By Rod Bacon

For millennia the cannabis plant has been valued for its use for fiber and rope, food and medicine, and for its psychoactive properties for religious and recreational use. It has also gone through periods of being accepted and being banned by countries throughout the world.

Currently, cannabis use is legal in 24 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and Guam for recreational use and in 39 states for medical use. It became legal for medical use in New York state in 2016 when the Medical Cannabis Program was implemented and for recreational use in 2021 when the Marihuana Regulation & Taxation Act (MRTA) was signed into law.

There are 285 adult-use cannabis dispensaries in New York state that recently surpassed $1 billion in retail sales generating nearly $150 million in tax, fee and fine revenue. 

For those who don’t want to use cannabis with a high THC content there is cannabidiol (CBD), a chemical found in the cannabis plant that is non-impairing. It can be used to treat a variety of medical conditions without giving the user a “high” and running the risk of developing physical cravings.

By Paul Post

A family-run Warren County firm has parlayed robust Christmas tree sales into a booming maple products business.

River Bend Christmas Tree Farm in Lake Luzerne provides fresh-cut trees to nearly 1,000 customers each year.

But starting in late winter, 78-year-old Bruce Carpenter and his wife, Rosann, spend several weeks producing maple syrup on land they own in Minerva.

Their son, Jim, 43, puts his RPI business degree to good use by marketing trees and maple with a variety of social media platforms.

“Trees are a higher ticket item, but maple because it’s consumable can be sold year round,” Jim said. “During COVID we had a lot of syrup and not a lot of places to sell it so we trademarked the name, Saratoga Maple, and built a mail-order business where we ship gifts all over the country.”

In addition to traditional syrup flavors, the Carpenters age maple in a bourbon barrel to make bourbon maple syrup and a bourbon maple cream. They also make a maple walnut topping, maple jelly, hard and soft candy and a gourmet pancake mix that comes in a breakfast gift basket with bags of mix and Adirondack maple syrup.

Building on several ongoing collaborations, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and GlobalFoundries (GF) are working together to further grow and strengthen the semiconductor workforce in the region.

RPI has launched a partnership program with GF to provide their employees with opportunities to pursue degrees and enhance their skills in semiconductor technology. Through dedicated RPI scholarships and GF’s tuition assistance program, GF employees will be able to pursue a new Master of Science in Semiconductor Technology (MaST) degree and take part in other graduate programs including Rensselaer at Work certificates.

Under the expanded partnership, GF has pledged a gift totaling $150,000 over the next three years to sponsor RPI students who have a strong interest in the semiconductor industry, interwoven with an internship opportunity. The initiative aims to incentivize students to join the semiconductor industry.

“When industries and educational institutions seek ways to work together, great things happen,” said Rebecca Doerge, Ph.D., provost at RPI. “This advancement of our ongoing partnership with GF further solidifies the Capital Region’s preeminence as a hub of semiconductor research and manufacturing while addressing workforce development needs that are at the core of the CHIPS initiative.”

By Paul Post

Hal Raven could drive the train, but he’d rather be the conductor punching tickets like Tom Hanks on the Polar Express.

“That’s my thing, talking with people, interacting, getting kids excited,” he said.

His company, the Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson Railway, gives people Christmas-themed memories to last a lifetime on the Candy Cane Express, a fun festive ride that runs through Dec. 22 highlighted by visits from Santa, music, lights and hot cocoa refreshments.

Raven, a Queensbury resident, gave up a 28-year railroading career to fulfill his dream of owning a scenic line. It operates year-round between South Greenfield and Hadley on 17 miles of track owned by the Town of Corinth.

“We do all the maintenance and repairs,” he said. “When we first took over, weeds were chest high and overgrown. We had to fix all the crossings.”

Two previous operators had run tourist trains from Saratoga Springs to North Creek, but couldn’t make a go of it. This is Raven’s third year in business and by all accounts it’s full steam ahead.

By Paul Post

An industrial brownfield site, vacant for 35 years, is being repurposed as a productive 6-megawatt community solar project.

The 44-acre former Ciba-Geigy property in South Queensbury borders the Hudson River, nestled between Perkins Recycling and the recently shuttered Glens Falls Cement Company plant.

“With its unobstructed southern exposure, a surface-mounted solar project is the best and only practical use for the site,” Queensbury Supervisor John Strough said. “It’s the least intrusive and will add value to the property.”

The site housed several industrial plants beginning in 1901, starting with wallpaper manufacturing and later producing inorganic pigments. Hercules Inc. took over operations in 1960, selling the property to Ciba-Geigy 19 years later. Ciba-Geigy ceased operations in 1989 and demolished the buildings soon after. A more-than-decade-long cleanup effort removed toxic chemicals and heavy metals, concluding in 2002. While the topsoil at the site is now safe, contaminants remain in bedrock fissures, making excavation for large commercial developments financially unfeasible.

By Susan Elise Campbell

Looking back on their first full year of production, entrepreneurs Max and Nikki Poritzky have counted one ton of produce grown and distributed to restaurants and schools from their hydroponic farming facility, Foothills Farm, in Greenfield Center.

The farm is a 40-by-eight-foot container housing an efficient, vertical growing system that produces high quality lettuces and herbs using a fraction of the space of traditional farming.

The couple have backgrounds and careers in the field of nutrition and come from health conscious families, they said. 

She studied nutritional biochemistry at UC Davis and was a commercial executive marketing dietary supplements, an industry in which Max also had an executive career spanning 25 years. He said his mother founded Wild Oats, the first health food store in Saratoga Springs. 

“‘Let food be thy medicine’ might sound clichéd, but this is how our families live,” Max said. 

By LEE COLEMAN  

The Romeo family is purchasing Whiteman Chevy, a local automotive institution on Dix Avenue in Glens Falls for the past 68 years, from the Whiteman family.  

The late Roland Whiteman opened the dealership in 1956. His son Robert took over the business and for the past 20 years it has been operated by Amy Whiteman Brown, Roland’s granddaughter.  

“My father (Len Romeo) has done business with Whiteman for years. It’s been a wonderful relationship, pushing some 40 years,” said Mike Romeo.  

Mike Romeo said he and his three siblings — Joe, Lucia, and Genese — are buying the dealership together. “Amy has been wonderful,” he said. The closing on the sale was held earlier this month.  

This is the first time he and his siblings have purchased a dealership together.  

Family members currently own Carriage Traders on Saratoga Road in South Glens Falls, Romeo Toyota of Glens Falls on Broad Street, and Romeo Auto Outlet on Quaker Road in Queensbury.  

By Paul Post

A section of unused Washington County jail must be kept open and staffed, diverting funds from much-needed programs and services.

More attorneys are required, at considerable expense, because of new bail reform policies.

Money is still being spent on Great Meadow Correctional Facility upgrades despite the prison’s Nov. 6 closing, which eliminated more than 400 jobs, possibly triggering a significant drop in sales tax revenue.

“A lot of regulations that come down from the state somehow cost us money,” county Administrator Melissa R. Fitch said. “The most frustrating part of this job is that we don’t have control of a lot of things we wish we did as far as spending goes.”

Fitch, Board of Supervisors Chairman Robert Henke, of Argyle, and Budget Officer Brian R. Campbell, of Hebron, discussed these and other issues with local business leaders during a recent “Washington County Outlook” presentation hosted by Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce at Sandy Hill Arts Center in Hudson Falls.