New trampoline park set to open in Cicero soon

Get our email updates

Stay up-to-date on the companies, people and issues that impact businesses in Syracuse, Central New York and beyond.

CICERO — Trampoline and game enthusiasts will soon have a new place to play. A new trampoline park, called Get Air Syracuse, is under construction at Circle Road Plaza on Frontage Road in Cicero — in the space where Roberts Office Furniture Concepts Inc. was previously located. The park, developed by the company […]

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

CICERO — Trampoline and game enthusiasts will soon have a new place to play.

A new trampoline park, called Get Air Syracuse, is under construction at Circle Road Plaza on Frontage Road in Cicero — in the space where Roberts Office Furniture Concepts Inc. was previously located.

The park, developed by the company Get Air Syracuse LLC, is expected to be completed and open for business sometime between late March and early April. That was the estimate as of Feb. 24, according to Ryan Wicks, the Get Air Syracuse general manager.

Wicks — a Syracuse native who says his background is in customer service with more than 15 years of managerial experience in the restaurant industry — is currently in the process of hiring between 30 and 35 employees to staff the trampoline park. Most positions will be part time, except for three or four full-time positions for the assistant manager and shift leaders, he says.

The new park is part of a larger expansion into the state by Utah–based Get Air Management, the parent company of Get Air Syracuse. Get Air trampoline parks are planned for Buffalo, Rochester, and possibly Utica, according to Van Stapley, a managing member of SI International, LLC, an investment group (also based in Utah) that is the majority owner of Get Air Syracuse. Stapley says Get Air Syracuse is being funded internally; no line of credit is being used. He would not disclose the project’s costs.

SI International partners with companies that are trampoline-park innovators, says Stapley — companies such as Trampoline Parks LLC, which is building the Get Air Syracuse park. Stapley was formerly the vice president of Trampoline Parks LLC.

He says Get Air Management’s expansion into upstate New York has to do with the market he sees here. “We must believe the [upstate] market is going to be a phenomenal market,” he says, adding that he sees the winter weather as a benefit, since people are looking for something to do [inside].

More than 40 Get Air trampoline parks are either planned, under construction, or open across the U.S.

The Cicero facility

Get Air Syracuse has about 36,000 square feet of indoor floor space, says Wicks. It will boast many different games and features — some that use trampolines and some that don’t. They include Archery Tag, which features foam-tipped arrows; pickleball, a game similar to badminton and tennis; a basketball dunk area with trampolines, as well as a regular basketball half-court; and rock-wall climbing.

The park will have four ninja courses (a type of obstacle course) that will range in difficulty from “beginner” to “extremely difficult.” An arcade game area is on tap, featuring a number of active games such a foosball, ping pong, table hockey, and shuffleboard, as well as a large “kiddie” section for young children.

A mezzanine is being built, which Wicks says will be a lounge for adults, possibly with televisions and coffee. Stapley also sees the mezzanine as a space to bring in DJs, have birthday parties, and for teenagers to spend time in the evenings. “We’re going to be a family-oriented center,” says Wicks. “We’re going to have something for everybody.”

Stapley says the Get Air Syracuse building is one of the best he has seen during his time developing trampoline parks across the country. The high ceiling and large floor plan affords more flexibility than most Get Air locations. He intends to use that flexibility by constantly rotating different features in and out of the park to keep it fresh.

The Sky Zone Indoor Trampoline Park on Erie Boulevard in DeWitt, which opened last year, projects to be Get Air’s immediate competition. But Wicks notes that any place that offers indoor recreation or indoor activities is a competitor, including laser parks and Wonderworks at Destiny USA.

Wicks says some pricing details are still being ironed out, but set in stone are one-hour and two-hour rates for $16 and $25, respectively. Those passes include the use of the arcade area, basketball half-court, and other non-trampoline features, he says. There is a two-hour limit for playing on the trampolines for injury-liability reasons, says Wicks. He also wants to give customers the option of using non-trampoline sections of the park for a lower price.

Wicks says a gaming room is being built as well, with video-game consoles, the use of which will be priced independently from the rest of the park.

In the summer months, he plans to make use of the roughly 15,000 to 20,000 square feet of outdoor space beside the building that Get Air Syracuse has fenced off. Wicks says he is teeming with ideas for how to use the space. “Barbecues, ice-rink, the possibilities are unlimited as to what we can do,” he says. “I don’t turn down any ideas.”

Stapley would also like to take the ninja courses outside, and try out some water-based courses.

Wicks is emphatic about getting the park involved in the community. “Anything that will help the community to grow, we’re all about.” He says he has set into motion a first-responders night for Cicero–area firefighters, EMTs, and police. Wicks wants to make it a yearly event and, depending on the success, expand it to include first responders throughout the county.

He says he has also been in contact with some area nonprofits and charitable organizations, with the hope of utilizing the park’s facilities to host weekly fundraisers. On top of that, Wicks wants to build a network with other local businesses. “We’re going to be involved 100 percent locally with our community,” he says.

New York tackles Medicaid reform with DSRIP

Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

New York state, at Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s direction, continues to implement the most dramatic health-care reform of any state in the country. The state’s reform initiatives directly affect the 25 percent of New Yorkers (6 million citizens) who are eligible for Medicaid. Beginning with the 79 recommendations of the Cuomo-appointed Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT)

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

Beginning with the 79 recommendations of the Cuomo-appointed Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) in 2011, the state Department of Health has been on an ambitious Medicaid-reform track to try to control the more than $50 billion of annual New York state (NYS) Medicaid expenditures. In March 2014, the state negotiated an agreement with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that requires transformation of the NYS Medicaid program from a fee-for-service (or FFS) to a value / performance-based reimbursement system, commonly referred to as pay-for-performance (P4P). Most health-care experts acknowledge that a transformation of this magnitude should take up to 10 years. New York continues to focus on a 3-5 year implementation plan, with 2015 representing a key transition point toward satisfying the transformational objectives.

As you know, we can’t do anything in health care without creating a few more acronyms. The Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment Program (DSRIP) serves as the umbrella description for the process of Medicaid reform. Under the DSRIP agreement between the state and federal governments, NYS can receive up to $8.5 billion of performance incentive payments ($6.5 billion for non-governmental service providers). The primary objectives of the DSRIP implementation over the next five years are as follows:

– Reduce/eliminate avoidable hospital emergency room visits by 25 percent

– Reduce avoidable hospital in-patient admissions by 25 percent

– Reduce hospital readmissions by 25 percent

Reducing hospital utilization is the same objective that spawned the implementation of managed-care insurance plans some 40 years ago, following the federal Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) Act of 1973. Managed care for the employed population covered by HMOs essentially failed in its objective, which has led us to the proliferation of consumer-directed health plans, employer self-insurance, and medical-cost shifting from employers to employees.

The stated goals of the DSRIP initiative are addressing a monumental challenge. The foundation structure of DSRIP is dependent upon the success of Performing Provider Systems (PPS). A PPS is a coalition of regional health and human-service providers linked to a lead hospital/health system.

The stated goals of DSRIP are:

– Promote community-based collaboration among health and human-service providers working in concert with the PPS lead health-care systems.

– Improve clinical performance, quality, and service outcomes to achieve primary P4P objectives.

– The $6.5 billion of DSRIP performance incentives will require a 25 percent reduction in “avoidable hospital use” over the next five years (i.e., primarily ER visits and hospital admissions/readmissions).

The success of the DSRIP initiative will be dependent upon the unprecedented cooperation and collaboration of hundreds of health and human-service providers in each of the 11 PPS regions of the state.

Last August, 88 applications were submitted for consideration and state approval to form PPS organizations. After approving 42 of the applications, coupled with consolidation of certain applicants, we now have 25 PPS organizations being formed in response to the DSRIP initiative. Each of these 25 fledgling PPSs generally involves hundreds of community-based network providers who will have to learn quickly to “play in the sandbox” together.

The DSRIP design structure identified more than 35 project initiatives for the PPS entities to address in their recently submitted Project Plan Applications (December 2014), in the following areas:

– Health-care system transformation projects

– Clinical-improvement projects emphasizing care coordination

– “Population Health” focused on a preventive-care agenda

The entire DSRIP initiative is proceeding at a break-neck pace. For example, the PPS Project Plan initiatives submitted in December require each PPS to select up to 10 initiatives from the 35 identified by the DSRIP team, These applications are being evaluated in the first quarter of 2015 with approval of project plans and grant awards in April.

As a taxpayer, it is hard to argue with the concept and stated objectives of the DSRIP initiative. The timing and coordination of Project Plan implementation, along with provider collaboration, will be a critical component of success. For many health and human-service providers, these project initiatives represent a seismic restructuring of the service-delivery system which has been carefully developed by NYS over the past 50 years since the enactment of Medicaid and Medicare legislation in 1965.

As a nonprofit board and/or management team member, the DSRIP PPS initiative will require timely evaluation and decision-making processes. Organizations that serve one or more of the high-cost vulnerable populations will be most significantly affected:

– Elderly — nursing-home residents/home-care services

– Mental health — Community-based integration coupled with case management to avoid hospital utilization

– Substance abuse — Rehabilitation in community-based program sites

– Intellectual/developmentally disabled — provide services in the least-costly, community-integrated location emphasizing independence and self-sufficiency

– At-risk youth — increased use of foster care in the home while diverting services away from institutional-based services

Services to these vulnerable populations will require effective strategic positioning of your organization to achieve success in this transformational restructuring of Medicaid service delivery. –

Gerald J. Archibald, CPA, is a partner in charge of the management advisory services at The Bonadio Group. Contact him at garchibald@bonadio.com

Woodbine begins construction on student-apartment complex Skyler Commons

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — Construction is underway on Skyler Commons, a student-apartment building at 908 Harrison St., between University Avenue and South Crouse Avenue — near the Syracuse University campus. The Woodbine Group, which owns and will operate the 42,000-square-foot complex, announced the start of construction in a news release on Feb. 5. The construction

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

SYRACUSE — Construction is underway on Skyler Commons, a student-apartment building at 908 Harrison St., between University Avenue and South Crouse Avenue — near the Syracuse University campus.

The Woodbine Group, which owns and will operate the 42,000-square-foot complex, announced the start of construction in a news release on Feb. 5.

The construction site is just east of the Hotel Skyler, which the Woodbine Group also owns and operates.

The Woodbine Group operates at 505 E. Fayette St. in Syracuse.

The four-story Skyler Commons building, which is scheduled to open for the start of the 2015-16 academic year, will include 80 apartments specifically designed for the university market.

College students have told the Woodbine Group “over and over” that they want to live in either one-room or “flat-style” apartments, says Thomas Fernandez, director of business development at the Woodbine Group.

“That’s something that really isn’t in the market right now. There’s only a handful that are available. They seem to be the most sought after,” he adds.

The Woodbine Group also owns Copper Beach Commons, which is located across from the Genesee Grande Hotel, another Woodbine property. Copper Beach Commons opened in 2012, representing Woodbine’s first project targeting student housing, says Fernandez.

The Skyler Commons project costs about $5.2 million. The Syracuse Industrial Development Agency approved a sales-tax exemption worth $96,000 on construction materials and a mortgage-recording tax exemption worth $52,000 for a total savings of $148,000, according to Fernandez.

Woodbine started planning for the project about a year ago, says Fernandez.

Syracuse Woodbine Associates is the firm handling project construction. Woodbine also works with Edwin Harrington, a local architect who has previously worked with Woodbine on Copper Beach Commons, the Genesee Grande Hotel, and Hotel Skyler.

The studio, single-occupancy apartments will be “fully furnished” with a kitchen and a flat-screen television. The 400-square-foot units will have high ceilings and offer built-in cabinetry storage.

The Skyler Commons apartments will rent for $1,250 per month on 11-and-a-half month leases with utilities, cable television, and Wi-Fi Internet service available.

“We’re one block from the core of campus, so we really become the closest non-SU student housing in the area, so I think that’s really something that’ll draw a lot of attention,” says Fernandez.

Norman Swanson is president and owner of the Woodbine Group, which launched in 1978.

The company has named the upcoming student-housing facility after Swanson’s grandson, Skyler, whose name is also on the nearby Hotel Skyler that Woodbine opened in 2011. –

CNY Construction Projects 2015

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Subscriber Only

In the past year, numerous commercial construction projects — some just started, some ongoing, and some completed — give evidence to the fact that Central New York is still building and growing. They include the retail, hospitality, education, health care, municipal, nonprofit, and sports sectors. See what Central New York is building. Projects are arranged

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

i3 Electronics projects 15 percent revenue growth

Manufacturing & Engineering, Small Business, Subscriber Only, Technology

ENDICOTT — In mythology, a phoenix is a bird that is periodically reborn, rising from the ashes of its predecessor. It is the symbol of renewal. i3 Electronics, Inc. is the successor to Endicott Interconnect Technologies (EIT), which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013. The company continues as a vertically integrated manufacturer of

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

ENDICOTT — In mythology, a phoenix is a bird that is periodically reborn, rising from the ashes of its predecessor. It is the symbol of renewal.

i3 Electronics, Inc. is the successor to Endicott Interconnect Technologies (EIT), which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013. The company continues as a vertically integrated manufacturer of high-performance, electronic-packaging products. Its services include the design and fabrication of printed circuit boards and advanced semiconductor packaging, turnkey services for printed circuit board and integrated-circuits assembly and testing, systems integration, and advanced-laboratory services.

“We serve a variety of markets: aerospace and defense, medical, communications, computing, and industrial. Where A&D (aerospace and defense) once represented the bulk of our business, 50 percent of our revenues now come from the high-performance computing and medical fields,” says Robert L. Nead, company president. “Our technology can be found in the world’s fastest supercomputers; life-saving medical devices (pacemakers, defibrillators, X-ray machines, CT scanners, patient-monitoring systems); complex imaging systems; mission-critical defense applications (avionics, electronic warfare, sensor systems, unmanned systems, intelligence and surveillance); and many other products. The customer base includes high-profile companies such as IBM, Cisco, Northrop Grumman, Department of Defense, St. Jude Medical, and Siemens.”

i3 Electronics currently employs between 415 and 420 people, according to James T. Matthews, Jr., CEO, “and is in the process of hiring another 10. We have one location here at the Huron Complex in Endicott where we lease 800,000 square feet. Last year, the company generated about $80 million in revenue.” Five members of the Matthews family and the estate of Matthews’ father comprise the corporate stockholders.

Reorganization

“Since reorganizing the company, our goal has been to right-size the firm and be competitive,” says Nead. “We needed to stabilize our operation and convince both the employees and our customers that our strategic plan is working. One of our major expenses was the fact that, in 2013, EIT was leasing 1.2 million square feet with a very high energy cost. Much of our effort has been to right-size the facility. Within the next 18 months, we expect to further reduce our footprint from 800,000 to 400,000 square feet. This right-sizing effort has helped to put us on a very competitive footing.”

The reorganization also included a major investment to make the operation more efficient. “Our capital investment from 2013 to 2016 will total $10 million,” notes Matthews. i3 Electronics has run a three-shift operation, 7 days a week, since November 2014.

Highly competitive fields

“This is a very competitive business,” opines Nead. “We compete with a number of international firms in all of our fields. To stay ahead of the competition, we focus on the technology that we put into our products and on their reliability. The fact that we are vertically integrated means that we understand all aspects of making the product and offer a quicker time-to-market for our customers. R&D is at the center of our efforts to reduce the size, weight, and power consumption of our products.

That’s why we employ close to 10 percent of our workforce in that area.”

i3 Electronics holds 107 patents.

“The effort is paying off,” affirms Matthews. “We have stabilized the company and both diversified and expanded our activity and customer base. The confirmation comes from long-term, contract renewals.”

Matthews and Nead ascribe much of the company’s reorganization success to its leadership team. In addition to Matthews and Nead, Jim Thornton is vice president of operations; Mike Cummings is director of engineering; and Matt Neely is the engineering manager. i3 Electronics also recognizes support from professional-service companies: M&T Bank for financial-services support and Davidson Fox & Company, LLP for accounting.

But the CEO and president reserve special recognition for the company’s employees. “We have an exceptional talent base of engineers, scientists, innovators, and operators” stresses Nead, “that we draw on largely from the local community. We collaborate closely with area institutions of higher education, such as Binghamton [University]. The company has had a successful summer-internship program that goes back 20 years. The talent here at i3 Electronics really gives us a competitive edge.”

The company has growth on its mind now that it has righted the operational ship.

“Now that we have stabilized the company and reduced our cost of operation, our strategy is to grow our customer base, revenues, and profit,” states Matthews. “We no longer rely heavily on revenues from large projects in the aerospace and defense industry. To use a baseball analogy, it’s clearly better to rely on hitting singles and doubles consistently rather than to rely on home runs for our success. Our strategic plan calls for organic growth going forward, but we are always looking at opportunities to grow through mergers and acquisitions, if the fit is right. In fact, we have already looked at a few and elected not to proceed. The future is bright: Robert and I are confident that by 2016, i3 Electronics is poised to grow at a 15 percent, annual compounded rate.”

Nead has a bachelor’s degree in material science and metallurgical engineering from the University of Cincinnati and an MBA from Dunchurch College in Warwichshire, England. He has more than 30 years of technical and managerial experience working mostly in regulated industries such as the telecommunications and medical fields. His former employers include Atlantic Inertial Systems, Goodrich Corp., GEC Marconi, and International Harvester.

Endicott Interconnect Technologies was formed in 2002 to buy the electronic-packaging business from IBM Corp. The severe recession of 2008 caught the company overly dependent on major contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and some of its vendors. EIT suffered cumulative, financial losses of $100 million from 2009 to 2012 and filed for bankruptcy protection on July 10, 2013. Papers filed with the court showed assets of $36 million and liabilities of $86.9 million. On Sept. 26 of that year, Integrian Holdings, LLC, a corporation owned by J.T. Matthews, Jr., purchased EIT’s assets by assuming $15 million of secured debt and paying $1.5 million to creditors and another $2.4 million for EIT’s expenses. The purchase was approved by the court on Nov. 1. As recently as 2012, EIT employed 1,000 people and generated $250 million in annual revenue.

While mythology describes the phoenix as a bird of renewal, the Book of Job also calls the phoenix a bird of long life. Matthews and Nead are convinced i3 Electronics is both.

Editor’s note: CNYBJ spoke with Nead and Matthews on Feb. 10. On March 3, the company announced in a letter to employees that Nead is stepping down from his position as president, effective March 6, now that the company’s “turnaround is complete.” Matthews assumes the president’s post in addition to his current CEO job.

Be Heard: Consensus Seeks Input on Future of Governance in Onondaga County

Opinion, Subscriber Only

New York is well known for government. We have lots of it. Central New York is no exception, and that’s why I’m proud that Onondaga County is the first in the state to examine whether we have the best structure and the best practices for our governance. Together, we have a unique opportunity to shape

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

Consensus, the commission on local government modernization, has released its “Preliminary Baseline Review: Who Does What & What it Costs” and is about to kick off a series of vital community conversations about the future of local governance. I strongly encourage you to join Consensus on Wednesday, March 11, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. at the City Hall Commons Atrium for this kick-off event to share your thoughts and perspectives. This session will feature a special presentation by Dr. Joseph Stefko, CEO of the Center for Governmental Research, detailing the commission’s findings on Onondaga County’s local government structure, costs, and benefits.

Through the work of Consensus, this community is undertaking the most honest of civic self-examinations and our recommendations will serve as a blueprint for other communities across the state.

I would like to thank the Consensus co-chairs, Neil Murphy, former president of SUNY-ESF; Catherine Richardson, retired attorney from Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC; James Walsh, former U.S. Congressman, and government affairs counselor at K&L Gates LLP. The work that they and other commission partners have completed to date is significant, and they remain committed to creating an inclusive process that engages all of our community stakeholders.

At the end of this year, Consensus will release its full set of recommendations. We all share a stake in those outcomes and therefore have a responsibility to be active participants in this process. If you cannot attend a public meeting, you can still share your priorities and ideas for improvement by emailing the commission at info@consensuscny.com.

Robert M. Simpson is president and CEO of CenterState CEO, the primary economic-development organization for Central New York. This editorial is drawn and edited from the “CEO Focus” email newsletter the organization sent out on Feb. 26.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Did you know Onondaga county has?

– One city, 15 villages, and 19 town government entities

– 36 elected executives and 174 elected legislators

– 28 justice courts: 19 town and 9 village

– Three property-tax-assessment units merged into “Coordinated Assessment Programs” (Camillus/Elbridge, Fabius/Pompey, Lysander/VanBuren)

– 17 property-tax-assessment units, based primarily at the town and city level

– 58 fire departments with coverage areas ranging from 1 to 38 miles

– 36 public works departments; the smallest is responsible for one mile of road; the largest 794 miles

– Onondaga County is highly interconnected — 69 percent of residents commute every day to a different community for work

Job One of our Public Figures is to Lie to You

Opinion, Subscriber Only

Now, you could get upset over all the whoppers that public figures fling at you. You could proclaim that evil abounds across the fruited plain. Or, you could become philosophical. The way we did at one of the world’s greatest schools of philosophy — my father’s saloon: the Empire Hotel. I call it the

Already an Subcriber? Log in

Get Instant Access to This Article

Become a Central New York Business Journal subscriber and get immediate access to all of our subscriber-only content and much more.

Learn More and Become a Subscriber

Now, you could get upset over all the whoppers that public figures fling at you. You could proclaim that evil abounds across the fruited plain.

Or, you could become philosophical. The way we did at one of the world’s greatest schools of philosophy — my father’s saloon: the Empire Hotel. I call it the University of Bulltweedie.

I am serious. You can spit, sputter, and rail about the lies. You can get angry about the fact that public figures seem to think that job one is to lie to you. Your president lies to you. Your former secretary of state does. So many politicians do. So many senior bureaucrats do. And, your TV news people also lie.

The list is endless. The current attorney general of Massachusetts told whoppers about his time in Vietnam. The head of the Veterans Administration lied about serving in the Special Forces. The vice president has lied about any number of trivial things for years. Senator Elizabeth Warren lied about her Native American roots. Governors and other major figures have listed degrees they never earned

Recently, we discovered New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo arranged for all state worker emails to vanish. Purge them all after 90 days. And gee, he just happened to set that policy weeks before he created the Moreland Commission. That’s the outfit that would look into corruption in state government. Of course, it would want to look into emails. The very emails the governor flushed down the e-toilet.

Why did he do this? To improve efficiency. So sayeth his spokesperson. Now, that would never pass the Bulltest at the Empire Hotel. For two simple reasons: The state has computer capacity to store all employee emails for 30 years. And the purging of emails has to cause havoc in any operation.

Back to the growing list of liars. You have to wonder if everybody lies to you. And, my suggestion comes straight from the Empire Hotel. Don’t wonder if everybody lies. Assume they all do.

One of the regulars was a guy we called Uncle Jack. He carried a bag of golf clubs in the trunk of his car. He told us how he attacked the long fairways at a famous course. And how he blasted out of the sand traps at another.

The problem was: Uncle Jack never played a round of golf in his life. We knew all golfers lie. Uncle Jack lied about being a lying golfer. Lying for him was par for the course.

I said that was a problem. I lie. It was not a problem — because we knew he lied. About his job, his women, his travels etc. He lied about it all.

We also knew a guy named Conrad lied. If you said anything, Conrad had to top you. You climbed Mt. Everest? “Hey, I did it blindfolded,” he’d say. You won a hundred bucks in the lottery? “That’s nothin.’ I won 30,000. Twice!,” Conrad would proclaim.

Now, we could have fretted about this. Actually “fretted” is too delicate a word for a saloon. We could have gotten snarky. We could have blasted these guys as friggin’ bald-faced liars. But, that would have tootled us down the lane to Ulcer land.

We took a healthier route. We assumed the taproom of the Empire Hotel was knee-deep in BS. We assumed most everything we heard in there was less than the truth. What happened in the Empire stayed in the Empire. Because, if you talked about it outside the Empire, nobody would believe you.

So, the next time the lies from public figures get you down, I suggest you remember the Empire Hotel. Remember the pearls of wisdom learned and earned within its smoke-encrusted walls. Ask yourself: What would the regulars down at the Empire do at this stage?

The answer is always the same. They would roll their eyes. And order another round. And, ask who’s payin’ for it.

From Tom…as in Morgan.

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home near Oneonta, in addition to his radio shows and TV show. Contact him at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com

Gaetano helps build new sports complex in Whitesboro

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Regional News

WHITESBORO — Accelerate Sports Complex, a 96,000-square-foot, multi-purpose indoor sports facility, has opened at 5241 Judd Road in Whitesboro. The facility includes a full-size

Syracuse University Chancellor Kent Syverud reacts to NCAA report

Health Care

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse University (SU) took issue with “certain findings” in the report that the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions released on Friday,

Syracuse basketball’s NCAA sanctions include scholarship losses, financial penalties, Boeheim suspension

Health Care, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism

The NCAA has placed the Syracuse University (SU) men’s basketball and football programs on a five-year probation, suspended basketball head coach Jim Boeheim for nine

Get our email updates

Stay up-to-date on the companies, people and issues that impact businesses in Syracuse, Central New York and beyond.

Get our email updates

What's New

Upcoming Events

Annual Nonprofit Conference 2026

Tompkins Chamber Small Business Roundtable

Tompkins Chamber Business After Hours

CNYBJ Job Board

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get Instant Access to This Article

Get our email updates