Entrepreneurs don’t do things in half
measures. They jump right in. After the proper training, naturally.
Just ask the members of the Austin
Steward Young Entrepreneurs Program. Last summer, these students began learning
skills such as cashiering, bookkeeping, and marketing in preparation for the
recent opening of the Jump Off Campus Store at the James Madison School of
Excellence.
The students’ training included many
memorable moments. Surprisingly, waking up early during the summer wasn’t one
of them. LaShanna Milton enjoyed learning how to match personal skills with
career paths during a presentation by Catholic Family Services’ Chris Bell, one
of several community speakers.
With their training completed, Milton
and her fellow entrepreneurs sell items that appeal to Madison’s students and
staff at the Jump Off Campus Store. Bestsellers include colorful mugs and
Madison logo t-shirts and baseball caps. Not all items jump off the shelves,
though. Some fly off the shelves, like baseball caps from the students’ October
buying trip to New York City. Priced at $5 each, they sold out in an hour. In
response to this success, more clothing will be offered this spring.
Who’s the role model for these entrepreneurs?
Thankfully, it’s not The Donald. Angelica Peterson for one admires her uncle,
who owns a private investigation firm.
This summer, program manager Linda
Terrell will work with another group of young entrepreneurs. They’ll eventually
operate a vending cart at sporting events. The application process starts in
April. Students from Madison and other high schools can apply.
In the meantime, Jaron Anthony wants
the community to know that he and the rest of the Jump Off Campus Store staff
are available for “entry-level employment.” So skilled, yet so
modest!
Employers
and potential entrepreneurs can call Linda Terrell at 359-9482 for details.
— Linda Kostin,
www.junkstorecowgirl.com
Pittsford’s outcome
Republicans in Pittsford won a nail-biter — three nail-biters actually — in the village board
elections last week. The margin for one seat came down to the closest possible
margin: a single vote. Republican appointee and incumbent board member Tim
Galli received 182 votes and his opponent, Independent (and Democrat-endorsed)
Harold Danko, received 181.
That means at least 363 voters turned out on Tuesday. Even
though that’s less than half the 1,000 registered voters in the village,
Pittsford residents (some of them anyway) have something to be proud of,
whatever their party affiliation. That 363 is more than 20 times the 18 who
showed up for the last village election.
— Krestia DeGeorge
Haney in the Lej?
An outspoken Democrat with a long history of government
service wants to be elected to the County Legislature — replacing another
outspoken Democrat with a long history in elected office.
Paul Haney, who
served on City Council for 12 years and later was Monroe County finance
director under Tom Frey, says he’ll run for the 23rd District seat currently
held by Bill Benet. Benet, who represents part of the southeast area of the
city, can’t seek re-election because of term limits.
Haney, who is 64, said on Monday that he’s running because
he’s “concerned about the loss of institutional memory” that term limits will
create in the legislature next year. “I really believe that over the next few
years, the county’s problem is going to be financial,” he said.
Haney has frequently served as a financial analyst for local
Democrats, and he’s no wallflower. Discussing his candidacy this week, he was
aggressive as usual. Being a Democrat in the Republican-dominated legislature,
he said, “I won’t have much influence, but I’ll at least bring some honesty.”
He called the county’s fiscal problem “a totally
manufactured crisis,” caused by former County Executive Jack Doyle’s tax cuts.
“Doyle,” he said, “just ran the county into the ground” by reducing the
county’s property-tax rate when property values rose.
“If the tax rate had been kept flat,” said Haney, “we’d be
rolling in money in this county. We’d have money for anything reasonable they
wanted to do.”
— Mary Anna Towler
COMIDA watch
This month’s round-up of businesses receiving public
assistance (mainly in the form of tax breaks) from the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency in exchange for
creating or retaining jobs:
The Churchville Fire Equipment Corp., 340 Sanford Road
South, for the purchase of two new service trucks; two new jobs.
Parrone Engineering, 349 West Commercial Street, East
Rochester, to buy new computer equipment and software; one new job.
TDMLSE, LLC (a dental practice), 539 Long Pond Road, to
build an office building in Greece; one new job.
The Rochester Home Builders’ Association, 2024 West
Henrietta Road, to build an office building in Henrietta; two new jobs.
LeFrois Development, LLC, 1020 Lehigh Station Road,
Henrietta, for construction of a new storage facility; two new jobs.
Mendon Pediatrics, PLLC, Assembly Drive, Mendon, for
renovations and to purchase new equipment; three new jobs.
Webster Office Associates, 1015 Ridge Road, Webster, to
construct an office building in Greece to be leased to OcuSight Eye Care
Center; two new jobs.
Activists from the group Metro Justice have complained that
these incentives aren’t being used for their intended purpose: to attract
large, industrial employers from outside the region. Instead, the activists
contend, they’re being used by area companies to unfairly undermine competition
from other local businesses.
—Krestia DeGeorge
A new Montage
The Montage Grille,
the defunct downtown live music hotspot at 50 Chestnut Street, returns with a
grand reopening on Friday, May 6, with The Skycoasters. New owner Tony Sapienza
(who also owns Taylor’s Night Club in Pittsford) plans on taking a more
mainstream approach by serving appetizers and featuring cover bands on Fridays,
r&b on Saturdays, and country on Sundays. Weeknights will be left for
touring acts like jump swingers Little Charlie and The Nightcats on July 18 and
busty blues shouter Candye Kane on August 29. Keep reading City for more details.
— Frank De Blase
Airing out
It’s been a busy few weeks for the air in New York State.
Or more precisely, the future air quality. You could be
forgiven for not being able to follow all the related events transpiring on the
subject. First President Bush’s Clear Skies bill died in committee. Then the
EPA released emissions rules on nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxides (SO2)
that won nearly universal, if somewhat tepid, acclaim (see “Clearing the air,”
March 16).
On the heels of that came similar emissions rules governing
mercury from the EPA, which, to the horror of environmentalists, included a
cap-and-trade system. (Environmentalists say mercury is far more dangerous in
smaller quantities than other emissions, and a cap-and-trade system could
result in “hot-spots” of concentrated mercury contamination.)
If that’s not enough, on Friday came news that Attorney
General Eliot Spitzer, along with the AGs from New Jersey and Connecticut, won
a settlement that requires $1.1 billion in upgrades at an Ohio Edison plant
near the West Virginia and Pennsylvania borders. That’s billion with a “B,”
more money than Monroe County’s entire budget for 2005, in case you’re
counting.
The coal-fired power plant will cut back emissions of NOx
and SO2 by 70 percent or over 200,000 tons. Spitzer’s office plugged the
benefits to Adirondack ecosystems and the lungs of Buffalo and Rochester
residents. Meanwhile, environmentalists, including Environmental Advocates of
New York, used it to take a not-so-thinly-veiled dig at the Clear Skies bill,
which is expected to be revived eventually and would replace much of the
current Clean Air Act.
“Thanks to Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s efforts, another
corporate lawbreaker will cut its illegal pollution, making New York’s air
cleaner,” said EANY’s Christine Vanderlan, in a statement Friday. “This proves
once again that the Clean Air Act works.”
— Krestia DeGeorge
Correcting ourselves
An article in City’s March
16 issue gave an incorrect date for the forum featuring candidates for Rochester
mayor. The forum was held on March 8.
An item in the March 16 Metro Ink section referred to former
City Newspaper writer Joan Collins
Lambert as a Cornell professor. She is not a professor, but the director of
Cornell Labor Programs in Rochester.
The March 9 article “‘A total labor movement'” misquoted
Rochester & Genesee Valley Labor Federation President Jim Bertolone.
Bertolone’s statement should have read “union members [emphasis added] often make so much money that ‘they
identify more with… doctors and lawyers…'”
The same article refers to United Auto Workers member Dan
Thomas. The correct name is Don Thomas.
This article appears in Mar 23-29, 2005.
