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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

Valley Communications Systems Inc. v. Dartmouth Electrical Construction Co. Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment of labor, materials, and training related to the installation of audio/video communications equipment: $111,644.76
Filed: 2/16/10

FRANKLIN SUPERIOR COURT

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. John Shaw Concrete
Allegation: Breach of business-line credit agreement: $37,538.48
Filed: 2/26/10

GREENFIELD DISTRICT COURT

Four Wheel Drive Service v. Bear Truss and Panel, LLC
Allegation: Non-payment of storage bill: $14,385
Filed: 2/12/10

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT

James and Theresa Atwater v. Mark Kansis, M.D. and RiverBend Medical Group
Allegation: Failure to timely diagnose condition: $25,000
Filed: 3/9/10
Mt. Tom Towers LLC v. Lamar Central Outdoor, LLC
Allegation: Breach of contract: $300,000
Filed: 3/9/10

HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT

Hwei-Ling Greenery v. Center for Human Development Inc.
Allegation: Wrongful discharge, violation of constitutional rights, and infliction of emotional distress: $153,166.67
Filed: 2/19/10

Just Building Inc. v. CBA Realty Group II Corp. and Patterson Dental
Allegation: Enforcement of mechanic’s lien against property: $36,125
Filed 2/9/10

HOLYOKE DISTRICT COURT

Peerless Auto Sales v. Michael’s
Allegation: Plaintiff left a vehicle at Michael’s for repairs, and the vehicle was stolen. Defendant refuses to pay for the market value of the vehicle: $6,000
Filed: 2/25/10

NORTHAMPTON DISTRICT COURT

Arnold’s & Eddie’s Foods v. Butternuts
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $7,406.71
Filed: 2/25/10

PALMER DISTRICT COURT

Noonan Energy Corp. v. The Griswold Corp.
Allegation: Breach of contract: $2,415.27
Filed: 3/5/10

USA Hauling & Recycling Inc. v. Sentry Services Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment of services rendered: $6,886.15
Filed: 2/24/10

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT

BSC Realty Inc. v. 280 Bridge Street Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment of rental agreement: $15,000
Filed: 2/3/10

Molta Florist Supply Inc. v. Carley’s Florist
Allegation: Default on credit-card account for goods and services provided: $11,785.52
Filed: 2/3/10

TR’s Landscaping & Excavating v. Deaton Industries Inc.
Allegation: Breach of contract for services: $16,000
Filed: 2/5/10

Uncategorized
How to Protect Your Nest Egg and Provide for Your Care

Americans are largely independent folks who could not imagine a future where their independence is compromised because they require long-term care as a result of prolonged illness or disability. Long-term care refers to the wide range of medical, personal, and social services a person may receive as a result of a prolonged illness or disability. It can include help with activities of daily living, home health care, adult day care, nursing-home care, and care in a group-living facility.

On average, you will have worked more than 30 years before you retire and will have accumulated a nest egg to support yourself during retirement and to hopefully pass on to your children and family as an inheritance. The thought of losing the independence you value or the funds you have worked so hard to put aside, as a result of needing long-term care, is a major concern. Sound financial and estate planning can address these issues.

Part of the planning process can include the purchase of a long-term care insurance policy that can protect your nest egg and provide a means to pay for necessary long-term care expenses. This is the best way to protect yourself from spending your resources on nursing-home expenses and medical services. Long-term care insurance is designed to cover all or some of the services provided by long-term care and create options regarding where you will receive services and the type of services you will be able to access. After satisfaction of an elimination period, a number of days you must need the nursing-home or home-health care before the policy will pay benefits, the insurance will kick in.

A long-term care policy typically pays a daily benefit ranging from $50 to $250, which can be paid for a specific number of days, months, or years. The maximum benefit period can range from a year to a lifetime depending upon the policy you purchase. Additionally, policies can include an inflation rider that will provide for coverage increases over time. Of course, a higher daily benefit or longer term of coverage will increase the premium paid for the insurance.

Other factors such as age and life expectancy, gender, family situation, health status, income, and assets should be considered when determining whether or not to purchase long-term care insurance. Naturally, the longer you live, the more likely it is that you will need long-term care, and younger and/or healthier people will pay lower premiums. Women are more likely to need long-term care due to their longer life expectancies, and people with families or children are more likely to obtain in-home care from those family members. Of course, if family care is not available and you can’t care for yourself, insurance can pay for care outside of your home, which may be your only alternative.

People with family history of chronic illness or poor health histories may be also at greater risk for needing long-term care. Perhaps most significantly, however; if you have accumulated assets during your lifetime, long-term care insurance can protect those assets from being spent on your long-term care. But if you have low income or minimal assets, long-term care insurance is not a wise investment.

Another major consideration is whether or not your long-term care insurance will meet the Medicaid eligibility standards in effect at the time the insurance is purchased. Medicaid is the federally funded, state-administered health program that pays for your long-term care bills if you meet certain poverty levels. If you have assets in excess of the minimum allowances, you will be required to spend down those assets to qualify for Medicaid. You will also need to have income at or below the federal poverty level before Medicaid will pay for your long-term care. This can deplete your nest egg very quickly, as the average annual cost of nursing-home care is upward of $95,000 per year.

Some states, Massachusetts included, have programs designed to minimize the financial impact of spending down assets to meet Medicaid eligibility standards. By purchasing a qualifying policy, you will receive partial protection against the normal Medicaid requirement to spend down your assets to become eligible.

For Massachusetts residents, the policy must provide certain benefits in order to qualify for the Medicaid-eligibility and asset-recovery exemptions. Specifically, when you enter a nursing home, your policy must:

  • Cover nursing home care for at least 730 days;

  • Pay at least $125 per day for nursing-home care; and
  • Not require an elimination period (days that services must be provided before your policy will begin to pay) of more than 365 days, or, in lieu of a waiting period, a deductible of more than $54,750.
  • A visit to your state’s division of insurance will provide you with the current requirements necessary for a policy to be qualifying. It is of paramount importance to ensure that your policy meets the qualifying requirements necessary for your state to accept it.

    When purchasing a policy, it is important to work with a knowledgeable agent and reputable insurance company, as you want to ensure compliance with the requirements set forth by Massachusetts regulation and also remain confident that the insurance company will be solvent at the time you need to make a claim.

    While most folks do not think they need this insurance coverage at first glance, it should be noted that 58% of people making claims under long-term care policies are under the age of 65. Of those making claims, the majority of long-term care utilized, approximately 66%, is for care in one’s own home, compared to only 17% being provided in a nursing home.

    Interestingly, age-related ailments such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease are not the major claim. In fact, the leading cause for needing long-term care is cancer. Given these facts, long-term care is likely necessary for most people, and finding a way to pay for it by means other than depleting your savings makes sense.

    Like all insurance policies, you pay for long-term care coverage hoping you will never need to use it. However, accepting the fact that it is likely you will need long-term care at some point in your life will make the payments more palatable. Giving yourself options for where you will receive your care is invaluable.

    Julie A. Dialessi-Lafley, Esq. is a partner with the law firm Bacon Wilson, P.C. She focuses her practice in business, real estate, estate planning and administration, elder law, and family law; (413) 781-0560 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (413) 781-0560      end_of_the_skype_highlighting;[email protected];

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    Features
    Wing’s Center for Geriatric Psychiatry Fills a Critical Role
    Acute Needs

    Dr. Ricardo Mujica said Wing’s geriatric psychiatry unit has the advantage of being on a hospital campus, with the full resources of the institution available to meet whatever medical needs might arise.

    It’s retirement time for the Baby Boomers.

    Specifically, by 2030, more than 75 million Boomers will be age 65 or older, and the population considered elderly in the U.S. will be double what it is today — partly because this demographic is healthier and more active than past generations of senior citizens, and cutting-edge medical breakthroughs are helping them to live longer.

    But as that population increases, so do the specific needs of the elderly, including behavioral-health services targeted for that age group.

    That’s where Wing Memorial Hospital saw an opportunity. The Palmer-based hospital opened its Center for Geriatric Psychiatry (CGP) last September, offering 15 beds to care for older people with behavioral-health needs too acute to be managed in an outpatient setting.

    “We take a comprehensive approach that includes a medical evaluation to determine whether a medical problem may be causing the psychological symptoms,” said Dr. Ricardo Mujica, a geriatric psychiatrist and director of the center. “The idea is to stabilize the acute problem and send them back to their previous environment.”

    The center is designed to treat people age 55 and older, but the typical patient is at least 75, Mujica said, and most are female, since women tend to live longer. Their conditions range from mood disturbances and anxiety disorders to cognitive impairment and dementia, and they’re generally referred by long-term care facilities, primary-care physicians, family members, even the emergency room at Wing or another hospital.

    “The reason we wanted a unit that focuses on the elderly population is that the demand for this treatment is growing, and as the Baby Boomer population gets older, we expect that to continue to be the case.”

    Safe and Sound

    To operate the center, Wing has partnered with New England Geriatrics, a Massachusetts-based organization specializing in mental-health services to residents and their families in long-term care facilities.

    With its 15 beds, the center increases the number of acute-care beds at Wing from 59 to 74, an increase of 25%. To create space for the unit, Wing moved its medical/surgical unit into the hospital’s new Country Bank Pavilion in 2008.

    That move was followed by eight months of work to renovate the vacated space. The $1.5 million, 11,000-square-foot project includes 11 private rooms, two semi-private rooms, an activity room, a dining room, and various other areas designed for treatment and rehabilitation purposes.

    On a tour of the facility, Mujica showed off a series of security features designed to keep patients safe. For example, each entrance to the CGP is electronically monitored and access-controlled. All patients wear wrist bracelets that ensure they remain within the safety of the unit and alert staff of any patients’ attempts to wander. In addition, the center is equipped with 10 security cameras monitored by staff, who conduct safety rounds every 15 minutes.

    In patient rooms, Wing also follows the safety standards set by the Mass. Departments of Public Health and Mental Health. These include secure ceiling tiles, drawerless shelving for clothes, tamper-resistant bathroom fixtures, electrical cords run with as little slack as possible, and blinds embedded between the windows — all measures to prevent patients from hurting themselves.

    The medical team in the Center for Geriatric Psychiatry includes nurses, social workers who specialize in procuring follow-up care, therapists, a psychiatrist board-certified in geriatric psychiatry, and physicians who specialize in the geriatric population. But the center also has the advantage of being located within a full-service, acute-care hospital in case a patient’s medical needs change.

    The unit is one of only two geri-psych programs in Western Mass. (the other is at Providence Behavioral Hospital in Holyoke), and is the only one to have on-site access to acute hospital-level medical treatment, Mujica said.

    “We have our own medical team working on the floor, but all of the hospital is a medical backup,” Mujica said. “If there’s an acute problem, if we need to increase the level of medical care, we can provide other services.”

    Mujica touted the unit’s dual emphasis on physical and psychological care as critical to its success in transitioning patients safely back into the community.

    “Many people assume that people with mental illness don’t have other medical issues, but if you don’t look for medical reasons in mental illness, you can do a lot of harm to that individual,” he said.

    The CGP also provides psychological education to family members and caregivers regarding each patient’s illness, including medication management.

    “Even though, with certain conditions, we don’t have a cure — let’s say for dementia — medication can still improve the quality of a patient’s life and reduce the stress that is secondary to assorted psychiatric symptoms,” he said.

    Mujica told BusinessWest that it’s difficult to express why he chose the niche of geriatric psychiatry when he selected a career path, but it was likely a variety of reasons.

    “I have a good deal of respect for the elderly, and the challenges of treating frail individuals with multiple medical problems is interesting to me,” he said. “It’s also gratifying to give back to this ‘greatest generation’ that served this country and all of us.”

    Still, he worries about the ability of the health care system in general to provide this type of care at a time when the need is growing, especially considering the current atmosphere of uncertainty surrounding Medicare and health reform in general. “I hope the elderly don’t get left out as they shift their focus to something else.”

    Picking Up the Pieces

    That concern applies to all mental-health services, said Maria Russo-Appel, Wing’s chief of Behavioral Health Services, who called the need for such resources “enormous.”

    Wing’s program includes inpatient services through its 13-bed Parker North unit and outpatient mental-health and substance-abuse services through the Griswold Behavioral Health Center. Both are being strained right now, she said.

    “There were two significant layoffs by the Department of Mental Health last year, and that left many patients stranded without an advocate,” she said. “The role of the DMH worker is to coordinate care for people who are disenfranchised.”

    At the same time, she said, many group homes and other behavioral-health programs have been closing or changing hands (as in the case of Baystate Health’s substance-abuse programs being taken over by Behavioral Health Network). The reduction in program capacity statewide, and a general sense of uncertainty over the status of services, has programs like those at Wing feeling the pinch.

    “We receive, at the Griswold Center, up to 75 calls a day for services. That far outstrips our resources,” Russo-Appel said. “We’re doing everything we can to meet the needs of the community.”

    And those needs tend to grow when the economy sours, she added.

    “We’re seeing more situational depression, situational anxiety syndromes, more addictions, including gambling,” she said. Meanwhile, more people are being hospitalized with behavioral-health issues, including many who can’t access outpatient services and are relying on emergency-room care instead. “The emergency rooms have become deluged with mental-health patients who can’t find resources.”

    To meet these growing needs, Wing is adding two or three more psychiatrists within the next few months and is looking at programmatic changes, like new support groups targeted to specific disorders, but before it can make more wholesale changes to grow the behavioral-health program, it needs to make sure the programs it does offer are stabilized, she explained.

    That’s partly why the Geriatric Psychiatry Center is so important, Mujica said. It takes pressure off the entire system and helps allows patients to access a continuum of care in the Wing system.

    “The challenge with mental-health patients is that different facilities maintain their own histories, and patients tend to have a very fragmented history,” Russo-Appel said. “The advantage of Wing is that we’re able to maintain a continuity of behavioral-health care that many hospitals cannot.”

    No matter how old a patient might be.

    Features
    Springfield College Makes Its Entry into the Competitive MBA Market
    Getting Down to Business

    Kathryn Carlson Heler says the timing is right for Springfield College to roll out its MBA program, and especially the concentration in nonprofit management.

    As she talked about Springfield College’s new MBA (master’s in business administration) program to be launched in a few months, Kathryn Carlson Heler said that, in many ways, the school is going back to its roots.

    By that, she meant a return to what was a strong focus on management of organizations such as YMCAs and other nonprofits — with curriculum grounded in business — that would match a concentration on athletics that would give the college its national and international reputation.

    “When the college was founded 125 years ago, it was created to educate the YMCA secretary, who today we would call the executive director,” said Heler, professor of Business Administration at the college and director of the MBA program. “And when you look at the curriculum that these secretaries followed, it was business, and there were courses in bookkeeping, management, and reaching out to the community that you were to attract, or what we would call marketing.

    “And of course, there was the athletic side,” she continued, “and the secretary could decide if he wanted to take the management track or the athletic track. But somewhere down the road, the management track fell away, and Springfield College became known for the athletic side. So we’re going to back to where we began.”

    It is doing so with an MBA offering that comes with two concentrations, one in management and the other in nonprofit management, and the timing for bringing such products to the market couldn’t be better, Heler told BusinessWest.

    Indeed, now more than ever before, nonprofit agencies must be run like businesses, and their managers must have the skill sets of a successful business owner, she said, adding that, in the business world, an MBA is becoming more of a necessity for managers looking to climb the ladder.

    “The definition of a nonprofit today is that of a mission-based business, and those two words sum it up,” she explained. “They have to run like a business, they have to show a profit, and they are under many of the same rules and regulations that any small business is.

    “Most nonprofits are selling a product,” she continued, “and they’re marketing a product. And for social entrepreneurs, they’re looking for new ways to raise money beyond the annual campaign.”

    Meanwhile, with the economic picture still muddled, and many college graduates facing an uncertain job market, some individuals are choosing to stay in school and get a graduate degree rather than fight for jobs that are few and far between.

    “This is a good time to be doing this,” said Heler. “Right now, there are roughly nine people for every job that comes available. People are being turned off by that, and they’re deciding to stay in school.”

    Considering these and other factors, Heler, who came to SC from Indiana to get the new initiative off the ground, is generally optimistic about the prospects for the latest addition to the region’s roster of MBA programs. She told BusinessWest that there has been strong interest in the offering — from both those aforementioned college students looking to stay in school and those already working at area nonprofits and businesses who want to take their knowledge and skill sets to a higher level.

    The nonprofit management concentration is fairly unique, said Heler, adding that the new, 30-credit program features an optional one-year track that will appeal to many, but also a two-year track that includes a corporate residency. Meanwhile, all courses are taught by full-time faculty members, rather than adjuncts, unlike many competing programs.

    For this issue, BusinessWest looks at Springfield College’s entry into the MBA market, and why it does so with a large degree of confidence.

    Course of Action

    When asked about the factors that prompted SC administrators to become a player in the MBA realm and create a program specifically for nonprofit managers, Heler had some numbers ready to help make her case.

    The first one was 5,200. That’s the latest unofficial count on the number of nonprofits in the Springfield-Hartford area that SC is marketing to. The next was 35,000 — the number of people who work in the nonprofit arena followed by 19%, or the share of the local economy that is comprised of nonprofits. And according to a nationwide study completed in 2006, there will be a need over the next decade for 600,000 new senior managers in the nonprofit realm as a result of new organizations coming online and the retirement of many current managers.

    “So the market is there for such a program,” said Heler, adding quickly that, in addition to the quantity of nonprofit managers as a major consideration, the issue of quality is a matter as well.

    In other words, the boards running nonprofit agencies want real business leaders at the helm of their organizations.

    “In the past, educating nonprofit managers has been done through conferences and workshops,” she explained. “These managers have come up through the field. Now, there’s a real call for these people to be professionals. Nonprofit education now means making sure managers, supervisors, and executive directors have business knowledge, skills, and tools.”

    All these factors indicated a strong need, and a niche that Springfield College, which has a proud reputation of training nonprofit leaders, could capitalize on.

    It is meeting that need with those two MBA offerings, or concentrations. Both feature seven core courses, including ‘Economics of the Firm in Contemporary Society,’ ‘Research Methods and Statistics for Business and Nonprofits,’ and ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics,’ but feature different concentration courses.

    The Management option includes ‘Managerial Accounting,’ ‘Project and Information Systems Management,’ and ‘Organizational Behavior and Leadership,’ while the Nonprofit Management model features ‘Leadership and Governance for Nonprofits,’ ‘Accounting for Nonprofits,’ and ‘Fund Development and Philanthropy.’

    Both packages are drawing some attention, said Heler, adding that she expects 15-20 students for the first classes, to begin this summer. These will be diverse classes, she continued, noting that she’s signed up some currently with area businesses and nonprofits, some current undergraduates (including a few from SC) who want to pursue an MBA now instead of slugging it out in a tough market, and a even a few individuals who joined the Peace Corps, have returned from various assignments, are experiencing difficulty finding the right job, and have chosen instead to seek a graduate degree.

    “We’re going to have people ages 22 to 50,” she explained. “That’s going to be a fascinating mix that will make learning a great experience.”

    Erin Vermette will be one of those students on the younger end. The Belchertown resident, who is currently wrapping up a bachelor’s degree in Marketing online from the University of Phoenix, decided to pursue an MBA now instead of entering the job market — or trying to gain entry.

    “The way the economy is right now, I’m not saying I couldn’t get a job, but it would certainly be more difficult,” she said. “I think it makes more sense to get the MBA now, and have an edge when I do compete for jobs. An MBA is becoming more of a prerequisite for many positions today.”

    Vermette said she did some comparing and contrasting of area programs, and decided that SC’s provided the needed flexibility — she currently works in day care and wants to continue doing that while pursuing her degree — and an attractive course mix.

    “I’ve been talking courses online for 2 1/2 years, and decided I wanted to go back to the campus,” she explained, adding that her ultimate goal is to work in the fine arts, perhaps in marketing for a gallery.

    School of Thought

    Heler told BusinessWest that it will take perhaps five years for a program like SC’s new MBA to become established and reach stated goals for enrollment.

    She believes that the offering has the right mix of qualities — from course selection to scheduling flexibility to that specific concentration in nonprofit management — to meet or exceed that timetable.

    If she’s right, then the new program will represent a degree of progress — literally and figuratively — for the college, the students, and area nonprofit agencies.

    George O’Brien can be reached at

    [email protected]

    Features
    Is the Time Finally Right for Springfield?s Union Station?
    Train of Thought

    John Judge says that, given the priority status attached to commuter rail regionally and nationally, Union Station may be able to turn back the clock and thrive.

    The hands on the large clock in the main lobby of Springfield’s Union Station haven’t moved in nearly 40 years. For this landmark built in 1926 by the Boston and Albany Railroad, time has stood still — literally. But time hasn’t run out, insist those now working to advance yet another redevelopment plan for the station, one they say is unlike previous concepts, because it is grounded in market realities.

    John Judge understands that, when he says he’s “hopeful and “optimistic” about the prospects for Union Station, he’s echoing the comments of myriad Springfield officials, Pioneer Valley Transit Authority administrators, and area economic-development leaders, some of whom have watched the landmark sit idle and deteriorate for almost 40 years.

    When he says he believes the timing is right for the station to soon end its long hibernation, he knows that others have been saying words to that effect since Ronald Reagan was in the White House.

    Judge has been Springfield’s chief development officer for only 11 months now, but he knows all about Union Station’s long and recently quite sad history. So he understands why so many are skeptical about something positive ever happening there.

    “I can’t blame them. They have every right to be skeptical; one thing after another has created roadblocks for this property, and the years have turned into decades,” said Judge, who was enthusiastic but also quite realistic as he talked about the latest in a series of plans — some formal, some just idle talk — for reuse of the station on Frank B Murray Street. This one is far more grounded than the ones that have come before it, said Judge, noting that previous incarnations have included everything from a hotel to an IMAX theater that have never come close to seeing the light of day.

    This version, called Union Station II by some and ‘Option One’ by the consulting firm that drafted the plan, is based mostly on transportation-related components, including a 23-bay bus terminal, and comes at a time when the nation and the region are making commuter rail a priority matter, said Judge. He expressed the hope, but also the expectation, that Springfield could become a hub of commuter-rail service running from Southern Vermont to New Haven, Conn. and, ultimately, New York.

    The plan has other components, including plans for a day-care center, what is called ‘transit-related retail’ (kiosks, newsstands, coffee shops, and fast-food operations), and what the consultants call ‘opportunity space’ for other retail.

    It’s a nice picture, and variations of it have been painted before, many times, which explains why so much skepticism remains about Union Station. And those doubts are just one hurdle to be overcome. The economy is another, as is a sluggish commercial real-estate market that has property owners of all kinds, from private developers to Springfield Community College and its assistance corporation, vying for the same small pool of office tenants.

    And then, there’s Worcester’s Union Station, which was renovated a decade ago and has sat mostly empty since then, becoming a poster child for historic train-station redevelopment gone awry — or gone nowhere — thus casting further doubt on Springfield’s efforts.

    Judge is optimistic that 2010 will yield the first real, visible signs of progress at Union Station in many years, which he says could start to erase some doubts. He expects there might be movement to solidify some of the transportation components, especially the PVTA’s eventual move from its headquarters on Main Street to the train station, and also some of the other pieces to this puzzle, such as a day-care center, a senior center, and that transportation-related retail. And he anticipates that work to begin razing the so-called ‘baggage building’ adjacent to the station could begin late this year or early next, providing some tangible evidence that redevelopment is happening.

    The economy is still quite soft now, which is actually good, from a timing perspective, for this project, in that those working to redevelop Union Station can position it for the day — not far off — when times are better and the appetite for commuter rail will be much greater.

    “We’re in a unique time in history in that we have an administration that’s committed to high-speed commuter rail, and we also have a society that’s embracing the idea of regionalism and how important that is,” he explained. “If gas goes to $4 a gallon again, people are going to have few if any options in terms of commuting. What we want to do is reposition Union Station as not simply an intermodal facility for Springfield, but as a hub for the Pioneer Valley.”

    For this issue, BusinessWest takes a look at the latest plans for Union Station and their prospects for becoming reality.

    On the Right Track

    Judge calls it the “Union Station task force.”

    That’s the name he’s given to a small working group that now gathers around the conference table in his office on Tapley Street every Tuesday morning starting at 8:30. The group began meeting a few months ago, he told BusinessWest, and he intends to stay with the weekly schedule for the foreseeable future to keep this latest Union Station project on the front burner, where he says it belongs.

    “We want this to be a priority,” he said, “and when you meet every month or every other month, it’s not a priority.”

    Recent meetings have had a number of agenda items, but especially the steps — legal, financial, and technical — needed to make the Springfield Redevelopment Authority the lead agency on this project (a memorandum of understanding between the SRA and PVTA was signed last summer making them partners in this initiative) and the entity that would be the direct designee for the close to $60 million in state and federal funds that have been awarded for Union Station redevelopment.

    The money is in place, technically speaking, and has been for many years, said Judge, adding that the individual earmarks must be “re-energized.”

    In general, discussion among task force members, who include Judge, Kevin Kennedy, senior aide to U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, a strong advocate for re-development of the station; Maureen Hayes, president of Hayes Development and a consultant to the city on this project; and others, centers around a redevelopment plan crafted in late 2008 by the Nebraska-based consulting firm HDR.

    As they talked about the plan, Judge and Kennedy echoed what HDR said in its executive summary of the latest redevelopment initiative:

    “Past efforts to redevelop this facility were not successful due to a variety of reasons, but the common denominator was that the plans were not based on market realty,” said the report’s authors in reference to such concepts as the hotel, IMAX theater, upscale restaurants, and other components of previous plans. “This redevelopment plan takes a grounded approach based on well-defined objectives, available funding, economic viability, and the realities of the real-estate market.”

    At the heart of HDR’s redevelopment plan is something the consultants call simply ‘Option One,’ or the best of several scenarios for revitalization of the Union Station complex.

    Option One has several components, including:

  • Restoration of the terminal building, with approximately 33,000 square feet for PVTA, Amtrak, commuter rail, and intercity bus operating facilities; 58,000 square feet of transit-related retail and office space, including day care, PVTA administrative offices, and a transportation conference center; and 30,000 square feet of commercial ‘opportunity space’ for future economic development;
  • Removal of the baggage building and construction of a new, 139,000-square-foot bus terminal with 23 bays;
  • Construction of a 400-space, two-level parking garage connected to the terminal building to accommodate transit and public parking above the new bus terminal; and
  • Reopening of a passenger tunnel, providing a safe, walkable connection from the terminal building to the Amtrak station and platforms, and Lyman Street.
  • Funding is essentially in place for these various components, say the report’s authors, adding that $4 million would still be needed to complete the build-out of the opportunity space, which could be financed by a loan or “obtained through some other funding source.”

    The HDR report also lays out budgetary projections:

    “A fully occupied Option One is expected to generate an annual revenue of budget of approximately $1.9 million, of which $1.5 million is associated with the transit-related operations and $400,000 from the opportunity space. The total annual operating cost is estimated at approximately $1.5 million. A net balance of about $400,000 would generate enough cash flow to cover the debt service of the financing needed to build out opportunity space.”

    Getting Everyone On Board

    All this looks good on paper, but there are many questions involving whether the plan can become reality. They concern everything from whether Peter Pan Bus Lines will be a player in this new plan (and if the project can go ahead if it’s not) to whether there will be any interest in that aforementioned opportunity space.

    Judge and Kennedy said those questions will be answered over time, but both expressed optimism that the plan can come together as HDR has outlined it.

    “With a lot of projects of this magnitude, it comes down to timing and circumstance,” said Kennedy, who has a long history with Union Station — he was an aide to then-Mayor Neal when the city took possession of the landmark. “Looking to the future and what will be a greater emphasis on rail, I think Springfield is positioned to be a hub of a commuter rail line and also positioned for an economic-development project in the north of its downtown blocks.

    “To do nothing with Union Station would be a bad idea,” he continued, “and I think we have a much better chance for success now, because this plan is based on market realities.”

    As for specific components for a revitalized Union Station, Judge said some discussions have taken place with administrators at Square One, the Springfield-based day-care provider, and there is some interest in possibly creating a new facility in the station, which would be a natural location if it were to become an intermodal transit center. And such an operation would help create additional vibrancy in the station, something that would be needed to attract other forms of retail.

    A senior center would provide similar benefits, said Judge, adding that he can visualize a facility that seniors could reach via mass transit and stay at during the day.

    “We have to look at what we can do to make this a vibrant, 24/7-like spot for the city,” he explained, “and not a situation where a train pulls in, people walk through, and you’re missing that added vibrancy.

    “Having Square One there would be critical,” he continued, “and another thing I’d like to have, and I think it would be innovative, would be a senior center. There would be some inter-generational opportunities, and a place where seniors can go to do a power walk, grab a bite to eat, use wifi, and maybe volunteer some time with the kids.”

    Another possibility, he said, is creation of facilities, such as conference rooms and other amenities, that could be used by businesses and individuals with virtual offices. “The region doesn’t have anything like that, and it needs one.”

    But to achieve real success with this project, Springfield, and Union Station, would need to become the hub of much more extensive commuter-rail service, said Judge, who firmly believes that day is coming.

    “The scenario works out this way … you live in Sixteen Acres, take a PVTA bus to Union Station, walk through the station, get your coffee and your bagel and your ticket, and then get on a train to New Haven, and from there you can go to New York,” he said, adding that many business executives currently drive to New Haven and take a train to Gotham.

    This scene that Judge lays out is similar to the way things were decades ago, before air travel and the interstate highway system crippled the railroads — and dozens of once-proud facilities like Union Station. A return to those days, and a commuter-rail system approaching what is seen in most European countries, could enable Springfield’s landmark to come full-circle.

    Last Stop

    As he talked about moving plans for Union Station off the drawing board and to reality, Judge said he has an excellent team in place for that assignment (his task force), that the timing is right, with the state and region due to emerge from the recession at about the same time the project heats up, and that the latest plan is realistic and doable.

    As he spoke those words, he realized that many before him, in various governmental capacities, have said essentially the same things.

    Time will tell if things go differently with this plan for the landmark that time forgot, meaning that things will go right. But Judge firmly believes that soon — a relative term if ever there was one — people will talk about Union Station using something other than the past tense.

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

    Uncategorized
    Knowing the Law Is Just Part of the Strategy for Staying Out of Trouble

    Most Massachusetts employers are now aware that, effective July 13, 2008, violations of the Massachusetts Wage Act carry mandatory treble damages. As an example, if an employer is found by a court to have failed to pay an employee for overtime or other wages owed, the employer will be ordered to pay the employee three times the amount owed, plus attorney’s fees and costs.

    Unfortunately, the Mass. Wage Act and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and their accompanying regulations are highly technical laws that carry many pitfalls for the unwary. Even employers who are conscientious about treating their employees fairly can run afoul of requirements of which they are unaware, potentially exposing both their companies and themselves to severe penalties. The purpose of this article is to alert small-business owners to some common mistakes employers make when attempting to implement the Massachusetts and federal wage-and-hour laws.

    Salaried vs. Hourly Employees

    Many employers make the mistake of paying certain supervisory employees and office staff a fixed salary (but not overtime) when, in fact, the employees are deemed non-exempt from minimum wage and overtime requirements. Frequently, paying an employee a fixed salary is seen as a benefit to the employee because it ensures a guaranteed wage even when the employer’s business is slow. However, unless an employee falls within one of the Fair Labor Standard Act’s exemptions for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, computer, or certain other employees, he or she must be paid at least the minimum wage for every hour worked and receive overtime compensation.

    These exemptions are not as straightforward as they appear. For example, while an employer may consider a working foreman to be a supervisor covered by the executive exemption, that employee will not qualify as exempt unless their primary duty is management and they have the authority to hire or fire other employees, or have particular weight given to their recommendations as to the hiring, firing, advancement, or promotion of other employees.

    Employers who choose to pay non-exempt employees a salary may do so as long as they keep accurate records of hours worked and compensate employees appropriately. For example, a non-exempt employee who is paid a weekly salary for a 35-hour week must be paid overtime when they work more than 40 hours per week. Overtime is calculated at 1 1/2 times the regular rate (which is calculated by dividing the employee’s weekly pay by 35 hours). The employee is entitled to receive the regular rate for the first 40 hours worked and 1 1/2 times the regular rate for each hour worked thereafter.

    Timekeeping

    It is important that employers maintain accurate records showing total time worked in a given workweek. While a time clock is not required, employers should take steps to make sure that these records are accurate, and if a time sheet is used, each employee should be required to sign each week’s time sheet.

    The accuracy of an employer’s records becomes crucially important when an employee alleges that he or she has been underpaid. If an employer cannot produce accurate records, the employee’s assertions may be presumed to be accurate if he or she can provide proof of hours worked. It then becomes the employer’s burden to provide evidence to rebut that presumption.

    Federal regulations require 12 records that employers must maintain for each employee covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. For example, in addition to the hours worked each day and the total hours worked each week, an employer must maintain the total straight-time wages due for the week, the total paid for overtime hours, the regular hourly rate of pay for the employee in any week when overtime is earned, and the total additions to or deductions from an employee’s wages, including employee purchases or wage assignments. Additionally, employers must also retain various types of records for specified periods.

    Posters Are Important

    It is essential that employers prominently display posters setting forth their employees’ rights under both Massachusetts and federal wage-and-hour laws in a location where employees regularly congregate, such as a break room, in the human resources department, or next to a time clock. The appropriate posters are available from the U.S. Department of Labor and the Mass. Attorney General’s Office. When an employer fails to post informational notices regarding payment of wages, the statute of limitations on Fair Labor Standards Act and Mass. Wage Act claims can be tolled, exposing employers to damages for a period of time greater than the normal two years under federal law and three years under the Mass. Wage Act.

    Travel Time

    Ordinary commuting time between an employee’s home and the employer’s place of business is, of course, not compensable. However, when an employer requires an employee to report to their place of business at the beginning of the day prior to heading to a job site, or at the end of the day, the time spent at the employer’s location is compensable, as is travel time to and from the job site. Any traveling that an employee is required or directed to do during the workday is also compensable.

    Lunch

    Under Massachusetts law, an employee must be given a 30- minute break after six hours of work. This break is generally unpaid. During this period, an employee must be relieved of all work-related duties. An employer who requires employees to remain on premises or otherwise restricts their movements while on break must treat the time as hours worked.

    You May Be Personally Liable

    Under the Mass. Wage Act, “the president and treasurer of a corporation and any officers or agents having the management of such corporation shall be deemed to be the employers of the employees of the corporation.” Principals of a corporation may be personally liable to employees for violations of the Wage Act, and an ‘officer or agent’ of a corporation who fails to pay required overtime can be personally subject to civil and criminal penalties.

    As this partial list indicates, there are a host of issues that employers must be attentive to implementing state and federal wage-and-hour laws. While compliance can seem daunting, employers can usually identify and correct errors through a simple review of policies and practices. Most importantly, by establishing and implementing compliant policies, small-business owners can avoid the potentially crippling consequences of a wage-and-hour complaint.

    This article is intended as a general summary only and does not constitute legal advice.

    David S. Lawless is an associate with Springfield-based law firm Robinson Donovan; (413) 732-2301 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (413) 732-2301      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

    Features
    All Eyes Are Focused Again on the Paper City
    Doing Business in: Holyoke

    Doris Ransford says she’s excited that private investment is driving Holyoke’s renaissance.

    Doris Ransford calls Holyoke “a city of contrasts.”

    As president of the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce, she said the stark realities of poverty, unemployment, and urban blight should not be the focus at this point in the city’s history, a time when most would agree that the potential exists for progress on an historic level.

    “For years now,” she told BusinessWest, “people have had good ideas, and it’s not that those ideas weren’t good, it’s just that the time wasn’t right, the situation wasn’t right.”

    But all that is changing.

    Groundbreaking for a high-performance computing center (HPCC), scheduled for this fall, is arguably one of the most exciting current developments in any depressed urban location in the state, if not the entire nation. But Mayor Elaine Pluta emphasized that, while this investment will have a profound impact on the city, there are many other elements that are coming together to give Holyoke a foothold on 21st-century reinvention.

    She listed projects that, taken singularly, would be a boon for any city: the new multi-modal transportation center on Maple Street, the renovation of the Victory Theatre, commuter-rail expansion linking Holyoke to interstate transit, and the Canal Walk revitalization project.

    “The challenges are to try to get something jump-started, to bring people down here,” she explained, pointing out the window to the city center. “People are the economic engine of what needs to get things going for economic development. You need people walking around, shopping, living … that’s our hope for the downtown.”

    Open Square is John Aubin’s answer to that hope. For decades, it had been a mill property owned by his family, but in 1999 he returned to the area from New York and decided that the time had come for something more at the sprawling site.

    “We have developed the space for people to live and work in, as part of the growth of small urban areas,” he said. “And it’s going quite well. We’ve brought 50 businesses into the center of Holyoke without subsidy from government. We’ve done it based on the market demand for it.”

    Like most people in town, Aubin agreed that it is private investment that can act as the primary catalyst for significant revitalization in Holyoke, and that too is another unfolding chapter in the historic city. While the public and private entities — universities, Beacon Hill, and international computer firms — are all looking to invest the Paper City, it does seem that the city will continue to be one of contrasts, but also long-overdue good fortune.

    Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

    “What is most exciting now,” said Ransford, “is that private investment is going to drive the fortunes of the city. The HPCC isn’t a government handout; it’s not ‘you poor city, let’s help you,’ it’s about the resources and the opportunities. The city has proven to be worthy of smart investors.

    “We can no longer depend on huge influxes of public money,” she continued. “It’s not going to happen for a long time.”

    Agreeing with that sentiment, Pluta said the city is working actively to ensure that the public projects and the HPCC are united in their approach to solidifying the city’s unfolding ‘Innovation District.’ City Hall has formed an Innovation Task Force, which has met several times since the announcement of the HPCC. “We have to be prepared for the spinoff businesses,” she said.

    The mayor acknowledged that many questions are yet unanswered about specific details on the HPCC, and those will be addressed in the coming weeks.

    Until then, Ransford said, patience is key. “Everyone wants instant gratification nowadays. We know that development doesn’t happen that way. But there will be a shovel in the ground this fall for the HPCC. People are just grasping for information because they just want this to happen so badly.”

    As someone who has been involved in the city’s role for the HPCC from the earliest days, Brendan Ciecko knows firsthand the importance of the coming year. Speaking to BusinessWest from Poland, where some business has taken him temporarily away from the Paper City, Ciecko said that, in order to continue to attract those important resources from the private sector, Holyoke and the Commonwealth need to be as cooperative and aggressive as possible.

    “After the HPCC is up and running, if the city and its economic-development partners play their cards right, they should be able find success in promoting the city to the international market as a cost-effective location for intensive computing and green and clean tech,” he said. “Let’s think and dream as big as possible. Some cities only have one opportunity to reinvent themselves, and this is currently that time.”

    All signs augur an auspicious future for Holyoke, but Ciecko is not one to lock into a waiting game for what will be. He cited Donald Saunders of the Mass. International Festival of the Arts, and that group’s success in securing financing for the Victory Theatre, along with Open Square’s Aubin, as two perfect examples of what is being done right now to bolster the strength of Holyoke’s downtown.

    “They both have a clear and well-thought-out vision of what downtown can and should be,” he said, “but on top of that, they have the courage and perseverance to put time, money, and resources where their mouths are. Courageous fellows like them are worth listening to.”

    The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

    While Ciecko modestly excluded himself from that company, the reality is that he runs a parallel course toward a high-tech renaissance just up the road from those big names linked to the HPCC.

    At the corner of High and Suffolk streets, in a nondescript building formerly housing an accounting firm, is an incubator of sorts for young, tech-savvy entrepreneurs. There, Ciecko owns and offers space alongside his own successful operation, Ten Minute Media.

    Among the tenants there are the Dunn brothers, Sam and Zach, from Wilbraham. Zach mentioned that it was strangely fortuitous how their business, One Mighty Roar, came to be located in Holyoke.

    He and his brother learned of Ten Minute Media, during a class in high school. “We both greatly admired what he was doing, and knew that he, just a few years older than us, was doing exactly what we wanted to do. Randomly one day, I reached out to him through social media. I think I added him as a friend on Facebook.”

    Less than a year later, the company is designing Web sites and mobile applications, and maintaining a highly influential industry-related blog. “It has grown to over a half-million views per month,” said Sam. “It’s used, as we’ve come to find out, at a number of schools of higher education throughout the world. We’ve been published in several foreign magazines.

    “We reach more than 200 countries per month,” he continued, with Zach interjecting, “provinces, too! There are only 195 countries.”

    Having such an influential presence in their industry is proving to be an enormous success for the brothers, who have yet to finish their studies at the University of Hartford. Dollars aside, Zach said, “at this current pace of business, we’re all but certain that we’ll be able to work full-time by graduation. It’s sustainable and growing fast, which is an exciting combination to have.”

    As with Ciecko’s company across the hall, the Dunns can operate their business anywhere, as long as there’s an Internet connection. Echoing Ransford’s thoughts on the city, Zach said that, with all of the new media that they are helping to shape, there’s a stark contrast between what is happening in that address and the rest of the city … so far.

    Sam agreed. “Holyoke is a place for us that we want to see live up to its potential, in culture, in driving new business to us,” he said. “But right now, we are in a bubble. What’s happening with the computing center, that will open up possibilities.”

    And big business thinks so, too.

    Everything Old Is New Again

    One of the names attached to the HPCC, Cisco, announced this past February its plans to transform Holyoke into a ‘Smart+Connected Community’ between the next six to 12 months. Holyoke is the first existing city that Cisco has undertaken. Previous attempts have focused on developing urban centers in the Middle East and Asia.

    The implications are enormous. Cisco plans to build in a strong technology infrastructure, wireless and high-speed, but also to integrate software and hardware packages to make the city a paragon of efficiency. Aubin put the process into lay terms.

    “The simplest way to look at it,” he explained, “is, if you put in a digital thermostat at your home, you typically save 20% right off the bat. Think of a city doing that by putting in smart meters for electricity, for water and sewer. Think of the savings on that kind of a scale. Then think of the peripherals, like communications for emergency services. This is an enormous market for these companies. Cisco has identified it as a $30 billion market, and Holyoke is its test pilot for working with existing American cities.”

    Just up the road in their offices, the Dunn brothers agreed that the city is at an exciting time in its history. “We are at the point now, here, where we can shape what it is that we are doing, and what we can do,” Sam said.

    With so much coming into Holyoke, the possibilities for the city are impressive. But the men from One Mighty Roar, part of that foundation of new technology and private investment, keep their focus grounded on new clients, bigger clients … and graduation from college.

    Still, they have no immediate plans to leave town. “Our money means a lot more here than it would in Brooklyn or Boston,” Zach said. “And that is great for start-ups.”

    As he looked across his desk at his brother, the two nodded in agreement. “As for a place to do business,” Sam said, “I think it will be brilliant.”

    Uncategorized

    The recession is over — in Massachusetts, anyway.

    That was the word from Pennsylvania-based Moody’s Economy.com, which has analyzed employment, production, and housing data, and concluded that the Bay State began a recovery in January, thus becoming one of the 22 states with growing economies.

    “The data has been strong enough to move Massachusetts out of a moderating recession and into a recovery,” Gus Faucher, director of macroeconomics at Moody’s Economy.com, told the Boston Globe. “Massachusetts will be seeing job gains pretty consistently from here on out.”

    Let’s hope so, because despite what the numbers might say to those crunching them at Moody’s, this recession won’t be over, officially or unofficially, until businesses start hiring again. And there is some very real concern that companies won’t hire again — or at least to the extent that they were before the Great Recession began — thus raising the specter of a true jobless recovery.

    And that wouldn’t be a real recovery at all.

    There have been many recessions over the past several decades, but nothing quite like this one. What separates it from the others is the number of jobs lost and the quality of those jobs. When so many people are unemployed and thus quite uncertain about their futures, spending drops precipitously. And when that happens, more people become unemployed and spending is curtailed further, and this leads to more layoffs … well, everyone knows how this cycle works and why it contributed to the long length of the Great Depression.

    Locally, hesitancy on the part of individuals and businesses to spend has impacted every industry, from construction to auto sales; from the media to retailers at all levels, including stalwarts such as Fran Johnson’s Golf & Tennis, now fighting to stay afloat.

    Unemployment in the Bay State was at 9.5% in February, the highest level in three decades, and the job losses over the past 18 months or so have come in every sector, including two pillars of the local economy, health care and education.

    There are some signs of brightening skies, however. The latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey reveals that more companies in the Greater Springfield area plan to hire in the second quarter than plan to reduce staff. Specifically, 19% fall in the first category, and 10% in the second (the rest plan to maintain current levels or don’t know what they’re going to do), and that 9% net employment outlook, as it’s called, is the best spread this region has seen in some time.

    Still, the number that matters in that survey is 71%. That’s the percentage of companies that aren’t planning on hiring or aren’t sure if they will. It shows that a lot of business owners clearly need more evidence that things are better before they add staff. Meanwhile, many experts contend that companies weren’t downsizing over the past 18 months as much as they were rightsizing, a prudent strategy for employers but not a trend that bodes well for the region.

    The news that the recession is officially over, at least according to Moody’s Economy.com, is welcome. Headlines like that can actually help inspire confidence in business owners at a time when it is truly needed.

    But as every business owner knows, the recession isn’t over when some economic analysts say it is. Instead, it’s over when they can see it out their window or in their quarterly sales numbers. It’s over when companies large and small gain the confidence they need to expand, introduce new products, and hire people in large numbers.

    When we see those things happen, then we can actually let the celebration begin.

    Features
    Area Colleges Are Applying Imagination to Enrollment- building Efforts
    Numbers Game

    AIC’s Peter Miller says that colleges need to be more sophisticated than ever to reach enrollment targets.

    American International College is targeting young people in China, as well as individuals who simply can’t find a seat at a four-year school in California. Meanwhile, UMass Amherst is putting added focus on out-of-state students. These are just some of the strategies being applied as area colleges seek to bolster their enrollment numbers, which have been steadily rising over the past several years.

    This is the season that high-school seniors have been waiting for all year. Upcoming graduation? Guess again.

    By May 1, all students expecting to go on to college this fall will need to make their decisions regarding where they will go. It’s called Candidates’ Reply Date, and for the admissions departments at area four-year colleges, this time of year is critical.

    The word from local colleges is that application numbers are strong for the incoming freshman class of 2010, mirroring a trend in place for the last several years.

    It has been widely reported that, during the first months of the recession, students were returning to school in record numbers. But that trend toward higher application numbers, and resulting higher enrollment sizes, are the only constants in the admissions process. In Western Mass., colleges saw their class sizes swell, but in many cases the competition for those students has led to substantive changes in the admissions process.

    At American International College, Vice President for Admission Services Peter Miller said that the school is far more sophisticated than ever before in how it does its job. From national and international outreach all the way to use of social media, the role of admissions is more important than ever to secure those target numbers. Some schools go to great lengths in their use of contemporary technology, but Miller only half-jokingly said, “if I ever text-message for a prospective student, I’ve told my colleagues to shoot me!”

    The numbers game for student population has changed the admissions techniques, but it also has led some schools to focus on their brand image — the goods and services that can be sold to high-school prospects.

    In these highly competitive times, improved campus amenities make a big difference, said Mary DeAngelo, interim director of Enrollment Management at Springfield College. “We have recently opened two new facilities that help in making the college appealing to prospective students. We have a brand-new campus union that just opened in January. Students are thrilled with it. Last fall, 2008, we opened a new recreation and wellness facility, which is second to none.”

    UMass Amherst Chancellor Robert Holub has publicly stated his goals for gradual growth of the student body to better represent the school’s status as a state flagship university. His goal has a focus on attracting out-of-state students, whose tuition money stays on campus, rather than state students’ payments, which are filtered into the state revenue stream.

    There has been wide support of his initiative, but voices on campus have publicly criticized the cost of attracting such a population, and the means to make it happen. The numbers game of student enrollment has reached a critical stage for colleges attempting to keep up with years of record student populations, but some ask, when is not enough too much?

    Digital Readout

    DeAngelo said that the school year beginning in fall 2009 has been “very interesting.”

    “I think you’ll hear that from just about any private school,” she continued. “And it was because of the economy. We were very uncertain how enrollment would turn out, even though application numbers were good, and interest was high. But families were really anxious. When they are sitting at the kitchen table on April 27, they had to ask themselves, ‘can we afford a private college?’”

    Others echoed that sentiment. While the recession caused many families to take a sober look at their expenses for higher education, 2009 was a great year for the state’s flagship Amherst campus. “We set a record last year, and the year before,” said Ed Blaguszewski, director of the school’s News and Information Office.

    “We have been at over 30,000 applications for the last three years for incoming freshman,” he continued, “and we believe that continues to indicate a very strong interest in the value of a UMass education, at an affordable price.”

    Kathleen Wrobleski, director of Communications and Marketing at Bay Path College, called the economic downturn “a double-edged sword.” While students and families grapple with the cost of a college education, when times are tough, people historically head back to school.

    With finances as a potential pitfall to prospective students, she said that is one area where Bay Path stands out. “We recognized early on that people shouldn’t have finances as a barrier to going to college. We’ve made institutional changes to make that happen. For the undergraduate program, and the Saturday program, there are more scholarships. We have a very aggressive program.”

    She said that Bay Path’s method of admissions is different than most, with undergraduate, one-day, and graduate programs accepted on a rolling basis throughout the year. Every October, however, a snapshot of all three populations is offered for statistical analysis. From that perspective, Wrobleski said that Bay Path’s enrollment was at 2,000, the highest in the college’s history.

    Tools of the Trade

    By the time President Obama made a pledge last year that the U.S. will “have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world,” the numbers across the nation were already steadily edging toward that goal.

    Statistics from the U.S. Department of Education show that, over the past 10 years, the percentage of students who go on to college within 12 months of high-school graduation has increased significantly. In 2007, that number was at 67% of the nation’s youth. Competition for those best and brightest is at an all-time peak as well, college officials say.

    According to Wrobleski, Bay Path has something unique to offer as a means of driving students to their campus. “We develop programs that are very career-focused, and very responsive to the job market.”

    Elaborating, she said, in its graduate program, Bay Path “has an MBA in entrepreneurial thinking and innovative practices, the only one of its kind in the area. And then we have an MS in nonprofit management. These are closely linked to many of the job opportunities in this region.”

    DeAngelo said that her job is essentially the top of a pyramid that extends over the campus, with recruiting new students seen as “everyone’s job.”

    “And that comes from the top down,” she continued, “which it needs to, in order to be successful. Dr. Richard Flynn has been president for 11 years, and from his first day on this campus, every time he has a chance to speak to all members of the college community at one location, he says that recruiting students is everyone’s job. What that means is we enjoy great support from the faculty, other administrators, coaches — who are a great recruiting force for us — from students, and phenomenal support from our alumni base.”

    At AIC, Miller agreed that recruitment is a campus-wide endeavor. He, too, credits the school’s current administration as influential. “As our first new president in many, many years, Vincent Maniaci came in with a lot of enthusiasm and vision, and he wanted to move AIC forward.”

    What that has translated into is expansion of several programs and departments at the school, both locally and far afield. New departments and majors have been coupled with an increase in athletics, and the coaching staff has been given full-time status in order to take more than one for the team.

    “If we want to get to the number that we want to each year,” Miller explained, “we know that we need to rely on the football coach to recruit 75 students. We set goals for each coach, but we’ve added new teams. There’s been enormous success with a new track and field team in attracting students.”

    As full-time faculty, the coaching staff operates on several levels. In addition to their ability to recruit, they are also often closely linked to the students’ performance at school. Miller said that this is an enormous aid in student retention from year to year.

    “Those numbers, from freshman year on through graduation, have been improved,” he said, “by about 7% between the last years, and by 5% between the years prior.”

    Go East, Young Man

    Miller had just returned from a recruiting trip to China, which he said was the college’s newest focus for out-of-state students.

    Parallel to the college’s accreditation process a few years back, something revisited every 10 years, was a period of self-study for the vision of AIC.

    “We decided that we wanted to be more global in what we were doing,” he said. “We’ve created some pretty significant goals in internationalizing the campus, both for our current students and integrating into the classroom what international students can bring to the campus. China is a country that we’ve targeted, one obvious reason being the millions upon millions there. We wanted to be a player in that, so we set up a recruiting center there.”

    And prior to setting their sights overseas, AIC had established a presence in the beleaguered California state college system.

    While the Commonwealth has had its share of budget woes in the last couple of years, the California Department of Education has been faced with nothing short of a crisis: too many students, not enough vacancies, and, most importantly, not enough money. At the end of February, Jack Scott, chancellor of that state’s community colleges, said 200,000 students would be unable to return to campus this fall because there simply isn’t any space for them.

    Miller said that, because access to a four-year degree for those community-college students has been made so difficult, he and Maniaci spent a week building a beachhead for students to come to AIC.

    “How are we going to make ourselves attractive?” he asked. “Well, initially, we decided that we were going to offer a $10,000 scholarship to those students, anyone graduating from a community college in California. As a marketing tool, that really grabs you.

    “But,” he continued, “we can’t just drop in once a year and expect that we’re going to win people over. We need an ongoing presence on those campuses. We heard that from all the schools. So we’ve hired a transfer counselor to eventually be full-time out there.”

    State of Affairs

    The Bay State’s budget woes are nothing to sniff at, either.

    Between 2008 and 2010, Beacon Hill slashed 37% in state support for higher education, the largest percentage reduction in the country. As one means to address that, Blaguszewski said, “the state legislature has provided us an incentive over the last five or more years to work effectively in recruiting out-of-state students.

    “We want to maintain access for students in Massachusetts,” he continued, “and we’re not diminishing that. But the extra spaces we’re creating are targeted at out-of-state students. Not only will that add to the dynamic aspect on campus, but it will be a revenue generator. We get to keep out-of-state tuition on this campus, whereas state tuition goes back to the state coffers.”

    In a recent essay printed in the New York Times, Professor Nancy Folbre of UMass Amherst’s Economics Department likened the measure to students as “the new cash cows.”

    She said the intensified marketing campaign aimed at out-of-state students is a well-meaning strategy that could backfire for several reasons.

    “Administrators can feel pressure to invest in new facilities that look good on the glossy brochures … rather than improving student advising or course availability,” she wrote, and “if more students are added without increasing the number of faculty and staff, students get less individual attention and can’t get into the courses they need to graduate.

    “The percentage of students taught by full-time, tenure-track faculty members per student at state universities has steadily declined in recent years,” she added.

    A new plan to increase out-of-state expansion involves rewarding individual departments more adept at recruiting outside the state line, she noted. Given Massachusetts’ striking distance to the Empire State, Folbre humorously noted that a colleague “has offered to publicly renounce the Red Sox in favor of the Yankees.”

    At AIC, Miller said that, in his 35 years in college admissions, the industry might have evolved, but some things will always stay the same. “What will never change, as long as I’m in this role, is the notion of relationship marketing.”

    Technology, technique, and sometimes tactics might all be keeping pace with competition, but, he added, “there’s a fine balance in implementing all the things necessary for moving a student a certain way without losing sight of that student as a person.”

    Features
    How the Business Community Has Made the Zoo in Forest Park a Pet Project

    Paws for EffectThe Zoo in Forest Park has long been part of the fabric of Western Mass. But only a few years ago the facility was on the ropes and in danger of closing its doors. Members of the business community volunteered their time, energy, and imagination, and saw the zoo through that crisis. But their work to keep the institution thriving is ongoing.

    Zooey was sucking greedily from a baby bottle as John Lewis cradled the tiny, 9-day-old female spider monkey on his lap and gently stroked her head.

    Lewis is the director of the Zoo in Forest Park, and has essentially taken over for the baby’s mother, who didn’t show much interest in her after she was born.

    He feeds Zooey every two hours, around the clock, and carries her with him in a satchel around his neck, as her arms and legs stay tightly wrapped around a stuffed animal.

    The devotion Lewis shows to the newest of the 165 species represented at the zoo is mirrored by members of the facility’s board of directors, who are dedicated to keeping the nonprofit attraction alive, and also raising awareness of what they see as a polished but still-little-known gem in the heart of Greater Springfield.

    The story of how the board, and the business community in general, have helped make the Zooey saga and many others like it reality is an intriguing one packed with drama, many lead characters, and one pivotal chapter. That would be the winter of 2003-04, when a confluence of factors almost forced the zoo to close its doors.

    But the board and individual members saw the landmark attraction through that rough patch, and the zoo has not only survived, it is now a self-sustaining oasis tended by board members and staff passionate to show off the new facility, which they have transformed into a wondrous escape for families.

    “The zoo is like a diamond in the setting of Forest Park,” said board President Scott Foster, an attorney with Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas, LLP. “We want to get people here and see what we have to offer. We are still fighting the old monkey-house perception, with metal bars and the smell of a place that wasn’t clean or somewhere you wouldn’t want to go.

    “When you mention the old zoo to many adults, they get a look on their face and scrunch up their nose,” he continued. “We have to overcome that, and it’s simply a matter of getting people here. When people visit who haven’t been here for 20 years, they tell us they had no idea this existed. They also say they are coming back and bringing their families. It’s a clean, well managed, enjoyable place.”

    For this issue, BusinessWest talked with Foster and other members of the board about their passion for the zoo and why the institution is important to the fabric of the region.

    Animal Instincts

    Tracing the history of the zoo, Lewis said the facility opened in the early 1900s. “At that time, the entire park was part of the zoo. It started out with swans in the aquatic gardens and expanded from there.” The zoo was originally owned and operated by the city of Springfield, which ran it until the ’60s.

    In 1963 a zoological society was formed to support the attraction, and took over operations in 1968. “The city didn’t want to run it anymore,” Foster explained. “They found homes for most of the animals and just kept the Kiddieland plot of one and a half acres.

    As the transition from a city-operated venture to one run by a nonprofit evolved, the society also took over the concession stand, which stood outside the gates to Kiddieland. In the early ’70s, the city also constructed a building that had a kitchen, medical room, and office with funds raised through a ‘Step Out for People’ walk.

    In the early ’80s, the society began talks with the city that led to an agreement that allowed the organization to lease about five acres of land for $1 so it could expand the facility. The Kiddieland Zoo was excavated in the mid-’80s, and the remaining animals were moved to the new zoo.

    The city hadn’t done much maintenance over the years, and the society’s goal was simply to keep the zoo open. For several years, the city provided three full-time employees to help with the work.

    But that ended during the winter of 2003. At that time, the zoo had an annual operating budget of $900,000. There was a full-time executive director, a full-time marketing person, an office manager, and an assistant manager.

    Things were set in a sudden downward spiral when the executive director resigned, the state cut all funding, and the city, which had downsized its help to one employee, told the zoo it had to pay the $40,000 cost of that person.

    The zoo needed a lot of repairs, and the financial picture was so bleak, Foster said the society thought it would have to shut down the operation.

    “It was a perfect storm of events. It almost toppled us,” he said. “I became chairman of the board that winter, and to get through the season, the board members loaned the zoo more than $60,000.” Those loans, which have been forgiven, were supplemented by $15,000 from the Community Foundation of Western Mass.

    Volunteering Information

    Lewis has been with the zoo since he was a young child. “I grew up with the lions, donkeys, and monkeys,” he said. “My parents managed the zoo from the late ’60s until the early ’80s, and I was a little volunteer zookeeper when I was 6 years old. As I grew up, I was there after school and on weekends.”

    When Foster was a child, his father worked for the National Park Service, and he lived inside the parks. The first-hand knowledge of operations allowed him to see that the Zoo in Forest Park needed to be operated as a small park. “I told the board that we needed a working director,” Foster said.

    Lewis — who had advanced over time to become senior zookeeper and, later, director of operations — was already doing that, so the board appointed him executive director. (His son, John Lewis II, is now the senior zookeeper.)

    The snack bar was given back to the city, the office and public-relations positions were eliminated, and those jobs were taken over by board members. “The chairman’s job was that of a volunteer executive, who did everything from grant applications to dealing with personnel issues,” Foster said. “The role evolved far beyond the normal duties of a nonprofit. And to this day, everyone on the board takes part in volunteer activities, from marketing to finance to work on a facilities committee.”

    Fortunately, most board members had extensive business experience.

    “Not only did they lend their expertise, along with tools and materials, they set the tone and policy for the lowest-level volunteers, providing service that in some cases included physical labor,” Foster said. “That winter in 2003 to 2004, we realized we would have to work together differently. If we had an idea, we had to implement it ourselves. It was a learning process, and we only hired staff when it was critical to our mission.

    “The strategy worked,” he continued, “because the board members became so actively involved, and were so passionate about making sure the zoo survived, that it bred its own commitment. The board took over ownership of the place.”

    Actions taken after that by 18-year board member Evan Plotkin exemplify the spirit that was adopted. One day, when the 2004 season was over, he was sitting in Outback Steakhouse in West Springfield. As he looked at its sign, the idea to expand and open an Outback exhibit at the zoo was born.

    “We had all these great animals that were indigenous to Australia — emus, kangaroos, and ostriches,” he said. “It made sense to create a new exhibit for them.”

    Plotkin took immediate action and approached the manager, asking if the Outback would sponsor a new exhibit.

    He was referred to the central office in Florida, and months later, after repeated calls and conversations, the company agreed.

    The timing was serendiptious, Foster said, because Outback was opening a new restaurant in Enfield and wanted the positive publicity. “They were trying to create awareness of who they were, and what better way to do that than to sponsor a new exhibit,” Plotkin said. “It was a co-promotion that led to a great marriage.”

    The board had agreed to the idea, and in the fall of 2005 it made the decision to reshape 15% of zoo’s footprint. “It was entirely due to Evan,” Foster said, adding that his efforts showcase the work ethic the board had adopted. “We realized we couldn’t rely on others for money or to get things done,” he said.

    Plotkin, second-generation president of NAI Samuel D. Plotkin and Associates Inc., a Springfield-based commercial real-estate company, said he contacted business people he had relationships with and asked them to help build the new exhibit. “They were all so generous,” he said. “It would have cost five times as much to build without the donations and in-kind services we received.”

    Today, a plaque stands in the Outback, recognizing the many businesses that made contributions. “Bill Guzzie Landscaping did a lot of work, and so did many others,” Plotkin said, adding that interns from the Homebuilders Assoc. of Western Mass. and the carpentry program at Putnam Vocational High School built the sheds.

    Plotkin said that, during the time the Outback was built, he practically spent more time there than he did working at his own business. “I remember going to one important meeting where there was an awful smell. I was wearing a suit, and I looked down at my shoes and realized I had emu dung on them,” he said.

    But the end result was worth it. “The zoo transcends time,” Plotkin said, adding that he first fell in love with it during visits with his grandmother when he was a small boy. “It doesn’t go out of style, and is a wonderful place where families can interact with nature and bond together.”

    He believes the zoo is an important cultural and entertainment attraction that helps attract residents to the area, who ultimately become part of the local workforce. “The zoo is one of the top five tourist attractions in the Western Mass. region,” Plotkin said. Between 60,000 and 100,000 people visit it each year.

    Deer Friends

    The zoo’s growth and survival has been dependent not only on board members, but on partnerships with the business community. The Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation has been a big supporter, donating the Discovery Center, while the display cages inside came from a grant from MassMutual.

    Last October, the zoo and Big Y kicked off a pilot program at one of the chain’s stores, by which the zoo gets all of the produce that doesn’t sell.

    But funds are hard to come by for the seasonal attraction, whose annual operating budget has been pared down to more than $600,000. The zoo takes in about $400,000 from gate fees and its many educational programs, which include birthday parties, but recently suffered a loss of funding from the state. It was promised $50,000 in fiscal year 2009, which Gov. Deval Patrick reduced to $25,000. “And in FY 2010, we got nothing,” Foster said. “It’s a hard sell to the state to support this and other small zoos.”

    But since that rugged winter of 2004-05, the zoo’s fund-raising has taken a new direction. It eliminated the annual golf tournament and now focuses entirely on events that would bring people to the zoo.

    The Outback Steakhouse paid for all of the food and beverages for two years at an annual gala it expanded after the new exhibit opened. “They brought in glassware, flatware, everything,” Foster said. “It was enough to set us on a new path, and we are eternally grateful because it was the boost we needed. We have had more than 300 people attend every year, and it continues to grow. It’s called ‘A Party with the Animals Night’ and for the past few years, B’Shara’s has provided catering for us at a reduced fee and made generous donations to our live auction.”

    The success of that party led board members to think about other events that could be held at the zoo. They turned to local organizations, offering them a tent inside the zoo.

    “Chamber After 5 events have been held here. The Latino Chamber has used it, and so has the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield. Last year, the Homebuilders Association had their appreciation day picnic here,” Foster said. “These events help raise funds, but, more importantly, get people here to see what we have to offer. At any given event, you will find at least one person who has never been here and didn’t know we existed.”

    Businesses are helping to advance that cause, and last year, UBS sponsored a free day at the zoo.

    But for board members, the commitment continues, and some have made it almost a full-time job.

    “I’m pleased with the way things are going,” Plotkin said. “I’ve given my heart and soul to this place. We don’t have a big pot of money to pull from when times are rough. But people who come here have an amazing experience. It’s an attraction that is fun, entertaining, and educational, and it promotes environmental issues and concerns about wildlife. When I see babies in carriages here, they are laughing.”

    Features
    More Groundbreaking Events for the Balise Family of Dealerships
    Driving to the Finish Line

    Jeb Balise says the massive new Honda dealership borrows heavily from the new Toyota dealership a few miles down Riverdale Street.

    There was still some work to be done at the new Honda dealership on Riverdale Street in West Springfield — some landscaping, outfitting the sales offices, and other last-minute details — but Jeb Balise was already talking about the next phase of his company’s long and ongoing project.

    That would be the demolition of what is now the old Honda dealership a few miles down the street. Once that structure is razed, Balise Motor Sales can get started on the construction of a new Lexus dealership on that footprint. And when that’s done, the company can take down the old Lexus facility and create a boulevard between the new Lexus store and the massive new Toyota dealership the company opened in late 2007.

    And then … Jeb Balise might actually get a break from talking about construction work.

    “Maybe, but by then we’ll probably be starting on work at some of our dealerships in Rhode Island,” he said with a laugh.

    So there is no clear end in sight for one massive project — comprised of many smaller initiatives — to expand and upgrade the Balise company’s dealerships to meet the demands of various carmakers and, more to the point, serve customers better.

    This project, as Balise calls it, has involved several different facilities, and it has changed the landscape on Riverdale Street and both East and West Columbus Avenue in Springfield, often in dramatic fashion. No more so than with the new, 39,000-square-foot Honda facility, built on the site of the former Yale Genton clothing store, but not before a number of additional parcels were acquired to turn what had been a 2.5-acre footprint for Yale Genton into a 9-acre facility.

    The dealership is more than twice of the size of the old Honda facility, and it has 33 service bays, compared to 14 at the store it replaced.

    With that capacity, the dealership can take care of more service customers in a more-timely fashion and, bottom line, sell more cars, said Balise, adding that this has been the goal — and the result — with each of the projects it has undertaken to date.

    “When the [old] Honda comes down and we build Lexus, we’ll have absolute world-class customer conveniences in all three dealerships,” he said, “in every way, shape, and form.”

    Model of Excellence

    Now that the old Honda facility is officially closed and already half-demolished, Balise felt he could talk about that facility candidly.

    “Getting in and out of that [old] Honda store was like going to a demolition derby — you just hoped to survive finding a place to park,” he said, noting that the dealership, built in 1985, had become inadequate years ago. “We were so successful in sales that we just outgrew that store; we couldn’t give customers the kind of service they deserved.”

    Balise says he can’t see 25 years down the road, and doesn’t know what the auto-sales business will look like then. But he can’t imagine that the new Honda dealership will ever become as inadequate as the old one was in its final years. “We overbuilt in a lot of ways,” he said, “and we overdid the parking. We have more than enough spaces now.”

    Building first-class facilities that will easily last 30 years has been the goal with each individual piece of Balise’s project to modernize and expand its facilities. Recalling the various components and their dates of completion (at least to the best of his memory), Balise said the pieces started falling in place in 2006, with the completion of the new, state-of-art Toyota dealership on Riverdale Street.

    Soon thereafter, renovations were completed at Balise Chevrolet on West Columbus Avenue in Springfield. A new Buick/GMC dealership was constructed on that same street in 2008, the same year that a new Balise Hyundai dealership was built on the site of the former Houser Buick on East Columbus.

    Most of these projects, as well as the Honda and Lexus initiatives, were put on the drawing board in 2004 and 2005, said Balise, noting that, for the most part, things have gone according to the original schedule.

    There have been a few complications, though, including the securing of a proper site for the new Honda store. Balise said the goal was always to remain on Riverdale Street — site of nearly a dozen dealerships, and a place where many car shoppers begin and end their searches — but assembling a site big enough was a stern challenge.

    “We didn’t have enough land to keep Honda on the site, so we were struggling with what to do,” he explained. “We kept playing with a number of alternatives, but we were afraid that, with our growth, we’d end up two years later in the same boat that we were in — without adequate space. So we waited, and and when the Yale Genton site became available, everything just fell into place.”

    When building the new Honda facility, Balise borrowed heavily from what has been a very successful new Toyota dealership. The looks are very similar, from the showroom space to the service waiting area to the backroom facilities.

    “None of that’s by accident,” said Balise. “That model has been working very well for us, so it just made sense to do the same things here.”

    And, as with the Toyota dealership, the larger Honda facility will add up to more jobs — 25% more, by Balise’s estimate. “We’ll be adding people across the board — technicians, advisors, salespeople, and managers.”

    And while the Honda dealership did very well given the limitations of a 25-year-old facility and demolition-derby-like conditions, the expectations are even higher now that the company has what would certainly be considered room to grow.

    Drive Time

    As he led a quick tour of the new Honda facility, Balise conveyed considerable pride that the dealership had kept the dealership on Riverdale Street, replicated the amenities in the Toyota store, and completed construction in only six months.

    But one could sense that he already had one eye, and much of his attention, on the next project — and the one after that.

    With each piece that falls into place, he’s a little closer to being done with ‘the project,’ but there is still much ground to be broken and many ribbons still to be cut.

    George O’Brien can be reached at

    [email protected]

    Uncategorized
    Eye-movement Technique Helps Patients Overcome Psychological Traumas

    Dr. George Abbott told the story of a child who was riding a bicycle on a rail line and got stuck on the track.

    As a train approached, the engineer saw him too late and couldn’t slow down. The boy, with his back turned, focused on extricating the bike, never saw the engine, and was struck and killed.

    “The engineer felt terrible guilt and remorse,” said Abbott, a clinical and counseling psychologist at Holyoke Medical Center. “He couldn’t sleep. He said, ‘if only I had pulled the whistle — maybe the child would have looked up. Maybe he would have seen, and left his bike and gotten off the track.’”

    The engineer was recalling all this as he began a behavioral-health technique known as eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), which helps victims of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other types of psychological trauma to overcome the mental burden of disturbing events.

    “As he started to recall more detail about the event, he started to think more clearly about what had happened,” Abbott said. “Then, in the midst of the process, he realized, ‘I did pull the whistle.’

    “He had done it instinctively, but at the time, he was more aware of the horror of what was occurring. He did get relief from that; it’s still a terrible thing that happened, but now he can look at it and say, ‘I didn’t cause this.’ And knowing that, he can rest.”

    The EMDR technique, which has been in existence only about 20 years, involves helping patients achieve what’s known as ‘dual-attention awareness,’ which requires them to mentally focus on the trauma while the therapist guides their eyes back and forth.

    “To set up dual attention, you have a person think about different aspects of the disturbing experience,” Abbott explained. “Meanwhile, they’re doing a series of lateral eye movements. The person’s awareness is situated midway between what they’re thinking about this disturbing experience and this external activity they’re doing. They have one foot in the past and one foot in the present.”

    When a patient is properly positioned between these two poles, he told BusinessWest, the information begins to be digested, and the person is able to let go of the disturbance and allow the related pain, anxiety, depression, anger, and frustration to fall away, to be replaced by a new understanding about the traumatic memory.

    “Sometimes people notice new feelings and new facts about a situation,” he said. “They get new insights and thoughts that advance their understanding of what has happened, and they learn from it.”

    Mind Matters

    Abbott explained that the brain is constantly processing experiences and emotions, but traumatic events have a way of lodging themselves in one’s psyche so that the brain cannot process them correctly. That can lead to problems adapting to everyday situations.

    “The brain is wired such that a person is able to adapt to their present life whatever feelings this day brings to them,” he said. “The nervous system is there to help you figure out what’s going on in your environment today and deal with it, drawing on all the learning you’ve done up to now.”

    In other words, he continued, “when the brain pieces together all this information, it tends to sort out the negative, painful stuff and keep the other stuff and learn from the situation. But if a disturbing event jams up the process, you’re filled with negative feelings and expectations, negative views of yourself, and nothing is learned.”

    Abbott offered, as an example, a child who burns his hand on a stove.

    “It scares him. He’s terrified and crying in pain. But it’s not an overwhelming situation, and the brain processes that information quite nicely,” he said. “He’ll get some hugs from his mother, maybe some ice, and a month later, you can ask him about the event, and he’s pretty much forgotten all the pain.

    “He hasn’t forgotten that there was pain,” he continued, “but he’s not feeling that pain, or the emotions of fear and horror. They’re going to be done, and what’s left is learning: he’s going to say, ‘don’t put your hand on the stove.’ That’s the way the nervous system works; it takes in experiences, processes them, tosses out what’s not needed for future adaptation, and retains what is needed.”

    Now, Abbott continued, consider another child whose house burns down after he played with a candle in an upstairs room, and someone has died in the fire.

    “That experience is going to be too overwhelming, and he’s not going to be able to process that,” he explained. “That’s going to sit there as a big block in his mind, inhibiting and interfering with his development. He might always be afraid of going on the second floor of a building. Or at Christmas, when he sees lighted candles in the windows, or a Christmas tree set up near a radiator, he might become extremely anxious and even have panic attacks. He might have difficulty sleeping at night when he’s around those things.”

    A victim of an auto accident might suffer similar problems adapting to everyday activities, Abbott continued.

    “He may have trouble getting behind the wheel again, or being in the back seat, or driving across a certain highway, or in driving in inclement weather,” he said. “That can prohibit someone from doing what they need to, such as going to work or visiting their family.”

    EMDR is one way to break that crippling cycle, he said. “We’re able to take that old experience and give the person’s brain another crack at processing it and removing it, tossing out the negative stuff and incorporating some new learning that can help them.”

    New Technique

    EMDR first showed up in medical literature in 1989, and the early 1990s saw a flurry of studies of the practice, Abbott explained. “By 1997, it had been established, through controlled-outcome research, to be a valid form of therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder.”

    By the turn of the century, it had been approved as a first-line treatment for PTSD by the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the American Psychiatric Assoc., the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, the International Society for the Study of Traumatic Stress, the governments of Israel and Great Britain, and other bodies. In this region alone — Western Mass., Southern Vt., and Northern Conn. — about 300 practitioners are trained in the technique.

    “We actually use it for things beyond post-traumatic stress disorder, although it hasn’t been researched for other problems,” Abbott noted, citing its use to help people recover from divorce, long-term domestic abuse, and other psychologically damaging issues that don’t fall under the umbrella of PTSD, which typically stems from a one-time traumatic event.

    “There’s a difference between traumatic and traumatizing events,” he explained. “If you’ve gotten divorced and you can’t get over it, it does not qualify as PTSD, even if the person is very disturbed by it. Someone might be really distraught a year later because their spouse rejected them, and that’s the worst thing that has happened to them in life, but that’s not a traumatic event, even though, for many people, it is a traumatizing event.”

    Whether used to clear the psychological block of PTSD or a traumatizing experience like divorce, Abbott said research indicates that EMDR is successful between 90% and 95% of the time, and is especially effective on children.

    However, the technique can be somewhat trickier for an adult dealing with a childhood trauma. The reason in such cases may be that the trauma occurred when the brain was still wiring itself, and became more intertwined in the brain’s development.

    The technique is not used for biologically based conditions like depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, but only for what Abbott called experience-based pathologies. Still, for these psychological traumas, “this is a very potent tool.”

    And one that has helped countless people — from soldiers to engineers — get their lives … well, back on track.

    Joseph Bednar can be reached at

    [email protected]

    Departments

    The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of March 2010.

    AGAWAM

    Able Services
    433 Springfield St.
    Judith A. Scibelli

    Auggie’s Water Proofing
    1004 Shoemaker Lane
    Richard Neils III

    K & C Equipment Repairs, LLC
    1197 Suffield St.
    Kenneth Hinkley Jr.

    Miles Motors, LLC
    1779 Main St.
    Mark Miles

    Rushen Construction
    74 Kanawha Ave.
    Oleg Aliyev

    Secure Cam Tech
    77 Rivera Dr.
    Ruslan Golubchik

    AMHERST

    C & J Farms
    690 North East St.
    Cori Katz

    FonHoh — USA
    990 North Pleasant St.
    Marky-Jean Pierre

    Kiosafrik Inc.
    134 Summer St.
    Christopher Monterio

    Thai Erawan
    36 Main St.
    Kamolluk Puch

    The Doo Wop Shop
    90 Butterfield Ter.
    Geoff Herrmann

    CHICOPEE

    Arbors Gives Back
    929 Memorial Dr.
    Lisa Holt

    Building Blocks Daycare
    28 Chartier Dr.
    Amy R. O’Connor

    Church Street Dental
    109 Church St.
    Walter Ganda Jr.

    L.A. Home Improvement
    92 Beauregard Ter.
    Karl Ferguson

    GREENFIELD

    Day of the Dead Skateboards
    69 Riddell St.
    Shamus Hogan

    Intelligent Spark
    115 South Shelburne Road
    Frederick Bliss

    Pioneer Valley News
    20 Phillips St.
    David Aguiro

    Second Chance
    31 Chapman St.
    Charlotte Morin

    Sonic Creations
    91 Main St.
    Shane Chatterton

    HADLEY

    A Better Cleaning Solution
    38 Greenleaves Dr.
    Shannon Gaudette

    New York & Company
    367 Russell St.
    Lerner NY, Inc.

    HOLYOKE

    D & G Delivery
    127 Nonotuck St.
    Dionisio Gerena

    Diva Fashion
    303 High St.
    Suk Hui Forrester

    Food Forest Farm
    24 Jones Ferry Road
    Jonathan Bates

    Sbarro America Inc.
    50 Holyoke St.
    Stuart Steinberg

    LONGMEADOW

    Bread & Sweet
    26 Homecrest St.
    Donna Ingalls

    Mei’s Typhoons
    86 Greenmeadow Dr.
    Mei Han

    Steve’s Snacks
    58 Woolworth St.
    Frank Orszulak

    The Grout Crew
    468 Frank Smith Road
    Edward Comini

    The Pilates Center of Western Mass.
    167 Dwight Road
    Douglas Allen

    Utilx Corporation
    22820 Russell Road
    Jerry Hardt

    NORTHAMPTON

    Children’s Clinic
    15 Brewster Court
    Benjamin Barnes

    Eclipse Massage
    154 North King St.
    Robyn L. Steele

    Giving Preparedness
    38 Mulberry St.
    Jamie Caplan

    Glorious Fabrics
    60 Pioneer Knolls
    Gloria Stevens

    Harrison Programming Services
    589 Coles Meadow Road
    Mark Harrison

    Larien Products
    16 Market St.
    Paul Ricard

    New Directions School
    78 Pomeroy Ter.
    Andrew Pollock

    The Zen Peacemaker Circle
    241 Crescent St.
    Marguerite Gregory

    PALMER

    ABC Pool
    248 Ware St.
    Mark Alankirk

    Bonan Realty
    2085 Main St.
    Robert R. Sarda

    Home Heating Installations
    88 Rondeau St.
    Philip Myers

     

    Home Video
    1364 Main St.
    Vincent Falkowski

    Lees Optimization
    3161 Main St.
    Christopher Lees

    Primo Wildlife Control, LLC
    260 Flynt St.
    Debra Hageman

    Tyburski’s Countryside Bakery
    4175 Pleasant St.
    Thomas Tybruski

    Vanzandt Snowplowing
    19 Forest St.
    Robert Vanzandt

    SPRINGFIELD

    J & D Tree Service
    47 Spikenard Cir.
    John E. Streeter

    J & D Family Fashions
    118 Stevenson Ave.
    Joseph C. Strickland

    J. Hatchell Masonry
    24 Hobson St.
    Johnnie Hatchett

    J.B. Homes Services
    23 Hamburg St.
    Evelyn J. Bermudez

    Linda Boutillette Electronics
    1364 Parker St.
    Linda L. Hoch

    Live Wire New England
    22 Rachel St.
    Richard A. Britt

    Los Bandoleros Barber Shop
    616 Belmont Ave.
    Rebecca L. Zavala

    Manor Hall Soap Company
    115 Marmon St.
    Susan Mann

    Mine Trip Ent.
    45 Newland St.
    Grant A. Todd

    Miriam Lopez Miriam’s Day
    70 Knollwood St.
    Miriam L. Ramos

    Nature’s Garden
    693 State St.
    Ayyub Abdul-Alim

    NFP Sports
    27 Bronson Terrace
    Matthew Ross

    Paper Creations
    71 Jamestown Dr.
    Margery A. Bean

    Parkin Design & Graphix
    56 Harvard St.
    Karan E. Parkin

    Pazzo Ristorante
    1000 West Columbus Ave.
    Paul Asturo

    Pinnock Transport
    1662 South Branch Pkwy.
    Kurt Pinnock

    Premier Accounting
    1127 Main St.
    Felix Morales

    Santana Electric
    3 Silas St.
    Daniel Santana

    Sol Karibe Restaurant
    1236 Main St.
    Jacqueline Sanchez

    St. James Auto Body
    503 St. James Ave.
    Rafael Davila III

    St. Pierre Services
    140 Eddy St.
    Samuel J. St. Pierre

    The Orchard Group
    137 Main St.
    Stephen S. Nemphos

    Three Rivers Program
    26 Ridgewood Ter.
    Andrew Pollock

    Viet’s Barber Shop
    663 Dickinson St.
    Viet Le

    Yupiii Fiesta Designers
    1655 Main St.
    Alexa Crespo-Velez

    WESTFIELD

    C & R Landscaping
    62 Joseph Ave.
    Mathew Rzegocki

    Power Control Services & Electric
    227 Loomis St.
    David Budreau

    Millrite Machine Inc.
    587 Southampton Road
    Robert F. Valcourt

    TBA Cleaning & Removal
    975 East Mountain Road
    Tammy King

    Whip City Seafood, LLC
    103 North Elm St.
    Brian M. Donnelly

    Whip City Sweets & Deli
    71 Elm St.
    Edward Arce

    WEST SPRINGFIELD

    Bertera Chrysler Jeep Dodge Inc.
    539 Riverdale St.
    Aldo M. Bertera

    Darlene Kurman & Associates
    158 Edgewood Road
    Darlene A. Kurman

    Friendly Hair Salon
    553 Union St.
    Tatyana Yermakov

    Green Stone
    34 Lewis Ave.
    Sami Hajrizi

    Maurice Hardwood Floors
    30 West School St.
    Kouadio M. Nguessan

    Mommy and Me
    195 Elm St.
    Larry D. Norrod

    Nick’s Remodeling
    27 George St.
    Nikita Ryaboklyach

    Scuderi Group, LLC
    1111 Elm St.
    Salvatore Scuderi

    Departments

    EASTEC 2010 Focuses on Innovation

    WEST SPRINGFIELD — Innovation will be a key theme at EASTEC 2010, planned for May 25-27 at the Eastern States Exposition. The three-day event is the largest annual precision-manufacturing event on the East Coast, according to Kimberly Farrugia, EASTEC show manager. The event kicks off with an executive breakfast featuring speaker Chris Trimble, author of 10 Rules for Strategic Innovators. His presentation is titled “The Innovation Imperative and Revitalizing the U.S. Economy.” EASTEC will also launch Innovations Theater, featuring manufacturers introducing new products and services. EASTEC will also feature Lean and Green Resource Centers offering presentations, consultations, and opportunities to meet potential business partners.

    Study: WNEC Impacts Local, Regional Economies

    SPRINGFIELD — A new study compiled by Western New England College (WNEC) finds the institution contributes more than a quarter-billion dollars to the region’s economy each year, providing an engine of growth during good times and a steadying force during economic downturns. The recently released impact study is the first of its kind for Western New England, presenting a comprehensive look at the college’s impact on the economies of Springfield, Hampden County, and New England’s Knowledge Corridor of Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden, and Hartford counties. The study finds that WNEC’s annual impact on the Hampden County economy totals approximately $209 million. The figure rises to $260 million when the entire Knowledge Corridor is included. The report incorporates data on direct spending in the form of salaries and benefits, purchased goods, and student spending, along with indirect effects of college spending and contributions made by staff and students. The study also details, but does not quantify, contributions of time and talent by WNEC faculty, staff, and students, which impacts hundreds of local schools, charities, and businesses. The study was compiled by the Office of Institutional Planning in coordination with the Office of Marketing and External Affairs. The full report is available online at www1.wnec.edu/aboutus/index.cfm?selection=doc.8295

    MassMutual Sees Momentum in Nonprofit Market

    SPRINGFIELD — MassMutual’s Retirement Services Division has been selected by the Thames Valley Council for Community Action Inc. (TVCCA) as the new provider for the organization’s $5.2 million 401(a) and $4.4 million 403(b) retirement plans. TVCCA, based in Southeastern Conn., is a private, nonprofit corporation that has been providing social services to economically and otherwise disadvantaged citizens in New London County for more than 45 years. The TVCCA’s 28 programs currently reach approximately 24,000 eligible recipients annually.

    Stony Brook Power Plant Earns National Recognition

    LUDLOW — Accident-free operation of the Stony Brook Power Plant during 2009 has earned the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC) recognition in a national safety awards program. The plant is also approaching six years without a lost-time accident, a record that reflects the high priority placed on safety in operating and maintaining Stony Brook facilities, including approximately 527 megawatts of electric generation, a natural gas pipeline, oil storage tanks, electric transmission lines, and other facilities, according to MMWEC CEO Ronald DeCurzio. Recognition of the Stony Brook safety record came through the Safety Awards of Excellence program sponsored by the American Public Power Assoc. At a time when MMWEC is planning to build a new, 280-megawatt power plant at its Stony Brook site, and in light of a recent power-plant accident in Connecticut, the importance of safe operations rises to an even higher level, added DeCurzio. Stony Brook operators are certified in all aspects of plant operations, and their dedication to safety is reflected in the plant’s outstanding safety record, said DeCurzio. MMWEC is a nonprofit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that provides a wide range of power-supply, financial, risk-management, and other services to the state’s consumer-owned municipal utilities.

    ReStore, Pecoy Work Together on Green Project

    WILBRAHAM — Deconstruction has begun on a home at 9 Peak Road on Wilbraham Mountain in a collaborative effort between Pecoy Signature Homes and ReStore, the nonprofit entity that specializes in reusing building materials. The 1,900-square-foot home is a wood-frame cape built originally as a ranch in 1953. A second floor was added in the 1980s. Pecoy acquired the home in 2008 from the previous owner, who undertook the building of a new, more energy- and space-efficient home at another location. Once cleared, the home site will be available for purchase and the building of a new home with spectacular views of the Pioneer Valley. This project represents the second deconstruction by Pecoy in the region and allows for most of the structure to be recycled and reused, and available at ReStore’s Springfield store. ReStore Director John Majercak notes that the use of this ‘green’ waste management will save and reuse upward of 80% of the materials from the home, putting less pressure on landfills and other waste-disposal methods and providing inexpensive building materials for do-it-yourselfers and small contractors. ReStore is an enterprise of the Center for Ecological Technology, a nonprofit community environmental organization with offices in Northampton and Pittsfield.

    Big Y Donates To Haiti Effort

    SPRINGFIELD — Through an in-store customer-donation program, Big Y World Class Markets recently made a donation of more than $108,000 to the American Red Cross International Response Fund – Haiti Relief and Development, as well as Florida-based Hope for Haiti. All 56 Big Y World Class Markets collected donations from customers and employees, and Big Y CEO Donald D’Amour and his wife, Michele, Big Y’s educational partnership administrator, personally added another $10,000 to Hope for Haiti. The funds are expected to bring a half-million dollars worth of medical supplies to that nation.

    Defense Department Recognizes Peter Pan for Safety

    SPRINGFIELD — Coaches for Peter Pan Bus Lines travel more than 25 million miles a year, and every day and every trip, drivers put safety first, the company says. Peter Pan recently announced that once again it achieved the highest safety rating from the U.S. Department of Defense. Peter Pan works on a contract basis with the department, moving troops to and from their annual training commitments, transporting recruits to training centers, and serving students, including the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. Pentagon staffers inspect all bus carriers to ensure they are in compliance with the standards set by the Department of Defense.

    Departments

    ADDY Awards

    The Advertising Club of Western Mass. staged its annual ADDY Awards on March 18 at CityStage. A total of 141 entries were received from 31 agencies, companies, and individuals in Western Mass., and 32% of the entrants received awards. Above, Rob and Damia Stewart of Rob & Damia Design receive their award for Best in Show (for ‘Transit Authority Figures Poster Campaign’) from Barbara Perry, Ad Club president. At left, Amy Scribner, assistant vice president and senior marketing administrator for Hampden Bank, accepts an ADDY from Perry for one of the bank’s 2009 ad campaigns.


    Safety First

    Jewish Geriatric Services (JGS) was recently recognized with the 2009 Leadership in Safety Award by CNA HealthPro, a leading health care insurer. The award honors an organization with a commitment to patient/resident safety and a leadership team that consistently demonstrates efforts to improve the quality and safety of care services. It was presented by Bruce Dmytrow, vice president of CNA Global Specialty Lines, to JGS leadership and senior staff. Representatives of FieldEddy Insurance, partners in this effort, also attended. Pictured are, from left, FieldEddy representatives Kevin Munsell, Teresa Petit de Mange, and Executive Vice President Timothy Marini; Alan Rosenfeld, JGS president and CEO; Linda Donoghue, JGS COO and CNO; Dmytrow; Martha Finkel-Ceppetelli, vice chairman of the JGS board of directors; Mary Ryan, CNA risk introduction consultant; and Michael Hurwitz, chairman of the JGS board of directors.

    Departments

    Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield
    www.myonlinechamber.com
    (413) 787-1555

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield
    www.springfieldyps.com

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce
    www.amherstarea.com

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Chicopee Chamber of Commerce
    www.chicopeechamber.org
    (413) 594-2101

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Franklin County Chamber of Commerce
    www.franklincc.org
    (413) 773-5463

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce
    www.easthamptonchamber.org
    (413) 527-9414

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce
    www.holycham.com
    (413) 534-3376

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce
    www.explorenorthampton.com
    (413) 584-1900

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Quaboag Hills Chamber of Commerce
    www.qvcc.biz
    (413) 283-2418

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    South Hadley/Granby Chamber of Commerce
    www.shchamber.com
    (413) 532-6451

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Three Rivers Chamber of Commerce
    www.threeriverschamber.org
    413-283-6425

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce
    www.westfieldbiz.org
    (413) 568-1618

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Features
    Extreme Makeover Inspires Leadership Conference Focused on Community
    Momentum Builder

    Caron Hobin said this year’s conference will promote the power of community.

    Caron Hobin says Bay Path College’s experiences with last summer’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition project in Suffield provided some unforgettable moments and poignant life lessons.

    Chief among them, she continued, was a realization of the “power of community,” an eye-opening experience that ultimately created the theme — Community Matters — for Bay Path’s 15th Annual Women’s Leadership Conference, to be staged April 30 at the MassMutual Center in Springfield.

    “It was a great experience, and after it was finished, we wanted to keep the momentum going,” said Hobin, vice president of planning and student development at Bay Path, who noted that the college hosted a pre-build rally for volunteers and builders last June, and its students joined thousands of others who helped build a four-bedroom home for a family of 13.

    To build on those experiences, Hobin, who has coordinated the leadership conference since its inception, carefully chose speakers who could convey the importance of community and the many forms that word can take. And she asked those chosen to delve deeply into meaningful and relevant topics that concern women in today’s workplace and world.

    “Community Matters will not only deal with geographic and workplace issues, but how we function in them,” said Hobin. “The conference is jam-packed with content. There will be skill-building sessions with information people can use right away in their jobs. There will also be amazing, inspirational stories about women who have persevered or who are great examples of overcoming adversity. They will talk about their career paths and will approach topics from a variety of perspectives, ranging from illness to family responsibilities to work and incorporating education into a busy schedule.

    “I am hoping people will come away asking themselves questions about how they interact with others,” she continued, “how it makes a difference in not only who their community is, but what their responsibility is to it.”

    The conference will be staged from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $250, or $225 for Bay Path alumni, before April 10. After that date, all seats are $300. For tickets, reservations, or more information, visitwww.baypath.eduor call (413) 565-1066 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (413) 565-1066      end_of_the_skype_highlighting or (800) 782-7284, ext. 1066.

    Diverse Speakers

    Keynote speaker Soledad O’Brien is an anchor and special correspondent for CNN: Special Investigations Unit. Her work, which has included documentaries and in-depth series on ongoing and breaking news stories, has earned O’Brien numerous awards. They include the Soledad O’Brien Freedom’s Voice Award, created in her honor by Community Voices at the Morehouse School of Medicine, which she will receive this month for her accomplishments, commitment to cover challenging stories, and willingness to be a voice for people unable to speak for themselves.

    O’Brien will discuss the conflict between paying attention to her own career and meeting her mother’s expectations, which all revolved around family. “She will discuss the pressure to be everything to everyone,” Hobin said. “It will be nice for women to know they can hold up a mirror and say, ‘her story is a reflection of my life.’”

    Lunchtime speakers will be Leigh Anne Tuohy and her daughter, Collins Tuohy, who will share their inspiring story about adoption, made famous by the book and movie The Blind Side.

    The story chronicles their meeting and eventual adoption of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All-American football player and first-round NFL draft pick. Hobin said the Tuohys will share their experience and discuss how their personal definition of community has changed since the adoption.

    Afternoon keynote speakers will be Nicholas Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Times, and Somaly Mam, a Cambodian human-rights activist and founder of the Somaly Mam Foundation. They will discuss their work in the global community and provide concrete ways for women to make a difference.

    Mam, who has won many awards and was touted by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential women in the world in 2009, has written a book titled The Road of Lost Innocence.

    Hobin calls her story “unbelievable.”

    “She was sold to a brothel when she was a young teen by a man who posed as her grandfather,” she said. “Her story is so similar to that of other young girls, especially those in Southeast Asia.”

    Kristof has also won many awards, including his first Pulitzer for coverage of China’s Tiananmen Square democracy movement and his second for a series of columns which focused on genocide in Darfur.

    Breaking Out

    The day will include morning and afternoon breakout sessions focused on skill- building. Syndicated national columnist and best selling author Alexandra Levit will lead a program called “They Don’t Teach Corporate in College/Millennial Tweet.”

    Levit will discuss what women need to know about transitioning within the corporate culture. “She will address pitfalls that can cause young people to fail, which range from dress to protocol to hiereracy,” Hobin said.

    Visael (Bobby) Rodriguez, chief diversity officer for Baystate Health, will speak on “Creating an Inclusive Work Community.” His seminar will address assumptions people make about diversity and how to be more sensitive when communicating with others.

    Diane Holman, vice president and chief learning officer for Raytheon Leadership and Innovative Learning, will focus on “Political Savvy at Work: How to Get Noticed by Executives Looking to Identify Rising Talent.”

    Hobin said this talk will be meaningful to any woman who has reached a plateau in her career or is frustrated at work. The presentation will lead women to self-examination and behaviors that may have stalled their own advancement within the workplace. “Diane will take things to the next level and talk about how women can institute changes in their behavior.”

    There will also be a panel discussion on “Work, Education, and Family Life.”

    Hobin said the day’s theme was inspired by lessons learned during Bay Path’s involvement with the ABC television show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, which uses volunteers and donated materials to do complete makeovers or rebuilds of homes for selected, deserving families across the nation.

    Following that model, she explained, the conference will allow women to become involved without making a major time commitment so they can make a difference in a meaningful way that realistically fits into their busy lives.

    Departments

    The following building permits were issued during the month of March 2010.

    AGAWAM

    Six Flags New England
    1623 Main St.
    $500,000 — Construct New Wave Room building

    AMHERST

    Northampton Cooperative
    390 College St.
    $4,800 — Interior renovations

    CHICOPEE

    First Central Baptist Church
    50 Broadway St.
    $4,000 — Add two dividing walls to create office space

    Front Street Associates, LLC
    918 Front St.
    $18,000 — Convert garage into church

    EAST LONGMEADOW

    American Saw
    301 Chestnut St.
    $132,000 — Commercial renovation

    Doblewood, LLC
    265 Benton Dr.
    $43,000 — Erection of partitions to create office space

    Dr. James Freeman, M.D.
    265 Benton Dr.
    $228,000 — Interior office fit out

    GREENFIELD

    Fair Business, LLC
    74 Fairview St.
    $5,000 — Addition on existing dock to create interior space

    Makunda Feldman
    1 Bank Row
    $4,000 — Installation of coffee service bar

    HADLEY

    Alandev, LLC
    245 Russell St.
    $6,200 — Renovate interior walls and doors

    Justin Thatcher
    206 Russell St.
    $6,500 — Remodel an existing storefront

    Vidoc Corporation
    234 Russell St.
    $57,000 — Creating five new offices from unfinished space

    John Regish
    8 River Dr.
    $6,000 — Minor interior alterations

    LUDLOW

    Town of Ludlow
    1 Rooney Road
    $5,000 — Insulation and sheetrock at Baird Middle School

    NORTHAMPTON

    41 Main LLC
    41 Main St.
    $8,250 — Expansion of waiting room

     

    Biapita, LLC
    15 Cherry St.
    $8,000 — Install new vinyl siding

    Florence Family Enterprises
    99 Main St.
    $4,000 — Remove door and repair wall

    Gina Auyvazian
    25 New South St.
    $8,350 — Renovation to unit 205

    Kollmorgen Electro Optical
    50 Prince St.
    $70,000 — Construct new two-story commercial building

    Lilly & Bennett Gaev
    94 King St.
    $5,410 — Interior renovations

    Thorne’s Marketplace, LLC
    150 Main St.
    $3,800 — Interior renovations

    SPRINGFIELD

    1350 Main St., LLC
    1350 Main St.
    $46,000 — Tenant fit out

    Baystate Health
    360 Main St.
    $3,300,000 — Laboratory expansion

    City of Springfield
    1550 Main St.
    $1,610,000 — Renovate second and third floors for the City of Springfield School Department

    PVTA
    2840 Main St.
    $276,000 — Interior office and bathroom renovations

    Raymour & Flanagan
    665 Boston Road
    $20,000 — Interior renovations

    WESTFIELD

    Peabody Properties
    126 Union St.
    $3,000 — Repairs

    WEST SPRINGFIELD

    Lyons Package Store
    1399 Westfield St.
    $3,000 — roof repair

    Paul Zombik
    79 Wayside Ave.
    $10,000 — Interior renovation of office space

    Superior Pearson Partnership
    92 Interstate Dr.
    $120,000 — Interior fit out of 5,000 square feet of office space

    Departments

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

    Ace Industrial Cleaning
    Minutillo, Gary D.
    Minutillo, Susan A.
    P.O. Box 262
    South Hadley, MA 01075
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/17/10

    Akey, Terry G.
    367 King Road
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Arroyo, Manuel
    Arroyo, Debra M.
    46 Aldrew Ter.
    Springfield, MA 01119
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/17/10

    Barnard, Alfred A.
    Barnard, Marcia A.
    148 Glen Oak Dr.
    Springfield, MA 01129
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/22/10

    Barton, Roderick R.
    65 Oak Grove Ave.
    Springfield, MA 01109
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/18/10

    Bartram, Tela J.
    21 Robbins Road
    Ware, MA 01082
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/16/10

    Beals, Elliott
    140 Joy St.
    Chicopee, MA 01020
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/20/10

    Beauvais, Robert A.
    350 Secret Lake Road
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/23/10

    Bennett, James M.
    Bennett, Cynthia E.
    80 Brooks Village Road
    Phillipston, MA 01331
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Bonk, Stephen E.
    Bonk, Tyara M.
    41 Johnson Road
    Orange, MA 01364
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/23/10

    Bourdeau, Lynne
    P.O. Box 213
    Easthampton, MA 01027
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/22/10

    Briggs, Charles L.
    Briggs, Michele C.
    290 Daniels Road
    North Adams, MA 01247
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/16/10

    Burchstead, Jason R.
    74 Goodale St.
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/27/10

    Carnute, Michael J.
    14 Summit Ave.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/24/10

    Charest, Tina L.
    239 Regency Park Dr.
    Agawam, MA 01001
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/22/10

    Chechile, Michael C.
    Chechile, Krista D.
    15 Skipper Lane
    Westfield, MA 01085
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Cognac, Raymond Henry
    121 Nonotuck St., Apt. 3A
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Covington, Bettie T.
    54 Odgen St.
    Indian Orchard, MA 01151
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/23/10

    Crotti, Linda C.
    1367 Westfield St.
    West Springfield, MA 01089
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/18/10

    Crowley, Erin C.
    a/k/a Sicard, Erin C.
    73 Barrett St. #1004
    Northampton, MA 01060
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/23/10

    Crowley, Gary Michael
    Crowley, Susan Ann
    50 Cooley Ave.
    East Longmeadow, MA 01028
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/16/10

    Crowley, Gina Marie
    27 Blaine St.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/24/10

    Cruz, Bjarney A.
    393 Jarvis Ave.
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Dean, Scott F.
    Dean, Rebecca S.
    146 Jones Ave.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/16/10

    Delmolino, Mary P.
    193 Elberon Ave., Apt. 15
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/19/10

    deSouza, Jose Goncalves
    21 Pond St.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/19/10

    Dimare, Joseph S.
    190 West River St.
    Orange, MA 01364
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/16/10

    Drollett, Margaret A.
    93 Forest Glen
    West Springfield, MA 01089
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Dussault, Deborah A.
    a/k/a Nelson, Deborah A.
    151 Mort Vining Road
    Southwick, MA 01077
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/23/10

    Eccher, Nicholas J.
    52 Fuller St.
    Lee, MA 01238
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/24/10

    Edwards, Michael D.
    Edwards, Brenda L.
    38 Sturbridge Road
    Brimfield, MA 01010
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Egnitz, John E.
    200 Woodland Road
    Southborough, MA 01772
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Erickson, Robert M.
    3 Harwich Road
    East Longmeadow, MA 01028
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/22/10

    Extreme Electric & Security
    Janes, Joseph Leroy
    136 Number Nine Road
    Heath, MA 01346
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/18/10

    Foote, Robert A.
    Tassone, Karen F.
    a/k/a Joseph, Karen L.
    8 Grand View Ter.
    Adams, MA 01220
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Gardner, Dorothy Maria
    PO Box 522
    Ware, MA 01082
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/17/10

    Garneau, Tracy E.
    1111 North St.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/28/10

    Gentile, Todd A.
    8 Kingsberry Lane
    Ware, MA 01082
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/18/10

    Gomez, Norma
    134 Union St., Apt 58
    Westfield, MA 01085
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/27/10

    Grady, Scott D.
    32 Parkside Ave.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/21/10

    Green, William R.
    Green, Lisa M.
    72 Susan Dr.
    Westfield, MA 01085
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/19/10

    Greene, Kimberly A.
    46 Riverboat Village Road
    South Hadley, MA 01075
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/27/10

    Grimaldi, Aleesha R.
    16 America St., Apt. E
    Chicopee, MA 01013-1467
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/24/10

    Gustave, Michael Richard
    Gustave, Christina Marie
    71 High Knob Road
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Haggerty, Thomas
    1785 Carew St.
    Springfield, MA 01104
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Hamamjian, Pamela L.
    111 Milton St.
    Florence, MA 01062
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/22/10

    Jackhammer Charters
    Carpenter, John D.
    Carpenter, Beverly M.
    64 Apple Road
    Brimfield, MA 01010
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/18/10

    Jones, Graham
    Jones, Kimberly A.
    85 Powdermill Road
    Southwick, MA 01077
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/24/10

    Khanna, Ashok Kumar
    Khanna, Sharda
    199 Reservoir Road
    Ludlow, MA 01056
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/18/10

    Kusek, Thomas Eugene
    59 New Ludlow Road
    Apt. 10-D
    Chicopee, MA 01020
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    LaBarre, Edward J.
    LaBarre, Cristina M.
    a/k/a LaBarre, Christina M.
    21 Orchard St.
    Belchertown, MA 01007
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/22/10

    Ladeau, Michael K.
    Ladeau, Janelle A.
    115 Walnut Hill Road
    Orange, MA 01364
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/17/10

    Larsen, Jeffrey S.
    Larsen, Karla S.
    15 Kimberly Dr.
    Southwick, MA 01077-9407
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/24/10

     

    Lavoice, Warren A.
    181 Barnard Road
    Granville, MA 01034
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/28/10

    LeBlanc, Lee M.
    LeBlanc, Jeanne M.
    235 Beacon St.
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/22/10

    Letourneau, Mary Louise
    31 Union St.
    Greenfield, MA 01301
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/17/10

    Levinson, Arthur R.
    16 Merriweather Dr.
    Longmeadow, MA 01106
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Liriano, Oneida
    472 Front St.
    Chicopee, MA 01013
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/27/10

    Lombardi, Michael A.
    89 Dalton Ave., Apt. #3
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Lukomski, Oleg
    Lukomski, Ella I.
    29 Charles St.
    Agawam, MA 01001
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/17/10

    Lynde, Clara E.
    a/k/a Hardy, Clara E.
    7 West Road
    Bernardston, MA 01337
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/16/10

    Mara, Kristen
    a/k/a Cichocki, Kristen
    22 Liberty St.
    Florence, MA 01062
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    McCollor, Gerald B.
    167 Hapgood St.
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/27/10

    McMahon, Paul D.
    McMahon, Janice E.
    a/k/a Bartak, Janice
    a/k/a Bartha, Janice
    1548 Mohawk Trail
    Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/19/10

    McManus, Courtney Sarah
    P.O. Box 693
    Hadley, MA 01035
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Mercado, Joana M.
    23 Chapman St.
    Indian Orchard, MA 01151
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/19/10

    Mitchell, Terry
    a/k/a Thomas, Terry C.
    a/k/a Mitchell, Terry C.
    1179 Berkshire Ave.
    Indian Orchard, MA 01151
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/23/10

    Morse, Shanon J.
    Morse, Andrea L.
    a/k/a Bell, Andrea L.
    33 Iroquois St.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/17/10

    Neis, Richard A.
    32 White Fox Road
    Feeding Hills, MA 01030
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Oakland, Lawrence A.
    79 Russell Road
    Westfield, MA 01085
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/24/10

    Patruno, Joseph J.
    Patruno, Maryann C.
    a/k/a Patruno, Maryann
    155 Jackson St.
    Belchertown, MA 01007
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Pavey, Anne Marie
    24 Upland Road
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Pecevich, Peter James
    24 Grandview Ter.
    Barre, MA 01005
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Penna, Cheryl M.
    a/k/a Collamore, Cheryl M.
    488 Stony Hill Road
    Wilbraham, MA 01095
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/23/10

    Penna, Michael J.
    488 Stony Hill Road
    Wilbraham, MA 01095
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/23/10

    Pieffer, Ian Marc
    Pieffer, Kimberly Marie
    a/k/a Waller, Kimberly M.
    159 Farnsworth St.
    Chicopee, MA 01013
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/18/10

    Purchase, William T.
    Purchase, Diane E.
    9 Corona St.
    Springfield, MA 01104
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Ramos, Lilliam E.
    21 Mooreland St.
    Springfield, MA 01104
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/24/10

    Ratte, Catherine Marion
    a/k/a Miller, Catherine M.
    24 Western Ave.
    Northampton, MA 01060
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Regal Construction
    Regal Real Estate
    Scott, Kyle Jeffrey
    103 Millers Falls Road
    Turners Falls, MA 01376
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Renaud Builders
    Renaud, Philip M.
    Renaud, Tammy L.
    35 Apple Road
    Brimfield, MA 01010
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/24/10

    Rivera, Wallis
    Rivera, Enrique
    9 Hymeston Slope
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Rodriguez, Edgardo
    27 Springdale Ave.
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Rodriguez, Valeria R.
    10 Chestnut St., Apt.
    Springfield, MA 01103
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/24/10

    Routhier, Esther C.
    75 Parsons St., Apt. S
    Easthampton, MA 01027
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/22/10

    Rueli, Sally
    47 Riverview St.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Santaniello, Robert A.
    76 Main St.
    Wilbraham, MA 01095
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/22/10

    Schab, Pamela M.
    5 Sullivan St.
    Chicopee, MA 01020
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/18/10

    Serrenho, Lynne M.
    48 Tiderman Road
    Wales, MA 01081
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Stager, Ronald H.
    Stager, Janet B.
    93 Grochmal Ave., Lot 1
    Indian Orchard, MA 01151
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Sullivan, Michael J.
    34 Park Slope
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Thomas, Robert G.
    Hachey-Thomas, Linda A.
    14 Monska Dr.
    Easthampton, MA 01027
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Valentin, Cynthia
    Acevedo, Stanley
    291 Chapin Ter.
    Springfield, MA 01104
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/23/10

    Vanalstyne, Valinda L.
    63 Champlain St.
    Springfield, MA 01151
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/23/10

    Vazquez, Anthony
    110 Oklahoma St.
    Springfield, MA 01104
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/24/10

    Vazquez, Dianna M.
    a/k/a Velez, Dianna
    316 Tokeneke Road
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Velazquez, Carmen T.
    16 Hall St., 1st Fl.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Widner, Elizabeth Jean
    71A Elm St.
    Hatfield, MA 01038
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/17/10

    Wood, Morgan W.
    141 Glendale Road
    Southampton, MA 01073
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/18/10

    Yorke, David W.
    73 Cliff St.
    North Adams, MA 01247
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Yos, David L.
    20 Sydney Ave.
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Yos, Jacqueline
    a/k/a Cartagena, Jacqueline
    20 Sydney Ave.
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/26/10

    Zebrowski, Ronald S.
    61 Chestnut St.
    Chicopee, MA 01013
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/18/10

    Zomek, Jody Ann
    1639 Suffield St.
    Agawam, MA 01001
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/25/10

    Departments

    Greening the Valley

    Through May 9: For the first time in the region, a landmark exhibition on sustainable, contemporary architecture and environmentally sensitive building practices will take place at the University Gallery, Fine Arts Center, UMass Amherst. “Greening the Valley” is designed to deepen the public’s understanding and use of ‘green’ design, while demonstrating that the key elements of sustainability can be accessible to all. Through models, photographs, and virtual tours, the exhibition unites diverse works from large-scale science buildings to private residences, low-income housing, and intimate gardens of natural inspiration. For more information, visit www.umass.edu/fac/universitygallery.

    Communication and Leadership Conference

    April 7: Local professionals and students will have the chance to network with and learn from leaders in business and media during Western New England College’s Communication and Leadership Conference from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the main campus in Springfield. The conference features a variety of workshops that will help participants improve their leadership skills and better promote their messages. The conference kicks off with the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield’s April Breakfast Club meeting, featuring the results of a WNEC Polling Institute market survey on the image of Springfield. Following the breakfast, participants will choose from a range of workshops designed to sharpen skills, explore new technologies, and network with fellow professionals. Conference fees (including breakfast and lunch) are $140 for business professionals, $120 for members of nonprofits, and $70 for students. To register or for more information, call (413) 782-1249 or visit www.wnec.edu/communications.

    Marketing Basics

    April 7: The Mass. Small Business Development Center Network will host a workshop titled “Marketing Basics” from 9 to 11 a.m. in the TD Bank community room, 175 Main St., Northampton. The workshop will focus on the basic disciplines of marketing, beginning with research — primary, secondary, qualitative, and quantitative. The core focus will be on developing and keeping a customer. The cost is $35. For more information, call (413) 737-6712 or visit www.msbdc.org/wmass.  

    Shining Stars Awards Banquet

    April 9: The Chicopee Chamber of Commerce will honor the recipients of the prestigious Shining Stars Awards at its annual event at the Castle of Knights on Memorial Drive. This is the premier event of the year for the Chicopee business community. For more information on reservations and sponsorships, call (413) 594-2101 or visit www.chicopeechamber.org.

    Master of Management Program Day

    April 10: Cambridge College-Springfield will host a Master of Management Program Day beginning at 9 a.m. at 570 Cottage St., Springfield. Participants are invited to attend a Master of Management class and learn about the blended-learning format in which classroom attendance one weekend per month is supplemented with online discussions. The event is free and open to the public. To register or for more information, call (800) 829-4723, ext. 6623, or e-mail [email protected].   

    Social Media Plan

    April 15: “The Small Business Experience/Creating a Social Media Plan” is the theme of a morning workshop hosted by the Mass. Small Business Development Center Network. The workshop will be presented by Derek Allard of Gravity Switch in Northampton and Shalini Bahl of iAM Business Consulting of Amherst, and is planned from 9 a.m. to noon at the Scibelli Enterprise Center, 1 Federal St., Springfield.  Highlights of the day include developing a social-media plan based on one’s business purpose, social-media purpose, target audience, and resources. The cost is $40. For more information, call (413) 737-6712 or visit www.msbdc.org/wmass.   

    CloudCamp Western Mass.

    April 20: CloudCamp Western Mass. will be conducted at the National Science Foundation-funded ICT Center at Springfield Technical Community College from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m. Cloud computing is a new generation of technology that uses a shared pool of remote, configurable computing resources. The event provides a chance to meet, discuss, share ideas, and advance knowledge and understanding of cloud computing. Developers, decision makers, end users, and vendors from New England are invited to participate in the event. Show organizers are CloudCamp co-founder Dave Nielsen, the ICT Center, and TNR Global. For more information, visit www.ictcenter.org or www.stcc.edu.   

    Twitter & Blogs

    April 22: Derek Allard of Gravity Switch in Northampton will present a workshop titled “Twitter & Blogs” from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Scibelli Enterprise Center, 1 Federal St., Springfield. Allard will discuss the basics — what they are, why to use them, and how to get started. The cost is $40. For more information, call (413) 737-6712 or visit www.msbdc.org/wmass.  

    LinkedIn & Facebook

    April 29: Derek Allard of Gravity Switch in Northampton will present a workshop titled “LinkedIn & Facebook” from 9 to 11 a.m. at the Scibelli Enterprise Center, 1 Federal St., Springfield. Allard will discuss the basics — what they are, why to use them, and how to get started. The cost is $40. For more information, call (413) 737-6712 or visit www.msbdc.org/wmass.

    Women’s Leadership Conference

    April 30: “Community Matters” is the theme of Bay Path College’s 15th annual Women’s Leadership Conference at the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.  Guest speakers will include Soledad O’Brien, television broadcast correspondent and host of CNN’s In America series; Leigh Anne and Collins Tuohy, inspirational mother and daughter from the Oscar-nominated film and book The Blind Side; Somaly Mam, human-rights advocate and author of The Road of Lost Innocence; and Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Times and co-author of the bestselling book Half the Sky. For more information, call (413) 565-1000 or visit www.baypath.edu.  Early-bird registration is by April 10; the cost is $250 for the general public or $225 for Bay Path alumni.

    Evening of Hope Gala

    May 8: The American Cancer Society’s 2010 Evening of Hope Gala will be staged at the Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place Hotel from 6 p.m. to midnight. The black-tie affair will include a formal dinner, dancing, and silent auction. For more information, contact Regina Pattison at (802) 257-8908 or e-mail [email protected].

    Deliver Perfect Pitch

    May 12: Learn concrete and easy-to-master tools to help you in every sales situation no matter what the environment or what you sell during “Deliver the Perfect Pitch,” 9 to 11 a.m., at the Scibelli Enterprise Center, 1 Federal St., Springfield. Sheldon Snodgrass of www.steadysales.com, Williamsburg, will be the presenter. The program is sponsored by the Mass. Small Business Development Center Network. Cost is $40. For more information, call (413) 737-6712 or visit www.msbdc.org/wmass.

    Business Plan Basics

    May 20: The Mass. Small Business Development Center Network will host “Business Plan Basics” from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Amherst Town Hall, first-floor meeting room, 4 Boltwood Walk, Amherst. The workshop will focus on management fundamentals, from start-up considerations through business-plan development. Topics will include financing, marketing, and business planning. The cost is $35. For more information, call (413) 737-6712 or visit www.msbdc.org/wmass.  

    Joomla! Workshop

    May 26: Tamar Schanfeld of TnR Global Joomla! Services of Greenfield will present a daylong boot camp on creating an interactive Web site for small business. The workshop is planned from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Scibelli Enterprise Center, 1 Federal St., Springfield. Topics include ‘learn to plan your site,’ ‘enter and edit content and menus,’ and ‘install extensions.’ Comfort with Microsoft Word and an Internet browser is required. The workshop does not include e-commerce or shopping-cart features. The cost is $75. For more information, call (413) 737-6712 or visit www.msbdc.org/wmass.

    Features
    Stretching Is a Key Component of an Exercise Regimen
    Loose and Limber

    Dr. Michael Craig says the injuries attributable to inadequate stretching before exercise are common to all ages, but older people often encounter a longer recovery time.

    Despite all the talk of an obesity epidemic and kids who spend too much time indoors, Americans are generally well-aware of the benefits of exercise, said Dr. Michael Craig.

    “The good news is that people of all ages are exercising and working out,” said Craig, an orthopedic surgeon at Mercy Medical Center. He added, however, that stretching — the manner in which someone warms up before physical activity and cools down afterward — can have an impact not only on the effectiveness of the workout, but on risk of injury.

    “The importance of stretching really exists for every age group,” he explained. “In the young, growing athlete, it’s important to stretch to maintain the flexibility of the joint so they don’t get injured. A young person can have tight hamstrings and a tight heel cord, so it’s good to be mobilized before they go out and compete.”

    Fortunately, he said, young people tend to be the best-educated age group when it comes to stretching because youth sports coaches are so well-versed in its importance.

    “They make sure young athletes stretch,” Craig said. “Some early teens may feel it’s not cool to stretch, but when the coach insists, it happens. All it takes it one pulled muscle or a pulled ligament or tendon to keep them off the field for a few months.”

    For middle-aged athletes, the issue isn’t what’s cool, but what’s fast. And seeing stretching as an unnecessary demand on one’s time can lead to trouble, Craig said.

    “People have demands — jobs, families — and sometimes when they get to the gym to work out, they don’t feel stretching is an important part of their workout. They have limited time, so they don’t want to go to the mat and stretch; they want to get on the machine or start lifting weights.”

    The problem, he said, is that many people, outside of their set exercise routines, work sitting down or otherwise have sedentary lifestyles. “They’re not moving around very much, and as people get older, they lose muscle mass. Not stretching before exercise is a good way to pull a muscle.”

    People approaching the retirement years are at even greater risk of injury, he said. But although exercise-related injuries related to tight muscles aren’t necessarily more severe in old people, the recovery time is often much longer than it is for a teenager.

    “Athletes don’t heal as well at 40 than they do at 12. It takes longer to get it back,” Craig explained. “The natural aging process means we lose muscle mass as the years go by, and if an injury sidelines you, it can be tougher to get back to your pre-injury status than when you were 12 or 14.”

    Getting Warmer

    The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons touts stretching as not just an activity performed before and after a workout, but an essential part of that workout.

    “An effective fitness program is more than aerobic training and strength building,” the AAOS asserts. “To really reap the benefits of exercise, you need to add flexibility training to the mix.”

    Simply put, the academy notes, the more flexible someone is, the less likely they are to be injured during exercise. A good warmup prepares the body for more intense activity, gets the blood flowing, raises muscle temperature, and increases breathing rate — all of which gives the body time to adjust to the demands of exercise and even improves performance.

    Just as a warmup prepares the body for exercise, an effective cooldown period gives the body time to recover, the academy notes. A cooldown begins by gradually decreasing the intensity level at the end of an exercise session.

    “For example,” the AAOS suggests, “if you have been walking at a quick pace, begin cooling down by slowing your steps and taking your arms out of the movement. Walk at a comfortable pace until your breathing and heart rate have returned to normal. Once you are breathing easily, stretch while your muscles are still warm.”

    Specific types of stretches applicable to various situations may be found on the academy’s Web site, www.aaos.org. In addition, the Mayo Clinic offers the following advice to achieve proper stretching.

  • Target major muscle groups. When stretching, focus on the calves, thighs, hips, lower back, neck, and shoulders. Also stretch muscles and joints routinely used at work or play.

  • Warm up first. Injury can result from stretching cold muscles. A pre-stretch warmup may include walking while gently pumping the arms, or doing a favorite exercise at low intensity for five to 10 minutes. Stretching after exercise, when the muscles are warm and more receptive to stretching, is also key.
  • Pace yourself. It takes time to lengthen tissues safely. Each stretch should be held for about 30 seconds, then repeated on the other side. The process may be repeated three or four times.
  • Don’t bounce. Bouncing while stretching can cause small tears in the muscle. These tears leave scar tissue as the muscle heals, which tightens the muscle even further — making the athlete less flexible and more prone to pain.
  • Focus on a pain-free stretch. Feeling tension while stretching is normal. But if it hurts, the activity has gone too far. The athlete should back off to the point where there is no pain, then hold the stretch.
  • Relax and breathe freely. It’s not helpful to hold one’s breath while stretching.
  • Know when to exercise caution. It’s not just about a formal workout routine; stretching can be done anytime and anywhere — in the home, at work, or while traveling. However, someone with a chronic condition or an injury may need to alter his or her approach to stretching. For example, stretching a strained muscle may cause further harm. A doctor or physical therapist can advise an individual on the best way to stretch.
  • Outside the Box

    Some exercise trends promote stretching as an intrinsic part of the workout, Craig said, noting the rising popularity of yoga and even a high-impact variation known as ‘extreme yoga.’

    “Yoga has become extremely popular and has been very helpful for older or middle-aged athletes,” he said. “It’s basically a form of exercise, but it’s also maintaining and stretching the joints and muscles. And that’s a good thing.”

    After all, why shouldn’t the definition of exercise be flexible, too?

    Joseph Bednar can be reached at

    [email protected]

    Departments

    Helping Hand

    Employees of the Springfield office of the Department of Workforce Development were moved by the needs of the people of Haiti following the Jan. 12 earthquake. Over a period of one week, staff volunteered their time to host a ‘goodie sale’ in the workplace, raising $730 for the Haiti Relief and Development Efforts with the American Red Cross. Here, Department of Workforce Development employees Marion Smreck (left) and Linda Luckey (right) present the donation to Paige Thayer, deputy director of Chapter Support for the American Red Cross Pioneer Valley Chapter.


    Safety First

    Jewish Geriatric Services (JGS) was recently recognized with the 2009 Leadership in Safety Award by CNA HealthPro, a leading health care insurer. It was presented by Bruce Dmytrow, vice president of CNA Global Specialty Lines, to JGS leadership and senior staff. Representatives of FieldEddy Insurance, partners in this effort, also attended. Pictured are, from left, FieldEddy representatives Kevin Munsell, Teresa Petit de Mange, and Executive Vice President Timothy Marini; Alan Rosenfeld, JGS president and CEO; Linda Donoghue, JGS COO and CNO; Dmytrow; Martha Finkel-Ceppetelli, vice chairman of the JGS board of directors; Mary Ryan, CNA risk introduction consultant; and Michael Hurwitz, chairman of the JGS board of directors.


    The Big Picture

    Members of the Geitz family gather around the portrait of Dr. Robert C. Geitz, second president of Springfield Technical Community College. The portrait, unveiled at a reception on Feb. 21, will be hung in Garvey Hall alongside the portraits of other presidents and school founders.


    Healthcare Workforce Partnership

    The Healthcare Workforce Partnership of Western Mass., a collaborative of area employers, workforce-development leaders, and education providers, staged a legislative gathering on March 5 to provide a progress report on the partnership’s efforts to address projected workforce shortages in many health care fields. The highlight of the gathering was an address by Robert Calaf (above, center), who overcame long odds to become a patient care technician at Baystate Health. He’s seen with representatives of many of the groups that helped him transition into a career in health care. From left are Rexene Picard of FutureWorks; Ann Peterson of the Mass. Career Development Institute (MCDI); Amy Rist of Baystate Health; Chanel Azito, Calaf’s girlfriend and also a participant in the patient care technician program; Calaf; Ivette Cruz of the Puerto Rican Cultural Council; Jean Jackson of Baystate Health; and Tim Sneed of MCDI. Below, left, are three of the featured speakers at the event: from left, Mary Walachy, executive director of the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation; Jean Jackson, vice president of Workforce Planning at Baystate Health; and Kelly Aiken, director at Health Care Initiatives for the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County. Below, right, audience members listen to Aiken’s update on job opportunities in health care.

    Departments Incorporations

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

    AMHERST

    Alpha Pizza Pi Inc., 356 College St. Amherst, MA, 01002. Laurie K. Wiernasz, same. Restaurant.

    Batobox Solutions Inc., 117 Northampton Road, Amherst MA, 01002. Sabato Visconti, same. Consulting and design services.

    CHICOPEE

    A-Z Motors, Inc., 401 Hampden St., Chicopee, MA 01013. Roman Radkovets, same. Used car dealership and auto body shop.

    Champion Overhead Doors Inc., 10 Riverview Ter., Apt. 3 Chicopee, MA 01013. Clifton Daniel Hall, same. Overhead garage door sales and installation.

    Chicopee Street Auto Sales Inc., 363 Chicopee St., Chicopee, MA 01013. Wayne L. Pare Sr., same. Auto sales.

    EASTHAMPTON

    Corbeil & Company Inc., 148 Park St., Easthampton, MA 01027. Eileen Thereses Corbeil, same. Real Estate and related products and services.

    FEEDING HILLS

    Complete Auto Inc., 82 Anvil St., Feeding Hills, MA 01030. Joel Faillace, same. Auto sales and repair.

    GREAT BARRINGTON

    Boho Thrift Inc., 252 Main St., Great Barrington, MA 01230. Kelley M. Keefner, 170 Housatonic St., Lenox, MA 01240. Thrift shop.

    Belchertown Lacross Association Inc., 28 Doe Hollow, Belchertown, MA 01007. Andrew French, same.

    HOLYOKE

    Castlerock Limited, 25 Stanford St., Holyoke, MA 01040. Michael A. Fitz, same.

     

    PITTSFIELD

    Andoz Inc., 413 North St., Number 415 Pittsfield, MA 01201. Ali Abanoz, 117 Union St., Easthampton, MA 01027. Pizza Restaurant.

    Berkshire Building and Remodeling Inc., 163 Leona Dr., Pittsfield, MA 01201. Steven J. Murdock, same. Building construction and remodeling contractor.

    Berkshire Perennial Landscaping Inc., 255 North St., Suite 206, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Everette Gollman, same. Landscaping and maintenance.

    SOUTHWICK

    Ambica Inc., 587 College Highway, Unit B, Southwick, MA 01077. Chirag Patel, 1032 Riverdale St., West Springfield, MA 01089. Convenience store.

    SPRINGFIELD

    A.S.N.S. Landscaping and Shopping Center Maintenance Inc., 64 Pasadena St., Springfield, MA 01108. Aramis Perez, same. Shopping Center maintenance.

    Adolfo’s Restaurant Inc., 254 Worthington St., Springfield, MA, 01103. Victor Bruno, same. Restaurant.

    Asem & Ahmad Inc., 429 Boston Road, Springfield, MA 01109. Asem Aydah, 375 Springfield St., Agawam, MA 0001. Retail and convenience store and gas stations.

    WEST SPRINGFIELD

    Bliny Crepes Tea House Inc., 54 Oleander St., West Springfield, MA 01089. Roman Shtefan, same. Food Service.

    Community Indoor Golf Association of Western Mass. Inc., 1010 Memorial Ave., West Springfield, MA 01089. Tom McElligott, 15F Mansion Woods Dr., Agawam, MA 01001. Indoor golf center.

    WESTFIELD

    C & C Heating & Cooling Inc., 96 Llewellyn Dr., Westfield, MA 01085. Steven C. Burkholder, 5 Brook Road, Enfield, CT 06082. Heating and Cooling sales, service, and installation.

    Departments

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

    Allen, Lisa L.
    a/k/a Whaley, Lisa L.
    930 Conant Road
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/07/10

    Alves, Domingos G.
    Alves, Izilda
    33 Haswell Circle
    Ludlow, MA 01056
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/11/10

    Anderson, Dwayne R.
    170 East Park Ter.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Arce, Juan F.
    60 Hobson St.
    Springfield, MA 01109
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/11/10

    Barnett, Tracie A.
    35 Indian Leap St., Apt. 5
    Indian Orchard, MA 01151
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Bedard, Conrad E.
    75 Pleasant St.
    Apt. B-203
    East Longmeadow, MA 01028
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/01/10

    Bergeron, Kenneth Allen
    73 Hadley Village Road, Unit A
    South Hadley, MA 01075
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Boudreau, Mark A.
    Boudreau, Brenda L.M.
    547 Radcliffe St.
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Brenton, Carolyn E.
    61 Abbey Memorial Dr.
    Park Place Condos
    Chicopee, MA 01020
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/11/10

    Brooks, Agnes E.
    229 Miller St., G-9
    Ludlow, MA 01056
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/01/10

    Brownstein, Bruce Michael
    41 Lillian St.
    Greenfield, MA 01301
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/13/10

    Bruce, Joya
    1039 Berkshire Ave.
    Indian Orchard, MA 01151
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/11/10

    Camilleri, Richard P.
    14 Upland Road
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/12/10

    Carney, Gerald
    18 Heritage Dr.
    Bourne, MA 02532
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/01/10

    Cessarini, Mark P.
    123 Shaine Circle
    Springfield, MA 01104
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/11/10

    Chaffee 3rd Gen Plumbing
    Chaffee, Dennis Bradford
    Miller-Chaffee, Ingrid L.
    10 Country Club Dr.
    Hampden, MA 01036
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/09/101

    Chagnon, Christopher N.
    88 Oakland St.
    Greenfield, MA 01301
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/11/10

    Chagnon, Theresa V.
    15A Elm Ter.
    Greenfield, MA 01301
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/11/10

    Charron, Debbie V.
    101 Prospect St.
    North Adams, MA 01247
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/12/10

    Charron, Norman L.
    101 Prospect St.
    North Adams, MA 01247
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/12/10

    Chest, Erica N.
    101 Hancock St.
    Springfield, MA 01109
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/01/10

    Choiniere, Mark A.
    Choiniere, Pamela J.
    a/k/a Cortis, Pamela
    304 Springdale Road
    Westfield, MA 01085
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Clary, Edward F.
    148 Union St.
    West Springfield, MA 01089
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/09/10

    Courchesne, Craig Allen
    1604 Westover Road
    Chicopee, MA 01020
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/10/10

    Coutu, Gregory Allen
    Coutu, Shauneen Elizabeth
    21 Jewell Lane
    Wilbraham, MA 01095
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Cruz, Laura
    130 Woodmont St.
    Springfield, MA 01104
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/11/10

    Daughtry, Ronald Lester
    76 Ogden St.
    Springfield, MA 01151
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/12/10

    Dewberry, Jerry
    126 Hanson Dr.
    Springfield, MA 01128
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Driscoll, Elaine B.
    190 Colemore St.
    Feeding Hills, MA 01030
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/12/10

    Dustin, Thomas D.
    Dustin, Beth A
    2195 Main St., Apt. A
    West Warren, MA 01092
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/10/10

    Enos, Thomas A.
    453 Page Blvd.
    Springfield, MA 01104
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/14/10

    Erickson, Jason C.
    200 Lambert Ter. #51
    Chicopee, MA 01020
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/11/10

    Exware, Steven
    PO Box 225
    Russell, MA 01071
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/03/10

    Fahey, Eric J.
    214 Wisdom Way
    Greenfield, MA 01301
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/04/10

    Feuerstein, Derrick P.
    72 Barrett St., Unit #215
    Northampton, MA 01060
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Fontaine, Jonathan
    44 Gail St.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/01/10

    Frusciente, Todd J.
    Frusciente, Aimee M.
    a/k/a Daniels, Aimee M.
    152 Cole Ave.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/04/10

    Garcia, Miguel
    491 Bridge Road, Apt. 624
    Florence, MA 01062
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Gilbert, Deborah A.
    19 School St.
    Orange, MA 01364
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/15/10

    Glace, David Randolph
    Hadley at Elaine Care and Rehab Center
    20 North Maple St.
    Hadley, MA 01035
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Gonzalez, Evangelio
    81 Drexel St.
    Springfield, MA 01104
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/01/10

    Green, Ruth S.
    627 South Mountain Road
    Northfield, MA 01360-9686
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Greenlaw, Dorothy M.
    5 Albert St.
    Adams, MA 01220
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/11/10

    Grover, Terry A.
    74 A Lee Lang Ter.
    West Springfield, MA 01089
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Haecker, Patricia A.
    51 Belvidere Ave.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/12/10

    Hall, Kenneth T.
    Hall, Jody
    47 Anthony St.
    Agawam, MA 01001
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/09/10

    Hanks, R. Bryant
    125 Treetop Ave.
    Springfield, MA 01118
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Harrington, Thomas E.
    51 Stratford Ter.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/15/10

    Hawkins, Christopher A.
    376 Fenn St.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Healy, Daniel J.
    64 Circular Ave.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/12/10

    Hennessey, Eileen A.
    32 Roosevelt Ave.
    South Hadley, MA 01075
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

     

    Keefe, James W.
    222 River Road
    South Deerfield, MA 01373
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/09/10

    Keefe, Kelly L.
    27 Eastern Ave.
    South Deerfield, MA 01373
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/09/10

    Kenniston, Steven William
    25 Hemingway Road
    Wilbraham, MA 01095
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/02/10

    Khawaja, Muhammad Yousaf
    55 Van Deen Ave., APT #B
    West Springfield, MA 01089
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/09/10

    Kirk, Thomas E.
    Kirk, Lara T.
    159 Elm St.
    East Longmeadow, MA 01028
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/09/10

    Koldys, Wendy L.
    P.O. Box 358
    West Stockbridge, MA 01266
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Kozcial, Francisco
    Kozcial, Helena
    158 Mountainview St.
    Chicopee, MA 01020
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Kozik, Michael D.
    Kozik, Kelly L.
    a/k/a Dickinson, Kelly L.
    9 Orchard St.
    Adams, MA 01220
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/03/10

    Lancto, Anita A.
    269 Chicopee St., Unit 9
    Chicopee, MA 01013
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Langer, Kirk Alfred
    240 East Road
    Adams, MA 01220
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/12/10

    LaViolette, James G.
    LaViolette, Andrea E.
    951 New Braintree Road
    Oakham, MA 01068
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/04/10

    LeMay, Lorraine E.
    103 Hadley Village Road
    South Hadley, MA 01075
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Marotta, Brian C.
    238 Francis Ave.
    Pittsfield, MA 01201
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Mavredakis, Spiro George
    14 Palmer Ave.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/01/10

    McCarthy, Julie A.
    92 Fiske Hill Road
    Sturbridge, MA 01566
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/01/10

    McMakin, William F.
    17 Pleasant St., Apt. 306
    Adams, MA 01220
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Mendrek, John L.
    391 Main St., Apt. # 3
    Easthampton, MA 01027
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 01/31/10

    Mix, Christopher A.
    837 State St., Apt. 502
    Springfield, MA 01109
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/06/10

    Morrow, Tommie Lee
    Morrow, Terri J.
    514 Forest Hills Road
    Springfield, MA 01128
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Mumblo, Yvonne Dale
    152 East Road
    Orange, MA 01364
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Murray-Harrington, Lana M.
    51 Stratford Ter.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/15/10

    Paine, Mary E.
    17 Spring St.
    Chicopee, MA 01013
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/01/10

    Paradise Limousine
    Alves, Joaquim
    152 Hubbard St.
    Ludlow, MA 01056
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Peterson, Cheryl Lee
    54 Prospect St.
    P.O. Box 730
    Warren, MA 01083
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Piedra, Ricardo A.
    7 Bray Park Dr.
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/02/10

    Pouliot, Brandon P.
    Pouliot, Amber Lee
    a/k/a St. Jean, Amber Lee
    941 General Knox Road
    Russell, MA 01071
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Powers, Scott C.
    195 St. James Blvd.
    Springfield, MA 01104
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Ramos, Terry
    10 Spruce St.
    Great Barrington, MA 01230
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Rios, Irma
    491 Bridge Road, Apt. 636
    Florence, MA 01062
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Rivera, Jimmy D.
    86 Florence St., 2nd Fl.
    Springfield, MA 01105
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Rodrigues, Antonio V.
    Rodrigues, Graciete F.
    117 Americo St.
    Ludlow, MA 01056
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/02/10

    Rodriguez, Jose D.
    Rivera, Flora R.
    18 Hartley St.
    Springfield, MA 01104
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/15/10

    Rodriguez, Maria M.
    139 Penrose St.
    Springfield, MA 01109
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Rodriguez, Rafael
    127 Mulberry St.
    Springfield, MA 01105-1408
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Sanchez, Eliezer
    Sanchez, Maria
    611 Bay St.
    Springfied, MA 01109
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Santana, Maria Isabel
    136 Parsons St.
    Easthampton, MA 01027
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/05/10

    Santiago, Estela
    41 Edgemont St.
    Springfield, MA 01109
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/03/10

    Shapoval, Lilia
    73 Beaumont St.
    Springfield, MA 01108
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/02/10

    Shortsleeve, Michael A.
    Shortsleeve, Vera A.
    17 Nourse Lane
    Barre, MA 01005
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/07/10

    Smith, Catherine H.
    51 Marlborough St.
    Springfield, MA 01109
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/03/10

    Smith, Martin C.
    Smith, Donna
    2386 Chestnut Hill Ave.
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/10/10

    Sudyka, Dean
    Sudyka, Brenda
    8 Berwyn St. Ext.
    South Hadley, MA 01075
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/11/10

    Swinesburg, Erika A.
    185 New Ludlow Road, Apt. 320
    Chicopee, MA 01020
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Taylor, Kurt
    50 Russellville Road
    Westfield, MA 01085
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/11/10

    Testagrossa, Linda M.
    1764 Pleasant St.
    Athol, MA 01331
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/07/10

    Total Image
    Rose, William A.
    340 Westhampton Road
    Florence, MA 01062
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Troche, Yaritzi
    a/k/a Pabon, Yaritzi
    18 Little Ave.
    Holyoke, MA 01040
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/02/10

    White, Paul W.
    31 Sunset Ter.
    Feeding Hills, MA 01030
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/03/10

    Williams, Gloria W.
    197 Senator St.
    Springfield, MA 01129
    Chapter: 13
    Filing Date: 02/02/10

    Zomek, Kevin D.
    112 Silver St.
    Agawam, MA 01001
    Chapter: 7
    Filing Date: 02/08/10

    Departments

    Business Group Formed to Advance Springfield School Reform

    SPRINGFIELD — Representatives of the business community have come together to launch Springfield Business Leaders for Education (SBLE) to advocate for public policy and school reforms that aims to raise student achievement in Springfield. In the fall of 2009, Nick Fyntrilakis of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. (MassMutual) and John Davis, trustee of the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation, convened the first of several meetings among a broad cross-section of business people to discuss a possible role for the Springfield business community in advancing meaningful educational policy reform in Springfield. The Mass. Business Alliance for Education, a business organization leading similar efforts statewide, provided technical and policy expertise to the group. These meetings have led to the recent formation of Springfield Business Leaders for Education. According to a joint statement by Fyntrilakis and Davis, “the business community should play a crucial role in supporting the education of Springfield’s children. Springfield Business Leaders for Education can help engage the business community in addressing education issues and challenges in Springfield. This diverse group of business leaders understands the critical role education plays in workforce development and the economic vitality of our region. The goal of our advocacy is to support local, state, and federal education policy and reform that leads to academic and life success for Springfield’s children.” As part of the group’s effort to improve educational outcomes, member organizations of SBLE are underwriting a leadership program developed specifically for members of the Springfield School Committee by the nationally known Center for Reform of School Systems (CRSS). School Committee members have been invited to participate in the two-year leadership program designed and facilitated by CRSS and highlighted by a kickoff retreat to be held in Lee on March 19-21. Mayor Domenic Sarno, School Committee chairman, has agreed to participate in the leadership training and retreat, and SBLE is urging all members of the School Committee to attend the initial March weekend session and follow-up program. CRSS will continue to host leadership-development sessions with members of the Springfield School Committee over a two-year period. As part of the CRSS school-leadership program, Springfield School Committee members will also have an opportunity over the course of the two-year program to meet and work with representatives of other high-performing districts from around the country. SBLE is open to all within the business community committed to engaging on critical education policy initiatives and reforms that will improve education in Springfield, making the city a model urban school system.

    Business Confidence Declines for First Time in Seven Months

    BOSTON — The Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Business Confidence Index lost 1.7 points in February to 44.1, breaking a string of seven consecutive monthly increases. The drop reinforces the point that the state has to expect a protracted and halting recovery process, according to Raymond G. Torto, global chief economist at CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. and chair of AIM’s Board of Economic Advisors. The general trend is upward, but progress has been slow over the past five months, and recent news of unemployment claims increasing indicates the state is still some distance from robust growth, added Torto. The February AIM Index was up 10.8 points from February 2009, its all-time low (33.3), but off 6.1 points over two years and 15.1 over three years. The highest reading in its 18-year history was 68.5, attained on two occasions in 1997-98. The Current Index, assessing overall conditions at the time of the survey, was off 1.6 points in February to 40.0, while the Future Index of prospects for six months ahead shed 1.5 points to 48.4 — its first setback since June. The Massachusetts Index of conditions within the state lost three points in February to 37.7, as the U.S. Index of national conditions fell 3.8 points to 36.7. Confidence was off sharply in February among manufacturers (down 4.9 to 43.8) but rose among other employers (up 2.5 to 44.4), leaving the two groups at rough parity. Confidence levels remained slightly higher in Greater Boston (45.0, -2.3) than in the rest of the state (42.8, -1.0); small employers were less positive than larger firms about their own situations and prospects. The monthly Business Confidence Index is based on a survey of AIM member-companies across Massachusetts, asking questions about current and prospective business conditions in the state and nation, as well as for respondents’ own operations. On the Index’s 100-point scale, a reading above 50 indicates that the state’s employer community is predominantly optimistic, while a reading below 50 points to a negative assessment of business conditions.

    Wilson to End UMass Presidency in 2011

    BOSTON — UMass President Jack M. Wilson will conclude his presidency when his current term expires on June 30, 2011. Under his contract, Wilson was asked to make a declaration about his future plans by June 30, 2010. Given that his term runs through June 30, 2011, the University is now positioned to assemble a search and have a successor selected as Wilson’s term expires. Wilson, 64, has led the five-campus UMass system since September 2003. During that time, he has emphasized access and affordability for students, focused on research and innovation, and championed a capital program aimed at providing new facilities and much-needed renovations on all five campuses. Wilson noted he was “particularly proud” that UMass has been able to build enrollment and increase its own spending on financial aid by more than $100 million to ensure that qualified students who want to attend the university will be able to do so. Over the course of the next year, Wilson will consider future opportunities inside and outside of the university. He added that he is looking forward to working with students and working on the technology, innovation, and economic-development issues that have interested him throughout his career as a physicist and educator. “At my core, I am an educator, and I look forward to being able to focus on teaching and to advancing research,” he said.

    Manufacturing Seeing Steady Growth

    TEMPE, Ariz. — Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in February for the seventh consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 10th consecutive month, according to the latest “Manufacturing ISM Report on Business” from the Institute for Supply Management. The 11 manufacturing industries reporting growth in February were machinery; paper products; apparel, leather, and allied products; computer and electronic products; miscellaneous manufacturing; transportation equipment; textile mills; plastics and rubber products; electrical equipment, appliances, and components; fabricated metal products; and food, beverage, and tobacco products. The five industries reporting contraction in February were wood products, furniture and related products, primary metals, printing and related support activities, and chemical products. Manufacturing continued to grow in February, but the rate of growth decelerated as the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) registered 56.5%, a decrease of 1.9 percentage points when compared to January’s seasonally adjusted reading of 58.4%. A reading above 50% indicates that the manufacturing economy is generally expanding; below 50% indicates that it is generally contracting. A PMI in excess of 42% over a period of time generally indicates an expansion of the overall economy. Therefore, the PMI indicates growth for the 10th consecutive month in the overall economy, as well as expansion in the manufacturing sector for the seventh consecutive month. The 10 industries reporting growth in new orders in February were plastics and rubber products; machinery; paper products; computer and electronic products; miscellaneous manufacturing; printing and related support activities; transportation equipment; fabricated metal products; electrical equipment, appliances, and components; and food, beverage, and tobacco products. The three industries reporting decreases in new orders in February were wood products, furniture and related products, and chemical products. In related news, the latest “Non-Manufacturing ISM Report on Business” reports that economic activity in the non-manufacturing sector grew in February for the second consecutive month. The nine industries reporting growth in February based on the NMI composite index were information; arts, entertainment, and recreation; transportation and warehousing; public administration; professional, scientific, and technical services; other services; retail trade; whole trade; and finance and insurance. Also, employment activity in the non-manufacturing sector contracted in February for the 26th consecutive month.

    Non-residential and Public Construction Declines

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Construction spending in January fell by $5.5 billion to $884 billion, its lowest level since June 2003, according to an analysis of new federal figures by the Associated General Contractors of America. Declining investments in private-sector non-residential construction and public construction at all levels of government drove the 0.6% decline, according to the association’s chief economist Ken Simonson. Simonson noted that private non-residential construction spending declined by 2.1% between December and January, and by 20% over the past year. Power construction was the only private non-residential construction category to increase over the past year, by 16%, while most other categories declined by double digits, according to Simonson. Simonson noted that two major categories of federally driven transportation spending — public highway street construction and other transportation construction — increased by 6% and 18%, respectively. In addition, direct federal construction spending increased 1.9% in January and 13% over the past 12 months to a record $31 billion. Federal funding has been giving contractors “the lifeline they need to stay in business,” he added. Many construction jobs are now at risk, noted Simonson, since the federal transportation program expired Feb. 28. Association officials urged Congress to act quickly to renew the program so that construction layoffs and closures do not accelerate.

    Retirement in Limbo for Many

    NEW YORK — More people say they just don’t have the money to retire these days. According to a recent survey by Careerbuilder.com, a career-resources Web site, 72% of workers over the age of 60 who are putting off retirement are doing so because they can’t afford it. The results from the survey indicate more pessimism than in 2008, when about 60% of retirement-aged workers blamed the economy for delaying retirement, according to Michael Erwin, a senior career advisor at Careerbuilder.com. Fear of retirement is highest among women, added Erwin. According to the survey, some 76% of women said they were not financially secure enough to stop working, compared to 68% of men. Women have good reason to worry because they outlive men, according to Tom Warschauer, a finance professor and director of financial-planning programs at San Diego State University. Women live four to five years longer than men on average, so if men and women save the same amount, women would be less prepared, noted Warschauer. Health care was another major reason for staying employed. About half of those surveyed said they need health insurance and other benefits, especially as the health care debate rages in Washington. Still, a majority of workers said they were “just plain happy” with their jobs. The survey found that 71% of workers said they were postponing retirement because they enjoyed working and didn’t want to leave.

    ADP Reports Jobs Recovery on Horizon

    NEW YORK — Businesses across the country shed another 18,000 jobs in February, bringing the tally of jobs lost from America’s small businesses to nearly 3 million since February 2008, according to a recently released report by payroll processor ADP. According to ADP, small businesses — those with fewer than 50 workers — were hit hardest last month. Medium-sized businesses, with 50 to 500 employees, added 8,000 net new positions to their ranks. Joel Prakken, chairman of ADP researcher Macroeconomic Advisers, sees a turnaround on the horizon. If the recent trend continues, and given first-quarter GDP growth of 5.9%, private employment could rise next month for the first time in two years, he noted. In related news, a separate employment survey recently released concluded that the nation’s tiniest businesses are already adding workers. Intuit’s first installment of its new, monthly Small Business Employment Index reported that firms with less than 20 employees added nearly 40,000 net new jobs in February — a sharp contrast to the continued job losses ADP reported. Intuit provides payroll services to small businesses, and based its estimate on online data from 50,000 small-business employers. Tiny companies tend to be the first to cut staff when the economy weakens and the first to hire again when it improves.

    Jobs Proposal Launched for Construction Industry

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) recently unveiled its 2010 Job Creation Proposal, a wide-ranging package of recommendations that will help to stimulate the construction industry and put Americans back to work. In order to kick-start the lagging economy and put the construction industry back to work, ABC recommends eliminating uncertainty in the business environment by calling on Congress and the administration to focus on free-enterprise initiatives and open competition instead of anti-business legislative and regulatory proposals. Additionally, ABC recommends increasing access to capital for new construction projects and viable, low-risk projects and contracts that need funding in order for work to commence, and promotes enacting a national, comprehensive energy plan that includes new construction and upgrades to the nation’s infrastructure. For more details on the proposal, visit www.abc.org.

    State Foreclosure Petitions Drop in January

    BOSTON — The number of foreclosures started by lenders in Massachusetts during January dropped to the lowest level in more than a year, according to a new report by the Warren Group. Lenders filed 1,874 petitions to foreclose — which mark the first step in the foreclosure process in Massachusetts — in January, a 9% decrease from 2,060 in December and 4.4% drop from a year earlier. Foreclosure petitions exceeded 2,000 for most months in 2009, falling below that number only in January and November. In January, 1,061 foreclosure deeds were recorded, up from 978 in January 2009 and 857 in December. This was the highest number of foreclosures for January since the Warren Group started tracking statewide foreclosure activity in 2006. The number of auction announcements tracked by the Warren Group also surged in January. Auction announcements shot up 81.5% to 2,385 from 1,314 in January 2009 and were also 23% higher than the 1,931 auction announcements tracked in December.

    Statewide Dropout Rate Falls Below 3%

    MALDEN — Fewer than 3% of the state’s high-school students dropped out of school during the 2008-09 school year, marking the first time the statewide dropout rate has dipped below 3% in the past decade. According to a new state report, the dropout rate for Hispanic students statewide showed the biggest improvement among the five largest racial/ethnic groups since last year, improving from 8.3% in 2007-08 to 7.5% in 2008-09. In all, 8,585 students (2.9%) out of 292,372 high school students in grades 9-12 statewide dropped out of school during the 2008-09 school year, a 0.5% improvement from the 2007-08 school year, and a 0.9% improvement from the 2006-07 school year. Several urban school districts made gains by reducing the number of dropouts between 2007-08 and 2008-09, in
    luding Holyoke. The Holyoke school system had 39 fewer students drop out (1.8% improvement, from 11.6% to 9.8%). Annual dropout rates improved for African-American, Asian, Hispanic, and white students since last year. During the 2008-09 school year, 5.6% of African-American high-school students dropped out of high school (down from 5.8% in 2007-08), as did 1.7% of Asian students (down from 2%), 7.5% of Hispanic students (down from 8.3%), and 1.8% of white students (down from 2.2%). Similar improvements were made by students with disabilities (dropout rate of 5% in 2008-09, down from 5.5% in 2007-08), limited-English-proficiency students (8.5%, down from 8.8%), and low-income students (5%, down from 5.5%).

    MassMutual Survey: Surprising Trends in 401(k) Participant Attitudes

    SPRINGFIELD — A recent survey of defined-contribution-plan participants conducted by MassMutual’s Retirement Services Division reveals some surprising findings about participant attitudes and approaches toward investing — and some striking differences based on gender. MassMutual conducted the online survey of more than 1,000 of its retirement-plan participants between Nov. 15, 2009 and Jan. 15, 2010. Surprisingly, overall, 75.8% of participants surveyed were optimistic about the stock market, believing that performance will improve in the next 12 months, compared to only 7.6% who think it will decline. However, while women were just as optimistic as men relative to the market outlook, women were significantly less confident in making their own investment decisions (32.5%) compared to men (47.8%). Likewise, more men enjoy managing their investments (61.5%) than do women (48.1%). More women also prefer to spend as little time as possible on investment decisions (39.3%) compared to men (28%). While overall 70.9% of participants enjoy learning about investments compared to 8.2% who don’t, a higher percentage of men (75.4%) enjoy learning vs. women (63.1%). In terms of approach to retirement planning in the current economy, overall 40.3% reported becoming more conservative, 32.9% became more aggressive, and 26.8% have not changed their approach.

    Average account balances of female participants showed far less volatility than those of men, reflecting their more conservative investment selections and indicating their actual behavior lined up with their survey responses. Also, only 10.2% of surveyed participants currently work with a personal financial adviser. MassMutual’s Retirement Services Division serves approximately 1 million participants across more than 6,000 plans.

    Departments

    The following building permits were issued during the month of February 2010.

    AGAWAM

    Ken Vincunas
    200 Silver St.
    $125,000 — Tenant fit-out for 2,500 square feet of office space

    Teresa Lecrenski
    384 Shoemaker Lane
    $45,000 — Interior remodel

    AMHERST

    Institute for Training & Development Inc.
    8 Sunset Ave.
    $5,000 — Remodel bathroom

    CHICOPEE

    Dielectrics Realty Trust
    300 Burnett Road
    $80,500 — Reconfiguration of existing partitions

    Porter & Chester Institute
    134 Dulong Circle
    $107,000 — Construct new classroom and office space

    GREENFIELD

    Simon Cohn & Charles Cohn
    176 Main St
    $1,200 — Remove & replace exterior door

    LUDLOW

    Ludlow Country Club
    40 Tony Lema Dr.
    $4,800 — Interior alterations

    NORTHAMPTON

    Cooley Dickinson Hospital Inc.
    30 Locust St.
    $57,600 — Add three new offices

    Florence Family Enterprises LLC
    99 Main St
    $12,000 — New Roof

    Mariano Vincent
    64 Gothic St
    $41,700 — Renovate interior suite 3
     

    Nonotuck Mills LLC
    296 Nonotuck St
    $21,600 — Install new membrane roof

    Nonotuck Mills LLC
    296 Nonotuck St
    $12,000 — Construct interior walls

    Thornes Marketplace LLC
    150 Main St
    $2,800 — Renovate cabinetry

    Robert K Ostberg
    64 Gothic St.
    $30,000 — Construct new stairs and walls

    SOUTH HADLEY

    JTP Realty
    105 Main St.
    $3,500 — New roof

    SPRINGFIELD

    ESIBC
    211 Carando Dr.
    $1,250 — Combine two existing suites

    F.L. Roberts & Company
    1130 Boston Road
    $3,000 — New fascia

    Raney Shabenah
    770 Main St.
    $5,750 — Change restaurant to grocery

    WESTFIELD

    Gerald Tracy
    22 Elm St.
    $3,200 — Commercial renovation

    Haron’s
    330 East Main St.
    $111,500 — commercial fit-out

    Departments

    ACCGS
    www.myonlinechamber.com
    (413) 787-1555

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield
    www.springfieldyps.com

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce
    www.amherstarea.com

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Chicopee Chamber of Commerce
    www.chicopeechamber.org
    (413) 594-2101

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Franklin County Chamber of Commerce
    www.franklincc.org
    (413) 773-5463

    March 19: Breakfast Series, 7:30 to 9 a.m., hosted by Deerfield Inn. Program speakers: John Fabel, inventor, educator, entrepreneur, and bike nut; innovative green-technology businesses including Sylvan Cycles, Qteros, and Ecotrek. Sponsored by Greenfield Savings Bank. Cost: members $12, non-members $14. To make reservations, call (413) 773-5463 or e-mail
    [email protected]  by March 16.

    Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce
    www.easthamptonchamber.org
    (413) 527-9414

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce
    www.holycham.com
    (413) 534-3376

    March 17: St. Pat’s Salute Breakfast, 7:30 to 9 a.m., sponsored by PeoplesBank. Hosted by Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, Holyoke. Cost: $20. Call the chamber office at (413) 534-3376 for reservations.

    March 24: Table Top Expo, 4 to 7 p.m. (snow date March 30), presented by the Greater Holyoke, Chicopee, Easthampton, and Northampton chambers of commerce. Hosted by Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, Holyoke. The public is invited. Cost: $5; vendors $100 for a table. Call (413) 534-3376 or any of the chambers to reserve a table.

    Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce
    www.explorenorthampton.com
    (413) 584-1900

    March 17: St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast, 7:30 to 9 a.m., hosted by Clarion Hotel & Conference Center.
    March 24: 16th Annual Table Top Expo, 4:30 to 7 p.m., hosted by the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, Holyoke. Cost: $5 in advance, $10 at the door.

    Quaboag Hills Chamber of Commerce
    www.qvcc.biz
    (413) 283-2418

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    South Hadley/Granby Chamber of Commerce
    www.shchamber.com
    (413) 532-6451

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Three Rivers Chamber of Commerce
    www.threeriverschamber.org
    413-283-6425

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce
    www.westfieldbiz.org
    (413) 568-1618

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Departments

    The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of February 2010.

    AGAWAM

    Beautiful Hair Ltd.
    1325 Springfield St.
    David & Joanna Mahoney

    BruBurgers
    241 S. Westfield St.
    Contantino Dino Gravanis

    D & G Construction
    56 Randall St.
    Dmitriy F. Gritskevich

    E. Wayne Smith Transmission Service
    1016 Springfield St.
    E. Wayne Smith

    Modern Landscapes Inc.
    11 Birch Hill Road
    Jeffrey Ogorzatek

    Royal Touch Painting
    92 Coronet Circle
    Michael McGill

    Salon 322
    1106 Springfield St.
    Maria Santaniello

    Track Bangas Entertainment
    44 North Westfield St.
    Jeffrey Smith

    AMHERST

    Aaron’s Transportation
    15 Jenks St.
    Scott Bellemore

    Comparable to None Recording Studio
    67 North Pleasant St.
    Anthony Basile

    Da Veiga Moving
    151 Brittany Manor
    Henrigue Da Veiga

    CHICOPEE

    Two Brothers from the Bottom
    480 Grattan St.
    Keith Matthews

    Yorkmond Marketing
    135 Broadway St.
    Bethany York

    EASTHAMPTON

    The Night Truck
    119 Main St.
    Jacob Hawkesworth

    EAST LONGMEADOW

    Dico’s Landscaping
    367 Porter Road
    Timothy DeClementi

    KMP Golf Shop
    15 Baymor Dr.
    Kevin Piecuch

    Old Man Movin Sports Apparel
    5 Redin Dr.
    Marc Alan Benedict

    GREENFIELD

    Charlene Mann Extended Care Facility
    130 Colrain Road
    William C. Jones

    Halo Couriers
    22 Pickett Lane
    Brion Stracewsky

    HADLEY

    Club Trendz Fitness
    41 Russell St.
    Jennifer Dalbec

    Fancy Nails
    36 Russell St.
    Bau Diep

    Off the Wall James
    41 Russell St.
    Joseph Bailey

    HOLYOKE

    Buckle Up
    50 Holyoke St.
    Swostik Rana Magar

    Cellular Galaxy
    50 Holyoke St.
    Swostik Rana Magar

    GBS Brows
    50 Holyoke St.
    Binda Neupane

    Rainbow Nails
    878 High St.
    Trang Nguyen

    Underground Fashion
    149 Chestnut St.
    Maria Diaz

    LUDLOW

    Elegant Nails
    263 East St.
    Ann N. Nguyen

    Garden Designs by Jacqueline
    451 Miller St.
    Jacqueline Clark

    John Quill Automotive
    412 Holyoke St.
    John Quill

    NORTHAMPTON

    Disney Adventures
    244 Main St.
    Buena Vista Management Inc.

    LP Visual
    45 Olive St.
    Lance Piantaggini

    Side Street Café
    42 Maple St.
    Patrick Shannon

    PALMER

    Aeigis Refrigeration
    42 Walnut St.
    Christopher Hess

    Balicki Auto Body
    92 Bacon Road
    Michael Balicki

     

    Beauregard Building & Remodeling
    124 South High St.
    Carl Beauregard

    Hands of Intuition
    131 North St.
    Kari Flowers

    WARE Radio 1250
    3 Converse St.
    Marshall Samft

    SPRINGFIELD

    M.G. Services
    15 Girard Ave.
    Eder Goncalves Souza

    M.L. Schmitt, Inc.
    371 Taylor St.
    Thomas A. Schmitt

    M. L. C. Child Care
    64 Fordham St.
    Nereida Valentin

    Mohawk Cat Records
    183 Florida St.
    Tristan T. Tash

    Nine Iron Auto Transport
    35 Bryant St.
    James E. Smith

    Noelia Custom Banners
    38 Seneca St.
    Noelia Ramos

    Pentecostal Jehova Shalom
    20 Winter St.
    Ana Daisy Deltoro

    Peoplefirst Rehabilitation
    1400 State ST.
    Kindred Rehab

    Rick O’Leary Construction
    28 Old Lane Road
    Richard W. O’Leary

    Santiago’s Tree Landscaping
    2048 Page Blvd.
    Harry E. Santiago

    Sassy Swag Designs
    1655 Main St.
    Sophelia Robinson

    Skyrlee Express
    107 Cedar St.
    Victor Amaro

    Springfield Cleaning Services
    70 Harrison Ave.
    David Munoz

    Springfield Diocesan
    421 Tinkham Road
    John J. Egan

    Sunshine Floors Cleaning
    80 Brookside Circle
    Curtis Anthony Lewis

    Total Auto Body & Fiberglass
    256 Lanconia St.
    Lee A. Crosby

    Vincent’s Beauty Salon
    1655 Main St.
    Vincent F. Stanek

    VJ. Tires and Rims
    295 Allen St.
    Victor S. Jimenez

    Wapner Golf
    70 Tamarack Dr.
    Kent Daniel Wapner

    Your Event Planner
    165 Main St.
    Angel O. Ayala

    WESTFIELD

    1st Stop Airduct Cleaning
    13 Union Ave.
    Nathan Neveu

    Being Well Therapeutic Massage
    10 Union Ave.
    Alina Zawadzka

    Bird Remodeling
    11 Fawn Lane
    David H. Bird

    CB LeBlanc Landscaping
    1106 East Mountain Road
    Christopher LeBlanc

    Cechvala Heating & Air Conditioning
    15 Family Lane
    Ryan Cechvala

    Elijah Towing
    1 Brentwood Dr.
    Alexandr Lisyanyy

    Hickory Hill Farms
    325 Montgomery Road
    Dennis L. Bishop

    Pet Nap Sax
    170 City View Road
    Donna Kotowski

    Pioneer Valuation
    149 Yeoman Ave.
    Christopher Keefe

    WEST SPRINGFIELD

    Accent Interior Redesign
    12 North Blvd.
    Phyllis Boucher

    Gaudino’s Westside Wheel & Frame
    44 Mulberry St.
    Chalres Gaudino

    Perfect Touch Cleaning Service
    51 Elmwood Ave.
    Nissa Geberson

    Super 8 Motel
    1500 Riverdale St.
    Ram Sia LLC

    West Side Cost Cutters
    533 Union St.
    AKC LLC

    West Springfield Mitsubishi
    526 Riverdale St.
    Bertera Suzuki Inc.

    Features
    Taking Entrepreneurship to Another Dimension
    Companies to Watch: Accu-Vista

    Ed Wood says 3D scanning has caught on in Europe, but it is very much an unknown commodity in this country.

    Ed Wood has an advantage that most entrepreneurs can only dream about. When he says he has no competition, he means it. There is none. Zero.

    “At least on the East Coast, anyway,” he explained. “To the best of my knowledge, there’s no one else doing this.”

    But he has quite a disadvantage as well. Indeed, very few people know what this is and how they might be able to take advantage of it.

    The product is three-dimensional scanning technology. It’s been prevalent in Europe for many years now, but in this country it is a giant unknown, what Wood, a serial entrepreneur of sorts, calls a “solution looking for a problem — or, in this case, problems.”

    He says 3D scanning can be used for everything from helping candidates for plastic surgery find the right look — be it a new nose, chin, or their previous look following a mastectomy — to creating likenesses of a newborn’s face, or his or her entire body.

    And he’s confident enough that the general population will eventually grasp the concept that he’s made a substantial investment in new equipment and opened Accu-Vista 3D Scanning in a fourth-floor suite in the so-called Maplegate Building in downtown Springfield. Few customers have made it to that address thus far, but Wood is optimistic that his current awareness-building activities will eventually pay off.

    “I think there’s a great deal of potential in this technology,” he said. “People just have to understand all that it can do.”

    Wood brings a very diverse background to his current venture. He started out teaching art to high-school students in Wisconsin, and later coordinated all continuing education activities for a large medical center in that state. He later relocated to Beverly, Mass., and became a game designer for Parker Brothers (which was eventually acquired by Hasbro, requiring a move to Western Mass.), and led the group that successfully licensed the characters from the three most recent Star Wars movies.

    “Unfortunately, they weren’t as popular as the ones from the other three movies,” said Wood, noting that, when East Longmeadow-based Hasbro decided to transfer many designers to the Beverly facility, he opted not to go, and instead start his own company.

    He and two partners developed several concepts for game makers like Mattel and Hasbro, including the Yomega Yo Yo. This company eventually did work for Disney, and developed something called the Pal Mickey, an interactive plush toy that, through communication with hundreds of infrared transmitters in the Disney parks, could tell guests where they were and what they were going to experience next.

    The partners in that venture eventually went in different directions, and Wood found himself looking for a new challenge. He eventually found one in 3D scanning, a technology — and potential business opportunity — that he researched for nearly two years before deciding it had enough potential to warrant his investment.

    Explaining how the technology works, Wood took a picture of himself (his head, to be more specific) as he sat in a specially designed chair roughly three feet away from the scanning equipment.

    A projector essentially projects black-and-white lines, hundreds of thousands of them, that capture the contours of one’s face and comprise what’s known as a ‘point cloud.’ The image is much like a plaster cast, he explained, adding that it sometimes intimidates people because it captures every wrinkle and flaw.

    The technology has myriad uses, said Wood, most all of them still well outside anything that would be considered mainstream. The clothing industry, for example, has explored the use of 3D scanning to obtain images that could be used to create perfect-fitting items that account for every curve and bulge. And he expects this use to someday overcome current logistical challenges and become reality.

    As for his own business, Wood says a scan can be used to create jewelry featuring three-dimensional images of a newborn’s face. Using high-tech printers, such images can be placed on metal, plastic, and porcelain-like materials. Scans can also be used to make complete dolls that look like a newborn, a product called ‘reborn baby.’ Explaining the concept, Wood said his scans of an infant would be sent to a so-called ‘newborn artist’ — their work is considered a budding cottage industry — who would create a life-like doll.

    “Some people think this is a little creepy,” said Wood, “but others are giving it great reviews. I guess it’s up to the individual.”

    But the more lucrative uses for 3D scanning invariably lie in health care, said Wood, noting that he is hoping to work with plastic surgeons to better serve clients. He noted that the scanning technology can, for example, help those individuals considering rhinoplasty to find a new shape that appeals to them. A scan can be altered with a few mouse clicks, he explained, giving clients a chance to see a potential new nose, chin, or pair of breasts from every angle.

    For those facing a mastectomy, a pre-scan can help recreate a woman’s shape, he continued.

    “Many women facing a double mastectomy want to look as much like they did before as possible, because they’ve found that the psychological healing is as important as the physical healing,” he explained. “What I can do is scan them and even have a physical model printed for them, and it will be right there for the plastic surgeon to see.”

    Other uses include scans of burn victims to help create well-fitting protective masks that must be worn while new skin grows, said Wood, adding that those in high-risk professions, such as firefighters, police officers, and soliders, should be pre-scanned in case they are badly injured and require reconstructive surgery.

    For now, Wood spends most of his time talking about the potential of the technology that he has chosen for his next entrepreneurial venture. He ultimately believes that this potential will be realized, but he is realistic and knows that awareness — and acceptance — won’t happen overnight.

    When it does happen, he’ll be fully ready to capitalize on his huge competitive advantage. – George O’Brien

    Features
    Inside Baystate?s Cardiovascular Rehab & Wellness Program
    Life after the Big Scare

    Robert Berry says some people continue to use the exercise room as their health club even long after being hospitalized for heart problems.

    Robert Berry says the name of Baystate Health’s Cardiovascular Rehab & Wellness Program is important.

    Sure, the rehabilitation aspect gets people who have suffered a heart attack or other cardiac event back on their feet, but the wellness side is equally crucial — teaching them how to maintain good habits so their acute cardiac issues don’t return.

    “If you come into the hospital with a heart attack, or if you’ve had bypass surgery, valve surgery, a heart transplant, things like that, we’ll help you prevent complications like pneumonia,” said Berry, program manager. “We’ll also talk to you about what the risk factors are for heart disease and how you can prevent something like this from happening again.”

    Berry calls the program, located in a sprawling facility on Main Street in Springfield, “ridiculously underutilized,” with about one out of five patients who qualify actually using it.

    He said most people are also unaware that they can make Baystate their health club, with all the exercise equipment and guidance they need, but with trained medical professionals always on hand if something goes wrong.

    “People think if they’re moving, they’re exercising, when they’re just waving their arms around like Robbie the Robot from Lost in Space,” Berry said. Seeking guidance from the Cardiac Rehab & Wellness Program, he argued, is a far better option for not only staying in shape, but staying out of the hospital. “We’re positively affecting people’s lives.”

    Something for Everyone

    Berry and his staff are making that impact in three distinct phases, each with its own goals. Phase 1 is for inpatients who are recovering from a heart attack or surgery and involves imparting that crucial information Berry mentioned about lowering risk factors and stabilizing one’s heart health.

    The second phase — like the first, typically covered by insurance — lasts for between six and 12 weeks and is designed to help people recovering from a heart attack or heart disease to learn how to return to their former activity level, or close to it, and craft a plan to do so.

    “Education is important,” Berry said. “Where we differ from traditional rehabilitative services is, the physical therapist doesn’t spend a lot of time telling you how not to tear your rotator cuff again. We say, ‘your cholesterol is 232; that’s way too high. What can we do to bring it down? These are your goals.’

    “We also do some work with depression because a lot of people are understandably depressed right after a cardiac event, and depression is huge risk factor for another cardiac event,” he continued. “We screen everyone for depression when they come in, and if we find anybody who’s scoring too high and not being treated, we ask them if they want to see a psychologist, and we give their primary care physician a heads-up.”

    Patients obtaining phase 2 services include those recovering from angioplasty, stenting, bypass surgery, heart-valve surgery, and heart transplants, as well as heart attacks.

    “The goal is to get people to understand how their behaviors are interfering with their health — exercise habits, dietary habits, how they deal with anger and stress, all those things impact your health. We help people understand all those things, so when they leave here, they know the basics of a good diet, how much exercise they should be doing, and what changes they should make in their routine. With that information, they might either go to Planet Fitness or the YMCA … or stay here.”

    Berry was referring to phase 3, the maintenance phase of cardiac rehab, which is paid for out of pocket. Many people use the program in place of a gym or health-club membership because they feel more comfortable in that environment. For one thing, the entire staff is certified in advanced cardiac life support, and know how to use the crash cart, with its array of emergency equipment, in the corner of the room. Meanwhile, Baystate cardiologists have offices across the hall.

    “If something goes wrong, we’re equipped to handle it,” Berry said. “It’s like the military: you plan for something, and hope you never have to use it. People here like having that safety net.

    “We have a 96-year-old who comes here and exercises,” he continued. “Phase 3 is a commercial gym in a hospital environment. We have 4,000 square feet of space out there. It’s huge.”

    Parental Advice

    “Our focus on education is what really sets us apart from commercial gyms,” Berry said. “We’re not trying to compete with commercial gyms; we’re not after the same people.”

    That said, he argued that Baystate’s program is better-equipped to help people, even those not recovering from a heart attack or surgery, understand the relationship between health and habits.

    “You have to be careful because certain medical conditions affect your response to exercise,” he said. “All Planet Fitness can really do when something happens is call 911. We’re trained for more than that.”

    Throughout the process of recovering and maintaining good health, Berry says the goal is to instill lifelong habits.

    “Implicit in lifestyle change is the idea that these have to be changes you can live with,” he told BusinessWest. “If you just do it for three months or six months, then go back to your old habits, your old medical conditions are going to come back.”

    The key, Berry said, is balance and setting firm but realistic goals.

    “I don’t want you walking out of here thinking you have to eat celery stalks and tofu for the rest of your life, but I also don’t want you to eat every meal at McDonald’s,” he said. The same goes for exercise, which some experts recommend 60 to 90 minutes, five days a week. “I believe in this, and I don’t have time to do that,” he added.

    “I tell you the same things your parents would tell you; I just have to find new, interesting ways to say it. The basic message is to eat less and move more. We have to find ways to motivate people to incorporate that into their lifestyle.”

    Other aspects of the Cardiac Rehab & Wellness Program include heart-healthy cooking, smoking cessation, and stress reduction, all areas that can impact heart health. In all cases, Berry wants to ease people into what he hopes will become lifelong habits.

    “I have a strong preference for starting people off pretty easy, where they are, and for some that might be a treadmill at 1 mph with no elevation for three minutes, and then sit down for two minutes, then get back on for three more minutes,” Berry said. “The reason for doing that is, I want people to have a good experience when they come in here. I can’t do more with them if they don’t come back.”

    He encourages the same small steps getting readjusted to the outside world. If someone is able to work up to walking around Stop & Shop, grocery shopping at his own pace, without getting tired, that’s a goal to be commended.

    The idea is to gradually get people to a place where they’re comfortable with maintaining a certain diet and exercise regimen even if they stop coming to the Baystate program — not that anyone has to stop coming. Just ask the 96-year-old.

    Joseph Bednar can be reached at[email protected]

    Features
    SPHS Looks to Restructure Programs in Wake of Brightside Closing
    Paradigm Shift

    Mark Fulco says the Sisters of Providence Health System is working hard to find new homes for Brightside’s residents and new jobs for its employees.

    Over the course of 130 years, any community health program will shift its focus multiple times to meet changing needs. Brightside for Families and Children is no different, says Mark Fulco.

    Specifically, Brightside — the West Springield-based arm of the Sisters of Providence Health System (SPHS) that provides behavioral health and education services for young people — will cease operations in its residential and school programs by April 2. The decision is due largely to what Fulco, senior vice president of Strategy and Marketing for SPHS, calls a “paradigm shift” in the way child-welfare programs are structured and delivered these days.

    “There has been a precipitous drop statewide in referrals to longer-term, residential facilities like Brightside,” he told BusinessWest. “In 2005, we had more than 1,200 placements, but that dropped to 700 in 2008. And it’s not just Massachusetts; we’ve seen this in other states as well.”

    These latest placement numbers, he explained, represent a fraction of Brightside’s capacity. And despite extensive efforts to increase referrals to Brightside, SPHS does not expect the a reversal of that trend.

    “Over the past two years, the Brightside management team has worked tirelessly to reduce overhead and operating costs, and find new sources of program funding and referrals to maintain the census level and viability of those services,” Fulco explained. “But it appears that the census levels can never improve to viable levels, and the funding sources just are not there to place children in residential programs and school programs like those operated by Brightside. That’s the harsh reality.”

    Times Change

    Brightside was born in 1881 as an orphanage, and has grown over the years to become a prominent provider of residential and outpatient services for children with behavioral or family issues. But in recent years, Fulco explained, 75% of all children requiring such services from the state have been placed into foster care or treated in their own homes, and reliance on residential-care services such as Brightside’s has been on the decline.

    “Even our long-term residential program has always operated with the goal of assimilating children back into the regular school system and back into their homes. That’s always been the goal,” Fulco said. “What the child-welfare system has changed is that long-term residential care is no longer seen as a principal modality. What they prefer to do is utilize community-based placement for children, whether that’s back into the home or foster care. The child stays in the public-school system, and services are wrapped around that community setting.”

    “So we’ve seen a preference for keeping children based in the community, utilizing foster care and other placements,” he said. “But we’ve also seen a growing need for community services like our Family Stabilization Team.”

    The FST is what Fulco called the “third leg” of Brightside services, and the only one that will remain intact after the closing of the residential and school programs. The FST provides outpatient services in conjunction with the inpatient Child and Adolescent (CHAD) and Acute Residential Treatment (ART) programs at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital, another Sisters of Providence facility.

    “Rather than long-term residential care, there still is a need for short-term, or acute, residential treatment for children being released from a psychiatric facility or at risk of being admitted to a psychiatric facility,” Fulco said. “We operate, through Providence, the state’s only inpatient psychiatric facility for children west of Boston, and we’ll continue to provide that service. We’ll continue to provide the third leg of Brightside’s programs, community-based programs, through the Family Stabilization Team.”

    Transition Game

    The decision to shutter the residential and school programs, which Fulco called “difficult but necessary,” most immediately affects two groups of people — current residents and employees — and SPHS is taking steps to ease the impact on both.

    The transfer of all of Brightside’s residents and students to alternate settings will be completed by the beginning of April, he explained, adding that the best interests of the children continues to be the top priority, and transitioning them to a safe environment will be accomplished in a minimally disruptive manner.

    “Our primary concern at this point is for the safety and well-being of the children currently at Brightside,” Fulco said. “We’re working with the applicable state agencies to care for the children and ensure quality education for the children currently in our care and ensure that the transition to an appropriate setting for each child is as seamless and well-coordinated as possible.”

    The matter of 133 Brightside employees losing their jobs is another challenge the health system is taking seriously, he added. “In addition to making sure the needs of the kids are met, we’re very involved in providing assistance to our employees. They’ve been invited to apply for other positions within SPHS, and we’re also helping them identify new opportunities outside SPHS with significant outplacement services.”

    Once these two challenges have been addressed, Fulco said, the health system will set about examining how to restructure the child and adolescent services that remain.

    “The Family Stabilization Team, the third leg, will continue to provide existing services,” he said. “Providence includes an acute residential treatment program, and that must be integrated into the Family Stabilization Team and the remaining Brightside operations. It needs to be a very logical integration of programs that allows us to continue to provide mental-health and family-support services.”

    That can wait, of course, until the current residents find new homes.

    “Our primary focus is transitioning the children and providing assistance to our employees. Then we can really shift attention on restructuring Brightside services in conjunction with Providence and the ART,” he said.

    “We’ve done some planning for how to restructure our services, and SPHS remains committed to providing care for children afflicted with psychiatric, behavioral difficulties. The structure is going to change a little bit, but the safety, health, and well-being of the kids is our primary concern.”

    Continuing Mission

    Fulco asserted that the work of the Family Stabilization team will remain relevant because demand for that type of outreach has grown alongside the drop in demand for residential services.

    “Brightside has repeatedly evolved to meet the changing needs of children in the community,” he told BusinessWest. “Today, the realities of how those programs are delivered and how those services are funded requires a significant shift in Brightside’s organizational function, and a dramatic change in our approach.

    “Brightside’s commitment to caring for children afflicted with psychiatric, emotional, and behavioral difficulties will continue,” he added, “by responding to the current demand for short-term acute services and those designed to avoid longer-term residential stays.”

    The Brightside story, in other words, is still being written.

    Joseph Bednar can be reached at[email protected]

    Features
    How a Success Story Took Shape at Meredith-Springfield
    Breaking the Mold

    Mel O’Leary says Meredith-Springfield has earned a reputation as a go-to company for difficult projects using the blow-molding process.

    Mel O’Leary called it “the turning point.”

    He was referring to work with Reebok in the early ’90s to develop something called the “dynamic mid-sole crossover,” or DMX cushion for short. This was the athletic shoe maker’s answer to Nike’s famous ‘pump,’ and for Ludlow-based Meredith-Springfield, it was much more than a $1 million, 18-month development project.

    “It was the first time we really did something that wasn’t a plastic bottle that would hold shampoo or cleaner, but was blow-molded, which is our technology,” said O’Leary, the company’s founder, president, and CEO, referring to the plastic-converting process that will be explained in more detail later. “But it was more than that for us. That was when we started to develop our niche, when we became the go-to guys for non-bottle items like that, projects with a high degree of difficulty.”

    The Reebok project was in the early to mid-’90s, said O’Leary, founder of the business, but Meredith-Springfield has not only maintained that reputation for problem-solving, but enhanced it, with products ranging from the casing for a container in which bone marrow cells can be grown outside the body to fight cancer, to globes for a huge chandelier built for a casino in Macau, China.

    “The company intended to do it with glass globes, but that became cost-prohibitive, and the weight became prohibitive,” O’Leary said of the casino builders, adding that much-lighter-weight, fire-retardant plastic that looks like glass became the solution, and Meredith-Springfield the solution provider.

    “People come to us with ideas that are almost whimsical,” O’Leary continued. “And we figure out how to do them. That’s one of our main strengths, being a small, nimble company under entrepreneurial control; we’ll take a few risks and move fast to try and take care of a customer.”

    This track record for handling tough assignments, coupled with great diversity in terms of the industries served by the company — everything from the household industrial chemical (HIC) market to the medical industry; from landscaping (vinyl fencing) to the personal-care realm — has enabled Meredith-Springfield to thrive even in the worst recession in 80 years.

    “We’ve been busy, at full capacity, growing, and hiring through the downurn,” said O’Leary. “There’s no recession here.”

    And it has enabled the company to make huge investments in new technology that will allow it to comply with clients’ demands for ‘greener,’ more environmentally safe plastic products.

    The company recently added a $1 million machine (and another is on order) that will enable it to manufacture products with polyethelene terephthalate (PET), an improved barrier-technology, or non-leaching, thermoplastic polymer resin now demanded by clients such as B & G Foods in Parsippany, N.J., for which Meredith-Springfield has been making containers for Vermont Maid Maple Syrup and other products for years now.

    O’Leary’s venture is also expanding physically. It recently acquired the property at 321 Moody St. (it had been leasing roughly 40,000 square feet of space there) and will eventually absorb the 50,000 square feet once leased by Bassett Boat for warehousing.

    “It’s an exciting time for us,” said O’Leary. “We’ve planned well … we’ve positioned ourselves properly, and we’ve built a great reputation in the industry. We’re in a growth mode.”

    For this special section highlighting the diversity of the region’s manufacturing sector, BusinessWest takes an indepth look at Meredith-Springfield, a company that is breaking the mold in more ways than one.

    A Business Takes Shape

    As he talked about the bone-marrow-container project, O’Leary listed a number of elements that made this product quite complicated to manufacture.

    Michigan-based Aastrom Biosciences was (and is) the client, he said, and it wanted a container made out of special plastic that is very difficult to mold into a container of the desired size. “Gooey” was the word O’Leary used to describe this material, which represented just one of the challenging aspects to this project.

    “We needed to do two secondary operations, a routering operation and a drilling operation,” he continued, “and it also requires special packaging because it’s radiated for sterilization. And it’s a close-tolerance part.”

    Aastrom eventually sent a request for qualifications to the 30 top blow-molding companies in the country, said O’Leary. “Eight of them responded with ‘no quote,’ and the other 22 recommended Meredith-Springfield.”

    How this low-profile company achieved such problem-solver status is an intriguing story, and one that O’Leary admits he hasn’t had too much practice telling. This will change now that the company looking to raise that profile.

    O’Leary has spent much more time and energy explaining the company’s name — which is where the story begins, sort of.

    It turns out that O’Leary and a partner in a medical-equipment-leasing business they started in 1979 as a side venture were looking for a name for their business. They chose their hometowns; O’Leary was from Springfield, and his partner, with apparently enough oomph to put his town first, was from Meredith, N.H.

    This business, a franchise, was eventually sold, with the partners going their separate ways. O’Leary would hold onto the corporate name Meredith-Springfield, thinking that someday he would again do something entrepreneurial. He did, when his career with Aim Packaging, a plastics company that operated out of the former Gilbarco complex in West Springfield, ended a few years later.

    O’Leary worked his way up the ranks at AIM, eventually becoming plant manager and, along the way, starting two new operations in other cities. But a trend toward self-manufacturing in many industries served by plastics companies eventually prompted serious consolidation at AIM, and O’Leary was fired in late 1982.

    With obvious hindsight, he calls this the best thing that ever happened to him. That’s because he took his background and started a plastics-consulting business, for lack of a better term.

    “As soon as our client base found I was no longer working there, they started calling me at home and asking if I could help with their in-house operations,” he explained. “I didn’t really know how to spell ‘consultant,’ and the next day I was one.”

    Elaborating, O’Leary said he, and eventually some other partners he brought in, also from AIM, provided support for the technical aspects of plastic-packaging development.

    Much of the early work was with the so-called ‘soapers,’ which made everything from cleaning products to shampoo to mouthwash. And when the economics of self-manufacturing changed and companies started outsourcing that work, it helped Meredith-Springfield make a successful conversion from a venture that started as a development company and did a little manufacturing to a manufacturing company that still does some development.

    Technically, the company is a plastic extrusion blow molder. This means that it uses blow molding, a process by which tiny plastic pellets are converted into a hot plastic hose, said O’Leary, adding that a two-part mold is closed around the hose, and air is blown in to create everything from bottles (to hold everything from soda to motor oil) to the freezer packs used in lunch boxes to the so-called vapor-recovery boot (part of a car’s gas-tank assembly).

    The company has moved from O’Leary’s home to a plant on Cottage Street in Springfield to the present facilities in Ludlow, growing steadily over the years to where it now boasts 50 employees.

    PET Project

    The turning point, as O’Leary said, was the Reebok project.

    Until that time, Meredith-Springfield was enjoying ample success as a blow-molding manufacturing and engineering company, making products for Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, PepsiCo, and other clients, most all of them bottles — eventually to contain everything from witch hazel to maple syrup to toilet-bowl cleaner.

    Reebok was looking for a molder to develop and manufacture the DMX. Meredith-Springfield handled the former, and, because it couldn’t find a molder to take on the assignment on a production basis, it assumed that role as well until one could be found (overseas) to handle the volume.

    There have been other success stories along the way, ranging from the plastic fencing that has become a big part of the business (yet also the only one to see declining sales due to the collapse of the housing market) to the curved neck on toilet-bowl-cleaner bottles, for which Meredith-Springfield attained several patents.

    “Part of the art and science of our work is marrying up the right plastic with the right application,” O’Leary said, adding that the biggest development for the company has been its hard-earned reputation as a problem-solver, won through work on the casino chandelier, the bone-marrow container, and even large, plastic advertising tools called factices, developed for Elizabeth Arden to showcase a new product.

    “The company wanted one source that could figure out how to manufacture a giant tube-like-looking article that could be silver hot-stamped (decorated), gray silk-screened, and a have a metalized aluminum cap,” O’Leary explained, referring to the items eventually placed at thousands of cosmetics counters around the world. “Plus, they also wanted them in special packaging and shipped to 20,000 locations. That was a tall order, and one that was simply too complex for a large company to get its arms around.”

    Recently, Meredith-Springfield has had to solve a problem of its own, if it can be called that, in the recent shift toward use of PET in the production of many items used for the food industry.

    B&G Foods is one of the clients pushing for the change, said O’Leary, noting that the plastic long used in the making of bottles for products like Vermont Maid has fallen out of favor with large chains like Wal-Mart and Kmart. The new, preferred product is something called stretch-blow PET, or simply soda-bottle resin, as it’s known in the industry.

    Making the transition needed to keep B&G’s business has required a massive investment — again, in the middle of a recession, said O’Leary, adding quickly that the company is looking at this development more as an opportunity than a challenge, an investment more than an expense.

    Indeed, machines that had been devoted to Vermont Maid and similar products can now be put toward different business requiring extrusion methods — and there is plenty of it, O’Leary added — while the company has set out to be a leader in stretch-blow PET.

    “Because we’ve had a very healthy company and maintained excellent quality and service and on-time deliveries, we’ve actually been getting more business,” he explained. “That’s because many peer companies have been cutting back to the point where they can no longer react quickly, so they’re losing business to us.”

    Time in a Bottle

    When asked if his primary competitors were domestic or foreign, O’Leary paused for a minute to measure and prepare his response.

    “This is a rather bold statement,” he said, “but we don’t have very many direct competitors. There are very few companies that will take on the projects that we do.”

    This reputation for being able to think outside the box, to take the whimsical — like the glass-like globes for the chandelier in China — and make it reality, has enabled Meredith-Springfield to not only make the mold, but break the mold and move well beyond the plastic bottle.

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

    Features
    Marox Corp. Brings Surgical Precision to Medical Manufacturing
    Instruments of Progress

    Brad Rosenkranz says innovation in spinal surgical components has increased at a rapid pace — as has competition among designers and manufacturers.

    Brad Rosenkranz keeps a model of the human spine in a corner of his office at Marox Corp. in Holyoke. If nothing else, it’s the best way to demonstrate exactly what the manufacturer’s products do.

    At one point, he held a cervical plate, formed from titanium, to the front of the spine, showing how it provides stability in the neck area when it’s used by surgeons in the treatment of traumas or degenerative spine conditions.

    He also produced a few titanium pedicle screws, which hold in place the rods used to repair and connect the vertebrae; and talked about an organic polymer thermoplastic called PEEK, a lightweight, biocompatible substance used as a spacer between vertebrae. It’s radiolucent, meaning X-rays can pass through it, which is a benefit to doctors.

    “Surgeons like it because they can see,” said Rosenkranz, Marox’s vice president of sales and marketing. “There are usually three titanium markers we assemble into PEEK, and on an X-ray they show up as three dots, showing surgeons how the implant is positioned.”

    Other Marox products include spinal hooks, components for the hip and knee joints, and even some dental products and small parts for endoscopes, all of which contribute to the 59-year-old company’s reputation among the region’s leading manufacturers of medical implants.

    Marox’s customers are OEMs, or original equipment manufacturers, which supply medical practitioners with surgical and other types of devices. “We work with large OEMs, medium-size OEMs, we even work with startups — the whole spectrum,” said Rosenkranz.

    “With spines, the industry has come out with more and more products that are vastly improved,” he noted. “The spine was a grossly underserved market, but now a lot of companies are entering the field, trying to take on the big spine companies, and now I think the industry has become saturated with OEMs.”

    Meanwhile, he said, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has become more stringent about approving new medical devices, particularly for technology that is similar to anything already on the market. “It’s difficult,” he said of the increased competition to design products. “But it’s pretty good for patients now.”

    Testing Their Metal

    When Manfred Rosenkranz and his three sons acquired Marox in 1988, it manufactured a variety of items, ranging from small-arms components for Colt and Smith & Wesson to commercial hardware products.

    Soon thereafter, Marox started becoming heavily involved in the aerospace industry. Meanwhile, its production of an angioplasty product became its entry into medical manufacturing. One of those niches would not survive.

    “After years of seeing volatility taking place in aerospace,” Brad Rosenkranz said, “and having more and more opportunities presented with medical implants, we realized that, in order to capitalize on the opportunities in medical, we had to phase out all other industries, including aerospace. And the growth in the spinal-implant market worked out very well for us; we rode that wave.”

    He stressed that Marox isn’t a design firm, but does contribute in some ways to the design process — specifically, taking the design a customer has developed and providing input on manufacturability.

    “We might say, ‘if you change this component here, it will make it a lot easier to produce.’ They’ll say, ‘yes, we can make that change,’ or ‘no, we can’t; that’s a critical dimension.’ Ultimately, with our feedback and theirs, we agree on a design that works for them, that meets their needs and also meets our production needs.”

    Rosenkranz explained that the medical-machining industry is in many ways beholden to regulatory decisions. For example, a technology known as motion preservation, which allows joints to fully articulate instead of being fused together, wasn’t being covered by public payers, and the momentum of development in that area slowed down as a result. It’s now being overtaken by something known as dynamic stabilization.

    “It looks like the industry is moving more toward dynamic stabilization,” he said, explaining that the technique connects two sections of the spine and reduces the prevalence of adjacent level disease, which is a pathology that develops in a vertebra adjacent to a fused bone.

    “Dynamic stabilization allows some movement — not a lot, but a little bit,” he explained. “Kind of like a shock absorber, it allows the rod to bend and move, and allows adjacent bones a little movement. It’s better for bones to have that flexibility and movement because, if you don’t have that, you tend to have some negative effects. This dynamic stabilization creates the movement the bone needs and helps a lot with adjacent level disease.”

    Rosenkranz said it’s tough to predict where the next breakthroughs will come, a forecast partly clouded by uncertainty surrounding health care reform and how any change in the health care system will impact peripheral industries, like medical manufacturing.

    “Nobody really knows, with the current administration, where this is all going to end up,” he said, adding that he expects innovation to continue whatever the structure of health care. “This is a very progressive industry, and they’ve come a long way in terms of technology.”

    However, while components and tools for spinal surgery have consistently become more sophisticated over the years, he added, some products have stayed relatively unchanged over the past decade — notably certain components for major joint replacements — simply because they do their job so effectively.

    “The designs on hips and knees haven’t changed too much over the years,” he noted. “They work really well, so it’s the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ type of thing.”

    Room to Grow

    Marox — with its emphasis on lean, efficient manufacturing and its pristine facility — is, like many modern plants, a far cry from the old stereotype of the dirty, chaotic factory floor.

    But not everyone knows that, Rosenkranz said, and it’s a challenge to make sure people understand what today’s manufacturing floor is like, and to raise the prestige of what are often very high-tech jobs — which is why he conducts tours of the facility for trade-school students.

    “We want to show kids that, hey, there is something to manufacturing,” he said. “I think it may have gotten a bad rap, that it’s not glamorous, and people have jumped to computers, software, and IT because they’re the glamour jobs, and manufacturing got left in the dust.

    “But we’re showing kids that this is high-tech, precision work, making really sophisticated components — and, on top of that, for a good cause,” he continued. “Some people hear ‘manufacturing’ and think of a dirty foundry, a dark, gloomy, grungy place. But it is very clean and high-tech. We’ve been told our facility is reminiscent of a European facility, with lab coats, where everything is clean and neat.”

    Rosenkranz is excited not only about the work that Marox performs, but for the whole umbrella of burgeoning bioscience applications, from synthetic bones and stem-cell products to bone-growth stimulators and other technologies that fall outside Marox’s metal-machining specialty.

    Economic-development experts have long pegged Massachusetts as a hotbed for such cutting-edge industries, and Rosenkranz doesn’t doubt that this region could be a growth sector, at least for high-tech precision machining.

    “I think there’s good talent here in Western Mass.,” he said. “Finding skilled workers is a problem that everyone faces nationally, but here in Western Mass., I think we’re just as well-off if not better-off than anyone else in terms of a skilled workforce. Around here we have a lot of manufacturing, and a lot of colleges having more awareness in terms of what’s available in manufacturing.

    “We’ve seen a lot of growth over the past several years,” he added, “and it looks to be so in the future as well. It’s a great industry to be in.”

    For anyone, that is, with the spine to take on some high-tech challenges.

    Joseph Bednar can be reached at[email protected]

    Departments

    Ten Tips to Improve your linkedIn Experience

    By CHRISTINE PILCH

    1. Creating a thorough profile is important. An incomplete profile screams, “I don’t care about this.” Fill out all educational and professional information so people know what you’re capable of.

    2.Connecting to a couple of LIONs (LinkedIn Open Networkers) expands your network, but more than that probably just links to duplicates.
    3. Giving referrals has a double benefit. Your friend benefits from your accolades, and you benefit from increased visibility on their profile.
    4. Connecting to people takes dedication and perseverance. This is not a case of, ‘build it and they will come.’ Go through your contact list and search for people. Monitor the suggestions and mine your connections’ friends for common acquaintances.

    5. Joining groups expands your network and opens you to a vast pool of people with common interests or talents.

    6. Answering questions helps demonstrate your proficiency. Try to answer one per week in your area of expertise.
    7. Asking a thoughtful and relevant question can raise awareness of you within a group where you may have been anonymous.
    8. Updating your status frequently gets you on your connections’ home page often, so they will think of you regularly.
    9. Building a company page allows all employees to associate themselves with your business and provides a snapshot of it.

    10. Showing what benefit you bring to a prospective employer with a descriptive tag of your skills is more effective than listing your boring job title under your name.

    Christine Pilch is a partner with Grow My Company and a social-media marketing strategist. She trains clients to utilize LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, blogging, and other social-media tools to grow their businesses; (413) 537-2474; linkedin.com/in/christinepilch;
    facebook.com/growmycompany;
    twitter.com/christinepilch; growmyco.com; “Miracle Growth for Your Company.”

    Departments

    Rise in Jobless Claims Surprises Analysts

    WASHINGTON — In the week ending Feb. 13, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 473,000, an increase of 31,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 442,000. The four-week moving average was 467,500, a decrease of 1,500 from the previous week’s revised average of 469,000. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.5% for the week ending Feb. 6, unchanged from the prior week’s unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Feb. 6 was 4,563,000, unchanged from the preceding week’s revised level. The four-week moving average was 4,585,750, a decrease of 24,000 from the preceding week’s revised average of 4,609,750. The fiscal year-to-date average for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment for all programs is 5.24 million. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 476,730 in the week ending Feb. 13, a decrease of 30,850 from the previous week. There were 619,951 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009. The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 4.3% during the week ending Feb. 6, a decrease of 0.1% from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for people claiming unemployment-insurance benefits in state programs totaled 5,539,706, a decrease of 150,689 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 4.5%, and the volume was 5,972,146. Extended benefits were available in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin during the week ending Jan. 30. States reported 5,797,875 persons claiming EUC (emergency unemployment compensation) benefits for the week ending Jan. 30, an increase of 304,748 from the prior week.

    Bright Nights Has Successful Holiday Season

    SPRINGFIELD — Spirit of Springfield (SOS) officials recently noted that the 15th season of Bright Nights at Forest Park was a success, contributing close to $350,000 in payments to the city for traffic control, labor, and its annual licensing fee. SOS President Judith A. Matt noted during an appreciation breakfast that the holiday lighting display drew 36,240 cars, a 12% increase over the 2008 season, as well as 298 buses. SOS estimates that Bright Nights also infuses more than $7.5 million into the region through its hotels, shops, and restaurants, as well as money paid to city workers, vendors, and staff, during the 35-night run, Matt noted. The lighting display is expected to be dismantled by the first week of March, she added.

    Leadership Holyoke Applicants Still Sought

    HOLYOKE — The 11-week Leadership Holyoke program, co-sponsored by the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce and PeoplesBank, begins March 4. Holyoke Community College faculty members and community leaders participate in each weekly, half-day session of Leadership Holyoke. Topics are related to the elements involved in being an effective volunteer leader. For more information and enrollment applications, call the chamber office at (413) 534-3376.

    United Way Seeks Nominees for Recognition

    SPRINGFIELD — The United Way of Pioneer Valley is seeking nominees for its annual awards program, which honors volunteers and organizations for contributing the most to improve the lives of Pioneer Valley people and to strengthen communities. Nominating someone or a business or organization is as easy as submitting a name and a brief justification explaining why the person nominated should receive a United Way award. This is the first year the United Way has expanded the nomination process to include nominations from any member of the public, according to Dora D. Robinson, president and CEO. Robinson noted that it is important to encourage the public to recognize outstanding volunteer service — individuals, businesses, and nonprofits that have proven their concern and compassion for their neighbors with acts of kindness. The award categories are: Spirit of Caring Award, honoring an individual who has demonstrated uncommon leadership and compassion while improving the community; Champions of Hope Award, honoring a local corporation or business that values and nurtures community relationships and is a catalyst for positive change in the community; and the Kevin Hamel Community Building Award, honoring a nonprofit that serves the community with the highest possible integrity and values honest and transparent practices. People are not limited to one nomination. Citizens can submit as many nominees for as many award categories as they believe are appropriate. Nominations can be sent to Linda Valentini, preferably by e-mail at [email protected], or by faxing to (413) 788-4130. For more information, visit www.uwpv.org.

    Departments

    The following building permits were issued during the month of February 2010.

    AGAWAM

    Ken Vincunas
    68 Gold St.
    $130,000 — Tenant fit-out of 3,400 square feet of office space

    Renz America
    92 Almgren Dr.
    $11,000 — Upgrading existing sprinkler system

    AMHERST

    Amherst College Trustees
    280 Main St.
    $65,000 — Replace damaged ceiling

    Hill House LLC
    81 McClellan St.
    $67,000 — Addition

    CHICOPEE

    1580 Ocean Avenue LLC
    861 Prospect St.
    $36,000 — Install solar panel

    MGS Realty Inc.
    215 Griffith Road
    $49,000 — Office renovations

    EASTHAMPTON

    God Is Love Church
    285 East St.
    $8,500 — Install vinyl siding and trim

    GREENFIELD

    Country Club of Greenfield
    180 Country Club Road
    $25,000 — Construct six new towers

    HOLYOKE

    Mark Cudding
    28 Appleton St.
    $29,000 — Repairs to roof at C & D Electronics

    LUDLOW

    Ludlow Fish & Game
    857 Sportsman Road
    $1,600 — New deck

     

    NORTHAMPTON

    American Tower
    327 King St.
    $4,500 — New antenna

    Cooley Dickinson Hospital Inc.
    30 Locust St.
    $45,000 — Construct new gift shop

    Manhan Narrow LLC
    196 Pleasant St
    $450,000 — Interior renovation

    Meadowbrook Preservation
    491 Bridge Road
    $1,261,800 — Renovate building 21

    SOUTH HADLEY

    E Inc.
    7 Gaylord St
    $2,294,000 — Commercial renovations

    Mt. Holyoke College
    50 College St.
    $303,500 — Renovations

    SPRINGFIELD

    Jo Lee
    1132 Main St.
    $15,000 — Interior renovation of furniture store

    Nino’s Pizza Shop
    674 Dickinson St.
    $2,500 — Interior renovations

    WESTFIELD

    Little Rill Trucking
    77 Industrial Park Road
    $38,500 — Commercial renovation

    Westfield Animal Shelter
    178 Appremont Way
    $20,000 — Install kennels

    Departments

    ACCGS
    www.myonlinechamber.com
    (413) 787-1555

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield
    www.springfieldyps.com

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce
    www.amherstarea.com

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Chicopee Chamber of Commerce
    www.chicopeechamber.org
    (413) 594-2101

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Franklin County Chamber of Commerce
    www.franklincc.org
    (413) 773-5463

    March 19: Breakfast Series, 7:30 to 9 a.m., hosted by Deerfield Inn. Program speakers: John Fabel, inventor, educator, entrepreneur, and bike nut; innovative green-technology businesses including Sylvan Cycles, Qteros, and Ecotrek. Sponsored by Greenfield Savings Bank. Cost: members $12, non-members $14. To make reservations, call (413) 773-5463 or e-mail [email protected] by March 16.

    Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce
    www.easthamptonchamber.org
    (413) 527-9414

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce
    www.holycham.com
    (413) 534-3376

    March 4: Leadership Holyoke Program, sponsored by PeoplesBank. Presented by the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Holyoke Community College. Speakers, discussions, classroom time, and field trips are included in this 11-week session. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 for details.

    March 17: St. Pat’s Salute Breakfast, 7:30 to 9 a.m., sponsored by PeoplesBank. Hosted by Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, Holyoke. Cost: $20. Call the chamber office at (413) 534-3376 for reservations.

    March 24: Table Top Expo, 4 to 7 p.m. (snow date March 30), presented by the Greater Holyoke, Chicopee, Easthampton, and Northampton Chambers of Commerce. Hosted by Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, Holyoke. The public is invited. Cost: $5; vendors $100 for a table. Call (413) 534-3376 or any of the chambers to reserve a table.

    Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce
    www.explorenorthampton.com
    (413) 584-1900

    March 3: Arrive@5, 5 to 7 p.m., hosted by Calvin Coolidge Nursing & Rehabilitation Center for Northampton. Cost: members $10, guests $15.

    March 17: St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast, 7:30 to 9 a.m., hosted by Clarion Hotel & Conference Center.

    March 24: 16th Annual Table Top Expo, 4:30 to 7 p.m., hosted by the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, Holyoke. Cost: $5 in advance, $10 at the door.

    Quaboag Hills Chamber of Commerce
    www.qvcc.biz
    (413) 283-2418

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    South Hadley/Granby Chamber of Commerce
    www.shchamber.com
    (413) 532-6451

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Three Rivers Chamber of Commerce
    www.threeriverschamber.org
    413-283-6425

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce
    www.westfieldbiz.org
    (413) 568-1618

    Please see the chamber’s Web site for information about upcoming events.

    Departments

    Comcast Offers Online Storage Solutions

    SPRINGFIELD — Comcast Corp. recently launched Secure Backup & Share to help its high-speed Internet customers reduce their risk of losing important files that are saved on their computers. As physical belongings once stored in shoeboxes and manila file folders are now in the form of digital files spread across various computers and smart phones, there is a need for online backup that will protect one’s valuable files and ensure they will be available from just about anywhere at any time, according to Doug Guthrie, senior vice president of Comcast’s Western New England Region. Guthrie noted that Secure Backup & Share is embedded into the high-speed Internet service so customers can retrieve and share personal digital media from any Web-enabled or wireless device. Features of Secure Backup & Share include files being stored remotely, which can be restored in the event of human error, fire, or natural disaster; and convenient sharing, allowing customers to share their photos, videos, music, and documents with family and friends. Guthrie also noted that Comcast high-speed Internet customers automatically receive 2 GB of storage included with their subscription. Comcast packages also include a 50 GB storage plan and a 200 GB storage plan. For more information, visit www.comcast.net/backup.

    PeoplesBank Branching Out to Seniors

    HOLYOKE — PeoplesBank hopes to open two branches at local complexes for senior citizens in the coming months. Bank officials recently applied to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the state Division of Banks for permission to open branches at Reeds Landing, 807 Wilbraham Road, Springfield; and at Glenmeadow, 56 Burns Meadow Road, Longmeadow.

    Baystate MRI Opens New Facility

    SPRINGFIELD — The Baystate MRI and Imaging Center recently opened its doors at 80 Wason Ave. with 3 Tesla technology (3T), enabling physicians to see and interpret scans at a level of detail never seen before. The new location will house three open-bore MRI units, including a Siemens Open Bore 3 Tesla MRI device, which Dr. Richard Hicks, director of MRI for Baystate MRI and Imaging Center, says delivers an unprecedented level of detail in its images while also enabling patients to receive their scans in greater comfort. Hicks also serves as chief of Neuroradiology at Baystate Medical Center. Hicks added that, from neurology to orthopedic imaging, he expects to be able to detect and diagnose a range of health issues faster and more effectively. Magnetic-resonance imaging uses a magnetic field and radio waves to obtain images of the internal structure of a patient’s body. MRI is useful in helping physicians detect tumors, infection, vascular disease, and internal bleeding, among other problems. The digital images from an MRI can be easily relayed between doctors and other providers, helping to ensure every caregiver treating a patient has access to the most up-to-date and detailed assessment of that patient’s circumstances, according to Hicks. With a sizable opening, the open-bore devices can accommodate patients who might have struggled getting MRIs in the past, noted Hicks, adding that the new technology provides comfort for people who are claustrophobic, pediatric patients, and people of size. Baystate MRI and Imaging will also offer the newest PET/CT (positron-emission tomography/computed tomography) technology available at the site. PET/CT is used primarily in oncology and brain-imaging applications and is useful in identifying abnormalities, while also offering faster scans and an open design for patient comfort. Baystate MRI is a partnership between Baystate Radiology and Imaging Inc. and Shields Health Care Group, which provides MRI services across Central and Southern New England.

    Paratemps Inc. Celebrates 20 Years

    SPRINGFIELD — Marge Fauteux, president and founder of Paratemps, Inc., celebrated 20 years in business in February. The legal and corporate staffing service specializes in offering temporary, temp-to-hire, and direct-hire placement throughout Western Mass. and Northern Conn. Fauteux is a member of the Professional Legal Advisory Board at BayPath College, Longmeadow, and a member of Wilbraham BNI (Business Network International). She also serves as a director for BNI Western MA.

    WNEC Students Excel in Tax Challenge

    SPRINGFIELD — Western New England College (WNEC) School of Law students swept the top awards in a National American Bar Assoc. contest designed to give students an opportunity to research, write about, and present their analyses of “real life” tax-planning problems. Brendan Sponheimer of Orange, Conn., and James Murtha of Manchester, Conn., were awarded first place overall at the American Bar Assoc. Section of Taxation’s 2009 Law Student Tax Challenge in San Antonio. A second WNEC team, Neill O’Brien of East Longmeadow and Casey Nunez of Princeton, were honored for the best written submission. Professor of Law Frederick Royal served as coach of both teams, which competed in the competition’s juris doctor division. This is the second time in the competition’s nine-year history that WNEC School of Law students have been named overall champions. The tax challenge was developed to reflect everyday tax issues that might arise for practitioners. Forty-three teams from 34 law schools across the country competed in the J.D. division, tackling a complex tax planning problem that involved individual and business entity issues.

    Bay State Gas Receives OK for Energy Plan

    WESTBOROUGH — The Mass. Department of Public Utilities (DPU) recently approved a three-year energy-efficiency plan by Bay State Gas. The 2010-12 approved plan is a new initiative in response to the Mass. Green Communities Act (GCA), and follows months of rigorous discussion, participation, and negotiations with the Energy Efficiency Advisory Council (established by the GCA) and other interested stakeholders. The DPU order commences a new era of prudent energy management and consumption, addresses the challenges of climate change, and fosters growth in jobs and economic output within the state. Bay State’s plan includes participation in a comprehensive framework comprised of all utilities and energy-service providers in the state to deliver enhanced energy-efficiency services, and acquisition of all available energy-efficiency and demand-reduction resources that are cost-effective. Derek Buchler, manager of the company’s energy-efficiency department, noted that never before has there been such a coordinated effort among the state’s gas and electric distribution companies, all focused on achieving accelerated levels of energy savings in a three-year period. Buchler added that Bay State’s energy-efficiency programs will dramatically increase from a $7.9 million annual budget to more than $56 million over the next three years. The new programs will install energy improvements that will achieve savings for years to come, enabling Bay State customers to realize savings of more than 181 million therms of gas over the life of measures installed. This is the equivalent of heating approximately 178,797 homes for one year and equates to net benefits of more than $135 million, according to Buchler. Steve Bryant, president of Bay State Gas, added that the company is “extremely proud” to be part of this important and ground-breaking energy-efficiency initiative. Bryant noted that the new plan will provide customers with easy, affordable ways to control and reduce energy consumption.

    Pittsfield Chosen for WMECO Solar-energy Site

    SPRINGFIELD — Western Mass. Electric Company (WMECO) recently announced its plan to develop the first of several large-scale solar energy facilities. The selected site on Silver Lake Boulevard combines two parcels of land owned by WMECO and the Pittsfield Economic Development Authority (PEDA) at the William Stanley Business Park. The eight-acre site will accommodate up to 1.8 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity. WMECO officials joined local officials and PEDA representatives in announcing the agreement to combine these brownfield properties into one of the largest solar facilities in New England. The Commonwealth has a goal to install 250 megawatts of solar by 2017. Under the landmark Green Communities Act, each Massachusetts electric utility may own up to 50 MW of solar generation, subject to approval by the Department of Public Utilities (DPU). WMECO is currently authorized to install 6 MW of solar. The company’s solar program reflects a close collaboration with the attorney general’s office and other key Massachusetts and industry stakeholders. WMECO’s Silver Lake Boulevard project combines a six-acre parcel owned by the utility and a two-acre parcel in the William Stanley Business Park. A WMECO substation is situated between the two parcels, providing an efficient connection to the utility’s local distribution system. Large-scale solar-energy facilities are still relatively new to Massachusetts and New England. Approximately 10 MW of solar generation is currently on-line in the Commonwealth. Comprised of approximately 1,100 individual photovoltaic systems, the largest one is approximately 500 kilowatts (0.5 MW). WMECO’s first solar project can be as large as 1.8 MW, and the company expects it to cost considerably less than existing photovoltaic systems. The project will bring $10 to $12 million of construction to the region and is expected to contribute more than $200,000 of annual property-tax revenue to the city of Pittsfield. Pittsfield is one of the two Gateway Communities in WMECO’s service territory and is home to some 24,000 WMECO customers. Local permitting for the project is underway, and WMECO expects to begin construction in the second quarter of this year. The company continues to evaluate other sites for the remaining scope of its 6 MW solar program. WMECO’s solar program focuses on larger-scale facilities (1 MW or greater), emphasizing landfill, brownfield, and utility-owned properties as ideal locations. Such properties typically have few alternative uses and are compatible with the construction of solar-energy facilities. WMECO also seeks to develop the market for larger-scale solar facilities; the company’s program makes extensive use of competitive bidding and relies heavily on the expertise of the solar industry. WMECO has currently qualified 16 solar firms to bid on its projects. The company is also evaluating 25 sites owned by municipalities and private developers located in WMECO’s service territory. The company expects to draw upon these prospective sites as it develops additional projects during 2010. WMECO will complete the remainder of its 6 MW program by 2012. WMECO is part of the Northeast Utilities System.

    Departments

    The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of February 2010.

    AGAWAM

    Advanced Network Solutions
    82 Florida Dr.
    Vitaliy Izoita

    Benton Marketing Group
    150 Walnut St.
    Derek J. Benton

    End Results
    766 Springfield St.
    Catherine Marble

    Knowledge is Power Group
    76 Regency Park Dr.
    Lavek Nisenkier

    Morning Light Beauty Center Inc.
    340 Walnut St. Ext.
    Bing Chong Kau

    Safe Place Technologies
    750 Barry St.
    Stefan Gadecki

    Sandra Marie Photography
    118 Maple St.
    Sandra M. Bongiovanni

    Sound Variables
    2A Mansion Woods Dr.
    Kirk Cirillo

    Vlad’s Express Delivery
    70 Rivera Dr.
    Vladimir Duducal

    AMHERST

    Films Royale
    1040 North Pleasant St.
    Jesse Barack

    Ghana Act
    183 Chestnut St.
    Robert Barber

    St. Michael & All Angels Anglican Mission
    434 North Pleasant St.
    Diane O’Leary

    The Designing Child
    34 Main St.
    Judith Sandler

    CHICOPEE

    Crossover Web Solution
    1607 Main St.
    Saurab Ahikri

    Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Tattoo
    6 Center St.
    Andrew Barrett

    EAST LONGMEADOW

    B & D Removal
    30 Harwich Road
    Dennis F Olisky Jr.

    EDCOM
    104 Franconia Circle
    William E. Grohe II

    McRae Consulting Solutions
    57 Merriam St.
    Mary McRae

    GREENFIELD

    Beijing House
    45 Main St.
    Min Lu Lu

    Greenfield Coffee
    11 Bank Row
    Greenfield Coffee, LLC

    Naps Auto Sales & Service Inc.
    151 Federal St.
    Robert LaFleur

    HADLEY

    Dancing Shiva Studio
    41 Russell St.
    Amy Andrew

    Rodrigues Towing
    18 Newton Lane
    Adxlron Rodrigues

    HOLYOKE

    Bodega 24 H
    154 High St.
    Pamela Antonetty

    C & D Gifts & More
    223 Maple St.
    Debra M. Bowie

    Dream Décor Inc.
    369 High St.
    Abdul Sattar Chaudhry

    Lenscrafters
    50 Holyoke St.
    Kerry Bradley

    Teavana
    50 Holyoke St.
    Joe Reeves

    LUDLOW

    Kitchen Works
    35 State St.
    Ronald Kretschmare

    Triple R. Trailer
    361 West St.
    Randy Robare

    Turnpike Acres Store Shop
    185 Miller St.
    George Dupuis

    NORTHAMPTON

    Foley Investigations
    947 Burts Pit Road
    Tracy Foley

    General Cleaners of Northampton
    144 North King St.
    Karen Russell

    Rockn Rog Ventures
    57 Mann Terrace
    Daniel M. Rogers

     

     

    PALMER

    Blockberries
    65 Jim Ash St.
    David Whitney

    CKS
    46 Wilbraham St.
    Kevin Kolakowski

    Lusty Performance Engines
    430 Old Warren Road
    William J. Lusty, Jr.

    MD Logistics Services Inc.
    3 Converse St.
    Maurice Denner

    SPRINGFIELD

    Aquino Mini Mart
    178 Oakland St.
    William Aquino

    Chico’s Towing Service
    2543 Main St.
    Cecilio Rivera

    Creating Comfort Outlet
    1655 Boston Road
    Jose E. Barina Jr.

    Cumberland Farms
    70 Parker ST.
    Richard Fournier

    E2 Records
    1655 Main ST.
    Enrique Pacheco

    EL Tabonuco Madrugador
    858 State St.
    Monserrate Delacruz

    F & L Heating
    48 Kenwood Park
    Felix E. Caban

    Fresh Cutz
    494 Central St.
    Carlos Cosme

    In and Out Rims and Tires
    501 Main ST.
    Sergio Andrews

    J & D Fashion House
    118 Stevenson Ave.
    Diane Strickland

    JW Fashion
    172 Eastern Ave.
    Luis Santiago

    Jenny Beauty Salon
    618 Belmont Ave.
    Isaias Pena

    Just Like Home Childcare
    20 Revere St.
    Yashira Soto-Perez

    Kim’s Nail
    250 Bridge St.
    Donghee Kim

    Laborers Unlimited
    150 Phoenix Ter.
    Flordilama Pasqual

    M. J. M. Plowing
    16 Willow Brook Dr.
    Matthew J. McConaha

    WESTFIELD

    Allied Pattern
    139 Meadow St.
    Alan Perzanowski

    Carpet Ends
    1006 Southampton Road
    Gabriel Khatchadourian

    Good Life Industrial Supply
    24 Camelot Lane
    Anthony M. Bonavita, Jr.

    One Family Services Inc.
    26 North Elm St.
    Jeffrey S. Hardy, Sr.

    Reflections Hair Studio
    2 Russell Road
    Gloria P. Dandeneau

    Shaker Gifts LLC
    16 Union Ave.
    Karen Novak

    Split Ends
    10 Union St.
    Leanne Romani

    Vitaliy’s Property Maintenance
    87 Birch Bluffs Dr.
    Vitaliy Brover

    Zorra Designs LLC
    3 Gillette Ave.
    Alexandria Melo

    WEST SPRINGFIELD

    Arias Fabrics
    209 Elm St.
    Doris Arias

    Balise Toyota Scion
    1399 Riverdale St.
    BTLS Corporation Inc

    Bliny Crepes Tea House Inc.
    261 Union St.
    Romas Stefan

    DMP Supply Company Inc.
    21 Bramble Ave.
    Donald Del Buono

    James A. Kellam, Attorney at Law
    181 Park Ave.
    James A. Kellam

    Picture Awards Inc.
    871 Elm St.
    Joseph J. Esile Jr.

    Departments

    My Boss Is a Patriot

    Balise Honda Service Manager Mike Yuscavitch recently received the ‘My Boss Is a Patriot’ Award from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR). Employers qualify for recognition when they practice leadership and personnel policies that support employee participation in the Guard and Reserve. From left are Earl Bonett, Western Mass. chairman, ESGR; Yuscavitch; and Scott Randall, Balise Honda technician and PFC in the Mass. National Guard, who nominated Yuscavitch.


    Building Momentum at GCC

    Gov. Deval Patrick (center) and Greenfield Community College President Bob Pura (right)look on as Stephen O’Connor, with the Mass. Division of Capital Asset Management, points out demolition activities currently underway for the Greenfield Community College Core Renovation Project. The $31.5 million project is funded through the MA Higher Education Bond Bill and expected to be completed by summer 2011.


    Outlook 2010

    More than 800 area business and civic leaders turned out at Chez Josef in Agawam on Feb. 12 for the Affiliated Chambers’ Outlook 2010 program. The featured speaker was Gov. Deval Patrick, who highlighted a number of business and economic-development efforts currently ongoing in the Commonwealth. Below, Mark Tolosky, left, president and CEO of Baystate Health, chats with John Chandler, MassMutual Financial’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer (center), and Nick Fyntrilakis, MassMutual’s director of Community Relations. At bottom, from left, U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal (who also addressed the audience on federal initiatives), Patrick, and Peter Straley, president and CEO of Health New England, listen to Rod Scott, senior vice president of Sovereign Bank, make opening remarks.


    A ‘Green’ Branch

    Douglas A. Bowen, PeoplesBank president and CEO (center), was joined by Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, city and state officials, as well as PeoplesBank staff members and senior management, to open the bank’s first LEED-registered office at 1051 St. James Ave. City officials were also on hand to award PeoplesBank with its first GreenSeal, an initiative to foster a greener, more sustainable, and more livable city.