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Berkshire names Houghtaling commercial regional leader for New York region
Berkshire Hills Bancorp, Inc. (NYSE: BHLB), the holding company for Berkshire Bank, today announced the appointment of Scott J. Houghtaling to senior vice president, commercial leader for
New York Fed survey: consumers expect larger increase in wages
American consumers have boosted their expectations for earnings this year, according to new survey results the Federal Reserve Bank of New York released today. The
Saab Sensis president Viggiano to retire in early March, Kaminski named successor
DeWITT — Marc Viggiano, president of Saab Sensis, today announced his retirement from the company, effective March 7. Upon Viggiano’s retirement, Ken Kaminski will assume the role of president at Saab Sensis, the firm said in a news release. Kaminski currently serves as general manager of Saab Sensis air-traffic management and previously held numerous management
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DeWITT — Marc Viggiano, president of Saab Sensis, today announced his retirement from the company, effective March 7.
Upon Viggiano’s retirement, Ken Kaminski will assume the role of president at Saab Sensis, the firm said in a news release.
Kaminski currently serves as general manager of Saab Sensis air-traffic management and previously held numerous management roles within the company.
Viggiano will continue to serve Saab Sensis in an air-traffic management advisory capacity, the company said.
Viggiano joined Sensis Corp. in 1986, shortly after its inception.
In the years that followed, he served in multiple roles and was “instrumental” in the growth of Sensis into a “trusted” contractor for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of Defense, and various international aviation and defense customers, Saab Sensis said.
Upon Saab AB’s acquisition of Sensis in August, 2011, the company named Viggiano president of Saab Sensis. In addition, the firm in June 2012 named Viggiano vice president of product area traffic management in the Saab Security & Defense Solutions business area.
Headquartered in DeWitt, Saab Sensis is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saab AB, a Swedish defense and security company.
“Marc has made a significant, lasting impact on the global aviation industry and the U.S. defense industry. He was instrumental in leading the development and deployment of many products which have significantly improved the safety of daily air travel. All of us at Saab look forward to building on the good work he has done,” Gunilla Fransson, senior vice president, Saab Security & Defense Solutions, said in the news release.
Saab Sensis provides the global aviation markets with advanced sensor technologies, next-generation radars, automation, and modeling and simulation products, the company says.
Layoffs
Saab Sensis recently announced plans to lay off 30 full-time employees at its U.S. operations in DeWitt and Campbell, Calif.
The affected workers are part of the firm’s air-traffic operations, the company said in a statement it emailed to CNYBJ.com.
The layoffs are the result of a “challenging business environment in both domestic and international markets,” Viggiano said in the Jan. 29 statement.
“Taking these difficult actions now will enable the company to remain competitive in the market in the long term and to continue to provide the solutions and affordability our customers expect,” Viggiano added.
Saab Sensis employed 428 people in Central New York, as of December, according to CNYBJ Research.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
NYPA launches energy-efficiency collaborative
The New York Power Authority (NYPA) on Thursday announced the formation of the energy-efficiency innovation collaborative (EE-INC), which seeks to improve energy efficiency in New York state buildings and spur economic growth in emerging technologies. EE-INC is a public-private partnership of energy industry leaders that NYPA is spearheading. The EE-INC is also announcing a request
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The New York Power Authority (NYPA) on Thursday announced the formation of the energy-efficiency innovation collaborative (EE-INC), which seeks to improve energy efficiency in New York state buildings and spur economic growth in emerging technologies.
EE-INC is a public-private partnership of energy industry leaders that NYPA is spearheading.
The EE-INC is also announcing a request for information (RFI), through which it is seeking commercial, but not yet widely deployed, energy-efficiency technologies that it can consider for use in projects targeting the state’s public buildings, NYPA said.
The EE-INC includes NYPA, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and Empire State Development, which is New York’s primary economic-development agency.
Other members of the collaborative include the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems (SyracuseCoE); the Ashburn, Va.–based Institute for Building Technology and Safety, and the Palo Alto, Calif.–based Electric Power Research Institute.
The SyracuseCoE team includes Syracuse University, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Taitem Engineering of Ithaca, and CDH Energy Corp. of Cazenovia, NYPA said.
Additional partners include CenterState CEO, MEG Control Products of DeRuyter, CHC Construction of DeWitt, Binghamton University, and Stony Brook University, the Power Authority said.
The goal is to generate growth in the “most promising energy-saving innovations,” with a focus on those that match the energy needs of public buildings, Gil Quiniones, president and CEO of NYPA, said in the news release.
“Encouraging highly promising and expanding energy-efficiency companies will also offer increased economic-development benefits for New York state. In short, it means jobs,” Quiniones said.
NYPA has plans to finance more than $800 million in energy-efficiency projects over the next several years in support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Build Smart NY initiative.
The initiative’s goal is to improve the energy efficiency of state-government facilities by 20 percent by 2020, NYPA said.
The Power Authority aims to incorporate energy-saving technologies into the projects that it is undertaking at schools, colleges and universities, offices, health-care facilities, and other public buildings throughout the state.
The RFI process is currently open-ended, NYPA said, but it will have periodic cut-off dates to allow for review of the submitted information.
The first cut-off is scheduled for March 25, the Power Authority added.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
UUP calls on state to restore funding for SUNY teaching hospitals, including Upstate Medical
New York should restore funding to its three teaching hospitals in Syracuse, Brooklyn, and Long Island, the union for State University of New York (SUNY) employees says. The state should also resume paying more of the cost of operating its public higher-education system instead of asking students to pay through tuition increases, contends Frederick Kowal,
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New York should restore funding to its three teaching hospitals in Syracuse, Brooklyn, and Long Island, the union for State University of New York (SUNY) employees says.
The state should also resume paying more of the cost of operating its public higher-education system instead of asking students to pay through tuition increases, contends Frederick Kowal, president of United University Professions (UUP), the union that represents SUNY academic and professional faculty.
His remarks were part of testimony Thursday at a legislative hearing in Albany on the proposed state budget.
UUP provided details of his testimony in a news release.
The UUP president asked lawmakers to increase the state subsidy for SUNY teaching hospitals from the proposed $69 million to its former level of $128 million, and to provide an additional $35 million for Upstate Medical University and $99 million for Downstate Medical Center and to maintain them as full-service public institutions, the union said in the news release.
“I find it alarming, and frankly, amazing, that the state, within the last month alone, has managed to find more than $43 million in state funds to support private hospitals. Yet, the state has not mentioned, nor provided for, the needs of SUNY’s teaching hospitals or the communities they serve. It is a shame that state dollars are being sent to private hospitals, when SUNY’s public hospitals are in such dire need of that funding,” Kowal said in his testimony.
Kowal also urged legislators to create the New York State Public Higher Education Full-Time Faculty and Professional Staff Endowment, according to the UUP news release.
“This endowment would rebuild SUNY and CUNY academic departments depleted by chronic underfunding. Endowment funds would also be designated to increase full-time faculty, professional, and support staff lines, and to move contingent and adjunct faculty into permanent positions,” Kowal said. “Considering that state funding to SUNY is down by nearly 40 percent since 2008, while enrollments have increased, the times demand that we be proactive and not reactive. This endowment accomplishes that, and much more.”
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
Giotto builds his 10th business, Oriskany Arms
ORISKANY — The Greeks called it “sunergia.” Today, we call the word “synergy,” meaning “cooperation” or “working together.” In business, it generally relates to the cooperative interaction of acquired subsidiaries or merged entities. For Frank Giotto, it’s the driving force behind his business enterprises. Not content to manage nine corporations, he incorporated his 10th last
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ORISKANY — The Greeks called it “sunergia.” Today, we call the word “synergy,” meaning “cooperation” or “working together.” In business, it generally relates to the cooperative interaction of acquired subsidiaries or merged entities. For Frank Giotto, it’s the driving force behind his business enterprises. Not content to manage nine corporations, he incorporated his 10th last May.
The new corporation, called Oriskany Arms, Inc., is a boutique firearms company. Located in Giotto’s Fiber Optic Research Park in the town of Oriskany, Giotto’s latest creation is currently restricted to producing non-functional prototypes of its version of the popular Colt 1911 pistol. “We are just waiting for a dealer’s license from New York State,” says Giotto, the irrepressible entrepreneur and sole stockholder. He says the license “should be received in February or March. That means production can begin in April.”
Giotto is utilizing a 5,000-square-foot building, of which his pistol assembly and testing requires 1,500 square feet. The gun components are manufactured by another Giotto enterprise, called Fermer Precision, Inc., which has manufactured gun parts since its founding in 1947 and was granted a federal firearms license in 1997. Giotto bought Fermer in July 2011. “They [Fermer] have the experience and capacity to produce the Colt 1911 parts, and Oriskany [Arms] can assemble them using our existing facility and supervisory experience,” notes Giotto. “That’s what I mean by synergy.”
Oriskany Arms projects manufacturing between 1,000 and 5,000 units in the first year, depending upon demand. “Oriskany will need four to five new employees initially, and Fermer will have to add another three to four,” says James Rabbia, president of Oriskany Arms and the vice president of operations at Giotto’s Fiber Instrument Sales, Inc. Rabbia previously worked at Remington Arms in Ilion, where he was a manufacturing engineer and quality manager before assuming the role of plant manager. Rabbia, who holds a mechanical-engineering degree from Syracuse University and an MBA from the Lally School of Management & Technology at Rensselaer Poytechnic Institute, joined Giotto Enterprises in 2010. Born in Utica, he and his wife have six children.
Oriskany Arms at first will aim to attract consumers, rather than police forces.
“We are initially targeting recreational users, especially gun collectors and target shooters, and additionally, those concerned about home security. At a later date, we may shift our focus to security forces, such as police departments.”
Even though the company is only producing prototypes, it has already begun to market the guns.
Oriskany Arms showed off its wares at the Shot Show, held Jan. 14-17 at the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas. The company went to Vegas “to get our name out to the [professional] community and line up three to five good-sized distributors. Oriskany [had] a booth at what is the largest trade show of its kind in the world. The Shot Show features 1,600 exhibitors and draws more than 60,000 industry professionals [from all 50 states and 100 countries] involved with shooting sports, hunting, and law enforcement,” Giotto says.
“Oriskany Arms has also retained reps in Phoenix, [Arizona] and Tennessee to reach out to the larger dealers,” Rabbia adds, “and we are planning to exhibit at regional shows in 2014, in addition to the national show. We are also relying on the company website (www.oriskanyarms.com) to alert both distributors and dealers, as well as the general public. For now, our focus is strictly on the domestic market.” To aid the company’s marketing effort, Rabbia and Giotto are working with Rick Uselton, a manufacturer of custom pistols in Franklin Tenn. under the company name Uselton Arms, Inc. Uselton, who claims that a majority of Colt 1911 purchasers immediately replace factory parts with aftermarket parts, is consulting with Oriskany Arms on its marketing and production.
Fermer Precision started as a tool-and-die shop after World War II. Giotto bought the company to provide his group of companies a computer-numerical-control (CNC) production facility capable of producing metal-working and related solutions. The 65,000-square-foot plant is located in Ilion. The president is Stewart Bunce, who has worked at Fermer for more than three decades. At the time of Giotto’s purchase, Fermer employed 40. Today, it employs 70, working two shifts. In 2012, the company acquired 16 additional machining centers and is now one of the largest CNC machining facilities in Upstate, capable of machining ferrous and non-ferrous materials. Fermer’s customers include the Carrier Corp., Goulds Pumps, Magna Powertrain Systems, G.W. Lisk Co., and Remington Arms.
Classic gun
“The Colt 1911 is a classic and still very popular,” says Giotto. “Even though there are a number of manufacturers like Colt, Ruger, and Remington and the market seems to be saturated, our model fits a niche which is above entry-level and offers a good price-value. While Colt 1911s sell for between $400 for entry models and $5,000 for custom models, our pistol is priced in the $700 to $750 [retail] range. The gun offers a custom feel at a production price. Also, the gun is 100 percent American–made, and ammo is reasonably priced. That’s why we chose the Colt 1911 as our first product, and chose this time to start production: We have the greatest gun salesman in history — President Obama.”
The popularity of the Colt pistol can be traced to its inventor, John Browning, who developed the weapon as a substitute for the revolver. The 1911 was the standard of modern semi-automatic pistols, which rely on bullet-energy to reload rounds housed in a clip. The U.S. Army tested the weapon in 1910 by firing 6,000 rounds from a single weapon over a two-day period. When the barrel became too hot, the gun was immersed in water to cool it. There were no malfunctions.
The Army adopted the weapon in 1911 as its standard sidearm. While the military services officially replaced the model in 1985, many special-forces and police units still rely on it as standard issue.
“I chose the company name Oriskany Arms because of the epic battle fought here during the Revolutionary War,” says Giotto. “ ‘Oriskany’ is a name in history that’s synonymous with pride, tradition, and honor.” Giotto is referring to the battle fought on Aug. 6, 1777, when the local militia attempted to relieve the besieged Ft. Schuyler (Stanwix), which had been built by the British to protect a critical, water portage against invasion by the French. Ambushed by the British and Indian defenders, the militia sustained losses exceeding half their force. Nevertheless, the militia’s sustained effort broke the spirit of the attackers who subsequently deserted the fort and retreated to Canada.
Giotto Enterprises is comprised of the following companies: Fiber Instrument Sales, Inc.; The Light Connection; Fermer Precision, Inc.; FIS Blue, in which his Giotto’s daughter holds a majority interest; Molding Solutions, Inc.; Force Guided Relays; Energy Efficient Products, Inc.; Max L. Cowen Student Stores; The Mohawk Valley Jet Service, in which he is a 50/50 partner; and Oriskany Arms. Except where noted, Giotto is the sole stockholder in all of his companies.
Giotto Enterprises currently employs 362 and generates $75 million in annual revenue. Fiber Instruments, the largest company among his enterprises, exports to 11,000 customers in 110 countries. Giotto Enterprises includes 250,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehousing space, plus a 15,000 square-foot training center that is used to train 1,000 people annually in fiber optics.
Giotto was born in Oneonta and grew up in Utica. As a youngster, he developed and sold individual pizzas before they were popular, ran a taco stand, and invented a coffee maker that could brew single cups. Driven to create new companies, the newest addition not only leverages the synergy of his operation but also diversifies the customer base of Fermer.
It’s only a matter of time before Giotto launches his 11th company.
Contact Poltenson at npoltenson@tmvbj.com
Centers at St. Camillus prepares for improvement project
GEDDES — The Centers at St. Camillus, a nonprofit health-care facility in the town of Geddes, is preparing for an improvement project meant to relocate and improve its resident-gathering space. The project, which the facility hopes to complete before the end of the year, should begin in early March, says Christine M. Kearney, vice president
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GEDDES — The Centers at St. Camillus, a nonprofit health-care facility in the town of Geddes, is preparing for an improvement project meant to relocate and improve its resident-gathering space.
The project, which the facility hopes to complete before the end of the year, should begin in early March, says Christine M. Kearney, vice president for rehabilitation and community-based services at the Centers at St. Camillus.
The Centers’ desire to expand its community-based services prompted the project, which will cost about $160,000, she says.
“So we opened the social-day program in order to provide another array of services to people who are living at home but are in need of oversight and supervision during the day,” Kearney says.
Community-based services are for people who may have incurred some type of disability and may need additional support to continue living at home, she explains.
The project’s first phase involves the relocation of the organization’s resident-gathering space. The Centers at St. Camillus will use a $23,000 grant to cover the cost of the first phase.
The organization on Jan. 7 announced that the John M. & Mary L. Gallinger and John F. Marsellus Funds awarded the funding. The Central New York Community Foundation, Inc. recently notified the Centers at St. Camillus about this grant funding.
The first phase involves taking an area that the facility’s pharmacy is vacating, along with a storage area, and creating a new resident-gathering room, Kearney says.
The new location for the facility’s resident-gathering room is in a more central location compared to the some of the long-term care units, according to Kearney. It’s also close to the dining room and located near the elevators that go up to the second and third floors.
The updated room “will be a little bit larger space; will be closer to the front door so when family members come in and want to have a family gathering, it’ll be convenient for families as well,” Kearney says.
CBD Construction, LLC of Syracuse is handling the construction work, she adds.
Once the work on the new resident-gathering space is complete, the project’s second phase involves moving a beauty salon that is located near the facility’s sub-acute rehabilitation unit closer to the end of one of the long-term care units.
“The third phase [will involve] taking the vacated, existing resident-gathering room, the vacated existing beauty salon and merging that space with two smaller therapy gyms that are all within this one block right alongside our sub-acute rehab unit,” Kearney says.
To finance the total cost of more than $160,000, the Centers contributed more than $66,500 for the architectural design and development, along with environmental services, she says.
Besides the $23,000 in grant funding the Centers will use for the first phase, it also needs to raise more than $70,000 cover the remaining costs, which total more than $93,000.
The Centers at St. Camillus needs nearly $37,000 to relocate the beauty salon, which is part of the second phase.
The organization is among the 13 groups that will benefit from the charity preview event for the Syracuse Auto Dealers Association annual Auto Expo. The charity preview is set for Feb. 12. The Centers at St. Camillus will use that funding toward the second phase, Kearney says.
Beyond that funding, the organization also plans to seek additional grants, contributions, and conduct additional fundraising to meet the goal, she says.
Founded in 1969, the Centers at St. Camillus is located at 813 Fay Rd. It offers inpatient and outpatient services including subacute and brain injury rehabilitation programs; continuing care (nursing home); outpatient rehabilitation, home health care; medical transport and a variety of other support services.
Aileen Balitz is president and CEO of St. Camillus.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
Oneida Financial profit slips in fourth quarter
ONEIDA — Oneida Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ONFC), parent company of Oneida Savings Bank, recently reported that its net income fell to $1.6 million, or 23 cents a share, in the fourth quarter from nearly $1.8 million, or 26 cents, in the year-ago period. The banking company attributed the profit decline to an increase in non-interest
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ONEIDA — Oneida Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ONFC), parent company of Oneida Savings Bank, recently reported that its net income fell to $1.6 million, or 23 cents a share, in the fourth quarter from nearly $1.8 million, or 26 cents, in the year-ago period.
The banking company attributed the profit decline to an increase in non-interest expense, a decrease in net investment gains, and a higher income-tax provision. Thos factors were partially offset by an increase in net interest income, a rise in non-interest income, and an increase in the fair value of equity investments.
Oneida Financial produced net income of almost $6.1 million, or 87 cents per share, for the full 2013 year, up from nearly $5.8 million, or 84 cents, in 2012.
The banking company reported total deposits of $637.3 million as of Dec. 31, up by $69 million, or 12 percent, from a year ago. Oneida Financial generated an increase of $29.4 million in retail deposits and a rise of $39.6 million in municipal deposits over the past year. The company said it invested the increase in deposits into securities and loans receivable.
Oneida Financial reported net loans receivable of $335.7 million as of Dec. 31, up nearly 8 percent from a year earlier, as the company boosted its loan-origination efforts.
Key Q4 operating items
Oneida Financial generated net interest income of $5.1 million in the fourth quarter, up from $4.9 million in the year-ago period. It posted a net interest margin of 3.14 percent in the latest quarter, down from 3.36 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Non-interest income totaled $7.6 million for the fourth quarter of 2013, up from $7.1 million in the year-ago period. The increase was led by a rise in revenue at Oneida Financial’s insurance and other non-banking operations, the company said in its earnings report.
“Our insurance and financial services subsidiaries continue to post impressive results with revenue growth of 12.4 percent,” Michael R. Kallet, president and CEO of Oneida Financial, said in the report.
In addition to Oneida Savings Bank, Oneida Financial’s wholly owned subsidiaries include State Bank of Chittenango, a state chartered limited-purpose commercial bank; Bailey Haskell & LaLonde Agency, an insurance and risk management company; Benefit Consulting Group, an employee-benefits consulting and retirement-plan administration firm; Workplace Health Solutions, a risk-management company specializing in workplace-injury claims management; and Oneida Wealth Management, an investment-services firm. Oneida Savings Bank was established in 1866 and operates 11 branch offices in Madison and Oneida counties.
Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com
New leadership, products mark start of 2014 at Otis Technology
LYONS FALLS — Otis Technology, a Lewis County–based manufacturer of gun-cleaning kits, has started 2014 with a new CEO and several new products that it says help promise growth. On Jan. 1, Leonard Puzzuoli stepped into the role as CEO, replacing company founder Doreen Garrett as part of a plan crafted five years ago to
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LYONS FALLS — Otis Technology, a Lewis County–based manufacturer of gun-cleaning kits, has started 2014 with a new CEO and several new products that it says help promise growth.
On Jan. 1, Leonard Puzzuoli stepped into the role as CEO, replacing company founder Doreen Garrett as part of a plan crafted five years ago to put a new person in place to handle the day-to-day operations
The move, says Garrett, frees her to move into a role on the company’s advisory board, where she can put her nearly three decades of experience to use guiding Otis Technology without being bogged down with the day-to-day tasks of a CEO. “I feel like it’s the best of both worlds,” Garrett says.
It’s a healthy move for the business, says Puzzuoli, who served as CFO at Otis Technology (www.otistec.com) since 2009. The advisory board, which has nearly a century of combined experience, works hand-in-hand with the management staff. “That’s a winning combination,” he quips.
Garrett founded the company in 1985 on her parents’ kitchen table and says she is so proud of the worldwide brand the company has developed. In particular, she is proud that Otis Technology was able to stay and grow in upstate New York. Opening the company’s 25,000-square-foot research and development center in Phoenix in 2010 is one of many highlights from her tenure as CEO.
“We’re very automated, and that allows us to use people where we need people,” Garrett says. The company operates a 43,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Lyons Falls that is completely automated and uses a robotic delivery system. Otis employs about 120 people.
Otis customers include the U.S. armed forces, foreign military, the FBI and CIA, U.S. Border Patrol, the U.S. Postal Service, and a number of retail establishments that serve the commercial sector. Those retailers include Gander Mountain, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Cabela’s, and Walmart.
Puzzuoli declined to share the company’s revenue figures, but says commercial revenue, in particular, is up considerably. “We expect growth this year in all our segments,” he says.
Helping drive that growth are several new products the company introduced at the SHOT Show held Jan. 14-17 in Las Vegas.
The company’s Ripcord one-pass cleaning tool launched in August 2013, but was just officially introduced at the SHOT Show and is really taking off, Garrett says. “We’ve been making lots of Ripcords,” she notes. The Ripcord features a nylon flexible rod with a Nomex fiber coating that provides heat resistance, making it a popular choice for defense customers who can’t always wait for a weapon to cool before cleaning it, she says. The tool is also a popular choice on the commercial side with those who shoot at firing ranges.
The company’s other major new product for this year is the B.O.N.E. Tool that tackles the difficult-to-clean bolt face.
“We have so many different new products in our pipeline,” Garrett says. “There’s no lack of innovation here.”
Puzzuoli says his task as CEO is to now work to develop new channels and new markets for those products. At the same time, he says, the company needs to continue to work on developing new products that meet the need of its varied customer base.
Another goal, he says, is to continue to develop the company’s workforce (Otis employs about 120 people). “They are our most important asset,” he says.
Puzzuoli will work closely with Garrett over the next year as she continues to play an active role at the office. “It’s a recipe for success,” he says, “And we’re going to continue that.”
Garrett expects to retire from full-time work next January in conjunction with her 30th anniversary at the business. At that time, she plans to devote a bit more time to her charitable endeavors.
Garrett created her first product, the “Whole Kit and Caboodle” field clearing and cleaning kit, after an unexpected fall in the mud during a hunting trip with her father when she was just 16 years old. The company, headquartered at 6987 Laura St. in Lyons Falls, now carries a range of gun cleaning kits and products for the hunting and sporting, military, and law enforcement markets.
The company sponsors twin biathletes Tracy and Lanny Barnes. Lanny Barnes will compete in the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Other executive changes
Besides the CEO appointment at the start of 2014, Otis Technology also promoted Harold Philbrick, who now serves as vice president of operations. He previously served as director of operations.
In his role, Philbrick leads the Otis manufacturing, warehousing, quality assurance, and materials teams, the company said.
He’s been with Otis Technology since July 2009.
Additionally, Otis Technology has appointed James Brooker as vice president of engineering, research and development (R&D).
He leads the R&D team in Otis’ Engineering Center of Excellence in the Oswego County village of Phoenix.
Brooker has worked for Otis Technology since September 2009 and formerly served as director of engineering.
Contact The Business Journal at news@cnybj.com
SMC, North Country Family Health Center outline plan to ‘stabilize’ agency
WATERTOWN — Samaritan Medical Center (SMC) and the North Country Family Health Center (NCFHC) last month announced details of a plan the organizations had devised to help “stabilize” the operations at NCFHC. The New York State Department of Health back in October appointed SMC as the temporary operator of NCFHC as the clinic had announced
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WATERTOWN — Samaritan Medical Center (SMC) and the North Country Family Health Center (NCFHC) last month announced details of a plan the organizations had devised to help “stabilize” the operations at NCFHC.
The New York State Department of Health back in October appointed SMC as the temporary operator of NCFHC as the clinic had announced plans to close.
The temporary-operator agreement is a six-month agreement, extending through the end of April, says Krista Kittle, director of marketing and community relations at Samaritan Medical Center.
“But we do expect it to go a month or so past that at this point,” says Kittle.
Based on a work plan that SMC and the health center submitted to the department, the organizations have outlined the “priority” focus areas and changes in processes and structure to help meet the objectives.
Their plan to increase revenue involves outsourcing its billing function and reducing no-show rates at the clinic.
The coding on a bill helps determine the amount of the organization’s reimbursement for a given patient’s treatment, Kittle says.
“So we want to make sure that we optimize and code correctly, so that we get the reimbursement for the correct level of care that was provided,” she adds.
NCFHC is outsourcing its billing to Visualutions, Inc., a Spring, Texas–based health-care-technology company that provides clinical, financial, and information-technology solutions to enterprise organizations such as federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), according to its website.
A patient no show means no reimbursement for the health center, Kittle says.
NCFHC is changing the way it schedules by building time into the schedule for additional visits, depending on what the centers determines as a percentage of no shows.
“It’s almost like overbooking but if you use that historical number based on the people who don’t show, you’ll have plenty of room in your schedule to make up for those no shows by those extra patients who are scheduled,” Kittle says.
In addition, they hope to certify the health center as a Level III patient-centered medical home, up from the current Level II status, and increase provider capacity for seeing patients, Kittle says.
Job cuts, funding
Besides the focus on increased revenue, NCFHC also intends to restructure and consolidate operations to reduce expenses.
It won’t fill seven currently vacant positions and one expected retirement this spring. The plan also includes laying off five employees, three of which occurred in December as part of the billing transition.
The organization also cut two management positions as of Jan. 13, including the adult-clinic manager and the dental clinic manager, according to Kittle.
“Those positions were consolidated into one person who will oversee all of the clinical services, and the title is clinical-services officer,” Kittle says.
The center hired a new person to handle those duties, she added.
The organizations will also pursue loan and grant opportunities to support the plan. The Northern New York Community Foundation awarded $100,000, the New York State Health Foundation awarded more than $32,000.
Another request for $100,000 is also pending.
When asked to provide details about what organization is considering the request, Kittle had to decline.
“Because it’s pending, I’m not a liberty to say,” she says.
That request, along with the funding from the Northern New York Community Foundation and the New York Health Foundation are grants that the NCFHC will use to pay for services such as outsourcing billing with Visualutions.
“It’s being able to fund those without taking funds from the clinic operations,” Kittle says.
The plan also calls for dealing with financial obligations and debt, including the refinancing of the NCFHC mortgage. The health center also repaid two short-term loans to Community Bank and Watertown Trust in November, along with a short-term loan from SMC, Kittle says.
It also intends to address delinquent vendor-payable balances.
They also want to use electronic-medical records and improve data collection to monitor and improve efficiency and productivity.
The plan also calls for reapplying for designation as a federally qualified health center, and the funding that comes with it, as well as opening the Lowville dental / medical site and continuing to serve the homeless.
In addition, the organization intends to collaborate with community leaders to expand the NCFHC board of directors.
Under the plan, SMC expects the NCFHC to end 2014 with a “near break-even budget and positive cash flow” in order to continue operations without interruption in services to patients.
Background
The North Country Family Health Center, formerly known as the North Country Children’s Clinic, had announced its intention to close in early October.
NCFHC had cited financial difficulties as the reason.
“It was really a surprise … to everyone including ourselves and the [New York State] Department of Health,” Kittle says.
At that point, executive director Daniel Wasneechak reached out to Samaritan CEO Thomas Carman to see if SMC could provide help.
The temporary operator agreement resulted following talks between the clinic, SMC, and the state Department of Health.
“We actually stepped in on the 10th of October,” Kittle says, noting the agreement was formalized on Oct. 31.
In that time, Wasneechak resigned, and SMC appointed Joey Marie Horton as interim executive director, who had previous experience with the clinic as part of its school-based clinic program.
“From the beginning, our role was … to find a long-term solution for the clinic’s stability,” Kittle says, noting clinic’s business model wasn’t sufficient to sustain its operations.
SMC brought in its officials with expertise in finance, communication, and other areas of need.
“Our CEO [Carman] was very active in assisting them as well to try to do what we could to keep the doors open temporarily until we could work together to come up with a long-term solution,” she says.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
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