CAPITAL REGION — On Aug. 27 GlobalFoundries, located in Malta, announced plans to “reshape it’s technology portfolio, and intensify focus on a growing demand for differentiated offerings” according to a press release.

On Aug. 28 GlobalFoundries notified the state’s Department of Labor that it will lay off 424 employees and that the expected date of the first separation of employees is Nov. 28 of this year. Typically a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) must be filed with the state and requires businesses to give early warning of closing and layoffs. According to the WARN GlobalFoundries filed, the reason for dislocation is noted as “shifting their technology development focus from advanced research to differentiated technologies.”

An additional 31 employees will be laid off at SUNY Polytechnic Institute research center in Albany, making total lay offs 455.

“Demand for semiconductors has never been higher, and clients are asking us to play an ever-increasing role in enabling tomorrow’s technology innovations,” Tom Caulfield said in a prepared statement. Caulfield is the CEO of GlobalFoundries and was appointed in March of this year.

“The vast majority of today’s fabless customers are looking to get more value out of each technology generation to leverage the substantial investments required to design into each technology node. Essentially, these nodes are transitioning to design platforms serving multiple waves of applications, giving each node greater longevity. This industry dynamic has resulted in fewer fabless clients designing into the outer limits of Moore’s Law. We are shifting our resources and focus by doubling down on our investments in differentiated technologies across our entire portfolio that are most relevant to our clients in growing market segments,” he added.

Photos provided.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Forno Bistro located at 541 Broadway is petitioning to have Zac Brown of the Zac Brown Band to attend a Z Alexander Backyard Barbeque Tailgate Party at the restaurant on Sept. 29, the day of the Zac Brown Band concert at Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC).

In trying to gain Zac Brown Band’s attention, Bill Gathen, Director of Marketing and Michael Ruggiero, Marketing Manager of DZ Restaurants made a music video sampling lyrics from popular Zac Brown Band songs to entice the band.

DZ Restaurants is the restaurant group that encompasses Chianti il Ristorante, Boca Bistro and Forno Bistro. The Backyard Barbeque Tailgate Party is a wine and food pairing that will feature Zac Brown’s line of wines called, Z. Alexander Brown. The “Uncaged” line of wines will be paired with a barbeque fair featuring a mac and cheese bar, pulled pork sandwiches, fried chicken, cornbread and more.

“When we saw Zac Brown Band was coming, we said lets see if we can get Zac to come... So we did a video, wrote a song using lyrics and song titles from all of his songs, we went out to a farm that our Vice President owns and we just shot the video. The guy in the video is Matt Richardson who is our chef over at Forno,” Gathen said.

“We’re just hoping maybe they’ll bring the tour bus through or a pick-up or something and they just kind of stick their heads in, who knows... It would be the greatest thing ever,” he added.

However this isn’t the first time DZ Restaurants petitioned for a SPAC performer to visit the restaurant. In 2017 DZ Restaurants invited Dave Matthews to a wine and food pairing with Matthew’s wine called Dreaming Tree at Boca Bistro. In an effort to promote that dinner, a music video was made as well that garnered over 25,000 views on Facebook. It did end up reaching Dave Matthew’s himself; however, he did not attend the event but did give backstage passes to Gathen and the others that contributed to the making of the video.

“I’ve got a marketing manager that works with me and we’ve done hundreds of videos together. Mike  (Ruggiero) is a great videographer; he also has a background in music. I have a background in music and writing. So typically what happens is I’ll write the song, Mike will lay down the music, we’ll bring in the talent which is one of our chefs, someone who is very eccentric, and then we’ll shoot the video and it all comes together... Everyone’s got a contribution, when Mike and I started working together it was like ‘Wow I do this and you do that?’ It’s kind of like chocolate and peanut butter, it’s perfect,” Gathen said.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — On Aug. 30 two Canadians, both members of the Canadian Armed Forces, Honorary Colonel Kevin McCormick and Lieutenant Colonel Michael Motyl, visited the Military Museum and Veterans Research Center located at 61 Lake Ave. to honor and preserve the service and sacrifice of members of the United States Armed Forces by locating historic US military pieces and repatriate them with family members, military museums, educational platforms and/or communities. The pair also traveled to Utica and Rochester to do the same later on in the day.

“There seems to have been a gap on Ebay or other online sites. You find a lot of memorabilia but it tends to just be purchased up by collector then put back into drawers. Our goal is to make sure these things were coming from out of the shadows and research was being done to make sure we could track down the proper owners and bring it to the forefront so we could make sure that these things were honored and preserved. It was a challenge but we saw a gap and we’re just trying to fill that. We see it as a honorable way to bring these things back to light,” Motyl said.

The project is called the Service and Sacrifice Initiative. Both Motyl and McCormick have already completed it for Canada and when looking to expand, the first place they thought of was the United States.

“Canada and America have been close friends and allies for a long time. The close bond that

we have currently, as well as in our past, in Korea and Vietnam there were actually Canadians there as well and in both World Wars Canada and America were staunch allies and fought together in many battles,” Motyl said.

The goal is to encompass all 50 states in the initiative as well as all the military branches, service members, both male and female, and cover all major conflicts and wars. At the Saratoga stop, Motyl and McCormick were trying to track family members that may be related to a letter from the Civil War era. Although they could not find direct lineage, they did find a museum to accommodate the letter, New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center in Saratoga Springs. Postcards that dawn World War I art history that is also associated with some of the armories in the area were brought to museums as well.

Motyl’s most interesting piece of memorabilia that he has come across since starting the U.S. arm of the project is love letters from World War II, a correspondence between a private and his wife.

“We managed to find the individual in Pratt, South Dakota. He’s 101 years old and living in a senior’s home and we arranged to have those letters returned to him and we’re going to make sure there’s a request that those letters be given to the Pratt’s Military Museum,” Motyl said.

Motyl and McCormick have a larger goal. The two encourage everyone, if they’re interested in this sort of work, to find these pieces, do the research, and find a place of honor to put them into whether it is the owner, their affiliation or a museum.

Photos provided.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — On Sept. 9 National Grandparent’s Day will be celebrated by the Wesley Foundation, the philanthropic arm of The Wesley Community, at the Saratoga City Center. The event will honor grandparents and great- grandparents by providing an opportunity for family members of all ages to spend time together on National Grandparents Day. It’s the second annual Saratoga Grandparents Day celebration hosted by the foundation.

“Most of the people who live here are great-grandparents so we’re creating a day of inter- generational fun for all of the different individuals that we serve hereatWesley,” Katelynn Donovan said, marketing and advancement associate at the Wesley Community.

Attendees can enjoy carnival- style games, a silent auction, face painting, balloon art, a magician, a raffle, a book reading of Lucky’s Adventure in Saratoga by author Elizabeth Macy and her dog Lucky, amongst other activities. The first 250 grandparents to enter will receive a special giveaway.

“You probably know what you do on Mother’s Day and on Father’s Day but we thought, what do you do on Grandparents Day,” Donovan said.

“Our grandparents here didn’t know it was a national holiday so we ran with that idea to really create a celebration and make it so that our residents have something to do with their families and then the whole community because we service the demographic and grandparents are of all ages,” she added.

The celebration is free and open to the public. Fees will apply for select activities and items for sale with proceeds to support the renovation of the Resident Activities Room at The Wesley Health Care Center. The residence caters to older adults who may have significant, chronic medical needs requiring daily assistance. The resident activities room serves as a social hub for these residents, providing a venue for performances, religious services and other social gatherings. Major event sponsors are Marshall and Sterling Insurance, Ellms Family Farm and Angerame Architects. According to Donovan, the event has gained traction in the Saratoga community; this year the Wesley Foundation is reaching out to different organizations that provide services to grandparents. “There’s a lot of excitement, it’s slowly building to what we really want the day to turninto,” Donovan said.

The National Grandparent’s Day celebration will begin at 1 p.m. and end at 4 p.m. at the Saratoga Springs City Center located at 522 Broadway. The event is free and open to the public, Wesley residents are also welcomed to attend, and encourage family to bring residents that would need to be checked out of the center to attend. The Wesley Foundation will also provide transportation for the independent residents.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Adding to the popular juicing trend, yet another juice bar is slated to open summer/fall of this year. Urban Roots, a juice, smoothie and avocado bar located at 46 Marion Ave. Marion Avenue Shopping Plaza will feature craft, cold-pressed, organic, non-GMO, raw and plant based menu items. Formerly Compliments to the Chef, Urban Roots is approximately 2,200 Square-feet and is leasing the space according the listing agent, Joan Purtell, of Coldwell Banker. The juice bar, which is still in construction, is owned by Brandon Acres and Allen Caruso.

On June 26 of 2018 a building permit was issued to Prime Beechwood, LLC. Prime Beechwood is part of Prime Companies, which deals with residential and commercial real estate development, brokerage, and property management in the capital region. Prime Companies also manage The Hamlet in Saratoga Springs and has worked with other clients in the area including Luther Forest Technology Campus in Malta and The Fresh Market, also in Marion Avenue Shopping Plaza.

Photos provided.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Brewing Co. formerly located at 131 Excelsior Ave., which closed in January of this year, is auctioning off pieces of the brewery or as a turnkey operations option which means selling the entire set of equipment as is. The auction is taking place on Aug. 28 and is being facilitated by the Tiger Group. The Tiger Group deals with asset appraisals, liquidations, dispositions and capital investments. They have been working with the parent company of Saratoga Brewing Co., Mendocino Brewing located in Hopland, California, for a month. 

“We have an online platform that we use and it’s a live auction,  so people actually see the items and the lots are closing out as people bid on them... People will register for the auction, they log in (to the website) and there’ll be each item up for bid and they can place individual bids on it,” said Alyssa Van Hinte, a marketing manager at the Tiger Group.

GLENS FALLS — Glens Falls is in the planning pro- cess for a new building. According to Katelyn Cinzio, Director of Marketing and Communications at the hospi- tal, the medical village project will expand upon the emer- gency departments space for individuals that need obser- vation but not admission, space for behavioral health patients, an expanded cri- sis unit and an ambulatory detox program. The expanded emergency department will provide patients with access to both emergency services and expanded diagnostic care.

The project comes as part of a statewide healthcare facility transformation program cre- ated in 2017, by the New York State Department of Health. This provided the hospital with $19.5 million integrated medical village on the main hospital campus. However, according to Cinzio, they cannot share an estimate for the entire scope of the project.

“Although we are still in the planning phase, we expect that the building will be larger than30,000squarefeet,” Cinzio added. The goal is to begin con- struction in 2019.

The new building will be primarily staffed by Glens Falls Hospital Employees who work in the appropriate units. Although Cinzio says it may create some additional jobs but primarily is intended to sup- port current staff in working more efficiently.

“We recognized the need for a more efficient space to care for patients coming to the hospital for emergency needs as well as those who are not experiencing an emergency but need comprehensive evalu- ation and diagnostic testing,” Cinzio said.

“Glens Falls Hospital wants to ensure that individual shave access to high quality patient- centered care, especially when they are at their most vulnera- ble moments,” she added.