Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
"The Cayuga Economic Development Agency was founded in 2010 to foster a sustainable quality of life through business retention, expansion and attraction. Prior to CEDA becoming a one-stop shop, economic development functions were delivered separately by the city of Auburn and Cayuga County. The separation of service delivery did not serve the taxpayers well, nor did it provide the most efficient outcomes for businesses seeking assistance. Recognizing these issues, the public and private sectors came together and agreed to create a single centralized entity where oversight was shared between government and private business interests. While it’s been a bumpy road at times, CEDA has achieved much of what it set out to do.
Most of our work is focused on value-added agribusiness, manufacturing and new business assistance. Our efforts to aid the agribusiness sector have helped to generate an enormous new demand for local agricultural products. The Cayuga Milk Ingredients plant now turns local milk into specialized dairy products that are shipped all over the world. Denkavit, located next-door to CMI within the Cayuga County Industrial Development Agency Industrial Park, uses a previously discarded food grade byproduct to manufacture a high-quality animal feed. DuMond Farms, located in the town of Fleming, has become the state’s largest soybean processor and consumes a significant portion of New York’s soybean harvest. We continue to work with these businesses and look forward to the completion of the sewer line expansion that will support the next phase of growth for CMI.
Our efforts to assist manufacturers have helped Cayuga County resist offshoring trends through funding and workforce development efforts. While there has been a significant decline in manufacturing activity over the last several decades, CEDA’s efforts to aid local manufacturers have been fruitful. Today, the county has roughly three times more manufacturing jobs per capita than New York state. We’ve helped a number of manufacturers acquire funding and connect to resources. Our plastics sector is a particular bright spot, with several expansions at Currier Plastics as well as the new Tessy Plastics facility in Auburn.
We work extensively with residents who want to take a bold step and start a new business. CEDA’s specialists and partner agencies put a lot of time and effort into helping these new entrepreneurs. Whether assisting with a business plan or providing access to local information like zoning, permitting, training or funding, CEDA and its partners are here for the county’s entrepreneurs. Two notable successes are Prison City Brewing and Mr. Mills Contracting. Prison City now employs 75 people across two locations and has become a major draw for regional tourist traffic. Mr. Mills, which began as a sole proprietor with one truck operating as Handy Skills by Mr. Mills, has since grown to a fleet of three trucks and six employees who take on large remodeling projects.
All told, CEDA has played an important role in the economy of Auburn and Cayuga County over the last 14 years. This is shown in the data. Between 2010 and 2022, private-sector wages in Cayuga County grew by 58.5%, much faster than the central New York region and New York state as a whole. While average wages still lag behind both CNY and New York state, we are catching up and closing the gap.
CEDA didn’t do this in a vacuum; it required the support of our partners with whom we collaborate daily. The Onondaga Small Business Development Center is an absolutely vital resource for our new business clients. The free advice, research and training/workshops provided by the SBDC is often the difference between a company that can support a family and one that ruins a retirement. The Central New York Regional Economic Development Council has supported dozens of companies in Cayuga County that are making significant capital investments to create and retain jobs. Many of these companies would have left the U.S. entirely without the assistance provided by the CNYREDC. The city and county departments of Planning and Economic Development, headed by Jenny Haines and Steve Lynch, collaborate to align projects with municipal plans and goals. Our industrial development partners, CCIDA and the Auburn Industrial Development Authority, extend benefits to help larger businesses retain and expand employment through local tax abatements and sales tax exemptions.
As always, if your business could use some guidance, CEDA and its specialists are here to help. Our advice is free and confidential. Our goal remains the support of our business community to help them provide good jobs in Cayuga County."
"Education has always been in the spotlight at Auburn Public Theater, but recently the downtown venue added a way for adults to learn about the performing arts as well.
Whether it's putting pen to paper or taking the stage, the theater is hoping a new series of adult education classes fill what Artistic Producing Director Angela Daddabbo called a local void.
Speaking to The Citizen, Daddabbo credited the theater's former education coordinator, Mo Allyn, with the idea for the series.
The Citizen recently visited one of the classes, improv with instructor Timothy Mahar. It's one of two comedy-focused classes at the theater, the other being stand-up comedy with instructor Carey Eidel, the theater's director of finance and grants. They are also the only two classes with a culminating show where their participants perform for a group of people.
“It’s more of an introduction to short-form improv,” Mahar told The Citizen of his class, which will lead to a show Friday. It will feature games similar to those of popular series "Whose Line is it Anyway?"
At four weeks, the improv class is shorter than the rest because the theater was unsure how popular it would be, Daddabbo said. It's the first improv class the theater has offered.
Additional classes in writing and dance will not have public readings or performances. Daddabbo said they will be considered in the future, but a recital may not be feasible.
“There are many places that offer dance classes with anticipating a recital,” she said. “Our classes are more dance as exercise or as a discipline than as dance as performance.”
Eidel added, “The goal is to try and make people feel comfortable."
He’s no stranger to the entertainment industry, starting his career as a standup comedian before stepping into acting in both television and movies. But he takes pride in the educational part of his life.
“I’ve been a teacher my whole life," he said.
The classes are basic level, Eidel continued, and students can take comfort in knowing they’re not going to be taken by surprise. Still, they're not going to have it easy.
“Speaking in front of people and trying to make them laugh is a challenge,” he said about his standup class. “The first time I did it, I was nervous. I was actually shaking.”
Mahar, who is the director of advancement at disability services organization ARISE, has an extensive background in improv. He studied at Second City in Chicago and Toronto, according to his biography on Auburn Public Theater’s website. The art form, he said, not only teaches students character and scene work, but builds their confidence and communication skills.
“Improv is transformative. We use techniques that cross over into life," he said. "Listen. Don't talk over each other. Establish a relationship."
Luciana Torous and Debby McCormick, who are both from Auburn, are taking the stage with more than a dozen others for the improv class, and expressed their enjoyment of it.
“I like to make people laugh,” McCormick told The Citizen.
Torous added, "I'm very technical. It'll get me thinking out of the box."
Both students attested to the challenge of thinking on their feet and gaining the experience to respond to people.
Daddabbo and Eidel echoed similar sentiments. Some people may have experience in dancing, writing or comedy, they said, and some may be trying them for the first time in their lives.
All current classes, Daddabbo said, have filled up. Some exceeded the expected number of students because the theater didn't want to turn anyone away. The future schedule of classes is still being worked on, she continued. The theater will take a break in the summer, but at the latest they will be back in the fall.
“We hope people get a sense of fellowship, and camaraderie to be among like-minded people,” Daddabbo said. “Not that they’re like-minded, but that they have similar interests.”
Weedsport and Union Springs are a couple of the more highly regarded school districts in the county, with Weedsport’s proximity to the Thruway(or Route 5 to Routes 695 & 690) allowing for quicker access to Syracuse.
"Benjamin Murphy and Michael Tamburrino are looking at the big picture.
The two childhood friends from Auburn are behind Los Angeles-based production company Whiskey Bear, which just screened its first full-length film, "Molli and Max in the Future," at The Little Theater in Rochester. Though the film has already been shown at small theaters across the country, the local screening is a special occasion for Murphy and Tamburrino for several reasons, they told The Citizen.
“I’ve had to take a step back and say, 'Oh, this is all really happening,” Murphy said. “There’s a lot of luck when it comes to the industry but the harder you work, the more opportunity comes around."
The producers described their 90-minute science fiction romantic comedy as fast-paced and dialogue-driven. It takes inspiration from the quirkiness of "Futurama" and "Rick and Morty," and the grounded, relationship focus of “When Harry Met Sally." Zosia Mamet (“Girls") and Aristotle Athari (“Saturday Night Live”) star as "Molli and Max," who come and go through each other’s lives over several years.
“It’s a sense of validation. There aren’t many mixed genre films being made at the Marvel level getting produced,” Tamburrino said. “To see the response and people enjoying it is the biggest reward.”
Old friendship, new chapter
Murphy and Tamburrino grew up in the town of Owasco, the former on Fairway Drive and the latter on East Lake Road. They met and became friends in kindergarten.
Going through school together, the two also played football, rode bikes and went on vacations with the other's family from time to time. After graduating from Auburn High School in 2005 the two wanted to move to Los Angeles, but their parents encouraged them to go to school before making such a big decision. Even as they went away to college, they said, their connection never frayed.
The two would come together again after spending time in separate areas of the entertainment industry.
Murphy started out as a line producer upon graduating from Niagara University in 2009 and moving out to Los Angeles. He worked on budgets and schedules for a variety of projects, including Amy Poehler’s 2022 documentary “Lucy and Desi,” before venturing off on his own. Pulling from those experiences, and freelance producing, he was able to establish Whiskey Bear smoothly.
“When you work on a film, you start from the ground up,” Murphy said. “I’d had grown accustomed to this, so it was really easy."
Tamburrino, meanwhile, was trying to get his foot in the entertainment industry's door after studying political science at SUNY Oswego.
“It wasn’t until my sophomore year when I realized this wasn’t as noble of a career as I’d thought,” he said.
He ended up with the Gersh Agency, managing talent in reality television. He called the experience “a great grad school for the entertainment industry," teaching him its ins and outs.
Tamburrino eventually moved in with Murphy, and after a couple years, the two decided to work together at Whiskey Bear.
“It was awesome to work with someone with the same values. There’s something about being from upstate New York,” Tamburrino said. “There are a lot of things that go unsaid that we understand.”
The company represents eight directors in commercials and film. Its first production was "The Beanie Bubble," a documentary about the Beanie Babies craze in the 1990s released in December 2022.
'Molli and Max'
"Molli and Max" finds Whiskey Bear fulfilling several goals. Murphy said they wanted to establish a compelling story with strong relationships, and to bring big-budget effects to the indie film space.
He and Tamburrino credited first-time feature director Michael Lukk Litwak with considering those goals while writing the screenplay, then filming using a virtual stage with green screens and rear projection. Ninety percent of the film is digital, Murphy continued, but many of the buildings and spaceships are miniatures that Litwak took the initiative to build during the first 18 months of COVID-19.
"Molli and Max" began making appearances at film festivals nationwide last year, including South by Southwest and the Anomaly Film Festival at The Little Theater in Rochester in November.
The film has been well-received by audiences, with a 98% fresh rating and a 100% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
That success led the producers to reach back out to The Little about screening the film again this month. It was screened three times in early March.
As adults, Murphy and Tamburrino's lives aren't much different than they were as children in Auburn. They're once again neighbors who get to hang out and have fun together, only this time at Whiskey Bear's oceanside headquarters instead of riding bikes around Auburn. As they work together, they now also have families of their own who make that work even easier.
“There are other ways to make a living,” Tamburrino said. “It’s awesome we get to do something we’re proud of, something we get to share.”
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
