MVCC’s Colón named Northeast regional director of community college trustees association board

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UTICA, N.Y. — Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) Trustee Anthony J. Colón was recently elected Northeast regional director of the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) board of directors. In this role, Colón will serve as a conduit to information among the states in his region. Based in Washington, D.C., ACCT is a nonprofit educational […]

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In this role, Colón will serve as a conduit to information among the states in his region. Based in Washington, D.C., ACCT is a nonprofit educational organization of governing boards that represent more than 6,500 elected and appointed trustees who govern more than 1,200 community, technical, and junior colleges.

Colón previously served as chair of the ACCT board’s diversity, equity, and inclusion committee, which provides leadership for the involvement of historically underrepresented diverse populations within the governance activities of the board. While in this role, he worked to encourage dialogue that explores inclusion beyond race and ethnicity, MVCC said in a news release.

“It is vital to be inclusive of those managing mental illness, physical challenges, or other characteristics that may prevent equitable access to a successful community college education, and I will continue to champion this message,” Colón said.

He is the immediate past chair of MVCC’s board of trustees, which he first joined in 2008, and served as vice chair from 2018-2020. Colón also holds leadership positions within the New York State Association of Community College Trustees and was the 2015 winner of the New York Community College Trustees Marvin A. Rapp Award for distinguished trustee service.

Colón worked for a decade at California–based Mitchell International as a senior account executive and director of Latin American sales and marketing. Since 1999, he has provided bilingual services to a variety of entities including the federal and state court systems. He is also contracted to provide family-support services through the Integrated Community Alternatives Network (ICAN).

Colón has also served on the Oneida County Vision 2020 initiative, chaired the City of Utica’s access and inclusion Committee and police reform advisory committee, served on the Boy Scouts of America Area 3 board, was a recent member of South Gate Ministries and Church, and is a current member of the city’s planning board. Colón is also co-founder of the Mohawk Valley Latino Association, Inc.

Utica excavation firm certified as service-disabled veteran-owned business

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New York State Office of General Services (OGS) Commissioner Jeanette Moy recently announced that a Mohawk Valley company that provides excavation and related services has been certified as a service-disabled veteran-owned business (SDVOB). The New York OGS Division of Service-Disabled Veterans’ Business Development (DSDVBD) issued the certification to Clancy’s Excavation & Land Clearing LLC of

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Lockheed Martin’s suburban Syracuse plant wins nearly $15 million Navy contract modification

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SALINA, N.Y. — The Lockheed Martin Rotary and Mission Systems facility in the town of Salina has been awarded a more than $14.8 million modification to a previously awarded contract from the U.S. Navy. The cost-plus-fixed fee and cost-only contract adjustment is to exercise options for Advanced Off-Board Electronic Warfare (AOEW) System engineering services and

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ConMed to pay fourth-quarter dividend of 20 cents in early January

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ConMed Corp. (NYSE: CNMD), a surgical-device maker with roots in the Utica area, has announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of 20 cents a share for the fourth quarter of 2022. The dividend is payable on Jan. 5 to all shareholders of record as of Dec. 16. At the company’s

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New drone corridor between Syracuse & Montreal in the works

Manufacturing & Engineering, Regional News, Subscriber Only, Technology

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The first international electric, advanced air mobility (AAM) corridor between Syracuse Hancock International Airport and Quebec is under development. VPorts, a Mirabel, Québec–based firm, is developing the corridor project. VPorts specializes in the design, construction, and operation of advanced AAM infrastructure, per a Nov. 29 release from the Syracuse airport. The corridor

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The first international electric, advanced air mobility (AAM) corridor between Syracuse Hancock International Airport and Quebec is under development.

VPorts, a Mirabel, Québec–based firm, is developing the corridor project. VPorts specializes in the design, construction, and operation of advanced AAM infrastructure, per a Nov. 29 release from the Syracuse airport.

The corridor stretches from the Syracuse airport to the VPort vertiport in Mirabel, Quebec, a suburb of Montreal.

As described in the release, the corridor will “foster the establishment of an AAM ecosystem that will provide a platform” for full commercial, cargo-transport operations using electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, or what the company described as “large, helicopter-sized drones” capable of transporting commercial cargo and people.

The first eVTOL aircraft test flights are planned for 2023.

A consortium of international organizations including VPorts; Syracuse–based NUAIR; Syracuse Hancock International Airport; Aéro Montréal; Innovitech; the Unmanned Aerial System Centre of Excellence (Alma); and Helijet International have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish international electric AAM corridors between Québec and the U.S.

NUAIR is short for Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance, Inc. The nonprofit focuses on UAS (uncrewed aircraft systems) operations, aeronautical research, safety management, and consulting services. A UAS includes a drone and equipment used to control its flight. A drone is also referred to in the industry as an uncrewed aerial vehicle, or UAV.

“The aim of the corridors is to build an AAM ecosystem that will provide a platform for full commercial cargo transport operations using eVTOLs,” Fethi Chebil, president and founder of VPorts, said. “They will allow the consortium’s members to explore all aspects of AAM, including goods transportation, charging readiness, stakeholder management, business cases, security and safety protocols, social acceptability and urban integration of infrastructure and operations. Many companies and organizations rapidly investing in these related new capabilities are present in Central New York State today with good prospects of growth, and others are likely to be attracted to the region.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently announced that the state will be providing NUAIR with an additional $21 million in “Central New York Rising” Upstate Revitalization Initiative funding. NUAIR will use the funding to continue its work and focus on the UAS and AAM industry hub in Central New York and the Mohawk Valley.

The additional money will allow for infrastructure testing and deployment to enable advanced industry applications, state agency adoption of UAS, AAM development, and associated workforce development.

Economic benefits

A recent study by Washington, D.C.–based NEXA Capital Partners, LLC estimates that the full expansion of UAS and AAM-related industries to Central New York could create over 8,100 full-time jobs by 2040. Such an expansion could also incrementally generate over $1.3 billion in direct, indirect, and induced economic benefits.

That includes direct effects of investment in the region of up to $130 million, the indirect effects of household earnings of workers, and the induced effects of value-added benefits and additional industry earnings.

This impact on the region “will produce jobs for an emerging knowledge-based economic sector, with highly skilled workers sourced in part by existing New York State university institutions,” per the announcement.

“There are currently over 5,000 underutilized regional airports throughout the United States,” NUAIR CEO Ken Stewart said. “The development of this international AAM corridor between Syracuse … and Montreal will help lay the foundation for regional air mobility (RAM) operations for those underutilized airports, assisting with cargo deliveries and strengthening United States supply chains. NUAIR will build on the foundation of its 50-mile UAS corridor, and UAS traffic management (UTM) systems and our work with NASA on Vertiport Automation Systems to integrate this next generation aircraft into America’s national airspace system.”

Syracuse airport officials say becoming a partner in creating the AAM corridor will “allow underserved communities a new transportation alternative” that will reconnect those communities and provide additional economic opportunities for its members.

“This undertaking, which will sustainably connect communities in Upstate New York and beyond, firmly aligns with the SRAA’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the electrification of transportation-related technology at SYR. SYR is one of the first airports in the U.S. to include UAS/AAM infrastructure planning as part of its master plan,” Jason Terreri, executive director of SRAA, said.

The project stakeholders intend to work with Transport Canada, NAV CANADA, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to implement an international framework to test the technology and align regulations and air-traffic procedures and management.

Clearly Connected opens second Whitesboro location

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WHITESBORO, N.Y. — Clearly Connected, LLC owner Candice Sturtevant expanded her wellness business with a second location to house her dance-fitness classes, as well as other offerings. Clearly Connected Wellness in Motion opened Nov. 10 at 337 Oriskany Boulevard, just a few doors away from Clearly Connected Life Coaching & Wellness Center at 327 Oriskany

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WHITESBORO, N.Y. — Clearly Connected, LLC owner Candice Sturtevant expanded her wellness business with a second location to house her dance-fitness classes, as well as other offerings.

Clearly Connected Wellness in Motion opened Nov. 10 at 337 Oriskany Boulevard, just a few doors away from Clearly Connected Life Coaching & Wellness Center at 327 Oriskany Boulevard. Along with housing her VXN Dance-Fitness classes, Sturtevant also rents the studio to other carefully selected providers that offer a unique blend of classes and services that mesh well with Clearly Connected.

That not only provides additional offerings to Clearly Connected clients, but also is Sturtevant’s way of helping other entrepreneurs. “They’re able to grow their own business underneath my wellness center brand,” she says.

Currently, Lead with Rhythm, owned by certified drum-circle facilitator John Bertrand, uses the space, and Sturtevant has plans bring in Zumba and yoga services. “It will never be your typical fitness center or gym,” she says of the space.

Clearly Connected Wellness in Motion will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house on Dec. 15 with the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce.

The 900-square-foot studio is well suited to host classes. Once home to a liquor store, “the entire place was gutted and remodeled,” Sturtevant said. She leases the space, as well as her other location, from Scot Hayes, who operates New York Sash in the same plaza, and worked with the landlord to design the space.

At her wellness center, Sturtevant offers life coaching, therapy, massage, reiki, and nutritional-support services. She’s worked hard to craft a calming atmosphere at the center that was making it challenging to host her high-energy dance classes there.

Although the services are all related, she says, they’re two different vibes, which is what prompted her to pull the movement side of her business out into its own location.

Sturtevant has used her own experiences and wellness journey to craft a space that offers people the services they need. Her life-coaching business is full time, and she also leads classes two nights a week, manages both buildings, maintains her own website, and does all her own content creation.

Sturtevant, owner and CEO of Clearly Connected, LLC, Clearly Connected Life Coaching & Wellness Center, and Clearly Connected Wellness in Motion, is a graduate of the Legacy Training Institute and is a certified integrative holistic life coach and healer.

She launched Clearly Connected, LLC in 2017 and established her private life-coaching practice in 2018 on Main Street in Whitesboro. She moved to her current location in 2019, expanding to include the wellness center. In 2020, Sturtevant was certified as a VXN Dance-Fitness instructor.

New SUNY Chancellor King to start new role in January

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ALBANY, N.Y. — In his career, John King, Jr. has served as New York education commissioner, U.S. secretary of education, and he now has another high-profile title on his résumé. The SUNY board of trustees on Dec. 5 announced the appointment of King as the 15th chancellor of the SUNY system. He’ll begin his new

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ALBANY, N.Y. — In his career, John King, Jr. has served as New York education commissioner, U.S. secretary of education, and he now has another high-profile title on his résumé.

The SUNY board of trustees on Dec. 5 announced the appointment of King as the 15th chancellor of the SUNY system. He’ll begin his new duties in January.

Described by SUNY as a “lifelong educator,” King assumes the duties that interim chancellor Deborah Stanley has conducted since her appointment as interim chancellor early in 2022 following the resignation of former chancellor Jim Malatras.

Stanley’s appointment followed her retirement as president of SUNY Oswego.

Joanie Mahoney, president of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), was among those extending greetings to the new SUNY chancellor.

“The ESF community is excited and honored to welcome such a distinguished leader as John B. King, Jr. to SUNY. His commitment to excellence and equity within education will continue to elevate SUNY’s mission to ensure everyone has access to education that is high-quality and affordable. We look forward to working with him,” Mahoney said.

King’s background

From 2011 to the beginning of 2015, when he joined the administration of President Barack Obama, Chancellor King served as New York State’s first African American and first Puerto Rican education commissioner between 2011 and the beginning of 2015. At that point, King then joined the Obama administration as delegated deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. Obama nominated King as secretary of education a few months later.

King currently serves as president of the Education Trust, a Washington, D.C.–based nonprofit organization that promotes high academic achievement for all students in early childhood, K-12 education, and higher education.

King brings to the role “decades of experience” as a leader in education administration and policy at the local, state, and national levels. He has focused on expanding access to “high-quality, affordable education in recognition of the transformative power it holds for students from all walks of life,” SUNY said.

“As we work to continue to transform SUNY to meet the needs of the next generation of students and New York’s economy, we need a leader who understands how to balance striving for both excellence and equity. John King has a proven record of doing both,” Merryl Tisch, chair of the SUNY board of trustees, said.

SUNY is the largest system of public higher education in the U.S.

NBT’s Salisbury acquisition paves the way for growth

Banks & Credit Unions, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Insurance & Financial Services, Regional News, Subscriber Only

NORWICH, N.Y. — The planned acquisition of Salisbury Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: SAL) will help NBT Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ:) bridge the geographical gap between its existing branches and set it up for future growth along the state’s “chip corridor” from Syracuse to Poughkeepsie. The banking companies announced the $204 million, all-equity deal on Dec. 5, with

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The banking companies announced the $204 million, all-equity deal on Dec. 5, with plans for the transaction to close in the second quarter of 2023.

The acquisition will add 14 branches to NBT’s current roster of 140 NBT Bank, N.A. offices across New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Connecticut. Salisbury Bank and Trust Company branches are located in northwestern Connecticut, southwestern Massachusetts, and the Hudson Valley region of New York.

That geography is just one reason the bank acquisition is an attractive one, NBT president and CEO John H. Watt, Jr. says in an interview. The addition of Salisbury’s branches, which will convert to NBT Bank branches, is a contiguous expansion of NBT’s existing footprint, he says, and sets the stage for further expansion.

“We feel good about how we can together accelerate that growth,” Watt says of the Salisbury acquisition.

Between Micron Technology’s planned chip fab in the Syracuse area, expected to generate nearly 50,000 direct and indirect jobs, to IBM’s recent announcement it would invest $20 billion in the Poughkeepsie region, the corridor is poised for growth that NBT can capitalize on, Watt says.

“I could see us determining we need more branch banking sites,” Watt says, adding, “We’ll see.”

First, the banking companies must navigate the merger of the two institutions. For Salisbury Bancorp, the deal merges it into a larger bank, bringing numerous advantages, President and CEO Richard J. Cantele, Jr. says. “On the lending side, we’ve been running up against lending limits due to our size,” he explains. Salisbury currently has assets of $1.51 billion, deposits of $1.33 billion, and net loans of $1.8 billion as of Sept. 30.

With those lending limits, Salisbury can’t keep up with customers as they grow and need larger loans. That led the banking company to seek a larger partner due to those challenges of scale.

Overall, the corporate culture as well as the product sets of the two banks are consistent, Cantele says. NBT has somewhat more robust products and services and is further along on the development of digital platforms, he says. Both will benefit Salisbury customers.

“I think we’ll be able to provide more and better service to our customers in a more efficient manner,” Cantele contends.

Salisbury Bancorp will add about $1 billion in assets under management to NBT’s wealth-management business.

NBT plans to retain Salisbury’s 180 employees, which means “our customers will continue to work with the people they’ve come to know and trust,” Cantele adds.

Watt says NBT will benefit from the utilization of a regional operations center in Lakeville, Connecticut, where Salisbury Bancorp is headquartered, especially since NBT has struggled to fill some open positions. After learning during the pandemic that the banking company can work both regionally and, when needed, remotely, the operations center is a great asset, he adds.

Norwich–based NBT Bancorp is a financial holding company that operates NBT Bank, as well as Rochester–based EPIC Retirement Plan Services, a benefits-administration firm, and NBT Insurance Agency, a full-service insurance agency.

Salisbury Bancorp is the holding company for Salisbury Bank and Trust Co., which is chartered as a state bank and trust company by the state of Connecticut.

Hartwick College receives $500K grant to promote STEM capacity

Health Care, Regional News, Subscriber Only, Technology

ONEONTA, N.Y. — The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence 3 initiative has awarded a $500,000 grant to Hartwick College. The college said it will use the grant to increase its capacity for providing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) opportunities that promote success for all students, especially those in historically excluded groups. Hartwick

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ONEONTA, N.Y. — The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence 3 initiative has awarded a $500,000 grant to Hartwick College.

The college said it will use the grant to increase its capacity for providing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) opportunities that promote success for all students, especially those in historically excluded groups. Hartwick noted it will allocate the funding to strengthen student belonging by amplifying student voices and building support for instructors to shift to practices and policies that create equitable learning environments for all students.

Specific initiatives include empowering student-led STEM clubs to promote inclusivity, creating a student advisory panel to provide input and collaborate on the creation of class and laboratory activities and assignments, building a program to develop STEM peer mentors for students in introductory STEM courses, professional development for faculty to modify introductory science curricula and modes of instruction, and development of new courses on inclusivity in science. The initiatives will inform the college’s planning to create the infrastructure necessary to provide continuous support and assessment of inclusive instruction and student engagement.

Seven learning community clusters (LCC) were selected for the grant, with about 15 institutions in each cluster. Hartwick belongs to LCC3, which aims to shift institutions from deficit- to achievement-oriented thinking and practices through continuing education, inclusive curricula, student empowerment, inclusive collaboration, and broader approaches to institutional transformation. LCC3 will use $600,000 from HHMI to build inclusive collaboration among institutional teams, which will provide the Hartwick team critical support for their work.

Hartwick’s Inclusive Excellence 3 team includes faculty from the biology, chemistry, math, and physics departments as well as representatives from the offices of college advancement and academic affairs.

HHMI promotes leadership in science education through its institutional grants program, awarded through peer-reviewed competitions that highlight issues in science education, support science faculty in addressing these problems, and encourage institutions to become leaders in science-education excellence.

Hartwick College offers 35 bachelor’s degrees, two master’s degrees in the sciences, and a graduate certificate in nursing education.

Ithaca company creates, pilot tests cold-emitting film

Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Manufacturing & Engineering, Regional News, Small Business, Subscriber Only, Technology

ITHACA, N.Y. — Imagine being able to walk into a hardware store and purchase a film that, when applied to a window on a hot summer day, not only blocks the sun’s heat but actually emits cold. Heat Inverse, LLC of Ithaca could make that a reality with its thin-film technology that gets cold without

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ITHACA, N.Y. — Imagine being able to walk into a hardware store and purchase a film that, when applied to a window on a hot summer day, not only blocks the sun’s heat but actually emits cold.

Heat Inverse, LLC of Ithaca could make that a reality with its thin-film technology that gets cold without any additional energy. Founded in 2018 by CEO Romy Fain, the business began pilot testing its product earlier this year.

The product is applied like a sticker, Fain says, and “wherever you put it, it’s going to cool that service.”

It has promising implications for a number of sectors including refrigerated trucking and the power grid, Fain says. For refrigerated trucks, the film applied to the roof provides additional cooling, but it goes beyond that, she says. The film can also be applied to the cooling equipment, which generates waste heat as it runs, and keep that system cooler and operating more efficiently.

In the power system, the film has a number of potential uses, Fain says. It can be applied to actual components that experience a lot of heat degradation during use, and it can also be used on energy storage facilities to cool them. Studies have shown reducing temperatures by 10 degrees on power systems can double their lifespan, she notes.

The films are hyper-emitters selectively emit where the atmosphere is transparent. The film uses the temperature differential between the surface of the planet (heat) and outer space (cold) and, following the second law of thermodynamics where heat travels from hot to cold, the material gets and emits cold.

Heat Inverse calls it the reverse-greenhouse effect and the result involves heat being whisked away instead of being trapped in the atmosphere. It’s all about battling climate change in a way that’s durable and scalable, Fain contends. “What we really need are solutions we can implement quickly,” she notes.

The pilots that Heat Inverse began earlier this year are going well, Fain says. The company has one pilot program with a peaker plant in California. A peaker plant is a power plant that typically only operates during high, or peak, demand for energy. Plant officials went into the pilot a little jaded, Fain says, but ended up impressed by the product.

“We’re seeing these companies we’re pilot testing with are now ready to implement,” Fain adds. She anticipates the firm could start generating sales as soon as next summer.

“We’ve got hundreds of potential customers in the pipeline,” she says. Currently, the company has about 90,000 square feet of film that should be ready for sale by then, minus about 5 percent needed for additional pilot programs.

“We think this is going to be something people can buy at the hardware store and put it wherever they need to cool,” Fain says.

Supply-chain issues, which delayed the beginning of pilot testing, continue to be an issue, Fain says, so the company is working to shore up its supply chain, as well as bring some production in house.

With that in mind, Heat Inverse is looking for both space and manufacturing equipment, she says, and working with contractors that can do large-scale manufacturing. The company currently operates from the Rev: Ithaca Startup Works business incubator shared workspace.

Heat Inverse currently has eight employees, uses several consultants, and is actively interviewing for multiple positions at the moment.

The company has received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Innovation Corps (I-Corps), including funding for customer discovery and $1 million in technology support.

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