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Claudio Guerra Elevates Pub Fare at Paradise City Tavern
Claudio Guerra, left, with Operations Manager Bill Collins,

Claudio Guerra, left, with Operations Manager Bill Collins, says Northampton’s combination of sophistication and fun make it the ideal setting for upscale pub food and cask ale.

They came first out of loyalty.

“When we first opened for business, we had a couple come in from Amherst, who wanted to check it out,” said Claudio Guerra, referring to Paradise City Tavern, the prolific restaurateur’s latest venture, which opened in Northampton in July. The couple had been fans of the now-closed Del Raye Bar & Grille, a far more elegant restaurant that was closed to make way for this new, upscale pub.

“As they looked at the menu, I said, ‘how do you like it?’” Guerra said. “They said, ‘we don’t.’ So I asked why. They said, ‘why would we cross the bridge for hamburgers and beer?’”

But they stayed and ordered: a burger, a flatbread pizza, and a couple of draughts. “I walked over later and asked how everything was, and they said, ‘OK, this is worth crossing the bridge.’ That’s my favorite moment here.”

That satisfaction derives, no doubt, from the challenge of convincing people that quality food is quality food, no matter the price or décor. Because a tavern this is — albeit one with a few twists.

“We’re trying to provide the most delicious but affordable pub food we can produce,” Guerra explained. “A burger is not just a burger; we’re trying to do the best hamburger you can find. The french fries are cut every day from raw potatoes. And the flatbread pizzas are made with some whole wheat in them, not some generic garbage.”

‘Generic,’ in fact, is not a word that comes to mind when perusing the flatbread options. Sure, the ‘Gumba’ is loaded with traditional pepperoni, meatball, and sausage, but more adventurous palates might appreciate the ‘Frenchy,’ with duck confit, melted leeks, and goat cheese; or the ‘Ham & Gruyere,’ which features those two toppings along with green grape slices.

Somehow, the ingredients fit together — just like the diverse destinations that make up Guerra’s ever-expanding chain.

Finding a Home

Born in Germany to Italian parents, he emigrated to New York City as a boy in 1963, and literally grew up around the restaurant business. His father first worked seven days a week between two jobs — as a head waiter for a top French restaurant, and as the night manager for a second, 24-hour French eatery. After 10 years, he had saved enough money to move to Long Island, where he opened his own restaurant, eventually expanding that endeavor to four establishments.

The younger Guerra, meanwhile, spent his boyhood checking coats, busing tables, and washing dishes, and after high school, he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps. He underwent a two-year apprenticeship in Bavaria, Germany, then returned to America in the early 1980s to help his father open a restaurant in Hartford, Conn. called the Mill on the River.

On his days off, he took road trips to find a place where he could launch an enterprise of his own. When he arrived in Northampton, he fell in love with it — even though the town was far from the bustling center of arts and culture it is today. He ate that first night at the Eastside Grill, which was packed, but didn’t have a lot of competition.

Guerra started to see possibilities, realizing in short order that Northampton was populated by educated, progressive-minded people who appreciated quality and creativity in a restaurant. Pizzeria Paradiso was his first venture there, followed in the next several years by two additional downtown ventures, the more upscale Spoleto and Del Raye.

Over the past several years, Guerra expanded his empire further, opening two more Northampton restaurants — Spoleto Express, a lunch-oriented Italian eatery; and Mama Iguana’s, serving Mexican fare — and a second Spoleto in East Longmeadow. But while the lower-priced establishments have been humming along fine, he noticed a trend at the Del Raye.

“For years, it was a home run,” he told BusinessWest. “But, to be honest, after 9/11 we saw a gradual slowdown in business, which accelerated in the middle of last year. The Del Raye opened up 10 years ago, but it’s a completely different economic environment today. When people are starting to put $60 or $70 in their gas tank, they think twice before they spend $60 or $70 for dinner. So the writing was on the wall.”

Paradise City Tavern is a different entity altogether, although the culinary staff from the Del Raye is largely intact. In addition, the restaurant features 12 microbeers on tap (Guerra said he could offer more, but wants the kegs drained quickly to keep the beer fresh), and is also among just 500 or so locations in the U.S. to serve up what’s known as cask ale, which is beer brewed right in the barrel from which it’s eventually tapped.

“Cask beer is called ‘real ale’ in Europe,” said Bill Collins, operations manager of Guerra’s restaurant chain. “All the yeast is still there, so it’s naturally carbonated. It’s got a much different flavor than other beer, and it’s served at about 59 degrees, not ice-cold. It’s got a cult following … it’s the way beer was first drank.”

Guerra agreed. “It’s closer to the pure taste of what the brewer intends,” he told BusinessWest. “I come from a philosophy that the less food is handled and futzed with, the happier I am with it. And this is as real as it gets. The customers here are really educated about beer, and they’re really thrilled about the casks.”

Unlike other restaurants he’s operated, this one doesn’t cater to one niche, said Guerra. “We get an early family-dinner crowd because we’re family-friendly, and then there’s a normal dinner crowd, and then after they leave, we get the drinking crowd. In fact, we’re open from 4 to 2, and half our sales here are after 11. We’ll bring in bands and DJs, and it turns into a spontaneous party.”

All in all, he’s happy with his latest venture, although he was nervous about turning the Del Raye — an elegant, white-tablecloth type of establishment — into a tavern. But it was a move he felt he had to make.

“A lot of people hang onto a model they’re familiar and comfortable with,” Guerra said. “I think a lot of people, in my shoes with the Del Raye, would have tried to stick it out, and probably not successfully. The Del Raye was special to me; I met my wife there. But, while it was painful, I made the decision to get rid of it.

“In business,” he continued, “you have to stay up on the times and be hyper-aware of the realities of your competition, the economy, and the mood of the customers. You have be flexible like Play-Doh and keep moving if you’re going to be successful.”

Having a Ball

Besides the music, Paradise City Tavern strives to throw other creative entertainment at guests. The day Guerra spoke with BusinessWest, the staff was getting ready to show the cult stoner-bowling flick The Big Lebowski on one of the five large-screen TVs, and giving away 50 games courtesy of Northampton Bowl.

And next spring will see the addition of an outdoor deck, which will add about 100 seats. One reason Guerra didn’t build one right away is that he knew business would be strong when the restaurant first opened, and wants to extend the excitement into next year by creating a second buzz around the deck.

Guerra’s philosophy has always been simple — “you have to treat your customers and your employees they way you’d like to be treated,” he said — but his strategy in such a crowded restaurant market is more complex. It comes down to knowing what a community needs, he said, and then providing it.

“If you’re driving into town and you want a place that has good food, microbeers, a lot of sports on TV, now you’ve got a place,” he continued. “It’s filling a niche; it’s not rocket science. And today, the lower you can charge for quality food, the busier you’re going to be. It’s a function of the economy. People are nervous — as they should be.”

All the more reason to escape from stress with a flatbread pizza and a drink — even if you have to cross a bridge to do it.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at[email protected]

Opinion

They call it the ‘brain drain.’

This is one of those contrived terms, in this case used to describe the flight of young people out of a region to find jobs, opportunities, fulfillment … in short, something better than what they had, or thought they could get, where they were before.

The extent and uniqueness of the brain drain in the Pioneer Valley — which has a number of colleges but keeps only a small percentage of graduates (especially from the private schools) in this region — can be debated. What can’t be debated, though, is the importance of young professionals to the vitality and economic health of this or any other region.

Which is why we’re enthusiastic about the early success and enormous promise of a group called the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield, or YPS. Created about 18 months ago, it is off to what can only be described as a phenomenal start in its efforts to — and these are the words right in the mission statement — engage, involve, and educate people under the age of 40.

As it does so, it is helping to keep young people in this region by giving them more reasons to feel better about their presence here, but it’s also preparing them to be better leaders and contributors to the community if, and for however long, they do stay.

But let’s back up a minute. Current officers say the concept of YPS was born mostly out of curiosity. To make a long story somewhat short, some young people were wondering out loud where all their contemporaries were, what they were doing, what they were thinking, whether they liked it here, whether they fully appreciated all there is to do here, and if they could use help getting connected to the region and its assets.

So they scheduled a get-together and invited virtually everyone they could connect with via the Internet. They were hoping for 30 people and got five times that number.

Besides counting heads, organizers listened and learned, and what they came away with was the clear impression that young people, as a group, needed an organization that could help them network, grow professionally and personally, become involved in the community, and develop leadership skills.

So they created one.

And then they developed some programming to define it. These initiatives include what are called Third Thursdays, get-togethers that take place on those dates on the calendar, at which attendees can network and socialize. There’s also the CEO Luncheon, which, as the name suggests, involves an area CEO hosting lunch for 20 or 30 YPS members and discussing a wide range of topics involving business, the community, and life in general.

There’s also a strong focus on the arts and getting people involved with those institutions, and even a New Year’s Eve gala on the slate for this year.

Put it all together, and we have a group that could make — and is in many respects already making — a very positive impact on this region and its business community.

By getting young people engaged and involved, YPS is making the region a better place to live, work, and play. At the same time, it is giving these same young people more reasons to enjoy their time in the Valley, and perhaps prompting more to stay. Meanwhile, with its focus on education, YPS is helping to groom a more-informed, more-capable group of future business owners, managers, employees, nonprofit board members, and public servants.

This a noble and important mission, one that already has the backing of a number of a number of area corporations, and could use more of the same from other businesses and business organizations that all face the daunting challenge of finding talented help for today and especially tomorrow.

YPS is a group with a purpose and a real future — that’s because it’s this region’s future at stake.-

Uncategorized

Great things, no matter their size or scope, are achieved by people, not institutions.

Personal achievement is possible only with the help of others and in the service of others. At no time in recent history is the value of individual service to the community more universally felt than it is today. Making the commitment to serve is important, but it is equally important, if not more, to have a greater understanding of how to serve. We are living in an historically important time of economic, political, and social change. As a result, it is not only important to identify the issues important to our work and the people we serve, but that we act on ways to address these issues.

As we do so, it is critical that the decisions we make on behalf of others always keep the larger interest of our community in mind. If we keep community first, institutional interests second, and our individual interests third, we will find new solutions and approaches to today’s challenges, and in the end our individual interests will also be served.

This idea is fundamental to the United Way’s mission, which is to improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of our communities. We learn that great social movements begin with individual acts of kindness or courage that are driven by principles, commitment, trust, and confidence in the work that we do.

I have learned in my three years with the United Way that the people we are helping and the lives we are changing are the results of the good work that we do together. Without this strong sense of civic engagement and personal leadership, we could not achieve the important work that must be done day after day.

It is in this spirit that the United Way has emerged into what we call a community impact organization with the belief that if we live and work united, to advance the common good, lives will be improved by mobilizing the caring power of communities. For us it is important that we focus on the root causes of the issues we face, not just our fundraising. We do this with you as our partners to help us move beyond the surface of problems in order to tackle the underlying causes of these challenges.

What are some of things that we are involved in, and why? You might remember news articles that spoke about Springfield ranking sixth in the nation for percentage of its children living in poverty. We have learned since that our poverty level is three times higher than the Massachusetts poverty rate and more than twice the national rate. Through our work at the United Way and from research we have done locally and received from national studies, we know that, to address the root causes of poverty in our area, we will need to focus on programs and services that provide strong early-childhood education, youth development focusing on out-of-school and summer learning, and creating financial stability for individuals and families that live in distress.

We support efforts that provide access to high-quality early education, summer learning, and other out-of-school programs as well as helping the less fortunate.

Our mission at the United Way has always been to strengthen the lives of the people who live in our region by empowering them to create a community where all of our citizens are valued and where together we provide the opportunity to create neighborhoods that are safe, productive, and secure. We also know that, in order to accomplish all of this, our United Way will need to create healthy partnerships with all of our stakeholders, members of our community, donors, and more than 50 member agencies that provide more than 120 programs for the 23 cities and towns in Hampden County, South Hadley, and Granby.

We are proud to be partners with these agencies and programs, and value their work. Together, we know that we will need to embrace new ways and new solutions to our work. We need to understand that, if we do business today as we did yesterday, we are bound to lose, but if we do business tomorrow as we do today, we will surely be doomed.v

Joel Weiss is president and CEO of the United Way of Pioneer Valley.

Departments

Blast from the Past

A series of events were staged Sept. 12 and 13 to launch the Web site ‘Shays’ Rebellion and the Making of a Nation’ at Springfield Technical Community College. The Web site project was funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities for STCC in partnership with the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Assoc. and the Springfield Armory National Historic Site. Clockwise, from above, Shays’ Rebellion project manager Dr. Lynne Spichiger and Web site designer Juliet Jacobson demonstrate the Web site; artist Bryant White at the gallery reception for his paintings for the Shays’ Rebellion Web site; answering questions following the symposium on Shays’ Rebellion, from left, Dr. Kevin Sweeney of Amherst College, Dr. Leonard Richards of UMass Amherst, and Dr. Robert Gross of UConn.


‘Latinos in Schools’ Initiative

Comcast was on hand to show its support and sponsorship of the ‘Latinos in Schools’ initiative at a recent sponsorship event staged at Springfield Central High School. Comcast contributed funds that will be utilized to help provide school uniforms for children who are unable to afford them in the Springfield school system. Pictured are: back row, left to right, Juan Gerena of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center Inc., Comcast’s Dan Glanville, Brad Palazzo, and Steve Fitzgibbons; middle row, left to right, Dr. Denise L. Pagan-Vega of Springfield Public Schools, Univision character la Profesora Anacleta, Jesus Arce from Mayor Domenic Sarno’s office with (front row) Springfield schoolchildren.

Departments

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.

CHICOPEE DISTRICT COURT

Czar Distributing Inc. v. Creative Design Custom Homes
Allegation: Non-payment of goods and services rendered: $1,060
Filed: 8/13/08

Tony Canty v. Gemini Property Services
Allegation: Failure to complete bathroom remodeling project: $2,000
Filed: 8/18/08

FRANKLIN SUPERIOR COURT

Ryan J. Holmgren v. Dunkin Donuts Inc.
Allegation: Plaintiff sustained personal injury when he sat on a needle: $2,504
Filed: 8/14/08

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT

Corey Hebert ppa Mark Hebert v. Dick’s Sporting Goods
Allegation: Negligence and product liability causing injury: $62,900
Filed: 8/06/08

Kimberly Gauthier v. Pride Plazas Inc.
Allegation: Negligence in placement of air compressor causing injury: $650,000
Filed: 8/07/08

Kimberlee Estrella v. T.D. Banknorth, N.A.
Allegation: Employment discrimination: $25,000+
Filed: 8/07/08

Melinda Tillman v. the Mercy Hospital Inc.
Allegation: Employment discrimination: $25,000+
Filed: 8/07/08

T.D. Banknorth, N.A. v. Tremblay Electric
Allegation: Non-payment of debt: $66,634.90
Filed: 8/21/08

HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT

Christopher Martin v. Hampshire, Franklin, & Hampden Agricultural Society
Allegation: Poor maintenance of racetrack causing injury to rider: $750,000
Filed: 9/02/08

Leonard E. Belcher v. Bishop Burner Service
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $104,000
Filed: 8/28/08

NORTHAMPTON DISTRICT COURT

Meade G. Burrows v. Pioneer Valley Roofing
Allegation: Failure to fulfill terms of contract: $4,000
Filed: 8/07/08

PALMER DISTRICT COURT

The Bell/Simons Companies v. Monson Heating
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $8,118.08
Filed: 7/18/08

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT

Agar Supply Company v. Spark Fish and Steven Parrot
Allegation: Non-payment on judgment: $17,298.10
Filed: 8/04/08

Christopher F. Fava v. Yellow Book USA Inc.
Allegation: Breach of advertising contract: $24,860
Filed: 8/13/08

Stephen & Jeanne Kuchyt v. Sentry Fence
Allegation: Breach of contract and deceptive business practices: $8,081
Filed: 8/19/08

WESTFIELD DISTRICT COURT

Christine Impoco v. Hartley Brothers Landscaping Inc.
Allegation: Breach of contract pertaining to drainage work: $5,145.88
Filed: 7/15/08

David Williams v. Allen Lawnmower Company
Allegation: Plaintiff seeks damages caused by defendant: $2,000
Filed: 7/18/08

Departments

Fuss & O’Neill Acquires UPLINC

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Fuss & O’Neill Technologies (Fandotech), a multidiscipline engineering firm, recently acquired the assets of UPLINC. With the firm’s newest addition, Fuss & O’Neill now has more than 34 professionals in Western Mass. Fandotech is a regional IT company that provides a full range of managed IT services from multiple data centers to supporting each client’s desktop. Products include OFFSITE data centers, Managed IT, 360IT, 180IT, GIS, Community Explorer Online (CEO), Mooring tracker, Applications Solutions Development, Business Continuity, Boomerang data backup, and restoration. Fandotech provides IT services to medical, industrial, education, and municipal clients across New England.

Bank Offers Energy Relief Program

SPRINGFIELD — For the fourth consecutive year, Hampden Bank is offering its mortgage customers the opportunity to participate in its Energy Relief Program that allows customers to make smaller, interest-only payments on their mortgages for the duration of the heating season. Senior Vice President Robert Michel noted that the program is simple, but the savings can be “profound.” For example, a $150,000 loan balance with a 20-year remaining term at an average of 6.5% interest rate would yield a savings of almost $250 per month. After the heating season ends in April, the borrower’s loan would be recast to amortize the new loan balance. In the example, the recast payment would increase the monthly payment on the loan by about $14 per month. “As a local community bank, we have the ability to react quickly to the needs of our customers,” said Michel. “This program will help people when they need it most. That’s what makes a bank like Hampden Bank in tune with the community it serves.”

Landon Extends Contract with Falcons

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Falcons President and General Manager Bruce Landon has agreed to extend his employment agreement for three years with the American Hockey League team. Landon is entering his 31st season in hockey management, the 15th season as president of the Falcons, and his 25th campaign as general manager in Springfield. The Springfield Pro Hockey, LLC ownership group noted that, over the past several months, the organization led by Landon has gained significant, positive momentum in its efforts to sell more season tickets with the goal of re-establishing its strong franchise presence in the Springfield region. The ownership group also acknowledges that “much work still needs to be done” in the process of stabilizing the professional sports franchise. Generating the necessary revenues from season-ticket sales and advertising sponsorships remains one of Landon’s top goals in order to stay at levels consistent with other upper echelon and successful AHL teams, according to the ownership group.

PeoplesBank Opens Office, Makes Donations

HOLYOKE — Seven charitable and civic organizations in Springfield recently benefited from donations totaling $113,200 by PeoplesBank. Bank officials made the donation announcement at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept. 8 at its second Springfield office at 1240 Sumner Ave. PeoplesBank President and CEO Douglas A. Bowen said financial commitments were made to American International College for $50,000; Rachel’s Table, $15,000; ReStore Home Improvement Center, $10,000; Springfield Falcons, $11,200; Springfield Public Forum, $4,000; Springfield Symphony, $8,000, and the Urban League of Springfield, $15,000. As a community bank, he noted, PeoplesBank is focused on the needs of its customers and the cities and towns it serves — which include the area’s charitable and civic organizations. Bowen added that, in addition to the bank’s financial commitment, he encourages his employees to volunteer their time and leadership skills to “some of these same organizations to ensure that their important work will continue.” PeoplesBank offers a full range of personal and commercial financial products and services. Locally based since 1885, the bank has offices and ATM locations in Amherst, Chicopee, East Longmeadow, Feeding Hills, Granby, Hadley, Holyoke, Long-meadow, Northampton, South Hadley, Springfield, and Westfield.

Departments

Green Buildings Open House

October 4: The Northeast Sustainable Energy Assoc. (NESEA) invites the public to visit local sustainable buildings across the state and to talk with energy-saving experts during the 2008 Green Buildings Open House. NESEA’s open house, part of the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Tour, offers area residents a first-hand look at how to incorporate green elements to help reduce heating costs, increase energy conservation, and generate surplus clean energy. A complete list of open-house sites and events is available at www.nesea.org/buildings/openhouse. NESEA also recommends that individuals visit www.dsireusa.org for information on tax credits, grants, rebates and discount utility rates, and www.energystar.gov for federal tax-credit information on qualified appliances and products.

Business Owners Initiative

Oct. 9: “Seven Things CEOs of Breakthrough Companies Know That You Don’t” will be presented from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at the Clarion Hotel & Conference Center in West Springfield, sponsored by the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield and Hampden Bank. During the session, attendees will be introduced to the Breakthrough Executive Board, which is comprised of local business owners who have joined together to promote the growth and management of their companies. Prior registration for the program is required due to limited seating. For more information, call (413) 583-3653 or E-mail [email protected].

Dinner Lecture

Oct. 14: Author Joel Barker will present “You Can and Should Shape Your Own Future, Because If You Don’t, Someone Else Surely Will” from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House in Holyoke. The dinner forum is hosted by the UMass Amherst Family Business Center. Barker will explain how to create extreme partnerships to transform your company and product; how your senior leaders can continuously explore trends, innovations, and paradigm shifts; and how to better anticipate and deal with the effects of change. In addition to Barker’s presentation, an educational talk on how to be a savvier user of expert advisors will be presented by the law firm of Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas LLP. For more information, call Ira Bryck, director of the Family Business Center, at (413) 545-1537, or E-mail [email protected].

Women’s Movement Discussion

Oct. 23: L. Kay Wilson, attorney, coach, and motivational speaker, will moderate a discussion titled “Women, Power & Influence: Do We Still Need a Women’s Movement?” at 2 p.m. in Mills Theatre, Carr Hall, Bay Path College, Longmeadow. The program is part of the Kaleidoscope series at Bay Path. Panel members will discuss the roots of the women’s movement, the perspective of young women today, and next steps for expanding the influence of women in communities, companies, and government. Panelists are: Dr. Regina R. Barreca, professor of English at UConn, bestselling author, and nationally recognized feminist comedienne; Dr. Carol Leary, president, Bay Path College; Laurie Rosner, senior vice president, Rockville Bank of Connecticut; and Ann Young-Jaffe, program manager, Aetna’s consumer segment. The program is free and open to the public.

Sections Supplements
Nuvo Bank Gets Down to Business
Nuvo Bank President Jeff Sattler, left, and Chairman and CEO Jim Gardner.

Nuvo Bank President Jeff Sattler, left, and Chairman and CEO Jim Gardner.

Perhaps a year behind the original timetable, Nuvo Bank, the region’s first new bank in more than 20 years, is set to open its doors. Principals Jeff Sattler and Jim Gardner acknowledge the skeptics who say this isn’t the place — ultra-competitive Western Mass. — or the time to be opening a new financial institution. But they believe they have a product and an operating mindset that will prove those skeptics wrong.

Jeff Sattler says Nuvo Bank will have a commercial-lending limit of roughly $1.2 million per transaction.

That will cover maybe 65% to 70% of the requests for this region, said Sattler, president of the region’s newest bank and a long-time commercial lender with TD Banknorth. “That represents the meat and potatoes of this market, and means we can handle the needs of nearly all the small businesses in this region.”

Sattler and Jim Gardner, chairman and CEO of the bank set to open its doors in Tower Square next month and also a long-time bank administrator, know all about the needs of small-business owners — and also the challenges, headaches, frustrations, expectations, hopes, dreams … all of that.

That’s because they’ve lived that life for the past few years and continue to live it today.

It was early in 2006 when they first started laying the groundwork for the region’s first new bank in more than 20 years, and to say that there have been hurdles to overcome on the way to the traditional ribbon-cutting ceremony would be a huge understatement. The timetable for opening the facility has been pushed back several times as the partners worked to raise the requisite capital for the venture — a task made more challenging by factors ranging from a softening of the economy to competition from other financial institutions seeking the attention and dollars of investors.

Meanwhile, there have been the typical issues with getting the physical space ready for prime time, as well as other matters, such as gaining some flexibility with parking regulations downtown (they’ve secured several metered spaces on Bridge Street), finalizing a business plan, and putting a marketing and advertising strategy into place.

“We certainly have a great appreciation for what small-business owners go through because we’ve been through it all ourselves,” said Sattler, adding that he and Gardner intend to use those learning experiences to grow Nuvo’s portfolios of business. “In the end, I think that will only make us more responsive to our customers, and better able to serve them.”

Almost all of the hurdles are now in the rear-view mirror, and the entrepreneurs who have been relegated to using the future tense — about what they hope and plan to do — for far longer than anticipated can now finally use the present tense and discuss what they are doing.

Indeed, while the final touches are being applied to the once-cavernous space in the northeast corner of Tower Square, Sattler and Gardner are already doing business. They’ve written a few commercial loans to date, with many of the parties earning somewhat distinctive designations. One obviously became the first customer, said Sattler, while another was soon awarded at least temporary status as the institution’s largest customer.

Such levity will soon be the stuff of nostalgia, quickly supplanted by the day-to-day rigors of operating a bank, said the partners, but what will continue is a mindset to make each customer feel in some way special.

This is part of an operating model designed to change and enliven the banking experience, said Gardner, who also emphasized connections to the community.

In this issue, BusinessWest looks at the highly anticipated opening of Nuvo Bank, and what the partners are expecting as they enter — finally — what is an ultra-competitive banking environment in Western Mass.

Accounting Class

As they gave BusinessWest a tour of their bank-in-progress several weeks before the scheduled opening, Sattler and Gardner pointed out some of the features they believe will make their institution different and refreshing.

First, they stopped within what will be known as the ‘community room,’ which, as the name suggests, will be a facility (1,200 square feet) set aside for the community, meaning everything from nonprofit groups that need a meeting space to business organizations that want to conduct informational get-togethers.

They then stopped at the conference room, which will have windows on all four sides, an architectural nuance designed to highlight openness and transparency, said Sattler. “We want our customers to see what we’re doing,” he said, as he moved on to show how everything — from the lobby to the corporate offices to spaces where the works of local artisans will be displayed — will soon take shape in this space where the ceiling has been lowered from 60 feet to 15.

Bringing all this to reality has taken far longer than the two principals could have anticipated, but that is part and parcel — in most cases, anyway — to getting a new small business off the ground. And that’s what Nuvo is.

Specifically, it is the region’s first de novo bank, the name given to start-up operations, be they commercial or community banks, that follow one of what are now many blueprints for getting such ventures off the ground. The concept has worked successfully in many other regions of the country, but hadn’t been tried in Western Mass., what most consider to be a saturated market for banking, until Gardner approached Sattler about testing the local waters.

After a thorough vetting process, the partners became convinced that there was need for such a facility, and went about amassing a group of investors, or organizers. They then applied to the state Board of Bank Incorporation for the OK to move forward, and received that simple but important document in April 2007.

Soon thereafter, they commenced the task of raising the capital needed to launch the venture. The projected floor was around $10 million, but the partners set a more ambitious goal of $15 million. Getting there was complicated by a number of factors, they said, listing everything from the softening of the economy to unfamiliarity with the de novo concept to that aforementioned competition for investor dollars.

Eventually, the campaign topped $13 million this past spring, and the partners moved from fund-raising to the next stages of the operation — putting the facilities and team in place. Those steps are still in progress, but the finish line is clearly in sight, said Gardner, noting that the bank should open by mid-October, with formal grand-opening ceremonies set for Nov. 13.

“The barriers to entry in this business are considerable, and that’s by design — if this was easy, you’d see new banks on every block,” he said while explaining why the timeline for opening has been stretched repeatedly. “There are thousands of decision points in the process, and none of them are I what I would consider easy decisions.”

But in retrospect, Sattler said the delay in hitting the fund-raising number, while frustrating, may have a blessing in disguise in many respects. Elaborating, he said that opening a year ago, when real estate values were still significantly inflated, would have put Nuvo in a more difficult situation than what it will face when the doors do open in October.

“I’d be more worried today if we’d opened a year ago,” he said, referring to the current conditions and question marks hovering over the financial-services sector and real-estate market. “Because I’d have a portfolio we’d have to retrace and backtrack on. We’re at the bottom of that cycle from an asset-value standview, and from the standpoint of caution — business owners are regrouping.

“I don’t have a portfolio that is downgrading,” he continued. “I’ve got a portfolio that at this economic time is strong and credit-worthy and local. And that’s building a great foundation, so that when this market picks up, we’re going to be in a good position.”

Summing things up, he said that a bank just getting started is in some respects better off than some larger, existing institutions with sagging portfolios and pressure from shareholders and elsewhere to somehow bring those numbers up.

How to Generate Interest

Like all other bank administrators in the region, Sattler and Gardner acknowledge that this is what amounts to a no-growth market when it comes to the financial-services sector.

Thus, growth — or, in the case of Nuvo, simply getting started in the process of accumulating assets and deposits and building loan portfolios — comes down to taking business from others.

And both business partners believe there will be ample opportunities for them to do so.

Why? Because over the past few years there has been considerable change within the local market, said Sattler, noting that several banks — Hampden and Chicopee Savings, most notably — have gone public, while there have been some acquisitions, such as NewAlliance absorbing Westbank. And this change — and the promise of more to come, by most accounts — equates to opportunity, according to Nuvo’s principals.

“Go back to when we started with this in June of ’06 … how many banks have changed or merged since then?” Sattler asked, before quickly answering that question with a simple, “quite a few.”

“And change is opportunity for us,” he continued. “Customers have become pretty sophisticated over the past several years, especially since the ’80s when there were so many changes and mergers. Things are happening in this marketplace … there are policy changes in some of these institutions; things are not the same at some of these banks. Business owners know that, and we can capitalize on that.”

Overall, the two partners said, to seize on those aforementioned opportunities, they plan to focus on value, in whatever ways it can be delivered.

They listed several, from the community room — which they will likely name the ‘Resource Room,’ to accurately convey what it is — to CDAR (certificate of deposit account registry), which enables the bank to insure deposits up to $50 million, not the FDIC’s ceiling of $100,000, to the fact that when one sits down with Sattler to discuss a loan, they will be meeting with not merely with a lending officer, but the president of the company.

“That’s a tremendous advantage, to have a principal with the company sitting there with you,” said Gardner, “because he’s the decision-maker, and in the current climate at most banks, the decision-makers are maybe hundreds of miles away, and they don’t really know the person who’s going to be most affected by that decision.”

The concepts of value and a fresh, new approach to banking will be the main thrusts of the bank’s marketing initiative, said Michelle Abdow, president of Market Mentors, the firm that is developing the campaign for the institution.

She said the primary goal, obviously, is to raise awareness about the latest addition to the market and the fact that it is open for business. Also, it will stress that Nuvo will feature a different look and feel when it comes to the banking experience, what she described thusly: “Starbucks meets Barnes & Noble meets a bank — that’s the ambiance Nuvo is going to have.”

But beyond that, the marketing efforts aim to stress that the bank can help customers — from homeowners to small-business owners — accomplish their goals and dreams.

A series of print, radio, and TV ads will feature a somewhat risqué variation on Nike’s ‘Just Do It,’ by depicting a diverse set of consumers explaining how they “did it” — meaning everything from putting an addition on their home to starting a new restaurant, and how the bank helped — while inviting viewers, listeners, and readers to “get ready to do it.”

As he talked about Nuvo, the anticipated opening, and what he and Gardner might expect in the short and long term, Sattler acknowledged that questions and doubts about the venture are not restricted to timing or the competitive nature of the market.

Indeed, the location — in downtown Springfield in a struggling Tower Square — has also raised some eyebrows. But here again, the partners feel good about their decision.

They admit that Tower Square has certainly seen better days — it has lost several retailers over the past few years, including Hannoush Jewelers and Edwards Books earlier this year — and that the revitalization of downtown Springfield remains a work in progress. But the partners are optimistic about recovery for both entities, and intend to be part of that process.

“There has been some progress downtown, and we’re certainly optimistic that the picture will continue to brighten,” said Sattler, noting, as one example, the prospects for re-tenanting the nearly vacant federal building across Bridge Street from the bank and the resulting benefits to businesses in the central business district. “It’s not going to happen overnight … these things take time, but things can and will improve, and we intend to be part of the solution.

“The key is to bring people and activity to downtown,” he continued. “We will help just by being here, but we can also bring people downtown through the Resource Room and other ways we intend to connect to the community.”

The Bottom Line

Summing up the past 30 months or so, and especially the past year, Sattler and Gardner said they’ve overcome a great deal to get their doors finally open.

Navigating that whitewater has been a tiring, frustrating experience, they told BusinessWest, but also an exhilarating one in many respects, a roller-coaster ride of emotional swings that has provided some confidence — and some kudos.

“Some people have told us that, if we can get through all this, if we can survive all this adversity, then we can probably serve our customers effectively,” said Gardner. “That’s just what we were thinking, too.”

And with that, they went back to work making sure their institution would be in all ways ready for opening day — and also for its first customer and its largest customer, whoever that might be by then.

George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]

Sections Supplements
Pinocchio’s Ristorante Gets a Fresh Start in Three Rivers
Pinocchio’s[/caption]

The sign above the bar at Pinocchio’s Ristorante says it all.

“Lasci il buon rullo di periodo,” it reads. The translation? “Let the good times roll.”

It’s something Chris Brunelle actively keeps in mind as he attends to the day-to-day details of the business he loves — because the past few years, by and large, have not exactly constituted what would be considered good times.

That’s mainly due to a fire in 2005 at a neighboring tanning salon that forced him out of the downtown Amherst location where the restaurant had operated since 1978 (Brunelle bought it in 2000). With bills piling up and insurance claims turning into a nightmare, he had to find another location — and he did, reopening in the Three Rivers section of Palmer in February 2007.

“Being from Western Mass., I know that Three Rivers borders three of the top-five fastest-growing communities in Western Mass. in Belchertown, Ludlow, and Wilbraham,” Brunelle noted. “Plus, we have a Mass Pike entrance nearby.”

He and his partner, Tom Decosmo, kept the Italian focus, especially emphasizing Northern Italian cuisine, but also decided to make the eatery a little less formal to attract families and other casual-minded diners.

“We didn’t want it to just be a place to go for a special event, like a birthday or an anniversary,” Brunelle said. “We wanted people to take their family to dinner here and feel comfortable.”

From the time of its reopening, he told BusinessWest, the restaurant has been well-received. “The biggest thing we have going for us is our name recognition,” he explained. “Being in the Valley for 25 years, that was a big plus.”

At the same time, he knows the new site won’t pull in the $2 million annually Pinocchio’s regularly chalked up in Amherst — that facility had the benefit of size (50 more seats than the new spot) and some 30,000 college students nearby, as well as their parents on weekends.

But he hopes a family-friendly atmosphere and quality food will keep a new crowd coming — and so far, he’s cooking up a promising second act.

From Pins to Pasta

Actually, Brunelle isn’t cooking anything. He says he doesn’t even pretend to know how to cook, leaving that to his head chef, Santa Saravio, and focusing instead on growing and marketing the restaurant. It’s a role he has relished since coming on board eight years ago.

“I was in the 10-pin bowling business and had an opportunity to be a partner in the restaurant,” Brunelle said. “Coming from a people-oriented business, it was an easy transition into the food business. It’s all about managing people.

“It may sound cliché,” he continued, “but you have to believe in what you sell. I love food, and I like being around food and people, so it was a natural fit.”

Soon after he joined the business, he launched Pinocchio’s To Go, a natural offshoot of the takeout business already being offered in Amherst. The ‘To Go’ locations — which now number five, in Amherst, Springfield, Wilbraham, Ludlow, and the Three Rivers flagship — emphasize quicker fare like pizza and calzones, but allow people to pick up full meals on the run as well.

More importantly, the ‘To Go’ locations kept the Pinocchio’s name in the public consciousness for almost two years between the Amherst fire and the Three Rivers relaunch.

The new site had been a restaurant and bar since the mid-1950s, and even today maintains some of its vintage architecture, such as the arch metal awning out front and the entryway lined with glass blocks. “We wanted to keep some of the ’50s characteristics,” Brunelle said.

Pinocchio’s didn’t change its culinary emphasis with the move. “We still sell a lot of fish and seafood dishes, a lot of different variations of meat dishes, and pasta and risotto. The idea is to have fine Italian cuisine at family prices.”

Indeed, the extensive menu seems to have something for any taste, such as ‘Penne Rompicapo,’ with grilled salmon, fresh spinach, artichokes, roasted red peppers, and capers; ‘Filetto Tartufato,’ a marinated fillet of beef wrapped in prosciutto with a black truffle cognac reduction; and classic chicken preparations like parmigiano, francese, and marsala.

Meanwhile, the risotto options include ‘Pescatore,’ with clams, mussels, and shrimp in white wine sauce over saffron lobster risotto; and ‘Veneziana,’ which marries grilled chicken, porcini and portabella mushrooms, broccoli, tomatoes, and smoked mozzarella and parmesan cheese.

The To Go menu strips down those options somewhat, Brunelle said, but retains many of the same entreés, pasta, and gourmet pizzas, adding sides like cheese sticks and french fries.

“People like the To Go concept, and they like that we have such a wide variety of food,” he added. “Two of the locations are primarily college-based, and the others have been placed in more family neighborhoods.”

Fire Escape

The book isn’t closed on Amherst by any means, said Brunelle, who still struggles with insurance companies over compensation for the event which caused about a closet-sized patch of fire damage in the restaurant but enough smoke damage to shut the doors for good.

“We’ve been tortured by insurance companies, and there’s a lot of lawsuits that still haven’t been settled,” he said. “So we had a lot of risk out there, and we were forced to reopen. I have to keep our name recognition strong. I’m still a victim in this.

“We’ll never do the numbers here that we did in Amherst,” he added, “but it is what it is, and we’re going forward.”

Not that he minds.

“I truly enjoy being around people, and this business is definitely something to be proud of,” Brunelle said. “My kids are proud to come here, to work here and eat here. And we do a lot in the community.”

Among those efforts are quarterly Italian wine dinners, from which Pinoc-chio’s donates 20% of its proceeds to the Baystate Children’s Hospital.

“We’re constantly doing events and donate a lot of food to different charities in the area,” he said. “I like being a part of the community — I live in this community, and I really like the people.

“It’s a good business to be in,” Brunelle added. “You feel good about yourself when you can go home at the end of the day having made other people happy.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at[email protected]

Sections Supplements
The Matter of Personal Liability for Restaurant Debt

Restaurants in Massachusetts can be organized to do business in many different corporate forms, including sole proprietorships, partnerships, corporations, and limited-liability companies. When restaurateurs choose to operate their business using a corporate form such as an LLC, it is often with the belief that, should the business fail to be profitable or close altogether, the owners will not be personally liable for the restaurant’s debts.

Unfortunately, even if the restaurant is operated as a corporate entity, there are instances where the restaurant’s owners may be liable for debts incurred in the operation of their business. One frequently occurring example is when a restaurant’s owner signs a so-called ‘personal guarantee.’ Often, the personal guarantee is found on the last page of a form contract, lease, or credit application, and it is not completely read or understood by the person signing the document.

In most instances, if the business defaults on its obligations, a personal guarantee contractually obligates its signor to pay from his or her own assets the obligations of the business to the creditor holding the personal guarantee. Frequently, personal guarantees are written so they do not require that the creditor initially look to business assets to satisfy the restaurant’s debt, but instead allow the creditor to immediately pursue the guarantor for payment.

Complications may also arise where there is more than one principal or owner, and therefore more than one guarantor of the restaurant’s debt. Personal guarantees from multiple individuals generally allow a creditor to seek payment for the entire debt from any or all of the principals, and often do not require that the principals pay their proportional ‘share’ of the debt. Rather, the creditor may collect all of the outstanding debt from the guarantor they believe to be most solvent.

Unless the restaurant is well-financed, or the principals have a proven track record of success in the industry, it is likely that lending institutions such as banks and institutional suppliers will seek personal guarantees from the restaurant’s principals. When faced with the possibility of signing a personal guarantee, there are a number of things restaurateurs should consider.

  • Decide if you really need this vendor or lender. Restaurateurs should initially determine whether there are other suppliers of this good or service that do not require a personal guarantee. If there are, an analysis of the competing providers should be conducted to determine whether the benefits provided by the entity requiring the personal guarantee outweigh the risks associated with personal liability. If the benefits do not outweigh the risks, or the benefits are marginal, it may be in the restaurateur’s interest to select a vendor that does not require a personal guarantee.
  • Read and understand the guarantee. If the analysis runs in favor of the supplier requiring the guarantee, restaurateurs should be certain to read and understand the terms and conditions of the guarantee. For example, among other things, it is important to understand whether the guarantee requires that the creditor initially look to corporate assets to satisfy the restaurant’s debt before seeking liability on the guarantee. Similarly, restaurateurs should also know whether they are guaranteeing the payment of the creditor’s attorneys’ fees and costs, should enforcement of the guarantee become necessary.
  • Try to negotiate the terms of the guarantee. If a potential supplier or creditor has a form personal guarantee in its agreement, restaurateurs should ask that the personal guarantee section be deleted from the agreement. Depending on the size of the supplier, its business requirements, and its perception of your business, some suppliers are willing to delete personal guarantees entirely in order to gain the restaurant’s business. Alternatively, if a supplier is not willing to delete the personal guarantee entirely, many suppliers are willing to negotiate the length and other conditions of the guarantee.
  • Ensure that all principals sign a personal guarantee. If there is more than one principal in the restaurant, and you are being asked to personally guarantee the restaurant’s debt, in most instances you should require that each principal of the restaurant sign a personal guarantee as a condition of your signature. This requirement, along with appropriate provisions in the restaurant’s operating agreement or bylaws, will ensure that all principals are equally liable for the debt and that each principal has recourse against the other in the event that a creditor seeks recovery on the personal guarantee from only one principal.
  • Place a homestead on your principal residence. While most commercial-lending institutions such as banks require physical collateral such as a mortgage on real property, most purveyors or suppliers do not. Since there is generally no mortgage securing the debt owed to the purveyor or supplier, Mass. General Laws may allow you to protect a substantial amount of equity in your principal residence. Placing a homestead on your principal residence will, in many instances, protect the equity you have in your home, even if you previously signed a personal guarantee.
  • Restaurateurs doing business as limited-liability entities, such as corporations or LLCs, should think long and hard before guaranteeing the debt of their business, because doing so effectively strips many of the protections afforded by those entities. Fortunately, if a restaurateur seeks advice from an attorney, accountant, or other professional knowledgeable in this area before signing a personal guarantee or any legal contract, he or she may be able to avoid many of the pitfalls which often accompany such guarantees.

    Mark A. Tanner is an attorney in the Northampton office of the law firm of Bacon Wilson, P.C. Prior to practicing law, he graduated from the Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Administration Program at UMass Amherst and the MBA program at the University of Colorado. He managed corporate restaurants for Houlihan’s and Ruby Tuesday in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Colorado. Tanner currently advises numerous restaurateurs and other businesses in litigation and business planning matters. This article is provided for informational purposes only, does not constitute legal advice, and should not supplement independent legal advice.

    Departments

    The following bankruptcy petitions were recently filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Readers should confirm all information with the court.

    Arroyo, April Lynnette
    54 Berbay Circle
    Springfield, MA 01109
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Arventos, Anthony E.
    321 Wilbraham St.
    Palmer, MA 01069
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/30/08

    Avery, Jill M.
    P O Box 821
    Greenfield, MA 01302
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/02/08

    Barzousky, Kristine M.
    155 Draper Ave.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Bilodeau & Son Roofing
    Bilodeau, Normand L.
    Bilodeau, Rose M.
    29 Fisherdick Road
    Ware, MA 01082
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Bird, Bill E.
    Bird, Cynthia H.
    68 Valley St.
    Adams, MA 01220
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 07/29/08

    Blake, Madelyn Louise
    Blake, Nigel Alan
    Blake, Lyn L
    1 Miller St.
    Ludlow, MA 01056
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Canning, Jessica L.
    a/k/a Truehart, Jessica L.
    a/k/a Ivehart, Jessica L.
    175 Lake St.
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/29/08

    Carey, Jaclyn M.
    105 South Royalston Road
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Carey, Wayne C.
    105 South Royalston Road
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Carriveau, Richard A.
    Carriveau, Debra A.
    25 Madison St.
    Chicopee, MA 01020
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/04/08

    Cityline Nails
    Nguyen, Maihuong Thi
    a/k/a Nguyen, Mai Huong
    10 Crystal Ave.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Davis, Mary B .
    a/k/a Kelley, Mary B.
    21 Audley Road
    Springfield, MA 01118
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/04/08

    Diaz, Jose L.
    31 Hisgen Ave.
    Easthampton, MA 01027
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/30/08

    Dubreuil, Todd Leon
    Dubreuil, Julie Colleen
    a/k/a Wheeler, Julie C.
    P.O. Box 473
    Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Flores, Hector
    8 Derby Dingle St.
    Springfield, MA 01107
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 07/30/08

    Foley, Erin Ann
    33 Parkin St.
    Springfield, MA 01104
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 07/28/08

    French, Colleen P.
    52 Janet St.
    West Springfield, MA 01089
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/04/08

    French, Donald M.
    52 Janet St.
    West Springfield, MA 01089
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/04/08

    Gray, Stephen P.
    86 Bowdoin St.
    Springfield, MA 01109
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 07/28/08

    Grimes, Johnnie Lee
    168 Marion St.
    Springfield, MA 01109
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 07/28/08

    Holmes, Valerie Janet
    35 Amherst St.
    Springfield, MA 01109
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Johnson, Jeremy Lawrence
    Johnson, Heather Marie
    a/k/a Bowers, Heather
    164 Bay Road
    Hadley, MA 01035
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/30/08

    Johnson, Jessica M.
    a/k/a Parker, Jessica M.
    437 East Main St., 2nd
    North Adams, MA 01247
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/01/08

    Kim, Sunny K.
    40 Laurel St.
    Springfield, MA 01107
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 08/01/08

    Kuenzel, Renee Marie
    149 Summit Ave.
    Chicopee, MA 01020
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/30/08

     

    Lacasse, David P.
    187 Stebbins Road
    Otis, MA 01253
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/01/08

    Larson, Vera A.
    12 Woodland St.
    Southbridge, MA 01550
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/29/08

    Leduc, Shannon Sabrina
    205 Orange St.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Martin, Darcy J.
    20 Simard Dr.
    Apartment 4
    Chicopee, MA 01013
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/29/08

    Mendoza, Milagros
    a/k/a Mendina, Milagros
    112 Belvidere St.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/01/08

    Morrissey, Paul
    32 Wands St.
    Springfield, MA 01118
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Murray, Lisa M.
    130 Montgomery Road
    Westfield, MA 01085
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Ottomaniello, John
    Ottomaniello, Lisa R.
    1847 Roosevelt Ave.
    Springfield, MA 01109
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/04/08

    Plourde, Michel
    1335 Worcester St.
    Indian Orchard, MA 01151
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/29/08

    Prendergast, Louis J.
    Prendergast, Melissa M.
    1285 Burnett Road
    Chicopee, MA 01020
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Radwilowicz, Jacqueline
    545 Chapin St.
    Ludlow, MA 01056
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Rideout, Ethan
    Rideout, Teresa
    44 Morgan St.
    Granby, MA 01033
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/01/08

    Sakowicz, Michael S.
    80 Old Belchertown Road
    Ware, MA 01082
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/01/08

    Santiago, Arlene
    34 Cecelia Ter.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/30/08

    Schecker, Suzanne Brita
    8 Treehouse Circle
    Easthampton, MA 01027
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Schroder, Lynn A.
    90 County Road
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/04/08

    Servant, Marc R.
    Servant, Lynne Mary
    a/k/a Connors, Lynne M.
    72 Shelburne Center Road
    Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 08/01/08

    Shepherd, Timothy Flynn
    Shepherd, Donna Marie
    PO Box 327
    Wales, MA 01081
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Shettles, Alice Ann Marie
    a/k/a Clark, Alice Ann Marie
    Shettles, Abbie
    127 High St.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/28/08

    Shively, Mark Edward
    73 Amherst Ave.
    Feeding Hills, MA 01030
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Sims, Craig
    69 Ramblewood Dr.
    Springfield, MA 01118
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 08/01/08

    Theroux, Peter E.
    105 Fowler St.
    Westfield, MA 01085
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 08/04/08

    Upton, Patrick W.
    Upton, Kristine M.
    190 Mapleshade Ave.
    East Longmeadow, MA 01028
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Weiss, Gary H.
    Weiss, Gail L.
    276 Millers Falls Road
    Northfield, MA 01360
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Wright, Elizabeth Jane
    a/k/a Gooch, Elizabeth J.
    364 Suffield St.
    Agawam, MA 01001
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 07/31/08

    Sections Supplements
    350 Grill Has Become a Choice Venue
    350 Grill

    The proprietors of 350 Grill see the restaurant as one of many cogs in the rebirth of downtown Springfield.

    The original plan was for something much different — a simple luncheon facility catering mostly to the business crowd. But those plans changed, considerably, and what has emerged with the 350 Grill is an intriguing addition to the downtown Springfield restaurant and entertainment scene, one that appeals to many different audiences.

    Sherri Via says that, although the original business plan for the 350 Grill wasn’t actually written in pencil, it might as well have been.

    That’s how much things changed since the initial concept was first put on the drawing board close to two years ago.

    Indeed, what was originally conceived as a venue to provide a significant upgrade to lunch offerings for the neighboring Mardi Gras gentlemen’s club has instead become one of the more intriguing and successful additions to the downtown Springfield restaurant and entertainment scene.

    Instead of the burgers-and-hot-dogs menu originally contemplated by Via — a long-time employee and, in many respects, business partner of Jim Santinello, who owns the Mardi Gras and other venues — 350 Grill features a wide array of steaks, a ‘Kansas City veal chop,’ and ‘lobster ravioli.’ It’s a mix, and a venue, that is drawing constituencies from downtown businesspeople to some of the bikers who invade the city on Thursday nights during the warmer months.

    “Things just kept … evolving,” said Via, who used that word early and often as she talked about this entrepreneurial venture in progress, which will soon celebrate its first year in business with high hopes and expectations for the future. “One thing just led to another and, well, here we are.”

    While all that evolution has created a successful addition to Springfield’s entertainment sector, it has led to some growing pains as well, said Via, who brings roughly 30 years of experience in the hospitality sector to her role as proprietor of the ‘Grill.’

    The kitchen, for example, is much too small and in other ways inadequate for the menu being featured. “It has only eight burners, and that’s clearly not enough,” Via said, noting that this situation led to some early problems and even a few apologies from management concerning service.

    But there are plans being readied to rectify that situation, she continued, adding that there are other remedial steps being taken or in discussion. First and foremost, the building to the other side of the restaurant, an eyesore for decades, will be razed this fall, providing space for additional parking, she said.

    Meanwhile, the Grill’s menu continues to change, providing a degree of freshness that Via demands, and new wrinkles continue to be added. In other words, the evolution is ongoing.

    The Pasta Is Prologue

    Via acknowledged that some people might naturally have had doubts about whether last December was the time, and downtown Springfield the place, to be launching a new restaurant.

    But she had no such doubts.

    Although 350 Grill was a work in progress right up until the day it opened — and even after the ribbon was cut — she believed in the concept, and also in Springfield and its downtown.

    “I think Springfield can and will come back, and I believe we’re a part of that process,” she said. “What the city needs is some positive thinking about what has happened, and what will happen down the road.

    “Overall, the more businesses — restaurants — you have downtown, the better it is for everyone,” she continued, clearly espousing the ‘grow the pie’ theory of the hospitality sector that embraces competition. “When that happens, you create vibrancy, and sooner or later, people will come to your establishment.”

    Via said her decision to press on and create the restaurant that patrons see today was based more on gut instinct than any real market research into whether such a venue was wanted or needed. And thus far, her instincts appear to be good.

    Flashing back to early 2007, Via said the 350 Grill — the original version of the eatery — was born of need, specifically a desire to vastly improve the quality and quantity of lunch offerings for Mardi Gras patrons. Needless to say — although she did say it in several ways — the plans changed.

    As renovations to what was a long-time dance club started to take shape, Via said she sensed an opportunity to go well beyond the original vision and create something far more upscale that would attract a larger and significantly more diverse clientele. Such an opportunity dovetailed nicely with her own career ambition to operate a fine-dining establishment.

    What eventually emerged is called a steakhouse by some — because there are several different cuts on the menu — but it is much more than that, said Via.

    There are a number of seafood options — from sea bass to swordfish to shrimp florentine — as well pasta dishes, chicken, lamb, and more. Meanwhile, the menu of appetizers, or tapas, is diverse and includes everything from artichoke francaise to veal meatballs.

    The lunch menu, which has proven to be popular among the business crowd, has some usual suspects — a signature burger, a Reuben, and a turkey melt, for example — but also a grilled swordfish sandwich and a ‘blue plate special.’

    Via’s sister, Doreen, presides over the cramped kitchen as executive chef, and she changes up the various menus every four months, said Sherri, to keep the overall product fresh.

    The need to continually alter and add to the menu is just one of many lessons Via says she learned over more than three decades in the hospitality business that she is now applying to 350 Grill. Others include everything from the need for a constant focus on value — in whatever ways it can be achieved — to keeping the bathrooms clean.

    “I’ve been a waitress, a bartender, a hostess, a manager … you name it, I’ve done it,” she said. “And I’m glad I’ve done all those things because I have insight into those jobs and every aspect of this business.

    “You learn a few things when you’ve been in this business as long as I have,” she continued. “The key is to successfully apply what you’ve learned.”

    Meanwhile, Via is tapping into her contacts within the business and cultural communities (she’s on the board of directors of CityStage and Symphony Hall and is heavily involved with the local chapter of the American Cancer Society) to tap into those constituencies and thus grow her customer base through what is always the best marketing tool in this business — word of mouth.

    And while the first year or so in operation has generally exceeded most expectations, Via knows that the restaurant business is more challenging than most not in it would think. Consumers are fickle, she explained, and economic conditions can change the scene in a heartbeat.

    That’s why she’s focused on applying those aforementioned lessons, listening to customers, and responding with continuous changes and improvements.

    A Job Well-done

    Indeed, as she talked with Business-West, Via was getting ready for the lunch crowd — and also a meeting with an architect to discuss options for expanding the grill’s kitchen.

    It’s not a question of whether that will happen, but how, she said, adding that, in many respects, the evolutionary process continues at this venue, which didn’t take the shape of those original plans.

    And no one’s complaining.

    George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]

    Departments

    The following building permits were issued during the month of September 2008.

    AGAWAM

    Town of Agawam
    760 Cooper St.
    $76,000 — Classroom renovation

    AMHERST

    Amherst College Trustees
    Merrill Science Building
    $53,000 — New roof

    CHICOPEE

    Chicopee Savings Bank
    219 Exchange St.
    $600,000 — Construct new offices, bathrooms, and break area

    GREENFIELD

    Greenfield Corporate Center
    143 Munson St.
    $1,174,000 — Construct a 22,400-square-foot addition to existing building

    Kangel, LLC
    99 Elm St.
    $4,000 — New loading dock

    Main Street Realty Trust
    74 Main St.
    $31,000 — Remodel existing office area

    Molly & Van Wood
    19 Butternut St.
    $3,500 — Add solar panels on roof

    New England Telephone
    11 Church St.
    $166,000 — Installation of new AC unit

    So. Worcester Company Rehabilitation Center, Inc.
    55 Forgeys Way
    $922,000 — New adult day care facility


     

    William D. Jones
    14 Miner St.
    $28,000 — Interior renovations

    HADLEY

    317 Hadley, LLC
    321 Russell St.
    $31,000 — Change recreation areas into classrooms

    Peter Grandonico
    108 Russell St.
    $4,000 — Construct wall for office

    Research Park Limited Partnership, LLC
    100 Venture Way
    $75,000 — Tenant separation revisions

    HOLYOKE

    Holyoke Mall, LP
    50 Holyoke St.
    $184,000 — Remodel existing Swarowski store

    Holyoke Crossing Limited Partnership II
    7-45 Holyoke St.
    $37,000 — Interior fit-up at Sleepy’s store

    Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield
    56 Cabot St.
    4137,000 — Install new roof

    LUDLOW

    First Church of Ludlow
    859 Center St.
    $17,000 — Reshingle

    Departments

    The following business incorporations were recorded in Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire, counties and are the latest available. They are listed by community.

    AGAWAM

    Fusion Bath & Kitchen Inc., 56 Beekman Dr., Agawam 01001. James Kearney, Jr., same. To operate a kitchen and bathroom modeling and repairing company.

    AMHERST

    Dream Book Inc., #721 Keefe Campus Center, Amherst 01002. Melissa Lauren Atmadia, 4075 View Park Dr., Yorba Linda, CA 92886. Justin Park, #721 Keefe Campus Center, Amherst 01002, resident agent. (Nonprofit) To promote the resolution between the arts and sciences in the field of medicine, etc.

    BRIMFIELD

    Fairview Farms, JJC, Ltd., 121 Haynes Hill Road, Brimfield 01010. James J. Corkery, 159 Woodwind Dr., Rock Hill, SC 29732. Krystone O’Connor, 121 Hanes Hill Road, Brimfield 01010, registered agent. Equestrian boarding and activities.

    CHICOPEE

    Assembleia de Deus Ministerio Na Uncao, 419 Montcalm St., #214M, Chicopee 01020. Wellington de Brito Corraim, same. (Nonprofit) Church.

    Western Mass Export Inc., 269 Chicopee St., Suite 12, Chicopee 01013. Vlad Bezruthchenko, same. To import and export auto parts and automobiles.

    EAST LONGMEADOW

    Link To Libraries Inc., 45 Rockingham Circle, East Longmeadow 01028. Susan Jaye-Kaplan, 35 Bluegrass Circle, East Longmeadow 01028. (Nonprofit) To enhance language and literacy skills of children of all cultural backgrounds, enabling them to learn about their world through reading.

    RWG Paralegal Group Inc., 26 Yorkshire Place, East Longmeadow 01028. Richard W. Gebo, Sr., same. Paralegal services.

    FLORENCE

    Chemitorp Inc., 238 Nonotuck St., Florence 01062. Gabriel Munck, same. (Foreign corp; DE) Manufacture of maiamioa and urea molding compounds.

    HOLYOKE

    Joe Francis Inc., 514 South East St., Holyoke 01040. Joseph Francis, same.
    To renovate and manage rental properties.

    HADLEY

    CBR Realty Corp., 87 Russell St., Hadley 01035. Daniel J. Regish, same. Real estate.

    HAMPDEN

    Houghton Business Systems Inc., 511 Main St., Hampden 01036. Scott Wentworth Houghton, same. Information technology consulting.

    HOLLAND

    Grasshopper Learning Solutions Inc., 236 Stafford Road, Holland 01521. Heather Briere, same. Health education services.

    HOLYOKE

    Ministerio de Misiones Uniendo Fuerzas Para Vencer Inc., 21 View St., Holyoke 01040. Wilma Rodriguez, same. (Nonprofit) To establish a good relationship with the community, bring help to the children in Central America, etc.

    Western Massachusetts Catholic Homeschoolers, 74 Pearl St., Holyoke 01040. Mary V. Brazeau, same. (Nonprofit) Learning Bible and apologetics studies for adults and children, etc.

    LONGMEADOW

    Crestal Health Periodontics, P.C., 218 Pinewood Dr., Longmeadow 01106. Daniel B. Stiefel, same. To engage in the practice of dentistry, specializing in periodontics.

    OTR International Inc., 785 Williams St., #214, Longmeadow 01106. Firangiz Ismailova Orel, 67 Broadway Lane, West Yarmouth 02673. Sale of tires, trucks, and related products.

    LUDLOW

    Environmental Safety Training Inc., 212 Clearwater Circle, Ludlow 01056. Carolyn Scyocurka, same. U.S. EPA approved asbestos training provider.

    MONSON

    CS Solutions Inc., 138 Wales Road, Monson 01057. Patricia L. Kustra, same. Customer service.

    MONTAGUE

    Northeast Toyota Crawlers Inc., 60 Randall Road, Montague 01351. Robert L. Tracey, 123 Western Pkwy., Schenectady, NY 12304. Cody Savinski, 60 Randall Road, Montague 01351, resident agent. (Nonprofit) To provide social, educational, and recreational activities for its membership, promote safe operation of our stock of modified 4-x-4 vehicles on and off road, etc.

     

    NORTHAMPTON

    Diploma Plus Inc., 75 Gothic St., Northampton 01060. Ephraim Weisstein, 6 Watertown St., Lexington 02421. (Nonprofit) To develop innovative educational approaches to improve outcomes for youths formerly failed by traditional schools.

    Mo Willems Studio Inc., 75 Lyman Road, Northampton 01060. Maurice Willems, same. (Foreign corp; NY) Author — children’s books.

    NORTHFIELD

    The Eco School Inc., 1046 Millers Falls Road, Northfield 01360. Danielle Lejnieks, same. (Nonprofit) Educational facility for the underprivileged.

    PALMER

    1241 Park Street Realty Inc., 1241 Park St., Palmer 01069. Giampiero Borgovono, IV Novemkbre Merate 23807 ITA. Frank Fitzgerald, P.C., 46 Center Square, East Longmeadow 01028. To deal in real estate and personal property.

    Al’s Heating & Cooling Inc., 37 Stimson St., Palmer 01069. Alan Nateau, same. Installation of heating and cooling systems.

    SOUTH HADLEY

    Corner Construction Inc., 18 Main St., Suite 2B, South Hadley 01075. Nasrullah Khan, same. Construction.

    The Central Massachusetts Academy Inc., 9 College St., South Hadley 01075. James Levine, Ph.D, same. (Nonprofit) Exclusively for educational purposes.

    Witman Properties Inc., 26 Camden St., South Hadley 01075. Anthony Witman, same. To deal in commercial and residential real properties.

    SPRINGFIELD

    BAC Foundation Inc., 15 Ruthven St., Springfield 01128. Cordell Valentine Rogers II, same, registered agent. To develop and sustain holistically healthy communities, etc.

    Euro Marketing Group Inc., 934 Main St., Springfield 01103. Carmino Bonavita, 118 Southbrook Road, East Longmeadow 01028. Marketing and origination of commercial and residential mortgages.

    Frodema Appraisal Inc., 50 Cherryvale Ave., Springfield 01108. Thomas P. Frodema, same. Real estate appraisal services.

    Greenleaf Holdings Inc., 1655 Main St., Suite 201, Springfield 01103. Alex Aviles, same. Real estate.

    KJR Commercial Cleaning Inc., 24 Stony Brook Road,
    Springfield 01118. Kelly J. Raleigh, same. Commercial cleaning.

    Zhen Bo House Inc., 762 Boston Road, Springfield 01119. Wei Dong Lin, 765 FDR Dr., #9G, New York 10009; Wei Dong Lin, 762 Boston Road, Springfield 01119, registered agent. Restuarant.

    THREE RIVERS

    VFR Inc., 2004 Main St., Three Rivers 01080. Rakeshkumar V. Patel, 1922 Wilbraham Road, Springfield 01129. To operate a supermarket.

    TURNERS FALLS

    Divine Mercy Academy Inc., 84K St., Turners Falls 01376. Lawrence Filiault, 297 Mountain Rd., Gill 01354. (Nonprofit) To provide a comprehensive liberal arts education in the Catholic classical tradition.

    WESTFIELD

    Gary Olszewski & Company, PC Inc., 94 North Elm St., Westfield 01085. Gary S. Olszewski, same. Public accountancy services.

    WILBRAHAM

    Burke Technology Inc., 35 Brookside Dr., Wilbraham 01095. Patrick D. Burke, same. Implement and maintain technology solutions.

    WEST SPRINGFIELD

    Lift Truck Parts & Service II Inc., 20 Parkside Ave., West Springfield 01089. Mario A. Sotolotto, 290 Rogers Ave., West Springfield 01089. To deal in industrial equipment for lift trucks, etc.

    River Street Spirits Inc., 20 D River St., West Springfield 01089. Louis F. Bonavita, 67 Alexander Dr., Agawam 01001. To own and operate a package store.

    Sections Supplements
    PeoplesBank Expands Its Footprint — and Moves Up the Donors’ List
    Doug Bowen, left, president and CEO of PeoplesBank, congratulates Henry Thomas III,

    Doug Bowen, left, president and CEO of PeoplesBank, congratulates Henry Thomas III, president and CEO of the Urban League of Springfield Inc., on his organization’s selection as a donation recipient.

    PeoplesBank President Doug Bowen has several different numbers to be proud of these days.

    For starters, there’s $1.41 billion. That’s the total-assets figure for the Holyoke-based institution, making it the largest community bank in Western Mass. There’s also $912,262,000 (total deposits), and 15, the number of locations the bank now has in the Pioneer Valley.

    There are a few more figures of note: one that Bowen certainly knew about, $412,376 (the amount donated by the bank to area-based nonprofit groups in 2007), and one he didn’t, until recently, anyway. That would be 52.

    That’s where the bank ranked in the Boston Business Journal’s third annual “largest charitable contributors list,” which is based on donations to Massachusetts nonprofits. That’s just one slot below giant Friendly Ice Cream Corp., ($421,031), in roughly the same neighborhood as KPMG, Arbella Insurance, and even Microsoft Corp., all corporations with a large presence in the Bay State, and comfortably ahead of Dunkin Brands ($218,020) and Reebok International ($138,345).

    These numbers for assets, branches, and donations are all intertwined, of course, said Bowen, who noted that, as PeoplesBank expands its footprint in Western Mass. — including its two most recent branch openings, both in Springfield — the levels of deposits and assets naturally increase. But so too does the amount of giving within the community, he noted, adding that the bank’s presence within a given community extends well beyond bricks and mortar.

    The opening of the institution’s newest branch, on Sumner Avenue in the Forest Park section of Springfield, for example, was accompanied by some checks signed by PeoplesBank and made out to American International College ($50,000); Rachel’s Table ($15,000); the Springfield Falcons ($11,200); ReStore Home Improvement Center ($10,000); Springfield Public Forum ($4,000); Springfield Symphony ($8,000), and the Urban League of Springfield ($15,000).

    That’s a total of more than $113,000, which will help the bank keep a strong presence on the Journal’s largest-charitable contributors list, an honor that Bowen relishes because it exemplifies the bank’s mission to make a difference in the communities it serves through contributions to such groups, and not merely compile assets, deposits, and mailing addresses.

    “This ranking speaks to our commitment to the region … we’re proud of our track record for giving,” said Bowen, noting that he’s not sure what the final tally for donations will be for ’08, but it will be well north of $500,000. That should move the bank up the list, but Bowen is focused more on what these and other types of donations will mean within the community.

    “A lot of people talk about commitment,” he explained. “We do it through our financial resources, but just as important, we encourage people here to donate their time, energy, and leadership skills — and they have.”

    Branches of Service

    Upon crunching the numbers from the Journal’s contributor list for 2007, one finds that PeoplesBank is exponentially (two zeroes, actually) behind frontrunner State Street Corp., which doled out a whopping $33 million in ’07. That’s roughly double the amount contributed by runner-up Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts ($16.6 million). Meanwhile, Bank of America ($14 million), Liberty Mutual Group ($11.9 million), and Partners Healthcare ($11.54 million) round out the top five. MassMutual? It was 14th at $4.6 million, one slot ahead of the Red Sox, $4.4 million.

    But the Holyoke institution wound up as the 10th-highest bank on the list. It is the fourth-largest outside Worcester, and the largest based in the Pioneer Valley.

    Bowen says this standing is one of the anticipated, and more pleasurable, byproducts of an ambitious expansion strategy that the bank set in place a few years ago. Then-president Joe Lobello described it as a somewhat unusual game plan given the over-banked nature of many area communities (or the perception of same within the industry and outside it) and planned or anticipated expansion by other institutions, especially ones that had recently gone public.

    But Lobello thought then, and Bowen believes now, that the strategy is sound. It calls for giving PeoplesBank, which has historically been focused on Holyoke and surrounding towns, a presence in more communities, including Springfield (where it has only had ATMs until recently) and, eventually, Northampton, West Spring-field, and other cities and towns.

    These bridgeheads, if one can call them that, will properly position for the bank for expected future consolidation, mergers, and acquisitions that will leave fewer locally owned and managed banks, said Bowen, noting that Springfield has become the first phase of the plan’s execution.

    And while some might put Springfield in the ‘over-banked’ category, PeoplesBank saw what it considered to be room for another, in this case, locally based institution.

    “We saw space for a local bank with local control,” said Bowen, noting that most all the banks doing business in the City of Homes are headquartered out of the region or even out of the country. “And we went ahead to fill that space.”

    The first foray into Springfield was in Sixteen Acres, with a branch that opened in late 2006, he said, noting that the Sumner Avenue facility was already in the planning stages when that facility opened. Likewise, the next step — a branch in East Springfield, near the Springfield Plaza — is set to move off the drawing board.

    As the bank has expanded into Springfield, it has written checks to benefit groups and facilities based in that city or that do business there, said Bowen, noting that, with the opening of the Sixteen Acres branch, the bank donated $75,000 to the Greenleaf Senior Center, among other donations to groups that serve that area.

    These gifts no doubt helped push PeoplesBank onto the Boston Business Journal’s list, and the donations that have accompanied the Sumner Avenue branch opening may propel it higher, said Bowen, adding quickly that the chosen beneficiaries are as important as the dollar amounts.

    “There are organizations — the symphony, the Public Forum, and the Springfield Falcons are all examples — that clearly enrich our lives,” said Bowen. “And then there are others that reach out and support the most vulnerable members of the community, and Rachel’s Table and the Urban League are good examples of that. These are the kinds of groups we want to support because they improve quality of life within a community.”

    The bank has an individual with the title “community manager,” Bowen continued, who takes requests from nonprofits, weighs the merits of applications, and makes recommendations to company leaders. “We consider these applications based on the scope and the impact in the community, and our giving is focused on putting dollars where they can impact the most people and have the greatest impact.”

    The Bottom Line

    Bowen said the bank has a number of possible options as it mulls the next steps in its broad expansion plan.

    Creating a presence in Northampton, the largest community in Hampshire County, is certainly at or near the top of the list, while a West Springfield location is also a likely eventuality.

    And as the bank expands, it will continue to support those communities where the name goes, said Bowen, hinting broadly that while he’s certainly proud of that number 52, this is one of those rare incidences when an bank executive would like to see a smaller figure next year.

    — George O’Brien

    Departments

    The Big E Gets Under Way

    Through Sept. 28: The 2008 edition of The Big E in West Springfield will present more than $1.7 million in free entertainment, ticketed concerts featuring Natasha Bedingfield, Sugarland, and Fergie, as well as new exhibits, the Mardi Gras Parade, rides, crafts, food, animals, and the best of the old and new that fairgoers have come to expect and enjoy. Notable highlights throughout the fair will include: the Big E Super Circus, the Circus Museum, Sea Lion Splash, and the Harvest New England Kitchen Theater. The Big E’s roots are in agriculture, and that tradition continues by hosting competitions for prize-winning animals from across the country in the largest livestock show in the East. The Big E also offers a wide variety of outdoor and farm exhibits. Whether in Farm-A-Rama or along the Avenue of Agriculture, animal lovers will observe cows, pigs, sheep, llamas, a chick-hatching exhibit, and a rabbit exhibit, among many other animals. Another Big E tradition is the Avenue of States, where each New England state capitol is represented by a replica of the original. Each building contains the native foods, products, crafts, and tourist information of each state. Big E hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Storrowton Village Gift Shop and the Yankee Candle Shop are open 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Village Craft Area is open until 10 p.m. The North American Midway is open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., weekends from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sept. 28 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The Avenue of States hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. For tickets, show times and other detailed information, visit www.thebige.com.

    Dinner Forum on Love, Work, and Boundaries

    September 16: The UMass Amherst Family Business Center will host a dinner forum titled “Boundary Issues in Love and Work” from 5 to 8:30 p.m. at the Clarion Hotel & Conference Center in Northampton. Author Jane Adams will offer techniques and tools that can enable business owners to regulate their personal and professional relationships to get more of what they want and less of what they don’t in all their dealings with other family members, partners, friends, and colleagues. The evening will also feature a talk by Rick Giombetti and Paul Alves of Giombetti Associates titled “What It Takes To Be A Good Follower.” Their presentation will discuss how to recognize someone who can take your lead, pick up the ball and run, understand your vision, and make it real. For more information, call Ira Bryck, director of the Family Business Center, at (413) 545-1537, or E-mail [email protected].

    Bridge of Flowers Is 100

    Sept. 20: A Centennial Birthday Party is planned from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the 1908 Trolley Bridge, best known as the Bridge of Flowers, in Shelburne Falls. The concrete arch bridge was constructed for the Shelburne Falls and Colrain Street Railway as a means for the electric street railway to cross the Deerfield River and connect with major steam railroads. The railway was used for almost 20 years before car and truck competition made electric operations unprofitable. After the last trolley crossed the bridge in November 1927, the rails were lifted, and a town decision was made to plant flowers on the bridge as a way to improve its aesthetics. During the birthday party, visitors may visit the site, as well as ride on Car Number Ten, the restored trolley that once ran across the Bridge of Flowers. For complete details on events throughout the day, visit www.sftm.org.

    Instinctive Leadership Series

    Sept. 23, Oct. 7, 28, Nov. 11, Dec. 9: Clear Vision Alliance presents an Instinctive Leadership Workshop Series beginning Sept. 23 at the Baystate Reference Labs Conference Center, 361 Whitney Ave., Holyoke. The topics for the series are: Sept. 23, “Instinctive Leadership Overview”; Oct. 7, “Relate”; Oct. 28, “Connect”; Nov. 11, “Inspire”; and Dec. 9, “Empower.” Throughout the series, participants will share their own childhood and parenting experiences and will discuss the skills and knowledge of good parenting and relate them to leadership skills that are needed at one’s workplace and in life in general. The cost for one workshop is $65 or $250 for the series. For more information on the series, call (413) 283-7091, or E-mail [email protected]. Space is limited, and early registration is advised.

    Ad Club Luncheon

    Sept. 24: New York City designer, editor and publisher Josh Rubin will present a lecture titled “Triad of Technology” during the 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. luncheon of the Ad Club of Western Mass. in Scibelli Hall at Springfield Technical Community College. Believing there are no new ideas, just great executions, Rubin will discuss “cool high-tech” information that anyone can act on in their everyday life. The cost is $25 for Ad Club members, $35 for non-members, and $15 for students. The deadline to register is Sept. 19. For more information, visit www.adclubwm.org.

    Dinner Lecture

    October 14: Author Joel Barker will present “You Can and Should Shape Your Own Future, Because If You Don’t, Someone Else Surely Will” from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House in Holyoke. The dinner forum is hosted by the UMass Amherst Family Business Center. Barker will explain how to create ‘extreme’ partnerships to transform your company and product; how your senior leaders can continuously explore trends, innovations, and paradigm shifts; and how to better anticipate and deal with the effects of change. In addition to Barker’s presentation, an educational talk on how to be a savvier user of expert advisors will be presented by the law firm of Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas LLP. For more information, call Ira Bryck, director of the Family Business Center, at (413) 545-1537, or E-mail [email protected].

    Departments

    State Regulators Deny Permit to Russell Biomass

    RUSSELL — The state Department of Public Utilities recently rejected plans for a 50-megawatt, $200 million wood-burning power plant, citing “significant, disrupting, and lasting” impacts on the town. Russell Biomass had requested that the department exempt the company’s proposed generating project from compliance with the town of Russell’s zoning requirements. To grant such an exemption, the department had to determine if the public benefits of the project would outweigh its local impacts. The department had found that the proposed facility would have clear public benefits. In particular, the proposed facility would have the potential to provide energy benefits for Massachusetts, in that development of the facility could: supply added renewable energy resources; help meet electricity demand in a manner that at least initially provides carbon-control benefits consistent with the state’s mandate to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases over time; contribute to maintaining the reliability of the bulk power system and potentially lower wholesale prices in some hours; and help provide a more diverse electricity supply, which may provide a measure of protection against possible fuel-supply disruption. The department also found that the proposed facility would come with significant local impacts. Primarily because Main Street in Russell is the sole means of vehicular access to the proposed facility, the project would have significant local traffic, traffic-safety, and noise impacts. Operation of the facility would require an average of 150 to 160, and up to 240, trips daily by tractor-trailer trucks delivering wood fuel, significantly increasing the size and volume of the vehicles that currently travel on Main Street, and significantly increasing noise above existing levels for a period of up to 11.5 hours each weekday. As a result, ease and safety of local residents’ access to their homes and to municipal services, including emergency services, could be compromised, and in some circumstances precluded. In addition, the existing character and aesthetic of the town and Main Street would be degraded. Department officials said they fully support the development of renewable energy resources in the Commonwealth, particularly those that have the potential to assist in reducing the carbon impact of Massachusetts power supply, and has acted in consideration of this viewpoint. The department notes that the project as currently proposed differs from the project originally approved by the town of Russell not only in the increased volume of daily truck traffic, but in the type of fuel to be used and in construction scheduling. The department added it is not denying the siting, construction, or operation of the proposed Russell Biomass facility. Instead, in weighing the public benefits of the proposed facility against local impacts, they concluded they could not approve the company’s request that the department provide an exemption from the local zoning bylaws of the town of Russell.

    Grant Ensures Continuation of TAP Program

    SPRINGFIELD — The Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield (ACCGS) recently announced a $250,000 grant from the state to continue its Technical Assistance Program. TAP, as it’s called, provides funding to businesses that move into vacant storefronts in the city. In the three years since its inception, the ACCGS has assisted more than 100 businesses to move into vacant storefronts throughout the city, according to Russell Denver, president of the ACCGS. Denver noted that the program has proven itself to be a benefit to chamber members who are not located in Springfield, as many have been used for the services rendered in connection with the TAP grants. The businesses that are the recipients of the grants can choose the vendors they wish to contract with, and the vendor in turn is paid directly by the chamber. Denver said this program is a “win-win” for everyone involved. Businesspersons interested in more information about the TAP program should call the ACCGS at (413) 787-1555.

    State Foreclosure Deeds Push Past 2007 Level

    BOSTON — Foreclosure deeds in Massachusetts jumped 34% in July from a year ago but declined slightly from the prior month, according to a new report by the Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman. A total of 1,097 foreclosure deeds were filed in July, up from 819 in July 2007. July’s foreclosure deeds were 3% lower than June, when 1,131 deeds were recorded. Foreclosure activity has doubled so far this year, with 7,804 deeds filed through July 2008 compared to 3,902 during the same period in 2007. The number of foreclosure deeds from January through July has already exceeded the total number recorded for all of 2007, when there were 7,653 deeds. The most foreclosure deeds in July were recorded in Worcester with 68; Springfield, 61; Brockton, 46; Dorchester, 46; and Lynn, 46. Petitions to foreclose, which is the first step in the foreclosure process, rose 43.4% to 502 in July from 350 in June. But petitions to foreclose fell 79.8% from July 2007, when lenders filed 2,485 foreclosure petitions. The sharp dropoff is connected to a law that took effect in May that requires lenders intending to foreclose to give borrowers 90 days to pay off loan defaults. Auction announcements in July climbed 5% to 1,354 from 1,289 a year earlier. Year-to-date auction announcements jumped 34.7% to 11,932 from 8,859.

    GDF SUEZ Acquires FirstLight Power Enterprises

    HOLYOKE — GDF SUEZ Energy International, through its North American subsidiary, recently announced the signing of an agreement to acquire FirstLight Power Enterprises Inc. FirstLight owns and operates a unique portfolio of 15 power-generation plants — primarily pumped storage and traditional hydro facilities — and has a state-of-the-art natural-gas-peaking facility under construction. Together, these 16 facilities — including the Mount Tom Station on Route 5 near Northampton — have a combined capacity of 1,538 MW located in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Dirk Beeuwsaert, CEO of GDF SUEZ, noted in a press statement that the acquisition of FirstLight solidifies the company’s presence in a sizable and growing electricity and gas market. New England, with a population of 14 million and 31,000 MW of electric-generation capacity, is a core market for GDF SUEZ in North America, added Beeuwsaert. The company currently owns six renewable and natural-gas-fired power generation assets in the region; it sells electricity to large commercial and industrial customers and natural gas to nearly every gas utility in New England through its liquefied natural gas business. GDF SUEZ has not indicated how much it offered to purchase FirstLight.

    Major Retailers See Sales Drop

    NEW YORK — Several major retailers including JCPenney, Kohl’s, and American Eagle Outfitters, posted lower August sales on weaker back-to-school spending, but the declines were not as dire as Wall Street investors had feared. In contrast, Costco’s sales rose 9% due to bargains on gasoline and food, although that increase was weaker than expected. JCPenney officials also expect sales in September to fall in the mid- to high single digits, compared with 2007’s 3.7% decline. Kohl’s, which reported a 5.8% decline in August sales, said its stores continued to experience weakness in southern and southwest states. At American Eagle, sales fell 5%, hurt by continued weakness in its young women’s business.

    Departments

    The following building permits were issued during the month of September 2008.

    AGAWAM

    City of Agawam
    689 Main St.
    $22,000 — Installation of play structure at Phelp’s School

    Cumberland Farms
    837 Suffield St.
    $2,500 — Installation of handicap ramp

    AMHERST

    Amherst College Trustees
    Merrill Science Building
    $52,750 — New roof

    CHICOPEE

    Elm’s College
    291 Springfield St.
    $6,800 — Renovate existing offices

    MC OP-CO
    1460 Memorial Dr.
    $55,000 — Renovate 100 square feet for a coffee service

    EASTHAMPTON

    Bary Nasir
    36-40 Union St.
    $20,000 — Renovate space for Kennedy Fried Chicken take-out service

    GREENFIELD

    Alliance Church
    385 Chapman St.
    $6,000 — New roof

    CFM Buckley North LLC
    95 Laurel St.
    $17,000 — Installation of a concrete outdoor patio area

    HADLEY

    Ann McEwen & David Thompson
    43 Russell St.
    $132,000 — 12-by-40 single-story addition on west side of hospital

    David Viola
    367 Russell St.
    $28,000 — Mobiletron/Verizon 10-by-15 kiosk modular construction

    Hopkins Academy
    131 Russell St.
    $34,000 — Remove ceilings and floors and replace with new

    HOLYOKE

    City of Holyoke Schools
    401 Jarvis Ave.
    $19,000 — Install new canopies

    City of Holyoke Schools
    75 Kane Road
    $19,000 — Install new canopies

    Holyoke Crossing Limited Partnership II
    15 Holyoke St.
    $28,000 — Interior renovation

    LONGMEADOW

    Summa Venture Realty Trust
    916 Shaker Road
    $193,000 — Bank alterations

    LUDLOW

    Viter Inc.
    305 Moody St.
    $390,000 — Commercial addition

     

    NORTHAMPTON

    Suher Properties LLC
    50 Main St.
    $7,000 — Interior renovations

    SOUTH HADLEY

    Mt. Holyoke College
    50 College St.
    $111,000 — Dwight Hall renovations

    Mt. Holyoke College
    25 Morgan St.
    $196,000 — Gorse Hall renovations

    Mt. Holyoke College
    47 Morgan St.
    $10,000 — Alterations to the Oscar C. Koehler building

    SPRINGFIELD

    American International College
    191-193 Acorn St.
    $570,000 — Alterations to eight dormitory units

    American International College
    1000 State St.
    $6,000 — Create new area for print shop in Schwartz Campus Center

    American International College
    170-192 Wilbraham Road
    $3,500 — Create new dorm room

    Baystate Health Inc.
    759 Chestnut St.
    $227,000 — Relocation of existing lab

    L&W Realty
    310 State St.
    $2,000 — Installing new door for secondary egress

    SIS
    1441 Main St.
    $29,000 — Interior renovations to create new offices

    WESTFIELD

    Bank of America
    10 Main St.
    $42,000 — Interior renovations

    Lawry Freight
    138 Apremont Way
    $54,000 — Commercial renovation

    WEST SPRINGFIELD

    C&G Realty Trust
    11 Park Ave.
    $41,000 — New roof

    Century Investment Company
    73 State St.
    $496,000 — Renovate existing storefront facade

    Raymour & Flanagan
    1406 Elm St.
    $284,000 — Strip and re-roof

    U.P.S.
    120 Wayside Ave.
    $50,000 — Install sprinkler-fire-suppression system

    Departments

    PeoplesBank Opens Second Springfield Office

    SPRINGFIELD — PeoplesBank has opened a second full-service office at 1240 Sumner Ave. PeoplesBank also has a city location at 1900 Wilbraham Road, as well as offices in Amherst, Chicopee, East Longmeadow, Hadley, Holyoke, Longmeadow, South Hadley and Westfield.

    Employment Supports Program Opens

    AGAWAM — The Work Opportunity Center Inc. recently conducted a grand opening of its Employment Supports Program at 1666 Main St., Springfield. The program’s primary focus will be to assist individuals in Hampden County to find gainful and meaningful employment. The new facility will provide a greater variety of computer skills training, especially in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Publisher, as well as computer basics and Internet navigation. Consumers in the Employment Supports Program are referred primarily by the Department of Mental Retardation, the Department of Transitional Assistance, and the Mass. Rehabilitation Commission. Since 1969, the Work Opportunity Center has been assisting adults with developmental disabilities to secure training and employment.

    ACCGS, Hampden Bank Sponsor Initiative for Business Growth

    SPRINGFIELD — The Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield (ACCGS) and Hampden Bank recently announced a sponsorship to support the efforts of local small and mid-sized business owners to participate in a successful organization that has helped many local business owners to profitably grow their businesses. The ACCGS will become a sponsor and supporter of the Breakthrough Executive Board, which is comprised of a group of local business owners who have joined together to promote the growth and management of their companies. Both organizations will be inviting local business owners to attend an executive briefing session titled “Seven Things CEOs of Breakthrough Companies Know That You Don’t” on Sept. 24 and Oct. 9 at the Clarion Hotel & Conference Center in West Springfield, 8 to 10:30 a.m. For registration information, call (413) 583-3653 or E-mail [email protected]. Financial assistance for Board membership is supported by the State Workforce Development Fund, and discounted fees are available to ACCGS members and Hampden Bank business-banking customers.

    SPHS Awarded Commonwealth Corps Grant

    SPRINGFIELD — Commonwealth Corps volunteers will join the ranks of the Sisters of Providence Health System (SPHS), thanks to a $131,000 grant from the Mass. Service Alliance in partnership with Commonwealth Corps. Under the grant program, volunteers will work with nonprofit organizations to provide direct services for unmet community needs and recruit new volunteers to encourage continuation of such service. The Mercy Healthy Communities Corps Team will be in place for one year and will serve in various programs and departments throughout SPHS. In addition to recruiting volunteers for the Volunteer Services Department at Mercy Medical Center, the new corps members will assist with Project Homeless Connect and Dress for Success through the Healthcare for the Homeless Department, provide health care education and support at MercyCare-Forest Park and Providence Prenatal Center of Holyoke, and offer mentoring services to children at Brightside for Families and Children. Corps members will receive a living stipend and completion bonus. For more information, contact Colleen Condon, director of volunteer services at Mercy Medical Center, at (413) 748-9078.

    $9.2M Hotel Renovation Underway at UMass

    AMHERST — For the first time since the Campus Center Hotel at UMass Amherst opened its doors in 1970, the facility is undergoing a complete renovation of its guest rooms, lobby, and adjoining areas. Instead of one-bedroom and two-bedroom junior suites, the refurbished hotel will offer a mix of room types with new king, queen, or double beds. In addition, each room will be outfitted with new desks with ergonomic chairs, dressers, coffee makers, hair dryers, plasma televisions, and high-speed Internet connections. Closets with glass doors will be constructed, and in the bathrooms, bathtubs will be removed and replaced with walk-in glass showers. The room doors will be refinished to a dark walnut color, according to Meredith Schmidt, director of the Campus Center/Student Union complex. The remodeling will be completed two floors at a time so that the hotel can remain open and accommodate guests during construction. The tentative completion date is April 2009. The Boston office of the international architectural firm Gensler is overseeing the renovation. Schmidt said the firm’s renovation plans reflect a conscious respect for Bauhaus architect and influential modernist Marcel Breuer, who designed the Campus Center with his associate, Herbert Beckhard. Eastern General Contractors Inc. of Springfield is carrying out the modernization project.

    MMWEC Requests Federal Probe

    LUDLOW — Massachusetts and six other states receiving hydroelectric power from New York are seeking a federal investigation into the causes of multi-million-dollar increases in the cost of delivering the power across New York’s electric transmission system. Allegations of potential illegal activity and abuse of power-market rules have surfaced in calls for a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission investigation into alleged manipulative practices that by one estimate have cost consumers more than $450 million since January 2008. Forty Massachusetts municipal utilities receive a 53-megawatt allocation of low-cost, hydroelectric power generated at the Niagara Hydroelectric Project in Western New York. While the cost of generating the power has remained relatively stable at around 3 cents per kilowatt hour, the cost of delivering the power to the Massachusetts border has nearly tripled in recent months, to approximately $3 million. Massachusetts is represented in the case by the Mass. Municipal Wholesale Electric Co., which manages the state’s allocation of New York power through an agreement with the state Department of Public Utilities. Under federal law, Massachusetts is entitled to a share of the Niagara Project power, which is delivered to the residential customers of the state’s municipal utilities. Other states receiving a share of the power are Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

    Loomis Communities Support Alzheimer’s Association

    Residents and staff of the Loomis Communities have joined forces this year to raise $7,000 to support the Alzheimer’s Association. Activities have ranged from a bridge marathon that raised $2,440, to sales of blueberry muffins, forget-me-nots, and Alzheimer’s Assoc. bracelets. Additionally, residents and their family members and staff will walk in the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk on Sept. 21 at Stanley Park in Westfield. The Loomis Communities consists of three not-for-profit continuing-care retirement communities in the Pioneer Valley, including Applewood at Amherst, Loomis House in Holyoke, and Loomis Village in South Hadley. For more information on any of the Loomis Communities’ projects, contact Rob Claflin at (413) 253-9833.

    $40 Million in Improvements, Repairs Undertaken at UMass

    AMHERST — As work on several major building projects continued this summer at the UMass Amherst, more than $40 million in safety, building, and infrastructure improvements and repairs were also in progress across the campus. Safety-related projects included the installation of sprinkler systems and upgraded emergency lighting and fire alarms in several residence halls and other campus buildings, according to Jim Cahill, director of facilities and campus planning. The work was in addition to major projects, including the construction of the central heating plant, Integrated Sciences building, and the Recreation Center, as well as the renovation of Skinner Hall. Other improvements ranged from laboratory renovations and repairs and building facades to roof replacements, the reconstruction of a parking lot, and overhauls of classrooms. The projects were supported by state and federal funds, the UMass Building Authority, and campus monies.

    Departments

    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.

    CHICOPEE DISTRICT COURT

    Krissy Lemke v. Photo Memories
    Allegation: Breach of contract for photo services: $2,000
    Filed: 8/12/08

    Peter Jeffrey Curtin v. HSBC Retail Services Inc. & HSBC Bank Nevada, N.A.
    Allegation: Breach of contract, violation of Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: $10,000
    Filed: 7/22/08

    Tony’s Auto Repair v. G. Tech Systems Communications Inc.
    Allegation: Non-payment of goods and services rendered: $2,000
    Filed: 7/29/08

    FRANKLIN SUPERIOR COURT

    Alan Stone v. HSIA, LLC d/b/a Seven O’s
    Allegation: Dram shop negligence causing personal injury: $23,311
    Filed: 8/25/08

    GREENFIELD DISTRICT COURT

    Edward Dorshow & Lynne Mclandsborough v. Ford Motor Co.
    Allegation: Breach of contract: $27,663.23
    Filed: 8/14/08

    HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT

    A.J. Virgilio Construction Inc. v. Kowal General Contracting
    Allegation: Improper roof installment causing damages: $50,000
    Filed: 8/06/08

    All Points Capital Corp. v. G.W. Transport Inc.
    Allegation: Breach of equipment financing agreement: $44,540.96
    Filed: 7/23/08

    Amos Umezuruike v. Wal-Mart Stores, East
    Allegation: Employment discrimination: $1,300,000
    Filed: 7/28/08

    Holyoke Mall Company LP v. Sadie’s LLC
    Allegation: Defendant defaulted on written lease: $1,469,146.56
    Filed: 7/29/08

    JoAnna Strange v. Isac L. Bloch M.D. & E.N.T. Of Western New England, LLC
    Allegation: Removal of excess cartilage resulting in deformity: $500,000
    Filed: 8/11/08

    Luis Garcia v. Mass. State Lottery Commission
    Allegation: Employment discrimination: 760,000
    Filed: 7/27/08

    Luther Alexander v. Commerce Insurance
    Allegation: Failure to make reasonable offer of settlement: $17,083.57
    Filed: 7/11/08

    Mary Lou Sanborn v. Edward W. Drew, Electrician
    Allegation: Balance due for goods sold and delivered: $34,906.09
    Filed: 8/22/08

    Maura A. Halloran v. Alla Z. Chesky M.D. et al.
    Allegation: Medical malpractice: $200,000
    Filed: 7/24/08

    Pioneer Valley Concrete Services v. Norman B. Keddy Construction Co.
    Allegation: Failure to pay for labor and materials on three construction projects: $45,235.10
    Filed: 7/16/08

    Rosemary Pagios v. NK First Corp. & Nadim Kashouh
    Allegation: Breach of a commercial lease: $35,000
    Filed: 7/25/08

    TD Banknorth N.A. v. Tremblay Electric
    Allegation: Default on promissory note: $66,634.90
    Filed: 7/16/08

    Wells Fargo Equipment v. G.W. Transport Inc.
    Allegation: Breach of contract: $90,360.24
    Filed: 8/01/08

    HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT

    Grefory & Sylvia Zakrzewski v. Extreme Marine
    Allegation: Misrepresentation in sale of boat: $25,000.00
    Filed: 8/15/08

    HOLYOKE DISTRICT COURT

    Fed Ex Ground Inc. v. Real Fragrances
    Allegation: Breach of contract and non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $5,923.88
    Filed: 7/14/08

    John Ferriter v. R.C.R. Enterprises Inc.
    Allegation: Bounced check and legal fees: $7,250; Filed: 8/08/08

    NORTHAMPTON DISTRICT COURT

    Dr. Peter G. Dayton v. Overlook Industries Inc.
    Allegation: Failure to pay on promissory note: $15,000; Filed: 8/18/08

    F.W. Webb Company v. Salvatore’s Plumbing & Heating
    Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $7,438.52; Filed: 7/09/08

    Ravenwood Greenhouses v. Laflammes’s Garden Center Inc. & Auctioneer Phil Jacquier Inc.
    Allegation: Negligently failed to ensure that successful bid was honored: $16,000
    Filed: 7/14/08

    PALMER DISTRICT COURT

    EMSL Analytical Inc. v. All Clean Mold Service
    Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $2,450.81
    Filed: 7-28-08

    Gilbert & Son Insulation Inc. v. Metro Builders
    Allegation: Non-payment of insulation services rendered: $2,506.19; Filed: 7/18/08

    The Bell/Simons Company v. Reliable Heating & Air Conditioning Inc.
    Allegation: Non-payment of services rendered: $6,257.52; Filed: 7/18/08

    SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT

    Biermann Services Inc. v. ARA Convenience
    Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $23,844.60; Filed: 5/23/08

    Comdata Network Inc. v. A & A Transport Logistics
    Allegation: Non-payment of services rendered: $10,002.12; Filed: 5/08/08

    Gilbert & Son Insulation Inc. v. McElligott Construction, LLC
    Allegation: Non-payment for insulation services: $12,484.84; Filed: 5/21/08

    J.D. Contracting Inc. v. Newfield Construction Inc.
    Allegation: Breach of contract and money damages: $6,434; Filed: 8/15/08

    Mary Lou Sanborn v. Portelada Electric Inc.
    Allegation: Non-payment on account: $13,402.88
    Filed: 5/27/08

    Moriarty & Primack, P.C. v. Dorchester Industries Inc.
    Allegation: Non-payment for tax return services: $3,659.53
    Filed: 8/03/08

    Tyler Enterprises v. Grandview Farms Inc.
    Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $8,914.53
    Filed: 8/08/08

    United Rentals Inc. v. Heller & Smith Corp.
    Allegation: Non-payment of materials, equipment, and services for various construction projects: $34,105.83
    Filed: 5/08/08

    WESTFIELD DISTRICT COURT

    Clark Paint & Varnish Co. v. Gerry’s Painting
    Allegation: Non-payment of goods: $1,292.02
    Filed: 8/04/08

    Ivey Industries Inc. v. New England Equipment Repair, LLC
    Allegation: Non-payment on rental, lease, and purchase of equipment: $2,000
    Filed: 8/01/08

    Departments

    Robert A. Plasse has been named Assistant to the President for Communications at Westfield State College. Plasse is the founding member, president, and director of programs for Westfield on Weekends, and most recently served as Assistant Professor in the Human Services Department at Holyoke Community College.

    •••••

    Chuck Breidenbach has joined Mountain Development Corp., owner and manager of the Eastfield Mall in Springfield, as Managing Director of the MDC Retail Properties Group. He will oversee the retail business operations incorporating his wide variety of experience including development, leasing, management, marketing, and construction of both enclosed and open-air retail facilities. His background in new development, turnarounds, and expansions will help facilitate Mountain Development’s continued growth.

    •••••

    Carolyne Hannan has been named Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Comcast in Western Mass., Connecticut, and New York. In this role, Hannan will oversee all marketing and sales initiatives in the 128 communities that comprise the region. Hannan has 15 years of experience in the communications industry, including four years with Comcast.

    •••••

    Witalisz & Associates Inc. of Westfield announced the following:
    • Bernadette Bain joins the firm as a Realtor/ Consultant;
    • Grace Sullivan joins the firm as a Broker/Realtor, and
    • Barbara Petrucelli joins the firm as a Broker/Realtor.

    •••••

    Mark Grumoli has been named Senior Vice President and Commercial Loan Officer at Greenfield Savings Bank. He brings more than 17 years of sales, commercial-banking, and management experience to his new position.

    •••••

    Maryann Lombardi, who for the past year has served as acting Director of Creative Economy for the UMass Amherst division of University Outreach, has been named to become the first full-time director for that office. In this role she also serves as Managing Director of the Sankofa Dance Project, which celebrates African roots in American dance through intensive summer study, choreographic residencies, performances, and events. She brings extensive directing and production experience to the new Outreach position, having served almost 10 years as producer, general manager, and resident director for boulevard arts, inc., and as artistic producer and resident director for the Leopold Project.

    •••••

    Edward J. Garbacik has been elected Vice President, Investment Executive of Financial Services of Florence Savings Bank. He has more than 20 years of financial services experience, having worked previously for UBS Financial Service Inc.

    •••••

    William E. Templeton has joined Berkshire Bank as AVP/Mortgage Loan Manager for the Pioneer Valley. He will concentrate his efforts on developing mortgage business in the Greater Springfield area.

    •••••

    Hogan Communications in Easthampton announced the following:
    • Jenna Gable has joined the firm in the Accounting Department. She is creating policies and procedures that will further enhance the company’s customer service.
    • Krystal Ayala has joined the firm as a Customer Advocate, specializing in increasing customer satisfaction.

    •••••

    UMass Amherst faculty and staff members have received recognition for their work in recent weeks:
    • Fergus M. Clydesdale, Distinguished Professor and head of the Food Science Department, presented the 2008 Sterling B. Hendricks Memorial Lecture on Aug. 19 at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Philadelphia;
    • Ashoke Ganguli, Director of Auxiliary Services, received the Pinnacle Award from the (OS1) Users Group Aug. 18 in recognition of his “outstanding contributions to the cleaning industry and the (OS1) program”;
    • Eliot Moss, Professor of Computer Science, shared an award for the most influential paper at the International Symposium on Computer Architecture June 21-25 in Beijing; and
    • Brian D. Bunk, visiting Assistant Professor of History, co-edited Nation and Conflict in Modern Spain: Essays in Honor of Stanley G. Payne, published in August by the Parallel Press of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Co-edited by Sasha Pack and Carl Gustaf-Scott, the book is a collection of original scholarship and reflective essays written by students and colleagues of the distinguished Hispanist.

    •••••

    Pat French has been named SCORE Community Outreach Coordinator for the Western Mass, division at H&R Block.

    •••••

    FieldEddy has appointed Wendy L. Fitzgerald and Dina N. Rehbein as Personal Line Account Managers. Both are licensed property and casualty insurance agents in Massachusetts.

    •••••

    Andrew Ross has been promoted at Scottrade’s Springfield branch office at 1441 Main St. Ross is responsible for branch operations, managing personnel, and providing customer service.

    •••••

    Kristina Lavigne has been promoted to Personal Insurance Manager for Insurance Center of New England in West Springfield.

    •••••

    GCB Financial Services division in Greenfield announces the addition of Sharon A. Connery as a Financial Services Representative.

    •••••

    UMass Five College Federal Credit Union announced that Craig Layman, a registered representative affiliated with broker-dealer and registered investment adviser CUSO Financial Services, was a recent recipient of the CFS 2007 Bronze Pacesetter Award at the annual conference in San Diego. The award honors the top-producing registered representatives among 100-plus credit union programs. UMass Five serves UMass as well as the Five College System and other select employee groups.

    •••••

    Realtor Association of Pioneer Valley President-Elect Mark Abramson and Executive Vice President Edward M. Moore recently attended the 2008 National Association of Realtors Leadership Summit in Chicago.

    •••••

    Donna Huff, Minimum Data Set Coordinator for Jewish Geriatric Services, was recently awarded Minimum Data Set (MDS) certification granted by the National Assoc. of Subacute/Post Acute Care. MDS, a uniform set of elements for assessing the functional capacity of residents of long-term care facilities, is required for communication with designated state agencies as a condition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.

    •••••

    Bill Blair recently joined ERA Laplante Realty of South Hadley.

    •••••

    Peter Spedero, a Senior Analyst for Unemployment Tax Control Associates in Springfield, recently celebrated his five-year anniversary with the firm. Spedero services the multi-state accounts division, including the US Air-America West and Sovereign Bank accounts.

    •••••

    Terrie Edson recently joined Franklin County Home Care as Program Director of the Men’s Health Partnership and Women’s Health Network.

    Departments

    A Day of Caring

    On Sept. 5, the United Way of the Pioneer Valley staged its Annual Day of Caring. More than 16,000 volunteers from 48 businesses and organizations across the region fanned out to clean playgrounds, spruce up parks and school grounds, and assist groups like Square One. Above, at the ribbon cutting ceremony at River Front Park in Springfield, United Way President Joel Weiss, right, and Mayor Dominic Sarno help do the honors. Also pictured is Sally Fuller of the Cherish Every Child Initiative and Beatrice Geary-Martone (cutting the ribbon). On the facing page, clockwise, from bottom, children from the Arbors Kids at Mason Wright in Springfield romp at Barrows Park; cleanup efforts at Kenefick Park were sponsored by Baystate Children’s Hospital; employees at Peter Pan Bus Lines volunteered to spruce up Forest Park in Springfield (Peter Picknelly Jr., who served as co-chair of the event along with his wife, Melissa, is seen in the background).

    Departments

    The following bankruptcy petitions were recently filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court. Readers should confirm all information with the court.

    Akanour, Lahoussine
    241 Jackson St., Apt. 5D
    Northampton, MA 01060
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/18/2008

    Beaulieu-Brace, Michele E.
    126 Plunkett St.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/18/2008

    Brutskiy, Dmitriy Y.
    Brutskaya, Vita
    a/k/a Manerskaite, Vita
    34 Laurelwood Lane
    Springfield, MA 01118
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/23/2008

    Cadarette, Brian J.
    62 Green River Road
    Greenfield, MA 01301
    c/o P.O. Box 147
    Turners Falls, MA 01376
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/23/2008

    Caggiano, Rosanne C.
    Caggiano, Anthony J.
    124 Southampton Road
    Westhampton, MA 01027
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/21/2008

    Castro, Jose M.
    21 Bowers St., Apt. 613
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/24/2008

    Clear, Craig A.
    Clear, Lisa C.
    7 Brainard Road
    Wilbraham, MA 01095
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/25/2008

    Cortes, Wilfredo
    Colon, Wilfredo Cortes
    48 Beauchamp St.
    Springfield, MA 01107
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/17/2008

    Dostal, Emma M.
    1 Bridge Lane
    Hatfield, MA 01038
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/18/2008

    Dufresne, Ernestine Nilla
    210 Johnson Road, Apt 1
    Chicopee, MA 01022
    Chapter: 13
    Date: 07/17/2008

    Ellingwood, Jay D.
    Ellingwood, Barbara A.
    177-179 Silver Lake St.
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/18/2008

    Estrada, Serena M.
    a/k/a Olson, Serena M.
    39 Guy Place
    West Springfield, MA 01089
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/23/2008

    Evans, Mark E.
    Evans, Denise D.
    77 Elizabeth Dr.
    Ludlow, MA 01056
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/16/2008

    Fontanez, Gladys
    P.O. Box 2033
    Springfield, MA 01101
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/18/2008

    Gammons, George T.
    Gammons, Carolyn H. O’Connell Rd.
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/21/2008

    Gibson, Gregg A.
    Gibson, Patricia S.
    278 Ely Ave.
    West Springfield, MA 01089
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/16/2008

    Gibson, Paulette D.
    136 Malibu Dr.
    Springfield, MA 01128
    Chapter: 13
    Date: 07/23/2008

    Greene, James
    45 Ringgold St.
    Springfield, MA 01107
    Chapter: 13
    Date: 07/24/2008

    Harris, Roney
    615 White St.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/21/2008

    Howell, Michael John
    433 Amherst Road, Apt. 4
    Belchertown, MA 01007
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/18/2008

    Iglesias, Jeanene D.
    183 Berkshire Ave.
    Southwick, MA 01077
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/21/2008

    Jarmolowicz, Sharon L.
    34 Elm St.
    South Deerfield, MA 01373
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/16/2008

    King, Kenneth J.
    King, June A.
    15 Richard Eger Dr.
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/25/2008

    Koscielniak, Amy L.
    101 Edward Ave.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 13
    Date: 07/23/2008

     

    Kustra, Penelope S.
    58 Celestine St.
    Chicopee, MA 01013
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/16/2008

    Latour, Joan M.
    22C Phins Hill Manor
    Granby, MA 01033
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/21/2008

    Lemieux, Jr., Joseph P.
    31 Woodland Ridge
    Southwick, MA 01077
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/22/2008

    Lester, Colleen M.
    33 Chatham St.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/24/2008

    Masic, Nedzad
    Masic, Fatima
    a/k/a Marit, Fatima
    60 Worcester St.
    West Springfield, MA 01089
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/17/2008

    McHugh, Bernard Joseph
    McHugh, Roxanne Vivian
    587 Pleasant St.
    Barre, MA 01005
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/18/2008

    Merced, Patricia
    63 Eleanor Road
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/16/2008

    Napoli, Stephen Domenic
    154 Pleasantview Ave.
    Longmeadow, MA 01106
    Chapter: 13
    Date: 07/21/2008

    O’Hare, Gladys R.
    519 East River St., Lot 43
    Orange, MA 01364
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/16/2008

    Olson, Dawn Marie
    19 Humphrey Lane
    West Springfield, MA 01089
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/23/2008

    Pelletier, Wayne John
    16 Ridge Hill Road
    Sturbridge, MA 01566
    Chapter: 13
    Date: 07/23/2008

    Place, Deborah A.
    125 Bulat Dr.
    Springfield, MA 01129
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/24/2008

    Rogers, Charles E.
    18-20 Church St.
    Gilbertville, MA 01031
    Chapter: 13
    Date: 07/17/2008

    Roy, Donald A.
    25 Jefferson Ave.
    Chicopee, MA 01020
    Chapter: 13
    Date: 07/17/2008

    Saladyga, Danuta Zofia
    24 Hillside Village
    Ware, MA 01082
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/23/2008

    Salsbury, Roseanne Marie
    PO Box 6085
    Springfield, MA 01101
    Chapter: 13
    Date: 07/24/2008

    Speranzo, Carol L.
    a/k/a Roosa, Carol L.
    a/k/a Adriance, Carol L.
    34 Lakewood Circle
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/22/2008

    Squires, Peter M.
    33 Draper St.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 13
    Date: 07/23/2008

    Todd, Holly J.
    25 Wheeler Ave.
    Orange, MA 01364
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/19/2008

    Trenary, Bart J.
    26 Pomeroy St.
    Easthampton, MA 01027
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/23/2008

    Tropical Gardens Pet Center
    Blair, Terri L.
    3 Chase Hill
    North Adams, MA 01247
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/24/2008

    Wilkey, Kenneth Howard
    66 Maple St.
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/17/2008

    Will, Mary-Beth
    50 Brunelle St.
    Ludlow, MA 01056
    Chapter: 7
    Date: 07/18/2008

    Sections Supplements
    Visual Concepts Finds a New Niche in Web 2.0
    Ric Serrenho and Steve Shaw

    Ric Serrenho and Steve Shaw built their multimedia business on the premise that visual marketing would stay strong, but the channels would change dramatically.

    When Steve Shaw and Ric Serrenho founded Visual Concepts, a lot of thought went into the company’s name. The duo had a feeling that video production, their field of expertise, would soon change — and dramatically. The advent of the Internet proved them right, and today, the business continues to evolve with changing technology, but the ‘visual’ aspect has stayed very much the same.

    Ric Serrenho says the fast-evolving Internet does more than diversify the business model at Visual Concepts, the company he co-founded with Steve Shaw more than two decades ago.

    Rather, it’s also a great equalizer, directing people of all types to one place — their computers — for information, entertainment, and connectivity.

    “The Web makes the world flat,” he said. “Almost everything in the world gets there eventually, and the Web plays a role in almost everything.”

    With that realization, Shaw and Serrenho are moving confidently into the next phase of their business, which specializes in multimedia-based marketing communications.

    The partners founded Visual Concepts in Easthampton, Conn., in 1986, after working together at Hartford’s WTNH Channel 8 as part of its news team. At the time, the Internet was still an unknown entity, but video production was something Shaw and Serrenho had grown to know well. They also saw a potential niche for their talents in corporate communications.

    “We’re good at telling stories,” said Shaw. “We know how to marry words with pictures, and we thought we could offer something different to the corporate world.”

    Visual Concepts began providing video-based marketing and business-development materials for their clients — materials such as new-product introductions, training videos, video press releases, and visual components for meetings.

    “A lot of it was similar to producing live television, which we knew a lot about,” said Shaw, noting that the business grew alongside new technology, gradually adding on new capabilities as opportunities arose. “When the Internet started to evolve, that led to new and interesting things, such as animation and Web graphics. We strongly believed then, as we do now, that the Internet was going to be our future.”

    The Wicked Web

    Serrenho agreed, adding that not only has the Web opened up a whole new world of work for Visual Concepts, it has also allowed the firm to advance more quickly onto new avenues as it stays on pace and sometimes leads the technology race.

    “Our roots are in video, but now the Web is becoming video,” he said. “Web and video technologies are combining and integrating to create something we’ve never seen before, and frankly, right now we’re enjoying that fact. The pipeline can now handle the kind of video we love to do online.”

    Today, the Web factors into just about everything the company does. Having grown out of its original home in Easthampton, and later in Bloomfield, Conn., as well, Visual Concepts now owns its workspace in Windsor, Conn. Meeting staging for small and large corporations is still a part of the mix, as is electronic communications, Web design, programming, and online media production. Visual Concepts specializes in working with clients that manufacture or market consumer products, including Spalding, Peter Pan, Pilot Pen, and the Snapple Beverage Group, but also has a healthy list of clients in the non-profit sector, such as the Anti-Defamation League, Yale-New Haven Hospital, and the Hartford-Springfield Economic Partnership.

    In addition, Serrenho said the firm will often work with other marketing agencies to serve as their video-production arm. Locally, Paul Robbins Associates often works with the company. Regardless of the relationship, though, Serrenho added that the list is only growing as more companies of all types and sizes ramp up their online presence in response to consumer demand.

    “Companies are very conscious that we’re living in a Web world,” he said. “They know consumers are getting a lot of their information there. What we do in response is design ‘sticky’ sites — the kind that people will keep going back to. We learn about other people’s businesses to make each site a custom piece — like furniture makers. No two projects are alike, and that’s what makes them effective.”

    Maintenance Plan

    Over the years, Serrenho added, Visual Concepts has developed a strength in not just developing sites, but maintaining them with regular information and technology updates.

    Nestled in an industrial park in Windsor, Visual Concepts is also positioned to take advantage of the business climate in both Connecticut and Western and Central Mass., in addition to clients in New York and, increasingly, New Jersey. Serrenho said it’s a business line with national reach, but there’s also some local loyalty that keeps him, Shaw, and their 15-person team grounded.

    “We work with both large and small companies — some are $36 billion a year corporations, and others are small, independent businesses,” he said. “We have a big base of business in Western Mass., in part because we made a commitment to the area. We understand that Northern Conn. and Western Mass. need each other, and that there’s a rich business tradition to uphold. Most importantly, though, there’s also a lot of opportunity to be had.”

    As the company continues to move forward, it’s branching out into new geographical areas as well as new areas of focus. Serrenho said a new niche in higher education is starting to develop, spurred in part by the large number of colleges and universities in the region. In addition, he said existing relationships with long-held clients are also starting to broaden.

    Spreading the Word

    Through its work with Spalding, for instance, Visual Concepts is now delving more into viral marketing and social media, in an effort to better reach the age-14-to-28 demographic. ‘Viral’ videos (those that can be easily spread from person to person), featuring athletes such as Olympic softball player Jennie Finch and 2007 top NBA draft pick Greg Oden, have been created and posted on YouTube, particularly at the new ‘Spalding channel.’

    “People are much more aware that reaching out on the Web in this way is something you have to think about,” said Serrenho, “so there are so many more ways we can apply our skills.”

    Shaw concurred.

    “Everyone is waking up to social networking as a business tool,” he said. “Plus, this is a great example of how we typically move ahead: by moving into areas that haven’t previously been explored.”

    Overall, Serrenho said Visual Concepts never strays far from its beginnings as a video production house, but one decision early on in the firm’s history helped pave the way toward bigger, better, and constantly evolving projects.

    “We had the choice, early on, to call ourselves ‘Video Concepts,’” he said. “We had a feeling that things were going to keep changing, and someday our jobs were going to look very different. Becoming ‘Visual Concepts’ was a nod to our belief that we were going to be able to grow and sustain.”

    Shaw added that in tough economic times like those we currently face, adaptation to market shifts is one key to success.

    “Results are important,” he said. “We must have an impact on our client’s bottom line.”

    And in a flat world, the bottom line isn’t so hard to find if you know where to look.

    Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]

    Sections Supplements
    Flexible Arrangements Are Gaining Attention, Acceptance
    Bill Ferris

    Bill Ferris says there is mounting evidence that flexible work schedules lead to greater productivity from those happy to be in such situations.

    Paraphrasing Mark Twain, most business owners and managers today would say that the death of the traditional five-day workweek has been greatly exaggerated. That being said, the so-called flexible work arrangement, of FWA, seems to gaining more acceptance as it garners headlines and attention from the academic community. Some of that study is inconclusive, but much of it suggests that such flexibility yields happier, more productive employees, while helping companies attract and retain top talent.

    Bill Ferris says the acronym FWA hasn’t yet worked its way into the mainstream at most companies or business-related organizations, but it’s probably only a matter of time before it does.

    It stands for ‘flexible work arrangement,’ said Ferris, a professor of Management at Western New England College who has studied the subject extensively, and as that name suggests, it connotes work schedules or conditions that are, well, flexible, as opposed to inflexible, which is the word that ruled in corporate America for decades. It’s a term that now covers everything from telecommuting to variable scheduling to compressed workweeks, he explained, and although it is hardly a recent phenomenon — progressive companies have been employing the concept, if not exactly the acronym, for many years now — it is gaining more attention, and more headlines.

    The state of Utah recently went to a four-day workweek, for example, while France abruptly and unceremoniously abandoned its experiment with that concept and went back to the five-day variety. Meanwhile, as gas prices soared above the $4 barrier there was much talk, and some action, among employers about compressing the workweek, offering more telecommuting opportunities, or both to help their workers save at the pump. And the airline JetBlue has been drawing considerable attention from the press, academia, and the business community for deploying an army of stay-at-home moms to handle its ticket-reservation work, and with apparent success.

    “They just log in and log out according to specific hours, and all seems to work … JetBlue apparently has a much more responsive network than many its competitors,” said Alan Robinson, a professor of Management at UMass Amherst. He noted that the company’s workforce is also more diverse than many others, because it can hire women with young children, and the airline, like other companies, can free up — or not lease — tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of square feet of prime commercial real estate by having people work at home.

    But in the end, flexible work arrangements shouldn’t be about, or all about, gas prices or real-estate costs, said Debra Palermino, vice president of Corporate Human Resources at MassMutual. Instead, flexibility with schedules is more about productivity, recruitment, and retention, she explained.

    “These are the things that are driving what we do here,” she said, noting the financial services giant has been utilizing flexible work arrangements, if not exactly calling them that, for many years now in several different departments. “This is a matter of work design for us; it’s not a commuter-cost issue here. It concerns how we can do our work in the most efficient way and in the way that is most attractive to the kinds of employees we’re going to need to do that kind of work.

    “We ultimately have a vision to have as much flexibility as the company can afford and can manage,” she continued, adding that this phenomenon includes arranging for a valued employee to stay with the company after relocating to Florida.

    “He had been here many years, was a top performer and an excellent employee, and we just didn’t want to lose him,” Palermino explained. “We worked out an arrangement whereby he could continue to work for us in Florida, and it it’s been quite successful.”

    There are some issues and shortcomings to address when it comes to FWAs — not everyone can work at home, most companies need to staff the office and the phones five days a week, not four, and the FedEx bills can get excessive with many employees working remotely. Meanwhile, for those who can and do work at home, for example, there are matters of isolation and socialization (or lack thereof) to contend with. And there is always the matter of productivity to measure and re-measure, as well as lingering skepticism among many employers.

    Meredith Wise, executive director of the Employers Association of the NorthEast, told BusinessWest that soaring gas prices — which have been retreating but always threaten to skyrocket again — have prompted some of her agency’s members to visit or revisit the subject of flexible work arrangements, and especially the four-day workweek.

    Some are hesitant, she explained, because of studies and anecdotal evidence indicating that productivity declines when people work four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days, and additional concern about rising health care claims from such arrangements as minds and bodies tire with a longer day.

    “For many businesses, there are too many challenges to overcome and too many questions with regard to a four-day or four-and-a-half-day workweek,” she explained, noting that this sentiment seems to apply to other types of flexibility with regard to work, especially among smaller companies.

    But Ferris says there is gathering evidence that with such flexibility comes generally happier employers and improved productivity. So much evidence, in fact, that he believes the traditional five-day workweek is, or will soon be, obsolete.

    “It’s dead … it’s gone,” he said, noting, for starters, that people in many professions work, or are on call, literally or figuratively, almost 24/7. Meanwhile, technology enables people to work when and often where they want, and progressive companies must recognize and take full advantage of this phenomenon is they want to compete.

    In this issue, BusinessWest looks at the concept of work, the increasing prevalence of FWAs, and what it all means for companies and their employees.

    Hour Town

    Ferris told BusinessWest that the concept of the flexible work arrangement, like distance learning and its potential and limitations, has become the subject of considerable study, debate, and conjecture within academia — and Corporate America, as well — and he’s one of those involved in such activity … sort of.

    Some of his current students are involved in such study, he said, noting that one, a graduate student, is conducting what’s known as evidence-based management research to test her hypothesis that telecommuting workers who want to telecommute (that’s an important distinction) are more productive than workers who toil in the corporate office.

    “She believes that’s what she’ll find, and there’s reason for her to think she’s right,” said Ferris, who told BusinessWest that many of his current and former students, ages 21 to 30 or so, are working increasingly in flexible work arrangements, giving him a test group, if you will, to monitor and measure.

    “They’re in all kinds of different businesses,” he said of his charges. “They’re working at home, and their companies are looking for ways to have more of their people working at home.”

    Study results, not to mention anecdotal evidence, are varied, said Ferris, but some trends are emerging, with many of them pointing toward FLAs being beneficial to companies and employees alike.

    “What has been discovered, by and large, is that people who want to be on flexible work arrangements are happy about it, and typically produce better or as well as people who are not,” he said. “People even report that they’re sick less and call in sick less, because they’re already home doing their work. They put in more hours per week, typically, than people who go to work.

    “They’re healthier, they work more, and they bill more hours,” he continued, noting that that this healthier state results from not being around sick people at work. And they’re more productive, he conjectured, because they’re not interrupted or sitting in meetings all day that accomplish little if anything.

    Robinson told BusinessWest that, from his view, most of the studies on this matter are in progress, and that he relies mostly on anecdotal evidence — or his own experiences — when weighing the matter of flexible work arrangements.

    “I’m much more productive at home, and part of the reason for that is that you can’t hang a do-not-disturb sign on your office door for three hours,” he said. “There are studies that show that every time you’re distracted, it takes you 15 minutes to get back to you where you were.”

    For these reasons and others, he said, it makes sense for companies to permit telecommuting when and if the technology and the circumstances permit.

    But while the academic community continues to study the various aspects of the flexible arrangements, work — as it is now defined or carried out — goes on in the real laboratory, the workplace.

    Remote Possibilities

    This includes corporations like Mass-Mutual, where flexibility has been part of the equation for many years now, said Angela Derouin, a human resources business partner at the company. She noted that, while some departments can’t really offer such arrangements — security and call-center operations, for example — most can and do, with the extent of the programs typically determined by the manager in question.

    Derouin estimated that roughly 400 of the company’s 5,000-odd employees have some form of flexible work arrangement (matching industry averages), and the number is rising, due to both the popularity of such programs and the company’s degree of satisfaction with what it has seen and heard.

    “We hope that in certain areas where we know the work can be done at home and we can accelerate the technology support it, we can put more people to work in their home,” she said, referring to just one piece of the efforts with regard to FWAs.

    Indeed, flexibility includes telecommuting locally; working in Florida, as that one producer does, or other states; compressed schedules; and flexible schedules — people coming in later and leaving later, for example. “I come in really early, but the person next to me arrives at 9,” she explained.

    Generally, said Derouin, people working in such arrangements are as productive or more productive than they might be in a traditional work arrangement. Why? Because they’re happy to have that flexibility and want to keep it.

    “We find that when people are successful while working at home and want that arrangement to continue because they like it and it benefits them in many ways, they’re wiling to work hard and make sure they’re available on the phone or via E-mail. They work very hard to make the arrangement successful so they can keep it.

    “We want everyone to be productive, whether they’re working here or working remotely,” she continued. “But we see those in flexible arrangements doing whatever they can to make it work, because their ability to work in that way is dependent on business needs, and it’s at the discretion of the company.”

    Ferris said this trend is prevalent elsewhere; those granted flexible work arrangements view them as a priviledge, not a right or something they can take for granted. “So they put in the effort to maintain that privilege.”

    Beyond productivity and morale issues, however, another benefit to FWAs is the ability to recruit and retain employees — most of whom work in and around Springfield, but some others don’t.

    “We have employees spread out across the country, and it has worked out very well,” said Palermino, adding that this ability to have people work in Florida, California, and even overseas will prove valuable as companies across all sectors face the challenge of finding enough qualified workers in the years and decades ahead.

    But as FWAs become more popular, there are issues and challenges that companies must contend with, said said Derouin, who cited isolation as one possible problem. She said the term gaining acceptance in corporate America is ‘social distancing.’

    “Those companies that have done it in a big way are dealing with this now,” she explained. “They’re asking themselves, ‘how do you maintain espirit de corps?’ and ‘how do you maintain your sense of an entity if you’re so isolated?’ Companies are responding by forming agreements where there are certain times in a week or month when people have to come in.”

    Overall, experts say that an array of potential problems and issues — from isolation to distractions from young children — can be overcome (see related story, page 28).

    As for skeptical managers, Palermino acknowledged that there are some gray areas when it comes to productivity within some departments — meaning that it’s not all numbers on a balance sheet — which makes it challenging to gauge whether people are more or less successful in a flexible work arrangement. But in most cases, performance is outcome-based, giving most managers a fairly clearly read on whether something is working or not.

    Meanwhile, not everyone desires flexible work arrangements, said Ferris, noting that many individuals want and need interaction with others in the workplace.

    That’s why the traditional five-day workweek won’t disappear from the landscape any time soon, he noted, adding, however, that flexible work models are becoming more prevalent — where and when they are applicable.

    Time Passages

    Ferris told BusinessWest that, in time, and probably not much of it, the term ‘telecommuting’ will eventually fade from the business lexicon, as will ‘flex time’ and other phrases that seem destined to replaced by FWA or something like it.

    “That’s because ‘flexible work arrangement’ typically means you spend some time in the office and some time out of the office doing office work, so it covers all those terms,” he explained, adding quickly that the issue for business owners and managers certainly isn’t terminology.

    Instead, it’s recognizing that, in many respects and in a great many professions, work is changing, and the old rules — which add up to inflexibility — no longer apply.

    George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]

    Sections Supplements
    New Facility at UMass Should Prove to Be a Big Draw
    Ron Michaud

    Ron Michaud stands outside the new Studio Arts Building at UMass Amherst.

    UMass Amherst recently opened the doors to a new, $26 million Studio Arts Building. The facility brings together a number of two- and three-dimensional art programs that had been scattered across the vast campus — often in facilities that were cramped and not up to modern building codes — and creates, with the nearby Fine Arts Center, what one administrator calls an “integrated arts district” on campus. But the center will also benefit the region as a whole, say school administrators, by making the university’s arts programs more attractive, thus bolstering the Western Mass. creative community.

    Joel Martin has a number of descriptive nouns and adjectives he applies liberally to the new Studio Arts Building at UMass Amherst.

    Martin, dean of the College of Humanities & Fine Arts, calls it a “well,” a “source,” a “talent magnet,” and even a “talent factory.” He deployed those terms and others to explain how the $26 million facility, which opened this past month and brings a host of two- and three-dimensional arts programs that were spread across the campus together under one roof and tons of glass, will help bring more talented art students to the school — and thus bolster the region’s creative community.

    He believes this because he has data showing that many of the artists living and working in this area said in a recent survey that they probably wouldn’t be doing business in this market if they hadn’t been exposed to it while attending college here. And the new Studio Arts Building, which has heen roughly 30 years in the making, according to some long-time administrators in the College of Arts & Humanities, will be a very effective recruiting tool.

    “Everything in it is state-of-the-art,” said Martin, acknowledging while also embracing the play on words, as he referred to everything from the air handlers to table saws in the woodworking area in the 47,000-square-foot building. “It’s a wonderful learning facility — it’s makes great use of light, and there are some grand spaces; we really needed to have a state-of-the-art, safe, environmentally sound facility so that our artists’ energies could be best used. And now we have one.”

    Ron Michaud, associate dean of the College of Humanities & Fine Arts, and former chair of the arts program, has been advocating for something like the Studio Arts Building for years now. He said the university’s arts programs have functioned well over the past half-century, and have succeeded in helping a number of accomplished artists — painters Chuck Close and Shan Shan Sheng, among them — develop their talents and find their potential.

    But it can do much more of the same with the gleaming new facility, which, when coupled with the nearby Fine Arts Center, creates what Michaud called “an integrated arts district” on the campus.

    Like Martin, Michaud said the new arts center makes UMass a stronger player as it competes with such institutions as the R.I. School of Design, the Pratt Art Institute, and a host of public colleges and universities for top art students. And the hope — and expectation — is that some of this talent will remain in the Pioneer Valley.

    “A building like this can really become a magnet for talented people across this region and also well beyond,” said Michaud. “This will put this university on a higher level, and also help this region and its economy.”

    The Proper Framework The ‘art barn.’

    That’s the nickname, if one could call it that, attached to one of the now former homes for studio arts programs at the university. The barn, located in the northwest corner of the campus not far from the Mullins Center, hosted painting classes for decades, said Michaud, and is now a facility housing lawnmower-repair operations “or something like that.”

    Another former art program facility, one recently razed to make way for an integrated sciences building, was a post-World War II army barracks annexed by the college. It housed sculpture programs and some instructional space, Michaud noted, adding that, overall, programs have been spread across as many as 19 buildings, most of them cast aside by other departments that didn’t want or need them anywhere.

    Some of these facilities, like the art barn, were considered warm and cozy, and actually had some fans, he continued, but they were not designed to house creative arts programs, were inefficient, and were often several hundred yards away from buildings hosting other programs.

    Even the university’s Fine Arts Center, opened in the early ’70s and designed mostly for the performing arts, lacked what would be considered modern, efficient space for most of the studio arts programs offered by the school, said Michaud, noting that, in many respects, the sprawling complex has been “showing its age” with respect to considerations such as ventilation, waste disposal, ‘green’ design, an even instructional facilities.

    A succession of students and, more importantly, administrators within the vast College of Humanities & Fine Arts, recognized the problem and the need to do something about it, he continued, but it wouldn’t be until the start of this decade before mobilized efforts succeeding in generating some action.

    “In 1995, we conducted a comprehensive study of our inventory of facilities,” said Michaud, “and came away knowing that we needed a new studio-arts building to remain competitive nationally and internationally.

    “People came together behind a common vision, and eventually convinced the administration that we needed something like … this,” he continued as he began a tour of the new facility, one that encountered several classes in progress and artists at work.

    As he started down one wing of the V-shaped complex, it didn’t take Michaud long to make his point about bringing once-scattered programs together in one space. Indeed, the woodworking, welding, sculpture, and ceramics programs were all arranged in a row. “Before, these were spread across campus,” he explained, noting that most former settings simply weren’t designed to house kilns or welding equipment.

    On its ground floor, the center features a high-end digital and computer-graphics studio, a central location for photography, and facilities for instruction in such disciplines as lithography, etching, and silk-screening.

    “The instructional areas are much larger, in most cases, than what we had before, and they’re more efficient,” he explained, “giving students the facilities they need to learn.”

    Martin agreed, and noted that for decades, the College of Arts & Humanities had been adjusting — or trying to adjust — whatever space came its way to accommodate whatever program, be it woodworking or pottery, that needed room. Now, it has space custom-designed for each discipline.

    The center is also one of the ‘greenest’ on the UMass campus, said Michaud, noting that it makes use of sustainable building materials, operable windows for natural ventilation, and a variety of energy and water-conservation measures.

    Breaking the Mold

    As he stopped in the large, open common area that serves as the primary entrance point as well as a gathering space for students and faculty and venue for art shows and guest lectures, Michaud remarked at how quiet it was at that time (late afternoon).

    “You won’t see it like this very often,” he said, adding that he and others expect that space, complete with high windows and expansive views of the campus, to help generate a stronger sense of community among artists who had been working in the four corners of the sprawling campus.

    And that notion of ‘community’ is important, said both administrators, because those in the arts thrive in settings where they can share ideas and critique each other’s work.

    “We now have facilities where people can meet, have lunch, talk about what they’re working on, and compare work,” Martin explained. “And that’s really important as they develop individual arts, but also as they compare and blend different forms of art, and perhaps even create new forms of art.”

    But while creating a larger, stronger, and more-visible arts community on campus where all this can happen, the new Studio Arts Building is also expected to have a broad impact beyond the university’s borders, said Martin and Michaud.

    Noting that many communities across the Pioneer Valley are looking to the arts and the so-called creative economy to help fill old mill buildings left quiet by the exodus of paper and textiles makers and other manufacturers and breathe new life into downtowns that can longer prosper through retail, Martin said the new facility can help provide the key ingredient to all those aspirations — artisans.

    “The creative economy, no matter how you define it, ultimately rests on having creative people with talent generating fresh ideas, approaches, and designs, to help create art, but also to communicate, persuade, and market this art,” he explained.

    And this is where Martin summoned those descriptive terms to drive home his points concerning what the Studio Arts Building is — and will ultimately become — as the region and individual communities focus on the arts as an instrument of economic development.

    “We’re the talent magnet that attracts the greatest number of talented people in the Valley,” he explained. “And with this facility, we can now attract and retain the most talented student artists in the country and the most talented faculty and artists. We have a state-of-the-art facility that is a pump, a source, a well that will feed this Valley.”

    Citing a survey of College of Humanities & Fine Arts alumni, released just a few months ago, Martin that a large percentage (nearly half) of those queried said they likely would not be working in the Valley as writers, photographers, painters, and sculptors if they had not attended the university and thus become exposed to the region’s amenities and quality of life.

    “When you look at those numbers, it’s clear that if we can bring more top talent to this university, we can, potentially, keep more of it in this region,” he explained. “That’s why people pushed so hard for so many years to get a facility like this.”

    Brush with Success

    As he passed two students conversing in the undergraduate studio area on the second floor of the new facility, Michaud offered a question, and an opinion, with the words, “better than the art barn, isn’t it?”

    There was a moment’s hesitation while the students thought this over — a reflection of how some liked the old accommodations, despite their limitations — but eventually some nods of approval.

    There will be more of those as the building’s facilities, amenities, and displayed works of art — including a piece by Shan Shan Sheng due to be installed later this month — come to be known and fully understood.

    That’s to be expected with a building that is truly state-of-the-art, in every sense of that phrase.

    George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]

    Opinion

    They call them ‘soft’ skills.

    That’s the term applied to most non-technical skills associated with employment situations. These include communications, teamwork-building capabilities, listening, even dress and punctuality.

    These are often overlooked at a time when employers are struggling to find people who have the requisite technical skills to run today’s high-tech manufacturing equipment or read an X-ray. But those soft skills are critical in every job and for every business, and like those aforementioned hard skills they are often missing from the equation among those seeking employment in the Pioneer Valley.

    Which is why we’re encouraged by programs like that created by Junior Achievement of Western Mass. Inc. for area high school students, but also the companies that may employ them someday. Called the Workforce Readiness & Career Preparation Project, the initiative (see story, page 35) has a number of different components. Together, they address concerns and issues ranging from awareness of career opportunities at area businesses to the importance of education in seizing those opportunities, to those aforementioned soft skills.

    The program, now in its second year and involving more than 1,300 students at two Springfield high schools, is a good example of how the business community can work together with groups like JA to help improve the quality and quantity of this region’s workforce — and must do so if this all-important economic development issue is to be addressed.

    As we’ve said before, workforce development is a broad, complex, often-frustrating issue that, to be properly addressed, requires some vision and patience — in equal doses. That’s because the answers, and the solutions, don’t some quickly or easily. In some cases, steps taken today may not yield results for five, 10, or even 20 years down the road. But they still have to be taken.

    Which brings us to the JA workforce-readiness program, which continues a tradition that the organizations started nearly 90 years ago to “teach kids how business works.” In years past, this assignment traditionally involved going into a high school and setting up a company making night lights or some other product.

    This exercise would provide lessons in everything from budgeting to marketing; management to sales. JA still conducts such programs within the area, but recently, it was informed that it had more work to do.

    Indeed, after querying area business owners about the problems and issues confronting them — and about how JA might address them — administrators in the Springfield office heard that young (and some not-so-young) people lacked many of those soft skills, some as apparently simple as showing up for work on time.

    Discussions with business owners revealed that these matters were in no way simple, and that some requisite skills and attitudes needed to succeed in business and in life — matters once taken for granted — were now getting lost; the lessons were not being imparted in the home or classroom.

    Using funds amassed through a challenge grant from MassMutual, the JA program is addressing these issues through in-class presentations, board games, and a job-shadowing program that gets young people out of the classroom and into the workplace. Through these initiatives, students learn about everything from credit and how to manage it to what an underwriter does and why one has to stay in school to become one.

    It’s far too early gauge just how successful the JA program will be in addressing the concerns of area business owners. But this much we know already: workforce development is all-encompassing matter for this region, and that the process of improving quality and quantity will require that the business community and groups like JA practice teamwork — and not simply try to teach it.

    This Workforce Readiness & Career Preparation Project provides some momentum to build upon.-

    Opinion

    The Mass. Turnpike Authority is broke, and state taxpayers are partially on the hook if it can’t pay the bills. Bridges are in woeful condition; the Commonwealth just agreed to borrow $3 billion to fix the nearly 600 of them categorized as “structurally deficient.”

    Nationally, the Highway Trust Fund, which provides money for road and bridge projects, is tapped out. One recent proposal to keep it afloat would transfer billions from the deficit-ridden federal treasury.

    Clearly, the days of funding highway projects with proceeds from state and federal gas taxes have come and gone. Higher-mileage vehicles, increasing use of alternative fuels, and reluctance to periodically raise gas taxes to keep up with inflation have produced an unsustainable system.

    And if the nation is serious about renewable energy, independence from foreign oil, and reducing emissions, does it really want a funding system based on fossil fuels?

    Governments have long looked to the private sector to fill funding gaps. Highway privatization can replace public debt with private capital, accelerate construction, and find innovative ways to reduce costs.

    The most recent wave of privatization involves the long-term lease of a toll road to a private entity in return for a large up-front payment. The idea behind these so-called concessions is to give the private sector ‘skin in the game’ by creating an incentive to perform the maintenance on which government often skimps. Maximizing toll revenue, and recouping the initial payment, requires a well-maintained roadway.

    When properly structured, concession deals can work for taxpayers. Indiana is investing all of the $3.85 billion it received for a 75-year lease of its 157-mile toll road in transportation infrastructure projects that will promote long-term growth, not using it to plug holes and go on a short-term spending spree. Privatization has been floated as an option to address the Turnpike’s financial woes. But there may be an even better way than the concession deals that are currently the rage.

    A smaller up-front payment could be combined with annual payments to state or local government. Unless they get permission from their government partner, concessionaires would be prohibited from selling their equity in the transaction the way a financial institution might sell a mortgage. By giving taxpayers a seat at the table when decisions are being made, these changes would require the private sector to keep skin in the game for the length of the lease and discourage self-dealing and artificially inflated short-term profits.

    This joint ownership model can be taken even further. Government is interested in providing maximum service for minimal cost; that gets people re-elected.

    Business owes a fiduciary duty to its investors to maximize profits by collecting as much toll revenue as possible. Spending on maintenance and improvements, such as installing electronic tolling to cut travel times, is cost-effective only to the degree that it increases revenue.

    If government wants service on the cheap and business wants profit, introducing a third class of road owners whose interest is in quality transportation — such as trucking and logistics companies and motorists — could balance the competing interests of government and private investors.

    By themselves, new ownership models won’t solve our highway funding problems. We must create a system of user fees that relies on technology to collect revenue and manage demand.

    Clearly, a system funded by gas taxes is neither sustainable nor desirable in the 21st century. Throughout the nation’s history, the private sector has played a critical role in the construction and maintenance of transportation assets. The time has come to forge new partnerships that serve a changing public interest.

    Joseph M. Giglio is a professor of Strategic Management at Northeastern University’s College of Business Adminis-tration. Charles Chieppo is the principal of Chieppo Strategies, a public-policy writing and advocacy firm.

    Sections Supplements

    Even before gas prices started hitting new highs, telecommuting made sense. Benefits for employer and employee are magnified in today’s volatile economy, and many business owners across the nation who had not considered it before are considering it now.

    Obviously, some positions do not lend themselves to an at-home situation, but for those that do, whether an employee works one or five days a week from a home office, benefits can outweigh pitfalls if problems are considered ahead of time.

    Three potential stumbling blocks include:

    Distractions: the dog’s barking, there’s a kid selling candy at the door — what’s an employee to do? And how can an employer be certain the job is getting done?

    Diligence (lack of): when the boss isn’t just down the hall anymore, what are some ways to encourage conscientiousness and timely completion of work assigned?

    Detachment: telecommuters often don’t feel part of the team — how does a manager help them stay connected?

    Here are eight secrets to avoid problems and realize success for at-home employees:

    Secret 1:The right employee for the right job. Seems simple enough, right? Well, we’ve all seen that theory unravel in the workplace when certain key factors were not taken into consideration prior to the hire. The same is true for telecommuting. It has to be a good fit.

    Some questions to consider:

    • Is the employee on-task and productive when in the office?
    • Are they prone to distraction?
    • Do they want to telecommute?
    • How much of the employee’s job can be done in a home environment?
    • What percentage of an average workday is the employee needed at the office?
    • Might they be more productive away from the office?
    • Could the employee’s office space be utilized for other things on the days they are working from home, like meetings or space for a part-time employee, perhaps?
    • Is flexibility important for all concerned?
    • Here, the company benefits when the employee is allowed to do his job with fewer interruptions; thus, his output may be higher (home interruptions are addressed below).

      Secret 2:Extend the work-at-home option as a privilege for employees who have a proven track record. When the honor of trust is given to top employees whose work history illustrates they will be productive working from home, even if the budget is tight and raises are not possible, the opportunity to have a more flexible schedule or reduced time burning gasoline in traffic can be seen as a great bonus.

      When this is treated as an honor — perhaps announced at a staff meeting as an award for those whose work history warrants it, complete with criteria for earning said honor — others may wish to raise their own personal bar to meet that criteria. It also makes it clear to employees who might otherwise feel slighted what it will take to be considered.

      Secret 3:Write down and discuss openly any and all questions or concerns before a decision is made. Address supply issues, logistics, legalities and tax concerns of your individual state ahead of time. Put in writing what the employer will supply and do, and what is expected of the employee. Similarly, discuss the benefits of working from home. Some individuals thrive in a community and others do well when left on their own.

      For example, one concern for most telecommuters is the fact that working from home is not without its distractions.

      Suggestions might include:

      • Keeping regular business hours in a room with a door that closes.
      • Working half a day in the early hours and half after the kids are in bed.
      • What about the graveyard shift?
      • In-home video/telephone updates?
      • Use a task sheet and simply do the tasks in each 24-hour period, however works best on any given day.
      • It is up to the employee to limit distractions in his/her environment, but a good manager manages, and will help each employee find success.

        Secret 4:Communicate early, often, and clearly. Communication is key to the success of a telecommuting situation. It is easy for an at-home employee to feel set adrift and disconnected from the company unless managers make communication a top priority — and not just one-on-one communication, either.

        Encourage other staff members to include all at-home employees in all-office communication as well as more formal company-wide communication like E-mail blasts and staff announcements. Nothing spells ‘disconnect’ more clearly than an employee who finds out about the all-staff luncheon after the fact.

        Secret 5:Structure presented with respect. Some employees will need a great deal of structure to make this situation work, and some will not. Even so, as a manager, you may wish for every at-home employee to submit daily information on work completed.

        First decide the outline (or template) for the workday schedule, and again, put it in writing. You may wish for this list to be submitted to her or his immediate supervisor before the start of every work day (this allows home employees to type it up at midnight and send it off if they like).

        Secret 6:Regular and irregular check-in points. Some employees get little done unless they have tangible accountability to a person or a self-imposed deadline. The level of professionalism the employee exhibits and her productivity will determine whether or not you need this step, or how long it should continue once begun.

        Again, each situation will be different. Communication ahead of time will clarify whether or not supervisors will need to contact employees at irregular intervals to check in with them. Unless you have worked out an open-ended, work-by-project situation, accountability keeps productivity up, and the temptation of distractions are held at bay.

        Secret 7:On-site meetings and staff meetings. It is important that an at-home employee have regular and not-so-regular face-to-face meetings at the office in order to feel part of the team. Communication is vital for those who work at home, as is a little office camaraderie.

        For this reason, and when possible, at-home employees should be expected to attend all staff-wide meetings and/or training sessions, and will hopefully be invited to informal gatherings for birthdays or celebrations as well.

        Secret 8:Recognition and appreciation. While this is an entire topic all on its own, it is important to include at-home employees in every aspect of working as a team, and this includes extending honor when they have done a stellar job.

        No employee should be overlooked and ignored if they are part of the working community. All too often, when someone is not seen on a daily basis, they tend to be forgotten or omitted from normal, everyday courtesy and things like thank-you lists. Often, their work is never recognized at all. This leads to discouragement, which leads to resentment and resentment can lead to resignations.

        It’s important, then, as a manager, to keep the lines of communication open, to encourage other staff members to do the same, and to include everyone as equitably as possible, especially when praise and recognition are concerned.

        Lindy Batdorf is a consultant, speaker, and freelance writer who specializes in the art and heart of communication. She is author of “Stop and Smell the Asphalt,” and her E-zine, “Light at Home,” has helped enhance life at home for 30,000 subscribers around the world;www.lindybatdorf.com

        Sections Supplements
        Now Celebrating 65 Years, the SSO is Feeling ‘Young’
        Michael Jonnes

        Michael Jonnes says the 65th anniversary of the SSO is an appropriate time to celebrate the vitality and “youth” of the orchestra.

        Michael Jonnes acknowledges that ‘65’ isn’t one those big anniversary years, like 25, 50, or 100.

        But as executive director of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, he knows that many institutions like his never reached that age — not with the consolidations and shutdowns that accompanied a period, not so long ago, that he described as a trying time for the “orchestra business.”

        Meanwhile, there is much to celebrate with the SSO, which doesn’t need a round- number anniversary to stage a party — but since it has one, it will. And unlike a person or a married couple marking 65, the orchestra in the City of Homes is feeling and acting quite young, said Jonnes, now marking his 10th year with the SSO.

        “There is a real sense of energetic youth here,” he explained. “And the 65th-anniversary celebration is a great way to say to the community, ‘we’re alive, we’re vibrant, and we’re here to help the community financially and also culturally.”

        Kevin Rhodes, the SSO’s colorful composer, now in his eighth year and who just signed on for another three years, deserves much of the credit for this energetic state of mind, said Jonnes, but there is more to this equation. Contributions from the community, including a number of businesses, coupled with continued strong support at the box office, has the SSO looking at a solid future at the same time as it marks an illustrious past.

        All this comes together during a 65th-anniversary season that begins with an opening-night gala on Sept. 27, featuring pianist Norman Krieger, and continues on Oct. 11 with a pre-concert get-together and auction, followed by a show titled “Elegant Cello,” which will feature the works of Brahms, Elger, and Sibelus. The 11-event schedule also includes a Barry Manilow tribute, “An Evening with Eartha Kitt,” the annual Holiday Pops concerts, and something called “Flights of Fancy” featuring George Takei of Star Trek fame.

        Rhodes, the SSO’s sixth music director, laughed when asked if there was anything on the schedule that stood out — “everything does” — or something special for him — “they’re all special.”

        He did acknowledge, though, that he has always wanted to perform Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra (a small portion of which is featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey), and will get his chance during the Grand Finale on May 9.

        “I’ve been waiting almost 30 years to do this one — it’s always exciting to do something you’ve been wanting to do for years or, in this case, decades,” he said, adding that, overall, the lineup is defined by variety, from pianist Peter Serkin performing Bach and Beethoven to the orchestra delivering favorites from operas such as The Barber of Seville and Rigoletto.

        Rhodes, like Jonnes, noted that the 2008-09 schedule represents a good example of what might be described as the art and science of putting together such a lineup. There is at least six months of work that goes into the process, and a number of factors to consider, they said, from the number of musicians needed (and the accompanying cost of same) to what’s been done recently and a desire not to repeat, to the carefully calculated appeal at the box office.

        “There’s a lot that goes into this,” said Jonnes, who’s had considerable practice between his time with the SSO and previous experience with several other orchestras, including the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Jackson (Tenn.) Symphony Orchestra. “Orchestras have to be very aware of what’s happening musically at this time, and program music by Hispanics, Latinos, African-Americans — there are many responsibilities.”

        In this issue, BusinessWest looks at all that goes into compiling a schedule, and why this one — and 65 years of live music in Springfield — are worthy of a celebration.

        Sound of Success

        As he offered some historical perspective on the SSO, Jonnes noted that 65 years ago, Springfield, like every city and town in the country, was preoccupied with World War II.

        But, he noted quickly, the conflict, by that time, had tilted decidedly in the favor of the Allies, and many aspects of everyday life didn’t grind to a complete halt. In fact, Alexander Leslie, who had already started one symphony orchestra in Greenfield, was advancing plans to form another in Springfield, figuring the time, and circumstances, were right for one.

        The city already had a suitable venue — Symphony Hall, which was built in 1913 and by then was the site for everything from car shows to boxing matches to high-school proms — and, apparently, the requisite level of support for live music.

        “I don’t really know all the history … some of this is a little murky,” said Jonnes, “but by early 1944, when the SSO started, the trajectory of the war had changed, and it became clear to most that we would win it — it was just a matter of time.

        “There was a sentiment to look toward the future,” he continued, “and thinking, ‘what better way to show that Springfield is an attractive place to live and bring a business to?’ Or that a symphony orchestra was perceived, and is still perceived today, as one of those crucial cultural organizations that people believe that an enlightened city should have.”

        This sentiment remains today, he said, noting that, while the SSO suffered, as many orchestras did, in the ’80s and ’90s, when support waned and some institutions shut down or merged with others, it is now on solid footing with much to celebrate as it turns 65.

        “While some orchestras are just holding their own, the SSO is doing better than that,” he explained, noting respectable attendance (2,100 or so per show, on average, with a capacity of 2,611), as well as what he considers to be greater appreciation for the orchestra, as well as its importance to the vitality of Springfield and the local economy.

        “We’ve gone through the fires,” he said of those difficult years, “and I think we’re in better shape because of it. The Springfield symphony arrived in this state probably before many other orchestras, and certainly everyone here is far more involved with ensuring the success of this institution.”

        He said Rhodes, whom he described as Springfield’s “rock star,” has played a lead role, obviously, in raising the profile of the orchestra — musicians are now traveling great distances to audition and be part of it — and also elevating the product on stage to new heights.

        “The orchestra is playing probably as well as it ever has,” he said. “Musicians love playing with Kevin — that’s evident when you go inside the concert hall — and there is just a great deal of energy surrounding this orchestra now.”

        Bass of Support

        Looking ahead to the 65th-anniversary season, Jonnes said the lineup was put together after months of work exploring options, considering trends, weighing costs, and gauging box-office response.

        “It’s all a careful balancing act,” he explained, adding that it includes both music and mathematics, in roughly equal parts.

        On the music side, there is consideration of what’s been done recently, and the obvious desire to keep the product fresh, but also what Jonnes called the “responsibility of American orchestras in the 21st century.

        “People say, ‘you’re a living museum,’ and that’s true,” he explained. “So the great music written by Mozart and Beethoven, Brahms and Bach, and Tchaikovsky and Vogler — that is always going to be the core of any season, because that’s the core of the great classical music works.

        “But then, you have to play the music of American composers — we’re an American orchestra,” he continued. “Also, it’s wise to bring in music that’s never been played before or that’s been played rarely.”

        Meanwhile, there’s some calculated guesswork as to who will perform the music on stage alongside the orchestra, he said, adding that this is part of the mathematics, or budgetary part of the schedule-making process as well as the artistic side.

        As an example, he noted that the decision to add the Smothers Brothers to the lineup for last season came with some trepidation about whether younger audiences knew of the performers or knew of them only as comedians with a short-lived television show from the ’60s.

        As it turned out, it was a good risk to take; the shows drew some of the largest crowds of the year.

        Projected ticket sales are attached to each show under consideration, said Jonnes, adding that sometimes he will tell Rhodes that he simply “can’t afford” a requested line-up, prompting more give and take.

        Rhodes, who said he appreciates this process as well as the executive director’s willingness to start with what the conductor might like to do artistically, compared schedule-building to stacking LEGOs — “eventually, everything comes together — but sometimes, it takes a while.

        “Ideas begin to emerge, and then you reshuffle, reshuffle, and reshuffle, and eventually come up with a first draft,” he explained. “And then you get down to the real serious business of attaching dollars to these pieces — meaning how many musicians do we need, how much rehersal time is needed, how many soloists will we need, and what do we have to pay for them? And then you look at the expense side.”

        About nine months later, a schedule emerges, Rhodes told BusinessWest, adding that the 2008-09 roster meets the artistic and budgetary criteria for what he called a “blockbuster year.”

        The Big Finale

        It’s one that will include everything from Bach to Beethoven to “Bolero,” and wrap up with Also Sprach Zarathustra, which Rhodes is quite anxious to bring to the stage.

        “We all know the first two minutes, but we seldom get to hear the remaining 36 minutes,” he said, “and the Springfield symphony has never played the entire piece. This going to be fun and inspiring.”

        That’s what Alexander Leslie had in mind when he started the SSO back when there was a war on.v

        George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

        Sections Supplements
        …but Business Planning Is Everything

        Dwight Eisenhower, when contemplating the Herculean effort to plan for Operation Overlord (the code name for the invasion of Normandy and northwest Europe during WWII) said, “plans are nothing. Planning is everything.”

        His considered view was that, while both are necessary, plans by their very nature are nothing but static documents, yet planning is a responsive and dynamic action that brings focus to uncertainty.

        Consider a pilot flying a 747 from Los Angeles to Japan. The plan is to land at the Narita International Airport. Once airborne, though, unexpected winds, other aircraft traffic, mid-ocean storms, even solar flare activity affect and alter the airplane’s course. Unmanaged, the pilot would just as likely land the plane in Seoul rather than in Tokyo. The flight plan sets an initial course and a final destination, but the process of planning ensures that the pilot takes the appropriate corrective action to get the airplane where it needs to go.

        In business, planning is just as vital, especially when things are rapidly changing and the economy seems to be in constant flux. With the market in less-than-perfect shape and so much uncertainty in the air, many business leaders forego the discipline of establishing a business plan under the assumption that it is a waste of time. This is a mistake. The most essential reason to write a business plan isn’t to set a course of action, but to provide a management tool to use in the present, as well as the future.

        Business planning is fraught with misconceptions; the biggest is assuming that the planning process needs to be complicated and burdensome. A sound business plan needs to address only four questions:

        1. Where are we?

        The plan should clearly define the financial, environmental, and market realities facing the business. This should not be addressed in the overly technical language of an MBA, but rather with straightforward words that uncompromisingly define the business’ health and competitive position. It is imperative that the plan has its foundation in what is real, not something once assumed or hoped for. Someone reading this section of the plan should, with clarity, understand the strengths and weaknesses of the business, and have a sense of the company’s potential given the current reality.

        Hint: The best way to lose any enthusiasm in your business plan is to make this section a complex, statistical death-by-numbers dissertation. Readers care nothing about your plunging ROI, but care intensely about what that means to your business. Use only those financial matrices — pick three to five — that truly explain how your business is performing.

        2. Where are we going?

        The plan should spell out the intentions for the business in the coming years; what does the organization want to accomplish? This section of the plan is a statement of business aspiration, balanced by the reality set forth in section one of the plan. This creates a reasonable prediction of the momentum needed to achieve the business’ future goals. It is folly, for example, to state an aspiration that is no more than a pipe dream. Blind hope is an irresponsible strategy; aspirations need to be tied to reality. This section of the plan allows the reader to understand the potential of the business in three ways:

        • Financially: why should one invest in us?
        • Externally: why should clients and prospects do businesses with us?
        • Internally: why should employees work here?
        • Hint: Abstract vision statements are as credible as Britney Spears speaking at a parenting conference. The best plans are insightful because they balance bold market aspirations with common-sense business acumen.

          3. How will we get there?

          The plan should set forth the imperatives of the business: the tasks that are absolutely non-negotiable in terms of achieving success. By definition, this section not only defines a critical path for the business, but also identifies the important but non-essential objectives. By doing this, leaders define where they are willing to fail in order to secure the critical path. The plan sets a context for decision-making around competing goals — for example, delaying an important product launch in order to ensure an imperative goal of achieving bottom-line results. After reading this section of the plan, the reader should know not only what keeps the leaders of the business up at night (i.e. achieving their imperatives), but also what lengths they are willing to go to for a good night’s sleep.

          Hint: Want to break down organizational silos? Make sure each employee knows where his or her job fits within the critical path outlined in this section. If not, he or she is not fully a part of the team.

          4. Are we on track?

          The plan needs to define what success looks like and how it is measured. The plan should clearly define who is accountable for which measure, when measurements will be taken (i.e. monthly, quarterly, etc.), and the corrective actions to be taken in the event of a deviation from the plan. A sure way to add frustration to your life is to create a business plan that sits on the shelf unopened, with an expiration date of one year. The best business plans are evergreen; they are constantly referenced and regularly amended. You should understand how success is defined and measured.

          Hint: This section should flow directly into the formulation of team and individual goal documents. It provides a uniform template that ensures that everyone has goals and measures aligned to organizational vitality.

          During uncertain times, key business constituencies — clients, prospects, shareholders, and employees — need to receive heightened levels of information. The business plan provides an excellent communication tool. It sets forth a clear path of action that can be referred to — almost as a company’s Rosetta Stone — in unclear circumstances. This, in turn, generates comfort and confidence in the business, its leaders, and the planning that has been engaged in.

          John Baker is author of the newly released book, ‘READY Thinking — Primed For Change.’ As a leadership expert, speaker, and founder of READY Thinking, LLC, Baker has helped hundreds of organizations achieve success by adopting a practical framework of thinking during times of change and opportunity. He has more than 20 years of experience as a senior executive with companies including American Express and Ameriprise Financial, specializing in sales, client loyalty, and customer service;www.readythinking.com

          Sections Supplements
          Economy, Technology Change the Face of Continuing-education Programs
          Debbie Bellucci

          Debbie Bellucci, dean of the school of Continuing Education at STCC, says technology is making navigating easier for non-traditional and returning students.

          Kara Kapinos, director of student services in the School of Business at Western New England College, said that the majority of continuing-education students today, who are also referred to often as ‘non-traditional’ or ‘returning’ students, are most concerned with first getting into the academic pipeline, and then with getting out as expediently as possible while still receiving a quality education.

          “What we’re finding is that the quicker a student can complete a degree program, the better,” she said. “Today’s non-traditional student is interested in one thing: completion, completion, completion.”

          Kapinos said that’s why everything from admissions to class registration to academic advising is moving to online channels. What’s more, area administrators who specialize in continuing education say two major trends are driving this academic sector of late: technology and economy.

          The former is aimed largely at making the educational process more accessible and streamlined for continuing-education students, while the latter has an effect on enrollment rates that, in some cases, puts more people in that pipeline, looking, and hoping, for opportunities.

          Cost and Effect

          Debbie Bellucci, dean of the School of Continuing Education and Distance Learning at Springfield Technical Com-munity College, said tough economic times often have a positive effect on enrollment in certain types of courses, including degree-completion programs.

          “We’re seeing an increase in students, and that’s normal in a less-than-ideal economy,” said Bellucci. “In a good economy, students will pick up more adult-learning or personal-enrichment courses, but our increases are being seen in the degree programs.”

          Bellucci explained that, in a tough economy, more people receive unemployment benefits, and education costs are picked up as part of those benefits within the first year after filing. That leads to a greater number of students at STCC within certificate and degree programs, or enrolled in a liberal-arts track, bound for four-year programs at other institutions.

          However, Bellucci said she’s seen other, more specific increases that are new to this mix.

          “We’re seeing larger-than-normal numbers of students from private colleges who are picking up courses with us and taking them concurrently with courses at Elms, Bay Path, or WNEC, for example, because it’s less expensive for them,” she said. “In some cases, if they take one course with us every semester for two years, they’ve knocked off the cost of a whole semester at the four-year institution.”

          Bellucci said she’s also seeing a rise in first-time students enrolled in degree programs, and a spike in interest in distance (online) learning, a nod toward how technology is changing the college experience.

          Believing in the Type

          But it’s not just so-called online or ‘brick-and-click’ courses — those held partially online and partially in the classroom — that are making higher education more navigable. Rather, online tools are being used sooner, in order to better streamline the process for increasingly busy professionals and heads of households.

          “Every service we offer is available online, from registering to paying bills,” she said. “That’s not to say we don’t have huge numbers of people who still come on campus, but there are options.”

          One program assisting in these efforts at WNEC, for example, is the Manhattan Virtual system, which links students with faculty and administrators to get answers to everything from ‘where’s my classroom?’ to ‘how do I change my major?’

          “We instituted this as a navigation system for students in the School of Business, particularly for part-time learners,” said Kapinos. “Instead of having them scour the college catalog for information, technology has allowed us to give students responses directly, and the service is more helpful than I could have imagined.”

          She went on to say that academic advising could eventually become an entirely online aspect of the college experience.

          “We could go completely online for advising — that’s achievable,” she said, going on to explain that the majority of non-traditional students also work, and many are the heads of families or two-income households. Thus, the needs of this population are the impetus behind online advising and registration.

          “It’s one more thing they don’t have to worry about,” said Kapinos, noting, however, that this doesn’t mean physical classrooms are being replaced. “Learning is different. Adult learners are as individual as the day is long; some like the convenience of online learning, while others very much prefer a traditional setting.”

          In terms of actual classes, Kapinos said the preference between online and on-campus courses seems to be split evenly.

          “It’s right down the middle,” she said. “Individuals’ learning styles are so different that it’s important that students are able to choose. Many want face-to-face interaction when it comes to technology and math courses, for example.”

          Going the Distance

          Still, distance learning is definitely a big piece of the pie. WNEC, for example, offers a business bachelor’s degree completion program that is 100% online; Westfield State College has a similar program.

          Sean-Michael Green, associate dean of the Division of Graduate and Continuing Education at WSC, noted that the college’s course track is the Commonwealth’s first fully online degree program among four-year state schools. The program’s first class is enrolled now, and in the future, Green said students who have completed all or the majority of their core classes, at a community college or elsewhere, are eligible to apply.

          “We’re also moving other programs in that direction, including a masters of Public Administration, as early as next year,” said Green, adding that there’s been a lot of faculty interest in teaching these new online courses.

          “We started with six instructors, and now we’re close to 30,” he said. “It’s not a case of new faculty pushing technology on the old guard, either — there’s a wonderful mix of professors interested in incorporating this kind of learning.”

          STCC is also moving forward with new, online components; Bellucci said that to prepare for a greater number of ‘virtual jobs’ that are emerging, the college will be launching a new ‘virtual assistant’ certificate program in the spring, one that trains individuals to work effectively from home, utilizing current and emerging technology.

          It’s all a move, she said, toward convenience. On today’s college campuses, it’s not exactly anything goes — but anything that goes a little quicker than it did before has a good chance of being considered.

          Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]

          Sections Supplements
          Cambridge College Takes an Adult Approach to Learning
          Richard Turner

          Richard Turner says Cambridge College excels at meeting the needs of non-traditional learners with challenging schedules.

          You won’t find a football team at Cambridge College, Richard Turner said. In fact, if any students ever did play, it was probably decades ago.

          That’s because, since its inception in Cambridge, Mass. in 1971, the school has always kept adult learners “at the center of its universe,” said Turner, director of the system’s Springfield campus, one of nine such regional satellites stretching from Massachusetts to Puerto Rico. That focus continues today; the average student age is 38.

          And it’s clear, he said, that Springfield needs such a program more than ever.

          “To some degree, we’re counter-cyclical; the worse things get, the more people flock to us for training,” he said, adding, however, that an oft-reported skills gap among Western Mass. job seekers has made the college’s role even more pronounced than in past economic downturns.

          “I’m in touch with a lot of employers, and they’re starving for talent at all levels,” he continued. “So in a lot of ways, we’ve become talent brokers. Someone going through career training can plug into a network here with managers looking for skilled people, and boom, there’s a connection. I’ve seen people get hired in the halls.”

          Cambridge has also long focused on diversity, both in faculty and student body, Turner added, noting that 35% to 40% of the Springfield center’s students are minorities. At a time when companies throughout the Pioneer Valley are intensely focused on developing a diverse workforce, that’s a critical element, too.

          “We think diversity is the engine of innovation,” he said. “You have to practice what you preach; we don’t need diversity training here becase we live diversity.”

          Career Ladder

          Certificates and degrees in counseling, education, and management are among the most popular offerings at Cambridge, and schedules are created with the needs of working students — often with families — in mind; some classes can be partially conducted online.

          “We’ve had people in the military deployed to Iraq who have been able to keep up with their learning with this kind of mechanism,” said Turner. “And at a time of high gas prices, the blended-learning model has been very popular.”

          The students who enroll represent several different experiences, with one thing in common — the goal of a new or enhanced career.

          “We get a lot of people who have progressed as far as they can in their career, and they’re bumping against an educational barrier that someone has arbitrarily set,” Turner explained. “It’s not something they were hearing 10 or 15 years ago, but now they need a master’s degree to do their job. When I started teaching, with a master’s in anything, you could teach on the college level. Now you need a doctorate.

          “So there has been an escalation in the degree market,” he continued. “People who demonstrably can do their jobs are often being told that they have to go finish their education.”

          Some other Cambridge students are people searching for a second career, seeking a new challenge or simply recognizing that job opportunities are better in other fields.

          “Maybe someone got burned out in accounting and wants to be a teach in a third-grade classroom,” Turner said. “Talk about math experience — someone who ran an accounting department coming into that classroom, that’s a wonderful story.”

          But perhaps the most dramatic stories, he told BusinessWest, involve students who had slipped through the cracks of traditional education.

          “They’ve been the least-well-served, those who have not caught on anywhere else, or society has not caught onto them, but they’re very smart, very skilled, non-traditional learners,” he said. “When they come here, they get confidence. Many times, they don’t realize who they are, and we facilitate that. That’s priceless; it’s one of the most rewarding things about being here, when someone is blooming, and we’re helping them make that change happen.”

          Turner had in his hand a recent front-page story from Point of View, a Springfield-based community newspaper. The article tells the story of Rafael Bones, who, partly because of family difficulties, dropped out of Commerce High School after his junior year in 1975, earned his GED, and joined the Air Force.

          He forged a successful career in the service as a recruiter, but decided to return to school in recent years, earning a bachelor’s degree from American International College in 2004 and a master’s at Cambridge College this past summer, graduating with a 3.9 grade point average. This month, he became the first-ever Hispanic human resources director at Westfield State College.

          “These are people who have put so many other things first,” Turner said of students like the 51-year-old Bones, who earn degrees and start new, significant careers later in life. “We see a lot of that.”

          Live and Learn

          Turner has been with Cambridge College since the mid-’70s and has seen enough students come through the doors to know that they don’t fall into one learning style or have one set of expectations for their education.

          “We get exceptionally bright students who are not good fits with traditional educational models, but excel here,” he said. “What are the bars to entry that most educational institutions have put up? One of them is money, obviously, but another is not acknowledging differences in learning styles or in the starting places that people have.

          “I’m a visual learner,” he continued. “I’ve attended five different colleges and earned three degrees, but very few places have taught in a way that matched my learning style, here or abroad. We don’t assume here that everyone has a left-brain orientation.”

          That doesn’t mean, of course, that each professor doesn’t have a specific teaching style. But it does mean that Cambridge College emphasizes a more interactive style of learning than the lecture-hall model in which students keep quiet and take notes. And why not, Turner asked, when the students, with years of real-world experience behind them, bring much more to the classroom than the typical 18-year-old fresh out of high school?

          “The students are resources,” he told BusinessWest. “If you’re just going to stand there and lecture them for three hours, you’re not going to tap into that resource. Instead of the ‘sage on stage,’ we’re the ‘guide by your side.’

          “We’re not everyone’s cup of tea,” he added. “If your ideal is to sit in the back of the class, listen to lectures, do quizzes and exams, and be a very traditional learner, you might not like it here — but there are many places that do that, and do it well. That’s not to say we don’t have traditional students, but they would succeed anywhere because the educational world is built around them. We’re designing the educational piece around the person, rather than have the person fit the educational piece.”

          As for watching football games? Well, there’s always the Patriots.

          Joseph Bednar can be reached at[email protected]

          Sections Supplements
          Manufacturers, Developers Answer the Call for Customizable Phones

          If you thought there was no place for Wack-a-Gopher or Word a Day calendars in today’s personal technology landscape, you’re wrong.

          The latest craze among new phones — which, today, are not phones at all so much as personal online and connectivity devices — is not the handsets themselves, but the additional, customizable applications a user can download at any time. For some people, this might mean adding a racecar game or a relaxing, virtual pond of koi fish for idle gazing. Or, it could just as easily mean installing complicated stock programs to follow specific trades, a remote desktop that connects to a home or office computer, or a mobile version of the White Pages.

          Regardless of the product, it’s a personalized climate in which we’re communicating, leading to new needs and wants among consumers. Here’s a look at some of the new offerings on the market.

          An App a Day

          Just this summer, the communications buzz centered almost entirely on Apple’s latest offering, the iPhone 3G. The new iPhone is said to be twice as fast as the first generation iPhone, allowing users to take advantage of faster access to the Internet and E-mail over their cellular network, as well as for voice and data connectivity worldwide.

          But as autumn settles in, iPhone chatter has shifted to focus more on the vast number of services and applications (or what Apple calls Apps) that can be used in conjunction with the device. MobileMe, for example, is a new service available to all iPhone users that ‘pushes’ E-mail, contacts, and calendars instantly to iPhone, removing the need to manually check E-mail and wait for downloads. There are also about 600 ‘Web apps’ available to iPhone users, such as connectivity to popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and 2,500 applications to date that can be purchased (some are free) and downloaded to the iPhone via through Apple’s online ‘App Store.’

          These include applications in a variety of categories, including games, business, news, sports, health, reference, and travel, and all are designed to help users customize their experience. There are more than 40 photography Apps alone, ranging from editing tools to uploaders to popular online photo hosts such as Phanfare and flickr, and a number of business-related Apps, including remote PowerPoint controllers, task managers, voice recorders, and automatic trackers for everything from headlines to real estate trends.

          New Apps are added constantly, and Apple tracks its most popular products. Currently, the most-often downloaded Apps among free and for-purchase products include Wikipanion, a free search tool for use with the online encyclopedia Wikipedia; Stanza, a reader for electronic books; Pandora Radio, a free, personalized music service; and Spend Lite, a budget manager. (Wack-a-Gopher and the virtual koi pond are also in the top ten Apps this month.)

          In addition, other companies, from technology firms to audio-visual manufacturers, are also capitalizing on the iPhone craze and introducing their own compatible hardware and software.

          MODE for iPhone, for example, was created by audio-component manufacturer SpeakerCraft, based in Riverside, Calif., to expand upon the iPhone’s already-extensive music-playing capabilities.

          MODE essentially transforms the iPhone into a remote control that can be used with home-theater and multi-room audio systems, as well as with every iPod within a household. The interface operates much like other iPhone applications, and displays song information, artist names, genres, and playlists on the interactive touch screen, making the process of accessing music simple and intuitive.

          BlackBerry Cordial

          These kinds of innovations — focused less on one-to-one conversations and more on the vast potential of hand-held communications devices of today — is an industry-wide trend, and not relegated to all things Apple. Another sweet spot in the industry is the BlackBerry, which is also revamping its image, capabilities, and relationships with those all-important third-party applications.

          The BlackBerry Curve 8830 from Verizon Wireless is one of the latest models, featuring applications that can work together and load concurrently. With the Curve 8830, users can E-mail a Web page to a contact, for example, while browsing the Web or listening to music. The BlackBerry also utilizes a 3G network, which augments such real-time features as ‘VZ Navigator,’ an audio and visual GPS system that provides turn-by-turn directions.

          ‘Built by BlackBerry’ is this company’s version of an online application store, carrying both free and for-purchase add-ons in categories such as lifestyle, finance, news and weather, and music and media. Users can play a game of virtual Uno, read the New York Times, make stock trades, or track expenses by installing these diverse programs, which are added and expanded on a regular basis.

          All of these innovations point toward devices that are increasingly versatile, as well as easy to use. As suggested by the iPhone 3G, keypads are beginning to give way to touch screens, and personal organizers, music players, phones, and portable Internet-connectivity devices are already morphing into one gadget rather than several.

          A Soft Spot for Hardware

          However, this is not to say that design and lifestyle don’t still play a part in which phone or accessories are purchased. High-end phones like the BlackBerry and iPhone are larger than some of the tiny devices of years past, and more complicated to replace or repair. That’s why many manufacturers are now striving to offer a multitude of options in terms of capabilities and space for added applications, while still taking into account the varied lifestyles of consumers.

          The Motorola Adventure V750 Push-to-Talk Phone, for example, is designed to cater to travelers and businesses with a far reach. It connects one or multiple team members at the same time with one push of a button, and is a more rugged phone that meets military standards for shock, dust, vibration, solar radiation, altitude, and high and low temperatures.

          It also supports a Verizon Wireless application called Field Force Manager, a business-to-business, multi-function tool that allows for the location and tracking of field workers, offers an electronic time-card option, creates an audit trail to validate job information for customers, and generates turn-by-turn driving directions.

          If sophisticated business tools aren’t necessary, though, there’s also mobile Guitar Hero and Pac-Man Fever. A little something for everyone is the trend, and everything is close at hand.

          Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]

          Cover Story
          Cover 9/15/08

          Cover 9/15/08

          At an owners meeting back in January, Bruce Landon, a long-time executive with the Springfield Falcons and part of that ownership team, said that if the AHL affiliate didn’t boost season sales by roughly half the then-total of 1,100, then owners would have to consider all options — up to and including selling the club. That preliminary goal has been realized, but much work remains to drive up attendance for the 72-year-old franchise and thus secure a solid future in the City of Homes.

          Bruce Landon calls it the “war room.”

          That’s a colloquialism for the conference area within the Springfield Falcons Hockey Club’s office complex at the MassMutual Center. There, along one wall, are two giant white boards that are now covered by expansive charts with information on all 40 home games for the 2008-09 season, which Landon describes as a “very important season” for the franchise.

          These charts list the date, day, opponent, and a host of other data on each game — from the corporate sponsor for the tilt in question to the theme for that contest to the individual or group scheduled to sing the national anthem. Falcons officials have been working diligently to fill in these boxes since the day the schedule was announced in July, and they have a lot of work ahead of them.

          Eight of the contests are marked in red, explained Landon, president, general manager, and part-owner of the franchise, because they have been identified as big games — potentially, as far as the standings are concerned, but definitely, in terms of possible turnout and thus revenues. These are weekend games for the most part — the exception being the last game of the year, on a Wednesday — against what would be considered traditional and geographical rivals, especially the Hartford Wolfpack and the Providence Bruins.

          “These are the ‘A’ games,” Landon told BusinessWest. “These are the ones we’ve identified as being key for us in terms of getting big crowds out, and we do everything we can to make the most of these dates.”

          Maximizing the return from these ‘A’ games is just one component of a multi-faceted strategy to boost attendance for the American Hockey League franchise, which can trace its roots in Springfield to 1936, but probably won’t have much of a future in the City of Home unless those numbers rise from the current 3,600 or per game to something closer to 4,600, minimum.

          This was the essence of a blunt message that Landon, who’s been part of this franchise as a player and executive for most of the past 40 years, left with other members of the ownership group, as well as the media, at and following a meeting last January, during which he threw down a gauntlet of sorts regarding season-ticket subscriptions and the critical need to drive up volume.

          “I wasn’t trying to put fear in anyone,” he said of that meeting, at which he said that, if the team failed to gain another 500 season tickets by June, then ownership would have to consider a host of options, including selling the club. “I was just trying to get my point across — that this is a business, one that can’t keep losing money.”

          Apparently, he made his point. Indeed, season-ticket sales climbed from about 1,100, one of the poorest totals in the league, to beyond 1,600 (the initial threshold) by early summer — thanks in part to efforts within the business community — and they’re inching closer toward the more ambitious goal of 1,800.

          But season-ticket sales are just one part of the equation in the larger effort to boost attendance to that 4,500 level or, hopefully, much higher, he continued, adding that group sales and day-of-game purchases are also critical to hitting the number. Bringing attendance up will require a good on-ice product — something that’s been mostly lacking in recent years (the team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2003) — but also some effective marketing, a little help from the economy, perhaps, and even some luck.

          “Let’s see if we can avoid the snowstorms on Friday and Saturday nights, or even forecasts of snow,” said Landon, adding that the latter can be nearly as impactful as the former.

          Overall, Landon knows that what he wants to accomplish with attendance is doable. That’s because he’s done it before: he led efforts to resurrect hockey in Springfield after the city lost its AHL franshise for a short time in the early ’90s. He and partner Wayne LaChance were awarded a team, eventually named the Falcons, in 1994, and the partners succeeded in steadily drawing more than 5,000 fans to the old Springfield Civic Center.

          Duplicating that feat will come down to generating and then holding greater interest in the team — in whatever ways that can be accomplished, said Landon, who recently inked a new three-year contract as president and general manager. He noted that the AHL product is good, but it seems that fans, especially in this market, need to be constantly reminded of that.

          “This is the second-best hockey league in the world,” he said. “And what we want to stress is that people can see the stars of tomorrow at prices they can afford today.”

          Being Goal-oriented

          As he talked about the Falcons, the team’s rich history, its past success (six Calder Cups, including two in the early ’90s), and the challenges ahead, Landon summoned, in his mind, a news clipping from a game he played as a goalie for what were known then as the Springfield Kings. (The team was called the Indians at the start, then the Kings, then the Indians again, and finally the Falcons, starting in 1995.)

          It was 1969, he recalled, adding that he remembers the story noting that he had a big game and helped lead the Kings to a win “before a crowd of 3,800 loyal fans.”

          “That was on opening night, a Saturday,” he continued, adding that he summoned that moment from his youth and perhaps the team’s high-water mark in terms of success and popularity to make a few points. First, the fact that, despite some perceptions to the contrary, the team’s attendance wasn’t much, if any, higher nearly 40 years ago, when it played in the Coliseum at the Big E, than it is today, and second, that while a team could survive and thrive with that kind of attendance back then, it can’t today.

          “Not with the expenses that we face these days — the days of surviving in the American Hockey League on 3,600 or 3,800 fans are over,” he said, noting everything from travel (the league is much bigger geographically than it was then) to facilities to a large portion of the parking tab for each vehicle. It is simple mathematics driving the current push for higher attendance, Landon continued, noting that many teams in the league are averaging more than 5,000 per game, and Springfield must join that club to compete effectively and enable a dedicated ownership group to use black, not red, ink when logging season-ending financials.

          This was the point Landon said he was trying to drive home at that January owners meeting and after it ended.

          “I looked at the numbers, and they showed that we do pretty well in group sales, we do a lot of promotional things to entertain the fans, and we have a quality league and a good team,” he said. “But the bottom line was that we just didn’t have a big-enough season-ticket base.”

          He knew that the gold standard (5,000 season tickets) set by the league’s oldest and, by most accounts, most successful, franchise, the Hershey (Pa.) Bears, was not attainable in a market only 90 minutes from Boston and NHL hockey. But he thought the team could match or approach the numbers (2,000 to 2,200) amassed by some similarly sized communities such as Syracuse and Binghampton, N.Y. and Portland, Maine.

          “We knew we had to get that season-ticket base up to 1,600 or 1,700 to have a fighting chance,” he said, adding that what emerged from that January meeting was a much-needed sense of urgency that has manifested itself in concerted efforts from city leaders and the business community to help the club boost season-ticket sales.

          “We’ve had a lot of people rally behind us — the media, the fans, and the businesses of the Western Mass. area,” said Landon, noting that Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, among others, called area business owners seeking support for the franchise in many forms, but especially season-ticket subscriptions. “Merrill Lynch bought 60 to kick off the campaign, and it just snow-balled from there. And it wasn’t just the corporate sector … individuals stepped up. The spark came from many different areas, and it was refreshing to see. ”

          But considerable work remains, said Landon, noting quickly that a larger season-ticket base will help the team meet its higher attendance goals, but it is only part of the equation.

          Win-win Situation

          And this point brings him back to the ‘war room,’ those white boards, and ongoing efforts to fill in the grid with corporate sponsors, pre-game activities, special promotions, anthem singers, and everything else that goes into making a game successful from a revenue standpoint.

          Each of the 40 home contests is important, noted Landon, although some — those ‘A games’ especially — obviously have more potential, revenue-wise, than others. Maximizing each contest is an all-consuming exercise, he said, involving staff members and a number of interns enrolled in sports-management programs at area colleges and universities.

          “We gather here (the war room) on Friday afternoons — it’s a little slow in the off-season — and we brainstorm about everything,” he said, adding that there are more-formal gatherings on Tuesday mornings. The assignment is to look at every game — whether it’s a Saturday-night tilt against Hartford, a late-Sunday-afternoon contest against Portland, or a Wednesday-night encounter early in January against Binghampton — and find ways to put “fannies in the seats.”

          “It’s frustrating in some ways,” he said. “Too many people think that they have to drive to Boston and spend $400 to see good hockey. They don’t — they can see it right here; a family of four can attend a game here for $50. We just need to show people how good the product is, and to that, we have to get them out to see the Falcons.”

          To that end, the club works to create value, said Landon, adding that this comes in many forms, from giveaways of backpacks on “school” nights, providing individuals or school choruses an opportunity to sing The Star Spangled Banner, to bringing in attractions such as Red Sox mascot ‘Wally the Green Monster.’ For games like the 1 p.m. matinee on New Year’s Eve against Hershey, the staff members will stretch their collective imaginations to make the most of what is an opportunity but also a challenge.

          Creating value doesn’t exactly substitute for a lack of on-ice success, said Landon, but it does help, and all teams must contend with factors that are, for the most part, out of their control.

          These include injuries — which eventually doomed the 2007-08 Falcons, a team that started strong and was in the playoff hunt until the final week — but also parent clubs short on young talent (this describes the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Falcons’ former parent), the lengthy renovations to the Civic Center a few years ago, which prompted some to think the arena was closed, and even the weather and forecasts of same.

          To overcome all that, the Falcons, like all teams, strive to provide a great experience for fans, and this explains all the hard work in the war room.

          This is also the motivation behind the ‘Perch,’ a new seating area for groups that was opened last year to solid reviews. It seats roughly 50, comes complete with HD televisions, and enables groups to cater in whatever menu they like.

          “The Latino Chamber of Commerce had it for a game and loved it,” said Landon, adding that the Perch was rented by 15 groups and businesses last year, and the goal is to have it used for all 40 home games this year. “It gives businesses and organizations a great opportunity to thank and entertain clients, employees, and family.”

          Filling the Perch and as many of the 6,600 seats at the MassMutual Center as possible, including full and effective use of those season tickets, leads to other forms of revenue generation, said Landon, including concessions and program sales.

          “Everything comes back to putting people in the seats,” he noted, adding that to do so the team will focus on promotions, create that all-important value, hope for a winning team, and also stress the tradition of hockey in Springfield and the quality of the on-ice talent.

          Thus some marketing efforts, still being finalized, will feature stories about such former Springfield stars as Manny Legace, a goalie now with the St. Louis Blues; Danny Briere, now one of the leading scorers with the Philadelphia Flyers; and Robert Esche, a former NHL star now playing in Russia.

          “We want to get a little edgier with our marketing and sell the history of hockey here since 1936,” he told BusinessWest. “We want to talk about the great players you can see right here in your own backyard.

          “We’re going to have a radio campaign featuring fans of all ages talking about their favorite players here,” he continued. “We want to stress that there’s a tremendous tradition of hockey here and fantastic hockey being played in Springfield.”

          Net Results

          As he waved his hand across the charts in the war room, Landon said the boxes are steadily being filled in, especially for those ‘A games’ — Dec. 27 against Hartford, Jan. 24 against Providence, and Feb. 20 against Worcester among them.

          There has been some progress as well with the so-called ‘B games,’ other weekend tilts against the likes of Manchester, Philadelphia, Lowell, Toronto, and Albany, among others, and even with those challenging weekday games, such as the Tuesday contest in mid-February against Portland.

          “We’re getting there, but there’s still a lot of work of do,” said Landon, who might have used those same words to describe the efforts to create a solid future for this storied franchise.

          As he said, this is a very important season, one that starts Oct. 11 in Hartford, really kicks off with the first home game a week later against Portland, and will hopefully end with a playoff run and some black ink.

          George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]