State council awards grants for arts and cultural capital projects, including CNY initiatives

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The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) has awarded more than $42 million for 144 small and medium-sized capital projects at arts and cultural organizations across the state. This record capital investment supports crucial building renovations, accessibility improvements, and new spaces for creative work, according to a news release from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s […]

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NYCUA selects preferred digital provider

Banks & Credit Unions, Insurance & Financial Services, New York News, Nonprofits, Subscriber Only, Technology

The New York Credit Union Association (NYCUA) has selected Eltropy — a digital conversations platform for community financial institutions — as its preferred provider and sponsor. Milpitas, California–based Eltropy will be presenting at the NYCUA convention in June., the company said. “The ability to engage with members digitally as well as in-branch becomes increasingly important

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Broome County, NYS Early Intervention Program needs providers

Health Care, Regional News, Subscriber Only

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — The Broome County Health Department this month is spotlighting its Early Intervention Program. It’s part of the New York State Early Intervention initiative, which is part of a national program that serves infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities and delays and their families. The program is open to children under age 3

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Recapping the 2023 CenterState CEO annual meeting

Nonprofits, Small Business, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — CenterState CEO recognized five organizations during its April 26 annual meeting at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center at Oncenter. The recipients included Mower, American Fashion Network, and Collins Barber & Beauty Shop. Besides the awards, those gathered also heard from a keynote speaker and Robert Simpson, president and CEO of CenterState

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — CenterState CEO recognized five organizations during its April 26 annual meeting at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center at Oncenter.

The recipients included Mower, American Fashion Network, and Collins Barber & Beauty Shop.

Besides the awards, those gathered also heard from a keynote speaker and Robert Simpson, president and CEO of CenterState CEO.

The event focused on the theme, “Amplifying Opportunity,” and “highlighted Central New York’s progress and explored efforts to ensure all growth is equitable,” per CenterState CEO’s news release about the annual meeting.

The gathering also marked the release of CenterState CEO’s annual report.

Business of the Year awards

CenterState CEO announced its Business of the Year award winners, recognizing the outstanding achievements of regional businesses and organizations in five categories.

Mower, a Syracuse–based advertising, marketing, and public-relations agency, prevailed in the “More than 50 Employees” category. Additional finalists included Air Innovations Inc. and King + King Architects.

DeWitt–based American Fashion Network won in the “Fewer than 50 Employees” category. Other finalists included Chimera Integrations and M3 Placement and Partnership

Collins Barber & Beauty Shop took the top prize in the “Minority-owned Business” category, which is presented in partnership with the Upstate Minority Economic Alliance. The other finalists for the honor included JHP Industrial Supplies Co. and Melody’s.

Symphoria won in the “Nonprofit” category with additional finalists that included Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo and On Point for College.

Oswego Health triumphed in the “Community Involvement” category. Additional finalists included Digital Hyve and National Grid.

Speakers

The CenterState CEO annual meeting included a keynote presentation from David Hall, managing partner at Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. In his remarks, Hall talked about how post-pandemic, midsized cities such as Syracuse are poised to become tech hubs, and what leaders of these communities can do to drive these opportunities.

In his remarks, Simpson shared a message about the shifting economic forces that — in conjunction with massive investments — are expected to impact every aspect of the regional economy. He called on community stakeholders to work together to develop and execute strategies that will ensure the entire community benefits from this growth.

“Our community is no longer in a state of status quo. Micron is an incredible force that has changed our region’s economic trajectory, but it is not the only force working to our advantage,” Simpson said. “The memory market is growing rapidly; offshoring that once devastated our economy is shifting to our benefit; Central New York’s stable and resilient climate is a critical asset to people and businesses. All of this will fuel new opportunities. Our community has the power to shape the speed and direction of this progress. The real challenge is amplifying that growth while ensuring progress doesn’t come at the cost of our region’s accessible natural and cultural amenities, affordability and quality of life, the very things that attracted investments in the first place.”

Most Central New York regions gained jobs in past year

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, New York News, Regional News, Small Business, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

The six Central New York subregions produced job growth ranging from a low of 0 percent to a high of 2.6 percent in the last year, according to the most recent state jobs report. The Syracuse, Utica–Rome, Watertown–Fort Drum, Binghamton, and Elmira regions gained jobs between March 2022 and this past March, according to the

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ConMed hikes full-year revenue guidance after Q1 sales rise

Manufacturing & Engineering, Regional News, Subscriber Only, Technology

ConMed Corporation (NYSE: CNMD) reported that sales increased nearly 22 percent in the first quarter of 2023 as surgical-procedure volumes grew, pushing the medical-device manufacturer to increase its revenue guidance for the full year. ConMed’s net income for the quarter was $1.8 million, down from $14.9 million for the same quarter a year ago, and

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ConMed’s net income for the quarter was $1.8 million, down from $14.9 million for the same quarter a year ago, and earnings per share decreased 87.2 percent from 41 cents per share to 6 cents per share.

“Overall, I’m very encouraged by the quarter and the company’s performance,” President/CEO Curt Hartman said during an April 26 conference call with investors. “We were able to ship the warehouse-related backlog, benefited from increased surgical procedure volumes and staffing-level improvements, [and] saw incremental improvements to global supply-chain constraints..”

Hartman said he’s pleased with the positive results of two acquisitions in 2022. ConMed acquired In2Bones Global, Inc. and Biorez, Inc. last year. Memphis–based In2Bones Global, Inc., develops, manufactures, and distributes medical devices such as implants, fracture systems, biologics, and related hardware for the treatment of disorders and injuries to the hand, wrist, elbow, foot, and ankle. Based in New Haven, Connecticut, Biorez is a medical-device startup focused on advancing the healing of soft tissue using its proprietary BioBrace Implant technology.

“While still early, both of these transactions have lived up to and exceeded our expectations, and we remain convinced it will be transformative to our overall revenue and margin performance in the years ahead,” he said.

Based on its first-quarter results, ConMed boosted its revenue guidance for the full year, now expecting revenue between $1.205 billion and $1.25 billion, up from a range of $1.17 billion and $1.22 billion. The company’s forecast for earnings per share increased from a range of $3.20 to $3.45 per share to a new range of $3.30 to $3.50 per share.

Analysts took note of the ConMed improvements.

“ConMed exited the first quarter on a strong note, wherein both earnings and revenues beat their respective consensus mark,” a Zacks Research report noted. The manufacturer made a good recovery from fourth-quarter 2022 shipping delays and had strong order flow. “However, rising costs of goods and higher operating expenses completely offset strong top-line growth, which led to a decline in earnings,” Zacks said.

ConMed’s stock price closed at $124.88 on May 2. That’s up nearly 41 percent year to date.

ConMed manufactures surgical devices and equipment for minimally invasive procedures for surgical areas including orthopedics, general surgery, gynecology, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, and gastroenterology. The company moved its corporate headquarters from 525 French Road in New Hartford to Largo, Florida in 2021. It maintains manufacturing, finance, human resources, legal, and other corporate functions at its New Hartford facility.

New York closed home sales dive 28 percent in March

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Insurance & Financial Services, Small Business, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York realtors sold 7,633 previously owned homes in March, a 28.4 percent decline from 10,664 homes sold in the year-earlier month. Pending sales also declined more than 11 percent, foreshadowing further drops in closed home sales in the next couple of months. That’s according to the March monthly housing report that

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Environmental-survey work starts at Micron site

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Manufacturing & Engineering, Subscriber Only, Technology

CLAY, N.Y. — Environmental-survey work has started at the White Pine Commerce Park in the town of Clay where Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) plans to build a semiconductor campus. “Right now, we’ll be doing environmental permitting throughout 2023 and into 2024. After we complete that process, we’ll begin the ground preparation and construction,” Scott

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CLAY, N.Y. — Environmental-survey work has started at the White Pine Commerce Park in the town of Clay where Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU) plans to build a semiconductor campus.

“Right now, we’ll be doing environmental permitting throughout 2023 and into 2024. After we complete that process, we’ll begin the ground preparation and construction,” Scott Gatzemeier, corporate VP of front-end expansion at Micron, said in speaking with reporters at the site on April 28. A short time earlier, Micron and local officials gathered to announce the start of the environmental work.

“A fab of this scale … 600,000 square feet of cleanroom but 1.2 million square feet under roof … It’s going to take two years for us to build that up and then we’ll start manufacturing and bringing in literally thousands of semiconductor equipment tools and ramping it throughout the rest of the decade,” Gatzemeier added.

“For us, partnering with … various state agencies to bring this project to life is just a historic moment for Micron,” Sanjay Mehrotra, president and CEO of Micron Technology, said in his remarks. He delivered remarks on the property at 8699 Burnett Road in the town of Clay.

It was on Oct. 4, 2022 that Micron announced plans to invest up to $100 billion over the next 20-plus years on a semiconductor-manufacturing campus at the White Pine Commerce Park in the town of Clay.

“This is … the start of the project as we go through the design and environmental-impact study phase and environmental permitting,” Gatzemeier said during the April 28 formal announcement.

Mehrotra noted that Gatzemeier led Micron’s team that selected the site in Clay to build the semiconductor campus.

CME Associates, Inc., a DeWitt–based engineering technology corporation, provided Micron officials an update on its plan for conducting an environmental survey of the site.

“And that reflects the commitment of Micron to building an environmentally friendly, sustainable, and, of course, community-friendly site here,” Mehrotra said. “So, this is really an important milestone, important start to this project.”

A piece of equipment from CME Associates was parked on the property not far from the tent in which Micron and local officials provided their project update.

In his remarks, the Micron CEO went on to say that it’s a 20-year project, and the site, which currently has acres of shrubbery, will have four “major” buildings and each structure will be the size of “10 football fields.”

“So, a total [of] 40 football fields worth of cleanroom space. Each of them being 600,000 square feet … 2.4 million square feet of cleanroom space that will be built over the course of 20 years,” Mehrotra added.

The project will lead to the creation of 50,000 jobs over that 20-year period, including 9,000 Micron employees and 41,000 jobs in the community to support this “massive operation,” the Micron CEO noted.

“And yes, it will be massive because memory is becoming a massive part of our lives, of every business.in the world today,” he added. “You all have heard about ChatGPT, generative AI [artificial intelligence] and we are just barely seeing the tip of the iceberg for AI. So, AI … industrial IoT … all of these require more data. They require more insights from data. Data lives in the kind of memory that will built here in Clay.”

Mehrotra went on to say that it’s not just about technology and production. It is “absolutely about” sustainable operations, efficient operations, and workforce development. Recruiting 50,000 workers is going to “require reaching out” to the community, underserved populations, those populations that have been underrepresented in technology.

Ask Rusty: How Much Can I Earn in my First Year on Social Security?

Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

Dear Rusty: My 62nd birthday is in late August of this year. I would like to start collecting Social Security, but after reading about the need to keep my earnings less than $21,240 in the first year it doesn’t seem fair to those who have birthdays later in the year. I will have earned a

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Dear Rusty: My 62nd birthday is in late August of this year. I would like to start collecting Social Security, but after reading about the need to keep my earnings less than $21,240 in the first year it doesn’t seem fair to those who have birthdays later in the year. I will have earned a lot by the end of August. Or am I missing the part where the year starts from the day you retire? Or is it a fiscal year? Please elaborate?

Signed: Looking Ahead

Dear Looking Ahead: Born in late August, your first month of eligibility for Social Security (SS) will be September (you must be 62 for an entire month to be eligible for SS benefits). If you start your benefits in September, for the months of September through December 2023, you’ll have a monthly earnings limit of $1,770. If you exceed that limit in any of those four months, you won’t be eligible for SS benefits in any month that the $1,770 monthly limit is exceeded. If you exceed the monthly limit in all of those months, you won’t be entitled to any benefits in 2023, unless using the annual earnings-limit formula to determine your penalty would result in a lesser amount.

The penalty for exceeding the annual limit is $1 for every $2 you are over the 2023 limit and, if using that formula yields a penalty which is less than for exceeding the 2023 monthly limit for September to December, the Social Security Administration (SSA) will use the annual limit instead of the monthly limit to compute your penalty. Thus, your annual earnings earned before September will only count if using the annual limit will result in less of a penalty than using the monthly limit for the months after your benefits start. If you plan to retire from working before September, then there will be no penalty for exceeding the annual earnings limit prior to that. But if you continue to work full time there will likely be a penalty that will cause the SSA to take away some of your benefits.

Starting in 2024, only the annual earnings limit (which will be a bit more than the 2023 annual limit) will apply to you. Generally, if you continue working full time and will significantly exceed the annual earnings limit, it may be wise to reconsider claiming your Social Security until your income is below or closer to the annual limit each year — or until you reach your full retirement age, after which the earnings limit no longer applies. And if you do claim early and exceed the earnings limit, and if you have benefits taken away for some number of months to satisfy the penalty, you’ll get time-credit for those months after you reach your full retirement age. That credit will, essentially, move your claim date forward by the number of months you didn’t receive SS benefits, increasing your benefit amount accordingly after your full retirement age.

Russell Gloor is a national Social Security advisor at the AMAC Foundation, the nonprofit arm of the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC). The 2.4-million-member AMAC says it is a senior advocacy organization. Send your questions to: ssadvisor@amacfoundation.org.

Author’s note: This article is intended for information purposes only and does not represent legal or financial guidance. It presents the opinions and interpretations of the AMAC Foundation’s staff, trained and accredited by the National Social Security Association (NSSA). The NSSA and the AMAC Foundation and its staff are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other governmental entity.

Talberg joins NYISO board of directors

Health Care, Insurance & Financial Services, Subscriber Only

RENSSELAER, N.Y. — The New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), the nonprofit that operates New York state’s power grid, added Sally Talberg to its board of directors, effective April 18. She has more than 25 years of experience in the energy and environmental fields, with an emphasis on utility regulation and electricity markets, according to

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