Lockheed Martin to pay Q3 dividend of $2.60 per share in late September

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Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) announced that its board of directors has authorized a dividend of $2.60 a share for the third quarter. The dividend is payable on Sept. 24, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on Sept. 1. It’s the same amount that the defense contractor paid shareholders in the […]

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New York milk production jumps more than 4 percent in May

Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Manufacturing & Engineering, New York News, Regional News, Subscriber Only

New York dairy farms produced more than 1.35 billion pounds of milk in May, up 4.2 percent from just under 1.3 billion pounds in the year-prior month, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) recently reported. Milk production per cow in the state averaged 2,155 pounds in May, up nearly 3.9 percent from 2,075 pounds

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New York egg production edges up less than 1 percent in May

Energy, Environment & Sustainability, Manufacturing & Engineering, Subscriber Only

New York farms produced 147.8 million eggs in May, up 0.7 percent from 146.7 million eggs in the year-ago period, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) recently reported. The number of layers in the Empire State averaged nearly 5.82 million in May, up 4.3 percent from almost 5.58 million layers a year prior. May

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Sunnking seeks to help Mohawk Valley businesses with their electronics recycling

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

WHITESBORO, N.Y. — An executive with recycler Sunnking says the firm’s “big focus” is helping local businesses in the Mohawk Valley region. “We want to make it easy for them to responsibly handle and dispose of all of their electronics,” Adam Shine, VP of Sunnking, says. Sunnking, Inc. has operations in a space located at

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Cathedral Corp. of Rome acquires Connecticut firm that also serves Catholic churches

Manufacturing & Engineering, Regional News, Small Business, Subscriber Only

ROME, N.Y. — Cathedral Corporation of Rome — which for more than 100 years has provided Catholic churches and dioceses with printing, communications, and support services — recently announced it has acquired Letter Concepts Inc. (LCI) of Connecticut to strengthen its presence in the church market. LCI is a Kensington, Connecticut–based firm that specializes in

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LCI is a Kensington, Connecticut–based firm that specializes in Catholic church fundraising, offering laser and inkjet printing and mailing services, as well as database management and lockbox services to churches and dioceses.

Cathedral, headquartered at 632 Ellsworth Road, says it offers marketing, fundraising, and financial communications for Catholic churches, dioceses, colleges and universities, governmental and nonprofit organizations, health-care providers, credit unions, and banks.

“Letter Concepts, like Cathedral Corporation, is a family-owned business where employees remain for decades. Our companies are similar, but have particular strengths,” Marianne Gaige, chairman and CEO of Cathedral, said in a release. “We have been working with churches since the early 1900s, while Letter Concepts has been supporting dioceses with essential services and building long-term partnerships across the country.”

No financial terms of the deal were disclosed.

Letter Concepts brings Cathedral “significant strengths in print production management, lockbox operations and data management and analysis,” per Gaige. “With its industry leadership in diocesan fundraising, the addition … strengthens Cathedral’s position in the field of church stewardship.”

Thomas Wilson, executive VP and general manager of Letter Concepts, noted that Letter Concepts develops close relationships with its diocesan clients through the programming, lockbox capability, data exports, and appeal-reporting updates. “We’re part of their team,” he said.

Wilson sees opportunities for growth as a part of the Cathedral team. “We’re bringing new strengths — personalized brochures, surveys, social media — and are delighted to provide these capabilities to our clients. I believe the new company will be the leader in the church market.”

As a wholly owned subsidiary of Cathedral Corp., LCI will function with a “high degree of autonomy,” the release stated. All leadership and staff are remaining in their current positions, with Thomas Wilson continuing in his current role and Al Davis serving as VP/operations manager. Meanwhile, LCI co-founder John Wilson will be in a consultant role. The LCI leadership will become an active part of Cathedral’s senior management team.

Cathedral Corp. employs more than 220 people and is headquartered in a 60,000-square-foot facility at Griffiss Business and Technology Park in Rome. It has additional facilities in Holbrook, New York; Lincoln, Rhode Island; Orlando, Florida; and now Kensington, Connecticut.

Letter Concepts has served 48 Catholic dioceses and more than 3,500 Catholic parishes nationwide in the past 32 years, producing more than 17 million request-letter packages and 3.5 million acknowledgment mailings to respondents last year, alone.

New York closed home sales jump 43 percent in May

Construction, Design & Real Estate, New York News, Regional News, Subscriber Only

Pending sales nearly double ALBANY, N.Y. — New York realtors sold 10,694 previously-owned homes in May, up 43.2 percent from 7,467 homes sold in the year-ago month as the housing market stayed hot. Pending sales in May went up even more, almost doubling, indicating that further large increases in closed sales are coming in in

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Pending sales nearly double

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York realtors sold 10,694 previously-owned homes in May, up 43.2 percent from 7,467 homes sold in the year-ago month as the housing market stayed hot.

Pending sales in May went up even more, almost doubling, indicating that further large increases in closed sales are coming in in the next couple of months. That’s according to the New York State Association of Realtors (NYSAR)’s May housing-market report issued June 22.

“The housing market in the Empire State continues to surge…” NYSAR said to open its May report.

Sales data

Pending sales in New York totaled 15,775 in May, up more than 91 percent from 8,245 in May 2020, according to the NYSAR data.

Amid the rising sales, inventory remained tight, which fueled surging house prices.

The May 2021 statewide median sales price rocketed 29 percent higher to $357,000 from $276,000 a year ago.

The months supply of homes for sale at the end of May stood at 2.9 months, down from 5 months in May 2020. A 6 month to 6.5-month supply is considered to be a balanced market, NYSAR notes.

The inventory of homes for sale totaled 40,776 homes this May, down 18.5 percent from 50,038 homes in the same month a year ago.

Central New York data

The Central New York real-estate market also remained strong in May.

Realtors in Onondaga County sold 342 previously owned homes in the fifth month of the year, up 1.2 percent from the 338 they sold in May 2020. The median sales price rose 15.6 percent to $185,000 in May from $160,000 a year prior, according to the NYSAR report.

The association also reported that realtors sold 131 homes in Oneida County in May, up 3.1 percent from 127 in May 2020. The median sales price increased 25.4 percent to $175,500 from $140,000 a year earlier.

Realtors in Broome County sold 148 existing homes in May, up 31 percent from 113 a year ago, according to the NYSAR report. The median sales price rose nearly 27 percent to $145,900 from $115,000 in May 2020.

In Jefferson County, realtors closed on 128 homes in May, up 54.2 percent from 83 a year before, and the median sales price of nearly $175,000 was almost 24 percent higher than $141,500 a year prior, according to the NYSAR data.

All home-sales data is compiled from multiple-listing services in New York state and it includes townhomes and condominiums in addition to existing single-family homes, according to NYSAR.

ANCA hires Cooper as new executive director

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Energy, Environment & Sustainability, New York News, Nonprofits, People on the Move, Regional News, Small Business, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. — The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) board of directors on July 1 announced that Elizabeth Cooper will succeed Kate Fish as executive director. Fish has led the rural economic-development organization for 12 years. Cooper will begin work at the association on July 12, ANCA said. ANCA is an independent, nonprofit corporation

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SARANAC LAKE, N.Y. — The Adirondack North Country Association (ANCA) board of directors on July 1 announced that Elizabeth Cooper will succeed Kate Fish as executive director.

Fish has led the rural economic-development organization for 12 years. Cooper will begin work at the association on July 12, ANCA said.

ANCA is an independent, nonprofit corporation that works to promote economic development across a 14-county region of Northern New York, with a focus on entrepreneurship, local agriculture, and clean energy.

Cooper has “significant experience” in private sector, supply-chain analysis and management, and as a captain in the New York Air National Guard. She is recognized as a leader in community development and as an entrepreneur in the region, ANCA contends.

Cooper lives in Lake Placid, after having grown up in Star Lake in St. Lawrence County. She is CEO and owner of Coffee Fever in Star Lake, which she launched in June 2015, per her LinkedIn profile.

“Elizabeth’s experience as a small-business owner, her work in community development and her global experience made her stand out from a pool of 54 applicants from as far away as London, England; South Africa; Texas and Nevada,” Jim Sonneborn, chair of the ANCA board of directors, said in a release. “It will enable her to lead ANCA in strengthening local food and clean energy systems as well as the entrepreneurial economy.”

Cooper graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1999, before serving in the New York Air National Guard in both active and reserve capacities for nine years. In this role, Cooper was commander of the maintenance operations flight, supervising aircraft- maintenance personnel in both Scotia in Schenectady County and McMurdo Bay, Antarctica.

She worked in logistics for Target Corporation, before earning an MBA degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy in 2006. Cooper subsequently took a position with Accenture, a Fortune 500 multinational company that provides consulting and processing services, where she led an international team from its New York City headquarters in developing 24-hour supply-chain services for clients.

In 2009, Cooper returned to the Adirondacks, where she worked as community-development coordinator for the Towns of Clifton and Fine from 2009 to 2013. During this time, she coordinated efforts to rehabilitate the J&L site, increase broadband access, and administer local waterfront-revitalization grants.

SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Skaneateles Artisans: Creatively pivoting through COVID

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

SKANEATELES — During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic last holiday season, Skaneateles Artisans owner Teresa Vitale found herself in a similar position to many other retail brick-and-mortar business owners. Revenue was waning due to a lack of customers who were appropriately social distancing at home and either reducing their purchasing or relying on e-commerce

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Revenue was waning due to a lack of customers who were appropriately social distancing at home and either reducing their purchasing or relying on e-commerce outlets.

Vitale never thought her creative necessity at that time would become a new line of business. But fact is, she moved well past pivoting, and has evolved, all the while managing to not only keep Skaneateles Artisans in operation, but also start a new business line called “Tinsel Town Arts by Teresa Vitale.”

Tinsel Town Arts is a new line of custom-decoration services that grew out of Teresa’s storefront decorations at Skaneateles Artisans. She designed and built a display of colorful and whimsical Christmas-present packages stacked on top of each other and framing the front-door entrance of her shop on the ground floor of the historic Old Stone Mill at 3 Fennell St. in the village of Skaneateles.

This story doesn’t quickly end here though, as evidenced by an event which would challenge her spirit. A young man recklessly drove a vehicle through the village and crashed into the display, destroying most of it.

Vitale acknowledges that “the gallery was not financially prepared for the challenges of being closed during the COVID shutdown.” She reached out to the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Onondaga Community College and me for help navigating the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) applications in March 2020.

Over a series of conversations and advising sessions, Teresa was able to successfully apply for and receive both assistance packages — the EIDL loan from the Small Business Administration, and the PPP reimbursable loan from M&T Bank. Vitale kept the business operating with 110 artists’ work on display for sale on commission and emerged with her best sales totals for the month of May in the 14-year history of her business.

“The SBDC and Mr. Cetera helped in the survival of Skaneateles Artisans. I would not have made it through COVID shutdown, without Mr. Cetera’s guidance,” Vitale said.

Once Teresa had stabilized the Skaneateles Artisans gallery with SBDC advising and coaching, during the slow business time of the pandemic, and coupled with the driving-accident incident, she recognized that she had been “given the opportunity of not only being able to start a new business, but also having a preexisting location where she can sell the art, making it all seem very possible and real.” Over the years, visitors to the gallery have always wanted to purchase the gift boxes that she created around the gallery — and now they can.

“Tinsel Town Arts by Teresa Vitale” began as a collection of beautiful handmade garlands, wreaths, and decorative boxes stacked like topiary. Materials used for the decoration are designed to withstand the exterior elements and can be enjoyed for years to come.

During a site visit to the gallery store, the energy and enthusiasm that Teresa exhibited was palpable. One customer shared her thoughts that the visit “was so fun” as she walked out with a colorful glass platter carefully packaged for the return leg of a motorcycle road trip between Arkansas and Acadia National Park in Maine, demonstrating how much of a destination Skaneateles Artisans is itself within the destination village of Skaneateles.

Teresa is continuing to work closely with her SBDC advisor to navigate financing and funding programs for the Skaneateles Artisans gallery, all the while making lemonade out of lemons and not letting the spirit-crushing damage to her storefront display keep her down. With smiling faces visible from the freedom of masks, vaccinated against COVID, Teresa received some new pieces of woodwork from one of the artisans on display and greeted patrons, both new and old.

Advisor’s business tip: The COVID pandemic made sure everyone in the business world was acutely aware that change is inevitable. Consider your strategy for staying aware of, and implementing change, on pace rather than being late. Now that the e-commerce and remote-work genies are out of the bottle, and are being implemented regularly, what’s next? Read online business blogs, join industry associations, have frequent conversations with your business advisors, and make the commitment to objectively evaluate your business on the regular.

Frank Cetera is an advanced certified business advisor at the SBDC located at Onondaga Community College. Contact him at ceteraf@sunyocc.edu

Pinnacle leases more than 14,000 square feet in new DeWitt building

Construction, Design & Real Estate, Subscriber Only

DeWITT, N.Y. — Pinnacle Holding Company, LLC recently signed a lease and took occupancy of 14,431 square feet of office space at a new building at 5845 Widewaters Parkway in DeWitt. The financial-services and employee-benefits firm moved its headquarters there from its prior location in the Franklin Square area of Syracuse. Cory LaDuke, Stephen Scuderi,

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VIEWPOINT: Ask Rusty: Can I Get a Higher SS Benefit Now Because I’m Older?

Business Mentors, Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Insurance & Financial Services, Subscriber Only

Dear Rusty: I started getting Social Security (SS) at age 62 and I am now 77. Can I get a higher benefit now that I’m older? Signed: Needy Senior Dear Needy Senior: Probably not. When you first start collecting your Social Security retirement benefits (e.g., at age 62 or any other age) your SS benefit

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Dear Rusty: I started getting Social Security (SS) at age 62 and I am now 77. Can I get a higher benefit now that I’m older?

Signed: Needy Senior

Dear Needy Senior: Probably not. When you first start collecting your Social Security retirement benefits (e.g., at age 62 or any other age) your SS benefit amount is permanently established and will change thereafter only in the following circumstances.

• A cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is granted (which is usually done annually, starting with your payment in January of each year). There have only been three years in the last four decades that a COLA increase didn’t automatically occur. This year’s COLA increase was 1.3 percent.

• You later became eligible for a higher spousal benefit because your husband started collecting benefits after you first claimed, and your benefit amount at your full retirement age (FRA) was less than 50 percent of your husband’s FRA benefit amount.

• You later became eligible for a higher survivor benefit because your husband passed away and his Social Security benefit was more than you were receiving (you would need to apply separately for your survivor benefit).

• You had later earnings, which were higher than any of the 35 years over your lifetime used to originally compute your benefit when you first applied. Past-years’ earnings are adjusted for inflation, so original earnings amounts in prior years are increased to today’s dollar value to see if your recent earnings are higher.

If you are working, Social Security monitors your earnings (and your contributions through payroll taxes) every year to see if you are due a benefit increase and, if appropriate, it is automatically given. COLA increases are also automatically given effective with each December’s benefit (paid in January) if such an increase is appropriate due to inflation as measured by the national Consumer Price Index. So, the only other possible way your current benefit could be increased now is if: 1) you didn’t claim a spousal benefit when you were eligible and you are still eligible because your husband is still living, or, 2) your husband is now deceased, and you didn’t apply for a higher survivor benefit you were entitled to when he died. If either of those are true, then you should contact the Social Security Administration to request your higher benefit.

You do not, however, get a benefit increase simply because you are now older than you were when you first claimed Social Security. COLA will slightly increase your benefit automatically most years, but unless one or more of the other conditions above apply, your benefits won’t change further as you age.

Russell Gloor is a certified Social Security advisor with the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC). The 2.3 million member AMAC says it is a senior advocacy organization. Send your questions to: SSadvisor@amacfoundation.org.

Author 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.

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