ELMIRA — Chemung Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: CHMG) recently announced that its board of directors has approved a quarterly cash dividend of 26 cents per share.

The banking company will pay the dividend on April 2 to common stock shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 19, according to a Chemung Financial news release.

At its current stock price, the dividend yields about 2.3 percent on an annual basis.

Chemung Financial is a $1.7 billion financial-services holding company, headquartered in Elmira, which operates 34 branches through its main subsidiary, Chemung Canal Trust Company. Started in 1833, Chemung Canal Trust says it is the oldest locally owned and managed community bank in New York state. 

Chemung Canal Trust ranks eighth in deposit market share in the 16-county Central New York area, according to the latest FDIC data. It has 20 branches, with more than $968 million in deposits, in the region.

Chemung Financial is also the parent of CFS Group, Inc., a financial-services subsidiary offering mutual funds, annuities, brokerage services, tax preparation services, and insurance. It also has an insurance company subsidiary called Chemung Risk Management, Inc., which is based in Nevada.

Chemung Financial reported net income of $10.4 million, or $2.16 per share, for the full year of 2017, up from $10 million, or $2.11 a share, in 2016.

Donald Radke of Syracuse took the oath of office Feb. 6 for a third term as the 2018 Central Region VP of the New York State Association of Realtors (NYSAR) during the association’s inauguration ceremony at the Desmond Hotel and Conference Center in Albany.

Radke, a realtor for more than 40 years, is the broker/owner of FM Realty Group in Fayetteville.

He is an active member and past president of the Greater Syracuse Association of Realtors, where he has chaired the Legislative Committee and served on multiple others, according to a NYSAR news release. He is president of the Central New York Information Service, Inc., and serves on the board of managers for the New York State Alliance of MLSs. Radke is also a state-certified real-estate instructor.

At the state level, Radke is a member of the NYSAR board of directors and has served on several committees. 

On the national level, Radke has served on the National Association of Realtors Board of Directors. 

Locally in his community, Radke is chairman of the City of Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board and serves on the city’s new Land Use Rezone plan task force. Radke is also president of Focus Greater Syracuse, a citizen-engagement organization, and the president of the GR Barnes Foundation. 

DeWITT — NexGen Power Systems was OK’d for $15 million in state aid, but the California company is liable for millions of dollars in “clawbacks” if it doesn’t create the jobs it has promised, under a grant agreement approved Feb. 26.

The state Public Authorities Control Board voted unanimously to approve a $15 million grant for NexGen’s project at 50 Collamer Crossing Parkway in DeWitt, an 82,000-square-foot structure built with $90 million in taxpayer money to house a different California company.

The control-board vote had been delayed 10 days by Sen. John DeFrancisco (R–DeWitt) who demanded that Empire State Development (ESD) make clear the provisions for recovering taxpayer money if NexGen did not keep its promises. The provisions, commonly called clawbacks, were plainly laid out in the document that control-board representatives saw and voted on.

According to the documents, NexGen must create 10 jobs in 2018, or repay $2.5 million. Next year the number of jobs must reach 30, or the company will be liable for giving back $2.5 million. The jobs numbers rise year by year, and the liability continues at $2.5 million a year, until 2024 when NexGen must have created 290 jobs or repay $2.5 million.

However, under the agreement, NexGen gets a two-year grace period in any year it fails to meet the targets. “If at the end of the two-year “grace period,” grantee has still not met the relevant job commitment, then ESD will collect the recapture amount plus interest,” the project documents said.

NexGen is set to make components for power systems utilizing proprietary technology. NexGen holds multiple patents and creates gallium-nitride semiconductor devices. The company says its products allow for the building of smaller and more efficient power converters. Such converters are part of most electronics.

The $15 million ESD grant will help NexGen buy the equipment needed for production.

Another part of the agreement gives the state a measure of ownership in the equipment. NexGen will use the state money to buy the equipment and then give title for the equipment to Fort Schuyler Management Corporation, a nonprofit connected to SUNY Polytechnic Institute. 

The building NexGen is set to move into was built by New York State to house Soraa, a California company that makes LED lights. Soraa walked away from the project without having to pay any clawbacks.

The failure to recover money in that case, and the involvement by NexGen’s CEO in an earlier project that did not come to fruition in the Rochester area, were two reasons cited by DeFrancisco when he explained blocking the control-board vote scheduled for Feb. 16.

“I would love to see the project completed,” DeFrancisco, No. 2 in the Republican-led Senate, told CNYBJ at that time.

 DeFrancisco, who is running for governor, says he was OK with the provisions and penalties outlined Feb. 26, though he thought they could be tougher.

However, he notes that what was most important was that the control-board members got to see what they were voting on instead of blindly trusting ESD. “It’s not the greatest security, but at least it’s transparent,” DeFrancisco tells CNYBJ.

The state senator has filed a bill in the New York Senate that would require clawback provisions be made public in the future. “Hopefully, this is a model going forward,” DeFrancisco says.

In addition to the state assistance, the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency (OCIDA) on Feb. 9 approved a $3.1 million payment in lieu of taxes agreement with NexGen. OCIDA also approved a sales-tax exemption on materials the firm buys to improve the facility, saving NexGen up to $40,000. OCIDA Executive Director Julie Cerio said at the time that there were clawbacks in the PILOT agreement. “We have clawbacks on everything,” she noted.

SYRACUSE — The Pomeroy College of Nursing (PCON) at Crouse Hospital says general-education courses that PCON nursing students are required to take will be offered through Le Moyne College and taught by its faculty at the PCON campus.

The expanded partnership begins this fall, Crouse Health and Le Moyne College said in a joint news release.

The collaboration will enable PCON students enrolled in academic courses that Le Moyne offers to have access to all student services at the college, Patty Morgan, PCON associate dean, said. The services include libraries, computing facilities, career services, student support, and recreational facilities.

The expanded partnership coincides with the recent state law that requires New York nurses to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing within 10 years of becoming a registered nurse (RN), Morgan noted. 

“We are endeavoring to make it as seamless as possible for our students to complete their RN degrees and transition into a high quality [bachelor’s degree in nursing] program,” she said.

The per-credit hour charge of PCON general-education courses “will increase slightly,” but the partnership with Le Moyne will “enhance the overall experience and quality of the college investment,” PCON contends. 

“The bottom-line financing of a PCON/[Le Moyne College] education is still less expensive than other local, state and national nursing programs,” said Morgan.

Completing the RN degree and passing the NCLEX-RN exam are required before a nurse can pursue a bachelor’s degree program. 

“We are pleased to have been selected to provide general-education courses to PCON students,” Margaret Wells, interim dean of the Purcell School of Professional Studies at Le Moyne College, said in the release. “This new development is a natural progression in the educational partnership we’ve established with the Pomeroy College of Nursing. The advantage to PCON students is the close working relationship we’ve developed with the administration and faculty at Crouse, which has been instrumental in understanding and responding to the needs of their students.”