The Post-Star, Glens Falls, N.Y., Amanda May Metzger column

April 24--A bakery, Cuban restaurant and a vitamin and nutrition product retailer are on the calendar for upcoming ribbon-cutting ceremonies to celebrate their new businesses with the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce.

The first, Sweetie Pies Bakery at 326 Broadway in Fort Edward, will hold its ceremony at 4 p.m. Thursday (today) with owners Dawn and Pebbles Linseman. Sweetie Pies sells pies, cheesecakes, Italian cookies, cupcakes, cannolis and more. It started in Queensbury but has been in the Fort Edward location about a month.

After that, Abuelo's Cuban Restaurant, also on Broadway in Fort Edward, will celebrate at noon April 30. The restaurant opened in the fall and was closed for a couple of months after troubles with a burst pipe above the restaurant. The owner, Elizabeth Davis, used that time to revamp the menu, adding breakfast and other items, according to the restaurant's Facebook page. Another upcoming ribbon-cutting will celebrate Best Body Nutrition Shoppe at 222a Dix Ave. at noon May 1.

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For the third year in a row, Glens Falls-headquartered Arrow Financial Corp. made the Forbes magazine list of "America's 50 Most Trustworthy Financial Companies" for its accounting and governance practices.

Arrow is the parent company of Glens Falls National Bank and Trust Co., Saratoga National Bank and Trust Co. and other subsidiaries, including insurance agencies.

The list is compiled by GMI Ratings, which evaluates more than 8,000 publicly traded companies.

GMI looks at several aspects of the business, including revenue and expense recognition methods, Securities and Exchange Commission actions and bankruptcy risk and tallies the scores based on the past fiscal year, according to a news release from Arrow.

According to the article, which can be seen at www.forbes.com, GMI also compiles the list of "America's 100 Most Trustworthy Companies'" It developed a separate list for financial institutions as changes after the financial crisis propelled these companies to the top of the "trustworthy" scores, according to GMI Director James Kaplan's statements in the story by Forbes staff Kathryn Dill.

Kaplan said in the article, "If you're interested in investing in any of the companies on this list, you can be really comfortable that what you're reading about them is an honest reflection of what's going on in the company."

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After marking a year of operating under new ownership, a Glens Falls motor service and sales business is reflecting on the last 12 months and looking ahead with hopes of hiring more people.

New York Electric Motor Service Operations Manager Charles Schongar said the business has grown its relationships with local clients, including paper mills, other industrial and commercial operations and residential customers.

The business provides a full line of service, sales and repairs for motors and also has a full service hoist and crane department. It is located at 4 Reed St. The company provides a wide range of service work, from residential pool pumps to industrial 3,000 horsepower motors. Schongar said the key has been developing a solid reputation with customers.

Applied Dynamics Corp., a motor service and repair business based in Greenfield, Mass., bought NY Electric Motor Service, which was previously Northeastern Electric Motor Service, in January 2013 and officially opened the shop's doors in March 2013.

"NYEM has two outside salespeople covering the region. They have been extremely pleased with the reception NYEM has received as well as all of the new business relationships they have formed in this past year," the company said in a news release that thanked a long list of new customers that have helped make the first year a success, including Finch Paper, Quad Graphics, Tilcon, Callahan, Emerick, General Electric, Six Flags Lake George, Hollingsworth and Vose, Key Mark, New York state, local municipalities, and residential customers.

Schongar said the shop supports five jobs and is hoping to add five more by the end of the year in a variety of positions, from office to machine shop worker.

"Our real goal is to be as big if not bigger than our Massachusetts shop," he said.

That shops employs about 80 people on the repair assembly line, Schongar said.

Schongar said in healthy and lean economies, the motor repair business can see two trends.

"If people aren't repairing their stuff, or if companies are trying to downsize or push repairs to the last minute, that can hurt us," Schongar said.

On the flip side, the company may see an increase in smaller jobs in tougher times.

"They don't want to go out and purchase a brand new pool pump, they'd rather spend half the money getting it repaired," Schongar said. For more information, check out www.nyelectricmotorservice.com.

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Staff writer Amanda May Metzger covers business news. She can be reached at [email protected]. You can follow her on Twitter @ps_business. If you have news related to the local business community, email her or send her a tweet.

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