DeWITT — Byrne Dairy’s Ultra Dairy, LLC at 6750 W. Benedict Road in DeWitt is planning a $28.5 million phase two expansion as it works to complete an ongoing growth initiative. “Their phase two expansion will be related to aseptic processing, so they can package their product and send it out for extended periods of […]
DeWITT — Byrne Dairy’s Ultra Dairy, LLC at 6750 W. Benedict Road in DeWitt is planning a $28.5 million phase two expansion as it works to complete an ongoing growth initiative.
“Their phase two expansion will be related to aseptic processing, so they can package their product and send it out for extended periods of time,” Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said. “We know how important food security is.”
McMahon announced the project during his July 13 coronavirus briefing at the Oncenter in downtown Syracuse.
Ultra Dairy is proposing to construct 38,400 square feet of additional manufacturing, storage, and cooling space adjacent to the existing operation in the town of DeWitt, per a document posted July 14 on the website of the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency (IDA).
The company plans to enlarge its existing 138,000-square-foot facility by adding about 22,000 square feet of aseptic processing area, per the IDA.
Ultra Dairy will retain 198 employees and create 64 new jobs as a result of the project.
“They have a phase one expansion that will be done in 30 days,” said McMahon. “They’re going to quickly turn around and start their phase two expansion.”
Ultra Dairy has applied for more than $224,000 in property tax exemptions, per the IDA. It also anticipates that the project will create about 150 construction jobs and construction and equipment installation will take about nine to 10 months.
The IDA document also indicates that the project is eligible for a $750,000 state grant along with $4.25 million in job tax credits.
Ultra Dairy, LLC was formed in 2003 as part of the Byrne Dairy family of companies. It produces dairy and non-dairy food products using ultra-high temperature (UHT) technology that results in extended shelf life (ESL) products. That includes a variety of milk, cream, and non-dairy products having shelf lives of between 70 and 180 days.
The company says it ships 92 percent of its finished products out of New York state for wholesale and retail sale.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic slowdown created an uncertain future for businesses across the country, including manufacturers. Regardless of this rocky situation, though, the best business leaders will make sure they don’t allow the pandemic to become an excuse for failure. I admire leaders who don’t complain about circumstances or point the finger at someone
The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic slowdown created an uncertain future for businesses across the country, including manufacturers.
Regardless of this rocky situation, though, the best business leaders will make sure they don’t allow the pandemic to become an excuse for failure.
I admire leaders who don’t complain about circumstances or point the finger at someone or something else.
No, business leaders didn’t create the circumstances that led to the pandemic and its aftermath, but it is their responsibility to get their businesses and their people through the challenges they now face.
Whenever you’re leading an organization, the ultimate responsibility for any failure is yours. It may be because you failed to train people properly or because you failed to hire the right person. It may be because you failed to develop a proper strategy or because you failed to develop the right culture. It’s ultimately your failure, and no excuse can ever absolve you of the responsibility of personal ownership.
This is a mindset I learned in my days as a West Point cadet, where excuses were not allowed. To be successful in the coming months, business leaders need to do the following.
• Set an example. Ultimately, you would like everyone in your organization to take responsibility and refuse to make excuses. But you can’t expect that if you aren’t willing to set the example and claim responsibility for any failures yourself. The best leaders take the high road and there is no throwing anyone under the bus. Setting an example will have a constant impact on your employees, and they will know they can rely on you and depend on you.
• Do a little introspection. If you feel the urge to make an excuse for any failed business performance, look inward instead and ask yourself the following questions: Could I have acted differently to prevent this outcome? What could I have done to better improve the end result? How did my actions or inactions play a part in the failure? I guarantee that if you do this and are honest with yourself, you will inevitably find a linkage for errors, disappointments, and fiascos directly back to yourself.
• Take ownership. People don’t understand just how much they affect others when they make the decision to take responsibility for any and all actions. We must own what we do, and we have to own what others under our command or influence do, even though it might be miles away from us and somebody else is executing the plan. When you get up every morning and look at yourself in the mirror, are you owning what you are doing, or are you making excuses?
Making excuses — whether it’s in the crisis we now face or some other situation — will lead to dead ends. I have seen time and time again that when people take control of their lives and eliminate the excuses, a life of excellence and fulfillment is the end result.
Troy Nix (www.troynix.com), motivational speaker and author of “Eternal Impact: Inspire Greatness in Yourself and Others,” is the founder and CEO of First Resource, Inc., an association management company for U.S. manufacturers.
The Iroquois China Company was founded in 1905 in Solvay, by J. Brewster Gere of Syracuse and Lamont Stilwell of Solvay. Gere was a local businessman and president of two other companies: Gere Coal Company and Onondaga Vitrified Brick Company. Stilwell was an attorney with the firm Stilwell, Viali, & Skerritt, and served as the
The Iroquois China Company was founded in 1905 in Solvay, by J. Brewster Gere of Syracuse and Lamont Stilwell of Solvay. Gere was a local businessman and president of two other companies: Gere Coal Company and Onondaga Vitrified Brick Company. Stilwell was an attorney with the firm Stilwell, Viali, & Skerritt, and served as the attorney for the Village of Solvay. He also had local real-estate interests and was instrumental in promoting Solvay’s business development.
In July 1905, the nascent Iroquois China was completing its incorporation process with $75,000 in capital. Gere and Stilwell purchased a building at 2320 Milton Avenue in Solvay and hired six carpenters to transform it into a china manufactory by installing workbenches, machinery, and kilns. The company already had formed a board of directors that included men from Pennsylvania and New York City, as well as Gere and Stilwell. They planned to make vitrified china for hotels, restaurants, and railroads as early as that September.
By November 1905, Ames Kerr was elected as president of the company and J. Brewster Gere as secretary. Iroquois China took out a $100,000 mortgage with Syracuse Trust Company and issued 25-year bonds to create additional capital.
By April 1906, Iroquois China was selling a variety of china pieces for commercial use, including a 112-piece tableware set decorated with a pink floral design for $12.75 (about $367 today).
By the early 1920s, the company boasted about its tableware’s durability, citing it could withstand machine-washing in an electric dishwasher without damaging the design and finish. Large kilns that held over 40,000 pieces at one time were fired for 60 hours at over 2,000 degrees (Fahrenheit). The tableware was then annealed for another 36 hours to further strengthen it.
In 1938, Earl Crane purchased the Iroquois China Company and became its president. Crane was an adept salesman who developed 16-piece and 45-piece china sets and began directly selling the tableware to customers without the assistance of a sales agent. He also started the “tip-over” or “turn-over” club and recruited many local residents as members. These club members traveling around the country would tip or turn over the china tableware at restaurants, hotels, and in railroad cars to determine if it was made in Syracuse.
During World War II, Iroquois China made thousands of vitrified china-tableware pieces for the U.S. armed forces. Using clay imported from England, employees fashioned tableware for assorted military departments including the U.S. Army Medical Corps and the U.S. Navy Aviation Cadet Training Program.
Post-WWII
While the U.S. was returning to civilian life and fostering economic growth after WWII, business began to boom for Iroquois China Company. The company augmented its commercial vitrified tableware lines to make its first residential tableware in 1946. It placed numerous want ads in the Syracuse newspapers looking for both male and female employees. Returning veterans and displaced war-production workers were invited to apply for a wide variety of manufacturing and decorating jobs. In a 1946 help-wanted ad, Iroquois China offered residents full-time work with overtime, asserting that transportation to work would not be a hindrance for most people because the factory was on the public bus line. The company implicitly promised steady work “forever” with their enticing ad taglines, “There will always be a need for china” and “There will always be jobs for pottery workers.”
The Iroquois China Company partnered with Russel Wright, notable American industrial designer, in 1946 to design Casual, a Midcentury Modern style of residential tableware that Iroquois China produced between 1946 and 1967 in a variety of solid colors labeled Sugar White, Ice Blue, Ripe Apricot, Nutmeg Brown, Avocado Yellow, and Pink Sherbet. Wright designed Casual with smooth surfaces and round edges. Made from an English-bodied stoneware, Casual pieces were fired at 2,300º F, and Iroquois China confidently guaranteed the tableware against breakage for three years. To promote the top-quality of the Casual design, Wright conducted in-store demonstrations of its durability by pouring dishes from a container out onto a counter. In a 1947 Syracuse newspaper photo, Wright and Harold Allen, vice president of Iroquois China Company, dumped a basket of Casual tableware onto the floor. Wright often startled visitors to the company by dropping basketfuls of the tableware onto the floor to demonstrate its thermo-shock properties. In the late 1940s, Dey Bros. sold a 16-piece starter set of Casual (four dinner plates, four bread & butter plates, four cups, and four saucers) for $9.95 (about $106 in today’s dollars).
In March 1949, Iroquois China recognized 89 employees who had at least five years of employment with service pins. The loyal employees who represented more than 1,100 years of production effort were honored at an appreciation party hosted by company President Earl Crane. Howard Smith of Syracuse was recognized as the longest-tenured employee with 34 years. Smith and five other men who had worked at Iroquois China for at least 30 years were acknowledged for having made vitrified china for the military during the first and second world wars.
Iroquois China developed a partnership with another notable industrial designer, Ben Seibel, in the 1950s and 1960s. Best known for his tableware designs, Seibel created four alliterative tableware lines for Iroquois China — Impromptu (1956), Informal (1958), Inheritance (1959), and Intaglio (1964).
Iroquois China’s advertisements promoted the Ben Seibel designs as possessing both an elegant form and durability: “You’ll love its special elegance, its jewel-like motif, its unique sculptured design and its All-Occasion versatility.” The company also endorsed the china’s practical feature of “cook, bake, ‘n serve” all in the same dish, as well as continuing its tableware warranty by replacing damaged or broken pieces for up to three years.
By 1955, Iroquois China employed about 200 local people and annually produced approximately 350,000 dozen pieces of tableware. The company used about 35 tons of material each week and boasted that its high-fired vitreous china could be used as a hammer to drive a nail into a wood board. By the middle of the 20th century, Iroquois China Company officials believed that their competency in the industry could “keep Solvay folk employed for another half century, at least.”
In 1956, the Syracuse Museum of Fine Arts hosted the 19th Ceramic National, an art exhibit featuring ceramic fine art. Along with the Ceramic National, the museum offered another smaller exhibit titled, “Artists in Industry.” This exhibit displayed sets of tableware selected from an invited group of ceramic industries, which also highlighted leading industrial designers. The purpose of the exhibit was to recognize the successful alliance between the ceramic industry and art. Iroquois China was invited to participate in the exhibit, and company officials displayed an Impromptu tableware set with a Jardinieres pattern designed by Ben Seibel.
Iroquois China received an exclusive license from the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan in late 1965 to reproduce and sell reproductions of the museum’s historic 18th and 19th century fine china. The Henry Ford Museum selected Iroquois China from among several ceramic competitors. The reproduction china was part of a larger program established by the museum to reintroduce to American consumers a variety of early American furniture, fabrics, wallpaper, glassware, pewter, rugs, and lamps, all copied from the museum’s original objects. Donald Shelley, director of the Henry Ford Museum, stated that museum officials chose Iroquois China because the company “impressed us…with [t]heir ability and willingness to comply with our rigid insistence on accuracy of reproduction….” “We also were favorably influenced by their advanced manufacturing methods and excellent customer relations programs.” Beginning in early 1966, the company began to make moderately priced tableware based on the historic shapes and patterns. Known as “The Museum Collection by Iroquois China,” the reproductions were unveiled at the China and Glass Show in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It then became available for sale to the general public in department stores. In a September 1966 print advertisement that appeared in the New Yorker, Iroquois China promoted the new line as coming “from a famous museum…to your table…beautifully reproduced, exclusively by Iroquois, in ovenproof, durable genuine china.” “Gift-boxed for distinguished giving — in Museum White and 3 authentic-pattern reproductions.”
PEMCO
But Iroquois China Company’s destiny began to change in 1967. That year, David Kend of Great Neck, Long Island, acquired the company seven months after Earl Crane had died in December 1966. Two years later, Kend merged Iroquois China with the Pacific Electro Magnetics Company in Palo Alto, California, to form PEMCO, Inc. When he purchased Iroquois China Company in 1967, Kend stated that he knew nothing about china but that he recognized a solvent company and a competent management team. The PEMCO merger promoted Robert Anderson to the vice-president position. Anderson joined Iroquois China in 1938 as a ceramic engineer, advanced to plant engineer, and then to vice president. The merger also established Iroquois China as the home furnishing division of PEMCO while continuing its operation in Solvay with about 150 employees.
At first, the future looked bright for Iroquois China Company. Al Reiner, Iroquois China’s head of marketing, described the new PEMCO as a mini- conglomerate, enthusiastically promoting plans to expand into other areas of home furnishings with lighting fixtures and laminated plywood accessories such as ice buckets and portable bar carts.
The Cliff Dwellers designs created by Peter Max in 1967 and 1968 were highly regarded in the ceramic industry and sought after by consumers. The Primaries designs created by Michael Lax in 1968 helped to transition from formal dining to a buffet style. Lax’s other design, Dining +, made it possible to cook and serve gourmet meals in the same dish. Through popular demand from local consumers, Iroquois China opened a factory outlet store and sold china with selected patterns at reduced prices.
In another attempt to attract local consumers, in 1970, Iroquois China partnered with P&C and other grocers to offer a line of residential china called Joshua Crabtree, Esq. Commemorative China, styled after early American designs. The program allowed shoppers to purchase various pieces of the set over a period of fifteen weeks. This “easy, budget-pampering” installment plan offered consumers the opportunity to buy tableware and matching accessory pieces such as a coffee pot, an oval platter, a covered casserole, a gravy boat, a butter dish, a soup plate, a salad plate, and salt and pepper shakers, one or a few pieces at a time. Interested shoppers paid 39 cents for each starter piece with every $3 they spent at the store. A different piece of tableware was offered each week allowing consumers to assemble their own sets.
But all these initiatives could not stem the growing pitfalls of a global economy. Soon afterward, overseas competition, especially from Japan, caused Iroquois China to close its doors for good in August 1970, just a little more than a year after announcing the mini conglomerate of PEMCO. About 140 employees who had been enjoying a summer vacation since that mid-July were informed that the plant had closed and they were suddenly out of work.
In August 1971, the Elias H. Frey & Sons auction business liquidated Iroquois China’s china-making and office equipment, as well as lathes, drills, grinders, welders, and other shop equipment. The factory store remained open and continued to sell china until about 1972.
Notable legacy
Throughout its 65-year tenure in Solvay, the Iroquois China Company manufactured tableware for some notable hotels such as the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City; the Blackstone in Chicago; the Ryan in St. Paul, Minnesota; and the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, Colorado. The company also furnished china to all the railroad dining cars made by the Pullman Company. Along with the U.S. military, various branches of the U.S. government also purchased Iroquois China tableware, including all the china required by the government for the Panama Canal Zone construction project in the early 20th century. Other clients included the Southern Pacific Railroad, General Electric Company, the YMCA organization, as well as the Oriental Park Racetrack in Havana, Cuba.
After the company closed its doors, John and Rita Yennock purchased the Iroquois China building and much of its leftover china in 1970. The Yennocks established China Towne Furniture & Mattress in the former china factory. In the lower portion of the building John Yennock produced his own furniture cabinets. In the upper portion, he sold the surplus china. In the early days of China Towne Furniture & Mattress, the store sold a mixture of wallpaper, paint, carpeting, appliances, knick-knacks, clothing, and even cars. As the Yennocks sold much of the residual china, they transitioned to selling more furniture and mattresses. Today, China Towne continues to operate its successful furniture and mattress business in the former Iroquois China building.
The Onondaga Historical Association (OHA) has a modest collection of Iroquois China consisting of assorted tableware, some pieces designed by Russel Wright and Ben Seibel. OHA’s collection also includes an ashtray made in the Crane China Company factory in Puerto Rico that was established by Iroquois China’s president, Earl Crane, in 1949 (Crane operated this company for just two years before he sold it in 1951). There is still an abundance of Iroquois China for sale on several Internet sales and auction websites. Most individual pieces are moderately priced and collectors have their choice of shapes and patterns designed by Russel Wright, Ben Seibel, Peter Max, or Michael Lax.
Thomas Hunter is the curator of collections at the OHA (www.cnyhistory.org), located at 321 Montgomery St. in Syracuse.
Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R,C,I–Pulaski) and members of the Minority Conference on July 10 joined law-and-order professionals demanding state leaders reverse dangerous policies that have continuously compromised public safety and undermined the ability of law-enforcement agencies to do their jobs as violent, and often deadly, incidents increase across New York state. The Assembly Republican Conference
Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R,C,I–Pulaski) and members of the Minority Conference on July 10 joined law-and-order professionals demanding state leaders reverse dangerous policies that have continuously compromised public safety and undermined the ability of law-enforcement agencies to do their jobs as violent, and often deadly, incidents increase across New York state.
The Assembly Republican Conference reinforced its call for a reversal on new laws eliminating bail in most arrests, reestablishing judicial review, and halting policies that return criminals to the streets rather than taking the necessary steps to protect them from COVID-19.
“Sadly, we have approached the moment in time we warned against when calls for disastrous bail reforms first started. Pro-criminal directives and an erosion of law and order have made our communities more dangerous,” said Leader Barclay. “In one week there were 101 shooting victims in New York City. In Syracuse, a man was charged with attempted murder for shooting at another man and an 11-month-old child outside a store. In a matter of 72 hours, 13 people were shot and another was stabbed in Rochester. The list is long; the list is horrifying. The pendulum has swung too far to the side of the criminals and innocent victims are paying the price. We cannot continue along this path.”
In the wake of criminal-justice reforms that have weakened criminal penalties and judicial authority, and anti-police measures advanced by liberal politicians, regions across New York state have experienced a dangerous rise in crime, with gun violence reaching alarming levels in many cities. For example, year-to-date totals compared to 2019 reported by respective agencies include:
• In Albany, homicides have increased by 800 percent; shootings are up 379 percent;
• In Buffalo, homicides have increased by 88 percent; shootings are up 54 percent;
• In New York City, homicides have increased by 27 percent; shootings are up 63 percent;
• In Rochester, shooting-related homicides have increased by 40 percent; shooting incidents are up 46 percent; and
• In Syracuse, homicides have increased by 27 percent; burglaries are up 31 percent.
In addition, it has been reported that of the nearly 1,500 prisoners granted early release from Rikers Island due to possible concerns associated with the COVID-19 outbreak, 13 percent have been re-arrested.
“From one end of the state to the other, residents are waking up to learn there was another shooting in their community. With each new call to defund the police, morale within the ranks of police departments from Buffalo to New York City grows even more dire. And as if fighting COVID-19 wasn’t difficult enough, we’ve learned prisoners released early because of the virus have been re-arrested in staggering numbers. Talk about fueling the crime-wave fire,” said Assemblyman Joseph M. Giglio (R,C,I–Gowanda), the Minority Conference’s ranking member on the Committee on Correction.
Years of liberal-driven legislation and policies have emboldened criminal behavior, scaled back penalties, and undermined the authority of law-enforcement agencies to provide public safety for the communities they serve. Democrats have advanced or supported dangerous initiatives including:
• Raising the age of criminal responsibility;
• Allowing bail reform to establish a revolving door for career criminals;
• Stripping duly-elected judges of their ability to exercise discretion;
• Allowing public disclosure of unsubstantiated and false claims against police, while prohibiting mugshots of criminal suspects;
• Refunding police budgets, which will result in fewer officers; and
• Requiring all police officers to carry personal-liability insurance in the event of lawsuits.
If New York is going to get control of this horrific increase in gun violence it’s going to need to rethink the dangerous policies that facilitated these crimes. The Assembly Minority Conference stands ready to work with members from both houses and parties to address this growing issue.
This opinion article is drawn from a news release the New York Assembly Republican Conference issued on July 10. The Conference also held a remote press conference on the same day.
The United States is the most powerful country in the world. By any measure, we are preeminent. We have challenges and vulnerabilities, and we are not as dominant as we once were, but no one else comes close to America’s military, economic, and political might. Whether we like it or not, we cannot escape the responsibility
The United States is the most powerful country in the world. By any measure, we are preeminent. We have challenges and vulnerabilities, and we are not as dominant as we once were, but no one else comes close to America’s military, economic, and political might.
Whether we like it or not, we cannot escape the responsibility for global leadership our power places upon us.
Many Americans like having the U.S. out in front, but they have doubts about paying the price. They wonder if the benefits of being a world leader are worth the costs. Most of us are comfortable spending money on humanitarian assistance, but support for foreign aid is always at the top of the list of programs to cut. We certainly don’t like the idea of sending our young men and women to fight and die in other countries.
Among many Americans, there is strong sentiment to go it alone, put “America First,” in President Donald Trump’s phrase. Any U.S. leader will be looked to as a leader of the free world. It is a role thrust upon us. We really have no choice.
Many times, over the years, in meetings with international leaders, I have seen them turn to the Americans at the table and say, “First of all, what do you think?” The world looks to us for guidance.
We do have emerging rivals. China is striving for world leadership, and it is eager to expand its role. The U.S. and Chinese visions for the world are different. We want to expand freedom. China pushes an authoritarian view.
It is no small task, however, to persuade the American people that world leadership matters. Understandably, most Americans don’t spend a lot of time thinking about our global-leadership responsibilities.
U.S. presidents may not take office thinking deeply about these topics either. They focus on campaign promises and voter expectations. Bill Clinton vowed to fix the economy. George W. Bush said he would reduce foreign entanglements, but reacted to events with an expansive war on terror. Barack Obama wanted to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but could not. President Trump seems focused on overturning the actions of his predecessors, but does not tell us what he wants to do, and how he intends to do it.
Foundational to the dilemma of leadership is America’s unmatched military might. It’s easy to look at the world’s problems and reach for the guns and a military solution, but there are limitations to the blunt force of military power. Our troops have been in Afghanistan and Iraq for nearly 20 years without achieving peace.
My view is that military force should be a last resort, not a first choice. We should not put American lives at risk unless the national interest demands it. We must search for other ways to address our problems.
I have always been impressed with the talented people working for the U.S. government and its many agencies and departments. The bureaucracy gets a bad rap; and it’s true that, within our large government, there can be jurisdictional fights and competing claims of responsibility. Even so, we can put together teams with unsurpassed expertise to address problems.
The task is to choose the right tools and use them in the right way, when we have so many instruments of power — economic, military, and political.
We are the preeminent power, and the world expects us to lead. It’s a rare opportunity we have, and we must embrace it.
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.
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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — The new president and CEO of Cooperstown–based Bassett Healthcare Network has started his new duties. Dr. Tommy Ibrahim began his tenure on
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