Dr. Gregory Dodd and the staff of Maple Ave Family Dentistry participate in a ribbon cutting ceremony outside their new office. Photo by Jonathon Norcross.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Dr. Gregory Dodd introduced the community to his new office last weekend: Maple Ave Family Dentistry in Saratoga Springs.
Maple Ave is an extension of Dr. Dodd’s existing Saratoga Springs Family Dentistry location at 286 Church Street.
“I love what I do every day,” Dr. Dodd said during a ribbon cutting ceremony. “I love helping people.”
The office at 425 Maple Ave emphasizes comfort, featuring relaxing chairs and entertainment offerings in every treatment room.
Dr. Dodd earned his doctorate in dental surgery from Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery in 2003. He also earned both a Nobel Biocare Implant Certification and advanced education in general dentistry certification from Columbia University in 2004. He is a Fellow of the Academy of General Dentistry, a distinction shared by only 6% of general dentists across North America.
The interior of Soleno’s first U.S. factory located at the W.J. Grande Industrial Park in Saratoga Springs. Photo by Jonathon Norcross.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Soleno, a water sustainability company based in Quebec, officially opened its first U.S. factory in Saratoga Springs last Thursday. The facility manufactures and distributes high-density polyethylene pipes for the American water management market.
Soleno said it’s investing more than $22 million into the 45,000-square-foot plant, which began operations in August and has already shipped its first orders to Maine, Vermont, and Massachusetts.
“Saratoga Springs was selected as the ideal location for the facility due to easy access to multiple major markets throughout the Northeast,” said Heidi Pasos, a deputy director at Empire State Development, during the plant’s opening ceremonies.
The plant is located in the W.J. Grande Industrial Park, near the former Quad Graphics facility that closed in May. The closure resulted in hundreds of lost jobs, but Soleno said that “nearly 30” of its 35 employees were former Quad workers.
Mathieu Cornellier, general manager of the Soleno plant, said that the ex-Quad Graphics employees “had great integrity, teamwork, leadership, collaboration, and honestly today we’re producing good quality pipes because of them.”
Soleno’s KUSTOMFLO pipes can be made from recycled plastics, which help reduce plastic pollution in landfills. The pipes are considered environmentally friendly alternatives to traditional concrete pipes.
Developed using German Krah technology, the pipes offer some of the largest diameters on the market, the company said. The pipes are also billed as highly customizable and durable, lasting for more than a century.
Soleno said it hopes to add an additional 25,000 square feet of workspace to its Saratoga facility. Plans for the expansion are currently under review.
Saratoga Hospital staffers and donors participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the hospital’s new CT Scanner. Photo provided by Saratoga Hospital.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Hospital unveiled a new CT Scanner at the Alfred Z. Solomon Emergency Center during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday morning.
Hospital staffers said that the scanner, a Siemens Healthineers SOMATOM X.cite, will both improve the patient experience and allow the hospital to scan patients faster.
iPad-like devices on either side of the scanner allow for a mobile workflow that keeps technologists in the same room as their patients for longer periods of time, which can help ease patient anxiety.
“The turnover time for CT is so fast that any time you can gain back by being at the bedside is huge,” said the hospital’s CT/Radiation Safety Supervisor Michael Welch.
According to Siemens, the scanner features a user guiding system called myExam Companion that combines existing patient data with information acquired by technologists to optimize the scan parameters and “ensure the best possible result.”
The scanner also has a faster acquisition time, which gets patients in and out of the room quicker than the previous 16-year-old scanner.
“This current machine has about a .3 second rotation time versus our older unit, which was about a second,” Welch said.
Welch estimated that the new machine could scan about 10 more patients per day than the old model.
In a statement, the hospital expressed its gratitude to the “generous donors whose contributions made this vision a reality.”
The entrance to the former Quad Graphics facility in Saratoga Springs’ WJ Grande Industrial Park. Photo by Super Source Media.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology firm based in Tarrytown, New York, has purchased the former Quad Graphics printing facility in Saratoga Springs for an undisclosed sum.
“This acquisition underscores our commitment to growing together with the local community by investing in local economies and creating high-quality jobs in the area and across New York State,” Regneron said in a company statement. “The immediate use for the new facility will be for production support activities.”
Quad Graphics closed in May, causing hundreds of workers to lose their jobs. Some of those jobs were recouped thanks to Soleno, a sustainable pipe manufacturing company that opened its first U.S. factory last week next to the former Quad facility in the WJ Grande Industrial Park.
Regeneron did not immediately provide an estimate of the number of jobs its new facility would create.
“[The Saratoga Economic Development Corporation] welcomes Regeneron,” said SEDC President Greg Connors. “Saratoga County’s newest international company has made their next capital investment in the community we all call home.”
According to its corporate fact sheet, Regeneron has more than 13,000 employees worldwide. The company has offices scattered across the globe, including its headquarters in Tarrytown and an industrial operations and product supply facility in Rensselaer.
Regeneron, called “one of the region’s largest employers” by the SEDC, had a reported revenue of more than $13 billion last year. In 2020, the company signed a $450 million contract with the U.S. government to manufacture and supply REGN-COV2, a double-antibody cocktail designed to combat the coronavirus. The cocktail was administered to then-President Donald Trump when he was infected with COVID-19 in October 2020.
The firm received a number of accolades this year, including Time Magazine’s “World’s Most Sustainable Companies,” and U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Companies to Work For.”
Photo of a Jolley convenience store provided by Stewart’s Shops
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Stewart’s Shops announced last Friday that it had signed an agreement to purchase the assets of the Jolley Associates convenience store chain.
The acquisition includes 45 Jolley stores total — 38 in Vermont, 5 in New York, and 2 in New Hampshire. Local Jolley locations include Clifton Park, Lake George, Queensbury, and Plattsburgh. The shops will operate as Jolley stores in the short term, but will eventually rebrand as Stewart’s over the next few years, according to Stewart’s Public Relations Manager Robin Cooper.
The deal is expected to close by the end of the year. Terms are being kept confidential.
“We are thrilled to have this opportunity to acquire a company with such an impressive reputation in a market that we’ve been watching for many years,” said Stewart’s Shops president Gary Dake in a statement. “One of the primary reasons we were drawn to this deal is because of the quality and the character of Jolley’s employees.”
Jolley Associates was formed in 1977 by brothers Bruce and Robert Jolley, who had owned convenience stores since 1974. Robert passed away in 2009, and his ownership stocks were passed on to his wife Mary Ellen Jolley.
“We are proud of what we have accomplished over the years and we are happy to know that Stewart’s is providing our employees an opportunity to have ownership in the business and will continue to treat them well,” said Bruce Jolley, president and co-founder of Jolley Associates.
Stewart’s has also agreed to purchase Jolly’s sister companies S.B. Collins, a petroleum products company, and Clarence Brown, a heating fuel oil company. Both of the sister organizations are based in St. Albans, Vermont.
Cars on display for prospective buyers at the 2024 Saratoga Motorcar Auction. Photos by Jonathon Norcross.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The 8th annual Saratoga Motorcar Auction set a new record last week with the $605,000 sale of a 2006 Ford GT Heritage Edition.
The coupe featured a blue-and-orange Gulf Livery paint scheme that paid homage to racing history. It was part of the Ed Mitzen Collection, which also included a 1956 Jaguar XK140 MC, a 1968 Ford Shelby GT500, a 1986 Porsche 911 Turbo, and a 1929 Ford Model AA Popcorn Truck, which came with its own corn popper and nut roaster.
Other unique vehicles at the auction included a 1929 Cuningham Cathedral Hearse, two Russian Kombat armored vehicles, and a 1965 Checker Marathon Taxi.
The auction, which was presented by the Saratoga Automobile Museum, took place on the grounds of the Saratoga Casino Hotel on September 20 and 21.
The vacant lot at 267 East Avenue in Saratoga Springs purchased by Fasig-Tipton. Image via Google street view.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Fasig-Tipton, a thoroughbred auction company, has purchased .73 acres of vacant land near the Oklahoma Training Track in Saratoga Springs, the Albany Business Review reported last week.
The parcel is located near the corner of East Avenue and Mitchell Street.
The company apparently has no imminent plans for the property.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Last week, the Saratoga Economic Development Corp. (SEDC) donated $3,000 to CAPTAIN Community Human Services, a nonprofit that has been combating hunger, homelessness, and economic crises in Saratoga County since 1977.
The contribution is a portion of the proceeds from Chips and Canter, an event SEDC hosted at the Saratoga Race Course on Opening Day, July 11.
“As we work to grow the Saratoga County economy, it is important to remember our neighbors who encounter struggles and need a helping hand. It is vitally important to create and maintain good jobs and support organizations like CAPTAIN CHS, which does so much to make our community a better place,” said Greg Connors, President and CEO of SEDC, in a statement.
“This donation will have an immediate positive impact on the lives of children, individuals, families, and senior citizens who are struggling, and provide much needed support to our 30+ programs and services,” said Andy Gilpin, executive director of CAPTAIN CHS.
The SEDC is a private sector, nonprofit consulting firm established in 1978. The company serves as a resource for businesses and individuals considering an investment in Saratoga County.
ARATOGA SPRINGS — A new exhibit at the Saratoga Springs History Museum shines a spotlight on Miriam Leslie, a little-known suffragette and magazine publisher with an extraordinary life story who spent her summers in Saratoga.
According to the 2022 biography “Diamonds and Deadlines,” Miriam was a prostitute in her youth, spoke at least four languages, may have been the daughter of a slave, and was thrice divorced in an era where divorce was deemed scandalous.
Miriam may have also partook in multiple extramarital affairs, including one, with American poet and frontiersman Joaquin Miller, that occurred during her marriage to Frank Leslie.
All of that, however, is just scratching the surface of Miriam’s almost unbelievable life.
She was born in New Orleans in 1836 to a cotton trader named Charles. The identity of her mother appeared to have been a matter of some dispute. Journalists at the time speculated that she may have been of “Creole” descent. “Diamonds and Deadlines” author Betsy Prioleau suspects she may have been the daughter of an enslaved woman.
Leslie’s bumpy upbringing continued when, as a teen, she moved to New York City and allegedly began working as a prostitute.
She then entered into a series of marriages; first to David Charles Peacock (1854-1856), then to E. G. Squier (1858-1873), then Frank Leslie (1874-1880), and finally to Willie Wilde (brother of the famous Oscar Wilde, 1891-1893).
Squier at one time worked for Frank Leslie, the publisher of Frank Leslie’s Ladies’ Gazette of Fashion and Fancy Needlework, The New York Journal, and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, among other publications. At some point in the 1860s into the 1870s, Miriam became the editor of Frank Leslie’s Lady’s Magazine. Miriam and Frank Leslie apparently began a relationship while both were married, eventually leaving their respective spouses and marrying each other.
Miriam was a talented writer and editor. When Frank Leslie died in debt in 1880, Miriam was credited with turning his media empire around, cutting some publications and increasing the circulation of others. When President James Garfield was shot in 1881, Miriam sent her team to chronicle the events, leading to exclusive stories and illustrations that helped bolster her business.
After her husband’s death, Miriam legally changed her name to Frank Leslie, in part to fight off a lawsuit from Frank’s sons, who had been disinherited by their late father.
When Miriam died in 1914, she donated $2 million to Carrie Chapman Catt, a women’s suffrage leader who campaigned for the 19th Amendment, which secured for women the right to vote in 1920.
This unpredictable and even, at times, shocking life is the subject of “Frank Leslie Buys Women’s Votes,” the Saratoga Springs History Museum’s latest exhibit, which opened on Thursday evening.
Nancy Baird Brown, who serves on the Board of the Women’s Rights Alliance of New York State, helped bring the exhibit to life. She called Miriam “not only one of the most fascinating people, but one of the most important women in women’s suffrage.”
Miriam and Frank Leslie owned a home near Saratoga Lake and, according to Brown, Frank published a successful newspaper that covered Saratoga Springs. The couple became well-known socialites in Saratoga every summer.
The Saratoga Springs History Museum “can be very proud of the fact that they’re bringing [Miriam’s] name up,” Brown said.
“Frank Leslie Buys Women’s Votes” explores Miriam’s personal and social evolution in Saratoga Springs in detail, documents her “pioneering role in journalism,” and shows how her donation to Carrie Chapman Catt helped give American women the right to vote. The exhibit opened with a reception on Sep. 26.
The Saratoga PLAN for the Future fundraiser and dinner took place on Thursday, September 12 at the Mansion of Saratoga in Rock City Falls. Photo by Stefanie Waldek.
ROCK CITY FALLS — Saratoga PLAN, a conservation nonprofit, raised $120,000 at its “PLAN for the Future” dinner at the Mansion of Saratoga last Thursday.
The funds will go directly towards the organization’s ongoing land protection and stewardship efforts, according to Executive Director Robert K. Davies.
Donations were acquired via an in-person paddle raise, as well as a silent auction that included items from the Saratoga National Golf Course, Caffe Lena, and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
“We pride ourselves on being a trusted conservation organization in the community, but we couldn’t do it without all of you,” said Peter Olmsted, chair of the Saratoga PLAN board of directors, during the dinner. “We’re really eager to continue our work together and to act now, because once these resources are gone, they’re gone forever.”
The organization also honored its 2024 Conservation Heroes at the event: the Winter family, Ropitzky family, and Ralph Keating.
The Winter family, along with Saratoga County, was celebrated for the establishment of the Graphite Range Community Forest in Wilton. The 200-acre property was slowly assembled by the Winter family over a decade. The forest is now open to the public and includes more than five miles of multi-use trails. The land also supplies the aquifer for the Town of Wilton, making it an especially important resource for protecting water quality. Saratoga PLAN is currently working to expand the forest by an additional 20 acres.
The Ropitzky family helped conserve their historic 221-acre farm in Stillwater, which was facing “intense development pressure,” according to Saratoga PLAN. The farm was first purchased by Peter Ropitzky, a Ukrainian immigrant, in 1926. Today, third-generation farmer Steven Ropitzky grows hay, sweet corn, and pumpkins on the land.
Ralph Keating was honored for his role as trail steward of the Woodcock Preserve, a 72-acre woodland in Clifton Park. Keating has helped to clear trails, cut back vegetation, implement trail reroutes, and manage structures on the preserve.
In August, Saratoga PLAN held an open house event to share three potential site options for Snake Hill, a 32-acre forested dome on the eastern shore of Saratoga Lake that PLAN acquired from Stewart’s Shops for $1 million. Currently, the organization is reviewing feedback from the event before deciding future uses of the hill.
