By Maureen Werther

Like many successful people, Tammy Aust, president and co-owner of Parker Machine Co. Inc. in Fort Edward, recognized an opportunity when it presented itself and didn’t shy away from the challenge.

In 1993, Aust was the office manager for Parker Machine and her partner, Patrick Whaley, who is now co-owner and vice president of the company, was the shop foreman. Aust had started her own bookkeeping business on the side and when the owner of Parker Machine decided it was time to transition into retirement. He offered to sell the business to Aust and Whaley.

“It was never something I expected to do,” said Aust. She said the employee stock option plans were “really big” at that time and, between the package being offered by her boss and the bank, “it all came together.”

Aust and Whaley bought the company in 2001. They are now celebrating 16 years in business. They were named a Small Business of the Year in 2015 by the Washington County Local Development Corp.

By Rachel Phillips

Most people don’t put much thought into where yarn is produced, but Mary Jeanne Packer of Battenkill Fibers Carding and Spinning Mill hopes to change that.

The mill, which operates out of Greenwich, processes wool and other fibers from farmers across nearly 500 miles, and serves as a supplier to yarn retailers across the country.

Packer had aspirations of owning a yarn mill ever since she’d visited Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney, Vt., in 1982, but wasn’t able to make it a reality until 2009. A resident of Vermont, she is also the partner of the Vermont-based GWC Inc. consulting firm, through which she discovered Washington County.

Upon realizing the enormous potential for a yarn mill in the upper Hudson valley, she decided to capitalize on the large fiber industry of the region.

According to Packer, most commercial-scale milling operations in the U.S. have gone out of business. Now, most textiles are milled in China or India, from wool farmed in New Zealand. Battenkill Fibers has offered consumers an alternative option sourced much closer to home.

The demand for Battenkill Fibers’ products has been proven by the success the mill has seen since it first started. Recently, it signed a multi-year contract with Quince and Co., a major yarn distributor, as a supplier. Also in the last year, the mill has expanded to enable a broader range of custom dyeing services in order to better meet demand.

“More and more people want to know that their stuff is ethically sourced and locally processed,” said Packer.

By Rachel Phillips

When the existing insect repellants on the market didn’t satisfy her needs, Gina Grillo decided to take matters into her own hands.

In 2008, after contracting and battling Lyme disease, Grillo discovered that there was no good, natural insect repellent on the market.

With newfound incentive, she decided to make one herself.

Grillo already had experience in producing and selling all-natural products, having established a business called Grillo’s Pillows & Specialties in 1996. Personal matters drew her away in the early 2000s. But her struggle to find a product that could safely and effectively protect people from insects and the diseases they carried inspired her to return to the fold.

After years of research, Grillo was able to relaunch and rebrand her business in 2016 under the name Grillo Essentials, with her natural insect repellent as the catalyst.

Grillo Essentials, based in Greenwich, now produces a range of all-natural insect repellant products that are available in both stores, and online. The name is a clever play on the word “essential,” referring not only to the oils used in many of her products, but also refers to the necessity of her products as protective agents against insects, and the basic need for self-care.

Five local women will be honored at a dinner on Nov. 9 at the Queensbury Hotel in conjunction with the Centennial of Women’s Suffrage in New York State.

This event, hosted by the Glens Falls Rotary, in cooperation with Zonta, Soroptimist, and American Association of University Women (AAUW), will run from 5:30-8:30 p.m.

The honorees are Joan Grishkot, Karen Guiseppe, Cindy Hess, Kate Hogan, and Bernice Mennis. Each has distinguished themselves by improving the lives women in the local community and exemplifies the “Service Above Self” motto of Rotary, the service organization said.

They are being honored for their persistence in championing women’s issues locally, in the memory of Glens Falls Rotary’s first female member 30 years ago, Donna Farrar.