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People news: New orthopedic surgeon joins Rome Health team
ROME, N.Y. — General orthopedic surgeon Martin Ross has recently joined Rome Health Orthopedic & Sports Medicine located in Chestnut Commons. Dr. Ross comes to
Helio Health to host Integrated Care Conference Monday and Tuesday in Syracuse
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Helio Health says it’s hosting its Integrated Care Conference on Monday and Tuesday (April 17-18) at the Embassy Suites at Destiny USA
Nichols Park Pond project in Tioga County receives grant to restore trail
SPENCER, N.Y. — The Mildred Faulkner Truman Foundation recently awarded a $5,000 grant to the Nichols Park Pond Beautification Project to assist in the restoration of the trail around the pond in the village of Spencer in Tioga County. It will support the implementation of a sustainable, inclusive trail that is accessible and allows individuals
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SPENCER, N.Y. — The Mildred Faulkner Truman Foundation recently awarded a $5,000 grant to the Nichols Park Pond Beautification Project to assist in the restoration of the trail around the pond in the village of Spencer in Tioga County.
It will support the implementation of a sustainable, inclusive trail that is accessible and allows individuals with physical disabilities to enjoy the trail. Nichols Park Pond is located in Spencer, easily accessible from Main Street, and its usage is free to the public for fishing, boating, walking, and nature recreation.
“We are very grateful for this support,” Project Co-Chairs Dale and Joan Weston said in a press release. “The grant will allow us to create a safer trail with better drainage and a more stable surface allowing for year-round usage. Members of our community and our visitors have enjoyed this unique natural resource, and we are certain that they will embrace this upgrade.”
Based in Owego, the Mildred Faulkner Truman Foundation manages the charitable trust of its namesake by providing grants to qualified tax-exempt organizations whose worthwhile projects benefit the residents of Owego, the Owego area, and Tioga County. The foundation awarded more than $324,000 in grants in the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2022, according to its website.
Change in leadership at Community Foundation for South Central New York coming in June
JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. — The Community Foundation for South Central New York (CFSCNY) will undergo a planned change in leadership at the end of June. After 17 years of service, Diane Brown, the foundation’s executive director recently announced she will retire, effective June 30. The foundation’s board of directors has appointed Tina Barber as the
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JOHNSON CITY, N.Y. — The Community Foundation for South Central New York (CFSCNY) will undergo a planned change in leadership at the end of June.
After 17 years of service, Diane Brown, the foundation’s executive director recently announced she will retire, effective June 30. The foundation’s board of directors has appointed Tina Barber as the next CFSCNY executive director.
“Diane is highly regarded and respected among her staff, the Board of Directors and other Foundation volunteers, community leaders, politicians, donors and community members. Through her leadership, the Foundation has made positive and lasting change in our community and she will have a positive and lasting legacy as a caring change-maker as a result of her efforts,” Whitney Racketa, CFSCNY board chair, said in a late February news release.
Although she will miss her co-workers and board members, Brown says she is excited to start a new chapter while still connecting with the local community, but now, solely as a volunteer.
“I look forward to travel, initially to the Canadian Maritimes, always the Adirondacks, and eventually across the U.S. and Canada. I also plan to volunteer where I can be of service, and at the same time enjoy retirement. I have spent nearly 50 years in public service; it would be a challenge to just leave it behind, and I don’t intend to,” Brown said.
Brown notified the foundation board of her plans in October 2022, allowing for ample time to prepare for her departure and name her successor.
Barber has been with CFSCNY since 2010 and currently serves as a program officer. She will continue working closely with Brown leading up to the change in leadership, to ensure it goes smoothly, the foundation said.
The Community Foundation for South Central New York, a nonprofit organization founded in 1997 and headquartered in Johnson City, says it encourages and facilitates personal and institutional philanthropy throughout the region. From its $38 million endowment, the foundation has awarded more than $24 million in grants from 149 funds, to the area’s nonprofits to help address community concerns and improve the quality of life in the region. CFSCNY serves donors and nonprofits in five Southern Tier counties: Broome, Chenango, Delaware, Otsego, and Tioga.
Onondaga County hotels post nearly 5 percent occupancy gain in February
SYRACUSE — Onondaga County hotels generated another solid increase in business activity in February though at a slower pace than the month before, according to a recent report. The hotel-occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county rose 4.5 percent to 52 percent in the second month of the year
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SYRACUSE — Onondaga County hotels generated another solid increase in business activity in February though at a slower pace than the month before, according to a recent report.
The hotel-occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county rose 4.5 percent to 52 percent in the second month of the year compared to February 2022, according to STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. The occupancy increase was half of January’s 9 percent gain in this measure.
Revenue per available room (RevPar), a key industry gauge that measures how much money hotels are bringing in per available room, climbed 9.3 percent to $57.99 in Onondaga County in February from a year earlier. The county’s RevPar had increased nearly 22 percent in January.
Average daily rate (or ADR), which represents the average rental rate for a sold room, increased 4.6 percent to $111.56 in February compared to February 2022. The rise was below January’s almost 12 percent gain in ADR in Onondaga County.
Wolfspeed starts production expansion at Marcy chip-fab
MARCY, N.Y. — Setting its sights on a game-changer facility and promised state and federal investments in the semiconductor industry, Wolfspeed (NYSE: WOLF) is forging full-steam ahead at its Mohawk Valley Fab. The 500,000-square-foot facility, which opened just about a year ago as the world’s first 200 mm silicon-carbide fabrication facility, remains ahead of schedule
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MARCY, N.Y. — Setting its sights on a game-changer facility and promised state and federal investments in the semiconductor industry, Wolfspeed (NYSE: WOLF) is forging full-steam ahead at its Mohawk Valley Fab.
The 500,000-square-foot facility, which opened just about a year ago as the world’s first 200 mm silicon-carbide fabrication facility, remains ahead of schedule on hiring employees, landing work, and, now, building out the rest of its clean-room facilities, according to company CFO Neill Reynolds.
Reynolds recently sat down with the Central New York Business Journal to discuss the North Carolina company’s investment in the Mohawk Valley.
“Building this factory in upstate New York is a game changer for us,” he says. It is a key move for Wolfspeed as it works to transition from a small company into something bigger. The area, he says, was a really good match for what Wolfspeed, then called Cree, was seeking.
Things are working out fantastically so far, with the area living up to its promise, Reynolds says. “The university network here in upstate New York has been great.” Area officials and residents have been welcoming.
To date, Wolfspeed has hired more than 350 people to work at the facility — nearly 100 more than it had a year ago and way ahead of its original hiring schedule where it predicted it would reach 270 employees by early 2023.
“We’re still hiring,” Reynolds says. The company expects to employ about 600 people at full capacity, which it originally projected to reach in 2029.
That timeline has now moved up significantly as the company lands contract after contract for its silicon-carbide semiconductors. Lucid Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, and Mercedes-Benz are just a few of the companies that have signed on to install Wolfspeed semiconductors in their electric vehicles (EV).
The contracts, called design ins, take about three to five years before any product is even produced, Reynolds notes. That is due to all quality and integration work that must take place before production can begin. Wolfspeed has generated more than $15 billion in design ins over the past few years, with much of that work destined for the Mohawk Valley Fab.
The demand is strong in both the short term and long term, Reynolds says, which led Wolfspeed to speed up its timeline to finish building out its clean-room fabrication space in Marcy. “Building out capacity is really important,” he says. The company partitioned out the 125,000-square-foot clean room when it originally built the facility so that it could complete the build out in stages.
Rather than 2029, that build out will now happen as quickly as possible while still done in a methodical fashion, he says. Wolfspeed will bring in new equipment, adding lines one at a time to allow for testing, to the tune of about $2 billion. The company will receive a $500 million reimbursement from the state for its investment.
Adding the equipment takes time because the facility is fully automated and most automation equipment is sized for 150 mm semiconductors. So, there is a process to resize things as well as go through all the proper learning cycles to make sure everything operates at peak efficiency.
That efficiency, and the 70 percent larger surface area of the 200 mm wafers, is part of what is driving demand for Wolfspeed’s semiconductors. Bigger wafers mean more chips per wafer, and that increased volume helps drive down the cost. That lower cost, combined with the faster charging time and longer range of silicon-carbide chips, has helped demand skyrocket for the company.
Reynolds now expects the Marcy facility will be fully built out and reach its full capacity by 2027. At full capacity, the Mohawk Valley Fab can produce about $2 billion worth of product in an anticipated $20 billion market.
Wolfspeed is also building a new materials manufacturing facility in Durham, North Carolina, which will build the 200 mm wafers the Fab will convert into chips, and recently announced plans to build a new fabrication facility in Saarland, Germany. That facility will allow the company to better serve its global customers, Reynolds says.
While the new facility in Europe will also be a 200 mm facility, the Mohawk Valley Fab will always be the first and the facility that helped put Wolfspeed on the map.
“This factory is very much at the forefront of the industry,” Reynolds contends.
Wolfspeed’s semiconductors, power-switching devices and RF devices are used in the electric vehicle, fast charging, 5G, renewable energy and storage, and aerospace and defense industries.
Students no longer need to get a COVID vaccine to attend a SUNY school
ALBANY, N.Y. — Beginning with summer courses this year, SUNY will no longer require a COVID-19 vaccine for students to attend its 64 campuses. The decision coincides with U.S. President Joe Biden signing a federal bill on April 10 declaring the official end of the national public-health emergency associated with the pandemic. Moving forward, COVID-19
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ALBANY, N.Y. — Beginning with summer courses this year, SUNY will no longer require a COVID-19 vaccine for students to attend its 64 campuses.
The decision coincides with U.S. President Joe Biden signing a federal bill on April 10 declaring the official end of the national public-health emergency associated with the pandemic.
Moving forward, COVID-19 vaccinations will be “strongly encouraged” for students, which is consistent with other viruses including influenza and mpox, SUNY Chancellor John King, Jr. said in the announcement. SUNY also encourages faculty and staff to stay up to date on vaccinations.
The decision came at the recommendation of SUNY’s public-health expert advisory committee, which includes physicians and experts in infectious disease, public health, and neuroscience.
Dr. Mantosh Dewan, president of Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, and Dr. Wayne Riley, president of SUNY Downstate Health Sciences in Brooklyn, co-chair the committee.
SUNY convened the group earlier this year to collect and review data on vaccinations, as well as trends in infection rates from newer variants. SUNY also worked with state health officials in making this decision, per the announcement.
“Across the nation, we have been pleased to see the rates of infection come down as vaccination levels improved and the new COVID variants became much less severe. SUNY’s updated public health policy for COVID-19 is in line with other city, state, and national action to relax the mandate, and also provides campuses with protocols to keep campuses safe should there be any uptick in cases,” Dewan and Riley said.
The “vast majority” of SUNY students are New Yorkers, and to date, about 77.5 percent of 18–25-year-olds and 79.8 percent of 26–34-year-olds across the state have completed their primary series vaccination. In addition, SUNY cites the CDC as indicating rates of infection continue to decline across the country.
RMS promotes Fiorenza to director of research analytics
BALDWINSVILLE — Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc. (RMS) announced that it has promoted Patrick Fiorenza to director of research analytics. Since joining RMS in early 2022, Fiorenza has established a comprehensive analytics department to address the company’s market-research analytics needs and developed an extensive team of resources through both internal staff and contracted professionals, the
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BALDWINSVILLE — Research & Marketing Strategies, Inc. (RMS) announced that it has promoted Patrick Fiorenza to director of research analytics.
Since joining RMS in early 2022, Fiorenza has established a comprehensive analytics department to address the company’s market-research analytics needs and developed an extensive team of resources through both internal staff and contracted professionals, the Baldwinsville–based business said in a news release.
In his expanded role, Fiorenza will continue to assist in providing input regarding new business-development opportunities for RMS, along with finding additional ways to streamline and maximize the value that is delivered to the firm’s clients.
“Pat has proven himself to be a talented, dedicated, and proactive RMS staff member. I am very proud of him, and all RMS staff, and it is especially rewarding to be able to recognize and promote someone within the organization for superior performance and leadership,” Mark Dengler, president of RMS, said in the release.
Fiorenza has an MPA degree from Syracuse University, and is pursuing his doctorate in curriculum, instruction, and science of learning from the University at Buffalo. He and his family reside in Baldwinsville.
RMS says it is a full-service market-research firm that provides an array of research methodologies that result in actionable analytics and recommendations for the client to enhance decision making. The firm is also home to QualiSight, a focus group and interview research facility, and RMS ViewPoint, a consumer-research panel.
WISE Women’s Business Center to use $100K SU grant to help women entrepreneurs
SYRACUSE — The WISE Women’s Business Center (WBC) will use a $100,000 special-impact grant from Syracuse University to help area women entrepreneurs. The funding will allow WISE WBC to provide expert technical assistance to more than 250 women entrepreneurs in Central New York through its no-cost, small-business counseling program. Syracuse University sees the grant as
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SYRACUSE — The WISE Women’s Business Center (WBC) will use a $100,000 special-impact grant from Syracuse University to help area women entrepreneurs.
The funding will allow WISE WBC to provide expert technical assistance to more than 250 women entrepreneurs in Central New York through its no-cost, small-business counseling program.
Syracuse University sees the grant as “investing in the success of women small-business owners,” per the April 2 announcement. WISE is short for Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship.
As one of nearly 150 women business centers across the nation, WISE is funded in part by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and hosted by the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.
The WISE Women’s Business Center is located in the lobby of the Equitable Towers at 100 Madison St. in downtown Syracuse.
Designated by the SBA as a Women’s Business Center in 2006, WISE has helped thousands of women reach their small-business goals, Syracuse University contended.
In 2022 alone, WISE supported more than 600 women with no-cost programs and services. They included over 1,000 hours of no-cost technical assistance in areas that included business planning and financial projections as well as creating a plan for strategic growth.
Minority women accounted for more than 40 percent of those served, Syracuse University noted.
The “unprecedented impacts of the pandemic continue to take their toll on the economy and our community,” Syracuse contends. The challenges women business owners face “often require a unique approach,” the school added. The special funding will allow WISE to support women with the technical assistance they need when they need it and “position the counseling program for the future.”
The work will include hiring a Spanish-speaking small-business counselor.
“The demand for expert technical assistance has risen significantly. We’re incredibly grateful to Syracuse University for recognizing the importance of equitable access to trusted small business resources,” Meghan Florkowski, director of the WISE WBC, said in a statement. “We take our role in the community seriously and will do all we can to stand behind and beside CNY women as partners in their success.”
Mike Haynie, vice chancellor for strategic initiatives and innovation at Syracuse University and a professor of entrepreneurship, added, “Over the past decade, women have represented one of the fastest growing segments of the community business owners across the U.S. Here in Central New York, the WISE Women’s Business Center has fueled that growth locally and empowered countless women in pursuit of their business ownership aspirations. For that reason, Syracuse University is proud to support and advance the work of the WISE Women’s Business Center,”
New student-led café opens at SUNY Oswego
OSWEGO, N.Y. — A new student-led, student-run café called the Rich N’ Pour Cafe has opened in Rich Hall at SUNY Oswego. The café —
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