Cortland Standard .net

By COLLEEN SIUZDAK
Staff Reporter
csiuzdak@cortlandstandard.net
LAPEER — New business endeavors for Colorado-based business owner Matt Timmins brought him to Cortland County, where he is taking advantage of the surrounding areas the county has to offer.
“That’s why we’re coming out here ’cause there’s more trees,” said Timmins at the location in Lapeer.
Automated Biomass Systems is located in what was previously Forkey Construction and Fabrication Inc. in Lapeer, which completed its move to Cortlandville in November.
Forkey moved into the vacant BorgWarner Morse TEC building on Luker Road.
BorgWarner moved its powdered metal operations out of the building in 2012.
Automated Biomass Systems builds the machines that are sold to companies that provide wood materials as an energy alternative to fuel and gas.
Some machines Timmins has to offer would grind and shave wood materials for these companies. He also plans to design machines to wrap and bulk small fire logs.
Timmins officially started his business in October with two friends, Matt Dubitzky and Cody Hesse. The trio worked for a logging company back in Colorado and were tired of working in the woods six months out of the year.
“We’ve been building these machines for other people (on the weekends),” Timmins said. “(We said ‘we’re tired of logging, let’s build some equipment.’ So that’s kind of how we got started.”
Cortland County is only their second location, Timmins said, adding they picked the area because they were trying to start a market on the eastern side of the United States.
The vacant Forkey building was one of the biggest attractions to set up shop in Cortland County.
“If we were to build something, we would build something similar to this,” Timmins said, noting the building in Colorado measures 2,800 square feet compared to the Forkey facility, which is 37,000 square feet.
Forkey Vice President Charlie Forkey III said last week he thinks it is “exciting” that a new business will occupy his previous facility in Lapeer.
“I’m really happy to put some jobs back in the community in the Marathon area,” Forkey said, noting when he left the facility there were 80 employees working there. “I think it’ll be nice to have another company in that facility.”
Town Supervisor Gary Cornell said he is glad to hear a business is going into the old Forkey building and is possibly employing people from the county.
“As long as it’s not sitting empty, I think it’s a great thing to get a business back in there,” Cornell said Thursday morning. “I just wish them good luck.”
Timmins said when looking for a place, he reached out to all the business development offices, and was happy with how helpful the office in Cortland County was.
Garry VanGorder, executive director of Cortland County Business Development Corp., said he is glad a new business is moving into the old Forkey building
“To have the opportunity so soon to fill that building with a new company that will be hiring folks is great news,” VanGorder said. “So we were very happy about it.”
The addition of new jobs is also a plus for the county.
“New jobs are always good for the entire community so it’s a good thing for Cortland County,” VanGorder said.
Timmins said he hopes to start operations Thursday and hire 20 local people by the summer to make his business fully operational. He also has had some conversations with Onondaga-Cortland-Madison BOCES to see which students would have the skill level to work for their team.
“We’ve been really impressed with people around here,” he said. “(There’s) a lot more experienced people here. When you get to Colorado, there’s not.”
He said they were going to start out with a simple wood shavings machine and plan to expand designs and other types of machines from there.
“We’re somewhat ambitious ... who knows what’s going to happen in a year?” he said.
Automated Biomass Systems is located at 2235 Clarks Corners Road and can be reached at607-849-7800.