YOUR OBSERVER NEWS - SPORTS
SARASOTA THURSDAY, MAY. 19, 2016
Jen Blanco | Sports Editor
Food team keeps Sarasota Crew fueled on race day.
I’ve been eyeballing the setup for weeks.
Every time I venture out to Nathan Benderson Park to cover one of the rowing regattas, I can’t help but notice one tent in particular.
It’s roughly twice the size of the standard white tents allotted to each of the rowing clubs while they are in town for the weekend and sits back behind the rest.
Only it wasn’t the Sarasota Crew’s tent itself that caught my eye; it was the smorgasbord of fruit, breakfast pastries, pancakes, eggs and assorted breakfast meats blanketing the folding tables.
If I wasn’t hungry before, I definitely was now.
Who was responsible for all of this delicious food?
As I approached the tent, I saw Marc and Dawn Bukaty, the parents of Riverview senior and Crew rower Sierra Bukaty, manning the grill.
For the past two years, the couple have been part of the Crew’s culinary team, which is responsible for making sure roughly 180 rowers are properly fed and hydrated during each regatta.
The Crew’s food team, which consists of a food leader and at least six volunteers, not only prepares breakfast and lunch for regattas held at Nathan Benderson Park, but also the ones the Crew attends in Tampa, Orlando and other parts of the state.
“We get around a lot,” Marc Bukaty said.
With a food budget of $2,500, the Bukatys typically do their regatta grocery shopping on Wednesdays and immediately begin marinating meat and chopping vegetables.
So exactly how much food are we talking about?
A typical breakfast shopping list includes:
18 dozen eggs
15 pounds of sausage
10 pounds of breakfast ham
10 dozen bagels
6-7 dozen muffins
4-5 dozen granola bars
4-5 bags of oranges
A case of bananas and a case of apples
That doesn’t include the ingredients for fresh smoothies or lunch, both of which the food team also prepares on site.
“Not one thing is pre made,” Marc Bukaty said. “Rowers have to be in impeccable shape to be able to continue to exert that energy output. The winning teams all are in great shape, and the Sarasota Crew is know for that.”
The Bukatys and the rest of the food team arrive on-site at 5 a.m. and begins setting up tents, tables, serving dishes and firing up the grill.
Within an hour of their arrival, every member of the Crew will have been fed and sent off to warmup.
Once breakfast is completed, the food team begins cutting up fruit and preparing the day’s lunch, which that day happened to be chipotle bowls, complete with steak, chicken or hamburger, quinoa or rice and fresh salsa.
“The athletes burn so many calories, even when they’re not working out,” Marc Bukaty said. “They need instant carbs for the race itself and then they need to repeat that after the race.”
“It’s pretty exciting and neat that we’re able to give the kids that extra kick,” Dawn Bukaty said.
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The Sarasota Crew scored 1,164 points to capture the overall points trophy at the USRowing Southeast Youth Championships May 14-15, at Nathan Benderson Park.
In doing so, the Crew captured its fifth straight crown and qualified eight boats for the USRowing Youth National Championships, which will be held June 10-12, in New Jersey.
The Crew boys won the Varsity 8+ and the 4x. Additionally, the Crew boys qualified for nationals in the Lightweight 8+, the 4+, the 2x and the Lightweight 2x.
On the girls side, Sarasota will be represented at the national championships in the 4+ and Lightweight 8+.
The Sarasota Scullers also will advance to the national championships after qualifying three boats — both of its Women's Youth 2x boats and its Women's Youth 4x.ype your paragraph here.
Domestic Energy Production and Economic Development are interdependent.
Published on June 15, 2016
Like Domestic Energy Production and Economic Development are interdependent.
Marc Bukaty
Principal, Business & Corporate Development, Executive Sales and Team Management, M&A/PE Origination
Presently all forms of domestic energy production are important. This includes both green alternative energy sources (i.e. solar & wind) and yes, fossil fuels. U.S. E & P companies have been devastated by the year and half slide in crude oil and natural gas prices. With the drastic reduction to complete elimination of Capex in this sector, the toll in our nations oil and gas shale plays has been equally devastating to the host local economies and workers that built and serviced this sector. In North Dakota alone the April oil output fell to it's lowest level in history, just over 1.041 million bpd, coming from less than 30 operating rigs (down from 77 operating last year at this time) with almost 1,600 rigs sitting idle. One doesn't need to be a math scholar to understand the impact on more than 50% of the state's reliance on this once mighty economic development generator. For every one direct drilling job, there are 4 that support this in field services, transportation, home building, retail, and government services. Not many other sectors come close to the multiplier effect like that. So, when oil prices do achieve a $50-$60 range-bound stabilization, the extra 3-$5 to fill your gas tank is really re-starting an economic engine that will benefit us all, wholly in GDP growth and national security. Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't give credit to the economic development professionals that work tremendously hard to bring alternative energy manufacturing firms to the U.S. that bring capital investment and good paying jobs to their regions. One example being the western hemisphere's largest solar panel production plant under construction in Buffalo, NY. Those jobs are surely just as important as the E&P and support jobs that are critical to the Bakken, Marcellus, Ford-Eagle, and Permian Basin plays that will contribute to our nation's complete energy independence.
Buffalo Business First
Industrial power users pay high price for heat wave
Jun 14, 1999, 12:00am EDT
David TroesterBusiness First
A heat wave toasting the Northeast is causing power price increases for large industrial and institutional users in Western New York.
Niagara Mohawk Energy Marketing, an unregulated energy supply subsidiary of Niagara Mohawk Holdings Corp., reports recent pricing has soared from $44 a megawatt hour to nearly $240 during this past week. The price fluctuates hourly, but officials say extended heat and subsequent power usage for air-conditioning could hurt companies without a locked-in electricity price.
"There's probably two dozen in Western New York," said Marc Bukaty, industrial development manager for Niagara Mohawk Energy Marketing. Among them are Erie County Medical Center, Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Rath Building. He declined to identify industrial users. The above price hike would cost ECMC about $30,000 a day, Bukaty said.
"On an ongoing basis we always purchase additional power ... on the days that the power gets too expensive, we don't manufacture," said Michael Lynch, vice president of Ceres Corp., a cubic zirconia manufacturer in Wheatfield. Electricity is the company's largest expense.
Ceres has an allocation of electricity from the New York Power Authority Jobs for Power program, and buys additional power for increased manufacturing. It employs more than 80 in 70,000 square feet off Liberty Drive.
Expansion plans at Ceres could be affected by continued high power pricing.
"At this point if the power rates continue to go up it would curtail any expansion we do," Lynch said.
Ceres has considered entering a contract to lock in a fixed power price, but will not at the recent rates, Lynch said.
"The ones that haven't locked in may encounter some tough financial times during these summer months," Bukaty said.
Residential electricity users and small businesses will not be affected by recent power price surges because state tariffs cap their supply price.
"Most of the high prices are in open market areas and again it's driven by the basic laws of supply and demand," said Kenneth Klapp, spokesperson for the New York Power Pool, an association of the eight major utilities across the state.
Recent power load usage in New York has approached the all-time high of 28,700 megawatts reached in July 1997.
"That was in July and we're still in early June," Klapp said. "It's a very weather sensitive industry."
Marc Bukaty energy articles development
Crude drops 9% to breach $28, lowest in 10 years. Yet is this good news? Depends on who you are.
Published on February 9, 2016
Marc Bukaty
Principal, Business & Corporate Development, Executive Sales and Team Management, M&A/PE Origination
Upon near record volume, WTI crude oil traded down to $27.74 before a late day recovery to settle at $28.35. According to Jeffrey Gundlach, who runs DoubleLine Capital, "This is not a trader's market. It is a freight train that you want to stay in sync with." And "It's not a market to be flopping around in. The trends are relentless and powerful." True words indeed. The energy majors have cut their 2016 capex as the 75% price drop within the last two years has them adopting varying strategies to lead them out of the crisis. The top five world oil companies have reported sharp declines in profits these last few days. I have spoke with peers working domestically in the North Dakota Bakken Shale and Texas Delaware Basin and Permian Basin and not much new drilling as asset and human resources have been drastically cut, hurting both the labor force and local economies. However the larger players, Shell and BP have a longer outlook and include many large investments such as the largest energy sector deal of the decade by Shell in acquiring Britain's BG Group making it a leader in LNG facilities around the world, and BP's $12 billion investment in the West Nile Delta gas project in Egypt. For the rest of the non-sector players, home heating oil customers and every-day drivers will appreciate the low gasoline prices and put that extra money right back into the economy. But wait, studies show with the sub-$2 gasoline, people are not buying, but rather saving. That is a trend we all wish Washington would follow.
Marc Bukaty
Buffalo Business First
Full of energy
Oct 18, 1999, 12:00am EDT
David TroesterBusiness First
Weekends bring a favorite ritual for Marc Bukaty. He and his wife, Dawn, load their three young girls into the car and begin a festive quest. Through neighborhoods and down streets they travel to hamlets and towns in Western New York.
"We go looking for playgrounds," said Bukaty, industrial development manager for Niagara Mohawk Energy Marketing. "That's my favorite thing to do on the weekend, go playground hunting."
His favorite playground is in the Village of Hamburg.
"There's a spiral slide that's got to be 15-foot high. I mean, I like going to that one. It's such a riot," he said.
On the job
The 30-year-old Bukaty has equal enthusiasm for his job in developing and managing the supply and use of energy for industrial, commercial and apartment complex clients. He designs energy programs to best meet the needs of large electricity and natural gas users. He's responsible for energy commodity sales and energy portfolio management for key industrial and institutional customers in New York.
"What I ultimately try to do is provide energy solutions utilizing a commodity purchasing strategy," he said.
It calls for studying operations of individual clients and instituting new technologies to reduce energy usage.
"In essence, we're looking to lower the cost of energy as well as lower the amount of energy consumed," Bukaty said.
Systematic order
Organization is key to success. Bukaty tracks progress with each client and project via a large marker board on his office wall and compiles daily lists of things to do and people to contact.
"For the past 12 years, I have a record for business, who I talked to, and what we talked about and if there was an outcome so I can follow up," he said.
The system seems to work well. Bukaty checks off each item on the list as he accomplishes it.
"I analyze where I am in a particular project and then I prioritize all of the projects that I'm currently managing and then I'll write down who I need to call, what we need to discuss as well as action items," he said. "There's days that you feel you've accomplished a lot when you get to the end and you have 90 percent check marks on the list."
He tackles the least-favorite items first. "Because if you put them off 'til the end of the day then you kind of toil over it during the day. It kind of hangs over you all day until you get it done," he said.
A very, very, very fine house
Prior to working for Niagara Mohawk Energy Marketing, Bukaty was western region manager for economic development for New York State Electric and Gas Corp. He gave up his dream house, a three-level, four bedroom, log cabin he built in Ellicottville to take the NYSEG job.
"As I was building the house, because I was doing it myself, I would work on it from 4 or 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., and weekends," he said.
He began building in January 1994 and was married in August. His wife became pregnant soon after marriage.
"It was a race to get the house done before she delivered," Bukaty said.
In the rush, and because his townhouse lease expired, Bukaty finished one bedroom and a bathroom to relocate to the cabin. "I slept on a piece of plywood that was 2-foot-by-8-foot," he said.
Meanwhile, his wife moved into her parents' home in Hamburg and, in May 1995, delivered their first daughter, waiting for the cabin to be complete. A couple months later, Bukaty was joined by his wife and child in their new home -- for a month.
"She moved into the house in the end of July and we were out by August," he said.
NYSEG bought the house, resold it and relocated Bukaty to Hamburg as part of his hire deal. He later built a new home in Hamburg's Brierwood Estates.
"It's the alter ego of what the cabin was. It's a Georgian Colonial, but very formal, full brick front with white pillars. The interior is formal as opposed to a chalet style," he said.
Be sure
Bukaty isn't one to rush into things. He met his wife in high school and dated, and dated and dated.
"We dated 12 years," he said.
He focused on his career and furthering his education, working as a commercial and industrial Realtor for Spezio Development Corp. in Niagara Falls while attending Niagara University. He received a bachelor's degree in business commerce in 1993 and went on for a master's in international business and finance from St. Bonaventure University.
Fulfillment
Bukaty finds himself and his surroundings in contrast to the environment in which he grew up. His dad was an electrician.
"I was raised in a blue collar, union household," he said. "Growing up in a blue collar environment made it a very tough transition to break into a white collar atmosphere."
His parents, Edward and Patricia Bukaty, were very supportive, he said. He is the second of four children. He has two brothers and a sister. Having children of his own has changed his outlook.
"You learn what unconditional love is," he said. "Without the love and support of family and friends, success means nothing. I feel that you need to be kind, caring and giving to family and friends when things are good, because they're the only ones that will help you when things go bad.
Copyright © Marc Bukaty