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Showing posts with label Turning Stone Resort & Casino. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Turning Stone Resort & Casino. Show all posts

Thursday, February 07, 2019

Countdown to PACNY's 23rd Annual Environmental Conference Begins!

It's that time again!  If you haven't registered to attend the Professional Abatement Contractors of New York's (PACNY's) 23rd Annual Environmental Conference, its time to do so (It is only 21 days away, from this posting).  The Conference will be held on February 27, 28, and March 1, 2019, at the Turning Stone Casino & Resort in Verona, NY.  This three-day conference, as usual, will include the Wednesday Proficiency Day with the PACNY President's Reception, the Thursday Technical Sessions with the Vendor Hall, and the Vendor Cocktail Party, and completing Friday with the Regulatory Session including a panel from New York State Department of Labor and lunch.  Registration and sponsorship information can be found here.


It all begins on Wednesday, February 27, 2019, at 12:30 PM with a presentation from Ms. Karen Cummings, M.P.H., New York State Department of Health's (NYSDOH's) Director of the Asbestos Safety Training Program.  Her presentation will update us on the status of asbestos training in NYS.  Along with some failings of training providers.  It will continue with presentations from Pete Delucia & Gregg Mance, both of AAC Contracting and myself, Angelo Garcia, III, of Future Environment Designs (#FEDTC), discussing asbestos inspection requirements, and polling of the audience to make this presentation interactive.  Finishing the session will be a presentation of the amendments to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYDEP's) Title 15 Asbestos Regulations (NYCDEP has been invited to present by teleconference).  We have also submitted the information regarding this day of the conference to the Practicing Institute of Engineering (PIE) for the purpose of being able to award three (3) Professional Development Hours (PDH) to the attendees. The President's Reception is later that evening.


The second day will include presentations by Ms. Sue Rossi, of Waste Management, discussing "Waste Management NY Landfills with acceptance of waste streams"; Adam Schrader of Ecospect with George Schanbach, of NYS AARST, discussing Radon and DOH Regulations Update"; Brian Sampson, of Unshackle Upstate, discussing Albany 2019 What You Need to Know and How it Will Impact Your Business"; Mike Rubin Esq., Partner at Goldberg Segalla, discussing "Best Practices for Abatement Contractors"; Mike Waller, of Rochester Regional Health, discussing "Sustainability?solutions and How to Balance"; and a representative of EIA discussing the "TSCA Update".  The vendor reception/networking will follow the presentations on Thursday.

NYSDOL Panel 2018
The final day will be Friday morning with a Lead (Pb) panel discussion followed by the NYSDOL panel discussion.  Friday ends with lunch and few stragglers discussing the week in review.

Sheryl Esposito Will Be Back at the FEDTC booth this year!
 #FEDTC will have a booth, again, this year and Ms. Sheryl Esposito will be womaning the booth.  We will also have the book I wrote "Do As I Say, Not As I Did! What I've Learned After 30-Years of Being in Business." available at the booth.  You can follow the conference on Twitter, Facebook, & Linked-In by searching for the #FEDTCPACNY.     We are looking forward to teaming with Peter and Greg to do our presentation on Wednesday and hope all of you will join us!

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Wednesday, February 14, 2018

13 Days Till PACNY's 22nd Annual Environmental Conference!

Here we are again!  The Professional Abatement Contractors of New York's (PACNY's) 22nd Annual Environmental Conference is 13 days away.  As usual, we are excited for the conference and looking forward to going to Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York to hear some presentations, gamble a bit, and enjoy some great networking.  We are sponsoring the conference, again.  So come visit Future Environment Design's (FEDTC) at booth 18!  Ms. Sheryl Esposito will be womaning the booth!  As we have done in the past, we will be tweeting the conference live at twitter.com/angelogarcia3 with the hastag #FEDTCPACNY on Twitter.  There are some exciting presentations we look forward to hearing, this year!

Long Island is Usually Represented by Some Entertaining Characters! 
Linda Reinstein, President & Co-Founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization and the Global Ban Asbestos Network, presentation on Thursday, March 1, 2018, is the keynote speaker.  She is inspiring and we are looking forward to hearing an update about the ban of asbestos under the current administration.  Mr. James Meacham, of the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL), presentation on Wednesday, February 28, 2018, "Solving the Mystery of the ACB" sounds intriguing.  Considering all the problems we have experienced on Long Island (Clemente Park & Dix Hills) with the dumping of asbestos and other hazardous materials, Richard Clarkson, of New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), presentation on Thursday, March 1, 2018, on "Part 360 Revisions and Solid Waste Regulations" should be very interesting!  On the same day, Mr. Adam Andrews, of the American Council of Accredited Certifications (ACAC), presentation on "The Advantages of Certification for Indoor Air Quality" will give us a different perspective.  Mr. Bob Krell of IAQ Technologies and Healthy Indoors Magazine, presentation "Avoiding Potential Pitfalls of Mold Investigations and Remediation Projects" will close out Thursday.  Leading us into the cocktail reception in the exhibitor hall.

Cocktail Reception in the Exhibitor Hall
The final day of the conference typically starts with a presentation before NYSDOL's panel and round table discussion.  This year, we are looking forward to hearing AAC's Peter DeLucia's presentation on "Managing the Many Facets of the Silica in the Construction Standard".  It will be interesting to hear how a contractor is dealing with this new standard that went into effect in September 2017.  The conference will close out with the Panel from the NYSDOL featuring Dr, Eileen Franco, Director; Mr. James Meacham, PE, Program Manager; Ed Smith, PE, Engineering Services Unit; & Mr. Kirk Fisher, Licensing & Certification Unit.  They will be giving us an update on what they are doing and an opportunity to ask questions.  If you wish to attend you can register for the conference at PACNY's website.  We look forward to seeing you there.  It always a good time!

Yes it is!
   

Sunday, February 22, 2015

All Eyes Turn To Turning Stone Casino For PACNY's 19th Annual Environmental Conference

This week is the Professional Abatement Contractors of New York's (PACNY's) 19th Annual Environmental Conference.  The conference is being held at Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York from Wednesday, February 25 through Friday, February 27th.  The conference is New York's premier conference for the abatement and remediation industries.  Like most conferences it consists of meetings and a vendor hall.  Unlike other conferences, regulators usually participate and are the main speakers at the event.  Find the registration form here.  

Turning Stone Casino is a Beautiful Casino
Future Environment Designs (FED) is again sponsoring the event, find our booth in the vendor hall staffed by Ms. Kimberly Granmoe & Ms. Sheryl Esposito, you met both of them last year.  The ladies will help you get our new app for Negative Air Calculations and a parting gift.  If you can't make the event, we will be posting updates on our Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/angelogarcia3) with the hashtag #FEDTCPACNY.

FED's Booth in the Vendor Hall

Last year, the conference expanded to three days, adding the Proficiency Day designed primarily for training providers.  This year PACNY has expanded it to include other proficiency topics.  In addition to Mr. Kevin Malone of New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) speaking on the training regulations, Mr. Andy Oberta & Mr. Sean Hart will be speaking on the asbestos visual inspection standard American Society of Testing Materials (ASTM) E1368; and Ms. Diana Wolgemuth of Dale Carnegie speaking on "Incorporating the Human Element into our Business."

The Long Island Contingent for PACNY Last Year.

Technical sessions on the second day this year will include discussions on vermiculite, the new mold regulations, asbestos abatement, understanding ASTM D7886, and "Industrial Hygiene Lessons Learned from the World Trade Center Disaster."  Opening speaker will be Ms. Linda Reinstein of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO).  Other speakers include: Mr. Brent Kynoch of the Environmental Information Association (EIA); Mr. Christopher Alonge (is Back!) from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY); Matthew Darin from Bluepoint Environmental; Matt Sanchez from RJ Lee (guess what he will be talking about?); Dr. Marty Rutstein; Dr. Barry Castleman; Mr. Andy Oberta of the Environmental Consultancy; & Mr. Jack Springston of TRC Environmental Corp.  All should be great presenters with great topics!

Last Year's Regulatory Day

The final day of the conference is usually Regulation day.  It will start with Mr. Ed Cahill from EMSL (guess what he will be speaking on?).  It will then move to a roundtable consisting of asbestos and mold representatives from New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) from the engineering, enforcement, & legal divisions led by Dr. Eileen Franko, who is always entertaining and hopefully not offended this year.  For more details about the conference you can find the conference flyer here.  The conference is always fun and a great networking event.  The Cocktail Hour on the second day happens in the Vendor Hall and Wednesday night President's reception features Dan the Magic Man!  Hope to see you there!  Come by our booth and say hello.

Friday, March 21, 2014

PACNY's Three Day Environmental Conference A Success!

Almost from the beginning, this year's Professional Abatement Contractors of New York (PACNY) Environmental Conference seemed to be different from previous years.  There was a certain buzz about the conference even downstate.  Usually, we are the only one discussing the conference.  However, this year we found several people discussing the conference and several others saying they were attending at least the first day of the conference.  Well that buzz definitely turned into a well attended conference.  The new Wednesday session had 70 attendees with 30-40% of them staying for an additional day.  The total conference attendance was up 50% and the exhibit hall was at full capacity which was 18% increase over last year.  We always have fun at these events, and this year was no different.

View from the Tower at Turning Stone Resort & Casino
The venue, Turning Stone Resort & Casino actually improved over last year with some new restaurant choices.  TS Steakhouse was fantastic, the Tin Rooster a barbeque restaurant was very good, and the Upstate Tavern specializing in locally sourced food and drinks was excellent.

Annual Certificates/Students Slide from Mr. Malone's Presentation
The new first day of the conference, was advertised for training providers and trainers, featuring Mr. Kevin Malone, Director of the Asbestos Safety Training Program.  The session started with Mr. Darren Yehl & Mr. Kevin Hutton from Cornerstone Training discussing "What are we telling our clients?".  This discussion featured audience participation with a Classroom Performance System  that allowed the audience to answer the questions on the screen and then tallied the results.   This session definitely determined one thing, the information provided in training is all over the place.  Based on the responses it would seem that the trainers need training.  This was probably very eye-opening for Mr. Malone.   Mr. Bill Self's presentation "High Impact Presentations" definitely gave us a lot to think about and had us thinking how we can improve our presentations.  Mr. Malone's presentation was informative and it was interesting seeing the asbestos training business increasing (it is our opinion the increase is coming from those retiring out of the asbestos industry and having to replace them).  It was also interesting, however, though not unexpected how few asbestos management planners there are (for 2013, there were 24 initials and 134 refreshers in the management planner title.  Compare that to 101 initials and 333 refreshers in the inspector title).
 
Dave Pannucci of Seneca Meadows Landfill
The next two days was the typical Environmental Conference and the presenters/presentations were all informative and some were more entertaining than others.  The first presenter was Mr. Craig Benedict, Assistant US Attorney in the Northern District of New York discussing some of the various asbestos related cases (100 prosecutions over 15 years) and the process of investigating environmental crimes (the cases are won before the trial even happens).  Why is it when he talks you feel like crawling under the table?  Mr. Dave Pannucci's, of Seneca Meadows Landfill, presentation regarding the handling of friable and nonfriable asbestos waste was very interesting since we don't usually hear about how asbestos is handled at the landfill. Dr. Marty Rutstein's, from New Paltz Geology Department, presentation "All About Amphiboles" was very interesting and helped us realize how the science has progressed so far ahead of the regulations in this industry.  His discussion on transitional fibers and bio-reactivity of fibers were eye opening.  Mr. Tom Stebbin's, of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York, presentation regarding the scaffold law was very interesting and the statistics are very compelling.  Though we would agree with some in the audience who thought for such a controversial issue it would've been nice to hear from someone from the counter point.  Mr. Tom Laubenthal, from the Environmental Institute, discussed "Methods for Asbestos Sampling & Analytical" who dropped a bomb shell regarding the minimum volume for clearance sampling under the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) 7400 methodology being between 3,000 to 10,000 liters based on loading.  The final presentation was Mr. Steve Fess from Xerox discussing "Getting Your Foot in the Door" providing a private client's perspective of developing lasting partnership with customers.

Roundtable Discussion
The second day started with Mr. Paul Watson, of the Center for Toxicology & Environmental Health, presenting "A Regulatory Update in Renovation, Restoration, & Abatement" discussing the new silica standard (the proposed new action level of 25 micrograms/cubic meter and permissible exposure limit of 50 micrograms per cubic meter) and other things on the horizon.  Unfortunately, because of the weather Dr. Barry Castleman could not make it, so Dr. Marty Rutstein replaced with a presentation "Are We Hugging the Trees to Death", which was funny and entertaining.  The Roundtable Discussion added levity with a fictional contractor defending some of the data we were discussing.  The final presenter was Dr. Eileen Franko (hopefully we spelled that right) the Director for the Division of Safety and Health with the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL).  Dr. Franko discussed the NYSDOL's initiative to educate code enforcement officers across the state, their attempt to remove the 1974 cut off in the Industrial Code Rule 56, and changes to the notice of violation system (including considerations for history, gravity, & good faith).

Moonglo Light at the DiVal Booth in Exhibit Hall
The Exhibit Hall was sold out this year, and the Thursday night reception and networking allowed us to discuss the conference with some of the new people who attended the conference.  We were glad to hear that almost all were impressed with the conference and enjoyed all parts of the event.  In addition, in the Exhibit Hall we enjoyed seeing all the usual equipment and some new equipment that is available from Aramsco, DiVal Safety, The Safety House, Grayling Industries, The Duke Company, Admar Supply Company, Fiberlock Technologies, Inline Distribution, Novatek Corporation, and Vermeer.  Honeywell Safety Product's booth was interesting with all the different safety equipment they supply (we thought Honeywell was a security and energy company).  We thank all of you who came by our booth and introduced yourself to Ms. Kimberly Granmoe and Ms. Sheryl Esposito who were handling our booth duties.  A big Thank You to Ms. Granmoe & Ms. Esposito for adding a woman's touch to our booth and helping us spend more time meeting and talking with the attendees.  PACNY should be very happy with the success of this year's event.  Though, the bar has been set very high in trying to make next year's event even better.  For more photos from the Conference visit Future Environment Design's Picasaweb Album.
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