Thousands of milk producers across the U.S., including nearly 2,500 in the Northeast, will receive surveys from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) as the agency collects information for its 2017 milk-production reports, according to a recent news release. 

“The dairy industry is an important component of the Northeast’s agriculture and it is crucial for us to have accurate data about this key sector,” King Whetstone, director of the NASS Northeastern Regional Office, said in a news release. NASS conducts the milk-production survey in the region, including New York state, every January, April, July, and October. The survey asks dairy farmers to disclose the number of milk cows in the herd, number of cows milked, and total milk production for the first day of the month. New York is the largest milk producer among the Northeast states.

The dairy industry relies on monthly milk-production reports to make decisions about the marketing of milk. By participating in the survey, milk producers can ensure that NASS provides “timely, accurate, and useful data that all sectors of the U.S. milk industry use to make sound business decisions,” the organization contends.

“At NASS, we have a strong commitment to respondent confidentiality,” Whetstone said. “We are required by law to protect the privacy of all responses and publish data only in aggregate form, ensuring that no individual producer or operation can be identified,” he noted.

NASS said it will publish the survey results in its monthly milk-production report on Oct. 20, 2017. All NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov/Publications.           

CORTLAND — SUNY Cortland announced that its updated Ross E. Bowers Hall Science Museum and Greenhouse will formally open Sept. 28 with a ribbon-cutting event in the science complex’s first-floor lobby.

The recently renovated museum will offer a massive, interactive periodic table of elements, an ornithology exhibit featuring preserved passenger pigeons, and a mural that lets visitors “see” what the hills behind Bowers Hall looked like 17,000 years ago, the university said in a news release.

“Our guiding principles were that whatever was displayed needed to have an interesting story to it, have an educational component to it and it needed to look good,” Christopher McRoberts, professor of geology and curator of the museum, said in the release. “Our goal is to use that space both for our current students who walk through it, even for teaching in some regards, but also as a space that prospective students and people in the community can visit.”

Campus officials and other dignitaries are scheduled to offer remarks at the 11 a.m. ribbon cutting. A reception and facility tour is set to follow the ceremony.

McRoberts worked with faculty members from SUNY Cortland’s biological sciences, chemistry, and physics departments to decide what to showcase in the museum. Julio Torres Santana, who worked as a project coordinator in the university’s facilities planning, design and construction office during the Bowers Hall renovation, helped shape the design of the displays.

The “focal point” of the museum is a 15-panel mural, “Dreaming of our Ancient Land,” painted by Trumansburg–based artist Barbara Page. The mural portrays an ice-age view from the site of Bowers Hall, looking north toward Tully Valley. The flora, fauna, and glaciers in the painting are said to represent what would have been found in the region 17,000 years ago.

The mural, created as though there is a picture window in the building that lets visitors see back in time, serves as the background for the geology display case, the release stated. A pair of “erratics,” large rocks left when the glaciers melted at the end of the most recent ice age, lie in front of the mural. These geological specimens were collected locally. Geologic studies show that the rocks were originally plucked up by a glacier in Canada and moved south as the glacier grew.

Other items in the geology section of the Bowers Science Museum include a display on the area’s stratigraphy — the study of rock layers — and a “real-time” seismograph station that monitors earthquake activity.

McRoberts completed much of the work on the geology displays, writing descriptions for placards, drawing illustrations and mounting samples in display cases.

“I’m a paleontologist, so I’ve worked in museums an awful lot all around the world,” he said in the release. “I understand the value of collections in museums and that was one of the reasons why I was chosen as curator. I have no formal training in museums but I research in museums all the time.”

SUNY Cortland’s biological sciences department has displays focusing on the evolution of birds and modern microscopy. The college’s “renowned collection” of birds includes endangered and extinct species and was a focal point of the museum before the renovations. The collection includes a green jay, a Blackburnian warbler, an eastern screech owl and a red-headed woodpecker, among others.

The physics department’s main contributions include technological equipment through history. The chemistry department added a large touchscreen monitor that includes an interactive periodic table of the elements as well as posters from recent undergraduate research projects.

A new greenhouse facility outside Bowers Hall was completed this summer, the university said. The greenhouse has three growing areas for tropical, desert, and research flora. Steven Broyles, professor and chair of the biological sciences department, acquired about 100 rare and unusual plants from the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. to kick-start the college’s collection.                  

SUNY Oswego’s Office of Business and Community Relations also moves downtown

OSWEGO — A new Business Resource Center — offering a broad range of services to entrepreneurs, startups, and established businesses — has opened in downtown Oswego.

The center is a collaboration between business, government, and higher education, according to a SUNY Oswego news release. The university and the other partners in the effort held an opening reception on Sept. 13 at the Business Resource Center at 121 E. First St. in Oswego to formally mark its opening.

The Business Resource Center is now home to SUNY Oswego’s New York State Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which used to be located on campus; the Workforce Development Board of Oswego County; Campus-City Relations; and the Greater Oswego-Fulton Chamber of Commerce.

The Business Resource Center is located adjacent to SUNY Oswego’s new space for its Office of Business and Community Relations (OBCR) at 34 E. Bridge St. in the Pathfinder Bank Building. OBCR, which moved downtown from its previous location on campus, houses the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, Leadership Oswego County, Cruisin’ the Campus, and the Oswego Bookmobile office.

“SUNY Oswego has a long history of commitment to the Oswego community and this move downtown is intentional in deepening that commitment,” Deborah Stanley, president of SUNY Oswego, said in the release. “The OBCR team’s mission is to serve as the conduit between the campus and the community — it makes sense that its offices are located at the most visible intersection in Oswego along with student interns, the Chamber and the Bookmobile.” 

Thomas W. Schneider, president of Pathfinder Bank, added, “Public-private partnerships such as this are critical to aligning resources to build momentum for economic development and a vibrant community.”

Both the OBCR and the Business Resource Center are open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Chena Tucker is director of the OBCR.           

Adds attorneys from New England firm

SYRACUSE — Barclay Damon, LLP is expanding its renewable-energy practice with the addition of the four attorneys from McCauley Lyman, LLC, a law firm based in Framingham, Massachusetts. 

The new lawyers include Don McCauley, Frank Lyman, Jill Winans, and Michael Blasik.

They will join Syracuse–based Barclay Damon as of counsel, while remaining partners of McCauley Lyman. 

Richard Capozza, a partner in Barclay Damon, says the arrangement is “an affiliation” and not an acquisition. 

“The McCauley Lyman partners joined the firm as of counsel. They’re members of our firm, but they’re maintaining, at least for the foreseeable future, their separate law firm and operations. We did not merge the firms,” says Capozza. 

Capozza and attorney Brenda Colella lead the firm’s renewable-energy practice. He spoke to CNYBJ on Sept. 13.

An attorney can be of counsel to another law firm if the individual is a member of another firm, according to Capozza. It’s a way for specialty or boutique firms to gain access to additional services for its clients, he added.

The firms plan to “expand the scope of each firm in terms of energy expertise and geographic reach,” according to a news release that Barclay Damon issued Sept. 6.

When asked if Barclay Damon might acquire the firm in the future, Capozza replied, “I would say that there’s a potential for that down the road.” 

McCauley Lyman will continue operating under that name, he adds. 

The affiliation adds to Barclay Damon’s presence in eastern Massachusetts, as it already operates an office in downtown Boston.

In its news release, Barclay Damon calls the affiliation a “strategic alliance,” saying the additional attorneys will provide “bench strength” to Barclay Damon’s “already substantial” renewable-energy practice.

“We’ve got four attorneys coming on that … practice almost exclusively within the renewable-energy sector, and that’s just adding four senior attorneys to our team that we didn’t have before,” says Capozza.

Experienced lawyers

Both Don McCauley and Frank Lyman have 30 years of experience in the areas of solar and wind energy development. Their partners have a combined 35 years of experience in the same areas, according to Cappozza. 

The McCauley Lyman firm has “national experience” in renewable-energy project development, siting, and finance, with an emphasis on solar-energy projects, according to Barclay Damon.

Barclay Damon’s renewable-energy practice represents clients across the renewable-energy sector, including the areas of hydropower, wind, solar, and biomass. 

“The deal presents an opportunity for our firm to enhance the services we already provide nationally to the renewable energy sector, increasing our capabilities in particular on the east and west coasts and in the Southwest. With a team of attorneys that is well aligned with us, the combination of McCauley Lyman attorneys with Barclay Damon will allow us to deliver even stronger energy capabilities to our clients while providing McCauley Lyman clients with additional services in a wide range of areas our firm is known for, such as regulatory, environmental, tax, and mergers and acquisitions,” John Langan, managing partner at Barclay Damon, explained in the firm’s release.                                           

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has installed “the latest” checkpoint-screening technology equipment at three North Country airports.

They include Ogdensburg International Airport, Massena International Airport, and Adirondack Regional Airport in Saranac Lake, the TSA said in a recent news release. The TSA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

With the addition of the new advanced-imaging technology (AIT) machines at these airports, TSA says it is able to “further strengthen” security for passengers flying out of Northern New York. 

TSA describes the machines as “state-of-the-art” equipment. They have automated target-recognition software that uses bright yellow boxes to indicate to a TSA officer the location of an alarm on a generic “cookie cutter” image of a passenger.

With the indication, the officer “knows exactly” where to check a passenger for a possible threat item. If the machine indicates no threats, then a green screen appears that indicates the passenger is cleared to pass through the checkpoint.

“AIT technology is designed to enhance security by safely screening passengers for metallic and non-metallic threats — including weapons, explosives and other objects concealed under layers of clothing,” Bart Johnson, TSA’s upstate New York federal security director, said in the agency’s release.

The new checkpoint-screening equipment includes a generic image of all passengers who are screened, the TSA said. 

It’s the same generic image for all passengers, regardless of their gender, height, or weight and “ensures passenger privacy.” 

The image looks “very much like the outline of a cookie cutter.”

Imaging-technology screening is “safe” for all travelers, and the technology “meets all known” national and international health and safety standards, the agency contends. The TSA also stipulates that the energy emitted by millimeter wave technology is 1,000 times less than the international limits and guidelines.

Rising balances can help fund future health-care expenses  

A clear majority of health savings account (HSA) owners rolled over money at the end of last year, retaining HSA funds to cover future health-care expenses, according to new findings by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).

The Washington, D.C.–based EBRI says it’s a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit research institute that focuses on health, savings, retirement, and economic-security issues.

The latest results from the EBRI HSA database indicate that more than 90 percent of HSAs with individual or employer contributions in 2016 ended the year with funds to roll over for future expenses.

Two-thirds of account holders ended last year with positive net contributions, meaning annual contributions were higher than annual distributions, the EBRI analysis found. 

As of the end of 2016, the average HSA balance among account holders with individual or employer contributions in 2016 was $2,532, up from $1,604 at the beginning of the year.

“In 2016, 66 percent of account holders had positive net contributions, meaning their annual contributions were higher than their annual distributions,” Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI’s Health Research and Education program and author of the report, said in the news release. “While it is plausible that account holders overestimated the expenses, they would have during the year, it is equally possible that individuals intentionally hoped to build up savings in their account.”

The data come from the EBRI HSA database, which analyzes the state of and individual behavior in health-savings accounts. 

The HSA database contained 5.5 million accounts with total assets of $11.3 billion as of Dec. 31, 2016. 

The new EBRI report is the fourth annual report drawing on cross-sectional data from the EBRI HSA database and examines account balances, individual and employer contributions, distributions, invested assets and account-owner demographics in 2016.

Other EBRI findings

On average, individuals who made contributions in 2016 contributed $1,986 over the year and HSAs receiving employer contributions in 2016 received $935. But only 13 percent of account holders contributed the fully allowable annual amount.

Three-fourths of HSAs with a 2016 contribution also had a distribution during 2016. Of the HSAs with distributions, the average amount distributed was $1,766, less than the average contribution — resulting in balance increases.

The analysis also found that investing “does not maximize” longer-term savings. Few HSA owners invest their account assets. Only 3 percent of HSAs had invested assets (beyond cash). 

While it might be expected that individuals who invested their account balance were using the account solely as a long-term savings vehicle, the opposite appears to have been true. Both investors and non-investors used the HSA to self-fund current uninsured medical expenses.

The full report is published in the Sept. 19 EBRI Issue Brief, “Health Savings Account Balances, Contributions, Distributions, and Other Vital Statistics, 2016: Statistics from the EBRI HSA Database,” available online at www.ebri.org, the organization said.