Local store not hurt by Agway filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

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The local Agway store at 600 Main St. will continue its operations virtually unchanged by the national company's filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Michael Uryniak, owner of the local store for the past 10 years, said the effect of the national company's problems will amount to "basically nothing" for his operation. "Agway, Inc., has no financial control or responsibilities at this location," said Uryniak, who owns the business outright. "If the public has a perception there's a problem, I'll change the name." Uryniak said his store buys only a tiny percentage of its inventory from the national company, and that that portion is easily replaced from other sources. "Up until a few years ago, we were buying our product from them," Uryniak said in a telephone interview yesterday. "Now we buy from other places, and now we buy only grain. And I have grain sales reps in here all the time trying to sell me their product," he said. "The national company's bankruptcy will have very, very little impact," he said. "The effect will range from non-existent to negligible." "The latest information I have on their grain is that the Agway feed mills are being bought by someone else who will continue to operate them," he said. "None of the inventory here comes from Agway except a couple thousand dollars worth of feed, and that's a negligible amount," he said. Some products are now made by different companies that still use the Agway name, he said. "The store's doing very well," he said. That translates, he said, to "just under $1 million annually," and, he added, "this year in spite of the economy we've had a gain in volume in 11 of the 12 months." "People think Agway is Agway, and that it's all connected and managed under one roof, but that's incorrect," he said. Uryniak leases the building, formerly a car dealership, from the McMahon family. Uryniak worked for Agway for 19 years before buying the business, at a time when the national company was selling many of its stores to private individuals. He moved the store from its previous location off Cole Avenue by the former Boston & Maine railroad tracks. Petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code from Agway, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries were expected to be filed yesterday, Oct. 1, with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York in Utica, N.Y. Agway, Inc., announced its plans in a press release Monday from Stephen H. Hoevfer, senior five president for public affairs for the Syracuse, N.Y., offices. Subsidiaries included in the petition are Agway Feed and Nutrition, Agway Agronomy, Seedway, Feed Commodities International, Country Best Produce, CPG Nutrients, Agway CPG Technologies and Agway General Agency. The company's energy businesses are not included in the Chapter 11 filing. Agway, Inc. is an agricultural cooperative owned by 69,000 Northeast farmer-members, headquartered in DeWitt, N.Y. Monday, the company reported a net loss of $98.2 million for the year ended June 30, which includes a net loss of $85.4 million directly related to the sale of discontinued operations, and not, said a spokesman, directly related to the company's ongoing business operations..
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New York Times Bestselling Author to Speak at MCLA's MOSAIC

NORTH ADAMS, MASS. — The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) will host a special lecture, "The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Countercultural Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary," featuring New York Times bestselling author Susannah Cahalan. 
 
The event will take place on April 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the MOSAIC Event Space on 49 Main St., North  Adams. This event is free and open to the public. 
 
According to a press release:
 
Presented as part of the Politics of the Visual: Lecture Series in Visual Culture, this talk will explore the legacy of Rosemary Woodruff Leary, a key but often overlooked figure in the 1960s counterculture movement. 
 
Known primarily as the wife of Timothy Leary, Rosemary played a pivotal role in the psychedelic movement, from her participation in peyote ceremonies with Beat artists to her involvement in Leary's infamous acid commune in Millbrook, NY, and her eventual status as an international fugitive. Drawing from archival materials and an unfinished memoir, Cahalan will reconstruct Rosemary's journey, shedding light on her contributions to the cultural and political landscape of the era. 
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