the High Sierras empty their streams into the high desert of far eastern California near the Nevada border.

Mono County is particularly spectacular in its widely varying climates, topographies, and people. This area is rich in geothermal activity and there are many natural hot springs that are not heavily visited. This isolated gem is about a 5-hour drive from both L.A. and the Bay Area. It’s a must-visit for anyone who wants to escape humankind and set off into a magical desert oasis full of naturally replenishing streams and tubs.”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to [email protected]. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

And before you go, some good news

When Adrian Rodriguez, 17, found a purse with cash and credit cards in a shopping cart, he decided to make sure it got back to its rightful owner.

Rodriguez, who lives in Chula Vista, searched for a home address on the driver’s license in the bag. He drove to the front door and dropped off the purse, which eventually made it back to Eliana Martin, who had left it in the shopping cart.

Martin and her friend Melina Marquez were so moved by the gesture that they wanted to reward the teenager. But no one had gotten his name when he had stopped by the house.

So the two started a social media search using footage from a Ring camera, and eventually identified Rodriguez, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports. They set up a GoFundMe in his name called “Fine Young Man Raised by Parents Right,” which has so far raised $16,000.

One commenter wrote: “Another reason I have faith in our youth! Thank you for being such a great example.” And another: “You demonstrated strong moral character, Adrian. Thank you for making the world a better place.”

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow. — Soumya

P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Totally awesome (4 letters).

Harrison Hill, Jack Kramer and Briana Scalia contributed to California Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].

GREENWICH, CT — Construction continues to progress on the new Cohen Eastern Greenwich Civic Center, according to the latest update from the Greenwich Department of Public Works.

All foundation walls and footings have been installed at the site, and crews are progressing through under-slab utility installation, DPW said on Facebook. The erection of building steel is planned to commence during the second half of February. Construction is scheduled to be completed by fall of 2023.

The new civic center will be built on the same footprint. It will be one-story and 35,418-square feet, and include a full-size multi-use gymnasium with roll-out spectator seating; 8,100 square feet of multi-use event space; three 1,000-square-foot activity rooms, two of which will share a partition that can be opened to create a larger room; and other amenities.

Find out what's happening in Greenwichwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The original civic center was built in 1950 as an employee recreation center for Electrolux. The town acquired the building and the 13.22-acre site in 1966.

Greenwich began to develop plans for a building rehabilitation in 2000, but in the years that followed, issues with the facility began to crop up which required immediate repairs.

Find out what's happening in Greenwichwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

After exploring existing conditions of the concrete structure, other problems were investigated such as space utilization, functionality and accessibility.

The lack of thermal insulation and air conditioning throughout the building, as well as a deteriorating subterranean plumbing system, have been problems for years.

The town determined that a complete replacement made more sense.

Greenwich residents Steven and Alexandra Cohen donated $5 million last year as part of a naming rights deal for the project. Steven Cohen is a Greenwich resident and owner of the Mets. He's also the founder of Point72 asset management, a hedge fund company headquartered in Stamford.

Greenwich officials and the community broke ground on the new civic center last October. It was originally projected to cost around $21.5 million. The Greenwich Representative Town Meeting then approved an additional $4.04 million for the project last March.

More information on the project, including renderings, can be found on the town of Greenwich website.

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (WCAX) - The Crete Civic Center in Plattsburgh for the past 50 years has been a venue for everything from youth sports to trade shows, but work is now underway to demolish it after city officials determined renovating the dilapidated building was just too expensive.

Crews are tearing down the Crete Memorial Civic Center brick by brick.

“I hope something can become of the place instead of a parking lot,” said John Donoghue of South Plattsburgh. He says he attended numerous events at the Crete over the years and remembers it as a lively place. “Kids hockey... Years ago Willie Nelson was here. You’ve got to go backward to go forwards sometimes, so hopefully this is the start of something new.”

While the Crete had its moments, the building never got the maximum use once envisioned. Decades of deferred maintenance made it too expensive to operate, and after an electrical fire last year, the building was closed for good.

“A series of mechanical breakdowns that were never repaired, holes in the roof that were never fixed. So, here we are today with having to take a building down,” said Plattsburgh Mayor Chris Rosenquest.

Crews with Ritter & Paratore Contracting have been tasked with breaking the building down. “All of the maintenance, concession stands, and whatnot -- all have to come down before the main building. Once all of that work is done -- I’d guess in the next two to three weeks -- the main building will start to come down,” said the company’s Stephen Brooks. He says any asbestos that was inside has now been removed, however signs of what used to be still linger. Because the building is made of structural steel, its height will be a challenge, Brooks says. Once the concrete sections are done, crews will cut the steel with a torch to get the building to kneel down. Demolition will cost the city nearly $400,000.

Residents say they want the city to create something that will benefit the entire community. “I don’t care what they put up, as long as it’s something useful. But to build something grand that doesn’t come to fruition, people don’t attend it, people don’t go -- I’d just as soon it be grass,” said Linda Harwood of Plattsburgh.

Rosenquest says while the future of the site is still unknown, possibilities include expanding the green space and adding waterfront dining. “It really is just starting from scratch. Sometimes it’s just looking at a blank canvas and then imagining what’s next,” he said.

The plan is to finish demolition by the end of the summer.

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Plattsburgh votes to demolish Crete Center

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Plattsburgh area youth soccer finds Crete Center alternative

City officials face criticism during Crete Center info tours

Plattsburgh debates future of Crete Civic Center

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