FULTON — Northern Oswego County Health Services, Inc. (NOCHSI) has expanded its dental services by opening a new dental practice in Fulton.

NOCHSI in June opened its newly constructed and equipped dental practice adjacent to its Fulton Health Center at 510 S. 4th St., Suite 600 in Fulton — in the former A.L. Lee Memorial Hospital building now owned by Oswego Health. 

The dental practice provides a range of primary and preventive dental services, NOCHSI said in a news release. The practice is staffed Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., by dentists Melissa Noel and Anna Gofman, both of whom are continuing to schedule patient hours at NOCHSI’s Pulaski Health Center. They are joined in Fulton by recently hired dental hygienist Patricia Bendura. 

NOCHSI says it continues to provide a full range of primary and preventive dental services at its Pulaski Health Center at 61 Delano St. in Pulaski. Services there are currently being provided by dentist Kwi Lee and dental hygienists Brittany Gehrke, Jessica J. Overton, Marissa Taber, and Dorese Vecchio. In addition, NOCHSI has hired dentist Sarah Dunn to serve patients in Pulaski. Dunn brings more than 10 years of dentistry practice experience. 

NOCHSI says the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration provided oral health services expansion grant money that made the Fulton dental program expansion possible.

NOCHSI operates health centers in Fulton, Mexico, Oswego, Parish, Phoenix, and Pulaski. It also operates six school-based health centers located in the APW, Mexico, Pulaski, and Sandy Creek school districts. 

CARTHAGE — Carthage Area Hospital on Oct. 23 opened a new surgical clinic at its main hospital campus at 1001 West St. in Carthage.

The clinic provides patients with expanded access to care and more than doubles the number of general surgeons on staff, the hospital said in a news release.

The hospital’s previous surgical clinic at 3 Bridge St. in the Carthage Professional Building has relocated from clinical space it had occupied since early 2008. The change brings the general surgery team to the hospital, under the same roof as its ambulatory surgical unit, laboratory, and medical imaging facilities.

The New York State Department of Health approved a certificate of need for the new surgical clinic in early October after a department official inspected the recently renovated clinical space in the hospital, the release stated.

Carthage Area Hospital has brought on two new general surgeons, who in recent weeks began seeing patients at the Bridge Street location. They join the general surgery team through a partnership Carthage Area Hospital has forged with Bozeman, Montana–based Synergy Surgicalists. The additional staff allows the hospital to provide patients with 24-hour access to general surgery for emergency procedures. It is also expected to lead to shorter wait times for patients who are seeking care for routine outpatient surgeries.

“Months in development, this investment puts our patients first while improving their access to quality surgical care in the local area,” Rich Duvall, Carthage Area Hospital CEO said in the release. “Patients can expect a greater availability of highly qualified surgeons and improved service without the burden of unnecessary travel to a facility out of the region.”

Joining the Carthage Surgical Clinic are board-certified general surgeons Dr. Virginia McDougall and Dr. Jared Tomlinson. Dr. Marcia Chung, a general surgeon who has operated at Carthage Area Hospital since January 2014, remains on staff and will join Synergy’s Carthage–based team in November.

Some common surgeries the new team will perform include: cutaneous malignancies, lesions and infections; soft tissue mass, infections and wounds; breast biopsy (mass, infection) and mastectomy; thyroid and parathyroid mass and surgical management; gallbladder diseases; small and large intestinal malignancies; laparoscopic procedures; and varicose veins.

New York farms produced 138.4 million eggs in September, virtually unchanged from 138.5 million eggs in the year-ago period, the USDA recently reported.

The total number of layers in the Empire State decreased by almost 3 percent in September to 5.43 million from 5.59 million a year prior. 

New York egg production per 100 layers totaled 2,548 eggs in September, up nearly 3 percent from 2,476 eggs in September 2016.

In neighboring Pennsylvania, egg production fell less than 1 percent to 662 million eggs in September, from 667 million eggs a year earlier, the USDA reported. 

Nationally, U.S. farms produced nearly 8.5 billion eggs in September, down 0.2 percent from a year prior, the USDA said.

BINGHAMTON — Up until a few months ago, Remlik’s Grille & Oyster Bar, an upscale seafood restaurant in downtown Binghamton, had a problem. The tiny plants that chefs were using as garnishes kept perishing quickly. And they were entirely too expensive.

Enter Joe Rigoroso, the man behind a new Binghamton–based startup called Infiniti Greens.

Rigoroso approached the restaurant and gave its owners a small sample of his microgreens. Remlik’s immediately ditched its previous supplier.

“After putting the greens to use, they seemed to hold up without dying,” Kelley Wesoloski, one of the owners of Remlik’s, tells CNYBJ. “And these were cheaper and better.”

Infiniti Greens is barely a year old, but Rigoroso’s microgreen business is already beginning to establish a foothold in the Binghamton market. Rigoroso, a current student at Binghamton University, is contacting local restaurants such as Remlik’s and convincing them one by one to become customers. In just a few months, he has landed six local restaurants as customers placing regular orders.

Rigoroso is capitalizing on two growing food-industry trends: urban farming and a demand for locally sourced food. Rigoroso grows the microgreens, which are small vegetables or herbs left to grow for just one or two weeks, by himself at the Koffman Southern Tier Incubator, at 120 Hawley St. in Binghamton. The greens sit on shelves stacked on top of each other inside a lab under grow lights. He then delivers the microgreens to local restaurants that serve them on their menus.

“Because those movements are starting to grow, I think I’m getting in at a good time,” Rigoroso says.

Recently, restaurants have begun to use microgreens as trendy garnishes for their color, texture, and added flavor. Bon Appétit magazine proclaimed in 2013 the tiny plants were the trendy garnishes of the moment, popping up on plates of many of the magazine’s best restaurants list that year.

“Every entree on the menu, including our sushi, uses microgreens as garnishes,” Wesoloski says.

Infiniti Greens offers at least 15 types of microgreens, including Swiss chard, kale, arugula, peas, sunflowers, and cilantro. 

The business currently has one employee — Rigoroso himself, who is the founder, CEO, accountant, and delivery person. He is a senior at Binghamton University, majoring in business management with a minor in environmental studies. When he is not in school, he spends the rest of his time biking from his apartment in downtown Binghamton to the Southern Tier Incubator, where he will run the business for at least the next year. The new $19 million incubator encompasses 35,000 square feet of offices, high-tech labs, wet labs, dry labs, common areas, and co-working spaces to encourage collaboration between companies. It was built to provide a “supportive environment for entrepreneurs and startup companies,” according to Binghamton University.

How he got started

Rigoroso, who hails from Long Island, started growing microgreens for his own personal use in January 2016 after he watched YouTube videos about urban farming. Rigoroso is a self-described “garden nerd” and the microgreens were an attempt at living sustainably by growing everything he eats himself. 

“I wanted to stay away from the supermarkets,” Rigoroso says. “That food is expensive and I really didn’t know where greens were coming from.”

Soon after he started growing, Rigoroso’s friends began clamoring for his microgreens, which made him think he could turn his small urban farm into a business. 

He has since won an entrepreneurship competition at Binghamton University. In July of this year, Infiniti Greens was accepted into the Southern Tier Incubator, which opened in June. And in October, the company was featured in “Made in Broome,” a public-relations campaign started by The Agency, a prominent economic development organization in Broome County, meant to highlight local businesses.

Even as other students leave the state following graduation, Rigoroso intends to stay in Binghamton and work on Infiniti Greens full time after he completes his studies in May 2018, keeping Infiniti Greens local. Eventually, Rigoroso would like to own a greenhouse in the area as a permanent location for the business. 

“I love the community here, you can really get to know everyone,” says Rigoroso. “A big part of this is benefiting the community.”

Most of Infiniti Greens’ revenue comes from local restaurants with weekly orders. In total, Rigoroso has six regular customers, including Burger Mondays, The Colonial, Food Fusion Bar & Grill, P.S. Restaurant, and Nezuntoz Café, in addition to a few restaurants that place sporadic orders. 

So far, the business has paid for itself. Because Rigoroso doesn’t have student loans to pay off, he does not pay himself. He reinvests all revenue back into the business. So far, he has generated about $1,000 in revenue.

Additionally, Rigoroso sells his microgreens at the Broome County Regional Farmers Market and in one retail location, Open Barn Market. Infiniti Greens also offers subscription plans for customers who want microgreens delivered to their home or office.

Going forward, Rigoroso plans to grow the business by increasing his customer base of local eateries and expanding into additional retail locations. He does not want to take on investors, although he says he is confident he could raise a significant sum of money. Instead, he wants to grow the business “slowly but surely” — and by himself.