Local store not hurt by Agway filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

12:00AM / Wednesday, October 02, 2002Print Story | Email Story

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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North Adams Becomes a Purple Heart Community

By Jack GuerinoiBerkshires Staff
05:16AM / Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Veterans Service Officer Kurtis Durocher, a Purple Heart recipient, tells his own story of how he was wounded in Iraq.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City leaders last week held a ceremony marking the city as a Purple Heart Community to honor local military service members wounded or killed in combat.

"This designation is much more than a sign that will stand at the entrances to our city," said Kurtis Durocher, Northern Berkshire veterans service officer at City Hall on Friday. "It is a lasting commitment and a promise to this community. We'll never forget the sacrifices made by those who are wounded or killed while serving our nation. It is a public declaration of the courage and sacrifices of combat wounded. Veterans will always have a place of honor here in North Adams."

As a Purple Heart Community, North Adams will place signs throughout the city acknowledging the designation. The city will also hold a ceremony every Aug. 7 on National Purple Heart Day.

During the inaugural ceremony, Durocher said he was asked by the Military Order of the Purple Heart to find a keynote speaker for the event, preferably a Purple Heart recipient. But he was unable to find someone willing to speak. With the date approaching, he decided to tell his own story.

"I don't like standing up and telling my own personal story ... But I realized, in my position as a VSO, I get so many ... children of veterans who will say, 'I didn't know anything about my father until after he passed because he just didn't talk about it,'" Durocher said. "... I have been that way until I've gotten into this position, and so, now, I try to tell my story as much as I can when it is brought to me."

Durocher served in the Army for 20 years and retired as a master sergeant. On Friday, he recalled a time early in his career while serving in the 82nd Airborne Division deploying to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. On Sept. 12, 2003, his squad was conducting a patrol on Route Irish in Baghdad. He was serving as a gunner on an LMTV when it was struck by a 155-millimeter artillery shell. He said the explosive had been hidden behind a guardrail and detonated using nothing more than a washing machine timer.

"In an instant, everything changed. The blast knocked me unconscious. When I regained consciousness, I instinctively was removing my helmet," he said. "Almost immediately my training took over. We had been taught repeatedly that attacks like this were often followed by a secondary attack or an ambush. I quickly put my helmet back on and began searching for my machine gun."

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