Changes downtown

On Friday the Little Coffeeshop on 231 celebrated its one-year anniversary with a ribbon cutting. It will be offering specials over the weekend to celebrate.

 There are several businesses that have recently opened in the downtown. Only a few weeks old is Healthy Haven, which features smoothies, protein shakes, and teas. It occupies the space that was most recently the annex room for the Clauss Bakery.

 Not all of the seating has been installed.

The bar was built by the owner who started this business in January from her home. She was able to blow it up using social media and now has enough business to move to a downtown location.

 Below is the menu.

Next door the bakery is closed but will soon open under different management.

 I mentioned Healthy Haven and another business that recently opened downtown in a May post. That second business, New Millennium Mortgage, is a branch of the DeMotte office. The branch manager is a Rensselaer native who has worked in banking and real estate, so a move to mortgage origination seemed to be a logical move. The office is open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and by appointment on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is located on Van Rensselaer behind the Beaver law office.

 PartyTown Rentals, which has its warehouse on Melville, now has a storefront on Front Street.

 I was surprised when I went inside and found that most of the display was for Gatherings. So it too now has a storefront.

 In the same building is the expanded Unwind Massage. It now has three massage rooms, each with its own licensed and certified massage therapist, plus a tanning room and a room for facials. Each of the massage rooms has its own decor.

 Unwind Massage has been in this location for some time, but until recently was only using the very back of the building. The owner recently purchased the building and expanded into the front where the Birthright offices used to be. In addition to the massage rooms, there is a large room that is used for yoga.

Below is their menu of services with prices. Just as with the Healthy Haven menu, I have little idea of what the various items consist.

In addition to these business changes, there are two more changes coming to the downtown. Renovations of the old Horton building and the old PNC building continue.

During the two weeks I was out of town, work was done to the exterior of the Autumn Trace complex. The company also posted pictures on Facebook showing the current state of the interior.

While I was taking the picture above, I noticed that the vacant lots nearby were having hay harvested and that reminded me that I need to answer the question I posed in the last post.  The machine is a hay steamer that adds moisture to the hay while it is being baled. In the arid west, the hay often does not have enough moisture to make good bales and this machine fixes that problem. If you want to know more, go to the website of the manufacturer, here.

Finally, the walking trail in Monnett-Staddon now has crushed rock on it.

I joked in May that it was Rensselaer's first roundabout. On my trip west I found an even more confusing traffic pattern, the Diverging Diamond Interchange. It is explained here.