Category Archives: Business News

Late Warren County Judge John Austin left behind a collection of books and documents dating to the 1600s that is now available to the public, county officials said.

Austin, a former county judge, historian and Queensbury town supervisor, died in June 2019 at 84. He spent decades researching genealogy, local history, the Town of Queensbury and Warren County.

The Warren County Historian’s Office and Warren County Clerk’s Office organized the materials into a research library housed in the Warren County Clerk’s Office record room.

Before he died, Austin wanted the collection to be available for public use.

“John was an amazing man, and his hope before he passed was that we could find a way to make this available for the public to use,” said Warren County Historian Dr. Stan Cianfarano.

Retired Warren County Clerk Pam Vogel spent hundreds of hours organizing the material so the public could use it, Cianfarano said. Vogel died in October 2025 and left a list of remaining tasks.

Austin also left money in his will to Warren County to preserve and display the collection, officials said.

The shelves include hundreds of books, folders and other materials. Much of the collection pertains to Queensbury residents, along with documents and books related to Irish lineage, information about local immigration from Ireland, and material from the Mayflower Society.

Members of the Warren County Board of Supervisors were shown the collection April 17.

By Paul Post

Three new firms are coming to Queensbury Plaza on Upper Glen Street, triggering interest from other retailers that could fill the site’s remaining vacancies.

Construction is underway for a 7 Brew drive-through-only coffee kiosk, a Burlington clothing store will occupy the former Joann Fabrics and Crafts space, and a Mexican restaurant, Mi Rancho Alegre, is taking over the former Red Lobster site.

“The business climate in Queensbury is quite strong right now,” said Michael Palumbo, chief operating officer of Rochester-based Flaum Management Co., the plaza’s owner. “Tourism in that area seems to be growing, driving traffic up there. That’s what is prompting these tenants to be looking for new locations. I think our shopping center is probably the most well-positioned in Queensbury.”

“We’ve got some other nationals looking at the plaza now, so we’re working on a couple deals for the last few vacancies,” he said. “Having the right mix of tenants, visibility and positioning — all of these things go into site selection by nationals and even the regionals.”

By Staff Writer

For 50 years, consistent management and operations have made The Log Jam Restaurant a landmark destination restaurant and steady economic contributor in one of New York’s most seasonal tourism markets.

“My biggest thing is consistency,” said Tony Grecco, who has spent nearly four decades with the business and more than 30 years in a management role. “I want people to know when they come, what they’re going to get, and it’s going to be the same every time.”

That consistency has translated into scale. The restaurant seats approximately 250 guests and, during peak August demand, turns tables three times per night while averaging about 600 dinners. Lunch service adds another 300 to 400 customers daily, bringing total volume to between 800 and 1,000 patrons on a typical summer day.

The menu remains rooted in steakhouse tradition, with custom-cut steaks prepared in-house alongside seafood and fish offerings. That consistent approach to quality, combined with the restaurant’s signature salad bar, has helped define its identity for generations of customers.

In a tourism-driven market like Lake George, where seasonal fluctuations can challenge staffing, pricing and operations, that level of sustained volume carries broader economic implications.

By Carol Ann Conover

Tim Ortiz spent four years, a small fortune in rent and a detour through the state Legislature before he finally made his first sale at Glens Falls Liquor, the downtown storefront he had long envisioned filling a conspicuous gap in the city’s retail landscape.

Ortiz, a musician and longtime resident of downtown Glens Falls, opened the shop on Glen Street in early March 2026 after signing a lease in July 2024 and paying full rent every month through a protracted licensing process. The store occupies a small, carefully curated space, where Ortiz said he deliberately chose not to expand into a larger adjacent unit.

“I wanted to open a business in Glens Falls since I live downtown, and I started thinking about what the area didn’t have yet,” Ortiz said. “What it didn’t have was a place to buy a bottle of wine or liquor downtown.”

The idea came to him after late nights playing gigs. The nearest option, he said, was a drive to another local store just outside town.

Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake (ADKX) will hold its annual Benefit Gala and Harold K. Hochschild Award ceremony Saturday, July 25, from 5 to 9 p.m. at the museum in Blue Mountain Lake, New York. The fundraiser highlights the museum’s service to Adirondack communities and honors its annual Hochschild Award recipient.

The 2026 recipients are Dick Beamish and Adirondack Explorer Magazine. The award honors the museum’s founder, Harold K. Hochschild, whose interest in the Adirondacks and its people and environment helped inspire the museum and the creation of the Adirondack Park Agency.

For more than five decades, Beamish has advocated for the Adirondack Park. A longtime summer visitor to the region, he became the first communications director of the Adirondack Park Agency in 1972 and traveled the state to explain the need for planning and protection. His accounts of the agency’s early years are preserved in the ADKX archives as part of an oral history collection donated by author Brad Edmondson.

Beamish launched Adirondack Explorer in 1998 as a nonprofit news magazine covering the park’s natural and human communities. Its mission: “to inform and influence, to identify problems and solutions, to help shape public opinion and policy.”

ADKX Trustee Nancy Keet said, “Dick Beamish’s vision and unwavering commitment have strengthened understanding of the Adirondacks for generations, and Adirondack Explorer continues that vital work every day. Their dedication to thoughtful dialogue, environmental stewardship, and community storytelling reflects the very ideals Harold Hochschild championed. We are honored to recognize Dick and the Explorer with this year’s award, and we look forward to celebrating their extraordinary impact at the 2026 Gala.”

By Amanda Smith, Esq.

With “little to no evidence” indicating a correlation between credit history and job performance, a new law will ban employers, labor organizations or employment agencies from conducting consumer credit checks on employees or potential new hires. 

Employment Consumer Credit Checks 

In today’s job market, the majority of large employers use credit checks as part of their hiring process and in how they treat their existing employees, the bill’s text states, adding that in addition to lacking any such meaningful correlation, a Federal Trade Commission study indicates that as many as one in four consumers may have a “material error” in their credit report.

Signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the text of the bill states that because millions of Americans have errors in their credit reports, it puts them in a lower credit risk tier, whether they are aware of any errors or not. Many New Yorkers, through no fault of their own, have less than ideal credit histories that may stem from issues completely unrelated to their job performance or capabilities, making them disadvantaged because employers are using credit reports to determine if they are worthy of a job or a promotion, according to the bill.

Further, the bill states that there is “little to no evidence that shows a correlation between credit history and job performance.”

By Paul Post

Playoff-bound Adirondack Thunder had a franchise-record 18 sellout crowds this year, with one home game left heading into the regular season’s final weekend, April 17-19.

A three-game attendance mark of 15,375 was set during the Friday-to-Sunday, March 27-29, weekend, surpassing the previous record of 14,869.

That was followed by back-to-back crowds of 5,231 and 4,851 on Saturday and Sunday, April 11-12, for an incredible five straight sellouts at the 4,800-seat Harding Mazzotti Arena.

“It’s amazing, how great the fan support is for such a small community,” Thunder President Jeff Mead said. “It’s pretty unbelievable when half your home games are sell-outs.”

The Thunder drew 156,316 fans, averaging 4,466 per game, or 93 percent of the arena’s capacity, with one home game left in the regular season on Friday, April 17.

“These fans are passionate,” Coach Sylvain Cloutier said. “They love the game. There’s no place like it in minor hockey. They come out and support us every weekend. They’re the best.”

By Ann Donnelly

After sitting vacant for 12 years, the prominent property at the intersection of Route 9 and Route 197, formerly home to Suzuki and Auto World, is seeing new life as Moreau Commons. This high-traffic site, north of Northway Exit 17, sits at a strategic “gateway” to the town of Moreau, South Glens Falls and Vermont, serving as a visual anchor for the community. An estimated 32,000 cars pass through the intersection daily, making the revitalized hub a focal point for the Route 9 corridor.

The site has a deep historical footprint before being reimagined by developers Ben Alden and Brian McKenzie, owners of Executive Property Services. McKenzie said the building’s evolution was gradual over several decades, with the original structure serving as a gas station that was eventually built around as the business grew. It later transitioned to an RV business and eventually became Auto World, selling cars and motorcycles, before falling into disuse for more than a decade.

The project began when Alden, also the owner of Platinum Protective Coatings, searched for a new location to expand his business, which specializes in accessories and spray-on truck bed liners such as Patriot Liner. Partnering with McKenzie — a builder with extensive experience in steel framing and drywall — the duo chose to rehabilitate the existing structure rather than pursue costly new construction. McKenzie, who hand-crafted the building’s identity through custom metal fabrication and design, said that despite years of neglect and water damage, the property had “good bones”.