By Susan Elise Campbell
Franklin Community Center has purchased the former MASIE Center property at 95 Washington St. in Saratoga Springs.
The building will soon be known as The Michael & Stacie Arpey Family Community Center in tribute to the Saratoga Springs philanthropists who donated $1 million to help make the purchase a reality in 2020.
“We had raised the first million dollars when COVID struck,” said center Executive Director Kari Cushing.
Over the past five years the growth in demand for the types of services and outreach Franklin Community Center provides made it clear that more square footage was needed, she said. “This reality led the board of directors to commit to more space.”
The building will be the fourth facility Franklin Community Center manages in order to bring basic necessities and services to the public. Administrative offices, a community room and a food pantry are housed at 10 Franklin St. The distribution center is across the corner at 101 Washington St. There is also a 19-unit rental building at 95 Congress St.

By Sen. Jim Tedisco
Do you have a loved one or know someone who has moved out of New York state?
Many people do and the numbers show this is happening all too frequently as children graduate from school and then move elsewhere, or as long-time residents retire and pull up stakes from their communities for another state.
The high cost of living, taxes, and public safety concerns are just some of the reasons people cite for leaving New York state, particularly Upstate. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the exodus from our state.
However, there has not been any real coordinated effort by state government to closely look at why so many people are leaving New York, and to adjust its agenda, as it is hitting Upstate communities especially hard.
As we begin a new year and new legislative session, our top priority should be addressing the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic so we can stop the spread of the virus, save lives and safely improve and reopen our economy.
In order to reset New York state by safely restarting our economy, we need to address the elephant in the room that the leaders in our state government have not been talking about: the fact that for the third year in a row, New York leads the nation in out-migration of residents with 126,000 people leaving last year and over one million in the past decade.
New York state followed up its net loss of 1.7 million residents from 2000 to 2009 with a loss of 1.4 million residents this past decade. This loss leads the nation in largest overall population decline, according to Census data.
New York is also facing a skills gap where 42 percent (5.65 million) of New Yorkers have a high school diploma or less and are being left out of the technology and clean energy jobs that the state suggests it has made a push to attract.

Despite severe challenges caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic, Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC) closed the year without a budget shortfall, officials said at the organization’s board of directors meeting in December.
Also, given the uncertainties of what 2021 may bring with regard to the pandemic, SPAC is planning for a number of potential scenarios to present a season that will be ready to meet whatever the prevailing conditions are this spring and summer.
“What we know is this,” said Sobol. “One way or another, there will be a SPAC season. And one way or the other, we are committed to ensuring a Saratoga presence by our beloved resident companies.”
Like so many cultural institutions, SPAC’s 2020 was markedly different than what President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol imagined when programming for season was first announced in January of 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“Just over seven months ago, SPAC took the unprecedented measure of cancelling its whole summer season in the face of the worsening coronavirus pandemic,” said Sobol. “Taking that step felt literally like walking off a cliff.”

Skip Carlson, Vice President Of External Affairs of the Saratoga Casino Hotel, is the 2021 chair of the board of directors of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce.
He assumed this volunteer leadership role, on Jan. 1, as Kevin Hedley of Hedley & Co. PLLC completed his one-year term as board chair. Hedley now becomes the immediate past chair.
“In what was truly an unprecedented time in our Chamber’s history, Kevin Hedley as chair of the chamber’s board did an amazing job leading our organization,” said Carlson. “He worked closely with the Chamber’s professional staff to ensure that we did everything we could to collaborate with our community partners in the private, public and nonprofit sectors to reopen our economy and to save our local businesses.
“As we enter 2021, the Chamber continues to lead the way as a visible and vocal advocate for local vaccination sites and support for local small businesses. Kevin’s leadership put us in a position to take on these important challenges. We cannot thank him enough for this commitment to our Chamber and our local community.”
Other board officers for the year include Tara Anne Pleat of Wilcenski & Pleat PLLC, chair elect; Amy Smith of Saratoga Arms Hotel, vice chair; and Chad Kiesow of Stewart’s Shops, treasurer and secretary.
New members elected by the membership to three-year terms on the board include Vincent Laurenzo of Quick Response Restoration, Dennis Kiingati of Hamlet & Ghost, David Rosenberg of Brix Wine & Liquor, and Andrew Wise of Saratoga National Bank & Trust Co.

By Jill Nagy
Moby Rick’s Seafood has moved its Saratoga Springs business to 26 Congress St., in Congress Plaza.
The new shop opened just after Christmas.
The old location, a blue and white clapboard building at 173 Lake Ave. in Saratoga Springs, was demolished. It is owned by Richard Lofstad.
The business had been at the Lake Avenue location for eight years, the last of a series of tenants dating back to 1891.
Moby Rick’s sells fresh fish and seafood sourced on Long Island and in Boston, along with prepared entrees available for takeout.
Earlier in 2020, Lofstad opened a location at 22 Clifton Country Road in Clifton Park.

By Christine Graf
Free Form Fibers, a Saratoga Spring high-tech company in the Grande Industrial Park, completed raising a $2.5 million in November that will be used to further its development.
Free Form Fibers utilizes advanced technology to create high-performance ceramic fibers that are used to make durable parts for the aviation and nuclear industries. The fibers are approximately 1/4 the diameter of a human hair.
The majority of the $2.5 million that was raised will be used to build the three production tools necessary to produce ceramic fibers. The tools should be up and running by the end of March. Without them, the company can only provide lab-sized samples to potential customers for evaluation.
The company anticipates that their fibers will be used in the LEAP commercial aircraft engine, an engine developed through a partnership between GE Aviation and Safran Aircraft Engines. LEAP engines operate with a 15 percent improvement in fuel consumption and CO2 when compared to other engines.
“The LEAP engine has about 5 or 6 percent by weight of ceramic matrix composite (CMC). CMCs allow engines to run at higher temp and thus at higher efficiency. They are also lighter weight than the metals they are replacing,” said CEO Dr. Shay Harrison, who joined the company in 2012. “CMCs require fibers as part of the product. What we are offering as commercial products are materials that go into these types of composites that will replace metals in very high temperature applications or very chemically aggressive applications.”

By Christine Graf
Commercial electrical contractor T&J Electrical Associates has moved to a newly-constructed, 15,000-square-foot headquarters in Clifton Park.
The $2.2 million building is located at 419 Route 146. T&J Electrical was started by brothers Tony and Joe Sestito, out of Tony’s home, in 1977.
During the early years of the business, T&J Electrical performed residential and small-scale commercial work. Over time, the company focus shifted toward large commercial jobs. The company has grown to 80 employees and no longer performs residential work. Tony retired from the business several years ago.
“The scale of jobs they were taking on became larger and larger and they became a union contractor,” said Nick Sestito, son of Joe Sestito, who joined the family business in 2009. He worked his way up to partner and now manages the company along with his father, who is semi-retired.
“They performed a lot of retail work for companies like CVS, Price Chopper, and Shop Rite. Forty years later, we still have a lot of those customers,” he said.
Sestito has spent the last several years growing the company’s electrical lighting and maintenance division which represents approximately 25 percent of its revenue. The remaining 75 percent is generated by the new construction and remodeling division.
“When I came into the office in 2015 with the intent to grow that, we had one service van on the road,” he said. “We now have a fleet of over 20 and we cover the entire northeast. We repair anything electrical or lighting related.”