11th Annual 40 Under 40 Luncheon A Success

Talk about an entourage.

The forty people honored at this year's 40 Under 40 Luncheon put on by Syracuse Univeristy's Whitman School of Management at the OnCenter in Downtown Syracuse brought a healthy supporting cast.

Well over 500 people dined together before honoring a select group of Greater Syracuse businessmen and women for their contributions to the community both professionally and personally.

The youngest of the bunch was 25-year-old Monica Cutillo of Bristol-Myers Squibb.

"I think it's deserving because of the work I do with girl scouts and the Society of Woman Engineers and trying to empower other people to feel like they can make a difference," she said.

The Greater Syracuse area also extended itself just an hour south to Ithaca.  Cornell University's Jennifer Weil took home the distinction as well.  She says going forward, it's important to look at Central New York as a whole, rather than just as the Syracuse area.  

This, she says, will help make the whole area a better place to live in the future.

Cuomo in Syracuse

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo held a community forum at the State Fairgrounds this morning.

It's part of a larger "tour" that Cuomo is on. Yesterday he was in Rochester, and a couple weeks ago he was on Long Island.

"The attorney general's position is very simple," said Cuomo. "We are your lawyer. We are the people's lawyer. Any issues, problems you have, we do those cases. And where do we got those cases? From forums like these."

Cuomo and his staff (okay, all right, you got me - his staff did most of the work and he popped his head in) held mini discussions in four areas: environmental, consumer fraud, civil and labor rights, and health care (which was by far the most attended).

Inevitably, these community forums become and avenue for people to tell their personal problems. There's a lot of, "I have..." "My..." "Me...", which can cause the audience to drift in and out after a while.

But Tim Clune, who's in charge of the health care section of the attorney general's office, says the individual stories are a good thing.

"The 'I' statements help us find the bigger trends. We keep track of every complaint that comes into our office so we can compare it to a case in Rochester or a case in Long Island."

40 Under 40 Honored at Luncheon

40 professionals under the age of 40 were honored for their business accomplishments and community leadership at the 10th annual 40 under 40 luncheon at the Convention Center at Oncenter. A crowd of about 500 people showed up. Food wasn’t cheap! A plate of chicken, beans, and mashed potatoes was $45. Though it was more expensive than the average lunch, the 40 winners also received plaques. Robyn Bombard. who is in charge of 40 under 40. says that "A committee of five judges reviewed about 100 applications for the honor. They looked for people who showed excellent leadership at their jobs and in the community. The only personal information on the applications was the age of the applicant, to ensure that the person was under the age of 40." Dean Melvin Stith from Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management was the keynote speaker of the event.

A list of the winners can be found here: http://bizeventz.com/4040syr.cfm

Forty Under Forty

Forty business people under the age of 40 in the Syracuse area were honored Wednesday, as the 11th annual "40 under 40" event was held at the OnCenter. The Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University sponsored the event. Melvin Stith, the school's dean, stressed the importance of involving the business school at the event because of the concern of losing young business people from the area. "It's such an effort to get young people to stay here," Stith said. "People tend to get their degrees and leave. We ought to be a part of [getting them to stay]." If it weren't for Stith, there may not have even been an event. Bernie Brigman of CNY Business Journal said the Whitman School was a last-ditch effort to get a sponsor. "It was sort of a hail mary pass on my part because it had been decided already that if we didn't have a sponsor, we wouldn't do the event this year," Brigman said. A committee of business firms in the region nominates and selects the 40. Some of the honorees talked about what it meant to receive their awards. "It's really a huge honor to be acknowledged by your community as contributing to the positive climate of Upstate New York," said Jennifer Weil, the director of education for the Nano-Bio Technology Center. "I think it's deserving because of the work I do with girl scouts and the society of woman engineers and trying to empower other people to feel like they can make a difference like I have," said Monica Cutillo, the assistant engineer for Bristol Myers Squibb.

Organic Turkey or Regular Turkey

November 19, 2008 - Thanksgiving is a holiday of festivities, full of abundant food, and year-by-year people are starting to buy organic turkeys. Ernie Talerico, meat manager at Price Chopper says there are more people asking about the organic turkeys nowadays.

"We just started a couple of years ago with the organic and…has been picking up because more and more people are feeling health conscious."

Cobblestone Valley Farm, an all-organic farm has been selling organic turkeys for several years and they are always sold out on preorders long before Thanksgiving.

We usually put people on the waiting list and “if they are lucky” they could get an extra turkey, said Casey Knapp who works with his dad on the farm.

Even though the organic turkeys are more expensive than the regular frozen turkeys, people say they taste better. Ruth Fox of Syracuse who has been buying organic turkeys for some years says she prefers it over the regular ones.

“I think they taste better because they don’t have any additives added to them,” said Fox. 

Other Syracuse residents like Leon Haar is just not interested in organic turkeys.

“For people who are interested in that, I’m sure it’s good. For us it doesn’t make that much a difference for a turkey,” said Haar.

When asked what are the majority people are concerned about, Talerico said, “people go for the price,” rather than the quality of the turkey.

If you want to learn about Paulina Mancheno, an Ecuador girl's daily work with the turkeys and her reasons of coming to the United States to learn about organic farming watch the following.

Citizens Connect with Cuomo

November 19, 2008 - New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo bypassed questions about his rumored replacement of Hillary Clinton if she assumes the post of Secretary of State and instead focused on the environment, civil and labor laws, consumer fraud, and health care during his community forum at the New York State Fairgrounds.

Hundreds of citizens attended the event with individual concerns about getting their issues heard.

"We have to keep coming and keep trying and eventually things will trickle down," Judeth Laurange of Canton Woods Senior Center said.

While others were just trying to pass the time.

"I got laid off on Friday and I really don't have anything better to do," Ted Kraolvic said.

At sessions headed by Cuomo's staff citizens raised concerns about a variety of issues from not getting their medication sent to the right pharmacy to tax payer dollars being used to provide care to people not from New York State. Most citizens were advised to call the Attorney General's office individually to start the process of fixing it. The question remains, "How long will that take?"

"We got a complaint in June 1997 and we got a resolution last August...that was a quick turn around," Cuomo Health Chief Tim Clune said.

Cuomo will be back in Syracuse on December 2 with a forum about labor issues.

Ever wonder what it would be liked to be tucked in by Attorney General Cuomo?

Talking Turkey

11/19/08-Thanksgiving. The holiday of mountains of mashed potato, rolls dripping with butter, pies of all varieties, and of course a golden turkey erupting with stuffing. Essentially the holiday of all things fattening, artery clogging, and just generally bad for your health. Yet it seems that the health conscious, eco-friendly fad has crashed this sacred of all feasting holidays, and Central New York as well, with what two people in the turkey business say is a product growing in popularity. Organic turkey.
Casey Knapp, who works on Cobblestone Valley Farm which is an organic farm in Preble owned by his parents, says organic turkeys are fed organic grain (which is grown without pesticides) as well as grass and not given antibiotics from the time they hatched. Knapp would know, this Thanksgiving Cobblestone Valley will process between 105 and 125 turkeys for customers he says are concerned with what they put into their bodies and are willing to pay for higher quality meat.
And they will pay more, about three times more. Enrie Talerico, meat manager of Price Chopper on Erie Boulevard, says while he has also seen a growing demand for organic turkey fresh organic turkey cost about three dollars a pound and frozen non-organic is about ninety nine cents. One shopper, Leon Haar, says he and his wife can't tell the difference between organic and regular turkey. He's taking the cheap one.

A Tree Goes Flying- November 12th, 2008

Workers from the City of Syracuse Department of Engineering, a division of the city's water department, brought the annual Clinton Square christmas tree downtown. The tree, a Norway Spruce, was donated by Craig and Karen Anders of Baldwinsville, according to syracuse.com.

The tree is 52 feet from the base to the top with an extra five feet in the ground. After a few hours of sawing and measuring, a huge crane came in to help the workers. At one point, it hoisted the tree some 20 feet over the square on the way to its usual spot. The tree has been a tradition in Syracuse for many many years ans part of the city's annual holiday celebration.

"If you look at some of the old postcards of Clinton Square, you'll always see the tree there" says Mike McCarthy of the City of Syracuse Department of Engineering.







The tree will be lit the day after Thanksgiving, and a manger scene will be put at the base to complete the atmosphere.

A large crowd turned out to see the tree put up.

It's the Holiday Season!

November 12, 2008

Downtown Syracuse just keeps getting better and better! Not only is it going to be easier to park there (and "freer!"), thanks to the new Park On Us program, now you can even take your friends or family down to Clinton Square for some early Christmas fun. That's right, with the gigantic Christmas tree in place, the annual Holiday Magic in the Square Christmas celebration has officially begun.

"It's nice to come down here with the family, you know. Get a hot chocolate. A lot of kids come on field trips," says Mike McCarthy, Carpenter Foreman of the Syracuse Engineering Department, as he points to the ice rink by the 57-foot Norway Spruce. "Sometimes on a holiday I have three hundred kids out there skating. "

That's all well and nice, but if an 18-foot artificial California Baby Redwood is on sale for $7,349 dollars, how much is his 57-foot giant cousin going to cost?

Nothing. The tree was completely free. That's because every year, somebody would donate a tree to the City of Syracuse, like a Christmas gift, and in return they'll get their names mentioned in the newspaper. This year's donor is Craig and Karen Anders of 2 Gale Place in Baldwinsville.

This year's tree was originally 71-foot tall, but in the end it had to be trimmed down to 57-foot for it to be properly placed by the ice rink. That's also the maximum height that electricians can reach with their equipment to place Christmas lights on the tree. Here's what the tree looked like last year.

(p.s- This tree may not be the world's tallest Christmas tree, but it is still incredibly large and uses a lot of lights. McCarthy said this year, Syracuse is going green and is switching to using energy saving light bulbs. )

CuseCar? Yes, CuseCan

NOVEMBER 12, 2008- Ever heard of the Zipcar?  The people at CuseCar sure have.  In a new partnership with SUNY ESF, the company is launching a program to help curb energy costs and use.  CuseCar will give Syracuse residents who don't have cars or regular access to them the chance to use one.  The program allows people to pay for a membership, which lets them have access to the CuseCar at an hourly rate.

"We want to provide an alternative to reducing the carbon footprint," CuseCar Co-Founder Vita DiMacchi said.  "Walking's always great, biking's always good.  But you can't always bring your groceries home on a bike or on foot."

The premise is similar to a rental car, but the goal is to reduce energy costs.  That's why ESF is involved.  Throughout the year, students have been encouraged to wear sweaters because the school has decreased the use of heating systems, Michael Kelleher, Director of Renewable Energy Systems at ESF said.

"The U.S. uses 25 percent of the world's energy uses and represents five percent of the population," he said.  "So we gotta do something to reduce our energy use."

A New Car Sharing Company Starts In Syracuse

November 12-It’s no mystery that many people are trying to be more ‘green’ or environmental friendly. Fine. Go buy a hybrid vehicle. Use renewable energy. But rent a car? Today marked the coming-out, so to speak, of the CuseCar, a Toyota Prius Hybrid vehicle that will be available for the public to use starting next week.

One of the three cars that were put out today will be kept at SUNY ESF. CuseCar is a non-profit organization trying to create a more sustainable community, which Michael, Kelleher, Director of Renewable Energy at ESF says fits into what the university is trying to do. “We’re doing things to conserve energy in our buildings. Use renewable resources for generation.” He adds, “This is one of the transportation things we want to do to reduce emissions and costs.”

Whether students will want to pay a membership fee and hourly charge is a different story. Julie Greenfield, a junior at SUNY ESF says, “If you stop, like, if you’re going shopping downtown and still paying twelve dollars an hour for a car, it just seems kind of ridiculous.”

But CuseCar is an initiative that is meant to benefit the entire city, not just the university. “CuseCar offers a sustainable transportation system for students or members of the community that don’t want to have a car, or don’t want to have two cars. Or just need to have a car occasionally,” says Vita DiMacchi, co-founder of CuseCar.

This system is similar to the Zip Car, which was brought to Syracuse recently. The main difference between the two companies is that Zip Car is a for-profit organization. But that’s not the only difference. Michael Kelleher says, “The other major difference is that we use a more sustainable vehicle. Hybrids or other types of vehicles that have a little better features for the environment.

The public can start applying for memberships Monday, and DiMacchi is expecting a good number because she says their website, CuseCar.com has had over fourteen-thousand page views in just a few weeks.

Ski Trip!

November 12- Even though it hasn't been snowing this week, the crew at Toggenberg Mountain has been hard at work.

They're getting the ski trails and snow making guns ready for when the skiers show up. Today, they were taking four wheelers up to the mountain's summit, and fixing the mountain's snow-making hoses. The crew are using the sunny days to get work done

"When it's raining out, it's hard to get the sleds up, but when if there's rain, it's really hard to get them up".

Two weeks ago, when it did snow, the mountain held "Rail Jam". They built a terrain park on the mountain, and according to their website over two hundred skiers and snowboarders alike showed up, and showed off their moves on rails and new boxes.

But, right now, the grounds crew is taking care of business today, getting the sleds for the snow making guns ready. This involves welding, hammering, and dragging the sleds up the mountain behind a four wheeler.

The crew expects to have the mountain ski ready in a few weeks.

Holy Cow! There's a lot involved in taking care of cows.

November 12, 2008
Elmer Richards and Sons Dairy Farm in Skaneateles is lucky. As a dairy farm, it isn't as negatively affected by the poor economy as many of the nation's other industries.

Rose Burtless, head milker at Elmer Richards and Sons, explains that jobs cannot be cut in dairy farming. There will always be a demand for milk, and there will always be jobs that need done to care for dairy cows.

Burtless even said that the people who have lost jobs in the current recession should be looking for jobs on dairy farms--that is, if they can handle the work load.

Burtless describes herself as a jack-of-all trades because she does a little bit of everything on the farm. She's involved in many aspects of caring for both the calfs and cows, including vaccinating, ear tagging, and, of course, milking.

Burtless says she works less hours than anyone else on the farm, though. She says her day is done when she has finished all the work she has set out to do for the day.

Today, she was marking cows in heat so the breeder would have an easier time finding them tomorrow morning. This system of marking involves using different color paint markers--green for cows that need bred this afternoon, and orange for cows that can wait until tomorrow morning.

Burtless says the gestation period for a cow is nine months, and each cow spends at least 55 days with their calf. She said when it comes to breeding and milking, it's at least a 305 day cycle from one conception to the next.

To see an alternate version of the story above and a more light-hearted look at our adventures at the dairy farm, see the videos below:

Demand For Milk Keeps Dairy Workers Employed But Not Secure

(Photo/Innocenti)

November 12, 2008- According to Forbes Magazine, the unemployment rate has reached six point five percent. Many American businesses have been forced into a hiring freeze or layoffs. Employees in ailing industries are facing cuts in pay or benefits. Many of the people feeling the crunch of a bad economy are worried, and may face the reality of having to find a new job. As the economy shrinks, so do the options for a more stable career. So, what type of job is still out there?
Rose Burless, employee at Elmer Richards and Sons farm in Skaneateles, has been in the dairy business for twenty eight years and is convinced there is still a future in the American dairy industry. “I’m assuming all those people out there don’t want to do this type of work. This is a lot of work.” She adds, “I’ve been stepped on, I’ve been kicked, I’ve been attacked twice by heifers, luckily nothing serious.” But, if you like working with animals and finding a reliable job is your priority, Rose claims, “Dairy is a big place people should be looking.”
While the demand for milk keeps Rose and other dairy workers employed, they still face some tough economic challenges. She does not have health care coverage and she is not immune to a falling stock market. “The only thing the economy has impacted,” she explained, “is my retirement, just like everybody else. Every three months, it’s like, I’m taking a big hit.”




Bonus Clips and Out-Takes

Salt City Slopes Get Ready for Ski Season

November 12th- An early season October snowfall brought skiers out to the Syracuse slopes. Now that the snow is gone, one Salt City ski mountain is using the nice weather to get its trails ready for an early December opening.

Toggenburg Ski Resort in Fabius opened briefly in October to accommodate the skiers who wanted to get back on the slopes before Halloween. The snow quickly melted, leaving the mountain bare and without the equipment needed to make the white stuff.

Just over two weeks later, Toggenburg employee Erich Sparks says it has been a tremendous amount of work to get the mountain ready.

"The past couple weeks here we've done more than I've ever worked before," says Sparks, "It's a lot work."

The Toggenburg maintenance crew has needed to take full advantage of the nice weather in order to install the snow making system.

"It's not too warm, it's not cool," says Sparks, "If there's snow on the hill, it's hard to get the sleds up. If it's raining, it's really hard to get them up."

The sleds Sparks is referring to are used to hold together the snow making system that will drop over a foot of snow on the trails. Employees have to attach each sled to an ATV and pull it up to the highest point on the slopes where it will be put into place.

The snow making system is the last portion of the slopes that needs to be put into place for the ski mountain to be functioning. Sparks says the mountain should be ready to go within a week after Thanksgiving.

As stated in the video, I rode in the bed of a pickup truck to get up and down the mountain. I continued shooting the majority of the time. Below is my attempt to shoot another stand-up on the way down the mountain.

This second extra video is fairly raw footage of the ride up the mountain from the bed of a pickup truck.

Warm November Brings Out the Duffers

Probably the last thing on people's minds on Election Day was wondering if they could get a good tee time the next day. But sure enough, with a 65 degree, sunny day in the Syracuse area, area golf courses alomst looked like they were in midseason on Wednesday.

At Drumlins Golf Club, assistant professional David Midgely said there were at least 50 players on the course at any one time. "Usually this time of year, you might 2 or 3 diehards to come out just before you get a large amount of snowfall," Midgely said. "We might get 300 people in this week, which is outstanding."

One golfer at Drumlins remarked he drove by Liverpool Golf and Country Club, and it looked even more packed there. And sure enough, just as many people were enjoying the warm weather there.

"This is as busy as you can get," said Phil Annese, a pro shop attendant at Liverpool. "When you're out of carts by noon, that means you've been going strong since seven, eight o'clock."

Annese has been working at Liverpool for years, so he's used to the one or two days in the late fall or winter, when the weather shapes up and the golfers flock to his course. "When you get that one day in the middle of the winter, or cooler weather, they come like crazy. It's just the nature of the beast."

Another Loss for the Republicans

November 5, 2008 - Central New Yorkers have leaned to the left side when it came down to New York’s 25^th Congressional District race.

Dale Sweetland has lost his opportunity for the seat to Dan Maffei.

“I was surprised. I thought it’s going to be closer,” said Sweetland.

Tuesday night has been a tough night. Matt Wells, Committee Chairman of DeWitt said, “If you are a Republican and looking at the results, yeah, it is a disappointing night.”

But one of the major reasons, Sweetland has lost the race is due to financial problems.

“He had a huge financial disadvantage. The opposition had millions of dollars … so he couldn’t get his message out,” said Congressman Jim Walsh.

Sweetland has also expressed his frustration. “You guys [the media] know it, TV is costly, radio is costly and mailing is not cheap.”

During his short speech, Sweetland did acknowledge that Maffei will be capable of bringing  in changes.

“We need Washington to do good things and I know Dan has it in his heart to do that,” said Sweetland.

When asked if he will run again, Sweetland said, “I have learned never say never.”

If you want to learn about what really disappointment Sweetland on the election watch this.

Election 2008: The Day After in Syracuse

The buzz around Syracuse Wednesday -- the Election.

Not to anyone's surprise, people walking downtown during their lunch hour talked politics, a day after Barrack Obama won the 2008 Presidential Election over John McCain.

"I've been a wreck for weeks and months about this," said Marty Sorensen of Manlius, "So my immediate reaction was all of that emotion and anxiety went away."

For others, like Bill Gooley of Syracuse, it brought back memories.

"I can remember John F. Kennedy and I think there was that sense of excitement in the country about this; that great things were going to happen," Gooley said.

Meanwhile, to the victor goes the spoils -- and then the clean-up.

A few Syracuse For Obama Members celebrated the victory while clearing out rented space at 537 James Street in Downtown Syracuse; home to the local campaign headquarters for nearly two years.

"It was amazing to see," said Melissa Frakes about the election, "this is a team effort by everybody -- volunteers, grassroots made this happen."

A sense of excitement was seen at the James Street headquarters, where a handful of jubilant Obama supporters trickled in to get their hands on left-over signs and stickers.

Still, volunteer John John Williams, III says this is just the start.

"We got a president--a good president; and we're going to have to help him because he cannot do it by himself."

Williams says now is the time to rest, because the push for re-election in 2012 will come sooner than you think.

November Golf

"This is as busy as it gets," said Phil Annese.

Annese isn't talking about a polling place yesterday.

He's not talking about Dinosaur BBQ on Saturday night.

Not talking about the Carrier Dome, either (well...for men's basketball, anyway).

Actually, Annese is talking about a golf course. The Liverpool Golf and Country Club to be specific.

But it's November. How is it even possible for a golf course to be busy?












Oh. That's how...it was in the 60s today.

"If we're sold out of golf carts by noon, it means we've been going strong since 7, 8 o'clock this morning," said Annese, who works in the Pro Shop.

The Liverpool pro shop wasn't the only busy pro shop.

"I'd say there are probably 45 or 50 people on the course today," said Dave Midgley, the assistant Golf Pro at Drumlins Country Club in Syracuse.

"Usually (in November) we only have 2 or 3 die-hards that are trying to get one last round in before the snow falls."

Several golfers we talked to said they couldn't remember the last time they had hit the links in November.

Others said it was odd to see so many people playing because normally they have the course to themselves at this point in the year.

But overall, Annese said every customer he saw was, "just happy to be out there."

True Life: I am an Election Inspector

November 5, 2008 – Meet Mattie Voorheis. 21-years-old, first-time voter, Syracuse resident…and Onondaga County Election Inspector. So what does an election inspector actually do?

“Sit…and try not to irritate people,” Voorheis said.

In fact, Onondaga County pays election inspectors $150 on Election Day in November for a 16-hour shift from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Election inspectors must be available to work the entire shift and be registered to vote. At each polling place the county requires an equal number of inspectors from each party to ensure bipartisanship.

“I don’t know if it’s super effective just because there aren’t really a lot of Republicans, like I’m registered as an independent but I am serving as a republican because we couldn’t get any other republicans to come work,” Voorheis said.

But Voorheis said that was not the only problem.

“This is important and I don’t wanna knock the system but I feel like it’s disorganized,” Voorheis said.

Although she went through a nearly three hour training session, Voorheis said she still didn’t feel prepared for her role in the election, but she is excited to be a part of the process.

“If there ever was a year to do it this would be it.”

Still want more of Voorheis, watch this...

Dale Sweetland loses to Dan Maffei in 25th District

Republican Dale Sweetland's hopes of representing the 25th District in Congress were erased early Tuesday evening. By 10:30pm, it was clear that Sweetland was not going to beat Democrat Dan Maffei. The final, unofficial vote tally was 54% for Maffei and 40% for Sweetland. Green Populist candidate Howie Hawkins took home 4% of the vote. Sweetland's campaign manager Bill Rapp said, "We had hoped more people who voted for Obama would pull the lever for us, but that obviously did not happen." Rapp is referring to Democrat Barack Obama who won the Presidential election. Meanwhile, Sweetland called Maffei on his cell phone after the results came in and wished him luck in office. The next election for 25th District Congress will be in 2010. Sweetland said he would not rule out running again.

A recap of election night from Republican headquarters:

Some more reactions from Sweetland after the election:

Late Night at the Spaghetti Supper

11/4/08-When you think the Election Day Spaghetti Supper at Our Lady of Pompei School, you think pasta and politics. For the last 59 years they have been serving up spaghetti with all the fixings to voters and community members of all ages. The supper runs from eleven in the morning to seven at night, but most of the action happens around noon. That's when the majority of the candidates are there as well as the major news stations in the area.

So who is there in the later hours? A lot of people. Chairperson Lucy Paris says mostly families and people who had to spend the day in work come at night. When I asked some people why they still came down, the most popular answer was the most obvious one: the great food. One diner described it as "Just like a home cooked meal". It is this excellence that has kept generations coming back every first Tuesday after the first Monday in November year after year, making tradition the second most popular reason for coming.

Paris says she thinks they served about 3,000 people this year which equates to 7,000 meatballs, 300 gallons of sauce, and 700 hundred pounds of pasta. With such a large crowd when is the best time to come if you want to eat your pasta in peace? Paris says things slow down between two and four, and you can always get a meal to go.

Extra 1: While filming at the supper I noticed that the minute you filmed adults eating they stopped and acted awkward, while kids loved to ham it up. I didn't want to let their performances go to waste. They may not have been old enough to vote, but you can enjoy spaghetti at any age.