Beardsley Architects + Engineers: Throughout our 121 years, Beardsley Architects + Engineers has weathered many storms. Our firm has endured the Spanish Flu, two World Wars, the Great Depression, and Post Modernism. Now more than ever we rely on the shared experience of our team to address the needs of our clients as we navigate through this difficult time together. Today’s technology has allowed us to continue collaborating with one another, including our clients, to move each project forward despite the current challenge. As architects and engineers, we now see the world through a wider lens and will reflect on the ways that we can advance design to protect your health, safety, and welfare. We may never be the same after this, but rest assured, it has given us the unique opportunity to grow and learn to endure another century and beyond.
Adams Glass: Construction has always been an essential business. The industries and markets we serve have forged ahead in these odd and difficult times. Adams Glass has been busy as usual and our focus has changed slightly due to the requests for materials and nature of the projects currently on going. We are fortunate to have been deemed essential by NYS ESD. Our diversity between residential and commercial has served us well so far during this period of time and we remain cautious but optimistic that work will keep moving along. Our residential market has slowed down but our commercial work has been steady. We have several commercial projects that were deemed essential, so we have maintained a full crew and implemented a few added precautions into our daily work planning. We hope that the health of our State and the economy can bounce back quickly.
Lake Champlain Pools: During this challenging time, Lake Champlain Pools remains dedicated to serving our customers and community while adhering to all CDC guidelines. We’ve had to adapt our approach; we’ve begun offering curbside pickup and local delivery and we’ve paused service. We’ve been fortunate to transition our team to working from home to help with business continuity. It is more important than ever to buy local to keep jobs and dollars in our community. With increased focus on family time and wellness, a pool or a hot tub might be the perfect addition to enhance your backyard. Stay safe and stay healthy!
Stafford Owens: When the COVID-19 emergency began, Stafford Owens developed a plan to continue our business of serving clients. We secured access to several video conferencing systems from the simplest to operate to more complex and secure systems. The scope of this crisis is broader than anyone imagined. As business operations throughout the state and nation were restricted, questions quickly arose surrounding employment matters and the impact of newly enacted state and federal legislation and executive orders. While working to address our clients’ needs, Stafford Owens continues to work with local leaders and businesses to collaborate and inform North Country businesses about the impact of state and federal resources available in the days, weeks and months to come. Partners Jacqueline Kelleher, Bill Owens and Brendan Owens have offered and continue to offer web-based presentations to share information with the business community.
The Strand Center for the Arts: Each of one us has been deeply affected by the spread of Coronavirus, and the Strand Center for the Arts is no exception. We want you to know we’re here, thinking each day of new ways to serve the community and keep the Arts alive. Prior to the pandemic, we were preparing to share some wonderful news. The Strand had just completed a profitable first quarter, and was on track to do so throughout the rest of the year. We are grateful for all the generous support so many have given us. Now, we find ourselves faced with a new reality. With restrictions on Arts education, programming and events, a vast portion our offerings have been put on hold. Like so many businesses, we need your help to make sure all the hard work to keep the Strand Center for the Arts going will not be lost. We have new dates for the Strand Presents Series as well as our Visual Arts classes. We recognize this may change, but continue to engage our artists and the community, and hope to do so in person soon. So, how can you help? Visit our newly updated website, StrandCenter.org to see what we’re doing and the new ways we’re trying to serve you. We’ve added “Strand-ed at Home: Concerts” as well as an evolving “Strand-ed at Home: Arts and Crafts”. Become a member of the Strand Center, so that when we are open again, you can take advantage of all membership has to offer. Thank you for your continued support.
Taylor Rental: Being locally owned and operated, our main focus has been family and our community. Our first priority was keeping our employees safe and our second was getting the locals in the community what they needed. The demand changes daily so we are working night and day, scouring the earth to get everyone what they need. From bags for the schools to deliver lunches, to-go containers for the local restaurants, masks to our community and essential workers and hand sanitizer to our hometown factories. We started offering free delivery to homeowners, making it easier to set up their home offices and to follow the stay at home order. Our focus moving forward is to do whatever it takes to keep our community safe and supplied.
SeaComm: At SeaComm, it is our priority to support our members and staff during this uncertain time. As an essential service, we remain operational and continue to provide financial products and services. SeaComm members have access to their finances through a variety of 24/7 online digital platforms, such as NetTeller™, SmartLine, SeaComm Pay and SeaComm’s mobile app. Our members have access to their funds by utilizing the drivethrough lanes at each location, ATMs and lobby entrance by appointment only. A portion of our staff has transitioned to working remotely, which ensures that we meet our social distancing responsibility while continuing to fulfill the credit union functions. With our branch lobbies open by appointment, we have extended the hours of our Call Center to further accommodate membership needs. We are all in this together and we look forward to a bright future ahead.
The Northeast Group: Forty years in business — an anniversary we celebrated in 2019 — has prepared us for the many challenges of small business in the North Country. This year, originally slated in our internal marketing plan as 2020 We Can See Clearly Now, has become 2020 We Dig Deep Every Day.
As an essential business, The Northeast Group continues to deliver goods and services, medical related supplies and general commodity items on behalf of our clients. Supply chain disruptions and the tenuous nature of the future of retail has given us an opportunity to partner and develop new service lines to help us all stay relevant and prepare for the re-opening of our economy. Development of an on-line webstore to help our customers market their goods in the United States and temporary short term storage opportunities for local manufacturers are part of our plan.
Many of our fulfillment clients are our Canadian neighbors, who look to the United States, their “big brother” to help them decide when to ignite their economy. What is most clear right now is the necessity to value and nurture relationships with our partners.
Our printing/mailing/advertising team is working closely with our local and regional clients to support their ongoing needs and to help them advocate and celebrate their businesses. Also part of our offerings are digital marketing promotions and advertising.
We remain open and agile, able to bend and flex at a moment’s notice to care for consumers’ ever-changing needs. Our employees are working on-site and from home, taking advantage of technology to handle all calls and concerns.
We are grateful to be living through these challenging times with all of you, our friends, our neighbors and our fellow business leaders. This, too, shall pass and things will get better.
MHAB Life Skills Campus: Nearly two years ago, a routine planning meeting at The Northeast Group resulted in a brainstorm that became the foundation for the MHAB Life Skills Campus. Our idea was to create a community where people could get the hand up they needed, have ready access to support services in an environment free from stigma and, most importantly, make connections with others in similar circumstances. Today, only 15 months after opening our doors, we house more than 100 residents in recovery from substance use disorder, mental health issues, social dysfunction, and financial hardship.
As COVID-19 has swept across the county, isolation to prevent the spread of the disease has taken over many of our lives. In the MHAB world, isolation creates problems. Social and physical distancing, no meetings, little human contact, all key elements for recovery are thwarted.
But true to our Northeast Group roots, we have found ways to make things work. With the help of our community partners, our residents have all been provided masks and received donations of food and supplies. Socially distanced meetings are conducted on site and our staff remains in close contact with residents to monitor their health and to assure them they are not alone.
And our residents have stepped up. They have taken initiatives to clean and disinfect our facilities. They have arranged work groups to help care for the grounds at MHAB and have found ways to embrace our mission and support each other.
At a time when alcohol use is on the rise and many people are turning to drugs as a coping mechanism, we at MHAB have also seen the best in people. While our often shunned and forgotten residents are struggling with their demons while facing recovery, they are also making us proud. MHAB is a place where the good days outweigh the bad. Where successes outpace challenges.
At MHAB, we are living this crisis, as we do all our challenges, one day at a time.