The War Memorial, located in Downtown Syracuse.

Around the country, hometown fans seem to fall in love with their team’s old arena.  Los Angeles fans love Dodger Stadium.  People in Boston love Fenway Park.  And basketball fans in Philadelphia love the experience of the old Palestra.  But here in Syracuse, the old arena downtown has fallen out of favor.  The War Memorial Arena, once the center for downtown entertainment, has become an afterthought.

The CEO of the OnCenter Complex, Terri Toennies, said she has been doing her best to change the public perception of the arena.  She, probably better than anyone else, knows changes and repairs have to be made on both on a large and small scale.  When asked about something as simple as the restrooms, Toennies expressed concern, “A lot of issues sometimes when we over capacitate to six thousand plus people, we have that many people running, it is kinda tough sometimes to keep all the restrooms from overflowing and having issues,” she said “And that’s bad.”

The main problem: the multiple needs for the arena means the price for repairing the building continues to climb.  The auditorium of the arena needs to be painted, and that costs one hundred thousand dollars.  The glass and dasher system for hockey games is a one hundred and fifty thousand dollar repair.  The zamboni machines for the ice are 16 years old and cost ninety thousand a piece.  The new video scoreboard will cost over seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.  These projects and the list of others total a budget sheet that reads over twelve million dollars.

Toennies and are her staff have a five year plan to try and turn the place around and fill it with new and exciting events, but they also understand that it is going to take a lot of hard work to get that plan rolling.  County funding is very difficult to come by as it took months to strike a deal for the scoreboard.  So the OnCenter and the Syracuse Crunch, the main users of the arena, need to find other ways to raise funds.  Danielle Goss, the Director of Operations at the War Memorial, while hoping for the legislators to provide chunks of funds, realizes other plans like adding a dollar to each ticket is a more realistic fundraiser.

And the Crunch, while they understand that the arena is old and in desperate need of repair, want to stay in Syracuse.  Last year they signed a ten-year lease to stay and play at the War Memorial that will keep the team in town until at least the end of the 2018-2019 season.  The Vice President of the Crunch Jim Sarosy said it was very important for the Crunch to stay in Syracuse because of the incredible support the team receives.  He said the team is working with the OnCenter to improve the fan experience while at the War Memorial.

Wine wars

Mike DeSumma

SYRACUSE, NY- March 29 marked the end to a long debate for Albany lawmakers over one measure of the 2009-2010 state budget: should the sale of wine be legalized in state grocery stores, convenience stores, pharmacies and gas stations?

And the verdict is in: no.

Legislative leaders agreed in a three-way budget proposal unveiled today to not lift restrictions on wine sales. Instead, they will opt to create new revenues for the state by raising the excise tax on beer.

For many liquor store owners, this agreement marks the end of a long campaign they have fought to remain the sole providers of wine in New York. After Governor Paterson first suggested the idea back on December 16 of last year, several liquor providers united in a coalition aimed to defeat the proposal.
Their argument was that allowing wine to be sold in grocery stores would cut into their profits and result in several private liquor stores being run out of business.

“If this is so based on convenience, why aren’t they asking for the liquor too,” said Jon Hallinan, co-owner of Hallinan’s liquor on February 28, “The reason they’re not asking for the liquor is there’s no money in it.”

Hallinan, an active member in “The Last Store on Main Street” coalition said that at 70 percent, wine makes up a majority of his sales. The fifth generation owner of the liquor store in Camillus said he was already prepared to lay off one worker if the measure in Albany went through.

“I thought New York was supposed to be pro-small business,” he said, “This is nothing small business wise.”

Quest for Convenience
On the other side of the ball were the state’s many grocery chains, who said that lifting the restriction on sales would be in line with a consumer demand that has been building for quite some time.

Rochester-based Wegmans Food Markets was one of several major chains to solicit the signatures of its customers to get support for the proposal.

“Based on the information that was shared with us as it relates to some consumer polls that were given, it demonstrated that 70 percent of consumers wanted the sale of wine in stores,” said Evelyn Carter, Division Consumer Affairs Manager for Wegmans on March 4.

Proponents also argued for the over $100 million in new tax revenue that the proposal was said to generate for the state, as well as the increased exposure it could give to several small area wineries.

“Most of our consumers are more likely to shop in one of I believe three Wegmans in the general metro area,” said William Lamar Wells, a Jamesville winery owner who was in support of the proposal, “If we were to be able to get into those three Wegmans, we would be able to reach most of our likely consumer base.”

But Well’s opinion was just one of New York’s over 200 winery and vineyard owners. While over 60 singed on in support of liquor stores, many opted to remain neutral as talks over the proposal played out.

“Most people who become vintors and wine-makers…are independent people and they all have different opinions,” Wells said, “What I would say though is that I think the majority of us would really appreciate an expansion in the available demand for wine.”

That very demand would come from consumers like Nick Huertas, a native of New York who says he could do without the hassle of traveling to a second store for his wine.

“Having everything you need in one place is always more convenient,” he said on March 4, “I think the fact that Wegmans has a great beer selection and a really great beer cooler already, that it’s not too much of a difference to let them stock some wines.”

But after today’s proceedings there’s likely to be no days of wine and roses ahead for consumers like Huertas.

The age old difference that marks “where” New Yorkers can buy wine in the state isn’t likely to change.

npg at sunset

Mike Krafcik

SYRACUSE, N.Y.- On Wednesday, The workers at New Process Gear said “no” to a new contract offer that would have kept the plant alive. This is the second deal in the past two months the United Auto Workers had rejected to try to head off a closing.

This will result in 1,400 jobs at New Process Gear that will soon leave the plant.

“None of our members wanted to see that plant close. They just want a fair day’s pay for the type of work that they do,” said UAW Local 624 President Scott Stanton.

The anticipated loss of New Process Gear is just a small fraction of the 15,000 manufacturing jobs that have left Syracuse in the past 20 years

“Manufacturing was our backbone for decades, it’s what we did well, and it has taken a hit. Companies know they can do it cheaper offshore.” Said Onondaga County Economic Analyst, Kim Hall

These workers have Families to feed

Employees who’ve seen wages and benefits drop 40 percent in the past year have seen enough.

“We just don’t have anything to give anymore; we don’t have any to give in terms of wages, benefits. We have families to support,” said 12 year plant veteran Leonard Early.

Over the past few years, Leonard Early has taken a pay cut of $16 an hour or about $30,000 a year. Early says he’s given up a lot to support his family.

“My automobiles I’ve had to sell, I’ve sold my truck,” Early said. “We’ve cut back on the leisurely things.”

Time to find a new career path

With the exodus of manufacturing jobs, many New Process workers will have to alter their career plans. Salaries for manufacturing and other industries are not as high as many workers once made at New Process Gear.

“Hopefully these people are going into something different. If they do go into manufacturing instead of making $80,000 a year they might only make $50,000,” Hall said.

Employees are eligible under the federal trade act to have their unemployment benefits extended and payment of job re-training for two years.

“I believe these workers will have a difficult time finding jobs,” said Post-Standard Business writer, Charlie Hannagan. “They’ll have to be re-trained and the jobs they will be re-trained at will probably not pay as much as they receive now.”

Leonard Early is already planning ahead; he plans to pursue a career in pharmaceuticals.

Katie Alexander

Skaneateles, N.Y. —Rose Burtless, head milker at Elmer Richards and Sons Dairy Farm in Skaneateles, said her farm is lucky. She said as a dairy farm, it isn’t as negatively affected by the poor economy as many of the nation’s other industries.
Burtless explains that jobs cannot be cut in dairy farming. There will always be a demand for milk, and the job of caring for dairy cows will never disappear. Burtless said she is optimistic about the financial future of dairy farming.
Yet across the country, the low demand for milk means the profit dairy farmers can receive for their products is shrinking. “Dairy farms are heading into one of their worst years ever,” according to an article in the Syracuse Post-Standard earlier this month.

When we spoke to her, however, Burtless was so confident about the future of dairy farming that she said 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 workload.

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 calves and cows, including vaccinating, ear tagging, and, of course, milking.
When we visited the farm, she was marking cows in heat so the breeder would have an easier time finding them the next day. This system of marking involves using different color paint — green for cows that need to be 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 its calf. She said when it comes to breeding and milking, it’s at least a 305 day cycle from one conception to the next.
As of November, Burtless said Elmer Richards and Sons was doing well, and she was sure she would have a job helping with breeding and milking, among other duties, in the future.