April 2025
OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY, April 8, 2025. The night will start at 5:00PM with a field trip meeting at the Canandaigua Water Treatment Plant with a tour of the plant with our host, Andrew Simmons. If you plan to go to this plant tour you must RSVP separately to President Sam Olney’s March 14th email.
Following the treatment plant tour, we will travel to Cheap Charlies in Bloomfield for dinner and a question-and-answer session with Andrew Simmons. Andrew has also promised to provide an overview of the plant process for those who were unable to attend the plant tour.
Dinner followed by the Q&A is scheduled to start at about 7:00 – 7:15 PM. If you plan to attend DINNER at Cheap Charlies, please RSVP by responding to this EMAIL, ASAP or NO LATER THAN 5:00PM, MONDAY, March 31st 2025.
THE COST OF THE MEAL IS $30.00*, which is preferred to be paid by personal check (payable to “Bloomfield Scientific Club”).
Once again Cheap Charlie’s will have a dedicated waitress to help provide us with an even better dinner experience and the chefs will continue to create custom buffet entrees for us.
Here is the evening’s menu for April 8th:
-Ham w/ Pineapple
-Deviled Egg Mac Salad
-Creamy Potatoes with chives & onions
-Honey Butter Glazed Carrots
-Carrot Cake Trifle
Our draft beer selections will be:
-Naked Dove Amber Ale
-Sam Adams Summer Ale
-Genesee 12 Horse
(We may have Genesee Ruby Red Kolsch on draft at that point as well). As it was last month, beer is available at a cost of $4 per glass. Remember to contribute to the “honesty box” by bringing your cash to partake!
Some information Andrew provided us with about himself, the plant operations and the tour:
I started working at the City of Canandaigua Water Treatment Plant in May of 2014 as an operator trainee. I graduated from SUNY Brockport in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in water resources. I then proceeded to get my associate’s degree in engineering from FLCC and Graduated in 2013. At that point I had enough school and started to look for a fulfilling job while I worked as a manager/ server at Simply Crepes and front staff at Macri’s Deli.
I am in my eleventh year working for the city. I spent eight years as an operator, was promoted to Assistant Chief Operator in year 8 and then promoted to Chief Operator in year 11. I currently sit on the Finger Lakes Water Work Conference board (FLWWC). FLWWC is a local group that puts together training for water plants of the Finger Lakes Communities. We are required to receive 30 hours of Continuing Education Units (CEU’s) every three years to maintain our license. I currently have a 1A operator license. The highest license you can achieve in NYS. I compete in Tops Ops. This is a competition of water knowledge with Jeopardy style questions. We have made it to Nationals 3 years in a row and hope to win our State competition in April to have another shot at nationals. I am on a team with the Chief Operator from the Penn Yan Water Treatment plant, Matt Fritz, and the Assistant Chief for the City of Albany Water Treatment Plant.
We have had and continue to have excellent staff here at the plant. The goal is to have operators with the highest level of knowledge. We encourage them to get the highest license they can achieve. The city will pay for this education. We currently have two 1A operators, myself and most tenured operator Eugene VanOpdorp. Eric Feistel is the Assistant Chief here and our main laboratory technician. Mark Goria is a 2A operator with 5 years’ experience and Kenneth “Chip” Wallace has been here for 4 years with a 2A license. We have hired a new operator to start late April.
The Water Plant produces water for 40,000 residents plus restaurants, hotels, Hospitals, the VA, manufacturing, and recreation. Our water serves the communities of the City of Canandaigua, Town of Canandaigua, Hopewell, Farmington, Village of East Bloomfield, Town of Manchester, Village of Manchester, all the way up to Hill Cumorah by the way of Wayne County Water Authority (WCWA). We treated 1.5 billion gallons of Canandaigua Lake water in 2024.
The Water Treatment Plant is located at 3772 West Lake Road Canandaigua NY 14424. The lower lot by the road has 9 parking spaces. The lake side(east) of the road can handle 4 or 5 cars. The upper parking lot in the back of the plant can handle a few more cars but they will have to walk to the lower building to start the tour.
Currently, Canandaigua Lake has 6 water treatment plants that provide water to their communities. City of Canandaigua, Bristol Harbor ( Fran also worked there), Newark, Palmyra, Gorham, and Rushville. So, it is not that uncommon. The way of the future seems to be Water Authorities as economy of scale can make the entire water process more efficient and less expensive.
The Water Plant was originally built by an electric company and sold to the city for $12,000 around 1900. Plant was upgraded and went online in 1979. This is the current version you will see. Current technologies include raw chlorine injection for taste and odor/pre-oxidant/zebra mussel control, Coagulation/Flocculation/Settling, Rapid sand filtration, addition of fluoride, Corrosion control with pH adjustment, and post Chlorination. We have 3 storage tanks on the hill that currently have a maximum capacity of 11 million gallons of water.
Thank you and don’t forget, RSVP for dinner!
March 2025
OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY, March 11, 2025 at Cheap Charlies in Bloomfield, starting at 5:30PM for cocktails (cash bar), beer (see below) and conversation, followed by the meeting, dinner and speaker at approximately 6:30PM.
If you plan to attend, please RSVP by responding to this EMAIL, ASAP or respond NO LATER THAN 5:00PM, MONDAY, March 3rd 2025.
Anyone interested in fishing, or the operation of a long-running multigenerational business are in for a treat! Our speaker for the evening will be Dierdre Stafford Stevenson, who will “tackle” (sorry I couldn’t resist!) “The Art of Spoonmaking” which is a mixture of history, how they make their spoons, and how it has changed, yet stayed the same.
A little about our speaker, Dierdre Stafford Stevenson :
Dierdre is the current owner of The Sutton Company, Manufacturer of Sutton Spoons in Naples NY. Dierdre is the third generation Stafford to own and operate the business.
Dierdre left Naples in 1979 to attend Roberts Wesleyan College, graduated in 1983, married her husband Dave in 1985, and remained in the Rochester area where she raised, and home educated her five children.
In 2014, Dierdre returned to working at The Sutton Company with her father Jim and inherited the business from him after his death in 2019.
As always it is important to get an accurate headcount for the restaurant to prepare enough food and have enough place settings. We expect another large crowd so please respond ASAP to assure yourself a seat.
THE COST OF THE MEAL IS $30.00*, which is preferred to be paid by personal check (payable to “Bloomfield Scientific Club”).
Once again Cheap Charlie’s will have a dedicated waitress to help provide us with an even better dinner experience and the chefs will continue to create custom buffet entrees for us.
For this meeting, Chef Brandon came up with a St. Patrick’s Day themed menu:
Corned Beef & Cabbage with Veggies
Beer Bread
Salad
Bailey’s Irish Buttercream Frosting Brownies
Seasonal beer options will be: Naked Dove (either be the Irish Ale or the Berry) and Sam Adams will likely still be the Cold Snap. Cheap Charlie’s may have another…they are in a transitional time of Beer options as the season is changing! As it was last month, beer is available at a cost of $4 per glass. Remember to contribute to the “honesty box” by bringing your cash to partake!
*Last month we started a new activity. At the suggestion of a Club member and with the cooperation of Cheap Charlie’s, President Sam proposed a take-home option of the leftover food on the buffet. There were eight “to-go” boxes prepared by our waitress and we sold them for $5 each. We plan to do this again this month. The boxes will be available, if people are interested, at the end of the meeting and after adjournment. There will be a short discussion under “New Business” for any comments or suggestions that you may have.
Thank you and don’t forget, RSVP!
February 2025
OUR NEXT MEETING WILL BE HELD ON TUESDAY, February 11, 2025. at Cheap Charlies in Bloomfield, starting at 5:30PM for cocktails (cash bar), beer (see below) and conversation, followed by the meeting and speaker at approximately 6:30PM.
Our speaker for the night will be Glenn Johnson, News10NBC First Alert Weather Team, Meteorologist who will speak about Meteorology and the weather in Rochester with a presentation entitled “Weather or Not: A comprehensive look at the unique weather of WNY from behind the camera”.
A little about our speaker, Glenn Johnson:
As a college student in 1985 at SUNY in Brockport, I turned a college internship into a career with television. Now, after 36 years, I have worked at two television stations and have been challenged with some of the most difficult and unique weather in the country. Joining the News10NBC First Alert Weather Team has been a great experience, and I am happy to say this latest adventure keeps me in Rochester.
I am a member of the American Meteorological Society and have been awarded their Seal of Approval for television weathercasting. I have also written weather columns for the Democrat and Chronicle newspaper and have been an adjunct instructor teaching Weather and Climate at Monroe Community College. In 2005, I was fortunate to be awarded the SUNY Brockport Award for Community Service.
My wife, Eileen, and I have two grown sons and live in Fairport. I am also very fortunate to have two grandchildren whom I hope to see as much as possible. In my spare time, I enjoy all sports and I’m a huge New York Yankee baseball fan.
E-mail him at GJohnson@whec.com.
If you plan to attend, please RSVP by responding to this EMAIL, ASAP or respond NO LATER THAN 5:00PM, Monday, February 4th,2025.
As always it is important to get an accurate headcount for the restaurant to prepare enough food and have enough place settings. We have had difficulty getting an accurate headcount so please, respond before the deadline of February 4th, 5:00PM!
If you RSVP to attend and for some reason you find you can’t make it, please let us know that too. It is easier to subtract seats than add them. We expect a large crowd so please respond ASAP to assure yourself a seat!
THE COST OF THE MEAL IS $30.00, which is preferred to be paid by personal check (payable to “Bloomfield Scientific Club”). Also BSC members, If you have not already done so, please pay your dues of $25.00.
Once again Cheap Charlie’s will have a dedicated waitress to help provide us with an even better dinner experience and the chefs will continue to create custom buffet entrees for us.
For this meeting, the menu Brandon & Melissa came up another special meal:
*Chicken Oscar (grilled chicken with a crabmeat bernaise sauce)
*Creamy Penne w/ Sausage & Sun-Dried Tomatoes
*Sliced Beef w/ Gravy
*Roasted cauliflower
*Homemade Mashed Potatoes
*Strawberry Shortcake for dessert
Seasonal beer options will be similar to last month, available at a cost of $4 per glass. To contribute to the “honesty box” remember to bring your cash to partake!
Thank you and don’t forget to RSVP, ASAP!
January 2025
AI Demystified: Your Personal and Professional Superpower
Our speaker for the night will be Brian Piper, the son of our esteemed club member, Travis Piper who will speak about artificial intelligence (AI).
Brian’s topic for the evening will be “AI Demystified: Your Personal and Professional Superpower”
In an era of constant change, artificial intelligence offers tools to empower your daily life and career. Whether you’re exploring new hobbies or maintaining your career, learn how AI can help you unlock new possibilities while understanding its challenges. Learn more about this technology that is leading us into the age of knowledge and gain an understanding of the risks and benefits that we will deal with in the future.
Some information on our speaker Brian Piper:
Brian Piper is the Director of Content Strategy and Assessment at the University of Rochester.
Brian is an author, award-winning international keynote speaker, consultant and AI enthusiast. Brian has been optimizing digital content since 1996. He has created online training programs for dozens of companies, including Xerox, L3Harris, IBM, and Volvo, and has spoken at hundreds of conferences and events.
Brian has spent the last eight years focusing on data analytics, digital marketing, and content strategy. Since 2021, he has been diving into AI, web3, community building, and the metaverse.
Brian wrote Epic Content Marketing for Higher Education and co-authored the second edition of Epic Content Marketing with Joe Pulizzi. He is a contributing author and co-editor of The Most Amazing Marketing Book Ever with Mark Schaefer and a contributing author of The Content Entrepreneur with Joe Pulizzi. Brian was named one of the top 10 higher education marketers to follow in 2023.
Brian is the host of the AI for U podcast which focuses on practical AI implementation and use cases in higher education institutions. He is also the chair of the Marcom AI Committee at the University.
When he’s not creating data visualizations, he teaches wingsuit skydiving and spends time with his wife and six children.
December 2024
Francis D.R. Coleman:
Mr. Coleman retired and moved to Bloomfield, NY in 2005. Since then, he served for several years as a member of the board of trustees of the Village of Bloomfield.
Francis currently serves on the board of trustees of the Bloomfield Public Library. He is a*co-founder of Ontario County Values, Inc, a not-for-profit local tax analysis company, and the Bloomfield Economic Discussion Group. (*With the late Bill Compton, former Supervisor of the Town of East Bloomfield.)
He volunteers with hospice in Ontario County. and his interests include painting, gardening, opera, history, and economics.
Before retiring, Mr. Coleman pursued careers in engineering and law.
Most recently, he served as Vice President – Law and Policy and General Counsel at GNR Ltd., the global registry for the Internet “.name” domain, headquartered in London,UK, as part of a senior management team brought in to successfully turn the company around with new marketing, financing and regulatory approvals.
Before joining GNR Ltd, Mr. Coleman served as Vice President – Regulatory Affairs for Mpower Communications, a competitive local exchange carrier based in Rochester, New York. He designed and implemented Mpower’s regulatory strategy at the FCC to provide local service nationally, while serving as the first chair of the United States Telecom Association’s CLEC Council in Washington, D.C.
Francis served for 3 years in Washington as Director of Regulatory Affairs – North America at ICO Global Communications, for its planned launch of 12 medium-earth-orbit satellites to provide voice and data service globally. He designed and implemented ICO’s regulatory strategies at the FCC in Washington, in Industry Canada in Ottawa, and at the European Commission in Brussels, to enable ICO’s planned multi-billion-dollar systems of satellites, earth stations, and global networks to compete in the US and Canadian markets. This strategy included novel approaches for satellite access to crowded spectrum, and a number of related
economic, technical, and legal matters.
Mr. Coleman had previously served for over 10 years as secretary and corporate counsel to ACC Corp., a publicly traded telecommunications holding company headquartered in Rochester, New York. He was in charge of ACC’s legal and regulatory affairs worldwide, specializing in identifying and overcoming barriers to entry in foreign markets, and he directed its efforts in the areas of corporate governance, regulatory compliance, acquisitions and dispositions, litigation management, and legal counseling.
He designed and implemented ACC’s successful international regulatory strategy in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and elsewhere. Other accomplishments include successfully negotiating and securing the world’s first international simple resale (ISR) license from the British Government and obtaining the first ISR license from the US Federal Communications Commission. These licenses permitted international service between the United States and the United Kingdom on leased lines exempt from settlement charges.
Mr. Coleman served for several years in the Law Department of the City of Rochester, specializing in economic development and the environment, after practicing law at the Chamberlain, D’Amanda firm in Rochester.
Prior to his career in law, Mr. Coleman was an engineer at Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. on Long Island, NY where he worked on the design of new aircraft and spacecraft including the Navy F-14 Tomcat fighter and the NASA Lunar Module.
Mr. Coleman is a founder of the Genesee Telephone Company, a non-wireline cellular telephone company, and Vehicare Inc, a supplier of on-site services to large vehicle fleets.
Mr. Coleman has three children and six grandchildren. He holds a BA in history from Franklin and Marshall College, a BAE in aeronautical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an MS in management engineering from Long Island University, and a JD in law from Cornell Law School.
November 2024
Our speaker on this night is our own Travis Piper, who will be talking about his experience and accomplishments in computer business career.
A little more about Travis Piper, our speaker:
From the Mainframe to the Phone – or – How I Survived 40 Years of the Evolution of the Computer
While Kodak was inventing the digital camera, Xerox was innovating Computer Based Training (CBT) on equipment never intended for that purpose. Starting with a pilot project in New York City, just 8 years later the company logged over 80,000 annual connect hours of training for administrative personnel on how to use their new computer terminals and how to do their jobs such as Order Entry, Billing, and Credit and Collections – no more trips to Leesburg for classroom training.
Our own Travis Piper was a key player in that evolution for not only Xerox, but he left Xerox in 1982 to start the world’s first custom Computer-based Training development company right here in Bloomfield.
As the computer industry evolved from the mainframe, so too did the company. The name was “Creative Approaches” and that’s what it took to keep up with the major changes from mainframe to PC, to DOS, IBM’s OS/2, Apple’s Windows, and running training programs from CDs and DVDs as storage technologies developed rapidly as well. Then there was the Internet and many, many changes again.
The firm’s early courses only ran on IBM mainframes and magnetic tapes were the vehicle for distributing the courses to new clients.
The last course being developed when Travis sold the firm in 2014 was designed to run on the cell phones of sales reps for a pharmaceutical firm.
That is a LOT of evolution. So, hang on tight and after I cover his Bio, Travis will tell us how he survived 40 years of computer evolution.
Bio:
Travis Piper was born in Los Angeles. The family moved to Ventura, California when he was five.
After graduating from UCLA as a Speech major and a stint in Vietnam in the Marine Corps, Travis was hired by Xerox in 1970 as an Equipment Control Manager at Western Region Headquarters in Santa Ana, California. He oversaw 12 administrators who received documents mailed in from the 16 Western Region Branches and prepared them for input into two IBM mainframe computers. There were keypunch cards and error registers everywhere. After a year and a half, he was transferred to the Anaheim branch to supervise the people who prepared the documents that were being sent to the Region. Then, another year and a half later he was transferred to Rochester as part of a Branch Data Entry task force for automating all field offices with computers.
Travis Piper was a key player in helping Xerox and other Fortune 500 companies cross the giant hurdle of putting a computer on the desk of every administrative employee using CBT as the onsite, on demand trainer. In 1982, in Bloomfield, New York, he formed the world’s first custom CBT development company which is still in business today.
October 2024
Michael Northrup, the Ontario County Republican Commissioner of Elections and Albert Magnan, the Ontario County Democratic Commissioner of Elections who will give a presentation about how elections in New York are run and the safeguards used to protect the vote. Our presenters will also talk about the mechanics of elections. The discussion will not be political but will be about all the steps required before and after the election to safeguard the accuracy of the vote.
A little information on our speakers:
**Mike Northrup, Republican Commissioner of Elections appointed to the Board of Elections March 1, 2000. Served as Chief of Staff to Assembly Member Craig Doran from February 1994 until December of 1999. Married to former Bloomfield resident, Karen Erdle with two adult children Ben and Taylor. Served as President of the NYS Election Commissioners’ Association in 2015-2016. Past Fire Chief and current Life Member of the Cheshire Volunteer Fire Department and Past Member of the Ontario County High Angle Rope Rescue Team.
**Democratic Commissioner A.J. Magnan moved to Ontario County in 2010 and was appointed to the Board of Elections on January 1, 2023. Prior to his appointment, he served as the senior Democratic elections technician and retired from the Ferro Corporation where he had worked as a maintenance and production supervisor. Originally from Waterford, Michigan, Commissioner Magnan moved to Ontario County with his family when he retired from a twenty-two year career as a U.S. Navy surface warfare officer. During his naval service, he led Sailors onboard four different warships, qualified and served as a Chief Engineer in nuclear powered ships, completed advanced education at the Fletcher School of Diplomacy (Tufts University) and Marine Corps Command & Staff College, and lived in eight different cities including Washington DC, Norfolk and Cairo, Egypt. Commissioner Magnan and his wife (Carrie) live in Bristol and two adult sons who live in Canandaigua and Albany.
June 2024
Yearly planning meeting with a discussion by Jack Kowiak who will speak on “The Whys of Genocide.”
May 2024
Dr. Robert Ryan – Optometrist – Associate Professor in Ophthalmology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and has lectured and published extensively on issues pertaining to anterior segment topics. He has participated as an FDA Clinical Investigator for many contact lens and pharmaceutical manufacturers in addition to providing consultative services.
April 2024
Dr. Art Reardon, Metallurgist. Metallurgy of steel tool alloys. This is a continuation of the past presentation that Dr. Reardon gave to the Bloomfield Scientific Club in October 2023.
March 2024
Camille Caceci, Invasive Species Project Coordinator, for the Finger Lakes Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (FL-PRISM).
February 2024
Meeting by Mercy Flight Central of Ontario County. Meeting to be held at Mercy Flight headquarters on Brickyard Road in Canandaigua, NY. A tour and a discussion of the intricacies of the lifesaving service.
January 2024
Dr. Joseph Rosenshein, Ophthalmologist, Inventor, and Groundhog Day Extraordinaire will discuss the social, philosophical and entertaining aspects of February 2nd and the Bill Murray movie, Groundhog Day.
December 2023
Chad Klotzsbach, owner of Alleghany Drainage Co., Basom, NY. Chad will be speaking about the history of changes in agricultural drainage practices in New York, current drainage and tiling techniques, and the future of the industry.
November 2023
Mr. James Paul Selph, a Certified Prosthetic Associate with the Hanger Clinic who will speak on “Lower Extremity Prosthetics.”
October 2023
Dr. Arthur C. Reardon who served as the corporate metallurgist for The Gleason Works in Rochester, New York and he will speak on the metallurgy of tool steels.