Northern Insuring Agency Inc. recently expanded their Glens Falls office, moving from 136 Glen St. to 21 Bay St.
The 1,200-square-foot office was previously occupied by Equitas Realty.
The insurance agency had been located in Whitehall since the 1970s, but moved into Glens Falls in January 2019.
Northern Insuring has been in business since 1930 and has two other offices in Plattsburgh and Potsdam.
Glens Falls native Tyra (Lundgren) MacGuffie has returned home to become the new director of development for the Lake George Association.
MacGuffie, a 1985 graduate of Glens Falls Senior High School, joins the LGA after four years as director of advancement for Green Mountain Valley School, a premier ski academy in Waitsfield, Vt., that counts 26 Olympians among its alumni. In that role, she oversaw a $7 million capital campaign for the development of a world-class training and race venue.
MacGuffie said Lake George has never been far from her thoughts. She grew up spending summers on the Lake at a Route 9L camp that dates back to 1845 and was purchased by her grandparents, the late Thor and Donna Lundgren, in 1950. MacGuffie now co-owns the camp with other family members and visited regularly while living away.
“I am thrilled to join the LGA at a time when it is poised for tremendous growth and a significant acceleration of its Lake-protection capabilities,” MacGuffie said. “I am excited to be a part of an organization that has a mission I am passionate about, in a community that I respect and care for deeply, and where I feel a can make a significant contribution.”
MacGuffie’s accomplished development career in the nonprofit sector also includes 12 years in the state of Idaho as director of development for the independent Community School and for Higher Ground Sun Valley, an organization providing therapeutic recreation to individuals and veterans with physical and cognitive disabilities.
Prior to entering the development field, she served as soft-goods buyer and manager for a major outdoor recreation gear and apparel retailer with four locations in and around Sun Valley, Idaho. Her responsibilities included management of retail staff, communications and marketing, and special events planning.
By Christine Graf
Less than four years after establishing her first State Farm insurance office In Queensbury, agent Paula Traina is preparing to open a second office at 80 Warren St. in Glens Falls.
Prior to becoming an independent agent, she held a corporate leadership position at State Farm. During her 14-year career with the company, she earned an M.B.A. as well as numerous professional certifications.
When the company consolidated operations and closed its corporate location in Malta, many Capital Region-based employees relocated to State Farm hubs in Atlanta, Dallas, or Phoenix. Traina was managing corporate training at the time, and instead of relocating, she decided the time was right to open her own independent State Farm office.
“I always knew I was going to go in this direction but didn’t want to do it until I felt professionally ready to do it,” she said. “I wanted to go through the leadership program at State Farm and get experience on that side before I wanted to risk my own finances. I’m now self-employed, so it was more of a financial undertaking to go from being a corporate employee to being independently owned and operated.”
State Farm was aware that Traina was interested and approached her when there was an opportunity in Queensbury.
Sherry Finkel Murphy, CFP, ChFC, RICP
Often, my work as a certified financial planner practitioner is also personal. Traditionally, we spend a lot of time discussing marriage, educating children, the cost of retirement, etc. But we need to discuss ‘caregiving’ and planning for personal care as near-universal life phases of this age.
That’s especially timely now, when the pandemic has made these planning challenges more acute. Caregiving is largely gendered—75 percent of caregivers are women, according to Institute on Aging. During the pandemic, 6 in 10 caregivers took on new or expanded caregiving responsibilities.
That is likely to continue as longevity increases. There’s a 50 percent chance a 65-year-old man will live beyond the age of 88. And there’s a 50 percent chance that a 65-year-old woman will live beyond the age of 90.
My 94-year-old mom is sharp as a tack. She’s happy in her independent living facility, but growing frail as even healthy bodies do. She uses one of three rollators—each with different features—and a cane if she needs extra mobility and has my arm to steady her. Her shower has no step up. Her bed drops down to meet her. Her hearing aids are controlled by her iPhone (I am the chief iPhone troubleshooter).
When she has a doctor’s appointment, I’m the chauffer; and my work schedule is blocked out, accordingly. When she needs something in a hurry, I’m the go-to phone call. She’s the only person permitted to interrupt me in a client meeting. Although she’ll say, ‘If I’m dead, there’s no rush; so call me back.’ We’ve already managed the multi-year decline and passing of Dad, in his 90’s, a few years ago: late-stage Alzheimer’s diagnosis, home health aide, memory care, hospice.
SUNY Adirondack announced the appointment of Rachael Hunsinger Patten as the college’s chief advancement officer and executive director of the SUNY Adirondack Foundation.
Patten has nearly 30 years of experience in fundraising and higher education, including having served as executive director of Development, Alumni Relations and SUNY Adirondack Foundation from 2012 to 2018.
“Rachael is a longtime regional resident with deep roots in the community and an inspiring history with SUNY Adirondack,” said Kristine D. Duffy, Ed.D., president of the college. “We’re excited for Rachael and her team to help us further develop relationships with area businesses, organizations, investors and alumni that will advance our strong network of donors in support of college needs.”
As CAO, Patten is the college’s chief fundraising officer, developing long-range strategic leadership and daily administration of the Foundation, Development and Alumni Relations. She is responsible for fostering relationships to support college programs and initiatives.
“When I first started working here, it clicked,” Patten said. “It felt like home.”
A graduate of Ithaca College, Patten has dedicated her career to higher education and nonprofit organizations, including work at Skidmore College, Albany Law School and Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council (LARAC). At the latter, she said she fell in love with fundraising.
By Jim Siplon
It is certainly not news to say that the last two years of COVID have reshaped our area economy and the work we do to support it.
One of the often acknowledged aspects of the COVID era is the observation that the pandemic often exposed and accelerated shifts that were already underway but perhaps not yet fully understood. Our economy and its dynamic elements , things like an aging workforce and a lack of new housing, are perhaps the greatest example of this. Constructing the framework that will underpin the post-COVID economy requires us all to lean into this together-to understand and retool around the “Economy of Now.”
EDC Warren County has long been focused on the strategic work required to attracting, growing and retaining business for our community. Classically, this was a process built around enticing new business to locate here and utilize our workforce to run them. Our programs, incentives and resources were deployed primarily in ways designed to capture transitory or relocating business ventures.
While that work continues, it is transitioning before our eyes to a model that flips the traditional approach on its head. We are now in a competition for workforce, and those areas that have it will attract and grow the most successful business and economic entities while those that do not will struggle to build a sustainable economy.
This need for workforce is not new, in fact it has been building slowly in the demographics for years. Baby boomers are aging out, birth rates have declined and flight of our young has been going on for some time. But today this problem is not limited to the North Country or other less populated areas but is now almost universal.
By Dennis Brobston
One of our beloved presidents, Abraham Lincoln, once said “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” That is our belief at Saratoga Economic Development Corp. (SEDC).
Creating Saratoga County’s economic development future has been our mission for over 43 years of existence. Working with SEDC to create our economic future are many partners: Saratoga County and local governments, Saratoga County businesses large and small, our Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs), universities and colleges and our K-12 school districts, to name a few. Over the last decade, SEDC and our stakeholders helped to create over 1,700 new jobs with over $170 million in payroll while retaining over 2,050 existing jobs at Saratoga County companies.
The year 2021 was another strange year as we all continued to adapt thru the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Like 2020, we were thrust into uncharted waters for supporting our existing businesses in Saratoga County while marketing our region for new and exciting companies looking for fertile ground to grow their businesses. And like 2020, this past year of 2021 proved to be another banner year delivering over $110 million in new investment while creating 182 new jobs and over $11.5 million in payroll.
Over the last two years, we have supported $232 million of investment creating over 629 jobs with over $38 million in new payroll while retaining 730 existing jobs. The years 2020 and 2021 are the first back-to-back years with more than $100 million investment in our 43-year history. We are thankful for all of the projects that allowed us to excel during this pandemic.
Promoting Saratoga County’s sites and buildings to site selectors across the country and throughout Europe will continue in 2022. Our efforts to create more product (pre-zoned sites and buildings) continue as we work with our municipalities eyeing this type of growth. “On spec” flex space is being built regularly in Saratoga County and the support of the Saratoga County IDA and the Town of Clifton Park IDA is vital to that continuing.
By Christine Graf
The city of Glens Falls will embark on the creation of a vertical farm—an indoor farm designed to grow vegetables and herbs.
The city received a $97,600 grant in 2020 to develop it. Glens Falls was one of 10 municipalities in the state to receive a share of the $1 million in grant money made available by the Empire State Development Smart Cities Innovation Partnership. The partnership is a pilot program to facilitate the development and integration of emerging technologies into public services.
According to city Economic Development Director Jeff Flagg, the idea of creating some type of urban/vertical farm is one that officials have discussed for several years. Not long after applying for the grant, the COVID pandemic led to business shutdowns and supply chain issues. Then the idea made even more sense.
“We knew we might be faced with empty spaces in downtown areas that needed to be repurposed, whether temporarily or permanently,” said Flagg. “We wanted to come up with a model where we could—relatively quickly and relatively easily and with minimal alterations to an interior space—create what I call a box-in-a-box. You build a cube within a room and that becomes your farm. It fits the contour of the room that you are building it in.”
The box-in-a-box design is one that can be replicated in any building with sufficient access to water and energy. It can also be easily packed up and transferred to a new location.
By Paul Post
Some restaurants aren’t serving lunch, Gore Mountain can’t keep all of its lift lines running, and one area paper company is so desperate for help that it’s put up small roadside signs, hoping to attract new workers.
An already serious labor shortage could grow worse, creating serious problems for the Lake George-Saratoga Region economy if the Ukrainian crisis keeps young Eastern Europeans from filling hundreds of hospitality and tourism industry jobs this summer, local officials say.
“Such a heartbreaking situation,” said Amanda Metzger, Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce marketing director. “This could affect a larger region than only the Ukraine. We are prepared to market the available jobs as we had to last year, but it is with such a heavy heart that we prepare for this potential workforce shortage, thinking of what the people of Ukraine are facing.”
In a Facebook posting, the Lake George restaurant 10 McGillis Public House said, “All over the Capital Region and especially here in Lake George, we rely on the international students and J1 Student work program to staff our local businesses and boost our economy. With the exception of the pandemic in recent years, hundreds of students come to our area to work each summer. Most of them work two or even three jobs at a time and they are an integral part of some business’s success for the tourist season.”
Many student come from Poland, Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
Berkshire Bank, which has branches in Queensbury and Whitehall, announced that James J. Morris IV will become the regional president for New York state.
Berkshire’s New York state region includes the Capital Region, the Mohawk Valley, and Central New York markets.
Under his expanded role, Morris will support Berkshire’s lines of business in the region including commercial and consumer lending, business and branch banking, and wealth management. Bank officials said his leadership will be critical to driving high customer satisfaction, serving clients, and expanding Berkshire’s brand throughout New York state.
In addition, he will provide oversight to Berkshire’s two community advisory councils in the Capital and Central New York markets.
“Berkshire’s commitment to the New York region has never been stronger and we will continue to look for opportunities to strengthen our service offerings and enhance our community impact and presence under Jim’s leadership. His expanded responsibilities will help us achieve synergies in the market and unlock opportunities for meaningful impact in support of our Berkshire’s Exciting Strategic Transformation (BEST) and BEST Community Comeback plans,” stated Sean Gray, president and COO of Berkshire Bank.
Morris is a seasoned banking professional who has served as regional president for the Capital Region market since January 2020, in addition to leading the commercial real estate team throughout the state.