NNY Business March 2013

// ANNUAL WOMEN IN BUSINESS ISSUE

MARCH 2013 Volume 3 No. 4

Christine M. Cisco

RBC Wealth Management

, s Scene Busines Small , h c e T Biz s, NNY Busines ot. h s p a Sn

Pamela S. Beyor

nnybizmag.com

D.L. Calarco Funeral Home

Schwerzmann & Wise

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Frances A. ‘Francee’ Calarco

Catherine Burns Quencer

PLUS

***

THE INTERVIEW JCC President Carole A. McCoy

p. 40

Bernier, Carr & Associates

TAKING THE LEAD

NORTH COUNTRY WOMEN RISE TO THE TOP OF THEIR FIELDS $2.95

/nnybusiness @NNYBusinessMag

// NORTHERN NEW YORK’S PREMIER BUSINESS MONTHLY //

March 2013 | NNY Business

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NNY Business | March 2013

>> Inside MARCH 2013

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18 27 |

27 HEALING ON THE RIVER Three Clayton women have come together to help make the town its healthiest ever at River Wellness and River Yoga.

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SMALL BIZ STARTUP |

30 NEXT-GEN AT THE HELM A longtime businessman has sold a pair of funeral homes to his daughter who plans to keep them shining.

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WOMEN IN BUSINESS |

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17 KEEPING IT SIMPLE Trevor R. Brunet could be on to something good with his new ‘Simplicity Café.’ |

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COVER |

18 REACHING THE TOP For four north country women, the road to success has been paved with perseverance. |

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26 BARKING UP A TREAT A LaFargeville woman has found the perfect recipe for dog biscuits with local flare.

ENTREPRENEURS |

32 NEW VENTURES SOAR Some Clarkson freshmen are getting a little help with nine new businesses this year.

AGRI-BUSINESS |

34 LOCAL FOODS DELIGHT Educators hope to boost the local foods movement this year with some extra help.

REAL ESTATE |

36 GOING COMMERCIAL A group of business and real estate leaders offer tips for commerical developers. |

BUSINESS HISTORY |

60 GROCERS ON GOTHAM Watertown’s Gotham Street Market served neighbors for several generations.

March 2013 | NNY Business

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NNY Business | March 2013

INTERVIEW | 40 MAKING SOLID STRIDES Jefferson Community College President Carole A. McCoy — the first woman at the helm — is entering her seventh year at the school. She hopes to see some new projects soon take shape. |

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COLUMNS

DEPARTMENTS

10 11 12 13 17

ON THE COVER

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44 ECONOMICALLY SPEAKING 45 NONPROFITS TODAY 46 COMMERCE CORNER |

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47 AGRI-BUSINESS 48 BUSINESS TECH BYTES 49 SMALL BUSINESS SUCCESS

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

35 50 52 44 46

REAL ESTATE ROUNDUP CALENDAR BUSINESS SCENE BUSINESS HISTORY WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE?

For our annual women in business issue, Photographer Amanda Morrison styled the cover photo in our studio. Clockwise from left are Pamela S. Beyor, Bernier, Carr & Associates chairwoman of the board, Catherine Burns Quencer, principal partner at Schwerzmann & Wise law firm, Frances A. ‘Francee’ Calarco, owner of D.L. Calarco Funeral Home, and Christine M. Cisco, vice president and financial planner at RBC Wealth Management.

March 2013 | NNY Business

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CONTRIBUTORS

BusIness www.nnybizmag.com

Publishers

John B. Johnson Jr. Harold B. Johnson II Greg Hart is north country regional director for the Workforce Development Institute in Massena. He writes about his agency’s recent work and progress in the region. (p. 44)

Rande Richardson is executive director of the Northern New York Community Foundation. He writes about the promise of the next generation of philanthropists. (p. 45)

Lynn Pietroski is president and CEO of the Greater WatertownNorth Country Chamber of Commerce. She cuts to the roots of leadership and offers tips for any leader. (p. 46)

General Manager John B. Johnson

Executive Editor Bert Gault

Managing Editor Robert D. Gorman

Magazine Editor

Kenneth J. Eysaman

Associate Magazine Editor Kyle R. Hayes

Jay Matteson is the agricultural coordinator for the Jefferson County Industrial Development Corp. He presents a brief history of the Jefferson County Agriculture Development Corp. (p. 47)

Jill Van Hoesen is chief information officer for Johnson Newspapers and a 25-year IT veteran. She outlines some current issues in information technology security for businesses. (p. 48)

Sarah O’Connell is an advisor for the state Small Business Development Center at SUNY Jefferson. She shares her recent experience helping businesses recover in NYC. (p. 49)

Advertising Directors

Karen K. Romeo | Tammy S. Beaudin

Magazine Advertising Manager Matthew Costantino

Circulation Director Mary Sawyer

Photography

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

Ad Graphics, Design

Lance M. Evans is executive officer for the Jefferson-Lewis and St. Lawrence County Board of Realtors. He writes about how the Realtor Code of Ethics is applied and enforced. (p. 35)

Norah Machia is a veteran Watertown Daily Times reporter. In our cover story, she visits with four women who have earned a place at the top in traditionally male-dominated fields. (p. 18)

Kyle Hayes is associate magazine editor for NNY Business. In ‘Small Biz Startup,’ he visits Ogdensburg’s Simplicity Café. He also examines the growing health and wellness industry in Clayton. (pgs. 17, 27)

MARKETPLACE

AAMCO Transmissions ................... 10 All American Real Estate ............... 37 AmeriCU Credit Union ...................... 4 Ameriprise Financial ...................... 29 Amy Earle School of Dance .......... 21 Augustinian Academy …............... 21 Bach & Company …....................... 36 Beardsley Design ….......................... 7 The Blue Heron ...........................…. 58 C&M Auto ….................................... 10 Carthage Market ......................….. 21 Center for Sight …........................... 64 Church Street Diner ….............. 21, 58 Clayton Dental Office …................ 39 Coleman’s Corner …...................... 58 The Computer Guys …................... 48 Creg Systems Corp. …...................... 7 Croghan Meat Market …............... 24 Crouse Hospital …............................. 3 D Laux Properties …........................ 37 Eagle Ridge Village ….................... 37 Equipment Rentals …...................... 33 Exit More Real Estate ….................. 37 Fairgrounds Inn …........................... 58 Foy Agency Inc. …......................... 39 Great American Grill ….................. 58 GWNC Chamber Job Expo …......... 6

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HighTower Advisors ….................... 33 Howard Orthotics …........................ 44 IMEC Independent …..................... 21 Innovative P.T. …............................. 45 Jeanette Turner …........................... 21 JCIDA …........................................... 61 KIMCO Steel ….................................. 2 Krafft Cleaning …............................ 55 The Little Barn Bulk Foods …........... 15 LoFink Ford Mercury …................... 57 ‘Louie’s’ Hodkinsons Grill …........... 24 LTI ….................................................. 46 Macars …......................................... 11 Marceau Paving …......................... 36 Marguerite’s Cranberry Emporium ….................................... 24 Mary Kay Cosmetics ….................. 14 Montague Inn ….............................. 24 Mort Backus & Sons ….................... 16 Nancy D. Storino Real Estate …..... 37 Nice N Easy …................................. 24 NNY Builders Exchange …............. 62 NNY Business …............................... 63 NNY Community Foundation .. 29, 42 NNY Newspaper Corp. …............... 43 Northstar Auto Salvage ….............. 52 Nortz & Virkler Ford …..................... 10

NNY Business | March 2013

O’Briens Restaurant …..................... 58 Papa Tinos Pizzeria ....................….. 58 Phinney’s Automotive ...............….. 10 Rachee’s Photography ….............. 53 RBC Wealth Management .......….. 20 River Hospital .............................….. 16 River Wellness Center ...............….. 28 River Yoga ..................................….. 28 Schwerzmann & Wise ….................. 22 SeaComm Credit Union ...........….. 23 ShredCon ...................................….. 50 Shulers Restaurant …....................... 58 Sideline Promotions …..................... 10 The Silver Bench Jewelry …............ 24 Slack Chemical Co. ….................... 47 Thousand Islands Real Estate …..... 37 The Three C Limousine ….......... 24, 56 TLC Real Estate …............................. 37 Tug Hill Vineyards …........................ 24 Tuggers Family Restaurant …......... 24 Watertown Daily Times …............... 49 Watertown Dental Health Group …. 9 Watertown LDC …............................ 35 Watertown Savings Bank …............ 31 Wells Communications …............... 39 The Wil Hansen Show ….................. 54 WWTI-ABC50 …................................ 59

Rick Gaskin, Brian Mitchell, Heather O’Driscoll, Scott Smith, Todd Soules 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. © 2010-2013. All material submitted to NNY Business becomes property of Northern New York Newspaper Corp., publishers of the Watertown Daily Times, and will not be returned.

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Submissions Send all editorial correspondence to keysaman@wdt.net Advertising For advertising rates and information in Jefferson and Lewis counties, email mcostantino@wdt.net, or call 315-661-2305 In St. Lawrence County, e-mail tbeaudin@ogd.com, or call 315-661-2512 Printed with pride in U.S.A. at Vanguard Printing LLC, Ithaca, N.Y., a Forest Stewardship Certified facility.

Please recycle this magazine.

March 2013 | NNY Business

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EDITOR’S NOTE

W

e are proud to deliver our annual women in business issue this month.

When we were thinking about which north country women to feature in this special issue, four people who have found success in traditionally male-dominated fields immediately came to mind. A licensed architect, Pamela S. Beyor has worked at Bernier, Carr & Associates since 1985 and has risen through the ranks to become chairwoman of the board. Catherine Burns Quencer followed in her mother’s early footsteps to become an attorney and is today a principal partner Ken Eysaman at Schwerzmann & Wise. When Frances A. “Francee” Calarco earned a degree in mortuary science in 1985 with 26 other students she was one of only two women. Today, she manages D.L. Calarco Funeral Home with her father, Donald L. And with women representing just 16 percent of those who work in financial planning, Christine M. Cisco has earned her post as vice president and certified financial planner at RBC Wealth Management’s Watertown office.

Without question, there are countless other stories of north country women who, through hard work and dedication, have earned similar success. We look forward to meeting them and sharing their inspiring experiences in the months and years to come.

We also caught up with Jefferson Community College President Carole A. McCoy for our 20 Questions interview. As only the fifth person to lead the 52-year-old college, Dr. McCoy is the first woman to occupy the corner office. In a candid conversation, she shares her journey from one-time college dropout to finding her niche in higher education at Anne Arundel Community College and her move to Northern New York six years ago.

BUSINESS SCENE — This month’s Scene

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NNY Business | March 2013

section, which begins on page 52, features 68 faces from more than four-dozen organizations and businesses across the north country.

On Jan. 31, we helped the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce welcome more than 100 people to the Ramada Inn for the 2013 Economic Forecast, which included a top-flight panel of local and regional experts. Thanks to Community Bank, RBC Wealth Management and the law offices of Hancock Estabrook, which, along the Watertown Daily Times and NNY Business, sponsored the event.

On Feb. 7, Magazine Advertising Manager Matt Costantino and sales executives Tom Penn and Eric Ingerson joined the Clayton Chamber of Commerce at Amazing Occasions for the chamber’s monthly “Business With a Twist” networking social. That same night, we joined the Greater WatertownNorth Country Chamber of Commerce and nearly 250 people at the Hilton Garden Inn in Watertown to honor Bernier, Carr & Associates CEO Bernard H. “Bernie” Brown as he accepted the 61st Israel A. Shapiro Award.

Once again, congratulations to Mr. Brown on a well-earned achievement.

Finally, on Feb. 20, we visited the USO Fort Drum as it hosted the Greater WatertownNorth Country Chamber of Commerce February Business After Hours.

ON THE WEB — The dining guide that we’ve published in NNY Business since our first issue now appears on our websites. You can access it from either nnybizmag.com or nnyliving.com. You also will find our directory of chambers of commerce and helpful links to business resources on nnybizmag.com. The shift has enabled us to publish an expanded calendar of business and networking events on pages 50 and 51 in this issue. Keep an eye on our website as we continue to add new and unique features that will complement the printed magazine.

Yours in business,

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE Associate hired

Tim Wewer EA, ABA Tax, Accounting and Financial Services, Evans Mills, has hired Michelle Holbrook to specialize in individual and small business tax preparation.

Ms. Holbrook holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and is planning to pursue a postHolbrook graduate degree in addition to a certified public accountant designation.

New partners elected

The law offices of Bond, Schoeneck & King have elected five new partners to the firm: Christopher C. Canada, Ingrid C. Palermo, Brody D. Smith, Rebecca M. Speno and Clifford G. Tsan.

Mr. Canada concentrates his practice in public finance transactions, including tax-exempt financing of projects for colleges, universities, hospitals, health care institutions, municipalities, school districts, retirement communities and public transportation.

Ms. Palermo has a national practice representing secured creditors, unsecured creditors and debtors in out-of-court workouts, foreclosure actions, bankruptcy proceedings and commercial litigation.

Mr. Smith practices in environmental and property law. He has experience in many aspects of environmental law, including litigation and regulatory matters.

Ms. Speno focuses her law practice on real property exemption and valuation issues, representing individuals and large corporate property owners and les-

sees, municipalities and school districts in real property tax assessment appeal proceedings.

Mr. Tsan is a litigation attorney who handles litigation in federal and state courts including New York appellate court cases and in arbitration and mediation.

Featured in dental trade publication

Dr. Peter M. Virga, managing partner of the Watertown Dental Health Group, was recently featured in Dentaltown Magazine’s January issue. Dr. Virga wrote an article titled: “The Future of Dentistry in Digital, Don’t Be Left Behind.”

He was asked to Virga share his perspective on what dentists can do to improve overall patient care and value through dental technology based on his own experiences.

Dentaltown is nationally distributed to more than 120,000 dentists each month and is considered one of the largest peerto-peer dental publications in the country.

Dr. Virga has practiced dentistry in Watertown for 25 years. He earned a doctorate from Georgetown University School of Dentistry and has completed more than 600 hours of continuing education since 2008. He is a visiting faculty member at Spear Education in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Hired at architecture firm Aubertine and Currier Architects, Engineers and Land Surveyors, Watertown, has hired Brian Kreuger as an architec-

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.

tural intern and Melanie Gigliotti as a civil and site designer.

Mr. Krueger is a Northern New York native who lives in Oswego.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in architectural technology from Alfred State College. He will aid the architectural departKreuger ment with drafting and design. He is proficient in Revit and Photoshop and will produce all of the firm’s color renderings.

Ms. Gigliotti, Pulaski, earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental Gigliotti engineering from Syracuse University and has worked at various firms in central and Northern New York.

She will aid the engineering department in her new post. She also is coach of the junior varsity girls’ soccer team at Sandy Creek Central School and junior varsity softball team at Pulaski Central School.

Please see People, page 16

March 2013 | NNY Business

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NNY

Economic indicators Average per-gallon milk price paid to N.Y. dairy farmers Jan. 2013 $1.83 Dec. 2012 $2.04 Jan. 2012 $1.82

0.6%

ECON SNAPSHOT

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

Source: NYS Department of Agriculture

333,476 in Jan. 2013 364,251 in Dec. 2012 322,943 in Jan. 2012

Average NNY price for gallon of regular unleaded gas

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

Jan. 2013 $3.69 Dec. 2012 $3.72 Jan. 2012 $3.61

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

2.2%

Average NNY price for gallon of home heating oil

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(Percent gains and losses are over 12 months)

Jan. 2013 $3.99 Dec. 2012 $3.96 Jan. 2012 $3.90

2.3%

3.3%

$1.01 on Jan. 23, 2013 $0.99 on Dec. 26, 2012 $1.00 on Jan. 25, 2012

1.0%

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of N.Y.

Average NNY price for gallon of residential propane

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

Jan. 2013 $3.01 Dec. 2012 $2.97 Jan. 2012 $3.45

91,100 in Dec. 2013 91,100 in Jan. 2012 91,400 in Dec. 2012

12.8%

0.3%

Source: NYS Energy Research and Development Authority

Source: NYS Department of Labor

Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors single-family home sales

St. Lawrence Board of Realtors single-family home sales

68, median price $134,900 in Jan. 2013 96, median price $142,500 in Dec. 2012 55, median price $114,000 in Jan. 2012

43, median price $87,500 in Jan. 2013 45, median price $75,650 in Dec. 2012 25, median price $100,700 in Jan. 2012

23.6% Sales

18.3% Price

Source: Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors Inc.

72.0%

13.1%

Sales

Price

Source: St. Lawrence Board of Realtors Inc.

NNY unemployment rates Jefferson County

Dec. ’12

10.4%

Nov. ’12

9.4%

Dec. ’11

10.0%

St. Lawrence County

Dec. ’12 Nov. ’12

10.2% 9.4%

Dec. ’11

9.9%

Lewis County Dec. ’12

Nov. ’12

9.0%

Dec. ’11

10.7% 9.8%

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

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

NNY Business | March 2013

NNY

Economic indicators New automobiles (cars and trucks) registered in Jefferson County Cars 340 in Jan. 2013 316 in Dec. 2012 270 in Jan. 2012

25.9%

Trucks 112 in Jan. 2013 87 in Dec. 2012 82 in Jan. 2012

36.6%

Source: Jefferson County Clerk’s Office

Passengers at Watertown International Airport

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

2,827 inbound and outbound in Jan. 2013 2,931 inbound and outbound in Dec. 2012 1,977 inbound and outbound in Jan. 2012

2,077 in Jan. 2013 1,973 in Dec. 2012 1,985 in Jan. 2012

4.6%

42.9% Source: Jefferson County Board of Legislators

DBA (doing business under an assumed name) certificates filed at the Jefferson County Clerk’s office Jan. 22 to Feb. 20, 2013. For a complete list of DBAs filed in past months, visit us at WWW.NNYBIZMAG.COM.

Feb. 20: Rosie’s Auto Detailing, 568 Bradley St., Watertown, Rosemary C. Farone, 23470 County Route 32, Pamelia.

Feb. 1: E Z Wheelz, 26298 Route 11, Evans Mills, Floyd W. Roberts III, 22040 Lane Road, Watertown.

Mary Irwin Farm, 17417 May Irwin Road, Clayton, Rosana G. and James E. Munroe II, 17417 May Irwin Road, Clayton.

Jan. 31: Hayman Harvesting, 9810 Short Road, Woodville, Christopher A. Hayman, 9810 Short Road, Woodville.

Feb. 19: Frank’s Small Engine Repair, 46946 Dingman Point Road, Alexandria Bay, Francis E. Wood III, 1 Briarwood Drive, No. 46, Alexandria Bay.

Jan. 30: Right Cut, 214 Water St., Dexter, Stephanie Miskimon, 425 W. Kirby St., P.O. Box 186, Dexter.

Cakewalk Quality Control, Salmon Run Mall Kiosk, Watertown, Ali Rhea, 914A Academy St., Watertown.

Black River Arms, 27751 Cramer Road, South Rutland, Benjamin James Clark, 27751 Cramer Road, South Rutland.

Roam Environmental Contracting Group, 105 Morgan St., Theresa, Jeffrey J. Minnick II, 105 Morgan St., Theresa.

Feb. 15: Northern New York CPR, 241 Bartlett Road, Sackets Harbor, Debra J. Patterson, 241 Bartlett Road, Sackets Harbor.

Garland City Books of Watertown, 15604 Jacobs Road, Watertown, Suzanne E. Rothenberger, 15604 Jacobs Road, Watertown.

Feb. 14: Hagen Consulting, 26471 County Route 3, Plessis, James L. Hagen, 26471 County Route 3, Plessis.

Photography by Jessie Mae, 5641 Bishop Road, Adams, Jessica Kellar, 5641 Bishop Road, Adams.

Feb. 13: China City, 1125 Arsenal St., Watertown, Jessica Flack, 8637 Peck St., P.O. Box 225, Evans Mills.

Feb. 7: CNY Website, 12 Kiblin Shores Road, Pulaski, Benjamin Kay, 12 Kiblin Shores Road, Pulaski.

Feb. 6: Team No Limits, 331 Quaker Ave., Apt. B, Philadelphia, Jorge R. Henry Jr., 331 Quaker Ave., Apt. B, Philadelphia.

Mindicore, 5842 Sunnybank Drive, Cape Vincent, Barry Roesch, 5842 Sunnybank Drive, Cape Vincent.

Cheaper by the Dozen, 26862 Anable Ave., Evans Mills, Curtis Blount Jr., 26862 Anable Ave., Evans Mills.

Feb. 5: Razors Edge, 29671 Route 50, Black River, Selinda Spears, 106 Wendell Lane, Black River.

Jan. 29: Grumpy Pumpkin Farms, 31036 Miller Road, LaFargeville, Kenneth L. Richard Jr., 31036 Miller Road, LaFargeville.

Jan. 28: Fashion Jewelry, 21182 Salmon Run Mall Loop WA 111, Watertown, Talha Ramazanoglu, 21751 Hewitt Drive, P.O. Box 223, Carthage.

Harbor Candle Company, 118 W. Main St., Sackets Harbor, Cheryl Payne, 118 W. Main St., Sackets Harbor.

GeorgeCassidyPayne.com, 118 W. Main St., Sackets Harbor, Cheryl Payne, 118 W. Main St., P.O. Box 353, Sackets Harbor.

Jan. 25: Synergy Medical Consulting, 15886 Route 11, LaFargeville, Mary S. Heenan, 15886 Route 11, LaFargeville.

George’s Auto Repair, 104 Relyea St., Glen Park, George Walters Jr., 103 Relyea St., Glen Park.

Capital Technology Services, 235 Merrick St., Clayton, Joshua P. Jones, 2017 Vermont View Drive, Watervliet, P.O. Box 5386, Albany.

Fun N Play, 246 State St., Carthage, Julie Brooks, 24 Main St., Philadelphia.

Jan. 24: Americoups, 1027 Huntington St., Watertown, Beverly A. Olney, 1027 Huntington St., Watertown.

Northpoint Outfitting, 153 E. Division St., Watertown, Geno M. Williams, 153 E. Division St., Watertown.

Jan. 23: K Strawberry Photography, 6305A Main St., Fort Drum, Kristin Brito, 6305A Main St., Fort Drum.

1000 Eye Lands Optical, 43744 Route 12, Alexandria Bay, Rhody L. Spooner, 20104 Carr Road, Wellesley Island.

Advance Mobile Solutions, 1416 Sunset Ridge, Watertown, Rowland Mesina, 1416 Sunset Ridge, Watertown.

Jan. 22: Gems and Things by Gina, 24905 State Route 12, outer Gifford St., Watertown, Regenia Kay Windover, 24905 State Route 12, outer Gifford St., Watertown.

All American Property Maintenance, 18104 Van Allen Road, Watertown, Thomas Roshia, 18104 Van Allen Road, Watertown.

Zehr Boys Grass and Snow, 32777 Montana Drive, Carthage, Davd H. Zehr, 32777 Montana Drive, Carthage.

Feb. 4: Youngs Power Service, 709 Beecher St., Clayton, Todd S. Youngs, 709 Beecher St., Clayton.

Jan. 18: Gramma Vedora Soap Company, 209 N. Clinton St., Carthage, Shawna L. Franklin, 209 N. Clinton St., Carthage.

Thrifted, 106 Court St., Watertown, Michael and Alisha Tillson, 1209 Boyd St., Watertown.

E.H. Song Company, 26000 Route 11, Evans Mills, Eunhee Song Scott, 239 Barben Ave., P.O. Box 714, Watertown.

TRANSACTIONS

DBAs

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

March 2013 | NNY Business

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BUSINESS BRIEFCASE The partnership was completed through health care consulting company Stroudwater Associates.

JCJDC dissolves

From left, Hyde-Stone Mechanical Contractors owner Jay Stone, wife, Dawn and sons, Christopher and Thom.

Hyde-Stone establishes foundation Hyde-Stone Mechanical Contractors, which has offices in Watertown, Potsdam and Plattsburgh, has established a charitable foundation within the Northern New York Community Foundation.

Through a substantial gift, the new foundation will enable the company

to formalize its reinvestment efforts in support of nonprofit organizations and schools in Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence and Clinton counties.

Hyde-Stone dates back to 1893 and is presently led by Jay and Dawn Stone and their two sons, Christopher and Thom.

Hospitals create new strategic partnership

“complex web” of regulations, recruit physicians and deliver optimal and measurable quality of care, according to Walter Todd, chairman of the Clifton-Fine board. Thomas H. Carman, president and CEO of Samaritan, said that Clifton-Fine Hospital is the smallest hospital in New York State and should be commended “for its forward-thinking approach to ensure its ability overcome these challenges and thrive.”

Clifton-Fine Hospital, Star Lake, announced on Feb. 7 that it has selected Samaritan Medical Center as a preferred partner, according to a news release.

Negotiations for the deal are scheduled to finish this summer.

The partnership will allow the two hospitals to cut costs, navigate a

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NNY Business | March 2013

After 18 years in existence, board members unanimously voted on Feb. 6 to dissolve the Jefferson County Job Development Corp.

The JCJDC had a membership program with 109 participating businesses in 2012, and more than $300,000 in leftover marketing funds from the nonprofit organization will go to Jefferson County.

The vote to dissolve the organization was at the request of the Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency, which has been restructuring its sub-agencies to comply with a ruling made by the state comptroller’s office about a year ago.

The JCJDC was established to function as the county’s marketing arm by providing a link to the business community through its membership program.

Quarterly breakfast meetings along with education and workforce development events provided an information exchange between economic development leaders and business owners. That membership program will no longer exist because the JCIDA doesn’t have the nonprofit status needed to continue it.

The manufacturing and marketing committees previously under the JCJDC umbrella, which had governing authority, now continue that function as councils the JCIDA controls. Projects and ideas that come out of those meetings will be considered by the seven-member IDA board instead of the JCJDC.

Local farmers secure $4m in property

Three large-operation dairy farmers have pooled their money and resources to secure 2,600 acres of prime farmland for $4 million from Joseph P. Spezzano Jr., Branford, Conn.

Ronald C. Robbins, owner of Robbins Family Grain in Sackets Harbor; Michael W. Hill, owner of Hillcrest Farms in Ellisburg; and John Barney, owner of Butterville Farms in Smithville, closed on the deal Feb. 5. A total of 26 tax parcels were bought from Mr. Spezzano, who had owned the land for 15 years and experienced challenges leasing it to local farmers while he lived in Connecticut.

While there are no immediate plans to begin operations on the land, Mr. Robbins said the sole purpose was to secure

BUSINESS BRIEFCASE and have local control over the property for the future.

Consultant partners for grant workshop

DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services, in partnership with Aubertine & Currier Architects, hosted a free workshop for Jefferson County nonprofits on Valentine’s Day. Diane H. Leonard, owner of Clayton-based DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Leonard Writing Services, presented the workshop, “Increasing Grant Revenue: Focusing on Improving Funder Relationships.” The session provided participants in-depth information and discussion about the importance of an organization’s relationships with its grantors in securing, maintaining and receiving grant funding regardless of whether focusing on private, regional or federal grant sources.

Ms. Leonard was selected to present at the national conference of the Grant Professionals Association in October in Indianapolis, and felt nonprofits would benefit from this professional knowledge.

“Despite the fact that we are based in a rural community, all Jefferson County nonprofits can work to secure additional grant dollars if they focus on their larger grant-seeking strategies and relationship building,” she said.

The workshop was presented to a packed room of diverse nonprofits.

Visit www.dhleonardconsulting.com for more information about DH Leonard Consulting & Grant Writing Services. Visit www.aubertinecurrier.com to learn more about Aubertine & Currier.

Crush, Great Northern Printing, J.E. Sheehan Contracting and Harris Medical.

Forms are available at the chamber office, 24 Market St., or at www.potsdamchamber.com. Send nominations to P.O. Box 717, Potsdam, N.Y. 13676, fax at 2749222 or email at potsdam@slic.com no later than April 10.

Team places first in national competition

Alexandria Bay native Tim Reddick, a Virginia Tech student, and his team took top honors last month in the Associated Schools of Construction National Sustainable Building & LEED competition in Sparks, Nev. Virginia Tech’s Myers-Lawson Reddick School of Construction sent three student teams to compete in three different aspects of construction: pre-construction services, concrete and sustainable building and LEED. Virginia Tech students recorded the highest total score ever in the competition against 12 other teams, including Arizona State, Oregon State, California Polytechnic, Colorado State and the University of Florida.

The sustainable building and LEED team placed first in the competition. Skanska USA Building sponsored the competition problem. In addition to Mr. Reddick, team members included Justin Rajadhyaksha, Andrew McNulty, Evan Underwood, Glenn Sullivan and Alek Leckszas.

Mr. Reddick is a third-year building construction student in Virginia Tech’s

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.

College of Architecture and Urban Studies and the son of Robert Reddick, president of Con Tech Building Systems, Gouverneur, and Beth Reddick.

Association lauds downtown businesses

The Watertown Downtown Business Association and New York State Small Business Development Center at Jefferson Community College presented the 2012 Small Business of the Year Awards at its annual awards reception Jan. 25 at the Paddock Club in the Paddock Arcade.

“Small businesses are the heartbeat of downtown Watertown,” Watertown Downtown Business Association President Steve Weed said. “We’re pleased to recognize these businesses. They’re continuing to prove that downtown Watertown is a great place to do business.”

Business of the Year awards went to Watertown Audiology P.C. and Steve Weed Productions.

Business of the Year honorable mentions went to Dance Alley, WBLH Radio Tunes 92.5 FM, Whispering Angel, Northern Federal Credit Union, The Crystal Restaurant and The Paddock Club.

The Downtown Institution award was presented to WWNY-TV 7.

Service to the Community awards were given to the Watertown Downtown Local Development Corp. and to Robert Lawlor of American Kang Duk Won Karate.

Nominations sought

The Potsdam Chamber of Commerce is seeking nominations for its annual Business of the Year Award. Every year since 1993, the chamber has recognized a local business that excelled in one or more of the following areas: business improvements, innovations or changes that increase service, market area and the volume of economic activity or employment levels in Potsdam.

Recent past award recipients include Save A Lot, Foxy Roxy’s, Ponderosa, First

March 2013 | NNY Business

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PEOPLE, from page 11

Hired at CPA firm

Bowers and Co. CPAs, with offices in Syracuse and Watertown, has announced the hiring of Gloria A. Pierce as a new staff accountant in its Watertown office.

Mrs. Pierce graduated from the University of Arizona, Tucson, in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and continued her education at the University of Phoenix, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 2006.

She has been working in public accounting since 2007 in the areas of tax and accounting and assists small businesses with QuickBooks needs. Mrs. Pierce has volunteered as an IRS Volunteer Income Tax Preparer for the past four tax seasons.

She recently passed the IRS Special Enrollment Exam and will soon receive the title of enrolled agent from the IRS. Mrs. Pierce is originally from Arizona and moved to Watertown in July.

Joins FBI

Cape Vincent native Kevin M. Walker has been appointed an equal employment opportunity officer with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Mr. Walker, a 1981 graduate of Thousand Islands Central School, will oversee the discrimination complaint process, the U.S. Department of Justice Mediator Corps, the reasonable accommodation process and the sign language interpreter program at the FBI. He is the son of Allen Walker and the late Joyce Walker.

Mr. Walker most recently was acting deputy director and general counsel of the National Drug Intelligence Center.

In 2008, he was chosen by the Judge Advocate’s Association as the “outstanding career armed services attorney” for the Army Reserve Components.

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Family physician hired

River Community Care is back to operating with four medical providers.

Dr. Lauren Roman, a family medicine physician, recently joined Dr. Aaron D. Huizenga, family nurse practitioner Jennifer D. Alberry and physician assistant Amanda Rydberg at the primary-care clinic, 6 Fuller St., Alexandria Bay. Dr. Roman was most recently the interim deputy commander for clinical services at Fort Drum Army Medical Department Activity. She completed her residency and internship in family medicine at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center, Fort Hood, Texas, after graduating from medical school at the University at Buffalo. She is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Alcoa manager promoted

The head of Alcoa’s operations in Massena, Location Manager John Martin, has been promoted to president of Global Primary Products in the United States by the company.

In his new role, the 48-year-old engineer will oversee Alcoa’s molten aluminum operations, which includes six Martin operating smelters, an alumina refinery and a spent pot lining recycling facility.

Mr. Martin has led all operations at Alcoa’s east plant and the majority of its operations at the west plant in Massena since October 2010.

Mr. Martin received a B.A. in mechanical engineering from West Virginia University and earned a master’s degree in behavioral science from Bastyr University. He began his career with Alcoa in 1986, working as a mechanical engineer for Warrick Operations in Evansville, Ind.

He rose to become the smelting technical manager in 2004 and in 2006 was named the manager of that plant. Four years later, he was promoted again to head Alcoa’s smelting operations in Massena.

Promoted at Beardsley Design Associates

Seth A. Livermore has been promoted to civil discipline head at Beardsley Design Associates Architecture, Engineering & Landscape Architecture, the firm announced recently. In addition to discipline head duties, Mr. Livermore will continue to serve as a civil engineer.

Livermore Mr. Livermore joined Beardsley in 2005 as a civil engineer and earned a professional engineering license in 2009. As civil discipline head, Mr. Livermore will keep Beardsley’s civil discipline ahead of the leading edge of new technology, trends and developments.

Visit www.beardsley.com to learn more.

Historical Society director resigns

William G. Wood, executive director of the Jefferson County Historical Society, announced last month his resignation from the nonprofit organization, which was effective Feb. 21.

Mr. Wood, a Manlius resident, cited being closer to family as reason for his departure. He has taken a position as a Mercedes-Benz sales consultant at Romano Mercedes-Benz, Fayetteville.

Mr. Wood was director of the agency for four years and helped expand programs and develop new ones. The agency ended 2012 with more than $14,000 in profit.

S M A L L B I Z S TA R T U P BUSINESS

Simplicity Café THE INITIAL IDEA

The Simplicity Café at Ogdensburg’s Dobisky Center is many things to owner Trevor R. Brunet.

It’s a foray into restaurant ownership, a market testing site for future expansion and the culmination of several business ideas he had while attending the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in culinary arts.

“Simplicity came from a business plan I had while I was at CIA. I did a lot of sketches of business plans and ‘simplicity’ was a name I always looked at to use in a broad way,” Mr. Brunet said. “I could have multiple businesses under the one name and implement them all separately.”

TARGET CLIENTELE

“I’ve found a wide variety of people return to the café from everywhere,” Mr. Brunet said of his restaurant, which opened June 1. “It ranges from16-year-old kids to retirees in their 60s and 70s who come back because they’re enjoying it.”

Mr. Brunet said his biggest selling point, combined with the fact that he offers new foods not often seen in Ogdensburg, is that he uses the freshest ingredients.

Drawing from his culinary training, Mr. Brunet’s mission is to provide customers with a unique and flavor-filled dining experience.

“I always say that I didn’t spend $200,000 on culinary school to learn how to microwave something,” he said.

“It’s how I view food, it’s fresh-cut French fries and potato chips, it’s fresh burger from Glazier and premium products at good prices.”

THE JOURNEY Mr. Brunet’s culinary

trip began as a child growing up in the restaurant industry.

His father, William Brunet, owned Lakeside Restaurant on Black Lake for more than 30 years. When it came time to choose a career path, Mr. Brunet said he considered two options: becoming a state police officer or going into the culinary field.

“I initially was set on becoming a police officer,” he said. “But my fiancée wanted me to choose something safer, less dangerous. Food was what I knew, so I applied to the Culinary Institute.”

After graduating from college, and studying abroad at the Sichuan Institute of

JASON HUNTER | NNY BUSINESS

“The restaurant business isn’t for everyone. Whether you’re culinaryschool trained or not, there’s no guarantee you’ll be successful.”

— Trevor R. Brunet, owner, Simplicity Café Higher Cuisine in China, Mr. Brunet spent some time outside of Northern New York.

“I moved to Colorado and was in and out of a few country clubs when I decided to come back home,” he said.

“It’s hard to leave home; it’s hard to get away from the river.”

He felt confident in his seven years away from the north country that he could take on a major project as executive chef and owner of his own place.

“My dad gives a lot of moral support, but he still thinks I’m crazy and never really wanted me to do it, but that all changed quickly,” he said. “It was never meant to be cruel, he just saw the life he had running a restaurant and always being in the restaurant. Lots of people think I’m crazy now, but that is support for me, too. It makes me work that much harder.”

Mr. Brunet decided that the Dobisky Center location in Ogdensburg was a perfect way to jump into business ownership.

“It was a long process getting it opened, especially with my good intentions,” he said. “What it turned into from the start was meant as a market study.”

Simplicity Café is a testing ground.

“Opening Simplicity at the Dobisky Center allowed me to find out if there was a customer base that I could serve

through a full-service restaurant,” Mr. Brunet said. “It also let me get to work without having to invest the finances in a full-blown restaurant location.”

Mr. Brunet has discovered is that he has a captive market in Ogdensburg. He has seen customers from all walks of life visiting him on the waterfront and he’s learned a thing or two about business.

“The restaurant business isn’t a business for everyone,” he said. “Whether you’re culinary-school trained or not, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be successful.”

IN FIVE YEARS

Now that Mr. Brunet has a following at Simplicity Café, he is looking to expand the brand.

“Next up is definitely a dedicated full-service restaurant location,” he said.

“From there I would like to open a third location, possibly a specialty deli.”

Drawing from his days at the Culinary Institute, Mr. Brunet said he frequently visited a specialty Italian deli that offered various products imported from Europe.

His vision for the deli location is to offer quality deli meats at decent prices, instead of many low-quality products at high prices that he says are currently available in the Ogdensburg market.

— Kyle R. Hayes

WHERE Ogdensburg | FOUNDED 2012 | WEB www.simplicityontheriver.wordpress.com

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COVER STORY

EARNING the view

FROM THE TOP For four north country women who work in traditionally male-dominated fields, success means hard work and striking the right balance.

N

orth country women have made significant strides in traditionally maledominated fields over the years, but there continues to be mixed opinions about equality in the workplace.

Some female business professionals agreed that traits more common in women, such as being compassionate, a good listener and a fair mediator, can often put them at an advantage in the workplace.

But the issue that often holds women back from “reaching the top” of their profession, such as

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BY NORAH MACHIA | NNY BUSINESS becoming a partner in a firm, isn’t their male colleagues.

It’s not the clients or customers, either.

Rather, it’s the constant struggle of balancing work and family.

“Although we strive at our firm for work and family balance, the demands of the job can be significant,” said Pamela S. Beyor, chairwoman of the board of directors for Bernier, Carr & Associates, Watertown.

“Being a licensed professional and partner in private practice requires a significant investment of time.”

“Fifty to 60 hours a week is normal,” she added.

Approximately 40 percent of architecture students are women, but it’s estimated that only 13 percent actually practice the profession, which has a long maturity period,

Ms. Beyor said.

“Typically success in this profession comes at 50 to 60 years of age,” she noted.

Ms. Beyor said she could not have reached the level of partnership at the firm if not for her family’s support.

During her early years of work, Ms. Beyor was juggling a demanding career with another big commitment.

“I was a single mom, and had the sole responsibility of raising my son,” she said. “I would never have been able to achieve this success if it wasn’t for the support of my parents.”

When her son, Mclean, was younger, “he had a room at my parents’ house” and often stayed overnight if she had meetings or

JUSTIN SORENSEN | NNY BUSINESS

Pamela S. Beyor is a partner and chairwoman of the board of directors at Bernier, Carr & Associates, Watertown. She joined the architecture firm as an assistant project manager in 1985 and has steadily risen through the ranks since, becoming chairwoman of the board in 2002.

business trips, Ms. Beyor said.

Her parents, Jack and Sue O’Brien, Black River, made it possible for her to work the long hours needed in order to become a partner, she said.

“They were extremely supportive,” she said.

Ms. Beyor earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1985 and a professional license to practice architecture in New York state in 1991.

She joined Bernier, Carr & Associates in 1985 as an assistant project manager and focused her efforts on the development and leadership of the company’s construction management division.

Since that time, she has held numerous positions in the corporation,

including chief executive officer from 1997 to 2002 and her current position as chairwoman of the board of directors Ms. Beyor is one of only two female partners at the firm; the other is architect Mari Cecil. The firm has 13 partners.

“I don’t believe there are fewer opportunities for women to climb the ladder in this business,” she said. “But it’s no different in our business than any other entrepreneur businesses when it comes to the long hours that have to be put into it.”

While the majority of partners in the firm are men, there are numerous jobs throughout the firm that are filled by women, Ms. Beyor said.

These include engineers, technical writers, CAD operators, business

developers and interior designers.

“There are many different areas of practice within architecture,” she said.

It’s typically women who “tend to bring cooperation and problemsolving skills to the table,” Ms. Beyor said. “Communication in this business is key.”

n n n

hen Frances A. “Francee” Calarco was ready to start an internship at a funeral home in Syracuse in 1984, she was given the name of the “only place that would hire a girl” at that time, she recalled.

Ms. Calarco was enrolled at the Simmons School of Mortuary Science, Syracuse. When she graduated

W

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COVER STORY in 1985 with 26 other students, she was one of only two women.

At the time she was training in Syracuse, she would hear stories about some funeral home directors who refused to hire women because “they didn’t think they could lift the bodies or work the long hours,” Ms. Calarco said.

“These ideas were foreign to me,” she said.

The profession has been steadily attracting more women, who have often worked in the offices and “behind the scenes” at family funeral homes, yet never pursued becoming a licensed funeral home director, she said.

“It’s definitely been changing,” including in the north country, where an increasing number of women are running their own funeral homes, Ms. Calarco said.

Ms. Calarco has been a licensed funeral director for 28 years at the D.L. Calarco Funeral Home, which is owned by her father, Donald L. Calarco.

She is vice president, secretary, manager and “I still mow the lawn,” she said.

In 2006, the funeral home added a new associate, Larry D. Bisig, a licensed funeral director.

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JUSTIN SORENSEN | NNY BUSINESS

Frances A. ‘Francee’ Calarco is a licensed funeral director and owner/partner at D.L. Calarco Funeral Home on Keyes Avenue in Watertown.

Many women who enter the funeral home business have a family connection.

Ms. Calarco is the only child of Donald L. Calarco and the late Ann Calarco. Both her mother and her aunt, Jane, helped

with the funeral home operation.

Her father, a licensed funeral director who has owned the funeral home since 1977, left the door open if she wanted to take over the business, but never pres-

March 2013 | NNY Business

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COVER STORY

“

sured her into it, she said.

“I never had that mindset that I could not do this work because I was — Frances A. ‘Francee’ Calarco a woman,” Ms. Funeral director, D.L. Calarco Funeral Home Calarco said.

For some women Calarco said. in the profession, the issue of the hours It was not an issue for her because she can be challenging if they have children, is not married and does not have any she said. children, she said.

“But many of them make it work,” Ms. Ms. Calarco noticed the increase in

I’m not tough, not superwoman, I can’t do everything. I have limitations.

But we all have limitations, men and women.

female students when she went to speak to a class at the former mortuary science program at SUNY Canton.

“I noticed there were a lot of women in that class,” she said.

An April 2011 New York Times article reported that the number of females entering the profession had increased nationwide.

In 1976, there were 343 women and 2,210 men enrolled in funeral schools in the United States, according to the American Board of Funeral Service Education. By 2000, the number of women had eclipsed men, 1,199 to 1,169, and the gap has kept growing. In 2010, there were 1,605 women enrolled, compared with 1,219 men, the New York Times article stated.

“People may still come into a funeral home and assuame it’s the men who are doing all the heavy lifting, the embalming, mowing the lawn, changing the light bulbs,” Ms. Calarco said. “But if you want to be part of it, you have to learn to do it all.”

“Or as much as you can,” she said.

“I’m not tough, not superwoman, I can’t do everything. I have limitations,” Ms. Calarco said. “But we all have limitations, both men and women.”

Because it also is a caring profession, women can bring a compassionate and nurturing side to it, she said.

Each funeral is a major life event for a family, Ms. Calarco noted.

“You get a real sense of accomplishment in this profession,” she said. “You’re putting together all the pieces to serve the family in their time of need. It’s about really helping people.”

W

n

n

n

hile women have made strides in many professions, their numbers also remain far behind their male counterparts in the financial planning world, said Christine M. Cisco, vice president and certified financial planner at RBC Wealth Management’s Watertown office.

The most recent Securities Industry and Financial Markets survey released in December 2011 showed that only 16 percent of financial advisors are female.

The trend appears to be no different in the north country.

There are six financial advisors at the RBC Watertown office, and of them, Mrs. Cisco is the only female.

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COVER STORY

Christine M. Cisco is vice president and a certified financial planner at RBC Wealth Management’s Watertown office. She is the only female financial advisor in her office.

JUSTIN SORENSEN | NNY BUSINESS

“However, I never felt there was an issue with my gender in this office,” she said.

In fact, the company was very receptive to having a female financial advisor among its ranks, she said.

RBC Wealth Management has been conducting a nationwide campaign within its firm to recruit more women into the ranks through its Women’s Association of Financial Advisors. It also has launched an internal “women’s growth strategy” aimed at increasing the number of women in the field by 2015, Mrs. Cisco said. The strategy focuses on recruiting, retention and client acquisition.

The company offers a mentoring program, which includes female volunteers who work with women new to the business of financial advising, an industry that has struggled to attract women for a number of reasons, Mrs. Cisco said.

Part of it may be the way many people were raised, she said.

“In many families, the women managed the household finances and the men managed the investments,” she said “It was like that in my family when I was growing up.”

That has slowly started to change, but

achieving a career as a certified financial planner still poses other challenges to women, especially those with children, she said.

“If you don’t work, you don’t make money in this field,” Mrs. Cisco said.

Mrs. Cisco recalled when her first son was born, she returned to work after taking only two weeks off. At that time, she was a financial advisor with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. office in Watertown.

She brought her infant son to work because she was still nursing him, she said.

“In retrospect, I would not recommend going back to work that soon,” Mrs. Cisco said.

After the birth of her second son, she decided to accept a position at HSBC Bank’s former Watertown office as a financial securities advisor. The job offered more regular working hours for a mother with two young children.

The timing was right for her to join RBC Wealth Management in 2011, after her children were growing older and more independent, she said.

Mrs. Cisco said she couldn’t have returned to the field without the support of her husband, Brian, who understands

the long hours that she needs to put in at the office.

There may be another reason why the number of women in the profession still remains low, she said.

A percent of the revenue generated by members of a financial planning firm is returned as compensation. For some women, that may seem too much of a risk, Mrs. Cisco said.

“I’ve known many women who would be very good at this type of work, but they are hesitant to step into a career that doesn’t involve a weekly paycheck,” she said.

Many women “aren’t risk takers and don’t like the idea of not having a steady income,” she said.

C

n

n

n

atherine Burns Quencer never felt she was at a disadvantage being a woman and entering law school in 1982 at Syracuse University.

After all, she was just following in her mother’s footsteps.

Her mother, the late Eleanor Catherine Raynor Burns, graduated from Cornell University Law School in 1939. She March 2013 | NNY Business

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COVER STORY THE WOMEN IN BUSINESS FILE PAMELA S. BEYOR

PROFESSIONAL: Licensed professional architect and chairwoman of the board of directors at Bernier, Carr & Associates, Watertown.

FAMILY: Husband John P. Murtha, physical education teacher and coach at Indian River Central School District; two children, Mclean, 25, Brooklyn; Taylor, 18, Jefferson Community College.

EDUCATION: Immaculate Heart Central graduate, bachelor’s degree in architecture from SUNY Buffalo, 1985, licensed as a professional architect in New York State since 1991.

COMMUNITY: Athena Award recipient, BCA Annual Children’s Toy & Gift Drive, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Relay for Life, Heart Walk, Adopt a Platoon, past member Black River Cooperative Preschool Board and Village Improvement Committee, Religious Education and trustee at St. Paul’s Church.

LAST BOOK: “The Mind of the Soul: Responsible Choice,” by Gary Zukav and Linda Francis.

FRANCES A. ‘FRANCEE’ CALARCO JUSTIN SORENSEN | NNY BUSINESS

Catherine Burns Quencer is a principal shareholder with Schwerzmann & Wise law firm in Watertown and a second-generation attorney. Her daughter, Elizabeth, plans to enter law school in the fall.

practiced law in Watertown for many years with Ms. Quencer’s father, the late Luke A. Burns Jr., also an attorney who graduated from New York University Law School.

“When I was growing up, I didn’t think anything of it,” said Ms. Burns Quencer, who was an only child. “My mother paved the way. Growing up with two parents who are lawyers, you began to think like a lawyer.”

“You drift into it naturally,” she added.

Ms. Burns Quencer is a principal shareholder at the Schwerzmann & Wise law firm in Watertown. She had worked as an associate at the firm from 1995 to 1997 before becoming a shareholder in 1997.

The National Association of Women Lawyers released survey results in 2008 that showed only 16 percent of equity partners in law firms on average are women.

For Ms. Burns Quencer, the “gender issue” in her profession has really been a “non-issue.”

While there were just a handful of women practicing law in Watertown when she graduated from law school, “I never felt a lack of respect from clients, other attorneys, or judges,” she said.

“It’s a compliment to both the men and the women in the north country,” Ms. Burns Quencer said. “People are accepted based on their skills. Their gender doesn’t

seem to be an issue.”

But legal skills aren’t the only thing that is needed for a law practice to be successful, she said.

“It also has to do with showing kindness and compassion to your clients,” Ms. Burns Quencer said. “It’s about building a relationship in a non-threatening way.”

Ms. Burns Quencer specializes in estate planning, real estate transactions and elder law. She handles mortgages, wills, guardianship of minors, “the kind of law most people need,” she said.

“I have very positive client relations,” she said.

A law career appears to be in the future for another generation of women in the family. Ms. Burns Quencer’s daughter, Elizabeth, 24, is applying to law school for the fall term. As a trademark infringement specialist in the legal department at CarFreshner, Watertown, Ms. Quencer has gotten a taste for the law.

She believes her daughter will find the career as rewarding as it has been for her, Ms. Burns Quencer said.

“No two days are the same,” she said.

“You get a real sense of satisfaction in helping people.” 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 nemachia@yahoo.com.

PROFESSIONAL: Licensed funeral home director and vice president/manager of D.L. Calarco Funeral Home, Watertown.

FAMILY: Father, Donald L. Calarco; Mother, the late Ann Calarco EDUCATION: Watertown High School graduate, 1980; attended Jefferson Community College and SUNY Canton; Simmons School of Mortuary Science, Syracuse, 1984 graduate.

COMMUNITY: Watertown Noon Rotary Club a total of 20 years, and chairwoman of the Rose Day committee; Paul Harris Fellow Award recipient; NYS Funeral Directors Association; Jeff/Lewis Funeral Directors Association treasurer; Greater Watertown Chamber of Commerce past committee member.

LAST BOOK: “Winning Ways — ­ The Funeral Profession’s Guide to Human Relations,” by Todd W. Van Beck.

CHRISTINE M. CISCO

PROFESSIONAL: Vice president and financial advisor with RBC Wealth Management, Watertown.

FAMILY: Husband, Brian L., banker at First Niagara Bank, Evans Mills; sons, Benjamin T., 12, and Andrew A., 10.

EDUCATION: Immaculate Heart Central, 1990; bachelor’s degree in business administration, LeMoyne College, Syracuse, 1994; licensed as a Certified Financial Planner since June 2009.

COMMUNITY: Member of Watertown Noon Rotary Club for 15 years; lifetime member and past president of Samaritan Auxiliary, Friends of the Flower Memorial Library board member, Jefferson County Historical Society board secretary.

LAST BOOK: “Proof of Heaven,” by Eben Alexander

CATHERINE BURNS QUENCER

PROFESSIONAL: Principal shareholder, Schwerzmann & Wise P.C. law firm, Watertown.

FAMILY: Husband William J. Quencer, certified public accountant; daughter Elizabeth, 24; son Luke, 21.

EDUCATION: General Brown Central School 1978; Syracuse University, bachelor’s in political science, 1982; Syracuse University College of Law, 1985.

COMMUNITY: Board member for Samaritan Medical Center, Samaritan Keep Home and Samaritan Foundation; Salvation Army Advisory Board; Fort Drum Regional Health Planning Organization board member; Friends of Flower Memorial Library vice president; Dexter Historical Society board member; New York State Hospital Trustees Board of Governors, Northern New York Community Foundation, cultural and historical committee.

LAST BOOK: “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn.

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WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Home business for the dogs Entrepreneur bakes biscuits with local foods

By TED BOOKER

I

NNY Business

t turns out locally produced food with healthy ingredients isn’t popular only among those with two legs.

Canines aren’t as picky as humans who badger restaurant servers with questions about the origins of food, but healthy eating is equally important for dogs, said 59-year-old Donna M. Russell, who opened 4 Paws Barkerie last summer at her house, 23085 Route 411. The bakery for dogs has set itself apart by selling biscuits made only from locally grown ingredients and containing no preservatives or salt.After a successful summer selling treats at events, Mrs. Russell is focusing on increasing online sales through her website, www.4pawsbarkerie.com.

Facebook and Twitter pages soon will be linked to the website, which offers an array of treats including gift baskets and birthday cakes.

Mrs. Russell said her business was hatched after she experimented with treats for her family’s 4-year-old Labhound mix, Max. She said she was encouraged when she saw that Max liked the homemade treats more than ones that had preservatives.

“He liked them so much that I tried making them for family members and friends,” Mrs. Russell said.

Last year, she acquired a pet food license from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets and developed a business plan.

Spring wheat used in the treats is harvested at Old McDonald’s Farm in Sackets Harbor, then ground into whole-wheat flour at North Country Farms in Watertown. Peanut butter comes from Martin’s Pretzels in Theresa. The eggs come from chickens at Roggie Farms in Carthage.

“People today are trying to feed their pets healthy, just like they’re trying to eat

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Donna M. Russell has launched 4 Paws Barkerie, a dog-treats bakery, out of her LaFargeville home.

JUSTIN SORENSEN | NNY BUSINESS

healthy,” Mrs. Russell said. “That’s why I’m using only locally grown ingredients.

You can buy natural treats from Petco, but they’re made in Washington.”

She said disease prevention is another motivator for dog owners seeking healthy pet food. A consistently healthy diet can help prevent trips to the vet to treat ailments such as diabetes and kidney disease.

Finding the right flavors for pets also is important, Mrs. Russell said. For instance, Max likes only the peanut butter and meat-flavored treat varieties such as chicken, beef and pork. Other dogs enjoy the gluten-free banana-berry treats.

If the finished treats don’t make Max’s tail wag, it’s back to the drawing board,

Mrs. Russell said.

A batch sent to her friend Lynn Tritten in Myrtle Beach, S.C., was a success. “She took them out of the mailbox and her dog could smell them,” Mrs. Russell said. “He started ripping the package open when she was bringing it in, so she put the treats in a jar.”

The dog biscuits are sold in Clayton at Gold Cup Farms’ River Rat Cheese, North Country Express and the Clayton Food Cooperative; in Alexandria Bay at Thousand Islands Animal Hospital and the Gal’s Place, and in Watertown at Big M and Blue Seal Feeds. n TED BOOKER is a Johnson Newspapers staff writer. Contact him at tbooker@wdt.net or 661-2371.

WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Working to make others well

River women aim to help Clayton become ‘healthiest town in America’

B

y nature, Lori Wilson Arnot is an ambassador.

A Rochester-area native, Ms. Arnot has ingrained herself in the river community during the past decade, heading up initiatives behind the Zenda Community Garden, Clayton Food Co-Op and founding her own pair of businesses, River Wellness Center and Lori’s Herbs and Oils.

What’s unique about Ms. Arnot is not that she’s a one-woman show; she has the indelible ability to move others to become outstanding members of their community by encouraging them to explore and to learn.

As an entrepreneur, Ms. Arnot has created a miniature empire of wellness businesses in Clayton while simultaneously promoting the businesses of friends and colleagues with whom she works.

“Over several years my business as a massage therapist that I was operating out of a home studio suddenly became too big to work on by myself,” she said. “In 2008 I opened River Wellness Center and hired massage therapists and contractors to come work with me. I gathered up an energy balancer and an acupuncturist, because massage therapy was not going to help everyone with everything.”

Clients soon came to Ms. Arnot for advice and help with anything from general wellness and a desire to feel better, to medical conditions that they had hoped could be solved through alternative techniques.

“The more I recommended [alternative medicine], the more people went along with it, especially with something like an acupuncturist, which many people didn’t have access to until we brought one to Clayton,” she said.

Growing up in Webster, a Rochester suburb, Ms. Arnot traveled after graduating from high school, seeing the outer reaches of the United States and eventually settled in Portland, Ore. It was there that she honed her skills in massage therapy and learned of a vast variety of alternative treatments for anything from the common cold to back pain.

JUSTIN SORENSEN | NNY BUSINESS

Lori Wilson Arnot, owner of River Wellness Center and Lori’s Herbs and Oils, hopes to make Clayton the healthiest town in America.

“I found myself too far from home, so I moved back to Webster and spent three summers in Thousand Islands Park,” she said.

Working three seasons for Catherine Hinds at her Clayton salon, Ms. Arnot quickly learned what good business meant. “[Catherine] was amazing. She taught me so much business and she was immensely successful,” she said. “I [was] waking up every morning in the winter in Webster thinking ‘I wish I was at the river,’ and I realized I could just move there.”

She settled in Clayton in 2003 because of the family-friendly atmosphere and a community that, while often unrecognized, was quite forward-thinking. She said that oftentimes with her clients she would recommend an alternative therapy or medicine, such as acupuncture, and they would want to learn more, to try it out and see if it worked.

“The business has grown every year since we opened,” she said. “We rock massages.

I decided to start offering herbs and oils because I’d make some herbal medicine for friends and family and grow this and buy that. I realized we needed these herbal remedies and teas you read about on the Internet, but we need to have it here. It was a need that I decided to fill.”

That same concept to fill a community need lead Ms. Arnot to gather a group of

like-minded women to open the Clayton Food Co-op last year. She said the community was crying out for a place to buy healthy, local food at reasonable prices without having to drive to Watertown.

“When we opened the co-op some people were really excited, others were resistant to change,” she said. “I found my position as a community builder trying to educate the community and that has increased our business. It was accepted well by the summer folk, but it is now being accepted by the year-rounders.”

Ms. Arnot said she has tried to make herself as public as possible in the effort to draw people to Clayton and her wellness practices.

“I get phone calls, emails and Facebook messages about the business, about the community and because I’ve taken the time to get to know and try everything that is around me. I have a good idea as to what would be a good match for people, what yoga is good for them, what food is good for them and what problems we, as a community, can solve for them.”

A FOCUS ON WELLNESS Kathy A. Stofle, a Reiki master and owner of Energy Matters, which she operates out of her Goose Bay home and at the River Wellness Center, has always been a fighter.

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WOMEN IN BUSINESS

Kathy Stofle, owner of Energy Works, demonstrates Reiki at River Wellness Center in Clayton.

JUSTIN SORENSEN | NNY BUSINESS

need. I had a chronic condition and in 1996 was diagnosed with a liver disorder.

Doctors told me eventually my liver would destroy itself and my days were numbered.

They said, ‘if you’re lucky, you’ll get a new liver, or you’ll die.’”

In her words: “I had a 20-minute pity party and got on with life. I wasn’t afraid to die.”

But that didn’t mean she was going to go out the easy way. She decided to fight.

While her doctors put her on a transplant list and kept a close eye on her, Ms. Stofle pursued other options. She first tried acupuncture on a trip to Boston to see her sister.

“I had to tell my sister about the liver condition so I packed up and took a trip to Boston,” she said. “She took me to an acupuncturist and he said he would show me the alternatives. He told me he wished I’d lived there so he could help me get over this.

I looked at him like he was delusional. Doctors, very good doctors, told me there was no cause and they didn’t know the cure.”

Ms. Stofle began regularly seeing an acupuncturist in Ottawa and slowly started to see results. Improvements continued until her transplant team showed her the door.

“I’d never been so happy to be kicked off a team in my life,” she said.

She started pursuing Reiki and energy work when making it to her acupuncture appointments became more time-consuming. She initially looked into Reiki, a natural form of healing that involves channeling life force energy and balancing physical and energetic bodies, to practice on herself.

It has been 17 years since her terminal diagnosis and Ms. Stofle has perfect scans, labs and biopsies and never underwent surgery on her liver.

“I bought the equipment to practice Reiki and worked on friends and relatives and they would see differences,” Ms. Stofle

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said. “It did so much for me that I wanted to help others.”

She established her business and began to charge for services out of her Goose Bay home. Through friends, she eventually heard about Ms. Arnot and River Wellness.

After an exchange of services, Ms. Stofle decided she felt at home at the wellness center and began to offer Reiki, energy therapy and BioGenesis services there.

Six years after first learning Reiki, Ms. Stofle’s business is growing. As more people learn about and try Reiki and energy therapy, building the business gets a bit easier.

“People are open to it. I think people are becoming more open to the alternatives and part of that is Lori and all the work that she’s doing in the community,” Ms. Stofle said. “I always say that it’s OK if you don’t believe in what I do. Even if you see proof and you don’t believe, I will either win you over or outlive you.”

What started as a group of like-minded individuals has grown into an institution on the Clayton waterfront. River Yoga, founded more than 15 years ago by a group of yoga lovers, is today one of the most popular wellness businesses along the river.

“Medical science doesn’t work for everyone all the time, so people are seeking other options,” said River Yoga caregiver Liz Price-Kellogg. “We do regularly scheduled workshops and lessons year-round and are obviously much larger during the summer.

However, we do sustain a really good number of year-round residents who are taking advantage of yoga’s growth in popularity.”

Mrs. Price-Kellogg said that the proliferation of yoga as a mainstream wellness and health activity has done nothing but help River Yoga. It not only is good for business, but also allows yoga teachers to get out in the community.

“Yoga is an activity that helps with anything from weight loss to asthma and arthritis or just helping you keep from getting hurt,” she said. “We offer anywhere between 11 and 14 classes a week during the summer and at least seven during the winter.”

Mrs. Price-Kellogg and her fellow instructors at River Yoga focus resources on offering yoga outside the studio and entering the community to expose others to exercise.

“We continue to offer free chair massages for seniors and we are [now] in our second of three years at Thousand Islands Central School teaching yoga as part of the gym curriculum,” she said. “We do a lot of outreach, and everything we make at River Yoga goes right back into it and into the community.”

Operating out of the Northern Physical Therapy building on Riverside Drive, Mrs. Price-Kellogg said she would love to see River Yoga have its own home on the St. Lawrence.

“Absolutely, we have worked with an architect to see what our options are and I do hope it’s something that will happen, but maybe in the distant future,” she said.

“Our mission is to make yoga accessible and affordable. We run about half the cost of the national average, so that doesn’t really support a brand new building. We’re trying to figure out ways to do this.”

So the question remains: Why Clayton?

What is happening in this seemingly quiet river community that has drawn such a boom of business focused on making people feel better?

“For me, it’s ‘genius loci,’ the spirit of the land,” Ms. Arnot said. “Clayton is this amazing intersection of river, land and people. It doesn’t happen very often where the community is this awake or this conscious of what’s around it. In Clayton, unlike other places, all things are possible.”

According to Mrs. Price-Kellogg, “it’s the glorious river and the people who insist they are going to stay here and they’ve brought their craft here. Not only are they making it available for others, but they’re diversifying the offerings in our area.”

Ms. Stofle said it’s hard to pinpoint why Clayton is so diverse.

“You go to Clayton for a different experience,” she said. “It’s different than Cape Vincent; it’s different than Alexandria Bay. It’s open-minded to change. Clayton has had a yoga center for a very long time.

They were the first to open a food co-op.

Clayton is just more conducive to an open way of thinking.” n KYLE R. HAYES is a associate editor for NNY Business. Contact him at khayes@wdt.net or 661-2381.

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WOMEN IN BUSINESS

AMANDA MORRISON | NNY BUSINESS

Jill C. Bruce-Wiley recently bought Hart & Bruce Funeral Home, Watertown, and Bruce Funeral Home, Black River, from her father, who has retired.

Handing off the baton

Daughter buys Watertown, Black River businesses from retiring father

By TED BOOKER

J

NNY Business

ohn P. “Jack” Bruce, 66, retired in December as the owner of two funeral homes that have stood the test of time: Hart & Bruce Funeral Home, 117 N. Massey St., and

Bruce Funeral Home, 131 Maple St., Black River. But the funeral homes still will be in hands he trusts.

His 39-year-old daughter, Jill C. BruceWiley, bought the funeral homes from her father in December after working by his side since 1994. Ms. Bruce-Wiley, who grew up living in the Watertown funeral home, said she had wanted to continue the family business since she was a young girl.”

Serving someone who’s lost a family member is the most important service you can render,” she said. “I’m honored to have the tradition continue and to continue serving the families that my father’s served for the last 40 years. My family’s

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business will hopefully be open for the next 30 years.”

The funeral homes are long-standing fixtures in the community. In 1938, Francis P. Hart and John J. Scherer partnered to open Hart & Scherer Funeral Home at the site of the former Samuel J. Payne Funeral Home on Benedict Street, now Sherman Street. Mr. Hart became the sole owner of the funeral home in 1950, when it moved to its current spot on North Massey Street.

In 1973, the home was sold by the Hart family to Wesley Johnston, becoming the Hart & Johnston Funeral Home.

Mr. Bruce entered the picture in 1978, when he purchased the Watertown funeral home from the Johnston family. He graduated in 1966 from Simmons Funeral Institute in Syracuse and had spent the early part of his career as a director for Cleveland Funeral Home in Watertown and Singleton Funeral Home in Glens Falls.

Choosing to carve his own career path,

Mr. Bruce in 1972 launched Bruce Funeral Home in Black River with his wife, Karen E., whom he met in Watertown.

Daughter Jill was actively involved in the family business as a youngster, Mr. Bruce said. When she earned a mortuary science degree from SUNY Canton in 1994, he knew she’d eventually take over the business.

“It’s nice to keep it in the family because you need to have someone who wants to be in the funeral business,” Mr. Bruce said. “She has been passionate about this since she was a little girl adding flowers to arrangements. And we now have a chance she’ll see the 100th anniversary of our Black River funeral home.”

Along with continuing the family’s legacy, Ms. Bruce-Wiley will host services for families that have known Mr. Bruce more than four decades.

“We’ve always treated our customers as family here, and many people have

WOMEN IN BUSINESS come back over the past 40 years,” Mr. Bruce said. “I’ve slowly turned the business over to my daughter since the day she started working with me, and she’s fit right into the mold.”

Numerous funeral homes in Jefferson and Lewis counties have been owned by the same family for multiple generations.

Those in Watertown include Cummings Funeral Service, D.L. Calarco Funeral Home and Cleveland Funeral Home.

Those outside the city include Carpenter-

Stoodley Funeral Home in Belleville, Bossuot-Lundy Funeral Home in Copenhagen, Frederick Bros. Funeral Home in Theresa and Piddock Funeral Home in Adams.

“Normally, when a funeral home transitions to a son or daughter, it’s going to be a more reasonable financial situation than if it were bought by someone else,” said Piddock Funeral Home owner David W. Kellogg, who is a member and past president of the Jefferson-Lewis Fu-

neral Directors Association. “The biggest difficulty to sell them (outside the family) is the fact they are often big and expensive buildings.”

Ms. Bruce-Wiley and her husband, Jeffrey L. Wiley, athletics director at Jefferson Community College, have two children, Benjamin M., 8, and Brooke E., 5, who attend Dexter Elementary School. n TED BOOKER is a Johnson Newspapers staff writer. Contact him at tbooker@wdt.net or 661-2371.

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ENTREPRENEURS

Clarkson gives freshmen boost School loans back nine new ventures including haircuts, hockey stick spray

By CHRISTOPHER ROBBINS

O NNY Business

ut of the mouths of babes often come gems. Clarkson University entrepreneurs start out early — very early.

As part of Professor Marc S. Compeau’s Introduction to Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation, Clarkson freshmen have to devise and pitch business ideas. If those ideas are good enough, their development continues.

This year, the Clarkson Business School provided $2,000 microloans to nine budding student businesses.

“We have an account that has been built up by generous donors,” Mr. Compeau said. “We then invite to campus in November alumni that have some investment background. Some of them are bankers, managers; they sit on a panel and each company has 20 minutes to pitch their concepts. These investors grill them.”

Mr. Compeau said the school typically supports five to 10 student proposals.

The first step in brainstorming a business is identifying a problem people have, Mr. Compeau said. The business’s concept then would address that need.

Students then study their idea to make sure it is unique and feasible.

Campus Cuts, which opened Feb. 1, provides on-campus hair styling for Clarkson students.

Many college students arrive on campus with little or no access to transportation and scant knowledge of local businesses, said Potsdam native Mallory S. Fisher, general manager.

“One of the guys in our group had a problem because he didn’t know where to go to get his haircuts,” she said.

“Basically, we did some surveys and 86 percent of the campus said they would take advantage of the opportunity to get

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PHOTOS COURTESY CLARSKON UNIVERSITY

Top, a group of Clarkson freshman athletes and business students are working to develop an adhesive spray to improve a hockey stick’s grip. Back row: hockey forwards Todd Christian, Patrick Megannety, and Christian Finch. Front row: Defenseman Paul Geiger and Connor Martin, an infielder on the baseball team. Left, Patrice Oseni, Mallory Fisher and Manuel Paulino are three students who started Campus Cuts, an on-campus partnership with local hairstylists, which opened Feb, 1.

their hair done on campus.”

The next step was to make a physical space for the salon and to find some business partners in the community.

“Since November, we have been working to lay down flooring, bring in plumbing, getting up our whole structure,” Ms. Fisher said. “Within that time we also talked to some local stylists and we were kind of giving them a business model and pitching our ideas.”

The salon is staffed by Potsdam-area stylists during their off hours, Ms. Fisher said.

“It is kind of cool, because we’re having a new partnership with the local business community. We’re working with local entrepreneurs in Potsdam,” she said.

Ms. Fisher said after a trial period on the Clarkson campus, the group could

grow its business, starting with nearby campuses in Canton and Potsdam.

“It is going great. We’ve been booked every night so far,” she said. “Just a year out from being seniors in high school, we had no idea we’d be going this far. Seeing how a business is started and having hands-on experience with it, you learn all the steps.”

Another student group is developing a spray-on product, christened Shaft Takk, to allow hockey players to better customize their grip.

Hockey players often use tape to help them hold onto the stick, but still have difficulty molding the tape into a comfortable grip, Paul G. Geiger said.

The students enlisted the help of chemical and biological engineering professor Don H. Rasmussen to find a product that

ENTREPRENEURS would meet their needs.

“He kind of set us on the path of what kind of substance we might want,” Mr. Geiger said. “We started researching that and found a product that we liked.

If we want to alter it, he and one of his graduate students are going to help us construct a new product if need be.”

The students now are contacting the manufacturer of a spray-on fabric adhesive that meets their needs to see if the product could be relabeled and marketed for athletes.

Mr. Compeau said the students’ product, though a performance enhancement, was permissible by hockey league rules.

“I really forced these students to do some due diligence to understand that,” he said. “I did some myself to make sure it was allowed in the sport.”

Shaft Takk’s inventors are all hockey players, Mr. Compeau said.

“This is the first time we’ve had an all-athlete group that has done this,” he said.

Shaft Takk also could be used for tennis rackets, baseball bats, golf clubs and other athletic equipment.

Other groups also received loans: Delphi Kultur, a clothing line for the California lifestyle; Students Against Breast Cancer, a nonprofit organization trying to create scholarships for students affected by breast cancer; Generation 94, a mobile clothing resale outfit; Know B4U Go, a mobile application allowing students to view cameras of campus dining centers on their mobile devices to check on crowds before deciding where to eat; “Feroz’en Yogurt,” a frozen yogurt business proposal, and Campus Market Exchange, a website allowing students to post products for sale.

The nascent businesses will be incubated on Clarkson’s campus, perhaps bound for fortune. Previously, the course spawned Innovative Delivery Systems, a startup that allows spectators at arena or stadium events to order concessions using a cellphone or other mobile device. Now, the student group is marketing its mobile application to facilities nationwide. n CHRISTOPHER ROBBINS is a Johnson Newspapers staff writer based in St. Lawrence County. Contact him at crobbins@wdt.net or 661-2515.

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AGRI-BUSINESS

Local foods push gains traction Educators spread word to farmers, local consumers

By TED BOOKER

E

NNY Business

ducators plan to beef up the local food movement in 2013, sending a bold message to promote vegetables, fruits and meat from farms in Jefferson and Lewis counties.

One man who will spread this message is Steven W. Ledoux, a beef farmer from Croghan who was hired in December by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County. The hiring of Mr. Ledoux, who will be local foods community educator in Jefferson and Lewis counties, was made possible by a $95,883 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture farmers’ market promotion program. Mr. Ledoux has been an agribusiness salesman since 1985 and for 13 years has managed his Croghan farm, where in May he launched a community-supported agriculture program in which customers establish contracts to receive fresh beef, pork, chicken and turkey year-round.

Bringing his experience in agribusiness into action, he has come to the extension office with plenty of ideas to link farmers with consumers, distributors and grocery stores that are seeking their food. To do so, he has teamed up with Amanda R. Root, community nutrition team coordinator, to launch a number of workshops centered on the locavore movement.

For example, in February, farmers will learn basics of using social media to market their products. Mr. Ledoux said that while farmers have a tendency to dismiss social media as a fad for younger people, launching a Facebook page or website can be an easy way to capture business.

It’s a lesson he’s learned firsthand this year by launching websites to promote his farm. Using Facebook, for example, farmers can update their customers about what crops they are growing to sell.

Mr. Ledoux said many families who are interested in eating healthy, locally grown food actively search for farms on the Internet.

“You wouldn’t believe how many

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NORM JOHNSTON | NNY BUSINESS

Steve W. Ledoux has joined Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County as a local foods community educator. With him is Amanda R. Root, community nutrition team coordinator.

people comment on Facebook,” he said.

“This is something you almost have to do in this day and age to connect to the consumer.”

Additional workshops Mr. Ledoux has planned highlight how to market and brand products, how to price products, and the art of salesmanship, which will include tips on how to understand and talk with potential customers. His role at the extension office, he said, will be to bring educational resources on local food directly to farmers.

“I’m like a bridge who is bringing the nutritional side of a business that is important to consumers, and then connecting it with the agriculture side,” he said.

Mrs. Root, a community nutrition educator for 10 years, said that while the extension has focused on local food programs in the past, it now has the human resources and funding needed to spread its message to consumers, farmers, distributors and managers of grocery stores and restaurants.

Farmers who sell products also now have an opportunity to tap into the vast number of families in Jefferson County who receive food stamp benefits from the federal Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. In 2012, the total value of food stamps collected in Jefferson County was $24,394,155. But at the

same time, Mrs. Root said, only $8,127.55 in food stamp benefits were collected at local farmers’ markets that participate in the program. A workshop teaching farmers how to enroll in programs offered to low-income families will be hosted in February.

“Our thoughts are that if we can increase the number of farmers that accept benefits, we can keep this funding in the local economy,” she said. “The number of farmers who participate in this is very low right now, and there’s huge potential if they can tap into this food stamps market.

The funding is going out of the economy right now, but we want to keep it here.”

Local grocery stores, including Hannaford and Price Chopper, are highly interested in collaborating with local farmers to sell fresh vegetables, fruits and meats. Mr. Ledoux said forming partnerships with grocery stores can be as easy as submitting an application and passing an inspection. At grocery stores, farmers’ products are stocked on shelves indicating where they were grown.

“Every grocery store I’ve talked to locally says they will work with farmers,” Mr. Ledoux said. “Price Chopper says they sell everything they get.” n TED BOOKER is a Johnson Newspapers staff writer. Contact him at tbooker@wdt.net or 661-2371.

R E A L E S TAT E R O U N D U P

Enforcing the NAR code of ethics

I

n January, I wrote about the centennial anniversary of the Realtor code of ethics in 2013. As William D. North, former National Association of Realtors executive vice president and general counsel, noted in the August 1978 edition of “The Executive Officer,” the code is “a great deal more than simply a set of rules for the conduct of real estate transactions.” It is “a guide to measure professional conduct, while at the same time representing the furthest reach of professional aspiration.”

Mr. North went on to point out that the code is not the law. It is “supported not by the coercive power of the state but rather by the principles of contract.”

Licensees agree to abide by the code of ethics when they become members of a Realtor association. While the code formed the basis of many of the license laws across the country, “the difference between [the code and the law] is fundamental and unavoidable.”

One of the differences is in enforcement. Mr. North stated that “the local board of Realtors is an indispensable constituent of the Realtor family in large measure because it represents an effective forum for the enforcement of the code.” In other words, each local association has the duty to ensure its members are living by the code while guaranteeing the member’s right to due process.

The process begins with a written, signed complaint detailing the reasons why the complainant believes the Realtor has violated the code. Anyone can file a complaint.

The complaint is given to a grievance committee of three to five Realtors. They act similarly to a grand jury and look at

the complaint and ask “if the allegations are taken as true on their face, would the allegations be a violation of the code of ethics?” If the answer is yes, then it is referred to a professional Lance Evans standards hearing.

The hearing is conducted by a panel of three to five Realtor members. In our area, panels are drawn from the memberships of the Oswego County, St. Lawrence County and Jefferson-Lewis Boards of Realtors based on input from both sides. The panel conducts a full hearing where both sides are allowed to offer witnesses, testimony and evidence.

Following the hearing, the panel decides whether clear, strong and convincing evidence was presented showing a violation of the code of ethics and determines the discipline if the answer is yes.

The aim is fairness and impartiality. As Mr. North pointed out, “The due process requirement, after all, requires nothing more than a fair and diligent search for the truth − with an opportunity for all facts to be gathered, all views to be heard, all defenses to be raised and all prejudice or bias to be expunged.” In this manner, the code of ethics continues to be the beacon of real estate professionalism as it has been in its first century of existence. n

n

n

The NAR recently awarded Realtor

Emeritus status to three north country Realtors. Each has held Realtor membership in NAR for 40 years or more.

The honorees are Joseph Rizzo Sr. and Donald and Barbara Hopkins. Each has served in various local leadership positions. Mr. Hopkins also served as State Association of Realtors President.

Each received a congratulatory letter, certificate and 40-year Realtor Emeritus lapel pin. Other local Realtor Emeriti are Warren Bonney and William Lacy. The late Donald Pomeroy and Mary Cox achieved this milestone. n

n

n

Twelve members of the Jefferson-Lewis and St. Lawrence County boards of Realtors attended February’s State Association of Realtors Leadership Conference and business meetings in Albany. They participated in various committee meetings, forums and informational sessions. Several had leadership roles, including Jennifer Dindl-Neff, Young Professionals Network vice chairwoman; Lisa L’Huillier, State Women’s Council of Realtors secretary; Karen Peebles, Housing Opportunities Committee chairwoman, and Jennifer Stevenson, State Housing Opportunities Foundation vice president.

Others attending were: Jessica Dorr, Linda Fields, Kelly Harrienger, Elizabeth Miller, Gwyn Monnat, Nancy Rome, Korleen Spilman and Vickie Staie. n LANCE M. EVANS is the executive officer of the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Realtors and the St. Lawrence County Board of Realtors. He has lived in the north country since 1985. Contact him at levans@nnymls.com. His column appears monthly in NNY Business.

March 2013 | NNY Business

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R E A L E S TAT E

Commercial property challenges abound Local entrepreneurial, banking and real estate service agents offer some advice

By TED BOOKER

C

NNY Business

ompared with a decade ago, experts say, today’s entrepreneurs seeking to scoop up commercial real estate in the greater Watertown area need to jump through many more hoops to succeed.

To help entrepreneurs and investors eyeing commercial real estate here, Exit More Real Estate of Watertown hosted a public event for the first time this year at the Hilton Garden Inn called Business Venture in the North Country.

Bankers and real estate brokers gathered to provide investors with information needed to get their business plans off the ground, said Mary C. Adair, owner and broker for Exit More.

Often, she noted, entrepreneurs looking at the Watertown area for the first time pursue plans without a full grasp of the resources at their disposal. Finding available commercial buildings to lease, for example, can be one of the toughest challenges. While many businesses are listed with brokers, fewer than 10 percent of buyers go to real estate offices because they don’t see for sale signs on many listed commercial properties.

“Properties are on the Internet, but it’s not like trying to search for a two-bedroom home. Getting connected with someone who’s out there selling a business can be very daunting,” Mrs. Adair said.

There is, nevertheless, a ripe commercial real estate market now in Watertown, Mrs. Adair said, and a large pool of potential investors. About two-thirds of military members at Fort Drum decide to retire in the community, she said, “and a good portion of them are looking for something to do. There are also a lot of Canadian and foreign investors looking to come here.”

One of the main aspects of starting a business is developing quality business plans that lenders are seeking, said F. Eric Constance, regional director for the

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NNY Business | March 2013

Small Business Development Center in Watertown. The center, which counsels entrepreneurs seeking to start businesses, is recommended as the first stop for new

There is a ripe commercial real estate market now in Watertown and a large pool of potential investors. investors in the community to form business plans.

“Businesses need to have their plans in good shape,” Mr. Constance said. “They often need their own capital to invest in the project.”

Banks that issue loans to small business clients usually require them to be backed by guarantees from the U.S. Small Business Administration, Mr. Constance said, which now closely reviews business plans. Compared to a decade ago, he said, the loan review process done by banks and the SBA has become more stringent.

Credit ratings and business plans that demonstrate a demand for products and services are needed.

As an entrepreneur, “you now have to be even more prepared than you ever had to be,” he said. “You can’t just walk up, throw your feet on the desk and expect to get a loan like you used to. They want to see research and projections.”

The most successful entrepreneurs, Mr. Constance said, are generally those who have developed specific business plans that clearly identify their target market.

“If you’re a restaurant competing with corporate franchises, you have to find a niche market you’re good at that can compete with a cross-section of their market,” he said. “You can’t compete with big markets, but if you can find one thing they’re doing, and do it better, you can be successful.” n TED BOOKER is a Johnson Newspapers staff writer. Contact him at tbooker@wdt.net or 661-2371.

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R E A L E S TAT E / J E F F E R S O N C O U N T Y The Jefferson County clerk’s office recorded the following property sales: FEB. 8: Town of Orleans: 8.45 acres, state Route 12, Ameri/Can Market Inc., Walworth, sold to Anchor Development Corp., Fineview $147,000 n Town of LeRay: 0.354 acre, state Route 3, Frost T. Haviland, Brownville, sold to Suzette L. Lentz and Jason B. Lentz, Watertown $80,000 n Town of Theresa: 0.44 acre, Butterfield Point, Paul W. Wimmer, Lake Helen, Fla., sold to Norman R. Tessier and Susan Lynn Tessier, Baldwinsville $60,000 n City of Watertown: 728 Knickerbocker Drive, Steven J. Alteri and Barbara A. Alteri, Sackets Harbor, sold to Iris Duffany, Rodman $80,000 n Town of Brownville: 1.43 acres, Watertown to Cape Vincent state highway, Ernest J. Charleston Sr., Chaumont, sold to Ernest J. Charleston II, Potsdam $82,000 n Town of Watertown: 13.74 acres, County Route 155, Todd R. McAleese, Watertown, sold to Steven Anderson and Jennifer L. Anderson, Watertown $360,000 FEB. 7: Town of Rodman: Two parcels, 33 acres, 26 acres, County Route 69, Joan M. Papp, Rodman, executor, estate of Ernest Papp, late of Rodman, sold to Joanne Lucas, Rodman $85,000 n City of Watertown: 0.13 acre, Myrtle Avenue, Donald R. Lawton and Diana Lawton, Watertown, sold to Tuan Anh Vo, Philadelphia, Pa. $135,000 n Town of Theresa: 0.84 acre, 327 Mill St., Donald Van Tassel and Sally Van Tassel, Theresa, sold

to Robert Philip Hall, Theresa $30,000

Cape Vincent $78,000

n City of Watertown: 0.615 acre, 119 Iroquois Ave. E., Michael C. Simmons and Ann Marie Simmons, Clayton, sold to Gary D. Brinker Jr. and Genesee R. Brinker, Watertown $160,000

n Town of Clayton: Two parcels, 2.5 acres, 1.18 acre, Bartlett Point Road, MJSP Realty LLC, Dorset, Vt., sold to Raymond L. Brisson, Pensacola, Fla. $387,500

FEB. 6: Town of Antwerp: 3.256 acres, County Route 24, Allen J. Foster Jr., Falls Church, Va., sold to David L. Benson Jr. and Michelle M. Benson, Antwerp $167,000

n Town of Champion and hamlet of Great Bend: Two parcels, 1) no acreage or address given, 2) 0.28 acres, no address given, John W. Faunce, Carthage, and James E. Faunce, Carthage, individually and as executors, estate of Edward H. Faunce, late of Sun City Center, Fla., sold to Kenneth L. Sharp and Suk Hui Yadlosky, both of Watertown $65,000

FEB. 5: Town of LeRay: 0.95 acre, Goulds Corners Road, Patrick F. Higgins, by Rebecca L. Higgins, attorney in fact, and Rebecca L. Higgins, Evans Mills, sold to Mark A. Langford and Katlyn M. Langford, Gouverneur $199,500 n Town of Adams: 3.28 acres, Cobbville Road, Anthony Alicea and Maria N. Alicea, Adams, sold to William C. Irvine and Coleen Ann Irvine, Adams $234,500 n Town of Cape Vincent: 25.420 acres, 31755 Burnt Rock Road, John E. Estle, El Paso, Texas, sold to Sean B. Godfrey and Clarissa A. Godfrey, Clayton $90,500 n City of Watertown: Clinton Street, Mark G. Waterbury, Watertown, executor, will of Betty M. Scee, sold to Malynda S. Rumble, Copenhagen $200,000 n Town of Clayton: Black Creek Road, Jason D. Isenhart and Sabrina M. Wedman, both of Anchorage, Alaska, sold to Ann Mazur and Virginia K. Mazur, Clayton $156,000 n Town of Brownville: 0.61 acre, Weaver Road, Everett L. Crane and Beatrice M. Crane, Chaumont, sold to Stephen Favret and Janet Favret,

n Town of Philadelphia: No acreage or address given, Michelle M. Adams, Washburn, Maine, executor, estate of Tracey E. Bango, late of Philadelphia, sold to Harvey Martin, Antwerp $62,000 n Town of Clayton: 4.10 acres, County Route 9, Deborah J. Monroe, Solvay, sold to Mathew M. Hardy and Melissa Ringer Hardy, Clayton $106,000 n Towns of Hounsfield, Watertown, Rutland, village of Carthage: Three parcels, 1) 10 parcels, town of Hounsfield, four parcels, town of Watertown; 2) eight parcels, town of Rutland; one parcel, village of Carthage; 3) three parcels, town of Hounsfield, Ridgeview Farm LLC, aka, Ridge View Farm LLC, no address given, sold to Eastern Shores Dairy LLC, no address given $4,000,000

$6,965,000 County real estate sales recorded over 4-day period, Feb. 5-8, 2013

R E A L E S TAT E / S T. L AW R E N C E C O U N T Y The St. Lawrence County clerk’s office recorded the following property sales: JAN. 24: Town of Morristown: 0.455 of an acre more or less, bounded by Blackstone Bay Road, Jeffrey P. and Lori B. Ezell, Annapolis, Md., sold to Craig R. and Janet L. Hermon, Kendall $56,000 n Village of Canton: Unknown acres, bounded by Judson and Harrison streets, Jeanne M. Van Auken, Canton, sold to Michael Marcotte and Lori LenschMarcotte, Quebec, Canada $115,000 n Town of Gouverneur: 22 acres more or less, bounded by Little Bow Road, Jerry Filiatrault (executor), Cyril J. Filiatrault, Gouverneur, sold to David A. and Sandra L. Jenkins, Richville $60,000 JAN. 23: Town of Norfolk: 2 parcels, 1/2 of an acre more or less, and 1/2 of an acre more or less, both in Mile Square 95, bounded by Plum Brook, Richard E. Villnave, Brushton, sold to Robert White, Potsdam $38,500 n Town of Norfolk: 2 parcels, 1/2 of an acre more or less, and 1/2 of an acre more or less, both in Mile Square 95, bounded by Plum Brook, James and Christine McPhilomy, no address given, sold to Robert White, Potsdam, $38,500 n Town of Canton: 0.49 of an acre more or less, in Mile Square 5 of Range 7, bounded by Miner Street Road, Rebecca A. Patterson (executor), Irene M. Patterson, Canton, sold to Carolyn R. Filippi, Richville $75,000

less, 25.18 acres more or less, both bounded by County Route 17 and Route 11, Levi J. and Mattie Gingerich, DeKalb Junction, sold to Arielle Chatlos, Okeechobee, Fla. $135,000 n Town of Russell: Unknown acres, bounded by County Route 21 (foreclosure), Joseph Welch (referee in action), James and Valerie Aldous, no address given, sold to One West Bank FSB, Pasadena, Calif. $149,242 n City of Ogdensburg: Unknown acres, in Block 492, bounded by Linden Street and Lafayette Street, Paul J. Kelly, Tupper Lake, sold to Christopher J. Hill and Jessica A. Rishe, Ogdensburg $46,000 n City of Ogdensburg: Unknown acres, in Lots 1 and 2 of Block 21, bounded by Covington Street, Clinton J. and Christina E. MacMartin, Ogdensburg, sold to Mark T. and Martha M. Valley, Ogdensburg $85,000 n Town of Madrid: 3.533 acres more or less, in Mile Squares 57 and 58, bounded by Route 30, Brandy-View Farms LLC, Madrid, sold to Jeffrey S. and Kimberly Taylor, Madrid $87,000 JAN. 18: Town of Oswegatchie: 5 parcels, 36 acres more or less, 6 acres more or less, 6 acres more or less, 20 acres more or less, 20 88/100 acres more or less, all in Homestead Tract, bounded

by Sucker Creek, Bethany J. Ives (executor), M. Martha McCarney, Ogdensburg, sold to Donald C. McCarney Jr. and Harriet A. McCarney, Ogdensburg $243,000

JAN. 22: Village of Massena: Unknown acres, in Lot 9 of Block 51, Elizabeth A. Plourde (executor), Theresa M. Gibbs, no address given, sold to John and Elizabeth A. Plourde, Massena $48,000

n Town of Macomb: 2 parcels, 1.20 acres more or less, 0.52 of an acre more or less, both bounded

by Grass Road, Harold L. Wiemeier, no address given, sold to Thomas H. Devaney II, North Syracuse $40,000

n Town of DeKalb: 2 parcels, 24.89 acres more or

n Town of Morristown: 2 parcels, 8/1000 of an

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acre more or less, and unknown acres, both bounded by McDermont’s Lot, Donna M. Raab, Norwood, sold to 65 Roses LLC, Helena $80,000 n Town of Parishville: 0.61 of an acre more or less, in Lot 5, bounded by Stafford Brook and West Parishville Road, Patricia Ramsey (executor), Larry Ramsey, no address given, sold to Michael W. Hayes, no address given $49,900 n Town of Fine: 2 parcels, 162 6/10 acres more or less, 634.89 acres more or less, both in Great Tract 3, bounded by Besaw Road, Paul M. and Kathleen A. Chase, Vernon Rockville, Conn., sold to Berry Brook Forest LLC, Malone $640,000 n Town of Lisbon: Unknown acres, bounded by Route 37, Barry E. and Rose Bruyns, Watertown, sold to Jacob E. and Lauren A. Frey, Ogdensburg $153,000 n Town of Massena: 3 parcels, unknown acres, in Lot 5, bounded by Racket River Road and Massena Springs, Dolly L. Poupore, Massena, sold to Tyler JF Cook, Hogansburg $95,400 n Town of Clare: 14.945 acres more or less, bounded by County Route 27, Donald St. Onge, Cape Vincent, sold to Timothy G. and Lisa J. Powers, Hermon $116,500 JAN. 17: Town of Massena: 2 parcels, 95/100 of an acre more or less, 3/100 of an acre more or less, both bounded by Harrogate Street, John M. Burns, Massena, sold to Community Bank NA, Orleans $248,535

$2,599,577 County real estate sales recorded over 8-day period, Jan. 17-24, 2013

R E A L E S TAT E / L E W I S C O U N T Y The the Lewis County Real Property Tax Service recorded the following Lewis County property sales:

On the Web

DEC. 12: Town of Harrisburg: Boshart Road, Bruce Ormiston sold to Marvin D. Roes $33,000

n Visit us at WWW.NNYBIZMAG.COM for current real estate sales from Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties, updated weekly.

Click on ‘Data Center’ to access transactions.

DEC. 10: Town of Lyonsdale: 7467 Wheeler Road, Pamella W. Morris sold to Peter R. Meneilly $160,000 DEC. 7: Village of Copenhagen: 9972 State Route 12, Timothy S. O’Brien sold to Laura Leigh R. Clark $150,000 n Town of Greig: Van Arnam Road, Moose River Land Co. LLC sold to Paul McCormick $25,000 DEC. 6: Town of Leyden: 2623 East Road, Kenneth Decker sold to Cory R. Reiter $45,000 DEC. 5: Town of Lewis: 1026 State Route 26, Ruth M. Schoff sold to Jeffrey P. Gerrard $55,000 n Dec. 4: Village of Copenhagen: 2935 Cataract St., Sheryl A. Foan McMahon sold to Michael A. Ragsdale $187,000 DEC. 3: Town of New Bremen: 9766 State Route 126, Estate of Virginia I. Mattis sold to Jason E. Walters $105,000 n Town of Osceola: Osceola Road, Douglas Nichols sold to Miguel Rodriguez Jr. $30,000 n Village of Port Leyden: 7218 Main St., John A. Lepkowski sold to Randall Brien $63,450 NOV. 30: Town of Lowville: 7735 State Route 12, Jack Lomeo sold to Richard A. Clement Jr. $135,000 n Village of Turin: 6144 Main St., Rosalind W. Drager sold to Alicia E. Wiedrick $110,000 NOV. 29: Village of Castorland: 4874 State Route

410, Dennis Goldthrite sold to Graig D. Moser $110,000 n Town of Greig: Chases Lake Road, Justin J. Bull sold to Guy W. Clemons $55,000 n Town of Pinckney: 8015 River Road, Merritt Jones sold to Paul E. Smith $72,500 NOV. 28: Village of Lowville: 7636 Park Ave., Susan Mariott sold to Thomas J. Fayle $120,000

NOV. 21: Town of Denmark: 4548 State Route 410, James F. Rupert sold to Scott W. Anderson $127,000 n Village of Lowville: 7564 Church St., Roger Zapotoski sold to David R. Mihalyi $86,000 n Village of Lowville: 5299 Jefferson St., Brenda A. Bochino sold to Matthew M. Birchenough $81,000 NOV. 19: Village of Copenhagen: 2963 Cataract St., Malynda S. Rumble sold to Eric M. Scott $220,000 n Village of Port Leyden: 3370 Quarry St., Michael Hurilla sold to Susan Myers $35,000 NOV. 16: Town of Leyden: 7278 Martin Drive, Stanley Yaworski sold to Peter Gragnolin $60,000

n Village of Lowville: 7617 Park Ave., Thomas J. Fayle sold to Jonathan C. Gillette $169,950

NOV. 15: Town of Watson: 6328 George Hill Road, Everett F. Reed sold to Frederick C. Walter $150,000

n Town of Martinsburg: 6162 River Road, Kassandra J. Pominville sold to Shawna M. Petrus $80,000

NOV. 13: Town of Croghan: 9851 State Route 812, Titus R. Halteman sold to Jason A. Turck $47,500

NOV. 27: Town of Diana: 12931 State Route 812, Gerald Baker sold to Brittani L. Bickel $139,900 n Town of Pinckney: 9657 Gardner Road, Steve Bertino sold to David Loomise $25,000 NOV. 26: Town of Martinsburg: 7117 State Route 26, The Secretary of Veterans Affairs sold to Elon R. Waugh II $46,900 n Town of Watson: 6319 Number Four Road, David W. Peters sold to Martin A. Tobin $40,000 NOV. 23: Town of Martinsburg: Mud Creek Road, Matthew R. Dunckel sold to Andrew M. Makuch $25,000

n Village of Constableville: 5820 High St., Jeffrey Meiss estate sold to Todd Galarneau $60,000 NOV. 9: Town of Denmark: 9518 State Route 12, Forist Brockway sold to Jack W. Felker $68,000 n Town of Diana: Hogsback Road, James H. Hahn sold to Mickey Lehman $100,000

$3,017,200 County real estate sales recorded over 33-day period, Nov. 9-Dec. 12, 2012

March 2013 | NNY Business

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20 QUESTIONS

NORM JOHNSTON | NNY BUSINESS

BLAZING A NEW TRAIL

I

n 2006, Carole A. McCoy moved from Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Md., to Watertown’s Jefferson Community College where she became only the fifth person — and the first woman — to serve as college president. We spoke with her about her first six years in the north country, women in business and what she hopes to still accomplish at the school.

1

NNYB: What’s it like to serve as the first woman president of JCC? Has there been anything unique about your experience?

MCCOY: There have only been five presidents of Jefferson and I’m the first woman. I just had my six-year anniversary. There are a lot of strong women leaders in this community. At first people talked about it like it was a novelty or something, but I just don’t notice anything.

I do know my assistant will say something like ‘you’re the first one to worry about the decor of the office,’ but I don’t think there’s much unique.

2

NNYB: What was special about JCC that attracted you to the north country?

MCCOY: I would tell anyone that, a few weeks before applying for this job, I couldn’t picture myself doing it. We don’t have family here; we aren’t from the area, so I just never pictured myself living in New York. It wasn’t on my radar screen. The college hired an executive recruiter who talked to someone I knew, who spoke to me and asked if I would be interested. He sold me on coming to take a look. What sold me on the job was how much this college means to the community and the opportunity to make a difference every day. I applied and was selected to

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n Carole A. McCoy, first woman to

lead JCC, reflects on career, future interview and when I got up here I was still like, ‘I don’t know.’ From day one I thought: ‘This is a special place.’ I feel right here and feel like I can make a difference and I got excited.

3

NNYB: You seem happy here, professionally and personally. People have said they feel like you’re at JCC for the long haul. Are you?

MCCOY: When I was interviewing, people would ask if I would come and stay a short while and try to move to a bigger school. I said no, and I meant it. I still feel that way. I don’t think anyone is doing the organization a service if they look at it as a short-term thing. To make a difference takes time. You have to establish plans and execute those plans. I feel like we are making progress, but it has taken six years.

It would be wrong for the college and community to have someone flit in and out.

4

NNYB: Today’s JCC is different from that of 20 years ago. It’s grown in stature and become a prized institution locally and regionally. What do you think has worked to bolster its reputation and standing?

MCCOY: I think the college always had incredible quality education. During our 50th anniversary I spent some time looking at historical documents and listening to stories about the college. Our last strategic plan was called the “College of Choice” plan, not because we are

a choosy college — we’re not a Harvard — but we want to be seen as a choice by the community. We want students to say ‘I got to go to Jefferson’ instead of ‘I had to go to Jefferson.’

We always look to do better, but have looked at how we get the community to understand what we do and who we are and change the attitude from ‘I had to go’ to ‘I got to go.’ That was going on well before I got here.

5

NNYB: Talk about risk-taking and not being afraid to try things that might not always work.

Why is that important in your business?

MCCOY: You can’t be dumb about it. Risk-taking just to take risks is no good. Squandering resources is no way to go about it. If you’re not trying some new things, you’re not evolving and moving forward. To me, the trick is to try to evaluate how risky it is and how we mitigate the risk. With our higher education center there was the question of where could we put it and what would it cost. We chose to put it on campus to reduce the costs of the risk. There had never been a doctorate program in Jefferson County, and they’re immensely expensive, not just at St. John Fisher, but everywhere. We did everything we needed to do to help them, but it didn’t go. You could say it was a failure; I would agree. We failed at getting that doctorate, but we raised awareness in the community. We are back out looking and we’re going to go

20 QUESTIONS for it again. The need is still there.

6

NNYB: Having come from Annapolis, you’re no stranger to a military neighborhood. Did that help at all coming to this community?

MCCOY: I know when I was interviewing there was interest because I was working with Fort Meade and developing educational offerings there. The military presence there is much different than it is here. But one in three students at JCC has ties to the military. You know what I love about it is that you don’t even notice it. It’s not a different thing. That’s not true just at the college but in the entire community. Fort Drum is a piece of our community; it’s not separate and unique. You walk on campus and it’s one big melting pot. That’s pretty cool.

7

NNYB: As a professional, do you feel that women still face barriers in the workplace?

MCCOY: Yes, I do. We as a college are active members of the American Association of University Women. One of the key drivers of that is equality for women. We are well aware of the number of places where the earnings potential for women is so much lower than men. You still see gender bias. I like to think we don’t have any at the college, and we are good at looking at pay and promotional opportunities and making sure we are very balanced. Certainly you look across colleges and universities and about a quarter of the presidents are women.

We make up 50 percent of the workforce, so you know that the bias is still there. I could tell you a thousand stories about coming up through the ranks and biases. I think they’re much more subtle now.

8

NNYB: In 2013 why do you think this might still be the case?

MCCOY: If it was easy to fix, it’d be fixed. I think there are many women who don’t aspire to as much. The challenge of choosing between your family and a job is hard. I was lucky with a supportive husband and family. Trying to be a working mom is tough. I think that’s a piece of it that will be difficult to change. I know there is still a stereotype of what a CEO or vice president looks like. That’s part of why it’s fun to be the first woman president of Jefferson because that can’t be in everyone’s head anymore. It takes a long time to overcome some of that stuff.

9

NNYB: Do you think we’ll see a woman serving in the White House as president in our lifetime?

MCCOY: I would have bet we had a female president before an African-American president. It surprised me, but in a good way. I think the next go around we are ready to have a woman. If you look at women who have run for office and all snipping that has happened, they always start in with ‘is she strong enough?,’ ‘is she woman enough and female enough?’. All of the stereotypes start to surface.

10

NNYB: How do you work through some of those stereotypes?

MCCOY: You have to demonstrate that you are that person, that you’re strong and capable of being a leader. I remember being the only fe-

NORM JOHNSTON | NNY BUSINESS

Jefferson Community College President Carole A. McCoy talks about her first six years on the job in her Watertown office. male manager working in a place and my boss wanted to take his assistant out who just had a baby. Who was asked to watch the baby? Me. The female manager was asked to watch the baby. I’d get pats on the head with comments like ‘you’ll get there, honey.’ I’m nobody’s honey. You have to be self-confident and capable and show that you are a human being and, oh, you happen to be a woman.

11

NNYB: What advice do you have for women coming up through the ranks?

MCCOY: Go for it. You are more than capable.

Be yourself; don’t try to be something you’re not. You won’t be successful. Even if you manage to be successful, you’ll be miserable. Play to the strengths you have as a leader and just be who you are. Don’t try to pretend you’re not a woman. If you have an inclusive leadership style and the organization is looking for an autocrat, don’t do it.

12

NNYB: Going back to 1973, what was that experience like being a college drop-out?

MCCOY: My mom went to a nursing college; my dad didn’t go to college. I went to the University of Colorado, Boulder, where we lived at the time. It is a massive school and I just didn’t know why I was there. I wanted to be independent but college just wasn’t working for me. I was valedictorian of my high school so I was used to the work but I just didn’t connect. I went to work for the phone company as a directory assistance operator. It doesn’t take you long when you’re looking up phone numbers every day to realize that wasn’t a good decision. I had my own apartment and car and I loved that independence. I found myself without a degree, with a bunch of college credits. I was getting stuck and doors were never opening so I started to put together everything I had and it all came together at Framingham State.

At the time I finished a bachelor’s degree I worked at the Children’s Hospital in Boston.

The Carole A. McCoy file AGE: 58 JOB: President, Jefferson Community College.

FAMILY: Husband, Don; daughter, Emily, 31, lives in Maryland.

HOMETOWN: “Where I live now.” — Sackets Harbor EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in economics, Framingham State University, Massachusetts; master’s degree in business administration, University of Massachusetts, Boston; and doctorate in public administration from University of Baltimore.

LAST BOOK READ: “Northern Lights” by David C. Shampine.

Once I had an MBA I thought I was done. One day I happened to be flipping through a Computer World magazine reading the wanted ads and saw what looked like my dream job, which was CIO at Anne Arundel Community College. I applied for it and got the position.

As soon as I started at a community college I knew I found what I was looking for. I was there for 10 years. Once I understood the community college mission, I was in forever. That’s when I decided to earn a doctorate.

13

NNYB: It’s estimated that 60 to 65 percent of the student body at Jefferson is female. Why is that true?

MCCOY: It’s true nationally in community colleges across the country. Women are getting the message that you need an education to do well.

What we hate is that men aren’t hearing that message, too. Men aren’t as prone to going to college. I read many theories and some of it is speculation that entry-level positions out of high school are more available for men, things like linemen or mechanics. Many of those jobs March 2013 | NNY Business

| 41

20 QUESTIONS are male-dominated professions you used to be able to get without advanced education. People talk about men getting more burned out in school. I don’t know the real reason but I don’t like it. I do my best to encourage any man who hasn’t continued on with his education to get in there with the women and get it done.

14

NNYB: You keep breaking previous records with student enrollment. What’s driving that and where do you think it’s going?

MCCOY: We have been, but it’s slowing down.

A bad economy always drives community college enrollments up. Four-year institutions feel more expensive because money is tight. We have done a

lot to market ourselves and we’ve added a lot of new programs and they’re attractive. When you want to get a bachelor’s degree from Keuka and Potsdam, you can do your first two years with us.

15

NNYB: Is it in the future for Jefferson to become a four-year institution?

MCCOY: That takes law. It’s not something we choose. We would have to choose to pursue the effort. It is a pretty tough hurdle with state law. I love our open door mission. It’d change the flavor of the college. We want to bring the best education to this community and we’ll do it however it needs to be done. Partnerships are working well and we’ll continue to pursue

that. Would I say we’d never offer a bachelor’s degree if we could? No. I speculate that there is a lot of talk on the state level to raise the minimum credentials for a nurse to a bachelor’s degree. Our four-year institutions couldn’t produce enough nurses but I could see community colleges being authorized to offer that.

16

NNYB: At what stage are you in with the campus dorm project?

MCCOY: We are out in the financial markets securing funding right now. We expect to break ground in April. Our investment bankers working for us are out talking to banks. We don’t have a signed deal on financing. We’ve selected Purcell and Bernier, Carr so they are busy working on plans. It will be 64 units holding 290 beds with four stories.

17

NNYB: Is a multi-purpose arena one thing that you’d like to see happen?

MCCOY: There’s a feasibility study being worked on right now for a multi-purpose arena.

We are looking forward to reviewing it and sharing it in the coming weeks. It could be like the SRC arena at Onondaga Community College, but we have to look at what’s possible and the demand and who is willing to pay what. We would like to have instructional space with it because we need more space and there might be some nice synergy that could happen. We need to look at how to fund it, but something like the SRC arena would be a tremendous boom here. It would be great for student activities and sports.

18

NNYB: What else does the future hold for your organization?

MCCOY: I’d love for us to see us have a bigger presence on Coffeen Street. We are very space constrained. We are tight. All of this growth has used up our facilities. We need more classroom space and parking and students working together to study and library space. It’s not the best financial times to stand there saying we need to build. We need to work on ways to address our need to expand.

19

NNYB: What kind of endowment is the JCC Foundation working with?

MCCOY: The foundation has a $5 million endowment that supports scholarships; they give about $250,000 a year to students. For a college and community this size that’s pretty impressive. The foundation has in the past conducted a capital campaign to support the college. We do have building needs, but we need to understand this multi-purpose facility better. We’ve been talking with the county about a master plan that includes a collaborative learning center to replace our library and tutoring space. We need to define those plans some more before we look at a capital campaign.

20

NNYB: What are you most proud of?

MCCOY: The higher education center, the emphasis on student completion, creativity and all the things like that which have happened. I’m proud of us. I will take a little credit but I will give the people who work at this college all of the credit. They do great things and I feel good being a piece of it. ­ Interview by Ken Eysaman. Edited for length — and clarity.

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E C O N O M I C A L LY S P E A K I N G

Workforce development in action

T

he Workforce Development Institute is a statewide nonprofit organization with flexible regional programs.

WDI began as a partner to the state AFL-CIO and local labor federations to provide workforce training and education services to regional and local unions. It has since broadened its role and its constituency to include economic and community development and business.

Today, WDI is called upon by a variety of entities — government, business, unions, educational institutions and community groups — to help develop regional strategies to address workforce, economic, and community development challenges.

With offices across the state, and north country offices in Massena and Saranac Lake, WDI staff has embedded in the communities it serves. Through extensive regional networks, staff collects information about workforce trends, potential job growth and emerging developments. Information is then used by WDI to tailor programs aimed at the creation and retention of good jobs throughout the state. WDI looks for opportunities where strategically placed funding or expertise can boost a business’s ability to expand or retain staff, transition groups of laid-off individuals back into employment or pave the way for future job development through leverage of other funds or strategic planning.

The type of support WDI provides may take one of several forms, including training, equipment, planning, curriculum development and even grant writing. In several cases, WDI itself has leveraged funds for larger projects of particular interest by applying for federal and state grants. In all cases, however, the goal is the same — a

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NNY Business | March 2013

positive impact on the workforce through promotion of jobs that pay well.

Throughout the state, WDI has a track record of successes: In Watertown, WDI established a training fund Greg Hart and programs to help 270 workers laid off from Mercy long-term care facility acquire skills to transition to new jobs at Samaritan Medical Center across town.

In the capital region, WDI trained more than 500 tradespeople with skills required to build and maintain “clean rooms” at Global Foundries. This training allowed for the employment of local residents as opposed to out-of-state contractors.

In Elmira, WDI provided support for an innovative outplacement/networking program to employees of Schweizer Helicopter when the company lost a federal grant and laid off staff. Ninety percent of the participants found new employment within two months of completing the program.

In the Finger Lakes, WDI partnered with the local community college and economic development entities to increase the number of qualified advanced manufacturing machinists by providing group training required by local manufacturers.

The first round of training resulted in 100 percent employment. Additional rounds of training are planned.

In Oneida and Herkimer Counties, WDI has worked closely with the farming and agriculture community to support

programs that respond to changes in the economy or the work environment. In response to an expansion of yogurt-producing facilities, WDI provided funding for a Herdsperson Training Series, a four-week program designed to help dairy workers achieve increased milk production.

WDI believes that the move to more reliable, secure and natural sources of energy will result in the creation of wellpaying jobs. To that end, WDI actively promotes a variety of training programs in sustainable energy and routinely serves as organizer and convener of coalitions of representatives from labor, business, government and environmental organizations to push forward agendas in solar, wind and smart grid job creation.

Finally, WDI is known for approaching issues around workforce development from multiple angles. WDI’s child care subsidy program provides critical support to working families in the capital region and Oneida County. A statewide women’s initiative, referred to as “Women of the Workforce,” brings together women from diverse backgrounds to address issues faced by working women, including discrimination, affordable/accessible child care, work-life balance, leadership skills, mentoring and more.

WDI makes a difference across the state.

Its statewide coverage, regional focus, size, access to ground-level information, and ability to respond quickly to a problem or issue make it a frequently sought-out partner by other workforce and economic development entities. Visit www.wdiny.org to learn more. n GREG HART is north country regional director for the Workforce Development Institute in Massena. Contact him at ghart@wdiny.org.

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

Now is best time to plan for future

W

hat if someone said to you, “Here’s $20,000 of someone else’s money. Give it away and do it well.” Sounds like fun, right? Certainly giving away money can be fun, but such a privilege can also be a burdensome responsibility balancing unlimited needs with limited resources.

This is not a unique dilemma. Each year, countless north country residents support charitable work of the nonprofits in the region, including arts and culture, education, health and wellness and poverty relief. They make a very personal decision about how best to give back. Although it is one thing to write a check oneself, it is another thing altogether to be empowered with the honor of stewardship, or more specifically: “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.”

This year, stewards between the ages of 15 and 18 years old will be entrusted with $20,000 to deploy in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. That is double the amount of previous years, partly because it has caught the attention of multiple sponsors, including Watertown Savings Bank, Renzi Foodservice and the Grasseroots Fund. Now in its third year, the Northern New York Community Foundation’s Youth Philanthropy Council initiative, which began with Watertown High School, will be joined by a high school in St. Lawrence County.

Much has been written about the next generation’s sense of social responsibility. Will they step up to the plate when the realities of the next decades leave us without many of our leaders who, for years, “took care of things?” Recently,

I was made aware of a program in which 30 University of Texas students were enrolled in a signature course titled: “Philanthropy: The Power of Giving.” The course explored Rande Richardson the history and current state of American giving and volunteering, American giving in comparative perspective, the causes and consequences of philanthropy, and how to most effectively evaluate charitable programs.

After the class was completed, Pamela Dixon, the sociology professor who leads the class, stated, “I think going forward, they will probably not view charitable giving in the same way.” This kind of experience is happening right here in the north country. As a witness to the process and deliberations of the Youth Philanthropy Council, I can confidently say that the 50 young adults who have had this experience emerge with a different view of their communities and the world.

More importantly, I believe they also see themselves differently. They realize that they are current leaders, not future leaders. They realize the great responsibilities that lay before them. They know that our communities are shaped by those who step forward to make a difference.

A similar college program, “Ethics and the Art of Giving,” was also recently launched with the philosophy that “to live a complete and flourishing success-

ful human life, you must have the opportunity to be generous.” As we all know, generosity takes on many forms. The students participating in the Community Foundation’s program are keenly aware of this. They often ask, “If we can’t give money, let’s find other ways to give.”

They often find meaningful ways to give of their time, which is often even more rewarding as they witness first-hand the important work done by our nonprofit sector. Often, their first response is, “I just never knew.”

Fear not. The next generation has the instinctual humanity to help others. They have the ability and insight to ask the right questions. They are not afraid to debate and query each other, as well as the nonprofits that are asking for assistance.

They feel ownership in their decisions and expect to take their giving beyond check writing. More importantly, they are experiencing something that will remain with them for a long time to come.

Since it is our hope that these young adults will remain in our communities, we are wise to be helping shape the future they will be entrusted with, through compassion and generosity for fellow human beings, through sensitivity for quality of life. Ultimately, that way we share a common bond, not simply as a region, but as a community. What a noble thing to teach. In the words of a Chinese proverb, “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” There is no time to waste.

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.

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COMMERCE CORNER

Getting to the roots of leadership

T

here are many ways to define leadership. However, leaders can successfully lead without defining how they have done so. True leaders demonstrate courage, creativity, values, compassion and dedication. They are individuals who guide a team to transform visions into reality. Leaders communicate effectively and ensure an effective and cohesive team to accomplish established goals.

Leadership is developed over time and is done so through education, training and experience. Leadership is a calling, whereas managing is a career. Those who lead have the stamina to gain respect from their followers or employees. Leadership does not come with a “one-size-fits-all” style. Individuals adapt styles and tools that make people lead more effectively.

Some individuals face the challenge of the infamous “glass ceiling,” an intangible barrier within a hierarchy that prevents women and minorities from obtaining upper-level positions. I believe the glass ceiling is not very prevalent in our community and we are fortunate that it’s not.

Elissa Sangster is the executive director for Forté Foundation, an organization that promotes women in business and cultivates the next generation of leaders. She reports that at the end of 2012, women occupied just 4 percent of CEO positions at Fortune 500 companies, and fewer than one in five corporate board seats were held by women.

Is America improving with women in leadership? Being an optimist, I would

say yes, there is improvement, but there is always room for more. Ms. Sangster reached out to top executives across the globe and compiled 10 traits of women in leadership roles Lynn Pietroski that are truly remarkable and can be applied to any leader regardless of gender. They are: 1. Know thyself. Insight and knowledge are keys to success.

2. Many women are juggling a career,

gut.

5. Don’t wait for someone to tap (or pat you) on the back. Be proud of your achievements and share them with others.

6. Networking. I prefer the term mentoring. Surround yourself with good people and everyone will reap the benefits.

7. Learn to negotiate in all things you do.

8. Be flexible and open to change. Too much planning can prevent change.

9. Continue your education. We never stop learning and it unquestionably adds value to a person.

10. Equality.

Although leadership is an individual concept, it’s important to have your followers be part of the maintenance of leading successfully. Teamwork in any business is important.

A major contributor to successful teamwork is having people who can work together. Only one person can be the leader, but this doesn’t mean only one person should have input.

On the contrary, the best teams are those that have input from the most people.

Leadership is about being able to build relationships with people to achieve shared goals in an organized and purposeful manner while using available resources and recognizing the strengths and tolerances of those with whom you work. It is often said in leadership and life the only way to avoid failure is to not do anything. There is an art and a science to it.

Leadership is about being able to build relationships with people to achieve shared goals in an organized and purposeful manner.

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families and an extensive list of ‘other things.’ So figure out a process to incorporate all these things into one day. We are only human.

3. Get help and don’t be afraid to ask.

Whether in your personal or professional life — ask.

4. Ensure it’s a match. As a woman in a leadership role, this one statement says the most: the job title, the description and the salary can take the backseat to the kind of opportunity that presents itself when you join an organization that marries your values and your passions.

Follow your instincts, and go with your

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

AGRI-BUSINESS

A change for county ag industry

O

n Feb. 12, the Jefferson County Agricultural Development Corporation’s board of directors held their last meeting, during which board members moved to dissolve the not-for-profit local development corporation. While no one desired that the corporation cease to exist, it was a direction caused by outside influences with no concern for agriculture.

A brief historical timeline of the ag development corporation: 1998 — County Board of Legislators Chairman Darrel Aubertine moves to hold an Agriculture and Natural Resources Conference. Two important recommendations surface: create a position that would serve as a spokesman and economic development specialist for agriculture and form a local development corporation to focus on agricultural development.

1999 — Michael Behling, new chairman of the Board of Legislators, appoints an ad-hoc committee led by Legislator Jan Martusewicz with legislators Bob Boice and Darrel Aubertine to review and prioritize recommendations from the ag conference. The committee works with farmers, agri-business representatives and agency personnel to examine outcomes of the ag conference, review successes of former Jefferson County Agricultural Coordinator Tracy Ferry, and search for other potential models to follow.

2000 — On Dec. 11, after county legislators approve and allocate funding, the Jefferson County Industrial Development Agency hires me as the county agricultural coordinator. Jim Edmondson, JCIDA director and my supervisor, sets my first priority to create an agricultural local development corporation.

2000 — On Dec. 10, the first meeting

of the Jefferson County Agricultural Development Corporation is held. The board elects Mr. Martusewicz to serve as chairman of the corporation.

JCADC enters into a contract Jay Matteson with the JCIDA for staffing services and appoints me to serve as its chief executive officer and Robin Finley as its administrative assistant. JCADC board member Steve Harter is recorded in the minutes, saying that it was “a very important day for agriculture in Jefferson County.”

2002-2012 — The JCADC board comes together, functioning as a cohesive and focused voice for agriculture. Its mission is to assist with the retention, growth and promotion of the county’s agriculture industry. In the next decade, it helps bring more than 20 new farms to the county and millions of dollars in farm expansions.

In addition, an $80 million expansion of Great Lakes Cheese in Adams is completed and the state’s largest chicken hatchery, Morris Northstar Hatchery, moves into the Jefferson County Industrial Park in Watertown. Meanwhile, five wineries and an 87-mile wine trail are created as well as the Thousand Islands Ag Tour and many more projects and successes. The board also brings agriculture to the mainstream.

Board members speak strongly about issues that impact agriculture, such as a proposed power line that would cut across the most highly valued agricultural

land and a plan to create a huge wetlands preserve. The board works behind the scenes to support and protect agriculture.

It has such a strong impact on agriculture not just in Jefferson County, but across the state, that we started to receive calls from as far away as Michigan and Tennessee asking for details about how and what we were doing.

2012-2013 — The New York State Comptroller rules that the JCIDA could no longer provide staff to aid the JCADC with its mission. Board members review their options to hire staff directly, have no staff, contract through other organizations or to completely dissolve. Because of the 2006 New York Public Authority Accountability Act and the heavy mandates the act places on small authorities like the JCADC, compliance becomes a huge time-consuming and costly burden. In addition, the financial resources of JCADC aren’t enough to hire staff and pay benefits directly. The JCADC doesn’t want to lose its foothold as the economic development umbrella of the JCIDA for agriculture. It becomes clear that the JCADC should dissolve and JCIDA should form an agriculture advisory committee.

The JCIDA and our new agriculture advisory council intend to continue the work we’ve accomplished during the past 12 years. This latest structural change means we have to do some things differently, but our purpose remains to continue to promote and support our farmers and all that they represent.

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

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BUSINESS TECH BYTES

Remain vigilant with tech security

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ctivist Group and Hackers Anonymous, notorious for breaching security platforms, recently struck again, disabling the United States Sentencing Commission’s website, just another of the many federal government computer networks it has claimed to have infiltrated. Recently released intelligence points to the Chinese for alleged computer hacking at the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and numerous other U.S. businesses for years now.

Not to be outdone, Anonymous struck again, this time targeting Twitter and gaining access to at least 250,000 passwords.

Twitter released this statement after the Anonymous breach: “This attack is not the work of amateurs and we do not believe it was an isolated incident, the attackers were extremely sophisticated and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked.”

There are many aspects of cyber crime that your business will grapple with as you try to protect information and intellectual property while your employees and customers no longer function in a singular PC culture. Rather, they are increasingly embracing a wider variety of platforms, each with a different security protocol, operating system and user interface. Cyber criminals are abusing this computer divergence and not everything makes the headlines.

In January, more than 850 million PCs were put at risk worldwide as the Black Hole toolkit took advantage of a gaping security flaw in Java software, redirecting thousands to malicious Web pages after a user clicked an infected Internet ad.

Numerous legitimate weather and news ad networks began redirecting to Black Hole

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sites, implementing the Java Zero-Day Attack. Hackers are exposing software vulnerabilities with hopes to install malware, steal your identity or make a botnet out of your infected PCs or Jill Van Hoesen device so they can later use it in denial-of-service attacks against other sites.

Popularity among users of the Java software as a plug-in on Internet browsers including Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox brought this attack to the fore of security experts and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The DHS Computer Emergency Readiness Team commented, “We are currently unaware of a practical solution to this problem. This vulnerability is being attacked in the wild, and is reported to be incorporated into exploit kits. Exploit code for this vulnerability is also publicly available.”

The problem was severe enough that Oracle, Java’s parent company, released numerous emergency security patches after the latest exploit was exposed.

Security researcher Adam Gowdiak from Poland-based Security Explorations, has been studying the software flaws of Java for more than a year and after analyzing the latest update he found, “the patch still leaves a number of critical security flaws.”

Jaime Blasco of AlienVault Labs echoes this statement. Mr. Blasco branded Oracle’s offering as a “mess.” This was

later reinforced by Mr. Gowdiak’s recommendation against using the software, “We don’t dare to tell users that it’s safe to enable Java again.”

It is not only the personal computer user who needs to be aware of risks in the software flaws of Java plugins. A number of security firms have recommended businesses take immediate action to disable the software.

For the causal computer user, the possibility of malware installation and identity theft is appalling, but it could cost firms far more over time. H.D. Moore, chief security officer of Rapid7, a vulnerability management and penetration testing software company, estimated that “it could take up to two years for Oracle to fix flaws found in the version of Java used to browse the Internet, not taking into consideration any further exploits that are developed within this timeframe. It seems like something of a lost cause. The safest thing to do at this point is just assume that Java is always going to be vulnerable. Folks don’t really need Java on their desktop.”

Are you using Java? Are you deploying anti-virus protection across your corporate network and on your personal computing devices? Are you updating all of your software to ensure you are protected from the latest threats? As technology continues to play a greater role in all of our lives, security threats will come from many unexpected places and data breaches will continue to threaten your personal and professional life. Don’t become complacent and let your guard down as the malware threat goes on. 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.

SMALL BUSINESS SUCCESS

On the front lines of storm relief

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t’s been 15 years since the Ice Storm of 1998. I remember waking up in the middle of the night to deep darkness and profound silence — no streetlights, no hum of the refrigerator and no purr of the furnace. Then the cracking and the crashing and thumping started as limbs from maple trees in the neighborhood around my house in Dexter started snapping and falling, some penetrating several inches into the ground.

For the next several days, we waited for the roads to clear, for the power and heat to come back on and for the stores to be restocked. Neighbors helped neighbors, generators rumbled beside the houses lucky enough to have them and shelters opened in American Legions, schools and public areas.

I was a small business owner at the time, with a bookstore in downtown Watertown where the YMCA pool is now.

Downtown was one of the first places to get power back, probably because that was where the seat of government resides.

The Watertown Daily Times was able to resume regular publication within five days and only missed a single day when it had no power at all. Once the roads were clear, we packed up my son, the dog, the cat, our mattresses, the TV and VCR and moved into our store where we could be warm again.

We couldn’t open the store, obviously, but we did have a microwave and a minifridge and we also could dine in Public Square eateries like Sandy’s Luncheonette, the Palace and the Crystal. The YMCA even let us shower in the locker rooms for free.

Then-Gov. George Pataki visited the area several times and FEMA sent supplies. Utility workers came from all parts of the state.

The National Guard came to help, too.

Sarah O’Connell The governor authorized the largest amount of state relief aid in New York history. In a sign of the times, KeyBank offered special terms for home equity loans of only 8.99 percent interest and told small business owners that they could contact the bank to defer their loan payment for a month.

Once our home had heat and power restored, we reopened the store. I had no damage, just a couple of weeks of lost revenue.

I recently returned from a two-week assignment working at a Hurricane Disaster Recovery Assistance Center in Far Rockaway, New York.

The people and small businesses closest to the shoreline are still deeply impacted from the landfall of Hurricane Sandy on Oct. 29; many buildings had six feet or more of water in them for nearly a week.

As we toured the area I was amazed and horrified by the damage still apparent to houses and stores.

Sand covered lawns. The popular wooden boardwalk was just gone, leaving a long row of concrete pilings. A

utility pole light fixture was lying twisted on the ground. In many neighborhoods, front doors displayed a certificate indicating whether it had been inspected and cleared for electricity to be turned back on. Many homes still stay dark. Several streets had clusters of port-a-potties at the intersections for those whose plumbing remains inoperable.

Lines of Verizon trucks, utility vans and construction company vehicles from across New York were everywhere. I saw three homes where workers dressed in complete Haz-Mat attire were entering to ameliorate black mold issues in basements and first floors.

Three months after the storm hit, FEMA is still there. The U.S. Small Business Administration and New York City Small Business Services, as well as charitable and religious groups that continue to help feed, clothe, shelter and rebuild people’s lives also are still on the scene.

I was in awe at the resilience of local residents, their friendliness and their appreciation for others contributions But I was not surprised at the occasional frustration, anger and pessimism of many over how long it is taking and how long it will take still yet to get back to normal.

In my May column, I’ll talk about some lessons learned from this experience for small business owners. 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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COMMUNITY / BUSINESS CALENDAR 50 |

ADAMS SATURDAY, APRIL 27

n Arbor Day Celebration, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., South Jefferson High School. Sponsored

by South Jefferson Chamber of Commerce.

Free trees, children’s activities, crafters, Rick West’s birds of prey, Sci-Tech Center, Cornell Cooperative Extension animals, fire trucks and food for sale. Citizen of the Year ceremony at 11 a.m. Admission: $1.

ALEXANDRIA BAY WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17

n Business After Hours, 5 to 7 p.m., the Inn at Bonnie Castle. Sponsored by River Hospital and the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce. Networking, prizes and food. Register by noon Tuesday, April 16. Admission: Registered members, $8; non-registered members, $10; non-members, $12. Register: www. watertownny.com or 315-782-4400.

CANTON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13

n Sustainability and Environmental Talks, 6 to 7 p.m., Nevaldine North, Room 102, SUNY Canton. “Bureaucracy of Nature,”

by Matthew J. Burnett, assistant professor in graphics and multimedia design program at SUNY Canton. Free.

CARTHAGE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6

n Winter Dairy Management 2013, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Carthage Elks Club. Sponsored by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County. Major topics include “Is Your Repro Program the Most Profitable Alternative?”, dairy modernization, LED lighting technologies, paying attention to forage quality and its effect on net farm income and optimizing cow comfort throughout the barn.

Cost: Advance: $35; at the door, $40, additional attendees from same farm, $25, includes lunch, materials and facility.

CLAYTON SATURDAY, MARCH 16

n “Healthy People, Healthy Planet” Fundraiser Walk, 10 a.m., Zenda Farm Preserve.

NNY Business | March 2013

Sponsored by the Thousand Islands Land Trust. Benefits the Alliance for a Healthier Generation and TILT. Register in advance by emailing trek@tilandtrust.org or calling 6865345. Information: www.tilandtrust.org.

THURSDAY, MARCH 21

n Business with a Twist, 5 to 7 p.m., Clayton Dental Office. Sponsored by Clayton Chamber of Commerce. Register: 686-3771.

throughout the area, including the American Maple Museum, 9753 Main St., Croghan.

Events are free and open to the public to stop by their local sugar bush. For a map or list of participating maple producers, call the Lewis County Chamber of Commerce at 376-2213.

MONDAY, APRIL 15

n Business with a Twist, 5 to 7 p.m., Save the River. Sponsored by Clayton Chamber of Commerce, Northern Marina and Garnsey Classic Island Tours. Register: 686-3771.

n Effective Communication Workshop, 6 to 9 p.m., Lewis County Chamber of Commerce Bateman boardroom, 7576 S. State St. Part of a series of professional growth and technology workshops presented by Jefferson Express. Cost: $45, pre-registration required. To register: 786-2233 or continuingeducation@sunyjefferson.edu.

FORT DRUM

MASSENA

THURSDAY, APRIL 18

SATURDAY, MARCH 23

n Samaritan Auxiliary’s One Night, One Diamond, 6:30 to 11:30 p.m., the Commons on Fort Drum. Benefits Samaritan Medical Center’s daVinci Robotic Surgery program. Featuring music from Atlas and the chance to win a half-carat diamond donated by Waterbury Fine Jewelers or a two night package donated by Lake Placid’s Mirror Lake Inn. Tickets: $150 per couple.

Information: ONOD@shsny.com.

MONDAY, APRIL 1

n Transition Assistance and Self-Employment Opportunities for Veterans, 9 a.m. to noon, Clark Hall and ACS Buildings. Sponsored by the Watertown Small Business Development Center. Pre-business planning and veterans training for those looking to learn about business opportunities in the area. Training sessions are done three to four times a month through ACAP’s TAP program and SBDC monthly mini-series. Register: ACAP on Fort Drum, 772-3434.

LOWVILLE SATURDAY, MARCH 16

n Movie Premiere, 11 a.m., Lowville Town Hall Theater, 5428 Shady Ave. “Sid the Science Kid-The Movie” with hands-on science experiment for children before the movie.

Free and family friendly.

SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS, MARCH 16-24

n 18th Annual Maple Weekends, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. all days, at maple producer locations

TUESDAY, APRIL 16

n “Job Hunting Nuts & Bolts,” 2 to 3:30 p.m., Massena Adult Education Center. Sponsored by the St. Lawrence-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services as part of a job hunting series of workshops. Admission: Free. Register: www.sllboces.org or 1 (888) 360-7693.

TUESDAY, APRIL 16 — FRIDAY, APRIL 19

n Career Week, Massena Public Library.

Sponsored by St. Lawrence-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services and the Massena Literacy Zone. Free workshops, employer booths, free presentations and training. Tuesday, health science day; Wednesday, agriculture and food, hospitality and tourism day; Thursday, information technology day; Friday, career fair. Information: www.sllboces.org or 1 (888) 360-7693.

THURSDAY, APRIL 18

n “Selling Yourself in an Interview,” 2 to 3:30 p.m., Massena Adult Education Center.

Sponsored by the St. Lawrence-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services as part of a job hunting series of workshops. Admission: Free. Register: www.sllboces.org or 1 (888) 360-7693.

OGDENSBURG WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13

n Remington Art Highlights and Tea Series, 2 p.m. lecture, 3 p.m. tea, Frederic Remington Art Museum, 303 Washington St. Presentation on Martha Summerhayes and her mem-

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10

n Frederic Remington Art Museum Art Highlights and Tea Series, 2 p.m. lecture, 3 p.m. tea, at the museum, 303 Washington St. Presentation by Paul Pedersen, a visual artist whose works are Remington inspired. Cost: Lecture, free; tea, $12; members, $10. Reservations: 393-2425.

POTSDAM MONDAYS, MARCH 4-APRIL 1

n “My Small Business 101,” 6 to 8 p.m., Clarkson University’s Bernard H. Snell Hall, Room 212. Sponsored by Clarkson University and the Reh Center for Entrepreneurship. A free four-week course for small business owners to learn critical elements of business operation, including managing productivity, thinking strategically, making effective decisions and executing sound financial management. Register: rehcenter@clarkson.edu or 268-3995.

SATURDAY, MARCH 9

n Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf,” 7:30 p.m., Helen M. Hosmer Hall, SUNY Potsdam.

Performed by the Orchestra of Northern New York. Concert to also feature Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” and Williams’ “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban.”

Conductor: Kenneth Andrews. Soloist: Winner of James and Katherine Andrews Seventh Annual Instrumental Young Artist Competition 2013. Tickets: $22; senior citizens, $20; student, $10; children, free. CPS Box Office: 267-2277 or www.onny.org.

FRIDAY, MARCH 15

n Tenor Lawrence Brownlee, 7:30 p.m., Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall, SUNY Potsdam.

Part of the Community Performance Guest Artist Series. Performing with pianist Martin Katz.

Tickets: $18-$30. Box office: 267-2277.

SYRACUSE THURSDAY, MARCH 21

Employment Law: The FMLA, the ADA and Practical Considerations in Terminations, 8 to 9:30 a.m., CenterState Corporation for Economic Opportunity, 572 S. Salina St. Presented by Attorney John L. Valentino, Bousquet Holstein PLLC. Tickets: CEO members, $10; non-members, $20. Register: www. centerstateceo.com.

MONDAY, APRIL 8

CenterState CEO Annual Meeting, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., the OnCenter, 800 S. State St. Sponsored by CenterState CEO. “Re: Invention Embracing Continuous Renewal” featuring a keynote presentation from Xerox Corp.

President Kevin Warren, announcement of the $350,000 Startup Labs Syracuse Business Competition Winner, CenterState CEO Business of the Year Awards and special address from CenterState CEO President Robert M. Simpson. Tickets: CEO members, $65 per person; $600 table of 10; non-members, $80 per person or $750 for a table of 10. Register: 470-1870 or lmetot@centerstateceo.com.

TUESDAY, APRIL 16

n WISE Symposium, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., the OnCenter, 800 S. State St. Sponsored by Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurism and the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University. Featuring Pamela Slim, business coach and author of “Escape from Cubicle Nation,” Robin Chase, founder of Zipcar and Buzzcar, founder of GoLoco, and Nell Merlino, founder of Make Mine a Million $ Business. Registration and information as it becomes available, www.wisecenter. org. Contact: Lindsay Wickham, 443-3550 or lwickham@syr.edu.

WATERTOWN WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6

n Annual Business of the Year Awards and Annual Meeting, 11:30 a.m., Black River Valley Club, 131 Washington St. Hosted by the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce. Cost: $22 per person in advance, and non-refundable. Meal choices: Chicken French with vegetables and rice, crab stuffed haddock with vegetables and rice, rotisserie chicken salad, Guinness burger with French fries. Register: www. watertownny.com or 782-4400.

TUESDAY, MARCH 12

n How to Write an Effective Press Release, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Jefferson Community College. Learn the tools to write brief, concise, eye-catching, clutter-free press releases that have the necessary information so clarity is guaranteed. Instructor: Whitney Snyder.

Cost: $35. Register: 786-2233.

SUNDAY, MARCH 17

n Amernet String Quartet, 4 p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 227 Sherman St. Part of the Trinity Concert Series. World-touring quartet lauded by the New York Times with previous performances in Lincoln Center, the Mostly Mozart Festival, Ravinia and the Harvard Musical Association. Cost: $10-$14. Tickets: www. trinityconcerts.org or call 788-6290 ext. 3.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20

n Business After Hours, 5 to 7 p.m., Immaculate Heart Central. Sponsored by the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce. Networking, prizes and food.

Register by noon Tuesday, March 19. Admission: Registered members, $8; non-registered members, $10; non-members, $12. Register: www.watertownny.com or 315-782-4400.

FRIDAYS AND TUESDAYS, MARCH 22 TO JUNE 7

n Adobe Photoshop Certification Training, 5 to 7 p.m., Jefferson Community College.

Certification training program that will give a thorough overview of the interface, tools, features, tricks and tips for using Photoshop CS5. Learn to edit images with precise selection control, correct a range of lens-based errors, transform images and easily remove or replace image elements. The certification exam is taken and paid for separately from this course and can be taken locally at a PearsonVue test site. Instructor: Sara Carpenter. Cost: $300. Register: 786-2233.

TUESDAY, MARCH 26

n North Country PTAC Matchmaker 2013, 8

a.m. to 2 p.m., Jules Center, Jefferson Community College. Open to all businesses with a product or service the government may be interested in. Event offers the chance to meet with representatives from the military, federal agencies, state and local governments. Register at www.northcountryptac.com. Information: Stephen Barr, program manager, ptac@ watertownny.com or 788-4400. n Grant Writing Boot Camp, 6 to 9 p.m.

Tuesdays, March 26 and April 2, Jefferson Community College. Learn the fundamental skills needed to research and write a grant proposal. Discussion topics include types of grants, grant databases, grant research strategies and the components of a grant application. Instructor: JoAnne Rhubart. Cost: $75 for both nights. Register: 786-2233.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27

n Effective Communication, 6 to 9 p.m., Jefferson Community College. Learn the necessary skills to communicate properly and clearly. Instructor: Jason Hawkins. Cost: $45. Register: 786-2233. n Public Speaking Workshop, 6 to 9 p.m., Jefferson Community College. Designed to focus on the development of presentation and delivery skills necessary to succeed in public speaking, interpersonal and life situations. Participants will practice delivery skills in front of the class and in small groups. Instructor: Sarah Wendell. Cost: $45. Register: 786-2233.

THURSDAY, APRIL 4

n 2013 Job and Career Expo, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Bruce M. Wright Memorial Conference Center. Sponsored by the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce. More information, as it becomes available, www.watertownny.com.

TUESDAY, APRIL 16

n “Social Networking and Your Business,” 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., Hilton Garden Inn, 1290 Arsenal St. Sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Association, Central New York Chapter, Rose and Kiernan and the Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce. How to use social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to connect with customers, improve visibility and promote your brand. Featured speaker: Kim Brown, Syracuse University Career Services Assistant Director of Alumni Programs. Cost: $10, includes continental breakfast. Registration: www.alz.org/cny or 782-8755 ext. 108.

COMMUNITY / BUSINESS CALENDAR

oir “Vanish Arizona,” featuring Remington illustrations. Presented by Sue Longshore, collections manager for the Silas Wright House, Canton. Cost: Lecture, free; tea, $12; members, $10. Reservations: 393-2425.

SUNDAY, APRIL 21

n Billion Dollar Trio, 3 p.m., Trinity Episcopal Church, 227 Sherman St. Part of the Trinity Concert Series. A trio formed at the Juilliard School in 2011, this musical act features acclaimed members Alexey Gorokholinsky, clarinet, Adiran Daurov, cello, and Tomoko Nakayama, piano. Cost: $10-$14. Tickets: www.trinityconcerts.org or 788-6290.  GOT A BUSINESS EVENT or calendar item? Email nnybusiness@wdt.net. Deadline is the 10th of each month for the following month’s issue. Visit us on Facebook at www.facebook. com/NNYBusiness or www.nnybizmag.com for events calendar updates.

March 2013 | NNY Business

| 51

BUSINESS SCENE GWNC Chamber of Commerce 2013 Economic Forecast at Ramada Inn

From left, Cyril Mouaikel, branch manager, RBC Wealth Management, Watertown, and Nicholas Verbanic, vice president and portfolio manager, Nottingham Advisors, Buffalo.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Joseph M. Butler Jr., Community Bank and Watertown City Councilman, and Michael A. Arcuri, attorney, Hancock Estabrook, Syracuse. The Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce hosted its 2013 Economic Forecast at Ramada Inn on Jan. 31. The Watertown Daily Times, NNY Business magazine, Community Bank, RBC Wealth Management and the law offices of Hancock Estabrook sponsored the breakfast event.

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NNY Business | March 2013

From left, Anthony G. Collins, president, Clarkson University, and co-chairman, North Country Regional Economic Development Council, and John Murad, attorney, Hancock Estabrook, Syracuse.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Margaret Farone, Al Romano Jr., Catherine Ward, Beth Todd and Rita Walldroff, all of Community Bank.

BUSINESS SCENE Clayton Chamber of Commerce Business With a Twist at Amazing Occasions

From left, Matt Taylor, Development Authority of the North Country, Audie Cerow, owner, Cerow Agency, Clayton, Kassandra Kittle, WWTI-TV50, with father George Kittle, owner, Thousand Island Property Service, Clayton.

From left, Joe Gleason, executive director TIPAF Clayton Opera House, Karla Peterson, Karla’s Christmas Shoppe, Clayton, Bobby Cantwell, owner, Cantwell & Associates, Clayton, and Philip H. DeLuke, owner, DeLuke’s Garden Center.

ERIC INGERSON PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Jenny Bach, owner, River Day Spa & Salon, Crandah McKenzie, owner, 1000 Islands Decorating, and Lisa Ingerson, owner, Shear Expressions Hair Salon, Clayton. Amazing Occasions hosted the February Clayton Chamber of Commerce Business With a Twist networking social Feb. 7.

ERIC INGERSON PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

Clockwise from left, Jeff Garnsey, Garnsey Classic Island Crusies, Clayton, Keith Lawrence, Thousand Islands Realty, Clayton, Dan Thomas and wife Carol, owners, Angel Rock Cottages, Cape Vincent.

n LIKE NNY BUSINESS ON FACEBOOK at www.face book.com/nny business or scan this QR Code with your smartphone for links to exclusive content, daily updates and sneak peeks of coming issues.

March 2013 | NNY Business

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BUSINESS SCENE GWNC Chamber of Commerce 61st Israel A. Shapiro Citizenship Award dinner

From left, son Thomas Brown, mother Beverly, father Bernard H. “Bernie” Brown, CEO, Bernier, Carr & Associates and 2012 Israel A. Shapiro Citizenship Award recipient, and son Jacob.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Karen A. Carr, assistant to the president, Jefferson Community College, and Cindy Intschert, Jefferson County district attorney. Hilton Garden Inn hosted the 61st Israel A. Shapiro Citizenship Award dinner Feb. 7.

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NNY Business | March 2013

Rande Richardson, executive director, Northern New York Community Foundation, and wife Shelly.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Jeff Fallon, Community Bank, wife April, Northern New York Community Foundation, Maria Marilley and Bill Bonisteel, Big M Markets.

BUSINESS SCENE GWNC Chamber of Commerce 61st Israel A. Shapiro Citizenship Award dinner

From left, Sheri Travers, Glen Park Elementary School, and husband, Shawn, Bernier, Carr & Associates, Watertown.

From left, Nellie Mathous, director of sales, Riveredge Resort and Conference Center, Alexandria Bay, and Cathy Pircsuk, vice president and general manager, WNYF Fox 28 and WWNY-TV7.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Brig. Gen. Walt Piatt, deputy commanding general, Fort Drum and 10th Mountain Division, wife, Cynthia, Elizabeth C. Fipps, executive director, Samaritan Foundation of Northern New York, Brian O’Hearn, chief nursing officer, Samaritan Medical Center, Watertown, and William R. ‘Randy’ Fipps, assistant vice president of operations, Samaritan Medical Center.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Kimberly Brouty, Luke St. Hilaire, and Hope Hickey, all of Northern Federal Credit Union, Watertown.

March 2013 | NNY Business

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BUSINESS SCENE GWNC Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours at USO Fort Drum

From left, Katrina Kapustay, counselor, North Country Procurement Technical Assistance Center, and Toni Miller, GWNC Chamber of Commerce office manager.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Connie Kallerson, volunteer, USO Fort Drum, and Chris Ryan, volunteer, USO Fort Drum and manager Off the Beaten Path Gift Shop, Fort Drum. The USO Fort Drum hosted the February Greater Watertown-North Country Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours Feb. 20.

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NNY Business | March 2013

From left, Erin Knowlton, manager, Jake’s Wayback Burgers, Watertown, and Joseph Biccum, franchise owner, Jake’s Wayback Burgers.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Molly Manning, volunteer coordinator, USO Fort Drum, and Ashley Sandgren, Mary Kay.

BUSINESS SCENE GWNC Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours at USO Fort Drum

From left, Julie Brennan and husband Tom, owners, SpringDrive Digital & Print Graphics.

Mr. Brennan also is chairman of the GWNC Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

From left, Kathleen McManaman, Alice Andrew Salon, and husband Jason, Eagle Beverage.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Rachel Millios, program manager USO Fort Drum, and Karen Clark, director, USO Fort Drum.

KEN EYSAMAN PHOTOS | NNY BUSINESS

From left, Joy Horn, Scentsy Fragrance, Melissa Aulet-Ortiz, advertising sales, WBLH Radio Tunes 92.5 FM, Danielle Carman and Shannon Allen, both of the Whimsical Pig, Watertown.

March 2013 | NNY Business

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1222 ARSENAL ST., WATERTOWN

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March 2013 | NNY Business

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BUSINESS HISTORY

‘Mom-and-pop’ market memories Gotham Street Market served families for decades

By DAVID C. SHAMPINE

C

NNY Business

oins — mostly dimes, nickels and pennies — hundreds of them. There they were in the old ductwork of the Gotham Street Market, an exciting treasure find for any child. Many of them dated to the late 1800s. A good number were of Indian head vintage.

A new heating system was being installed in what was believed to be the oldest existing mom-and-pop grocery store in Watertown. As the work crew tore out the old ductwork in the basement in 1965, the stash was found. Change lined the pipes near the furnace. Why, the workers wondered, would change have collected here?

With a little investigation, the explanation became obvious.

Up on the main floor at 636 Gotham St., where grocers had been serving their neighbors from at least as far back as 1897, there was a large floor register. It was positioned in front of a display rack, one that had probably sat there undisturbed for 50 years.

Youngsters had surely gathered here, drawn by the magnetism of the candies stacked on the shelves. The gravitational force that lay beneath the floor register had over the years swallowed up those hard-earned coins as the youthful wouldbe buyers, yearning for their favorite sweets, fumbled as they dug deep into their pockets. n

n

n

Before there was A&P or P&C, before there were other grocery chains such as Grand Union, Loblaws or Acme, the corner store was the place to go to get that prime cut of steak, the fish filet, veggies and whatever else was planned for the dinner table.

As we open the 1907 Watertown City Directory, we find 89 grocery stores in business. Should we be surprised that the busiest street was Arsenal, with its dozen markets? Main Street had 10; there were nine on Factory Street and eight on Mill Street.

Public Square and two of its main feeder streets, State and Washington, each had just one food shop.

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NNY Business | March 2013

Above, Gotham Street Market, ca. 1970s. Right, Gary Puccia takes a break from stocking shelves at the market, ca. 1950s.

Gotham Street for several years had just one grocery shop, the store that eventually adopted its street name. A couple of grocers on Flower Avenue East offered the nearest competition.

Shopkeepers in the early years were generally immigrants, people who had come from Italy, Ireland, Scotland, Canada and Palestine. But that’s not the story on Gotham Street.

Before addresses changed in Watertown in 1910, the house number was 16 for the shop operated on Gotham Street by James W. McManus. He was born in Charleston, S.C., in 1847 and was just 6 months old when his parents moved to Watertown.

City directories show him running the store in 1897, but most likely it was a sideline for Mr. McManus, since he was nearing the conclusion of 30 years of employment with Knowlton Brothers. We can only guess that his wife, Katherine Holland McManus, was the main storekeeper until 1905, when he left the paper company.

“Uncle Jimmy,” as the kids in the neighborhood called him, sold the store in 1910 and began a two-decade stint with Hungerford-Holbrook Co. He died in May 1930, and “Aunt Kit” died four years later.

Succeeding Mr. McManus in the store’s “genealogy” was George L. Maxon.

Born in the town of Watertown, he started young in food marketing, being given charge of a store’s oyster department. He went to work at the E.H. Thompson Grocery at Franklin and Goodale streets, clerking there for 20 years

WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES ARCHIVES

until the Gotham Street shop became his for a 41-year tenure.

The “mom and pop” here, like their predecessors, had no children.

Competition moved in just two doors away, when around 1918 a butcher Frank W. Lewis, opened a grocery store at 624 Gotham St. The two stores would vie for the neighbors’ dollars for the next 43 years.

Mr. Maxon took a hiatus of a few years from his store following the 1925 death of his wife, Grace. Leo J. Valin, 49 at the time, who made a career at New York Air Brake, and his wife, Bessie, were behind the counter in 1927.

The following year, a 65-year-old veteran grocer, Edward Lovegrove, moved to Watertown to take charge of the store.

He remained in business there until 1929, when he opened a store at 710 Holcomb St. Mr. Maxon married Ivora Hunt LaMont and resumed operating the store. Illness forced him to sell in August 1951 to William S. Kissel. Mr. Maxon died two years later at the age of 83; Ivora Maxon was also 83 when she died in 1966.

Mr. Kissel apparently had no intention of running the store. His wife died a month after the property transaction, and he had just retired at 59 from operating a liquor store because he had a heart condition. His son, Theodore K. Kissel, was given charge of the store and eventually became the owner.

The Kissels held onto the business for two years. In November 1953, Kissel’s

BUSINESS HISTORY Market, as it was then called, passed to the guardianship of the Puccia family, proprietors for the next 26 years. n

n

n

Angelo Puccia named it Angelo’s Market. Not yet 40, he brought to Gotham Street his experience of being co-owner of the Franklin Fruit Market for about a decade, managing the Arcade Market for eight years and operating a store on Arsenal Street.

After two years, he was ready to move on, and he sold out to his younger brother, Joseph J. Puccia.

“They were going back to their roots,” said Gary M. Puccia, one of the three sons of Joseph and Mary Puccia.

“Dad used to drive tractor-trailer long hauls over the road, and while they were raising a young family, it was difficult for Mom. “On both sides of the family, my grandparents, the Puccias and the Palumbos, had come from Italy, and landing in Watertown they became vegetable retailers.

So I would say that the retail blood goes back to my grandparents.”

In fact, grandfather Anthony Puccia operated a grocery store in Rochester before coming to Watertown, said Gary’s brother Joseph Jr. The store, open seven days a week, became a “family affair,” Gary Puccia said, with the three boys assigned responsibilities corresponding to their ages.

“Joe Jr. was cashier. Anthony was responsible for stocking the shelves and keeping the coolers full of beverages. In later years, he learned how to butcher. I was the youngest and was delegated to sorting the thousands of returnable beer and soda bottles in the cellar, and stocking shelves.”

It was during the Joseph Puccia years that the business became the Gotham Street Market. And as the building had for previous owners, it also provided a home for the Puccias.

Just like any of the corner stores, Gotham Street Market offered local produce.

J.D. MacDonald delivered fresh milk every day from area farms, which, of course, kept the supply of eggs coming; Italian bread came to the store fresh from the ovens of the local Spaziani and Romeo bakeries; Arlington Bakery supplied pastries, and soft drinks poured in from bottling companies in Watertown.

Although a large distributor, Tobin’s, delivered “western beef,” as Mr. Puccia calls it, a farm on outer Washington Street provided beef for hamburger.

Mrs. Puccia offered the home touch with her lasagna, meatballs and pizza, and the hoagie sandwich (we call them

subs now) became popular. Another favorite was Italian sausage, made right there in the store.

And the store went on wheels, with its white Jeepster bearing the store logo being driven on home deliveries.

Credit — that was no problem, according to Gary Puccia. Pages on a clipboard recorded running totals for trusted customers, and “in all the years this practice went on, the store never sent out any statements or lost any account, and all charges were always paid, without interest,” he said.

Many of Watertown’s prominent names were counted among the market’s regular customers: Ebbels, Finnerty, Fitzgerald, Grace, Taylor, Sturtz and Pflugheber. And Lafferty, Swan and Habib.

There was the mayor, Ted Rand. The crew from Channel 7 shopped here, too — Danny Burgess, Tony Malara, Bob Tompkins, Glenn Gough, Joe Rich and Jim Higgins. City Judge James Y. LaRue, accompanied by his trusty dog, was a daily visitor. When the judge couldn’t make it, his dog ran the errand for him.

Since his family shopped at the Gotham Street Market, a future congressman, John McHugh, probably spent some time checking out the candy rack.

The Puccias were able to eliminate some competition in May 1961, when they bought out Wesley and Frances Jenkins’s store at 624 Gotham St., the market that Frank Lewis had started.

They stayed in business until June 1979, when they sold the operation to Vincent Cavallario. By this time, the mom-and-pop shop was fading into history, yielding to the supermarkets with their larger floor space, more varied stock, lower prices and ample parking for a growing motoring populace.

Mr. Cavallario, the ninth “generation” in the stewardship of Gotham Street Market, closed shop in 1982. n

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Joseph J. Puccia Sr. retired to Port Orange, Fla., where he died Dec. 17, 1996, at age 80. Mary Puccia was 83 when she died Nov. 13, 2001, at Samaritan Keep Home. n BUSINESS HISTORY IS A monthly feature from the archives of the Watertown Daily Times.

Visit www.watertowndailytimes.com to access digital archives since 1988, or stop by the Times, 260 Washington St., Watertown to research materials in our library that date back to the 1800s.

This piece appeared in the Watertown Daily Times on Feb. 22, 2009, as Dave Shampine’s “Times Gone By” column.

March 2013 | NNY Business

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W H AT ’ S H A P P E N I N G H E R E ?

NORTH COUNTRY AG WHAT: Farm equipment

and feed store. North Country Ag is a joint venture of Finger Lakes Dairy Services Inc., a livestock supply and equipment distributor, and Keystone Mills, which sells feed for livestock and pets.

LOCATION: Off Ross Road, Lowville.

SIZE: 4,320-square-foot building on a 6.6-acre parcel

DECLARED VALUE: Less than $100,000

GENERAL CONTRACTOR: Adirondack Valley Builders, Lowville.

ESTIMATED COMPLETION: Fall 2013 LOCAL JOBS: About a dozen construction jobs; half-dozen retail jobs when complete.

— Compiled by Kyle R. Hayes

CHRISTINA SCANLON | NNY BUSINESS

Work continues on the 6.6-acre site of North Country Ag off Ross Road in Lowville. Upon completion later this year, the business will sell farm equipment and feed from a 4,320-square-foot building.

NEXT MONTH

I

n our April issue — our annual salute to family businesses — we examine the future for several family-owned and operated businesses in Northern New York.

Also coming next month: n COMPUTER GUYS (& GALS): In St. Lawrence County, a handful of family members have stayed true to their roots, operating local tech businesses together for 15 years. n KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY: A new generation is at the helm at Croghan Meat Market to continue its famous Croghan bologna. n BUILDING BUSINESS: Bach & Co was started in the 1970s by Stanley Bach Sr. Some 40 years later a third generation of family continues to build on early traditions. n PLUS: Small Business Startup, NNY Snapshot, Economically Speaking, Commerce Corner, Nonprofits Today, Business Tech Bytes, Small Business Success, Real Estate, Agri-Business, Business History, Business Scene and 20 Questions. n VISIT US ONLINE at www.nnybizmag.com.

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

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