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September 28, 2008

Business briefs: Sept. 28, 2008

New officer

PLATTSBURGH -- CFA Insurance Agency LLC., a local small business with offices in Peru and Rouses Point, has announced the addition of Jonathan Whitehouse, vice president of employee benefits, to its team of licensed professionals.

Whitehouse brings 11 years of experience in both the securities and employee-benefits arena.

New consultant

DANNEMORA -- Barbara DuBrey of Dannemora has become an independent consultant with Tastefully Simple Inc., a national direct-sales company featuring easy-to-prepare gourmet products.

As a consultant, DuBrey offers the company's gourmet foods and beverages to guests at home taste-testing parties. Guests receive samples, easy-meal ideas, recipes and serving suggestions.

"The Tastefully Simple opportunity is designed to be life friendly," said Jill Blashack Strahan, Tastefully Simple Inc. founder and CEO. "Consultants find a great deal of satisfaction through its fun nature, flexibility, unlimited earning potential and top-notch products."

Tastefully Simple is an opportunity for those seeking new or additional business options, supplementary income, more time with children, or simply control and freedom, Blashack Strahan says.

For more information about Tastefully Simple products, taste-testing parties or the business opportunity, contact DuBrey at sisterbee3@yahoo.com.

Halloween festival

PLATTSBURGH -- The ninth-annual Plattsburgh Housing Outlet Halloween Festival will be held Saturday, Oct. 25, from 1 until 4 p.m. at 690 Route 3 at the corner of Military Turnpike near Della Honda. Kids 12 and under are invited to come in costume, trick-or-treat in a safe environment and enjoy fun activities like arts and crafts, bobbing for apples and seeing a magic show.

They will also learn valuable safety lessons including a car-seat check from the Adirondack Safe Kids Coalition and Child IDs.

One dollar per child is the suggested donation to benefit the Ronald McDonald House in Burlington, Vt. Call 563-6250 or go to www.plattsburghhousing.com for more information.

Scrapbook room

PLATTSBURGH -- Local independent sales consultant Rebekka Malcolm has announced that the company she represents, Creative Memories, had a hand in making the new home featured in the Oct. 5 episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

Creative Memories, based in St. Cloud, Minn., donated exclusive scrapbooking and memory-celebration products to create a special scrapbooking room for homeowners Greg and Ginger Akers and their three children in West Chester, Ohio.

Ginger Akers loves scrapbooking so much that the show's producers contacted Creative Memories to ask for help completing the unique space in the home. The room was filled with the company's premier photo-safe albums and accessories, tools for creating traditional albums and digital memory books, photo organizers and home-décor items, such as wall displays.

"At Creative Memories, that's what we do," said Creative Memories founder Rhonda Anderson. "We help people tell their stories through products they can use to showcase memorable events in their lives."

As a leader in the memory-celebration industry for more than 20 years, Creative Memories specializes in selling premium-quality, photo-safe albums, scrapbooking materials, digital photo books, photo organization software and custom-framing products.

Based in St. Cloud, Minn., Creative Memories markets its products at in-home get-togethers through more than 60,000 independent sales consultants in nine countries around the world. More information about Creative Memories and its products, services and career opportunities can be found at creativememories.com.

New business team

PLATTSBURGH -- The North Country Regional Workforce Investment Board has announced the creation of a Business Services Team in an ongoing effort to improve workforce development service delivery to businesses in Clinton, Essex, Franklin and Hamilton counties via the region's Business and Employment OneWorkSource Centers.

The centers are part of a nationwide workforce-investment system designed to help employers find and train qualified employees and to help qualified employees find jobs. Created by the board, OneWorkSource consolidates existing workforce programs and services into one convenient and easily accessible location. There are three centers in the board's four-county workforce investment area. They are located in Elizabethtown, Plattsburgh, and Malone.

In an effort to improve services, the board created the team to ensure that businesses are aware of the services of the OneWorkSource centers, and that those services align with the needs of business in the board's workforce-investment area. The goal of the team is to align, focus and improve the effectiveness of the delivery of workforce-development services to businesses in the North Country.

"The dual goals of workforce development are to provide the talent and skills employers need to produce and deliver goods and services, as well as raise living standards of working families in America. In order to achieve both of these goals, it is critical to understand the local labor market and to forge strategies to serve both employers and workers. The Business Services Team will help to ensure that the products and services we offer are aligned with what local businesses need," said Allen Dunham, board chairperson.

The three-person team will be led by Keri Mack, the board's director of business services. Erica Exner and Paul DeDominicas were recently named as the board's business-services representatives.

"The foundation of the business-services program will be the creation of partnerships between the publicly funded workforce-investment system, business and industry, economic-development organizations and education-and-training providers. The purpose of these partnerships is to develop innovative solutions or replicate models that address a targeted industry's workforce challenges," Mack said.

Open house

PLATTSBURGH -- Palmer Veterinary Clinic will hold an open house celebrating 50 years of quality veterinary services to animals and livestock on Oct. 25 from 1-4 p.m.

Food, drinks, door prices, facility tours and raffles will be featured.

The event will be held at the clinic located at 6274 Route 22 in Plattsburgh.

For more information, e-mail: palmervt@@charterinternet.com or call 561-1893.

Rating received

PLATTSBURGH -- Adirondack Bank recently earned another four-star "excellent" rating for the second quarter of 2008 from BauerFinancial Inc., the nation's leading independent bank research firm.

In determining ranking for financial institutions, BauerFinancial relies on a complex formula of criteria factoring in current and historical data. Among the criteria considered are the financial institution's capital ratio, financial/loss trend, level of delinquent loans and repossessed assets, reserves, regulatory compliance, proposed regulations, asset qality and other factors. Earning a four-star rating indicates that Adirondack Bank is a financial institution that is safe, financially sound, and is operating well above its regulatory capital requirements. This rating places Adirondack Bank on Bauer's Recommended Bank Report.

"We are very pleased to report that this is the seventh consecutive quarter that we have received the four-star excellent' rating from BauerFinancial Inc.," Adirondack Bank President and Chief Executive Officer Gary W. Kavney said.

Adirondack Bank is a full-service community bank with 17 locations throughout upstate New York and executive headquarters in Utica. The bank was founded more than 100 years ago and currently employs more than 150 people.

Online courses

PLATTSBURGH -- SUNY Plattsburgh has acquired a program that makes it easy to take high-quality, non-credit online courses. The college has partnered with ed2go to offer hundreds of these online, instructor-facilitated courses and is pleased to announce the launch of "Introduction to Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008."

This course teaches small-business owners how to use Microsoft Office Accounting Professional 2008 for all their major accounting tasks, everything from balancing the company checkbook to preparing financial statements to creating listings on eBay.

This course is part of SUNY Plattsburgh's growing catalog of more than 300 instructor-facilitated online courses. Through well-crafted lessons, expert online instruction and interaction with fellow students, participants in these courses gain valuable knowledge at their convenience. They have the flexibility to study at their own pace combined with enough structure and support to complete the course. They can access the classroom 24 hours, seven days a week, from anywhere with an Internet connection.

New sessions of each course run every month. They last six weeks, with two new lessons being released weekly for a total of 12. The courses are entirely Web-based with comprehensive lessons, quizzes and assignments. A professional instructor facilitates every course pacing learners, answering questions, giving feedback and facilitating discussions.

To learn more, call Kate Chilton, College Auxiliary Services, SUNY Plattsburgh, at 564-3054 or go to plattsburghcas.com.

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