HERKIMER — The Herkimer County College Foundation hosted several business, government, and campus leaders for an Executive Breakfast presentation at Herkimer County Community College (HCCC) on Thursday, March 1. 

The presenter was Robert Simpson, president and CEO of CenterState CEO, executive director of the Central Upstate Regional Alliance and president of Syracuse’s business incubator, The Tech Garden. He previously served as president and CEO of the Metropolitan Development Association of Syracuse and Central New York (MDA). Simpson was a driving force behind the creation of CenterState CEO, which resulted from the 2010 merger of the MDA and the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce. At his appearance in Herkimer, Simpson discussed the importance of higher education, partnerships, and collaboration in promoting effective regional economic development. 

Simpson said, “Put simply, higher education is as important as any industrial sector we have. It is, and will remain, one of the single most important drivers of growth in our region.” 

The purpose of the Herkimer County College Foundation’s Executive Breakfast program is to bring together educational, business, government, and other community leaders for presentations and discussions on a variety of issues. 

The Herkimer County College Foundation, Inc., was established in 1967 as a not-for-profit corporation. The foundation assists HCCC through the acquisition of private funds and real property. The foundation has developed more than 90 scholarship programs that award more than $150,000 annually to many deserving students. It has been instrumental in the acquisition of land for future campus expansion and the development of student housing adjacent to the campus. In conjunction with the HCCC Alumni Association, grants are awarded each year to faculty and staff for ongoing professional development and independent research. The foundation also invests in other college programs, such as instructional technology, graduation activities and awards events. 

ONEIDA — As many as 50 people have a chance to gain basic job skills to help them obtain jobs in the manufacturing industry. That’s thanks to a new training program from the BOCES Consortium of Continuing Education (BCCE) and Working Solutions of the Workforce Investment Board of Herkimer, Madison and Oneida Counties.

The program will offer two free 15-week training sessions for unemployed residents of Madison County. The New York State Department of Labor is funding the program.

The idea for the program was born out of meetings between Lorraine Schmidtka, director of Madison County Employment and Training and the Oneida One-Stop Career Center, and manufacturing businesses looking for workers. From those meetings, Schmidtka says she got the idea to help create a program to develop a pipeline of talented, employable workers for manufacturing positions.

“To some extent, manufacturing is coming back onshore in one form or another,” she says. That means the area’s manufacturers are in need of workers, but those workers need to have skill sets beyond those required 50 years ago, she adds.

That need led to the collaboration with BCCE to create this training program, which will kick off its first session on April 16.

“What we wanted to do was support Lorraine’s concept of building a pipeline for these employers,” says Kathleen Rinaldo, director of adult and continuing education at BCCE.

The program is a real partnership, not only between Working Solutions and BCCE, but also with the companies in need of that skilled work force, Rinaldo says. Some of the companies participating in the program include Canastota N/C, Hartman Enterprises, Lakeside Innovative Technologies, Manth Brownell, Marquardt Switches, and Oneida Molded Plastics.

James Dowd, vice president and general manager at Tronser, Inc. in Cazenovia, said in a news release the program will help his company develop its future work force. “Tronser hopes to continue its growth, but can only do so with qualified employees,” he said.

The program will give participants training in career research, basic and industrial shop math, mechanical blueprint reading, measurement, geometric dimension and tolerance, basic computer operations, and OSHA training. Along with that, some participating employers will provide an opportunity for students to go on the shop floor and experience first-hand what employment at their company is like.

“They’re going to be better prepared when they do start a job,” Rinaldo says of the program experience.

The program does more than just give participants that experience, she adds. It also helps show that manufacturing is a viable career option in Central New York. “That’s really where we need to start,” Rinaldo says.

Schmidtka agrees. The old image of a manufacturing job is something dirty, dark, and hazy, she says. “It’s not so anymore,” she says. “The face of manufacturing has changed.”

There is room in the program for up to 25 students for each 15-week session, with the second session staring in August. The program is currently open to unemployed residents of Madison County, but organizers are also accepting applications from unemployed residents of Oneida County. Schmidtka says there is a chance, with state approval, that organizers can add Oneida County residents if the program doesn’t fill up with Madison County residents. So far, about a dozen people have expressed interest in attending the training.

For more information about registering for the program, contact the Madison County Career Center in Oneida at (315) 363-2400.

The BOCES Consortium of Continuing Education is a partnership between Madison-Oneida BOCES and Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES that provides education and job-training. BCCE offers more than 200 programs to adults in 21 school districts.

Working Solutions is a collaborative effort to assist job seekers, workers, and businesses in Herkimer, Madison, and Oneida counties by connecting businesses and job seekers.

WHITESBORO — When he found himself out of a job after his position in the media-relations department at the Oneida Indian Nation was eliminated at the end of 2011, Jerry Reed decided to follow that old adage of turning lemons into lemonade by focusing on his love of voice work.

The result is Jerry Reed Voice Talent, his new full-time venture that capitalizes on his 23 years of broadcasting experience as well as his life experience in general.

The business takes voice-over work from a part-time hobby and turns it into a new career, Reed says.

“I was doing voice-over work on the side when people would ask me,” he says. He was the voice of New Hartford Plumbing’s advertising in 1990s and completed projects like corporate-video narration.

However, it was the New York Department of Labor and its Self Employment Assistance Program (SEAP) that gave Reed the push to start a full-time business. The program gives qualified people — typically those who are likely to exhaust their unemployment benefits while looking for work — a chance to start their own business while still collecting unemployment. As part of the program, Reed must take the required business-education courses and work with the Mohawk Valley Small Business Development Center on efforts like crafting his business plan.

Participating in the SEAP program has really helped Reed hit the ground running, and as a result, his business is already taking off, he says.

Reed already completed his first job doing voice work for a political candidate in Louisiana. Reed jokes that he must have done a good job since the candidate ended up winning the election.

He also recently finished a job for a Dutch advertising agency that had him reading children’s stories.

Much of Reed’s experience in voice work comes from his years in the broadcasting industry, which had him on the air from 1964 to 1987. At the end of his broadcasting career, Reed continued with a farm and rural community radio show that aired on 43 stations, including on WIBX (950 AM) in Utica for three years in the mid-1980s.

While that broadcasting background has helped, Reed says, so has the work he has done since his broadcasting days. That work includes a stint as the executive director of the New York Beef Industry Council and director of communications for the New York State Farm Bureau from 1999 to early 2001. In 2001, Reed joined the Oneida Nation, where he focused his public-relations skills on promoting the entertainment, dining, and cultural offerings of the nation, primarily at its Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona.

Throw all that together with a bunch of hobbies, and it gives him a pretty broad base of experience to draw upon when voicing a project, Reed says. “Those life experiences help you take on a role,” he says.

Reed does work with a voice coach in Boston and says the focus of his work with her is to make sure he’s able to sound like the “guy next door” and not just an announcer when voicing projects. He is also working with the coach to put together a demo he can share with prospective clients when auditioning for projects.

Reed, who is a member of the Society of Accredited Voice Over Artists, will be heading to New York City in the coming weeks to read for some high-profile talent agents, but also wants to spread the word about his services in the Mohawk Valley. He wants businesses in the area to know there is a new voice option in town for the myriad  projects for which they may need a voice actor. Those projects can include radio or TV commercials, corporate narration, and even less obvious things such as phone answering systems, in-store announcements, or even video games.

The scope of voice work is huge, Reed says, and it was a $12.6 billion industry in 2010.

“It’s a big industry,” he says. “I just want a little piece of it.”

In between auditioning for roles, Reed is busy meeting with local radio and television stations, promoting his work on his website www.jerryreed.com, and building up his social-media base on sites such as Facebook, where he had 19 followers as of press time, and Twitter, where he had 71 followers.

Looking ahead, after landing some local accounts, Reed has his eye on making his mark nationally. “I’d like to be able to do some bigger national-type accounts,” he says. “That would be the big goal.”

In the meantime, he’s having fun forging a second career doing something he loves.

“This is a perfect opportunity for me to get out and do something I’ve dreamed of doing and hopefully make some money doing it,” he says.

UTICA — Fiscal responsibility was the main message Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Jr. shared when he delivered his State of the County Address March 6 at the Radisson Hotel-Utica Centre.

“When I first appeared before you as your county executive, I laid out for you a vision that we have implemented year by year — to build a region of innovation, to develop a culture of transformation, and to establish a rock-solid fiscal foundation without which no plan can succeed,” Picente said, according to a news release his office provided. “We are on course, and I am very proud to tell you that, based on the projected numbers we are seeing today, Oneida County will end 2011 under budget, which will mean that in every year of administration, we have achieved an operating surplus while providing critical services to the people of Oneida County. That’s five consecutive years of sound fiscal stewardship and strong management oversight that ensures the fiscal stability of this county and allows us to look at the needs of our communities and our region from a position of strength.”

Picente noted that the county is not borrowing money to run its operations or running a deficit, in spite of increasing mandates that use up more of the county’s available dollars.

In fact, those continued rising costs mean the county needs to stay the course on keeping a tight fiscal grip, he said. “Just because we have staved off the kind of red ink drowning other governments does not mean the county will be creating line items in the budget for everyone who wants and needs funding,” he says. Fiscal austerity is a long-term commitment, he says, especially when improvements such as increased sales-tax revenue can just as easily disappear.

Along with highlighting the county’s fiscal success, Picente praised other successes around the county, including Griffiss Airport in the Griffiss Business and Technology Park in Rome. Allegiant Air, a commercial aviation company, is considering a move to Griffiss this fall to provide non-stop air service to Florida. MidAir USA, a repair facility currently located at the airport, is considering an expansion project that could add 106 new jobs to its existing 213 jobs. Premier Aviation recently landed Air Canada as a new repair account.

“Griffiss is a very apt symbol for everything we are doing in Oneida County,” Picente says. 

Not all the news from Griffiss is positive however, and Picente said Oneida County will commit $100,000 to fight to preserve
defense-related jobs at Griffiss as the federal government looks to make defense cuts.

In Deerfield, the county government will soon issue a request for proposals to examine development possibilities for the former Broadacres Skilled Nursing Facility in hopes to bring the empty property back to life.

The county will also implement the SEMI High Tech U project, in partnership with the Workforce Investment Board of Herkimer, Madison and Oneida Counties and the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties. Oneida County will provide $10,000 in funding toward the math and science-based career-exploration program.

Picente gave his address to more than 300 people.