Category Archives: Business News

Normally the Gerald B.H. Solomon Saratoga National Cemetery in Schuylerville is a quiet and peaceful place. On September 18 it was a buzz of activity as Environmental Conservation & Forestry Instructor Dennis Flynn and 16 of his students joined professional arborists from around the state and Vermont for the 10th Annual Saluting Branches Day of Service, one of 100 sites in the national event.

Students performed tree care and site beautification using the skills they’ve acquired in their Career and Technical Education (CTE) program to honor those who gave so much. This year the students concentrated on raising the tree canopy six feet in one area of the property. They used the drone to survey the trees and map out their work. 

“Every year it astonishes me how quickly the students perform. They did their jobs so quickly and effectively that they even made a dent into our overflow work. The chipping and stump grinding is a huge help,” said Michaela Shelton, who is the distribution forester for the Mechanicville division of NYSEG who was the site leader for the day.  

The WSWHE BOCES students worked with professional crews from NYSEG (Avangrid), Asplund, Lewis Tree Service, New Leaf Tree Service, National Grid, Greater Heights, J.S. Tree Service and Excavation, LLC, and Homestead Tree Service.

NBT Bank and NBT Insurance Agency celebrated the unveiling of upgraded and expanded offices for the sister organizations at 295 Broadway in Saratoga Springs with a ribbon cutting recently.

Office renovations include expansion to fully occupy the 12,000-square-foot building, including the addition of seven new NBT Insurance Agency offices. Additional upgrades include a revised office configuration to promote collaboration among the 37 employees based at this regional hub location for NBT.

As the regional hub, employees represent multiple divisions within the company, including Retail and Business Banking, Commercial Banking, Mortgage, Wealth Management and Insurance.

President of Wealth Management and Regional President Ruth Mahoney said, “NBT has had the honor of serving Saratoga Springs for more than 25 years. As our company continues to grow, we’re excited to expand our presence with this modernized space.”

President of NBT Insurance Agency Tucker Lounsbury said, “We view this office expansion as a commitment to providing enhanced services, greater accessibility and a stronger, more engaged support network for our Saratoga County customers.”

By Jill Nagy

Raffael Rispo and Gilberto Barron-Nunez have been friends for many years. They learned barbering together and, for almost 10 years, worked for the same company. Now, they have their own shop, Ballston Spa Barber Club in Ballston Spa.

“It’s just a barber shop,” Rispo explained. The “club” reflects their strong interest in sports. There are no membership requirements or dues. “We want to cater to all kinds of people, he added.”

The shop is located in the busy Carousel Village, between a gym and karate studio, near several restaurants and a hair salon, and across from a former Pizza Hut morphing into a Ted’s Fish Fry. 

“The barbershop fits in well here,” Rispo said. 

Walk-ins are welcome, encouraged in fact, but they also accept the appointments.

Most of the shop’s business is haircuts. They also give “really good shaves, especially hot towel shaves,” he said. “We love doing that.” 

For clients who do not shave, they trim, sculpt, and otherwise take care of beards. 

“A lot of our client have beards. They are very prevalent,” he said. 

By Paul Post

Emily Ellenbogen has done just about everything at Uncommon Grounds, from baking and kitchen prep work to set-up and hiring for the company’s newest store at 751 Upper Glen Street in Queensbury.

The site has quickly caught on with students, young professionals and small groups of seniors; anyone looking for a quiet place to work or simply relax and enjoy delicious fresh-roasted coffee and tempting baked goods, made on site from scratch.

“Uncommon Grounds is the ‘third place’ for customers,” Ellenbogen said. “You’ve got home, you’ve got work. Uncommon Grounds is the third place. We like people to feel comfortable here, sitting doing work or just relaxing where they don’t have to be pressured to do things at home or work. They’re here to do whatever they want.”

The spacious, 8,000-square-foot tastefully designed location fills a retail venue previously occupied by a Recovery Sports Grill restaurant whose walls were adorned with huge television screens and all sorts of sports memorabilia. That noisy atmosphere has been replaced by a much more cozy setting with handsome wood paneling, a dropped tin ceiling and hanging plants

By Christine Graf

During his 37-year career in real estate, Ballston Spa real estate agent Tom Trevett has worked extensively in the REO (real estate owned) sector of the industry. REO refers to property that has been foreclosed upon and is owned by a bank or other lender.

“I own a full-service real estate company serving commercial, residential, and new construction, but I seem to have found a niche in REO–real estate owned by banks and corporate entities like hedge funds and trusts,” said Trevett, an approved REO broker who works in nine counties throughout the region. 

For the companies he represents—companies whose names he prefers not to disclose–Trevett works as the listing broker, a job he described as labor intensive.

“Corporate companies and hedge funds demand a lot from you as far as servicing their properties–weekly inspections, monthly status reports, and broker price opinions every ninety days,” he said.

By Susan Elise Campbell

An authentic Vietnamese restaurant, Mama’s Pho House, has come to Malta. Mama is Nga Nguyen ( “Graceful Win”), whose first restaurant fulfills a lifetime dream.

Pho is the brothy noodle dish that has gained popularity everywhere. Already customers are coming up from Albany and down from Lake George and Montreal to visit her restaurant since the September 10th opening, Nga said.

“There has been no Vietnamese restaurant past Northway Exit 9,” she said. “Malta is a good location and I love it here.”

When Nga cooks, her dishes link her love of food, family, and her youth during the Vietnam war years. 

“Pho is an international dish, like a meatball, and everybody loves it,” she said. “It contains fresh protein and spices and herbs like anise, clove, ginger, Thai basil and cilantro.” 

“Pho helps you sleep well and warm up and feel good,” she said.

By Susan Elise Campbell

Moreau Animal Clinic is within months of relocating to a new facility designed by Nick and Jill Outterson, the husband and wife veterinarians who purchased the practice in August 2018.

“After being in a general veterinary practice and Nick in emergency medicine, we were looking forward to the next step, and practice ownership was next on the list,” Dr. Jill said. 

Moreau Animal Clinic had been a single-doctor practice for 50 years when the Outtersons relocated from Albany to take it over, she said. 

In the years that followed, it became more of a challenge with two practitioners working out of a clinic that had been set up to accommodate only one, they said.

“With two of us, we have grown the practice quite a bit and have also added a full-time associate who we have been mentoring the past three years,” said Dr. Jill. 

By Jill Nagy

Saratoga attorney Debra Whitson is on a mission to keep divorce clients out of court. She advocates and if possible practices collaborative divorce or mediated divorce, processes that empower the parties to resolve issues such as property division and child custody without litigation.

She explained that the parties can resolve the issues between themselves before consulting attorneys. She calls that do-it-yourself divorce. If that fails, they can bring in a neutral third party to mediate. The mediator can keep the conversation going and help the parties work things out. In mediation, each party is usually represented by an attorney. In a collaborative divorce, the parties are joined at the table by experts to assist with issues of property valuation, child welfare, and others. A divorce coach heads the team. A litigated divorce “is the last stop on the train,” said Whitson.

Resolving issues at the courthouse, that last stop, can be heart wrenching, especially for children, Whitson argues. It is also costly. Legal fees for a litigated divorce can reach $100,000 or more; the total cost, to both parties, for a collaborative divorce typically ranges from $10,000 to $15,000. The reduction in emotional cost, may be even greater.