Big Biz pays, small business struggles
Verizon Communications Inc. raising its minimum wage to $20 per hour for most new employees at the customer service level and even offering sign-on bonuses, the Albany Business Journal says. Target stores raised theirs to $24. A host of other large corporations have done the same, and small businesses that cannot keep up are feeling the pinch as their employees leave for those bigger companies, the story says. Of course, the corollary says that small businesses need to be careful if the upward pressure slows in two years and they are working with over-compensated employees.
NBT promotes
NBT Bank has named Ruth Mahoney and David Krupski to regional president for the Capital District and North Country, and chief of staff for NBT’s Commercial Banking Division, respectively. Both had already held positions with the company, the Albany Business Journal says.
SBA releases equity plan
The Small Business Administration released an equity plan with other federal agencies to lower barriers to lending for minority-owned businesses, the Albany Business Journal is reporting. The equity plan also includes changes to government contracting and relationships with community development financial institutions, the story says.
Ft. Edward picks superintendent
Richard DeMallie will be named the Fort Edward Union Free School District superintendent at a special meeting of the school board on Wednesday April 27, the Post-Star is reporting. The board offered DeMallie a three-year contract at $133,000 annually, the story says. He is the high school principal at Gloversville Enlarged School District.
Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse coming to Capital Region
Ruth's Chris Steak House is looking to a open on Wolf Road, the Times Union is reporting. The upscale chain restaurant has about 150 locations in 27 states, but this would be its first in the Capital Region, the story says. The restaurant submitted plans in Colonie to take over the former Romano’s Macaroni Grill building.
LGPC OKs herbicide use in Lake George
The Lake George Park Commission voted Tuesday April 26 to combat invasive Eurasian watermilfoil with the herbicide, ProcellaCOR EC despite local concerns about potential long term harm to humans and the lake ecosystem, a story in the Adirondack Explorer says. The herbicide will be administered in two bays in the north basin of the lake. The pushback from local people has included the Lake George Association and the Lake George Waterkeeper Chris Navitsky. Others who spoke cited concerns that the chemical has not been tested in the long-term enough, especially for its effects on humans. The Town of Hague passed a resolution against it, and about 1,000 people signed a petition to stop the application, the story says. The Adirondack Park Agency approved its use earlier this month, with a couple dissenting votes. The Lake George Association may mount a legal challenge, the story says.
Sidebar:
Dave Wick, executive director of the state’s Lake George Park Commission, spoke to FoothillsBusinessDaily.com on Tuesday after the vote. [See our earlier coverage here.] He cited the herbicide’s use in Minerva Lake and Glen Lake. In both cases, the milfoil was removed for multiple years. Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, which is a source of drinking water as is Lake George, has used the treatment for years and has reported no side effects.
“Lake George is by far not the only water body that has had drinking water concerns,” Wick said, but he added that the chemical went through a 7-year federal Environmental Protection Agency review and approval, and at the levels that it will be applied is not unsafe.
He said that comparisons were made to DDT, but added that DDT was created in 1945 before the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation began in 1970. The systems for studying are not the same as they were, he said.
However, a release from the Lake George Association and the Lake George Water Keeper called it a “sad day for Lake George.”
“[We] have repeatedly offered to put our advanced scientific and technical research capabilities to work in partnership with the Commission to address the many unanswered scientific questions about potential impacts before the herbicide is used in the Lake, but were refused,” their statement said.
Wick challenged that notion: ”We have been exceptionally public about our efforts over the past year…They knew last summer,” about this potential use.
The LGA’s study, their release says, would not only look at the possible negative impacts to human health, but at a host of information they say is specific to Lake George, including data regarding potentially adverse impacts to plants and organisms specific to Lake George; to the potential downside of a rapid die-off of herbicide-treated milfoil (they ask if it may cause harmful algal blooms); and the herbicide spread in the water specifically given the currents specific to the lake.