By Christine Graf

Carpetland recently celebrated the grand opening of its 5,800-square-foot showroom at 11 Aletta Street in Saratoga Springs. Prior to moving to Aletta Street, the business was located at 78 Church Street. 

Carpetland was founded 77 years ago by owner Kate Morrell’s great-grandfather. The company’s flagship store was located in Amsterdam, and a Saratoga Springs branch was opened 50 years ago.

 “He started it in Amsterdam in a 1,000-square-foot building, and they just kept building and building until it ended up being about 20,000 square feet,” she said. “It ended up in the Mohawk River when Hurricane Irene hit.”

Over the course of seven decades, many members of the Morrell family have been involved in day-to-day operations of the business. Morrell’s father, the late James Morrell, bought out his partners after the Church Street property was sold for $1.4 million in October 2022. 

Morrell worked alongside her father for eight years before taking over the business after he passed away in April 2023. Six months after his passing, she opened the Aletta Street showroom with a staff of three employees.

By Jill Nagy

The former Mountainman Outdoor Supply Company on Broadway in Saratoga Springs is now Saratoga Outdoors, but its owner, John Nemjo, said it is still the same business, same owner, same quality outdoor gear, and same knowledgable staff. The store needed a new name because Nemjo sold the old one, along with several outlets in Old Forge, NY.

Mountainman began in 1993 as a store in Old Forge. Nemjo came to Old Forge from New Jersey by way of Florida  “I came back with $6,000 in my pocket” to start a business. “It was rough,” he recalled.

The business expanded to three outlets in Old Forge and in 2008 he added the Saratoga Springs store. Recently, Nemjo sold the Old Forge stores, along with the name, to a former employee. The Old Forge stores will continue to specialize in canoes—more than 20 brands of them—and kayaks, along with other outdoor gear. He expects that he and the new owner will work together.

Stillwater is culminating a 5-year library building project at their new library location at 712 Hudson Avenue, Stillwater. A grand opening celebration is planned for Saturday, December 2, from 3pm to 5pm, beginning with a formal ceremony, including opening remarks by community leaders, followed by a ribbon-cutting, facilitated by the Capital Region Chamber, starting at 3:30pm. The afternoon event will include an Open House and tours of the new library. Light refreshments will be served.

The opening of the new library was years in the making beginning with multiple focus group meetings and public forums in 2019 to assess the ability of the 147-year-old former St John’s Episcopal Church location (that held the former library since 1959) to meet the continuing needs of the community. It was determined that the space was not sufficient to accommodate what the community requested, including meeting and class spaces, as well as accessibility for individuals with limited mobility. It was deemed that an alternative space was necessary to be able to offer what residents were looking for. Site reviews began in July, and an identification of the Fiber Mill at 712 Hudson Avenue as the most fiscally responsible space to move the library into, came in December. Next came COVID, which slowed the library project’s progress significantly.

In October of 2021, a referendum was voted on by the residents of the Stillwater Central School District as to whether to purchase and renovate a new library facility. The vote in favor of the project won by a landslide of 350 to 191.

“Our new library has been a labor of love for quite some time,” said Library Board President, Heather Frank. “This project has evolved over the years from building an addition to our existing building to the realization that we need a new building to truly meet the needs of our community. We couldn’t be more proud of the end result. We still have some finishing touches that will help to make this house our home, but we can’t wait for the community to take full advantage of what our new library has to offer. Sara Kipp, Director of the Library, has really been the engine that has kept this project moving forward and we are so proud of the end result!”

By Christine Graf 

World War II veteran Raymond Mahoney, Sr., was working as a Glens Falls City fireman when he founded Mahoney Alarms in the 1950s. On his days off, he operated the alarm business out of his basement. Nearly 70 years later, his son, Kevin Mahoney, serves as president of the company which is headquartered at 15 Cooper Street in Glens Falls.

Mahoney can’t say for sure exactly when he started working for his father at the family business. He remembers riding his bicycle to repair telephone pole alarm boxes when he was a teenager.

Mahoney Alarms is a true family business, and its staff of 49 employees includes Mahoney’s sister, Colleen McGuirk, his cousin, Benjamin Chapman, and his son, Kyle Mahoney.

By Susan Elise Campbell

One of Saratoga’s newest non-profit organizations will launch in January to help woodworking novices and experienced hobbyists “build, collaborate and learn” skills in the community workshops at 69 Caroline Street, former home of The Children’s Museum. Saratoga Joinery is the latest endeavor of entrepreneur John Haller, who personally purchased the 8,500 square foot building in March of 2022 when he learned the museum would relocate.

“Some of the equipment and even the dust collector takes a lot of space,” said Haller, who has designed the first floor as a machine room and the second floor as a quieter workspace with benches and tables. “The whole building is coming out as nice as we expected.”

Haller is doing some of the construction and finishing himself, along with a number of local tradespeople and a mass of volunteers who share his compassion for the project, he said. He is not a woodworker by trade but a self-described “type A” personality who had a career in software beginning with his first start-up after graduation from RPI.