www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | MAY 2016 21
MICHAEL HOPSICKER, president of Ray
Murray Inc., took on the role of president
of the New York Propane Gas Association
at the group's Spring Meeting, held at The
Desmond in Albany, N.Y., March 28-29.
Ray Murray Inc. is headquartered in Lee,
Mass., but it has operations in New York
State. Hopsicker succeeds Rick Cummings
of Mulhern Gas Co. in Hudson, N.Y.
Attendees numbered 207, a robust
figure, reported Shane Sweet, executive
and technical director of the NYPGA.
Online marketing was the subject of a pre-
sentation by Ben Gutkin, vice president,
marketing services for Warm Thoughts
Communications, a marketing company
based in Clifton, N.J., and jurisdictional
propane accounts were the subject of a
talk by Ed Anderson of LP-Gas Training
& Consulting, Keene, N.H., that drew an
attentive audience, Sweet said. Before that,
Roger Rosenbaum of Brand News Team,
Rhinebeck, N.Y., piloted a drone around
the conference room at The Desmond, and
played a promotional video that he had
produced, using a camera mounted on the
drone, for Mulhern Gas in Hudson, N.Y.
Greg Burns, director of channel devel-
opment for Renew Financial, based in
Allentown, Pa., explained how the com-
pany, through a public/private partnership,
helps homeowners and contractors in New
York State by providing fixed, low-interest
loans for projects including emergency
HVAC replacements and comprehensive
home efficiency retrofits.
Burns offered the example of a home-
owner in need of financing for an $8,000
heating equipment installation, a sum that
Burns said fell into a financing "twilight
zone" between $1,000 and $25,000—"too
big for a credit card, too small for a home
equity loan." The public/private partner-
ship between Renew Financial and the
State of New York, called ReHome New
York, targets that range of financing so
that consumers can pay for such improve-
ments, which in turn helps support
local contractors, Burns said. For more
on ReHome New York, visit the website
rehomenewyork.com.
Renew Financial has similar private/
public partnerships in other states as well.
For more information visit the website
renewfinancial.com.
Charlie Ory, chairman of the National
Propane Gas Association, said in a speech
that the NPGA had scored legislative victories.
"We're proudest of PERC's enhance-
ment act, which allows us to get back
to promoting consumer education
through PERC," Ory told Fuel Oil News
in a phone interview a few days after the
after the meeting. PERC is the Propane
Education & Research Council, based in
Washington, D.C.
Further, "in a temporary transportation
bill we got a permanent decrease on the
motor fuel excise tax so that now propane
RICK
CUMMINGS
of Mulhern Gas
Co. in Hudson,
N.Y., shown at
the podium,
concluded his
term as president
of the New York
Propane Gas
Association. The
new president of
the association is Michael Hopsicker, presi-
dent of Ray Murray Inc. in Lee, Mass., with
operations in New York State and elsewhere.
PHOTO
BY
STEPHEN
BENNETT
NYPGA SPRING MEETING
Installation of a new president, financing opportunities for contractors and a
drone demonstration marked the New York group's gathering
BY STEPHEN BENNETT
