Glens Falls Lab Planned as 1914 Carnegie Library Faces Relocation

Contract Pharmaceutical Testing Lab Planned at 8 Glens Falls Tech Park

A team of 3 co-founders with nearly 40 years of combined pharmaceutical-industry experience is planning to open a regulated contract pharmaceutical testing laboratory at 8 Glens Falls Tech Park—the building formerly occupied by Angio—according to Post-Star and Times Union reporting summarized by Hoodline.

Designed to perform quality-control testing on pharmaceutical products for outside manufacturers, the laboratory plans to hire between 20 and 30 employees over the next 2 to 3 years. Daily operations will incorporate robotic automation and strict segregation of acids, bases, and organic solvents subject to regulatory agency inspections. The venture launches as biotechnology manufacturer Regeneron advances a $2 billion adaptive-reuse expansion announced in 2025 at the former Quad Graphics magazine printing plant in nearby Saratoga Springs, where the Saratoga Springs Planning Board and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation issued a determination of no significant adverse environmental impact and the Food and Drug Administration selected the $2 billion facility for a regulatory review pilot program.

Hennepin County Moves to Decommission Minneapolis's 1914 Franklin Library

In Minnesota, Hennepin County Library administrators have initiated the process of decommissioning the 112-year-old Franklin Library at 1314 E. Franklin Ave. in south Minneapolis's American Indian Cultural Corridor and relocating branch services to a larger site, according to Minnesota Star Tribune reporting detailed by Hoodline.

Opened in 1914 to replace the earlier Phillips Library, Franklin is the oldest surviving branch among 4 Minneapolis libraries funded by industrialist Andrew Carnegie—who supported more than 1,600 libraries nationwide—after the city's fourth Carnegie branch in Northeast Minneapolis was demolished in 1970. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the branch established its American Indian collection in the 1960s and joined the 41-branch Hennepin County system during the 2008 city-county library merger. Although the county completed roughly $1 million in interior modifications in 2019, a 10-year capital master plan published before November 2024 recommended replacing the building because it requires a roof replacement and cannot expand without displacing neighboring apartment residents and tribal offices.

Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley advocated transferring the 1914 building to the American Indian community, while patrons and commentators including Scott Duimstra, five-day-a-week visitor Tony Gatz, Myron Thingvold, Mike Hogan, Aaron Albertson, and Paul Mellblom weighed in on the branch's future, 19 months after a March 25 security incident involving Black Knight Protection Agency—whose $2 million contract approved in 2021 drew 12 public complaints. Unlike Sumner Library (refurbished with LSE Architects) and Hosmer Library (which underwent a $4.4 million renovation expanding youth reading areas), a full replacement follows the model of Edina's Southdale Library, which closed January 6, 2025—after planning in 2015, 2020, and 2023—for a 3-year, $107 million rebuild.

Con Edison Crews Respond to 4,843-Customer Outage in East Flatbush

In Brooklyn, Con Edison dispatched field crews Friday morning after an unexplained utility outage knocked out electricity to 4,843 customers across East Flatbush without an immediate restoration estimate, Hoodline reported. The disruption followed a separate Thursday outage triggered around 7:45 a.m. when a dumpster truck snagged overhead lines—cutting power to 9,735 customers across Flatbush and East Flatbush until service returned around 11 a.m.—as well as a January overhead wire fire at East 48th Street and Church Avenue at 2:50 a.m. that affected 76 customers.