WILLIAMSVILLE — Tops Markets, LLC expects to complete its restructuring and emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection “shortly.”

That’s according to a Nov. 8 company news release in which it announced that the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York had confirmed the company’s plan of reorganization. 

Tops filed its plan for reorganization on Aug. 31. A day earlier, Tops had announced plans to close one store each in Syracuse, Geddes, and Fulton, among 10 “underperforming” stores that Tops is closing, the company said.

All the affected stores closed by the end of October, Kathy Sautter, public and media-relations manager for Tops Markets, LLC, said in an email reply to a CNYBJ inquiry.

The Syracuse store is located at 4141 S. Salina St. in the Valley, the Geddes store is at 2120 W. Genesee St. in the Westvale Plaza, and the Fulton store is at 909 West 1st Street S. 

Other Tops stores on the closure list include two locations in Rochester and single locations in Fairport, Lyons, Geneva, Elmira, and Saranac Lake. 

“We are pleased to receive the court’s approval of our plan and are poised to emerge from this process an even stronger and more competitive company,” Frank Curci, CEO of Tops Markets, contended. “Through this process, we have accomplished several key objectives, including significantly reducing our debt, creating a viable cost structure and efficiently optimizing our store portfolio. Importantly, we provided an opportunity for employment to every associate who was interested and impacted by store closings at other nearby stores.”

New York City–based Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is serving as legal counsel to Tops, while Evercore (NYSE: EVR), also headquartered in New York City, is serving as investment banker. Washington, D.C.–based FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN) is the firm’s restructuring advisor.

Tops Markets is headquartered in the Buffalo suburb of Williamsville. It operates 159 supermarkets with five additional by franchisees under the Tops Markets banner. Tops employs more than 14,000 people in a footprint that includes upstate New York, Northern Pennsylvania, and Vermont.       

SYRACUSE — Spaulding Support Services has formally become part of AccessCNY, following the merger of the two nonprofit disability providers, which closed on Nov. 1 

The two organizations had already essentially been operating as one entity since the spring through a memo of understanding between the two, Matt Seubert, associate executive director of development at AccessCNY, tells CNYBJ in an email. The two nonprofits started sharing staff across programs and consolidated administrative functions such as human resources and finance operations. They also relocated staff who provided the same service or function, he adds.

The merger became effective at the beginning of November when the organizations finalized all the “necessary approvals from our funding agencies,” Seubert says. They celebrated the day with pizza and cake served by the merged organization’s executive team across its three main administrative buildings.

The merged agency operates as AccessCNY, which itself the result of the merger of Enable and Transitional Living Services in 2015. Following this latest merger, Paul Joslyn continues to serve as executive director of AccessCNY. And, Kim Shedd, executive director of Spaulding Support Services, has taken on a leadership role with AccessCNY — now serving as the associate director of non-residential programs for individuals with a developmental disability or acquired brain injury, according to Seubert.

About 100 Spaulding staff are now employed by AccessCNY, which now has about 1,800 employees total. There were no job losses in the merger, says Seubert.

When asked about facility changes, he explains that both AccessCNY and Spaulding provide community-based support to individuals with disabilities. As a result, much of the workforce does not operate from an office. Before their collaboration, Spaulding staff who worked from an office were based at a facility on Basile Rowe in the village of East Syracuse. This past spring, staff providing similar functions became co-located. The Basile Rowe building now houses the agency’s Self-Direction department, Seubert says. 

The agency’s other administrative buildings include: 6666 Manlius Center Road in East Syracuse, 420 East Genesee St. in Syracuse, and 1603 Court St. on the city’s Northside.

The Central New York Community Foundation provided $25,000 to assist with the merger, Seubert says. The foundation’s Strategic Partnership fund “works to create partnerships between nonprofits that enable them to enhance programs and achieve more efficient and effective operations,” he adds. AccessCNY used the funding to contract with the New York Council on Nonprofits, Inc. (NYCON), which helped facilitate the merger.

NYCON, on its website, says it works together with its nonprofit members, other nonprofits, communities, funders, and stakeholders to “build the capacity of nonprofits and communities to enhance the quality of life through responsive, cost-effective service and by forming a long-term, multi-layered service relationship” with its member nonprofits.

AccessCNY says it serves more than 3,000 people with developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, mental health diagnoses and/or acquired brain injuries each year by offering services that “empower individuals to create and achieve their own success.”

SYRACUSE — The Estate Planning Council of Central New York, Inc. announced that it recently elected David W. Treichler, owner and investment executive at Arabella Wealth Advisors in Syracuse, as its new president. 

Treichler was sworn into office at the Estate Planning Council’s annual meeting at the Genesee Grande Hotel in Syracuse, along with the council’s new board members, according to a council news release.

The 2018-2019 Estate Planning Council of CNY full slate of officers are:

• President: David W. Treichler, Arabella Wealth Advisors

• Vice President: Robert D. Scolaro, Scolaro Law, PLLC

• Secretary: Jennifer Alfieri, Tompkins Financial Advisors

• Treasurer: Mary Anne Cody, Mackenzie Hughes LLP 

• Immediate Past President: Patricia P. Greenhouse, Dermody, Burke & Brown, CPAs, LLC

• Sergeant-at-Arms & Director: Thomas M. Griffith, Central New York Community Foundation 

The Estate Planning Council’s board directors are: Alyssa M. Barreiro, Wilmington Trust; Virginia F. Calvert, Melvin & Calvert Law Firm, PC; Lee M. Gatta, Prudential Financial; Sandra L. Kalbach, Solvay Bank; Richard C. Murphy, Richard C. Murphy Insurance & Financial Planning Concepts; Tammy L. Reyes, Firley, Moran, Freer & Eassa, CPA, P.C.; Theodore J. Sarenski, Blue Ocean Strategic Capital, LLC; Kevin R. Sullivan, Rockbridge Investment Management; Susan D. Viel, D’Arcangelo & Co., LLP.

The council’s annual meeting featured Seymour (Sy) Goldberg, senior partner at Goldberg & Goldberg, P.C. on Long Island, as a speaker. Goldberg was formerly associated with the IRS and has conducted many continuing-education programs with the IRS and other organizations on the retirement-distribution rules. Goldberg’s presentation was entitled, “Inherited IRAs: What The Practitioner Must Know.” More than 85 Estate Planning Council of CNY members and guests attended the half-day workshop and networking luncheon, per the release.

The Estate Planning Council of Central New York is a not-for-profit organization established in 1935 to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to estate planning for local professionals through continuing education, collaboration, and the open forum of council meetings and projects. The council is a member of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils.

OSWEGO — Oswego Health’s surgical services nursing staff members have earned the “most prestigious” certification awarded to the specialty, the organization announced.

A group of 10 Oswego Health registered nurses, who provide care in Oswego Hospital’s surgery center have earned the “respected CNOR certification,” according to an Oswego Health news release.

CNOR is the only accredited credentialing program for perioperative registered nurses. Earning the CNOR credential is a “mark of distinction and a highly sought after personal as well as professional accomplishment,” the release stated. The CNOR credentialing program is for perioperative nurses interested in enhancing and validating their specialized knowledge and skills. 

“For our department, this is actually groundbreaking,” Surgical Services Director Shannon Campbell noted. “Few, if any surgical departments, regardless of their size, have a staff where a majority of the registered nurses have earned this certification.” 

Campbell said the certification translates to better patient care. “Our patients benefit as it signifies that the staff provides a higher level of care and that they possess a deeper knowledge of evidenced-based practices,” she said.

To be eligible for the certification, registered nurses must be currently working in perioperative nursing in the area of nursing education, administration, research or clinical practice. They are also required to have completed a minimum of two years and 2,400 hours of experience in perioperative nursing, with a minimum of half that time in the intraoperative setting.

Once they achieve the requirements, the nurses can sit for a 200 multiple-choice question examination that covers nine related subject areas.

The letters, CNOR are not an acronym, but instead indicate that an individual has demonstrated the knowledge and skills that denote competency in the specialized field of perioperative nursing, the release explained.