A major announcement -- Spring is here!

Green areas share Spring as of Friday.

It's official. Spring 2026 arrives at 10:46 a.m. this Friday!

Unfortunately, the official weather forecast for the next 10 days is nothing to look forward to unless you're a fan of intermittent rain, "high" temperatures mostly below 50, and a 40% chance of snow on several days.

However, there already have been some signs of spring on the Terrace. Such as:

• The number of northward-heading Canada geese formations spotted overhead is increasing.

• Most of the large snow mounds that contributed to a bleak feeling in this extra-cold winter have just about melted away.

• Some early iris and crocus sprouts have been popping up around the neighborhood.

• The Snow Man ice cream stand in Lansingburgh has opened for the season.

And, if you go to our Terrace Times Events Calendar (link below), you'll see it has sprouted many new events.

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Go here for the Terrace Times events calendar.

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A Sunday brunch idea

Like brunches? Like French toast? The two come together this Sunday at the Mt. Ida Preservation Hall. 

The brunch, to be served from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., also will offer scrambled eggs, bacon, and home fries.

From 1 to 3 p.m. there will be an open conversation about the Troy Proctor's building scheduled to become our new city hall as well as other preservation efforts around the community. 

Mt. Ida Preservation Hall is located at 548 Congress Street.

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Go here for the Terrace Times events calendar.

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'Burgh firehouse replacement project advances

Proposed Lansingburgh firehouse. / LaBella drawing

The present firehouse.

The City of Troy this week announced it is accepting bids for construction of a new firehouse in Lansingburgh in the 600 block of 2nd Avenue. 

The current firehouse, located on 5th Avenue, is more than 40 years old and is widely regarded as outdated and in less-than-optimal condition. Discussions about replacing it have ebbed and flowed for several years, but Mayor Carmela Mantello had said she was making action on it a priority as a part of City efforts to revitalize the 2nd Avenue corridor.

The new station will feature four high-bay apparatus bays with a partial mezzanine within a one-story section of the building. A connected two-story section will include firefighter living quarters, administrative offices, an exercise room, decontamination and gear washrooms, bunk rooms, and locker rooms.

 

The project also will include renovations to the existing storage building at 633 2nd Avenue, including structural improvements, interior renovations, and upgrades to mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems.

 

Mantello said the firehouse project is part of her administration’s $16 million investment in the Troy Fire Department, focused on strengthening equipment, facilities, and resources for the city’s firefighters.

Submissions are due by April 7.

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Go here for the Terrace Times events calendar.

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Dollar General being built across the street

 

A typical Dollar General store. / DG photo

Terrace residents who stay aware of their surroundings certainly have noticed the incessant, noisy excavation activities going on across Oakwood Avenue from the entrance to the Terrace.

What's in the process of being created at the Diamond Rock Plaza shopping strip -- anchored by a marijuana dispensary with a drive-thru service -- is yet another Dollar General discount store.

Which raises the question: Do we really need yet another "dollar store" given how many we already have? Time -- and consumer activity -- will tell. 

There already are Dollar General/Dollar Store/FamilyDollar locations nearby, three in Lansingburgh (two of them mere yards away from the Terrace on Northern Drive as well one as just down the road on 2nd Avenue), around the corner in Mechanicville (in the Price Chopper Plaza), as well as in Brunswick Plaza on nearby Hoosick Road and lots of other ocations in the Capital Region.

Generally speaking, Dollar General locations are well-designed and well-maintained, so we probably shouldn't worry about a tacky appearance. What remains to be seen is what the expansion of the Tom Murley-owned complex that has floated, and eventually abandoned or seen evaporate, such things as a school bus dispatching area -- roundly objected-to by numerous Terrace residents at a public hearing, a car wash, a dialysis clinic, and on and on, will do to traffic flow, safety, and travel time.

Some critics of the project point to the Town of Brunswick's penchant for approving commercial development no matter the negative impact on traffic (see the perpetually-jammed Hoosick Road corridor currently being even more jammed by major redevelopment projects), but proponents point to the expansion of commercial choices for shoppers.

Diamond Rock Plaza shopping strip.

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Go here for the Terrace Times events calendar.

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