Category Archives: Business News

New York state announced that more than $38 million is being awarded to strengthen New York’s agricultural industry through the Farmland Protection Implementation Grants program, including funds for two Washington County properties. 

The 40 awarded projects will protect a total of 11,772 acres of valuable farmland across the State, helping to keep agricultural land in production and ensure the long-term viability of New York’s farming operations, officials said.

The following Washington County projects were awarded funding:

• Agricultural Stewardship Association,  $280,739 to protect 88 acres on Kenyon Hill Farm.     

• Agricultural Stewardship Association, $420,350 to protect 238 acres on Lindsay Farm. 

• Agricultural Stewardship Association, $185,507 to protect 141 acres on Slack Hollow Farm. 

By Susan Elise Campbell

CDL Associates Insurance Agency LLC has added a fourth office in Lake Luzerne, only a month following the grand opening of its Glens Falls location. 

Prior to May, the agency had its flagship office in Northville and another in Gloversville. The new office is at 4 Bridge St., Suite 2.

From these upstate New York locations, CDL is underwriting a wide range of insurances to clients in 43 states, according to Vic Lange, who co-founded the agency with Heidi Colson in 2009.

“We added 10 employees this year,” said Lange. “The staff is now 21 and 19 of them are licensed agents.”

“That’s it for new offices in 2022,” Lange said. “Now we’ll be making sure everything stays in control and seeing what 2023 brings.”

CDL is a one-stop shop for all kinds of insurance products for individuals and businesses, including life, health, and employee benefits, said the owners. Colson’s experience traverses many lines of insurance, while Lange came out of the trucking business, he said. Consequently, CDL has a niche in writing commercial trucking and transportation policies, plus coverage for automobiles and RVs.

Homes in New York’s Southern Adirondack region spent an average of 24 days on the market in June, lower than any point in the past decade. The median sales prices jumped to $350,000, the highest mark in the past 10 years, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Nationally, the median sales price exceeded $400,000 for the first time ever, up 15 percent  from the same time last year

“The fact that homes continue to sell quickly and above asking price indicates that demand remains strong in our area,” said Densay Sengsoulavong, Southern Adirondack Realtors CEO. “Given that summer is typically our most active sales season, we expect the market to remain competitive in the coming months.”

New listings in the region increased 1.9 percent in June compared to last year, from 697 to 710. The inventory of homes for sale dropped 34.7 percent, from 1,432 to 935, and pending sales increased 4 percent, from 478 to 497. Closed sales were down 11.4 percent, from 466 to 413. Sellers received 103.6 percent of their list price in June.

The American Health Care Association (AHCA), representing more than 14,000 nursing homes and other long term care facilities across the country, released a new report from accounting and consulting firm CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP), which found that increasing staffing minimums at the federal level will require billions of dollars each year to hire tens of thousands of more caregivers. 

CLA estimated the impact of implementing a staffing minimum of 4.1 hours per resident day (HPRD) and concluded:

• 94 percent of nursing homes that care for more than 900,000 residents would need to increase staffing levels in order to be in compliance with such a requirement.

• It would cost $10 billion a year and require hiring more than 187,000 nurses and nurse aides to meet the standard.

• 18 percent of residents, or more than 205,000 residents, may be at risk of displacement as facilities are forced to potentially reduce their census in order to meet the higher staffing standard.

“This report makes it crystal clear that increasing staffing standards in nursing homes requires substantial and consistent government resources. Even then, nursing homes would have the impossible task of finding another 187,000 nurses at a time when vacant positions sit open without applicants for months on end. The unintended consequences of this sort of unfunded mandate would be devastating to hundreds of thousands of vulnerable residents who could be forced out of their nursing home,” said Mark Parkinson, president and CEO of AHCA.

Warren County ranked second to Albany County in annual business formation growth, according to the Center for Economic Growth (CEG).

The CEG recently published an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data that shows 13,743 businesses in the eight-county Capital Region filed for an employer identification number (EIN) with the IRS in 2021—a 45 percent year-to-year increase.  

 CEG said Warren County’s growth can be partially attributed to the increasing desire for residents to maintain a healthy work/life balance, which is coveted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a balanced lifestyle is not possible if businesses and employees do not have access to reliable broadband connection. 

The ongoing efforts of EDC Warren County provided widespread expansions of broadband throughout the county, removing a major obstacle for sustainable business growth in the region, officials said. 

 “Broadband availability is a critical component of business formation growth in Warren County and the Adirondacks. Since the beginning of the pandemic there have been close to 3,000 addresses connected to fiber-based service particularly in the more rural areas of the county,” said John Wheatley, EDC Warren County vice president. 

“Having access to high-speed broadband enables many people to easily transition to remote work opportunities and we see that trend continuing in the post pandemic era.”  

He said access to world-class recreational activities and tourism destinations enrich both the personal and professional lives of county residents. Warren County offers a network of municipal parks, among stunning sites like Lake George (“Queen of American Lakes,”) West Mountain, Gore Mountain and the 1980 Olympic Center in Lake Placid.