Month: May 2006
The following building permits were issued during the month of May 2006.
| AMHERST Amherst-Colonial Village LLC Amherst Commercial LTD Partnership Elysium LLC GPT-RG Amherst LLC Planet Beach Tanning Salon EAST LONGMEADOW Strawberries HOLYOKE Holyoke Mall Co. NORTHAMPTON City of Northampton | Guerra Claudio Cooley Dickinson Hospital Inc. Hampshire Franklin & Hampden Counties Service Properties Inc. SPRINGFIELD Salvation Army WEST SPRINGFIELD Famous Footwear |
Higher Education Must Remain ‘Affordable’
Community colleges across the country promise access to higher education at an affordable price. These two-year institutions are low in cost and high in value. They are academically supportive, offer flexible class schedules, and respond quickly to the needs of the surrounding community and its employers.
However, the first part of that promise – affordability – is endangered in Massachusetts.
A recent study by MassINC (the Mass. Institute for a New Commonwealth) reveals that the state’s enviable array of private four-year colleges are rapidly rising in price – with tuition now accounting for 33% of a family’s income, as opposed to 25% in 1992-93. Our four-year public colleges are reflecting a similar increase — from 18% to 21% of a family’s income.
As Massachusetts residents turn to community colleges, the traditionally most affordable sector of higher education, where more than half of our residents begin their college careers, they discover that these costs are also rising. For these students, who are often the first in their families to attend college, and generally hold down a part-time or even full-time job, any increase in fees can mean the difference between going to college and going without.
Community colleges are still an unbeatable value, frequently charging only one-tenth the cost of private colleges. Community colleges are the entry to rewarding careers and a low-cost foundation toward a bachelor’s degree.
At this crucial time for the Massachusetts economy — when large numbers of taxpayers are moving out of state for perceived better opportunities and when our innovation economy and current industry are dependent on educated employees — the governor and our Legislature must follow through on the plan to adequately support public higher education.
Our public higher education institutions, once described as state-supported, have for the past decade been more accurately described as state-assisted. Massachusetts, as a high-income state, has the ability to do more for public higher education, but actually ranks 49th in the country in per-capita support for its public institutions.
As a result of the significant decline in support, our annual state appropriation barely covers the cost of employee payroll. This leaves the colleges to find their own operating funds. One result is that maintenance is generally deferred – leaving power plants, buildings, and equipment to continue to deteriorate. And last year, our energy costs rose by a combined total of nearly $1 million at STCC, HCC, and GCC.
Our colleges have become more nimble and creative in pursuing grants and private funding. Capital and major gift campaigns, once the province of private institutions, are increasingly common at state institutions. And as a last resort, colleges have been forced to raise their fees, supplementing inadequate state aid by increasing direct costs to the group that can least afford them – our students. This trend must be reversed.
Our state legislators worked diligently this year to create a seven-year plan to fill the identified funding gap in our public institutions. A joint task force studied the needs for our state and drew up a comprehensive plan which, as the Public Higher Education bill, was passed by the House and moved to the Senate. We urge the Senate to meet the challenge of passing Bill 2380, to carry out this plan and adequately fund the institutions that represent the future success of our young people and our commonwealth.
“Higher education is the gateway to the American dream,” says Ian Bowles, president and CEO of MassINC. “But its cost is accelerating much faster than income … as a region that is struggling with a high cost of living and the out-migration of young families, we should make this challenge a priority.”-
Robert Pura is president of Greenfield Community College, and chairman of the Massachusetts Community Colleges Presidents’ Council; William Messner is president of Holyoke Community College; Ira H. Rubenzahl is president of Springfield Technical Community College
We’ll admit, we had doubts — many of them.
A resort spa? In Belchertown? At the old state school site?
The concept sounded intriguing, but also somewhat far-fetched, given the geography — Belchertown isn’t easy to get to from anywhere — and also the town’s struggles to find a workable game plan for the school grounds, which have been decaying since the facility closed in 1992. People were talking about everything from a jail to a national music center. But it was all talk.
Roughly two years after the resort spa idea was first put on the table, however plans are coming together for what is to be the largest private development in Western or Central Mass. — ever, with a pricetag that could approach $150 million. A purchase–and–sale agreement on the property was inked last week, another important milestone in the development of the 400-acre site by a Chicago-based outfit called Bridgeland Development, LLC.
The company was formed by Paul McDermott, who has extensive experience working on large-scale developments of this type. His resume includes work on the redevelopment of the Glenview Naval Air Station in Illinois, a $1 billion project; another base-closure redevelopment at the Orlando Naval Training Center; and ongoing development of a 1,200-acre site on the grounds of closed a textile mill complex in Rock Hill, S.C.
McDermott will call on all of those experiences as he develops a vision for the Belchertown State School property, which is a blank canvas that he is starting to color in.
Watching the project take shape will likely be an exciting spectator sport in the Pioneer Valley, although many will do much more than sit and watch. Indeed, the project appears to have captured the imagination of residents and business owners across the region, and if that energy is channeled into the venture, what is now being called the Quabbin Resort Development could be a real spark for this area.
And as we’ve said many times, the region needs one. There hasn’t been much in the way of economic development in the area over the past decade or so, and relatively few new jobs have been added. Instead, many businesses — and people — have left.
Regional economic development leaders are working with their counterparts in Connecticut to market the stretch between Hartford and Amherst as one economic market, known as the Knowledge Corridor. The two states hope to take advantage of the many colleges and universities in the ‘corridor’ and their graduates to lure companies across several sectors. Thus far, it hasn’t happened, and people are still talking about ‘potential’ and the future.
That’s why the Belchertown project is so intriguing — and important; it’s happening.
Plans are still preliminary, but the Quabbin Resort Development could include a destination resort spa with related, wellness-oriented businesses and attractions. The planned mix — again, a work in progress — could include everything from a hotel to an equestrian center; restaurants to hiking trails; senior housing to a micro brewery.
But could it really happen? In Belchertown?
McDermott certainly things so, and his resume and track record show that he can, indeed, take massive, highly complex projects from the drawing board to reality. He believes he can put the pieces together, as evidenced by his company’s financial commitment to the venture.
McDermott told BusinessWest recently that these large-scale development projects succeed through the creation of momentum. It starts with a few key players getting involved, he explained, and soon, as the picture comes together, other parties want to become part of something exciting. It happened in Illinois, at ‘The Glen’ development, and it is happening in Eastern Mass. with the ongoing redevelopment of Fort Devens.
The Quabbin Resort Development has a very long way to go. It will take years, perhaps a decade or more for the vision to completely shape. And who knows what the market will deem economically viable for that site.
But the project has already succeeding in capturing the region’s imagination, and prompting people to think about what can happen in the Pioneer Valley — not what can’t, or probably won’t, happen.
We could use some more of that around here.-
Franklin County’s Manufacturing Scene Remains Healthy and Diverse
Kathie Williams makes delectable treats at her family’s business,
Betsy Peck knows a little about heritage, running a business with her husband, Stephen, that has been in their family for 150 years.
“Our original product was a wood hay rake,” said Betsy, CFO of Rugg Manufacturing in Greenfield. She noted with pride that Rugg still makes similar rakes, along with a wide variety of other tools, such as snow shovels with patented ‘back-saver’ handles – a concept that has been imitated by other shovel makers, but which actually originated at Rugg.
“We’re always looking for new ideas – good, solid ideas, not something flash-in-the-pan that will fade away,” she said. “Something that will help people do a job.”
As a company with a long heritage and largely unchanged product line, Rugg represents just one small piece of a healthy manufacturing scene in Franklin County – one that doesn’t always get the attention it deserves.
Yes, attrition has harried this rural section of Massachusetts as it has everywhere else; there are certainly fewer manufacturers in business today in Greenfield, Deerfield, and surrounding towns than there were a decade ago. But the companies that remain are not only wildly diverse – producing everything from snow shovels and fishing rods to paper and candy – but they have found ways to overcome the challenges facing domestic manufacturers in the 21st century, and even continue to grow despite those obstacles.
“Survival forces you to make certain decisions, and a lot of people don’t survive,” said Kurt Zanner, president and COO of Lamson Goodnow, a Shelburne Falls-based maker of cutlery and kitchen implements. “Too many companies have tried to do things the same old way. They were afraid to take risks, so they didn’t survive.”
This issue, BusinessWest takes a look at a few Franklin County manufacturers that have stood the test of time – in several cases, more than a century – and have continued to be successful through foresight, creativity, and a willingness to change when necessary.
Cutting Edge
Lamson Goodnow has been making knives for the past 170 years, and for most of that time, the company’s main clientele was restaurants, hotels, and other food service providers. But corporate consolidation has eroded that customer base, and Zanner has long known that change was necessary.
“We’re basically a toolmaker, and we’ve always made tools for food services – and that’s still a big part of our business,” he said. “But about 20 years ago, we got more into making kitchen tools for consumers – knives, spatulas, any kind of kitchen instrument you would use to cook with – and now that’s the biggest part of our business.”
Until Zanner joined the company seven years ago, Lamson Goodnow manufactured all its cutlery and kitchen tools under the Lamson Sharp brand. But he has overseen an aggressive expansion in the product lines unprecedented in the company’s long history.
Specifically, Lamson Goodnow has added four other lines to its portfolio during the past six years: it acquired the Tree Spirit line of wood products and the Grind portfolio of stainless steel items, mostly pepper mills. Meanwhile, it created two other lines from within: the HotSpot collection of silicon tools and the TimberGrass line of bamboo items. Significantly, the company no longer manufactures all its products, but instead imports roughly two-thirds of them for distribution.
“When I came here, this was an old company doing a nice mix of business with one brand,” Zanner told BusinessWest. “Since then, we’ve greatly expanded our product assortment, and our customer base has grown as well.”
That’s just smart business, he said, in a manufacturing landscape that has become more challenging, even for long-established companies.
“It has become harder to expand as a U.S. manufacturer in a highly competitive category of business,” Zanner said. “Retailers – our customers – have become fewer and fewer because they’re consolidating, and more products are being imported, so it’s tougher to compete purely as a manufacturer.”
In addition, Zanner said, cutlery is a very specific product line that doesn’t lend itself to much gross-margin improvement; because of competition, Lamson Goodnow couldn’t raise prices. “So we had to find other ways to make money,” he said, which led not only to the development of new lines, but to the launch of two retail locations: a factory outlet store in Shelburne Falls four years ago and a comprehensive kitchen store in downtown Northampton, which just opened in May.
“As the oldest knife maker in the United States – and one of the only ones – we’re a dinosaur in many ways,” he added. “But we’ve figured out that the way to survive is to expand into other products, so we can gain additional customers and sell additional products to the customers we already have. In doing so, we’ve even expanded our labor force: we have fewer in manufacturing, but more overall.”
Sweet Success
Manufacturing of a different sort has created success in Deerfield for Kathie Williams and her parents, Barbara and Gordie Woodward. But they, too, have seen the value in adding a retail component.
The family became the third owners of Richardson’s Candy Kitchen 22 years ago, and since that time, they have seen some very positive shifts in the business landscape along Routes 5 and 10, where the company is located.
“When my parents first bought this business, summertime business was non-existent,” Williams said. “Since Yankee Candle took off, though, our summers are pretty vibrant.”
In fact, the tourist boom in the area – which encompasses businesses as varied as Magic Wings butterfly conservatory, Dr. Spooky’s Animal Museum, and the traditional collection of antique dealers – has pushed Richardson’s to change the way it does business. For example, the candy maker has bolstered its status as a tourist destination by creating space for visitors to watch candy being made. Launching ice cream sales this summer will further strengthen the on-site retail business.
“We get plenty of families in the summer – we’ll see them later in the day after they’ve visited other places,” Williams said. “We’ve seen pretty steady growth over the years, and when we added on two years ago, it gave us more space for customers to move around. People will even call us to ask if candy is being made.”
For some manufacturers, changing with the times means completely reassessing their traditional business model. For example, Erving Paper Mills has thrived in Erving for just over 100 years, making a name for itself with a wide variety of paper products, such as the printed napkins that have long been one of the company’s calling cards.
Paper production has always been a cyclical business, but as the past decade has ushered in both dramatic spikes in the cost of raw materials and tougher environmental regulations – not to mention stiffer competition against cheaper foreign goods – the company has been forced to become a leaner operation, now focusing almost exclusively on producing large paper rolls that are shipped to other manufacturers to create specific products.
According to president and CEO Morris Housen, the move will allow the company to invest aggressively in its paper mill – rebuilding aging infrastructure, upgrading equipment, and enhancing its recycling capabilities – in order to be better positioned for the next generation.
“In downsizing, we’ve been able to focus on the manufacturing of rolls of paper,” said general manager Thomas Newton, who conceded that even long-established companies must stay flexible if they want to survive. “And that’s getting more and more difficult all the time.”
Raking It In
Meanwhile, Rugg Manufacturing – which produces wood and metal products ranging from vegetable crates to roofing brackets – has also learned to adapt to foreign competition, importing many of its materials from overseas, including bamboo rakes and hardwood rake and shovel handles.
In addition, many of the small operations that purchased Rugg’s goods have been bought out and consolidated, so the company has had to adapt to dealing with larger chains, such as True Value, as well as redouble its efforts to market its products to local independent dealers.
“It’s challenging to deal with bigger customers,” Peck said, but she conceded that market changes force all manufacturers to adapt in some way. “So many businesses have moved out of the area or closed altogether. But we love what we do and want to stick it out here.”
“We’ve had to become more creative,” Zanner, of Lamson Goodnow, agreed. “Retailers want to deal with fewer and fewer vendors, so we’ve tried to become a one-stop shop and sell more products as we’ve looked for new customers.” As a result, the company is three times the size it was seven years ago.
“In American manufacturing, I really believe that the last guy standing in any product category will survive,” he added. “We’re pretty close to being the last guy standing.”
As one of many manufacturers still standing in Franklin County, it’s just one more example of modern creativity molded into a heritage of success.
Insurance Agency Owner, Alpaca Breeder Is part of the Region’s Fabric
Cindy Moulton St. George has always loved handling claims.
“That’s the most personal aspect of the insurance business,” she told BusinessWest. “It’s when they have a claim that people come to fully understand why they’re paying premiums — to protect their assets; it’s very satisfying work.”
Moulton St. George still gets to process the occasional claim, but she has myriad other responsibilities as president of Moulton Insurance Agency Inc., the business started by her father in 1952. Those duties include managing three offices — in Ware, Palmer, and West Brookfield — and the 13 employees staffing those locations. She’s also constantly surveying the insurance landscape, scouting possible acquisitions — the company has made several over the past few decades — and even monitoring the latest projections for the hurricane season due to start in a few weeks.
“It doesn’t look good for the Northeast,” she said, adding that the severity of a season’s storms, and the projections of same, will impact the price and availability of certain policies. “They’re saying that New England is due.”
And then, there’s the business of alpaca breeding.
It’s one of several specialty areas for the agency, and one that Moulton St. George has learned from the inside out; she and her husband, Roy, started breeding this cousin of the camel and the llama, native to South America, several years ago.
“It was a diversion from the insurance business and a good investment,” she said, adding quickly that it is not a hobby. Instead, it’s a sometimes-intense business with duties that range from tending to the animals to marketing to attending regional and national shows.
While insurance and alpaca breeding are in many ways worlds apart as business ventures, they have many important similarities, said Moulton St. George. She noted that both are largely referral-related and customer-service oriented businesses.
“To be successful at either, you have to take care of your clients,” she said, “That’s the bottom line.”
Policy-making Decisions
Moulton St. George started working in the family business as a teenager; her father would bring papers home from work for her to sort, alphabetize, and file. By her junior year in high school, she was working in the Ware office during vacations, doing more filing before eventually moving on to claims.
She told BusinessWest that her father had laid out succession plans that had her playing a lead role work for the company. Her affinity for the insurance business and desire to be her own boss facilitated the transition of the agency to her control in 1994; one of her brothers, Glen, now manages a real estate agency, Century 21 Moulton, also started by her father.
Moulton St. George remains one of the few female insurance agency owners in the region, status that still leads to a few awkward moments.
“When I first became the agent I was very young (mid 30s),” she explained. “I would go to conventions and people would ask, ‘who do you work for?’ I would say, ‘I’m the who.’
“It still happens on occasion,” she continued. “People will ask for the owner, and they’re a little surprised when I say, ‘that’s me.’”
Such episodes are becoming increasingly rare, because Moulton St. George’s name and rank are becoming well known within the insurance community — and within the Quaboag Valley area as well, where she serves in a number civic- and business-related capacities.
She currently serves as chair of the Business and Development Committee for Baystate Mary Lane, a fund-raising arm for the Ware-based health care provider, and is on the board of directors for the Ware Community Chest. In previous years, she has been heavily involved with the Quaboag Valley Chamber of Commerce.
“I’ve always felt a responsibility to get involved,” she said. “If you’re going to do business in a community, you have to find ways to give back — and there are many of them.”
Her primary mission, however, is to continually grow the 54-year-old family business, which is a challenging assignment at a time of change and, for some, turmoil in the insurance business.
Moulton St. George told BusinessWest that the landscape is constantly changing, with new competition, in the form of banks, and new technology, in the form of the Internet, to cope with.
Consolidation of the industry is ongoing, she explained, adding that she regularly receives inquiries about making — or becoming — an acquisition.
To survive and thrive in such an environment, she said, agencies must focus on customer service, develop strong relationships with carriers, and develop specific niches that can create opportunities in this market and, in some cases, well beyond.
Mouton has several such niches, she explained, listing as one example bed and breakfast operations. The agency has developed a solid working relationship with a carrier that writes policies for such businesses, said Moulton St. George, and, through the Internet and other marketing vehicles, she has fielded inquiries from across the country.
“We just got a call from Hawaii,” she said, noting that those searching for insurance online will be directed to the Moulton Web site by entering the key words bed and breakfast. “We’ve had inquiries from the Midwest, all over; it’s a good niche for us.”
Another is farms, and, more specifically, alpaca farms. They are growing in number, she explained, as the animal becomes more popular in this country and business opportunities — in the form of breeding operations — are created.
Moulton St. George and her husband were encouraged to pursue such an opportunity by someone already in the business, and eventually took the plunge, starting with two breeding females. They steadily grew their herd of Huacayas over the years — although they’ve recently downsized to nine — and have sold dozens to a growing legion of alpaca-breeding entrepreneurs.
And they’re insuring some of these ventures as well; the Moulton agency now has more than a dozen alpaca farms, scattered across the Northeast, as clients.
A Breed Apart
Moulton St. George told BusinessWest that alpaca hair is one of the finest fibers in the world, warmer than sheep’s wool and lighter in weight.
These qualities help explain the animal’s growing popularity and the emergence of alpaca breeding as an often sound financial investment.
By making such a move, she has put her name and her stamp on two successful businesses. And hardly anyone still asks who she works for.
George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]
Commercial Lender’s Career Has Been a Learning Experience
Maria Goncalves says she got into banking, and specifically commercial lending, pretty much by accident.
Finding herself unemployed after studying psychology and social work in college, the Ludlow native sought to capitalize on two summers of work as a bank teller at the now-defunct Ludlow Savings Bank. She responded to a Shawmut Bank help-wanted ad detailing two opportunities for trainees — one in retail, the other in commercial lending.
“When I was offered a position, I thought it was the retail job,” she told BusinessWest. “But it wasn’t. And when I looked at the two gentlemen across the table from me, I said ‘with all due respect, why would you want to hire me when I only took one economics course in college and really know nothing about business?’
“They said, ‘you have the skill set we look for in commercial lenders,’” she continued. “They told me I had the science background, which meant I had analytical ability, and that I had the people skills, which is the other half of the equation. They said, ‘ don’t worry about the rest, we’ll teach you.’”
They did — the bank financed her MBA at UMass — and more than 20 years later, the pupil is now the teacher.
That’s one of her many responsibilities as senior vice president, Commercial Loans, for TD Banknorth Massachusetts. She currently manages a large portfolio of public and private companies operating in several industries, and also mentors junior lenders and is a team leader responsible for coordinating sales and marketing initiatives.
It’s certainly not the career she envisioned while studying psychology, biology, and social work in college, but in some ways it makes sense. Indeed, when asked about her career choice and success in the commercial lending field, Goncalves said those Shawmut bank managers who interviewed her had it right; while the technical aspects of this profession are certainly important, commercial lending is a blend of people skills and analytical thinking.
“You have to be able to communicate and listen,” she said of the former, putting heavy emphasis on that second verb. “And you have to be able to talk to all kinds of people — from the CEO on down to the bookkeeper and the marketing person.
“You also need to have an analytical mind,” she continued, “and be able to read through and understand business plans and numbers, and be willing to learn about different kinds of businesses; you have to be a person who’s curious by nature — and I am.”
Points of Interest
Indeed, when asked what she enjoyed about her work in commercial lending, Goncalves repeatedly came back to the word diversity.
She used it to describe the many types of transactions that come across her desk, the circumstances of the companies or non-profits involved, and the wide variety of business sectors she has worked with.
Elaborating, she borrowed and effectively modified the old cliché ‘jack of all trades, master of none.’
“I know a little about nearly every kind of business,” she explained. “I don’t know everything about any of them, but I’ve learned a little about a lot of industries.”
The process of learning about businesses — and the art and science of commercial lending — began with an extensive, two-year training program with Shawmut. When completed, she started her career in banking as a credit analyst and eventually progressed to commercial lending.
She worked in Shawmut’s Holyoke office, focusing on small-business lending, and later in its Springfield facility with a portfolio that included mostly larger companies. In late 1991, she left to take a similar position with Bay Bank, and was then caught up in the wave of mergers and acquisitions that swept the industry. Bay Bank was bought by Bank of Boston, which was then acquired by Fleet, and Goncalves was part of the divestiture of some Fleet operations to Sovereign Bank.
She handled commercial lending there until early 2001, when she got a phone call from Frank Barrett — then regional president of Banknorth and one of those Shawmut managers who interviewed her all those years ago — and eventually accepted an invitation to join the team at Banknorth.
Today, her portfolio of clients is diverse, but includes mostly larger, mature businesses with extensive banking needs.
When asked to describe her work, Goncalves said commercial lending is an exercise in analyzing risk, one that involves crunching numbers — often very large numbers — but also assessing people and their ability to carry out what’s on the pages of a business plan.
The role commercial lenders assume, she told BusinessWest, is a blend of business analyst and devil’s advocate.
“You want to be supportive, but you’re not a ‘yes’ person,” she explained, adding that often, her work doesn’t come down to simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers, but rather finding often-imaginative ways to meet a client’s needs.
In the process of doing so, Goncalves said she’s met a number of interesting people and been witness to — and in some ways part of — some intriguing business success stories.
Indeed Goncalves told BusinessWest that one of the many rewards from her work is being part of business growth and economic development in the Pioneer Valley. The financial solutions she helps devise for companies often enable them to expand and add jobs.
“That’s one of the more exciting aspects of this work,” she said. “Watching businesses take that next step — be it adding some new equipment or acquiring another company — is very rewarding.”
While being part of the process to grow and strengthen the region’s business community, Goncalves is also active with a number of area organizations and non-profit agencies. And she brings to that work a blend of her background in financial services and her passion for social services.
She acts as treasurer of the Center for Human Development, for example, and also serves as president of Microtek, a Chicopee-based agency that employs developmentally disabled individuals to conduct cable assembly.
Recently, she was named to the Board of Directors for Springfield Technical Community College, an assignment that brings a new and different challenge she looks forward to.
“I’ve never done anything in higher education, so this will be good for me,” she explained. “And based on my first Finance Committee meeting, I’ve got a lot to learn.”
Extra Credit
Learning has been something Goncalves has been doing ever since she entered the banking field — by accident.
She’s learned how to do her job, while also coming to understand how thousands across their region do their jobs — while often devising financial solutions to help them do it better.
In that respect, she my indeed be a jack of all trades, but by all accounts, she’s certainly mastered one.
George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]
Franklin Medical Center Expands its Horizons
Greenfield Savings Bank (GSB) recently pledged $500,000 to Franklin Medical
The population of Franklin County hovers around 72,000, but it’s growing.
Staff at Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield see that growth firsthand, introducing about 400 babies to the region each year. That statistic sends a very clear message: Franklin County is changing, and its time for FMC, its largest employer and only hospital, to grow up a little.
The facility is currently in the midst of a comprehensive five-year plan drafted by FMC to address issues caused by increased admittance, aging technology, and an increasingly health care-savvy public, which includes three major expansion projects currently underway and a number of safety and quality-improvement initiatives.
But according to Michael Skinner, FMC’s president, the physical changes are paired with the ongoing challenges all community hospitals face, as well as those currently affecting all Massachusetts hospitals in the wake of sweeping health care reform. It’s a balancing act, Skinner said, that is centered on providing the most quality care to the largest amount of people, while still remaining true to the community hospital model.
“What we hear again and again is that people like the fact that they can turn a corner and be greeted by one staff member after another making sure they’re getting the attention they need,” he said. “We don’t want to lose that feel. We want to get better, not necessarily bigger.”
But some growth is inevitable, and currently the hospital is seeing more construction activity than it has in years, simultaneously completing those three major renovation projects totaling $16.3 million and working toward a $5.5 million capital fundraising goal through a campaign dubbed Second Century.
“There are a lot of changes happening at once,” said Skinner, “But I think it’s pretty clear that we’re meeting the vast needs of the community and that’s the goal that we are most focused on achieving.”
Big Fish
Indeed, FMC has a formidable presence in Franklin County. It’s the county’s largest employer, with a workforce of nearly 900 people and a $35 million payroll. Skinner said numbers like these necessitate a very keen sense of responsibility to the community from an economic perspective, as does the hospital’s affiliation with Baystate Health.
“All community hospitals typically have peaks and valleys in terms of patient flow, but being part of the Baystate health care system allows us to access resources that other small community hospitals cannot,” he said. “That’s huge for us, because in many ways our systems, such as those for critical, clinical information, mirror those at the large acute care hospitals like Baystate, and that in turn benefits the well-being of the community.”
Skinner did note that not all challenges of the community-sized hospital are eradicated by such affiliations, however, among them staffing issues.
“We still must work very hard to recruit top-notch, experienced, board-certified physicians, because physicians have a lot of choices,” he said. “So small community hospitals have to pull out all the stops to convince prospects that yes, we provide great care, but there are also advantages to living and working in the community.”
The visible role FMC plays in Franklin County also helps to shape answers to a number of health care delivery-related quandaries that are unique to community hospitals.
“We meet frequently with a lot of other community hospitals, and we do share a lot of the same challenges,” he explained. “There is a sort of fraternity of folks who share strategies; all community hospitals face issues due to our smaller size, and there is an overall change everywhere in how health care is delivered that smaller hospitals must work harder to keep up with.”
Skinner added that those variables led specifically to the current renovations and projects on tap at FMC, and in turn fine-tuning of the Second Century campaign.
Now underway are major improvements to FMC’s emergency department, radiology department, inpatient medical/surgical unit, and the intensive care unit. The project’s $16 million price tag will be offset in part by Second Century funding, and represents the largest expansion effort the hospital has ever undertaken.
“In terms of the emergency and radiology departments, we were at capacity,” said Skinner. “We are adding emergency treatment rooms, expanding from 14 rooms to 20, all of which will be private and allow patients to be seen more quickly and efficiently.
“Without an expansion to the radiology department, we would be hard pressed to get any more patients through the door,” he added, noting that the renovations will also include the installation of a permanent MRI – the hospital currently uses a mobile unit a few days a week – and a brand new CT scanner.
But Skinner also told BusinessWest that in addition to capacity issues, some aspects of the renovations are in response to feedback from the community in terms of comfortable, efficient health care service.
“The renovations to the inpatient rooms are the third component,” he said. “We have quite a few four-bed patient rooms, and in the past, they have created the most dissatisfaction, among both patients, and staff. Now, the rooms will be semi-private – the improvement is another type of rationale that leads to caring for more patients more effectively. With more comfortable facilities, people are more apt to choose us.”
Second Sight
He added further that Second Century is expected to serve as a starting point for continued renovation and expansion in the coming years. While he said it’s not a goal of the hospital to change its community-based model, capital projects will take on a brisk pace over the next few years in order to address immediate needs and those that will be necessitated by aging Baby Boomers.
“We only want to be as large as we need to be,” he said. “But we need to project to the future and how many patients are coming in.”
Skinner added that upgrades in response to a changing health care landscape and the needs of Baby Boomers are a particular challenge for smaller hospitals, because many are still emerging from a school of thought that had them scaling down and reducing beds.
“At one time not long ago people still thought community hospitals would disappear, but the Boomers change that,” he said. “Now, we’re faced with planning delayed expansions because of the old model. We’re rapidly trying to catch up with Boomers. There is a wide range of issues to be addressed over time, and we can’t solve all of them with these three projects. We also can’t tear down our walls and build a brand new, $100 million hospital, so we hope the Second Century campaign will sort of whet peoples’ appetites for more projects and attract their support.”
The public portion of the campaign was launched this April after a ‘quiet phase’ that lasted about a year and centered on garnering contributions from FMC employees, medical staff, and its board of trustees.
“We did that to show to the community how the staff supports the hospital, and why others should as well,” Skinner explained, adding that soon after the public campaign was launched, several pace-setting contributions were made by Franklin County employers and organizations, including Greenfield Savings Bank, Channing Bete, the Rice Family Foundation, Greenfield Cooperative Bank, and MassOne Insurance.
“We’re close to the $4.5 million mark already, Skinner remarked, adding quickly, however, that the homestretch has become the most pressing – and community-oriented – phase of the campaign. “The large givers have made their pledges, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a long way to go. The public campaign has shifted to be primarily focused on individual community members, and we’re asking people to play some strong leadership roles in the campaign.”
To that end, Skinner himself has taken to shaking the proverbial trees, through a series of public awareness events. The events are not large or flashy in nature, he explained, but they are frequent, and often effective. To raise that last million or more, Skinner, along with Dr. Jacques Blanchet, FMC’s director of emergency medicine, have been visiting homes to conduct information sessions hosted by residents, and often attended by 20 to 40 friends and neighbors.
Growth Factors
“We’ve done about a dozen of them,” he said, noting that while the presentations center on the ongoing renovations and the Second Century campaign, a give-and-take of thoughts and ideas has become the definitive aspect of the home visits.
“We go in and present the hospital in its best light, but we also ask to hear opinions – the good, the bad, and the ugly,” he said. “A pretty intense dialogue usually occurs, but we are also learning what are we doing well.
“The vast majority of people seem to really love this hospital,” he concluded, “and it’s important for us to hear that and respond to it. We’ve chosen not to get bigger, just better at whatever size we choose to be.”
Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]
The following business incorporations were recorded in Hampden and Hampshire counties and are the latest available. They are listed by community.
| AGAWAM Concept Builders Inc., Namking Garden Inc., Root Technology Inc., Belchertown Flag Football League Inc., BLANDFORD Music Literacy Inc., CHICOPEE EJ’s Pizza Cafe Inc., Sky Dragon Restaurant Inc., EASTHAMPTON KSG. Inc., HOLYOKE Ministerio Musical Un Nuevo Renacer Inc., Pereira Mortgage Inc., INDIAN ORCHARD No Limit Investment Inc., LONGMEADOW Hugh O’Donnell Metallurgical Enterprises Inc., LUDLOW Delisle Management Inc., Hair Gallery & Day Spa Inc., PALMER Computer Training of America Inc., | Zin Food Corp., PLAINFIELD Ravenwood Freedom Farm and Learning Center Inc., SOUTHAMPTON Opa Opa Brewing Co. Inc., RJM Landscaping Inc., SPRINGFIELD 272 Worthington Street Inc., Dong Ting II Inc., Mason Square Veterans Association Inc., NAOS Development Corp., RBSGD Unlimited Inc., WESTFIELD March for Christ — March for Life Inc., WILBRAHAM Creative Woodworking Corp., WEST SPRINGFIELD Arena’s Fencing Inc., United Charitable Foundation, |
The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of May 2006.
| AGAWAM Bugmaster Pest Control Services Creative Cousins Green Tea Asian Restaurant Nef’s Landscaping & Construction AMHERST Bay Colony Farry Tana Productions CHICOPEE Brake King Jimmy G’s Grass Cutting Serenity Salon EAST LONGMEADOW Mind — Body Connections S & P’s Scent-Sational Scents & Gifts HADLEY Mastercuts HOLYOKE Sadies Voltscooter LONGMEADOW Mary Demers Massage Therapist NORTHAMPTON Fitzwilly’s Kidstuff Taletfusion | SOUTH HADLEY Zahsr Inc. SPRINGFIELD Alanson Auto Body Cordelia’s Florist 1st Step Productions Just One Touch Barber Marty’s Real Estate OK Coins O’Reilly Drywall Springfield International Health Center Unburied Talents Wally Property WEST SPRINGFIELD Arbella Insurance Group D.A. Services J & P Glass & Mirror Main Auto Sales R.G.C. Zephyr’s Express WESTFIELD Clark Landscape Service Northeast Timber Co. Urban Image |
A Year After Its IPO, United Bank is Branching Out
United Financial Bancorp, the holding company for United Bank, is nearing the end of its first year as a publicly traded institution. The bank is putting some of the $72 million generated from last July’s initial public offering to work in expansion efforts, including two new branches slated to open later this year, and acquisition, in the form of a Northampton-based financial services company. More initiatives to seize market share are in the planning stages.
Richard Collins says he and others at United Bank are still adjusting to life as a publicly traded institution.
“It takes some getting used to — there’s a learning curve,” Collins, the bank’s president and CEO told BusinessWest. The playing field has been altered, starting with new and different layers of regulations, including the dictates of the Sarbanes Oxley Act, that the bank must now comply with. There’s also more scrutiny, he said, noting that it comes in many forms, from Wall Street analysts to depositors who want some help interpreting first-quarter financial statements.
There’s also the $4 million charitable foundation the bank created in association with its IPO, a vehicle to increase its giving within the cities and towns it serves. “It makes us a bigger player in the community,” said Collins.
And then, there’s the matter of where and how to utilize the $72 million in capital generated by last year’s public offering. A strategy is unfolding, said Collins, noting that one of its early elements is an expansion into the Northampton market, the bank’s first major thrust into Hampshire County.
The West Springfield-based institution, has begun work to renovate a former Chinese restaurant on Northampton’s Main Street, said Collins, who called the city a “logical next step” for the bank and the branch there a vehicle to better serve its 600 customers in that city — and grow that number.
The bank also purchased a financial advisory firm in Northampton, the Levine Financial Group, adding $88 million in assets under management in the process.
The push into Northampton is part of a larger strategic plan to build the “franchise,” as Collins called it, into a larger, stronger network of branches, one that will soon stretch from Ludlow to Northampton. The basic plan is to continue to add branches in areas where United does not have a strong presence and that are contiguous to current locations.
The north side of Westfield is an intriguing example, said Dena Hall, the bank’s vice president of marketing and public relations, noting that it builds a bridge of sorts between the bank’s downtown Westfield location and its Holyoke and Huntington locations. The North-ampton branch will extend the network farther north.
Hall said residents of the northern section of Westfield do not have many banking options close to home, and are often inconvenienced by travel to the city’s downtown, where several banks have locations.
“This was something that made sense for us,” she said, noting that the branch, to be located on Southampton Road, will open late this year. “This will enable us to better serve households in that area; it’s a good opportunity.”
BusinessWest looks this issue at how United is crafting a strategy to seize more such opportunities in the months and years ahead.
Taking Interest
Commenting on life as a partially public company — the bank retains more than half the stock issued — Collins stressed repeatedly that the change in format does not fundamentally alter the way the instituition conducts business.
“It doesn’t change the way we run the bank, make loans, or take care of our customers,” he said. “But there is a different mindset now; we have a responsibility to our shareholders. We have to pay attention to thoughts and perceptions of people who bought our shares.
“We have a new set of challenges,” he continued. “That’s fun and it’s exciting; we’re much better capitalized now than we were before, and that gives us the chance to do things that we have been contemplating.”
These include the new branches in Northampton and the north side of Westfield, as well as the Levine Financial Group acquisition, said Collins, noting that the bank’s leaders are working with a team of advisors to identify opportunities and possible geographic targets for further expansion.
As he talked about the elements of the bank’s strategic plan (to the extent that he could given regulations limiting the dissemination of information on public companies), Collins acknowledged that the Western Mass. field is already crowded and that new competitors, such as Connecticut-based Webster Bank (see related story, page 28) are pushing their way into the Western Mass. market.
“But competition is a fact of life in every business and it keeps us on our toes,” he told BusinessWest, adding that United, like every other bank in the region, will be energetic and imaginative in its efforts to grow market share in a region that is seeing very little residential or commercial growth.
“You find ways to be good enough at what you do to have people want to bank with you,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”
Elaborating, he said the bank, which had assets approaching $1 billion ($947.6 million) at the end of the first quarter, will look to continue to create growth opportunities through a mix of services, physical expansion when and where it’s appropriate, and acquisitions.
By All Accounts
As one example, he pointed to the new branch on Westfield’s north side. United has a strong presence in that city, and has plans to renovate and expand its downtown office there. But the north side is in some ways a separate community, one he characterized as underserved by the banking community.
What’s more, the city will be soon be building a second bridge over the Westfield River that separates the north and south sides, a lengthy project likely to create traffic headaches.
“People are not going to want to cross that bridge if they don’t have to,” said Hall. “If they can stay on the north side to do their banking, they will.”
The Northampton branch and the acquisition of Levine Financial — an expansion of non-banking services — are more examples of seizing opportunities for growth, said Collins, noting that the Northampton market holds significant promise of the bank.
“It’s an obvious next step for us,” he said, noting that it will enable the bank to build on the small base it had there — it has had a loan office in the city in the past — while building visibility for possible further expansion in the Five College area. “We currently do business with nearly 600 households in the Northampton market and with the addition of the clients from Levine Financial Group, we expect increased opportunities to grow our market share and and expand the financial services portion of our business in this market.”
He said the bank will continue to explore opportunities like the Levine acquisition — where a long-time professional with an established client base was in a position to sell his business — in the non-banking-services realm.
Beyond Northampton, Collins said only that additional territorial expansion will happen; where it will take place is still to be determined.
Connecticut is one possible destination, he said, noting that United, like other banks based in the region, have long considered that market, just as banks south of the bordered have eyed — and in some cases penetrated — this market.
“We have a presence in Connecticut,” said Hall, noting that residents there are served by some of the bank’s existing branches. “It would another logical step for us to go there.”
The Northampton and second Westfield branches will give the bank 13, said Hall. In addition to the Ludlow, Holyoke, downtown Westfield, and Huntington locations, United also has branches in West Springfield (where it also has its corporate headquarters and operations center as well as its Financial Services Group), and also East Springfield, Longmeadow, downtown Springfield, Indian Orchard, Sixteen Acres, Feeding Hills.
Further expansion will come where it makes sense, said Collins.
“We can, and will, find new areas where our brand of banking with be well-received,” he explained. “There are opportunities for us to grow.”
The Bottom Line
Returning to the learning curve that has accompanied the bank’s transition to a publicly traded company, Collins said there is indeed a heightened level of scrutiny — on the part of competitors, market analysts, and even some of the bank’s smallest depositors, for whom the acquisition of a few shares may have been their first and only stock purchase.
“They’re not shy about telling us what they’re thinking,” he said of depositors. “They’re taking this very seriously, and they should; they’ve acquired a financial asset that want, and expect, to appreciate.
“People are watching us,” he continued, with a look that blended satisfaction with a touch of anxiety. “They’re watching us more closely than ever.” And based on the first year’s activities, and the promise of more to come, such individuals should have plenty to watch.
George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]
Business Financing in a Rising-interest-rate Environment
What should small business owners be aware of in seeking to obtain new or alternative financing in a rising-interest-rate environment?
Traditionally, you may generally require three possible financing vehicles for the operation of your business. The first is a revolving working capital line of credit facility, which assists in funding the day-to-day operations of your business. The second is a term loan facility, which may be used to purchase capital equipment, or perhaps fund certain leasehold improvements. And the third is a commercial mortgage loan to fund the acquisition of the real property where your business is operated.
Each of these facilities generally will bear interest at different rates that may be tied to different indexes. And it is critically important that you evaluate the various interest rate options that might be available, with an eye toward the volatility of a particular interest rate mechanism and its potential impact on your company’s projected cash flow, and consequently, profitability.
For example, a revolving line of credit is generally tied to a fluctuating index, usually the specific lender’s base rate, which may or may not be reflective of the national prime rate as published Wall Street Journal. Additionally, it should be noted that the applicable interest rate on this type of credit facility also contains a ‘spread’ that is added to the index, typically .5% to 2%. Such a rate will be ‘floating’ and will increase or decrease with any upward or downward movement in the lender’s base/prime rate.
Considering that the national prime rate has increased 16 times since June of 2003, from a low of 4% to a current rate of 8%, you should seek to have your lender agree to a maximum interest rate cap. While a lender who agrees to such a cap may also insist on a floor, the existence of a cap allows for better strategic business financial planning, as its allows you to accurately determine the maximum amount that would be required to fund this debt, presuming that the cap was met.
In both the term loan credit and mortgage loan credit facilities, you should be sensitive to a number of factors that may make a particular credit facility more or less attractive.
In recent years, most term and mortgage credit facilities, while providing for a 15- to 25-year amortization of the specific debt, contain either a specified review date or dates, (i.e. every five years,) at which time the lender may modify, extend, or terminate the credit facility, or a maturity date, (when the loan balance is due and payable in full,) that is shorter than the stated amortization period. Lenders generally may also be willing to extend both a specified review date and/or maturity date based on your agreement to accept an initial higher rate of interest at the inception of the credit facility as opposed to a lower interest rate that might be quoted for shorter-term money.
A second area of concern to consider, resulting from the credit facility’s shorter review or maturity date, is that each such credit feature will result in a balloon payment being due if either the loan is called at the review date or the loan matures. In both instances you will have been making loan payments based upon an amortization schedule that would only pay out the loan if payments were made over the entire amortization period.
Therefore, you must pay particular attention to such dates and begin the necessary negotiations for an extension of such financing, or perhaps arrange for alternative financing four to six months prior to any such review or maturity date. This is particularly important in a period where interest rates are on the rise. Consider the possible detrimental impact a dramatic increase in interest rates may have on your business’ operations and profitability.
A third area of concern is that of the pre-payment penalty or premium. Many term or mortgage credit facilities may offer what appears to be an extremely favorable fixed interest rate, but may also contain a pre-payment penalty that requires you to pay a fee equal to a percentage of the outstanding principal balance of the loan at the time such a prepayment is made. Generally, such a penalty is not intended to be punitive, but rather seeks to provide the lender with a yield that would not be realized if the debt were paid off during the early years of the loan term.
When discussing the prospective loan terms with your lender, be sure that the imposition of such a penalty will not occur if a prepayment is made from the normal cash flow of your company or if refinanced with the same lender, but only if you elect to move the credit facility to another third-party lender.
Another possible area you may wish to consider in an attempt to facilitate your company’s cash flow while servicing your outstanding debt obligations is that of seasonally adjusted loan payments.
For example, a company that operates a landscaping/garden center or swimming pool installation company might seek to have its regular monthly principal and interest payments required only during traditionally busy months, (i.e. April through September,) when cash flow is strongest, with a reversion to interest-only payments during the late fall, winter, and early spring months, when business volume is understandably down and there is a corresponding reduction in available cash flow.
While it can be somewhat disconcerting to watch the slow and steady rise in short-term, and in some instances, long-term interest rates, there are a number of ways you can seek to mitigate the potential volatility of such rate changes.
Gary Breton, a shareholder with Bacon & Wilson, P.C., is a member of the Banking and Finance Department, whose major emphasis of practice includes representation of financial lending institutions, as well as both individual and business borrowers. He also represents numerous business clients in the startup, purchase and sale of businesses; (413) 781-0560;[email protected]
The following bankruptcy petitions were recently filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Readers should confirm all information with the court.
| Adams, Eboni N. Albano, Mariarosaria Ambridge, Nelson L. Avery, Robert E Avery, Melissa M Berthiaume, Jaime Lee Brooks, Heather R. Brown, Patricia R. Cheeks, Timothy Christopher Daly, Robin M. Doughty, Abby M. | Hazen, Bruce F. Hazen, Nancy M. Lawton, Elwyn T. Lawton, Laurie E. Loughman, John J. Murphy, Heather J. Ocasio, Siomara Poirier, Cynthia J. Robins, Marion F. Rodriguez, Hector Manuel Rodriguez, Lisa Ivelinda Salzarulo, Scott M. |
The following is a compilation of recent lawsuits involving area businesses and organizations. These are strictly allegations that have yet to be proven in a court of law. Readers are advised to contact the parties listed, or the court, for more information concerning the individual claims.
SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Kelly Fradet Lumber Co. Inc. v. Eric Weichselbaumer and Sara Weichselbaumer d/b/a Avalanche
Allegation: Breach of contract — Failure to pay for goods sold and delivered: $16,338.83
Date Filed: April 4
WMECO v. Steve Brody d/b/a Furniture Distributors LLC
Allegation: Breach of contract — Failure to pay for services: $2,114.23
Date Filed: April 4
CHICOPEE DISTRICT COURT
Tital Roofing Inc. v. Castagna Construction Corp.
Allegation: Breach of contract — Failure to pay for goods sold and delivered and services: $24,332.29
Date Filed: April 6
Florence Savings Bank Continues Strong Growth
FLORENCE — Florence Savings Bank’s first-quarter financial results indicate a continuation of its strong growth trend, according to John F. Heaps, Jr., president. Total assets at the end of the first quarter stood at $883.8 million, an increase of $51.6 million or 6.2% from the corresponding period last year. Growth in the bank’s loan portfolio was the primary source of the asset growth. Total loans ended the quarter at $531.8 million, up $71.7 million or 15.6% from the prior year. The loan growth was fueled by increases in both residential real estate loans and equity loans. Residential real estate loans were up $49.7 million or 15.8%, ending the quarter at $364.8 million, and equity loans increased 39.8% or $19.2 million, ending the quarter at $67.5 million. Total deposits were $633.9 million at the end of March, up $31.2 million or 5.2% from March 2005 levels.
MassMutual Offers Weekly Podcast To Field Sales Force
SPRINGFIELD — While many people use their computers or MP3 players to download music, TV shows, and movies, MassMutual is taking podcasting to new levels by providing its field sales force with company news, product information, and marketing tips on a weekly basis. MassMutual’s National Center for Professional Development (NCPD), a unit providing training content and opportunities for its field force, writes, produces and distributes a weekly 15-minute audio podcast – a digital audio file delivered via the Internet – to field representatives. Currently, more than 700 of MassMutual’s field force subscribe to the free weekly program, and that number continues to grow. Subscribers provide regular feedback to the NCPD on content they would like to hear, which results in timely and informative programs that speak directly to the interests of listeners.
Easthampton Savings Bank Surpasses $675M in Assets
EASTHAMPTON — Easthampton Savings Bank’s assets were at $675.9 million at the end of the first quarter, according to William S. Hogan, Jr., president. The bank’s total assets were up $32.2 million from a year ago, an increase of 5%, and total assets were up $8 million for the quarter. Also, loans total more than $502 million, with the total loan portfolio increased $31 million, while deposit growth was $17 million or 3% from this time last year, an increase of $11 million or 9% for the quarter. Total deposits are now at $525 million.
UMass Breaks Ground for Environmentally Friendly Heating Plant
AMHERST — Groundbreaking ceremonies were recently staged for a $118.7 million central heating plant at UMass Amherst. The facility will replace an obsolete, coal-burning facility built in the 1940s. Fueled by natural gas and oil, the new plant will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions upon its scheduled completion in March 2008. The plant is designed to meet the campus demand for steam and will satisfy nearly all of the demand for electricity, and will comply with some of the most rigorous air quality requirements in the U. S. The facility will be located adjacent to the Amherst wastewater treatment plant on the western edge of the campus, overlooking playing fields. Housed in a 45,000-square-foot building with a 95,000-square-foot big roof that covers both the energy facility and associated storage tanks, the plant will have the look of a field house.
Bank Featured in American Banker; Opens NY Branch
PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Hills Bancorp Inc., and its subsidiary, Berkshire Bank, were recently featured in American Banker, the daily trade publication for the U. S. banking industry. The article discusses how the bank has grown since late 2002, under the direction of President and CEO Michael P. Daly. In other news, the bank recently opened a full-service branch at Delaware Plaza in Delmar, N.Y.
Smith & Wesson Lands $8M Contract
SPRINGFIELD — The California Highway Patrol recently ordered 9,700 stainless steel tactical pistols from Smith & Wesson, valued at approximately $8 million. The model 4006TSW pistols will be shipped over an 18-month period beginning in June. The pistols are priced at about $850 each and will replace earlier versions of the model 4006, which the California officers have used since 1990.
Businesses Receive CMA Awards
SPRINGFIELD — lshd Advertising Inc. recently won 17 Creative Merit Awards (CMA) at the Ad Club of Western Massachusetts’ annual awards show. lshd received top awards for Blackstone Medical Inc.’s “NASS Trade Show Promotional Campaign,” MassMutual’s “8-Ball” direct mail and landing page and “Prepared USA” ad and Tip in Brochure, as well as First Pioneer’s Annual Report and “USCRA Vintage Grand Prix” 4+ color poster. As part of the annual awards, the Ad Club also recognizes results. For the fifth consecutive year, lshd won the coveted Dynamic Impact Award for its results-driven campaign for MassMutual. Additionally, the firm won four Silvers, one of which was Holyoke Medical Center’s ‘A Star Is Born’ radio campaign, and seven Bronze Awards. Clients included MassMutual, Blackstone Medical Inc., Nufern, Deerfield Urethane, Heat-fab, Ensign-Bickford Aerospace & Defense and Farm Credit. Lenox Softworks also received a Gold Merit Award for its Lexington Group’s Web site entry in the Electronic/Interactive Media-web site category. The Lexington Group web site features a series of animated scenes of modern office space. For a complete list of Ad Club winners, visit www.adclubwm.org.
Titan Roofing Recognized By Firestone Building Products
CHICOPEE — Titan Roofing Inc. is a recipient of the 2006 Firestone Master Contractor Award from the Firestone Building Products Company. The yearly award recognizes a company’s dedication to installing quality roofing systems. This recognition marks the 19th time Titan Roofing has achieved Master Contractor status. Firestone-licensed contractors earn the Master Contractor Award each year based on total square footage and quality points accumulated for achieving exceptional inspection ratings on Firestone Red Shield warranted RubberGard™ EPDM, UltraPly™ TPO and asphalt based roofing system installations.
SBA Workshop
May 23: The U.S. Small Business Administration and Strategic & Learning Services Inc. will present a workshop from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for small businesses in areas of high unemployment and low income, small disadvantaged businesses, and 8(a) and HUBZone certified businesses. Topics will include strategies for obtaining and managing government contracts, marketing, tips on retaining and managing employees, leveraging relationships and succession plans and exit strategies. The workshop will take place at the Scibelli Enterprise Center, One Federal St., Springfield. To register or for more information, visit www.sls-7J.net or call Kathleen Doherty at (800) 827-3500. Attendees will be eligible for a 90-day follow-up training session that will feature additional management and technical assistance.
‘Instant Persuasion’
May 23: Author Laurie Puhn will present Instant Persuasion: How To Change Your Words To Change Your Life from 5 to 8:30 p.m. at the Clarion Hotel & Conference Center in Northampton. Puhn will offer practical rules for activating one’s innate power of persuasion to help people quickly and easily reduce conflict and get what they want in their personal and professional lives. The event is part of the Family Business Center Dinner Forum series through the UMass Family Business Center. For registration information, call (413) 545-1537 or visit www.umass.edu/fambiz.
Paradise City Arts Festival
May 27-29: More than 90 new exhibitors along with the established favorites will participate in the Memorial Day weekend Paradise City Arts Festival in Northampton. Visitors can relax to the sounds of live jazz under the festival dining tent while sampling some of the newest menu additions from Northampton’s chefs and explore the 200-foot Sculpture Garden. For more information on the festival, visit www.paradisecityarts.com.
Party with the Animals Fundraiser
June 24: The Forest Park Zoo and Education Center in Springfield will host its annual fundraiser, Party With the Animals, beginning at 6 p.m. A new partnership with Outback Steakhouse promises to make the event on the grounds of the zoo a memorable affair. Highlights of the evening also include a 17-piece swing band for dancing and live and silent auctions. For ticket information, call Allison at (413) 733-2251, ext. 10.
The following bankruptcy petitions were recently filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Readers should confirm all information with the court.
| Bray, Elizabeth H. Bridge, Patricia A. | Murray, Michael W. Pouliot, Adam L Rowbotham, Deborah A. Sherman, Wendy Sue |
UMass Professor Tapped for FDIC Post
AMHERST — Sheila C. Bair, a professor at the Isenberg School of Management at the UMass Amherst, has received the endorsement of the White House for the post of chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission. President Bush is expected to nominate Bair for the post which would be for a five-year term, and as a member through 2013. Bair, of Amherst, has a varied financial background including serving as senior vice president of government relations for the New York Stock Exchange from 1995 to 2000, and as a acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission from 1991 to 1995. Currently, she teaches courses on insurance and corporate governance at the Isenberg School.
New England College Costs Consuming Growing Share of Family Income
BOSTON — Since 1992-93, the costs of attending New England colleges have grown considerably for families, even though both family incomes and grant aid have increased, according to a research report recently released by The Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC). Paying for College: The Rising Cost of Higher Education shows that families with students attending private colleges in New England are spending a third of their annual income on tuition, required fees, and living expenses. This represents a significant rise from 1992-93 when families spent 25% of their incomes. Families are also spending more to send a student to the region’s public four-year colleges. To cover these growing costs, more students and parents are taking out loans. Student debt load has increased significantly – even after adjusting for inflation – over the past decade. At public four-year colleges, fourth-year students hold an average debt of $15,399, a 39% increase since 1992-93. “Higher education is the gateway to the American Dream,” said Ian Bowles, President & CEO of MassINC. “But its cost is accelerating much faster than incomes, even more so in New England than the nation. As a region that is struggling with a high cost of living and the outmigration of young families, we should make this challenge a priority.” Sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Paying for College examines the impact of New England college costs on families and students as well as the factors that contribute to those costs. While the long-term value of a college degree may left taking on debt to obtain it, many students leave school without earning a degree. College dropouts often incur the double burden of loan repayments without the economic advantages that a degree provides. The average costs of tuition and fees at public colleges in Massachusetts are higher than the national averages. In 2005-06, the average cost of the state’s private four-year colleges was $27,780, 31% higher than the national average. The average cost of the state’s community colleges was $3,477, 59% higher than the national average. “Our state depends on talented college graduates to drive its economy and bring depth to its civic life,” said Peter Meade, Executive Vice President of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. “We must work on improving graduation rates while keeping a first-class public higher education affordable for everyone.” The full report can be viewed at the MassINC Web site – www.massinc.org.
A.I.M. Sees Business Confidence Slip in April
BOSTON — In a recent survey of employers across the state, business confidence declined less than one point in April to stand at 57.4 on the Business Confidence Index, according to the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (A.I.M.). The index calculations are based on results of scores higher or lower than 50. Results registering above 50 indicate optimism by employers while results below 50 signal pessimism. Overall, respondents expect the state’s economy to improve in the next six months, however, results will be less than what had been anticipated earlier in the year. Most employers felt that the state needs an economic stimulus bill to make it easier to do business in Massachusetts.
Stormwater Education Campaign Underway
WEST SPRINGFIELD — The Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, in concert with the Stormwater Subcommittee of the Connecticut River Cleanup Committee, is launching a public education campaign about water pollution and protecting water resources from common pollutants found in stormwater. The multi-year regional public education and outreach program aims to raise awareness about how our daily activities affect the water resources around us. The outreach program will instruct people about better ways to manage landscape fertilizers, pet waste, car washing, and leaking car oil. Each of these activities generates waste products that are picked up by stormwater runoff and transported to rivers, streams, lakes, ponds and wetlands, causing pollution. Information will be disseminated to the public through newspapers, local cable access television stations, displays at town offices and libraries, town web sites and other venues. For more information, contact PVPC Senior Planner Anne Capra at [email protected] or (413) 781-6045.
The following building permits were issued during the month of April 2006.
AMHERST
Amherst-Colonial Village LLC
81 Belchertown Road 25
$13,000 — New vinyl siding,
shutters, and gutters
Amherst Commercial LTD
362 Northampton Road,
Bldg. 3
$28,000 — Re-roof, install
drip edge and ice and water
shield
Chris & Laurel Peltier
691 South East St.
$22,000 — Convert existing
building from business to
single-family home
GPT-RG Amherst LLC
422 Belchertown Road
$18,252 — Re-roof
Pizza Shark
17B Montague Road
$14,000 — Interior
alterations
EAST LONGMEADOW
East Longmeadow High
School
180 Maple St.
$5,000 — Erect two dugouts
HOLYOKE
Holyoke Mall Co.
50 Holyoke St.
$371,136 — Renovate store
Holyoke Mall Co.
50 Holyoke St.
$159,000 — Remodel Select
Comfort
NORTHAMPTON
Cooley Dickinson Hospital Inc.
30 Locust St.
$21,000 — Interior alterations
Emerald City Partners LLC
17 New South St.
$85,000 — Interior
renovations
ERB Maribeth
274 Pleasant St.
$23,310 — Repartitioning of
existing space
Quickbeam Realty Trust
429 Pleasant St.
$3,200 — Interior alterations
Smith College
25 Henshaw Ave.
$3,000 — Install new shower
SPRINGFIELD
Baystate Health
759 Chestnut St.
$48,000 — Interior renovations
Mercy Hospital
300 Stafford St.
$9,650 — Interior renovations
WEST SPRINGFIELD
Westfield Bank
780 Memorial Ave.
$30,000 — Erect ATM
The following is a compilation of recent lawsuits involving area businesses and organizations. These are strictly allegations that have yet to be proven in a court of law. Readers are advised to contact the parties listed, or the court, for more information concerning the individual claims.
NORTHAMPTON DISTRICT COURT
Jane Taylor Jewelry LLC v. James Zarvis d/b/a American New Media and American New Media Inc.
Allegation: Breach of contract — Failure to pay for goods sold and delivered: $13,400
Date Filed: April 17
SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. v. Ronald P. Beauregard d/b/a Independent Welding
Allegation: Breach of contract — Failure to pay for workmen’s comp policy: $159,209
Date Filed: March 28
Select Energy Inc. v. Ace Precision Inc.
Allegation: Failure to pay judgment from January 2006: $11,848.19
Date Filed: March 30
Zimmerman & Partners Advertising Inc. v. Hampden Dodge Inc.
Allegation: Failure to pay judgment from May 2003: $4,666.79
Date Filed: April 3
The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of April 2006.
|
AMHERST CHICOPEE EAST LONGMEADOW HADLEY HOLYOKE LONGMEADOW NORTHAMPTON SOUTH HADLEY |
SPRINGFIELD WEST SPRINGFIELD WESTFIELD |
| Florence Savings Bank announced the following: Big Y Foods Inc. in Springfield announced the following: • Gary Dziekan has been promoted to Store Team Trainer in Produce; •••• Bacon & Wilson in Springfield announced the following:
• Associate Julie A. Dialessi-Lafley has been named a 2006 Massachusetts SuperLawyer Rising Star. She is a business lawyer with experience in all aspects of corporate, business, and commercial and residential real estate;
• Associate Gina M. Barry has been named a 2006 Massachusetts SuperLawyer Rising Star. She is a member of the Estate Planning/Elder Law Department whose practice include estate planning issues including pet estate planning;
• Associate Justin H. Dion has been named a 2006 Massachusetts SuperLawyer Rising Star. He is a general practitioner who specializes in business and financial matters;
• Associate Brett A. Kaufman has been named a 2006 Massachusetts SuperLawyer Rising Star. His practice includes estate planning issues, guardianship, conservatorship and planning for long-term care, and
• Associate Mark A. Tanner has been named a 2006 Massachusetts SuperLawyer Rising Star. As a prosecutor and in private practice, he has spent considerable time advocating for his clients before judges, juries and administrative agencies in Massachusetts and New York.
••••• Park Square Realty announced the following: • Mary Jo Whiteway has been named a Sales Associate in the Agawam office, and ••••• Donna Paquin has joined the Sales Team of the Westfield office of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage of New England. •••• Gwen Glass recently received the Loomis Communities’ 2006 Elvira Whiting Ball Award, given to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding volunteer leadership and commitment to the organization’s mission. •••• Holyoke Community College announced new members of the Board of Trustees: They are: • Helen R. Caulton-Harris, Executive Director of Health Service for the Homeless Health Center in Springfield; •••• Carlson GMAC Real Estate announced the following: • Rebecca Martin has joined the Agawam office as an Agent; •••• Holyoke Medical Center announced the following: • Kathy Lefrenaye, R.N., has been appointed Oncology Nurse Manager; •••• Paul A. Dombrowski, P.E., P.L.S., DEE, Senior Project Manager for Tighe & Bond Inc. in Westfield, was recently presented with the Alfred E. Peloquin Award at the New England Water Environment Association’s annual awards luncheon in Boston. The prestigious award is presented to an individual who has shown a high level of interest and performance in wastewater operations and who has made a significant contribution to the field. Dombrowski is known for his work in the wastewater engineering field, particularly in Connecticut. •••• Michelle M. Begley, a Partner of the law firm Begley & Moriarty, LLC in West Springfield, has been honored with the distinction of Massachusetts Super Lawyer Rising Star for 2006. Begley’s areas of practice include employment law, domestic relations, family law/divorce, personal injury, real estate, criminal law and Social Security disability appeals. •••• Florence Savings Bank announced the following:
• Susan Teixeira has been elected Vice President/ Operations Project Director and Information Security Officer of the Operations Department.
•••• Peter Pan Bus Lines driver Edward Hope has been named ‘Driver of the Year’ in the Scheduled Route Division at the 70th Annual Conference and Meeting of the Trailways Transportation System in Scottsdale, AZ. Trailways bases annual driver honors on demonstrated professionalism and documented safe performance records. The award was based on 2005, when Hope completed his 36th year of accident-free driving, becoming the first Massachusetts motorcoach operator to achieve 3 million miles of safe, accident-free driving, according to officials at the National Safety Council. •••• Denis M. Horrigan has joined St. Germain Investment Management in its Hartford, Conn. office. •••• Michael Ferrero has joined the Feeding Hills office of Century 21 Hometown Associates as a Real Estate Consultant. •••• Dale M. Jones has been named Director of Development for the Cancer House of Hope in Westfield. She will be responsible for building the new Endowment Fund, implementing and overseeing fundraising events, and major development strategies. ••••• Kevin Wright has been named Director of the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company’s new Supply and Trading Division. |
A listing of the area’s top restaurants
For years we’ve heard the talk.
Actually, it’s more like a theory, and it goes something like this: technology and biosciences companies located in the Boston-Cambridge area and other locations will eventually become frustrated with the high costs of doing business in these communities and look longingly toward Western Mass. as a new home.
It hasn’t happened yet.
In fact, most all of the technology-related and life sciences ventures we have in the Pioneer Valley started here and have stayed here mostly because the principals involved have ties to this region. But that doesn’t mean our area’s economic development leaders should stop trying to lure outside businesses to this area code.
In fact, they should be redoubling their efforts, because, as we’ve said on many occasions, this region needs an economic spark — and the technology sector offers perhaps the most promise. The region’s manufacturing base continues to shrink, with ever more production going off-shore, and tourism/hospitality jobs, while growing in number, do not offer significant promise in terms of economic development.
Rather, this region’s best hopes appear to be health care, which has long been one of the pillars of Valley’s economy, and development of emerging sectors such as life sciences, medical device manufacturing, information technology, and others.
To do this, the region must do more than promote itself as a cheap alternative to communities inside Route 128.
And that’s why we’re encouraged that the Regional Technology Council (RTC) has new leadership, in the person of recently named president Ellen Bemben, and apparently some new energy.
The RTC, originally known as the Regional Technology Alliance, was started with good intentions. It grew out of a grant originally awarded to UMass Amherst aimed at fostering growth of the technology base in and around the Pioneer Valley. But it has struggled in many ways to carry out that mission. A sagging economy earlier this decade, the precipitous fall of the IT sector and the dotcoms, and frequent changes in leadership at the RTA and then the RTC have all played roles in the relatively slow pace of growth of tech-based businesses.
Bemben’s initial goals are to create awareness of resources, assets, and success stories in the Pioneer Valley, and use it to prompt companies located elsewhere to recognize this region’s potential as a home for ventures in several different technology-related fields. Right now, it would be fair to say that Western Mass. is barely on the radar screen.
Meanwhile, the RTC must continue its work to foster relationships between area colleges, the university, precision manufacturers, and health care providers to generate new opportunities for research and economic development.
In recent years, the RTC has made some headway through establishment of networks — the Technology Enterprise Council, the BioEconomic Technology Alliance, and the Materials and Manufacturing Technology Network — to monitor and, hopefully, improve the overall health of these specific business clusters.
By continuing and expanding efforts to retain existing businesses and jobs in these sectors, and also fostering ventures by taking research from the lab to area communities, the region can build a critical mass of technology-related companies.
And by doing so, it can make the task of attracting new businesses to the Valley that much easier.
All the evidence points to health care, the biosciences, medical device manufacturing, and other so-called ‘white coat’ businesses forming the base of the state’s economy in the future. Some would say that day is already here; the Mass. Biotechnology Council has grown from 100 members in 1995 to more than 500 today.
The Pioneer Valley is not yet a big player in this arena. To become one it must do more than focus on the cost of doing business, and instead concentrate on showing people that it can, indeed, happen here.-
Western Mass. was the latest stop on an informational tour of sorts taken on earlier this month by the Office of Health and Human Services, designed to provide answers to mounting questions regarding sweeping health care reform and the effects it will have on the Commonwealth’s employers.
Timothy Murphy, secretary of Health and Human Services for the Commonwealth, has been involved with the drafting and implementation of the health care reform legislation since its early stages, and is currently crossing the state and meeting with residents, legislative bodies, and groups of employers to provide an outline of the new law and answer questions as well as address concerns.
“We’re looking to provide an overview of the law, as well as explain why we approached the legislation the way that we did,” Murphy told BusinessWest at an infmormational session held in Springfield on Thursday, May 4. “Most important to employers, especially small businesses, is the information regarding new challenges, but also new opportunities, such as the changes to insurance options we’ve made to allow for more affordability.”
In terms of the questions he’s been fielding, Murphy said he doesn’t get a sense that the average resident or, more specifically, business owner, is inherently worried about the changes to come, but rather searching for more information on the legislation, and as much as possible before deadlines and requirements go into effect.
“We’re getting questions from a lot of folks, but I’m not seeing so much worry as I am a need for more information,” said Murphy. “Employers have a thumbnail sketch of what is going on right now, and it’s up to our office to fill in the blueprint.”
System Breakdown
Part of that process of filling in the blanks, Murphy added, is to stress the role that Massachusetts businesses played in the initial decision to make an overhaul of the Commonwealth’s health care insurance system.
“Let’s look at what ails the system,” he began. “For one, we are seeing double-digit increases in premiums, in addition to a half-million uninsured residents. Every year, many businesses, especially small businesses, are finding themselves unable to provide insurance to their employees. The bottom-line is we needed to do something to make the system simpler and more cost-effective to keep small businesses part of the health care insurance paradigm.”
To that end, Murphy spoke at length on the topic of the ‘Connector,’ the administrative component of the new law that will essentially serve as a one-stop resource for employers and individuals alike seeking health care insurance coverage. He said in large part, the Connector and its many moving pieces were devised with the state’s small businesses in mind.
“Small-business owners are, of course, focused on their own organizations and their bottom lines,” he said. “The Connector will create consumer choice, but also allow for individuals working within small businesses, including part-timers, to secure coverage on their own on a pre-tax basis. It allows for affordability and for portability — employees can take their accounts with them when they change jobs, and the only change that could happen is the amount they’re paying, based on the contribution that their employer makes.”
That takes some of the onus of implementing the new law off of employers, said Murphy, adding that in the coming years, it is a goal of the Office of Health and Human Services to continue to streamline the system to that end.
He did concede, however, that there are still a number of unanswered questions regarding the employer piece of the legislation, including the oft-discussed $295-per-employee assessment for employers who fail to provide coverage.
He explained that the fee has created confusion regarding its role in the overall legislation. Some have questioned whether the assessment could be a less-expensive alternative to providing insurance for employees, while others have criticized the measure as too punitive. Indeed, Murphy said his own office has issues with this aspect of the bill, but he was quick to note that it’s also not a major portion of the law.
“The $295 assessment is the compromise that was made among legislators to move this legislation forward,” Murphy explained. “And it’s a fee, not a ‘play or pay’ scheme. I don’t see it as an incentive or a disincentive.
“Measures have been built into the law to deal with employers who do not provide insurance and to level the playing field among all employers far beyond this assessment,” he continued, “and it’s not a meaningful part of the entire plan. Indeed, in some ways I think it’s counterproductive.”
Rules and Regulations
At this point, Murphy said his office and others on Beacon Hill are more focused on larger parts of the legislation, including the creation of the Connector and new insurance products. He said that, ultimately, there will be more pressing, concrete issues with all of the major parts of the bill that will need to be addressed and fixed, especially in the small business arena.
“There are going to be holes,” he said. “Businesses are entrepreneurial, and they will find them, and in turn we will find ways to work with that.”
But it’s not merely a matter of sealing loopholes at this early stage. Peter Straley, president and CEO of Health New England, the regional HMO based in Springfield, said even more pressing is the need for employers at all points across this new health care landscape to adjust to a more regulatory environment.
“A lot of this new legislation has been left to regulation, and that will gradually flush out the details; things will likely look different in a couple of years,” he said. “One area of concern we have at HNE is that the individual mandate might create excessive compliance costs for small businesses.
“Few small businesses have the resources for a full-time health insurance compliance person,” he explained. “And as we enter a regulatory environment, I hope the new pressures employers will face will be addressed in an even-handed, judicious manner.”
And to that end, Straley added that with the creation of individual mandates, new employer responsibilities, and administrative bodies, the reform law also calls for the formation of several new boards and commissions meant to oversee and regulate the many aspects of the law. In turn, he stressed that the lack of a Western Mass. presence on those boards would be a major setback for the region’s businesses in terms of dealing with the expected bumps in the road, as it could muffle the area’s voice in the matter.
“This is landmark legislation,” he said, “and I hope very much to see a strong Western Mass. presence involved as we move forward with the new law.”
Reform Referendum
Jeff Ciuffreda, government liaison for the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, concurred with Straley’s call for local involvement.
“There will be six new boards formed as part of the reform,” he said, “totaling about 105 members collectively. Western Mass. involvement within that pool is key to fully addressing any problems we might face down the road across Massachusetts, because as we know there are differences from East to West.
“In the case of Western Mass.,” he noted, “we are represented by employers as large as MassMutual and as small as sole proprietorships, all of which will be affected by this new law. It’s more important than ever that the false wall between our business community and our legislators be broken down. How this impacts employers and their businesses in this area must be communicated, good, bad, or ugly. Our input has been asked for, and we must participate.”
Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]
Jeb Balise remembers many bird-hunting trips from his youth with his grandfather, Paul Balise.
The two would talk partridge, pheasant, or whatever the target was on the given day, but also about life and business — specifically, the car business.
“He told me to always be honest and treat people well,” Balise said of his grandfather, who started the business Jeb now serves as president in 1919. “He was a very smart man and a really good listener; he wasn’t a man of many words, but when he spoke, you listened; I learned a lot from him.”
Likewise with the second generation of the family to put his mark on Balise Motor Sales, his father James E. Balise. “Shrewd and patient — those are the words I’d use to describe him,” said Jeb Balise. “He had wonderful business sense as well as a great sense of timing and vision — he had one of the first Honda dealerships in the country – and hopefully he’s passed some of that on to me.”
The ability to learn from previous generations is one of many factors that has led Balise to its standing as one of the largest auto groups in the Northeast. And the three generations that built the company will be among the inductees in the Class of 2006 for the Western Mass. Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, located at the Andrew M. Scibelli Enterprise Center in the Technology Park on the campus of Springfield Technical Community College.
Family businesses are well-represented in this year’s class. Also on this list is the Fontaine family and the three generations that have managed the Fontaine Bros.
construction company, and the Grenier family, which features two generations that have owned and managed a photography studio now known as Grynn & Barrett.
Meanwhile, another pair of inductees — Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson, founders of gunmaker Smith & Wesson — had some second-generation involvement in their famous venture (two of Wesson’s sons eventually became partners with him after Smith retired) and the remaning members of the class, Jesse Lanier and Barbara Moss Lanier, owners of seven Kentucky Fried Chicken (now known simply as KFC) franchises, are seeing the next generation of their family become involved in the business.
“This region has a tremendous heritage of entrepreneurship, said William Kwolek, director of Development for STCC and one of the organizers of the Oct. 5 banquet at which inductees will be honored. “Many of the ventures eventually became family businesses, with some of them spanning three or more generations.”
Kwolek told BusinessWest that proceeds from the induction banquet, as they have since the event was first staged in 2000, go to support entrepreneurship programs in Western Mass., including the YES (Young Entrepreneurial Scholars) program, which serves more than 1,000 young men and women in two dozen area high schools, as well as the Community Foundation of Western Mass. student business incubator.
Roughly $50,000 was raised last year, he noted, adding that organizers are looking to top that figure with a projected sell-out of the banquet.
Here’s a look at the Class of 2006.
Food for Thought
Jesse Lanier remembers his reaction when a colleague at Southern New England Telephone told him he was leaving a good job with solid pay and benefits to manage his own convenience store.
“I recall thinking, ‘why would he do a dumb thing like that?’” Lanier told BusinessWest. “At the time, it didn’t make any sense to me.”
But several months later, it made perfect sense, because Lanier did pretty much the same thing.
He left a job as manager of Purchasing at SNET to become a KFC franchisee. He formed Springfield Food Systems, a franchise chain, one that currently includes seven restaurants, which he operates with his wife Barbara.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be president of the company and I wasn’t really happy with my position,” he said, referring to SNET. “So I started looking at other options that would allow me to work for myself.”
One of those options was an auto dealership — he gained certification in GM’s Buick Division — but the economy was soft at the time (the early ’80s) and the auto industry was hurting. So at the advice of a friend already managing some KFCs, he gave the chain a hard look.
Over the past 23 years, Springfield Food Systems has grown to seven locations; five KFCs, a KFC/A&W All American Food Restaurant, and a KFC/Long John Silver’s multi-brand restaurant.
Jesse Lanier told BusinessWest that learning the business was hard — “I didn’t even know how to cook; I couldn’t fry an egg without burning it” — but learning how to manage a transient workforce has been the biggest challenge.
“If we get a year out of non-management people, that’s pretty good,” he explained. “Managers will often give us two or three years, but there is a lot of turnover, and that’s part of being in this industry.”
Jeb Balise started learning his business before he was in kindergarten.
He told BusinessWest, which recently named him the magazine’s ‘Top Entrepreneur’ for 2005, that he had his first job (opening and closing a garage doors) at the family’s Chevrolet dealership at age 5. Today, he presides over an auto group that includes 16 new-vehicle franchises, including Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford (3), Honda, Lexus, Mazda, Fuso, Nissan (2), Pontiac, Saturn (2), Scion, and Toyota; five Ready Credit used car dealerships; and three collision repair centers.
The process of building that empire began a few months after the end of World War I, when when Paul E. Balise, who grew up working his family’s farm in Hatfield, purchased some welding equipment and began fixing farm vehicles and automobiles. He called that venture the Square Deal Garage.
Paul Balise, eventually shifted to auto sales, and became an associate Chevrolet dealer in Hatfield. In 1929, he moved to Chicopee Falls and opened a Chevrolet dealership there. In the 1930s, during the height of the Great Depression, when many car dealers were failing, Paul Balise moved his business to a bigger location on Main Street in Springfield, and later to a location on East Columbus Avenue that would be its home for more than a half century.
James E. Balise, one of Paul’s 10 children, became president and dealer of Balise Motor Sales in 1958. In 1971, he took a chance on a relatively unknown Japanese automaker, and opened one of the first Honda dealerships in North America. In 1985, that dealership moved to Riverdale Street in West Springfield and would become the first of many new facilities to bear the Balise name.
Jeb Balise became president and dealer of Balise Motor Sales in 1986, and over the past 20 years has led an ongoing program of expansion.
Like many of Springfield’s notable entrepreneurs, Horace Smith started his career at the Springfield Armory. He served as an apprentice there upon completing his public school education, and eventually started his own gun-manufacturing business.
He also worked for several gun-component makers, including Allen, Brown, and Luther, manufacturer of rifle barrels. It was there that he met Daniel Baird Wesson, also a gunsmith, with whom he would partner to forge several breakthroughs in firearms production — and create one of the most recognizable brands in the history of American business.
Today, the Smith & Wesson name is on not only handguns, but myriad other safety products ranging from mace to handcuffs; police bicycles to flashlights. But the name is synonymous with handguns and handgun manufacturing, and today, after several years of struggle, the company headquartered on Roosevelt Avenue is staging a comeback, with several new contracts from domestic and foreign military units and law enforcement agencies
Thus continues a success story that began in 154 years ago, when Wesson, who, while toiling for Allen, Brown, and Luther, worked in his spare time to perfect a practical cartridge. He eventually persuaded Smith to go into business with him and produce the cartridge in Norwich, Conn. In 1854, the two patented a pistol that was not only a cartridge weapon, but had a new and distinct repeating action. While the concept was not entirely successful in pistols, it adopted well to rifles and it became the basic invention incorporated into the world-famous Winchester rifle.
After the partners sold their rifle patent rights to Volcanic Arms Company, Smith retired and Wesson accepted the position of superintendent of the company. Under Wesson, Volcanic Arms produced the self-primed metallic cartridge used throughout the Civil War. In 1857, the two men rejoined to produce the Smith & Wesson revolver, which became an enormous success. It was the only product of its kind, and was adopted by U.S. military authorities and several foreign governments. By 1860, Smith & Wesson was employing 600 people and had become one of the largest gun manufacturers in the world.
The company continued to introduce new products and innovations. In 1869, the two partners purchased a design by William C. Dodge that emptied shells from the gun. In 1887, Wesson patented a safety revolver that prevented unintentional firing, and by the turn of the century, the company was producing a line of hammerless revolvers. In 1899 the company introduced what is probably the famous revolver in the world, the .38 caliber Model 10, which has been in continuous production ever since, with more than 6 million units produced.
In 1948, R. Robert Grenier started bringing into focus an entrepreneurial venture that would eventually bring his family name into homes and schools across Western Massachusetts and Connecticut. His photo studio started small, in the first floor of the family home on Pine Street Holyoke. But it has grown to become one of the largest businesses of its kind in the Northeast.
Today, under the leadership of four of Grenier’s children, the company has several successful departments, including school pictures, high school senior portraits, sports photography, weddings, family portraits, and many others. The business has also expanded its geographic reach over the years, and has plans to open a studio in Connecticut.
Nicknamed ‘Grin,’ Robert Grenier first partnered with Lucien Ducharme in a business that centered mostly around portrait photography. The company grew steadily through the ’50s and ’60s, with wedding, family portrait, children, and high school senior photography. Ducharme retired in the mid ’60s, leaving the Grenier name to stand alone on tens of thousands of pictures.
By the mid ’70s, the name became Greniers. That’s when the first member of the second generation, Larry, joined his father in the business. He would be followed by brothers Marc (1976), Dan (1979), and Chris (1980). Together, members of the second generation have presided over explosive growth and a host of new business opportunities.
In 1982, after suffering a massive heart attack, Robert Grenier, passed the torch of company president to Larry, and in 1991, he sold the business to his four sons. Today, they each take leadership roles in the company. Dan Grenier founded and now manages the grades K-11 Daniel’s School Pictures department, and serves as vice president of Marketing and Product Development for The Greniers. Marc heads studio operations as Vice President and Director, while Chris directs the company’s high school senior accounts.
Today, the company counts more than 60 high schools and colleges and about 300 elementary and middle schools on its customer list, as well as other clients ranging from the Vermont State Police Department to the Holyoke and Hartford, Conn. fire departments. The profound growth of the business led the Grenier Brothers to build a new, 24,000-square-foot facility on Jarvis Avenue in Holyoke that now houses all operations. Creation of a similar facility in Connecticut, one that enable the company to better serve its many clients there, is in the planning stages.
In anticipation of further growth and territorial expansion, the Grenier brothers decided earlier this year to change the name of their company to Grynn & Barrett Studios.
David Fontaine told BusinessWest that while he’s honored to be part of the Class of 2006, he considers his grandfather to be the real entrepreneur in the family.
Eudore Fontaine didn’t want to be a farmer. He had loftier dreams, and left his native Canada in 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, to pursue them. He came to Chicopee to live in his aunt’s boarding house, and quickly found work as a carpenter. He was joined in that profession by his brother, George, and it wasn’t long before they decided they would like to work for themselves.
They issued 35 shares of common stock and formed a construction company — Fontaine Bros. Inc. — that has been part of the Western Massachusetts for the past 73 years. The family business, now in its third generation of leadership, started with residential construction, and evolved over the following decades, becoming one of the leading builders of school facilities in the Commonwealth.
Some of the most recognizable buildings in the region, including the new MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield, the Fine Arts Center on the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus, Scibelli Hall on the campus of Springfield Technical Community College, Holyoke High School, Dean Vocational Technical High School , and many others were built by Fontaine.
Given a strong foundation by Eudore and George Fontaine, succeeding generations of the family have built on the base, responding to changing societal needs in the process. Eudore’s son, Ray, who became president in 1950, would lead the company to post-war prosperity, shifting its focus from residential to commercial construction. In the late 1950s and 60s, when Baby Boomers were reaching school age in huge numbers, Fontaine built schools in communities across Western Mass. and well beyond. In the 60s and early 70s, when UMass-Amherst was undergoing explosive growth, Fontaine built many of the facilities that shape the campus today, including the Fine Arts Center, Tobin Hall and Herter Hall.
In 1982, another of Eudore’s sons, Lester, became president of the company, and guided it to continued growth, including a host of new school buildings and other public facilities, including Dean Tech, the Rebecca M. Johnson Magnet School in Springfield, and others. Lester’s son David became president of the company in 1995, and has president over several recent projects, including the $60 million MassMutual Center and the Bartley Center for Athletics and Recreation at Holyoke Community College, for which the company won a Construction Excellence Award in the category of new construction from the state.
For more information on this year’s dinner event, contact William Kwolek, Executive Director of the STCC Foundation; (413) 755-4477.
At the Federal in Agawam, the restaurant’s patrons don’t have to decide on one dessert. Instead, they can opt for 20.
The “tier of tiny treats,” a sampler of 20 different original creations arranged on a two-tier tray, sells for $17.50, which covers not only the freshly made items, but the sheer cheekiness of the arrangement.
“Those are little cakes, cups of gelato, cookies, crème brulees, soufflés – all shrunken down,” said Ralph Santaniello, co-owner of the Federal along with his brother-in-law and head chef, Michael Presnal. “We have a berry cobbler served in a little cast-iron skillet. That’s the eye appeal. The tier isn’t an easy dessert to make, but people like it. After the first one goes out in the dining room, they just start selling.”
That kind of playfulness in food creation is an extension of Presnal and Santaniello themselves, two young, down-to-earth chefs who want to give patrons a classy dining experience, but not a stuffy one.
“We’re elegant, but not pretentious,” Santaniello said. “We want you to enjoy yourself while you’re here.”
That mission has been largely successful, as the Federal – housed in the Cooper Street building that had been known as the Federal Hill Club for much of the previous century – has enjoyed steady growth since its May 2002 opening, attracting a mix of business diners, families, and people who enjoy a little creativity along with their meals.
“Our customers are extremely loyal,” Santaniello said. “They tend to be people who like food and like to go out to dinner. They’re not rich, but they’re into food and wine. They generally have friends along the same lines, they tell their friends, and it escalates from there.”
Santaniello and Presnal are writing a new story at an old Agawam location – one with a decidedly tasty future.
New Beginning
The Federal Hill Club shut its doors in the early 1990s after more than 50 years in business, and throughout the next decade, the site was occupied by a series of casual Italian restaurants, none of which made a lasting name. But Presnal and Santaniello had a different vision when they took over ownership in 2002.
“We meant it to harken back to the Federal Hill Club, and anyone who remembers it knows it used to be a high-end, very elegant restaurant,” Santaniello said. “We wanted to be associated with that.”
Santaniello cut his teeth in the restaurant business at the age of 9, working in his parents’ Italian restaurant, Amedeo’s in Holyoke, and later getting his feet wet at upscale restaurants in Boston and Martha’s Vineyard.
Meanwhile, Presnal studied at the New England Culinary Institute and gained experience at a number of fine-dining establishments on the Vineyard. In fact, Boston magazine named him one of the top four chefs on the island during his stint as executive chef of Savoir Faire.
Both of them wanted to return to the Springfield area and open an upscale restaurant. When they walked into the 250-year-old house the Federal Hill Club once called home, they were convinced.
“We just fell in love with the building,” Santaniello said. “We knew this was a destination place – the kind of restaurant you don’t just happen to drive by and have dinner.” It was the perfect location, they felt, to do the sort of upscale cooking they had done on Martha’s Vineyard, only “more cutting-edge, more contemporary,” he said. And, as it turns out, more creative.
“This is what we love to do,” Santaniello said. “We don’t have a lot of time off, but when we do, we go out to eat. I love food, I love wine – it’s a passion for us. And what we do here is different. We like to change things, go against the norm, try to bring something new to the market instead of the same old thing.”
That attitude is exemplified by the playfulness of the menu. Take for example, Presnal’s “foie gras a la mode” appetizer, which accompanies a seared slab of fois gras with caramelized pineapple and vanilla gelato. Or a pasta dish of penne paired with truffled cheese and brioche crumbs – which gets the decidedly casual title of “truffled mac and cheese.”
“Everything is original,” Santaniello said. “It’s not just a Caesar salad or French onion soup, but Mike’s take on those things. All the dishes are Mike’s creations. And having fois gras on the menu, or quail, or chanterelle mushrooms – those aren’t ingredients people are used to having around here.”
He was quick to add that the menu has to be grounded with some standards. “You have to have some basics, the staples that people want, but we also try to bring something different to the table as far as the ingredients we use.”
Santaniello said the Federal also sets itself apart in that everything is made in-house.
“Everyone says they do that, but we actually bake our own bread, make our own pastas, and have a full-time pastry chef to make our own desserts,” he said. “These are things you find in restaurants in big cities, but we’re trying to bring that here.”
Freshness is key, he added, which is another good reason – beside Presnal’s creativity – that the menu changes every five to six weeks.
“We’re always doing something different, and our menu is seasonal because food is seasonal,” Santaniello said. “You can’t use peas in the wintertime because the peas wouldn’t be fresh, and we want fresh items. It’s not easy to stick with that, but it’s what we try to do here.”
Something Different
The freshness and creativity of the menu, in fact, is why Santaniello bristles at the suggestion that The Federal’s menu is pricey – even though it lines up with other upscale restaurants in the region.
“To me, it’s overpriced when you go somewhere and pay $12 for a hamburger you can get anywhere else or make at home,” he said. “We’re actually a value for what we give the customer.”
Those customers, Santaniello said, run the gamut from a business crowd to special-occasion diners to “foodies” who appreciate something different, either for a quick bite or a relaxing dinner. Some show up looking for dessert only. In any case, he said, the goal is to surprise customers with the food and keep them coming back with the service.
“When some people hear ‘fine dining,’ they think ‘jacket and tie required,’ but that’s not us,” Santaniello said. “As far as food and service go, everything we give you is top-shelf and high-quality, but we don’t feel you have to enjoy that in a stuffy way.”
The combination of service and fun can be seen in various touches, from the risotto ball every patron is served upon being seated to the free hors d’oeuvres on spoons and forks served in the bar for two hours every Thursday and Friday.
“It’s delicious and classy, but also kind of whimsical,” Santaniello said, noting options like the antipasto fork, which provides the meat, cheese, and roasted red peppers of an antipasto in one bite.
And at the end of each visit, diners are given a box of treats to take home. “The idea is, when they have their coffee at home, they’ll pull out the cookies and think of us,” he said. “Little things like that set us apart.”
Serving the Public
Santaniello and Presnal know that, no matter how good the food is, service can make or break a dining experience, and it’s something they stress to a remarkably loyal wait staff, four of whom have worked at the Federal since the day it opened – a rarity in the restaurant business.
“Anybody can cook at home,” Santaniello said. “Why do you go out for dinner? Food is part of it, but you also want to be served. You’ve had a long day, and everybody’s been asking you for something, and now you want to sit down and be taken care of. We strive for that.”
It helps that he and Presnal are on-site, hands-on owners, so customers can take any concerns straight to the top. But so far, he said, feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Word of mouth has been great since we opened. It definitely hasn’t been easy, but I’m glad we slowly grew to where we are now, because it allowed us to hone the restaurant as we went along.”
In the end, it all comes back to the dining experience. “Formal, fine dining doesn’t mean you can’t have fun,” Santaniello said.
And that goes for the chefs as well as the customers.
Ellen Bemben says the talk is getting louder.
She was referring specifically to discussions taking place about the Greater Springfield region and its potential as a home for companies in the biotech and medical instruments fields, among others. There has been talk for some time, she acknowledged, but there is growing evidence that the talk will soon turn to action — and jobs.
“There are conversations that are going on that are more promising than ever before,” Bemben, the recently elected president of the Regional Technology Council (RTC) told BusinessWest. “But, in some ways, this area hasn’t really been discovered yet.”
Helping businesses in Boston, Cambridge, Worcester, and elsewhere navigate their way to the Pioneer Valley and the larger Knowledge Corridor — the region between Springfield and Hartford — is the informal job description for Bemben, who started her new assignment on May 3.
She brings with her more than two decades of work in the plastics industry — work that has taken her from New England to the Middle East — and confidence that the Springfield area can become the alternative, or “complement” (the word she prefers) to Boston and other higher priced areas.
“People are starting to look in this direction,” she said, referring to high-tech, medical device, and other technology-related ventures in the Boston market that may be looking for lower-cost alternatives. “I’m not talking about a long stare, but they are looking; we need to get them to look harder.”
BusinessWest looks this issue at how Bemben and the RTC intend to do just that.
Field Work
Bemben isn’t exactly new to the RTC and its broad mission.
She has been a member of the council’s board of directors for several years, and was actually one of the founders of its predecessor group, the Regional Technology Alliance (RTA). She was also the original chairperson of that agency’s Materials and Manufacturing Technology Network, or MMTN, one of three current networks, or clusters, that comprise the RTC.
Behind all those groups and acronyms is a movement, or desire to build a technology-related sector in Western Mass., said Bemben, who left a position as project leader and new-business development director for Enfield-based Specialized Technologies, formerly Springborn Laboratories, to steer the RTC.
She told BusinessWest she made that career move because she has seen a new energy within the RTC and its networks and what she considers tangible progress in the three main components to the task of building that technology base she spoke of — attraction, retention, and development of ventures in that sector.
“We’re trying to be as realistic as possible about the prospects of bringing more jobs to this region,” she said. “Do we think it can happen? We wouldn’t be wasting our time if we didn’t.”
Bemben is the third president of the RTC, following Humera Fasihudden, who was at the helm of the RTA when it changed its name and then became an affiliate of the Economic Development Council (EDC) in 2003, and her successor, Mamud Awan, who stepped down last summer. Bemben said she wants to build on the progress achieved by previous leaders and, overall, create more awareness and relevancy for the council.
“We’re a resource, but we’re also a partner with many different organizations and institutions in this area,” she said, listing everything from hospitals to community colleges to other economic development agencies. “Through those relationships, we can can build on a strong foundation for business attraction and growth in the region.”
Bemben brings a broad range of experience to the helm of the RTC. Prior to her stint with Specialized Technology Resources, she worked under contract for the government of Israel in successfully promoting its plastics industry to such companies as Gillette, GE Plastics, Elizabeth Arden, Johnson & Johnson, and Smith & Wesson. She has also worked for the General Polymers Division of Ashland Chemical, Nypro, and Everready Battery.
Bemben described the RTC as the technology arm of the EDC, and also as a “matchmaker,” linking companies with resources and tools to achieve growth. In that capacity, its role is to essentially maintain and grow the broad tech sector, which is comprised of businesses across several fields, including information technology/communications, clean energy, precision manufacturing, life sciences, health care, bioengineering, and medical device development and manufacturing.
The RTC, a non-profit organization that grew out of a grant originally awarded to UMass-Amherst, acts an umbrella organization with three neworks: MMTN, the BioEconomic Technology Alliance (BETA), and the Technology Enterprise Council (TEC).
The council is a membership-driven organization (the current number is just under 300) tasked with not only delivering new technology-driven businesses to the region, but also to help existing companies respond to changing conditions and a more global economy and remain competitive.
“In this environment, if companies don’t change, they’re going to go under,” she said. “We want to not only help companies stay afloat, but help them grow and get to the next level.”
As for attracting new companies — and jobs — to the region, Bemben said that assignment is multi-faceted, and it basically starts with building awareness of the region, its assets, and business success stories.
The Valley has always had a lower cost of doing business, especially when compared with Boston, Cambridge, or even Worcester, she said, but cost alone will not be enough. To lure businesses here, the region and its economic development leaders will have to provide evidence of a quality workforce, a strong higher-education infrastructure with a strong research component (in this case, UMass Amherst), and some examples of tech-related companies that are succeeding here.
The region has several, said Bemben, including Agawam-based MicroTest Laboratories, a pharmaceuticals manufacturer, Blackstone Medical, a Springfield-based company that has become a leader in development of spinal surgery implants and instruments, Marox Corp., the Holyoke-based manufacturer of medical devices, and many others.
“If they look, companies in Boston and elsewhere can see that we’re doing many of the things we’re doing,” she explained. “By building awareness of all that’s happening here, we can get people to look and talk about this region — and then do more than just talk about it.”
Under the Microscope
Turning talk into jobs and economic development is Bemben’s basic assignment at the RTC.
Like her predecessors in that role, she spoke about the region’s enormous potential as a home to technology related businesses in specific fields ranging from polymer science to pharmaceuticals manufacturing.
Turning that potential into reality is a work already in process, she explained. And that’s why the talk is getting louder.
George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]
The culinary field is booming, and local culinary arts students are heading into an industry with an unprecedented number and variety of career opportunities. While some still eye the restaurant kitchen, others are eagerly exploring options to cook for resort spas, assisted living communities, and even sports teams.
The lunch menu at Branford Hall Career Institute in Springfield last week was an extensive one.
Chicken Francaise was the main course, but spinach and Caesar salads were also available, in addition to stuffed Portobello mushrooms, Spanish rice, and two desserts: cheesecake and peanut butter pie.
Prepared by Branford Hall’s culinary arts students, the meal was indicative of the many skills these students must master before moving on in their careers, everything from pan-searing to puffed pastry.
But it was also a study of the fast-paced and fast-changing nature of the culinary field. The Spanish rice was made with healthy alternative ingredients, in order to respond to a strong health and wellness trend across the nation. The mushrooms were an answer to a demanding public’s need for gourmet-style food served quickly, and the clean-up of the entire production was a blur of activity, as students tried to wash down countertops and mixing bowls in time for their next class – Spa Cuisine.
Maggie Gifford, chair of the Culinary Arts program at Branford Hall, said several factors are contributing to the most diverse, and also the most demanding, set of culinary career opportunities the field has seen in years.
“There is a major trend toward cooking for healthy lifestyles,” she said, “and that is opening up many types of new jobs for people. But the public is also more in the know than ever before; they know what they want and they want it fast, and culinary students have to be that much more prepared.”
Gifford explained that, in addition to moving directly into posts in restaurants, catering outfits, or bakeries, today many graduates are choosing to follow some very different career paths.
Salad Days
The restaurant industry still forms a strong backbone for the culinary sector, but the hospitality and tourism industries are becoming an equally strong arenas. Many graduates are blending degrees in culinary arts with business and management degrees in order to enter the hospitality field at a management or executive chef level, or to open their own hospitality-based businesses.
The track can open some intriguing opportunities for culinary graduates across the globe, as fine cuisine becomes a greater draw for tourists at many resorts, hotels, and bed and breakfasts.
Joshua Stevens, a native of Ponce, Puerto Rico currently studying culinary arts at Branford Hall, has his sights set on returning to his home and working in one of the island’s many fine resorts, with the goal of rising to the level of executive chef.
“There, hotels are a much bigger industry than restaurants, and there are better jobs for people like me,” he said. “Wherever there is a beach, there is a hotel, and people to be served.”
Stevens added that international tourism hot spots like those in the Caribbean also allow chefs to work with a number of different types of cuisine and to stay abreast of current trends.
“To get a job in one of the big resorts, you have to know international cuisine,” he explained. “Everything from Asian to Mexican to exotic, tropical foods. The hotels will hire the people with the skills.”
That’s where the role of higher education in the culinary arts plays a large role, Stevens said. In programs such as those locally at Branford Hall and the culinary arts program at Holyoke Community College, students learn the fundamentals to create a knowledge base, which in turn allows them to branch out into any number of specialties.
Gonzalo Chacon, a native of Peru living in Springfield and studying culinary arts at HCC, said he has worked in restaurant environments for many years and has learned a great deal through experience. But his education is what he thinks will move him forward into the next level of his career.
“The culinary profession has become sort of glamorous and celebrated as the field grows,” he noted. “That means many people are entering the field, thinking it will be fun and easy. That’s not the case, and through a formal program like this, people learn that very quickly, and those who truly have a passion for it are the ones who stay and move on.”
Upon completion of the program at HCC this spring, Chacon plans to earn a bachelor’s in business administration, to hone his skills and techniques and keep a close eye on the trends within the industry, in order to follow one of those new career avenues that are creating new opportunities for chefs and other culinary professionals.
Power Lunch
Indeed, there are many paths to be taken in the current market. In addition to more traditional restaurant- and hotel-based careers, many other industries are beginning to incorporate fine cuisine as a major part of their corporate make-up.
Elder care and assisted living facilities, for instance, are one of the fastest growing areas for culinary job placement. Many such facilities are following the trend toward a healthy, well-rounded lifestyle for residents, and are reorganizing their services to create more-comprehensive, home-like environments. Part of that shift includes abandoning cafeteria-style dining commons for more intimate dining rooms and room service, both with extensive menus.
Culinary graduates are also increasingly finding unique jobs within both day and overnight spas and other health and wellness-based businesses, many of which are expanding to include complete menus and meal plans for clients, in addition to spa services.
And in the corporate sector, large companies across the nation are investing in upscale dining facilities for their employees, using the investment as an added benefit and incentive to garner and retain exemplary staff.
Ken Beauchemin of Westfield, a culinary arts student at HCC who will complete the program this month and move on to higher education at Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island, has his sights set on capitalizing on that corporate market, eventually as an independent contractor. His ultimate goal is to enter the sports arena, one of the fastest growing markets for professional chefs, and to cook for a professional team – maybe even the Boston Red Sox.
“Major corporations everywhere are investing in a higher class of dining for their employees,” said Beauchemin, “and sports teams and media franchises such as ESPN are some of the front-runners in the move toward cuisine as part of employee benefit packages. They’re offering an incentive to work hard, and that’s opening up a lot of unique opportunities for people in culinary fields.”
Beauchemin added that securing a culinary job outside of a restaurant environment isn’t looked at as second best, either. Rather, corporate posts within sports and media franchises, technology companies, and colleges and universities, to name a few, as well as executive chef positions for smaller groups of people – a company’s management team, for instance – allow culinary professionals to develop personalized menus, spend more time on individual dishes, and strengthen their skills.
Corporate jobs also allow for a new set of entrepreneurial opportunities during a time when opening a restaurant is increasingly difficult, due to competition from chain restaurants offering high-quality meals quickly, at low prices.
“I hope to use fundamental skills and my own talent to thrive in an environment that is changing very quickly,” said Beauchemin. “The old style of cooking is starting to come to a close, and so is the old style of doing business. That’s the world that this class of culinary students is going to be entering.”
Maricarmen Alberti of Springfield, a student at Branford Hall who will soon enter her externship – essentially, an apprenticeship in a culinary environment – said she is still leaning toward opening her own family-style restaurant in the future as an ultimate goal. But she, too, recognizes the many options she’ll have upon graduation.
“Spa cuisine is definitely a business opportunity,” she offered as an example. “I’ve heard of massage therapists and chefs joining forces to open their own businesses. Opening a restaurant with good, hearty food for people is still what I hope to do, but there are a lot of great careers out there.”
Similarly, Jillian Rosenberg of Amherst, a culinary arts student planning to continue her education at the New England Culinary Institute in Burlington, Vt., added that the wide variety of jobs opening across many industries is also making it easier for culinary students to practice their specialties. Rosenberg will be studying pastry at NECI, and said she feels more secure about the choice given the current climate of the culinary sector.
“There are many opportunities to use a specialty now,” she said, “There is a lot of information about food and cuisine out there now, on television and in magazines, and people are more aware of different types of cooking.”
This trend is also creating a larger faction of people experimenting with fine cuisine in their own homes, but she said that’s a positive side-effect of a healthy industry, not a sign of waning business.
“The more people see,” she explained, “the more they want to learn, and the more they want to try at home. But that’s not nearly enough to make a dent in this industry.”
Pressure Cooking
Despite the many windows of opportunity opening for culinary professionals, the field is not without its challenges. In addition to being more discriminating than ever in all types of environments including restaurants and hotels, diners are also more concerned than ever before with convenience and speed as well as quality of their cuisine.
“Not everyone has a lot of money or time, but everyone wants good food at a good price, and they want to be able to get in and get out quickly,” said Alberti. “That makes it hard to balance the cooking side of things with the business side.”
Gifford added that, as Rosenberg observed, the average diner today is more knowledgeable than ever before in terms of ingredients and preparation, and also more fickle when it comes to variety.
“So across all sectors, people’s expectations are that much higher,” she said. “Today’s culinary students are entering their careers at a great time, but their skills are more important than ever.”
Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]
Many employers seek to protect their business interests by entering into non-compete agreements with key employees such as executives, scientists, and salespeople. Non-compete agreements impose post-employment restrictions on such employees, typically prohibiting them from competing with the employer or soliciting the employer’s customers or employees.
Non-compete agreements also usually prohibit employees from using or disclosing the employer’s trade secrets or confidential business information, although employers sometimes place such confidentiality restrictions in a separate agreement. Massachusetts courts will generally enforce a non-compete agreement if the employer can satisfy the court that it was properly entered into, that it is necessary to protect the employer’s legitimate business interests, and that the restrictions on the former employee are reasonable in scope and duration.
In many instances, an employer who suspects that a former employee is violating a non-compete agreement will write, or ask counsel to write, a ‘cease and desist’ letter to the former employee and, occasionally, to the former employee’s new employer as well. These letters usually provide notice that the former employer may choose to take legal action if the perceived transgressions are not satisfactorily explained or remedied. Less frequently, the employer will go straight to court and seek an injunction that prohibits the former employee from engaging in conduct that allegedly violates the parties’ agreement.
Non-compete litigation is not for the faint of heart. It is intense and fast-paced. The parties usually find themselves before a judge quickly, armed with the best evidence that they can develop in a short amount of time. As with any other type of litigation, the outcome is never certain. Consider the case of Brooks Automation Inc. v. Blue Shift Technologies Inc., and Peter van der Meulen, recently decided in the Business Litigation Section of the Suffolk County Superior Court.
As part of a separation agreement, Peter van der Meulen agreed not to compete for a period of one year with his former employer, Brooks Automation. He had also signed an agreement not to disclose Brooks Automation’s confidential business information. Subsequent to van der Meulen’s departure, Brooks Automation became concerned because it could not close a deal to sell its semiconductor wafer manufacturing technology to a prospective customer, a large manufacturer of computer chip manufacturing equipment. Brooks Automation then learned that the potential customer was negotiating with Blue Shift Technologies, an entity recently formed by van der Meulen.
Despite a provision in the separation agreement requiring it to make ‘good-faith attempts’ to resolve any dispute, Brooks Automation struck quickly, filing a lawsuit alleging that van der Meulen had violated the terms of his confidentiality and non-compete agreements. Brooks Automation also alleged that van der Meulen and his new company had wrongfully interfered with Brooks Automation’s prospective contract with the equipment manufacturer. Blue Shift and van der Meulen denied these allegations and asked the court to hold an expedited trial.
Blue Shift argued successfully to the court that time was of the essence because, as a start-up company, its ability to close any deals with prospective customers and attract investors would be dramatically affected by the claims pending against it. In other words, Blue Shift argued, if the case were litigated on the usual timetable, Brooks Automation could effectively accomplish its purpose of neutralizing Blue Shift as a competitor, whether or not it ultimately succeeded in its lawsuit.
Blue Shift quickly went on the offensive by filing a counterclaim against Brooks Automation. In its counterclaim, Blue Shift alleged that Brooks Automation had wrongfully interfered with Blue Shift’s contractual relationship with the same equipment manufacturer by filing the lawsuit and then informing the equipment manufacturer about it before Blue Shift itself had even received notice.
The jury found that van der Meulen had not violated the terms of his non-compete restrictions and that he and his new company had not wrongfully interfered with Brooks Automation’s relationship with the equipment manufacturer. The case did not, however, end there. The jury went on to find on the counterclaim that Brooks Automation was liable to the start-up Blue Shift for interfering with its developing contractual relationship with the equipment manufacturer. The jury awarded Blue Shift, the original defendant in the case, more than $200,000.
Following the jury verdict, the court found that Brooks Automation had acted with reckless disregard as to whether there was any reasonable factual support for its lawsuit and further found that its actions were motivated by the desire to interfere with Blue Shift’s developing contractual relationship with the equipment manufacturer.
Applying the Commonwealth’s Consumer Protection Law, Chapter 93A, the court tripled the damages against Brooks Automation and found it responsible for Blue Shift’s attorneys’ fees. In doing so, the court recognized that Brooks Automation had harmed Blue Shift by causing it to expend time, effort, and financial resources in defense of a frivolous lawsuit at the critical start-up phase of Blue Shift’s existence. The court also made clear that the judgment amount, totaling more than $600,000 was intended to send a message to any corporation that contemplated using a frivolous lawsuit to injure a vulnerable competitor that “it will pay dearly for its misuse of the judicial process.”
All companies want to protect their business interests and, in particular, relationships with their customers. Non-compete agreements are a useful tool by which to do so, but, as the Brooks Automation case demonstrates, a company should only resort to litigation to enforce those agreements where reasonable factual and legal support for a case exists.
Otherwise, use of the legal system may result in a loss greater than the company would face competing in the marketplace.
Daniel, J. Blake, Esq., is counsel to Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas, LLP, and a member of the firm’s Litigation/Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Department and Employment Law Practice Group;[email protected].
Steve Krevalin says it took one lunch for him to know the move made perfect sense — for both parties.
He was referring to the addition of long-time Westfield attorney Gary Bevilacqua to Bacon & Wilson’s office in that city. The expansion effort positions the Springfield-based firm to capitalize on projected residential and commercial growth in Westfield and surrounding communities, said Krevalin, its managing partner. Meanwhile, it gives Bevilacqua access to the knowledge and experience of the firm’s 29 other lawyers, paralegals, and support staff, which will enable him to better serve current and future clients.
This scenario provides the necessary ingredients for Bacon & Wilson to become more of what Krevalin calls a truly regional law firm.
Elaborating, he said the firm, which has main offices in Springfield and additional facilities in Westfield and Northampton, is moving forward with aggressive plans to “go where our clients are,” as he put it, meaning the establishment of a strong physical presence in communities well to the north and west of Springfield.
“We have a bold game plan,” he told BusinessWest, adding quickly that the firm is doing much more than leasing space and obtaining local phone numbers in communities like Westfield and Northampton. Instead, it is taking steps to serve clients in those cities in ways that aren’t possible from a large office in downtown Springfield.
Steps like adding Bevilacqua and two paralegals who have worked with him for several years to a Westfield office opened by Bacon & Wilson in 1999 and staffed by Philip (Chip) Smith. The firm has long considered plans to expand its Westfield office, said Krevalin, and was looking for the right individual for the assignment.
It found one in Bevilacqua, who started practicing in the Whip City nearly 30 years ago, has served the community as assistant city solicitor, and was looking for a new opportunity following the end of a long-time partnership with Richard Pesto.
“I needed to make a move and was looking at several options,” said Bevilacqua. “I had talked with Bacon & Wilson once before about joining their Westfield office; the timing wasn’t right then, but this time, we were able to come together.”
Like Krevalin, Bevilacqua sees Westfield — and the communities surrounding it — as a potentially high-growth area.
“When you look at Westfield, you see a lot of residential growth and movement on the commercial side as well,” he explained. “There are some good things happening downtown, many new businesses, and the promise of more to come.”
Meanwhile, neighboring Southwick has enjoyed explosive growth in recent years, on both the commercial and residential sides of the ledger, he said, noting that most residents there look to Westfield for professionals to handle their legal needs. The same is true for many residents of communities known as the ‘hilltowns’ — Russell, Blandford, Granville, Montgomery, and others — that lie to the north and west of the city.
Bacon & Wilson is properly positioned to capitalize on that growth, said Krevalin, because of both its growing presence in Westfield, through the addition of Beviliacqua, and the resources available at its Springfield and Northampton offices.
“That’s a strong combination,” he explained. “We have two experienced, respected lawyers in that office and a great support team backing them up.”
Bevilacqua agreed. “I have background in commercial and residential real estate, probate, wills, estates, trusts, and other areas,” he said. “But expertise in virtually every other area is a phone call or an extension away.”
The 2006 Boston Marathon was about to start when a portion of the Boston Police Department’s communication system for the event went kaput.
The BPD’s new provider of communications equipment and service, Valley Communications in Chicopee, was called to the scene to troubleshoot complicated issues with the intricate system, which plays one of the largest behind-the-scenes roles with the 110-year-old race.
James Tremble, the company’s president, acknowledged the gravity of the client and the job. But in terms of the complicated work completed to get the system going, he chose only to comment on the end result.
“It wasn’t working. We got it working,” he said, with a slight smile.
And in the grand scheme of things, that’s all a client really cares about, and it also accurately represents the culture at Valley Communications: do it right, do it well, and do it for as long as possible.
Indeed, the family-run company celebrated its 60th year in business just last year. In its early years, in functioned as a photographic and motion picture supply store, under the name Valley Cinema.
But its founders, Ed and Rita Tremble, soon saw the opportunities to be had in telecommunications and, later, in imaging, security, and audiovisual equipment. Those services, although vastly changed by the advent of new technology, have remained the backbone of Valley Communications, now the workplace of about 100 employees, including eight Trembles spanning three generations. Rita, who will celebrate her 90th birthday in July, is still an active member of the team.
Divisions of Labor
The company is comprised of three major departments, which often overlap.
The first is the audio-visual department, which Tremble said services clients from “anyone who needs a microphone and a speaker” to those with the most sophisticated needs. The second is the telephony division, which includes Internet protocol (IP) and voicemail systems, and the third is the cable and wiring division, which provides wiring services for the other two aspects of the business.
Valley Communications has a solid reputation within the private sector, but also has a strong, long-standing relationship with the public sector, as evidenced by that recent trouble-shoot for the BPD. Valley also works extensively with a number of schools through state contracts in New England, and has done so for many years.
Tremble said it’s largely the service component – in addition to product sales, Valley also services what it sells and offers training for clients for the life of the product – that drives the company forward. But after six decades in business, Valley’s ability to change and move forward with the times, especially in the fast-paced world of information technology, can’t go unmentioned.
“I don’t see our length of time in this field as a detriment,” said Tremble, “because technology drives the sales, and if you don’t have it, clients will quickly move on. Competition is also a driver. If we can’t do it, people will move on just as quickly to someone who does.”
To that end, Tremble said staying current is an ongoing focus at the company, however that necessity is bolstered by time-tested, family business practices.
“We work with manufacturers providing the equipment we need that largely mirror our own company,” he said. “And we’ve been in business for so long, I truly feel that we represent the best manufacturers. They have to be current with the times as much as we do in order for us to sell in this marketplace, but we don’t do business with companies that have short survival rates in any way.”
Further, he said Valley Communications isn’t accepting every new technological breakthrough that comes down the pike.
“When new technology arrives, it’s up to us to accept and embrace it,” he said. “But we’re not accepting everything. Only what is right for our customer base. And our ability to service what we sell is always key in terms of that choice.”
Choosing and capitalizing on the right product, however, can spur growth in both the public and private sectors. Pat Parente, Valley’s manager of Repairs and Special Projects, said one such product that has helped boost sales of late has been the interactive whiteboard, becoming an industry standard in boardrooms as well as classrooms across the country.
“These are a very useful example of advanced teaching and meeting tools, as well as of true teleconferencing,” said Parente, who explained that the boards act not only as projector screens for computer programs, but can also transmit data to other whiteboards or locales anywhere in the world, in real time. “They’ve been a hot item for about five years, but they’re becoming more and more mainstream.”
He said in addition to schools and colleges, which are installing the boards at a rapid pace, banks are also big customers, because they can better interact with various branches on a more regular basis, and other industries are following suit.
“Still, there are many businesses and schools that don’t have them yet, so we expect it will remain a strong sales item for years to come,” said Parente.
Keeping Pace
But he was quick to note, as was Tremble, that Valley Communications rarely leans on any one product or service to sustain business. Instead, it returns to that family-based model: cultivating strong relationships and maintaining those that already exist. That not only moves the business forward steadily, but also stabilizes the bottom line.
“We are holding our own,” said Tremble, noting that the company saw about a 3% increase in sales in 2005 over the previous year. “Budgets are tight, especially in the education sector. But three things drive a new sale: the formation of a new company, replacements due to age, or new technology. It’s most important that we are ready to address those three areas.”
And with that mentality, Valley Communications is still in the race, or at least on the sidelines, ensuring that everything is up and running.
Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]
There are many questions surrounding the Commonwealth’s landmark health care reform legislation, signed into law this month. There are new coverage plans to draft, advisory boards to form, and administrative tools that still need to be created. But the health care community isn’t wasting any time asking why … instead, it’s asking how, and when?
Michael Widmer, president of the Mass. Taxpayers Foundation, said the health care reform legislation that just made history in Massachusetts is largely an effort to level the playing field in terms of health care costs, accessibility, and coverage, and he thinks that the new law is on the right track.
But now, he says, the state has to stay the course.
“The structure of this legislation is inherently sound. But obviously, we’re going to hit some rough spots with this, and the classic, Massachusetts response at the first sign of trouble is ‘man the torpedoes.’
“This time,” Widmer stressed, “we have to keeping working, to progress into new territory.”
His sentiments are shared by many in the health care community in terms of this new legislation, passed by the Legislature on April 4 and signed into law by Gov. Mitt Romney a week later. The health care reform bill sets forth a number of changes to the Commonwealth’s health insurance make-up, all geared toward universal health insurance coverage for state residents.
Much has to happen before this well-watched experiment can be called a success, including the creation of new, affordable health insurance plans; the shifting of thousands of residents from the uncompensated (free) care pool to the Medicaid system; the implementation of new quality-reporting mechanisms within hospitals; and, perhaps most importantly, the retention of $385 million in federal funds, slated to shift from health care providers to health care insurers.
That’s a lot for any state to chew on, but with such a comprehensive plan now on the books after months of debate on Beacon Hill, few are ready to bow to a challenge, much less concede defeat.
“Everyone is concerned about how this is going to play out over the long-term,” said Daniel Keenan, vice president of Government Relations with the Sisters of Providence Health System and a 12-year veteran of the state Legislature, who left the House for his new position earlier this year. “But we’re going to have tangible proof of that very soon, and that’s a positive.”
Breaking Down the Bill
Indeed, the first aspects of the reform bill are scheduled to take effect in just six months, and the implementation phase will extend through 2009. Among other components, the legislation calls for:
• An individual mandate that will require, as of July 1, 2007, that all adult residents obtain and maintain health care coverage that satisfies a minimum standard, set by the state. Those who fail to secure coverage will be subject to tax penalties or fees;
• A new employer responsibility, set to take effect in October, which requires all employers with 11 or more employees that do not offer health insurance to pay a per-worker assessment to the state’s uncompensated care pool, capped at $295 and based on actual free care costs to the state (this provision was vetoed by Romney, and at press time that veto was expected to be overridden by the legislature). In addition, employers must offer a ‘cafeteria plan,’ which allows employees to access health insurance and other funding such as day-care subsidies, with pre-tax dollars. All employers with 11 employees or more who do not contribute to health coverage on their own or through contributions to a will be subject to a ‘free rider surcharge,’ triggered when employees or their dependents collectively utilize more than $50,000 in free care in one year;
• Overall market reforms, which are designed to streamline access to health care coverage, and include the creation of new, affordable health insurance products and the ‘Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector,’ an administrative piece of the legislation that will be monitored by the state Dept. of Administration and Finance, and will link businesses and individuals with affordable health insurance products, and
• Health care funding reforms, which will allocate an additional $90 million a year for Medicaid rate increases over the next three years, and will help to create an advisory board to review reimbursement rates and methodologies. Hospitals, conversely, will be required to meet and verify a number of performance targets in order to receive reimbursement rate increases, and both health care providers and insurers will be required to submit cost and quality data to the Health Care Quality and Cost Council, also created by the reform bill. This will allow for greater transparency within the industry and a more- informed consumer base.
With the framework for reform in place, work must now begin to set each aspect of the plan in motion, on the part of the health insurance sector, health care providers, legislators, and employers alike. The stated goal is coverage for all of the state’s 500,000 uninsured by 2009. To that end, the plan stipulates that an estimated 100,000 people who are eligible for but not enrolled in Medicaid (the disabled, elderly, children, and parents of children who also fall at approximately 200% of the poverty level) be enrolled through a comprehensive outreach program. In addition, 200,000 low-income residents who do not qualify for Medicaid must be signed-up for state-subsidized health insurance.
The remaining uninsured residents will be offered a number of health insurance package options — created and offered directly through health insurance providers in the Commonwealth — that are expected to feature reduced rates (by about 25%) and several targeted products, particularly for 19- to 26-year olds. The Connector will also provide for subsidies for these products on a sliding scale, for residents whose incomes fall at or below 300% of the federal poverty level (for example, $48,000 a year for a family of three). As part of that provision, all plans submitted by insurance providers must first pass muster with the Dept. of Administration and Finance before inclusion in the Connector system.
The actual creation of affordable health insurance products by health insurance companies, however, still begs a number of questions.
Cost and Effect
“There is still a lot of confusion,” said Peter Straley, president and CEO of Health New England, a Springfield-based HMO. “For one thing, the Connector is meant to oversee the products and give a sort of seal of approval to each product made available to the public, and we’re not sure what we’ll need to do to earn that seal. The Connector doesn’t exist yet, and there is confusion with regard to deadline dates – there are a lot of dates being thrown out right now.”
Straley said HNE will pay close attention to that 19- to 26-year old population, which he defined as one of the largest and most often overlooked segments of the uninsured. As the insurer of 5,500 employers with 50 employees or fewer, he’s also concerned with the effect the bill’s provisions will have on small businesses.
But he’s also wary of how much flexibility his company and others will have in terms of creating viable plans in a regulatory environment.
“We need to provide basic insurance that is affordable, and we don’t know if we can yet,” he said. “We can’t give absolute answers with regard to what these products are going to look like until we know more about what our boundaries will be. “
Widmer said the creation of those affordable products is an area of the legislation many other groups, including his own organization, are also keeping a close eye on.
“Health insurance providers have to hustle,” he said, noting that insurance providers are not only being charged with creating diverse packages for all types consumers, including low-risk residents and young or college-enrolled customers, but to also ensure that products include strong preventative medicine and catastrophic coverage components.
“It will be interesting to see the products they introduce, especially given that each product can be totally unique to each company,” he said. “We’re keeping an eye on the cost structure in particular, because the key to all of this is affordability.”
Widmer said the control over creation of the affordable packages was given to health insurance providers in part to offer consumers choice and variety among plans. Overall, he said, that structure is sound.
“More options will make the marketplace easier to navigate for individuals,” he said, “and that in turn will stimulate the creation of more comprehensive, low-cost plans.”
But Widmer agreed with Straley that a potential roadblock could be that the bill will not go far enough to give insurers the flexibility they need to create products at the low price points. Since individuals will not be required to purchase insurance until those products are available, that could delay the overriding goal of providing coverage for everyone in the state, and shrinking the free care pool, a major concern for health care providers.
Hank Porten, president and CEO of Holyoke Medical Center, said his hospital struggles with the realities of providing free care every day, and that he, too, is keeping watch over the creation of those affordable plans.
“My hope is that insurance coverage will be such that our patients will be able to effectively work with them,” he said. “I hope there is a strong focus on manageable co-pays and deductibles while these packages are being created.”
Similarly, Steven Bradley, vice president for Government Relations with Baystate Health, said he’s optimistic that the affordable plan structure will help to whittle down the free care pool and financial burdens on hospitals, as long as all affordable packages are easily accessible, state-subsidized or otherwise.
As the largest Medicaid provider in the Commonwealth, Baystate should get a boost from the initial shift of 100,000 residents from free care to the Medicaid program, because it will increase Medicaid reimbursements by $70 million a year and move the hospital close to the cost of providing those services, said Bradley. But the gap can’t be fully closed until the remaining plans are in place.
“Nothing will be perfect on day one, and nothing is going to work as well as people want it to at first,” he cautioned. “But the affordable plans are a great idea, and I’ve heard they will look a lot like Medicaid. The Connector will also establish some criteria. I tend to have confidence that these plans will be affordable for Massachusetts residents in the end.”
Connecting the Dots
Keenan said the plans will be also be searchable by individuals and employers alike through the Connector, which he called a significant aspect of this legislation that has been largely overlooked.
“The Connector is sort of an imaginary box that people who need insurance can open and sift through,” he said. “And part of what the Connector will do is make it easier for employers to satisfy the mandatory requirements and allow individuals to easily combine contributions from different employers. That’s huge for the many people living in Massachusetts who hold down two or three part-time jobs, and currently have no way of paying for health care.”
Keenan contended that the creation of the Connector will prove to be a critical component of the legislation despite being overshadowed by the debate that raged over other facets of the bill, including the employer assessment.
He said that, while the $295 per-employee annual assessment for employers who do not contribute to health coverage is another move toward stabilizing the free care pool and constitutes the only ‘new money’ filtering in as part of the health care reform bill, the amount is negligible when compared to the accompanying free rider surcharge. It stipulates that employers who don’t provide health care coverage to their employees could be responsible for up to 100% of the costs incurred by employees who access health care through the free care pool.
“That’s an issue that could potentially bankrupt employers,” he said. Widmer agreed, adding that the fee represents an alternative to a payroll tax that was originally proposed in an early draft of the bill, and which the MTF strongly opposed.
“A payroll tax would have been harmful to the Massachusetts economy, and the assessment is an alternative approach. A mandate it is not. This is a fair share contribution, and that’s a very different construct than a mandate. Those employers who do not provide coverage will have employees who draw on the free care pool, and in turn it will be those employers who are paying for it.
“The employer contribution was critical to breaking the log jam in the legislature,” Widmer continued, “but it’s not critical to the overall success of this legislation. The individual mandate, and the Connector, those are. Because if this reform works, there will gradually be less of a draw on free care, and therefore less of an assessment.”
All Hands on Deck
Overall, optimism regarding the reform legislation is high within the Commonwealth’s health care community, which sees the underlying drivers for the reform – increased access, controlled costs, and the preservation of millions in federal funding – as paramount to the inevitable kinks.
“This legislation is the product of new ideas and collaboration at the legislative level, and in the area of health care, there’s not a lot of either going on right now,” said Widmer. “I think there are pieces of this legislation that could absolutely serve as national models. We just need to see it through to the end.”
Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]
Tighe & Bond Wins Top Award
WESTFIELD — Tighe & Bond Inc. was recently awarded the 2006 Build Connecticut Award, sponsored by the American General Contractors/CT Chapter. The awards competition is a bi-annual competition amongst contractors that recognizes the top project in four categories – large and small new construction projects and large and small renovation projects. The Lake Whitney Water Treatment Plant for the South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority won the award for the top project in the category of Large New Construction. Tighe & Bond was a member of the design firm team that engineered the project. The firm participated in the pilot testing and planning stages of the project, and was responsible for the asbestos abatement and demolition of the old plant, and the civil/site, structural, electrical and engineered the pumping systems for the new water treatment plant. Tighe & Bond also assumed the lead role during construction.
MassMutual Completes $45M Construction Project
SPRINGFIELD — MassMutual Financial Group officially completed its $45 million renovation and expansion project at its Springfield home office on State Street on April 21. The project consisted of a new 80,000-square-foot document management building and a renovation of a major building wing first constructed in 1965, including a complete overhaul and expansion of its employee cafeteria. MassMutual is currently ranked 92nd on the Fortune 500 list, making it the largest company, based on revenues, in the state.
UMass Amherst, Elms Receive Grant
AMHERST — UMass Amherst and Elms College in Chicopee have been awarded a grant of $24,948 from the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education to encourage top honors students early in their nursing education to pursue an academic career. The initiative is designed to increase the number of nursing professors, now in short supply. ‘Increasing the Pipeline to Ph.D. Education’ will support five teams of faculty and students from each college in the conduct of clinical projects and research. Honors students will be identified in their sophomore or junior years, matched with faculty mentors, and conduct honors work during the 2006-2008 academic years. They will work as research assistants for the first year to develop research skills and then undertake honors projects and research during the second year. The students will be eligible for direct admission to the UMass doctoral program upon completion of the bachelor’s degree.
Client First Associates Redesigns Web site
NORTHAMPTON — Client First Associates, a Vann Group company, recently revamped its Web site at www.clientfirstassociates.com. The firm supports organizations through large and small change initiatives, ranging from organizational assessments, systemic change projects and leadership development programs to executive coaching and employee development programs.
Credit Union Breaks Ground in Ludlow
LUDLOW — The Luso Federal Credit Union recently began construction of a 15,000-square-foot building on East Street that will be three times the size of its present building at 535 East St. Luso membership boasts being one of the largest credit unions in the region despite its membership being limited to those who work or live in town. As of Dec. 31, total assets were $137.5 million. When construction is completed in early 2007, Luso’s new facility will feature 35 parking spaces, a drive-up teller lane and a drive-up automated teller machine lane. Luso was created by members of the Gremio Lusitano Club in 1971. Juster, Pope Frazier of Shelburne Falls designed the structure, while L.N. Bernache of Chicopee will serve as the general contractor.
Three Markets Have Charter Phone Options
Residents in Chicopee, East Longmeadow and Ludlow now have a telephone service option through Charter Communications. The service began in March, with Charter offering its cable customers a telephone service of $39.99 a month with unlimited local and domestic long distance calls, voice mail, caller identification and other features. The service is also compliant with the latest 911 safety technology which provides a name and address when users dial the emergency number. Charter provides Internet, cable and telephone service to 11 communities, including Chicopee, East Longmeadow, Easthampton, Hadley and Wilbraham.
Sierra Grill To Open
NORTHAMPTON — O’Brian C. Tomalin plans to open a new restaurant, Sierra Grill, at the former location of Brasserie 40-A, part of a three-story restaurant and lounge operation which closed in mid-April. Anthony B. Bishop and his father, Daniel J. Bishop Sr., co-owners of Brasserie 40-A, said they decided to close the restaurant because they were not getting the end result they had expected.
The following is a compilation of recent lawsuits involving area businesses and organizations. These are strictly allegations that have yet to be proven in a court of law. Readers are advised to contact the parties listed, or the court, for more information concerning the individual claims.
NORTHAMPTON DISTRICT COURT
Mount Holyoke College v. The Massachusetts Festival of the Arts Inc.
Allegation: Breach of contract — Failure to pay for goods sold and delivered: $3,242.12
Date Filed: April 11
SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT
City Tire Co. Inc. v. Steven M. Perry d/b/a T & J Tire Service
Allegation: Breach of contract — Failure to pay for goods sold and delivered: $5,181.67
Date Filed: March 27
United Rentals (NA) Inc. v. AMI Framing Co.
Allegation: Breach of contract — Failure to pay for goods and services: $5,599.26
Date Filed: March 28
United Rentals (NA) Inc. v. Tara Construction Inc. and Pedro Pirez
Allegation: Breach of contract — Failure to pay for goods and serices: $6,249.62
Date Filed: March 28
When Paul Huijing started his own business two years ago, he put the name Oak Mountain Construction & Engineering on it.
His thinking was that his own name is somewhat unusual and difficult to pronounce (‘hewing’), and he considered it best to take a different approach.
But he soon came to understand that the best way to make a name for yourself in the ultra competitive world of residential construction is … well, to stress your name. And so he is, in a venture now called Paul Huijing Construction & Engineering.
The latter part of the name on the business card hasn’t changed, said Huijing, because he wants to stress the fact that he has experience in both residential building and mechanical engineering.
He worked for Westvaco (now Mead Westvaco) for more than a decade. There, he built envelope-folding machines and later worked in R&D, testing machines and their capabilities with regard to the quantity and quality of paper produced. But he came to realize that he had no inherent interest in paper, but did have a fascination with home building — one he started cultivating in his boyhood in Florida, where he would watch construction crews erect houses.
His passion for home building prompted him to leave Westvaco in 1999 and become a construction superintendent for Dan Roulier & Associates, a Connecticut-based residential builder. And it led him to start his own business, which he believes is unique in its commitment to efficiency, organization, responsiveness, and imaginative use of materials and processes to solve problems for clients.
“I’m a very efficient person, and that shows in how I approach my work,” said Huijing, who has written an article on project scheduling that was published in a national trade publication. “And by being efficient I can take much of the anxiety out of the building process, making it more enjoyable for the client.”
By making an often-stressful process more palatable, Huijing said he is engendering confidence from his clients — not to mention positive word-of-mouth referrals. Thus, he is simultaneously building homes, his business, and his reputation.
He is already ahead of the pace he mapped out in his initial business plan for Oak Mountain (he changed the name roughly a year ago) and is confident that he can continue to grow at a steady, controlled pace.
“I’m on target with the goals I set when I decided to go on my own,” he told BusinessWest. “The plan was to start with a few houses and some custom additions and get the name out. Now, I’m ready to build on that.”
BusinessWest looks this issue at how, by helping clients achieve the classic American dream — their ideal home — Huijing is making a different kind of American dream, a successful entrepreneurial venture, become reality.
Framework for Success
As he flipped through a portfolio of projects he’s worked on, Huijing stopped at a $1.2 million, 5,000-square-foot home he built in Somers for a now former resident of Chicopee who won $34 million in the state Lottery.
“That’s my favorite, naturally,” he said of the home, which he built while he was with Dan Roulier. “That project had a little of everything — we could really express our talents there.”
It was this desire to utilize and showcase his talents — in this case for home design and construction — that led Huijing to make a fairly dramatic career course change and leave Westvaco for Dan Roulier & Associates.
“I left because residential construction was really my passion,” he explained, noting that this affection for the craft was developed over time and largely through work to expand and modernize his own homes. “While I working as an engineer I would spend nights and weekends working on my homes. I would read all the magazines I could find and really became fascinated by it.
“At some point,” he continued, “I came to the realization that I should be doing this during the week, and that maybe I should be relaxing a little bit on the weekends.”
For Roulier, Huijing served as construction superintendent, working on subdivisions in Somers and Ellington, Conn., and East Longmeadow and Wilbraham. He built about 50 homes for the company over his four years there before deciding to hang out his own shingle.
He told BusinessWest that his current work is very similar to what he was doing for Roulier — he’s essentially the construction supervisor — but with all the additional responsibilities small business owners face, from marketing to soliciting clients.
The plan was to start slow, with a home and a few additions the first year, and that’s exactly how things played out, said Huijing, adding that he’s built a few Colonials in Belchertown, and has also handled a few custom additions/renovations.
One such renovation, for a home on Long Hill Drive in Somers, involved conversion of a back porch/deck into a sun room that allows year-round use and brings considerably more light into the house.
“The porch blocked light into the kitchen,” Huijing explained. “Our goal was to get more light in while also creating a very livable space; we accomplished that.”
He said the project is just one illustration of how he works with clients to solve problems and attain goals — and this is the reputation he is working to cultivate within the residential building community.
He told BusinessWest that his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering — most builders started as carpenters or other types of tradesmen — bring additional talents and insight to what he called the ‘process’ of home building.
“I’ve been a project manager throughout my entire career,” he explained. “When I was building a machine, a lot of the same skills I utilize to build houses were used and developed. It comes down to quality and efficiency.”
Firm Foundation
As an example, Huijing pointed to the eight-room spec home he is currently building on Monson Road in Wilbraham.
A ‘twisted Cape,’ as he called it, the home’s design was chosen with the narrow lot on which it will be built in mind, he said, adding that it will be ‘efficient’ in a number of ways.
It will, for example, use about 50% of the energy that would be consumed by a house built to current energy code minimum standards, which translates into an oil savings of about 390 gallons per year (more than $800 at current prices).
Meanwhile, the home’s design will provide the most available square-footage per dollar invested, he explained.
“I look to this project to differentiate myself from some of the other builders out there,” he told BusinessWest. “I’m trying to do things that provide a little more character than the standard Colonial with the garage next to it.”
Innovations begin with the foundation, said Huijing, noting that the outside of the concrete will feature fiberglass insulation, a new product called ‘warm and dry board.’
“Most of the time, people will use polystyrene foam insulation, but insects tend to like to live in that material,” he said, “so while you’re solving one problem — keeping water and cold out — you might potentially be creating another one.
“My research shows that insects don’t like living in fiberglass boards,” he continued, “so I’m going to try this product. It will enable me to provide a much warmer basement, one that will become more of a conditioned space, and that will reduce energy costs.”
Huijing said his efforts to apply new technology and products to home-building — with the goal of creating efficiencies and reducing or minimizing the problems homeowners experience years down the road — should help him generate positive name recognition in the business.
In fact, he is using the Monson Road home, which recently went on the market, as a vehicle for showcasing his work. He believes the house is especially suitable for an older couple, perhaps some empty nesters, but he hopes to show it to a number of individuals to help gain some visibility.
But beyond displaying what he can build, Huijing wants to emphasize how he builds.
Indeed, he told BusinessWest that his emphasis on effective scheduling and communication help take many of the hassles out of the process of building a home or addition.
Using the contact-management software program ACT — or, more specifically, an overlay application called BetterACT — as well as a paper calendar, datebook, and notepad, Huijing says he can bring high levels of organization to a building job, effectively tracking both the work that’s been done and the steps still to come.
“By bringing more organization to the process I can instill confidence in my customers and that brings down their stress level,” he said, adding that he honed his scheduling skills while with Roulier, when he would often juggle eight or more projects at one time. “They’re not worried about chasing me around, because I do all the chasing of everyone else, and if they have a problem, they know I’ll get back to them right away.”
Room for Imagination
Through quality scheduling and construction, Huijing is doing what he set out to do when he took the name Oak Mountain off his business card; promote his name and his many talents.
The name may indeed be hard to pronounce, but at his current rate of progress, Huijing is providing ample reason for people to take the time to learn it. v
George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]
Fast Facts
Company: Paul Huijing
Construction & Engineering
Principal: Paul Huijing
Address: P.O. Box 516,
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Phone/Fax: (413) 599-4884
E-mail:[email protected]
Services: Home building,
custom additions
The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of April 2006.
| AGAWAM The Furniture Shop | Robinson Properties SPRINGFIELD WEST SPRINGFIELD |
The following business incorporations were recorded in Hampden and Hampshire counties and are the latest available. They are listed by community.
| AGAWAM |
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| Open House MassMutual recently staged an open house and reception to showcase a $45 million expansion and renovation project at its Springfield home office. The project consisted of a new 80,000-square-foot document-management building and a renovation of a major building wing first constructed in 1965, including a complete overhaul and expansion of its employee cafeteria.
Breakfast of Champions Go FIT, the local non-profit group focused on educating women and children about exercise, fitness, and nutrition, recently staged its Breakfast of Champions, a fund-raising event held at Bay Path College.
Silent Auction Laurie Normandeau, right, a veteran mountain climber who ascended Mount Kilimanjaro in 2004 as part of the Climb to Fight Breast Cancer, a program initiated by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, will be part of another climb this summer — rugged Mount Elbrus in Russia. As part of that effort, she must raise $5,000 for cancer research, and recently staged a silent auction in Northampton’s Look Park as part of that process. Here, she poses with bidder Janet Eggleston, owner of the Northampton Brewery.
Fresh Roast Celebrating their 10-year anniversary as the morning team on WAQY Rock 102.1 FM, Bax and O’Brien (Mike Baxendale, and John O’Brien) were roasted earlier this month by a wide range of media personalities and community leaders at the MassMutual Center.
Ribbon Cutting Westfield mayor Westfield Mayor Richard K. Sullivan Jr. cuts the ribbon to open PeoplesBank’s new office located 281 East Main St. in Westfield. The branch opened for business on April 7.
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