Month: August 2017

‘Jefferson Project’ Gets Prestigious Award For Its Work To Preserve And Protect Lake George

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Officials from RPI, IBM and the Fund for Lake George gather after receiving the Harold K. Hochschild Award at the Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake in July.
Courtesy the Museum on Blue Mountain Lake

The Jefferson Project at Lake George was awarded the 2017 Harold K. Hochschild Award at the annual benefit gala of the Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake in July.

The Jefferson Project—a collaboration between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, IBM Research and The Fund for Lake George—uses technology and science to preserve and protect the Lake George, known as the Queen of American Lakes.

The Harold K. Hochschild Award is dedicated to the memory of the museum’s founder, whose passion for the Adirondacks, its people and environment inspired the creation of the institution and the establishment of the Adirondack Park Agency. Presented annually to recipients in a wide range of fields throughout the Adirondack Park, it honors their work to improve the region’s culture and quality of life.

The Jefferson Project combines Internet of Things technology and powerful analytics with science to create a new model for environmental monitoring and prediction, according to project officials.

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‘Boat N RV Condos’ Uses Solar Roofing Panels To Save On Electricity, Derive Other Revenue

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Boat N RV Condos has installed solar roofing at this Saratoga Springs facility.
©2017 Saratoga Photographer.com

By Jill Nagy

Boat N RV Condos, an indoor storage facility for boats, RVs, and similar recreation equipment, has gone solar at all three of its facilities—in Saratoga Springs, Glens Falls and Latham.

The most recent project, in Saratoga Springs, was completed in July. The Glens Falls facility went solar last February.

Concord Pools in Latham, the company’s flagship facility, has had solar panels on its roof for 10 years.

The buildings have “massive roof square footage,” said Michael Giavanone, who heads the company.

He said it seemed like a “socially responsible approach” to making use of that area. “We want to do everything we can to improve the environment.”

The company is renting its rooftop space to Monolith Solar on a 20-year lease, said Giavanone. That company supplied and installed the equipment and maintains it. The panels produce enough energy to keep the host facility in electricity and Monolith feeds the rest back into the grid.

Through the agreement, Boat N RV gets free electricity as well as rent payments from Monolith. Monolith, in return, gets paid for the energy it returns to the electricity grid. The boating storage areas “are not high-demand facilities,” Giavanone said, so the bulk of the power produced on the rooftops goes into the grid.

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NYSERDA Makes Program To Help Cities Understand PILOT Solar Project Agreements

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The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has developed a Solar PILOT Toolkit to assist the state’s municipalities in understanding and negotiating payment-in-lieu-of taxes (PILOT) agreements for solar projects larger than 1mw, including community solar projects.

Based on feedback from local government officials and solar industry representatives, NYSERDA developed the toolkit in response to the need for greater information on PILOT agreements as solar projects develop throughout the state, officials said.

The Solar PILOT Toolkit provides a framework for local taxing jurisdictions to negotiate payment agreements with solar developers. In addition to their clean energy and job-creation benefits, solar developments can yield significant financial value to municipalities through PILOT agreement payments, according to NYSERDA.

The toolkit addresses the lack of information on property tax issues around solar development and is designed to enable municipalities to work with developers to negotiate PILOT rates that benefit the community and make the projects financially attractive to developers and their customers.

“The Solar PILOT Toolkit will serve as a vital resource to help municipalities encourage the development of community solar projects and make sure they benefit the entire community,” Alicia Barton, president and CEO, NYSERDA said. “Large-scale solar projects provide a great opportunity for communities across the state to take advantage of clean, renewable energy while advancing Gov. Cuomo’s Reforming the Energy Vision strategy.”

New York state is undertaking significant changes in the way it generates and delivers electricity. As one example, community solar projects allow electric customers who are not able to install solar panels on their properties to own or subscribe to a portion of a community solar project, and benefit from the cost savings of clean generation.

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Education Services, Recreation Programs, Abound At Popular Glens Falls Senior Center

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Kim Bren, executive director of the Greater Glens Falls Senior Citizens Center says the facility regularly has programs on such issues as healthy hearts and diabetes.

By Jill Nagy

The Greater Glens Falls Senior Citizens Center offers “a little bit of everything” in a converted Victorian mansion in the heart of Glens Falls, according to executive director Kim Bren.

For people age 55 and over wanting to be active, there is a full program of exercise and recreational activities and a fully equipped woodworking shop. Members go out to lunch once a month and, also once a month, have a themed luncheon at the center. (There is no regular lunch program, but that is available next door at the Presbyterian Church).

Members of the center  take day trips to Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Lake George and other area attractions. A line dance group practices at the center and performs at area nursing homes. Other group activities include bowling, golf leagues, picnics and card games. There are “tons of programs” on such issues as healthy hearts and diabetes as well as regular opportunities to have blood pressure, blood sugar, or hearing tested, said Bren. Coming up is a program about ticks and the diseases they carry.

Bren said she is particularly proud of the senior service specialist at the center, Ed Cappazuppi. The specialist provides help with finding housing, evaluating health insurance plans, and applying for programs at the Office of Aging, among other services. He is also a notary public. He makes home visits to members who cannot come to the center.

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Audiologist: Hearing Loss Issues Should Be Addressed Early Or Problems Will Worsen

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Dr. Susan Boggia, an audiologist at the Center for Better Hearing in Glens Falls, says the common problem of hearing in a crowd can get worse if the situation is ignored.

By Jill Nagy

Typically, people wait seven years between noticing a hearing loss and doing something about it, observed Dr. Susan Boggia, an audiologist at the Center for Better Hearing in Glens Falls.

Telltale signs include missing the punch line when someone tells a joke on the other side of the room, or turning up the sound on the TV beyond where other family members might want it. Having problems hearing in a crowd—distinguishing speech from background noise—is pretty common as people age, she said, “nearly everyone experiences that.”

Boggia said she recommends that people, as they get older, get a baseline hearing evaluation. The evaluation determines how someone hears different tones and different frequencies and how well he or she hears different words. Sometimes, it is hard to understand speech even if it is loud, she noted.

The common problem of hearing in a crowd can get a lot worse if the situation is ignored. That is an issue involving processing of sound by the brain.

“It is important to stimulate the brain,” Boggia said. “The longer you wait, the more significant the loss becomes,” and the harder it will be to adjust to hearing again. “Your brain has to relearn how to process sound and how to ignore it and it takes some time for your brain to acclimate,” after a hearing loss is compensated for.

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Business Report: Plan Early, Communicate Often

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Cumming, CFP, RICP, CRPS, is an executive financial services director with Morgan Stanley.
Courtesy Sterling Manor Financial

By David L. Cumming

As the Baby Boom generation continues its march to retirement, a significant number of entrepreneurs will soon begin the process of transitioning family businesses to the next generation.

If you are about to embark on this journey, here are some of the potential pitfalls to avoid.

According to the 2016 U.S. Family Business Survey conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers, only about 43 percent of private businesses have done any exit planning whatsoever. Failure to execute a business transition may lead to multiple negative outcomes, including:

1. Breakdown of communication and trust within the family unit;

2. Inadequately prepared heirs and absence of a clear vision or mission to align family members;

3. Failure by advisors to properly address taxation, governance and wealth preservation issues.

With success riding largely on a family’s ability to communicate and to clearly articulate a plan for the future, the following guidelines may help to ease the business transition process.

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Glens Falls, Queensbury Among Localities With Population Growth From 2015 to 2016

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Glens Falls and Queensbury are among the  municipalities that grew in population from 2015 to 2016, according to a Center for Economic Growth analysis of U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Also growing were municipalities in Saratoga County, according to the data.

CEG officials said that between July 1, 2015 and July 1, 2016, populations increased in 22 and decreased in 96 Capital Region towns and cities. Only three of the region’s 10 cities—Cohoes, Glens Falls and Saratoga Springs—saw their populations grow in 2016.

However, five cities experienced annual losses below 1 percent. They were Albany (-0.2 percent), Rensselaer (-0.3 percent), Troy (-0.3 percent), Watervliet (-0.7 percent) and Schenectady (-0.7 percent).

Out of the region’s growing towns and cities, two were in Warren County, CEG said.

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Business Report: New York’s Paid Family Leave

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Noreen DeWire Grimmick, partner with the Hodgson Russ law firm.
Courtesy Hodgson Russ

By Noreen DeWire Grimmick, Esq.

An important piece of new legislation was executed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in April 2016 providing paid family leave.

Paid leave will be phased in over a 4 year period beginning in Jan. 1, 2018. To be eligible, employees must work a minimum 26 consecutive weeks prior to applying for paid leave.

Paid leave may be taken to provide care to a family member suffering from a serious health issue; to bond with a child during the first 12 months after birth, adoption, or foster care placement; or to attend to obligations because a spouse, parent, or child is on active duty or has been notified of a pending call into active duty in the U.S. armed forces.

Notably, this law does not provide coverage for an employee’s own serious health condition, but that event would likely trigger already existing disability insurance coverage and is, of course, subject to FMLA under federal law.

Phasing in of these new regulations begins in 2018. Employees who qualify for paid leave under the act will be entitled to 50 percent of their pay (with a pay cap equal to 50 percent of the statewide weekly average pay) for a period of 8 weeks. When fully phased in, in 2021, eligible employees will be entitled to 12 weeks of paid leave at 67 percent of their weekly pay (capped at 67 percent of the statewide average weekly pay).

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Saratoga Hospital Buys Carl R’s Restaurant Property; No Decision Yet On Its Intended Use

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Saratoga Hospital announced the acquisition of the former Carl R’s restaurant property on Main Street in Queensbury at Northway Exit 18 of the Northway.

“Our multi-specialty group practice, Saratoga Hospital Medical Group, continues to see growth in our patient population north of the hospital’s main campus,” said Angelo Calbone, president and CEO of Saratoga Hospital.

“When the property became available, we decided the convenient location at exit 18 made this an excellent site to explore how we can best provide the medical specialty programs and services to meet these expanding needs.”

With the transaction complete for the one-acre parcel, the hospital is now assessing what specialty practices will be considered for the location.

“The hospital often looks at a prospective location without having a specific plan until the transaction is finalized,” said Calbone. No decisions will be made until a comprehensive evaluation has been completed. Timing for the proposed use is to be determined. Saratoga Hospital is the sole owner of the property.

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