Month: June 2026

By Paul Post

When a key player is sidelined by injury, the whole team suffers.

Just ask the Yankees, who have been without superstars Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Max Fried for extended periods this year.

The same holds true in business, which explains why United Associated Local 7 recently opened a new Health and Wellness Center for its 1,400 active and retired members and their families.

“If we can get everybody in the habit of getting a yearly physical we can catch stuff early and at the end of the day, save money,” said Ed Nadeau, union president and business manager.

For example, prediabetes might be stopped from becoming full-blown diabetes, or someone at risk of a heart attack or stroke could turn things around with a healthier diet and exercise.

A survey of 180 union apprentices found that very few had a primary care doctor.

“That kind of lit the fire, that we need to have our own place,” Nadeau said. “It’s tough to get a primary care doctor in today’s world. They tell you quite often that they aren’t taking new patients.”

By Rod Bacon

Sarah Heddell has an adventurous soul.

Sixteen years ago, she embarked on a career path that was unusual at the time for a woman: She decided to become an electrician.

The owner of Glens Falls-based 2 Check Electric, Heddell started her entrepreneurial journey shortly after graduating in 2009 from Walt Whitman High School in Huntington Station on Long Island.

She attended SUNY Albany for one semester, majoring in political science, before deciding that sitting in a classroom wasn’t for her.

“I like to be busy, I like to be outside,” she said. “I’d always been handy growing up, helping my stepfather build decks and things. I also worked on a horse farm during high school.”

She said the trades didn’t “come into her reality” until after she dropped out of college. She knew a Teamster who drove for United Parcel Service, and he recommended she look into a career in the trades. She considered both plumbing and electrical work, deciding on the latter because she didn’t want to deal with sewage.

“But the joke’s on me,” she said. “Since starting my career I’ve worked in multiple wastewater treatment facilities as an electrician.”

By Susan Elise Campbell

Every building, road and bridge relies on workers with skills that artificial intelligence will not replace. As communities grow, they need more workers on job sites and behind the scenes.

High demand and relative job security make the construction trades attractive. But the workforce shortage has grown so severe it has been described as a national crisis.

In Saratoga County, a nonprofit serving the Northeast has spent the past eight years building awareness between young people and potential construction careers.

“At Saratoga Builders Association board meetings, builders would talk about how we could build more if we could hire more,” said Doug Ford, then president of and now senior adviser to Curtis Lumber Co. “I said we need to do something or take this off the agenda. I was immediately assigned to head a task force.”

Ford said that “on day two” as task force leader he brought in Pam Stott, also an executive of Curtis Lumber, and co-founded the group that received nonprofit status three years ago as the Northeast Construction Trades Workforce Coalition.