The Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce is involved in a search to replace its president and CEO, Michael Bittel, who has announced his retirement from the organization.

Bittel will be retiring in June.

“It has been an honor to love and serve our great region for the past four years,” Bittel said of his tenure Our community is so wonderful because of our greatest asset, our people.”

The ARCC board of directors of hired Bittel in 2018. He took the reigns from Marti Burnley, who was named interim president after Tori J.E. Riley left the position in September of 2017.

“I have been spoiled to work with a great team at the ARCC who will carry on the torch of loving and serving our community,” said Bittel, expressing thanks to the ARCC Board and his staffers Paricia Rogers, Amanda Blanton, Carol Ann Conover and Karen Mattison. 

“I have worked extremely close with Michael since his arrival at the Chamber in 2018,” said Marc Monahan, ARCC board chair and regional executive vice president of NBT Bank. “From day one, Michael showed up ready to work and connect the Chamber with our entire business community. Throughout his tenure with the ARCC he has shown a passion, drive and desire to help all of our members and supporters. 

“Although the past couple of years have been extremely challenging as we navigated the constant pressures of the pandemic, we are stronger today than ever before” 

Monahan said the ARCC team “is committed to continue to collaborate, educate, connect, and advocate during this transition. We are already hard at work to find a new leader for the ARCC. The next person will certainly have big shoes to fill, but we are confident we will find the right person.” 

By Jill Nagy

Rick Grabowski has moved his Amore Pizza next door, doubling the space, including more spacious room for food preparation and production. 

The new location, the former TD Bank North at 340 Aviation Road, Queensbury, opened over a month ago.

“Everything is new” in the space, he said. They spent seven months renovating the premises before they moved in. 

“Our new storefront has lots of windows, offering a bright and inviting space,” he said. “We’ve been needing more room to cook for many years.”

The shop can now seat about 20 customers for indoor dining but is still primarily a take-out and delivery operation. They deliver within three to five miles of the restaurant. 

In addition to New York City, Neopolitan and Sicilian style pizzas, Amore offers chicken wings, calzones, and hot and cold subs, as well as non-alcoholic beverages.

By Christine Graf

When South Glens Falls native Steven Brodt was 5 years old, he had what he would later consider a paranormal experience. 

He said while sleeping over at his grandmother’s house, he woke in the middle of the night and saw an old woman sitting at the end of his bed. Ten years later, Brodt saw a picture of his great grandmother for the first time and surmised she was the woman he saw when he was 5.

“I can still picture her to this day. It was very clear and very real. As I got older, I became very interested in how it was possible that I saw what I saw,” he said.

When he was 16, Brodt and a friend established a nonprofit group called the South Glens Falls Paranormal Society. They purchased digital voice recorders, night vision cameras, handheld video cameras, and electromagnetic field detectors and offered free paranormal investigative services to the community.

By Susan Elise Campbell

Moving into Suite 101B at The Shirt Factory, 71 Lawrence St., Glens Falls,  is enabling the owner of The Creative Chameleon, Cie McCullough, to expand her offerings of unique games and crafts for young people. 

“I love this building,” said McCullough, sole proprietor since 2018. “The owner does so much for us.”

Going from 500 to nearly 900 square feet gives McCullough more room to add retail products, some of which are from different parts of the world, she said.

The shop has a wide assortment of do-it-yourself offerings for the creative child, puzzles, yarn and paper crafts, paintable ceramics and magnets, wood and wicker crafts, plus playing cards, books, journals, and many more items and activities, she said.

“Our biggest sellers are UGears and Eugy craft kits,” she said. “To my knowledge no one else in the area stocks these kits. The ‘U’ in UGears stands for Ukraine, and the distributor is a Ukrainian man who was looking for toys for his own kids. UGears are in a category all their own.”

By Susan Elise Campbell

Northern Insuring Agency Inc. has expanded its presence in and commitment to Glens Falls and north country communities by moving offices to 21 Bay St.

The Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon cutting event at the new office on Tuesday, May 17.

Doubling the space from the former suite at 136 Glen St. will enable the agency to add staff, provide a comfortable conference space, and attract more people traveling in and out of the city, Deena Giltz McCullough, CEO, said from the company’s headquarters office in Plattsburgh. There is a another satellite in Potsdam.

In its 90-plus years, Northern Insuring has had many offices in smaller communities but moved strategically into select communities with higher populations and economic growth potential, McCullough said.

“We thought when we came into Glens Falls from Massena that the traffic circle would be a high visibility location,” she said.

The former Mount McGregor State Correctional Facility’s four-acre exercise yard in Moreau has been transferred to Grant Cottage State Historic Site,

The newly transferred land will accommodate new site amenities, including an outdoor pavilion for programs and events, accessible parking and historical interpretation of the original Hotel Balmoral, the first development on Mount McGregor.

The cottage, on the hotel grounds, was offered as a residence to President Ulysses S. Grant to complete his memoirs at the end of his life. Before his death in July 1885, Grant spent the last five weeks of his life at the cottage, writing his memoirs while battling cancer. The cottage, which has since been linked to the 18th president, became a historic site in 1890 and remains essentially the same as during his stay.

In April, to celebrate Grant’s 200th birthday and promote the opening of the 2022 season, State Parks and the Friends of Grant Cottage unveiled a National Historic Landmark plaque, which is inset into a boulder at the base of the flagpole in front of the cottage.

By Paul Post

America is a nation on the move, as nearly 20 people million are expected to relocate this summer. U-Haul’s purchase of former Kmart stores, including one at 308 Dix Ave. in Queensbury, helps ease such transitions by giving customers convenient services from rental vehicles to trailer hitches, storage containers and supplies designed to protect fragile items.

The repurposed former retail store in Queensbury gives new life to the property.

“I’ve seen several (former Kmart stores) that have sat too long,” said Levi Parmerter, U-Haul area district vice president. “You can’t use them and bad things start to happen. People start to break in and steal the copper and HVAC units. It becomes a nuisance you don’t want.”

“So this is a good use of the building for sure,” he said. “There are not a lot of retailers that can come in and fill a 150,000-square-foot building any more. Brick and mortar retail isn’t what it used to be.”

U-Haul bought the 25-acre Queensbury site for $7.1 million and purchased 12 other Kmarts across the U.S. in 2019 for $62 million.