GEDDES — Troy Waffner on Sept. 4 started preparing for the 2019 New York State Fair with a change in his official title.

That same day, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Waffner’s appointment as the permanent director of the New York State Fair within the Department of Agriculture and Markets, “effective immediately.”

Waffner has served as acting director for the past five state fairs, a time of change and growth at the annual event and its State Fairgrounds.

“We have made unprecedented investments in this great institution and Troy has played a major role in the Fair’s record-breaking successes over the last few years, as well as the Fairground’s transformation into a year-round economic engine for Central New York,” Cuomo contended in a news release. “I am pleased to appoint him as the Fair’s permanent leader and together, we will continue to build an organization that makes a major contribution to the region’s economy and beyond.”

The most recent State Fair, which ended Sept. 3, set a new attendance record of 1,279,010 for a 13-day event that included eight new daily attendance records.

“I am honored to continue my service to this great organization and its talented people and thank Gov. Cuomo for his faith in me and our team. We will work diligently to meet the governor’s vision of a Fair and Fairgrounds that promotes the best of New York agriculture, provides great entertainment for the people of New York, and becomes a major provider of economic benefits for the people of Central and Upstate New York,” Waffner said in the release.

State Fair improvements

New York State has spent more than $120 million on the Fairgrounds, the first such investment in state facilities in more than 80 years, Cuomo’s office said. 

Three years of improvements include a new main gate; a large midway with “heavy-duty” pavement; a 313-unit recreational-vehicle park that has year-round use; open spaces for programming; new or “improved” exhibit areas for the New York State Police and the Indian Village, and, the new Exposition Center, which opened at the start of this year’s Fair. 

The new center is the “largest clear-span space north of New York City between Boston and Cleveland,” the state contends. 

The improvements have been “key to the significant growth” of the New York State Fair and Fairgrounds in recent years. 

Changes made in the operation of the State Fair include the creation of special discount admissions on days where attendance had been soft. All four of those days set single-day admission records during the most recent State Fair, the state says.

On the programming side, “innovations” such as the annual food-truck competition have been “successful and studied by other fairs.” During Waffner’s tenure, the Fair has paid “strong attention” to customer amenities, adding more seating, shade, bathrooms, and child-care facilities, while “improving the cleanliness and appearance of the Fairgrounds,” the release stated. The Fair has also “embraced state priorities,” such as its support for New York state-made food and beverages and the drone-technology industry. 

The Fair’s facilities rental business, which takes up the entire year outside of the Fair, has also grown, Cuomo’s office said. More than 180 public and private events now call the Fairgrounds home, with estimated attendance expected to top one million this year, it added.   

Consumers who shop at Tops Markets stores in Syracuse’s Valley Plaza, the Westvale Plaza in Geddes, and Fulton will soon have to find someplace else to buy their groceries.

Tops Markets, LLC on Aug. 30 said it plans to close one store each in Syracuse, Geddes, and Fulton by the end of November. They’re among 10 “underperforming” stores that Tops plans to shutter, the company said in a news release.

A Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) filing posted on Aug. 31 on the website of the New York State Department of Labor indicates the Westvale Plaza store closing impacts 67 workers and the Valley Plaza store closing cuts 57 jobs. The WARN notice covers seven of the stores to be closed with 492 workers affected. It didn’t list the Fulton store’s job losses.

Tops on Aug. 31 also announced that it has filed a reorganization plan and a related disclosure statement with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The plan incorporates the company’s court-approved agreements with its unions and “is supported by certain of the company’s senior secured lenders that hold more than 87 percent of its senior secured notes due 2022.”

“The filing of our plan moves Tops another step closer to a successful completion of our financial restructuring,” Frank Curci, CEO of Tops Markets, said in a statement. “We are pleased to submit a plan that will establish a sustainable capital structure and provide the financial flexibility to create an even more exceptional shopping experience for our customers and emerge from this process as a stronger competitor.”

A hearing to consider approval of the disclosure statement is scheduled for Sept. 27. Following approval of the disclosure statement, the company said it intends to seek confirmation of the plan on Nov. 8.

New York City–based Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP is serving as legal counsel to Tops, while another New York City–based firm, Evercore Inc. (NYSE: EVR), is the grocery-store operator’s investment banker. Baltimore, Maryland–based FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN) is Tops’ restructuring advisor.

Store closures

The Syracuse Tops 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 location 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. 

Tops said it made the announcement “following a comprehensive evaluation of its store portfolio and in connection with its ongoing financial-restructuring process,” per its news release. 

The grocery-store operator is closing the stores “as it continues to focus on strengthening its financial position so it can invest further in its [existing] stores… and compete more effectively in today’s highly competitive and evolving market,” Tops explained.

The impacted stores are currently open and continuing to serve customers. Fewer than 600 of the of the company’s 14,000 employees work at the affected stores and these stores “represent less than 4 percent of Tops’ overall sales,” per the release. 

“… we have many openings across our chain of stores and to the extent possible, we will work with impacted associates to find them placement at nearby store locations,” Frank Curci, CEO of Tops Markets, said in a release.

Other than the 10 stores indicated, all other stores are “expected to remain open and are either on the list to be assumed or in the final stages of documentation.”

Tops Markets, which is headquartered in the Buffalo suburb of Williamsville, operates 169 supermarkets. Franchisees operate five additional locations under the Tops Markets banner. The company operates stores in upstate New York, Northern Pennsylvania, and Vermont.       

FAYETTEVILLE — U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, both Democrats from New York, recently announced that the Village of Fayetteville Fire Department in Onondaga County has been allocated $31,410 in federal funding.

The money was provided through the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Program. The funding will be used to administer CPR training and support the department’s “Stop the Bleed” campaign, which aims to “ensure that members of the public are trained to help administer treatment when someone is rapidly losing blood,” according to a news release from the New York senators.

“With this new funding, the courageous firefighters of the Fayetteville Fire Department will be able to administer CPR training to the public, and support the “Stop the Bleed” campaign,” Schumer said.

“With this federal investment, the Fayetteville Fire Department will be able to help train members of their community to respond to life-threatening situations. This can make a huge difference for someone who needs immediate attention, and will help our first responders during emergencies,” Gillibrand added.

The Fayetteville Fire Department has also received AFG Program funds in the past.

“Our department has been extremely lucky and successful. We’ve secured over $1 million in funding since the beginning of the AFG program. It has helped us enhance our community and department,” Paul Hildreth, Fayetteville Fire Chief, said in the release.

The AFG program is administered by the Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency in cooperation with the department’s United States Fire Administration. The grants are awarded on a competitive basis to the applicants that most closely address the program’s priorities and demonstrate financial need.      

The New York Power Authority and Ontario Power Generation will continue to share management of the Moses-Saunders Power Dam for another 15 years.

The collaboration in the extended agreement involves the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project in Massena and the R.H. Saunders Generating Station in Cornwall, Ontario, the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a news release. 

The structure spans the St. Lawrence River between Northern New York and Ontario. 

The ceremony for the joint-agreement signing happened during a 60th anniversary celebration of the American and Canadian hydroelectric-power projects at the Moses-Saunders Dam on Aug. 24.

“The Moses-Saunders Dam is an engineering marvel that provides clean, renewable hydropower to New Yorkers across this great state as well as to our Canadian neighbors,” Cuomo said in the release. “This renewed partnership will continue to benefit future generations of New Yorkers and Canadians by providing a reliable and sustainable source of clean energy.”

The joint-works agreement outlines the shared responsibilities of the New York Power Authority and Ontario Power Generation in jointly managing the hydroelectric-power dam. The responsibilities include monitoring water flow, implementing maintenance practices, and sharing equipment and services. 

“For decades, we have worked with our American counterparts to generate clean power from the St. Lawrence River in an environmentally and socially conscious manner. I’m proud of the hard work by the women and men that worked at the station to keep it running safely and reliably over the last 60 years,” Jeffrey Lyash, president and CEO of Ontario Power Generation, said in Cuomo’s release.

More than 70 percent of the electricity the New York Power Authority produces is “clean, renewable” hydropower, with roughly 30 percent of that coming from the St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project, Cuomo’s office said. 

The project stretches over the St. Lawrence River Valley for more than 30 miles and includes two control dams upstream and 16 turbine-generators. The project also includes thousands of acres of public parkland along the river for recreational enjoyment and wildlife preservation, the release noted.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos on Aug. 30 announced that fishing for trout and salmon in Lake Ontario has set records this year, with experienced anglers reporting “some of the best fishing in decades.”

“The New York waters of Lake Ontario provide a world-famous recreational fishery for trout and salmon, and fishing has been exceptional this summer,” Seggos said in a news release. “Preliminary results from the Lake Ontario Fishing Boat Survey indicate that fishing for Chinook salmon has been outstanding along the entire New York shoreline.”

The DEC said fishing success is measured by “catch rate,” which is the number of fish caught per boat trip. The catch rate for Chinook salmon from April through June set a record that was 227 percent above the previous five-year average. The catch rate for all trout and salmon fish species combined also surpassed the previous record high, more than 37 percent above the previous five-year average, according to the department.

Fishing for brown trout and coho salmon has also been “excellent” in 2018, with catch rates 38 percent and 21 percent higher than their respective, previous five-year averages. Atlantic salmon represent a relatively small portion of the Lake Ontario fishery, but catch rates for these fish were 73 percent above the previous five-year average.

“This is the second year in a row that the take of Chinook has been above average at Oswego, as reported by Council members. There are so many variables that can and do affect the quality of the fishing opportunities we have,” Chuck Parker, president of the New York State Conservation Council (NYSCC), said in the DEC release. “We at the NYSCC recognize that the science-based management practices of the DEC’s Bureau of Fisheries are an integral force in sustaining the New York’s world class Lake Ontario fishery.”

Captain Vince Pierleoni, of Olcott, added, “It’s the best Chinook fishing I’ve seen since 1989.”

Fishing for Chinook salmon and brown trout has been strong in Eastern Lake Ontario with large numbers of fish caught all along the shoreline. Oswego produced a 28.1-pound Chinook salmon that won the grand prize in the Spring Lake Ontario Counties Trout and Salmon Derby, the release stated.

Lake Ontario and its embayments and tributaries comprise more than 2.7 million acres and support populations of fish, including a variety of trout, salmon, bass, walleye, yellow perch, and panfish.

A recent statewide angler survey estimated that more than 2.6 million angler days were spent on Lake Ontario and major tributaries. The estimated value of these fisheries exceeded $112 million annually to local economies.

Additional information about fishing Lake Ontario can be found on DEC’s website: https://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/47535.html.