By Christine Graf

AccuStaff has been providing Capital Region businesses with staffing solutions for more than 25 years. An affiliate of Randstad USA, a global leader in staffing and recruitment, AccuStaff has six employees and offices in Albany and Johnstown. 

Owner Heather Rafferty joined the company in 1988, purchasing it in 1997. Since that time, she and her staff have provided services to companies throughout the region, working to identify, screen, and interview candidates for temporary, temp-to-hire, and direct-hire positions.

“We are a staffing agency that specializes in temp-to-hire positions in light industrial, production, and manufacturing. We also do professional roles, direct hire roles, admin support, call centers, and higher education,” said Mesha Brewer, director of business development. “By letting us do what we do best, companies no longer have to spend all of the man hours that it takes to recruit one candidate.”

AccuStaff works with businesses that experience fluctuating workloads or seasonal demands, helping them to find qualified temporary staff members. When working with companies looking for temp-to-hire workers, AccuStaff provides them with the opportunity to “try out” an individual before bringing that person on as a permanent employee.

According to Brewer, the gig economy has made it difficult to fill the many entry-level positions that are currently available in the manufacturing and warehousing sectors. 

By Jill Nagy

April Weygand was at loose ends. Shortly after finishing college, she was back home living with her parents, working part-time jobs and generally miserable. 

“I needed something different to do,” she recalled. 

So, on little more than a whim, she decided to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, approximately 2,100 miles of some of the country’s most difficult hiking, from Georgia to Maine.

At the time, she had hiked a bit as a Girl Scout and camped out one night in the Catskills. 

“I was not considered a hiker by any stretch of the imagination but I loved the outdoors,” she said. 

She read everything she could find about the trail, including a two-volume, 2,000-page book about the first 50 people who thru-hiked the trail soon after it opened in the 1940s. She made a pilgrimage to a large outdoor store in New Jersey and spent about $1,500 on gear for the expedition. And, she was ready to go.

It took two tries, but she did complete the hike and, 20 years later, she wrote a book about it. The book also required two attempts. The first version was over 1,000 pages, unwieldy to put it mildly. After many months of workshopping and editing help, she produced a lively, sometimes funny, 230-page paperback called Trail Gimp. The book is available, in paperback or as an e-book, at Northshire Books in  Saratoga Springs and  Manchester, Vt., And Weygand is ready to start marketing it further afield.    

By Ann Donnelly

Artistry of Face, a medical aesthetics practice operating in the Capital District since 2016, opened offices at 481 Glen Street, Glens Falls, in November 2023.

 Owner Kelly Heffernan NP saw the potential to restore the Victorian-era home that previous owners had cut into apartments to its original beauty and make a comfortable and luxurious environment for her clients in the area. Heffernan reached out to the family that first owned the property and got access to pictures of how the home looked. She has carefully decorated with furniture and accessories from that era or fit the style.

Heffernan and her staff provide minimally invasive treatments to enhance their clients’ appearance and assist those who have suffered from disease-driven facial asymmetry, such as Cleft Palate, Bell’s Palsy, and severe burns. The latter is a particular passion for Heffernan, who has been a medical professional for 20 years.

After receiving a four-year nursing degree and attending night school to qualify as a Nurse Practitioner, Heffernan moved into medical aesthetics in 2005. She has worked as a Nurse Practitioner, Senior Clinical Specialist, and most recently as Senior Medical Science Liaison for Nestlé Skin Health, traveling the country and teaching doctors, NPs, PAs, and RNs the art of injections. Her experience has allowed her to work and learn alongside the top thought leaders in the dermatology and plastic surgery fields, both in the country and internationally.

She then decided to open her own “med spa.” “It’s a big leap. Very scary and easy to come up with a million reasons not to, but I felt I had to,” she said. 

She started Artistry of Face on the weekends while working full-time. When she felt financially secure, she left her job and opened Artistry of Face full-time. 

With the warmer skies and spring temperatures on the way, the Battenkill Conservancy (“BkC”), a not-for-profit land trust that works within New York and Vermont’s Battenkill watershed, has announced some exciting hellos and some bittersweet goodbyes.  

In January, the organization lost its long time BkC Board Chair, Stuart Bartow, who passed away after a relatively brief battle with cancer.  His dedication to BkC’s mission coupled with his talents as a writer, poet and avid fly fisherman helped guide the organization’s work for over 18 years. A memorial tree planting and a scholarship announcement will take place later this spring. 

Simultaneously the BkC Board in conjunction with Lorraine Merghart Ballard, its first Executive Director, was working to secure her replacement. In 2016 with assistance from the NYS Conservation Partnership Program, Ballard  was appointed BkC’s first Executive Director.  During her tenure, she helped revitalize the organization with popular river related events, increased the public’s river access through the Battenkill Corridor Connections Project and used a simple “Picky Bugs Exhibit” containing macroinvertebrates to demonstrate the importance of cold, clean water and a healthy watershed.  She promoted the Battenkill as one of the area’s most important recreational, cultural, historical and environmental assets.  Advocating for “Clean Water & Open Space for All” became the organization’s motto during her tenure. She will continue to stay involved and act as Board Chair to help with the transition.