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Commercial gaming revenue continued to rebound nationally in August
Revenue still down sharply from a year ago amid pandemic Commercial gaming revenue (CGR) continued to bounce back nationally in August as more casinos reopened from coronavirus closures, but still remained well below year-ago levels, according to a recent report. August marked the fourth straight month of recovery for the commercial gaming industry following April’s […]
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Revenue still down sharply from a year ago amid pandemic
Commercial gaming revenue (CGR) continued to bounce back nationally in August as more casinos reopened from coronavirus closures, but still remained well below year-ago levels, according to a recent report.
August marked the fourth straight month of recovery for the commercial gaming industry following April’s historic low-point, the American Gaming Association (AGA) said. Gaming revenue rose 5.6 percent from July to $3 billion in August, “showing evidence of gaming’s continued return.”
However, the AGA says, “The path to a full recovery is still long, with August 2020 down 19.7 percent compared to 2019, as slot and table game GGR remain in the red.”
Year to date, commercial gaming revenue totaled $17.54 billion, down more than 39 percent from year-ago levels.
Like all tourism and hospitality-related industries, casinos have been hurt by pandemic-related shutdowns and then by restrictions after opening. Those include limits on how many people can enter the casino, the continued closure of certain casino games like table games, as well as the shuttering of some non-gaming venues at casinos.
A state-by-state look at gaming revenue finds some states doing well, with Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Mississippi generating year-over-year revenue gains in August. Other states, like Florida, Michigan, Rhode Island, and New York had massive declines in gaming revenue in the month compared to a year ago.
New York posted no CGR in August, as its four state-licensed casinos didn’t reopen until September. Native American-operated casinos in the state opened earlier, but those facilities’ numbers aren’t included in the data.
Contact CNYBJ at news@cnybj.com
MVCC board of trustees appoints new chair, vice chair
UTICA, N.Y. — The Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) board of trustees has appointed Anthony J. Colón as board chair and Dr. Frank Dubeck, Jr., as board vice chair, effective Oct. 1. Colón is serving his 12th year on the board of trustees since his Oneida County appointment in 2008. He previously served as vice
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UTICA, N.Y. — The Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) board of trustees has appointed Anthony J. Colón as board chair and Dr. Frank Dubeck, Jr., as board vice chair, effective Oct. 1.
Colón is serving his 12th year on the board of trustees since his Oneida County appointment in 2008. He previously served as vice chair from 2018 until Sept. 30 of this year.
Colón worked for California–based Mitchell International for 10 years as a senior account executive and director of Latin American sales and marketing. Since 1999, Colón has provided bilingual services to a variety of organizations including the federal and New York court systems. He also is contracted to provide family-support services through the Integrated Community Alternatives Network (ICAN).
Colón currently holds leadership positions within the New York State and (national) Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). He was the 2015 winner of the New York Community College Trustees Marvin A. Rapp Award for distinguished trustee service. He recently was elected 2021 Chair of the ACCT Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, which provides leadership for the involvement of historically underrepresented diverse populations within the governance activities of the board.
Dubeck was appointed to the MVCC board of trustees in 2015 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He is medical director for Change Healthcare in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, a position in which he provides clinical support for the development and maintenance of various software solutions for the health-care industry. He previously worked as chief medical officer, VP of medical policy, and regional VP of the Utica Region at Excellus BlueCross BlueShield.
Prior to Excellus, Dubeck was the executive VP at Summerhill Co. in Sherburne, a physician services company, and served as a general internist at Slocum Dickson Medical Group in New Hartford, for 12 years.
Mohawk Valley Community College, established in 1946, has campuses in Utica and Rome and has 6,000 full-time and part-time students.
Broome County hotels continued business bounceback in August
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Hotels in Broome County continued to see a small pickup in guests in August compared to the past few months, but occupancy was still down sharply from a year earlier as the coronavirus pandemic continues to suppress travel and hospitality, according to a recent report. The hotel occupancy rate (rooms sold as
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BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Hotels in Broome County continued to see a small pickup in guests in August compared to the past few months, but occupancy was still down sharply from a year earlier as the coronavirus pandemic continues to suppress travel and hospitality, according to a recent report.
The hotel occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county rose to 46.2 percent in August from 38.1 percent in July, 34.1 percent in June, and 27.3 percent in May, but was down 39.3 percent from August 2019 occupancy levels. That’s according to STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company.
Broome County’s revenue per available room (RevPar), a key industry gauge that measures how much money hotels are bringing in per available room, improved to $37.36 in August from $28.97 in July, $24.93 in June, and $19.23 in May. However, RevPar was down 52 percent from a year before.
Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, was $80.94 in August, an improvement from $76.07 in July, $73.17 in June, and $70.39 in May, but still down nearly 21 percent from a year ago.
Final rankings of 8th annual CNY Best Places to Work Awards honorees
SYRACUSE — The 2020 CNY Business Journal Best Places to Work awards virtual event recently recognized nearly four- dozen companies from the Central New York region. The 8th annual event, which premiered on the afternoon of Sept. 16, attracted more than 20,000 viewers across all platforms, as of Oct. 5. Arel Moodie was the keynote
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SYRACUSE — The 2020 CNY Business Journal Best Places to Work awards virtual event recently recognized nearly four- dozen companies from the Central New York region.
The 8th annual event, which premiered on the afternoon of Sept. 16, attracted more than 20,000 viewers across all platforms, as of Oct. 5.
Arel Moodie was the keynote speaker. The event’s platinum sponsor was CH Insurance. The awards event was presented by the CNY Business Journal and produced by BizEventz.
The 2020 Best Places to Work award winners in rank order by category were:
Companies with Under 10 Employees
1. The Marrone Law Firm
2. Nave Law Firm
3. A La Carte Business Services/Arete HCM Solutions
4. Secure Network Technologies
5. David’s Refuge
Companies with 10-50 Employees
1. New York Life – Team Dufrane
2. The Garam Group
3. Ferrara Fiorenza
4. Grimsley Agency
5. Business Machines & Equipment, Inc.
6. SparkOrange
7. Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, Inc.
8. The Computing Center
9. JAS Recruitment
10. iV4, a ProArch Company
11. Gardner Capparelli
12. COAST Physical Therapy
13. HOLT Architects
14. Rockbridge Investment Management
15. United Way of Central New York
16. Staffworks
17. Insero & Co. CPAs
18. Seneca Savings
19. Digital Hyve
20. Westelcom
21. Capital Collection Management
22. Oswego County FCU
23. Appel Osborne Landscape Architecture
24. N.K. BHANDARI Architecture and Engineering
25. Advanced Business Systems
26. Site Seeker
Companies with 51-100 Employees
1. Usherwood Office Technology
2. The Bonadio Group
3. Tetra Tech Architects and Engineers
4. Dannible & McKee, LLP
5. Bowers & Company
6. Environmental Design and Research
7. Reagan Companies
Companies with Over 100 Employees
1. Bankers Healthcare Group
2. Thompson & Johnson Equipment Co.
3. Terakeet
4. Practice Resources
5. Driver’s Village
6. Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists
7. NBT Bank
8. Delta Engineers, Architects, and Land Surveyors, DPC
9. Assured Information Security (AIS)
You can view the virtual event at: https://www.cnybj.com/2020-best-places-to-work-awards. For more information on each of the honored companies and why they are a great place to work, check out the special commemorative publication in the Sept. 14 issue of the Central New York Business Journal. The CNY Business Journal and BizEventz partnered with Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc. (RMS) to conduct the Best Places to Work survey. The study identifies and recognizes the best places of employment in Central New York, based upon a survey of employees to gauge workplace satisfaction.
Opinion: Crime Victims’ Families Who Fight for Justice are an Inspiration
OPINION [Recently], the Assembly Minority Conference joined the families of violent-crime victims to call for changes to New York’s parole procedures and implore the state to fix its broken criminal-justice system. Despite pleas to keep cop-killers and rapists behind bars, the state’s misguided parole board has allowed individuals convicted of heinous acts of violence out
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OPINION
[Recently], the Assembly Minority Conference joined the families of violent-crime victims to call for changes to New York’s parole procedures and implore the state to fix its broken criminal-justice system. Despite pleas to keep cop-killers and rapists behind bars, the state’s misguided parole board has allowed individuals convicted of heinous acts of violence out of jail while the families of their victims expressed shock, fear, and frustration.
Samuel Ayala was recently released from prison after being convicted of raping and murdering two Westchester mothers while their children were present. Herman Bell, convicted in 1971 of murdering two police officers, was let out two years ago, and Anthony Bottom, who was imprisoned for that same murder, was just granted parole and is expected to go free this month. These decisions are clear evidence the parole board has lost its way.
The courage of individuals like Diane Piagentini — the wife of NYPD Patrolman Joseph Piagentini who was killed by Bell — and Jason Minter — whose mother, Bonnie, was a victim of Ayala’s — for coming forward and repeatedly demanding change cannot be overstated. They, and countless other crime victims, are the inspiration for our recent criminal-justice campaign and the spark behind our newly proposed legislation to reform the parole board.
Instead of being able to peacefully mourn their lost loved ones and move on from the tragedies brought upon them, they are, instead, continually forced to fight an entrenched and mismanaged bureaucracy over policies that make no sense. This is unfair on every level and flies in the face of justice.
To address these egregious policy failures, we have introduced a new bill to strengthen legislative oversight of the 19-member parole board, including allowing members of the board to be removed by a majority vote of the New York State Assembly and Senate, in addition to removal by the governor. We are also calling for a requirement that a minimum of three members of the board interview inmates seeking parole (it’s currently two) and a requirement for a unanimous vote of the three members in order for parole to be granted (currently only a majority is required).
We have also reiterated our support for Ramona’s Law (A.6663), which, among other things, would extend the maximum number of months from 24 to 60 for the time between hearings for denied parole applicants in certain cases.
The inspirational bravery and calls for reform from victims and their families are just the first steps in our fight to restore justice in New York. There is much work to do to fix that, but we are committed to giving every victim and their loved ones a voice in this fight.
William (Will) A. Barclay, Republican, is the New York Assembly Minority Leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact Barclay at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us
Opinion: Elections are Fundamental
OPINION Elections are the hallmark of representative democracy. As a nation, we put a great deal of faith in elections, and the voting process. We abide by their results. Elections are fundamental to our system of government. We commit to a peaceful transfer of power to the election winners. Elections are the way we do business
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OPINION
Elections are the hallmark of representative democracy. As a nation, we put a great deal of faith in elections, and the voting process. We abide by their results. Elections are fundamental to our system of government. We commit to a peaceful transfer of power to the election winners. Elections are the way we do business and make many key decisions.
We have hundreds of elections to choose candidates for public office. They occur at all levels of government: municipal, county, district, and state, as well as national. We have primary elections within political parties and elections to choose leaders of corporations and nongovernmental organizations.
Just as we cast ballots in elections, our core institutions rely on voting. The U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate enact legislation by voting. Supreme Court decisions are approved by voting among the justices. Your local city council or township board votes to approve budgets and tax rates.
Elections generally reflect the principle of majority rule, but not always. Sometimes a plurality of voters decides, as when an election includes multiple candidates, and no one wins a majority. However, we agree on the rules by which elections are conducted and accept their results.
Representative government works because of our support for elected leaders. We choose, as a society, to be governed by them. It’s frightening to think of governmental decisions being made by a handful of unelected people.
Elections serve at least four important functions. First, they allow us to express policy preferences across a wide range of issues. Voters try to push government in certain directions. We use elections, for example, to signal our leaders how to manage the economy or conduct foreign affairs.
Second, and most obviously, we use elections to choose our leaders. Candidates work hard to get our support, but, ultimately, the voters decide. We support the individuals we want in office and the party whose ideals and values align with our own.
Third, elections help us enforce accountability, which is essential to democratic government. Elections are the way we ensure our government officials answer for their actions. We use the vote to express approval and disapproval.
A fourth function, I believe, is that elections confer legitimacy to our system of representative government, giving our leaders the authority to act through the consent of the governed. Through elections, we delegate responsibility for officials to act on our behalf.
In the United States, the world’s oldest constitutional democracy, we expect that elections will be free and honest and that votes will be tallied without prejudice or manipulation. Because of the importance of elections, we should be concerned about voter turnout. Only about 55 percent of eligible adults vote in U.S. presidential elections; turnout is much higher in most other advanced democracies.
New developments have emerged to shake our faith in elections. Russian forces have tried to influence American voters. Russian, Chinese, and Iranian hackers have reportedly tried to hack election-related computer accounts. President Donald Trump has questioned the validity of voting by mail and suggested, without evidence, that the election may be rigged against him.
The integrity of the electoral process is tremendously important. Free, honest, and transparent elections are essential for maintaining the public’s faith in government.
Abraham Lincoln famously asked whether a nation conceived and dedicated to the principle that all people are created equal could long endure. His answer was that America needed a “new birth of freedom” to deliver on its promise. Free and fair elections, conducted in accordance with accepted rules and procedures, are the way we ensure that freedom is continually reborn. We need to treasure and protect them.
Lee Hamilton, 89, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south central Indiana.
Bowers & Company CPAs, PLLC has named RICHARD P. SMITH a tax partner in the firm. With more than 19 years of experience in public accounting, he joins the firm as a tax specialist in the Syracuse office. Smith’s experience includes eight years at Deloitte and the last five years with Firley, Moran, Freer, &
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Bowers & Company CPAs, PLLC has named RICHARD P. SMITH a tax partner in the firm. With more than 19 years of experience in public accounting, he joins the firm as a tax specialist in the Syracuse office. Smith’s experience includes eight years at Deloitte and the last five years with Firley, Moran, Freer, & Eassa, providing tax and accounting services. He received both his bachelor’s degree in accounting and his MBA from SUNY Oswego and is a CPA. Smith brings a broad range of industry experience including partnership, corporate, and multistate tax services for public and privately held companies, as well as small-business consulting and compliance. His experience also includes a specialized expertise in the area of multistate tax consulting for large and small businesses.
NATHAN MCLEAN has joined Menard Group USA, a design-build specialty geotechnical contractor, as a regional sales engineer in the upstate New York region. He recently opened Menard’s newest office in Syracuse. McLean is responsible for business development, estimating and sales on both public and private projects throughout upstate New York. Prior to Menard Group USA,
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NATHAN MCLEAN has joined Menard Group USA, a design-build specialty geotechnical contractor, as a regional sales engineer in the upstate New York region. He recently opened Menard’s newest office in Syracuse. McLean is responsible for business development, estimating and sales on both public and private projects throughout upstate New York. Prior to Menard Group USA, McLean spent 15 years as a geotechnical consultant working on a variety of transportation and building projects throughout the Eastern portion of the United States. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Clarkson University and master’s degree in civil engineering focusing on geotechnical engineering from Norwich University. McLean is a professional engineer in New York.
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh has appointed TIMOTHY M. RUDD to be the new director of the City of Syracuse Office of Management and Budget. Rudd, a Syracuse common councilor-at-large and chairman of the Common Council’s Finance Committee, brings an extensive background in government finance and fiscal analysis to the position. He will be responsible for
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Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh has appointed TIMOTHY M. RUDD to be the new director of the City of Syracuse Office of Management and Budget. Rudd, a Syracuse common councilor-at-large and chairman of the Common Council’s Finance Committee, brings an extensive background in government finance and fiscal analysis to the position. He will be responsible for planning and administering the annual city budget, overall financial analysis, the city’s six-year capital-improvement plan and multi-year financial forecasts. Duties include working with departments to prepare specifications for contracts, conduct competitive bidding, and manage city contracts. Elected to the Syracuse Common Council as councilor-at-large in 2017, Rudd was appointed finance chair upon taking office. He was a co-chair of Mayor Walsh’s Fiscal Advisory Working Group, which provided recommendations to the mayor on strengthening the city’s fiscal stability and strengthening partnerships with New York State. Prior to becoming councilor, Rudd worked for seven years for MDRC, a New York City-based nonprofit organization dedicated to learning what works to improve programs and policies that affect the poor. He was a cost-benefit analyst and research associate studying the effectiveness of innovative social programs. From 2007 to 2010, he worked in the City of New York Office of Management and Budget as a budget analyst, senior budget analyst, and supervising budget analyst. He had responsibility for management of the $1 billion operating budget for the Department of Corrections. Rudd has also been a schoolteacher in the Syracuse City School District and at Manlius Pebble Hill School. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Syracuse University and a master’s degree in public administration with a concentration in state and local finance from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.
Oswego Health recently promoted KATHRYN PAGLIAROLI to corporate director of integrated healthcare. She began her career at Oswego Health in 2001 as a registered nurse in the intensive care unit and advanced to clinical trainer in 2004, RN case manager in 2008, patient services/staff development manager in 2011, director of quality management in 2013, before
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Oswego Health recently promoted KATHRYN PAGLIAROLI to corporate director of integrated healthcare. She began her career at Oswego Health in 2001 as a registered nurse in the intensive care unit and advanced to clinical trainer in 2004, RN case manager in 2008, patient services/staff development manager in 2011, director of quality management in 2013, before becoming director of clinical quality & patient safety in 2014. In this newly created position at Oswego Health, Pagliaroli will provide executive leadership and guidance for care coordination across the health-care system and operations. She will act as a liaison, in collaboration with senior leadership to develop and sustain a culture that supports access to care across all Oswego Health locations, as well as its strategic partners. Pagliaroli earned her master’s degree in science management from Keuka College in 2009 and her bachelor’s degree in nursing in 2001 from Roberts Wesleyan College.
Oswego Health has also recently promoted HEATHER ELEN to human-resources operation manager. She began her career at Oswego Health in 2016 as a senior recruiter and advanced to recruiting and retention manager in 2017, before becoming employment manager in 2019. In this newly created position at Oswego Health, Elen will focus on overall compensation, benefits, recruiting, employment, reporting, and compliance. She earned her bachelor’s degree in communications from University of Phoenix.
BOBBIE RAE VANGORDER, a physician assistant, has joined Oswego Health at Oswego Family Physicians. She brings more than 10 years of experience providing care in both family practice and internal-medicine settings. Vangorder earned her master’s degree in physician assistant studies at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and her bachelor’s degree in biology, as well as a bachelor’s degree in government from Saint Lawrence University in Canton. Vangorder joins one of the largest primary-care practices in the area and will be working alongside Douglas Guenter, M.D.; Mark Humphrey, D.O.; Robert Morgan, M.D.; Michael Stephens, M.D.; and Jessica Digby, P.A. to provide more access to care in Oswego County.
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