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President of
SRC resigns
By Dave Tobin
Staff writer
Robert Behler, president
and CEO for defense con-
tractor SRC Inc, resigned
Thursday, after five months
on the job.
He ten-
dered his
resigna-
tion ‘‘for
personal
reasons,’’
at an SRC
quarterly
board
meeting,
Behler said Lisa
Mondello, SRC’s spokes-
woman.
SRC board members are
meeting today at which
they will discuss plans for a
replacement, Mondello
said.
Behler, 63, could not be
reached for comment.
A retired Air Force major
general, Behler took the
helm at the Cicero-based
defense company Dec. 1.
He came to the company
after a long executive
search to replace Bob Rob-
erts, SRC’s president and
CEO of 19 years.
In an interview after he
took over, he said SRC
sought him out.
Behler spent 31 years in
the military, another seven
in government and federally
funded defense research
centers. He had worked as a
spy plane pilot; an Air
Force liaison to the U.S.
Senate; deputy commander
of NATO Joint Command
in Norway; and commander
of Air Force Command and
Control and Intelligence,
Surveillance and Recon-
naissance Center at Lan-
gley, Va.
SRC has 1,200 employ-
ees, about 800 locally. In
the past decade, SRC
earned revenue of at least
$3 billion, nearly all of it
through defense contracts.
It’s official: April
is the wettest ever
There hasn’t been a wet-
ter April than this one, at
least not since the National
Weather Service put instru-
ments at the airport more
than 60 years ago.
By 5 p.m. Thursday, in-
struments at Syracuse Han-
cock International Airport
recorded 0.59 inches of rain
for the day, bringing the
total precipitation for the
month — with two days
and seven hours left to go
— to 8.53 inches.
The previous record for
April — 8.12 inches —
stood for 35 years.
Nearly all the month’s
precipitation came as rain,
but two days — April 5 and
21 — saw snow.
Earth Day cleanup
set this weekend
The annual Earth Day
cleanup sponsored by
Onondaga County Resource
Recovery Agency is today
and Saturday.
More than 8,000 volun-
teers around Onondaga
County will gather to pick
up trash throughout the
area.
More than 1.8 million
pounds of trash has been
collected since this program
began in 1991.
Another 110 Gang
member pleads guilty
A 21-year-old Syracuse
man has pleaded guilty to
racketeering charges as a
member of the 110 Gang,
the U.S. attorney in Syra-
cuse said.
Quashawn Blunt ad-
mitted he was part of the
gang that distributed crack
cocaine and used violence
to maintain its territory,
according to a release from
U.S. Attorney Richard Har-
tunian.
Blunt could be sentenced
to life in prison and fined
$250,000. He is the 11th
member of the gang to
plead guilty, the release
said.
— Staff reports
the newsroom
newsroom
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news
Paradise Market closing for the summer
Zazzara family says
business slows to a crawl
in warm weather.
By Bob Niedt
Staff writer
Paradise Market in DeWitt
is ‘‘transitioning to a seasonal
business’’ and will be closed
throughout the traditional sum-
mer season, the family who
owns it says.
‘‘We will be closed Memo-
rial Day weekend and Labor
Day weekend and every week-
end between,’’ said Grazi Zaz-
zara Jr., whose family owns
Paradise Market and the larger
Paradise Plaza on Erie Boule-
vard East.
Paradise Market opened as
RAY RINALDI works with 15-year-old Isiah Emerson at the West Area Athletic and Education Center on South
Geddes Street in Syracuse. The boxing gym and its counterpart on the North Side were slated to receive a $20,000
grant to provide youth services, which could be in jeopardy because of federal budget cuts.
City Loses $1M from Grant
Federal cuts
mean less
community
development
By Tim Knauss
Staff writer
More than two dozen
nonprofit agencies cele-
brated in February when
Syracuse officials chose
them to receive funds from
the city’s federal Commu-
nity Development Block
Grant, which was expected
to be nearly $7 million.
But because of federal
budget cuts this month, the
city’s annual CDBG funding
has been slashed by more
than $1 million. Now, Syra-
cuse officials face the un-
pleasant task of withdrawing
some of the local grants they
approved two months ago.
In the next week or so,
city officials must retract
$923,000 of what they
awarded to nonprofit
groups. Paul Driscoll, com-
missioner of neighborhood
and business development,
said he has warned the agen-
cies that cuts are coming.
But community groups
are not the only ones that
have to worry. At least 24
employees at City Hall are
paid, in whole or in part,
from the city’s CDBG allo-
cation. They include hous-
ing specialists, planners,
business developers and
lawyers, among others.
Driscoll said he hopes to
avoid layoffs but hasn’t yet
figured out how to make up
$195,000 in administrative
funds to be cut from the
CDBG program. His first
choice will be to cut the
number of outside contracts,
such as those with architects
who assess historic proper-
ties.
‘‘People are nervous,’’
Driscoll said. ‘‘Layoffs are a
possibility. That’s just a fact
of the situation we’re in.’’
LOC AL
an indoor weekends-only mar-
ketplace in February 2010,
serving as a venue for 150 to
200 vendors. It operated in
summer 2010.
The Zazzara family pur-
chased the former Hechinger
Plaza in 2009. It had sat most-
ly empty for years while Wal-
mart had an option to build a
Supercenter. When Walmart
decided not to do that, the Zaz-
zaras, who are real estate de-
velopers, purchased it.
They repaired and upgraded
the long-empty Hechinger
store and made it into Paradise
Market. Shoppers said it was
similar to the Regional Mar-
ket, but with small vendors
selling only new items.
It grew to 200 vendors sell-
‘‘COACH JOHN’’ LAUTORE demonstrates the correct way to jab at the West Area Ath-
letic and Education Center on South Geddes Street in Syracuse.
To see a photo
gallery of the West
Area Athletic and
Education Center,
go to syracuse.
com/photos. To
watch a video, go
to syracuse.com/
videos.
Earlier this month, Con-
gress and President Barack housing, which is the prima-
Obama agreed to cut $38
billion in federal spending
through Sept. 30. The U.S.
Department of Housing and
Urban Development then
notified municipalities that housing development, home
their CDBG funding would improvement and homeow-
be cut 16.5 percent.
In Syracuse’s case, that
translated into a loss of
more than $1 million. The
$5.8 million in CDBG fund- gram operated by PEACE
ing this year is the lowest in Inc. received $10,000, for
memory, Driscoll said. Dur- example. Two boxing gyms,
ing the program’s heyday,
the city received as much as Education Center and its af-
$15 million, he said.
Because federal block
grants are based on a year
that begins May 1, Syracuse
officials had just finished
ing a wide array of goods and
food. Earlier this year, Five
Guys Burgers and Fries
opened its second Onondaga
County location in Paradise
Plaza.
Zazzara said business slows
to a crawl at indoor market-
places in Upstate New York in
the summer.
‘‘Syracuse has so few
months of the year with warm
weather, maybe coming inside
and shopping is not the thing
to do,’’ Zazzara said. ‘‘Fortu-
nately, with all the bad weath-
er we get here, we’ll be good
nine months out of the year.’’
Another factor, said Zazza-
ra, is many of the vendors sell
at outdoor fairs and festivals
and cannot afford to operate
Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-Standard
Stephen D. Cannerelli / The Post-Standard
plans for this year’s money
when news of the budget
cuts arrived.
Under a CDBG plan ap-
proved by the Common
Council two months ago —
after weeks of preparation
and public hearings — about
25 nonprofits were designat-
ed for funding.
The biggest recipients
were agencies that improve
ry mission of the CDBG
program. Home HeadQuar-
ters, for example, was
awarded more than $2 mil-
lion for programs such as
nership services.
Syracuse awarded smaller
grants to a variety of human
service agencies. The Big
Brothers Big Sisters pro-
the North Area Athletic and
filiate on the West Side, re-
ceived a total of $20,000 to
provide youth services.
Although such programs
have little to do with hous-
Friday, April 29, 2011 THE POST-STANDARD
INSIDE
CNY group will speak to U.S.
Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle today
about Social Security. A-4
two locations.
News of the summer shut-
down caught at least one of the
Paradise Market vendors by
surprise Thursday.
‘‘It’s the first time I heard
that mentioned,’’ said Michael
Speach, owner of The Speach
Family Candy Shoppe, when
told of the Zazzaras’ change in
tactics.
Speach operates a consign-
ment stand at Paradise Market.
He said Paradise could use
some changes.
‘‘I’ve been there a few
months now, and it’s pretty ap-
parent there needs to be some-
thing to attract more (custom-
ers),’’ said Speach. ‘‘I always
thought the idea of this was re-
ally great. Everything is a
ing, they are highly regarded
in the community and often
have strong support from
city councilors.
‘‘I work with kids at risk,
to keep them off the street,’’
said Ray Rinaldi, who runs
the boxing gyms. ‘‘Boxing
is just the hook.’’
The Common Council
voted to approve the initial
CDBG budget, but a second
vote is not necessary to
amend it, Driscoll said. Nev-
ertheless, he has been dis-
cussing potential cuts with
councilors and has encour-
aged them to hold a commit-
tee meeting if they want to
discuss the cuts publicly.
As of Thursday, no com-
mittee meeting had been
scheduled, councilors said.
Driscoll said he hopes to
notify community groups of
their funding status by next
week. In the meantime, he
has given this advice:
‘‘Don’t spend the money
yet,’’ he said.
Contact Tim Knauss at
tknauss@syracuse.com or
470-3023.
PAGE A-3
work in progress. Maybe mak-
ing it limited will make it
more of an attraction.’’
Paradise Market has pared
its number of vendors to 150,
said the Zazzaras.
Zazzara said ‘‘all of the ven-
dors will be keeping their stuff
here’’ in anticipation of the fall
reopening.
Business had been steady,
he said. The family plans to
book free entertainment for the
first 12 weeks after the market
reopens.
‘‘We’re hoping to get Para-
dise Market to a place where
people know it’s seasonal,’’
said Zazzara, ‘‘that when the
(state) Fair is over, the kids are
back in school, it’s time for
Paradise Market to reopen.’’
Ex-deputy
indicted
on sex
charges
Former Onondaga County
Sheriff’s deputy faces 36
counts related to sex with
underage boys.
By Jim O’Hara
Staff writer
A former Onondaga County
Sheriff’s deputy was indicted
Thursday on charges he abused
his position
as a law en-
forcement
officer to en-
gage in sex
with two un-
derage boys.
Alexander
Nicholson,
35, of 134
Dewey St., Nicholson
Syracuse, was indicted on 10
counts of second-degree crimi-
nal sexual act, 19 counts of
third-degree criminal sexual
act, four counts of official mis-
conduct, two counts of endan-
gering the welfare of a child
and one count of first-degree
unlawfully dealing with a
child.
Twenty-six of the charges
involve allegations Nicholson
engaged in acts of oral and
anal sex with one boy from
July 2007 — when the victim
was 14 — through May 2010.
The charge of unlawfully deal-
ing with a child accuses Nich-
olson of providing alcohol to
the youth in June.
Three other sex charges in-
volve allegations Nicholson
engaged in sexual acts with a
second youth — who was
younger than 17 — during
May and June 2010.
Two of the official miscon-
duct charges accuse Nicholson
of misusing his position as a
deputy to engage in sex with
the two boys.
Another of the official mis-
conduct charges accuses Nich-
olson of handing his duty pis-
tol to the second youth
sometime between May and
August 2010. The fourth offi-
cial misconduct charge accuses
him of using a law enforce-
ment computer to obtain in-
formation about civilian per-
sonnel, which he then shared
with the second youth.
Nicholson, an eight-year
veteran of the sheriff’s depart-
ment, resigned in October as
authorities began investigating
the allegations he’d engaged in
a sexual relationship with the
14-year-boy.
It was in March that authori-
ties reported the second youth
— a 16-year-old — had come
forward with allegations.
Authorities have said the
sexual encounters with the
youths occurred while Nichol-
son was off duty.
The second-degree criminal
sexual act charges involving
the first victim are Class D fel-
onies carrying a maximum
penalty of up to seven years in
state prison. The third-degree
criminal sexual act charges are
Class E felonies carrying a
maximum penalty of up to four
years in prison.
The other charges are mis-
demeanors.