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Thousands pack C-GCC for 2008 Buy Local Business Expo

By John Mason

GREENPORT — Seventy good reasons to save money on gas and shipping were packed elbow-to-goodie-basket into the Columbia-Greene Community College gymnasium Thursday afternoon for the third annual Buy Local Business Expo.

Local enterprise watchers strolled up and down the rows of booths, sampling foods, chatting with business folks and filling bags with literature, pens, key rings, magnets and candy.

For nearly everyone, this had to be a mix of the familiar and the exotic. Nearly everyone’s local bank or insurance company was there. But it may have been more of a surprise to some that Columbia County residents produce an upscale magazine on food and fine dining, or that a Tannersville company is a major distributor of chains and cables.

It was also a chance to catch up on how local businesses and organizations are responding to the current global environmental and economic situations.

Pro Printers, for instance, at 59 Fairview Ave. in Hudson, is spreading the word they’re environmentally friendly, with innovations such as all recycled paper made from wind power.

“A lot of artists are interested in the fact we’ve gone green,” said store manager Linda Mears. “Business is up.”

Mary Alane Wiltse, director of the Workforce New York Career Center at Columbia-Greene, said, “We’re going into Kaz all the time.” Kaz is the long-time local manufacturer that recently announced it would be outsourcing all 350 manufacturing jobs to Mexico.

The agency has conducted eight or nine orientations there over the course of the last month, she said, informing employees about unemployment insurance and re-employment services they’ll be eligible for.

“In November, we’ll be conducting a lot of job search activities, such as workshops on resumes, job applications, doing job searches on-line and how to decide if you need to go back to school,” Wiltse said.

Jeff Knight, vice president of Metz Wood Harder Insurance Co. in Chatham, said, “We’re telling people to take a look at their insurance. They’re looking at saving money anywhere they can.” Metz Wood staffers are also waiting to see what moves into the shop next door, recently vacated when the Chatham Chinese Restaurant moved to Chatham Plaza. There are rumors ribs could be moving in.

Florence Ohle, executive director of Community Action of Greene County, said her agency’s funding hasn’t been affected yet by the state budget cutbacks. However, she said, the need for funding is going up — “people need fuel, gas, diapers,” she said, all of which are going up.

The organization strives to help people achieve and maintain self-sufficiency through programs in domestic violence prevention and response, weatherization, senior companionship and family and community development.

Terry McKenna, owner of Lynx Chain & Cable in Tannersville, was at the Expo with assistant Leslie Lafleur. McKenna said the company had just come off its best year ever, but this year has been down.

“It’s getting a little better, but it’s not where it’s been,” he said.

Lynx provided 99 percent of the chain cable for the renovation of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge two years ago, McKenna said.

“We deal with the logging industry, we do some theatrical rigging,” he said. “Modular homes — we do a lot of work in that field, with the cranes.”

Lynx has been providing chains, cables, wire rope, turnbuckles, eye bolts, hooks and related items both through wholesale and retail for a dozen years.

The Lynx Web site, www.LynxRigging.com, has been very instrumental in helping the company grow, McKenna said. Much of its inventory winds up in the Middle East: “A guy buys a crane, but has no access to rigging materials,” he said.

Lynne Haydn, founding director of the MacHaydn Theater in Chatham, said the theater “had a pretty good summer.” considering gas prices. Its audience is drawn from a 100-mile radius, she said.

“Attendance depended on the show,” she said. “People were a little pickier about what show they would be coming to see. ‘Hairspray,’ which was new for us, and ‘The Sound of Music’ both did very well.”

Dinnerwhere is an eye-catching, tactile-friendly annual magazine that gives the inside scoop on where to eat, what to eat and how to cook it. It comes out in two editions, one for the Berkshires and the other for the Capital District, with some shared content between the two.

There are lots of recipes and columns on wines, fresh produce, and other food-related topics. The cover story for both editions, on ice cream, is by Elaine Khosrova of Chatham.

“In part it’s a guide to fine dining,” said co-publisher Bonnie Kurtz.

All the writing and photography is done locally, she said. Currently the printing is done in Kentucky, but she plans to move it to Harrisburg, Pa., to save transportation costs.

The recipes are from local chefs, Kurtz said, such as Matt Ifkowitz of Mexican Radio, who contributed “Queso Fundid con Chiles Y Hongos,” or Mexican fondue with chiles and mushrooms, and Baba Louie’s chefs/owners Paul and Eileen Masiero’s Hannah Jo Pizza.

Kurtz and co-publisher Millie Kidd were serving crackers with goat cheese from big wheels contributed by the Coach Farm.

Across the aisle from their cheese wheels were Georgia Ray Caterers, allowing all attendees to feast on pot stickers, shumai dumplings dunked in ginger plum sauce, grilled vegetable bruschetti crostini, and, for dessert, ginger pear raisin apple crisp, with whipped cream.

Many people were returning for seconds and fourths.

The plums were from Love Apple Farm in Ghent, said Chef Danyell, and the pears were fresh from the can at Ginsberg’s. The ginger was powdered: “The fresh is too strong, like a backrub in your mouth,” Chef said. “You don’t want a backrub in your mouth.”

Another food purveyor who prefers canned to fresh is Charlie Servo, maker of Grandpa Pete’s Gourmet Sauce in Catskill, which just went into production in June. His tomato sauces are homemade, he said, based on his grandfather’s old-world, Sicilian recipes, using all natural, simple ingredients. But the tomatoes are canned.

“They have to be made with canned tomatoes,” said Greene County Director of Tourism Danielle Marino, who was sampling Servo’s wares. “It reduces the acidity and gives the proper consistency.” She took the words, but not the sauce, out of Servo’s mouth.

The event was organized by the chambers of commerce of Columbia and Greene counties with a number of local sponsors. David Colby, president and CEO of the Columbia County chamber, said the exhibitors were “very happy” with the Expo, which they said “generated new business leads.”

The booths were sold out, he said, at a price of $149 for a table and another $100 for additional media notice.

To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.

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