ROME — The shutdown of Premier Aviation Overhaul Center in Rome will cost 127 workers their jobs.

In a legally required Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, Quebec–based Premier said 127 workers would be laid off Aug. 22.

In letters to employees and officials, Premier said the shutdown was due to “the fact of a sustained lower revenue stream that cannot sustain the contractual obligations of the leased property and the utility costs at the business premises, and the continued failing health of the CEO.”

The letter continued: “We have attempted for an extended period of time to negotiate a reduction in rent and utility costs, but were unable to obtain necessary relief.”

The building is leased from 394 HRC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mohawk Valley EDGE, the area’s economic-development agency.

In an email to CNYBJ, EDGE President Steven J. DiMeo said the lease for Premier has been modified multiple times. “394 HRC was accepting less rent than what is currently required under the last lease modification that was approved less than two years ago,” he wrote.

“The decision to discontinue operations was primarily due to the fact that the owner has sold his other operations and his customer base is down to one customer and it is no longer feasible for him to attempt to maintain this operation. In addition, he is getting up in years and has health concerns, which also factored into his decision not to continue the business,” DiMeo said.

In an official statement issued shortly after Premier notified officials of the layoffs, EDGE said it was disappointed with Premier Aviation’s decision to close its Rome maintenance facility. “We have worked with Premier over the past seven years in its Rome operation. We will work with them on the transition and will coordinate with Oneida County and our workforce development partners on assistance to the employees impacted by this announcement and will work with Oneida County and Griffiss International Airport officials on the marketing of the hangar complex for aviation and UAS/UAV related opportunities.”

Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said it was “disheartening” to hear Premier was closing and workers would be losing jobs. “Oneida County will do anything it can to help assist with this situation.”

Premier has facilities at Griffiss Business and Technology Park in Rome as well as in Canada. 

The Rome facility has nearly 380,000 square feet of space in hangars and other buildings, plus a 50,000-square-foot paint hangar, according to Premier’s website.

Letters to employees notifying them they would be losing their jobs did not mention the opportunity to work elsewhere for Premier. However, the letters mention that “employees may possibly receive offers of employment with competitors. We will provide you with further information as it becomes available.”

Premier purchased the assets of Empire Aero Center in 2013, taking over space that company had occupied. Founded in 2002, Premier’s business is providing aircraft maintenance services including inspections, maintenance, modifications, and refinishing.

Premier has been a major employer of graduates from Mohawk Valley Community College’s Airframe and Powerplant Technology program. Program director Walter Constantini told CNYBJ earlier this year that some 60 percent of graduates of the MVCC program go to work for Premier.

Constantini also said that employment prospects were strong in the field, as industry growth and retirements among current workers are expected to create more than 100,000 openings in aircraft maintenance and overhauling in the next two decades in the United States and some 700,000 openings globally.            

Unemployment rates in the Syracuse, Utica–Rome, Ithaca, and Binghamton regions increased in April relative to the year-earlier period.

The jobless rate in the Elmira area had a slight decline, while in the Watertown–Fort Drum region it remained unchanged compared to April 2017.

The figures are part of the latest New York State Department of Labor data released May 22.

CNY unemployment rates

The jobless rate in the Syracuse area rose to 4.9 percent in April from 4.8 percent a year prior, while the Utica–Rome region’s rate increased to 5.3 percent in April from 5.0 percent in the year-earlier period. 

In the Ithaca area, the unemployment rate inched up to 3.9 percent in April from 3.8 percent in the same month in 2017, while the Binghamton region’s rate edged up to 5.4 percent from 5.3 percent a year before, according to figures from the state Labor Department.

The jobless rate in the Elmira region was 5.3 percent in April, down from 5.4 percent in the year-earlier period. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in the Watertown–Fort Drum area was unchanged at 6.6 percent.

The local unemployment data isn’t seasonally adjusted, meaning the figures don’t reflect seasonal influences such as holiday hires. The unemployment rates are calculated following procedures prescribed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state Labor Department said.

CNY job gaines/losses

The Syracuse, Watertown–Fort Drum, and Ithaca regions all gained jobs between April 2017 and this past April. Meanwhile, the Utica–Rome, Binghamton, and Elmira regions lost positions in the same period.

That’s according to the latest monthly employment report that the New York State Department of Labor issued May 17.

The Syracuse region gained 3,000 jobs in the past year, a 0.9 percent increase; the Watertown–Fort Drum area picked up 100 jobs in the past 12 months, a rise of 0.2 percent; and the Ithaca region gained 1,700 positions in the between April 2017 and this past April, an increase of 2.6 percent.

The Utica–Rome metro area lost 1,900 jobs in the past year, a decrease of 1.5 percent; the Binghamton region lost 1,000 positions, a decline of 1 percent; and the Elmira area shed 400 jobs in the past 12 months, a decrease of 1.1 percent. 

Will transform Hiawatha Blvd. facility into LEED-certified green building

SYRACUSE — Lowery Bros. Chrysler Jeep, on Syracuse’s automobile row, has a new owner and will be moving in a couple of years.

Maguire Family of Dealerships has purchased the Lowery Bros. dealership, the company recently announced.

Lowery Bros. will now “focus its auto retail and service operations on its nearby Infiniti brand location,” it said in a news release.

Maguire Dealerships began operating the Chrysler Jeep dealership June 1, at first at its current spot at 647 West Genesee St. However, the dealership has begun efforts to convert its current Dodge Ram dealership at 959 Hiawatha Boulevard to house the Chrysler Jeep business. Maguire has some extensive green goals for that property.

“Plans are already underway to completely transform that facility into a LEED-certified green building with solar panels, high density plantings, rain-water harvesting, solar electric vehicle charging, and more. The project — due for completion in late 2020 — is to be expanded by an additional 10,000 square feet to accommodate the addition of the Chrysler and Jeep brands, putting all four FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) brands under one roof in a first-of-its-kind CNY facility,” the release said.

The purchase of Lowery Bros. Chrysler Jeep includes the dealership, but not the building, according to Maguire Family of Dealerships President Philip Maguire.

“The Lowery family will continue to own the building,” he adds.

Maguire Family of Dealerships includes 19 franchises in 11 locations, with dealerships in Ithaca, Watkins Glen, Trumansburg, and Syracuse. In Syracuse, Maguire owns a Nissan dealership at 716 West Genesee St. that it plans to move into a new facility next to its Dodge Ram dealership.

The company is noted for its “up-front lowest price” pricing and three-day money-back guarantee.

New York dairy farms produced nearly 1.24 billion pounds of milk in April, down 2.4 percent from 1.27 billion pounds in the year-ago period, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) recently reported.

Production per cow in the Empire State averaged 1,980 pounds in April, down almost 3 percent from 2,035 pounds a year prior.

The number of milk cows on farms in New York state totaled 625,000 head in April, up 2,000 head from April 2017, NASS reported.

The average milk price received by New York dairy farmers in March was $15.80 per hundredweight, up 20 cents from February, but down $2.80 from March 2017.

In neighboring Pennsylvania, dairy farms produced 932 million pounds of milk in April, down 1.7 percent from a year earlier.

SYRACUSE — The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is offering a commercial-tenant program, involving energy audits to help “tenants enhance the comfort, efficiency, and productivity of their office spaces.”

Bergmann, a Rochester–based architecture, engineering, and planning firm with an office in Syracuse, says it is working with NYSERDA on the effort, the firm said in a May 7 news release.

The energy-audit program has two tracks, or options, says Charles Bertuch, principal at Bergmann, who spoke with CNYBJ on May 25.

In the first track, participants receive a free, basic energy analysis, which could then lead to the high-performance track. Under that option, auditors will provide participants with a “more comprehensive” energy and financial assessment, which could result in changes to the worksite.

The program’s benefits include “more comfortable and healthier spaces, greater productivity, and a safer environment,” Bergmann contends.

The program is open to all commercial-office tenants and property owners in New York “at any stage of leasing,” per NYSERDA. 

Commercial offices, including banks, are eligible for the audits. Retail spaces are not eligible, according to Bertuch.

The program “encourages collaboration” between tenants, property owners, and consultants to “optimize the energy performance” of commercial office spaces throughout the state. 

Tenants, or their building’s owner, must also pay the system-benefits charge on their electric bill, NYSERDA added.

Bertuch says he’s not sure if Bergmann is the only consultant in Central New York providing the program’s audits, “but we are not the only ones eligible to do it.”

Bergmann has performed energy-conservation work for clients in the Syracuse area, but not under the commercial-tenant program as of May 25, he adds.

How it works

Under the program’s basic option, the participant doesn’t pay for the audit. The client would “receive up to 100 percent of the cost of an energy analysis, up to $5,000,” according to the NYSERDA website.

Bergmann would conduct the assessment and write a report for the client. The firm would then bill NYSERDA for the cost of the service, Bertuch says.

“Our contract, under the first option … is completely with NYSERDA,” he notes.

Under the high-performance audit, Bergmann would work under two contracts, including one contract with the client and a second contract with NYSERDA.

In explaining the high-performance option, Bertuch provided an example involving the consultant helping a building manager develop construction guidelines for tenants in its building. The guidelines would outline requirements for energy-conservation practices, such as light levels, type of lighting, and the control systems to use. “That’s an example of a high-performance track project,” he says.

With the dual contract, every time Bergmann works on it, half the time gets charged to the client, half the time gets charged to NYSERDA, according to Bertuch.

After the payment, the client can pursue a reimbursement if the company can demonstrate that it took action based on the audit, such as providing a new tenant the guidelines for a build-out project.

“Once they show NYSERDA they’ve done that, NYSERDA will reimburse them the money that they paid us,” says Bertuch.

Research could lead to longer-lasting, clean-energy systems 

SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) announced that Dr. Kathleen Dunn, associate head and associate professor of the college’s Nanoscience Constellation, has been selected to receive $320,000 in federal funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). 

Dunn’s work will focus on exactly why adding certain metals to copper at the atomic level, such as tin or cobalt, changes copper’s characteristics, like its ability to conduct electricity, for example, according to a SUNY Poly news release. The money is from the NSF’s Metals and Metallic Nanostructure program under the Division of Materials Research. 

By utilizing a suite of SUNY Poly’s “next-generation” electron microscopy and spectroscopy tools, Dunn and a team of researchers, including SUNY Poly students, seek to use the foundational knowledge they gain to design better alloys. These can potentially lead to more cost-effective, less wasteful additive manufacturing and “more robust” clean-energy system components, the release stated.

The NSF funding will support research that leverages “advanced SUNY Poly tools,” including its electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) capabilities. This is made possible by the FEI Titan3 Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope, which provides the chance to “interrogate individual atoms and the ways in which electrons are shared between them,” SUNY Poly said. 

Dunn and her team will be able to correlate changes in the electron band structure with the observed behavior and characteristics of the alloys at the macroscopic level to fine-tune its properties for specific applications. This could lead to a more targeted additive manufacturing process with decreased material waste and is also applicable to materials used in fuel cells and battery electrodes, the college explained.

The research project, called “2D Grain Boundary Phases: Establishing an Electronic Basis for Engineering Superior Copper Alloy Behavior,” builds upon “years of innovation-centered materials research” by Dunn with industry partners, including the Semiconductor Research Corporation, IBM via a faculty award, and Atotech USA.