Stuyvesant Plaza in joint venture talks
The Swyer Cos, owner of Stuyvesant Plaza, is in talks with WS Development of Boston on a possible joint venture for the iconic Western Avenue outdoor mall in Guilderland. Stuyvesant Plaza was built in 1959 and has grown from 18 stores to about 60 and has weathered the rise of online shopping and the pandemic, a story in the Albany Business Journal says. Not much detail has been released yet. WS Development owns millions of square feet of retail space.
New Congressional districts affect Glens Falls
Glens Falls picked up the 20th Congressional District and the 113th Assembly District in the redistricting map that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed last week, but remain in the same NYS Senate district as before. Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce President Michael Bittel will ask winners of the fall elections to put district offices in the city, the Post-Star is reporting. Glens Falls, Queensbury and Moreau are now part of the 20th Congressional District. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, is the incumbent. The 21st District where Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, is the incumbent will no longer represent the city. The incumbent in the 113th is Carrie Woerner, D-Round Lake. Assemblyman Matt Simpson, R-Brant Lake, will be in the new 114th District, which includes all of Warren County except for Glens Falls. Lawsuits over the redistricting have begun.
SUNY Schenectady contract up for vote
Full-time faculty at SUNY Schenectady may receive “longevity pay” if the Schenectady County Legislature approves the motion, the Daily Gazette is reporting. The new contract would offer a payment that rises with years of service, a first for the 65-member faculty union. The contract also includes salary increases. New instructors make $43,000 per year, the story says.
Springs: 15 police officers and firefighters among the 20 highest paid employees
Saratoga Springs' 20 highest-paid workers include 15 police and fire employees, the Daily Gazette reported over the weekend. Ten of the employees were in the Police Department, five in the Fire Department. Overtime pay lifted many, the story says. Police Chief Shane Crooks, Assistant Chief John Catone, who retired last month, and Fire Department Chief James Dolan were among the highest paid people in the city. Officials point to a very busy summer season that required a lot of overtime.
Cat and Mouse in the horse races
A veterinarian convicted Wednesday for creating and distributing "untestable" performance-enhancing drugs for horse races, had a client list of about 2,000 businesses, individual and trainers, including 265 in New York, a Times Union story says. The drugs were not detected by state regulators in blood tests. New York’s Equine Drug Testing and Research Laboratory is preeminent in the country, the story says, but the director admits there are too many possible drugs to test for and often too few samples to test from, the story says. Bad actors who concoct the drugs know this.