ITHACA — It’s described as the state’s first commercially produced beer made with “predominantly” New York–grown ingredients. 

Ithaca Beer Co. plans to launch Brew York, which will be available in both bottles and draft starting May 15, the office of Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in an April 5 news release. It will be available year-round and statewide. 

Brew York is described as a pale ale that “uses nearly 70 percent New York–grown barley and 100 percent New York hops.”

Ithaca Beer’s investment in this new product line supports Southern Tier Soaring, the region’s “strategic plan to revitalize communities and grow regional economies,” Cuomo’s office said.

Ithaca Beer created Brew York to “showcase the state’s high-quality agricultural ingredients, and highlight New York’s advancement in supply and pricing that makes it feasible for commercial brewers to commit to buying and using local ingredients,” the release contended.

Ithaca Beer, which isn’t licensed as a farm brewery, isn’t required to use local ingredients. However, the company is sourcing 66 percent of its malting barley from 1886 Malt House in Fulton and from New York Empire Malt in Champlain in Clinton County. 

The brewery is also “exceeding” New York’s 2019 farm-brewery license requirements by using 100 percent hops produced by Chimney Bluffs Hoppery in Wolcott in Wayne County and Ledyard Farms in King Ferry in Cayuga County.

The release of Brew York has been in the making for more than a decade, Dan Mitchell, president and founder of Ithaca Beer Co., said in Cuomo’s release. 

“In 2004, we introduced an all New York State hopped Double IPA while working on getting the Northeast Hop Alliance off the ground. We spent significant time in front of state legislators requesting support to bring back the once thriving [New York State] hop industry, and working closely with [the New York] Farm Bureau to raise awareness and funds. It’s been a huge boost for those of us working on projects like this to have Gov. Cuomo behind us. When I first began working on Ithaca Beer, there was definitely some support, but the governor has created incredible awareness about all the great food and beer produced in New York State, and for all the farmers who support our local efforts,” said Mitchell. 

The company’s brewery is based at 122 Ithaca Beer Drive in the town of Ithaca. It includes a taproom. Mitchell founded Ithaca Beer Co. in 1998.

ALEXANDRIA BAY — Traffic on the Thousand Islands Bridge will be reduced to one-way during overnight hours starting May 6 as crews go through annual cleaning and maintenance.

The Thousand Islands Bridge Authority said in a release the bridge will operate alternating one-way travel from 10 p.m. until 6 a.m. Sunday evenings to Friday mornings starting May 6. Traffic is expected to return to normal June 22.

Kurt Hartmann, terminal manager for Cavalier Transportation in Syracuse, says much of the commercial traffic that crosses the bridge goes over at night. However, he says he doesn’t expect the maintenance work to delay shipments much.

Hartmann says that border crossings at the bridge have been streamlined with documentation arriving electronically before shipments do. He says that documents get sent and approval is received before trucks head for the bridge. “If there’s a problem, there is no sense in heading for the border.”

Thanks to the electronic processes adopted in the past five or so years, crossing the border is no more time consuming for truck drivers than for other motorists, Hartmann adds.

The authority said no traffic-slowing work is planned during daytime hours or during weekends, or during Canada’s May 21 Victoria Day holiday. However, the authority added, “momentary delays may be experienced.”

Built in 1937 and 1938, the Thousand Islands Bridge sees some 2 million crossings a year, according to the authority’s web site. 

SENECA FALLS — The Hampton Inn in Seneca Falls has been purchased by SF Hotel Group of Houston, Texas.

Real estate advisory firm HREC Investment Advisors said it arranged the sale of the 81-room inn. It represented the seller, Seneca Hospitality LLC of Ithaca in the transaction.

The selling price for the property at 1950 Balsley Road in Seneca Falls was not provided.

The 1.88-acre property — featuring the 4-story, 48,000-square-foot hotel — was assessed at more than $3.7 million for 2017 and had a full market value of just over $4 million, according to Seneca County’s online property records. The hotel was built in 2011.

The hotel features a shuttle to del Lago Casino, Waterloo Premium Outlets, and downtown Seneca Falls, the home of the National Women’s Rights National Historic Park and the National Women’s Hall of Fame. 

CICERO — David M. Adams worked for himself for years, building and repairing communications equipment. He started the one-man shop as a home-based business, later rented space on Teall Avenue in Syracuse in the late 1980s, and then moved to a small building in an industrial park next to Hancock International Airport.

He wasn’t always alone, of course. He would get visits from his five children and, back in the day, one of his sons, David M. Adams II, would drive a go-cart around the quieter streets in the industrial park. 

The younger Adams found what his father did interesting and pursued a degree in wireless communications at SUNY Canton until the college dropped the program. He returned to the Syracuse area, earned certification as an electrician, and worked for Time Warner Cable for a few years.

Then his father asked him about working with him at his company, Addcom Electronics, in space a short walk from his small shop. For the past 12 years, they’ve worked together at the former building 452 at the Hancock Airpark, a 9,800-square-foot building with Cold-War era cinderblock-and- rebar construction the company rents from Onondaga County.

Things have gone well, so well that young David became a partner in the business with his father three years ago.

 While technically David M. Adams II, he refers to himself as “Junior” and his father as “Senior,” to make it easier for callers and others to figure out to whom they are speaking. He explains that he and his father share duties — both sell and repair communications equipment and both install equipment. A smile crosses Senior’s face as his son explains that when one of the company’s three radio towers needs to be climbed, it’s Junior who gets the job.

Competing in a market that includes United Radio, with more than 400 employees in Central New York, Addcom has carved out a niche providing communications to school-district bus fleets as well as farms, golf courses, taxi services, retailers, and hotels and motels. The firm has customers stretching from Oswego to Cortland counties and from Verona to halfway to Rochester, Senior says. The company designs, installs, and supports radio communication systems.

When off-the-shelf technology doesn’t fit the bill, Junior likes to turn to Senior for custom solutions. For instance, at a nursing home, the standard emergency pull-cord system would broadcast information about the person who had called for help. That might have been OK before, but violates today’s patient-privacy standards.

To solve the problem, Senior created a system that alerts workers to the call for help by radio, without sharing the information with those not authorized to know.

“They give us a problem and we give them something they can count on,” Junior says.

At 63, and with no plans to retire, Senior explains that radio communications has a bright future, even in the age of smartphones, particularly among those who deal with emergencies or care for children.

“In an emergency, the first thing to go is cell service,” he says, adding that in the event of disaster, radio will work, even if it has to fall back on battery service. “If something happens, radio users can continue to talk.”

Radio also allows one person to speak to many at once, something that can be very helpful in an emergency when there may not be time to dial individuals one by one, Junior adds.

“You’re never out of luck with radio,” Senior says.

In addition, 34-year-old Junior points out that while radio may seem to a casual observer to be a 20th century technology, it continues to evolve. Digital radio sets have improved reception and even increased range for radio sets, adding as much as 20 percent to the distance at which a signal can be clearly heard.

Looking to the future, Addcom is getting ready to grow while moving into a smaller building. The current building is far too large for the business, both men say. The nearly 10,000-square-foot building can cost $1,000 a month to heat and the sturdy construction makes modifying the space impractical, they say. 

So they are preparing to break ground on a new 4,800 square-foot, steel-sided building. It features a more efficient layout and three offices next to each other to make room for a third employee as the business continues to grow. (The new building’s restroom is much smaller than the one in their current building with its three stalls and seven urinals.)

Like the previous space, Addcom’s new building will be in Hancock Air Park, a short walk from the current structure. The company applied for a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA) and asked for a break on the sales tax for materials used for the new location. The firm’s application to OCIDA puts the total tax savings at $47,797 and expects the project to cost about $275,000.

The OCIDA board approved the application at its April 10 meeting, noting it will create new taxable property and allow the county to sell Addcom’s current space and put it on the property-tax rolls as well.

Senior says he’s not sure what innovation will next bring growth to the communications industry, but he’s sure it will. In the meantime, he says, he and his son have built a successful business and are taking steps to keep it going. “We make a comfortable living. We have fun. That’s the important thing,” he says.