O’Brien & Gere moves Southern Tier office to Kirkwood

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KIRKWOOD — Syracuse–based engineering firm O’Brien & Gere has relocated its Vestal office to a new, larger location in the NYSEG Building in Kirkwood. “We’ve been in Broome County for over 30 years,” says Timothy Barry, senior vice president and industrial business unit leader. About two years ago, the company decided to make improvements to […]

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KIRKWOOD — Syracuse–based engineering firm O’Brien & Gere has relocated its Vestal office to a new, larger location in the NYSEG Building in Kirkwood.

“We’ve been in Broome County for over 30 years,” says Timothy Barry, senior vice president and industrial business unit leader. About two years ago, the company decided to make improvements to its technology as well as ramp up efforts to attract new employees. As part of that process, O’Brien & Gere began seeking out a new Southern Tier home to better accommodate growth, he says.

The company’s former Vestal location on the Huron Campus was 6,700 square feet and housed 30 people.

“We needed room to grow upwards of 50 to 60 percent over the next three to five years,” says Douglas Warneck, vice president. O’Brien & Gere’s new location in the NYSEG Building at 18 Link Drive has more than enough space, with 12,170 square feet, he says.

O’Brien & Gere worked with Pioneer Companies of Syracuse to find the new location and moved on July 18. O’Brien & Gere has 25 locations nationwide and retains Pioneer as its realtor, Barry says. CBRE Syracuse was the exclusive leasing agent for the landlord NYSEG, a subsidiary of Iberdrola USA, in this transaction.

Barry says the NYSEG Building offers the engineering company a cafeteria, common areas, and an open footprint.

Warneck says employees seem to like the new open, collaborative workspace design that moves away from cubicles. “You see all the good effect from that already,” he says.

The new office will serve as a “hub” for O’Brien & Gere’s engineering infrastructure experts, Warneck says. The office will then share its expertise across O’Brien & Gere’s network in support of projects.

The office’s proximity to Binghamton University should help the company attract some new graduates as employees, Barry notes. In addition, the State University of New York (SUNY) system is a major client of O’Brien & Gere, he adds.

Currently, the company has three open positions in the Kirkwood office, Warneck says. “Our challenge is finding good people,” he notes.

While he declined to provide specific revenue figures, Barry says O’Brien & Gere is having its best year ever. “We’re doing very well as a company,” he says. According to the company’s 2011 annual report, it generated revenue of $200 million and employs 900 people across its 25 locations.

About 90 percent of O’Brien & Gere’s business is repeat business with existing customers, which includes Fortune 100 and 200 companies such as General Electric as well as major colleges and universities, and local, state, and federal governments. The company is also selectively adding new clients, Barry says.

Energy systems — both traditional and renewable energy — are becoming big business for the company, and that includes both natural gas and shale gas. The Southern Tier is part of the Marcellus Shale natural-gas formation.

O’Brien & Gere, headquartered at 333 W. Washington St., Syracuse, is an employee-owned engineering company. Other New York locations include offices in Albany, Rochester, and Buffalo. The company also has offices in Pittsburgh, Pa.; Edison, N.J.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Lexington, Ky.; and Savannah, Ga.

Contact DeLore at tdelore@cnybj.com

Franciscan Companies opens CPAP Center in New York Heart Center

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Health Care, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — Franciscan Companies has opened a new continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) patient-service center in the New York Heart Center, its first location in a cardiology office. Franciscan Companies already operated Syracuse–area CPAP patient-service centers, which offer therapies to treat sleeping disorders like sleep apnea, in pulmonary offices in Syracuse and Clay. But sleeping

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SYRACUSE — Franciscan Companies has opened a new continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) patient-service center in the New York Heart Center, its first location in a cardiology office.

Franciscan Companies already operated Syracuse–area CPAP patient-service centers, which offer therapies to treat sleeping disorders like sleep apnea, in pulmonary offices in Syracuse and Clay. But sleeping disorders aren’t just connected to the lungs and respiratory-tract issues addressed by pulmonologists, according to Timothy Scanlon, executive vice president of Franciscan Companies. They are also linked to cardiology, which deals with the heart.

“Historically, we’ve been in pulmonary centers,” Scanlon says. “But patients who have sleep apnea often develop other complications as a result of having sleep apnea. They don’t sleep well. They tend to have, as a result of that, some metabolic disorders — hypertension, diabetes, obesity.”

The new CPAP center opened Aug. 6. It is open to patients of the New York Heart Center as well as walk-in patients.

The center connects patients to respiratory therapists. Those therapists can use a CPAP machine to treat disorders like sleep apnea, which occurs when a sleeper’s breathing stops and restarts. CPAP machines use air pressure to open airways.

Franciscan Companies leases about 300 square feet of space from the New York Heart Center in suite 300 at 1000 E. Genesee St. in Syracuse for the CPAP patient-service center. It staffs the patient-service center with three people: two respiratory therapists and an administrator. That’s in line with its other patient-service centers in the area, according to Scanlon.

The workers at the new patient-service center are not new hires. Franciscan Companies shifted them from other locations.

Placing patient-service centers directly in specialists’ offices creates a streamlined experience for patients, Scanlon says. For instance, New York Heart Center, which has 22 physicians, operates a sleep lab at 1000 E. Genesee St., he says. So the new center gives cardiac patients a single place to visit if they need to progress from meeting with a physician to a sleep study in the sleep lab to treatment with a respiratory therapist.

“You bring them in, you diagnose them,” Scanlon says. “[If you can quickly] get them on therapy, hooked up with a respiratory therapist, that’ll be a successful patient. The patient that has to wait, the patient that gets diagnosed and six or seven weeks go by, you really missed the opportunity to get that patient on board.”

The New York Heart Center does not have a direct relationship with Franciscan Companies outside of the CPAP patient-service center. Its doctors do admit patients to St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center in Syracuse, with which Franciscan Companies is affiliated, according to Scanlon. However, the hospital does not own the cardiology practice.

“We’re there solely for the doctors’ and patients’ convenience,” Scanlon says. “The doctor doesn’t have to write an order, fax it over, and see if someone can handle it. It’s face to face.”

St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center pulmonologists host Franciscan Companies’ other CPAP patient-service centers in the Syracuse area. Those centers are located at 945 E. Genesee St. in Syracuse and 7246 Janus Park Drive in Clay. Franciscan Companies also operates a standalone CPAP center at 300 Gateway Park Drive in North Syracuse.

Franciscan Companies, headquartered in suite 100 at 333 Butternut Drive in DeWitt, provides services in 14 upstate New York counties and three Pennsylvania counties. Its services and products include home medical equipment, home-care services, wellness programs, and an adult day center. Franciscan Companies employs 204 people and generated $33 million in revenue in 2011. It estimates its revenue will increase by 10 percent in 2012 to $36 million.

Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com

Maximizing Your Investment

Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

We hear so much about maximizing our resources. And, for good reason. Perhaps you have a list of relationships you are reviewing to ensure satisfaction. Great idea, and don’t forget to put your CPA on the list. CPAs are much more than number crunchers or tax-return machines. They can help you when business growth is

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Since every business deals with income-tax returns, let’s start with tax consequences. For example, your CPA can help you understand the tax implications of purchasing equipment. A CPA can also assist in identifying cash-flow impacts of a purchase or sale. After the deal is done, it is too late for these conversations. Be sure to work with your CPA in the planning stages.

No doubt your CPA is preparing income-tax filings for you. Perhaps, you have also engaged her to prepare or review payroll or sales tax returns. And maybe she handles your financial statements for those of you whose financing arrangements carry a reporting requirement.

While timely filing of tax reports and completion of financial statements are the backbone of the client-CPA relationship, there should be so much more. After all, your CPA is a trusted adviser to you and your business and has a wealth of knowledge to share. I would challenge you to look at the role of your CPA much like that of your family doctor. We all know it is unwise to limit contact with your doctor to those moments when you already have sinusitis, poison ivy, or pneumonia. Annual check-ups and preventive medicine are key whether you are talking about your physician or CPA.

So what might you consider discussing with your CPA?

Financial and operational reporting systems

Financial statements are important tools and it is wise to take steps to ensure your statements are useful from both internal and external reporting perspectives. Beyond the traditional balance sheet and income statement, your CPA can assist in determining the key business indicators that drive your business and define metrics to help you stay on the pulse of operations. A highly functioning computer system is just the tip of the iceberg. A system will only give you what you ask for, so spend some time with your CPA to determine what information will be useful in a snapshot format. Many organizations refer to this as a “dashboard,” which is just a concise framework to provide reporting of key performance indicators.

Cost of doing business

Interestingly enough, many business owners do not have a clear understanding of the cost of doing business. CPAs are experts in financial analysis and can help you make sense of direct costs, indirect costs, overhead, break points, and profitability trends. Your CPA can evaluate existing cost structures and identify products that carry higher margins and potentially greater profitability or products from which there is no positive contribution to the bottom line.

Compensation structures

Sale of products or services inevitably includes the use of salespeople. Compensation structures may involve a combination of base pay, commission, and bonus. In addition, a clear understanding of employee/subcontractor relationships is critical. Your CPA can help you and your team understand the ramifications of various compensation models so that everyone benefits.

Succession planning

All, and I do mean all, businesses should have a succession plan in place. One can never predict when opportunity or tragedy will present itself. The best way to prepare for either eventuality and ensure smooth operations in the present is to document systems and procedures, and to establish formal buyout/continuation plans. This combination ensures that both the buyer and seller understand what the transaction includes and how the company will continue to operate (which often affects cash flow to the exiting party).

Your CPA should be your sounding board, your business partner, and your trusted adviser. Not just at tax time. Of course, there are costs associated with consultation, but far less than the cost of cleaning up the mess that can result from misinformed decisions. Contact your CPA today to ensure you are taking advantage of all your CPA can offer.

Gail Kinsella is a partner in the accounting firm of Testone, Marshall & Discenza, LLP. Contact Kinsella at gkinsella@tmdcpas.com

What’s Good Is Bad Today

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Did you read the other day that the Australians are going to ban logos on cigarettes? And no longer will packs of cigarettes there carry any colors. (In Aussieland, they’re called colours.) No color except for drab olive-green. And there will be no images on the packs, either. Except for images of ailing children, rotting

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Understandable, since tobacco certainly causes enormous damage. Mind you, you do have to wonder if your favorite vice is the next target. Think Big Mac in olive-green packaging. Complete with photo of 400-pound blob on one side. And a mirror on the other. All Scotch may be labeled, simply “Booze” someday. All Bud, Genny, Michelob, Heineken, Coors, Corona, and Yuengling will come in bottles marked “Beer.” And, they’ll be imprinted with photos of bellies and car crashes.

Gambling absolutely destroys families and individuals. People get hooked on casino betting, poker, lottery tickets, and betting on football. To the point of ruination. I know. My father grew addicted to betting on horses. Spent every nickel in the family, plus all he could borrow. One night, he stopped. Two hours later, he killed himself.

And yet, states advertise lottery tickets — with your tax money. They welcome casinos. They try to rescue horse tracks. These are tracks that need rescuing because they have lost customers to casinos. Curious, isn’t it?

Back to the smokes. A lot of folks want to ban, absolutely, cigarettes. Yet many of them want to allow, absolutely, marijuana. Which, of course, is a bit of a turnabout. Our culture once worshiped cigarette smoking — in movies and TV shows. At that time the culture detested weed.

We have done the same turnabout with other products. Once we proudly displayed cigarettes in the store. Extra-length, flavored, charcoal-filtered. Winston tastes good. Be a Marlboro man, a rough rider on a horse. Meanwhile we hid the condoms under the counter.

Now we hide the cigarettes under the counter. And now, we build big displays of condoms. Ribbed, colored — including charcoal. Also extra-length, flavored, glow-in-the-dark.

A few years back, we sold candy cigarettes to kiddies. And we washed their mouths out if they said the word condom or rubber. Today, we punish them for talking about cigarettes and we hand out condoms to them in school.

And while we displayed cigarettes big time in stores, we wrapped sanitary napkins in brown paper. So that nobody could read the logos. Some stores actually hid them under the counter. Women had to mumble, “I would like some … some … you know.” I knew. When I waited on them in my father’s grocery store, I knew. When supplies ran low, I would tell Dad to order more You-Knows. Today, we advertise tampons on TV. And we ban cigarettes from TV and wrap them in olive-green to hide the logos. A guy could get confused and say, “Gimme a pack of … you know.”

Just think what wonderful things are now evil to so many: beef, dairy products, oil, wealth, and success. These days, the proud parents whisper, “Well, he works in … ahem … business. Yes, and he actually built it himself. We don’t want that to get around, if you know what I mean. And don’t tell anyone that he eats non-organic food.”

As Cole Porter sang, in proper attire: “The world has gone mad today, and good’s bad today, and black’s white today, and day’s night today …”

And he wrote that a mere 78 years ago.

From Tom…as in Morgan.

Tom Morgan writes about financial and other subjects from his home near Oneonta, in addition to his radio shows and new TV show. For more information about him, visit his website at www.tomasinmorgan.com

How to avoid political lobbying in your nonprofit

Nonprofits, Opinion, Subscriber Only

“The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only one you have.” —Anna Quindlen The opportunity to analyze and assess our presidential-election process occurs just once every four years. Thankfully, from my perspective, it is not more frequent. In this election season, it is important for all tax-exempt organizations to be aware

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“The life you have led doesn’t need to be the only one you have.” —Anna Quindlen

The opportunity to analyze and assess our presidential-election process occurs just once every four years. Thankfully, from my perspective, it is not more frequent.

In this election season, it is important for all tax-exempt organizations to be aware and knowledgeable regarding the regulatory restrictions on charitable organizations and political/lobbying activities.

Internal Revenue Code section 501(h) provides regulatory guidance in this area and has been the subject of a previous column. As always, tax and legal advisers should be consulted if you have questions in this area.

In order to avoid a political-lobbying issue for your tax-exempt organization, I provide the following 15 examples for your consideration. Remember that the IRS considers direct lobbying and grass-roots lobbying as both being subject to the regulatory requirements of section 501(h).

Activities that are not considered lobbying

– A visit to Capitol Hill by staff to meet with legislators on issues relevant to the organization’s mission. The topics discussed, however, must not currently be the subject of any legislative proposal.

– If invited, testifying before a legislative committee on the merits of the provisions of a pending bill.

– Membership newsletters that provide updates related to pending legislation of interest to the organization’s mission, programs, and services.

– A public advertisement that may recommend the enactment of a particular bill and recommending that readers support that bill.

– Lobbying an administrative body regarding proposed regulations.

Activities considered to be direct lobbying expenditures

– Testifying before a legislative committee, at a Senator’s request, on the merits of a pending bill.

– Contacting members of Congress in an attempt to influence the Senate confirmation of a judicial or executive branch nominee.

– Training provided to the exempt organization staff on how to effectively influence members of Congress.

– A newsletter to members of the organization which describes recent lobbying efforts and encourages contact with legislators.

– A public advertisement that specifically indicates the tax-exempt organization’s support of a referendum that will be voted on by the public.

Activities that the IRS describes as grass-roots lobbying

– A public advertisement, which recommends the enactment of a particular bill and identifies the applicable legislators to be contacted by the readers.

– Any payments to a lobbying firm to influence the public regarding pending legislation.

– Any time spent by employees of the tax-exempt organization in developing or preparing a non-member mailing list for purposes
of a grass-roots lobbying communication.

– An organization newsletter that updates members on the status of pending legislation regarding issues affecting the exempt organization and urging newsletter recipients to “get involved.”

– Employee salary costs and out-of-pocket costs associated with the preparation and distribution of a membership newsletter that encourages members to directly contact specific legislators regarding pending legislation.

As you can see, there are very subtle nuances to consider when assessing a tax-exempt organization’s lobbying activities.

As a nonprofit board or management team member, what should you do now? In my view, your number one priority is strategic assessment and positioning. In the briefest of simplistic terms, answer the question — what do we need to do to maintain long-term fiscal viability to support our organizational mission and purpose?

Start by assuming a dramatic reduction in current government funding and discuss your organizational strengths and weaknesses in the following areas:

– Private-sector fundraising and development

– Cost-effective delivery of quality service

– Affiliation/merger strategies, similar to every other American industry sector

– Recruitment and retention of the best talent available at a competitive rate of compensation

The challenges are enormous, but the opportunities are endless.

Gerald J. Archibald, CPA, is a partner in charge of the management advisory services at The Bonadio Group. Contact him at (585) 381-1000, or via email at garchibald@bonadio.com

Construction spending dips in July, rises year over year

Construction, Design & Real Estate

National construction spending dropped in July from June despite year-over-year growth, according to the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), a construction industry trade group. Total

PAR Government Systems lands major contract

Manufacturing & Engineering, Regional News, Technology

NEW HARTFORD — The U.S. Army awarded PAR Government Systems Corp. its largest contract ever — a $48 million deal to provide full-motion video, geospatial

Endwell dermatology practice to open Utica office

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Health Care, Regional News, Small Business

UTICA — This October, Endwell–based Southern Tier Dermatology & Aesthetics will open a 2,200-square-foot office at 6 Rhoads Drive in Utica. Michele Tagliaferri, RPA-C (registered

AT&T brings 4G LTE coverage online in Syracuse

Technology

AT&T has activated its 4G LTE wireless data network in Syracuse, the company said today. The move boosts data speeds for LTE–compatible devices to up

MV Chamber calls for Silver to step down as speaker

UTICA — The Mohawk Valley Chamber of Commerce is calling for the resignation of Sheldon Silver as speaker of the state Assembly. The chamber cited

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