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Image provided by: Guilderland Public Library
K| .->*'.-!.*«, No. 21 - THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14,20D6 For 122 years Albany County's independent newspaper Crash kills New Visions client, leads to questions * J f * * * v ^S^%S1:r'\ «i» «:'h •%»V. ,! ->V-.. >* \!«« *» ~' .'.. * The Enterprise — Saranac Hale Spencer The Rapp Road group home for New Visions in Guilderland is pictured this week with two company vans, used to transport clients with mental disabilities to various places of work and day-care centers. Mabel Speqnburg, 60, was riding in such a van on Nov. 6 when it hit another New Visions van, sending her to St. Peter's Hospital where she died two days later. Nichols selling market, store stays independent By Melissa Hale-Spencer VOORHEESVILLE — Elaine Nichols is selling her family's supermarket but, she says, the name will remain. The market that has become a community center for the village of Voor- heesville will be called Nichols' Shop 'n' Save. Nichols is selling to Kevin Smith, who owns three other stores — the Millers Shop 'n' Save in Averill Park, a store in Ravena, and a store in Schaghti- coke, she said. Smith lives in the Ballston Lake area, she said. The transition will take place on Jan. 27 and 28, said Nichols, who declined naming the sale price. Nichols and her husband, Jim, moved from Sullivan County to open the supermarket, then called SuperValu, on Maple Avenue, on Jan. 7, 1995, filling a store that had been vacant for years. The family-owned busi- ness was one of the few local independent grocery stores in a field increasingly dominated by chains. The Nicholses expanded the store in 2000, adding a pharmacy among other conven- iences. \It was always Jimmy's dream to own a supermarket,\ said Elaine Nichols. The popular grocer died in January of 2002 while snorkel- ing on a Cayman Island vaca- tion. Elaine Nichols and her son Jaret continued to run the store. Jim Nichols is remembered fondly in the village, and a park behind the village hall was named in his honor. Elaine Nichols said this week that it was tough carrying on without her husband. \When somebody has a dream, it's easy for everyone to jump on the wagon.,\ she said. \It's been tough without him. It's time to move on.\ She described Smith as \a per- son who is much like my hus- band.\ She said, \He has the same exuberance for the busi- ness.\ Smith, she said, will keep on the current staff members, who number just under 100. \He didn't want to re-staff,\ said Nichols. \His benefits are the same or better than what we offer.\ The staff was told of the sale on Monday, Nichols said. \Kevin handed out his handbooks; it went very smoothly,\ she said. Smith's stores are supplied by Hannaford, said Nichols. For- (Continued on page 9) GCSD conserves, saves mega bucks By Melissa Hale-Spencer GUILDERLAND — Fred Tresselt is often called the energy czar of the Guilderland School District but he prefers to think of himself as the energy whisperer. Under his leadership over the past year, the district has saved over $483,000, a 21 percent sav- ings in energy costs. The large savings comes from a series of very small savings as staff members change their habits, for example, turning off lights be- fore they leave a classroom or unplugging unused equipment. At Tuesday's school board meeting, Tresselt was presented with an award from Energy Education, Inc., the Texas com- pany that Guilderland con- tracted with to achieve the sav- ings. Tresselt shared the award with Tim Martin, representing custodial workers; Terry Andres, representing maintenance work- ' (Continued on Page 24) By Jarrett Carroll The Nov. 8 death of a New Vi- sions resident following a car crash on Krumkill Road has led to allegations of managerial cover-ups, worker intimidation, and chronic understaffing. The allegations are completely untrue, says Andrew McKenzie, the executive director of New Visions, formerly known as the Albany ARC and a chapter of the New York State Association for Retarded Citizens. Both his staff and the group home residents have been mourning the death of Mabel Speanburg, said McKenzie this week. However, some workers say that accidents at New Visions may be the result of under- staffing, long overtime hours, and inexperienced relief work- ers, and they contend that working conditions have gotten progressively worse as the facil- ity has expanded. McKenzie said yesterday that his organization, which is cele- brating its 55 th year, chooses competent relief workers from a \healthy list\ of candidates and that being in the Capital Region, New Visions has a large labor market to draw from, unlike other NYSARC chapters around the state. He also said New Visions does not allow overtime abuse and has caps on working hours. New Visions has about 450 employees to serve a little over 600 clients in 22 group homes and 30 apartments as well as in a day facility. Clients are trans- ported in 68 company vehicles. New Visions is the largest em- ployer in Slingerlands, said McKenzie. A former assistant director of a group home, Nory Turner, told The Enterprise she recently quit working at New Visions after being \forced out.\ Turner, who holds a master's degree in social work from the College of Saint Rose, had worked for New Visions for a little less than three years; she also works during the day as a teacher, she said. Turner said her group-home hours were switched to the day- time due to managerial differ- ences, even though her bosses knew that she could not work those hours. She said quitting was a hard decision and that her residents \were like family.\ She said she still worries -about them every day, but that she quit because the organization was getting \worse and worse.\ 'They just put in relief work- ers without any proper training or experience,\ said Turner. \It \ (Continued on Page 19) Opinion Page 2 News Page 9 Community Calendar Page 16 Classifieds Page 26 Sports Page 28 8
