QUEENSBURY — The Queensbury varsity girls swim team clinched a sixth consecutive Foothills Council championship on Thursday, defeating Gloversville-Mayfield 85-67 on Thursday.
The Spartans finished the regular season with an 8-1 record after the victory. The team has not lost a league meet since their streak of six straight Foothills titles began, going 31-0 in that span.
Business owners and community members visit displays by local businesses at the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce’s 2022 Business Expo at the Queensbury Hotel on Wednesday. (Photo by ARCC marketing director Amanda Blanton)
GLENS FALLS — The Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce hosted its 2022 Business Expo on Wednesday, with over 70 local businesses showcasing their offerings at The Queensbury Hotel.
ARCC President and CEO Tricia Rogers said the Expo was “just an exciting feel,” noting the event had 33 new businesses attend this year.
“So there’s a nice new mix of people that are here,” said Rogers. “We’re excited about that.”
The Expo, which saw 72 businesses attend in total, offers a valuable opportunity for local businesses to network and inform the community of their offerings. Rolly Merrill of GTM Payroll Services said the Expo is “very exciting” every year.
“The Adirondack Chamber does a great job,” said Merrill. “This year, especially after kind of going through COVID the last couple years, it’s really great to be back and have it in this brand-new ballroom here at The Queensbury Hotel.”
Tom Lyons of The Landing at Queensbury said the Expo is “an awesome opportunity.”
“For general awareness and networking, it’s always an awesome opportunity to connect with people and learn more about each other’s businesses,” said Lyons. “It’s just great to be here, answer questions, and learn more about each other’s industry.”
Merrill said the Expo offers a chance to meet new people, and reunite with others.
“When you come to something like this, you see old friends, but you meet new ones, and you make new relationships,” Merrill said. “That’s the positive about the Chamber in general, but this event in particular.”
The Expo ran from 4 to 7 p.m., spread across three rooms of The Queensbury Hotel including the new Adirondack Ballroom. Rogers said the Expo wouldn’t be possible without the support of The Queensbury.
“It really is something special,” Rogers said. “We do a lot of events with them, and they have absolutely set this up. It’s beautiful in here.”
Rogers also gave thanks to the Expo’s sponsors, saying “the support is truly overwhelming and appreciated.”
“We also live in a really great community,” added Rogers.
This sentiment was echoed by several businesses in attendance, with Lyons saying the Glens Falls area “has a super supportive community.”
“You can see that just by how busy this is, and engaged all these business owners and companies are,” said Lyons. “There’s a great value just in connecting again with everybody here and learning more. This particular community, in general, is very close-knit, very tight. So it’s always fun to be a part of it.”
Joshua Koons of Tech II said it is “great to see” everyone working together at the Expo.
“I think, especially in the Glens Falls region, there’s a very strong support structure,” Koons said. “It’s a tight-knit community, so I feel like all of the businesses are supporting each other.”
Lisa Munter of Knitt LLC said the Expo was a great experience, saying “everybody’s been really receptive and energetic.”
“I see this as a real synergetic opportunity for everybody to come together. It really shows the heart of the community here in the Glens Falls area,” said Munter. “Actually, one person came here and I said, ‘What do you do?’ They were like, ‘Oh, we’re just here to support a friend who has a booth.’ … That was really telling, and super exciting, that level of support.”
Rogers emphasized the support between businesses, saying she feels “that people want to lift each other up.”
“We’re all here, as businesses, supporting one another,” Rogers said. “We want to work through this interesting, coming out of this pandemic time, and that’s what I feel. I feel a sense of camaraderie and a sense of coming together. That’s really great.”
Premier sponsors for the 2022 Business Expo were Adirondack Technical Solutions, Hilltop Construction Company, and TD Bank. Presenting sponsors were National Grid, Phinney Design Group, and OrbitalFire Cybersecurity.
Gold sponsors for the Business Expo include Adirondack Trust Company, Berkshire Bank, Capital Bank, Fidelis Care, INOC Data Centers, KEENA, NBT Bank, Paula Traina State Farm, Pilot Knob Marina & Powersports, Quick Response Restoration, The Sagamore Resort, and Seeley Office Systems.
GLENS FALLS — Singer Billy Gilman will be performing at the Charles R. Wood Theater in Glens Falls on Jan. 28, 2023, part of Kevin Richards’ Country Concerts ‘Close Up’.
Gilman’s debut album, ‘One Voice’, was released in 2000 and was certified double-platinum in the United States behind a Billboard Top 40 single of the same name. Gilman, who was 11 years old at the time of the album’s release, was included in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest singer to reach #1 on the Billboard Top Country Album charts.
Gilman has sold over 10 million records worldwide, and has received awards and nods from the Grammys, the Academy of Country Music, the Country Music Association, the American Music Association, and more, according to a press release.
The singer is “eager to share his new music, and his new sound, with his fans,” after finishing as the runner-up in the 11th season of NBC’s ‘The Voice’ in 2016.
Kevin Richards, a seven-time Country Music Awards nominee & winner, began the Country Concerts ‘Close Up’ series in September with two shows by Randy Travis.
“Richards’ mission is to put talented throwback singers and songwriters back in the spotlight, up close and personal, in a charming hometown atmosphere, where you can see and hear every note,” the press release says.
See below for a list of scheduled ‘Country Concert Close Up’ performances. For more information, visit www.woodtheater.org.
Saturday, Nov. 26: ‘Christmas with Liberace and Elvis”
Featuring David Maiocco as Liberace and Drew Polsun as Elvis, the performance is “a fun Christmas show for your friends and family to kick off the holiday season,” the release says. Polsun is a popular Northeast Elvis performer who originated in Glens Falls, while Maiocco has been honored with multiple awards for musical direction.
Sunday, Nov. 27: ‘Ty Herndon: Grammy-Nominated and Dove Award Winning Artists with 17 Billboard Hits’
Herndon is a Grammy-nominated and Dove Award winning artist, and will perform hits such as ‘Living in a Moment,’ ‘A Man Holdin’ On (To a Woman Letting Go),’ ‘Loved Too Much,’ and more, including new hit ‘’Till You Get There.’ Mike-Bear, a “regional favorite,” will be the show’s opening act.
Saturday, Jan. 28: ‘Billy Gilman: Grammy Nominee, American Music Award Winner, and Runner-Up of NBC’s ‘The Voice’’
Gilman’s hits include ‘One Voice,’ ‘Oklahoma,’ ‘There’s a Hero’, ‘When We Were Young,’ and more. The show will be opened by Glens Falls family trio Bravely.
Sunday, March 12: TBA
Saturday, April 22: ‘Suzy Bogguss: Grammy, CMA, & ACM Winner’
Bogguss will perform songs such as ‘Hey Cinderella,’ ‘Aces,’ ‘Drive South,’ ‘Letting Go’, and more. Bogguss will be supported by North Country favorite Ryan Clark as an opening act.
Sunday, May 14: ‘Conway Twitty Tribute, featuring son Michael Twitty’
A tribute to legendary CMA winner, and member of the Country Music and Rockabilly Hall of Fames. Including hits such as ‘Hello Darlin’’, ‘Tight Fittin’ Jeans,’ ‘It’s Only Make Believe,’ ‘Slow Hand,’ and more. Marty Wendell, a Thomas Edison Hall of Fame inductee, will open the show.
A photograph of a veteran from the ‘Faces of Veterans’ project (Photo by Stephen Willette/Faces of Veterans)
QUEENSBURY — Every veteran has a story, and Stephen Willette is determined to share as many of those stories as he can.
Willette is the founder and CEO of Patriot Images, a photography company that began the ‘Faces of Veterans’ series in 2019. The project displays photographs of veterans, providing a glimpse into the lives of those who have served.
“There’s so many stories that are left untold,” said Willette. “They’re stories of inspiration, they’re stories of patriotism. … I think that America, or the general populace, needs to hear those.”
Willette first began photographing veterans in 2018 for the Saratoga County Veterans Peer to Peer Mentoring Program. He said this opportunity led him to begin the Faces of Veterans project.
“When I was done with that, I said, ‘Well, I think I’m just going to continue this across all of New York State,” said Willette.
Willette, a Schuylerville native, served in the Air Force for 16 years, from April 2001 to January 2017. He said the Faces of Veterans allows the opportunity for veterans to connect and share their stories.
He said it is important to share photographs and stories of veterans of wars such as World War II.
“The Vietnam-era veterans, they’re getting older as well. There’s a number of them that I have photographed that are no longer alive,” said Willette. “I’ve interviewed and I’ve photographed World War II veterans, and they’ve shared their stories with me, and I’ve been able to take the pictures and the stories that they’ve shared with me, and I’ve been able, in turn, after they died, to give it to their families.”
And the photos have also helped veterans open up and share their own stories with family, as Willette recounted a 2019 visit he made to the American Legion in Granville.
“It was just a regular photoshoot like any other one,” Willette said. “I had photographed a Vietnam-era veteran there, he was there with some of his family.”
A month later, Willette received a phone call from the veteran’s daughter.
“He went home afterwards, and he began sharing about his experiences,” said Willette. “His daughter just called me to say how thankful she was that he had that experience, and that he was able to come home and begin talking about his experiences there, that he’s never shared with his own kids.”
Faces of Veterans began as just a photography project, but expanded this fall with the launch of the ‘Faces of Veterans’ podcast.
The podcast is owned by Glens Falls Today’s parent company Spa City Digital, and is a separate entity from the photo series, allowing veterans the opportunity to openly discuss their experiences.
“The podcast is important because it is an outlet and it is an avenue, where veterans can get on there and they can share that,” said Willette. “And maybe it will open up the door for them to heal a little bit, to share more. Or maybe it will encourage a veteran that’s listening.
“Maybe not even in New York, maybe not even in the United States. But it might encourage them to share something, and to just begin healing from past wounds.”
This is in contrast to the photography series, which typically does not contain names or additional information besides the photos themselves, Willette said.
“When I photograph them, I don’t include names. I don’t include branch of service, time in service, anything like that,” said Willette. “I’ve always opened it up to where, if you want to get together at a later time, and you want to kind of share your story, then let’s meet, let’s talk. I’ve opened it up like that, and then I would share, obviously, their name, and more about them.”
Willette also said the podcast and photography series “fills the void” of camaraderie left once he was discharged. He said he asks every veteran on the podcast what they miss most about their service, with one common response.
“This will be a common answer if you asked any veteran what they missed the most, and that’s the camaraderie. They miss the camaraderie of the service,” Willette said. “For 16 years, I had the camaraderie, and then it was gone and I haven’t been able to find it elsewhere. This Faces of Veterans project fills that, but it also provides a way for me to continue to serve the veteran community.”
Willette’s goal is to travel to all 62 counties in New York State to photograph veterans, saying that he has visited 10 to this point. Willette, who currently resides in Queensbury, takes the photos free of charge, relying on donations to help assist in keeping the project alive.
“It’s completely done out of pocket, and through donations, hopefully, of people that feel it to be equally as important,” said Willette. “We need those donations, because without the donations, the next photoshoot doesn’t happen.”
And those photoshoots will help Willette continue to “serve the veteran community,” one of the reasons he believes the project is so important.
“It’s the camaraderie, and it’s really just continuing to serve the veteran community,” said Willette. “Because I feel it’s important, and I feel it’s needed.”
QUEENSBURY — The Queensbury varsity swim team earned an 88-65 win over Glens Falls at home on Tuesday, improving to 7-1 on the season. The Spartans will conclude their regular season by hosting Gloversville/Mayfield at 5 p.m. on Thursday.
Dianna P. Baker, 26, was arrested for 3rd Deg. Burglary
Blake A. Sunday, 27, was arrested for 3rd Deg. Burglary
Amanda M. Lang, 34, was arrested for Aggravated DWI; Previous Conviction
Bobbie J. Demgard, 42, was arrested for 2nd Deg. Possession of a Forged Instrument
Gabriel A. Carter, 41, was arrested for 3rd Deg. Aggravated Unlicensed Operation of a Motor Vehicle
Evan E. Cutler, 23, was arrested for 3rd Deg. Bail Jumping
Scott H. Lortie, 32, was arrested for 3rd Deg. Criminal Trespass
Luis D. Rivera, 21, was arrested for 3rd Deg. Criminal Mischief
WARREN COUNTY SHERIFF
On Friday Oct. 14 the Warren County Sheriff’s Office arrested Anthony T. Putnam, 33 of Saratoga Springs on one felony count of Burglary in the Third Degree and one felony count of Criminal Mischief in the Third Degree. As part of an ongoing investigation, members of the Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Unit were able to link Putnam to a burglary at a local business in Queensbury via DNA evidence. Putnam was arraigned in Warren County CAP Court and released on his own recognizance. He is scheduled to appear at the Queensbury Town Court on a later date.
A look at the Eden Center’s neurofeedback system. (Dylan McGlynn photo)
GLENS FALLS — The Eden Center for Integrative Care, which offers unique and personalized mental health treatments, has seen rapid expansion in its first year of operation. According to owner and director Daniel Breeyear, the expansion speaks to the need for mental health services in the region.
“Going from six to 26 employees in a year just kind of highlights the growth and the need for this sort of service in the community,” said Breeyear.
The Eden Center, which opened in August 2021, focuses on personalized care, “because there are no generic patients,” said Breeyear.
“Everybody is a unique individual, with individual genetics and individual life circumstances,” said Breeyear.
He said the Eden Center helps patients by getting to the “root of things.”
“If you go into your doctors’ office and you tell them you’re depressed, a lot of times they’ll throw an antidepressant at you. But they don’t ever really ask why you’re depressed to begin with,” said Breeyear. “So we get to the root of things, that’s how things are ultimately fixed.”
While the Eden Center does prescribe medication, Breeyear stressed that their focus is on “the whole-body approach,” supplementing medication with a focus on neurotransmitters, neurofeedback, anti-inflammation, IV nutrition, and more. The Center offers multiple unique treatments, with Breeyear saying, “I don’t think there’s anything like it from Canada to Albany.”
“We get into the biology of how neurotransmitters are created, brain regions that are not functioning optimally. How do we get those back on track?,” Breeyear said.
The Eden Center provides pediatric and holistic care, with Breeyear saying he primarily handles that, while the Center also treats substance use and addiction. Breeyear said the Center also has 15 psychotherapists on hand, offering “traditional talk therapy.”
The Center offers a hyperbaric oxygen chamber used for anti-inflammatory and mental health purposes, with Breeyear saying the Center has the same chamber used by NBA star LeBron James.
“Same exact chamber, same exact model. That’s an athlete using that for anti-inflammatory purposes,” said Breeyear, mentioning former NFL quarterback Joe Namath as another example in sports. “That’s one thing that kind of helps a lot of different aspects of care.”
Breeyear said that the Center’s IV nutrition can help people treat deficiencies for things such as vitamin D.
“A lot of the vitamin infusions are geared towards anti-inflammation, replenishing things that you’re not getting from nutrition or from just where you live geographically,” Breeyear said. “Low testosterone can look like depression. In the same token, estrogen levels with a woman, or iron levels, can feel like fatigue and malaise and depression.”
The Eden Center also offers a neurofeedback system, with Breeyear saying it can help identify “areas of dysfunction” in the brain.
“It’s reading brainwave frequencies and it’s balancing those sorts of things on a database of 250,000 other brains of the particular individual’s demographic,” said Breeyear. “With that, it can identify areas of dysfunction, depression, ADHD, anxiety, OCD, schizophrenia, memory, sleep, all those sorts of things. With that information, the person can then come back and do brain training, essentially.
“We’re using all those things to either enhance or kind of relieve different problems and concerns, more so than just the traditional methods.”
The Eden Center has also recently begun ketamine treatments for “resistant depression,” said Breeyear.
“These people have been depressed for a long time, and the traditional medications don’t work. So they’ll come in, and we’ll do that sort of thing,” Breeyear said. “We’re doing intranasal, up through the nose, now, but we’ll be launching IV versions and a more widespread intranasal program pretty soon in the next month or so.”
Intake appointments typically last between 60 and 90 minutes, Breeyear said, with follow-ups lasting roughly a half-hour.
“That’s longer than you get at most places, even specialty care. We are able to see less people during the day, but I think the care has improved, because you’re taking more time, you can talk through more things,” said Breeyear. “It’s tough to do all those aspects of assessment in a short period of time.”
Not all of the Center’s services are covered by insurance, with Breeyear saying they are working to establish a non-profit, the Eden Center Foundation, to assist patients with potential costs.
“That was an area of need that I identified within the first year. It was hard having somebody sit across from me, knowing that you could help them, but there’s the financial component on their side and ours,” Breeyear said. “I think that’s a way to kind of alleviate some of that, and really make a difference.”
He said the Foundation would help cover costs for services such as the hyperbaric chamber, neurofeedback scans, supplements, and specialty therapy treatments.
As the Eden Center continues to grow its services, Breeyear said he aims to continue to meet need by adding staff and expanding.
“Not so many where I don’t know who you are anymore, but enough where we can continue the level of care,” said Breeyear. “If I need to go somewhere else, to add a second location or a bigger one at some point, that’s what I’ll do. But I think as long as the need and demand is there, we’ll continue to meet it until it’s not.”
For Breeyear, a native of Fort Edward and current South Glens Falls resident, the opportunity to offer mental health services in his home region “meant a lot,” he said.
“This is where I grew up, so it wasn’t hard to see the need and hear the stories of your kid’s friends, and their friends’ friends, and the school things and all that,” said Breeyear. “It’s good to be in the middle of it, and I think we’ve shown the need is definitely there.”
High school girls hockey is coming to Section 2 this year, with the establishment of the Adirondack United hockey team.
The team will be a combination of six schools: Corinth, Glens Falls, South Glens Falls, Hudson Falls, Saratoga Springs, and Queensbury. Adirondack United head coach Jeff Willis said the team will provide valuable opportunities for girls in the area.
“What you find is a lot of girls that are very athletic, very good at hockey, they end up taking those skills and applying them somewhere else,” said Willis. “It’s great that we have this opportunity in front of us to continue to keep girls locally.”
Willis said the support from the girls and parents helped bring the squad to fruition, saying hockey parents are “a different breed.”
“And I’m saying this in the nicest way. I’m one of them,” added Willis. “They picked it up, and they were attending, like, every school board meeting. They were at South Glens Falls, they were at Glens Falls, they were at Queensbury. They just were not going to let this go.”
Willis also said the coordination between the six schools has been strong.
“The support has been really great across all school districts,” Willis said. “From my perspective as the head coach, I think everything’s going really well.”
As of now, Adirondack United is the only girls hockey team in Section 2. Willis said the team will compete in Section 7 this year, competing against schools such as Beekmantown, Saranac Lake Placid (a combination of Saranac Lake and Lake Placid), Plattsburgh, and Malone.
“That’s our league, and we’ll play in their sectionals,” said Willis.
Willis said that a majority of the team’s roster will come from the Adirondack Northstars travel organization, and mentioned he expects players from the Troy-Albany Titans and Clifton Park travel organizations to try out.
The head coach also said he expects the team to be competitive. Willis, who coaches one of the Northstars teams, mentioned several players who have made a big impact with the organization.
“We have three players here locally that have been selected to the U.S. National Team selection process that are in the program right now,” said Willis. “Bayley Duffy, Maddie Macauley, and my younger daughter, Lillian Willis. They were all selected to go to Minnesota as part of the national team selection process.”
Adirondack United provides an opportunity for these girls to advance their hockey careers at home, with Willis noting that this has not traditionally been the case in the area.
The squad will open its season with a tough test, playing defending state champions Skaneateles of Section III on Nov. 23. The United team will play several other Section III schools during the season, including Clinton and Oswego, and Section X programs such as Potsdam and Massena, in addition to its Section 7 league games.
“My philosophy is, I’ll play anybody anytime and anywhere,” said Willis.
Adirondack United will play its first home game on Dec. 3, hosting Beekmantown at 1 p.m. The game is set to be played at the Glens Falls Recreation Center, but Willis said there is a possibility of hosting the contest at Cool Insuring Arena.
“We think we’re going to hold it at the Rec Center, but if we sense that we’re going to get a really big crowd and (Cool Insuring Arena) is available, we maybe will pursue that,” Willis said. “That’s one of our focuses. I really want to pack the house the first night.”
LAKE GEORGE — Fort William Henry will honor and remember veterans both living and deceased for their service, and sacrifice, on Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
The event begins with the annual ‘Field of Flags’ ceremony at 10:30 a.m., with a special salute following at 11 a.m. The salute will take place on “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, when the agreement to end World War I was signed in 1918,” says a press release from the Fort William Henry Museum.
An Italian buffet lunch will follow the ceremony at Tankard Taverne at Fort William Henry. Net proceeds of ticket sales for the buffet will benefit the Adirondack Vets House Inc. of Glens Falls, a non-profit home for homeless veterans, the release says.
Hundreds of American flags will decorate the front lawn at Fort William Henry, with each honoring the memory of a veteran. To honor a veteran, submit names to annaa@fortwilliamhenry.com. The submission should include the veteran’s first and last name, as well as military rank, branch, and period of service, according to the release.
Reservations for the buffet lunch are not required, but tickets can be purchased in advance at fortwilliamhenry.com/veterans-day-lunch.
Fort William Henry was constructed by the British during the French and Indian War. The Fort was “the scene of a bloody, three-day siege in 1757, after which the British surrendered to the French,” the release says. The Fort was burnt down by French forces, according to the release, and a replica was built in the 1950s and serves as “a living history museum and historic site.”
BURNT HILLS — The Queensbury varsity football team fell behind early and couldn’t catch up on Friday, falling 50-14 to Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake on the road.
Burnt Hills, the 12th-ranked team in Class A by newyorksportswriters.org, jumped out to a 15-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back en route to their fifth straight win.
Luke Zoller ran for two touchdowns of 12 yards each in the opening quarter, with a two-point conversion on the first score giving the Spartans a 15-0 lead. A 15-yard touchdown run by Santino Mareno early in the second quarter extended the lead to 22-0, and a five-yard run by Myles Yannuzzi made it 29-0.
Queensbury got on the board with 4:20 left until the half, with Ian Reynolds breaking free for a 72-yard touchdown run to cut the deficit to 29-6. Burnt Hills answered, however, and Zoller ran it in from four yards out in the final seconds to make it 36-6 at halftime.
Jake Pausley added a touchdown for Burnt Hills in the third, running from three yards out to make it 43-6. Mareno returned a fumble 40 yards for a touchdown later in the quarter to extend the lead to 50-6 after three.
Queensbury broke off another big play in the fourth, with a fourth-and-three pass from Zavry Ward finding Ryan Blanchard, who broke away for a 90-yard touchdown. The big play was the second-longest touchdown pass in Queensbury football history, behind a Tracy Nelson 99-yard touchdown pass to Doug Harder in 1970 at Hudson Falls.
A two-point conversion from Ward to Trevon Bailey made it 50-14 with two minutes left, and Burnt Hills was able to run out the remaining clock to seal the victory.
For Queensbury, Reynolds gained 62 yards and a touchdown on six carries, while Ward was 3 of 9 passing for 154 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. Blanchard had one catch, the 90-yard touchdown, while Bailey caught two passes for 64 yards.
Burnt Hills is 5-1 overall, and 3-0 in the Class A Grasso Division with the win. They will play at Ballston Spa (6-1, 2-1) on Friday.
Queensbury falls to 1-5 overall, 0-3 in the Grasso Division after the loss. The Spartans will host Albany (1-5, 0-3) for homecoming at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Queensbury field hockey ends regular season with win over Granville
GRANVILLE — The Queensbury varsity field hockey team finished its regular season with a road victory, defeating Granville 4-0 on Friday.
Dani Hand scored three goals for the Spartans, with Gianna Marcantonio adding a goal. Ryan Allen picked up an assist, while Abigail Kittell stopped three shots in goal in the win.
The Spartans will play at South Glens Falls in the opening round of sectionals Oct. 26 at 4:30 p.m. The winner will advance to play the winner of Burnt Hills and Scotia-Glenville in the Class A championship game on Oct. 30.
