Byrne Dairy to invest $25 million in Cortlandville plant

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CORTLANDVILLE, N.Y. — Byrne Dairy, Inc. announced on Nov. 9 that it is making another major investment in its dairy-processing facility in Cortlandville. Originally built in 2014, Byrne says it will invest $25 million to retool the facility to produce extended shelf life and shelf-stable dairy products. It will install new processing and filling-equipment lines […]

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VIEWPOINT: N.Y. Employers Now Must Provide Notice of Electronic Monitoring

Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

On Nov. 8, 2021, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill amending New York’s Civil Rights Law by adding a new section that requires employers to give prior written notice of any electronic monitoring to employees upon hire. The law takes effect on May 7, 2022. The law applies to all private-sector employers in New York,

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The law requires notice for any employer who monitors or intercepts telephone conversations/transmissions, emails, or internet access or usage. The law necessitates the notice to be given in writing, in an electronic record, or in another electronic form. Further, employers must receive a written or electronic acknowledgement from employees of receipt of the notice. Employers must also post the notice in a conspicuous place so that employees who are subject to electronic monitoring can readily review the notice.

The law does not apply to processes that are designed to manage the type or volume of email, voicemail, or internet usage; that are not targeted to monitor or intercept employee communications; and that are performed solely for the purpose of system maintenance and/or protection.

Regarding the content of the notice, the law provides as follows:

For purposes of written notice . . . an employee shall be advised that any and all telephone conversations or transmissions, electronic mail or transmissions, or internet access or usage by an employee by any electronic device or system, including but not limited to the use of a computer, telephone, wire, radio or electromagnetic, photoelectronic or photo-optical systems may be subject to monitoring at any and all times and by any lawful means.

The law does not provide for a private right of action. The New York State attorney general is responsible for enforcement of the law. Employers found to be in violation of the law may be subject to a maximum civil penalty of $500 for the first offense, $1,000 for the second offense, and $3,000 for the third and each subsequent offense.

Employers should determine if any new hires will be subject to the notice provisions of this law and determine the manner in which they will provide such notice.

Richard C. White is an associate attorney in the Albany office of Syracuse–based Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC. He is a labor and employment law attorney who represents employers in proceedings before federal and state courts and various government agencies. Contact White at rwhite@bsk.com. This article is drawn from Bond’s New York Labor & Employment Law Report blog.

CEO FOCUS: A Unicorn, an Acquisition, & Millions in Investments

Business Mentors, Subscriber Only

These are worth celebrating in CNY’s startup ecosystem Over the past few weeks, several significant announcements have placed a spotlight on the strength of our innovation ecosystem, serving as categorical proof that Central New York is a place where tech companies and startups can grow and thrive. Among the most exceptional, CenterState CEO member and Tech

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These are worth celebrating in CNY’s startup ecosystem

Over the past few weeks, several significant announcements have placed a spotlight on the strength of our innovation ecosystem, serving as categorical proof that Central New York is a place where tech companies and startups can grow and thrive.

Among the most exceptional, CenterState CEO member and Tech Garden anchor tenant Density announced a $125 million capital raise led by Kleiner Perkins (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/density-secures-125-million-in-series-d-funding-to-accelerate-growth-acquires-helix-re-301421033.html). This investment brings the startup’s valuation to $1.05 billion, officially making it the first “unicorn” — a privately held startup company valued at more than $1 billion — to come out of the Tech Garden. With just over 900 “unicorns” worldwide, and fewer than 450 in the U.S., this is truly a remarkable accomplishment.

Density’s people-counting, AI-powered sensors, manufactured within the Tech Garden’s hardware center, anonymously measure how people use space, allowing customers to build better workplace experiences. In addition to this Series D raise, the company also announced it acquired HelixRE, a technology that creates a digital representation of buildings to streamline data collection. Since March 2020, Density has experienced more than 500-percent growth, and expanded its employee base by 300 percent since the start of 2021, with plans to double its headcount in the next year.

Just down the road from the Tech Garden, TCGplayer is also experiencing explosive growth, expanding its workforce by more than 81 percent in the past year — creating hundreds of jobs in downtown Syracuse and adding nearly 100,000 square feet of office space. The company, which is the leading technology platform for the collectibles industry and operator of the largest online marketplace for trading card games, announced earlier this month that it has acquired Roca Robotics Inc. (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tcgplayer-acquires-roca-robotics-301416101.html). [That Colorado–based company] has produced the world’s leading robotic card-sorting machine for the trading-card market. The acquisition will allow the company to better support its customers and clients, and continue its significant growth.

Our GENIUS NY teams have also announced recent investments. Over five rounds, 26 unmanned-systems startups have used $15 million invested to date to leverage more than $75 million in follow-on funding, and have contributed to more than 70 new jobs in upstate New York.

Anyone who has watched the evolution of this innovation ecosystem over the past two decades knows how truly incredible these benchmarks are. It speaks to the positive trajectory of a region that once lagged so many of its peers in resources, investment opportunities, public and private-sector support, and the collaborative partnerships needed for startups and entrepreneurs to excel. Today, the speed of growth for these young firms is accelerating. They are job drivers, contributors to the vibrancy of our community, and integral to the vitality of our 21st century regional economy. As we celebrate these companies and their milestones, we remain committed to supporting the environment that will ensure similar success for others within this ecosystem.

Please join me in congratulating these companies on their progress and success. To learn how you can mentor and support companies in our innovation ecosystem, please contact Jeff Fuchsberg, CenterState CEO’s VP of innovation and entrepreneurship, at JFuchsberg@thetechgarden.com.

Robert M. Simpson is president and CEO of CenterState CEO, the primary economic-development organization for Central New York. This article is drawn and edited from the “CEO Focus” email newsletter that the organization sent to members on Nov. 18.

SUNY Poly researchers receive $5.5 million from Rome Lab

Health Care, Nonprofits, Subscriber Only, Technology

Will use money for research on computer chips that can learn and adapt A professor at SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) and his research team will use a $5.5 million award from Rome Lab to fabricate small, low-power neuromorphic computer chips. The effort seeks to “demonstrate adaptable and reconfigurable neural networks, computing systems

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Will use money for research on computer chips that can learn and adapt

A professor at SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) and his research team will use a $5.5 million award from Rome Lab to fabricate small, low-power neuromorphic computer chips.

The effort seeks to “demonstrate adaptable and reconfigurable neural networks, computing systems that act like synapses in the human brain,” SUNY Poly said.

Rome Lab is formally known as the Air Force Research Laboratory-Information Directorate (AFRL).

The funding will allow Nathaniel Cady, professor of nanobioscience, Karsten Beckmann, an adjunct faculty member at SUNY Poly, and their research team to work on these chips. The chips will be “more efficient” than the types of chips currently available.

They’ll also be able to perform complex functions while having the ability to “learn and adapt.” Once fabricated, they’ll be used in a variety of U.S. military and civilian applications.

More specifically, this research seeks to fabricate, test, and deliver custom-built CMOS-based chips or wafers, the platform upon which computer chips are built (CMOS is short for complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor).

They will be integrated with novel resistive memory materials, combining each of them with new switching materials within the computer-chip process flow, and performing 3D integrated circuit integration and packaging to yield a unique neuromorphic (brain-inspired computing) processor.

The final aspect of the initiative will be to assist with the development of a range of applications of this powerful, but efficient computing capability.

The research is part of a larger overall program with research groups from the University of Tennessee, as well as the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force, SUNY Poly said.

Taking place primarily at SUNY Poly’s Albany campus, it will leverage the Albany Nanotech Complex’s world-class 300 mm. cleanrooms and SUNY Poly’s electronics- testing labs.

The university’s Marcy campus is also involved as a number of faculty and students are participating across both sites. Steven Wood, SUNY Poly’s senior director of technology-applications development for this project, is providing support. Besides that role, Wood also serves as associate director of innovation and entrepreneurship at the Research Foundation for SUNY, the school noted.

“This expansive and exciting project brings together the true potential of the SUNY Poly educational and research ecosystem, and I am proud to congratulate Professor Cady and the research teams on receiving this critical funding,” Tod Laursen, acting president of SUNY Poly, said. “This AFRL award is testament to SUNY Poly’s impactful research capabilities, which not only foster hands-on student opportunities, but also utilize deep faculty expertise across both of our campuses.”

The research will also be done in collaboration with the Research Foundation for SUNY to further develop applications for the new chips. As this effort progresses, the AFRL, Navy, and Army research teams will use the chips that SUNY Poly researchers develop for further research and development at their facilities across the U.S., with plans to leverage the resources of the new Innovare Advancement Center at the Griffiss Institute in Rome.

“This research project is an excellent example of the research and educational synergies that exist at SUNY Poly and which are further enabled via close collaboration with our partners,” Cady said. “I am grateful to the AFRL for their support and funding of this important research initiative, and, with Dr. Beckmann, I am proud to work with fellow faculty across SUNY Poly’s two campuses, provide students with leading-edge learning opportunities, and partner with UT-Knoxville, NY CREATES, and the RF for SUNY.”

OPINION: New York State closing 6 more prisons is another step back on public safety

Opinion, Subscriber Only

The Nov. 8 announcement by the New York Department of Corrections that six correctional facilities will be closed is more evidence that Gov. Kathy Hochul is campaigning rather than governing. Closing prisons is an idea that might appeal to liberal voters in a primary, but it’s of no benefit to upstate communities and represents yet another step

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Shutting down these facilities in the same reckless manner used by her predecessor demonstrates a complete lack of respect for the men and women who have dedicated their careers to serving the public.

Shamefully, the employees impacted by these decisions have often been given only 60- to 90-days’ notice that their jobs would be moved or eliminated. Treating members of our state workforce with such disregard is completely unacceptable. While the governor’s office has been singularly focused on wiping correctional facilities off the map, it has failed to recognize that incidents of violence against staff and between inmates have escalated dramatically in state prisons. Rather than celebrate another announcement about shutting down buildings, maybe it’s time we do something to improve the safety of the people in them.

William (Will) A. Barclay, Republican, is the New York Assembly minority leader and represents the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact Barclay at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us. This editorial is drawn from a Nov. 8 news release that Barclay issued in response to New York’s announcement that it will close Ogdensburg Correctional Facility, Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility near Lake Champlain, Willard Drug Treatment Campus in the Finger Lakes area, Southport Correctional Facility near Elmira, Downstate Correctional Facility in the Hudson Valley area, and Rochester Correctional Facility by March 10, 2022.

OPINION: For Better and Worse, We’re All Connected

Opinion, Subscriber Only

It’s a cliché to say that everything is connected. But we live in a world where this is clearly true. Ideas, goods, services, workers, tourists, commerce, communications, drugs, crime, migrants, refugees, weapons, climate impacts, and, of course, viruses — they all cross borders constantly. This is one reason I have come to believe that drawing a distinction

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This is one reason I have come to believe that drawing a distinction between “foreign” and “domestic” policy, while often helpful, is also misleading. Globalization essentially means that we can’t escape the impact of what’s happening in other countries and regions around the globe — either at the policy level in Washington or on the street where you live.

This is often beneficial. The free movement of goods and services from this country to others builds our economy and creates jobs. Likewise, goods and services produced elsewhere and imported or used here have provided many American consumers with a quality of life that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. The relatively free flow of ideas, cultural life, and people with talent, skill, ambition, or all three, have enriched this country and many others.

Yet managing globalization is also a clear challenge, because it’s not only the good stuff that goes along with it. The work of government — not just at the federal level, but in our states, counties, cities, and towns — is to find ways of promoting what’s good and mitigating what’s bad.

Sometimes, this takes global coordination. The UN Climate Conference in Scotland is one clear example. Climate change affects everything, from the kinds of plants and animals you might see in your backyard to the behavior of the oceans and global wind currents. The Glasgow meeting was aimed at accelerating governments’ action on ratcheting back the human-made causes of climate change and at finding ways for nations and communities to adapt to the changes that we’re too late to prevent.

Sometimes, this demands clear-headed national strategies. All countries need goods and services from other countries: food, cars, entertainment, manufacturing parts. And economists would argue that our inter-connectedness on these fronts has on the whole, served both the U.S. and the world well, raising standards of living, lowering costs, and expanding the array of choices available. Yet when factory workers are thrown out of work, farmers are disrupted by competition from overseas, or over-dependence on the global supply chain proves to be a vulnerability — as during the pandemic — these demand thoughtful policy change from the federal government. [That includes] pursuing trade talks, developing support for re-training programs, or buttressing small-scale agriculture and local supply chains.

And at the local level, the forces of globalization clearly require a community response. Maybe it’s finding ways of assimilating and educating migrant workers or refugees. Maybe it is helping small farms connect with local markets that will boost their chances of success and help feed surrounding communities. And maybe it’s promoting home weatherization and other energy-related policies that help reduce carbon emissions.

The point is that the forces of globalization are with us whether we like it or not, and we can’t ignore them. We’re affected by what takes place everywhere else, and both at home and in the halls of power we have to understand and manage it. It’s inevitable that we’ll face challenges and disruption. Our task is to recognize the opportunities and spread the benefits.

Lee Hamilton, 90, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south central Indiana.

Dannible & McKee, LLP

People on the Move, Subscriber Only

DOMINICK BATTAGLIA, Jr. has joined Dannible & McKee, LLP as an audit staff accountant after working as an audit intern since 2019. He is responsible for maintaining financial procedures and confirming financial compliance through preparation of company reports and statements. Battaglia graduated with bachelor’s degree in accounting in 2020 and an MBA in 2021, both

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Pinckney Hugo Group

Manufacturing & Engineering, People on the Move, Subscriber Only

Pinckney Hugo Group, a full-service marketing communications firm, has promoted CHRIS BLAKLEY to director of marketing technology, and SUZANNE RICE to senior digital-media strategist. Blakley was previously senior digital design and development strategist and has been with the agency for more than nine years. He is a Google Qualified Individual with a certification in Google

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Solvay Bank

People on the Move, Subscriber Only

DAVID THOMAS has joined Solvay Bank as customer relations and operations specialist. Thomas previously served as insurance-authorization specialist for Guthrie Home Health, as a tax preparer for Jackson Hewitt, and as a consultant and agent with Gannett Newspapers and Kingdom Inc. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mass media from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania. RODGER

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DAVID THOMAS has joined Solvay Bank as customer relations and operations specialist. Thomas previously served as insurance-authorization specialist for Guthrie Home Health, as a tax preparer for Jackson Hewitt, and as a consultant and agent with Gannett Newspapers and Kingdom Inc. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mass media from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania.

RODGER SAUER has joined Solvay Bank as a banking officer, residential-lending underwriter. He brings 20 years of experience to the position. Sauer previously underwrote residential loans for Paragon Home Loans. He earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from Duquesne University.

ALEX SERRANO joined Solvay Bank’s Westvale Smart*Office as a teller. Serrano previously worked in customer service in the restaurant and catering business. Serrano also worked as an assistant teacher at World of Wonder.

ALICIA KOVAL has joined Solvay Bank as a credit analyst. Prior to Solvay Bank, she served as a legal assistant. Most recently, she was a credit manager for Resorts World Catskills. Koval earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and accounting from Baruch College.

ZACHARY LEO has joined Solvay Bank as a junior credit analyst. Leo previously served as a teller and member service representative at Empower Federal Credit Union. He earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from the State University of New York at Oswego.

RICHARD SCOTT has joined Solvay Bank as a senior network and server administrator. He brings nearly 30 years of experience to the position. Scott previously was a system engineer at Aspen Dental. He earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Syracuse University. He is an Army veteran.

UNICK SADDIQUE has joined Solvay Bank as a trust assistant. Saddique previously worked as a financial accountant, client services analyst, and trust administrator at the Bank of New York Mellon. She earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting and business from Cazenovia College and a master’s degree from the University of Phoenix.

AUTUMNE KERNS was promoted to loan-administration processor at Solvay Bank. She joined the bank in 2018 as a customer relations and operations specialist. Kerns earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from CUNY School of Professional Studies.

CHELSEA COOPER was promoted to head teller at Solvay Bank’s State Tower branch. She joined the bank in 2019 as a float banking solutions representative.

ANTON LEWIS was promoted to assistant branch manager at Solvay Bank’s Liverpool branch. He brings 20 years of experience to the position. Lewis joined Solvay Bank as a float-banking solutions representative in 2017. Most recently, he was a banking-solutions representative at Solvay Bank’s State Tower branch. Lewis previously served in several banking positions with Key Bank and M&T Bank.

JEROME ROSENSTEIN

People on the Move, Subscriber Only

JEROME ROSENSTEIN, MD, has joined the Mohawk Valley Health System (MVHS) Medical Group as an obstetrician/gynecologist (OB/GYN) at the MVHS Women’s Health Center and MVHS OB Care Center. He will provide inpatient and outpatient care. Dr. Rosenstein has more than 32 years of experience in the OB/GYN specialty and joins MVHS from Nathan Littauer Hospital

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