NNY Business May 2014

B

Y usIness // MILESTONE: GRANGER PAVING

CELEBRATES 40 YEARS P. 28

MAY 2014 Volume 4 No. 6

nnybizmag.com

***

THE INTERVIEW

JRC Director Howard W. Ganter

p. 38

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NNY Business | May 2014

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NNY Business | May 2014

>> Inside MAY 2014

18 28

17

26 |

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REAL ESTATE |

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SMALL BIZ STARTUP |

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30 A PUSH FOR GROWTH Several smaller real estate firms are eying long-term strategies for expansion.

58 A BOOTLEGGING BOOM Despite Prohibition, sales were no problem for one Watertown beer brewer.

FEATURES |

37 Q1 real estate REPORT Lewis County saw a bump as a tough winter led to slower home sales in Jefferson, St. Lawrence counties.

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17 WOOD ON WELLESLEY Fine woodworking is more than just a hobby for one inspired U.S. Army retiree. |

MILESTONES |

COVER |

18 a local investment How the region’s banking industry helped the north country weather lean times. |

58

26 building the base For nearly 50 years, Clements Burrville Sawmill has helped deliver products to the world.

28 FOr Love of ANOTHER Terry Granger Paving has more than one reason to celebrate 40 years in business.

BUSINESS SCENE |

52 NETWORKING, NNY STYLE From Jefferson to Lewis counties, businessmen and women connect for success.

BUSINESS HISTORY |

WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE? |

60 WOOLWORTH MAKEOVER A $15m project to restore the F.W. Woolworth building is nearly 25 percent complete.

May 2014 | NNY Business

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NNY Business | May 2014

• Market Updates • World & Nationwide Economic News • 3-CountyStrength Local News section • Sports, Politics, Currents & More!

...So Do We. Call 315-782-1012 or (800)724-1012 for details on how you can get delivery started today!

INTERVIEW | 38 A MILESTONE CELEBRATION JRC marks 60 years of service this year. Executive Director Howard W. Ganter discusses a wide range of challenges and opportunities as the agency looks ahead to its next 60 years. |

COLUMNS | 42 GUEST ESSAY

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ON THE COVER

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43 strAtegic planning 44 ECONOMICALLY SPEAKING 45 NONPROFITS TODAY |

DEPARTMENTS

10 11 12 14 17

46 47 48 49

COMMERCE CORNER AGRI-BUSINESS BUSINESS TECH BYTES SMALL BUSINESS SUCCESS

35 50 52 58 60

real estate roundup CALENDAR BUSINESS SCENE BUSINESS HISTORY WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE?

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EDITOR’S NOTE PEOPLE ON THE MOVE ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT BUSINESS BRIEFCASE SMALL BIZ STARTUP

For this month’s cover, Photography Editor Norm Johnston features four north country bankers, from left, Cathy Ward, Community Bank regional manager, Denise Lariviere, VP, member solutions, Northern Credit Union, Thomas H. Piche, president and CEO, Carthage Federal Savings & Loan Association, and Mark R. Lavarnway, Watertown Savings Bank president and CEO. Our cover story about the region’s banking industry begins on page 18.

May 2014 | NNY Business

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BusIness

C o n tr i b u t o r s

www.nnybizmag.com

Chairman of the Board John B. Johnson Jr.

Bob Gorman is president and CEO of United Way of Northern New York. He writes about the many ways nonprofits serve the north country’s military community. (p. 42)

Paul Luck is a Certified Exit Consultant with The Succession Partners in Clayton.

He writes about the importance of a solid cash flow for small businesses. (p. 43)

Michelle L. Capone is regional development director for DANC. She writes about the latest impact that Fort Drum has had on the north country’s economy. (p. 44)

Rande Richardson is executive director of the Northern New York Community Foundation. He writes about optimism and the next generation of north country leaders. (p. 45)

Publishers

John B. Johnson Harold B. Johnson II

VP News Operations Timothy J. Farkas

Magazine Editor

Kenneth J. Eysaman

Staff Writer / Editorial Assistant Grace E. Johnston

Photography

Lynn Pietroski is president and CEO of the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce. She explains how businesses can get involved with Operation Yellow Ribbon. (p. 46)

Jay Matteson is the agricultural coordinator for the Jefferson County Industrial Development Corp. He writes about opportunities for the beef industry in the north country. (p. 47)

Jill Van Hoesen is chief information officer for Johnson Newspapers and a 25-year IT veteran. She outlines some practices businesses should take to safeguard against security breaches. (p. 48)

Norm Johnston, Justin Sorensen, Jason Hunter, Melanie Kimbler-Lago, Amanda Morrison

Director of Advertising Michael Hanson

Magazine Advertising Manager Matthew Costantino

Advertising Graphics

Brian Mitchell, Rick Gaskin, Heather O’Driscoll, Scott Smith, Todd Soules

Circulation Director Mary Sawyer

Sarah O’Connell is an advisor for the state Small Business Development Center at SUNY Jefferson. She shares some advice for entrepreneurs as they prepare to visit the bank. (p. 49)

Lance M. Evans is executive officer for the Jefferson-Lewis and St. Lawrence County Board of Realtors. He shares more advice from real estate agents on the region’s the secondhome market. (p. 35)

Victoria Wiseman is a freelance writer stationed at Fort Drum with her husband, a U.S. Army helicopter pilot. In our cover story, she writes about the how the local banking industry supports the region. (p. 18)

Grace E. Johnston is a a staff writer and editorial assistant for NNY Magazines. This month, she visits Wellesley Island Woodworks, Clements Burrville Sawmill and Terry Granger Paving. (pgs. 17, 26, 28)

MARKETPLACE AIB Inc. ........................................... 4 Americu Credit Union .................. 20 Ameriprise / Ken Piarulli .............. 29 Bach & Company ........................ 10 Bay Brokerage ............................. 27 Bayview Shores Realty ................ 34 Beardsley Design ......................... 60 Bernier Carr & Associates ........... 25 Black River Valley Club .............. 41 Caskinette’s Lofink Ford .............. 50 CITEC Manufacturing .................. 15 Clayton Dental ............................. 56 CNY Postal Customer Council ...... 3 Coleman’s Corner ....................... 41 Community Bank ........................... 7 Cosmetic & Laser Medispa at Center for Sight ........................ 14 CREG Systems Corp. ................... 22 Crouse Hospital ........................... 31 D. Laux Properties ........................ 34 Deline’s Auto Body ........................ 6 Development Authority of the North Country .............. 46, 64 DL Calarco Funeral ...................... 42 Fairground Inn .............................. 41

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First Class Auto ............................. 10 Foy Agency Inc. ............................ 4 Fuccillo Automotive ...................... 6 Fuller Insurance ............................. 4 GEICO ............................................. 4 Gouverneur Savings & Loan Association ...................... 43 Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce ............. 22 Haylor Freyer & Coon .................... 4 HD Goodale Co. ............................ 4 Hearing Health ............................. 37 High Tower Advisors .................... 40 Hospice of Jefferson County ...... 23 Howard Orthotics ......................... 44 Immaculate Heart Central Schools ...................... 10, 63 Innovative Physical Therapy Solutions ......................... 45 Jefferson County Local Development Corp. .................... 59 Krafft Cleaning ............................. 52 LTI Trucking ................................... 48 Macar’s Inc. ................................. 11 Meade Optical ............................ 53

NNY Business | May 2014

Moe’s Southwest Grill .................. 41 NNY Business .......................... 34, 61 NNY Community Foundation ...... 24 Northern Credit Union ................... 2 NY State CS Employees FCU ....... 36 Phinney’s Automotive ................... 6 SEA COMM Federal ..................... 55 Shred Con .................................... 49 Slack Chemical Co. .................... 47 St. Lawrence Federal Credit Union ................................. 16 Thousand Islands Realty ............. 34 Vito’s Gourmet ............................. 41 Waite Motor Sports ...................... 54 Waite Toyota ................................ 57 Watertown Auto Repair ................. 6 Watertown Daily Times .................. 6 Watertown Dental .......................... 9 Watertown Local Development Corp. .................... 35 Watertown Savings Bank ....... 32 33 Watertown Spring & Alignment .... 6 Wells Communications ............... 59 Worden Insurance ......................... 4 WWTI-ABC50 ................................. 62

NNY Business (ISSN 2159-6115), is published monthly by Northern New York Newspaper Corp., 260 Washington St., Watertown, NY 13601, a Johnson Newspaper Corp. company. © 2010-2014. All material submitted to NNY Business becomes property of Northern New York Newspaper Corp., publishers of the Watertown Daily Times, and will not be returned.

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Submissions Send all editorial correspondence to keysaman@wdt.net Advertising For advertising rates and information in Jefferson and Lewis counties, email mcostantino@wdt.net, or call 315-661-2305 In St. Lawrence County, e-mail knelson@ogd.com, or call 315-769-2451 Printed with pride in U.S.A. at Vanguard Printing LLC, Ithaca, N.Y., a Forest Stewardship Certified facility.

Please recycle this magazine.

Dr. Robert Agnetta Watertown Orthodontics WATERTOWN, N.Y. — From his earliest memory as Dr. Agnetta followed his father’s career in hospital administration from Denver, Colorado, to Portland, Oregon, and then to Glendale, California, he always knew that he wanted to be a health care professional. He received a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry from Pacific Union College in Napa Valley in Northern California. After receiving a Doctor of Dental Science degree from Loma Linda University, School of Dentistry, he practiced as a general dentist in Micronesia on the Island of Guam for three years. Returning stateside when his family started to grow, he moved with his wife, Karen, to Boise, Idaho, where he established a successful private practice while they raised their two children, Alison and Evan.

In 1996, Bob had the opportunity to specialize and again attended Loma Linda University, where he earned a master’s degree in Orthodontics. Upon completion of his residency he returned to Boise, Idaho, and established a busy private practice as an Orthodontist. During his professional tenure, Dr. Agnetta has consistently kept up to date by attending continuing education courses.

Since graduation he has been a member of several dental organizations, including the American Dental Association, Board Certified member of the American Association of Orthodontics and has recently been appointed as a director in the Pacific Coast Society of

Orthodontists (PCSO).

Why orthodontics? The most rewarding aspect of dentistry for Dr. Agnetta is when he can help a person succeed in life by improving their self-confidence. Orthodontics is a field that can visibly do this, and it is extremely gratifying to witness his patients develop into more confident and self-assured individuals.

During the times Bob is not at the office, he is most likely devoting his time to family endeavors.

He enjoys being very busy and is always looking for ways to help his family and friends. He has enjoyed mountain and cross country biking, water and snow skiing, and is an avid Bronco (Denver and Boise State University) football fan fueled by the good memories and good times he has enjoyed in those cities.

The New York Jets were added to that favorites list when they drafted one of his favorite BSU players in the first round two years ago.

He loves to travel and his favorite place so far is New Zealand, where they visited Karen’s extended family and watched his children jump off tall buildings, bridges and out of a perfectly good airplane. Still top on his wish list of travel destinations is India, China, the Himalayas and spending more time on more warm, tropical islands.

Dr. Agnetta would love to help you or your family with any orthodontic needs or questions you may have. Please call 315-7881070 for a time to meet Dr. Agnetta.

The most rewarding aspect of dentistry for Dr. Agnetta is when he can help a person succeed in life by improving their self-confidence.

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May 2014 | NNY Business

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early six years after the worst financial crisis in U.S. history since the Great Depression left millions unemployed, we look at how Northern New York’s community and regional banks have gained strength while continuing to invest in our cities and towns.

From banks to credit unions, local financial institutions and their leaders have helped thousands of north country residents and businesses all while a handful of larger, national banks have atrophied or altogether left the marketplace.

In her first Ken Eysaman cover story, freelance writer Victoria Wiseman, a newcomer to the north country, having arrived last November with her husband, a U.S. Army helicopter pilot, tells a story that should leave you with some confidence about the local financial sector. Victoria’s story begins on page 18.

n n n

20 questions — This month we sit down with Howard Ganter, executive director of JRC, which celebrates 60 years of service this year. Howard took the reins in 2009 after 31 years with the organization and, by all accounts, he’s charting a course for the agency that will position it well to serve the community for another 60 years. Operating with a budget of roughly $31 million and an impressive synergy of nonprofit and for-profit arms, JRC is arguably one of the largest employers in Jefferson County with a staff of 625. Our conversation with Howard about the impressive diversity of JRC’s operations begins on page 38.

n n n

BUSINESS SCENE — This month’s Scene section, which begins on page 52, features 62 faces nearly 40 businesses across the north country.

On March 20, we joined the Clayton

Chamber of Commerce for Business With a Twist at St. Lawrence Pottery. On April 10, we stopped by the Bruce M. Wright Memorial Conference Center for one of the largest, most well-attended Job and Career Expos the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce has hosted in recent years. The event was a great success and held signs of encouragement that north country employers are seeking qualified, skilled people for an untold number of jobs. Later that evening, we joined the South Jefferson Chamber of Commerce for Business After Hours at La Bella Fonte Italian Steakhouse. While we were networking in Adams, magazine advertising manager Matt Costantino and business tech columnist Jill Van Hoesen worked the crowd at Coyote Moon Vineyards Wine & Craft Beer Lounge on Riverside Drive in Clayton for the chamber’s April Business With A Twist.

The next day, on April 11, we dropped by the Watertown Fairgrounds Arena for the Northern New York Builders Exchange 38th Annual North Country Home Show. Congratulations to the exchange on another well-done show.

On April 16, staffer Elaine Avallone joined the Carthage Area Chamber of Commerce for its April Business After Hours at Secret Window Photography. That same evening, we joined the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce and nearly 300 others at Ryan’s Lookout in Henderson for the chamber’s April Business After Hours.

n n n

REGISTRATION IS OPEN — Don’t miss your chance to hear Robert G. Taub, commissioner of the U.S. Postal Regulatory Commission speak in Watertown next month. Commissioner Taub will talk about how the U.S. Postal Service has worked to overcome its operating challenges and how businesses can benefit from lessons the service has learned. A luncheon begins at 11:30 a.m. Thursday, June 5, at the Black River Valley Club, 131 Washington St. Turn to page 3 in this issue for menu choices and registration details.

Yours in business,

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NNY Business | May 2014

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P E O P L E ON T H E M O V E Loftus joins foundation

Mary E. Loftus, Watertown, has joined the Northern New York Community Foundation as a program assistant.

She comes to the foundation after 36 years with Jefferson Community College, where she was involved with donor stewardship and scholarship administration.

Loftus As program assistant, she will help manage foundation scholarship programs, various donor funds, and provide enhanced services to donors and other partners.

Established in 1929, the Northern New York Community Foundation raises, manages, and administers an endowment and collection of funds for the benefit of Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence county residents. The foundation has been built and added to from gifts, both while living and through legacy plans, by individuals and organizations committed to meeting the changing needs of Northern New York.

one of three co-chairs for the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program.

Save The River names outreach coordinator

Save The River, Clayton, has named Lindsey Leve outreach coordinator to promote its catch-and-release program. Ms. Leve brings extensive experience promoting programs and events for various not-for-profit organizations. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Leve chemistry from the University of Arizona.

In 2013, Save The River expanded its successful muskellunge catch-and-release program to include bass as part of the continuing effort to improve the quality of the St. Lawrence River fishery and to ensure a healthy, sustainable aquatic and economic resource. Save The River believes a successful catch-and-release program, with significant numbers of anglers participating, will result in a more sustainable and larger number of adult bass in the river.

Northern New York Agricultural Development SUNY Canton appoints Program adds co-chair Jon Rulfs, co-owner of Adirondack new college president Farms, Peru, has been named co-chairman of the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program, a farmer-driven research and technical assistance program serving Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. Mr. Rulfs, who serves on the Northeast Dairy Producers Association Board of Directors and is active with Clinton County Farm Bureau, is

The SUNY Board of Trustees appointed Zvi Szafran as SUNY Canton’s fourth president. Dr. Szafran is presently vice president for academic affairs and professor of chemistry at Southern Polytechnic State University in the University System of Georgia, a position held since 2005. He begins duties at SUNY Canton in early July.

Dr. Szafran succeeds interim president Dr.

Got business milestones? n Share your business milestones with NNY Business. Email news releases and photos (.jpg/300 dpi) to editor Ken Eysaman at keysaman@wdt.net. The deadline for submissions is the 10th of the month for the following month’s issue. Photos that don’t appear in print may be posted on our Facebook page.

Joseph C. Hoffman, who has led the College since June 2013. Dr. Szafran also served as vice president for academic affairs at New England College in New Hampshire from 19982005. Previously, he held several positions at Merrimack College in Massachusetts, including dean of science and Szafran engineering, chairman of the chemistry department, assistant to the dean of arts and sciences, and professor. Dr. Szafran earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of South Carolina and a bachelor’s degree, also in chemistry, from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Clayton woman named TIPAF executive director

The Thousand Islands Performing Arts Fund has named Julie Garnsey, Clayton, executive director of the Clayton Opera House.

Mrs. Garnsey was director of Clayton’s Hawn Memorial Library from 2009 to 2013.

In that position, she wrote grant applications, boosted the library’s technology, increased programming and established partnerships with local nonprofit organizations.

Please see People, page 16

MACAR’S • Kitchens • Bathrooms • Flooring • Lighting

161 Coleman Ave., Watertown • 788-3732

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May 2014 | NNY Business

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ECON SNAPSHOT

NNY

12 |

Economic indicators Average per-gallon milk price paid to N.Y. dairy farmers March 2014 $2.23 Feb. 2014 $2.09 March 2013 $1.73

28.9%

(Percent gains and losses are over 12 months)

Vehicles crossing the Thousand Islands, OgdensburgPrescott and Seaway International (Massena) bridges

Source: NYS Department of Agriculture

381,319 in March 2014 305,366 in Feb. 2014 401,133 in March 2013

Average NNY price for gallon of regular unleaded gas

Source: T.I. Bridge Authority, Ogdensburg Bridge & Port Authority, Seaway International Bridge Corp.

March 2014 $3.74 Feb. 2014 $3.64 March 2013 $3.90

U.S.-Canadian dollar exchange rate (Canadian dollars per U.S. dollar)

4.1%

Average NNY price for gallon of home heating oil March 2014 $4.15 Feb. 2014 $4.21 March 2013 $4.02

3.2%

4.9%

$1.11 on March. 31, 2014 $1.10 on Feb. 28, 2014 $1.02 on March 22, 2013

8.8%

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of N.Y.

Average NNY price for gallon of residential propane

Nonagriculture jobs in the Jefferson-Lewis-St. Lawrence counties area, not including military positions

March 2014 $4.04 Feb. 2014 $4.19 March 2013 $3.09

88,100 in March 2014 88,200 in Feb. 2014 87,700 in March 2013

30.7%

0.46%

Source: NYS Energy Research and Development Authority

Source: NYS Department of Labor

Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors single-family home sales

St. Lawrence Board of Realtors single-family home sales

61, median price $100,000 in March 2014 60, median price $100,600 in Feb. 2014 80, median price $136,500 in March 2013

18, median price $86,750 in March 2014 20, median price $68,000 in Feb. 2014 33, median price $70,000 in March 2013

23.8% Sales

26.7% Price

Source: Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors Inc.

45.5%

23.9%

Sales

Price

Source: St. Lawrence Board of Realtors Inc.

NNY unemployment rates Jefferson County

March ’14

10.1%

Feb. ’14

10.5%

March ’13

11.1%

St. Lawrence County March ’14

Feb. ’14 March ’13

9.2% 10.8%

10.2%

Lewis County March ’14

10.7% 10.9%

Feb. ’14 March ’13

11.7%

Source: New York State Department of Labor (Not seasonally adjusted. Latest available data reported.) ** Latest available data reported due to annual data updates at the New York State Department of Labor.

Note: Due to updates in some “Econ. Snapshot” categories, numbers may differ from previously published prior month and year figures.

NNY Business | May 2014

NNY

Economic indicators New automobiles (cars and trucks) registered in Jefferson County

Trucks 105 in March 2014 83 in Feb. 2014 113 in March 2013

Cars 461 in March 2014 350 in Feb. 2014 469 in March 2013

1.7%

7.1%

Source: Jefferson County Clerk’s Office

Passengers at Watertown International Airport

Open welfare cases in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties

3,232 inbound and outbound in March 2014 2,605 inbound and outbound in Feb. 2014 2,950 inbound and outbound in March 2013

2,208 in March 2014 2,201 in Feb. 2014 2,080 in March 2013

6.2%

9.6% Source: Jefferson County Board of Legislators

DBA (doing business under an assumed name) certificates filed at the Jefferson County Clerk’s office April 9 to April 30, 2014. For a complete list of DBAs filed in April and in past months, visit www.nnybizmag.com.

April 30: Out Back Trading Post, 19 Factory St., Watertown, Chuck D. Brownell Jr., 149 Willow St., Watertown.

Sudsy Ewe, 17549 Maxon Lane, Adams, Pamela Shelmidine-Wipf, 17549 Maxon Lane, Adams.

Black Forest Builders, 12468 School St., Rodman, Zachery T. Washburn, PO Box 532, Rodman.

A Clean Attitude, 37 S Main St., Adams, Monica L. Rist, 37 S Main St., Adams.

Boathouse Marine, 300 Rivershore Dr., Clayton, James V. Lettiere III, 300 Rivershore Drive, Clayton.

Bevinco of Central New York, 312 Mary St., Clayton, Jared C. Ey, 312 Mary St., Clayton.

April 29: Warrior For Christ Publishing, 99421 B. Cranberry Dr., Fort Drum, April Minger, 99421 B. Cranberry Drive, Fort Drum.

Prestige Worldwide, 233 Mullin St., Watertown, Shadrach Dwight Miller, 233 Mullin St., Watertown.

CMR Apps, 16 Hungerford Ave., Adams, Mark A. Ramus, 16 Hungerford Ave., Adams.

April 21: Dan’s Cottages, 1016 State St., Clayton, Vani Mekala, 1210 Emerald Lane, Riviera Beach.

April 28: Four Seasons Lawn Service, 44B S. Main St., Hammond, Scott A. Hyneman, 44B S. Main St., Hammond.

Timerman Family Maple, 26413 Alverson Road, Evans Mills, Dale P. Timerman, 26413 Alverson Road, Evans Mills.

Mint Julep Spa and Salon, 165 Mechanic St., Watertown, Julie C. Freeman, 22764 Tall Timber Trail, Watertown.

Rick’s Bay Marina and Cottages, 34797 CR 7, Cape Vincent, Patrick A. Hathaway, 30538 CR 4, Cape Vincent.

Babies, Toddlers & More … Oh My! 144 S. Real St., Cape Vincent, Tina L. Stevens, 144 S. Real St., PO Box 762, Cape Vincent.

April 18: Serendipity Photography, 10943 Fuller Road, Adams Center, Shannon VanCoughnett, 10943 Fuller Road, Adams Center.

Decker’s Property Management, 18 N. Main St., Adams, Glen E.I. Decker, 18 N. Main St., Adams.

April 17: Heliophilia, 1767 US Rte. 11, Mannsville, Katie Bryerton, 65 Caster Road, Sandy Creek.

April 25: Finah Siopa, 55 Hight St., Alexandria Bay, Jayne C. Phoby, 55 High St., Alexandria Bay.

Black River Valley Outfitters, 34711 Scwendy Dr., Carthage, Benjamin Roggie, 34711 Schwendy Drive, Carthage.

Silverline Construction, 409 Jane St., Clayton, Joseph B. Rowland, 409 Jane St., Clayton.

April 16: Riley’s Property Services, 25443 Knowlesville Ext., Watertown, Travis Riley, 25443 Knowlesville Ext., Watertown.

Happy Day Construction, 33862 Sam Adams Road, Clayton, Ronald Dorr, 33862 Sam Adams Road, Clayton.

Needlez & Pinz, 816 Leray St., Watertown, Michelle M. Sonoda, 816 Leray St., Watertown.

Jose De Jesus, 30460 Gardnerville Road, Evans Mills, Jose M. De Jesus, Jr., 30460 Gardnerville Road, Evans Mills.

April 15: Northern Flow Vineyards, 40635 SR 12, Clayton, Philip Deluke, 16738 May Irwin Road, Clayton.

KPR, 4 Greenhouse Road, Alexandria Bay, Edward L. Roberts, 4 Greenhouse Road, Apt. 4, Alexandria Bay.

April 14: Hoselton Home Solutions, 17120 CR 53 Lot 45, Dexter, John S. and Nicole L. Hoselton, 17120 CR 53 Lot 45, Dexter.

Custom Construction, 20110 CR 3, La Fargeville, Peter Fluckiger, 20110 CR 3, La Fargeville.

Back Hill Gardens, 15858 Odell Road, Copenhagen, Neil A. Babcock, 15858 Odell Road, Copenhagen.

Handy Manny, 12672 Reed Road W., Henderson, Mansfield B. Jordan Jr., 12672 Reed Road W., PO Box 53, Henderson.

April 24: Finley’s Closet, 308 James St., Clayton, Dedra Morgia, 18222 CR 65, Watertown.

Gibson Flooring, 25461 Keyser Road, Evans Mills, Bruce W. Gibson, 25461 Keyser Road, Evans Mills.

Scales Custom PC, 45428 CR 1, Alexandria Bay, Robert J. Scales, 46428 CR 1, Alexandria Bay. April 23: Briayles Thrift Shop, 124 Franklin St., Watertown, James Lewis, 124 Franklin St., PO Box 153, Watertown.

April 22: MC Novelties, 320 E Main St., Brownville, Michelle Olivia Sanford, 320 E Main St., Brownville.

MMC Enterprises, 209 E Main St., Sackets Harbor, Marjorie Cadden, 209 E Main St., Sackets Harbor.

Vapor Divas, 212 Franklin St., Watertown, Debbie Shecton, 34 Stalker Road, Russell.

April 11: Passion Parties by Jessica Lea, 14496 Military Road, Sackets Harbor, Jessica Gilligan, 14496 Military Road, Sackets Harbor.

April 10: Five-Oh Motorsports, 16873 CR 53, Dexter, Adam C. Beshures Jr., 16873 CR 53, Dexter.

April 9: Buster’s Dog Walking and Pet Sitting Services, 13475 US Rte., 11, Adams Center, Stacie Jane Illerbrunn, 13475 US Rte. 11, PO Box 14, Adams Center.

transactions

DBAs

Source: Social Service Depts. of Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties

May 2014 | NNY Business

| 13

BUSIN E SS B R I E F C A S E Clayton Legion pledges $4k to playground project The Clayton American Legion Colon-Couch Post 821 donated $4,000 in response to the Rotary Club of Clayton’s $4,000 Challenge Grant to restore Wooden Castle Playground at Village Square Park.

The Army Corp of Engineers at Fort Drum committed all the labor needed to rebuild the playground as a community service training project. A combined total of $8,000 donated by the Rotary Club and

American Legion will pay for lumber needed for the restoration.

The newly formed Castle Playground Park Committee will continue a park restoration fundraising campaign for additional park improvements.

AmeriCU earns two diamond awards

AmeriCU Credit Union was recently honored with two diamond awards for marketing and business development

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achievements in the credit union industry.

The Credit Union National Association Marketing & Business Development Council presented the awards.

AmeriCU won the division and the community/PR one-time event category with its “Salute to the Troops” concert, and the complete campaign category for its “Whoa!” home equity campaign.

Museums team up for discounted admission

Clayton’s Antique Boat Museum and Ogdensburg’s Frederic Remington Art Museum entered into a partnership to provide north country visitors discounted rates beginning early May through Sept. 15.

Visitors can buy a “combo pass,” including an adult admission to both museums for $16, -- a $6 savings. The ABM, 750 Mary St., opened for the season on May 2 and the Frederic Remington Art Museum, 303 Washington St., is open year-round.

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1815 State Street, Watertown, NY 315-523-4503 www.cosmeticandlasermedispa.com Like us on Facebook - facebook.com/MedispaNNY 14 |

NNY Business | May 2014

Massena Chamber sets gift shop opening

The Massena Chamber of Commerce will open the Eisenhower Locks Visitors’ Center Gift Shop May 23.

The gift shop is located at the Seaway’s observation deck, offering an up-close view of ocean-going freighters and other large ships that transit through the Eisenhower Locks.

The visitors’ center gift shop is open seasonally from Memorial Day through Labor Day each year and features Seaway memorabilia and local vendor products.

Admission is free. Visit www.massenachamber.com to learn more.

Adirondack Health recognized with state award for patient care

The Patient & Family Centered Care Bundle at Adirondack Health Medical Center, a member of Adirondack Health, placed first for 2014 Best Practice Award, Northeast Region, of the New York Orga-

BRIEFCASE nization of Nurse Executives and Leaders.

Adirondack Health was recognized during the organization’s annual conference in Tarrytown in April.

Winery planned at Clayton garden center

Philip H. DeLuke announced plans to open Northern Flow Winery in the spring of 2015 off Route 12.

Mr. DeLuke, owner of DeLuke’s Garden Center, plans to expand his business at 16738 May Irwin Road to open the winery, named after the flow of the St. Lawrence River.The winery would be housed in the same building, while property behind it has enough room for a vineyard of eight to 10 acres to be planted, said Mr. DeLuke, who already planted 1 1/2 acres of vines in 2012.

Because grapes on newly planted vines won’t be ripe for harvest until the fall of 2015, Mr. DeLuke plans to purchase grapes to produce wines at the business until the vineyard matures. An expansion of 2,000 to 3,000 square feet planned at the building will create space for winemaking equipment, including tanks and fermenters. Extra space now available at the garden center will be used to build a tasting room and gift shop.

Mr. DeLuke expects the winery to become another destination along the Thousand Islands Seaway Wine Trail.

The trail includes seven wineries: Coyote Moon Vineyards, Clayton; Thousand Islands Winery, Alexandria Bay; Otter Creek Winery, Philadelphia; Venditti Vineyards, Theresa; Yellow Barn Winery, Hounsfield; Tug Hill Vineyard, Lowville; and River Myst Winery, Ogdensburg.

Mr. DeLuke said his winery, as a destination on the trail, will draw visitors who have never stopped by the garden center.

To prepare for launching the Clayton winery, Mr. DeLuke enrolled in the winery management and marketing certificate program at Jefferson Community College, Watertown, last year.

He said the yearlong program, which includes five courses specific to winery operations, has helped him avoid mistakes while planning his winery. The college launched the program in 2012.

— Ted Booker

which features an energy-efficient design, was built by general contractor HueberBreuer Construction Co. of Syracuse over the past eight months along with local subcontractors, Alexa B. Bennett, marketing manager, said.

GYMO Architecture, Engineering & Land Surveying, Watertown, designed the building. Automated teller machines at its drivethru opened earlier this month for public use, Mrs. Bennett said. She said there was demand in the Evans Mills area near Fort Drum for a financial institution.

Mobile banking has become a hallmark

of Northern Credit Union, which launched a “mobile deposit capture” feature about a month ago that allows members to electronically send pictures of checks to be deposited, Mrs. Bennett said.

“You can do it right from your smartphone or tablet, and it’s simple and quick,” she said.

The branch will be staffed by four employees, Mrs. Bennett said. Hours will be from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with the drive-thru open until 6 p.m. on Fridays. On Saturdays, the drive-through will be open from 9 a.m. to noon and the office will be closed.

— Ted Booker

Credit union to open seventh branch in LeRay

Northern Credit Union will open its seventh branch office May 27 in front of the Walmart Supercenter on Route 11 in the town of LeRay. The 3,000-square-foot credit union,

May 2014 | NNY Business

| 15

P E O P L E ON T H E M O V E PEOPLE, from page 11 In 2008, she was disaster preparedness coordinator for Jefferson County Public Health.

Before that, she was a hospital corpsman for the Navy in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

She holds a bachelor of science degree in health care management from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Ill. She and her husband, Jeffrey T., own and operate Garnsey’s Classic Island Cruises, a charter St. Lawrence River tour business with two classic wooden boats.

Mrs. Garnsey began her duties in April, taking the reins from interim executive director Andrew Wood, a TIPAF board member.

Agencies honored, earn premier designations

Allstate exclusive agency owner Rick Roberts has been designated an Allstate Premier Agency for 2014. Mr. Roberts earned the designation for his business performance and commitment to put customers at the center of his agency’s work. His agency is located at 21093 NYS Route 12F. Allstate exclusive agency owner Jerry Pleskach has also been designated an Allstate Premier Agency for 2014. The

designation acknowledges Mr. Pleskach’s outstanding business performance and commitment to putting customers at the center of his agency’s work. His agency is located at 1623 State St. Fewer than 48 percent of Allstate’s nearly 10,000 agency owners across the country earn premier agency designation.

Esterberg named 16th SUNY Potsdam president The State University of New York Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Kristin G. Esterberg president of SUNY Potsdam. Dr. Esterberg is currently the provost and academic vice president at Salem State University in Mass. As the 16th president of SUNY Potsdam, Dr. EsEsterberg terberg will make history as the first woman to lead the College. Dr. Esterberg’s appointment is effective on or about July 1, at an annual state salary of $215,000.

AmeriCU employee honored for nonprofit career achievement

Lori Losowski, relationship manager for business and community development has been selected as an honoree for career achievement at the 2014 Nonprofit Awards presented by the Central New York Business Journal, Syracuse.

The Nonprofit Awards recognize local nonprofit professionals for excellence in leadership, fiduciary responsibility and management practices.

Potsdam native named planners college fellow

David P. Healey, Clearwater, Fla., has been elected to the American Institute of Certified Planners, College of Fellows.

Mr. Healey is a Potsdam native.

One of 40 planners selected nationally for this recognition, Mr. Healey was inducted by the American Planning Association at the Healey national planning conference in Atlanta on April 27.

He is a graduate of Potsdam High School, Colgate University, and Ohio State University. He began his career with Bailey & Associates in upstate New York assisting with town and village planning efforts.

Mr. Healey has been a planner in Pinellas County, Fla., since 1977.

1844 House names new general manager

Barry L. Sears has joined owners Brian A. and Jenny D. Walker as general manager and sommelier at the 1844 House in Potsdam.

Mr. Sears, originally of Carthage, has spent the last 15 years working for The View restaurant at Lake Placid’s Mirror Lake Inn, most recently Sears supervising the restaurant’s wine program. Mr. Sears will manage day-to-day restaurant operations and train staff members, brushing up their knowledge of wine pairings.

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NNY Business | May 2014

S M A L L b i z S TA R T U P BUSINESS

Wellesley Island Woodworks THE INITIAL IDEA When government furloughs took effect last year, that was all the push retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Rusty A. Rosenberger needed to launch his hobby into a business.

“I needed the extra cash,” he said. “I’m not making a fortune, but it’s the next logical step for me. And it is paying for itself,” he said.

Mr. Rosenberger specializes in custom wood products such as wine barrel bottle racks, chests of drawers, gun racks, hanging shelves and cabinets — all the way to smaller items like serving trays, candle holders, cutting boards and beer paddles.

“Every product that comes to me is different,” he said. “I’m not mass-producing anything.”

He runs his shop out of his basement.

AMANDA MORRISON | NNY BUSINESS

“If I could even come close to replicating pieces at the quality craftsmanship from the old masters, I’d be very happy.”

— Rusty A. Rosenberger, owner, Wellesley Island Woodworks

TARGET CLIENTELE

“I do a lot of custom work,” Mr. Rosenberger said.

“Most of my clients are friends and family.”

Mr. Rosenberger’s most popular product is the wine barrel cabinet. Retired wine barrels from the Finger Lakes are given new purpose as cabinets that can store 15 bottles of wine and 16 wine glasses.

At 37-inches tall and 34 inches across, the cabinet table top is the perfect height for wine tasting. The barrels are made from the finest quality American or French white oak, and the bottle rack, shelf, and table top are made with hand-selected red oak lumber from local sawmills.

THE JOURNEY

Mr. Rosenberger’s first exposure into the world of woodworking was a project with his grandfather at age 9, making a spice rack for his mother.

But for years his interest was left dormant while he served in the Army. After his retirement in 2005, it began again with small projects here and there, ever increasing in difficulty. Until one day,

Mr. Rosenberger had sufficiently worked himself into a basement full of woodworking tools.

“It just slowly got bigger and turned into a great hobby,” he said.

Originally from Mesa, Ariz., Mr. Rosenberger was first stationed at Fort Drum from 1993 to 1995, and again from 2001 to 2005.

“I like this area,” he said. “I’m an outdoors kind of guy.”

And with practically inexhaustible options for hunting and fishing, this area is “the perfect place to grow old,” Mr. Rosenberger added.

IN FIVE YEARS “I’d like to see my client base stay and increase around the Watertown and Thousand Islands areas,” he said.

Mr. Rosenberger can custom build nearly any piece of similar box store-type furniture, for half the price.

“There’s a lot of talent in this area, and I

hope people continue to discover and support local artistry,” he said.

Simply put, Mr. Rosenberger would like to see his business grow and to continue paying for itself. And with a personal competitive edge toward excellence, Mr. Rosenberger said he’d like to see his projects increase in difficulty.

“I’m always looking for a woodworking challenge,” he said.

As a resident of Thousand Islands Park on Wellesley Island, Mr. Rosenberger said he’d also like to try his hand at replicating period and antique pieces of furniture, many of which are still in use in island homes that date back to the early 19th century.

“If I could even come close to replicating pieces at the quality of craftsmanship from the old masters, I’d be very happy,” he said.

Quite simply, Mr. Rosenberger loves woodworking.

— Grace E. Johnston

WHERE Wellesley Island | FOUNDED 2013 | WEB www.wellesleyislandwoodworks.com

May 2014 | NNY Business

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NNY Business | May 2014

COVER STORY

A community

investment How banking small has saved the north country

BY VICTORIA WISEMAN | NNY BUSINESS

A black cloud formed over the banking industry in 2008. Subprime mortgage holders defaulted. Banks collapsed. Money vanished and homes foreclosed.

Big banks paid millions in bonuses while individual consumers lost their shirts. The storm clouds were visible in the north country as large, multinational banks pulled out of small communities, retreating to large urban centers. But depositors were protected from the financial storm, thanks to the cover of A local financial system that guarded consumers from the worst. n n n The departure of big banks after the recession’s start wasn’t a huge surprise to many industry insiders.

“HSBC’s move [in 2012] from our market was just one in a long line of departures of regional or national banks,” Watertown Savings Bank president and CEO Mark R.Lavarnway said. “Before that [it was] Fleet and Chase. They’ve all left the market as well.”

But HSBC’s loss, Mr. Lavarnway said, was his gain.

“We picked up 1,700 new accounts from the flux in the market.”

From June 30, 2008, to June 30, 2013,

Watertown Savings Bank grew deposits by $108.3 million, increasing its market share in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties from 12.23 percent to 15.94 percent.

While overall deposits at north country banks grew by only 1.7 percent between 2008 and 2013, DeWitt-based Community Bank, a regional lender that holds nearly $1 billion in deposits in the tri-county area, racked up an impressive 62.43 percent deposit growth.

“Some [of that] came from building branches, but we also purchased branches from some of the bigger banks that thought it wasn’t worth staying,” chief

financial officer Scott Kingsley said.

Movements of large banks may capture headlines but, much like the nation’s financial crisis, big banks often cast a pall over the story of community banks, defined by the New York State Department of Financial Services as those with total assets of less than $10 billion. Rolled into these numbers are credit unions, a smaller segment of the community financial sector but one that has gained momentum. In the past five years, credit union membership in the north country grew by 8,477 and deposits held there grew by 60 percent, a significant gain by any measure.

May 2014 | NNY Business

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NNY Business | May 2014

COVER STORY NUMBER CRUNCHING

Through thick and thin, community banks have provided a steady engine for economic growth over the long haul.

The numbers tell an impressive story of a local banking boom: Community banks decreased in number between 1992 and 2011, from 299 to 169 statewide, but local banks that remained have grown their total assets during the same period, mostly driven by increased real estate and commercial lending. Between 1992 and 2011, the sector went from $1.3 billion to $4.4 billion, according to the state Department of Financial Services.

Part of the resilience is the ability that local banks have to grow in a measured way.

“We grow from 3 to 8 percent a year. If we chose to grow 10 to 20 percent a year it would change our risk profile completely,” said Tom Piche, president of the 126-yearold Carthage Savings and Loan, which held $145.26 million in deposits last year for a 5.25 percent market share.

So instead, small banks choose to keep the growth stable.

“We’ve managed our balance sheet over a century; that’s allowed us to grow and be relevant,” Mr. Piche said.

Credit unions, too, seem to have provided an alternative for big-bank customers, gun shy after the financial crisis.

“A lot of people in 2008 were questioning banks and big banks. One large focus of credit unions is that we’re owned by shareholders and we’re run by our members, so our profits go right back in. That’s very attractive,” said Denise Lariviere, vice president of member solutions for the Watertown-based Northern Credit Union.

Credit union growth across the state was modest, but trending upwards between 2007 and 2013. And while the state saw a decrease in the number of credit unions, assets increased year over year for the same period. In 2008, credit unions headquartered in the tri-county region held about $457 million in deposits (or shares). By 2013, that had grown to $732 million.

That black cloud that hangs over the industry, it seems, dissipates while traveling north in New York state.

Back 2008, HSBC Bank USA, was the clear market leader in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. Around the same time it pulled out of the north country, another other large national bank, Cleveland, Ohio,-based KeyBank, cut its staff. In 2008 KeyBank held about a 17 percent market share in the tri-county region. In 2013, it was the same, flatlining at 17.

Interestingly, by 2013, HSBCs 23 percent market share had been divvied up among

local and regional banks, with Community Bank taking the top spot in the market. The major local players stayed mostly in the same marching order, but filled the void left by HSBC. In 2008, Community Bank had a little less than 21 percent market share. By 2013, it grew to slightly more than 33 percent.

In Jefferson County, HSBCs departure cleared the way for Watertown Savings Bank, which grew to a near 16 percent market share from about 12 percent in 2008.

Skin in the game

The numbers show that when one big bank pulls out, it’s the local or regional banks that fill the void, not other large banks. But can local banks provide the same services? Can they stimulate local growth like an HSBC or KeyBank?

Community and regional banks have always been integral to local commerce.

Though smaller banks only hold about 34 percent of total assets statewide, these homegrown banks make a staggering 90 percent of small business loans, according to Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the state’s Department of Financial Services. Small business loans are defined as loans of $1 million or less.

That turns out to be good for small business, too, since local banks tend to make better local choices.

“We have more knowledge in the community than a bank that makes decisions elsewhere,” Mr. Lavarnway, of Watertown Savings, said. “We have a very clear view of who and what this community is and how it operates.”

That means some flexibility with loan terms so small businesses are not shut out of the economy by restrictive rules that large banks often put in place to reduce risk.

“Big banks might say: ‘Nationwide we’ve had 15 restaurants fail in the first quarter. No more restaurant loans. That’s the edict from high above,” Mr. Lavarnway explained. “But we may get a [loan application for a] restaurant in Clayton. We know there’s a new hotel going in, the antique boat museum is popping and we aren’t bound by rigid corporate decisions. We can be intuitive about our market and get more into the gray area, versus a black-and-white decision from somewhere else.”

At its core, the local banking industry has maintained its role as intrinsic to the community. After all, the purpose of banking is to circulate money in a community, passing surplus around so that those with extra can grow their wealth, allocating money to burgeoning businesses and young families borrowing for homes. Many sometimes forget that using a bank means a contribution to common goals as a community.

“When you bank with a local bank, it

Credit union gains momentum in region

A

quick drive around the north country reveals one banking trend that’s actually visible: expansion of credit unions.

Founded as a cooperative system of lending for people who weren’t eligible for traditional bank loans, these financial institutions are member-owned and not-for-profit, meaning any money they make goes back into the credit union and to its members in the form of lower fees or more attractive interest rates.

Rome-based AmeriCU Credit Union is one name popping up in the north country of late. In 2013, it opened a new financial center on Watertown’s Arsenal Street, razing a long-empty building to turn a blighted corner on a busy commercial thoroughfare into a tidy, well-landscaped property that is home to its most innovative center to date. The credit union relocated its former office on Route 3 in front of Salmon Run Mall and its downtown mortgage department to the new 3,500-square-foot building.

But that’s not all. AmeriCU has grown local membership by 61 percent in the north country in the past year. It boasts a total membership of more than 100,000. Before it opened its Arsenal Street location, the credit union hadn’t expanded operations in the tri-county area since 2007 when it built its Lowville financial center.

Its recent move to expand parallels a larger direction for credit unions. AmeriCU was founded in 1950 as Griffiss Employees Credit Union on Griffiss Air Force Base, Rome, when present board chairman Ann S. Tyler put $68 on a table for her initial investment to form the credit union. In the 64 years she’s served on the board, AmeriCU has grown in assets to nearly $1.3 billion to rank among the top 2 percent of credit unions nationwide.

“Credit unions have been getting a larger share of the market, starting in 2008 when the housing bubble burst,” said Judith Repass Cowden, vice president of member relations and marketing for AmeriCU. “It came to a head with the Occupy Wall Street movement and ‘bank transfer day,’ which were basically grassroots movements showing a groundswell of dissatisfaction with banks, mostly the big banks.”

Bank transfer day was a consumer-led initiative in 2011 that encouraged bank customers to switch to credit unions.

“That gave national press to credit union that we haven’t enjoyed before,” Ms. Repass Cowden said.

Helped by their equivalent fees and services, credit unions have been propelled forward by free public relations and customers have been responding.

AmeriCU is slowly expanding its footprint into Northern New York.

It presently serves an eight-county footprint that includes Cayuga, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga and Oswego counties with 18 financial locations and even more ATMs across Northern and Central New York. Anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in this footprint is eligible for membership.

AmeriCU also offers retirement and financial planning and a complete line of insurances, including homeowners, renters, vehicle, motorcycle, snowmobile, disability, life and long-term care.

“Our goal is to deliver such exceptional, personalized service that our members wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else for their financial services,” Ms. Repass Cowden said.

— Victoria Wiseman

May 2014 | NNY Business

| 21

COVER STORY

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goes right back into the community — it’s a sustainability thing,” Mr. Piche, of Carthage Savings, said.

Most local banks are active in community. This bird’s-eye view helps the community while giving banks a bird’s-eye view of economic development.

“We do a lot for the community and sit on a lot of boards so we know what the needs are,” Mr. Piche said. “We are intimately involved in what’s going on in the north country and that’s a beautiful thing.”

The history of these banks reflects the history of local communities. The oldest bank in Jefferson and Lewis counties, Carthage Savings and Loan, was founded in 1888, and is still cooperatively owned as it was when it was chartered.

The history of banking in the north country is a reminder of that legacy.

Northern Credit Union started in the cafeteria of New York Air Brake in Watertown in 1955. Watertown Savings Bank’s name and corporate structure has been the same for 120 years — a board of directors and no shareholders.

“The day-to-day management team and trustees are all local people who live in this community,” Mr. Lavarnway said.

And Community Bank, chartered as St. Lawrence National Bank in 1866 in Canton, has purposefully chosen to focus on a “non-metropolitan strategy,” Mr. Kingsley said. So when it has expanded, the company has chosen to do things like add 250 operations personnel in Canton, versus going to a larger market like Syracuse.

RURAL ACCESS

Those who live in town might not realize how hard it is for some people to just get to a bank. Take for instance, farmers. In 2010, the state produced $4.7 billion in agricultural sales, according to the Department of Financial Services, yet most farms are located in communities that have virtually no access to banks. Community banks make nearly all the farm loans in the state. Even when HSBC was a market leader in the area, it didn’t fund agricultural businesses.

It’s the smaller bank that helps boost rural communities by providing access and services that larger banks would generally not find profitable.

“In these rural marketplaces, there are a lot of self-employed people,” Mr. Kingsley said. “Self-employment isn’t as easy to verify as someone who has a W2.”

Rural mortgage lending also faces particular obstacles that have historically prevented big banks from investing in local communities. Many lenders sell their mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac but continue to service the loans. But,

22 |

NNY Business | May 2014

for example, Fannie and Freddie consider anything larger than 10 acres a “farm,” and won’t buy or originate loans for farms.

Local banks will, choosing to keep those mortgages in their portfolio rather than sell them to Freddie and Fannie. This is also why regulators call smaller banks like this “portfolio lenders.”

Access can take on a very personal meaning at community institutions: “You can talk to me, you can talk to the board guys, I can give you the direct line to my desk,” Mr. Lavarnway said. “You can’t get the president of KeyBank on the phone.”

At Community Bank, they “give branch managers lending authority based on local knowledge. We have that flexibility of having that local model, but we have the [leverage] of our size,” Mr. Kingsley said, noting that the bank has branches in most non-metropolitan areas and also in parts of Pennsylvania.

This medium size means the bank is small enough to give personal attention, but the fluctuations of the market can be spread around.

“I’ll put it this way: It’s like if St. Lawrence County catches a cold, North Country Savings Bank [with $190 million in deposits versus Community’s $917 million in the tri-county area] gets pneumonia, sheerly because of concentration. We’d just get the sniffles,” Mr. Kingsley said. “Some years might grow fast in Watertown, the next year we grow more in Potsdam.”

Credit unions have traditionally focused on consumer deposits and lending, adding business services as assets increase. You can see the health of Northern Credit Union as it expands its business solutions group to offer more services to small businesses and the self-employed.

FROM TELLERS TO TECHNOLOGY

Remember paydays of yesteryear when lines stretched out the door of banks packed with people waiting to deposit their checks and get cash for the weekend?

Those days are officially over, thanks to technological services and convenient bank infrastructure like ATMs. “The biggest trend right now is the onset of innovation,” Northern’s Ms. Lariviere said. “[Things like] Internet banking, remote deposit capture, online bill pay. More people migrate into those channels versus in person. It costs money to offer innovation, but we like the fact that our members are taking advantage of alternative channels.”

Northern has adopted a concierge-style in its branches, where a greeter can direct customers to all sorts of services.

“Decreased volume means more time to talk to people and make sure that outside

COVER STORY the base transaction we’re discussing their greater needs, whether it’s saving money or planning for the future,” Ms. Lariviere said.

Lower walk-in traffic can be seen as an opportunity for banks to reestablish themselves as local and relationship-oriented while boosting customer loyalty.

“We purchased some branches from Bank of America in Pennsylvania,” Community’s Mr. Kingsley said. “What we found was they were charging their customer for doing transactions with a teller.

They were being charged 75 cents, versus doing banking online. They had trained their customers to avoid fees and so they were avoiding personal contact.”

So local banks are now challenged to engage their customers when they do come in a branch office.

“What we’d like you to do is use the full suite of our products. Once we get you to do it, you’ll be more content with your outcome. And it’s also much harder to change your bank once you’re engaged in the whole product tree,” Mr. Kingsley said.

Technology has changed the way the consumer banks, without a doubt. But in a market like the north country, it provides marked benefits. Rural communities are eager adopters of new bank technology.

About 20 percent of all consumers used mobile banking between 2011 and 2012 and 29 percent of those in “under banked” communities used these technology, according to a 2012 Federal Reserve survey.

And that’s driving innovation particular to a small-town banking system. For instance, Northern Credit Union is deploying Interactive Teller Machines in its new LeRay branch, where customers talk to a real person on a screen, much like Skype or a similar live video chat service.

“That teller is housed in a call-center environment centrally and can provide the exact same services as if they were there at your branch,” Ms. Lariviere said.

This way, branches can stay open in far-flung locations without the overhead of having a full staff on-hand. Eventually, their ATMs will have an option to talk to a teller on the screen, too.

Technology may replace customer service jobs, but that isn’t altogether bad news. In smaller banks, like at Watertown Savings, the switch can mean employees can gain new skills.

“Many of our tellers have just moved up to the IT department,” Mr. Lavarnway said.

But replacing tellers with technology departments doesn’t come cheap.

“It’s expensive from the physical infrastructure to the training to the regulations.

What we’ve found is the customers really

Tri-county deposit market share / Top 15

OUTSIDE MARKET TRI-COUNTY

INSTITUTION OFFICES Deposits offices deposits market share Community Bank, N.A. 156 4,830,735 28 917,402 33.14% KeyBank N.A. 1,052 66,833,988 15 464,389 16.78% Watertown Savings Bank 0 0 10 441,375 15.94% North Country Savings 0 0 5 190,383 6.88% Carthage Federal Savings & Loan Association 0 0 3 145,263 5.25% NBT Bank, N.A. 158 5,784,180 5 121,393 4.39% Massena Savings & Loan 0 0 2 117,682 4.25% First Niagara, N.A. 438 27,566,985 4 101,565 3.67% Gouverneur Savings 0 0 2 94,922 3.43% & Loan Association WSB Municipal Bank 0 0 1 54,735 1.98% Citizens Bank of 0 0 3 53,266 1.92% Cape Vincent Upstate National Bank 1 44,265 2 26,625 0.93% Manufacturers and Traders 757 66,146,918 1 22,558 0.81% Trust Company Citizens Bank of Hammond 0 0 2 16,680 0.60% Woodforest National Bank 788 3,472,157 3 1,074 0.04% SOURCE: WWW.FDIC.GOV *Deposits ($000) as of june 30, 2013

Credit Unions / Jefferson, St. Lawrence counties INSTITUTION

COUNTY

Northern Credit Union

Jefferson

Twin Rivers Credit Union

Members assets deposits 28,439

196,841,274

loans

168,481,583 178,937,977

Jefferson

3,156

25,060,361

21,637,014

State CS Employees FCU Jefferson

2,065

17,047,076

15,042,111

13,268,160 7,814,763

Watertown Postal FCU

Jefferson

673

7,461,061

6,622,196

1,782,173

1,266

3,134,194

United Neighbors FCU

Jefferson

4,813,513

4,213,157

SeaComm FCU

St. Lawrence 40,586

460,400,110

406,283,686 207,591,973

St. Lawrence FCU

St. Lawrence 10,208

101,079,457 90,026,057

63,444,993

Ed-Med FCU

St. Lawrence 2,228

21,191,724

19,300,406

8,843,462

Gouverneur School FCU

St. Lawrence 239

1,143,309

956,822

126,350

Year end 2013

88,860

835,038,155 732,563,032 484,944,045 SOURCE: national credit union administration

May 2014 | NNY Business

| 23

COVER STORY like it and they’re clamoring for it. We’ve been able to roll out a top-notch product on par with or that exceeds what big banks do,” Mr. Larvarnway said.

Convenience-based banking technology isn’t going away.

“That’s the cost of playing today. If you don’t have those options, there’s a part of your customer base that won’t be there in five years,” Mr. Kingsley said.

The silver lining is that rapid deployment of technology means small banks can get the systems that big banks develop in short order, making them more

competitive, more quickly.

VIRTUAL TRANSACTION SECURITY

As technology becomes more ubiquitous in smaller areas, concerns for banking and financial security grow.

“Protecting our information is in the top two things that the regulatory bodies behind the banking industry are worried about today,” Mr. Kingsley said.

That’s because the banks bear the burden of security breaches where criminals steal and use bank information for purchases.

“As long as you can demonstrate that wasn’t you [making a fraudulent charge],

we have to eat that exposure,” he said. So chances are whatever bank a consumer uses is more than rigorous in monitoring accounts for unusual activity.

When customers at the Minneapolisbased national chain retailer Target were victimized through stolen bank card numbers, Watertown Savings Bank took a proactive step that not many larger banks would even consider.

“I called my IT guy and had him search all customers that had debits at Target between the dates [when the data breach occurred]. Then I ordered them all new

How to protect your cash in cyberspace

M

any people live online today. So everyone should know how to secure their information in the digital age. Scott Pooler, Watertown Savings Bank vice president and chief information officer, gives us his top six tips.

1. Regularly patch your browser, operating system and other important software applications. Patching means downloading updates, and you can set your computer to automatically check for them. Updates often contain security fixes that address vulnerability to hackers. Keeping software and browsers up to date limits a hacker’s ability to penetrate your computer with malicious viruses that could steal vital personal information. “If you’re running the most recent version of the software, it’s probably the most secure version,” Mr. Pooler said.

2. Install antivirus software and ensure that it updates regularly. Unsavory people put bad programs on computers to do bad things. Antivirus stops some of that before it starts.

3. Use a strong password for Internet banking. A strong password contains letters — uppercase and lowercase — numbers and symbols. “Ideally they’d be a minimum of six characters, but we recommend eitht, Mr. Pooler said. One hint is to use the first letters of a phrase you can easily remember, combined with letters and symbols. For example, “The pen is mightier than the sword,” can become TPIMTTS, which can then uniquely combine with numbers and symbols. A phrase using the word “and” can become an ampersand. Or the letter “I” can become the number 1. Never use your children’s names, your phone number or a social security number.

4. Never open an email from someone you don’t know. This is the rule for your personal email. But for businesses that might be contacted by the public, do not click on embedded links in emails. Simply pick up the phone and verify a suspicious link with the person who sent it.

5. Log out of Internet banking when you have finished. “We don’t recommend using public computers for private transactions,” Mr. Pooler said. “You don’t know what’s on. Something could be capturing your keystrokes.” Those who use a public Wi-Fi connection should be safe as long as they have a good antivirus program.

6. Don’t be an easy “phish” to catch. “If you have never played the Canadian Lottery then you certainly didn’t win it,” Mr. Pooler said. Phishing emails are designed to look legit. For example, an email might say: “We need to update our records” and then ask for personal information. Banks should never ask customers for account numbers, passwords, or social security numbers in an email.

— Victoria Wiseman

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NNY Business | May 2014

COVER STORY cards,” Mr. Lavarnway said. “No other banks did that. None of our customers need the risk.”

It’s not a stretch to say that banking is one of the most cyber-secure industries we use as consumers. But that doesn’t mean money is safe.

“The disconnect now [is] that retailers want the same outcome, but aren’t expending the same type of resources [to address theft],” Mr. Kingsley said.

POST-RECESSION REGULATION

Once the recession began in earnest, federal regulators scrambled to pass new rules aimed at preventing future financial crises.

Smaller banks didn’t engage in the kinds of negligent business practices that caused the financial system meltdown. Ironically, they are among the most negatively impacted by the new standards. Bank compliance costs are proportionally higher for small banks. Under proposed Basel III rules, the Department of Financial Services estimates that small institutions could rack up costs to comply as high as 10 percent of their operating expenses, putting them at a competitive disadvantage.

“When we were making a mortgage in Potsdam, our product required a 20 percent down payment. In the subprime world, you didn’t have to prove much. There were fast-

track approvals, putting 2 percent down,” Mr. Kingsley said.

There are those at the state level fighting for the small banks.

“We want to make sure we lift the heavy weight of regulation off portfolio lenders,” said Michael Smith, president and CEO of the New York Bankers Association. To that end, the association, along with the Department of Financial Services, supports exempting community banks with smaller asset bases from some of the more burdensome regulations.

THE FUTURE OF LOCAL BANKING

It can be tough for a new financial institution to grow deposits and build a strong, diverse loan portfolio. Yet, between 2005 and 2009 – some of the worst years of the recent financial crisis – the Department of Financial Services issued 13 new community bank charters and only three failed.

In the coming years, expect an expansion of fee-based services for revenue. Because interest rates are so low, banks aren’t making much money on interest.

“Most banks are focusing on fee-based services. You’re getting some advice relative to planning. A person helps you process a transaction, there’s a transactional fee and then maintenance fee,” Community’s Mr. Kingsley said.

“Over the past 20 years in banking you’ve been coached into thinking that should all be free — the bank is providing intermediation services for the privilege of them having you as a customer.”

He said banks like his are not rushing to start charging money because it sometimes runs counter to the rural banking model, and local banks can’t afford to alienate their consumer base.

New technology will also continue to bolster access to bank customers and make transferring money more and easier. It will not seem like science fiction to send money from a personal checking account and a little league coach’s account to pay for team fees with a smartphone.

Whether talking about big banks or little banks, regionals or credit unions, the good news is that the soft market seems to be gaining strength. And as local dollars return to banks, the north country is getting back to the core purpose of community banking: Growing the local economy, in ways that makes sense locally. n victoria wiseman is a freelance writer stationed at Fort Drum with her husband, a U.S. Army helicopter pilot, and two young children.

She has written for Hawaii Business magazine, Honolulu Magazine and Honolulu Family.

Contact her at victoria.wiseman@gmail.com.

May 2014 | NNY Business

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AMANDA MORRISON | NNY BUSINESS

From left, David W. Clement, secretary and treasurer of Clements Burrville Sawmill Inc., brother Philip A., owner, and son Andrew J., stand by stacks of pallets. Now in its third generation, the family operation has been in business for nearly 50 years. They supply pallets to a wide range of international firms.

The base for business

North country pallet producer nears half-century in operation

By Grace E. Johnston

T

NNY Business

he business of pallets. It’s a side of manufacturing a bit less glamorous than the likes of airplanes or semiconductors.

Still, it is an integral part of supporting a global industry.

“Anything that’s transported as cargo is on a pallet,” Philip A. Clement, owner of Clements Burrville Sawmill Inc. said.

The family business has been in operation for nearly 50 years, providing pallets to some of the largest businesses in the north country.

The sawmill on Van Allen Road in Burrville sat on about 200 acres of farmland owned by the Clement family. After working for sawmill owner Jim Lewis for a number of years, family patriarch Bernard Clement sought to diversify the farm’s interests, and bought the sawmill in 1965.

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NNY Business | May 2014

“We had a big family, so we all worked on the farm or the sawmill,” Mr. Clement said.

They remain a family business to this day — brother, David W., son, Andrew J., and mom, Betty M. “Mom’s definitely the president,” Mr. Clement joked.

Clements Sawmill supplies pallets to New York Air Brake, Knowlton Technologies, Car-Freshner Corp., Stature Electric, Corning and Hoosier Magnetics, among others.

Clements has been supplying pallets and crates to their largest customers, New York Air Brake and Knowlton Technologies since 1967.

An average truckload delivery to New York Air Brake is between 150 and 250 pallets every other day, Mr. Clement said.

Pallets supplied to their various customers are sent all over the world, so a ready supply of heat-treated pallets and crates must be on hand at all times. They keep a three- to

five-day supply of various sizes stockpiled in their 80-by-100-foot warehouse.

But it can be tough, explained Mr. Clement. Depending on the travel arrangements of customer products, different pallets or crates must be built to fit those needs.

For instance, air travel is most conducive for pallet transport. For sea travel, where goods are packed in shipping containers, crates are best. Not to mention the need for heat treatment, per export requirements.

“It’s challenging to try and forecast what their needs will be in order to keep good inventory,” Mr. Clement said. “When a customer calls at 8 a.m. wanting an order by 10 a.m., we have to make that happen,” he said.

Knowlton Technologies, a world-leader in the design, accelerated prototyping and manufacture of wet-laid nonwoven media, ships products across Europe, China and India on, you guessed it, Clements pallets. According to Toni R. DeLine, senior

F E AT U R E S purchasing agent, 45 percent of Knowlton’s business is export-based, with 99 percent of their products shipped via ocean transport.

“Our turnaround has to be fast,” Mr. Clement said.

Traditionally, a wooden pallet is made of 2-by-4 lumber, and may or may not be treated. But due to the invasive nature of the emerald ash borer, which was discovered in Michigan in 2002, all pallets destined for export must now be heat treated.

Since 2002, the emerald ash borer has spread across 15 state boundaries and is responsible for the death of millions of ash trees.

To combat this invasiveness globally, members of the United Nations signed a treaty during the International Plant Protection Convention in March 2002 that required wood packaging such as export pallets to be heat treated. The purpose of heat-treated pallets was to prevent insect or fungi infestations, like the ash borer, from being transmitted via wood packing materials since shipping pallets are often sent from country to country.

To create a heat-treated pallet, wood must be baked to at least 132.8 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat process removes moisture from the wood, which makes it more weather-resistant and less likely to rot. Once the drying process is complete, a seal bearing the U.N.-mandated International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures mark is imprinted onto each pallet, along with the originating country.

For Clements pallets, this process is completed at the Paul Bunyon Products facility in Preble.

“Seventy-five to 80 percent of our pallets are now treated,” Mr. Clement said. But this adds substantial cost. “With the increased transportation to Syracuse, coupled with diesel prices, we’ve seen an impact to business of around 25 percent.”

Clements hand fashions pallets of sizes anywhere between 2-feet square and 7-feet square. But its most popular size is the standard, 48-by-40-inch “grocery” pallet.

Raw lumber from Bailey Lumber, Boonville, comes off the truck in 8- to 16-foot “hearts.”

“We’re not building fine kitchen cabinets,” Mr. Clement joked.

The “hearts” are darker than the outside of the log and are not considered “grade” lumber. They are however, perfectly suited for pallets. In the 60-by-100 foot sawmill, the “hearts” are cut down to 2-by-4 “runners” and transferred to the pallet shop for assembly where they are nail gunned and stapled into a number of different pallet sizes. On average, the sawmill manufac-

tures approximately 200 48-by-40 foot pallets each day.

Per-pallet customer cost is typically around $10. Heat treatment adds between 80 cents to $3 per pallet. The cost difference from domestic to heat treated can be an addition of anywhere from $4 to $8 per pallet.

“Our largest expenses are easily raw material and fuel costs,” Mr. Clement said.

Frequent trips to the kiln in Preble, at 180 miles round-trip, mean fuel expenses add up quickly. And with the price of lumber averaging $3.50 per board foot, the challenges to preserve a reasonable profit

margin are ever-increasing.

But sales have been steadily up in the past three to five years, Mr. Clement explained. Last year, the company averaged around $700,000 in sales.

“We’ve had good relationships with our customers for the last 35 to 40 years,” he said. “Small pallet shops are gone — it’s sad to say. But I think that’s why we’re even more unique in what we do.” n GRACE E. JOHNSTON is a staff writer and editorial assistant for NNY Magazines. Contact her at gjohnston@wdt.net or 661-2381.

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May 2014 | NNY Business

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M I L E S T ON E S Left, Timothy A. Granger, seated, and Julie A. Salomone, standing, in one of the garages at Terry Granger Paving. Mr. Granger lived with a rare metabolic disease for a decade while running daily operations at the business.

Opposite page, Mr. Granger and Ms. Salomone share a kiss on one of the rollers at Terry Granger Paving. Ms. Salomone donated a kidney to her fiancé, which saved his life.

AMANDA MORRISON | NNY BUSINESS

A smooth road ahead Granger Paving celebrates 40 years, owner beats rare disease

By Grace E. Johnston

W NNY Business

ithin 30 days of burying his father, Timothy A. Granger learned that he had a progressive, incurable and rare metabolic disease called amyloidosis. Left untreated, doctors told him he could die in 18 months.

He took the reins of his father’s Watertown company, Terry Granger Paving, in 2003, and ventured into business ownership without his best friend while facing a disease that would ultimately destroy his kidneys.

“The biggest challenge at that time was losing my dad,” Mr. Granger said.

Despite his loss, he remained devoted to running the business his father started 40 years ago. He began paving alongside his dad at age 13 and has never stopped.

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NNY Business | May 2014

“It’s what I know and it’s what I love,” he said.

Even at 45, “he’s still all sort of excited over asphalt,” fiancée Julie A. Salomone joked. “He thinks blacktopping is an art form.”

As one of five sons, Mr. Granger’s father, Terry L., started paving in 1974, gaining experience in his own father’s general trucking and rubbish removal business, Kenneth & Sons. Now celebrating its 40th year, the younger Mr. Granger has faithfully honored his father’s passion for every part of the business.

“I admired him,” he said. “And I think my parents would be proud of what I’ve done.”

The disease that ravaged Mr. Granger’s kidneys is characterized by abnormal deposits of protein in the body called amyloids that are manufactured by malfunctioning bone marrow. Amyloidosis, which

occurs when accumulated amyloid deposits impair normal body function, typically leads to organ failure or death. It is a rare disease that occurs in only about eight out of every one million people.

“When they said it was rare, it made me nervous,” Mr. Granger said.

He had the most common type of amyloidosis: Primary or systemic AL, meaning it affected every area of his body, but mainly his kidneys.

In an attempt to gain control over the disease, Mr. Granger underwent a stem cell transplant in 2004 at SUNY Upstate Medical University Hospital, Syracuse, which proved unsuccessful.

For the next five years, Mr. Granger wore a modified fanny pack with a port in his chest so drugs could be pumped into his main artery while undergoing chemotherapy. His energy level was extremely low, but

he never missed more than a day of work.

“I still ran all the equipment,” he said.

When the experimental serum Velcade finally got the disease under control, irreversible damage had been done.

“My kidneys were shot,” Mr. Granger said.

He was retaining water at a tremendous rate — 70 additional pounds, compounding daily.

“My face bulged, you couldn’t see my ankles, my feet were swollen. I didn’t want to leave the house some days,” he said.

He held off as long as he could, but kidney dialysis was inevitable. For the next six years, Mr. Granger’s routine became one of sitting in a dialysis chair for three and a half hours, three days a week to do the job his kidneys couldn’t — remove waste, salt and extra water to prevent buildup in his body.

“I blacktopped my nephrologist’s driveway, then went and sat in his dialysis chair,” Mr. Granger chuckled.

Amazingly, he never stopped working — he never stopped living, Ms. Salomone recalled.

“He still laid blacktop every day,” she said.

Mr. Granger was finally cleared for a transplant in 2011, and Ms. Salomone’s kidney was a perfect match. A successful surgery was completed at the University of Rochester Medical Center on Jan. 28, less than four months ago.

There was an almost immediate change in Mr. Granger.

“The yellow hue was gone,” Ms. Salomone remembers. “His eyes were a vibrant blue again.”

After just two days at home, the man who for 10 years fought a ravenous disease was laying on his basement floor fixing his hot water heater.

“He went from being on death’s door to me not being able to keep up with him,” Ms. Salomone said. “It was unbelievable.”

Mr. Granger and Ms. Salomone have recovered remarkably well.

“I really hope more people consider donating,” Ms. Salomone said. “It was an easier recovery than childbirth — tenfold.”

Mr. Granger has never been hands-off in the business, even in the past 10 years. And post operation, he hasn’t missed a beat.

Terry Granger Paving completes roughly 100 jobs a season, from May to November, providing paving services at residential and commercial properties. Mr. Granger runs five dump trucks, two pavers, two rollers, one dozer and three loaders. And he does all his own maintenance.

“Last month, there wasn’t a day I wasn’t

covered in grease and dirt from being under those trucks,” he said.

Dump truck loads of 300- to 350-degree tar and stone asphalt mixture are picked up from either Barrett Paving Materials asphalt plant and quarry on State Route 37, Watertown, or from Lehigh Hanson’s asphalt facility on State Route 3, Watertown.

“It just depends on which place is closer to the job,” Mr. Granger said.

Last year alone, the business spent more than $30,000 on fuel.

“Sometimes it feels like we’re fighting a losing battle,” he said.

Today, asphalt is about $70 a ton. Just 10 years ago, Mr. Granger remembers it was $35 a ton — not to mention that fuel was only around $2 a gallon.

“Insurance costs alone run $25,000 a year,” he said.

“We’re lucky if we can get $1.25 per square foot on a blacktop job now,” Mr. Granger said.

Between fuel, raw materials and insurance, he’s seen profit margins steadily dwindle.

“But we’re optimistic about this year,” Ms. Salomone said.

Mr. Granger made his largest investment last year when he spent $80,000 on two rollers and two pavers.

Mr. Granger’s life is his business. “It’s been a tough 10 years,” he said. But it’s never crossed his mind to stop. “I’m just not a quitter.”

Besides, he promised his father that he’d keep the business going. And not even his disease could break his promise.

“I love the smell of blacktop — I love laying it. This is what I love to do,” he said.

Preparations for a new paving season began earlier this month and Mr. Granger can’t wait to get out there. n GRACE E. JOHNSTON is a staff writer and editorial assistant for NNY Magazines. Contact her at gjohnston@wdt.net or 661-2381.

May 2014 | NNY Business

| 29

R E A L E S TAT E

AMANDA MORRISON | NNY BUSINESS

Broker Lory Cobb, of the newly merged Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, in the office of the former Peebles Realty in Adams. More local firms are merging with larger, nationally branded real estate companies in a push to capitalize on potential growth in Northern New York.

Firms merge in push to grow Smaller north country firms eye long-term strategies to expand

By TED BOOKER

A NNY Business

s soon as Peebles Realty of Adams became Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices CNY Realty last month, signs put up six years ago when Karen A. Peebles opened the firm were replaced.

Merging with larger real estate companies has become somewhat of a trend among smaller north country firms that are developing strategies for long-term growth. The recent buyout of Peebles Realty by CNY Realty, Syracuse, came after a pair of other firms in Jefferson County announced similar deals in the past year. Elliott Realty Inc., with offices in Watertown and Henderson, changed names after it was bought out in February by RealtyUSA, Amherst, which has about 60 offices statewide. Last summer, Lori Gervera Team of Watertown formed

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NNY Business | May 2014

a partnership with Keller Williams Realty International, Texas, which has about 700 locations worldwide.

Mrs. Peebles, former broker/owner who now serves as broker/branch manager, said the merger with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices CNY Realty was long in the making. She had discussed a potential merger with broker/owner Daniel J. Hartnett for some time.

The small Adams firm, which has seven employees, will have the potential to rapidly expand under the Berkshire Hathaway company, Mrs. Peebles said.

“Dan and I have been friends for over 10 years, and he was bugging me over the past couple of years to join forces,” she said, adding that they’ve both served as leaders of the New York State Association of Realtors. “I was looking for a way to grow the company and, as an individual, I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel and spend a lot of money on the business. I found out this company puts

clients and customers first, and that’s the way I do business.”

Formerly owned by Prudential Real Estate, the Berkshire Hathaway company was launched in 2009 as Prudential CNY Realty. After increasing its staff to about 150 employees, the company was bought out by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in 2012 as part of a larger company move to take over networks owned by Prudential and Real Living Real Estate.

The company is owned by Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Plans to open a second location in Watertown in the next year have been studied at the firm, which serves clients across Jefferson, Lewis and Oswego counties, Mrs. Peebles said. She added that stronger training programs offered by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices will allow the company to offer more professional development opportunities for staff.

“We’re now able to do more webinars

and offer more training onsite,” Mrs. Peebles said. “They offer training for new and existing agents, and I think it’s going to help my existing agents grow.”

Mr. Hartnett, who bought the company in January 2010, said he believes the Adams branch office has plenty of room to grow in the north country. He said opening a second location soon in Watertown could likely be part of that plan. The acquisition of the Adams firm gave the company its sixth branch location.

“Watertown and the Fort Drum area is very appealing, and I think that the waterfront area is a little underserviced as well,” Mr. Hartnett said. “I think there’s opportunity there, and I’m looking forward to cultivating it. We will expand as we see that future growth come in.”

Lori Gervera Team’s partnership last summer with Keller Williams Realty International enabled the firm to tap into technology, marketing options and specialized services offered by the company. The 605 Washington St. firm has a staff of four team members, with plans to hire three more this spring, said Lori J. Gervera, associate broker of Keller Williams Northern New York and Lori Gervera Team.

Ms. Gervera said the partnership enabled Keller Williams Northern New York to establish its own office in Watertown, but it also allowed her firm’s staff at the Lori Gervera Team to maintain a separate identity under the same roof.

The flexible company structure allows real estate agents at the firm to either be employed by Ms. Gervera’s firm or work directly for Keller Williams, she said.

“I chose to join forces with Keller Williams so I could offer new agents opportunities they deserve,” Ms. Gervera said. “As an independent firm, it’s truly difficult to reinvent the wheel, and you can’t do all of the training and staffing that a franchise is able to. We’re now hoping to expand Keller Williams Northern New York here. We’ll be relocating as we outgrow our 605 Washington Street space, which we hope to accomplish over the next year.”

Fourteen former Elliott Realty brokers and agents, who now work under the RealtyUSA corporate name, continue to serve the same markets. William J. Elliott, former owner/broker of Elliott Realty for 18 years, said in a prepared statement that the firm will continue to grow under the RealtyUSA name.

“We have been in discussions for several years and I am impressed with RealtyUSA’s growth and direction in the marketplace,” he said.

Lance M. Evans, executive officer of the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors, said larger firms with a national presence have been attracted to buying small firms in the region because of the housing market’s strength here. The median sale price of a home in Jefferson County has increased from about $76,000 in 2004 to $150,500 in 2013.

Local realtors “are looking for someone who is going to help them expand their business, and they all individually made the decision that the time to sell is right now,” Mr. Evans said. “And the people that have bought into these businesses have decided that the time is right, that it’s not just going to be a flash in the pan where there are only a few years of sales. You have the single largest employer in upstate New York — Fort Drum — sitting not far from Watertown, and you have a lot of seasonal buyers coming into the market.” n TED BOOKER is a Johnson Newspapers staff writer. Contact him at tbooker@wdt.net or 661-2371.

June 2 • June 19 • July 7

May 2014 | NNY Business

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NNY Business | May 2014

May 2014 | NNY Business

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R E A L E S TAT E R OUN D U P

Tips for seasonal property buyers

L

ast month I began a discussion of the region’s seasonal or secondhome market. This is not just a “summer” market as some properties are bought with fall or winter sports in mind. Realtors in the Jefferson-Lewis and St. Lawrence County boards were asked five questions about working with a buyer in the second home market. I covered the first two last month; the other three are below.

“What advice do you give to a seasonal property buyer you are working with?”

Elizabeth Miller, Century 21 Gentry Realty, a Boonville Realtor, suggests that her clients familiarize themselves with the area, review their financials to be sure they have enough for the down payment and closing costs, and make sure that they are comfortable with travel time from their principal residence to the property. Karen Peebles, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services CNY Realty, Adams, added that “Second home buyers have to be prepared to put 20 percent down as it is not a primary residence.”

For the seasonal property buyer, location becomes an issue, according to Maxine Quigg, Exit More Real Estate, Watertown, who warns buyers not to settle on a property just because the price is right. They will regret it in the future. Kate Couch, Exit More Real Estate, Watertown, and Cathy Garlock, Garlock Realty, Alexandria Bay, add that buyers need to have patience to wait for the right property.

“Is there a better time of the year for the buyer to look at places?”

Amanda Miller, Lake Ontario Realty, Chaumont, sells waterfront properties on Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, and

❋

other areas. She advises buyers to look in July and August so that they can see if there are weeds in the water that would interfere with boats, swimming, etc.

Meanwhile, selling in the Lance Evans Adirondacks and foothills, James LaValley, LaValley Real Estate, Tupper Lake, says that his agents typically see the greatest activity from mid-February into April, and mid-August to the end of October. He notes that during June, July and August, there are a lot of inquiries, but most of the buyers prefer to be camping or out on the water in those months.

My final question was “What reasons do you find most second home buyers chose our area?”

The most cited reasons were family history of summer and winter vacations in the area, good prices, and the abundance of waterfront and land. Other reasons include the friendliness of the people, the small town feel in much of the area and the lack of commercialization in much of the area. However, it is close to many “big city” services and amenities. Several also mentioned the “local” factor with buyers being from Rochester, Syracuse, and the north country. Also, they observed that there were more inquiries and buyers from Canada. Interestingly, this is true for Realtors from the 1000 Islands and Lake

Ontario to Tupper Lake and Malone.

I did ask for final thoughts from the Realtors and Maxine Quigg cautioned that that when working with a Real Estate licensee, buyers should make sure that the agent is knowledgeable in the market and the type of property the buyer is interested in. Some items like water levels, local code for building homes and permits for docks, information on water sources and septic systems, etc. vary from place to place. Karen Peebles added that real estate is still a great investment, interest rates on second homes are fabulous, and there is a fair amount of inventory out there. She adds that now is the time to invest. n

n

n

Since I wrote the first part of this column, the real estate scene in Jefferson County has changed somewhat. You may note that last month, Karen Peebles was broker/owner of Peebles Realty. Now she is an associate broker and branch manager for Berkshire Hathaway Home Services CNY Realty. This is a result of last month’s merger between the two firms. As reported last month, Elliott Realty and RealtyUSA merged in February.

RealtyUSA has an office in Clayton and adds Elliott’s Watertown and Henderson offices to RealtyUSA, which is the sixth largest independent real estate firm in the country. n LANCE M. EVANS is the executive officer of the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors and the St. Lawrence County Board of Realtors. He has lived in the north country since 1985. Contact him at levans@nnymls.com. His column appears monthly in NNY Business.

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| 35

R E A L E S TAT E / T O P T R A NS A C T IONS Top 10 property sales by price recorded in the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office in March 2014: $1,686,110: March 14, Town of Watertown: No acreage, state Route 3, KLAC Rex LLC, Chicago, Ill., sold to Quare Times LLC, San Diego, Calif. $992,438: March 21, Town of Adams: No acreage, 18170 state Route 177, Kent Nutrition Group Inc., Muscatine, Iowa, sold to Gold Star Feed and Grain LLC, Elkhorn, Neb. $920,000: March 31, Town of Alexandria: Two parcels, 2.1 acres, no address, Richard H. MacSherry, Cape Vincent, as trustee of Stewart S. MacSherry Living Trust, sold to Mary M. MacSherry MacWade, Jackson, Miss. $540,000: March 31, Town of Alexandria: No acreage, no address, Mary M. MacSherry MacWade, Jackson, Miss., and Richard H. MacSherry, Cape Vincent, as trustee of Stewart S. MacSherry Living Trust, sold to Richard H. MacSherry, Cape Vincent, as trustee of Stewart S. MacSherry Living Trust $510,000: March 17, Town of Cape Vincent: 3.6 acres, no address, Ralph H. Janicki, Fayetteville, sold to Neale L. Farrell and Mary E. Farrell, Hummelstown, Pa. $375,000: March 20, Town of Clayton: Two parcels, no acreage, no address given, William J. Reinman and Wendy Ann Reinman, Clayton, William J. Heyman and Mary E. Heyman, Clayton, and Katherine Semelsberger, Clayton, sold to Carl Reinman, Gunnison, Colo. $315,000: March 31, Village of Clayton: No

acreage, James Street, Whiskey Island Rentals LLC, Clayton, sold to Morgia’s New Attitude LLC, Watertown $300,000: March 13, Town of Leray: 4.355 acres, Kiser Road, Griffith Fuller Construction, Gouverneur, sold to Robert L. Reagon and Donna J. Reagon, Theresa $273,500: March 19, Village of Black River: 0.416 acres, Maple Street, Erik Carlson and Christina K. Lease-Carlson, sold to Russell W. Hamann Jr. and Carla L. Hamann, Wahiawa, Hawaii $259,000: March 24, Town of Alexandria: No acreage, Wellesley Island, Jeffrey S. Shambo, Wellesley Island, sold to Clifford P. Schneider and Kathryn A. Muschell, Sackets Harbor Top 10 property sales by price recorded in the St. Lawrence County Clerk’s Office in March 2014: $400,000: March 25, Town of Massena: 1.24 acres more or less, bounded by Robinson BayTunnel Road, Dwaine P. and Ruth Darling, Massena, sold to Broadband Telecom Services LLC, Massena $350,000: March 5, Town of Colton: 1.2 acres more or less, in Lot 5, known as Arbuckle Acres, Albert J. Walter, Colton, sold to Lee H. and Ginger D. Akin, Potsdam $330,000: March 7, Village of Waddington: 0.56 of an acre more or less, in Lot 10, bounded

by St. Lawrence Avenue, Marshall R. Tiernan, Waddington, sold to Matthew B. and Stephanie L. Rose, Waddington

$225,000: March 12, Town of Canton: 2.93 acres more or less, bounded by state Route 11, Patricia Cassara, Canton, sold to G&S Estates LLC, Ogdensburg $225,000: March 27, Town of Norfolk and town of Louisville: 1.44 acres more or less, in Mile Squares 44 and 45, bounded by West Hatfield Street Road, Patricia A. Badlam, Massena, sold to Jayson L. and Jennifer A. Goolden, Massena $200,000: March 6, Town of Pierrepont: Three parcels, 1)4.25 acres more or less, 2) 1.36 acres more or less, 3) unknown acres, all bounded by Russell Turnpike, James A. Williams, Potsdam, and Richard A. Menke, Brushton, sold to Leo J. Villeneuve, Pierrepont $189,000: March 19, Town of Gouverneur: 18.25 acres more or less, bounded by state Highway 58, Harry A. Smithers II, Gouverneur, and Roger Smithers, Gouverneur, sold to Aaron and Tracy Fuller, Gouverneur $183,000: March 25, Town of Stockholm: 32.67 acres more or less, in Mile Square 12, bounded by Mahoney Road, Christopher C. and Patricia S. White, Winthrop, sold to Victor A. Valdez III and Christie L. Valdez, Massena $181,500: March 20, Town of Oswegatchie: 0.25 of an acre more or less, bounded by Moore’s Lot and St. Lawrence River, Peter and Kara Dutch, Ogdensburg, sold to Mary Anne and Ryan C. Spencer, Vestal $180,000: March 5, Town of Morristown: 4 5/100 acres more or less, bounded by River Road, John W. Goodrich-Mahoney, Mystic, Conn., sold to Patricia P. Mahoney, Ogdensburg Top 10 property sales by price recorded in the Lewis County Clerk’s Office in February 2014: $253,000: Feb. 26, Town of West Turin: 5090 George Kraeger Road, LNS Ventures LLC, sold to Amanda L. Smith $106,000: Feb. 13, Town of Osceola: 1453 Osceola Road, Richard Meagher, sold to Ronald R. Douglas $103,000: Feb. 4, Town of Lowville: 7406 East Road, Kevin J. Houppert, sold to Corina Houppert $95,000: Feb. 19, Town of Diana: 6823 Old State Road, Daniel J. Lowe, sold to Robert S. McQueen $86,000: Feb. 6, Town of Croghan: Long Pond Road, Daniel G. Lyndaker, sold to Three Ridge Club LLC $84,000: Feb. 14, Town of Croghan: Beartown Road, Thomas P. Owens, sold to Thomas Annal $80,000: Feb. 24, Town of New Bremen: 7693 Soft Maple Road, Kerry F. Lyndaker, sold to Adirondack Maple & Snowshoe $67,500: Feb. 14, Town of Montague: Pitcher Road, James N. Northrup Living Trust, sold to Peter S. Michael $65,499: Feb. 13, Town of Diana: 12915 state Route 812, Joseph Rivers, sold to Carthage Federal Savings and Loan $65,000: Feb. 7, Town of Greig: Hill Road, Cynthia Livezey, sold to Michael Bradish

36 |

NNY Business | May 2014

R E A L E S TAT E

Q1 home sales slow in region

Winter hits Jefferson, St. Lawrence counties, Lewis sees boost

By TED BOOKER

H NNY Business

ome sales in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties declined sharply during the first quarter from a year ago.

In Jefferson County, first-quarter home sales dropped by 27 percent, or 35 units, from 165 to 130, according to the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors. St. Lawrence County home sales decreased by 42 percent, or 30 units, from 101 to 71, according to the county Board of Realtors.

In Lewis County, however, sales jumped by 20 percent, or 6 units, from 30 to 36.

The prolonged north country winter had a tangible effect on first-quarter sales in Jefferson County, said Lance M. Evans, executive director of the Jefferson-Lewis and St. Lawrence County boards. In Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties, first quarter sales dipped close to where they were in 2011, before sales climbed the last two years.

“We had the third snowiest winter in Watertown,” Mr. Evans said. “And this one, once it got going later in the season, just kept coming. And I think that discouraged people from looking and coming into the area, because they just couldn’t get here. But what I’m hearing now is that things are picking up again.”

Another reason for the decrease in home sales, he said, is the influx of rental housing complexes in the Watertown area in recent years, built to accommodate strong housing demand of Fort Drum’s military population.

“New rental product that has come on the market is still having an impact,” Mr. Evans said. “It takes a while for people to close on a house, where they can close on an apartment a lot faster — even though the price could be a lot less to buy than rent. Renting has a convenience factor for anyone moving into the area.”

Though not as greatly affected by Fort Drum, realtors in St. Lawrence County also saw a lag in first quarter sales compared with last year because of the long,

Q1 Sales, median prices COUNTY

SALES CHG PRICE

Jefferson

165

(27%) $135,250 (11%)

St. Lawrence 71

(42%) $68,000

Lewis

20%

36

CHG

$98,500

(11%) 1%

Source: Jefferson-Lewis and St. Lawrence Boards of realtors

harsh winter, Mr. Evans said.

First-quarter median home prices fell compared with those of a year ago in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties.

The median was down by 11 percent, or $16,750, from $152,000 to $135,250 in Jefferson County. In St. Lawrence County, the median also fell by 11 percent, or $8,000, from $76,000 to $68,000. The median increased slightly in Lewis County over the same period, jumping by $1,000

from $97,500 to $98,500.

Statewide, home sales decreased during the first quarter compared with a year ago by 1.8 percent, or 353 units, from 19,143 to 18,790, according to the New York State Association of Realtors.

The first-quarter statewide median sales price was $227,000, up 5.1 percent, or $11,000, from the 2013 first quarter median of $216,000.

“Sellers seemed most affected by the severe winter weather as indicated by the 7.6-percent inventory reduction,” Duncan MacKenzie, CEO of the state realtors association, said. “New York’s realtors expect market activity to rise along with the temperature as continued buyer demand and sales price gains entice sellers to list their homes.” n TED BOOKER is a Johnson Newspapers staff writer. Contact him at tbooker@wdt.net or 661-2371.

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20 questions

A diamond jubilee J

NORM JOHNSTON | NNY BUSINESS

RC celebrates 60 years of service this year, and Executive Director Howard W. Ganter is leading the way into the next 60. Operating with a budget of roughly $31 million with an impressive synergy

of nonprofit and for-profit arms of the agency, JRC is arguably one of the largest employers in Jefferson County. We sat down with Mr. Ganter to learn about the impressive diversity of JRC’s operations.

1

NNYB: What does it mean for JRC to be celebrating 60 years in operation?

GANTER: We’re one of the oldest chapters of the NYS ARC (Association for Retarded Children, now just the ARC). They’re celebrating their 65th anniversary this year. And we’re extremely diversified now. Back when JRC started, they had a handful of employees. Now we have 625 employees and have a diversity of programs.

2

NNYB: What sort of work contracts and programs do you have?

GANTER: We run pre-school, early intervention and daycare; we have a dayhab program for adults in a couple locations. We have 32 residential sites. We have multiple contracts at Fort Drum.

We’re the third largest contractor out there with about $6.7 million in contracts. We run the Fort Drum facility where all the equipment is handed out to the soldiers and taken back, except for ammo and guns. We’re responsible for about $45 million in inventory. We do dining, recycling and janitorial in a lot of their buildings. We also do janitorial work for the border station on Wellesley Island. Those are all federal contracts through a group called Source America. In addition to that, we have a vocational program — Brooks Unlimited — our work center on West Main Street. They

38 |

NNY Business | May 2014

n For JRC director Howard Ganter, serving others takes care of business

produce binders and we also do equipment folders for the government, and repackage hydraulic brake repair kits for the Air Brake. We do some work for Venus Swimwear. We work with a group called Impacto out of Canada that makes safety equipment. We were sewing anti-vibration gloves but couldn’t compete with China, so we ended up negotiating for a couple other product lines. We do a Turbo Toe — it’s a boot with a metal toe you can slip over your shoe.

3

NNYB: Is that the model of Production Unlimited?

GANTER: Production Unlimited is a sheltered workshop model. When we started doing Impacto — the sewing of the gloves — we hired six commercial sewers. We plunked them right in the middle of the work center and brought in other product lines for our people to work on. We picked up the Turbo Toes and the other product line there. We’ve been integrated for years and we’re continually looking at changing that model to facilitate an integrated work setting so we have people from the street working alongside our population. We have relationships with about 45 businesses in Jefferson County.

4

NNYB: How many different businesses do you manage in total and what’s JRC’s annual budget?

GANTER: There’s probably five business divisions between the vocational programs, the adult day programs, the residential programs, the pre-school and early intervention day care. We actually have

a for-profit part of the company called Dohl Development. That entity owns the Clubhouse restaurant on Washington Street, the Harbor Market in Sackets Harbor and the LaFargeville Market. The Clubhouse was formed in the early 1990s by our board. They were started to provide training opportunities. We place people everywhere - in supermarkets, hotels. You name it, we’re probably in it. It’s sometimes very difficult to manage all those businesses and maintain a profit, but they are a great way for us to train our people to be placed in the community. [Our annual budget] is $31million for the nonprofit entity and about $4 million for the for-profit entity. It’s actually gone down slowly.

I think at the highest we were probably about $37 million at one time. It’s probably going to stay in that range and we’ll continue to look at opportunities in the community to engage with businesses or invest in businesses that will support our people.

5

NNYB: What would shifting the model of service mean for JRC? GANTER: As we look at model shifting, we realize we need to look further into the community.

The sheltered workshop has about 65 people in it right now, but some produce at less than 30 percent productivity. The DOL allows us to pay less than the minimum wage based on productivity.

So the average wage is probably $3.50 an hour, but those people are probably not able to be competitively employed. They like the paycheck;

20 questions we provide the transportation to work Monday through Friday; it gives them something to do; there’s a social environment; they enjoy it, and now that choice is going to be taken away in five to six years unless we can evolve the model. So we’re looking to provide other ways for people to be hired. JRC Inc. is purchasing the UPS franchise out in Evans Mills and we hope to close the second week of June. It’s going to be run as a social enterprise, so it’ll reinvest in the business and that will create some job opportunities that wouldn’t be there if it was a for-profit entity.

6

NNYB: How many clients are employed in the businesses?

GANTER: We serve about 900 people in all our programs. Probably about 150 to 200 work in the environment. About 144 people work on our Fort Drum contracts. They provide very well-paying jobs for our people with excellent benefits.

7

NNYB: What does Production Unlimited manufacture today?

GANTER: They make three-ring binders - the blue booklets people take school tests on. We do equipment folders for the armed services. But we’re looking for other things to do. We’re looking at expanding our opportunity with the Air Brake. We’re also looking at making some stuffed animals for a commercial venture product line.

We’re looking at automation. Right now none of our people sew, but if we bought an automated sewing machine, we could probably teach people to run that component and bring prices down.

People are very interested in the U.S. label.

8

NNYB: Last year JRC formed a foundation.

What led to that move and why do you think it was an important step?

GANTER: It probably should have been done years ago. The foundation was formed because we felt we needed some support for things that weren’t funded anymore. It formed to start raising some money to cover things not covered by Medicare and Medicaid. And also, it was about looking down the road with capital funding in mind as we look at developing some different models.

It’s going slow, but we’re slowly starting to build it up. Its entire intent is to support the services of JRC Inc. The fiscal environment is changing drastically. New York is on a bulls-eye target because we’re the highest Medicaid-reimbursed state in the country. We probably eat up almost 20 percent of all Medicaid dollars. In 2010 we were reduced by $1.5 million.

9

NNYB: The foundation started with a grant. What does that cover?

GANTER: The foundation got a grant — a transfer of funds from JRC of $100,000 of start-up money that has to be paid back over time. As we look at doing advertising and appeals and setting up events, it will cover the costs related to that. We have a golf tournament that we run every year that the foundation has taken over.

10

NNYB: What was the impetus for forming the foundation? Why now?

GANTER: We were getting less and less government funding. There’s equipment that we purchase, like Argo lifts that aren’t covered by the funding.

The foundation actually just purchased two of those

NORM JOHNSTON | NNY BUSINESS

Howard W. Ganter, JRC executive director, talks about his 36 years with the nonprofit in his Watertown office. Mr. Ganter has served as executive director of the agency since 2009. lifts for getting someone from a wheelchair to a bed, or a wheelchair to a shower and other equipment such as tubs that have hydro.

The Howard W. Ganter file

NNYB: What is the most significant operational challenge you face today that you didn’t a decade ago?

JOB: Executive director, Jefferson Rehabilitation Center, Watertown

11

GANTER: This is my 36th year and its unprecedented the amount of change taking place. We get rule changes almost every other week and have to adjust to those. We have reduced funding. We have a different model of service being pushed out into the community without the supports financially to do so. If you go from a 12-bed site medically involved and they want you to go to a four-bed site, you’re talking tripling your staff.

So it’s going to be more expensive and the money is not there to provide that level of support from my perspective, from either the state or the federal government. We have some great support from the community — 45 businesses — but it’s not enough to do what needs to be done.

12

NNYB: Looking ahead to your 60th year, what are three major changes you see?

GANTER: Most ARCs probably receive 80 to 85 percent of income from Medicaid. We’re about 51 percent because we have our contracts at Fort Drum, we have our pre-school, early intervention daycare and our OPDD funding. We’ve reached out into different avenues for revenue generators like the UPS franchise store. Those are things we’re looking at to support the agency and our social mission as we move forward. The other big challenge is shifting the model of service because we’re looking at smaller settings. The other huge challenge is moving to managed care in the next five years. We’ve always been carved out for managed care and had a separate budget. Now we’ll be dealing with an insurance entity. There are just a lot of unknowns out there, and the state is doing all this change in an extremely rapid fashion.

NNYB: How do you keep up with everything going on in the organization?

AGE: 58

FAMILY: Wife, Dani; two sons, Travis, 32, Nicolas, 24, HOMETOWN: Glen Park; have lived there since 1993. Hometown near Willowbrook Golf Course EDUCATION: Associate’s degree from JCC; Bachelor’s from Cortland in rec therapy; MBA from Oswego EXPERIENCE: Been with JRC since college; started as recreation therapist in 1978 until 1991. In 1991, became admin of day treatment program until 1993, then director of residential services in 1993. In 2009 became executive director. Also worked part-time for the Department of Corrections in its recreation department from 1983 to 1993 while working at JRC. LAST BOOK READ: “Appreciative Leadership,” by Diane Whitney. Also reads Harvard Business Review religiously every month.

13

GANTER: It’s extremely difficult. I have good staff. I have good support staff and I have good direct support professionals that work directly with our people. It’s not like you go in and punch the cash register for eight hours. These people are working with individuals and changing their lives, meeting their needs, dreams and aspirations. It’s a difficult job and they don’t get paid enough to do it. We’re always striving for resources to be able to increase our wages, but we try to do it on the benefit end where we can.

14

NNYB: Take me through a typical day for you.

GANTER: Prior to taking over this job I was a program person so I really wasn’t involved in the business end so much. But every day is different. We report anything and everything that

May 2014 | NNY Business

| 39

20 questions meets the definition of abuse and that’s time consuming. Even if there’s no abuse, if somebody just says they saw somebody do something, we call it in. If it gets accepted, we have to go through an investigative process. I review every single one of those investigations and that takes up a great deal of my time. I try to do a lot in the community.

I’m on the board of afternoon Rotary; I belong to One World Foundation; I’m the president of that board; I just got off the NYS Association for Community and Residential agencies. I’ve been involved with them for 20 years and been on the board for the last four. I was a trustee in the village of Glen Park for 20 years.

NNYB: JRC has a 60th anniversary gala planned.

How’s that coming together?

15

GANTER: It will be July 7 at the Bruce Wright Conference Center. It’s going to be a community event, not a fundraiser. It’ll be an opportunity to explain our history a little bit. From my perspective, the community has always looked at us as the fat cat of the social services agency. I think it’s because OPW is funding us pretty well. We’ve never really asked the community for a lot of support. We are a United Way agency but we don’t ask for United Way funds. And we volunteer everywhere. We had 104 people participate in the Heart Walk last [month].

16

NNYB: What keeps you going?

GANTER: I was going to be a gym teacher when I graduated high school (General Brown, Dexter).

I was involved in athletics — I played football, wrestled and played lacrosse. When I went to Cortland, I was looking at going to a municipality rec program, but then I started working with people with disabilities and I really enjoyed it. So then I changed my focus to working with special populations and never looked back. I’ve enjoyed it. There have been some days that were trying, but I can tell you there’s never been a day where I didn’t want to get out of bed and come to work. It’s been very interesting, and when I worked in the prison system, that was a whole new experience too. I left there in 1993 because I decided I wanted to go back to school. That was when I went back to get my MBA and worked on that — it took me five years part-time. We have a tuition assistance program here and I took advantage of it.

17

NNYB: What’s the median age of your employees at JRC? GANTER: Probably in the low 40s. We have a lot of long-term staff here. We find that once we keep someone for two years, they tend to stay. Most of the time when we get people here for a couple of years and we show them there are lots of opportunities here for people to move to a position of higher authority, they stay. Because we’re so diverse, they can go anywhere. And we have a succession plan program — an internal management series.

So we look at ways to support people to increase their skill sets so they can make more money.

18

NNYB: If you could change one thing to strengthen the organization what would it be?

GANTER: I think more emphasis on person-centered planning, which is a big push for us. The old set was used to telling people what they thought they needed to do. We really needed to sit back and listen to what people wanted to do, and let them tell us their plans. We’re evolving more and more into that. We have a long way to go, but I think that’s the biggest change for the organization. It’s not that people are doing it because they’re bossy or whatever, they’re just paternalistic in nature. We really need to listen to people and have them tell us what they need to do — not us telling them what they should do.

19

NNYB: What’s the best business advice you’ve ever followed?

GANTER: Don’t be impulsive. Look at something; analyze it before you make a snap decision. That’s really important in this field because things change so rapidly. You can’t react too fast; you need to sit back and see how things evolve because the end result may not be the same if you had waited rather than reacted quickly.

20

NNYB: What would you like for people to say about you when you leave?

151 Mullin Street Watertown, NY 13601

GANTER: I think one of my strengths and I think what people would say is I always admit that I base my decisions on the people we serve first.

My primary responsibility is to them. The business has to be a business and we have to have money to put back into the mission, but we’re here for a reason and that’s always got to be the primary focus. That’s how I think and I hope that’s how people will remember me.

— Interview by Ken Eysaman. Edited for length and clarity to fit this space.

40 |

NNY Business | May 2014

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G U E S T E SS AY

Practice not-so-random kindness

Y

ou don’t have to walk far to trip over a fundraiser for a local nonprofit. And you don’t have to go anywhere to have a national nonprofit text you with a donation request.

You can easily understand why the general public routinely says it has “donor fatigue.”

But the requests for more donations keep coming. And with continued cutbacks in government funding, every agency is trying to raise more and more money through golf tournaments, pancake breakfasts, spaghetti suppers and auctions.

The United Way of Northern New York has a pretty good feel for where our nonprofits are headed because every year we receive requests for funding help. And each year, the total request keeps going up. For instance, last year the United Way awarded $490,275 to 40 nonprofits in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.

But this year the total funding request is $641,020. And as we have mentioned in media stories and in meetings with our partner agencies for the last half year, we have come nowhere near to raising that amount of money this year.

The United Way nationally is suffering in the same way many of our long-time institutions are suffering. Our nation was built on a bedrock of volunteerism that led to the creation of programs and nonprofits generated out of churches, civic and service groups, auxiliaries, granges, libraries, etc. But each of these institu-

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tions is threatened with either being abandoned or considered irrelevant by the next generation of potential donors.

Even if familiarity doesn’t always breed Bob Gorman contempt, it can certainly encourage indifference. For instance, which is more likely to get your attention: a same-old, same-old local nonprofit that has been overseen for years by people a generation older than you, or a glitzy new national organization that has a million “likes” on Facebook because it uses seductively posed Hollywood stars who urge you to send your money to its national office in New York City?

Years ago this atrophying of civic action generated a now well-known response: “Commit random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” It was a great idea to get somebody off his keister to do something, anything.

But the unintended consequence of that sentiment is that a generation of potential new leaders has grown up subtly led to believe that kindness is best distributed in a random fashion.

There are those among us who find value in nonprofit chaos theory; that is, when a nonprofit falls apart, the public responds promptly and provides money and management to make necessary

repairs. But as recent events in the north country show, we can only absorb so much chaos at a time. The potential closings of the Family Counseling Service, Rose Hill Treatment Center and the former Children’s Clinic have led our communities to rally to their aid, but those efforts dilute our time, talents and money from other nonprofits.

Committed and scheduled “kindness” works in the best interest of a community. We don’t need another house to burn down to realize beforehand we need to buy fire trucks, build firehouses and train firefighters. But if we don’t encourage our next generation to invest in the charitable service infrastructure that is our nonprofits, we could see several of them go up in smoke as well.

History has given us a successful model to avoid just that: If you make giving easy, more people will give.

North country businesses that run United Way campaigns allow their employees to decide the best way to ensure our nonprofits will be here to resolve the community’s next crisis, not become the community’s next crisis.

Depending on random acts of kindness isn’t much of a business model. So if you would like more information on how “we all live better when we all give together,” call the United Way of Northern New York at 788-5631.

n ROBERT D. GORMAN is former managing editor of the Watertown Daily Times and president and CEO of United Way of Northern New York. Contact him at bgorman@nnyonline. net or 788-5631.

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S T R AT E G I C P L A NNIN G

You may be president but cash is king

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ash is the lifeblood of every business. Cash is needed to pay employees for the work they do, vendors for the supplies they provide, utilities for energy to heat, light and run the workplace, the landlord … and, if there is anything left over, owners to compensate them for the risk they take to run the business. In many cases, the owners take their cash and reinvest it in the business, creating more jobs and economic growth.

Everybody needs cash and everybody benefits when cash is flowing.

Cash flow is a common business term but not always well understood. Cash flow consists of the cash that comes in (sources a.k.a generation) and the cash that goes out (uses). Simply put, cash flow is probably the most reliable indicator of the financial health of a business. Unlike more subjective measures, it makes no assumptions and entertains no preconceptions. Just because a business shows a profit on the income statement does not mean it has plenty of cash. An owner who does not pay close attention to cash flow might be surprised to see their business hemorrhage and ultimately fail.

Three key components of cash flow are: 1) Inventories — producing and selling them creates an accounts receivable. 2) Accounts receivable — collecting AR generates cash. 3) Accounts payables (AP) and payroll — paying invoices (expenses) and employees uses cash but keeps suppliers happy and the workforce engaged.

For you, an owner considering ways to meet current economic challenges, a vital first step is to focus on company cash flow. Today’s business owner must become an expert in reading cash flow

statements.

Your company’s financial statements must be as “readable” as a favorite novel.

The more predictable cash flow is the better.

But to be able to predict cash flow — or anything at Paul Luck all for that matter — you have to understand it. My business-life experience has taught me that when something is not understood, risk exists. When risk exists, it must be controlled. When risk is not controlled, business value is impaired. Don’t let your business’ value get impaired.

Metrics, another term for measurements, provide insight to each of these components. Inventory turnover measures how fast inventories move. Idle inventory is not a friend of business. Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), an AR measurement, measures collection efficiency — faster is better for both inventory and AR. With AP, take every bit of the terms that the supplier gives but no more.

Consider this: Are account receivables aged beyond 60 days? Are invoices being sent out on the first of the month? Are inventory turns anemic and shelves jammed with parts? Are vendors paid late? Are revolving lines of credit used frequently and frequently approach their limits? There are reasons behind all these conditions.

Finding them sometimes takes some digging and you may not like what you find.

But you certainly won’t like the results if you don’t dig. Happy customers pay on

time. Documented agreements with suppliers and effective component ordering equal effective cash management. Control the risks and enjoy the outcomes.

Owners are in business to grow value and value grows as cash flow increases.

Strategies to increase revenue may not always lead to desired results if your new customers demand extended terms. Negotiating lower costs for parts may not always increase profit if your new suppliers require you to pay faster. In both cases, you may have to borrow from a bank — or yourself — to fund cash needs. And if you can’t accurately forecast cash, banks may be reluctant to extend loans. Or those loans will come only with high interest rates reflecting risks in the business.

Once you have a handle on current cash flow, create a projection of future cash flow. Consider a projection for the bestcase, one for the worst and one for the most likely scenario. All of the projections should include documented assumptions about customer expectations, production constraints, supplier options, competition, pricing and profitability margins, product considerations, equipment capabilities and employee skillsets. Then measure how well the business actually performs compared to the projections. Any variance — good or bad — provides a data point to learn from and adjust behavior.

More digging, more knowledge, more control, less risk, more cash, more value.

Yes, you may be president, Mr. Business Owner, but make way for cash, the king. n Paul Luck is a Certified Business Exit Consultant with The Succession Partners in Clayton.

Contact him at (315) 778-5257 or paulluck@ thesuccessionpartners.com.

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E C ONO M I C A L LY S P E A K IN G

Drum impact on region worth thanks

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ecognized by Congress in 1999, May is National Military Appreciation Month when we celebrate Loyalty Day (May 1), Military Spouse Appreciation Day (May 11), VE Day (May 8), Armed Forces Day (May 19), and Memorial Day (May 30). It is a time when we reflect on the services and sacrifices of the men and women serving our great nation and thank them for their work. Yet, during this time we should also reflect on the many soldiers and their families who have called our communities home and who help to grow the culture and economy of our region.

Fort Drum recently released its fiscal year 2013 Economic Impact Statement.

The statement serves as an overview of the post’s activities during the past fiscal year and provides cumulative information on its economic and social impacts on the community since 1988. In the past fiscal year, Fort Drum reported more than $1.4 billion in direct economic impact to surrounding communities. Considering the 2010 Census counted a total population of 255,260 people living in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties, $1.4 billion in direct economic impact would equate to $5,485 per person in the three counties. Fort Drum’s cumulative direct economic impact on the region since 1988 tops $19.8 billion.

So, how does this economic impact benefit me? Let’s start with jobs. Fort Drum is the largest single site employer in New York State with 3,895 civilian employees, and 18,060 soldiers. There are 2,615 retirees living in our communities. Considering that more than 39,000 military retirees

live in New York, almost 7 percent live in the north country.

Total payroll for the fiscal year, including military, civilian and retirees was $1.16 billion.

That’s money being spent in Michelle Capone our communities, many paying taxes, and buying goods and services from our businesses. And this is simply the direct economic impact.

The Fort Drum Regional Liaison Organization, utilizing an economic impact model developed by Economic Development Research Group, Boston, determined the indirect impacts, or secondary effects, this level of investment has on the north country. In short, while there were 21,955 civilian and military jobs directly related to Fort Drum, an additional 6,491 jobs in the general regional economy could be attributed to the presence of Fort Drum. Off-post, there was an additional $420 million in economic impact generated by having Fort Drum in our region.

Next, let’s look at contracting. Fort Drum Mission and Installation Contracting Command awarded 269 contracts in fiscal 2013 totaling more than $32.4 million. Of this amount, companies located in the tri-county region were awarded $2.6 million. Of the $30.8 million in service and supply contracts awarded by Fort Drum in fiscal 2013, $10.2 million of these con-

tracts were awarded to companies in the tri-county region. Again, the multiplier effect of these dollars on the community is not quantifiable at this time, but the qualitative impacts are astounding.

With more than 37,000 soldiers and their families in our communities, we have grown by leaps and bounds since the late 1980s when major industries including the paper mills were closing.

Residents were leaving the area for jobs elsewhere taking their children from our schools and sending housing prices to lows. Today, we face a different dilemma; one we should embrace.

Rather than shuttering store fronts and abandoned homes, we face the growth of small businesses. We have developers investing in our downtowns. People now have choices when it comes to quality, affordable housing. There are new housing options for the first time in almost 20 years. And the region continues to see growth in the retail and service sectors offering residents choices.

This month, while we attend the Armed Forces Day Parade, or remember those on Memorial Day, let’s thank our soldiers and their families for their services to our country and for calling the north country home.

Read the complete Fort Drum Economic Impact Statement: FY 2013 at www.fdrlo. org to learn more about Fort Drum’s economic impact on the north country. n Michelle l. capone is regional development director for the Development Authority of the North Country. Contact her at mcapone @danc.org. She is a member of the Greater Watertown Jaycees and Sunrise Rotary

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NON P R O F I T S T O D AY

Ensure a successful partnership

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ach year the Northern New York Community Foundation receives volumes of proposals, seeking support for allocation of finite resources. How do some funders make the critical decisions on who gets the grant? What criteria are contained in a grant proposal that makes it an ideal candidate for competitive funding? While this list is not all inclusive, it touches on the major points of what can help facilitate a successful funding partnership.

Relationship first, ask second.

Grant-makers are human beings, not automated teller machines. They also tend to be very relationship-oriented, since the success of their work relies heavily the human factor. Don’t wait to form a relationship until you want something. Relationship building, done well, is incredibly valuable for both parties and forms a solid foundation for all future conversations.

Never underestimate the human element of grant-seeking. Make time to date before you get married.

Ask for the right thing and the right amount at the right time. The relationship approach is not only courteous, but allows the funder to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the vision and direction of the organization’s leadership, and vice versa. Take time to evaluate how your proposal might be viewed relative to all other things the funder is being asked to consider or is already committed to. The better each understands their respective culture and vision, the more effectively a proposal can be tailored that advances the mission of

both grant-maker and grantee.

Find something that consciously aligns the two missions to create a powerful, dynamic multiplier effect. A proposed project should clearly compleRande Richardson ment the longterm plan for your organization’s future, and fit with your mission. Think about your outcomes, not outputs — not just the numbers served but rather, how will lives be changed? Think also about sustainability, not only for the project itself, but the steps you are taking to make overall organizational sustainability a priority.

Begin early. When it comes time to advance the conversation to funding, start that dialogue well in advance. Very few grantmakers have the sole discretion to make decisions without extensive vetting and engagement with others. All parties must have a thorough and mutual understanding each step along the way, grounded firmly in realistic expectations, and in a respectful tone.

Demonstrate the organization’s commitment. Why would any funder be interested in something if the organization requesting resources (including its staff and board) isn’t full committed? Often, that means that the organization itself must put some “skin in the game.” Also, what other collaborations (funding and otherwise) are included in the proposal?

What other potential funders are involved or are being sought? Make sure your organization’s leadership understand their role in the grantmaking “experience” and are prompt and prepared in responding to requests for clarification or additional information.

Be a good steward of the gift. If successful in receiving grant funding, do what you said you would do, and do it well. If problems arise along the way, communicate that to the funder. Don’t forget to say “thank you.” (You’d be surprised how often grantees fail to do this). No one ever wants to feel their gift is taken for granted or unappreciated. Good manners are timeless and makes asking the again easier.

Good funders want (and need) to fund good projects. They are your colleagues.

They can’t do their work without you.

Funders are not perfect, all-knowing, or experts on every topic. They welcome feedback, dialogue, and suggestions for better effectiveness. However, they are transferring tremendous trust to grantees.

If there is something that can change and shape lives we all must do everything possible to match great ideas with great proposals. In this way, in partnership, we can change our community and the world. Bo so doing, we appropriately honor the legacy of those who have entrusted us with such an awesome privilege.

n Rande Richardson is executive director of the Northern New York Community Foundation. He is a lifelong Northern New York resident and former funeral director. Contact him at rande@nnycf.org. His column appears every other month in NNY Business.

May 2014 | NNY Business

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C o mmerce c o r n er

Your business can show its support

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n 1999, Congress designated May as National Military Appreciation Month as an opportunity for community members and businesses to publically demonstrate their appreciation for the sacrifices and successes made by service members past and present.

We are fortunate in the north country to have Fort Drum as a part of our community. There are so many partnerships with organizations and community volunteer groups that come together to ensure that our servicemen and women are recognized not only in May, but throughout the entire year.

Operation Yellow Ribbon is one of the best-kept secrets in the Fort Drum area.

The organization is a volunteer-based committee that promotes visible signs of support for soldiers and families. However, our community’s Operation Yellow Ribbon does so much more and is a great way for businesses to get involved and support those who protect and serve us each day.

Mission Operation Yellow Ribbon is comprised of community volunteers, with representatives from many of the area’s soldier support and community organizations whose charge is to promote visible signs of support for soldiers and families. It also serves to promote local events that honor military members and provide discounts to service members and their families.

Operation Yellow Ribbon has successfully rallied the north country on numer-

ous occasions to provide significant visible signs of support for soldiers and their families. It has organized Yellow Ribbon Rallies and events since its inception with Lynn Pietroski thousands of community members, family members and business people participating. It has also organized and supported skating parties, winter festivals, and other wintertime activities to support families of deployed soldiers. More than 25,000 yellow ribbon pins and countless yard signs have been sold as well.

Operation Yellow Ribbon hosts the Armed Forces Day Parade in downtown Watertown on May 17. The theme for this year’s parade is “Thanking the Neighbor You Know.” Whether your organization would like to be a part of the parade or just come to show your support, it’s a great way to thank all service members.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT Each year this dedicated group of volunteers from civilian and military backgrounds provides encouragement for the north country to show its support of service members and their families. More than 25 local events are designated as Operation Yellow Ribbon events, which mean they provide discounts for the mili-

tary and are great opportunities for the families to integrate into the local community. Such events include the July 4th Concert in the Park at Thompson Park, the DPAO Summer Concert Series, WPBSTV’s highly attended Ready, Set, Fun and many others.

As we reflect on events locally and overseas for our service members this year, Operation Yellow Ribbon has committed to ramping up its efforts to provide visible signs of support. As the weather gets nicer remember to put out your American flag, refresh your yellow ribbons and perhaps plant some yellow daffodils in support of those who have given so tirelessly of themselves.

If your business is looking for ways to be involved in our community and show support for our neighbors at Fort Drum, volunteer with Operation Yellow Ribbon.

The organization partners with so many other community-minded organizations that support our service members and their families.

For more information on Operation Yellow Ribbon, its activities, procedures for Yellow Ribbon event designation and to purchase Support Our Troops banners, Yellow Ribbon window clings or lapel pins, call Jennifer Cross-Hodge, 788-0422 or email ORYftdrum@gmail.com.

Operation Yellow Ribbon Committee Members Jennifer Cross-Hodge and Mary Corriveau contributed to this column.

n Lynn Pietroski is president and CEO of the Greater Watertown North Country Chamber of Commerce. Contact her at ceo@watertownny. com. Her column appears monthly.

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NNY Business | May 2014

A gr i - b u s i n e s s

Where’s the beef industry in NNY?

N

orthern New York is well known for its dairy farms and great-tasting dairy products. Part of the reason for this is our region has a climate and soils well suited to growing great grass. I mean the kind of grass that cows like to eat. In fact, within 100 miles of Watertown, there are 275,800 dairy cows. Northern New York is ranked as one of the leading milk producing areas in the United States.

But our ability to produce high-quality forage doesn’t only benefit dairy cows.

Beef cows grow very well grazing in our lush green pastures. Approximately 9 percent of New York State’s registered beef cow herd lives in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties according to the United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service.

In 2013, comparing all counties across the state, St. Lawrence County was tied for second place in total number of beef cows and Jefferson County ranked sixth.

Talking with local experts about beef numbers, estimates indicate there are probably twice as many beef cows in Jefferson County as is reported to the USDA. The same may hold true for St. Lawrence and Lewis counties because of lack of reporting by farms.

Right now beef prices have been rising and prices are expected to remain high for several years. Drought in other areas of the United States, coupled with recent cost increases in feed, have caused

a reduction in the number of animals available to process from typical beef production areas of the U.S. This presents opportunity for our beef farmers to increase their Jay Matteson production and be profitable.

Thanks to help from Cornell Cooperative Extension, we’re also seeing dairy farmers

Meats; and Red Barn Meats in Lewis County’s Croghan provide great services to local farms. A USDA-inspected facility allows farmers who bring their livestock there to sell cuts of meat and work with restaurants and other food establishments to carry their local meat selections.

Custom meat cutters such as Spruce Acres in northern Jefferson County provide an important service to local farmers. They are not USDA-inspected facilities that provide farmers the ability to sell individual cuts of meat, but they provide an important service that allows the farmer to raise and sell an animal to individuals who then pay the custom cutter directly for processing the animal.

What New York does not have is a large-scale meat processing facility such as they have in Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

Thousands of cattle presently travel on Interstates 81 and 90 to these processors. A state-of-the-art meat processor located strategically along an interstate has the potential to capture some of this livestock traffic. Large-scale processing plants employ hundreds of people, are clean, efficient and provide a stimulus to increased production on our farms. As farms grow, they in turn provide more jobs and a stronger tax base within their communities.

As more farms grow, they in turn provide more jobs and a stronger tax base within their communities. take some of their dairy cows with poor genetics for milk production, and breed those cows with Angus or other beef breeds to produce animals they can raise to take advantage of high beef prices.

This creates opportunities for our dairy farmers to improve the genetics of their herd for milk production and to diversify their business using less productive dairy animals to begin beef production.

As farmers improve beef production across Northern New York, barriers exist limiting the beef industry’s ability to expand to full capacity. Primarily, our meat-processing capacity is limited. We have two USDA-inspected facilities. TriTown Packing in Brasher Falls, nestled in the northeastern corner of St. Lawrence County, home of Adirondack Smoked

n Jay M. Matteson is agricultural coordinator for the Jefferson County Local Development Corp. He is a lifelong Northern New York resident who lives in Lorraine. Contact him at coordinator@comefarmwithus.com. His column appears monthly in NNY Business.

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BUSIN E SS T E C H B Y T E S

Vigilance key to safe online activity

I

nternet threats constantly emerge and the latest two are no exception.

Are you still browsing the Internet using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer?

It really is time you move to Chrome, Firefox or even Opera and this is especially true if you are still running Windows XP. On April 28, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security advised that you switch to a different browser at least temporarily as a major security flaw has been exposed in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Versions 6 through 11. The flaw reportedly has “the potential to give hackers the same user rights as the current user.”

Microsoft clarifies, “the vulnerability exists in the way that Internet Explorer accesses an object in memory that has been deleted or has not been properly allocated.

The vulnerability may corrupt memory in a way that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user within Internet Explorer.”

That’s geek-speak telling you it’s possible that this latest Microsoft security flaw could let hackers control your computer, in essence giving them access to everything you access. They are most interested in your financial information, like your usernames and passwords for online banking, Ebay, Amazon, Paypal and other credit card account information we are guilty of sharing online. Microsoft is working to issue a fix but has given no details, at the writing of this column, as to the timeliness.

And if you are, according to Forbes, “approximately 25 percent of people still using Windows XP,” you will be out of luck since Microsoft ended tech support for Windows XP early last month, issuing the following warning: “If you continue to use Windows XP after support ends, your computer will

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NNY Business | May 2014

still work but it might become more vulnerable to security risks and viruses.”

That statement is true but the timing of this security flaw has some in the IT community speculating as Jill Van Hoesen to whether Microsoft ignored the flaw hoping to force more people to upgrade.

Ponder that while we move on to the other new and potentially dangerous security hole called Heartbleed. This security vulnerability takes place in the encryption protocol known as OpenSSL. This is technology used by credit card vendors and anyone else you trust to transmit sensitive personal information, like usernames and passwords. The technology, encrypts, or turns information into unreadable code so it can’t be easily read and subsequently stolen as it travels the Internet. What is noteworthy about Heartbleed is that this Internet vulnerability doesn’t just affect the Web but extends to the physical networking hardware made by some of the world’s largest manufacturers, like Cisco and Juniper Networks. Cisco has released a complete list of all vulnerable products and is working to create free software updates to protect customers. Further information can be found at http://tools.cisco.com/security/ center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20140409-heartbleed. Juniper has also published a list of vulnerable devices and is working on a solution. More information

can be found at http://kb.juniper.net/InfoCenter/index?page=content&id=JSA10623 and http://kb.juniper.net/InfoCenter/index? page=content&id=KB29004&actp=RSS. The Heartbleed bug has also potentially impacted switches, firewalls and routers.

The key is to protect your business and yourself and remain on alert until this latest threat is diminished. Now is the time to be diligent and check the websites above for software updates pertinent to your business’s hardware.

“In the case of home routers, if it’s a router that you purchased yourself, almost all of them provide the capability to disable remote access,” Adam Allred, a research technologist at Georgia Tech College of Computing, told The Huffington Post. “Most routers take the home network and the Internet that they connect to and split them into two pieces. Remote access describes the ability to get to your home router from the Internet outside of your home.”

Change your passwords for the websites that have been patched. If the website isn’t patched it’s useless as the new password could also be compromised. Mashable provides a comprehensive list of the state of the most popular websites at http:// mashable.com/2014/04/09/heartbleed-bugwebsites-affected/.

Keep a watchful eye on your credit card and bank statements. Be patient, be diligent, and protect yourself and your business online. n Jill Van Hoesen is chief information officer for Johnson Newspapers and a 25-year IT veteran. Contact her at jvanhoesen@wdt.net.

Her column appears monthly in NNY Business.

S M A L L BUSIN E SS SU C C E SS

Prepare for your visit to the bank

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pplying for a business loan can rank right up there with a doctor’s visit or a dental exam in terms of stress. But you can get through it much more easily if you are properly prepared.

Here are some things to consider before you make an appointment with your commercial loan officer to see about a start-up or expansion loan.

What bank should you choose? We usually recommend that people look at the bank that they already do business with. They are familiar with you, and if you already have a business or a loan through them, they can see that you know how to manage your finances. Depending on what kind of business you want to start or purchase, you may want to have a conversation with the loan officer first to see if your business type fits in with its portfolio.

Some banks deal more with professionals (doctors, lawyers, etc.) while others are a good source for agricultural lending.

Some lenders such as smaller savings and loan banks or credit unions don’t do commercial lending at all, although occasionally I have seen them approve a line of credit or an equipment purchase loan for an established customer.

Know your personal credit situation. If you have any ongoing issues, try to resolve them before submitting your application.

If the issue is with something outside your control, e.g. catastrophic medical bills or an unexpected weather-related event, you should be prepared to discuss this situation and how you are resolving it with

your creditor. I advise clients to be very upfront from the start with the banker to determine if they can move forward with the loan application or delay it until a better time.

Sarah O’Connell You’ll also have to submit a personal financial statement that lists your assets and liabilities. This is a standard

velopment Center or your CPA can help you prepare the financial forecasts that most banks will require. These projections cover the first three years of your loan term and show that your conservative sales assumptions and well-researched, anticipated business expenses demonstrate the viability and repayability of your idea. So it’s important that you thoroughly understand and can defend where those numbers came from. We’re happy to go over your financials with you until you feel confident in your ability to review them with the lender.

Finally, don’t spend the money before you’ve got loan approval, unless you don’t actually need it to move ahead with your business idea. I’ve had clients spend hundreds to thousands of dollars to rent space, start renovations, purchase equipment and so on. They were so excited about the whole process of getting their business up and running that they forgot they absolutely had to have the loan for inventory or a line of credit or cash reserves, only to have one, two or even three lenders decline their application and stop their project in its tracks.

So preparing for your visit to the bank is one of the most crucial, invaluable steps you can take on your path to entrepreneurship.

Preparing for your visit to the bank is one of the most crucial, invaluable steps you can take on your path to entrepreneurship. form based on Small Business Administration Form 613 and must be completed by each proprietor, any limited partner with 20 percent or more interest and each general partner, each stockholder who owns 20 percent or more of voting stock, or any person or entity providing a guaranty on the loan. Keep in mind that the personal credit scores of any of the above parties will be relevant. One of the ratios that the lender looks at from your statement is your debt to income ratio. I had one client who bought a new truck for personal use shortly before his business loan was due to close. He had to do some scrambling and pay off some other debts before his bank would go ahead with the deal.

Your advisor at the Small Business De-

n SARAH O’CONNELL is a certified business advisor with the New York State Small Business Development Center at Jefferson Community College. She is a former small business owner and lifelong Northern New York resident. Contact her at soconnell@sunyjefferson.edu. Her column appears bi-monthly in NNY Business.

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May 2014 | NNY Business

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COMMUNITY / BUSINESS CALENDAR 50 |

Adams Saturday, July 12

n Adams Cheddar Cheese Festival, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., downtown Adams, fireman’s field off North Main Street and along East Church Street. Sponsored by the Adams Revitalization Committee, Great Lakes Cheese and the South Jefferson Chamber of Commerce. Entertainment, farmers and craft markets, vendors, food, wine garden, and children’s and family activities, including a new cheesy duck race. Free. Information: www.south jeffchamber.org

Alexandria Bay Wednesday, May 21

n Business After Hours at Singer Castle and Uncle Sam’s Boat Tours, 5:30 to 9 p.m., leaving from Uncle Sam Boat Tours, 45 James St. Great networking, prizes and food. Limited space. $10 members (registered) $12 members (not registered) $15 non-members. Register by Monday, May 19, noon. Information and registration: www.watertownny.com or 788-4400.

Cape Vincent Saturday, June 7

n Escape to the Cape, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Recreation Park, 602 S. James St. A Small Business and Artisans Expo. Come show our community what your business has to offer. All local small businesses welcome.

Open to the public, free admission. Exhibitors must register by Friday, May 23.

Booth fees $25 donation per standard booth. Donations to benefit Cape Vincent Village Green. Information: 654-2481.

Canton Saturday, July 19, and Sunday, July 20

n Yankee baseball trip to New York City.

Canton Recreation Department; Cost: $250; Includes tickets to two games vs.

Cincinnati Reds, coach transportation,

NNY Business | May 2014

one night stay at Meadowlands River Inn (double occupancy), and breakfast on Sunday. Information, registration: 3863992 or canton-recreation@yahoo.com.

Carthage Saturday, June 21

Register by noon, Wednesday, July 16. $10 members (registered) $12 members (not registered) $15 non-members. Information and registration: www.watertown ny.com or 788-4400.

Fort Drum

n 2nd Annual Shootin’ Trap for Trips: Fundraiser to benefit the Volunteer Transportation Center, Inc. Carthage Rod & Gun Club, 4500 Cold Spring Park Road. $20 to enter; registration begins at 8 am.

Food, raffles and more available day of the event. Registration: www.carthagero dandgunclub.com.

Thursday, June 12

Clayton

Henderson Harbor

Friday, June 13 — Monday, June 16

Thursday, May 15

n The Great NYS Food and Wine Festival, Cerow Recreation Park Arena. Show hours: Friday, 1 to 8 p.m., Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday, noon to 5 p.m.

Show consists of exhibitors representing an array of products made in New York State.

NYS produces world class food products and wine to satisfy the favored tastes of everyone, everywhere. Information: Clayton Chamber of Commerce, 686-3771 or info@1000islands-clayton.com.

Thursdays, June 19 — Sept. 11

n Clayton Farmer’s Market, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Village Park Circle. Vendor applications available. Information: Beth Rusho, 686-3771, ext. 4, beth@1000islands-clay ton.com, info@1000islands-clayton.com.

Thursday, July 17

n “De-stress in Nature” With Thousand Islands Land Trust and River Yoga, 9 a.m.

Zenda Farm Preserve, Route 12E. All levels welcome. Limited number of mats and props available. Registration required. Information, registration: 686-5345.

Thursday, July 17

n Business After Hours at Coyote Moon Vineyards, 5 to 7 p.m., 17371 Eastline Road. Great networking, prizes and food.

n Build Your Own Business, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Army Community Services Bldg. New to the area? Learn how to utilize your business plan into funding and operating tools. Information and registration: 772-9611 or 782-9262, sbdc@suny jefferson.edu.

n South Jeff Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards Dinner, Ryan’s Lookout, 9290 NYS Route 3. 6 p.m. cocktails; 7 p.m. dinner. Awards for large and small business of the year and not-for-profit of the year will be presented. $25 per person, payable in advance. R.S.V.P. to South Jeff Chamber of Commerce, PO Box 167, Adams, NY 13605. Call 2324215 to learn more.

Saturday, July 12

n 23rd Annual Henderson Harbor Triathlon, Boat Launch, State Route 178.

Olympic race will begin at 8:30 a.m., Sprint at 9 a.m. Olympic event consists of 1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run; Sprint with a .750K swim, 20K bike, 5K run.

Event proceeds benefit the Children’s Home of Jefferson County’s Community Based Programs and the CREDO Community Center. See website for complete details. Information: Stacey Finley at 788-7430, sfinley@nnychildrenshome. com. Register online at www.hendersonharbortriathlon.com, www.active.com, or www.nnychildrenshome.com.

Lowville Saturday, June 7

n Udderly Muddy Rugged Run: mud

Saturday, Aug. 16

n Race With the Wind! 46 Mile Gravel Grinder Endurance Race, begins at 10 a.m. and 10 Mile Fun Race at 10:30 a.m. Hosted at Maple Ridge Wind Farm’s Visitor Center, Eagle Factory Road. This is not an easy course; rugged, varied terrain, with ups and downs throughout the course. Cross bikes be prepared. Use heavy off road tubes and tires. Race of “Tug Hill character.” 46 mile race; $25 by July 1, $30 by Aug. 1, $35 day of event.

10 mile race, $20 adults, 18 and under, free. Registration at 8:30 a.m. Forms online at www.lewiscountychamber.org or information, 376-2213.

Old Forge Friday, May 16 — Sunday, May 18

n Paddlefest, Fri. noon to 6 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., 2855 Route 28. The largest on-water canoe, kayak and SUP sale in the country, featuring over 75 of the leading manufacturers of canoes, kayaks, and accessories.

Over 1,000 canoes and kayaks will be on sale all weekend at special show prices.

Also find big savings on paddling accessories and outdoor gear. Sponsored by Mountainman Outdoor Supply Company.

Admission: $5 per day for adults, kids 12 and under free. Test paddle fee is $20 for the entire weekend and includes admission. Test paddle fee redeemable for a boat purchased during Paddlefest. Information: Mountainman Outdoor Supply Co., www.mountainmanoutdoors.com/ adirondack-paddlefest.

Syracuse Tuesday, May 20

n CEO Talks: A Roundtable Discussion presented by Wilmington Trust, noon to 1:30 p.m., CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity, 115 W. Fayette St. Moderated by CenterState CEO’s Vice President for Innovation Services, Seth Mulligan, attendees will receive an overview of what innovation hot spots are and their intersection with Startup NY Zones; also discussion on how to utilize these tools for recruitment purposes. Seating limited to 25 registrants. $15 for members, $25 for non-members.

Information: Karen DeJoseph, 470-1997 or Kdejoseph@centerstateceo.com.

Wednesday, May 28

n Business After Hours and Mini-Showcase, 5 to 6 p.m., SUNY Oswego Metro Center The Atrium 2 Clinton Sq., Ste. 115. Members will have the opportunity to network and learn more about area non-for-profits. Limited number of vendor tables available for not-for-profit businesses. Contact Beth Savicki for additional information on vendor tables, 470-1833 or bsavicki@centerstateceo.com. $10 for members, $20 for non-members. Contact Lisa Metot to register, 470-1870 or lmetot@center stateceo.com.

Thursday, June 5

n Business After Hours, 5 to 6:30 p.m., Usherwood Office Technology 1005 W. Fayette St. Join Usherwood Office Technology and CenterState CEO for an evening of networking, beverages and food; opportunity to tour Usherwood’s facilities, while seeing some of the latest offerings for office technology solutions. $10 for members, $20 for non-members. Information: Lisa Metot, 470-1870 or lmetot@centerstate ceo.com.

Tupper Lake Friday July 11 — Sunday, July 13

n Tupper Lake Woodsmen’s Days, Tupper Lake Municipal Park, NYS Rt. 3. Friday, July 11: New York logger training course: advanced logger rescue training, with logger rescue trainer Dana Hinckley. Saturday, July 12: 8 a.m., New York logger training certification course: chainsaw safety, with Dana Hinkley; 10 a.m., parade, Timberworks Lumberjack Show, chainsaw carvers and auction, heavy equipment demos and competitions, food concession and wares, children’s games, evening games of greased pole climb and tug of war. Sunday, July 13: 11 a.m., free children’s games, “Professor Marvel’s Magic Show.” Information: dbhinkley@ netzero.net or (603) 723-4023. Events schedule: www.woods mendays.com.

Watertown Saturday, May 17

n Fourth annual “Run to the Sun,” half marathon, 8 a.m. 5K and 10K races, 9 a.m., from Davidson Automotive Group, 18423 Route 11. Sponsored by the Heather A. Freeman Foundation. Cost: 5K and 10K, $25; half marathon, $50. T-shirts for preregistered registrants. Information: www. heatherfreemanfoundation.com. To volunteer: Sandra Macy, 778-5482.

Saturday, May 17

n Armed Forces Day parade, 10 a.m., beginning at Watetown High School, 1335 Washington St. Ending on Clinton Street. Information or to register float: Stan, 416-1087.

Wednesdays, May 28 — Oct. 1

n Greater Watertown North Country Chamber of Commerce Farm & Craft Market, 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesdays, 317 Washington St. Information: Toni M. Miller, Market Manager at tmiller@watertownny.com or www.watertownfarmersmarket.weebly.com.

Thursday, June 5

n Central New York Postal Customer Council presents “Challenges and outlook of the United States Postal Service: Where it has been, where it is going and what your business can learn.” 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Black River Valley Club, 131 Washington St., Watertown. U.S. Postal Regulatory Commissioner Robert Taub will deliver a special keynote address. $15 per person, includes choice of cranberry almond chicken salad, broiled haddock, cheeseburger, grilled chicken sandwich or vegetable alfredo lasagna. R.S.V.P. by May 30 to Cathy Glasheen, customer relations coordinator, catherine.j.glasheen@usps.gov or (315) 452-3415. Sponsored by the Watertown Daily Times, NNY Business magazine and the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce.

Saturday, June 7

n North Country Community Cup, Olympic-style competition, Jefferson Community College, 1220 Coffeen St. Events include: volleyball, hot shots (basketball shots), tugof-war, 2.2 mile walk/run, golf putting/ chipping, homerun derby, bocce, tennis, dodge ball, relay race, fitness participation. Teams can join by contacting Matt Lambert, 786-2358 or mlambert@sunnyjefferson.edu, by Thursday, May 1.

Thursday, June 19

n Business After Hours at Body Pros on outer Washington St., 5 to 7 p.m., 17490 U.S. 11. Great networking, prizes and food. Register by noon, Wednesday, June 18. $10 members (registered) $12 members (not registered) $15 non-members.

Information and registration: www.watertownny.com or 788-4400.

COMMUNITY / BUSINESS CALENDAR

run/adventure race, Lewis County Fairgrounds, check-in: 9 a.m., race: 10 a.m.

Cost, $15 per participant in teams of four to seven. Register by May 11 to receive a free water bottle. Proceeds go towards Beaver Camp’s Campership Fund. The race includes the Stampede of Champions (a 3 mile run), the Puddle Partner Paddle (a canoeing challenge), and the Water Buffalo Wallow (a mud crawl for all teammates). Registration and information: www.mapleridgecenter.com.

Thursday, Aug. 21

n Business After Hours at the NYS Zoo at Thompson Park, 1 Thompson Park, 5 to 7 p.m. Great networking, prizes and food.

Register by noon, Wednesday, Aug. 19. $10 members (registered) $12 members (not registered) $15 non-members. Information and registration: www.watertownny.com or 788-4400.  GOT A BUSINESS EVENT or calendar item? Email nnybusiness@wdt.net. Deadline is the 10th of each month for the following month’s issue. Visit us on Facebook at www. facebook.com/NNYBusiness or www.nny bizmag.com for events calendar updates.

May 2014 | NNY Business

| 51

BUSIN E SS S C E N E Clayton Chamber of Commerce Business With A Twist at St. Lawrence Pottery

From left, Wendi Ward and Sarah Riddoch, both of Motivated Realty, Clayton, and Patti Kendall, Watertown Savings Bank, Clayton branch.

From left, Mark Natali, Napa Auto Parts, Clayton, John Arnot, St. Lawrence Pottery, and Rusty Johnson, Rusty Johnson Masonry, LaFargeville.

MATT COSTANTINO PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Scott Nortz, attorney, Clayton, Bernie Sturr, Motivated Realty, Clayton, Colby Mallete, Northern Glass, Watertown. The Clayton Chamber of Commerce held its March Business With a Twist at St. Lawrence Pottery, NYS Route 12, Clayton, Thursday, March 20.

MATT COSTANTINO PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Azure Arnot, Clayton Food Co-Op, mother, Lori, River Wellness, Clayton, Sarah Ellen Smith, St. Lawrence Pottery, Clayton, and James “J.C.” Wilson, Restaurant Operations, Food & Beverage Consultant, Fishers Landing.

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The North Country’s Cleaning Professionals Since 1971 52 |

NNY Business | May 2014

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BUSIN E SS S C E N E GWNC Chamber Job & Career Expo at the Bruce M. Wright Conference Center

David Widrick, shop manager, MetalCraft Marine, Cape Vincent, and Kayla Kent, human resources manager, MetalCraft Marine, Kingston, Ont.

From left, Linda O’Connor and Melissa Dennie, Transitional Living Services of Northern New York, Watertown.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Sherrita Taper, Luk Properties, Watertown, and Tracy Hyneman, Luk Properties, Philadelphia. The Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce held its 2014 Job & Career Expo at the Bruce M. Wright Memorial Conference Center, Watertown, Thursday, April 10.

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www.meadeoptical.com May 2014 | NNY Business

| 53

BUSIN E SS S C E N E South Jefferson Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours at La Bella Fonte

Pat Simpson, Adams, and Fred Morris, Adams Center.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Lisa Tibbles, Old to Renew Painting & Landscaping Makeovers, Kris Biazzo, Jefferson-Lewis-Hamilton-Herkimer-Oneida BOCES, Watertown, and wife, Paula, Nana Rose Antiques, Gifts & Home Decor, Adams. The South Jefferson Chamber of Commerce held its April Business After Hours at La Bella Fonte Italian Steakhouse Thursday, April 10.

Come See the All New Polaris Brutus at Waite Motorsports

Bob and Dawn Dick, Moby Dick Charters, Henderson Harbor.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

Jerry Peck, Aubertine & Currier Architects, Engineers, and Land Surveyors, Watertown, and Beth Morris, Adams Center.

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WWW.WAITEMOTORSPORTS.COM 54 |

NNY Business | May 2014

BUSIN E SS S C E N E Northern New York Builders Exchange 38th Annual North Country Home Show

Nick Gervera and mother, Lori, Keller Williams Northern New York and Lori Gervera Team, Watertown.

Natalie Antos, market manager, and Galen Moshier, market representative, The Sherwin-Williams Company, Watertown.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Robert LaPlaca, technician, and Les Brooks, both of Marra’s Homecare, Watertown. The Northern New York Builders Exchange held its 38th annual North Country Home Show April 11 to 13 at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds Arena, Watertown.

Jackie Spencer and Joe Robinson, Aire Serve Heating &Air Conditioning, Watertown.

May 2014 | NNY Business

| 55

BUSIN E SS S C E N E Clayton Chamber of Commerce Business With A Twist at Coyote Moon Lounge

From left, Sandy Baril and daughter, Meghan Shane, RealtyUSA, Clayton

From left, Anthony Randazzo, Coyote Moon Vineyards, Clayton, and Christian Ives, Bonnie Castle Resort, Alexandria Bay.

MATT COSTANTINO PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

MATT COSTANTINO PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

Molly Higgins, brother, Brendan Higgins, and father, Ed Higgins, Thousand Islands Agency, Clayton. The Clayton Chamber of Commerce held its April Business With a Twist at Coyote Moon Vineyards Wine & Craft Beer Lounge on Riverside Drive, Clayton, Thursday, April 10.

From left, Kristina Randazzo, Amy Getman and Heather Fargo, all of Coyote Moon Vineyards, Clayton.

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NNY Business | May 2014

BUSIN E SS S C E N E Carthage Area Chamber After Hours

From left, Lori Borland, Carthage Area Chamber of Commerce executive

director, and Nancy Rome, Carthage.

GWNC Chamber BAH at Ryan’s Lookout

Rita Walldroff, Community Bank, and husband, Marcus, Walldroff Farm Equipment, Watertown.

ELAINE AVALLONE PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

GRACE E. JOHNSTON PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

Matthew and Amanda Gump, Secret Window Photography, Carthage. The Carthage Area Chamber of Commerce held its April Business After Hours at Secret Window Photography, State Street, April 16.

From left, Ryan West, Melissa Widrick, Lorie O’Brien, Dan Hartnett, Lisa Lowe, all of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices CNY Realty, Adams and Syracuse. The Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce held its April Business After Hours at Ryan’s Lookout, Henderson, April 16.

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May 2014 | NNY Business

| 57

BUSIN E SS H IS T O R Y

A bootlegging brewery Despite Prohibition, sales no problem for Consumer’s Brewing Co.

By Grace E. Johnston

D NNY Business

uring the Prohibition era of the 1920s, the word for north country law enforcement was neither marijuana nor cocaine — it was booze.

From 1920 to 1933, the 18th Amendment to the Constitution mandated a nationwide ban on the sale, production, importation, and transportation of alcoholic beverages in the United States. And by 1923, the U.S. Coast Guard was asked to help patrol Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River for illegal beer shipments.

Mobsters from New York City, Albany, Utica and Syracuse frequented the area, not only to run hooch out of Canada, but to pick up beer shipments in Watertown.

And the producers of all this local bootleg brew? Watertown’s own Consumer’s Brewing Co. Between Jan. 29, 1919, when the 18th Amendment was ratified, and Dec. 5, 1933, the day after the 21st Amendment that repealed Prohibition was ratified, the brewery was supposed to be concocting low-alcohol, below 2 percent beer, commonly referred to as near beer.

And nestled in the underbrush next to the Black River on the north side of town, the near-beer brewery was the perfect site for an illegal brew house.

But realizing there was a market to be filled at speakeasies across the state, the company’s owners decided to capitalize on an opportunity.

They developed an innovative coldfiltering process to brew high-alcohol beer that masked the pungent aroma produced during the typical fermentation process — that of hot malt, yeast, hops and water.

The decision was made sometime between 1919 and 1928 to build a secret cold-brewing and bottling operation worth $50,000. The high-test beer was then bootlegged to burgeoning markets in Malone, Syracuse, Albany and Buffalo.

By 1925, even the New York Times carried

58 |

NNY Business | May 2014

Empty beer bottles from Watertown Consumer Brewing Co. — a brewery that thrived during the Prohibition era — are on display at the Jefferson County Historical Society Museum in Watertown.

NORM JOHNSTON | NNY BUSINESS

stories reporting that Watertown was the hub of illegal beer shipments.

On Aug. 20 of that year, Buffalo Divisional Prohibition Chief Romaine Merrick, assigned to Northern New York, told the New York Times, “In the Buffalo District, I will have the largest distillery in the state.

And it’s in Watertown.”

A federal raid of the building in 1928 found two huge vats in the basement of the brewery where cold water, malt, hops and yeast were being mixed and allowed to slowly ferment into high-alcohol beer.

The beer was then filtered through special paper that collected impurities, and piped to an illicit bottling operation nearby.

The first inkling of impropriety came in January 1925 when the Jefferson County Sheriff and Central New York Prohibition Director found a railroad car filled with 100 barrels of high-test beer valued at $5,500. They confiscated both the beer and the railcar, and the business was locked up for six months.

The brewery was padlocked, but the owners were allowed to use the ice-cooled

storage areas of the building as they bought it back in May 1927, under the guise of operating a cold storage business.

Despite the claim, they were actually operating a cold-filtered beer plant hidden within padlocked areas of the building.

At first, federal and local officials could not believe the operation was at the brewery. The padlocks had not been broken, and the only keys were in the constant

The booze runs of the 1920s and 1930s were undoubtedly the glory days for Watertown Consumer’s Brewing Co. possession of U.S. Treasury agents in St. Lawrence County.

An investigation uncovered a false wall in the building’s basement, behind which sat vats that contained 320 barrels of beer in various stages of fermentation.

The vat filters were run through a hidden two-inch-wide pipeline to a garage a few dozen yards away. In the garage was a sophisticated bottling operation and thousands of bottles.

After the threat of Prohibition ended in December 1933 and the teams of hounding federal agents retreated from the area, the brewery was back in full operation under the name Northern Brewing Co. The booze runs of the 1920s and 1930s were undoubtedly the glory days for the brewery.

However, with Prohibition lifted and competition from large-scale beer and malt companies buying up small breweries across the nation, the Watertown firm was put out of business in the early 1940s.

The now non-existent 457 Poplar St. brew house is best remembered today for its malty, full-bodied, European-style brews, with high alcohol content and a head you could stand a spoon in.

Specialties included Watertown Cream Ale, Old Style Lager, and Jefferson Lager Beer. n Grace E. Johnston is staff writer and editorial assistant for NNY Magazines. Contact her at gjohnston@wdt.net or 315-661-2381.

Business history is a monthly feature from the archives of the Watertown Daily Times. Visit www.watertowndailytimes.com to access digital archives since 1988, or stop by the Times, 260 Washington St., Watertown to research materials in our library that date back to the 1800s.

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May 2014 | NNY Business

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W H AT ’ S H A P P E NIN G H E R E ?

Woolworth building REHAB WHAT: Conversion and restoration of the historic Woolworth Building into 50 upperfloor apartments and ground floor commercial space.

LOCATION: Public Square, downtown Watertown DEVELOPERS: David J. Gallo and Erich H. Seber ARCHITECT: Crawford & Stearns Architects and Preservation Planners, Syracuse SIZE: The six-story building — which formerly was the F.W. Woolworth department store — will be transformed into 35 one-bedroom and 15 two-bedroom apartments on floors two through six with 11,000-square-feet of commercial space on the ground floor. Average apartment size will be between 650 and 700 square feet.

COST: $15 million. In 2009, the city applied for a $2.5 million Restore NY grant to help finance the project.

BUILDER: Purcell-LeCesse Joint Venture COMPLETION: The developers expect construction to be finished by the end of the year.

LOCAL JOBS: 65 construction jobs and

AMANDA MORRISON | NNY BUSINESS

Work is about 25 percent complete on a roughly $15 million historic restoration of the former Woolworth building on Watertown’s Public Square. When finished, it will feature 50 apartments and new retail space.

15 subcontractors. Additionally, an unspecified number of retail, service-related and office jobs can be expected once the residential and commercial spaces are completed.

FEATURES: Green space across the street on Public Square, between Cam’s Pizzeria and the Woodruff Professional Building will be converted into a 31-space lot for tenant parking.

N E X T M ON T H

I

n our June issue, we present “A Tale of Two Towns,” a look at the history and future of Clayton and Alexandria Bay as each charts a course for revival along the St. Lawrence River.

Also coming next month: n young entrepreneurs: We visit with three people — a personal trainer, an information technology consultant and a hunting decoy manufacturer — who have traded in their day jobs to pursue passions that had previously been hobbies. n SMALL BUsiness startup: We talk with a retired army officer who has taken to the Great Lakes with “Sail Ontario” n 20 QUESTIONS: An in-depth interview with a north country business leader. n PLUS: NNY Snapshot, Economically Speaking, Commerce Corner, Nonprofits Today, Business Tech Bytes, Small Business Success, Real Estate, Agri-Business, Business History and Business Scene. n VISIT US ONLINE at www.nnybizmag.com.

Follow us on Twitter for daily updates at @NNYBusinessMag, like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/nnybusiness, and view eEditions at www.issuu.com/NNYBusiness.

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NNY Business | May 2014

IMMACULATE HEART CENTRAL SCHOOLS Thank you to the sponsors of the 2014 Immaculate Heart Legacy Gala To benefit instruction and the Immaculate Heart Scholarship Fund St. Joseph’s Level Stebbins Engineering & Manufacturing

Founders’ Level

Anonymous Donation Helen and Joseph Cannella Tim and Diane Monroe QuikMed Urgent Care H&R Block - The St. Croix Family Watertown Daily Times Watertown Savings Bank

Bishop’s Level

Dr. Paul G. Carr Dr. Joseph P. Girardi, DDS Bishop Terry R. LaValley, D.D., J.C.L. The Morgia Group Dr. Marlene and Cyril Mouaikel Northern Radiology Imaging The Sisters of St. Joseph Watertown Internists

Immaculate Heart Academy Level Carthage Federal Savings and Loan Dr. Walter and Berline Dodard Randy, Beth and Maggie Fipps Jefferson Dental Patrick Rheaume Dr. Alejandro and Karina Rodriguez Syracuse Media Group

Immaculate Heart Central Level Art’s Jug/Sboro’s Restaurant Benefit Services Group Clarence Henry Coach Drs. Marylene and Eric Duah DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Dr. Robert & Charisse Martinucci Rev. Steven M. Murray Pepsi Bottling Group of Watertown RSI Roofing St. Anthony’s Church/St. Patrick’s Church Ed and Tracy Valentine Justin, Jody-Marie and Javier-Keron White

Thank You Also to our 74 Other Generous Alumni, Parent, Parishioner & Business Sponsors!

May 2014 | NNY Business

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