DeWITT, N.Y. — Saab Inc., was recently awarded a more than $14.6 million modification to a previously awarded U.S. Navy contract to exercise options for fiscal 2023 MK 9 fire-control system development and production efforts. Work on the firm-fixed-price contract adjustment will be performed in DeWitt (81 percent); Rancho Cordova, California (13 percent); Airmont, New […]
DeWITT, N.Y. — Saab Inc., was recently awarded a more than $14.6 million modification to a previously awarded U.S. Navy contract to exercise options for fiscal 2023 MK 9 fire-control system development and production efforts.
Work on the firm-fixed-price contract adjustment will be performed in DeWitt (81 percent); Rancho Cordova, California (13 percent); Airmont, New York (3 percent); Mountain View, California (2 percent); and Ronkonkoma, New York (1 percent). It is expected to be completed by March 2025.
Fiscal 2023 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) funds totaling more than $12.7 million (87 percent), and fiscal 2023 other procurement (Navy) funds of nearly $1.9 million (13 percent) will be obligated at the time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C., is the contracting authority.
OSWEGO, N.Y. — Pathfinder Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: PBHC), holding company for Pathfinder Bank, has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 9 cents a share on its common stock for the fiscal quarter ending March 31. The dividend will be payable to all Pathfinder shareholders of record on April 24 and will be paid on May
OSWEGO, N.Y. — Pathfinder Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: PBHC), holding company for Pathfinder Bank, has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 9 cents a share on its common stock for the fiscal quarter ending March 31.
The dividend will be payable to all Pathfinder shareholders of record on April 24 and will be paid on May 19, the banking company announced in a news release.
At Pathfinder’s current stock price, the dividend payment yields about 2.2 percent on an annual basis.
Pathfinder Bank is a New York State-chartered commercial bank headquartered in Oswego that has 11 full-service branches located in its market areas of Oswego and Onondaga counties and one limited-purpose office in Oneida County.
SALINA, N.Y. — Lockheed Martin Corp.’s (NYSE: LMT) Rotary & Mission Systems facility in suburban Syracuse has recently been awarded a more than $14.4 million adjustment to a previously awarded contract for U.S. Navy systems and associated equipment. Work on the fixed-price, incentive-fee contract modification will be performed at Lockheed sites in the town of
SALINA, N.Y. — Lockheed Martin Corp.’s (NYSE: LMT) Rotary & Mission Systems facility in suburban Syracuse has recently been awarded a more than $14.4 million adjustment to a previously awarded contract for U.S. Navy systems and associated equipment.
Work on the fixed-price, incentive-fee contract modification will be performed at Lockheed sites in the town of Salina (85 percent) and Clearwater, Florida (15 percent), and is expected to be completed by July 2025, according to a March 30 contract announcement from the U.S. Department of Defense.
Lockheed Martin Rotary & Mission Systems has 2,170 full-time employees at its plant at 497 Electronics Parkway in Salina, according to a company spokesperson.
Fiscal 2023 other procurement (Navy) funds totaling $14,433,528 will be obligated at time of the award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year, according to the contract announcement. The Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, D.C. is the contracting activity.
BALDWINSVILLE, N.Y. — Tracy Carmody, executive director and owner of Paths to Recovery Mental Health Counseling, PLLC, has been named to the board of directors for the New York Mental Health Counselors Association (NYMHCA). She will also serve as chair of the association’s membership committee. Carmody’s term will run from 2023-2025. In this role, she
BALDWINSVILLE, N.Y. — Tracy Carmody, executive director and owner of Paths to Recovery Mental Health Counseling, PLLC, has been named to the board of directors for the New York Mental Health Counselors Association (NYMHCA).
She will also serve as chair of the association’s membership committee. Carmody’s term will run from 2023-2025. In this role, she will leverage her network, experience, and passion for moving the mental-health counseling profession forward in New York, according to a Paths to Recovery press release.
NYMHCA is the only statewide professional membership association dedicated solely to representing mental-health counselors licensed in New York state. Membership includes students in approved programs, limited permit holders, counselor educators, and licensed and registered mental-health counselors.
Paths to Recovery Mental Health Counseling is located in Baldwinsville and Syracuse and offers services throughout New York state.
“I am excited to take on this new role. It is my goal to enhance mental health services in the state and embracing a community over competition mindset, removing barriers for clients accessing care, while simultaneously advocating for improving compensation and insurance company reimbursements for practitioners,” Carmody said in the release.
Carmody graduated from Clarkson University in 2004 and Syracuse University in 2007. She began working in the mental-health industry in 2003 and in 2011, established her private practice. Carmody is board-certified and specializes in the treatment of addiction and co-occurring mental-health disorders, trauma, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, working with individuals to address addiction and behavioral-health concerns.
In May 2020, she formed Paths to Recovery Mental Health Counseling.
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Family & Children’s Counseling Services (FCCS) on April 14 formally broke ground on the expansion of its facility at 257 Main St. in Binghamton. The new 9,000-square-foot, two-story building will connect to FCCS’ existing structure. It features an integrated redesign that is client-centered, better meets the needs of children and families, and
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Family & Children’s Counseling Services (FCCS) on April 14 formally broke ground on the expansion of its facility at 257 Main St. in Binghamton.
The new 9,000-square-foot, two-story building will connect to FCCS’ existing structure. It features an integrated redesign that is client-centered, better meets the needs of children and families, and follows best practices, especially with children served through the agency’s sexual-abuse treatment program. The project will also create additional space for improved access to mental-health services and medication-assisted treatment, the organization said.
“We were experiencing an epidemic of trauma, mental health concerns and addiction even before the COVID epidemic,” Maryann Johnson, FCCS board VP, said in a press release. “Increased demand for behavioral health services, telehealth supports, medically assisted treatment and primary prevention programming has grown exponentially with COVID and the aftermath of years of fear, isolation and loss.”
The new space will include multiple waiting rooms, expanded substance-use treatment and recovery rooms, integration of primary care and behavioral care, a new HVAC system, upgraded IT infrastructure, more off-street parking, and improved handicapped parking and accessibility options.
“After years of planning, I’m glad to see this much-needed expansion is underway,” Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo (D–123rd District) said in the release. “The new addition to Family & Children’s Counseling Services will fill a critical need in the community for mental health and addiction services.”
The organization secured more than $4 million in funding for the $5 million project, including a grant from the New York State Department of Health’s Statewide Health Care Facility Transformation Program II. Additional funding came from a New York State Assembly grant and American Rescue Plan Act funding from Broome County and Binghamton. Underwriting opportunities are available to help fund the remaining cost of the project.
“As the need for services continues to grow, Family & Children’s Counseling Services will now be able to expand and accommodate more clients than ever,” Broome County Executive Jason Garnar said. “For 80 years, this agency has already helped thousands of families in our community. This project will help them serve even more people in the years ahead.”
Founded by Esther W. Couper in 1941, the organization provides serves to people of all ages. In 2020, the Family & Children’s Society merged with Family Counseling Services of Cortland County to become Family & Children’s Counseling Services. Programs include mental health and addiction services, care coordination, housing placement, vocational assistance, and sexual-abuse treatment.
UTICA, N.Y. — Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced that Utica has been selected as the host city for the 2024 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women’s World Championship, tentatively slated for next April 4-14. USA Hockey will host the event in conjunction with the Upper Mohawk Valley Memorial Auditorium Authority, the Adirondack Bank Center, and
UTICA, N.Y. — Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced that Utica has been selected as the host city for the 2024 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Women’s World Championship, tentatively slated for next April 4-14.
USA Hockey will host the event in conjunction with the Upper Mohawk Valley Memorial Auditorium Authority, the Adirondack Bank Center, and the Utica University Nexus Center.
The IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship, which began in 1990, is the premier international tournament in women’s ice hockey, now held annually. Utica will welcome 10 international teams, 350 players, about 30,000 local spectators and about 20,000 overnight spectators to the Mohawk Valley, according to the governor’s office.
The 2023 IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship was recently held in Brampton, Ontario (Canada). The United States women’s ice hockey team captured the title, defeating host Canada in the final. The tournament had a total attendance of more than 59,300 over 31 games (more than 1,900 spectators per game).
In the 22 editions of the IIHF Ice Hockey Women’s World Championship, Canada has captured the gold medal 12 times, while the USA has won 10 times, including nine of the last 12. Lake Placid hosted the 1994 tournament, so the event will be returning to New York state on the 30th anniversary of that occasion.
Improvements in orders and shipments were among the factors as the general business-conditions index of the monthly Empire State Manufacturing Survey jumped 35 points in April to 10.8. The general business-conditions index is the monthly gauge of New York’s manufacturing industry. The index had fallen 19 points in March to -24.6. The April reading —
Improvements in orders and shipments were among the factors as the general business-conditions index of the monthly Empire State Manufacturing Survey jumped 35 points in April to 10.8.
The general business-conditions index is the monthly gauge of New York’s manufacturing industry. The index had fallen 19 points in March to -24.6.
The April reading — based on firms responding to the survey — indicates business activity “increased in New York State for the first time in five months,” the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in its April 17 report.
A positive index number indicates expansion or growth in manufacturing activity, while a negative reading points to a decline in the sector.
The survey found that 35 percent of respondents reported that conditions had improved over the month, while 24 percent said that conditions had worsened, the New York Fed said.
Survey details
The new-orders index rose 47 points to 25.1, and the shipments index climbed 37 points to 23.9, indicating that both orders and shipments increased “substantially” after declining in recent months.
The unfilled-orders index rose to 0, a sign that unfilled orders were unchanged. The delivery-times index also came in at 0, indicating that delivery times held steady.
The inventories index moved up 10 points to 8.2, suggesting that inventories grew modestly.
The index for number of employees remained negative for a third straight month at -8.0, and the average-workweek index stayed in negative territory at -6.4, indicating that employment and hours worked contracted.
The prices-paid index fell 9 points to 33.0, indicating that input-price increases moderated. The prices-received index held steady at 23.7, suggesting the pace of selling price increases was little changed.
The index for future business conditions edged up to 6.6, suggesting that firms do not expect activity to improve much over the next six months. New orders and shipments are expected to increase modestly, and employment is expected to grow.
The capital-spending index rose 3 points to 16.5, and the technology-spending index came in at 10.3.
The New York Fed distributes the Empire State Manufacturing Survey on the first day of each month to the same pool of about 200 manufacturing executives in New York. On average, about 100 executives return responses.
Statewide sentiment hits 21-month high Consumer sentiment in upstate New York was measured at 64.6 in the first quarter of 2023, down 0.9 points from the last reading of 65.5 in the fourth quarter of 2022. That’s according to the latest quarterly survey of upstate and statewide consumer sentiment that the Siena College Research Institute (SRI)
Consumer sentiment in upstate New York was measured at 64.6 in the first quarter of 2023, down 0.9 points from the last reading of 65.5 in the fourth quarter of 2022.
That’s according to the latest quarterly survey of upstate and statewide consumer sentiment that the Siena College Research Institute (SRI) released April 5.
Upstate’s overall sentiment of 64.6 in the first quarter was 10.4 points below the statewide consumer-sentiment level of 75.0, which rose 2.7 points from the fourth quarter.
The statewide figure was 13 points higher than the first-quarter reading of 62.0 for the entire nation, which was up 2.3 points from the fourth-quarter number, as measured by the University of Michigan’s consumer-sentiment index.
The current index for the entire state increased more than 3 points to 70.1 and the future index increased just over 2 points, resulting in New York’s measure of future expectations moving from 75.9 last quarter to 78.1 today. Overall confidence remains higher in New York state than across the nation.
Future confidence in New York is now over three points above the breakeven point of balanced optimism and pessimism and 18.9 points higher than national future confidence.
Driven by increasing optimism among New York City residents, younger New Yorkers, Democrats and men, consumer sentiment was up this past quarter reaching its highest level since June 2021, Don Levy, SRI director, said in the Siena report.
“But many, including Upstaters, Republicans, those over 55 and women saw little or no gain in confidence, and they continue to express far more pessimism than optimism. Overall, New York’s index, both an assessment of current conditions and most especially future expectations outpace national sentiment,” Levy said. “Gasoline price worries have lessened but remain well above early pandemic lows while food price impact on budgets is now at 81 percent, the highest we have seen in 14 years of tracking this measurement. Still, expect spring spending to be strong as all buying plans are up with nearly 40 percent of residents expecting their financial condition to improve over the next year and nearly a third saying that now is a good time to purchase major consumer goods.”
In the first quarter of 2023, buying plans were up 5.6 percentage points from the fourth-quarter measurement to 17.1 for homes; rose 2.7 points to 28.2 percent for cars and trucks; increased 2.4 points to 30.8 percent for furniture; rose 1.9 points to 28.0 percent for major home improvements; and were up 0.2 points to 45 percent for consumer electronics, SRI said.
Gas and food prices
In SRI’s quarterly analysis of gas and food prices, 70 percent of upstate New York respondents said the price of gas was having a serious impact on their monthly budgets, which is up from 68 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 and down from 74 percent in the third and second quarters of last year.
In addition, 63 percent of statewide respondents said the price of gas was having a serious impact on their monthly spending plans, which was down from 66 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and 69 percent in third and second quarters of 2022.
When asked about food prices, 79 percent of upstate respondents indicated the price of groceries was having a serious impact on their finances, down from 80 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 and from 84 percent in the third quarter of last year.
At the same time, 81 percent of statewide respondents indicated the price of food was having a serious impact on their monthly finances, up from 79 percent in fourth quarter of 2022 and 78 percent in the third quarter.
SRI conducted its survey of consumer sentiment from March 6-9 by random telephone calls to 406 New York adults via landline and cell phone. It has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percentage points, according to SRI.
WATERTOWN, N.Y. — The Childrens Home of Jefferson County (CHJC) recently announced it has added Stephanie Graf to its board of directors. Graf serves as deputy director / youth & family issue leader at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County. She has 36 years of work experience in several community-based organizations. Graf received her bachelor’s
WATERTOWN, N.Y. — The Childrens Home of Jefferson County (CHJC) recently announced it has added Stephanie Graf to its board of directors.
Graf serves as deputy director / youth & family issue leader at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County. She has 36 years of work experience in several community-based organizations.
Graf received her bachelor’s degree from Norwich University, Military College of Vermont. She served for four years in the Vermont Army National Guard and served seven years active duty in the Army, leaving as a captain. Following her military service, Graf earned her master’s degree in youth and family policy analysis from SUNY Empire State College.
She has served as the New York State 4-H military liaison for the past 16 years and serves on the North Country Prenatal/Perinatal Council board of directors and the Jefferson County Victim’s Assistance board of directors.
Charles Thomas Allen was born in Syracuse on Jan. 26, 1887. His British father died when Allen was just an infant. Allen’s mother, Minnie Newman Allen, raised in Pompey, brought up her young son in Syracuse. Mrs. Allen would later marry Henry Keene and become a stepmother to Keene’s son, Leon Henry Keene. Charles Allen
Charles Thomas Allen was born in Syracuse on Jan. 26, 1887. His British father died when Allen was just an infant. Allen’s mother, Minnie Newman Allen, raised in Pompey, brought up her young son in Syracuse. Mrs. Allen would later marry Henry Keene and become a stepmother to Keene’s son, Leon Henry Keene.
Charles Allen began his long, industrial career as a toolmaker at the H.H. Franklin Manufacturing Company, makers of the air-cooled Franklin automobile in Syracuse, eight years after the company opened in 1902. Allen learned the craft of making automobile parts and worked his way up to become a master mechanic and tool foreman during World War I. At H.H. Franklin, he directed the retooling for Franklin’s role in producing Wright-Martin and Rolls-Royce airplane engines in the summer of 1918. Allen left H.H. Franklin Manufacturing in 1920 and joined Borgeson Tool & Machine Company, located at 501 E. Water St. in Syracuse. He soon became Borgenson’s VP and secretary, subsequently leaving in 1922 to form his own tool company.
At age 28, with $20,000 in capital, Charles Allen founded the Allen Tool Corporation at 211 Wyoming St. in Syracuse in October 1922. On the same day that Allen incorporated his company, the Lafayette Country Club and the Walker Dishwashing Corporation also received incorporation certificates. Allen Tool opened with seven employees and 14 machines. Some of the company’s first products included tools, jigs, dies, and specialty machinery. Allen believed in his employees training under the tutelage of experienced tool and die makers — hands-on training was his preferred form of education.
Allen invested in modern equipment and became a leader in fabricating machines that made diverse consumer products. In 1934, Allen Tool created a machine that made containers for dispensing table salt through an aluminum spout. The machine could make 52 containers per minute. At the time, Allen also was designing machines that could turn heels for women’s shoes and weigh packaged gelatin. During the prior year, the company made a machine that could make 19,000 yards of waterproof fishing line per day. Allen Tool also fabricated the original machinery that made milk cartons for Sealtest Dairy.
Under Allen’s guidance, Allen Tool Corporation expanded from a small shop with only a few employees in the 1920s, to about 20 in the 1930s, and to a larger business of over 100 employees by the early 1940s.
Angered by the Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, Charles Allen offered a $200 cash reward to the first American flyer that would bomb the Japanese cities of Tokyo, Yokohama, or Osaka. His offer was the second cash offer sent to the Syracuse Herald Journal newspaper; the first $100 came from the Funda-Austin Construction Company in Syracuse. Allen Tool Corporation also joined many other local businesses in promoting buying defense bonds and stamps throughout World War II. Many employees regularly invested as much as 14 percent of their wages in buying the bonds and stamps to finance America’s war contributions. Donald W. Darrone, Allen’s son-in-law, and company VP and assistant treasurer, spearheaded the employee contribution program during the war.
Beginning as early as January 1942, orders for tools, dies, gauges, jigs, fixtures, and other small tools for defense production poured into Allen Tool. To fulfill the ever-increasing orders, the company employed 40 toolmakers who worked 60-hour weeks. The tools made by Allen Tool employees went toward making airplane-engine parts, machine guns, gun mounts, range finders, and other supplies. The company also played a vital role in retooling the Brown-Lipe-Chapin Company in Syracuse so that business could make airplane machine guns.
In November 1947, the Allen Tool Corporation moved into its own building at 308 Maltbie St. in Syracuse. The building was originally constructed for the Syracuse Supply Company about 20 years earlier. The 30,000-square-foot building was completely refurbished with new oil heating and air conditioning. The building also had its own railroad siding and sufficient parking for employees. Donald Darrone was handling much of the management and operational direction for the move. By then, 25 employees had been with the company since it began 25 years earlier.
By the early 1950s, the Allen Tool Corporation was a member of the National Tool and Die Manufacturers Association (NTDMA) along with several other local tool and die companies. The group expressed its pride in advancing the industrial capacity of Syracuse and announced to the public that the NTDMA was ready to answer the country’s call for defense contractors if the occasion arose.
As Armistice Day officially became Veterans Day on Nov. 11, 1954, Charles Thomas Allen suddenly passed away at his home at 300 Strathmore Drive in Syracuse at the age of 68. Always an early riser, Allen had spoken with his wife, Ethel, at 6 a.m., before he collapsed and died. His death came as a shock to his family, friends, and employees who fully expected him to show up at work that Thursday. Noting his early arrival at work each day, Allen previously said, “[T]he boss gets here in time to sweep out in the morning.” That day it was not to be. Allen was survived by his wife, along with two daughters, Doris (who was married to Donald Darrone) and Mrs. Virginia Doolittle, nine grandchildren, and his brother, Frank. He was buried in Myrtle Hill Cemetery in Syracuse.
Charles T. Allen was praised as an industrial genius who could design and produce specialty jigs, tools, and sophisticated machines for diverse industries. He also was recognized as a leader in improving working efficiency and plant conditions, and earned wide admiration from fellow industrialists. Personally, Allen was described as a quiet and reserved man who had a keen sense of humor. He loved to hunt and fish and was a member of the Konosioni Lodge 950 of the Free and Associated Masons, as well as the Tigris Shrine Temple.
Upon Charles Allen’s death, his son-in-law, Donald Darrone, was elevated to company president and treasurer, and Allen’s widow, Ethel, became company VP and secretary.
The early 1960s was a busy time at Allen Tool Corporation. In 1962, Allen Tool acquired the Syracuse Special Machine Company and operated that company as a division. L. Edward Potter, founder and former president of Syracuse Special Machine Company, became sales manager of the newly established division.
That same year, Allen Tool began to work with the Florida Research and Development Center of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, a division of United Aircraft Corporation, to construct a fuel injector for the new RL10 liquid hydrogen engine that propelled the Centaur space vehicle into space. NASA successfully launched the Centaur in late November 1963 using the RL10 engine, utilizing Allen’s fuel injector. The RL10 engine also propelled the later Saturn IV rocket into outer space. The RL10 engine was later used in the Pioneer-Jupiter Explorer and the Mariner-Mars Orbiter space probe missions.
Allen Tool had existed for 44 years by 1966 and was still going strong with 120 employees. The company served the needs of the electronic, electrical, automotive, aviation, aerospace, appliance, dairy, transportation, and nuclear-power industries. The company served both local clients such as Carrier, Crouse-Hinds, General Electric, General Motors, and Chrysler, as well as national industrial clients. Two employees had worked for the company for 30 years and four had worked for 25 years. The average length of employment was nine years, and company officials touted that the longer an Allen Tool employee stayed at the company, the more proficient that employee became. The company offered a four-year apprenticeship program that combined classroom education with hands-on experience. Throughout the 1960s, Allen Tool officials routinely placed ads in the Syracuse newspapers praising their employees for being a valuable asset to the company’s success.
With Darrone at the company helm, Allen Tool continued to succeed and hire lathe operators, horizontal boring mill operators, grinders, toolmakers, machinists, and machine designers to continue creating the tools, dies, and specialty machines needed to keep American industry humming along. By the early 1980s, Allen Tool made machines to produce candles, vehicle mechanisms, jet engine components, razor blades, and countless other products. Along with continuing to serve their local clients, Allen’s client list grew to include IBM, Ford Motor Company, Kodak, and Xerox. “We’re in the business of increasing manufacturing productivity and we see this as one of our country’s top priorities this decade,” Richard Darrone, company VP and Charles Allen’s grandson, said in the Skaneateles Press newspaper in 1981.
However, a positive manufacturing outlook began to fade in the early 1980s, as the U.S. experienced two recessions in three years, and manufacturing output suffered. By March 1983, Allen Tool was struck with lagging sales and intense competition in the tool manufacturing industry. The company laid off seven of its 90 to 100 employees that January and reduced the remaining employees to a 32-hour work week.
In March 1984, Donald Darrone became the chairman of the board at Allen Tool Corporation and Richard became company president and CEO. Richard was a 1963 graduate of Syracuse University and chairman of the Factory Management Council of the Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY). Also that year, Ethel Allen retired as secretary, and her daughter, Doris, succeeded her mother in that position.
Business improved for Allen Tool Corporation again in the mid-1980s and the business began hiring wirers, toolmakers, and machinists.
By August 1989, Allen Tool had merged with Mac-Law Tool & Aircraft Parts Corporation, manufacturers of aerospace parts from prototype to production to become Mac-Law and Allen, Inc. Raymond Ryan was the newly merged corporation’s president, which was located at 1860 Erie Boulevard E. in Syracuse. It combined Mac-Law’s ability to make aerospace parts with Allen’s ability to make tools, jigs, fixtures, and specialty machinery.
In an effort to consolidate its operation at its Erie Boulevard location, Mac-Law sold the Allen Tool building at 308 Maltbie St. to Pioneer Development Company for $325,000. Pioneer Development planned to renovate the building and convert it into office space. Until the renovation project commenced, Mac-Law officials leased the building to finish a project previously undertaken by Allen, and then moved about 60 employees to its main building on Erie Boulevard. In 1989, the U.S. Department of Defense awarded Mac-Law and Allen Tool $1.3 million in defense contracts. Defense contracts comprised 75 percent of the company’s business.
According to Raymond Ryan, Mac-Law and Allen continued to face stiff competition from other tool and machine making companies and coped with cuts in defense spending. Also, when Mac-Law took over Allen Tool, Allen was about two years behind in fulfilling its contracts. The company was incurring exorbitant overtime costs and its debts mounted.
Mac-Law and Allen, Inc. failed to pay the Internal Revenue Service $468,937 in taxes, Social Security payments, and unemployment insurance in 1990. In turn, the IRS filed liens against the company in February and March 1991 to try to collect the owed money. In addition to the IRS, Merchants National Bank & Trust Company, a major creditor, foreclosed on a loan and seized the company’s bank account of about $110,000. Mac-Law and Allen officials tried to sell the company in January 1991 without success and Merchants Bank foreclosed the business. At the beginning of 1991, the company still employed about 70 workers; however, that April almost all of those employees were laid off when Merchants Bank foreclosed. Allen closed its doors in June 1991 and Merchants Bank filed a judgment against the company for more than $2.2 million.
But the story of Allen Tool Corporation does not end there. Reminiscent of the mythical Phoenix that rose from its own ashes in Greek mythology as a symbol of renewal and rebirth, Allen Tool Phoenix, Inc. emerged from the ashes of the bankrupt Mac-Law and Allen, Inc. Cheryl Maines, current president of Allen Tool Phoenix, Inc., witnessed the decimation of Mac-Law and Allen. She and her co-worker, Richard Dick Cook, struck out on their own to create the new company the day after Mac-Law and Allen closed in 1991. It was not an easy task for Maines and Cook; Maines said it was unnerving. Looking back on that time, Maines said in 1999, “[I]t becomes your entire life. For seven days a week, you have to stay right with it.” A few days after dedicating themselves to creating Allen Tool Phoenix, Maines and Cook hired their first two employees, formerly employed by Mac-Law and Allen, and established the new business. They convinced several Mac-Law and Allen customers to keep sending their parts orders to Allen Tool Phoenix, including Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. Maines’ husband, Ken, joined the company in 1993 as its controller. Allen Tool Phoenix leased space at 6057 Corporate Drive in DeWitt and purchased some used machinery, including some from the former Allen Tool Corporation. They tirelessly worked long weeks and re-established the long legacy of the original Allen Tool Corporation.
Sometime in 1996, Allen Tool Phoenix moved from 6057 Corporate Drive in DeWitt to its present location at 6821 Ellicott Drive in DeWitt, and company officials continued to advertise for toolmakers for the revived business. Cheryl Maines, newly minted owner and company president with Cook’s retirement in 1997, was looking that year to augment her staff with “top-shelf, competent employees.”
Allen Tool Phoenix was well on its way to not only surviving its first few years of redeveloping the company, but also thriving in a highly competitive industry by the end of the 20th century, and the company’s success continues today.
Allen Tool Phoenix is a flourishing company in 2023, and this year celebrates its 32nd anniversary. It is an AS9100D / ISO 9001:2015 certified, precision machine shop specializing in CNC machining, fabricating, thread rolling, assembly, and prototyping, serving the aerospace, defense, and commercial markets. It is a woman-owned business with Cheryl Maines continuing to direct it. Hearkening back to the days of Charles Allen’s apprenticeship program, Allen Tool Phoenix offers its own apprenticeship program. In addition to daily on-the-job training, the firm’s apprentices attend Onondaga Community College for their related classroom instruction. Recognizing that its employees strongly contribute to the success of the company, Allen Tool Phoenix will undoubtedly continue to prosper well into the 21st century.
Thomas Hunter is curator of collections at the Onondaga Historical Association (OHA) (www.cnyhistory.org), located at 321 Montgomery St. in Syracuse.
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