IBM is 100

IBM is celebrating its 100th anniversary this week, having been incorporated in the state of New York on June 16, 1911 as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company. 

Although its corporate headquarters are in Armonk, the I.M. Pei designed office complex in Somers, NY is a significant part of its corporate empire and an important local presence in terms of jobs, local economic impact and community services.  

Two stories in LoHud.com on Sunday highlight the company’s corporate history and its launch of the computer revolution but say little about its local impact or history.  However, one article notes that since 2003, IBM employees have logged more than 199,000 hours of volunteer time in Westchester County.  

Not everyone is celebrating as layoffs are planned, notes a May story in the Poughkeepsie Journal and LoHud.com.  In the last few years, IBM has shed thousands of U.S. jobs, with many going to other countries, according to an article in WRAL Tech Wire. 

Read the LoHud.com stories, IBM's risks, research changed the world and IBM changed the world, then changed with it. The WRALtech wire story is New global union calls for IBM to 'respect' workers' rights.

LINKS:

http://www.lohud.com/article/20110612/NEWS01/106120384/IBM-changed-world-then-changed-it?odyssey=mod|lateststories

http://www.LoHud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011106120383

http://wraltechwire.com/business/tech_wire/news/blogpost/9712730/

Candella Systems Receives LEED Award From Green Building Council

Lighting company Candella Systems in Somers, NY, was awarded the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification by the U.S. Green Building Council.  State Assemblyman Steve Katz presented the certification plaque June 3 at the company’s headquarters on Route 202, according to a June 10, Westfair Online report. Candella Systems develops and installs energy-efficient commercial and industrial lighting systems and employs about 40 persons. In addition to the Somers headquarters, it has satellite offices in Georgia and Puerto Rico.  

LINKS:
http://westfaironline.com/2011/14046-politics-and-policy-8/
http://www.candelasystems.com/lighting/index.php

King Kone: One Of The Best For Ice Cream

 Once again, King Kone in Somers, NY makes the grade as one of the area's Top Ice Cream Shops, according to the Bedford-Katonah Patch.  Here's the scoop: 

Best Road-Side Shops
King Kone (109 Route 100, Katonah).  Opened since 1953, King Kone offers its customers a big dose of nostalgia along with a choice of 18 hand-dipped flavors, frozen yogurt, milk shakes, and vanilla and chocolate soft serve. 


Read the Patch story by Ali Jackson-Jolley, The Frozen Scoop: The Best Ice Cream Shops.  King Kone earned best of Northern Westchester in 2010 in the Small Bites blog of LoHud.com.  See our blog post from August 2010, King Kone -- Best of Northern Westchester.



LINKS:
http://bedford.patch.com/articles/the-frozen-scoop-the-best-ice-cream-shops#comments

Somers Man Is Citizen Of Year For Mount Kisco Chamber

Somers resident Bill Harden is the Mount Kisco Chamber of Commerce  2011 Citizen of the Year.  He will be honored tonight, May 5, at the 44th Annual Citizen of the Year Dinner Dance held at BMW Mt. Kisco.   

Harden is the founder and owner of Accel Printing & Graphics Corp. in Mount Kisco. At the event, the Chamber will also honor Mount Kisco Child Care Center as Outstanding Non Profit of the Year.


The Chamber's web site says this about the award and Harden:

Each year, the Mount Kisco Chamber of Commerce takes great pride in awarding the Citizen of the Year honorees. These honors are bestowed by the Chamber on a group or an individual who has distinguished themselves by contributing their time and talent to benefit the entire Mt. Kisco community.


The Mount Kisco Chamber of Commerce is proud to honor Bill Harden as our 2011 Citizen of the Year. Bill was born on Staten Island and attended the New York City School system. He went to
Wagner College (BS) and NYU, served in the U.S. Navy (ONI) after going to OSC Naval Academy. He worked for Union Carbide (mergers and acquisitions), John Nuveen (Investment Banking), Advanced Computer Techniques (Partner) and local businessman (Printing). The family moved to Chappaqua in 1967 with lovely wife and three children. Bill has been a local businessman since 1976 and Chamber member, (served as President for four years) since 1984. Accel Printing and Graphics Corporation is owned and operated by Bill and his wife, Ann in Mt. Kisco since 1978.


Now residing in Heritage Hills, Bill is a fanatic tennis player and charity auctioneer. His “Fun Raising” auctions support many local Charities and Non-Profit organizations. He is past president of MKCC, Board member of Northern Westchester Business Group, member and past trustee of The First Congregational Church, Chappaqua.


LINKS:
http://www.mtkiscochamber.com/citizen_of_year.htm

Somers House of Trash

from NCNLocal.com: A letter of thanks

Thank You to News12,  BRIA Carting and the Lions Club of Somers.

Many thanks go out to the News12 reporter who rapidly responded to our plea for help to save Cypress Lane in Somers from the "House of Trash." He said they cover stories like this one to try to get help. Luckily, help arrived in the form of BRIA Carting! They saw the story on News12 and offered the resident free dumpsters to help clean the property. The Somers Lions Club generously provided manpower and the clean up began. After five 30-yard dumpsters were filled, an optimistic individual with a vision, who had also seen the News12 story, purchased the property and is now working on the 8th dumpster! We can see the ground again, and it is beautiful. We are very grateful to all those who helped, and encourage everyone to support the above organizations that truly serve our community so well.

Angela Buckley

Yorktown Heights

This letter appeared on April 6 in NCNLocal.com, Letters to the Editor-April 6, 2011.  

Watch a News 12 video from December, Neighbors willing to pitch in to clean messy Somers home .

LINKS:

http://ncnlocal.com/ncnlocal_opinions/article_c1b502a8-6113-11e0-8870-001cc4c002e0.html

http://news12.com/articleDetail.jsp?articleId=268279&position=1&news_type=news

Pepsi Beverages To Keep HQ in Somers

Pepsi Beverages Company (PBC), the bottling division of PepsiCo, Inc., today announced its headquarters offices will remain in Somers, NY for at least to the end of 2015.

The lease agreement also includes an option to extend the lease for an additional five years.

The nine-story 540,000-square-foot building located at 1 Pepsi Way in Somers houses approximately 1,200 employees and contractors who lead and support PBC’s 70,000 employees in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. PBC currently occupies seven of those floors and, as the sole tenant, can expand to fill the remaining space over time.

The Somers building has been part of the Pepsi enterprise since 1985. It was previously the headquarters of Pepsi Bottling Group, which merged with PepsiCo last year. The building’s owner is Murray Hill Properties.

According to earlier news reports, the City of Danbury wooed Pepsi to move PBC to that Connecticut city.

Read the March 24 press release here.

LINKS:

http://www.pepsiamericas.com/PressRelease/Pepsi-Beverages-Company-to-Remain-in-Somers-New-York03242011.html

Somers To Get A “Real” Newspaper

The Somers Spectator will need to change its tag line “Because Somers Has No Local Newspaper Of Its Own.” Halston Media Company plans to publish the “Somers Record”, a weekly, community paper newspaper devoted to all things Somers, NY. The first issue is slated for late April, 2011, although no formal announcement has been made by company. The Somers Record will be mailed to households and businesses in Somers. Brett Freeman, an award-winning journalist, will run the Somers Record. Halston Media, under the direction of Mr. Freeman also publishes the Mahopac News, a weekly with a print circulation of over 12,600 plus a web site.

LINKS:

http://www.mahopacnews.com/Site.Home.html

Mango Capital To Enter Consumer Financial Service Market

Mango Capital (OTCBB: MCAP), the Somers, NY company formerly known as MangoSoft, announced on March 1 that it intends to to develop products and services in consumer card and payments markets through its re-branded subsidiary now known as Aspyre Settlement Funding.

The press release says in part:

Dennis M. Goett, Mango's Chairman & CEO, stated, "Aspyre gives us a beachhead from which to provide settlement funding and cash services to consumers. We have enhanced our capabilities with the addition of Houston Winn to drive our creative and marketing efforts. The need is growing every day in this recessionary environment. We see a growing number of Americans are ineligible for standard bank services. Check cashing services are expensive, leave consumers exposed with too much cash on hand, provide no security for their money and do not provide payment solutions for retail outlets and the Internet. There is a real need for fairly priced services with a high level of customer care to help these consumers fully participate in our economy."

The Marketwire press release is located here.

Our January post about the company is Somers Company Acquires Structured Settlement Firm

LINKS

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Mango-Capital-Launches-Aspyre-Settlement-Funding-1403770.htm

http://somersspectator.blogspot.com/2011/01/somers-company-acquires-structured.html

Askren Wrestling Academy Opening Another Site

The Askren Wrestling Academy located in Somers, NY is opening another site, this one in a suburb of Milwaukee, WI.

Max Askren, a 2010 NCAA Champion, will continue to run the Academy in Somers. Coaches at the Askren Wrestling Academy - Wisconsin will be his brother 2008 US Olympian Ben Askren and the brothers' former high school wrestling coach John Mesenbrink.

The story in the January 20, 2011 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is located here.

LINKS

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/preps/114320489.html

Imperial Wok To Reopen In Four Months

An accidental fire at the Imperial Wok Restaurant at the Heritage Hills Center in Somers, NY on January 16, 2011 caused serious damage. The building suffered structural damage and its kitchen destroyed. The plan is to repair and reopen in about four months.

Read the January 20, 2011 story at LoHud.com, Somers' fire-damaged Imperial Wok will take months to rebuild.

LINKS

http://www.lohud.com/article/20110120/NEWS02/101200373/Somers-fire-damaged-Imperial-Wok-will-take-months-to-rebuild

Questions Raised About Widening Route 6 Near Somers Commons

Somers officials wary of Route 6 widening

From NCNLocal.com January 12, 2001

SOMERS - The widening of Route 6 to make way for a major development project is raising concerns among Somers residents and town officials.

Union Place, a commercial development proposed by Carmada Realty Investments of Carmel, a major developer in Putnam County, is planned for 300 acres across Route 6 from Somers Commons. The project involves several parcels, including Mahopac Farm and several residential properties.

The project is still going through a lengthy environmental review process through the Town of Carmel and is not expected to break ground for several years but it is already the subject of concern among Somers Supervisor Mary Beth Murphy and the town board, who discussed the proposal at their Jan. 6 meeting.

"One of the real concerns we have about the traffic analysis in the DEIS (draft environmental impact study) is that they were basically leaving much of the traffic mitigation to others, and that's a significant concern," Murphy said.

Murphy has requested a meeting with Carmel town officials, the Department of Transportation and the developer to further review the impact of the project.

Somers resident Jay Taylor, of Baldwin Place, told board members the widening of the road would be detrimental to the town and urged town officials to craft a resolution opposing it.

* * *

"There will be more traffic, noise and light pollution, more crime and litter for sure," Taylor said. "We have all these problems but no tax revenue for Somers or Westchester. For Putnam, Mahopac and Carmel it's a great deal - put an unsightly development on the far side of the county that impacts people who are not voters or taxpayers and benefit from property and sales tax."

* * *

Somers Manor Nursing Home Fined

The Somers Manor Nursing Home on Route 100 in Somers, NY was fined over $28,000 by the Federal Government in 2010 as well as being cited by the New York Department of Health.

According to the LoHud.com story of December 28 “3 nursing homes in area cited by state; another to close”:

Somers Manor, which is on Route 100 and has 300 beds, was found to have a widespread problem of failing to ensure its residents' "do-not-resuscitate" orders were being followed.

"It's clear that the staff of this facility doesn't know which residents have DNRs and which don't; and whether the resident has competency to make that decision," said Cynthia Rudder, director of special projects of the Long-Term Care Community Coalition. "This clearly puts their residents at risk. Some will not be resuscitated when they want to be and others might be put through painful procedures when they don't want to. This is a life-or-death situation."

Officials from Somers Manor did not return calls seeking comment.

The Federal civil fine is reported in the Long Term Care Community Coalition’s Winter 2010 newsletter. The details of the DNR deficiency citation of March 24, 2010 are available at the NYS Department of Health under the Nursing Home Profile for the Somers Manor Nursing Home.

LINKS

http://www.LoHud.com/article/20101228/NEWS01/12280322/3-nursing-homes-in-area-cited-by-state-another-to-close

http://www.ltccc.org/newsletter/documents/ltccc_winter1010_web.pdf

http://nursinghomes.nyhealth.gov/nursing_homes/deficiency/360/4YC6

Somers Company Acquires Structured Settlement Firm

MangoSoft, Inc.(MGOF:OTC BB) a company based in Somers, NY and led by Dennis Goett recently announced the acquisition of Structured Settlement Investments, L.P., a Delaware limited partnership that originates, purchases and resells structured settlements from beneficiaries of insurance, litigation and lottery awards.

In January 2010, Mangosoft moved its chief executive offices to Somers, NY, added Goett to the Board of Directors, and discontinued its business of developing and supporting internet business software. Its current business strategy is enter into business partnerships in which its “intellectual property will provide opportunity for profitability.”

The December 27 Marketwire press release MangoSoft Acquires Structured Settlement Firm is located here.

Commercial Real Estate In Westchester Is Idle

nyinc.com reports on the Cushman & Wakefield third quarter 2010 report for the Westchester County commercial real estate market.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY— Cushman & Wakefield released its third quarter 2010 report for the Westchester County commercial real estate market, showing a market with minimal leasing activity that reflects an economy trying to regain its footing. There was a slight increase in overall vacancy and absorption, albeit negative, but improvement over the previous quarter throughout the county.

Read the full story here.

GM Sales Division Moving From Somers To Danbury

General Motors plans to relocate 80 positions from its Northeast regional sales division in Somers, N.Y. to Danbury, CT, announcing plans to lease 26,000 square feet of space at the Matrix Corporate Center. GM hopes to occupy the space as earlier as November. It is unknown how many of those 80 positions constitute transfers and how many will be new jobs.

The ctpost.com story is here.

LINKS

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Cautiously-optimistic-New-business-arrives-on-623916.php