Fifty-nine Early College Career Academy students from 17 school districts were celebrated June 8 at the ECCA Completion Ceremony, a partnership between WSWHE BOCES and SUNY Adirondack. Families, friends, faculty, staff, Board of Education members and guests attended the event recognizing the Class of 2026.

ECCA offers career pathways in Advanced Manufacturing, Business and Entrepreneurship, Information Technology: Computer Networking and Cybersecurity, New Media, and Pathways to Teaching. Students earn certifications, complete work-based learning, job shadowing and mentorships, and work on industry challenges. Students also earn college credits toward an associate degree while still in high school.

Fifteen graduates completed the Pathways in Technology Early College High School (PTECH) program, a six-year track that begins in middle school and continues through high school and two years of college.

SUNY Adirondack President Anastasia Urtz, J.D., praised the graduates for their determination.

By Ann Donnelly

When people hear the word hospice, they often picture a brick-and-mortar facility. But for High Peaks Hospice, which serves a sprawling six-county region across upstate New York, hospice is not a place; it is a comprehensive service brought directly to the patient.

“We are not a place,” executive director Nicholas George said. “Wherever people are calling home, we go to that home, whether they’re in their actual home, in a nursing home, in assisted living, we go in to take care of them where they are.”

Operating since 1986, High Peaks Hospice has what is likely the second-largest geographic coverage of any hospice in the state. Its territory spans Essex, Franklin, Hamilton, St. Lawrence, Washington and Warren counties. With a staff of nearly 50 employees, the organization cares for individuals who have received a medical prognosis of six months or less to live because of a terminal illness. Age and income are not limiting factors; the hospice has cared for patients ranging from infants to a 106-year-old, and Medicare and most commercial insurance cover the service.

By Paul Post

Traffic at Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport is expected to increase from 23,652 to more than 33,700 flights per year over the next 20 years, much of it business and tourism travel that contributes to the local economy.

An airport master plan update, scheduled for completion next year, seeks to identify current and future needs to maintain the site as a valuable regional asset.

Several dozen residents and stakeholders got their first look at the study during a recent public meeting at SUNY Adirondack.

“There’s a perception out there that these airports are only for a certain sector, such as people with small planes or people with a lot of money,” said Steve Bourque, of Binghamton-based McFarland Johnson, an engineering firm specializing in aviation planning. “It’s more than that. There’s jobs at the airport. It’s not only used by corporate executives. It brings in hundreds and hundreds of tourists every year, which brings thousands of dollars to the local economy.”

“It’s also used for search and rescue and law enforcement activity,” he said.

By Paul Post

Garvey Kia is scheduled to move into its new state-of-the-art dealership on Wednesday, May 20 followed by a grand opening celebration with area dignitaries in June.

The 25,000-square-foot, two-story building is adjacent to the firm’s former site at 483 Quaker Road, which continues as a Volkswagen dealership with future remodeling plans.

Kia generates approximately 65 percent of the company’s revenue.

“It was really a business need,” owner and President J.P. Garvey said. “We were selling so many cars next door that we had to expand. It’s the biggest, best and most technologically modern dealership in the North Country. Kia had a really big role in the design process, but a lot of the details were up to us. Every day there were a hundred decisions that had to be made.”

Garvey is the only Kia dealership between Albany and Plattsburgh, and its market includes most of central Vermont, too.

The new building has a variety of unique features, from environmentally sustainable elements and a spacious customer lounge to a top-of-the-line network computer system and employee amenities such as a shower, secure locker room and full-service break room and kitchen area.

By Paul Post

From a new planning and zoning department to downtown parking initiatives, Glens Falls is pursuing steps large and small to attract business and promote economic development.

Mayor Diana Palmer outlined those steps during a recent wide-ranging speech covering her first 100 days in office at Heritage Hall in Harding Mazzotti Arena.

“Being mayor of a small city is about solving problems,” she said. “At any given time, there will be new problems that need careful thought and solutions. The beginning of my administration was no exception. In January, we confronted a number of ongoing problems, and I am proud of the progress my administration has made on all of them.”

One of the most significant items she discussed was a proposed transfer of operations and sale of the city’s Fire Road ice rink, near the YMCA, to the Adirondack Youth Hockey Association. The facility was temporarily closed last year because glycol leaked from its cooling system.

The situation was managed, but the city is still seeking a long-term solution.