Schenectady’s GE main plant has played a critical role in Amsterdam’s economy for the past 100 years and especially after the rug mills deserted our city in the 1950’s. There were very few residents of this town from my generation who did not have at least one member of his or her extended family working somewhere in that huge complex at one time or another. Many of them who did were initially hired as part of the company’s apprentice program. That’s how today’s Amsterdam Birthday celebrant, Larry Sollecito became a GE employee, apprenticing as a pattern maker in the now-demolished Bldg. 99 back in the early 1970’s…
