Month: February 2022

By Paul Post

Athletes from across the country are converging on Gore Mountain this month, setting the stage for one of the world’s largest sports spectacles a year from now.

The Holeshot Cross Tour (held Feb. 5-11) and USASA Futures Tour ( held Feb. 11-18) give the nation’s top junior freestyle skiers and snowboarders a chance to earn points in their quest to race professionally.

“These are two types of events, ski cross and slope style, we’ll be hosting for next year’s World University Games as well as big air,” said Stephanie Backes, Gore Mountain marketing director. “It’s putting Gore on the map for this caliber of competition and exposing us to people from around the country who have never been here before. It definitely helps lodging and restaurant business.”

World University Games are surpassed in size only by the Olympics, with about 1,600 athletes from 50 nations expected for next year’s competition based in Lake Placid. But Gore will host all freestyle skiing and boarding events, further enhancing its already prominent role as an economic engine in Warren County’s winter tourism industry.

Gore hosted 217,000 guests last winter, up significantly from the 189,000 who visited in 2019/20. Backes attributed this to the COVID-19 pandemic that sparked a major rise in all types of outdoor activity as many other forms of entertainment weren’t available.

In addition, the pandemic gave people working from home more opportunities to take time off. Last year, Gore saw a huge rise in midweek, non-holiday period visits, which have leveled off a bit this winter, but are still higher than pre-COVID attendance.

By Paul Post

Only a week after opening, more than 75,000 tickets had already been sold to a major new winter attraction that officials hope can contribute to transforming Lake George into true year-round tourist destination.

Visitors to Ice Castles—a 1.5-acre man-made sculpture with frozen 25-foot-high archways, tunnels and slides—are expected to spend more than $4 million for lodging, meals, fuel and similar services.

Located at Charles R. Wood Park’s Festival Commons, 17 West Brook Road, it coincides with this year’s 60th annual Lake George Winter Carnival, featuring a slate of fun activities each weekend in February.

“This is big, really big,” said long-time Mayor Robert Blais, who has worked  to promote winter tourism for many years. “All the businesses that have been open all these years, that have struggled through the winter and supported the Winter Carnival, I say thanks to them. Now you’re going to be rewarded. To the ones that don’t stay open and take advantage of it, I say, ‘You don’t know what you’re missing’.”

In addition to Utah, where Ice Castles is based, the company has similar attractions in Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Hampshire. This is its first time in upstate New York.

“We researched it very carefully,” Blais said. “I called communities wherever Ice Castles has been or still is, and talked to the mayors and supervisors. It fills every (hotel) room that’s available.”

Room reservations at Fort William Henry Hotel & Conference Center are up nearly 20 percent, said Tom Wysocki, sales and marketing director.

The Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce announced that the 33rd Annual J. Walter Juckett Community Service Award will be presented to Carl T. Baker, Esq., founding shareholder of FitzGerald Morris Baker Firth PC. 

Baker will be presented with the award at the ARCC annual dinner on April 1 at The Sagamore Resort in Bolton Landing.

“Carl exemplifies all that defines the J. Walter Juckett Community Service Award. He has given much of himself to our region as a volunteer in so many ways. Carl has done so much for others, yet he is so humble never expecting anything in return except the satisfaction of helping those around him. Congratulations Carl on a well-deserved award given to you by your peers in the business community,” said ARCC President and CEO Michael Bittel. 

Baker’s contributions to our community include service on multiple boards, councils, and committees including: Kiwanis Club of Glens Falls; Glens Falls Kiwanis Foundation; board of governors of Glens Falls Hospital; Planned Giving Council of Glens Falls Hospital; Glens Falls Hospital Foundation; Widowed Persons Service of Greater Glens Falls Area; Compre-Care Inc; Glens Falls YMCA Legacy Club Committee; WAMC Gift Planning Advisory Committee.

Born in Gloversville, Baker went on to pursue a career practicing law, achieving a B.A. from Cornell University in 1973, then his J.D. from Albany Law School in 1978. He was admitted to the bar in 1979. Baker is married to Sandra Stoffolano and has two children, Christopher and Jessica. He is a founding shareholder of FitzGerald Morris Baker Firth PC, and former managing partner and current head of the firm’s Trusts and Estates practice group.

By Christine Graf

Northern Living and Lake George Design have relocated offices to 1849 Route 9 in Lake George. The vacation rental, property management and interior design businesses are owned by Katelyn Moskos and her husband, John.

In 2016, the couple depleted their savings in order to purchase and renovate their first short-term rental property on Lake George. At the time, Moskos was working in hospitality management, and her husband was a medical sales rep.

“Because I had been working in hospitality management for quite some time, I saw the potential and demand for vacation rentals,” said CEO Moskos. “It was risky. Very risky. This was before Airbnb’s and VRBO’s became what they are today. I jumped in head first and it was sink or swim. I had no choice but to swim.”

Today, they own seven lakefront rental properties and manages 36 additional properties.  Northern Living offers high-end rentals and markets its property management services to people who own second homes in the Lake George region.

Moskos started out with one employee and worked out of her Queensbury home. Today, she has a staff of more than 25 year-round employees. That number exceeds 50 during the busy summer months. Her husband joined the company full time in 2018 and serves as head of maintenance. 

In addition to Northern Living, the rental and property management arm of the business, Moskos also owns Lake George Design, an interior design company. She works with customers who want to purchase second homes in the area to use as short-term rental properties. 

After canceling last year’s event due to the ongoing pandemic, the Glens Falls Collaborative returns to hosting its annual Wing Fest in downtown Glens Fallls on April 30.

Courtesy Glens Falls CollaborativeThe event is a competition between restaurants for the best wings. There will be an awards ceremony at the bandstand in City Park at 3:30 p.m. to close out the event, with multiple categories of winners. 

There will also be live music in Downtown Glens Falls.

This year’s event is dedicated to Michael DuBray, also known as DeeJay DuBray, who helped found the event and served as its chair and champion for many years. He passed away in January  and will be honored during Wing Fest.

Restaurants are invited to participate by applying online at www.glensfallscollaborative.com.

Tasting tickets are $1 each, and the number of tickets to taste varies by restaurant.

Participating Downtown restaurants will serve from their storefronts, and restaurants from outside the city will serve from locations along Glen, Ridge, Bay and Maple Streets and in City Park. 

Voting will take place online at www.glensfallscollaborative.com. QR codes for voting will be displayed around town and votes must be cast by 3 p.m.

Hudson Headwaters Mobile Health is now delivering primary care services at SUNY Adirondack. The mobile health center will be on campus twice a month to serve students, faculty and staff.

This is the first time medical services will be offered on the SUNY Adirondack campus, which does not have a student health center. Access to health care became a priority when the campus added a residence hall in 2013.

The mobile center is staffed by a family nurse practitioner, Christine Calistri, a registered nurse and a medical assistant. Hudson Headwaters Mobile Health Program Lead Kristin Waller, who also serves as the onsite medical assistant, recently attended SUNY Adirondack’s winter student orientation day.

“We brought the unit onsite so students and other campus community members could tour through and get to know us,” said Waller. “The mobile team is thrilled to offer services to SUNY Adirondack and hope our flexible options, such as online appointment scheduling and same-day sick appointments, appeal to busy students and campus staff.”

“SUNY Adirondack is excited by the opportunity to advance our relationship with Hudson Headwaters Health Network and bring affordable, top-notch health care to campus for our students and their dependents,” said Kristine D. Duffy, Ed.D., president of SUNY Adirondack. “Hudson Headwaters’ Mobile Health Center offers SUNY Adirondack students convenient, safe care to help our students make their health a priority.”    

SUNY Adirondack is the fourth site served by the mobile health center. Other locations include Salem, Lake Luzerne and Whitehall.