Archive: Business & Technology

Rogues' Harbor Inn owner Eileen Stout announced Tuesday that Rogues' Harbor Brewing Co. is changing its name.  The brewery is now called Stouthearted Brewing. The name is inspired by it's owner and its mission to brew the best food friendly ales around.

The name change was motivated by a trademark infringement suit that was brought against the small Lansing brewery by the Oregon Brewing Co, AKA Rogue Ales in Washington state.  Stout says she would likely have won the lawsuit, but it would have been too costly to fight.

The Tompkins County Legislature's Facilities and Infrastructure Committee, in a unanimous 5-0 vote, Monday recommended the Legislature allocate $20,000 to support payment of the living wage to contract employees at the County Recycling and Solid Waste Center.

Casella Waste Systems, Inc., which operates the Recycling and Solid Waste Center under a ten-year contract with the County, has committed to pay the living wage to its employees, beginning in 2015.  The measure recommends the Legislature allocate the $20,000 in supplemental funding to the 2015 Solid Waste Division budget, which will enable workers at the Center to be paid the living wage.

A centerpiece of the Governor's strategy to jumpstart the economy and create jobs, the Regional Councils were established in 2011 to transform the State's approach to economic development from a top-down model to one that is community based and performance driven. The initiative empowers the community, business, and academic leaders, as well as members of the public in each region of the state, to develop strategic plans specifically tailored to their region's unique strengths and resources in order to create jobs, improve quality of life and grow the economy.

"Four years ago we decided to take a different approach on economic development – emphasizing cooperation and investing in local assets instead of continuing the State's old and ineffective top-down mentality," Governor Andrew Cuomo said. "That's what the Regional Councils are all about, and today is proof that they are continuing to drive an economic renaissance in every region of the State. Each council presented bold ideas for how to create jobs and new opportunities in their communities, and I am proud to work with all of them to continue moving New York forward."

Sophie Alexander, MS Nutrition, in Ithaca has just returned from completing a 345 hour post-graduate training program in advanced clinical nutrition.  Nutrition Response Testing is used by thousands of health practitioners of all types and specialties across the United States.

 "I found the training to be invaluable for my clinical nutrition skills and my ability to help those who have had or are having physical difficulties," Alexander says. "With the advanced skills that I now have, difficulties experienced by my clients, such as hormonal imbalances or chronic fatigue and headaches are regularly improving and it is very gratifying."

Batavia– Tompkins Insurance Agencies has hired Kevin Morrin as an account executive in its Commercial Lines division. He is based out of the office located at 1051 Craft Road in Ithaca. In his new role, Morrin will be responsible for building client relationships and identifying methods to mitigate or transfer risk by creating customized insurance solutions for their organizations. He will primarily serve businesses across Tompkins and the surrounding counties.

Prior to joining Tompkins, he worked for Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce as the director of membership and public relations. In that role, he was responsible for driving membership initiatives and public relations efforts. Morrin holds a bachelor’s with a double concentration in international business and German from Ithaca College and his New York State Property and Casualty Insurance license. He resides in Ithaca and is active in the United Way, Rotary Club, Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Ithaca Alliance.

Herbert Dwyer, President of Ithaca-based ASI Energy, will wrap up the second stop on the New York Statewide Winter Energy Tour on December 4, 2014 at Binghamton University. This 10-city event presents Governor Cuomo's energy vision and engages communities in NY Prize -- a first-in-the-nation $40 million competition to enlist communities to advance plans for local power infrastructure designed to promote clean energy, reliability, resiliency, and affordability. Dwyer is one of five energy-leaders speaking during the half-day event. Other speakers include John Rhodes, President and CEO of NYSERDA as well as Micah Kotch, Director of NY Prize.

Dwyer oversees all aspects of ASI Energy, including strategic planning, business development and client relations. ASI Energy is a turnkey solutions provider of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) energy generation solutions. They also offer the most reliable, efficient and affordable energy solutions to a variety of industries that compliment CHP. ASI Energy is the developer and project manager of the Energize Ithaca district energy project. Dwyer is also a board member of the Northeast Clean Heat and Power Initiative.

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli urged New Yorkers to read the fine print on gift cards this holiday season for details about fees and expiration dates. Unused gift cards issued by New York corporations are required to be turned over to the Comptroller's office as abandoned property after five years of dormancy. In State Fiscal Year 2013-2014, $5.8 million from gift cards was turned over to the state.

"Last year, my office received nearly $6 million from expired gift cards," DiNapoli said. "Reading the fine print before purchasing or spending gift cards can help you avoid unnecessary fees and protect your money. If you have old gift cards that you haven't spent check with my office to see if the money has been turned over as unclaimed funds."

Syracuse, NY – The challenge was to solve local community issues and today, AT&T and its partners from Syracuse University, CenterState CEO, SUNY Oswego, Girls in Tech and Hack Upstate, announced four winners of the 2014 AT&T Central New York Civic App Challenge who met that goal. The awards, provided by AT&T and announced during a presentation and demo day at the SUNY Oswego Metro Center in downtown Syracuse, were given to a first and second place finalist in two categories: Existing Civic Apps and New Civic Apps.
 
The two-month 'virtual hackathon' challenged local developers, entrepreneurs, designers and technologists to leverage open data to build smartphone apps that serve the community's needs. Through the competition, participants addressed regional issues and demonstrated how mobile technologies can lead to the next generation of tech jobs and investment.

Batavia– Tompkins Insurance Agencies has hired Jason “Jay” DeChick as an account executive in its Commercial Lines division. He is based out of the Tompkins Trust Company/Tompkins Insurance offices at 86 North Street, Auburn, NY, where he will work with businesses across the Finger Lakes region. DeChick has five years’ experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Tompkins, he worked for First Niagara in banking before moving to insurance services. In that role, he was responsible for new business development and maintaining a portfolio of middle-market commercial insurance accounts.

Ask anyone in the jewelry business and they know Perry Sporn----founder and CEO of Perrywinkle’s Fine Jewelry. Perry grew up in the business. He started the business when he was 17 to pay his way through college. He’s traveled regularly to Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Surat, Jaipur, Bangkok, Chantaburi, Antwerp and Bogota buying as many stones as he could afford. Over time, he built direct relationships with site holders and miners, working with diamond cutters, always testing and experimenting with different cuts. He holds three patents for unique diamond cuts.

When you ask Perry what makes his products special, he’s quick to answer, ”You don’t need words, just look at our diamonds----you can see the difference.”

Hanukkah is a joyous holiday especially when the children are young. There are long-held traditions, and now a new one, thanks to Lansing author Carolyn Greenwald. She and illustrator Suzy Hill are behind 'The Gelt Giving Golem', a children's book they hope families with children of all ages will embrace. To make that happen the two women have formed a company to market and sell the book.

"We're having the most success right now with stores and sales," Greenwald says. "We thought driving traffic to our Web site would be the main way of selling it, but we're showing the book to people and they say, 'Oh that's cute. We'll take two cases.' So the wholesale market is really driving our market right now."

Lansing Market is an independent locally owned market.  But Store Manager Sandro Mironti is on a quest to bring deeper meaning to the concept of a local market.  The store carries products from 30 businesses within an hour's drive of Lansing, and is continuously looking for more quality products made by local vendors.

"We're locally owned," Mironti says.  "We service our local customers.  If we want to stand on a soapbox and say that we're a local grocery store, we need ot put our money where out mouth is.  We have to support the other local people in the area, who in many cases are also our customers.  For us to be able to speak up and be able to say that we need to support the local businesses in the area."