Positive Reinforcement Is The Hallmark Of The Training Techniques At The Zoom Room

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A dog works its way through a training course at the Zoom Room in Clifton Park that will form a stronger bond between it and its person.
Courtesy of the Zoom Room

By Jill Nagy

Whether you want your dog to jump through hoops or simply to walk sedately at your side, the Zoom Room, a new dog-training facility in Clifton Park, may have a class for you. 

According to owner/operator Bill Overholt, the Zoom Room will primarily provide obedience training but will also offer non-competitive agility training and some enrichment activities like tricks and bench work. The agility training uses the same equipment as used for competitive agility activities but on a smaller track.“Puppy socialization,” for puppies less than eight months old, is also very popular. 

“We don’t train dogs; we train the people who love them,” Overholt said. The key is enhanced communication, he explained: eye contact, hand motions, voice commands. Emphasis is on positive reinforcement. When a dog performs well, he or she is rewarded with a click and a treat. Every dog has a preferred treat, Overholt said, and he can provide more exotic treats for the fussiest dogs. 

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Franklin Square Market Offers In-House Dining As Well As Take-Home Ingredients

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Franklin Square Market opened recently offering Mediterranean-style cuisine and an adjoining market where customers can purchase the ingredients to make meals at home.
Saratoga Business Journal

By Jill Nagy

The new Franklin Square Market opened quietly at the beginning of May. 

“We wanted to get our feet under us,” Julie Delos, one of the owners, explained. They began with a “really busy week,” she added. 

The main problem is that, “like all Saratoga restaurants,” the new restaurant and market is facing “staffing challenges,” Delos noted. 

The market includes a restaurant with a light Mediterranean menu. The adjoining market carries all the ingredients for patrons to try to replicate at home what they eat in the restaurant. 

The market is located at 55 Railroad Avenue in Saratoga Springs, a space formerly occupied by a Price Chopper supermarket. They can seat 120 diners at tables indoors and out, and another 22 at the bar. There is currently a staff of about 40 but, Delos said, “we sure are” looking for more, both cooks and servers.

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Customers Can Unearth Their Treasures At Davey Jones Locker In The Wilton Mall

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Owner Michael Davey presides over an eclectic selection of gifts and collectables at Davey Jones Locker in the Wilton Mall.
Christine Graf photo

By Christine Graf

Davey Jones Locker has joined the growing list of businesses that have opened at the Wilton Mall. The store specializes is antiques, gifts, and collectibles.

Owner Michael Davey opened the store in May after a long career in the grocery and automobile businesses. He worked as a night manager for Grand Union for 16 years before becoming a car salesman, most recently at Goldstein Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM. An entrepreneur at heart, he also operated several small businesses over the years. 

“My first business when I was young was a limousine business that never really got off the ground,” said Davey. “I also had a gift shop in 1999 in downtown Ballston Spa. It was going pretty well, but the building was for sale, and someone bought the property. So, it didn’t last long.”

For a time, he also operated Your Way Café in the Momentive plant in Waterford. Finding it difficult to make a living from the business, his stint in food service proved to be short lived. 

Davey said his idea for Davey Jones Locker evolved from his hobby of going to estate sales. 

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Workers Benefit Significantly From Employee Stock Ownership Program At Stewart’s Shops

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By Christine Graf

If you’ve visited your local Stewart’s Shops lately, you may have been waited on by a millionaire. Thanks to the company’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), a significant number of employees have become millionaires. 

Nationwide, only about 6,300 companies offer ESOPs, employee benefit plans that give workers ownership interest in their company in the form of shares of stock. Stewart’s Shop is one of just a handful of local businesses to offer this benefit to its employees. 

“ESOP programs have been getting a lot more attention from leaders in the state and other businesses,” said Robin Cooper, public relations manager for Stewart’s Shops. “I’m only aware of four or five companies in the region that have them.”

At Stewarts, both full- and part-time employees ages 19 and up are eligible to enroll. A person must work 500 hours in a quarter or 1,000 hours in a year, whichever occurs first. After a period of six years, the employee is fully vested. At that point in time, the balance of his or her ESOP is equivalent to approximately one year’s salary.  

In 2022, Stewart’s Shops made $19 million in contributions to the ESOP accounts of 3,000 active employees, each one receiving the equivalent of 16 percent of his or her annual salary. That year, ESOP participants saw their account balances grow by 12.5 percent compared to the previous year. 

The Stewart’s ESOP was established in 2001, and employees now own 40 percent of the privately-held company. The plan is 100 percent company paid.

“We have also been paying dividends for about the past ten years,” said Alison Abbey, personnel manager for Stewart’s Shops. “Those are paid quarterly. People can take them as cash or roll them into their balance.”

Abbey estimates that approximately 40 percent of employees choose cash payouts on dividends.

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Business Report: Keys To A Successful Client-Advisor Partnership

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Peter Capozzola, CFA,Vice President/Senior Investment Officer, Capital Bank.
Courtesy of Capital Bank

By Peter Capozzola, CFA

At our house, I stay away from any projects having anything to do with electricity; or anything that can result in a flooded basement or in a tree crashing through our roof.  Sure, I can look up a YouTube video for advice, but for me DIY has its limits.  I’m better off hiring someone who has the professional experience and skills in these fields and is hard wired in ways I am not.  

When it comes to investing, people can take the DIY approach and even find tutorials on YouTube (you may want to skip past the “Roaring Kitty” GameStop Meme). Beyond that, the advice offered can be like pieces of a puzzle; incomplete, and from which it is impossible to grasp the full picture. Worse, the information may simply not be applicable to your goals and circumstances, so it is not the solid foundation on which you would want and need to build a plan for your future.  

Managing investments is what an investment manager does day-in day-out, year-in year-out.  It is a profession they are committed to, and this is how they are hard wired. To us, the keys are an informed approach; executing a disciplined process; having the right people on our team; and focusing on capital preservation by striking a balance between risk and reward and seeking a margin of safety when investing.   

There are five key elements to a successful client-advisor partnership: an informed plan; an appropriate strategic asset allocation; opportunistic tactical allocation, diversification, and ongoing communication with clients.  

What informs an investment plan is not so much the markets or numbers, but what matters to you. Any discussion should include a review of your cash needs, time horizon, tolerance for risk, investment return goal, tax impacts and your unique circumstances. Each of these factors should be considered when determining an appropriate investment path for you.

That investment path begins with a “strategic allocation” that lays out the appropriate mix of cash, bonds and stocks, taking into account the historical returns and risks of the markets over the long run, which is suited to meet your particular goals. Keep in mind that as your circumstances change, your investment path and strategic allocation will likely change as well.

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NBT Bancorp Inc. Promotes Four Executives As It Implements It’s CEO Succession Plan

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NBT Bancorp Inc.  has announced that its CEO Succession Plan unanimously approved by NBT’s board of directors in January was executed with Scott A. Kingsley succeeding John H. Watt, Jr. as NBT’s 15th president and chief executive officer. Kingsley was also elected to NBT’s board of directors. Watt will continue to serve on the board and has been named vice chairman.

NBT also announced the promotion of Joseph R. Stagliano to president of NBT Bank, N.A., the company’s wholly-owned banking subsidiary, Annette L. Burns to executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Shauna M. Hyle to executive vice president, retail community banking.

NBT Board Chairman Martin A. Dietrich said, “Smooth leadership transitions are a characteristic of high-performing companies. The board enthusiastically and unanimously approved the succession plan we announced in January. We thank John for the vision and energy he has invested in NBT, and we are fortunate to have a tested and aligned executive management team with strong and experienced leaders like Scott, Joe, Annette and Shauna.”

Kingsley joined NBT in 2021 as executive vice president and chief  financial officer. He has more than 35 years of experience, including 16 years as a member of the management team at Community Bank System, Inc., where he served as chief operating officer and, prior to that, as chief financial officer. Kingsley started his career with PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP before joining the Carlisle Companies, Inc., a publicly traded global manufacturer and distributor, where he served in financial and operational leadership roles. 

A certified public accountant, Kingsley earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from Clarkson University. He is an active community advocate, volunteer and fund-raiser. He currently serves on the Crouse Health Foundation board of trustees and the audit and finance committee for the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse and was previously chair of the board of directors of the Food Bank of Central New York.

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Talent Triage

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By Renee Walrath, President & CEO Recruiting in the healthcare industry has continuously been a struggle, which was only magnified by the pandemic.  Hospital staff are on the front lines battling the demands for services with the lack of a skilled workforce. There have been unprecedented levels of turnover within the field. Healthcare professionals...

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Carpenters Local Union 291 Is Working To Ensure Those In The Trade Are Well Trained

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New York State Assemblywoman Carrie Warner visits a group of high school students interested in learning about a career in the carpentry trade.
Courtesy of Carpenters Local Union 291

By Susan Elise Campbell

Carpenters Local Union 291 is not rapidly growing but has the potential to, according to its president, James Margiotta. Skilled union carpenters can make a six-figure income with benefits, and no vocational school education or even a high school diploma is required, he said.  

“Membership has been at the status quo the better part of the past 20 years,” said Margiotta, who has been a member of Local 291 for 25 years and in several of its elected positions for 11 years.

There are 1,600 members currently in 14 counties encompassing the Capital Region and North Country of New York. There are surges in membership at times but Margiotta said the union is “staying afloat because of a two-fold issue.”

“One reason growth isn’t as good as it could be is the ability to find skilled people that could command the wages that we negotiate for members,” he said. 

“There has also been an issue of finding younger people interested in starting this kind of career in the carpentry trade,” said Margiotta. 

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U.S. Supreme Court Ruling Should Ease The Burden Of Impact Fees On Developers

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By Paul Post

Area builders applaud a recent federal court ruling that could save them large sums by prohibiting some types of development fees local municipalities charge them.

Towns, cities and counties quite often impose such fees for new construction projects and use the money for things such as road, infrastructure and recreation facility upgrades.

But the U.S. Supreme Court, on April 12, sided with a rural California resident whose local government required him to pay a $23,420 “traffic impact fee” in order to obtain a building permit for a small pre-fab home he wanted to put at the rear of his property for his grandson.

“How’s that going to impact traffic? It wasn’t going to impact anybody,” said attorney David Robinson, of the California law firm Holland & Knight, whose clients include numerous builders and developers.

“This decision will have a major impact because it will result in a lot of changes in the way government operates,” he said. “For so very long the fox has been running the henhouse. If a developer wants to build something on one side of town, they’ve been charged a massive fee to build a public amenity on other side of town that has nothing to do with project in question. The bottom line is, that’s going to be really hard for the government to do now.”

Moving forward, impact fees must be able to stand up to two basic considerations. One is a proximate test. The impact local government is seeking compensation for has to be in some way logically or proximately related to the development.

Second, is the fee in reasonable proportion to the impact? For example, government couldn’t require a $100,000 fee for a $10,000 impact.

“This is going to be a serious check on what governments can do,” Robinson said. “It’s not going to be business as usual any more. It’s new, it’s very powerful. It will save developers money. But it’s also going to create a lot of litigation. There’s no question about that. You’re going to see a whole lot of experts on both sides, arguing whether an impact is directly related or proximate and whether the fee charged is reasonable. There will be a lot of debate about how this new rule is applied in any given situation.”

John Munter, president of Greenfield-based Munter Enterprises Inc., said, “Municipalities in some cases make a ridiculous request like, we want you to put in a mile of sidewalk where there isn’t any. They can come up with very expensive mitigation that doesn’t fit into the economics of a project. If you have a $1.5 million project, but have to spend $300,000 to do it, obviously it doesn’t make any sense. In those cases a law like this would certainly help.”

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