NNY Business July 2016

B

Y usIness // Annual AGRICULTURE issue

JULY 2016 Volume 6 No.8

Farming for the future

nnybizmag.com

***

THE INTERVIEW Cross Island Farms’ Dani Baker, page 28

State grant program aids new family farms

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2 | NNY Business | July 2016

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July 2016 | NNY Business

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4 | NNY Business | July 2016

>>

Inside JULY 2016 14

13 20

22 |

SMALL BIZ STARTUP |

|

COVER |

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13 NEW DIGS FOR DOGS Laughing Dogs Lodge in Glenfield offers creature comforts for pooches. |

AGRI-TOURISM |

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FEATURES |

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Agribusiness |

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20 CRAFT BEVERAGE BOOM Some 21 years after the first craft brewery launched, the industry is near a tipping point.

14 NEXT-GEN FARMING A new state grant program supports early stage farm business in Jefferson, Lewis.

22 ‘Spirit of the river’ St. Lawrence Spirits, a hyper-local farm distillery is set to open this summer.

15 farms get social For many ag operations, social media is an easy way to connect new customers while promoting products.

24 Automating organics Agbotic is pioneering the use of robotics in greenhousebased growing operations.

|

TOP TRANSACTIONS |

27 TOP TRANSACTIONS Top 10 sales in Jefferson, St. Lawrence counties top $6.2m in the month of May. BUSINESS SCENE |

40 networking, nny style Businessmen and women connect for success across Northern New York.

ONLINE |

nNYBIZMAG.COM Connect with us online for daily updates, more photos and exclusive Web content.

July 2016 | NNY Business

|5

C o n tr i b u t o r s

BusIness nnybizmag.com

Chairman of the Board John B. Johnson Jr.

Lance M. Evans is the executive officer for the Jefferson-Lewis and St. Lawrence County boards of Realtors. He answers some common real estate questions. (p. 26)

Rande Richardson is executive director of the Northern New York Community Foundation.

He offers eight steps that can help any organization define excellence. (p. 33)

Jill Van Hoesen is chief information officer for Johnson Newspapers and a 28-year IT veteran.

She writes about how to optimize your web user experience. (p. 34)

Editor & Publisher John B. Johnson

Co-Publisher

Harold B. Johnson II

Magazine Editor

Kenneth J. Eysaman

Magazine Associate Karee M. Magee

Contributing Writers

Norah Machia & Joleene Moody

Photography

Jay Matteson is the agricultural coordinator for the Jefferson County Industrial Development Corp. He writes abouy how local ‘junk laws’ impact farmers. (p. 35)

Sarah O’Connell is an advisor for the New York state Small Business Development Center at SUNYJefferson. She offers tips for continuing education. (p. 36)

Joleene Moody is a freelance writer who lives in Pulaski with her husband and daughter.

She writes about how success comes only with perseverance. (p. 35)

Justin Sorensen, Amanda Morrison Jason Hunter, Stephen Swofford

Director of Advertising Michelle Bowers

Magazine Advertising Manager Beth Hornbarger

Advertising Sales

Justin Sullivan, Jill Halley, Laurie Denesha, Barb Loomis, Jim Homa, Katie Nelson, Yvonne Houppert, Cindy Aucter and Marcia Sanderson

Advertising Graphics

Brian Mitchell, Rick Gaskin, Heather O’Driscoll, Scott Smith, Todd Soules Norah Machia is a freelance writer and veteran Watertown Daily Times reporter. In this month’s cover story, she writes early stage farms in the north country. (p. 14)

Marcus Wolf is a Johnson Newspapers staff writer. He writes about the latest developments with Agbotic and its automated tools for agriculture. (p. 24)

MARKETPLACE Bill’s Feed Service ..................... 34 Bonnie Castle Resort & Marina ......................... 19 Carthage Area Hospital ............. 3 Caskinette’s Ford ...................... 44 Clayton Dental Office ............... 46 Coleman’s Corner .................... 46 Countryside Veterinary Clinic ........................................... 17 Cream Cheese Festival ............ 41 Cross Island Farms .................... 46 D.G.M. Coon & Company Commercial Property Management Services ............. 42 D.L. Calarco Funeral Home ...... 25 Dr. Guitar Music ......................... 46 Dunn-Glass Insurance ................ 8 Emerge Professionals Group of NNY ............................ 21 Fairground Inn ........................... 46 Farm Credit East ........................ 27 Fishing for Freedom Thousand Islands ....................... 48

6 | NNY Business | July 2016

Foy Agency Insurance ............... 4 Fuccillo Auto Malls ...................... 9 Fuller Insurance Agency ............ 4 Garlock’s Design Center .......... 19 H.D. Goodale Co. Insurance ..... 4 HighTower Advisors ................... 30 Hospice of Jefferson County ..... 32 Immaculate Heart Central Schools ........................... 4 Jake’s Lawn Care & Garden Center ......................... 3 Jefferson County Agriculture ................................. 35 Lewis County Economic Development ............................. 18 Liberty Glass & Window ............ 26 Macar’s Interiors ........................ 12 Mill Creek Farm ......................... 46 New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Health .................. 7 NNYAutoFinder.com .................. 4 NNY Business Magazine ........... 47 Northern New York Community

Foundation ................................. 31 Northern New York Farmers Market ......................... 34 Nortz & Virkler Ford ..................... 9 O.D. Greene Lumber & Hardware ................................ 23 Paradise Energy Solutions ........ 17 Pearl’s Pastry Shoppe ............... 46 SeaComm Federal Credit Union ............................... 36 Slack Chemical Co. ................. 21 T.F. Wright & Sons Granite Foundry ...................................... 32 Truax & Son Insurance ................ 8 Tunes 92.5/104.5 FM WBLH Radio ................................ 43 Waite Indian Motorcycle ......... 40 Waite Toyota .............................. 23 Watertown Savings Bank ............ 2 Watertown Spring & Alignment ................................. 9 WWTI ABC TV 50 ......................... 45 Ziebart Tidycar ............................. 9

Circulation Director Mary Sawyer

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. © 2010-2016. 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.

Subscription Rates 12 issues are $15 a year and 24 issues are $25 for two years.

Call 315-782-1000 to subscribe.

Submissions Send all editorial correspondence to keysaman@wdt.net Advertising For advertising rates and information in Jefferson and Lewis counties, email bhornbarger@wdt.net, or call 315-661-2325 In St. Lawrence County, e-mail blabrake@ogd.com, or call 315-661-2507 Printed with pride in U.S.A. at Vanguard Printing LLC, Ithaca, N.Y., a Forest Stewardship Certified facility.

Please recycle this magazine.

| THE INTERVIEW |

| ABOUT THE COVER |

28 sustaining organics Eleven years ago, Dani Baker and her partner founded Cross Island Farms on Wellesley Island. Ms. Baker tells us how the farm has grown to support hundreds of crops, livestock and agri-touirsm. | COLUMNS |

33 NONPROFITS TODAY 34 BUSINESS TECH BYTES 35 AGRIBUSINESS

36 SMALL BUSINESS SUCCESS 37 ENTREPRENEUR’S EDGE

| DEPARTMENTS |

8 EDITOR’S NOTE 8 NEXT MONTH 9 PEOPLE ON THE MOVE 10 ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT 12 BUSINESS BRIEFCASE

13 SMALL BIZ STARTUP 26 real estate roundup 27 TOP transactions 38 CALENDAR 40 BUSINESS SCENE

For this month’s cover photo, freelance photographer Anthony Machia captured Jay Canzonier and his son, Joseph, as they inspect crops at North Branch Farms in Belleville. Writer Norah Machia visited the farm, which is one of two in the region to receive a state grant to help with early stage growth. Norah’s cover story about young farming families begins on page 14.

July 2016 | NNY Business

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T

EDITO R’S N O T E his month, in our annual agriculture issue, we are excited to share the story of family farms that represent the future of Northern New York’s agriculture sector. Two early stage farms, one in southern Jefferson County and the other in Lewis County, are among 25 across the state to receive grants from the state’s new Farmer’s Grant Fund that supports farming operations that are in various stages of Ken Eysaman start-up.

For our cover story, writer Norah Machia visits the Higby family in the Lewis County town of Leyden. In 2007, the Higbys started a dairy operation on 120 acres off Route 12D. Norah also visits the Canzonier family at North Branch Farms in Belleville. Both farms recently received grants from the state’s fund to help them grow their operations. Norah’s story begins on page 14. In a related story, Norah looks at how many farms are embracing social media as a means to connect with potential customers and market their operations.

Also this month, Magazine Associate Karee Magee reports on growth in the region’s craft beverage industry, which has welcomed a host of distilleries, breweries, wineries and even a cidery. Karee also visits Saint Lawrence Spirits, the newest farm distillery that is set to open later this summer in Clayton. Her stories about the craft beverage industry begin on page 20.

Johnson Newspaper Staff Writer Marcus Wolf visits Agbotic for an update

I

20 QUESTIONS — This month we sit down Dani Baker, co-owner and operator of Cross Island Farms on Wellesley Island.

Her farm is the only certified organic operation in Jefferson County. Dani shares a story of perseverance as she and her partner, David Belding, inch toward profitability in their 11th year of operation.

BUSINESS SCENE — This month’s Scene section, which begins on page 40, features 33 faces from nearly three-dozen businesses and organizations across the region.

On June 15, Carthage staffer Elaine Avallone joined the Carthage Area Chamber of Commerce for its June Business After Hours at Independent Medical Evaluation Company which marked its 10th anniversary. The next day, Magazine Associate Karee Magee joined the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce at Jake’s Lawn Care & Garden Center, Watertown, for its June Business After Hours.

Finally, on July 1, we joined North Country Honors the Mountain as it unveiled the much-anticipated 10th Mountain Division Monument in historic Thompson Park’s Tower Square.

CONTACT US — As always, if you have any questions, comments or general feedback, including story ideas, please contact me at keysaman@wdt.net or (315) 6612399. NNY Business strives to publish an accurate magazine each month. If you spot an error of fact, please contact me.

Yours in business,

N E X T MON T H

n our August, our annual health care issue, writer Norah Machia examines how telemedicine is helping providers to access higher levels of care for patients across Northern New York.

Also coming next month: n EVOLUTION OF AN AGENCY: The Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization has grown its mission, staff and budget considerably since it formed in 2005. We look at its future and its impact on regional health care. n SMALL BIZ STARTUP: A feature story about a recently opened north country small business in Jefferson County.

8 | NNY Business | July 2016

on how its robotic technology is helping to manage greenhouse-based crops. His story starts on page 24.

n 20 QUESTIONS: An in-depth interview with River Hospital CEO Ben Moore III. 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 nnybizmag.com for exclusive daily Wed content. Follow us on Twitter for daily updates at @NNYBusinessMag, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/nny business, and view eEditions at www.issuu. com/NNYBusiness.

PEOPLE O N T H E MO V E New providers named at Carthage Behavioral Health

Three new providers have joined Carthage Area Hospital’s Behavioral Health clinic, the hospital recently announced.

Carrie Edick is a recent psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner graduate from SUNY Upstate Medical University and a lifelong Northern New York resident. Ms. Edick plans to pursue a doctorate of nurse practitioners this Edick fall through SUNY Upstate Medical University.

Kristen Bloom is a licensed mental health clinician and a certified drug and alcohol counselor.

She graduated with a bachelor’s in social science from Campbell University in North Carolina and earned a master’s in mental health counseling from SUNY Oswego.

Bloom Early in her career, Mrs. Bloom worked at Credo Community Center and at Carthage Behavioral Health. She most recently worked in the Watertown School District with military family members before returning to Carthage Behavioral Health. Mrs. Bloom is married with three children. She loves animals and aspires to utilize animals in a therapeutic setting. In her free time, she enjoys being on the water, spending time with her family and vacationing in Florida.

Susan Hoenninger is a Long Island native who moved to Central New York in 1985.

Early in her career, she worked as a litigation paralegal.

She changed careers in 1994 and became a therapist, earning a master’s from SUNY Oswego in human services/counseling.

In 2006, she became Hoenninger a licensed mental health counselor.

Ms. Hoenninger has worked for several agencies and has managed a private practice.

Before coming to Carthage Area Hospital, she was employed as a Military Family Life Counselor in a school setting. Some of her treatment specialties include treating victims and survivors of all ages for domestic violence including sexual abuse and assault, anxiety and depression, and working with adults and

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.

providing marital counseling.

Ms. Hoenninger has two children and one granddaughter. She lives in Richland and enjoys gardening, bird watching, cooking, crafting, reading and playing with her three Pembroke Welsh Corgis.

The Carthage Behavioral Health Clinic is located at the hospital’s professional building, 3 Bridge St., Carthage. Visit carthagehospital. com to learn more.

Mutual of Omaha names Watertown native VP

Mutual of Omaha recently named Watertown native Richard Hrabchak executive vice president and chief investment officer, the company announced.

Mr. Hrabchak most recently served as chief investment officer for Prudential Financial’s U.S. Retirement Business. In 29 years at Prudential, Mr. Hrabchak held a variety of investment management and finance positions.

As chief investment officer, Mr. Hrabchak is responsible for oversight and management of Mutual of Omaha’s investment portfolios.

Mr. Hrabchak earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and an Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and a Chartered Life Underwriter.

Mutual of Omaha is a full-service, multi-line organization providing insurance, banking and financial products for individuals, businesses and groups throughout the United States.

Promoted at Community Bank

Margaret Farone has been promoted to branch manager of Community Bank N.A.’s Black River location.

In her new role Mrs. Farone will manage daily office operations, ensuring customers receive the highest level of service. She is also responsible for managing sales and promoting business development.

Mrs. Farone brings more than 23 years of experience in the banking industry to the position. Most recently, she served as a retail service officer in Community Bank’s Washington Street branch in Watertown.

Mrs. Farone earned a bachelor’s degree and Master of Business Administration at Le Moyne College. She is active in her community, volunteering with the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association and Irish Festival. She lives in Watertown with her husband and two children.

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Average New York surrogate* price for on-highway diesel

May 2016 $1.38 April 2016 $1.38 May 2015 $1.56

May 2016 $2.44 April 2016 $2.32 May 2015 $3.15

11.5

Average NNY price for gallon of regular unleaded gas

Vehicles crossing the Thousand Islands bridge

15.0%

175,079 in May 2016 147,431 in April 2016 187,577 in May 2015

22.7%

Vehicles crossing the Ogdensburg-Prescott bridge 54,287 in May 2016 47,634 in April 2016 61,381 in May 2015

Average NNY price for gallon of residential propane

3.7%

Ogdensburg Bridge & Port Authority

Vehicles crossing the Seaway International (Massena) bridge

Source: NYS Energy Research and Development Authority

202,042 in May 2016 182,673 in April 2016 200,739 in May 2015

Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors single-family home sales 96, median price $120,500 in May 2016 83, median price $126,300 in April 2016 101, median price $150,000 in May 2015

Seaway International Bridge Corp.

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

19.7%

$1.31 on March 31, 2016 $1.25 on Feb. 29, 2016 $1.25 on March 31, 2015

Price

St. Lawrence Board of Realtors single-family home sales 49, median price $79,000 in May 2016 55, median price $75,000 in April 2016 65, median price $96,000 in May 2015

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

17.7%

92,200 in May 2016 90,200 in April 2016 92,100 in May 2015

Price

Source: NYS Department of Labor

NNY unemployment rates

United States

5.3 May 2015

May 2016

April 2016

May 2016

May 2015

April 2016

May 2016

4.2

5.9

New York State

6.6

8.0

Lewis County

6.9

6.2

6.3 May 2015

5.5

6.5 April 2016

5.2

St. Lawrence County

4.7

Source: Jefferson-Lewis / St. Lawrence boards of Realtors Inc.

Jefferson County

0.1%

April 2016

Sales

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of N.Y.

4.5

24.6%

4.8%

May 2016

Sales

0.6%

5.3

5.0%

11.6%

May 2015

May 2016 $2.60 April 2016 $2.75 May 2015 $2.70

6.7%

Source: T.I. Bridge Authority

4.6

May 2016 $2.21 April 2016 $2.16 May 2015 $2.86

May 2016

ECON SNAPSHOT

Average NNY price for gallon of home heating oil

April 2016

May 2016 $2.32 April 2016 $2.18 May 2015 $2.73

22.5%

*Prices are the composite area that includes New York, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.

Source: U.S. DOE, Energy Information Administration

Source: NYS Department of Agriculture

10 | NNY Business | July 2016

(Percent gains and losses are over 12 months)

Average per-gallon milk price paid to N.Y. dairy farmers

May 2015

NNY

Economic indicators

Source: U.S. Department of Labor and New York State Department of Labor (Not seasonally adjusted. Latest available data reported.)

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

Economic indicators New automobiles (cars and trucks) registered in Jefferson County Trucks Cars 115 in May 2016 435 in May 2016 116 in April 2016 404 in April 2016 108 in May 2015 441 in May 2015

1.4%

NNY

6.5%

Source: Jefferson County Clerk’s Office

Passengers* at Watertown International Airport

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

3,086 in May 2016 2,765 in April 2016 4,057 in May 2015

2,287 in May 2016 2,318 in April 2016 2,310 in May 2015

23.9%

*Inbound and outbound passengers Source: Jefferson County Board of Legislators

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

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

June 30: Emelia Kennedy Clothing Boutique, 20515 Weaver Road, Watertown, Kirsten Colburn, 20515 Weaver Road, Watertown.

June 29: Ineffable Deal, 464 Bugbee Drive, Watertown, Derek Thompson, 464 Bugbee Drive, Watertown. n Espinoza’s Yard Care, 123 Chestnut St., Watertown, Roman R. Espinoza, 123 Chestnut St., Watertown.

June 28: Cooperative Real Estate North Country Specialists, 24685 State Route 37, Watertown, Jason G. Smith, 25683 Beckwith Road, Evans Mills.

June 24: RPM Landscaping and General Maintenance, 110 Haley St., Watertown. Ryan Patrick L’Huillier, 110 Haley St., Watertown. n D.J. and Sons Trucking and Excavating, 28219 County Route 55, Fox Road, Watertown, Donald F. Jewett, 28219 County Route 55, Fox Road, Watertown.

June 23: Chop Shop Auto Repair and Salvage, 787 Pearl St., Watertown, Andrew W. Farr, 27634 State Route 283, Lot 51, Black River. n Pat’s Handyman Service, 1087 E. Joseph St., P.O. Box 396, Cape Vincent, Patrick J. Lawrence, 1087 E. Joseph St., Cape Vincent. n Beep Trucking, 661 Factory St., Apt. 3, Watertown, Elaine Dorn, 667 Fairbanks St., Watertown, Brett Murdock, 667 Fairbanks St., Watertown.

June 22: Live Love Lula Roe with Katie Lane, 677 Cayuga Ave., Watertown, Katherine E. Lane, 677 Cayuga Ave., Watertown.

June 21: Upstate Enterprises, 9999 Nash Road, Mannsville, Caleb Alfred Tifft, 9999 Nash Road, Mannsville. n Country Roads Creative Content Solutions, 9730 Lawrence Road, Adams, Kathleen Rose Montgomery, 9730 Lawrence Road, Adams. n Laura Greene Consulting, 16427 Butler Drive, Sackets Harbor, Laura Greene, 16427 Butler Drive, Sackets Harbor. n Michael’s Property Services, 21965 Holcomb St., Watertown, Michael F. Jeschawitz, 21965 Holcomb St., Watertown. n BHR Racing, 11269 Bishop Street Road, Adams, Brian Hudson, 11269 Bishop Street Road, Adams.

June 20: B-Hat’s Curry House, 1222 Arsenal St., Suite 14, Watertown, Prabin Rana Bhat, 21820 Heather Acres Drive, #1D, Watertown.

June 17: Friends of Farm, 26327 State Route 283, Watertown, Dina L. Kelly, 26327 State Route 283, Watertown. n J B Farms, 9033 State Route 12E, Chaumont, Justin Marshall Bourquin, 9033 State Route 12E, Chaumont. n Collectors Paradise, 1015 Water St., Watertown, Jade Paul Coman, 12 James St., Apt. B, Pulaski.

June 16: Above All Services, 221 Academy St., Watertown, Teresa Anne Clobridge, 221 Academy St., Watertown. n Walker PMC, 120 Pine Drive, Black River, Michael Christopher Walker, 120 Pine Drive, Black River.

June 15: River Paws, 42781 State Route 12, Alexandria Bay,

Michelle Kristin Steward, 41101 Smithering Heights, Clayton. n 12 Smiles Photography, 9065 B Bassett St., Fort Drum, Natalie Marie Rodriguez, 9065B Bassett St., Fort Drum. n VIP Cigars, 20360 Derouin Drive, Sackets Harbor, Richard Francis Martin, 20360 Derouin Drive, Sackets Harbor.

June 14: Underground Ink, 141 JB Wise Place, Watertown, Darrell Ernest Gardner, 532 Stone St., Watertown. n Let’s Bounce, 9910 Route 12E, Chaumont, Sheri Jo Robinson, 9910 Route 12E, Chaumont. n Sonny’s Landscaping, 25625 Industrial Blvd., Pamelia, Joseph Pickering, 17 Ferry St., Hudson Falls.

June 13: Woodys Hobby Farm, 10629 Cobbville Road, Adams, Jason M. Woodworth, 10629 Cobbville Road, Adams. n Lake Country Property Services, 42626 Cullen Camp Road, Redwood, Zachary A. Cullen, 42626 Cullen Camp Road, Redwood.

June 10: Battlewolf Tactical Systems, 190 Stone St., Apt. 1, Watertown, Larry Allen Holly, 190 Stone St., Apt. 1, Watertown. n Old 34, 34897 County Route 28, Philadelphia, Hendrik William Vandervegt, 625 Seneca St., P.O. Box 294, Watertown.

June 9: Luckies Professional Landscaping & Demolition Service, 12059 County Route 125, Chaumont, Lawren Michelle Luartes, 12059 County Route 125, Chaumont.

June 8: Wellesley Hotel Restaurant, 42809 St. Lawrence Ave., TI Park, Sandy M. Jeffries, 84 N. Crossman St., P.O. Box 452, Alex Bay. June 7: Thai Cuisine Restaurant, 26390 State Route 11, Building A, Evans Mills, Saengdao Boonsom, 112 Leray St., Black River.

June 6: Reel Commander Fishing Charter, 17 Starring Ave., Alexandria Bay, David Michael Cortright, 48730 County Route 1, Redwood. n Leading the Way Dog School, 15650 County Route 5, Clayton, Viola M. Foresman, 15650 County Route 5, Clayton. n Rise ‘n Shine Housekeeping, 26397 Ridge Road, Watertown, Christine Meyers, 26397 Ridge Road, Watertown. n Maple Walnut Farm, 28689 Perch Lake Road, Watertown, Claude Wilson, 28689 Perch Lake Road, Watertown.

June 3: 1000 Islands Home Services, 8824 County Route 5, Three Mile Bay, Christina L. Ottman, 8824 County Route 5, Chaumont, Larry J. Ottman IV, 8824 County Route 5, Chaumont. n Juniper Tree Yoga, 313 General Smith Drive, Sackets Harbor, Quincey Blanchard Oliver, 313 General Smith Drive, P.O. Box 454, Sackets Harbor. n Dale R. Felder Grass Lake Farms, Burns Road, Theresa, Dale Robert Felder, 29817 Hickory Lane, Redwood.

June 2: Public Knowledge Records, 446 Ambrose St., Sacket Harbor, Jonathan Edward Thomas Huntsman, 446 Ambrose St., Sackets Harbor.

June 1: Coffee Time, 21182 Salmon Run Mall Loop W., Watertown, Ippel Tofamamao Laufasa, 15675 Emicike Place #107, Watertown.

transactions

DBAs

1.0%

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 11

Business briefcase MEDIA

Community Broadcasters expands into Florida

Watertown-based Community Broadcasters, LLC, has purchased four signals from Apex Broad Broadcasting, Inc., in the Destin/Fort Walton Beach, Fla., market and filed for transfer of the licenses pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission in June.

Community Broadcasters is in partnership with Northwood Ventures of Syosset.

The company owns and operates 16 signals in Upstate and Northern New York, 16 radio stations, seven translators and three TV construction permits in South Carolina.

The Apex Broadcasting purchase adds four new signals to its radio group bringing its total holdings to 46.

EDUCATION

SUNY Potsdam concludes $33m capital campaign The State University of New York concluded its Take the Lead: The Campaign for Potsdam fundraiser on June 30 after raising $33.5 million to support scholarships and programs at the college, eclipsing its final goal by $1.5 million.

The campaign began in 2013 and exceeded its original goal of $27 million one year after launching, which prompted the college to increase the goal to $32 million.

The campaign received donations from nearly 14,000 and brought in $4.3 million in fiscal year 2015-16 alone.

The Take the Lead Campaign garnered 186 Leadership Donors who gave $20,000 or more, of whom 57 were named to the

Chancellor’s Circle that recognizes donors who gave $100,000 or more. The college also received eight gifts in excess of $1 million during the campaign.

The strategic priorities of the Take the Lead Campaign were academic excellence, scholarships, student experiences, the arts and the Annual Fund for Potsdam. The college exceeded its fundraising goals for all of these categories, including the establishment of 96 new endowed scholarships and the creation of 48 additional program endowments.

SMALL BUSINESS

J&B Meats relocates

Needing more space and place to call his own, John Bushey has moved his J&B Meats from the Valero station across the bridge to 118 Canal St. After working as a local grocery store butcher for nearly 30 years, Mr. Bushey opened his meat market featuring marinated chicken and jerked meat in March 2015.

With the expanded new space next to Rite Aid, Mr. Bushey hopes to better serve the community and has added fresh produce from Bush’s Gardens, Deer River.

In the future, he plans to add breads and beverages. Eventually he wants to serve soup and sandwiches at the shop.

Fuller Office Supply under new ownership

Fuller & Sons Office Supplies is under new ownership.

Bobbie Stokes has bought the business at 272 State St. The new owner has expanded the hours of business and plans to add inventory to include school supplies and products for the home.

Got business news?

n Share your business news with NNY Business. Email news releases and photos (.jpg/300 dpi) to nnybusiness@wdt.net. The deadline for submissions is the 15th of the month for the following month’s issue. Photos that don’t appear in print may be posted on our Facebook page.

The store is now open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

FOOD & BEVERAGE

Coyote Moon Vineyards wins international contest

Coyote Moon Vineyard’s Island Mama wine won a Best of Class and a Chairman’s award at the Dan Berger International Wine Competition in California’s Sonoma wine region in June.

The winery also earned Best of Class awards for Moscato, River Time, River Run and Fire Boat White; Chairman’s Awards for La Crescent and Brianna; Gold medals for Marquette, and Fire Boat Red; plus five Silver and five Bronze medals for various other wines.

Restaurant to open in Stateway Plaza

Prabin Bhat, a retiring Fort Drum soldier, is following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather.

Mr. Bhat intends to open a restaurant with Indian and Nepalese cuisine in a Stateway Plaza storefront.

His grandfather owned a restaurant in Nepal and his father was a master chef for an Indian restaurant in Chicago for more than 25 years.

Please see BRIEFCASE, page 44

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MACAR’S 161 Coleman Avenue Watertown • 788-3732

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12 | NNY Business | July 2016

Sm all Bu siness sta rt up BUSINESS

Laughing Dogs Lodge THE INITIAL IDEA As a lifelong dog lover and former director of the Lewis County Humane Society, Patti Gorby witnessed how stressful kennel boarding can be for dogs and their owners.

When she left the Humane Society, Ms. Gorby wanted to remain in Lewis County instead of moving to run another shelter.

Instead, she put two and a half years into planning a new kind of dog boarding experience.

“I knew from my own experience what I wanted, but I wanted to make sure it was a viable business,” she said. “I drew the place out I don’t know how many times.”

Her vision was to create a comfortable, happy boarding experience for dogs and their owners by making it as homey as possible, instead of the cage-style of most kennels. From this philosophy, Laughing Dog Lodge in Glenfield was born.

TARGET CLIENTELE Through her own experience boarding her dogs, Ms. Gorby said she was never happy with the standard way boarding kennels were set up so the dogs could see each other.

“I know how stressed out dogs get, and people,” she said. “I wanted the dogs to feel like they were in a home and not in a cage.”

Instead, Ms. Gorby’s designed rooms for her kennel, cutting down on the stress by making it impossible for the dogs to see each other and taking away the typical caged atmosphere. Each room is large enough to accommodate two dog beds for families of dogs, and have easy-to-clean tile walls and garden gate-style doors with carved Adirondack-theme designs.

The lodge also includes three outdoor play yards and indoor playroom for winter to make sure the dogs can be out as much as possible, Ms. Gorby said.

“I don’t want them to sit in their rooms all day,” she said.

The lodge was designed for the owners as well as the dogs, though, Ms. Gorby said, because she understands the stress of leaving your dog with someone else, especially since many kennels don’t allow the owner into the back to see where their dogs will stay.

“You can’t just walk through the building,” she said. “I want people to walk through mine.”

Since she opened in May, Ms. Gorby said she’s received an amazing response.

Several of her boarders have become repeat customers.

AMANDA MORRISON | NNY BUSINESS

“I know how stressed out dogs get, and people. I wanted the dogs to feel like they were in a home and not in a cage.”

— Patti Gorby, owner, Laughing Dogs Lodge, Glenfield “It’s better than I’ve expected,” she said.

“They just thought their dogs were happy here.”

THE JOURNEY Ms. Gorby wanted to create a sustainable business where people would want to bring their dogs, which took more than two years of planning and another two to execute before she was comfortable with the boarding experience she created.

“I want to be as good a resource as I can be,” she said. “I want them to feel comfortable recommending me to their friends.”

Part of creating her business, though, was creating a homey atmosphere. To do that, Ms. Gorby and her boyfriend, Joe Suiter, built the building completely from local wood, most of which was from the grounds on which the building stands.

Everything about the lodge was handcrafted, Ms. Gorby said, including the steel doors with carved designs in each room.

Ms. Gorby designed the play yards to prevent any of the dogs from getting out. The 6-foot fences have an additional 2½ feet buried underneath the soil to discourage digging and netting on top to prevent climbers.

“I designed it with the worst escape artists in mind,” she said.

The construction also included installing a self-service dog wash area with professional grooming appliances, including an elevated tub and dryer.

“That elevated tub makes all the difference because you don’t have to bend over,” Ms. Gorby said. “It’s all professional-grade grooming equipment.

The self-service dog wash is an idea she got when she was studying at Indiana University, Bloomington. She used a self-service dog wash while she was there and it made all the difference.

Dog owners can bring their dogs to wash by themselves, Ms. Gorby said, or she can wash the dogs for them.

IN FIVE YEARS Ms. Gorby’s plans for her business are to focus on the getting the word out more about the kennel and the self-service dog wash. The dog wash, particularly, is something new to the region and should be advertised more, she said.

“People just don’t know what it is,” she said.

Ms. Gorby, though, is also mulling the idea of starting a doggie day care service.

“I don’t know if people would go for that or not,” she said. “In some areas it flies really well.”

Besides having the interest, Ms. Gorby is trying to determine whether she would need to increase the size of her space to accommodate more dogs.

“I could do it, but it’s not going to be one of those big programs with lots of dogs,” she said.

— Karee Magee

WHERE Glenfield | LAUNCHED May 2016 | WEB Laughingdoglodge.com

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 13

From left, Michael, Christopher, Andrew, and Carrie Higby at their family farm in the town of Leyden in Lewis County. The Higbys started their dairy operation nine years ago on 120 acres off Route 12D.

C O V E R S T O RY

Investing in the family

farm’s future state’s new farmer’s grant fund supports early stage agricultural businesses in jefferson, lewis counties STORY BY NORAH MACHIA | PHOTOS BY AFM PHOTOGRAPHY

N

nine years ago, Michael and Carrie HigbY DECIDED to quit their day jobs and start operating a dairy farm in the town of Leyden.

Both had been raised on dairy farms, but neither stayed in their respective family businesses. Instead, Mr. Higby worked as a mason and Mrs. Higby provided child care while they raised their two sons, Christopher, 13, and Andrew, 11.

After the birth of their youngest child the couple started talking about returning to their farming roots.

“We wanted to teach our boys something” Mr. Higby said.

The couple, with support from their families and friends, bought 120 acres off Route 12D in Lewis County, and have since expanded their operation to 100 milking

cows and 120 young stock. In 2014, they built a freestanding barn next to their home.

Recently, they were notified their farm would receive some additional support through a New York State program designed to help certain farmers increase efficiency and boost production of their agricultural products.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced last month the New Farmers Grant Fund would provide more than $743,000 in grants to support 25 early stage agricultural businesses across the state.

The purpose of the fund, now in its second round, is to help farmers in business less than 10 years. The goal is to improve their farm’s profitability and, as a result, add to the diversification and growth of New York’s agricultural

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 15

C OV E R STORY All owners of the farm sector, according to a operation must be in the release from the goverfirst 10 years of having nor’s office. an ownership interest in “Agriculture remains any farm operation, and a critical component of the farm operation must the New York’s econhave a minimum of omy and these grants $10,000 in sales of prodwill help ensure this ucts grown or raised on industry’s continued the farm, strength,” Gov. Cuomo according to Empire had stated. “This fundState Development. ing will support new There were 55 appliand emerging agribusicants statewide during nesses as they expand the most recent funding their operations, develop round, with two north and market high-quality country farms receiving products and generate grants. new growth in their The Higbys will communities.” receive an $18,000 grant, Empire State Developwhile Jay J. Canzonier, ment, in consultation owner of North Branch with the New York State Above, Jay Canzonier with his children, Margo, 7, Joeseph, 9, and Daniel, 6, at North Branch Farms, Belleville. Below, Christopher, 13 and Andrew Higby, 11, feed cows on the family farm.

Farms, Belleville, will Department of Agrireceive a $45,000 grant culture and Markets, administers the New Farmers Grant Fund. The goal of the program is to help farm- through the program. The awards are ers improve profitability through costs matching grants, meaning the state monNew York State has allocated $1 million associated with expansion of production, ies will cover 50 percent of the expense, in the 2016-17 state budget for the New farm building construction, equipment while the farmers must match the other 50 Farmers Grant Fund to provide grants purchases and other upgrades that help percent with their own money. for up to $50,000 to pay for 50 percent of bolster production.

The Higbys applied for matching funds eligible project costs.

16 | NNY Business | July 2016

C OVER S TORY to purchase a new mixer. The couple has been using an older model mixer “being held together with a welding rod and bailing twine,” Mr. Higby said.

A mixer is used to combine various types of feed, such as corn, grain and hay, and then distribute the mixture in equal parts to the cows, so “they are all eating the same thing,” Mrs. Higby explained.

It makes the feeding process more efficient, saving time and allowing the farmers the opportunity to work toward increasing milk production, she said.

The Higbys received assistance from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Lewis County to complete their successful application, she said.

It was Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County, along with the Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency, that helped Mr. Canzonier apply for the grant money, he said.

Mr. Canzonier and his wife, Kathryn, have three children, Joseph, 9, Margo, 7 and Daniel 6. They had been living in New Jersey and decided to purchase their home in Belleville to be closer to Mrs. Canzonier’s family, and to have the opportunity to raise their children in the country.

His vegetable farm was started in 2008, “when the milk prices crashed,” Mr. Cazonier said. At that time, he had been working as a crop consultant, but the demand for those types of services dropped.

His wife had continued her employment with Farm Credit East, transferring from New Jersey to the Watertown office.

Mr. Cazonier decided to start his own vegetable growing operation, and initially focused on sweet corn.

Starting in mid-July, the Canzonier family will open its stand once again at 7781 Lake Road, just outside the village of Belleville, offering items such as sweet corn, cucumbers and tomatoes. Their daughter Margo also grows and sells her own flowers at the stand.

In the fall, they operate a U-Pick Pumpkin field, offering not only a range of pumpkins, but winter squash and gourds as well.

Mr. Canzonier has approximately 35 acres of land to grow his vegetables, and has constructed several buildings, including a greenhouse and a pump house.

But in order to take the farm to the next level and start selling to larger suppliers, Please see FARMING, page 19

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 17

COV E R STORY

Farmers get social with marketing

By NORAH MACHIA

A NNY Business

growing number of north country farmers are taking to social media to sell their products, or in some cases, just increase aware-

ness of them.

It’s been a tool that is being increasingly embraced by those who are in the early stages of farming, one expert said.

“The use of social media by farmers in general has been growing over the past few years,” said Beth Meyer, vice president of industry communications, American Dairy Association’s Northeast Council, Syracuse. “It’s fair to say the majority of users are younger dairy farmers, but certainly not all.”

There are many different reasons that farmers use social media, “just like everyone else,” she said.

Although consumers don’t buy milk direct from farmers, the use of social media allows the farmers to make the connection between the source of the milk that is used in specific products, she said.

“Even if you can’t buy their personal products, they want you to know where their milk goes, so people can imagine the “face of the farmer” when they buy Upstate Farms milk, Byrne Dairy yogurt or Cabot cheese, for example,” she said.

Other farmers want to “offer themselves as a resource for questions consumers

products direct to consumers, it’s a great marketing tool.”

For others, such as dairy farmers who don’t sell their milk direct to customers, the use of social media can help to educate the public about “how a farm operates,” he said.

“It’s something we’re encouraging as the general population gets further removed from agricultural operations,” Mr. Matteson said.

“Dairy farms may not have the direct benefit in terms of selling their milk, but there is an indirect benefit in terms of educating the public,” he said.

Social media can also be used to help publicize agricultural-related events, such as the annual Jefferson County Jay M. Matteson, agricultural coordinator, Dairy parade, Mr. MatJefferson County Economic Development teson said.

In fact, the website operated by the Jefferson County Economic their local communities and with today’s Development Agency has recently been technology, it can be done anytime, anyrevised to make it more user-friendly. where,” she said.

The website, jeffersoncountyagriculture.

“We offer training opportunities for com, contains an interactive map that alfarmers who’d like to get started and lows users to search for farms within the we also have a group called DairyFAN, county which sell specific agricultural which stands for Dairy Food Advocacy products. Those visiting the website can Network and is designed to train dairy select a specific food category, enter their farmers to share their stories on social address, and choose a driving distance media,” she said. limit as well.

“We’re seeing more farmers develop Facebook pages and Twitter accounts,” n Norah Machia is a freelance writer who said Jay M. Matteson, agricultural coorlives in Watertown. She is a 20-year veteran jourdinator for Jefferson County Economic nalist and former Watertown Daily Times reporter.

Development. “For those who are selling Contact her at norahmachia@gmail.com. may have about dairy products or dairy farms,” Ms. Meyer said.

“There are lots of people online who claim to be experts, but we think people want to get their answers straight from the farmer’s mouth,” she added.

Some farmers will also offer “farm tours to their followers or will list days they are hosting open farm tours,” Ms. Meyer said.

The American Dairy Association is encouraging use of social media because “it’s a great way for farmers to connect to

“

We’re seeing more farmers develop Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. For those who are selling products direct to consumers, it’s a great marketing tool.

—

Lewis County is as unique as the hard-working, life-loving population that calls this scenic region home. In a place where play inspires work, Lewis County brings together successful industries, natural resources, and an energized workforce. Add in ample new business opportunities and space for existing expansion, and you’ll see that the answer is... Naturally Lewis.

18 | NNY Business | July 2016

C OVER S TORY Visit our showroom to discover how quality materials, American-made craftsmanship and 70 years experience can make a difference in your home.

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• Styles and finishes for everyone.

Jay Canzonier, owner of North Branch Farms, Belleville, with some of his tomato plants.

FARMING, from page 17 such as food distribution services and additional chain supermarkets, Mr. Cazonier decided he needed to invest in a packing house.

His state grant will go toward the construction of a 1,500 square foot packing house, complete with wash lines and coolers. He also plans to apply for GAP certification (Good Agricultural Practices) as part of the packing house project. This certification would enable him to increase production and service more markets, including large chain grocery stores and food distribution operations, he said.

“It’s hard for small farmers to sell wholesale” without that certification, and the use of a facility such as a packing house, he said.

North Branch Farms is not a certified organic farming operation, but it employs many “organic production methods,” Mr. Canzonier said.

“We use integrated safe pest management control and only spray when needed,” he said. “We don’t do a broad spectrum application of pesticides.”

For more information on the grant program, check out esd.ny.gov/Business Programs/NewFarmersGrantFund.

Mon.-Fri. 7am - 5pm Sat. 8-3pm • Sun. 9am-1pm 15 Washington St., Alexandria Bay www.garlocks.com • 482-2521

n Norah Machia is a freelance writer who lives in Watertown. She is a 20-year veteran journalist and former Watertown Daily Times reporter.

Contact her at norahmachia@gmail.com.

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 19

FE AT UR E S

From left, Kaneb Orchards owners Edward Kaneb Jr. and Elizabeth Kaneb with Kaneb Orchards marketing/ sales manager Nancy Badlam at their Massena cider operation.

JASON HUNTER | NNY BUSINESS

Tapping into agri-tourism Region’s craft beverage industry diversifies as it grows

By Karee Magee

T

NNY Business

wenty-one years after the north country’s first craft brewery, Sackets Harbor Brewing Company, opened in 1995, the craft beverage industry in the region has hit its stride as a major contributor to agri-tourism.

The tri-county area has seen an increased number of wineries — about a dozen since the early 2000s — but in the past five years the craft beverage industry has welcomed the emergence of a variety of different businesses from breweries to distilleries, and even a hard cidery in St. Lawrence County.

“We were untapped prior to 2000, but we had the tourism here,” said Jay Matteson.

“We have the tourism destination of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Thousand Islands Region.”

Mr. Matteson said having a location that is already established as a tourism destina-

20 | NNY Business | July 2016

tion, as well as the award-winning quality products produced by craft business in the region has the potential to create a successful industry similar to the Finger Lakes in the north country.

As an industry that’s only existed for about a decade in the north country, though, there are challenges to its success.

“The market is starting to get pretty saturated,” said Michael Aubertine, owner and operator of Clayton Distillery, the tri-county area’s first distillery. “There are so few people around here that it’s so tough in this area.”

Despite having an established tourist destination like the Thousand Islands region, he said, the area can only sustain a certain number of businesses based on the number of tourists and locals that are available.

“As far as Upstate New York, there are only so many people or businesses willing to take your product and only so much shelf space,” Mr. Aubertine said. “I don’t think more would be able to survive with

the number of tourists right now.”

Another issue craft businesses in the north country face is the reliance on Canadian tourists. There is presently a high tariff on U.S. alcoholic beverages entering Canada, meaning Canadians can’t bring much of the north country’s craft beverages home with them.

Mr. Aubertine chose a location on the Canadian border because he was expecting a large customer base from Canada. About 50 percent of Clayton Distillery’s sales radius is on that border.

“We were counting on the sales, but we can now guarantee that will never happen,” he said.

Mr. Aubertine said he had to change his game plan. His retail store will now only be open from mid-May to September and he has switched from advertising locally to promoting his products in other markets.

His products are in 75 stores across Upstate New York, including Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and Ithaca. The dis-

FE AT U R E S ` Craft beverage producers Clayton Distillery

Where: Clayton Launched: 2013 Owner: Mike Aubertine Annual Volume: 6,000 gallons Top Sellers: Bourbon, Lemonade

Moonshine Web: claytondistillery.com

Kaneb Orchards

Where: Massena Launched: 2014 Owner: Edward Kaneb Jr. and

Elizabeth Kaneb

Annual Volume: 5,300 gallons Top Sellers: Cranberry Crisp Cider,

St. Lawrence Cider Web: kaneborchards.com

BarkEater Craft Brewery

Where: Lowville Launched: 2014 Owner: Dean Richards Annual Volume: 7,750 gallons Top Sellers: Montague Mild,

Oswegatchie ales, and DAX IPAs Web: barkeaterbrew.com

tillery’s presence in New York City and southwestern New York are still light, but Mr. Aubertine is working on expanding in those areas, as well as New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

Kaneb Orchards Farm Cidery in Massena is looking to go in a similar direction.

Kaneb Orchards became the north country’s only producer of hard cider in 2014. The products are sold mainly in St. Lawrence County on site during the summer at the orchard’s bakery/cidery, at local retailers and at Between the Buns in Potsdam and the St. Lawrence Brewery.

Edward Kaneb, though, said that availability has expanded to liquor stores in Albany, Manhattan, Malone and Plattsburgh, as well as at Mullers Cider House in Rochester.

“Our goal is to expand more into southern New York and to the Northeast,” Mr. Kaneb said. “You have to be careful in our situation though. We could get bigger, but we don’t want to go too heavily into debt.”

Mr. Kaneb is seeing similar issues as businesses in the Thousand Islands region, but being located in Massena, his business is farther from traditional tourist destinations in Jefferson County or in the Adirondacks.

To offset that challenge, Mr. Kaneb said the most important focus for a craft beverage business in the north country is quality.

“You have to make a good product,” he said. “Word of mouth will hurt you if you don’t have a good product. In a small community you have to make a good product that people will come for.”

Mr. Kaneb said he and his sister started thinking about the business in 2008, but didn’t start selling until 2014, giving them time to refine the recipes for the four hard ciders they currently have available, which is particularly important for cider because it’s a more delicate procedure than beer or spirits.

“You can get some real off flavors,” he said. “Cider can be a difficult beverage because there is not one fermentation that comes out like the other fermentations.”

Dean Richards, owner of BarkEater Brew-

ery in Lowville, agreed that quality is a very important factor in establishing a successful craft beverage business, but his brewery’s success was due to a variety of factors.

Despite being one of the smallest farm breweries in the state, BarkEater Craft Brewery is falling short of the demand in Lewis County, Mr. Richards said. The distribution is currently limited to the taproom, a neighboring restaurant, and Tug Hill Vineyards.

“The demand is constantly increasing for us,” he said.

The brewery’s success is based on a combination of being hyper local and the only brewery in Lewis County, being located between Tug Hill, the Adirondacks and the Thousand Islands region, and providing an experience.

“The tourists want to go there and they want to stay,” Mr. Richards said. “You make more money selling your beverage over the bar.”

And over the bar is where BarkEater will stay. Mr. Richards said he has no intention of bottling his beer because he would have to produce and sell a huge amount of product to make it profitable.

Instead he plans on giving his customPlease see CRAFT BEVERAGES, page 32

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July 2016 | NNY Business

| 21

FE AT UR E S

St. Lawrence Distillery owners Jody Garrett, left, and his son, Bill, in the taproom at the Clayton facility.

Stephen swofford | NNY BUSINESS

The ‘spirit of the river’

Hyper-local farm distillery to open in Clayton this summer

By Karee Magee

S

NNY Business

itting outside Fairview Manor in Clayton and looking out over the St. Lawrence River, there couldn’t be a better place that encompasses the feel of the Thousand Islands region, which was Jody Garrett’s plan design from the beginning for his distillery.

Saint Lawrence Spirits is the definition of a hyper-local farm distillery with ingredients coming directly from the Garrett family’s farm Luck Star Ranch down the road to the refurbishment of Fairview Manor for its taproom, which included more than 100 local craftsmen.

“That was our goal,” Mr. Garrett said.

22 | NNY Business | July 2016

“That was a requirement because these are our customers.”

The distillery was a direct result of the Garrett family’s involvement with Lucky Star Ranch, which they purchased in 2006, and they began looking for another way to capitalize on the property about five years ago.

Mr. Garrett said the initial idea was to open a winery connected to the farm, but after attending a week-long wine course at Cornell University they decided against that because of the delicate nature of wine.

“We knew right away that we didn’t want to do a winery,” he said.

It was on a wine tour, though, that led them to consider operating their own dis-

tillery when the owner told them he made any bad batch of wine into spirits with his 50-gallon still.

“That’s what triggered in our mind that the distillery was a better option because it was a faster, safer return,” he said.

The Garrett family is not one to jump in without a plan, though, so Mr. Garrett and his son, Bill, attended the Moonshine University in Louisville, Ky., where they learned through hands-on workshops how to make the spirts and how to develop the flavors and formulas.

The only thing they needed then was to find the right location to get their business off the ground and it happened that they had been driving by it every day.

Two years after purchasing the 7.6 acres

FE AT U R E S we’re going to have to adapt to,” he said.

Saint Lawrence Spirits will also be able of Fairview Manor, including the manor “We’re used to having to adapt to those to offer farm-based wine and beer from house, the Garretts are preparing to open challenges.” other local farm brewing businesses in within the next few weeks, waiting on the Mr. Garrett, an Army veteran, already the taproom. approval of small label regulations. owns Overhead Door Co. and Wayne The whole point of farm breweries and The distillery will start off with six Dalton in Watertown and his wife, distilleries is to help the industry grow as primary products, including vodka, Doreen Garrett was the founder of Otis a community, Mr. Garrett said. gin, absinthe, moonshine, whiskey and “Competition is good for evbourbon, which are distilled eryone,” he said. “A rising tide at Fairview Manor with water raises all boats.” from the St. Lawrence River, Community is a major facproviding “the spirit of the tor in the Garrett’s business. river in every bottle,” Mr. GarThey already have plans in the rett said. Saint Lawrence Spirits works to donate a portion of will be the first craft beverage their proceeds to Save the River business to use a shore well Jody Garrett, owner, St. Lawrence Spirits, Clayton and offering an internship-style from the river. course for Jefferson Communi Mr. Garrett plans to grow ty students to learn the process most of the ingredients for the of distilling from harvesting and distilldistillery at Lucky Star Ranch where he’s Technology in Lyons Falls. The couple ing to serving by having them grow the already had 40 acres of corn planted, as also co-owns Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery. ingredients at Lucky Star Ranch and well as a number of botanicals that pro Mr. Garrett said that being a farm assist at the distillery. vide the flavor in many spirits, includdistillery also opens up a lot of freedom “We’re going to help grow the industry ing hand-harvested native juniper for that bigger distilleries don’t have, includfor everyone,” Mr. Garrett said. their gin. ing the ability to sell at wholesale at the The Garretts have been working with distillery, at a satellite office, farmers n KAREE MAGEE is a magazine associate for SUNY ESF out of Syracuse to figure out markets and products can be sold directly NNY Magazines. Contact her at kmagee@wdt. what botanicals to plant and how to to restaurants and bars. net or 661-2381. plant them.

“We love it because we learn more Union Corrugating Company, an industry about the property from them than we leader in metal roofing materials and supplies. can help them,” Mr. Garrett said.

Since 1946, Union Corrugating has been a leading metal roofing manufacturer, Once the business is up and running, providing metal roofing products, supplies, and wall systems for residential and Your Roof. For Life commercial buildings.

Mr. Garrett said there will be about 20 to 30 employees in the distillery and farm-toAs a leading metal roofing manufacturer, we continuously strive to make table restaurant in the manor house. commercial and residential metal roofing materials that are more durable, beautiful, and energy efficient...commercial and residential metal roofs that save Despite concerns in the craft beverage you money while protecting the environment. industry about not having sustainable 10799 US RT. 11, Adams, NY number of tourists to support the local Phone: 315-232-4800 Fax: 315-232-4580 businesses, Mr. Garrett said that his fam14481 NYS Rt. 3, Sackets Harbor, NY ily’s experience in business will help them Phone: 315-646-2222 Fax: 315-646-3228 adjust to any challenges.

OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK. HOURS: M-F 7-6; SAT. 8-5, SUN. 8-3 “We expect to have challenges that

“

Competition is good for everyone.

A rising tide raises all boats.

—

TM

O.D.

REENE

OUTER WASHINGTON ST. WATERTOWN NY 315-788-6022

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WaiteToyota.com

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 23

fe atures

Left, Cody Morse, left, automatics engineer, and Sean Hanson, head grower, are the men behind the machine at Agbotic.

Opposite page, a robotic tiller tills soil between rows of leaf lettuce. The metal spades make contact with soil to dislodge weeds.

Stephen swofford | NNY BUSINESS

Automated agriculture Agbotic digs new ground for organic farming

By MARCUS WOLF

J

NNY Business

ohn P. Gaus’s vision for his automated and organic farming company, Agbotic Inc., took one of its first major steps with a 1,200-square-foot prototype greenhouse built in 2014.

It was equipped with a robot that tilled the soil, watered and harvested the crops and collected data on crop growth. With continuous development in both technology and marketing strategies, Mr. Gaus realized his goal of building Agbotic’s first full-scale greenhouse in March.

The full-scale greenhouse is 15,000 square feet and has 12 raised beds, each one 37 inches wide. A few examples of its technology include environmental controls and a

24 | NNY Business | July 2016

high thermal energy screen to retain heat and light. Mr. Gaus said that the greenhouse can produce about 10,000 pounds of greens, herbs and roots per month.

“We can plant anything that can grow in a bed,” he said.

The tool that provides most of Agbotic’s labor is the robotic gantry, which has been further developed since its initial implementation in the prototype greenhouse.

The gantry, which was developed by Mr. Gaus and Cody B. Morse, an automatics engineer from Mannsville, is a selfnavigating device that spans the width of the greenhouse. Mr. Gaus said that different tools are attached to the gantry so it can maintain and harvest the crops.

These tools include bed roll formers, micro

tillers, band saw harvesters and sprayers.

Mr. Gaus will continue to enhance the robot’s precision in order to use greenhouse space to its fullest potential, as well work toward implementing tools that could allow it to maintain vine crops.

“We think we’ve been pretty good at not only developing technology that works, but technology for which there is a demand,” Mr. Gaus said. “We’ve been lucky enough to succeed so far in the early technology and marketing development.”

The greenhouse’s automated technology allows it not only to grow and maintain crops, but also to collect and store information on each crop.

Mr. Gaus said he wants to provide an extensive degree of traceability on his crops

fe at ures to meet customer demands. Information such as what farm, greenhouse and row each crop came from, the day each crop was planted, GPS tracking and environmental data that affect crop growth is collected and made available for wholesale food buyers. Mr. Gaus intends to make that information available for individual customers within the year.

“Every package of food that leaves the farm can take its data with it,” he said. “That allows for a very high degree of traceability.”

Automated technology is the driving force in maintaining Agbotic’s organic greens and roots, but quality produce cannot grow without a solid foundation. Mr. Gaus’s choice for that foundation is healthy soil that is rich in organic matter.

Three main substances compose the greenhouse soil: azomite, which is volcanic ash found in ancient sea beds, humate, a mined substance that adds more carbon to the soil, and sea kelp, which is full of organic matter to aid healthy growth. The combination of these substances is meant help crops break down micronutrients and develop more microorganisms to strengthen their immunity, protecting them from pests and allowing the company to keep its soil chemical free.

“We are trying not to use any chemicals, even ones that are organic certified,” Mr. Gaus said. “We’ve been studying various models around the world, and we made sure that we were the most advanced soil

135 Keyes Avenue, Watertown, New York

315-782-4910

model in the world,” Mr. Gaus said While Agbotic has already developed a customer base in the north country, Mr. Gaus envisions a future for his company that expands throughout the Northeast.

Agbotic has delivered to multiple local restaurants, including Pete’s Tattoria in Watertown. The firm has also undergone a few

trial deliveries to large premium food buyers in Manhattan, one of the company’s initial goals. Mr. Gaus has been working with some of the largest companies in the food market.

“Our model is to deliver completely chemical-free food on the day of harvest,” Mr. Gaus said.

Kevin L. Richardson, the incubation manager for the North Country Innovation Hot Spot at Clarkson University, Potsdam, has helped the company to establish connections with its clientele and meet their delivery goals. He said that current customers are satisfied with Agbotic’s service and

are impressed with their fresh food on the day of harvest model.

“Agbotic’s concept of trying to fill a void within the supply chain is a great approach,” Mr. Richardson said.

Funding sources such as a $99,650 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Business Enterprise and $1 million from the North Country Regional Economic Development Council have helped the company develop and improve its technology, facilitate trial and error testing and expand its marketing research.

Mr. Gaus said he sees a value in this type of industry in the north country, and in order to meet his delivery goals and achieve this potential, he plans to build more greenhouses throughout the region.

Part his business model is to develop complexes that include four greenhouses and a central building to house the technology to regulate and store data on them throughout Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties.

The central building will include controls for the heating and cooling, a workshop for further development, infrastructure control and maintenance.

“Our focus is to build as many as we can in the north country,” he said. “So this could potentially be a very large industry in upstate.” n MARCUS WOLF is a Johnson Newspapers staff writer. Contact him at mwolf@wdt.net or 661-2371.

(315) 782-4910 • 1-800-772-4201 • Fax: (315) 785-8248 www.dlcalarco.com • francee@dlcalarco.com

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 25

R EAL E STATE ROUNDUP

Top real estate questions and answers

I

recently spoke to the Watertown Rotary Club about a number of real estate issues, including housing statistics and took questions from those assembled.

Is cash is king?

There is an expression that “cash is king.” However, is that true in real estate?

During my talk I noted that cash transactions normally make up about 25 percent of residential sale transactions nationally.

For 2016 so far, 35.7 percent are cash.

Locally, this year Jefferson County cash sales have accounted for 33.3 percent of residential sales (22 percent in 2015), 35 percent in Lewis County (26 percent in 2015), and 25.8 percent in St. Lawrence (22.6 percent in 2015). While St. Lawrence County as not followed the national trend, why have Jefferson and Lewis counties?

Looking at the median price — the price where half the prices are lower and half higher — the cash sale median is $50,000 while the median for non-cash properties is $140,000. Many of the cash sales were due to foreclosure. In fact, about 55 percent of the residential listings that sold for $50,000 or less were foreclosure sales.

How has the increase in new rental properties affected LOCAL marketS? Any time there is a new product, it will affect the market. Part of the reason that Jefferson County in particular saw a rise in the median price in the last fifteen years or so was the increase in new and renovated homes on the market. The same is true in rental. Realtor members work in the “for sale” and rental markets

and are able to help consumers with the increased number of choices in both.

What HOMEs Sell best?

One- to threebedroom homes Lance Evans or larger homes?

This was a question I could not answer at the time.

Looking at the data, it should come as no surprise that there are more one- to three-bedroom homes for sale and sold than homes with more bedrooms. In fact, roughly two of every three homes for sale or sold have three or fewer bedrooms. The price for a home with four or more bedrooms is generally higher as it is usually larger.

In the sales data from the last twelve months, both had about the same ratio of list to sell price. The days on the market — from listing to signing a contract — were a little less for homes with four or more bedrooms. However, if you compared them to homes with three bedrooms, the two types were about the same. It should be noted that about half of the homes sold in the tri-county area have three bedrooms and about 30 percent have four. n

n

n

Members of the Jefferson-Lewis and St. Lawrence County boards of Realtors

joined more than 300 Realtors from across the state to talk to legislators about issues affecting real estate and property ownership in late May. One of the major items this year is legislation to establish a first-time homebuyer savings account program. Introduced by state Sen. Betty Little (R- Queensbury) and Assemblyman Phil Ramos (D- Bay Shore) and co-sponsored by Sen. Patty Ritchie (RHeuvelton), it is modeled after the state’s 529 college education savings program.

The New York First Home initiative would function as a dedicated, tax-free savings account program that would allow New Yorkers to deposit up to $5,000 — $10,000 for couples — of post-tax dollars annually, receive a state income tax deduction on the principal, and apply the savings and any interest earned towards the purchase or construction of a first home in New York State.

The New York State Association of Realtors has created a website to allow consumers to interact with their legislators on this issue at nyfirsthome.com. As of mid-June, the legislation had passed the Senate 61-0 and is awaiting action in the Assembly.

Participants from the tri-county area who visited with legislators included Lin and Pat Fields, Les Henry, Lisa L’Huillier, Nancy Rome, Chuck Ruggiero, Jennifer Stevenson, and me. n LANCE M. EVANS is the executive officer of the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors and the St. Lawrence County Board of Realtors. Contact him at levans@nnymls.com. His column appears monthly in NNY Business.

Liberty GLASS & WINDOW INC.

26 | NNY Business | July 2016

RE A L E STAT E / top transactions The following property sales were recorded in the Jefferson County Clerk’s Office in May: $508,000: May 27, Town of Cape Vincent: 1.847 acres, state Route 12E, James P. Kennedy, Port St. Lucie, Fla., as trustee of Kennedy Living Trust, sold to Robert Barber, San Jose, Calif. $500,000: May 13, Town of Brownville, Town of Pamelia: No acreage listed, Lot numbers 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24, no address listed, James A. Burrows and Stephanie A. Burrows, Watertown, sold to Chuijenny LLC, Watertown. $350,000: May 27, City of Watertown: No acreage listed, 1009 Arsenal St., Malcolm G. Ferguson, Watertown, sold to Ashland Inc., Lexington.

or less (Parcel 5), and 8.897 acres more or less bounded by County Route 51, Michael F. Wilson, Nicholville, sold to JPL Farms, Inc., Nicholville. $294,000: May 17, Town of Louisville: Unknown acres, Diane M. St. Onge, Massena, and Gary J. St. Onge, Pleasant Valley, sold to Richard and Sharon Reynolds, Massena. $275,000: May 13, Town of Fine: Unknown acres bounded by Route 3 and the Oswegatchie River, Joseph and Judith A. Popp, Star Lake, sold to Conrad and Kay Bautz, Afton. $220,000: May 20, Town of Hermon: 170.21 acres more or less (seven parcels), Lawrence A. Pinto, Sherman Oaks, Calif., and Daniel J. Pinto,

Hermon, sold to Christopher Velez, Cohocton. $203,500: May 17, Town of Fowler: Five acres more or less bounded by County Route 104, Dana S. Kammeyer, Gouverneur, sold to Relo Direct, Inc., Chicago, Ill. $195,000: May 16, Village of Morristown: 0.49 acres more or less bounded by North Umberland Street and the St. Lawrence River, William M. and Victoria M. Duskas, Canton, sold to Eric S. Tessmer, Gouverneur. $187,000: May 20, Town of Fowler: 6.72 acres more or less bounded by the Sylvia Lake Road, Carrie L. Runner, Black River, sold to Jeff A. and Barbara J. Henderson, Gouverneur.

$326,002: May 17, Town of Clayton: 2.2 acres, St. Lawrence River shore, Mark F. Fitzgerald, Genoa, Nev., and Maria F. Purcell, Watertown, as co-executors of Mary Constance Fitzgerald estate, sold to Misc Prop LLC, Watertown. $295,000: May 27, Town of Brownville: 5.548 acres, County Route 59 (South Shore Road), Brian W. Matice and Debbie R. Matice, Lithia, Fla., sold to Kurt B. Yeager, Watertown. $290,000: May 19, Town of LeRay: 0.746 acres, Cullen Drive, Matthew M. McCann and Jennifer L. McCann, Watertown, sold to Jonathan M. Lunde and Jessica E. Lunde, Fort Rucker, Ala. $280,000: May 6, Town of Rutland: No acreage listed, state Route 3, Kenneth E. Gleason Jr. and Cynthia S. Gleason as trustees of the Gleason Family Trust, Black River, sold to Woodland Barracks LLC, Watertown. $268,000: May 19, Town of Pamelia: No acreage listed, Lot 29 of Allen Meadows Subdivision, Paula Eryn Miller and Scott A. Miller, Watertown, sold to Roger L. Perose IV, and Erica M. Perose, Valdosta, Ga. $263,000: May 10, Town of LeRay: 0.689 acres, 23155 Converse Dr., Andrew O. Toyo and Emily Toto, Waverly Hall, Ga., sold to Benjamin A. Schneider and Kristin E. Schneider, Columbus, Ga. $253,900: May 11, Town of Wilna: No acreage listed, Strickland Road, Timothy K. Roye, Carthage, sold to Nicholas J. Daniels and Amanda J. Daniels, Watertown.

The following property sales were recorded in the St. Lawrence County Clerk’s Office in May: $500,000: May 23, Town of Parishville: Two parcels, .94 acres and 1.77 acres, Mark C. and Celeste J. Norman, Potsdam, sold to Brock M. Merriman and Jennifer L. Bruno, Norwood. $400,000: May 12, Town of Brasher: 15.057 acres more or less, William Estano, Raynham, Mass., sold to St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, Akwesasne. $305,000: May 26, Town of Canton: 5.5 acres, Miner Street Road, north of the Grasse River, Gudrun Brokoph, Ormond Beach, Fla., sold to Michael R. and Sarah Oakley, Syracuse. $300,000: May 11, Town of Lawrence: 25.92 acres more or less (Parcel 1) and 84.1 acres more or less (Parcel 2) bounded by the Fort Jackson-Laveries Corners Road, 50 acres (Parcel 3) more or less bounded by Merchant Street Road, 40.2 acres more or less (Parcel 4), 40 acres more

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 27

20 qu estions

STEPHEN SWOFFORD photos | NNY BUSINESS

organic growth

A

fter a career as a psychologist, Dani R. Baker never thought she would own the only certified organic farm in Jefferson County, but since establishing Cross Island Farms on Wellesley Island in 2006 she and her partner, David Belding, have turned a small vegetable garden into a diversified farm with about 100 different vegetables, livestock, and her newest endeavor, an edible forest garden. This month we sit down with Ms. Baker to discuss the place of small, niche farms in the north country’s agriculture industry.

1

NNYB: How did this endeavor begin?

BAKER: I was anticipating retiring from corrections and I don’t do very well with idle time, so I thought, ‘gee, if I bought some land I could do some landscaping, maybe get a couple of horses.’ I bought the land and my partner, Dave, needed a place to store his machine shop stuff, so the detached garage was perfect for that. We weren’t really planning to be farmers, but we planted a garden the second year and put the stuff out at the stand. The former farmer had had a vegetable stand after the dairy farm went out of existence. We sold vegetables and I thought ‘this is too easy,’ so we expanded the garden and we started gradually getting animals. I think we got chickens and we got pigs and we got some cows and we got goats. So, now we have all of the above plus a couple of turkeys.

2

NNYB: Why did you make the decision to be an organic farm?

BAKER: I started to say that I was worried about my idle time after I retired, so we bought the land and the idea of becoming farmers came from a class we took at Cornell Cooperative Extension called Starting Your Small Farm Dream or Building Your Small Farm Dream. We were both

28 | NNY Business | July 2016

n Diverse Cross Island Farms enters

11th year, moves toward profitibility inspired by that. It was my answer to idle time problems that I anticipated during my retirement.

Oh, I’ll be a farmer; I won’t have any idle time, which is truer than you would think at the moment. So my partner had had a dream of becoming an organic farmer from his childhood. Every project for school had to do with that, so this was a way of putting his dream into practice and I always loved to work in the dirt. It just evolved.

We started with an eighth of an acre garden and the next year we expanded it to a half acre.

Cornell Cooperative Extension, a couple years into it, was also encouraging agri-tourism as a way to bring in additional income, so we started doing tours, at first for nothing, then we did them for donations, which nobody gave us, and then we started to charge. We really haven’t had any complaints because there is a lot of value to the tours. They are very educational. We explain all our practices and my partner is like a Ph.D. He can even site references when he gives a tour.

3

NNYB: You’re pretty diversified. How many different variety of crops do you grow?

BAKER: I don’t even know at this point. We used to say 250, but I cut back to try to become a little more efficient on the number of varieties.

At one point it was more than 250. At this point, I don’t know, maybe 100. For example, I grow 12 kinds of potatos. I grow maybe five or six different types of carrots. I grow about 20 different kinds of tomatoes.

4

NNYB: Being as diversified as you are and organic and also adding the agri-tourism component, do you think this is a good model others could duplicate?

BAKER: First of all people need to realize how much work it is. I get up at 4 a.m. and I start working. There are no days off. I took a day off once. I didn’t pick corn on a Sunday because I thought it could wait until the next day. Between that day and the next day the birds found it because it was perfectly ripe and they completely decimated the whole crop. Can anybody do it?

Farming is a very challenging enterprise. You have to understand how to grow things for starters and that’s a challenge in itself because there are so many factors you have to pay attention to, things that are outside of your control like the weather, markets to some degree, but then there is the business side of farming, the marketing side and the choosing of your enterprises. It’s very intellectually challenging. There’s no such thing as a successful dumb farmer. There are no dumb farmers who are successful. They are very bright and creative and you have to change with times.

You have to be nimble and flexible.

5

NNYB: How many different varieties of animals do you raise?

BAKER: We specialize in heritage and rare breed animals. We have our beef cows, our belted Galloway and Red Devan and crosses of the above. Our goats are a mixture of meat goats, Kiko and Boer, with dairy. We probably have all the different kinds of dairy goats mixed in. We find the dairy goats are better moms and they have more instinct as far as taking care of babies than the meat goat breeds, but we like the meat goats for the meat because we just sell our goats for meat. We are now focusing on large black pigs. They were developed in England in the 1700s to be very friendly, docile, to be able to convert pasture and forage into energy,

2 0 q u estions and they should be delicious, which they are.

We actually have pedigreed pigs now and we sell them for breeding stock as well as for feeders, and we also sell the meat. We have bourbon red turkeys just for show. We just have one male and one female left because of predators, but they’re for tours. We used to have silver Appleyard ducks, but the last of them were eaten by a predator. We hope to get more. The chickens are Americana.

6

NNYB: On average during the peak growing season you have a handful of volunteers. What do they do?

BAKER: They do everything. We try to tailor their experience to their areas of interest. For example, we had an environmental engineering student from Clarkson for three weeks in June and he was particularly interested in designing railings for the bridge, gates and a trellis, and also working on the pond problem. Those were his foci, but he did help with some other chores around the farm. Some people are just really interested in vegetables. Some people are particularly interested in the animals. Whatever they’re interested in we try to gear it toward that, but most people help with just about everything.

7

STEPHEN SWOFFORD | NNY BUSINESS

Dani R. Baker, co-owner and operator of Cross Island Farms, a certified organic farm on Wellesley Island. The farm is in its 11th year of operation.

NNYB: What do we need in terms of leadership to inspire young people to take up careers in farming and agriculture?

The Dani R. Baker file

BAKER: What we’re doing, giving educational tours, making the farm available for volunteers or interns, who may be thinking about farming, to have a foot on the ground experience to determine if it’s for them or not. We had a young man who’s an engineer who came here for an extended vacation, about four weeks. He wasn’t happy and he came here and had a good experience and went on to apprentice himself on another farm for six months. To my knowledge, he’s now a farmer. I think any kind of classes that can be offered to the general public to give them an idea of some of the diversity of the business.

JOB: Co-owner and operator, Cross Island Farms, a certified organic farm on Wellesley Island

8

NNYB: What are the challenges that come with being an organic farmer?

BAKER: First you don’t use chemicals; you don’t use pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or artificial fertilizers. You have to devise ways to discourage pests and encourage growth of your plants without using anything artificial. There are different kinds of organic farming. There are a lot of products that are approved for organic. We use very few if any of them. We try to do it naturally.

This garden is an example. In this garden I’ve built in nitrogen-fixing plants, I probably have 20 different kinds of nitrogen-fixing plants planted with the fruits and nuts and berries in this garden.

I’ll never have to put any fertilizer on. I have plants called dynamic accumulators that pull up micronutrients from the subsoil and when their leaves fall or when they die off in the fall, they lay those nutrients on the ground to then decay and be available to the more shallow rooted plants. I have many beneficial attractors. Those are plants that attract beneficial insects and birds and other beneficial animals to take care of pests.

I have something that’s called an aromatic pest diffuser. That’s like all these herbs. The idea is that

AGE: 67

FAMILY: Sister, Boston; brother, Washington, D.C.; partner, David Belding HOMETOWN: Westchester County, N.Y. EDUCATION: Bachelor’s in sociology, Brown University; master’s in clinical psychology, Columbia University PROFESSIONAL: Psychologist for New York State Department of Corrections in Gouverneur, Watertown and Cape Vincent LAST BOOK READ: “Alexander Hamilton”

by Ron Chernow a pest that’s maybe looking for a plum tree and encounters an oregano plant; all of a sudden it’s overwhelmed with this smell of oregano that it can’t find the plum.

9

NNYB: What do you see as the future of farming in Northern New York?

BAKER: It’s a growth industry. The millennials, the young people with children, they’re very concerned about what they’re putting in their children’s mouths. Older people with health issues are very concerned and they have the discretionary income to pay for the little extra you have to pay for organic. Anybody with allergies or health problems, they want to clean up what they’re eating because they know that’s contributing. The sales on organic products keep growing. I think there’s a huge potential. The more we learn about what the chemicals are doing to us, the more people are going to be demanding organic products.

Another group that is very concerned about the quality of food they put in their bodies are military personnel and their families. Those in service

need to keep their bodies in top shape to do their jobs, and their families need to stay as healthy as possible to support their military member. If you observe the organic isle in a supermarket, you will often see men in khaki clothing filling their baskets with organic produce, and not looking at the prices. Not only is organic food chemical-free, it has significantly higher nutritional value than conventionally grown food. Since we are continuously adding a multitude of micronutrients to the soil in the form of leaves and woodchip mulches, the complexity of the flavors and the nutrient value of our meats and vegetables are maximized.

10

NNYB: How do you scale this up this type of operation for larger yields?

BAKER: How do you scale this up? My plan to scale it up is to increase the agri-tourism component. We have three golf carts that we’re operating off our power and I’m looking for a 10-seater, so we can run bigger tours. The idea is the more people who go on an hour and a half tour, the more money we make. So we want to increase the numbers coming to any given tour and increase the number of tours if possible.

The edible forest garden, I plan on this being an international destination. I went to England two Octobers ago to see an edible forest garden.

Martin Crawford, who has written many books on the subject, has an institute there and he has a 2-acre garden that he started 20 years ago.

I went to England to see his garden. I don’t see why the English, who are really into gardens, wouldn’t come here to see my garden. It’s just a matter of working at it now. I have a student from Clarkson coming in August. She’s Chinese and a business major, and she’s going to work on that problem for me, figuring out how to attract an international audience of tourists to come to our farm. I have another student who’s an engineering management major coming. She’s going to do her honors thesis developing a marketing July 2016 | NNY Business

| 29

20 qu estions plan for the edible forest garden.

11

NNYB: Explain your edible forest garden.

BAKER: It means that everything in this garden is either something you can eat or something that supports the edibles, or both. I explained about the nitrogen fixers, the dynamic accumulators, the beneficial attractors and the aromatic pest diffusers. Those are all plants that are built into the garden to make the fruits bug-free, disease-free and bountiful. It’s in its fourth year, so it’s not full-grown yet. It’s a total of just under an acre. I designed the landscaping. Most people find it a place they don’t want to leave and the word that is mostly used to describe it

is magical. I haven’t named it yet. It might just be called Dani’s Magical Garden, I don’t know.

12

NNYB: How have you learned farm practices?

BAKER: Cornell Cooperative Extension has been fabulous with the different classes they’ve offered over the years. That’s how I got inspired to do this garden. They had a professor come down from Cornell. He did a two-hour class on permaculture.

Before that was over, I decided that I was going to plant an edible forest garden and I came home and I said to Dave: ‘I need you to fence off some part of the property so I can have an edible forest.’ He fenced it in for me and this turned out to be a fabulous site because of all of the variation

I’ve got. I have a north-facing slope, a southeastfacing slope, a southwest-facing slope and a south-facing slope. I’ve got wetlands and high and dry. I’ve got so many different microclimates in here. It’s just such a joy to develop.

13

NNYB: What do you see as the future of the family farm in Northern New York?

BAKER: I think that the small dairies really need to think outside the box and do something else with their operations because they are like mice sitting in a cage where they can’t control when they get shocked. They can’t control their inputs.

They can’t control the price of the product. They could become bed and breakfasts. They could become agri-tourism destinations. People from cities love to sleep in a farmhouse and go out with the farmer when they milk in the morning.

They have no experience of this, but you have to have some marketing. That’s the key. I really think some of the small farms could really make a living if they think outside the box or become a niche. Niche farming practices that fit with the land they own is the way to go.

14

NNYB: You’ve learned a lot in 10 years. What has been the No. 1 lesson learned in this experience for you?

BAKER: There are no shortcuts in farming. There are efficiencies, but there are no shortcuts. If you try to cut a corner, there will be a consequence sooner than later. That one day I didn’t pick the corn, I just took a day off. Sometimes it’s hard to explain this to interns and volunteers the reason why it needs to be done this way. I’ll give you an example. I taught this young woman from Barcelona. She came here for a month eight years ago.

I taught her how to plant lettuce. When I teach someone, I show them how, I watch them do it, I correct them and I watch them do it again until I feel like they know exactly how to do it and then I leave. Well, I came back and the row of lettuce looked beautiful. Everything looked perky. It was great. The next day, every single set was dead.

I said, ‘Irina, what did you do?’ She said, ‘Well, I took each lettuce and I laid it on the ground and when I had a dozen, then I planted them.’

That was a shortcut. It killed the lettuce because air and ultraviolet rays killed the roots. It looked good right after she planted it because the leaves hadn’t wilted yet. So, that’s an example of there’s no shortcuts in farming.

15

NNYB: Are there weather issues that are unique to organic farming?

BAKER: I think all famers have to deal with weather and the unpredictability of weather.

When you talk about sustainability, annual plants are not sustainable in the long run. Let’s say we have a long-term drought here. Look what’s happening in California. They stopped producing a lot of things. They’re saving their almond trees, but they’re not planting anymore vegetables because they only have so much water and they figure that’s the most valuable crop and if they don’t feed that, they’ve lost so many years, whereas vegetables you can plant again.

So, sustainability, this garden is an example of sustainable agriculture. It is a perennial planting.

30 | NNY Business | July 2016

2 0 q u estions Perennials, first of all, they sequester more carbon. Second of all, you’re not disturbing the soil whatsoever, so the soil life is staying in tact and there is no erosion because everything’s covered always. The perennial plants have deeper roots, so they can withstand drought. They can withstand changes in weather way better than annuals. Annuals either dry out or they drown when there is unpredictable weather as far as moisture goes, but perennial plants are sustainable. So, in many ways this particular garden is looking forward and will hopefully weather whatever changes are in store for the climate.

16

NNYB: What advice would you give someone considering an agricultural start-up?

help attract more customers to buy the products.

It would attract more tourists to the area.

20

NNYB: The wine industry, especially in Northern New York and the Thousand Islands region, has really taken off. How do you think we can capitalize on the growth of other niche markets?

BAKER: The reason the wine industry is so successful, I think, is because they organized themselves. From the very beginning, they’ve had an active organization that works together to promote their industry. They’ve gotten grants that way. They’ve gotten publicity. They’ve gotten the wine trail that way because they work together and advocated with the political powers that be to recognize what they were doing. I

think that’s the secret for niche businesses. Now, I tried to start something a few years ago. I tried to organize a farm tour day around the county and we had one. It just kind of piddled. Other counties do this. They have days where not just one farm is open, but the entire county is open.

Madison County is a great example and they bring in tourists from all over the place. And once those people see the farms, they’re going to come back. But I don’t know how to make that happen. Maybe if a bunch of the niche growers or producers wanted to get together. We’re all trying to do it independently.

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

BAKER: I would say start small. Don’t take on any debt. Don’t quit your day job. Plan to keep your day job for at least five years. Choose something that you enjoy that there’s also a market for.

You have to enjoy it.

17

NNYB: At the end of all of this, what becomes of it? What do you hope to leave for someone behind you?

BAKER: We hope to leave this as a profitable operating farm, either to a private party who wants to continue it or make it some kind of institution that will carry on after we’re gone. In my will it goes to the National Farmland Trust. In other words, they’ll make sure it stays an organic farm. That’s just a shortcut until we can come up with a more sustainable plan of our own. I’d like to see this continue. I have been toying with the idea of formalizing our educational mission by making the farm an educational institute. Researching that could be my next winter project.

18

NNYB: Speak for a minute about the technology in ag today. For one, it’s expensive. What’s been the single most significant innovation in ag that you’ve seen?

BAKER: We have one of the four Mesonet installations on our farm. It is a statewide program to install state-of-the-art weather stations. Throughout the state they’re putting in 125 of them. We have one. The Cape Winery has one. Belleville school has one and I believe Otter Creek is going to have one. It has a meter that takes the direction and speed of the wind. It gauges snowfall and rainfall. It measures soil temperature two inches, 10 inches and 20 inches down.

It has its own solar array, so it’s totally independent as far as power goes and it beams all of its data instantaneously to a central computer. You can go to their website and punch in Wellesley Island and you can find to the minute all the data from the weather station or any other place in the state where they’ve completed the installation. That’s pretty phenomenal.

19

NNYB: What should our priorities be for the agriculture industry in Northern New York?

BAKER: The more diverse your industry is the healthier it is. So, like this garden demonstrates, there is great potential to grow fruits up here. I’m not sure if people are taking advantage of that.

Customers love fruits. They love you pick. There are only a handful of you-pick operations in the county. We’re the only diversified organic farm in the county. Thinking diversity I think would

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 31

FE AT UR E S CRAFT BEVERAGES, from page 21 ers what they want, the hyper local fresh beer with the experience of a taproom. Mr. Richards is looking to set up a five barrel brewing system at a separate location in Lowville to increase production and future plans include potential taprooms in Old Forge and Watertown.

Mr. Richards said the challenges facing similar businesses in the Thousand Islands region stems from too much product diluting the area without enough people to support all of the businesses.

The solution, Mr. Matteson said, is for more craft beverage businesses to open in the region to establish critical mass.

“We still haven’t reached that point where there is enough craft brewing companies to attract enough tourists,” he said.

Looking at the Finger Lakes, Mr. Matteson said, the numbers of craft brewing and wineries available seems unfeasible, but the variety attracts enough tourists to sustain those businesses.

“The challenge is for those existing businesses to stay profitable while we divide up

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the existing pie,” he said. “We will eventually overcome it, but it’s on the backs, blood, sweat and tears of the existing businesses.”

Mr. Richards said the creation of farm breweries, which were established by the New York State Legislature to generate jobs and businesses while promoting locally grown products, has taken the barriers away from nano brewing and they are a feasible business for any small community.

“We are like a small restaurant in a small village,” he said. “There’s room in every village for a little brewery.”

Nano or farm breweries could also take away the current geographical barriers to the north country’s craft beverage industry which is spread out over a large area, making it unfeasible for tourists to go from the Thousand Islands to Canton or up to Massena without stops in between.

The largest concern, though, is solving the issue posed by Canadian tariffs.

“It’s a huge barrier,” Mr. Matteson said.

“That resource, the St. Lawrence River, has become a barrier.”

Despite previous failed attempts to negotiate with Canadian lawmakers, Sens.

Elise M. Stefanik, R-Willsboro, and Kristen E. Gillibrand, D-NY, are still working on solutions and urging negotiations.

The American Farm Bureau Federation and the New York State Farm Bureau met with area farmers and winemakers in June to discuss solutions. At that meeting, Philip J. Randazzo , owner of Coyote Moon, proposed the creation of an International Farm Winery Trail in the Thousand Islands region where wineries would be able to sell wine duty-free as long as the bottles has stickers and receipts issues by the state or Ontario, according to Times article.

“That would be a cooperative solution between the two countries,” Mr. Matteson said. n KAREE MAGEE is a magazine associate for NNY Magazines. Contact her at kmagee@wdt. net or 661-2381.

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32 | NNY Business | July 2016

N O N P RO FIT S T O D AY

Eight steps to help define excellence

W

e know the nonprofit sector’s impact has been consistently diverse, positively affecting education, human services, the arts and culture, religion, philanthropy, health and economic development.

The Northern New York Community Foundation is increasingly looking to diversify how it supports the work of nonprofit organizations in our community. The nonprofit shared services collaboration floor within the future home of the philanthropy center is one immediate and tangible way we can do that.

For many years, the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York has promoted excellence in nonprofit management. Recently, it compiled a list of eight common areas of excellence for nonprofits to focus on as they aspire to improve. There is something within these common areas that all nonprofits can examine as a way to better serve stakeholders.

1) effective and ethical fundraising and resource development The major theme has consistently been that the best organizations look for ways to have fundraising revenue streams as diverse as possible. Relying on any one source makes an organization less sustainable. This means not only diversification of annual revenue sources, but recognition that an organization has shortand long-term needs and it should deliberately address both.

At the community foundation, grantmaking promotes this type of thinking. Many grants are made in support of real-time projects poised to make a difference today with the understanding that those investments also need to be positioned for future support.

Many recent grants have been coupled with an endowment-building component, including matching grants to provide incentives to organizations to build another leg of sustainability.

Another theme that falls under this category is the importance of the board’s role and responsibility for an organization’s viability.

This “duty of care” includes not only providing guidance but also raising money, with the first gift being their own. It is understood that without 100 percent of board members giving financially annually, it’s very difficult to morally make the case that others should.

2) Overall management focused on results This begins with a well-defined mission statement. What is the difference you aspire to make? How do you then assess the impact you are making? Past columns in this magazine have been devoted solely to mission and vision statements for good reason. The mission statement serves such an important role as a guide for decision making and resource allocation.

While I tread carefully on this, there are times when organizations should consider outside consultants or facilitators to assess and improve certain areas or functions of their work and an objective look at overall program and organizational results. It is a healthy exercise to

continually assess what worked, what didn’t and adjust accordingly. Sometimes a general organizational assessment is required before even considering a higher level strategic plan.

3) Governance structure that moves the Rande Richardson organization forward Effective organizations view boards of directors and top managers as true partners. This involves a continuous and conscious effort to ensure everyone is on the same page, moving in the same direction, for the same reasons. While assessing staff effectiveness is a natural board function, regular evaluation of the board itself is critical, aligning expectations with commitment.

It is frequently said that the most important committee of the board is the nominating/recruitment committee. Anyone who has been involved with a board knows why this is true. The best models of board governance focus as much or more energy on the roles and responsibilities of board members as they do staff.

4) strong, transparent and accountable financial management Sustainability is once again the driver for this by making smart choices for the long-term, while also keeping an eye on a diversified revenue stream and adequate cash flow capabilities for the near-term. As mentioned before, this must be coupled with aligning financial decisions with the organization’s mission.

Many nonprofits have a break-even mentality.

This puts the organization’s entire mission a risk.

It is OK to strive toward a budget surplus, perhaps even treating it as a recurring expense or a deliberate savings plan. This is no different than responsible personal financial management.

With today’s technology it is easier than ever for the public to access an organization’s finances. Internal Revenue Service Form 990s are great windows into an organization’s fiscal picture. While they are publicly available, organizations should make it easy for stakeholders to find the information.

5) Diversity and culturally competent organizational practices Organizations should seek to develop boards that are a mirror of the communities and populations they serve. This is by no means a perfect science and often a challenge to achieve. One way to supplement this is to make external engagement a critical part of organizational culture, including seeking regular feedback from stakeholders and continually assessing emerging needs of your community as they pertain to your mission. At the community foundation, we broaden our diversity

by inviting a wide base of participation from non-board members on our committees.

6) enlightened use of human resources Does your organization maximize available talent by best using staff skills and experience to benefit the work and mission? Do you care and nurture staff to promote a healthy and supportive workplace? Do you consciously invest in the betterment of your staff? Respecting the law of equilibrium is important to attracting and retaining the best talent. Of all the resources, your human ones are among the most critical, with an awareness of the importance of succession planning as well.

7) appropriate and reliable information technology systems It’s important to not lose sight of technology infrastructure, including ensuring effective technology for maximum efficiency and advancing mission-related goals, including program support. It never hurts to plan for worst-case scenarios with solid infrastructure and redundancy. There should be a technology plan and someone assigned with its responsibility, including seeking innovative ways to use technology, and budgeting for it. This should be done considering how the plan relates to various functional parts of organization.

8) regular and effective communications and use of communications technology This includes not only broadcasting the message but a dialogue that seeks feedback from various stakeholders, including those you serve, board members, and volunteers. This two-way communication culture, tailored to various audiences, can be valuable and should include formal and informal communications.

The frequency and form of telling the story of your mission and progress toward fulfilling it should be carefully thought out.

Our nonprofit sector is a fluctuating landscape as it evolves and changes. All organizations, including the community foundation, must continue to look at ways to perform at a high level. No organization is perfect and in all likelihood, never will be. However, all can aspire and strive to operate in ways that not only stay true to mission but allow a greater expression of it, understanding excellence is always a work in progress. All nonprofits should routinely ask: Are we doing this right? Is there a better way?

Many north country organizations already deliver well on their missions and provide great value to our collective quality of life.

These same organizations are often doing so in ways that are more effective, efficient and dignified than government. However, we can all do better to enhance our work and mission and solidify our sacred obligation to those who make the choice and sacrifice to support it. 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.

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 33

b usiness tech bytes

Optimize your web user experience

I

t’s your website but you need to make Google happy or your search ranking will suffer. So what makes Google happy these days? Is it responsive or adaptive design? Are you familiar with either or are you still supporting two versions of your website, one for mobile users and one for desktop users?

There should be no doubt in your mind that your website needs to be mobile friendly as more than 50 percent of all web searches now come from mobile devices. Who is your core demographic? Do you know? Be it millennials, baby boomers or anyone in between, your website needs to be simple, fast to navigate and easily accessible on all devices.

Google is here to help and these two links will assist in analyzing your present website against Google’s latest standards. The first is the URL for a mobile-friendly test for your website.

Navigate to google.com/webmasters/tools/ mobile-friendly and this test will analyze your URL and report if your web page is a mobile-friendly design. The second site, developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/ insights, is a PageSpeed Insights site that will analyze the content of your web page and generate suggestions to make your pages load faster.

So you’ve run your tests and your website has not fared so well. Your next question should be which option is the best for a website redesign? There are really only three choices today: responsive design, adaptive design, also known as dynamic serving, and separate URLs, where desktop and mobile versions of a site are maintained.

Responsive design is one of the most common choices today. Your responsive design website will adjust to the screen size of the mobile device your consumer is Jill Van Hoesen using, making for a pleasurable viewing experience. Adaptive design is also responsive design while incorporating the ability to serve up varying

On a standard responsive design website all background scripting from the HTML code, cascading style sheets, JavaScript, images, etc., still need to load on the mobile platform. This can cause a lag in loading and that is what Google is keeping its eyes on. On an adaptive site with the dynamic serving feature, your site will load content only for the mobile version and not serve all the other background information to a mobile device.

In 2015, the digital marketing agency, G/O Digital, analyzed data from hundreds of responsive and adaptive website landing pages and found pages built on an adaptive platform converted 40 percent better on a mobile platform. They found that while responsive design responds to screen size, dynamic serving on adaptive sites adjusts based on the device and translates into a better user experience and higher conversion rates.

Google is leading this new mobile revolution — mobilegeddon — with its present changes to its search algorithm. I am sure that as Google studies the mobile web even more, there is the chance that responsive design will get pushed out in favor of adaptive design.

Now is the time for you to take action so you don’t get dinged in the search rankings. Responsive or adaptive, you need to provide the best overall user experience or they will go elsewhere. There is a whole world wide web for your customers to search, and you need to rank No. 1.

Now is the time for you to take action so you don’t get dinged in the search rankings. optimized content based on the device accessing your URL. You can display content on a phone that is changeable and easily optimized for the mobile viewer, while the desktop version of your site can continue to generate content suited to the larger desktop screen size.

As responsive design seems to be the easiest approach it might just not be enough to satisfy your savvy mobile consumer. Responsive design has many apparent benefits, while adaptive design builds on these benefits and allows even more ways to optimize your site. Normally the greatest benefit of adaptive design is the faster load time on mobile devices. This is because an adaptive site serves up the content of your website differently than a responsive design site.

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34 | NNY Business | July 2016

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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.

NORTHERN NEW YORK

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One man’s junk is another’s necessity

I

t is not unusual to encounter situations where farms keep old equipment and materials that may appear as “junk” to the non-farm public.

Old tractors, farm machinery, and building materials may be kept by the farm for later use as replacement parts or building materials. Old tires may be kept for use to hold down plastic film placed on bunk silos storing animal feed. Farmers have always been masters of the three “Rs” of waste reduction: reduce, reuse and recycle.

The three Rs apply when they keep old equipment to use for parts or to make devices to help complete daily farm chores.

Unfortunately, neighbors and local municipalities sometimes don’t agree with a farm keeping old equipment for later use. Local junk and junkyard laws may purposefully or innocently conflict with the farm practice of keeping old equipment and materials. Municipalities sometimes write junk and junkyard laws with the purpose of protecting property values, keeping their communities clean and eliminating unsightly storage of old abandoned vehicles, equipment and debris. When properly drafted, these junk and junkyard laws may be beneficial to the community.

However, as the public becomes farther removed from farm life and how agricultural businesses operate, local officials may not recognize how old farm equipment plays an important role in the operation of farm businesses. Too often, local junk laws are drafted and passed without any forethought on the impact to the local ag business. Then, neighbors begin to complain about an old equipment storage area,

or local officials may proactively seek enforcement of junk laws against a farm and conflict develops.

Hopefully the farm is aware of New York’s Certified AgriJay Matteson culture District program and Agriculture and Markets Law section 305a. Farms may enroll in the state-certified agricultural districts and have their parcels of property included in an agricultural district. Once included in the agricultural districts program, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets recognizes certain “sound agricultural practices” and will protect a farm’s right to follow those practices. Agricultural law does not give a farm the right to do anything and everything it wants. In the example of storing old farm equipment, Section 305-a recognizes the right of a farm to keep old equipment and other materials for later use on the farm, however in certain cases, the Department of Agriculture and Markets has recognized that certain equipment such as campers and buses, may not have a use in the production function of the farm and may not be protected under agricultural law.

Jefferson County Economic Development has provided on our jeffersoncountyagriculture.com website a page with information about state-certified agricul-

tural districts and links to important resources on how to enroll, and what the law provides. Click on the “for farmers” menu button and then click on the “Agriculture and Farmland Protection” tab to read more. There are resources to connect to the Jefferson County website where information is available about the process to enroll in a certified local agricultural district.

In case someone does not have internet access, they may call the Jefferson County Planning Department, (315) 785-3144, which administers the agricultural district program. Another local resource is the Jefferson County Economic Development Office, (315) 782-5865, ext. 232. The best resource is the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets, (518) 457-8887. Ask for the farmland protection program staff.

All farms in Jefferson County should investigate enrolling in the certified agricultural districts program. In the 28 years that I’ve served the agricultural industry in Jefferson and Oswego counties, there are countless examples of where the agricultural district program has been vital to a farm’s ability to continue farming. We always encourage local municipalities to contact either county planning or our office to learn about the program and how to avoid being in conflict with state ag and markets law when drafting junk laws. It is relatively easy to avoid conflicts when municipalities proactively seek information. 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.

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 35

sma ll business success

In business, school is never on break

O

ne of the basic tenets of good small business management is to keep learning as much as you can about the business you’re in, whether it’s watching the horizon for up-and-coming trends in other parts of the country, observing what innovations or new products are being introduced in your industry or scanning trade publications and websites to check out ways to make your business more successful.

Advisors at the Small Business Development Center have a similar charge to keep our knowledge bases and resources fresh and up-to-date for clients. We’ve been in the business of small business consulting for a long time, and our Watertown center just celebrated its 30th year on the Jefferson Community College campus. Things are always changing in our world, whether it’s new laws and regulations, different funding opportunities or leaps in marketing and information technology.

To that end, we use a variety of methods to keep ourselves current. One of our greatest resources is our Research Network.

Based in Albany, our researchers are constantly posting relevant articles and surveys on the small business climate — everything from employee cost as a percentage of compensation to ways to reduce credit card chargebacks to topics like “disruptive innovation” (hint: think Tesla). We get notifications on those posts in our email, and they are often shared on our Facebook page, Facebook.com/watertownsbdc.

We can also request research packets

from the Research Network on behalf of clients. For example, I recently asked them for information on self-storage units related to the proposed location of a client’s project.

Sarah O’Connell I received an analysis of other self-storage businesses that operate within 5, 10 and 25 miles, as well as detailed demographics in those market seg-

One of the highlights of our year is our annual staff training conference that brings together business advisors from around the state to share information and best practices while taking hours of workshops on relevant topics. At our most recent conference in May, I sat in on sessions about the online email marketing company, Constant Contact, the new “social enterprise” business model, the certification process for Minority and Women Business Enterprise businesses through New York State and the website builder company WIX.com. I also participated in a two-session panel where experienced advisors answered questions and shared advice with new advisors in the SBDC system.

What are you doing to keep yourself in the learning groove?

If there’s an association for your industry, that’s often a great place to start. For example, the National Restaurant Association, restaurant.org, has a great website with articles on food trends, management, marketing and more. There are many other resources out there for general business practices, employee management, information technology, and so on, including regular columns in this magazine.

Investing time in your professional development is time well spent and can lead to greater profitability for your business.

Investing time in your professional development is time well spent and can lead to greater profitability for your business.

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ments, a sample business plan and articles on the state of the self-storage industry.

We also can email our statewide advisors listserve to pose a question that one of our clients may have, such as finding a re-packager for a food product or looking into the legitimacy of an online lender. We further have the opportunity to sit in on webinars at least weekly from our advisor network on topics like QuickBooks, LinkedIn and Equity Funding. The U.S. Small Business Administration, sba.gov, and the Internal Revenue Service, irs.gov, also have webinars, tutorials, blog articles and many other helpful resources that are available to the public. Many advisors subscribe to various e-newsletters and tip sheets as well.

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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36 | NNY Business | July 2016

E NT RE P RENE U R’S E D G E

Don’t give up because it didn’t happen

A

re you familiar with the 80/20 rule?

It’s originally known as the Pareto Principle and it basically says that 20 percent of any input creates 80 percent of the result.

In other words, only 20 percent of you will do whatever it takes to become a selfsustaining entrepreneur.

Only 20 percent of you will ever see the project you started come to fruition.

Only 20 percent of you are willing to be criticized, crucified and ridiculed in order to become part of the 80 percent result.

Are you part of the 20 percent?

Sadly, many of you will give up. You will decide you don’t have what it takes or that you can’t grow your business for whatever reason. Those are lies. And you’ll believe those lies because frankly, it’s easier to believe the lies than to face the truth.

You don’t give up because it didn’t happen.

You keep going until it does.

As I get older I’m beginning to realize that we live in a world where SO MANY of us give up.

Seriously. Truth be told, it makes me sad, because I know, I KNOW, if they loved themselves enough and believed in themselves even more, they could have experienced their dream. Seriously.

If they stopped listening to the voices around them and in their own heads that said, “You’re a nut job. You can’t run a business. Do you realize what it takes?” they would be thriving and making money hand over fist.

Many years ago, I worked as a bartender at Applebee’s in the city of Syracuse. I was busy cleaning up when Sheryl Crow popped on the TV above my head. It was serendipitous, because I sang in a band at the time and was determined to make it on TV myself: As a singer, an actress, a writer, or all of the above.

As I washed out a few highballs, I turned to the only patron at the bar and said, “You see her up there? That’s going to be me someday.”

He looked at me like I had three eyes on my forehead. “You won’t get there. Are you kidding me? You need to be realistic.

Shoot for something you can actually do.

That’s a one-ina-million shot.”

“Then there’s still a possibly,” I said and then I added a few choice words that started with the letter F, because what he said made me mad and I Joleene Moody was a hothead in my 20’s.

As with most people who make me angry by telling me that I can’t, I let that anger fuel me and like it always does, that anger turned into determination.

I did end up on TV and I’m not even close to being done. I spent 10 years as a television reporter and anchor.

I was on a nationaal crime investiga-

Flaming Lips) was a fry cook.

At age 30, Harrison Ford was a carpenter.

At age 30, Martha Stewart was a stockbroker.

At age 37, Ang Lee was a stay-at-homedad working odd jobs.

Julia Child released her first cookbook at age 39, and got her own cooking show at age 51.

Vera Wang failed to make the Olympic figure skating team, didn’t get the editorin-chief position at Vogue, and designed her first dress at age 40.

Stan Lee didn’t release his first big comic book until he was 40.

Alan Rickman gave up his graphic design career to pursue acting at age 42.

Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his first movie role until he was 46.

Morgan Freeman landed his first MAJOR movie role at age 52.

Kathryn Bigelow only reached international success when she made The Hurt Locker at age 57.

Grandma Moses didn’t begin her painting career until age 76.

Louise Bourgeois didn’t become a famous artist until she was 78.

Whatever your dream is, it is not too late to achieve it. You aren’t a failure because you haven’t found fame and fortune by the age of 21. It’s OK if you don’t even know what your dream is yet. Even if you’re flipping burgers, waiting tables or answering phones today, you never know where you’ll end up tomorrow.

Never tell yourself you’re too old to make it. Never tell yourself you missed your chance. Never tell yourself that you aren’t good enough. You can do it. Whatever it is.

If you want your dreams to materialize, you have to be willing to do what most people won’t. You have to be willing to feel the pain and deal with rejection, even from your closest friends. You just have to.

I’m glad we had this little talk, Now go pick up your pen. Go write. Time hasn’t run out. It’s only just begun.

If you want your dreams to materialize, you have to be willing to do what most people won’t. You have to be willing to feel the pain and deal with rejection, even from your closest friends. You just have to. tive show called Snapped because I covered a high-profile murder and they always to interview at least one reporter in those things. I have also been in four national television commercials. (If you blink, you might miss me, but hell, I still did it and got paid for it.)

Next, I will sell my television series idea and get on TV that way.

And no one, no one, can tell me different.

I saw a post on Facebook a few weeks ago that really hit home for me and I think it will for you, too. It was originally posted by Drew Forrester and it goes something like this: At age 23, Tina Fey was working at a YMCA. At age 23, Oprah was fired from her first reporting job.

At age 24, Stephen King was working as a janitor and living in a trailer.

At age 27, Vincent Van Gogh failed as a missionary and decided to go to art school.

At age 28, J.K. Rowling was a suicidal single parent living on welfare.

At age 28, Wayne Coyne (from The

n Joleene moody is a freelance writer, blogger and speaker who lives in Oswego County with her husband and daughter. Learn more at www.takeyourvoiceback.com. Her column appears monthly in NNY Business. Visit nnybizmag. com to read past columns online.

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 37

COMMUNITY / BUSINESS CALENDAR

Adams Center Saturday, Aug. 27

n Annual TaTa Run, 9 a.m., FX Caprara Harley-Davidson, 17890 Goodnough St. Hosted by Watertown Chrome Divas.

Registration slated for 9 a.m. at FX Caprara; kickstands up, 11:00 a.m. Ride ends at Adams VFW, 3 VFW Drive. Includes raffles, food, auction and music. Cost: rider, $20; passenger, $15; includes dinner. Information: chromedivas.com.

Alexandria Bay Thursday, Aug. 18

n Pirates Festival at the Winery, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Thousand Islands Winery, 43298 Seaway Ave., Suite 1. Includes live music by The Bad Husbands Club and food is provided by Johnny D’s.

Cost: $5. Information: 482-9306.

Cape Vincent Saturday, Aug. 8

n Autos on the River, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Village Green. The event includes a classic car show, a farmers and crafters market, concert on the green, a hula hoop competition and a bubble gum blowing contest. Cost: Contact for prices. Information: Cape Vincent Chamber of Commerce, 654-2481 or capevincent.org.

Saturday, Aug. 13 to Sunday, Aug. 14

n Wine-ding Down Summer Food & Craft Fair, 10 a.m. Saturday to 4 p.m. Sunday, The Cape Winery, 2066 Deerlick Road. Includes vendors, wine and specialty food items. Information: The Cape Winery, 654-3218 or thecapewinery.com.

Carthage Thursday, Aug. 11

n Business After Hours, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., 19 Bridge St. Includes light refreshments, door prizes and a raffle. Cost: Contact for prices. Information: Carthage Area Chamber of Commerce, 493-3590 or carthagechamber@centralny.twcbc.com.

Every Wednesday

n Cruise In Classic Auto Show, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Turning Point Park. Includes food, prizes, music and a raffle. Proceeds to benefit the American Legion Scholarship Fund. Cost: Free. Information: 493-2787.

Clayton Saturday, July 30

n Run for the River 5K/10K, 9 a.m., Frink Park, downtown. Registration at 7:30 a.m. Register online, by mail or in person. Awards for top male and female

38 | NNY Business | July 2016

in each age category. Cost: by June 30: 5K, $25; 10K, $30; after June 30: 5K, $30; 10K, $35; Save the River members, $5 discount. Information: Save the River, savetheriver.org, 686-2010 or info@ savetheriver.org.

Friday, Aug. 5 to Sunday, Aug. 7

n 52nd Annual Antique Boat Show and Auction, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, Antique Boat Museum, 750 Mary St. North America’s longest-running antique boat show. Includes hundreds of boats on display, marketplace flea market and activities. Cost: adult Friday or Saturday, $15; adult Sunday, $14; youth (ages 7 to 17) Friday or Saturday, $10; youth Sunday, $8; ages 6 and younger or active/retired military, free; adult three-day pass, $30; youth three-day pass, $20; adult Saturday/Sunday pass, $25; youth Saturday/Sunday pass, $15. Information: Margaret Hummel, mhummel@abm.org; 686-4104 or abm.org.

Friday, Aug. 12

n Thousand Island Land Trust’s volunteer recognition day, 5 to 7 p.m., Zenda Farms Preserve, 38973 Zenda Farm Road. Casual reception to thank volunteers includes drinks, dinner and “volunteer of the year” award. Reservations required. Information/register: TILT, 686-5345 or events@tilandtrust.org.

Friday, Aug. 12

n Jefferson Community College Foundation Clambake, 5:30 p.m., Antique Boat Museum, 750 Mary St. Includes buffet dinner by Scotty’s BBQ House and Catering Company, drinks by Bella’s Bistro, live music, auction and more. Cocktails scheduled for 5:30 p.m.; dinner and auction, 6:30 p.m. To benefit JCC Foundation. Cost: $100. Information/reservations: JCC Foundation, sunyjefferson. edu/clambake or 786-2458.

Saturday, Aug. 13 to Sunday, Aug. 14

n Thousand Islands Arts Center 51st Annual Antique Show & Sale, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sunday, Cerow Recreation Park, 600 E. Line Road. Information: T.I. Arts Center, 686-4123.

Saturday, Aug. 27 to Sunday, Aug. 28

n 33rd Annual Arts and Crafts Show and Sale, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Thousand Islands Arts Center, 314 John St. Information: T.I. Arts Center 686-4123.

Sunday, Aug. 28

n River Rat Triathlon, 7 a.m., Centennial Park. Proceeds to benefit Children’s Miracle Network. Consists of 600-meter

swim or 3-mile kayak/canoe/stand up paddleboard, 16.75-mile road bike and 3.3-mile run. Check in slated for 7 a.m.; kayak/canoe/stand up paddleboard start, 8:30 a.m.; swim start, 9 a.m. Cost:

by Aug. 1: individual, $50; team, $40 per person; Aug. 2 to Aug. 16: individual, $60; team, $50 per person; $10 additional fee to register race day. Register: active.com. Information: riverrattri.org.

Evans Mills Thursday, July 21

n Business After Hours, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., AT&T Premiere Technologies, 26183 State Route 11. Register by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 19. Cost: registered members, $ 10; non-registered members, $12; nonmembers, $15. Information: Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce, 788-4400 or chamber@watertownny.com.

Fort Drum Tuesday, July 26

n Fort Drum Business Networking Group, 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Army Community Service, P-4330 Conway Road. Fort Drum business owners are invited to connect with each other. Cost: Free. Information: 772-9611 or fortdrum acs.checkappointments.com.

Henderson Saturday, Aug. 13

n Heritage Day & Juried Craft Show, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Henderson Historical Society, 12581 County Road 72. Includes crafters, food, music, re-enactors, building tours and silent auction. Information: facebook.com/HendersonHeritageDay or hendersongenealogy@yahoo.com.

Gouverneur Tuesday, Aug. 2 to Sunday, Aug. 7

n Gouverneur and St. Lawrence County Fair, Gouveneur and St. Lawrence County Fairgrounds, 85 E. Barney St. Includes live music, local talent show, the fireman’s parade, and a demolition derby. Cost: Contact for prices. Information: gouverneurfair.net.

LaFargeville Friday, Aug. 5 to Saturday, Aug. 6

n Juried Art & Craft Fair, 9 a.m. Friday to 5 p.m. Saturday, 30950 NYS Route 180.

More than 100 vendors will be participating, including pottery, quilters, woodworkers, and more. A Craft Camp for Youth will be part of the family activities

Lowville Tuesday, July 19 to Saturday, July 23

n 196th Lewis County Fair, Bostwick Street. Includes games, rides, live music, livestock shows, and more. Cost: Contact for prices. Information: 831-4285 or bonniemurphy.lcf@frontiernet.net.

Ogdensburg Saturday, Aug. 6

n Maple City Triathlon, 8 a.m., Dobisky Center, 100 Riverside Drive. Includes 750 meter swim, 20K bike and 5K run.

Cost: before May 31: individual, $65; teams, $80; June 1 to July 31: individual, $100; teams, $115; non-USAT members, additional $12. Information/register: Facebook.com/CGSWRacing and cgswracing@gmail.com.

Saturday, Aug. 8 to Sunday Aug. 9

n Wine, Beer & Food Festival, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Lockwood Arena, 141 W River St. This event features The Pride of New York wines and beers, as well as locally prepared food. Cost: Contact for prices. Information: 393-3620 or ogdensburgny.com.

Old Forge Saturday, July 23 to Sunday, July 24

n Old Forge Antiques & Vintage Show & Sale, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Hiltebrant Recreation Center, 225 North St. Features more than 50 dealers with antique and vintage furniture, camp decor, oriental rugs, jewelry, hotel china, books, fine art, sporting goods, and taxidermy. Cost: $6. Information: Helene McAleese, 1(800) 365-5217 or mcaleeseh@aol.com

Saturday, July 30 to Sunday, July 31

n Old Forge Home Show, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Sunday, The North Street Pavilion, 100 North St. Find the most qualified experts in the field of home building, remodeling and improving. Cost: Free admission.

Information: OldForgeHomeShow.com or call 315-527-5957.

while listening to live music at the Visitor’s Center. Cost: Contact for prices.

Information: Sackets Harbor Chamber of Commerce, 646-1700.

Star Lake Wednesday, July 20

n Business in the Spotlight, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Coffee Fever, 4239 State Highway 3. This networking event spotlights up to eight St. Lawrence Chamber of Commerce member businesses and organizations.

Cost: $5. Information: 1- (877) 228-7810 or business.northcountryguide.com.

Syracuse Friday, July 29 to Sunday, July 31

n AmeriCU Syracuse Arts and Crafts Festival, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Columbus Circle, East Onondaga Street. The festival features more than 160 artists and includes art and craft exhibits, vendors, music, multi-cultural performances and participatory activities. Cost: Free admission. Information: Downtown Committee of Syracuse, 422-8284 or downtownsyra cuse.com/syracuse-arts-and-crafts-festival.

Thursday, Aug. 25 to Monday, Sept. 5

n Great New York State Fair, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Empire Expo Center, New York State Fairgrounds, 581 State Fair Blvd. The fair features rides, food, new products, agricultural displays, New York State products and live music. Cost: Contact for prices. Information: 1- (800) 234-4797 or nysfair.ny.gov/.

First Wednesdays

n Business Innovation Days meeting, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., The Tech Garden, 235 Harrison St. Entrepreneurs and small business owners meet with a counselor from the Small Business Development Center at Onondaga Community College for advice and assistance opportunities. Information: 498-6070 or SBDC@sunyocc.edu.

Wednesdays

n Introduction to Business Startup, Small Business Development Center, 4 to 6 p.m., Mulroy Hall, Onondaga Community College, 4585 West Seneca Turnpike.

Information: 498-6070 or cnyastd.org.

Sackets Harbor

n Syracuse Business Networking, 6 to 7 p.m., Barbieri’s Restaurant, 304 S. Main St. Cost: Free. Information: Kim Bachstein, 414-8223 or info@Syracuse BusinessNetworking.com.

Saturday, Aug. 27

Thursdays

n Cruisin’ in the Harbor, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Downtown Sackets Harbor.

Enjoy classic cars and motorcycles

n Free Business Counseling with SCORE, 10 to 11:30 a.m., Tioga County Chamber of Commerce, 80 North Ave. Infor-

mation: Tioga Chamber of Commerce, 1- (607) 687-2020.

Fridays

n 40 Above: Workers in Transition, 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., Northern Onondaga Public Library at North Syracuse, 100 Trolley Barn Lane. Helping job seekers aged 40 and above in search of work. Information: John A. Cruty, 569-3964 or crutij@yahoo.com.

Waddington Tuesday, Aug. 23

n Business in the Spotlight, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., JC’s River Run, 17 Bowling Court.

This networking event spotlights up to eight St. Lawrence Chamber of Commerce member businesses and organizations.

Cost: $5. Information: 1- (877) 228-7810 or business.northcountryguide.com.

Watertown Wednesday, Aug. 10

n EMERGE NNY Leadership Conference, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Savory Downtown, 300 Washington St. This year’s program includes Sandler’s Training’s Lessons in Personal and Organizational Effectiveness. Cost: $70 before July 1; EMERGE members, $55; military and students, $65; day of the event, $85.

Information: Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce, 7884400 or chamber@watertownny.com.

Thursday, Aug. 18

n Business After Hours, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., Fairfield Inn & Suites, 250 Commerce Park Drive. Register by noon on Wednesday, August 17. Cost: registered members, $ 10; non-registered members, $12; nonmembers, $15. Information: Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce, 788-4400 or chamber@watertownny.com.

Wednesdays through Oct. 5

COMMUNITY / BUSINESS CALENDAR

offered. Cost: $5; children under 12, free.

Information: Agricultural Museum Office, 658-2353 or stonemillsmuseum.org.

n Watertown Farm & Craft Market, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., a program of the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce. Market stretches along Washington Street in Downtown Watertown from the State Office Building Plaza north to the Morgan Stanley Building. Wide variety of farm and craft products. Rain or shine.

Vendor list and more info: watertown farmersmarket.weebly.com.  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 facebook.com/NNY Business or nnybizmag.com for events calendar updates.

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 39

b usiness scene Carthage Area Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours at IMEC

Andrew McEathron and mother, F. Amy McEathron, owner, Independent Medical Evaluation Company, Carthage.

ELAINE Avallone PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

Fropm left, Tina Lanier, manager, AmeriCU Credit Union, Lowville, and Penny Ellis, Fuller Insurance Agency. Both women are members of the board for the Carthage Revolution semi-professional football team with Ms. Ellis as team general manager. The Carthage Area Chamber of Commerce held its June Business After Hours on Wednesday, June 15, at Independent Medical Evaluation Company, Carthage, which marked its 10th anniversary.

40 | NNY Business | July 2016

From left, Carthage Area of Commerce summer intern Morgan Herbert with Chamber director Lori A. Borland.

ELAINE Avallone PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

Mary Jane Brundage, manager, Rite Aid, West Carthage, and Tom Ellis, owner, ZAPET Vibrations DJ Service, Carthage.

BU SINE SS SCENE GWNC Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours at Jake’s Garden Center

From left, Jake Johnson, Jake’s Lawn Care & Jake’s Garden Center, Watertown, Chuck Campone, Watertown Savings Bank, Watertown, and Tyler Bartlett, D.P. Bartlett & Sons, Adams.

Andy Gottehrer and Traci Bickelhaupt, both of Bonnie Castle Resort & Marina, Alexandria Bay.

KAREE MAGEE PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Rachael Giargiano, Savannah Grant and Shereen Daly, all of In Motion School of Dance, Watertown. Jake’s Lawn Care & Jake’s Garden Center, Watertown, hosted the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce June Business After Hours on Thursday, June 16.

KAREE MAGEE PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Joe Hartnett, C&S Companies, Syracuse, and Mike Dobbin, retired business consultant, Lorraine.

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July 2016 | NNY Business

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b usiness scene GWNC Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours at Jake’s Garden Center

From left, Renee Beach, Samaritan Medical Center, Watertown, and Kate Wilson, Knowlton Technologies, Watertown.

From left, Mike Colello, Rainbow International Restoration, Watertown, and Neil Katzman, Soft Water by George, Watertown.

KAREE MAGEE PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

KAREE MAGEE PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

Erin Perez and Mike Cline, both of AT&T, Watertown. Jake’s Lawn Care & Jake’s Garden Center, Watertown, hosted the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce June Business After Hours on Thursday, June 16.

Al Ritz, Black River Paper, and Barb Ashe, Samaritan Medical Center, Watertown.

DGM Coon & Company is proud to offer space available for rent in some of Watertown’s most desirable office locations.

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Commercial Property Management Services 42 | NNY Business | July 2016

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b u siness scene North Country Honors the Mountain munument unveiling at Thompson Park

New York state Sen. Patricia A. Ritchie, R-Heuvelton, and Watertown City Mayor Joseph M. Butler.

From left, retired Lt. Gen. James L. Campbell, left, and retired Sgt. Maj. T.J. Murphy.

AMANDA MORRISON PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

U.S. Rep. Elise M. Stefanik, R-Willsboro, and Lewis County Legislature Chairman Michael A. Tabolt, R-Croghan. North Country Honors the Mountain held an unveiling ceremony for the 10th Mountain Division Monument at Tower Square in Watertown’s historic Thompson Park on Friday, July 1.

AMANDA MORRISON PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

Sculptor Susan Grant Raymond, retired Lt. Col. Gilbert H. Pearsall Jr., chairman, North Country Honors the Mountain, and Edward G. Olley Jr., GYMO Architecture, Engineering & Land Surveying, monument architect.

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 43

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44 | NNY Business | July 2016

“My father is moving here to help me,” Mr. Bhat said, adding that Watertown doesn’t have an Indian restaurant.

Called B-Hat’s Curry House, the restaurant will offer curry, chicken and pork entries and other Indian dishes that Americans have become familiar with in this country.

It will also serve Nepalese items such as lentils and rice, known as Dal Bhat, and curried vegetables, called Takari. Mr. Bhat also pointed out his grandfather was an expert in Nepalese spices.

His father Govinda will be B-Hat’s primary chef, while his wife Baranga and mother Gita will also work at the restaurant. In all, seven or eight people will be employed there.

Last month, the Watertown Local Development Corp., also known as the Watertown Trust, approved a five-year, $25,000 loan that carries a term of 5 percent interest. He intends to use the funding for inventory, interior renovations and working capital.

Seating about 50 people, the restaurant will be open from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. He chose the location - between a Dollar General store and a day care center — because it’s in a strip plaza and he received “a great deal” from the plaza’s owner, Mr. Bhat said.

He’s also expecting a loan from the Watertown Savings Bank to help finance the $70,000 project to get the restaurant off the ground.

To learn about starting and opening a business, the soon-to-be retired Fort Drum soldier got help from the Small Business Development Center and through the Boots-to-Business program at Syracuse University.

July 2016 | NNY Business

| 45

46 | NNY Business | July 2016

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