When he graduated from RPI in 1951, there was no job in Utica that Bill Chanatry wanted, so he headed to Texas, and then to Washington D.C.

UTICA

When he graduated from RPI in 1951, there was no job in Utica that Bill Chanatry wanted, so he headed to Texas, and then to Washington D.C.

But when a posting came up advertising a job with General Electric in Utica, Chanatry jumped at it.

“I got news for you,” he said. “Utica and Central New York is just, I know it’s my hometown, but there is something else about it. It’s something very nice. It’s a good place to raise a family.”

Chanatry, now 86 and owner of Chanatry’s Hometown Market, worked for GE for about 40 years, and when he found out the company was leaving the area in the early 1990s, he said it felt like he was losing a parent.

Now GE is coming back, and area officials are hoping history will repeat itself.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Aug. 20 that GE, and another company, Austria-based AMS, would open nanotechnology enterprises in Marcy featuring 1,500 jobs. And GE will be moving into the Computer Chip Commercialization Center at SUNY Polytechnic Institute.

GE will start with about 470 employees, but over the next decade ramp up to about 950, officials said.

For years, the shortage of good jobs for the Mohawk Valley’s young people has been an issue, and it’s hoped that the nascent nanotechnology cluster will change that.

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