By Maureen Werther

Upstate Transit of Saratoga LLC has just completed its trolley service in and around Saratoga Springs. According to Craig LaFave, outside manager for the company, it was a success.

LaFave said service ran through the month of August. It consisted of two trolleys taking customers on tours of the city. The route included visits to Saratoga Race Course, Saratoga Casino Hotel, many of the Victorian homes in town and the historic springs.

Upstate Transit, whose parent company is Brown Coach, is encouraged by its inaugural success.

“We purchased two trolleys, to be used for tours as well as chartered events,” said LaFave, who has been with Upstate for 25 years.

The tours were held on Tuesdays during August and they took approximately two hours to complete.

The 35th annual summer gala for Saratoga Hospital raised $371,184, event officials said.

More than 1,080 people attended the summer event.

The annual gala is a major source of support for Saratoga Community Health Center, which provides primary care, dental and behavioral health services to the Saratoga community, regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. This year, the center added addiction medicine services to address escalating needs in the region.

Of the total raised, about $320,000 will be directed to the health center.

Officials said a surprise $50,000 gift from Marylou Whitney and John Hendrickson, in honor of Dr. Joseph W. Bell, a surgeon at Saratoga Hospital and current president of the Saratoga Hospital Medical Group, will support surgical services at Saratoga Hospital. The gift was made in honor of Dr. Bell’s 50th birthday.

The Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce announced the appointment of Gina Mintzer, CMP, as its new executive director, replacing Michael Consuelo, who is retiring.

Mintzer will begin her new role under the tutelage of Consuelo on Sept. 11. Consuelo announced in April that he was retiring at the end of September.

Mintzer has served as the director of sales for the Albany County Convention & Visitors Bureau (ACCVB) for 19 years. In this role, she assisted in the stabilization, expansion, and evolution of Albany as a visitor destination despite economic and national conditions throughout the last two decades.

She managed a team of six convention sales and services professionals dedicated to quality client, colleague, and community customer service, officials said. She was the information resource for meeting and sports event planners working closely with the Times Union Center, Empire State Plaza Convention Center and all the Albany County hotels on client events ranging from the NCAA tournament to the Maccabi Games.

Mintzer also assisted efforts to ensure strong business for the new Albany Capital Center.

She managed programs, activities, and connections to build and sustain a healthy meetings and convention visitor industry.

STEADfast IT, a managed service provider, announced the launch of an in-house SOS center, an end-user support service designed to eliminate delays associated with requests for help.

The STEADfast IT SOS Center applies concepts from just-in-time manufacturing and hospital emergency rooms to the IT industry. By re-engineering the support process, the level of customer service is elevated beyond industry norms, according to the company.

Dedicated SOS engineers are trained in new methods and utilize proprietary software built specifically for the SOS Center.

STEADfast’s software manages all requests in real-time so that every call for assistance is treated as an emergency triage and is routed directly to the appropriate individual best qualified to address the issue, officials said. This approach to IT support eliminates the traditional ticket escalation process and its support tiers.