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SPRINGFIELD — Plenty of good seats are available for the ninth annual Difference Makers award program, staged by BusinessWest, to be held on Thursday, March 30 at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House in Holyoke.

The winners, profiled in the Jan. 23 issue and at businesswest.com, are the Community Colleges of Western Mass. (Berkshire Community College, Greenfield Community College, Holyoke Community College, and
Springfield Technical Community College); Friends of the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round; Denis Gagnon Sr., president and CEO of Excel Dryer Inc.; Junior Achievement of Western Mass.; and Joan Kagan, president and CEO of Square One.

Tickets to the event cost $65 per person, with tables of 10 available. To order, call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100.

Difference Makers is a program, launched in 2009, that recognizes groups and individuals that are, as the name suggests, making a difference in this region. Event sponsors include First American Insurance; Health New England; JGS Lifecare; Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.; Northwestern Mutual; O’Connell Care at Home; Royal, P.C.; and Sunshine Village.

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GREENFIELD — Greenfield Savings Bank announced that Kelly Gagnon has been promoted to trust officer in the bank’s Trust & Investment Management Group, Michael Cherry has been promoted to office sales manager at the bank’s Northampton office, and Anna Zadworny has been promoted to office sales manager at the South Deerfield office.

Gagnon joined Greenfield Savings Bank in 2010, and has worked in the financial-services industry for more than 18 years. She is a graduate of Greenfield Community College, a trust graduate of the Cannon Financial Institution, and earned the designation of certified trust and financial advisor from the Institute of Certified Bankers in 2015. She is active volunteering in the community.

Cherry joined Greenfield Savings Bank in 2015 with eight years of experience in the banking industry, and will be concentrating on new business and account development. He volunteers as a member of the board of directors for the Amherst Boys and Girls Club.

Zadworny has been in banking for 26 years and at Greenfield Savings Bank since 2012. She completed the finance program at Babson College with honors, and holds an associate’s degree in business management from Holyoke Community College. She is active in the community as a volunteer for NEF, the Salvation Army, the United Way, and the Northampton school system.

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PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Bank announced the appointment of Allan Costello as president of its wholly owned subsidiary First Choice Loan Services Inc., a mortgage-banking business originating loans across a national platform.

As president, Costello will work with the current leadership team at First Choice Loan Services, including Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Norman Koenigsberg and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Ralph Picarillo, in developing strategic initiatives. Costello will be instrumental in setting corporate policies and procedures for this subsidiary consistent with the compliance culture at Berkshire Bank. In addition, he will continue to serve as executive vice president for the bank’s Home Lending Division, leading its sales and operations functions including loan origination, underwriting, compliance, processing, and servicing.

Costello has been integral to developing the growth, improved operational efficiencies, and strong mortgage oversight and governance of Berkshire Bank Home Lending. In his new role, he will execute on First Choice Loan Services’ strategic vision and cultural integration as part of Berkshire Bank.

Costello brings more than 30 years of experience in auditing, risk management, compliance, accounting, operations, and banking. He joined Berkshire Bank in 2011 and held the position of senior vice president, Audit before transitioning to the Home Lending Division. Prior to Berkshire Bank, his career was focused on the auditing and financial fields, including director at Accume Partners, divisional vice president of Bank Protection at Charter One Bank, and chief financial officer at Rhinebeck Savings Bank.

“Since opening its doors in 2009, First Choice Loan Services has evolved into an extremely well-respected and nationally recognized leader in the mortgage industry,” Costello said. “I’m excited to join Norman, Ralph, and the rest of their outstanding leadership team and continue to build on their tremendous success.”

Costello holds a bachelor’s of business administration degree in accounting from Siena College and graduated from the American Bankers Assoc. Graduate School of Banking. He is a certified internal auditor and certified fraud examiner.

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SPRINGFIELD — The Valley Blue Sox announced their 2017 schedule this week. As was the case in 2016, the Sox will play a 44-game slate, with their home opener set for Thursday, June 8 against the Winnipesaukee Muskrats at 6:35 p.m. at MacKenzie Stadium in Holyoke.

The Blue Sox have 10 home games slated for the month of June and 12 scheduled for July. This year’s NECBL All Star Game will be played in North Adams on Sunday, July 30. The final Blue Sox home game will be Friday, July 28 vs. the New Bedford Bay Sox. To see the entire schedule, click here.

“The biggest and most important thing is that all but three home games this season will be played on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday,” said Blue Sox President Clark Eckhoff. “That maximizes the accessibility for fans — they won’t have to worry as much about school nights, getting to work the next day, and the like. They can come out and do what they’re supposed to do at a baseball game — and that’s have fun with their families.”

In a slight change from previous campaigns, the Blue Sox will be kicking off 2017 on the road on Tuesday, June 6 versus North Adams as well as ending the regular season on the road against Ocean State on August 1. It’s the first time the Blue Sox have opened on the road in four years, and the first time in three seasons that they’ll close out the season on the road.

“You know the home opener is coming no matter what — but it’s always nice to have those few extra days to get things ready the way you want them to be,” said Blue Sox General Manager Hunter Golden. “For the fans, the slightly later start date will just mean a better experience right out of the gate. Opening day is fun and exciting, but there’s also a lot that needs to get done. We’ll be better for it.”

The Blue Sox promotional schedule will also be released in the coming months, Eckhoff said. “We’ve got some really exciting things on tap. Some staples like Star Wars night and Friday night fireworks will be back — and we’ve got about five new promotions that we think the fans will get really excited about.”

Individual game tickets will go on sale starting March 1 and will cost $7 for adults and $5 for kids and seniors. Season tickets, flex packs, and group tickets are already on sale, and can be purchased either online at www.valleybluesox.com or by calling the Blue Sox ticket office at (413) 533-1100.

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GREENFIELD — Greenfield Savings Bank has appointed Tara Brewster business development specialist. The position is part of an expansion of the bank’s Commercial Banking Department. She brings more than years of small-business experience, including seven years as owner of Jackson & Connor in downtown Northampton.

“Tara’s 20 years in business makes her a great addition to our commercial business development team,” said Mark Grumoli, senior vice president and commercial loan officer. “Her experience and success running her own business, Jackson & Connor, gives her a first-hand perspective of the financial and banking needs of local businesses.”

Brewster is a Northampton native and graduate of Smith College. Before joining the bank, she worked for independent small businesses and multi-million-dollar companies between Massachusetts and New York City in a wide range of management positions, including manager, promotions director, buyer, regional sales manager, and East Coast account executive.

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SPRINGFIELD — The Creative Strategy Agency Inc. (tCSA) announced the addition of a new position to the agency, welcoming Bridget Delaney as social media coordinator, and also announced the Google certification of Tony Papoutsakis, who joined the agency in June.

“I am thrilled that he is now certified in Google, allowing us to better serve our advertising clients with search-engine optimization and AdWords advertising,” said Alfonso Santaniello, president and CEO of tCSA. “With the growth in the agency this past year, we’ve been fortunate enough to bring on a talent like Bridget.”

Delaney joins the agency with a strong background in social-media marketing, working with organizations within Springfield. She stays on top of all the latest social-media trends and is skilled at creating unique and inspiring content. She possesses a broad range of creative skills that she brings to any project. Her love for simple and classic designs is evident in her work, Santaniello said.

As a social media coordinator, she creates and implements marketing strategies for tCSA clients across all social-media platforms. She then manages these sites and curates engagement among users to produce higher brand awareness.

Before taking her role as tCSA’s social media coordinator, Delaney worked with the Downtown Springfield Business Improvement District and Spirit of Springfield, where she managed social-media pages and assisted in event marketing and planning.

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GLASTONBURY, Conn. — United Financial Bancorp Inc., the holding company for United Bank, announced results for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016.

The company reported net income of $14.6 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, for the quarter, compared to net income for the linked quarter of $14.2 million, or $0.28 per diluted share. The company reported net income of $9.9 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2015.

“In the fourth quarter of 2016, the United Financial Bancorp Inc. team delivered record revenue, record earnings per share, and strong loan growth, all supported by an attractive cost structure and excellent asset quality,” said William Crawford IV, CEO of the company and the bank. “I want to thank our employees for their relentless focus on serving the financial needs of our customers.”

Total assets at Dec. 31, 2016 increased by $54.7 million to $6.60 billion from $6.54 billion at Sept. 30, 2016. Total loans were $4.90 billion, representing an increase of $181.0 million, or 3.8%, from the linked quarter. Changes to loan balances during the fourth quarter of 2016 were highlighted by a $63.9 million, or 9.7%, increase in commercial business loans and a $24.6 million, or 6.3%, increase in owner-occupied commercial real-estate loans. Total residential mortgages increased during the fourth quarter of 2016 by $27.1 million, and total held-for-sale loans decreased $20.8 million. Total cash and cash equivalents decreased $123.3 million, or 57.6%, during the linked quarter, partially due to the company funding loan originations.

Deposits totaled $4.71 billion at Dec. 31, 2016 and increased by $15.7 million, or 0.3%, from $4.70 billion at Sept. 30, 2016. Reflective of growth in newly acquired deposit relationships, increases in the fourth quarter of 2016 included a $20.2 million, or 2.9%, increase in non-interest bearing deposits and a $65.6 million, or 15.2%, increase in NOW checking deposits. These increases were offset by a $115.4 million, or 6.2%, decrease in certificates of deposit, some of which migrated to money-market deposit accounts that reflected growth of $40.5 million, or 3.4%, during the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016.

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WEST SPRINGFIELD — The West of the River Chamber of Commerce announced its Legislative Breakfast event, which brings members and non-members together for a morning of breakfast and legislative updates.

The event will take place on Wednesday, Feb. 22 from 7 to 9 a.m. at Springfield Country Club in West Springfield. Attendees will have the opportunity to connect with local business people over breakfast, and later will enjoy an informational session, emceed by Anthony Cignoli and presented by a panel of legislators, including State Sens. Don Humason and James Welch, stat Reps. Nicholas Boldyga and Michael Finn, Agawam Mayor Richard Cohen, and West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt. The presenting sponsor is Six Flags New England, and the premiere sponsors are Health New England and OMG Inc.

The event costs $30 for members and $35 for non-members. For more information or to register, visit www.westoftheriverchamber.com or call the West of the River Chamber of Commerce office at (413) 426-3880.

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WESTFIELD — NetLogix engaged a third-party monitoring system, SmileBack, in 2016 that allows customers to rate their satisfaction with each service event. In 2016, NetLogix received an extremely favorable customer satisfaction rating of 99.4%. This is an aggregate rating over thousands of service events from clients.

“We are honored that our clients are happy with the services we provide,” said Marco Liquori, CEO of NetLogix. “We continue to listen to our clients to understand and deliver the best customer experience and IT services in the region.”

NetLogix posts on its website the rolling, 90-day customer-satisfaction (CSAT) scores. SmileBack also recognized NetLogix in its Dec. 21, 2016 blog as being a standout with the highest net CSAT score achieved in 2016. NetLogix is one of thousands of service providers that use the service.

Headquartered in Westfield, NetLogix is a network-management, cloud, and systems technology integrator providing end-to-end solutions that ensure business integrity for small, medium, and enterprise-level clients.

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SPRINGFIELDBusinessWest magazine will accept nominations for the 40 Under Forty Class of 2017 through the end of the work day (5 p.m.) on Friday, Feb 17. The annual program, now in its 11th year, recognizes rising stars within the Western Mass. community, which includes Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties.

This year’s group of 40 will be profiled in the magazine’s April 17 edition, then toasted at the June 22 gala at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House in Holyoke. The nomination form, which can be found online at businesswest.com (click ‘Our Events’), requests basic information and can be supported with other material, such as a résumé, testimonials, and even press clippings highlighting an individual’s achievements in their profession or service to their community.

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GREENFIELD — The Franklin County Young Professionals Group (FCYPG), a program of the United Way of Franklin County, will host its first annual Nonprofit Board Fair in partnership with Leadership Pioneer Valley’s Leaders OnBoard program.

The event will be held at Terrazza at the Country Club of Greenfield on Thursday, Feb. 16. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the fair runs until 8 p.m. Sponsored by Ramon Financial Services, Greenfield Cooperative Bank, and Franklin First Credit Union, the event is free and open to the public. RSVP is requested by visiting [email protected] or calling (413) 772-2168.

“FCYPG’s first annual Nonprofit Board Fair has been at the top of our young professionals group’s list for quite some time. We are pleased to finally make it happen and support the work of exceptional local organizations here in Franklin County by helping them recruit volunteers and committee and board members,” said Stephanie Gale, director of Resource Development and Community Engagement at United Way.

Currently, 15 organizations will be represented: Leadership Pioneer Valley, Friends of the Franklin County Regional Dog Shelter, YMCA in Greenfield, Franklin County Community Meals Program, New England Learning Center for Women in Transition, Stone Soup Café, Stavros Center for Independent Living, Salvation Army, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Franklin County, LifePath Inc., Franklin County Young Professionals, Center for New Americans, Children’s Advocacy Center, Friends of Children, and Montague Catholic Social Ministries. There’s still time to sign up for a table at the event by e-mailing [email protected] or calling the United Way at (413) 772-2168.

“We are looking forward to this event and working with individuals and organizations to expand and strengthen their pool of volunteers, which is essential to a nonprofit’s success,” said Amy Proietti, program coordinator, Leadership Pioneer Valley, Leaders OnBoard Program. “Local residents looking for opportunities to give back to their community or make connections with area nonprofits are highly encouraged to attend the fair.”

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EASTHAMPTON — Matthew Sosik, president and CEO of bankESB, announced the promotion of three individuals. Maryann Geiger was promoted to senior vice president and director of Operations; Michael Fitzgerald was promoted to assistant vice president, senior IT officer; and Emily Drapeau was promoted to assistant vice president, Electronic Banking.

Geiger joined the bank in 2002 as Deposit Operations supervisor and in 2003 was promoted to Deposit Operations officer. She was promoted to assistant vice president, Deposit Operations in 2006 and was promoted to vice president, Deposit Operations in 2013.

Geiger is responsible for implementing strategic initiatives and management of customer service and operations of the bank’s call center, electronic banking channels, ATM network, and processing of deposit products and services. She is also responsible for Bank Secrecy Act and fraud management.

She has more than 36 years of banking experience and graduated from the New England School of Financial Studies. She is a volunteer for Highland Valley Elderly Money Management Services.

Fitzgerald started with the bank in 2004 as a systems administrator and was promoted to IT manager in 2011. In 2014, he was promoted to IT officer and then to senior IT officer in 2015.

He graduated from the Graduate School of Banking’s Bank Technology Management School in 2013. He is a volunteer for Junior Achievement of Western Mass. and participates with his family running Toys for Tots fund-raisers and collecting jars of peanut butter and jelly to donate to local food pantries.

Drapeau joined the bank as a teller in 1995 and was promoted to customer service representative in 1997. She became a senior teller in 2000 and Deposit Operations specialist in 2001. She was promoted to Deposit Operations supervisor in 2004 before being promoted to Deposit Operations manager in 2011. She was promoted to Deposit Operations officer in 2014. She graduated from the New England School for Financial Studies in 2012.

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SPRINGFIELD — Business leaders, public officials, and community members will attend the graduation of the Massachusetts Manufacturing Accelerator, the nation’s first manufacturing accelerator, hosted by Valley Venture Mentors, 1500 Main St., Suite 125, Springfield, on Monday, January 30 at 5 p.m.

Meet the seven Massachusetts manufacturers whose businesses have benefited from the program and learn how they are bringing the manufacturing industry into the 21st Century. Guests includes representatives from Gov. Charlie Baker’s office, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, and more.

Daily News

LONGMEADOW — Bay Path University’s spring Kaleidoscope community-event series kicks off on Wednesday, Feb. 1 with a screening of the film Heroes Don’t Come Home. The event will be held on the Longmeadow campus in Mills Theatre at Carr Hall from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. A discussion with writer/director Jake Hulse and producer Kelly Henshaw, a Bay Path alumna, will follow the screening.

The film tells the story of Tim and Ben, who grew up together in small-town New England. They’re practically brothers, and then their teenage lives are shattered by the events of 9/11, which claims the life of Tim’s father. Both vow to enlist and fight in the war on terror, but Ben wavers, while Tim deploys with the U.S. Marines to Afghanistan. Reunited years later, on a fishing trip in the remote woods of Maine with Ben’s father, an unexpected event forces the two, who have now become strangers, to confront the teenagers they were and the men they’ve become. It’s billed as a moving story of broken promises, shredded friendship, family, and who we would have been.

Heroes Don’t Come Home is a Happy Wasteland production and stars Andrew Casanova, Tyler McElroy, and Robert Schorr.

The university’s Kaleidoscope series aims to foster openness, curiosity, and dialogue concerning issues and topics in our local and global communities, and is free and open to the public. Registration is strongly encouraged and available at www.baypath.edu/events-calendar.

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WARE — Country Bank announced that Jessica McGarry has joined its Commercial Lending Division. McGarry brings with her 17 years of experience in the industry. Beginning as a part-time teller, she worked her way through the branch system for several years, then to the commercial credit department, where she learned commercial lending from the ground up. She has been a commercial lender in the Worcester market for the past four years, coming to Country Bank from Webster Five.

McGarry earned her bachelor’s degree in business from Nichols College, was a recipient of the Forty Under 40 designation in 2014 from the Worcester Business Journal, and was a member of the Leadership Worcester class of 2015-16.

“As a person, I am serious and diligent when it comes to my work. I take great pride in making sure my customers are well taken care of, with the right products, a high level of service, and a lender that is both qualified and caring,” McGarry said. “I live and work in Worcester County, so the success of the people and businesses here is something that I hold close to my heart.”

Added Scott Pasquale, first vice president of Commercial Lending at Country Bank, “we are excited to have someone with Jessica’s experience and knowledge of the Worcester area join our staff. She brings with her a commitment to the local community and a great foundation of customer relationships.”

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SPRINGFIELD — Valley Venture Mentors (VVM) announced the 2017 Startup Accelerator cohort this week. The 36 startups, chosen from more than 200 applicants received from around the world, represent high-quality, early-stage startups across more than eight industries, including technology, beauty, healthcare, transportation, and publishing.

“We are excited by the diversity of industries represented in this cohort,” VVM CEO Liz Roberts said. “We are honored that they are choosing to invest their time in our accelerator. They will get intensive training, mentorship, and resources to take their startups to the next level.”

Sixty-five percent of this year’s startups are led by women, and 36% are led by people of color. International teams from Canada, India, and Ghana will participate.

“Educating startup founders is all about helping them minimize their startup risks. Over the next four months, these entrepreneurs and their teams are going to spend time analyzing their products, services, business models, and the markets they intend to disrupt,” said Paul Silva, VVM chief innovation officer and co-founder. “They will learn from successful entrepreneurs — people who have been exactly where these founders are.”

VVM Startup Accelerator participants also develop relationships with funders and are eligible to win up to $50,000 in equity-free cash at the end of the program. The winners will be announced on Thursday, May 25 at an awards ceremony with an expected 600 people in attendance at the MassMutual Center. VVM’s visionary partners include MassMutual, MassDevelopment, the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation, MassTech Collaborative, and the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts.

Another aspect of this year’s program is VVM’s partnership with Pathlight, a local organization which serves people with intellectual disabilities. The two organizations put out a national call for entrepreneurs with technology ideas that could increase independence for those with intellectual disabilities. After a rigorous selection process, two such startups were selected to participate in the accelerator: Galactic Smarties and Habit Stackr.

Several of the companies accepted to the 2017 VVM Startup Accelerator are graduates of VVM’s mentorship program, including AlignMeeting, Bhlue Publishing, FootCare by Nurses, Hot Oven Cookies, Listen2aBook, Lumme, RecordME, Streamliners, TripleTote, and Yummy Yammy.

The 2017 VVM Startup Accelerator cohort includes:

• AlignMeeting, business-productivity software facilitating best meeting practices to improve team efficiency before, during, and long after meetings;

• AuCoDe, the Google Alerts of controversies and crisis situations, providing early detection as a signal for hedge funds;

• Barakat Bundle, a curated package of life-saving solutions for mothers and newborns in South Asia;

• Bhlue Publishing, a cloud-based career-development platform for teens and young adults who are struggling to figure out a career direction;

• Bharat Babies, which produces developmentally appropriate children’s books that are inspired by the stories of India and South Asia;

• Connecticut Horse, a bimonthly print and online magazine for horse enthusiasts in Connecticut;

• Emotive Agility Training Center, a consulting company offering training tools and curricula for people with autism to crack the non-verbal code of social interactions;

• Enrichment Express, which provides instructors with the curriculum, materials, and logistical support needed to teach engaging enrichment classes to children 5 to 12 years old;

• Ernest Pharmaceuticals, programmed bacteria to eliminate metastatic cancer;

• Fields Center, which provides help for individuals with autism and families;

• FirmOffer, a software solution for legal recruiting enabling law students to make binding offers to law firms;

• FootCare by Nurses, foot-wellness experts;

• Galactic Smarties, which makes technology that supports independence for people of all ages and abilities;

• GeneRisk, which identifies genetic variants of autism allowing for better understanding of risk and ID targets for more personalized intervention;

• Genoverde Biosciences Inc., an agricultural biotech startup focused on improving crop yield for commercial farming through bioengineering;

• Habit Stackr, which helps people keep daily routines through brain science and a mobile app;

• Hot Oven Cookies, a handcrafted cookie bakery specializing in the delivery and curbside sales of warm, gourmet cookies;

• Kwema, which developed a smart bracelet that can call for help to friends and family, authorities, and Kwema’s safety communities;

• Listen2aBook, which makes audiobook production accessible to everyone;

• Lumme Inc., a startup funded by the National Cancer Institute that develops smart technology to help people quit smoking;

• M1 Tapes, which makes premium, contractor-grade tape measures;

• MEANS Database, a nonprofit technology company devoted to business-friendly food recovery;

• MyBarber, which provides on-site haircuts at offices, apartment complexes, and co-working spaces;

• NERv Technology, which is developing an implantable biochip platform to detect post-operative complications;

• New England Breath Technologies, which developing a pain-free diabetic monitoring device to improve outcomes of patients;

• Nonspec, which has created a low-ost, durable, and adjustable prosthetic system;

• Paysa, which is developing a fingerprint-authorized cashless payment system for stores in rural India with the goal of increasing bank-account owners;

• ProjectMQ, a social-media app for independent game studios and fans worldwide;

• RateFrame, which helps users highlight and share the best parts of any video;

• RecordME, a studio-recording company that provides hardware, engineers, and distribution so content creators and venues can make more money;

• Streamliners, which sells aerodynamic devices to the trucking industry, saving $4,000 per truck per year in fuel costs, paying for itself in three months;

• Trabapido, an online marketplace that helps individuals and businesses find and hire service providers, such as plumbers, painters, and tutors;

• TripBuddy, a ride-sharing startup;

• Tripletote, which manufactures consumer products that help people carry items as they travel, commute, shop, and work;

• VaxAtlas, which provide real-time access to one’s vaccine history, helping to avoid unnecessary repeat vaccines, identify missed vaccines, and alert for outbreaks; and

• Yummy Yammy, which helps busy people eat better, one deliciously addictive sweet potato at a time.

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SPRINGFIELD — The Center for Human Development (CHD) announced that Comcast has made a donation of 25 Dell Latitude laptop computers with an estimated value of $5,000 to its Caring Together residential programs.

“Comcast is committed to digital literacy,” said Dan Glanville, vice president of Government and Regulatory Affairs for Comcast’s Western New England Region, which includes Western Mass. “We want the next generation of young people to be literate, use computers, and understand the resource that computers can be in their lives. Since CHD Caring Together Residential Programs focus on improving the lives of some of our community’s most vulnerable young people, we hope that these laptops can help make a crucial difference in their lives today and for their future. It is truly inspiring to learn of some of the successful stories of these youth, especially considering the challenges they have faced in their life’s journey.”

The laptops will be distributed among the eight CHD Caring Together residential treatment group home locations in Western Mass. Caring Together serves youth who struggle with issues related to trauma, abuse, depression, self-harm, and substance use, among others. CHD’s on-site teams provide the youth with integrated mental-health, occupational-therapy, and nursing services, combined with direct-care staff members who are specially trained and included in the treatment plan. Referrals to all Caring Together residential treatment group homes are made through the state Department of Children and Families or Department of Mental Health.

“Just about everyone these days has a phone, but the young people we serve through Caring Together do not typically come from homes where computers were either available or seen as a learning resource,” said Kimberley Lee, vice president, Office of Advancement at CHD. “The youth we serve are at transition age and may soon be living on their own, so helping them develop independent living skills is truly critical. Comcast understands the breadth and scope of CHD’s work, and their people determined that CHD Caring Together would be a prime and relevant partner to receive these donated laptops. We could not be more excited.”

According to Lee, having computers on site at Caring Together programs will provide great tools to help the residents get organized with homework and research projects at school, access learning resources such as Kahn Academy, improve financial literacy and money-management skills, apply for employment, register for SATs and scholarships, complete applications for higher education, and more.

“It’s important to understand that state contracts and federal funds that help pay operating expenses for Caring Together are highly prescriptive and cannot be used for things like computers,” said Lee. “This generous donation by Comcast will help CHD made a crucial difference in the lives of youth who can benefit greatly from the resources available through digital literacy.”

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SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) announced the promotion of Barb Chalfonte to serve in the newly created role of vice president of Institutional Effectiveness.

The creation of the new position elevates Institutional Effectiveness (IE) and underscores the importance of seeking to enhance the college’s processes and promote student success, STCC President John Cook said. With Chalfonte at the helm, IE will become its own division and have a broader reach. Previously, Institutional Effectiveness had been nested under Academic Affairs.

Chalfonte, who came to STCC in 2010, had served as dean of Institutional Effectiveness and senior research analyst. In her new role, Chalfonte will report directly to Cook and serve as part of his cabinet.

“This is a tangible way to show how much we as an institution value research, data, and assessment,” Cook said. “Given the strategic goals in our Student Success Plan, it’s about integrating process improvement, and putting a large enough umbrella over the work so that it is institution-wide.”

Created in 2012, Institutional Effectiveness helps sustain and improve the teaching and learning environment through ongoing data and research-based planning, assessment, and improvement processes. The work of this division going forward will be to facilitate and promote planning and analysis throughout the college.

“We collaborate with diverse groups to review the college’s mission, goals, and outcomes and demonstrate the achievements of our faculty, staff, and students,” Chalfonte said.

Often colleges have several offices charged with enhancing pedagogy, institutional research, enrollment analysis, and assessment. STCC, however, is one of only a few community colleges in the Northeast that integrates this work into a single entity. Bringing these offices under one umbrella fosters collaboration toward the mission of supporting students as they transform their lives.

The Institutional Effectiveness department includes the offices of Assessment, Institutional Research, and Professional Development. The department also supports strategic planning, process improvement, enrollment reporting, and New England Assoc. of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) accreditation activities and reporting, and convenes the Student Success Council.

Since 2012, the IE department has helped to obtain more than $2.7 million in funding, including a $650,000 state grant for assessment-related work and a state-funded convening grant to explore initiatives and research related to Hispanic-serving institutions. IE was part of a group that crafted a $2.1 million Title III grant that supports pedagogy- and cultural-competency-related professional development. Members of the IE team contributed to the $3.4 million HSI-STEM grant that the college received last year to help Hispanic and low-income students obtain degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Chalfonte brings a background in science and learning research to the position. She earned a doctorate from Princeton University in cognitive psychology and a bachelor’s degree from Williams College in psychology. She is an adjunct faculty member in the Psychology Department at Westfield State University.

After receiving her Ph.D., she taught in the Psychology Department at Mount Holyoke College and worked as a researcher at the National Priorities Project in Northampton before joining STCC.

“My academic concentration is how people learn and remember,” said Chalfonte. “That’s the heart of learning and teaching. The key concepts of memory and learning apply to what we do here, to the systems that we build.”

Chalfonte strongly believes in the mission of institutions like STCC, which have an open-enrollment policy that allows anyone with a high-school diploma or equivalent to be admitted. She served as data coach for Achieving the Dream, an initiative that champions institutional improvement and student success. Part of her work was to help community colleges close race/ethnicity- and income-based achievement gaps.

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BOSTON — Local unemployment rates increased in all 24 labor-market areas in the state during the month of December, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported. Compared to December 2015, the rates were down in all areas.

Five of the 15 areas for which job estimates are published recorded seasonal job gains in December, with the largest gain in Boston-Cambridge-Newton, followed by the Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, Peabody-Salem-Beverly, New Bedford, and Framingham areas. Seasonal losses occurred in the remaining areas.

From December 2015 to December 2016, 13 of the 15 areas added jobs, with the largest percentage gains in the Haverhill-Newburyport-Amesbury, Taunton-Middleborough-Norton, Springfield, and Boston-Cambridge-Newton areas.

In order to compare the statewide rate to local unemployment rates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the statewide unadjusted unemployment rate for December was 2.8%.
Last week, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported the statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 2.8% in the month of December. The statewide seasonally adjusted jobs estimate showed a 6,600 job gain in December, and an over-the-year gain of 75,000 jobs.

The unadjusted unemployment rates and job estimates for the labor market areas reflect seasonal fluctuations and therefore may show different levels and trends than the statewide seasonally adjusted estimates.

The estimates for labor force, unemployment rates, and jobs for Massachusetts are based on different statistical methodology specified by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Square One has been awarded a $100,000 grant by MassMutual through the company’s Mutual Impact community-investment program. Mutual Impact is funded by MassMutual employees through the company’s annual employee-giving program and matched by the MassMutual Foundation, a dedicated corporate foundation established by MassMutual. This is the second year that Square One has received a Mutual Impact grant.

“We are so incredibly grateful to the MassMutual team for their belief in our mission and long-standing, generous support for our work,” said Kristine Allard, chief development & communications officer for Square One. “The funds we receive through this grant will support over 1,000 children and families who rely on Square One for innovative literacy programming.”

The Mutual Impact program is completely driven by MassMutual employees. Employees choose cause areas and nonprofit organizations to receive funding, make donations which are matched dollar-for-dollar by the MassMutual Foundation to fund grants, and volunteer in support of the organizations they select. Selected nonprofits have demonstrated excellence in their organization, volunteer opportunities, and community impact.

“Corporate responsibility and community involvement are part of our DNA, and we take great pride in helping people in the communities where we live and work secure a better future,” said Dennis Duquette, head of Community Responsibility with MassMutual and president of the MassMutual Foundation board of directors. “Square One tirelessly devotes time and energy in support of families in our local community, and we are pleased to support them through the Mutual Impact program.”

Mutual Impact grants were awarded to 21 nonprofit organizations for programs that fit within specific cause areas, including early-grade reading proficiency, food security, violence prevention, family economic self-sufficiency, returning veterans, successful advancement in school, child hunger, and education.

Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Plenty of good seats are available for the ninth annual Difference Makers award program, staged by BusinessWest, to be held on Thursday, March 30 at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House in Holyoke.

The winners, profiled in the Jan. 23 issue and at businesswest.com, are the Community Colleges of Western Mass. (Berkshire Community College, Greenfield Community College, Holyoke Community College, and
Springfield Technical Community College); Friends of the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round; Denis Gagnon Sr., president and CEO of Excel Dryer Inc.; Junior Achievement of Western Mass.; and Joan Kagan, president and CEO of Square One.

Tickets to the event cost $65 per person, with tables of 10 available. To order, call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100.

Difference Makers is a program, launched in 2009, that recognizes groups and individuals that are, as the name suggests, making a difference in this region. Event sponsors include First American Insurance; Health New England; JGS Lifecare; Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.; Northwestern Mutual; O’Connell Care at Home; Royal, P.C.; and Sunshine Village.

Class of 2017 Cover Story Difference Makers

Difference Makers to Be Honored on March 30

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When BusinessWest launched the Difference Makers program in 2009 (see past winners HERE), it was with the understanding that there were several components to this initiative.

The first is what this special edition has become, a comprehensive effort to shine a light on individuals, agencies, and institutions that are finding profound and often unique ways to improve the quality of life in the community we call Western Mass. These light-shining efforts are profiled with words and pictures that collectively tell some very poignant stories.

The second component of this program, the more fun one, is the event at which the honorees are recognized for their various accomplishments and contributions. Since the beginning, those of us at BusinessWest have struggled with what exactly to call this gathering.

‘Dinner’ doesn’t quite work, because, although the food at the Log Cabin is certainly excellent, the evening’s festivities encompass so much more. ‘Gala’ falls short, too, because this connotes black ties and formality, and there is little of that at this event.

No, we prefer the word ‘celebration,’ because that’s exactly what this is — a celebration of those who stand out and make this region a better place to live, work, and conduct business because of their efforts. And this year, there is much to celebrate:

The region’s community-college presidents

The region’s community-college presidents, from left, Bob Pura, Ellen Kennedy, John Cook, and Christina Royal.

• We start  with a nod to the region’s community colleges. While perhaps not as famous as the region’s many fine private schools or UMass Amherst and other four-year institutions in the state system, these schools — Berkshire Community College, Greenfield Community College, Holyoke Community College, and Springfield Technical Community College — are playing an absolutely critical role in the development of this region.

They act as both a door of opportunity, especially to those who don’t have many available to them, and a pathway to careers, through both degree and certificate programs that provide job skills and also transfer opportunities to four-year schools. Meanwhile, behind almost every major economic-development initiative in this region, there is a community college playing a significant role.

Friends of the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round

Some of the many passionate Friends of the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round: from left, Jim Jackowski, Barbara Griffin, Angela Wright, and Joe McGiverin.

• We continue  with the Friends of Holyoke Merry-Go-Round Inc. The story of how this group raised the money to save the carousel at Mountain Park and keep it in the Paper City has been told many times. But there’s a reason for it. This is an epic tale of a community coming together and battling long odds to save a treasure that could very easily have become someone else’s treasure.

But buying the carousel was just the first chapter in the story, really. Keeping it operating amid a host of stiff challenges so that it may be enjoyed by more generations of ‘young’ people (with young in quotation marks for a reason) is an ongoing saga and one certainly worth celebrating.

Denis Gagnon

Denis Gagnon

• As are the contributions of Denis Gagnon Sr. He has improved our lives by dramatically reducing the amount of time we need to spend in the restroom drying our hands with his company’s XLERATOR. But that’s not why he’s being honored. OK, that’s part of it.

The other, much bigger part is how he has devoted generous amounts of time, energy, and imagination to groups and causes ranging from the Boy Scouts to the Children’s Study Home to a host of veterans’ initiatives, and, while doing so, serving as a true inspiration to others.

Jennifer Connolly

Jennifer Connolly stands beside the portrait of JA co-founder Horace Moses at the agency’s offices in Tower Square.

• Also worth celebrating are the contributions of Junior Achievement of Western Mass. This is a group that has been around a long time now (its centennial is coming up in 2018), and it would be easy to take its many programs for granted.

That would be a big mistake. As the story reveals, JA programs run much deeper than showing high-school students how to make and sell lamps (although that’s where it all started, and that solid foundation remains).

The organization begins by teaching vital lessons in financial literacy to kindergarten students, and stays with these young people until they’re ready for college or whatever other path they choose. And because JA stayed with them, the lessons stay with them as well.

Photo by Leah Martin Photography

Photo by Leah Martin Photography

• Last but certainly not least, there is Joan Kagan, whose career and accomplishments are worth celebrating for many reasons.

She has steered the organization known as Square One (formerly Springfield Day Nursery) through treacherous whitewater in the form of seemingly endless adversity. It has come in waves, literally and figuratively, from a tornado to a natural-gas blast to persistent fiscal challenges.

But her more lasting contribution has been tireless efforts to not only serve children and families, but lobby state and federal leaders for the many kinds of support they need and deserve.

As we said, this year’s honorees offer much to celebrate. And we’ll do it on March 30. Here’s what you need to know:

 

Fast Facts:

What: The 2017 Difference Makers Celebration
When: Thursday, March 30
Where: The Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, Holyoke
COST: Tickets are $65 per person, with tables of 10 available. To order, call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100.
For More Information: Call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100, or go HERE.

Sponsored by:

RoyalPC SunshineVillage first-american-logo nortwestern-mutual
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Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — The Horace Smith Fund, a private foundation that offers scholarships and fellowships, has extended the application deadline date for the Walter S. Barr Scholarships and Fellowships until March 1, 2017, due to the low number of applications so far. Last year, The fund awarded $258,000 to 25 area students.

“To date, we have received only 46 scholarship applications and 16 fellowship applications. It is surprising that more students haven’t applied yet,” said Teresa Regina, trustee and chair of the scholarship committee. “Applications can be downloaded or completed online. They are also available at every area high school and college or by contacting our office.”

The Walter S. Barr Scholarship is available for graduates of Hampden County public and private high schools. Applicants may either be graduating high-school seniors or in college. Scholarship awards of $10,000 are distributed in annual installments of $2,500 and renewable each year until graduation. Recipients are selected on a variety of criteria, including their test scores, class rank, extracurricular activities, and a personal written account of why the student feels deserving of financial assistance.

The Walter S. Barr Fellowship awards are made annually to those wishing to enroll in full-time graduate studies. In general, applicants must be residents of Hampden County. Awards are made to students pursuing a specific post-graduate degree. The award of $12,000 is distributed in annual installments of $4,000 for a maximum of three years. Awards will be made on the basis of all available information, including school records, recommendations, and examination scores. Consideration will be given to both the merit and financial need of the applicant.

“We hope students take advantage of this local resource,” Regina said.

Education Sections

Course of Action

Julia Chevan (right) leads Associate Professor of Physical Therapy Angela Abeyta Campbell

Julia Chevan (right) leads Associate Professor of Physical Therapy Angela Abeyta Campbell through an exercise in the simulation lab at Springfield College.

Many students work hard to earn a college degree, then find there are no jobs that match their credentials.

But the demand for people to work in healthcare settings continues to rise, and high-school graduates or individuals seeking a career change are likely to be hired quickly after graduating from a certificate or degree program in any of several fields.

“Each year, we graduate 125 to 150 students from our healthcare programs, and they walk into jobs within months of passing their exams,” said Julia Chevan, dean of Springfield College School of Health Sciences and Rehabilitation Studies. “In the past three years, our placement rate has been 100%.”

Christopher Scott told the BusinessWest that students in all 75 of the healthcare programs at Springfield Technical Community College are in great demand, and their placement rate is also high. “The lowest figure is 90%; we have close to a 99% placement rate for nursing, and 100% for medical stenography,” said the dean of the college’s School of Health and Patient Simulation.

These numbers bear out what is happening on the job front both regionally and nationally, and what is expected in the years to come.

Indeed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be 2.3 million new jobs in healthcare occupations by 2024. Growth in the field is much faster than the average for all other occupations, and the types of jobs available are almost unlimited.

Several things account for the demand: more people have insurance, and due to advances in medicine, adults are living longer.

“Baby Boomers are getting older, people are having fewer children, and there are not enough young people to care for the aging population,” said Holly Martin-Peele, interim dean of Health Sciences at Holyoke Community College (HCC), adding that there will always be people who get sick and need healthcare.

Elizabeth Hayward-Jansen agreed. “Many students come here with tunnel vision: they tell us they want to become a nurse because it’s a job they know about. There is certainly a demand for nurses, but we try to educate them about other options: there are literally more than 200 allied health careers,” said the professor in HCC’s Foundations of Health program.

Officials from area colleges are doing all they can to prepare students for fulfilling careers in these fields, which includes working with community partners that include Baystate Health and Mercy Medical Center, which is part of the Sisters of Providence Health System.

They have created new degree and certificate programs in response to demand, and some offer options such as hybrid schooling, which is done mostly online and only requires students to be in the classroom for a limited number of sessions.

Christopher Scott and Karolyn Ryan

Christopher Scott and Karolyn Ryan say STCC offers students a 10-month and associate-degree program for students who want to become a medical assistant.

Officials at STCC report that one of the fastest-growing fields is medical assisting. “There is a tremendous demand, and Baystate calls us all the time looking for graduates,” said Karolyn Ryan, chair of the Medical Assistant Department at STCC.

The school offers a two-year degree program as well as a Pathways certificate program that can be completed in one year. Entry-level pay is $14 per hour or about $30,000 annually, and most graduates are hired as soon as they complete their studies.

“These programs also prepare them to go into other fields,” Ryan said, explaining that graduates with an associate degree often end up as office or clinic practice managers or in leadership roles because there are two prongs to the program: clinical skills, and administrative skills, such as billing and coding.

Students in both programs take the same classes for the first 10 months. At that point, they become eligible to take the certification exam, and some start working immediately, while others continue their schooling and complete the requirements needed for an associate degree.

“Many people find this career very rewarding because they can work in an administrative role, have the gratification that comes from helping people at tough times in their lives, or use it as a stepping stone to go on to other programs,” Ryan, said noting that many of their graduates have enrolled in respiratory therapy, nursing, or radiography programs.

The Commonwealth doesn’t require medical assistants to be certified, but due to changing insurance regulations, Ryan said, medical facilities cannot get reimbursed by insurers such as Medicare and Medicaid unless their nursing assistants are certified.

As a result, Baystate Health approached STCC two years ago and asked for help because the exam has to be taken within five years of graduation and many employees had passed that mark. The college responded by starting a program that prepared the working professionals to take the exam. More than 150 students took part, and the final class finished last summer.

Scott said STCC also hopes to start a medical-assistant program with evening classes and will work with its partners to find ways for students in them to fulfill internship requirements that are usually done during the day.

For this issue and its focus on employment, BusinessWest looks at several other college programs in the healthcare field, many of which have been developed, amended, or expanded in response to feedback from community partners.

Expanding Options

Dental hygiene is a popular associate-degree course at STCC, and Scott said it attracts a large number of applicants.

“We operate a clinic for the community and deliver dental care at a reduced cost; we’re trying to increase its size so we can accept more students,” he said, noting that students work in highly supervised settings.

The median wage for licensed dental hygienists is $70,000, although the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports salaries range from $60,000 to $98,000.

Radiology is another fast-growing field, and due to the demand for specialization, STCC will soon kick off two new, one-year certificate programs in MRI and CAT scans. Both will involve hybrid learning and will be open to radiologic technicians who have completed an associate-degree program.

“It will give them the opportunity to go into a specific area where they can work with the latest technology available,” Scott said.

Medical stenography is also popular but highly competitive; there are hundreds of applicants for the ten new spots at STCC each year.

 

A large number of nurses are retiring, and as graduates advance into specialty areas, there is a real need to backfill open positions.”

 

In addition, the demand for nurses is so great that the college added 20 openings to its program last year.

“A large number of nurses are retiring, and as graduates advance into specialty areas, there is a real need to backfill open positions,” Scott said, noting that STCC offers an associate-degree program and has articulation agreements with baccalaureate programs in the area, and its advisory boards spend a lot of time researching what the community needs.

“Our community partners ground us and drive our mission of educating students to provide community healthcare, and we adapt to address local needs,” he continued.

Specialized Study

Springfield College offers three graduate-degree programs that include a three-year doctorate program in physical therapy, a master’s degree in physician assistant studies, and a master’s degree in occupational therapy.

“The college also has a number of other programs in healthcare, including nutrition, athletic training, and clinical exercise physiology, and these three specifically address professions with an identified workforce shortage,” Chevan said.

She added that occupational therapy is attractive to adults who want to change careers due to its many rewards and the diverse settings where they are employed.

“Most people only think of three areas when they envision where occupational therapists work: in schools with children who have developmental issues, in outpatient clinics as a therapist, or at a rehabilitation hospital,” she said, explaining that many people don’t know their training includes behavioral health, which qualifies them to work with patients with psychological disorders. For example, they may be employed at a clinic and help people who have panic attacks or a brain injury, or who suffer from depression. Entry-level hourly pay averages $33.39, and in 2014 the median annual salary was $78,810.

“Their goal is to help the person manage the world independently in a way that has meaning to them,” Chevan said.

The physician assistant master of science degree is another popular option. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that such professionals are needed in a wide variety of settings, and the career is ranked as one of the fastest-growing areas in healthcare, with a median hourly wage of $47.20 and an average annual salary of $98,120.

“But there are no shortcuts to this degree, and admission is very competitive,” Chevan said, noting that it’s a 27-month, full-time program with seven semesters; students must maintain a 3.0 cumulative grade point average with at least a ‘B’ grades, and must have been employed in healthcare before they can apply for the program.

The college’s doctorate in physical therapy is a clinical degree, which Chevan noted is different than a Ph.D. or doctor of philosophy degree. She told BusinessWest that, although physical-therapy assistants can begin working in the field with an associate degree, only licensed physical therapists with a doctorate can manage a patient’s plan of care.

Students who choose to pursue their doctorate degree can enter an accelerated, three-year undergraduate program, or take the more traditional route that requires three additional years of schooling after earning a bachelor’s degree. Starting salaries for physical therapists with their doctoral degrees begin at about $86,000.

But participants in all of the healthcare programs at Springfield College work together in team settings to ensure they understand their role as part of an interprofessional team of providers and prepare them to collaborate with peers after they enter the workforce.

Chevan said Springfield College works hard to makes changes to programs that reflect what the nation, community, and local healthcare providers need.

For example, after the Institute of Medicine issued a report titled “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System,” outlining strategies to prevent accidents from occurring as a result of poor communication between people in the healthcare field, the college made adjustments to its curriculum that put more emphasis on team building, safety, and health simulation.

Unique Program

Holyoke Community College started a Foundations of Health (FOH) program in 2010 that introduces students to a wide variety of careers and includes two tracks; one leads to a certificate or an associate degree, while the other prepares students to transfer to a four-year college or university.

Laura Christoph, acting department chair for the program, says it was developed to meet the needs of local healthcare employers and help the 800 to 1,000 students at HCC who elect to enter the healthcare field each year.

“It’s especially important since most of them start out thinking they want to become nurses, and the college only admits a limited number of applicants each year,” she told BusinessWest.

However, students can begin this pathway by becoming certified as a nursing assistant, which requires completing a 15-week semester, then passing the state exam. Entry-level pay is about $12 per hour, which increases to $15 to $18 with experience, and the demand for people with this training continues is on the rise.

“We recently received a call from a local healthcare organization that wants to start an affiliation with us because they are having a problem attracting and retaining CNAs,” said Hayward-Jansen, explaining that they often get some experience in the workforce, then leave their jobs to continue their education.

However, there are many other career paths to choose from, and one of the first courses all FOH students take is titled “Introduction to Health Careers,” which introduces them to a variety of career choices. Other courses help students determine whether they want to work directly with patients or enter an administrative field, such as the college’s one-year course in medical coding and billing.

“Insurance-company regulations have become so complex that it’s vital for every physician’s office to have a well-trained billing practitioner,” Martin-Peele said, adding that the certificate is ideal for people who need to continue working, as most classes are held online or in the evenings.

However, Christoph noted that, although hybrid or online courses are becoming increasingly popular, some students prefer to be in a classroom, where they can interact with peers and learn directly from the instructor, so HCC does its best to offer students both options.

The school also responds to feedback from its partners. To that end, in 2014 it developed a direct care and community health certificate program.

Janet Grant, the community health worker certificate coordinator and Department of Labor grant manager, says it can be an especially good career choice for people who are bilingual, as these workers provide services that include helping non-English-speaking clients fill out forms and access healthcare, which can be difficult because of issues that range from transportation to language barriers.

Other job-related activities include client advocacy, health education, and health-system navigation to promote, support, and protect the health of individuals and families.

“Many urgent-care centers are starting to employ community healthcare workers,” said Grant, adding that the certificate program takes only a year to complete, and entry-level pay is $15 to $16 per hour.

It has become a popular offering, and students in the program often become certified, then continue their education because an associate degree in the field allows them to become a supervisor or middle manager, while a bachelor’s degree in an area such as public health opens up a wide range of opportunities.

But every student who enters the FOH program is assigned to an advisor who helps them decide what courses to take to meet their goals, and Hayward-Jansen has helped many, whose choices have included public-health professionals, physical-activity therapists, occupational therapists, registered dieticians, or clinical nutritionists.

“These career paths are expanding,” she said, adding that the need for nutritionists and dieticians is increasing to help people with chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.

Changing Landscape

This spring, HCC will launch a new paramedic program in collaboration with STCC, which is one example of how institutions of higher education work closely with each other and their partners to make needed changes to programs or start new ones.

Due to advances in medicine and the way healthcare is delivered, which includes a dramatic increase in walk-in clinics and urgent-care centers, the possibilities are seemingly endless.

It’s good news for people willing to spend valuable time, money, and energy seeking a healthcare certificate or degree because, in today’s world, graduates are almost guaranteed a job that will pay well, be rewarding, and yield untold benefits and opportunities for growth in years to come.

Opinion

Editorial

 

When BuinessWest approached Mike Suzor, assistant to the president at Springfield Technical Community College, to talk about Denis Gagnon Sr., he replied dryly, “who’s he … what’s he done?”

He was being facetious, of course. He’s known Gagnon since the two were roaming the halls, along with about 3,000 other students, at Cathedral high School in the late ’60s. And the ‘what’s he done’ line … well, that was an attempt at misdirection; what he was really saying was, ‘what hasn’t he done?’

In a way, though, Suzor was helping BusinessWest make a point. Many people don’t know Gagnon or what he’s done beyond revolutionize the electric hand-dryer business (and that’s a significant accomplishment in its own right). But they should know, and, more importantly, they need to know.

And that’s why BusinessWest launched the Difference Makers program back in 2009, to tell some of the stories that people need to know, or, to steal Paul Harvey’s famous line, tell them the rest of the story, the part that maybe they didn’t know.

And that’s what we’ve done with Gagnon and the rest of the year’s honorees, HERE.

People know, for example, that the region’s community colleges open their doors to anyone who has a high-school diploma or GED. It’s called open admission. What people might not know is just how this doorway has changed the lives of tens of thousands of people in this region. Also, they may not know the absolutely pivotal role community colleges are playing in the ongoing efforts to close a stubborn skills gap impacting every sector and virtually every business in the region through targeted programs and a hard focus on the specific needs of area businesses.

Many people do know the story of the merry-go-round that sits in the center of Holyoke in Heritage State Park and how it arrived there. But most probably don’t know the many ways individuals and the community as a whole came together to make it happen. Likewise, they probably don’t know or understand that the passion that drove this initiative nearly 30 years ago still exists today, and is quite necessary to keep the ‘happiness machine,’ as it’s known colloquially, spinning for this generation and those to follow.

As mentioned earlier, most know of Gagnon’s XLERATOR and its ability to dry their hands much faster than other products on the market. They probably don’t know about his multi-layered commitment to organizations ranging from the Boy Scouts to Link to Libraries, and how his work within the community has become an inspiration to all those who know him.

As for Junior Achievement, most people know it has programs that enable high-school students to learn about business by running a business. They know, because they were probably involved with such a company, whether they went to high school in 1948, 1978, or 2008.

What they probably don’t know is that JA has expanded its programming to include lessons in everything from how and why people pay taxes (taught to second-graders) to how a zoning board functions (a matter for fifth-graders to assess), all in the name of improving financial literacy across the region.

Finally, people probably know that Joan Kagan famously led her agency, Square One, in recovery efforts following both the June 2011 tornado and the November 2012 natural-gas blast. What they may not know is that she has spent her career developing and refining programs for families and children and continues to lobby tirelessly on behalf of these constituencies.

Difference Makers was launched because sometimes people don’t know about some of the more important stories involving community service in our region, or they don’t know the whole story.

They should know, and this year’s class presents five very poignant reasons why.

Community Spotlight Features

Community Spotlight

Chicopee Mayor Richard Kos, left, and Michael Vedovelli

Chicopee Mayor Richard Kos, left, and Michael Vedovelli say the new, three-megawatt solar farm on James Street will benefit the city and reduce the cost of electricity at Westover Air Reserve Base.

Richard Kos says officials in Chicopee are doing all they can to foster good relationships with developers, government leaders, and local businesses, and their efforts have led to a strong surge in growth.

“In 2016 the building department issued $31 million in building permits, but we anticipate that, by the end of the first half of 2017, we will more than double that amount,” the mayor said.

Indeed, the list of projects in the planning stages or underway is not only lengthy but diverse in nature, ranging from new hotels to new and improved housing, a solar farm, business expansions, infrastructure improvements, and progress at the Uniroyal and Facemate properties. There’s also a new Mercedes-Benz dealership under construction on Burnett Road.

 

Chicopee has a can-do attitude, is business-friendly, and has officials who come up with optimal solutions to problems. All of the department heads have given us input to make the building process go smoothly.”

 

Peter Wirth is co-owner of that $12 million, 37,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility, expected to open in late summer or early fall. He and his partner took their time searching for a location in the metro Springfield area before choosing a site next to the entrance of Interstate 291 and exit 6 on the Mass Pike, and said city officials have done everything possible to help them meet their timetables.

“Chicopee has a can-do attitude, is business-friendly, and has officials who come up with optimal solutions to problems,” Wirth said. “All of the department heads have given us input to make the building process go smoothly.”

Other developments off exit 6 include construction of a $20 million Tru by Hilton Hotel by the owners of a Days Inn who demolished the outdated hotel on 450 Memorial Dr. to make way for the new structure.

“The project will include a Starbucks, a Wendy’s restaurant, an Irving gas station, and a sit-down restaurant that will be named later,” Kos said as he talked about reasons that make Chicopee a desirable place to live and operate a business.

“We’re the third-largest city west of 495 and are known as the ‘crossroads of New England’ because Interstate 91 and two exits of the Mass Pike intersect here,” the mayor noted, adding that the city’s financial stability and the traffic that runs through it add to its appeal.

But he attributes the rapid acceleration in growth to concerted efforts that began in 2014 after he was elected mayor for the second time.

“In a time when people are losing faith in government, Chicopee has seen unprecedented cooperation between its leaders, locally and on the state level,” Kos said. “We are working together to get things done and are excited about the industries that have chosen to invest here.”

For this issue, BusinessWest outlines some of the major projects that took place in Chicopee last year as well as those scheduled to begin in 2017.

Cooperative Efforts

A three-megawatt solar farm under construction on a 26-acre site off of Outer Drive and Goodwin Street is an example of how combined efforts have led to growth.

Last summer, the city was finally able to raze 100 units of military housing units on the site, which had sat unused for two decades and become problematic. Although Chicopee acquired the property from the Navy in 2011 after five years of negotiations, restrictions and their condition had prevented the city from renovating the structures or reusing the land for other purposes

“The housing was an eyesore, in a state of disrepair that had become a hazard to the neighborhood due to vandalism, vagrants, and other problems,” Kos said.

In 2015, he proposed putting a solar farm on the site, and after the City Council and neighbors endorsed the idea, Chicopee was awarded a $1 million MassDevelopment grant to remediate the property that was matched with funds from city coffers.

The money came from the state’s $5.9 million bond bill grant program to support the Clean Energy Assessment & Strategic Plan for Massachusetts Military Installations, and the housing was finally torn down.

In December, a lease agreement was signed with Chicopee Solar LLC, a subsidiary of ConEdison Development, to build a solar farm on 21 of the 26 acres.

“We gave the company permission to begin working at the site while the final details were being worked out,” Kos said, explaining that ConEdison had to have all mechanical components installed and ready for operation by Jan. 8 to meet a deadline set by the Mass. Department of Energy that would allow it to receive solar renewable-energy credits.

“They worked under a very tight timeline and brought in electricians from all over New England, but there was complete cooperation between the company, the city, and the state, and the installation was finished on time,” said Michael Vedovelli, the city’s director of Community and Economic Development.

 

Increasing a city’s market rate residential population is one of the real secrets of urban success.”

 

Kos added that the city’s investment will be recouped in 10 years through tax revenue and income from the lease agreement and the government will also benefit because Westover Air Reserve Base will receive a 5% discount each year on electricity that will amount to $100,000 in annual savings.

He noted that the remaining five acres on the property are available for industrial use and located adjacent to Air Park North and the former Avery Dennison building that is being used by Yankee Candle.

The project has been praised by residents of the Crossing at Ridgewood Village, a condominium association that sits across from the solar farm.

“It’s a wonderful reuse of the property that is great for the region,” said Dottie Sikes, a resident and member of the board of trustees, who recalled living in the former military housing with her husband in 1970 when Westover was an active military base. “The Crossing has always been a great place to live, but it will be much nicer now thanks to the new solar farm.”

The city has also reached an agreement with Mass. Alternative Care Inc. to open a medical-marijuana cultivation facility and dispensary near the Springfield line.

The company plans to convert the former Chicopee Engineering Associates building into a storefront, and the City Council approved a zoning change for a 3,270-square-foot piece of land on East Main Street so the business can begin its operation.

It will be the first of its kind in Hampden County, and Kos said the owners will be ready to plant by April. “The facility will provide patients with necessary treatment options and bring jobs and numerous tax benefits to the city.”

Ongoing work has also taken place at the Uniroyal site, and last year two of the remaining buildings on the 27-acre property were razed.

“We’ll try to repurpose four of the remaining 10 structures,” Vedovelli said, adding that the city has been aggressive in pursuing funds to remediate the brownfields and received three $200,000 grants from the Environmental Protection Agency last year.

“It is a tribute to our grant writer and our team,” he said, noting that only 53 projects in the country received the grants.

Previously, the City Council had appropriated $185,000 to make roof repairs, cover a broken skylight, and board up broken windows in the administration building on the Facemate property at Oak and Grove streets. A full abatement of that 62,000-square-foot structure will be completed this spring, and a request for proposals will be issued later in the year.

Interest in the Facemate property continues to grow, and David Spada from Lawrence has plans to build a $22.9 million, 92-room assisted-living facility on Lot 4 of a 3.85-acre parcel that has frontage on West Main Street across from the Chicopee Falls Post Office, and will be situated off a new road which leads to the RiverMills Senior Center.

Residential Growth

Two years ago, Mount Holyoke Development purchased the Lyman Mills in Chicopee Center, and plans are now underway to convert the former textile-manufacturing plant into 110 market-rate apartments. The buildings were unoccupied for four years, and the new units will be loft-style work/live spaces designed to appeal to young entrepreneurs.

Kos said the project was made possible in part by a $2.6 million MassWorks grant the city received last year that will be used to upgrade water, sewer, and storm-water lines in the area. Tighe and Bond is designing the project, and the work will begin this summer.

“Increasing a city’s market-rate residential population is one of the real secrets of urban success,” the mayor said, noting that such development becomes a catalyst for further growth as residents put feet on the street and increase business at local establishments and restaurants.

Change is also occurring at the former Kendall House in Chicopee Center as a result of collaborative efforts.  Valley Opportunity Council acquired the building from HAPHousing Inc. last year, and has plans for a $7 million renovation that will convert the rooming house, which housed Quicky’s restaurant on its first floor, into 39 affordable studio apartments.

“We’re working to improve the affordable-housing stock within the city, and by collaborating with the state, VOC received a $3.1 million grant to help restore the Kendall House,” the mayor said, adding that the nonprofit will cover the remainder of the renovation costs.

He told BusinessWest the city is also working to increase home ownership through two incentive programs. The first is the First Time Home Buyers Assistance Program, which helped 22 eligible families last year by giving each up to $5,000 toward the purchase of a new home.

The second initiative is aimed at people willing to purchase three-family homes and live in them, which ensures the likelihood that they will be kept in good condition. New homeowners in the program are given $1,000 each year for up to 16 years as long as they reside in the properties.

“The majority of these homes are in Chicopee Falls, Chicopee Center, and Willimansett, and the program continues to grow and pay dividends,” the mayor said.

Improvements are also being made to the city’s parks; a $225,000 spray park with other amenities was completed at Wisniowski Memorial Park last year, and $225,000 will be invested to make enhancements to Sarah Jane Park this year.

In addition, legislators are working to grant approval to use the former Chicopee Falls Library building as a home for a third Head Start program.

Work on a new parking lot downtown has also been completed. It features 15 designated public spaces as well as parking for patrons of Munich Haus restaurant. The city has also applied to become designated as a Green Community, which would make it eligible for grants for improvements to city buildings.

Continuing Progress

Last summer, Pilgrim Interiors Inc. expanded, and several weeks ago U.S. Tsubaki Automotive LLC held its formal groundbreaking ceremony for a $11.5 million, 100,000-square-foot expansion.

“It will preserve 348 jobs and result in 35 new ones,” Vedovelli said, adding that the company decided to remain in Chicopee after considering a move to either Tennessee or Mexico.

New businesses continue to be attracted to the city, and last year PV Sullivan Supply Co. Inc. and Holden Humphrey Co. were welcomed.

Growth is expected to continue as seeds that were planted take root, and the outlook for this year is exceptionally bright.

“Chicopee is still the biggest small town in Massachusetts,” said Kos. “We’re like the old Cheers bar where everyone knows your name, and are making great progress because we work together in a way that benefits our community as well as its residents.”

 

Chicopee at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1848
Population: 55,603
Area: 23.9 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $17.31
Commercial Tax Rate: $32.49
Median Household Income: $47,276
median family Income: $65,443
Type of government: Mayor; City Council
Largest Employers: Westover Air Reserve Base; City of Chicopee; J. Polep Distribution Services; Turbo Care Inc.
* Latest information available

Features

Man of the People

Senate President Stan Rosenberg

Senate President Stan Rosenberg

Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg — one of the few legislators from Western Mass. who have held that position — began his career as an aide to then-Sen. John Olver, and has served as Olver’s successor for the past 26 years. During that time, he has worked on myriad issues important to his constituents, from education funding to energy policy; from labor matters to mass transit. The common threads, he said, are the importance of continually making investments in the state’s future, and his philosophy of government as a ‘helping profession.’

A leader in the Massachusetts State House with deep roots in Hampshire County. Passionate about issues ranging from wage equity to expanding rail service across the Commonwealth. Known for his lengthy career as a legislator, including election in ’15 as president of the Massachusetts Senate.

Meet Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States.

Or, alternately, current state Senate President Stan Rosenberg, considering how remarkably those careers intersect, a century apart.

“He was a Republican, but he was quite a progressive in some ways,” Rosenberg, a Democrat, said of someone he counts as a role model; in fact, when he gives State House tours, he always brings visitors to see Coolidge’s desk, which has a home in his suite of offices. “He was involved in the minimum wage, he was involved in rail — his goal was to get rail everywhere in Massachusetts. Then the automobile interrupted the progress they’d made, and the rail system started to diminish while highways expanded.

“Well, guess what?” he went on. “It’s 100 years later, and we’re still working on the same problems. We’re still talking about pay equity. We’re still talking about rail.”

For Rosenberg, 67, whose career as a state legislator stretches back to 1986, transportation issues are matters of access and opportunity for state residents, a concept he would return to several times during his recent talk with BusinessWest.

Sen. Stan Rosenberg arrived at the State House

Sen. Stan Rosenberg arrived at the State House as Sen. John Olver’s aide in 1980 and never left, succeeding Olver in 1991.

“These are 21st-century issues, whether we’re talking about transportation and connecting regions outside metro Boston, or talking about ensuring that everyone has access to higher education. Those are the kinds of issues where, if you don’t ensure availability statewide, then people’s economic opportunities get constrained.

“It isn’t just nice to have rail,” he went on, explaining that getting people back and forth to jobs means allowing them to work far from where they live, which helps fill up underused housing stock. Rosenberg was involved in efforts to secure $33 million to upgrade the Pan Am line from Connecticut to Vermont via Springfield and Northampton, as lawmakers continue to eye east-west rail service from Boston to the Pioneer Valley.

“The same with education,” he said. “If you don’t have access to quality education, you’re not going to line up with the jobs that are available. Even in the Pioneer Valley, we have vacant positions that don’t have people to fill them. The skills gap is a really big issue. The achievement gap is a big issue. We have 100,000 vacant jobs statewide, and 100,000 people looking, according to the unemployment numbers. We’ve got to match them up, and that means education, training, and retraining for opportunities.”

Two years ago, Rosenberg became the first senator hailing from Western Mass. elected president of that chamber since 1971, but he dismisses talk that his region’s issues are pushed to the side on Beacon Hill.

“There’s often a feeling about Western Mass. getting the short end of the stick, but all of the regions — north, south, and west — outside the metro Boston area have a similar feeling,” he said. “We’re not unique.”

One thing Western Mass. legislators have been adept at, he went on, is speaking with a unified voice to promote the region’s shared needs and hopefully impact policy.

“Our delegation in Western Mass. has been very nimble and adept at building coalitions to make sure, when there are opportunities, we have a seat at the table,” he said, citing a few examples, from the MGM casino opening in Springfield in 2018 — area legislators fought to ensure the region would win one of the projects — to ongoing life-sciences and research projects.

“The same thing with high-tech projects: the largest big-data center in the state is actually not in Boston; it’s in Holyoke,” he said of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center. “Having that center there is an enormous positive for the region.”

Rosenberg also touted the partnership between UMass Medical School and Baystate Health to bring a medical-school campus to Springfield later this year, forming a sort of medical-education and research triangle between Springfield, Worcester, and Amherst.

“We keep finding opportunities to develop things that are uniquely ours while also making sure we are not left out of the discussion when planning statewide initiatives, so the Pioneer Valley gets to be the beneficiary.”

Calvin Coolidge would undoubtedly be proud. But there’s far more to Rosenberg’s personal story and career.

Through the Ranks

Raised in foster care, Rosenberg graduated from Revere High School in 1967 before attending UMass Amherst, and embracing the region he would come to represent in Boston.

“I went to school part-time and worked full-time at UMass because of my financial situation in the late ’60s and early ’70s,” he told BusinessWest. “While attending UMass, he founded and headed the Arts Extension Service and then became director of Community Development and Human Service Programs in the Division of Continuing Education.

“As a result, I started to make a lot of connections with people and became politically engaged,” he explained. In 1980, then-state Sen. John Olver asked if he was interested in working in Boston as his aide. “I left my job on a Friday, and on Monday arrived at the State House for my first day of work.”

 

All across the country, we’re seeing declining state appropriations and higher education driving up student charges, driving up student debt. And when graduates get into the economy, they have no disposable income, so it’s harder to stay in state.”

 

Rosenberg went on to serve as executive director of the state Democratic party from 1983 to 1985, and as the district director for U.S. Rep. Chester Atkins from 1985 to 1986. He then sought and won a seat on the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1986, representing Amherst and Pelham. In 1991, he won a special election for the state Senate seat being vacated by Olver, a role he has maintained for 26 years, representing 25 communities, mainly in Hampshire and Franklin counties.

While in the Senate, he has served as chair of the Election Laws Committee, the Banking Committee, and the Senate Ways and Means Committee, followed by assistant majority leader from 1999 to 2002 and Senate president pro tempore from 2003 to 2013. He was appointed Senate majority leader in 2013 and Senate president at the start of 2015.

The issues he cared about early on aren’t much different than what he prioritizes now, and reflected the mindset of his district. His interest in higher education dovetailed with the fact that the state’s flagship university is located in Amherst. With many environmentally minded residents in his district, he worked on recycling and the greenhouse-gas issue, now commonly known as climate change. And with the closings of Northampton State Hospital and Belchertown State School, social services to help people in need became a main concern as well.

“You can’t live in the Pioneer Valley without thinking about economic development, but also social justice,” said Rosenberg, who has had a personal stake in some of those issues, notably the Bay State’s first-in-the-union legalization of gay marriage a decade ago, a law he and his husband, Bryon Hefner, availed themselves of last year. “In representing that constituency, you’ve got to be prepared to work in both of those areas.”

He recognizes that businesses have concerns about employment regulations that favor workers, such as minimum-wage laws, equal-pay rules, and family-leave advances, but believes that, given enough time to adapt, companies always do. As one example, provisions of the equal-pay law passed last summer, aiming to ensure women are paid equally with men for equivalent work, don’t take effect until the summer of 2018.

“If a business or agency has time to adapt, it is clearly understood in the public-policy realm that you’ll have a very modest impact when you raise the minimum wage, for example. It may be different for individual businesses, but for the economy as a whole, there’s a very minor impact — and it’s even better when there’s warning and you can plan for it.”

Ideally, he said, the public and private sector works together for mutual benefit, as seen in the 2006 health-insurance law that provided tax credits and tools through the Health Connector to help employers ensure their employees were covered in an affordable way. “Not that there won’t be some pain in that or some dislocation in some situations, but by working together, we can minimize that pain.”

Creating a culture where the workforce has access to affordable healthcare, family leave, and other work-life benefits is critical, Rosenberg said, to retaining top talent in the state. “We have a knowledge-driven economy, and we want people to settle here, to locate their businesses here. By doing these things, we are making a difference.”

He noted that Massachusetts was among the first states, more than a century ago, to establish a minimum-wage law. “We were one of the innovators, and now it’s national practice. We have the third-highest per-capita income in the country, and by most measures, the balance between the strength of the economy and quality of life here is extremely strong.”

Providing that quality of life takes public investment, he insists, and public education is a good example. As a co-chair on the Senate Task Force on Public Higher Education and the Public Higher Education Caucus, he advocated for higher state appropriations for colleges, while holding institutions accountable for how they spend the money.

“All across the country, we’re seeing declining state appropriations and higher education driving up student charges, driving up student debt,” he said. “And when graduates get into the economy, they have no disposable income, so it’s harder to stay in state. If they don’t have disposable income, if it’s all going to pay rent and student debt, they don’t have money to go out and buy things. That hurts small businesses in particular.”

Again, it’s that concept, one of the defining ones in today’s Democratic party, that public investment benefits everyone, but Rosenberg doesn’t simply want to issue legislation from on high (well, high on Beacon Hill, anyway); he wants to engage constituents on what matters to them.

“You have to have a robust and open process for people to engage with you,” he told BusinessWest, “so they have a seat at the table and a voice in discussions that are going to affect them.”

Out and About

Rosenberg noted that each of the state’s 40 senators chairs a committee or acts in some other leadership position, and in the past two years, they have been working to “transform the organization” according to best practices of shared responsibility, shared leadership, teamwork, and engagement with constituents to identify solutions to key issues.

“We’re less hierarchical in the Senate than we used to be,” he noted. “Members are much more engaged at every level, and we’re trying to expand transparency within the body and engagement with the public.”

One concrete strategy for doing the latter is a practice known as Commonwealth Conversations. That project divides the state into nine regions, each with their own specific needs and priorities. Groups of senators spend a day in each region talking to constituents about projects they want to see accomplished, but also the community values they hold.

“We hear similarities of concern, but also differences,” he said. “Boston isn’t the Pioneer Valley, and Pittsfield isn’t Springfield, for that matter.”

Sen. Stan Rosenberg says transportation, education, and labor matters aren’t just political issues

Sen. Stan Rosenberg says transportation, education, and labor matters aren’t just political issues; they’re access points to a better quality of life for Massachusetts residents.

The idea, he explained, is to develop statewide policy that can be adapted for regional differences, such as meeting skills gaps that differ throughout the Commonwealth.

“For example, we’ve been rebuilding the machining industry sector in Western Mass. Not that it’s not going on elsewhere, but it’s a big priority in our area,” he said, noting initiatives from the Middle Skills Manufacturing Initiative to train manufacturing workers in Franklin County to efforts to attract the Chinese rail-car manufacturing giant CRRC to Springfield. “The pieces all seem disparate, but they’re all connected.”

Even though a heavily Democratic Legislature and a Republican governor in Charlie Baker make for divided government in the technical sense, those officials maintain strong working relationships, Rosenberg said, noting that he meets with Baker, the House speaker, the Ways and Means chair, and the minority leaders every Monday afternoon — the location rotates between their offices — to talk about current issues before the Legislature.

“Even if we don’t have a specific agenda, we always talk about the common ground we have to build solutions to the problems of the day. Those meetings reach back to Bill Weld, Billy Bulger, and Charles Flaherty, and that tradition has been maintained whether we have a unified or divided government. It really makes a difference when you’re communicating.”

There are issues that rankle one side or the other, of course, and the divisions between Democrat-dominated Massachusetts and the national arena will only grow following the improbable rise of President Trump, who seems poised to lead with the same bluster and scattershot style that proved a winner on the campaign trail — only, with the ability to do actual damage to policies progressives value, beginning with the Affordable Care Act.

“We have to be mindful of a lot of change coming out of Washington,” Rosenberg said. “I’m worried about what’s happening on the health-insurance front. We had a universal plan that was working and got disrupted by the federal plan, but we adapted. The administration signed a $53 million, five-year plan for health transformation in Massachusetts. Now, the question is, will the administration honor that commitment, or will they make so many changes in the universal federal health program that it disrupts the state program again?”

Other shifting priorities in Washington could cause disruption in the Bay State as well. When it comes to climate change, for example, Massachusetts, as a coastal state, is trying to plan for the future, including possible coastline impacts, in a “balanced but aggressive way,” the Senate president said. “Whether or not they upturn federal policies might have an impact on state policies.”

Then there’s marijuana, which is legal for medical use in 28 states and for recreational enjoyment in eight; both apply in Massachusetts. Although using the drug continues to violate federal law, President Obama’s administration took a hands-off policy when the will of the states went their own way.

“If Mr. [Jeff] Sessions is appointed attorney general, will he stick to the policies of the Obama administration, where, if it’s heavily regulated and you follow those regulations, we’ll leave you alone?” Rosenberg asked. “Or will Mr. Sessions follow federal law and say, ‘I don’t care if your voters voted for it; you can’t do it anymore’? If they do come in and start enforcing it, that could be a pretty big deal.”

Helping Profession

It’s clear that legislative matters of all kinds, and the way they impact people’s lives, are a big deal to Stan Rosenberg.

When asked what gratifies him most, though, he returned again to the work he and his colleagues are doing to, as he called it, “transform the Senate as an institution.”

After all, he told BusinessWest, it’s very easy for malaise to set in within legislative bodies. “What we’re doing in the Senate has empowered our members, and that empowerment has excited them, and that excitement leads to an enormous amount of energy around trying to produce quality legislation that moves our communities forward.

“This is a helping profession,” he went on. “Every day, you get phone calls and meetings that challenge your thinking and keep you on the cutting edge of life. Every day you find opportunities to help one person, one business, one institution, one community.”

He likens those opportunities to winning a bit of money on a scratch ticket. “And every so often, it’s like winning the lottery when you pass a big piece of legislation that affects the future of the whole Commonwealth.”

Calvin Coolidge certainly made his mark — eventually, well beyond the borders of the Bay State. For now, Rosenberg is happy to keep making a difference for his constituents at home.

“Every day, you’re presented with opportunities to be helpful,” he said. “That keeps me going.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Departments Picture This

Email ‘Picture This’ photos with a caption and contact information to [email protected]
A photo essay of recent business events in Western Massachusetts January 23, 2017

A Decade of Engagement

Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield (YPS)

Last week, the board of directors of the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield (YPS) hosted a press conference and leadership luncheon panel to kick off a year-long slate of events celebrating the organization’s 10th anniversary. “I was nothing before YPS,” said Jeremy Casey, past president. “Being a part of this organization has made me better personally and professionally. It’s the best thing I have ever done for my career.” Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno issued a proclamation declaring Jan. 18, 2017 Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield Day in the city, praising members’ commitment to cultivate a more engaged young workforce and adding, “you have truly been outstanding ambassadors for the city of Springfield.” Afterward, BusinessWest Editor George O’Brien led a panel discussion with Casey, current YPS President Peter Ellis, and past presidents Jeff Fialky and Pam Thornton. “It’s amazing to me to see the progression, the continuation of the ideas you guys had, that are still happening,” Ellis told the past presidents and current YPS members gathered in the room.” Added Thornton, “YPS is only as good as the people serving. It’s always been a working board, a working organization. Everyone brings their own perspectives, different opinions about how to grow it, and sometimes we didn’t get along, but we’re so excited to see it’s still strong and still growing.”

Making IT Happen

Tech Foundry

Last month, Tech Foundry graduated its third class, during which area employers announced the hiring of IT students, turning them from interns to employees. With close to 100 volunteers, partners, business leaders, friends, and family in attendance, Jonathan Edwards (pictured), Tech Foundry’s director of Strategic Partnerships, feted the accomplishments of the Tech Foundry students, noting that “the class we’ve had this time around is truly remarkable. Now it’s time to build on that momentum.” Meanwhile, Tech Foundry founder and board chair Delcie Bean challenged the graduating students to “live up to the expectations that everyone in the room has for you by helping the Springfield economy grow and thrive. Other guest speakers included Carol Leary, president of Bay Path University, and Andrew Anderlonis, president of Rediker Software, whose company has hired three Tech Foundry graduates.

Court Dockets Departments

The following is a compilation of recent lawsuits involving area businesses and organizations. These are strictly allegations that have yet to be proven in a court of law. Readers are advised to contact the parties listed, or the court, for more information concerning the individual claims.

CHICOPEE DISTRICT COURT

Broadcast Music Inc. v. Patti’s Four-Ten Lounge LLC
Allegation: Unpaid monies for services provided: $2,485
Filed: 12/9/16

George Cruz v. Regency Management and Development Co. Inc.
Allegation: Slip and fall causing injury: $24,000
Filed: 12/15/16

HAMPDEN DISTRICT COURT

Maria Campos v. D & F Food Service Inc.
Allegation: Slip and fall causing injury: $24,000
Filed: 12/16/16

Luis Serrano v. Holyoke Mall Co. LP, Pyramid Management Group LLC, and Geeleher Enterprises Inc.
Allegation: Slip and fall causing injury: $24,999
Filed: 12/16/16

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT

Jo-Anne Ferris v. Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District, Stephen Presnal, and Kathleen Jorgensen
Allegation: Employment discrimination: $1 million 
Filed: 12/15/16

Mary Barcome and Mary-Zaida Lopez v. Anamisis LLC, Costas Anamisis, and Emanuel Anamisis
Allegation: Employment discrimination: $1.5 million
Filed: 12/15/16

Kayla Fontaine v. Anamisis LLC and Costas Anamisis
Allegation: Wage claims, including failure to pay minimum wage and failure to pay overtime: $1 million
Filed: 12/16/16

Paul Barkett v. Walgreens Family of Companies, Walgreen Eastern Co. Inc. and Walgreens of Massachusetts, LLC
Allegation: Slip and fall causing injury: $131,301.30
Filed: 12/17/16

Paul and Lisa Forrette v. Cumberland Farms Inc., Servuite Services Inc., and Paul Truehart d/b/a Truehart Paving and Construction Services
Allegation: Slip and fall causing injury: $1,250,000
Filed: 12/19/16

HAMPSHIRE DISTRICT COURT

Center Redevelopment Corp. v. Daniel A. Champagne and Sherrie L. Champagne
Allegation: Breach of contract and failure to pay amounts due under commercial and residential leases: $14,085
Filed: 1/5/17

Thomas J. Tear and Joanne M. Tear v. Eco Roofing LLC
Allegation: Incorrectly installed roof: $7,959.38
Filed: 1/6/17

HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT

Lidia Lech v. Dorothea Von Goeler, Baystate Medical Center Inc., Maria Diaz, Hampden County Sheriff’s Department, Nicole Skorupski, Elizabeth Meaux, Julie Belle-Isle, Rosado Shantelle, Lynn Chase, Michael Ashe Jr., Patricia Murphy, John Doe 1 and 2
Allegation: Medical malpractice, infliction of emotional distress
Filed: 12/23/16

Joel J. Harder v. R & D Towing & Transport Inc. and Robert Bernier
Allegation: Negligence in operating a tow truck causing injury
Filed: 12/23/16

Joseph F. Dromboski v. Afterburner Inc. d/b/a Wings Over Amherst
Allegation: Motor-vehicle negligence causing injury: $23,032.19
Filed: 12/29/16

WESTFIELD DISTRICT COURT

Linda Marino v. IKO Industries Inc.
Allegation: Breach of implied warranty, negligent misrepresentation involving installation of shingles: $10,400
Filed: 12/19/16

Opinion

Opinion

By Christopher Geehern

Three-quarters of Massachusetts employers would face increases in their compensation costs if state lawmakers pass a $15 per hour minimum wage, according to two recent surveys by Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM). And those compensation increases would be enough to force some companies to postpone hiring or consider leaving the Commonwealth altogether.

Both the monthly survey question attached to the AIM Business Confidence Index in December and the annual AIM HR Practices Survey, also taken in December, found that 13% of companies employed people at the former $10 per hour state minimum wage, while another 24% employed people at between $10 and $15 per hour and would have to raise those wages if the minimum moved to $15.

Thirty-four percent employed people at slightly more than $15 and would have to increase pay for some of those employees to deal with wage compression. Thirty-seven percent of companies said they pay much more than $15 per hour and will not be affected by a minimum-wage increase. The Massachusetts minimum wage rose by $1 to $11 per hour on Jan. 1, the final step in a three-year increase.

“While we are empathetic with the challenges facing lower-wage staff, it is also the case that we will employ fewer hourly employees at higher minimum wages. Each dollar increase costs our company $1.5 million per year,” wrote one employer on the Business Confidence Survey.

Another noted, “this would be too much for the small-business community to absorb. You’ll lose many small businesses.”

AIM believes that raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, while emotionally appealing and politically expedient, is an ineffective way to address income inequality. Raising the minimum wage, in fact, represents a fundamental distraction from addressing the real economic impediments that prevent all Massachusetts citizens from sharing in the state’s prosperity. These are the same impediments, ironically, that contribute to the persistent skills shortage that threatens innovation and economic growth in Massachusetts.

Workers are ultimately compensated according to the skills, education, work ethic, and value they bring to the enterprise.

Minimum-wage increases impose an arbitrary standard of value on entry-level jobs, disproportionately burdening small businesses while creating no long-term improvement in living standards for people at the lower end of the wage scale. The issue in an economy with a staggering 3.3% unemployment rate is not how to raise the wage but instead how to raise the economic value of each employee.

Consider a sandwich shop in Cambridge serving food to employees of companies such as Google, Biogen, or Novartis that have made Massachusetts a global center for information technology, biosciences, research, and development.

Given the degree to which those highly paid professionals are bidding up housing and other prices in Massachusetts, increasing the minimum wage for the restaurant workers represents a dead-end and pyrrhic victory that keeps them outside the economic mainstream.

The task instead should be to pave the way for those restaurant employees to cross the street and join the high-value economy, which will once and for all allow them to support their families and achieve financial stability.

How does that happen? Start by improving the ability of our educational system to teach all students, reducing the long waiting lists for vocational schools, making community colleges accountable for graduating students with the skills needed in the marketplace, creating more high-tech software-coding academies, and promoting other efficient structures to provide people with the skills to succeed in the areas of fastest economic growth.

Those tasks are far more complex than raising the minimum wage but ultimately more effective. The alternative is not attractive.

Christopher Geehern is executive vice president of Marketing & Communication at Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

Class of 2017 Difference Makers

Paying Dividends

JA Provides Critical Lessons in Business, Life

Jennifer Connolly

Jennifer Connolly stands beside the portrait of JA co-founder Horace Moses at the agency’s offices in Tower Square.

Jennifer Connolly likes to say Junior Achievement works hard to present young people — and, in this case, that means kindergartners to high-school seniors — with eye-opening and quite necessary doses of reality.

And one of the more intriguing — and anecdote-inspiring — examples is an exercise involving second-graders — specifically, an individual wearing a nametag that reads simply, ‘Tax Collector.’

The best story I ever heard from one of our volunteers was about how he announced to the class that it was time to take the taxes, and this one boy dove under his desk and said, ‘no, no, my daddy says taxes are bad … I don’t want to pay taxes!”

You guessed it. This is a direct lesson in how the amount of money one earns certainly isn’t the amount taken home on payday. In this case, the tax collector, often one of the students, literally takes away two of the five dollars a student has ‘earned’ for work they’ve undertaken.

The exercise has yielded some keepsake photos for the archives, and colorful stories that Connolly, president of Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts, has related countless times.

The ‘tax collector’ makes his rounds at a local school

The ‘tax collector’ makes his rounds at a local school. The exercise provides important lessons and has yielded some colorful anecdotes.

“The best story I ever heard from one of our volunteers was about how he announced to the class that it was time to take the taxes,” she recalled, “and this one boy dove under his desk and said, ‘no, no, my daddy says taxes are bad … I don’t want to pay taxes!’

“And the students … they don’t want to be the tax collector,” she went on. “We sometimes have to get one of our volunteers to do it. The kids cry — they don’t want to take money away from people; they say, ‘I can’t do this.’ It’s adorable.”

That’s not a word that applies to all the lessons, obviously, including one that Connolly imparted on a local high-school student herself.

“One girl couldn’t decide between being an early-childhood educator or a doctor,” she explained. “She looked at the income for an early-childhood worker and said, ‘that’s terrible,’ and I said, ‘unfortunately, yes.’

“So she said, ‘I’ll go into allied health, become a doctor, and make a lot of money,’” Connolly went on. “That’s when I told her about one of my daughter’s friends who became a dentist; she owes $250,000 in student loans, is back home living with her parents, and drives the same minivan she had when she was in college. I told this student there are no easy choices, and you have to weigh the impact, and she replied, ‘you’ve given me so much information, my head is going to explode.’”

Whether adorable or biting in their nature, the lessons provided by JA are, in a word, necessary, said Connolly and others we spoke with. That’s because they help prepare young individuals for the world beyond the classroom, where wrong decisions about finances can have disastrous consequences, and also where hands-on experience with the world of business can pay huge dividends and perhaps even inspire future entrepreneurs and business managers.

“It’s rewarding to watch the students and see the lightbulbs go on,” said Al Kasper, president and chief operating officer of Savage Arms in Westfield, who has been a long-time JA volunteer and board member.

At present, he mentors two entrepreneurship classes, or “company programs,” at East Longmeadow High School taught by Dawn Quercia, who has been doing this for nearly 20 years now, and is such a believer in the program that she fronts the startup money needed for her classes to place orders for the products they are to sell.

 

Dawn Quercia

Dawn Quercia, who fronts the money for her business students’ ventures, says the JA program provides hands-on lessons one can’t get from a textbook.

“It’s a little risky … I’m not a wealthy person, but I believe in the kids,” she said, adding that the most she’s ever lost is $200, and all she ever gets back is her investment — there’s no interest.

The dividend, she went on, is watching students learn by doing and gain maturity and life lessons while doing so.

“I could teach this out of a book, and that’s what I did when I first started here,” she went on. “And I didn’t feel the kids were learning as much as they could, and I said, ‘why don’t we just start a business?’”

Young people have been doing just that since 1919, when Horace Moses, president of Strathmore Paper Co., collaborated with other industry titans to bring the business world into the classroom by having students run their own venture.

And it continues today with a wide range of programs involving the full spectrum of young students — from those learning their colors to those trying to decide which college to attend.

JA is coming up on its centennial celebration, and since it was essentially born in Western Mass. (although now headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo.), Connolly is hoping that Springfield, and perhaps the Big E — where the so-called Junior Achievement Building, built in 1925 and funded by Moses, still stands — can be the gathering spot for birthday celebrations.

But while she’s starting to think about a party, she’s more focused on providing more of those hard, yet vital lessons described earlier. And that’s why this organization was named a Difference Maker for 2017, and is clearly worthy of that honor.

Thinking Outside the Box

They’re called ‘memory boxes.’

That’s the name a small group of students from Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy in Springfield assigned to a product they conceived, assembled themselves, and took to the marketplace just over a year ago.

As the name suggests, these are decorated wooden boxes, complete with several compartments designed to store jewelry or … whatever. They were hand-painted, with stenciling and paper flowers glued on the top, and priced to sell for $15, with were being the operative word. That’s because, well, they just didn’t sell, and are now more collectors’ items than anything else.

But it wasn’t for lack of trying.

“They did everything to sell them — they kept getting knocked down, and they kept getting back up,” said Connolly, referring to the students involved in this exercise, which she supervised as part of the JAYE (Junior Achievement Young Entrepreneurs) program. “They tried craft fairs, flea markets, they tried online, they sold from a table at Tower Square … the boxes just didn’t sell.

“The girls just wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer,” she went on, adding quickly, though, that they heard ‘no’ more than enough times to convince them it was time to develop a new product. “They learned to take rejection very well.”

From left, Sabrina Roberts, Dajah Gordon, and Johnalie Gomez

From left, Sabrina Roberts, Dajah Gordon, and Johnalie Gomez have learned some critical lessons selling ankle anklets — and not selling memory boxes.

And that, as it turned out, was only one of many lessons imparted upon them during that exercise, as was made clear by these comments from Dajah Gordon, a team member and JAYE veteran who has been part of far more successful ventures, including the team that went to the program’s national finals, staged in Washington, D.C., two years ago with a company that sold charm bracelets.

“Whenever we fail, like we did with the boxes, we have to step back, look at the company, and say, ‘where are we lacking?’” she said of the six-month odyssey with that ill-fated product, which all the participants can look back on now and laugh. “For us, with the boxes, something we didn’t focus on much was our target market; we were trying to sell to everybody, but we needed a specific target group or audience.

“Later, we got that part down,” she went on, adding that the identified audience — young people like themselves — has become far more receptive to the team’s new product, the so-called ‘wish anklet.’ (The wearer is to make a wish upon tying it around her ankle; if she keeps it on until it naturally falls off, the secret wish will come true.)

While there is no documented or even anecdotal evidence that the product performs as advertised, the anklets, introduced just a few months ago, have been selling well, and the three young women involved are certainly optimistic about fast-approaching Valentine’s Day, and are hard at work replenishing depleted inventory.

These collective exploits are typical of the JAYE initiative, an after-school version of the JA Company Program, which is the very bedrock on which the Junior Achievement concept was built in the months after World War I ended and when the nation was returning to what amounted to a peacetime economy.

Horace Moses; Theodore Vail, president of American Telephone & Telegraph; and Massachusetts Sen. Murray Crane got together behind the notion that, as the nation shifted from a largely agrarian economy to an industrial-based system, young people would need an education in how to run a business, said Connolly. A decidedly hands-on education.

Four and perhaps five generations of young people have formed enterprises and brought products to market through what is still known as the JA Company Program, as evidenced by the front lobby of the JA office on the mezzanine level in Tower Square, which has a number of artifacts, if you will, on display.

There are no memory boxes, but on one table, for example, is what would now be considered a very rudimentary, wooden paper-towel-roll holder, as well as a small rack for key chains, both products conceived by high-school classes in the ’70s, said Connolly.

On another table by the front window, near a large, imposing painting of Horace Moses (a prized possession for this JA chapter), is a wooden lamp, a product produced in the late ’70s through a JA Company Program called Bright Ideas, sponsored by what was then called Western Mass. Electric Co. (now Eversource). Connolly noted that lamps of various kinds were a staple of early JA ‘company’ classes, which started as after-school exercises and eventually moved into the classroom in the late ’50s.

Today, there are in-class and after-school programs that are providing students with tremendous opportunities to not only learn how a business is run, but operate one themselves, experiencing just about everything the so-called real world can throw at them.

Learning Opportunites

That would definitely be the case with another after-school JAYE program, said Connolly, this one called the Thunderpucks.

A collaborative effort involving students at Putnam, Chicopee High School, and Pope Francis High School, this bold initiative essentially makes a team of students part of the staff of the Springfield Thunderbirds, the new AHL franchise that started play last fall amid considerable fanfare and promise.

Al Kasper

Al Kasper says he enjoys seeing the “lightbulbs go on” as he mentors students involved in JA programs at East Longmeadow High.

This team has been assigned the March 3 tilt against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and will coordinate many aspects of it, from the band that plays the National Anthem to the T-shirt toss, to some ticket sales, said Connolly.

“They’re going to be reaching out to businesses and groups and trying to sell them ticket packages,” she explained. “They’re going to be handling almost all aspects of the game; it’s an incredible learning experience.”

Those last two words, and even the one before them, would apply to most all JA initiatives, she went on, adding, again, that they start with children at a very young age.

With that, she took BusinessWest through the portfolio of programs, if you will — one that involved some 11,500 students across the region during the 2015-16 school year — starting in kindergarten.

At that age, the focus is on very basic financial literacy, such as understanding currency and the concept of a savings account. By first grade, students are acquainted with jobs, businesses, the assembly line (they create one to make paper donuts), and the term ‘income,’ and how families must live within one. This is when they are told about the difference between a ‘want’ and a ‘need.’

Moving along, in second grade, the tax collector makes his arrival — money is taken from those working to make donuts and given to those working for the government, so students can see where their tax dollars go, among other lessons. In third grade, students learn how a city operates and are introduced to concepts such as zoning, planning, and the basics of running a business.

And on it goes, said Connolly, adding that, by sixth grade, students are learning about cultural differences and why, for example, they can’t sell hamburgers in India. By middle school, there are more in-depth lessons in personal finances, budgeting, branding, and careers — and how to start one — as part of the broad Economics for Success program.

By high school, the learning-by-doing concept continues with everything from actual companies to stock-market challenges; from job shadowing to lean-manufacturing concepts. And while students learn, they also teach, with high-school students mentoring those in elementary school, and college students returning to coach those in high school.

The work of providing all these lessons falls to a virtual army of volunteers, said Connolly, adding that the Western Mass. chapter deployed more than 400 of them last year. They visited 522 classrooms and donated more than 73,000 hours to the area’s communities.

“JA is taking what students are learning in school, the math, the communications, the writing, all of that, and giving it a real-life reason,” she explained, summing up all that programming and its relative importance to the students and the region as a whole. “You need math because … you have to figure out your finances, or you might run a business. You need to understand social studies and geography because we’re an integrated world — where do the products come from?

“And the activities we have in JA are really hands-on, so we really promote critical thinking, analyzing, and problem solving,” she went on. “These are the 21st-century skills that students will really need.”

Returning to that episode involving the high-school girl trying to decide between early-childhood education and the medical field, and the choices involved with each path, Connolly said it reflects many of the lessons and experiences that JA provides.

“We don’t want to show them that everything’s easy — it’s not easy, no matter what you pick,” she explained. “We’re trying to make them think and make intelligent decisions.”

And this is certainly true when it comes to the JA Company Program, as we’ll see.

Course of Action

“Good cop … bad cop.”

That’s how Katie Roeder, a junior at East Longmeadow High School, chose to describe how she and Seth Bracci, co-presidents of a company now selling sweatshirts, work together at their JA venture.

And she’s the bad cop, a role she thinks she’s suited for, and that she enjoys.

Katie Roeder

Katie Roeder says she enjoys her ‘bad cop’ role as co-president of a company at East Longmeadow High School selling sweatshirts.

“I’m the one who lays out the schedule, and I go around to different groups and check on them, and if they’re not where they need to do be, I ask them to do those things as soon as possible,” she explained. “And Seth … he comes in after that and says, ‘c’mon, guys, let’s do it,’ evening out the seriousness with a bit of fun.”

It all seems to be working, she went on, adding that this business doesn’t have a name, really; it’s merely identified by the class title and time slot: Entrepreneurship H Block (12:20-1:01 p.m.). It is one of two JA classes at the school, with the other selling water bottles, as we’ll see shortly.

The H Block class spent a good amount of time deciding on a product, Roeder told BusinessWest, adding that, while young people can buy sweatshirts in countless places, online and in the store, they can’t find one with the distinctive Spartan logo, or mascot, that has identified ELHS since it opened in 1960 — unless they’re on a sports team.

The class then spent even more time — too much, by some accounts — coming up with a design (gray sweatshirt with a red logo, covering both of the school’s colors), she went on, adding that Quercia insisted on making this a democratic exercise, with input from all those involved, to achieve as much buy-in as possible. Then it spent still more time conducting what would be considered market research on who might purchase the product before placing a large order with the manufacturer.

This was a fruitful exercise, Roeder noted, because it informed company officers that those most likely to buy were underclassmen and students at nearby Birchland Park Middle School who would soon become ninth-graders. Thus, the order was for large numbers of smalls and mediums, and only a handful of XLs and XXLs, presumably to be sold to alums at the Thanksgiving Day football game (and there were a few such transactions).

Such hands-on lessons in how businesses run, or should run, are what JA’s entrepreneurship program is all about, said those we spoke with, adding that the year-long exercise is an intriguing departure from learning via a textbook, such as in AP Calculus, which is where Roeder was supposed to be at that moment, only she got a pass so she could talk with BusinessWest.

“It’s great because it’s different from the day-to-day classroom things we do,” she noted. “We handle real money; this is a real business with real stakes. It doesn’t feel like a class at all. We’re learning, but it doesn’t feel like we are. All that knowledge still goes into our mind, and we keep it there.”

Bracci agreed. “It’s interesting to see the inner workings and just how hard it is to create your own business,” he explained, “and how there are many different obstacles you can run into as someone trying to get a product out there.”

Meanwhile, at the water-bottle-selling company gathered next door, in room 111, the discussion focused on sales to date — and how to sell the 30 or so units still in inventory.

Co-president Bridget Arnesen, while occasionally drinking from one of the Spartan-logo-adorned bottles, exhorted her classmates to not rest on their laurels — bottle sales did well in the run-up to the holidays — and keep selling when and where they could, such as at the big basketball game slated for that night against league powerhouse Central.

This was where Kasper stepped in to evoke the ‘80-20 rule,’ which, he said, predicts how roughly 80% of a company’s products will be sold by 20% of its representatives.

A quick look at a tote board of sorts that detailed how many units each class member had sold, revealed that the 80-20 rule certainly held up in this case, with some class members clearly motivated by the $5.67 in commission they make for each bottle sold (one enterprising young woman logged 40 transactions), and others … not so much.

But the walking-around money is just one of the things students can take home from these classes, said Quercia, adding that the doses of reality can help in a number of ways, especially for those who have intentions of getting into business.

And Roeder already has such plans in the formative stage. She’s not sure where she’ll attend college — she says she’ll start kicking some tires next year — but does know that she intends on majoring in pediatric dentistry and probably owning her own practice.

“Business will help with my future career because I want to run a pediatric dentistry,” she explained. “I hope all the things I’ve learned stay in my head, because I’m going to need them.”

Life Lessons

Such comments help explain why those at BusinessWest chose Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts as a Difference maker for 2017 and, more importantly, why the organization continues to broaden its mission and find new ways to impart hard lessons.

Indeed, it is comments of various types and from a host of constituencies that drive home the point that JA’s programs are more important now than perhaps ever before.

We could start almost anywhere, but maybe the best place is with Robbin Lussier, a business teacher at Chicopee High School and another educator who has a long history with JA.

It has included a number of initiatives, including a career-preparation program that has grown to include 120 students, who receive tips on résumés and how to search for a job, and actually take part in mock interviews with area business owners and managers.

Bridget Arnesen and Nathan Santos

Bridget Arnesen and Nathan Santos, co-presidents of the company at East Longmeadow High School selling water bottles, say their class provides real-life lessons in running an enterprise.

The lessons eventually turned into life experiences, she said, adding that many students actually earned jobs with area companies, prompting employers to come back year after year as they searched for qualified help.

Other involvement with JA has included programs in budgeting, personal finance, and the stock-market challenge, she went on, adding that they provided what she called a “heightened sense of reality” that a classroom teacher could not provide.

“It’s a whole new dimension — students are walking away with memorable lessons learned,” Lussier said, adding that some of the more intriguing things she hears are from those who are not taking part in these programs, but wish they could, or wish they had.

“I teach a personal-finance class this year,” she said, “and if I had a nickel for every time a teacher, administrator, or parent at open-house night said, ‘I wish I could take this class’ or ‘I wish they had this when I was in school,’ I could retire.”

Connolly agreed, and cited a 50-question quiz on debit and credit cards given recently to middle-school students at Springfield’s Duggan Academy as an example.

“At the end, after the volunteer had gone through all the questions, one girl turned to another and said, ‘this has been the best day … I learned so much today,’” she recalled. “And another said, ‘can I take this home so I can show my parent? Can I take this home so I can show my grandmother? I want to save this so when I go to college I can make the right decisions.’

“That’s what you live for, students who have that reaction,” she said, adding that she sees it quite often, which is encouraging.

Also encouraging is seeing students learn by doing, even if it’s difficult to watch at times, said Quercia, who was happy to report that both classes, first those selling water bottles and then those peddling sweatshirts, paid back the seed money she invested.

“They handle everything, I act as their consultant, and Al [Kasper] explains how everything they’re learning is like the real world,” she told BusinessWest. “Together, the students face challenges and confront problems and get creative in finding solutions together.”

Kasper, who has been involved with JA in various capacities since the early ’80s and at ELHS for 15 years now, concurred.

“This isn’t MCAS, ‘memorize-this-stuff’ learning,” he said of the company program. “It’s real-life stuff that students get excited about, and because of that, we’ve really grown this program.

“They’re excited to come to class,” he went on. “It’s something new, it’s reinforcing what they’re learning, and it’s fun. They’re still learning, but they’re having fun doing it, so the retention is great, and their confidence goes up.”

It’s All About the Bottom Line

When asked what she had learned about business through her involvement with JAYE, Johnalie Gomez, another member of the team from Putnam now selling wish anklets, thought for a moment before responding.

“It’s not … easy,” she said softly, deploying three little words, in reference to both business and life itself, that say so much that those around her immediately started shaking their heads — not in disagreement, but rather in solid affirmation, as if to say, ‘no, it’s not.’

Everyone who has ever been in business would no doubt do the same. And that’s because they probably have at least one ‘memory box’ or something approximating it somewhere on their résumé — a seemingly good idea that just didn’t work. With each one, there are hard lessons that bring pain, maturity, and, hopefully (someday), laughs.

Delivering such vital lessons when someone is in the classroom — or the conference room in the suite at Tower Square — so that they may resonate later and throughout life is why Junior Achievement was formed, why it continues to thrive, why it is even more relevant now than it was 98 years ago, and why the organization is a Difference Maker.

Just ask the ‘tax collector,’ or, more specifically, those young students who don’t want to be him.

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

Company Notebook Departments

WNEU Unveils New Scholarship

SPRINGFIELD — Western New England University announced a new Business Impact Scholarship to support the recent surge of economic development in the Greater Springfield area. The scholarship is available to Massachusetts residents from Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester counties who are enrolled in the university’s College of Business starting in the fall of 2017. “For nearly a century, the College of Business at Western New England has educated and prepared local residents to become successful business leaders, and our alumni lead many Springfield area businesses and nonprofit organizations,” said Robert Kleine, dean of the College of Business. “This scholarship is an investment in preparing the next generation to provide leadership in the local economy.” The $2,000 award will be in addition to an incoming student’s Academic Merit Scholarship, which may range up to $20,000 per year. The Business Impact Scholarship and the Academic Merit scholarship are renewable for all years of full-time undergraduate study in the university’s College of Business, to students in good academic standing. “I have already received positive feedback from members of the local community regarding this important scholarship opportunity,” said Bryan Gross, vice president for Enrollment Management. “There is good reason to be optimistic about all the recent business development in our region, and I know that Western New England University will continue to provide highly motivated business leaders and pioneering entrepreneurs to our community in the years to come.” Western New England University is still accepting applications for fall 2017. For more information about the Business Impact Scholarship or the College of Business program, visit the Admissions website at wne.edu/cost-and-aid/undergraduate.

Berkshire Bank Expands Scholarship Awards Program

PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Bank announced it will honor a record 35 high-school seniors across Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania for their volunteer service through the Berkshire Bank Foundation’s annual Scholarship Awards Program. The program will award $52,500 in total scholarship dollars to students who have exemplified community service through their volunteer efforts. Additionally, students must attend a high school that is located in a county with a Berkshire Bank office. Through the program, 35 $1,500 scholarships will be awarded to high-school seniors who will be attending a two-year or four-year college in the fall. Applications are evaluated based on the student’s record of volunteerism in the community, academic standing, and financial need. Applicants must have a minimum 3.0 GPA and a family household income under $75,000 to be eligible to apply. A team of more than 200 bank employee volunteers will review the applications and select this year’s recipients. Scholarships will be awarded in the geographic regions where Berkshire Bank offices or its subsidiaries are located, with 14 available in Massachusetts, 10 in New York, three in Connecticut, three in Vermont, three in New Jersey, and two in Pennsylvania. Students may apply online though the bank’s website at www.berkshirebank.com/scholarships. To be considered, all applications must be submitted online by Wednesday, March 22 at 4 p.m. In other news, the bank announced the three winners of its Exciting Home Equity Sweepstakes, which ran from Sept. 12 through Nov. 25. The three winners of this giveaway were notified last month. They are Craig Walton of Hinsdale, Deborah Robbins of Westfield, and Christine Robie of Pittsfield. New and existing Berkshire Bank home-equity line of credit or home-equity loan customers as of Nov. 25 were entered automatically in the sweepstakes, and individuals were also encouraged to enter the sweepstakes by mail. Three winners were chosen to each receive a $2,500 prize. The winners then had the option to receive the funds by check, apply the money to their existing home-equity balance, or a deposit it into an account.

AIC Graduate Degree in Forensic Psychology Lauded

SPRINGFIELD — Online Psychology Degrees, a comprehensive, web-based psychology-degree guide, has named American International College (AIC) one of the top colleges for a graduate degree in forensic psychology in a recent ranking. The college is one of only two schools in Massachusetts to be named in this category. The mission at Online Psychology Degrees is to provide high-quality, well-researched rankings and other resources for individuals considering a career in psychology. Programs were selected for ranking based on criteria such as cost of attendance, number of degree and specialization options offered, accreditation, and acknowledgement by a national ranking body. The American International College master’s-degree program in forensic psychology was created for students who have a bachelor’s degree in psychology, criminal justice, or a related field. The forensic psychology program emphasizes the combination of psychology and law, as well as the psychology behind police work, corrections, probation, and parole. Students learn about victim services, juvenile justice, and family services to help work in those areas upon graduation. The curriculum includes a wide range of areas related to law enforcement and the evaluation and treatment of offenders. Careers in psychology and related mental-health professions are rapidly growing throughout the nation. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Handbook predicts that, between 2012 and 2022 the occupation of psychologist will see an increase of at least 12%. Psychologists, therapists, and mental-health counselors are in high demand in a variety of work settings. Forensic psychology involves the application of psychology to issues relating to law and the legal system.

Coldwell Banker Supports Springfield Preservation Trust

LONGMEADOW — The Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage office in Longmeadow recently presented a $250 donation to the Springfield Preservation Trust for the 2017 Spring House Tour. The donation was made through Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Cares, the company’s charitable foundation. The Springfield Preservation Trust preserves and protects properties in Springfield that have architectural, historic, educational, or general cultural significance. The organization hosts a variety of events and fund-raisers throughout the year, including historic house tours in the spring and autumn. “As a company, we are deeply committed to giving back to our community, and we are proud to be able to lend our support to an organization that works hard to stabilize and maintain notable properties that are local treasures,” said Theresa Lindsey, who, along with Vincent Walsh, serves as managing broker of the Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage office in Longmeadow. “Without the Springfield Preservation Trust, many of our historic buildings would no longer be in existence.”

Departments Incorporations

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

AGAWAM

Translink Community Transport Inc., 270 Main St., Agawam, MA 01001. James Ngugi, 103 Fern St., Springfield, MA 01108. Non-emergency, non-medical transportation agency.

Unique Transport Inc., 242 River Road, Agawam, MA 01001. Serge Nakhabenko, same. Trucking.

AMHERST

The Valley Winds Inc., 9 Hedgerow Lane, Amherst, MA 01002. Brian Eugene Messier, same. Non-profit organization designed to enhance the performance of quality wind band music and to deliver accessible and enjoyable performances to the Pioneer Valley community.

Western Massachusetts Emdria Regional Network Inc., 26 South Propspect St., Amherst, MA 01002. Jim A. Helling LICSW, same. Group of local EMDR therapists dedicated to disseminating knowledge about EMDR, advancing the practice of EMDR, facilitating access to EMDR therapy among underprivileged and traumatized populations, and strengthening regional community.

CHICOPEE

Zafer Reis Inc., 466 Chicopee St., Chicopee, MA 01013. Hasan Huseyin Gizli, 76 Park St., Chicopee, MA 01014. Pizza restaurant.

EAST LONGMEADOW

The Coating House Inc., 9 Lombard Ave., #2, East Longmeadow, MA 01028. Kimberly A. Casineau, same. Manufacturing company.

Twin Lacrosse Inc., 609 Somers Road, East Longmeadow, MA 01028. Brian Calandruccio, same. Development, marketing, sale of lacrosse equipment.

FLORENCE

The Right to Immigration Institute Inc., 589 Burtspit Road, Florence, MA 01062. Munis Safajous, 415 South St., Waltham, MA 02453. Non-profit organization designed to provide representation to aliens in immigration proceedings.

LEE

Yuvaram Inc., 435 Laurel St., Lee, MA 01238. Kara Steeger, same. Investment opportunities.

LONGMEADOW

Unchain America Inc., 47 Lynnwood Dr., Longmeadow, MA 01106. Robin Budon, same. Non-profit organization dedicated and operated as a dog rescue.

PITTSFIELD

ZAM808 Inc., 27 East Housatonic St., Pittsfield, MA 01201. Dan Talmi, same. Ballet touring company.

SPRINGFIELD

Urban Potential Corporation, 361 Sumner Ave., Springfield, MA 01108. Phyllis Williams-Thompson, 80 Bellevue Ave., Springfield, MA 01108. Non-profit organization which celebrates, enriches and supports urban life in the Greater Springfield area and promotes the joys of living in our city through education, the arts and community partnerships.

Bankruptcies Departments

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

Ashm Traders, LLC
Yusuf, Mushtaq Farid
1 Craigwood Terrace
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/28/16

Bertelli Realty Group, Inc.
160 Chapin Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Chapter: 11
Filing Date: 12/21/16

Birnbaum, Alan P.
PO Box 46
West Stockbridge, MA 01266
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/21/16

Borders, Betty Jean
95 Alden St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/28/16

Cortes, Eliezer
Cortes, Yasmin
224 Chapin Terrace
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/20/16

Cuene, Marlene Marie
115 Huckleberry Lane
Becket, MA 01223
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/28/16

Davis, Jimmie L.
118 Colton St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/22/16

Gahres, Sylvia A.
132 East Main St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/30/16

Goulas, Annmarie
135 Allen St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/27/16

Hutchinson, Kent Crosby
422 Palmer Road
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/29/16

Independence
Provost, Yvonne M.
11 Sullivan St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/29/16

Kawa, Dennis J.
125 Rivera Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/28/16

Kishinevski, Anatoly
37 Clark St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/19/16

LaPatin, Adam D.
LaPatin, Michelle B.
14 Hill Terrace
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/18/16

Loomer, Joshua Carl
194 Conant Road
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/20/16

Machado, Paul H.
Machado, Nicole R.
29 Ruggles St.
Three Rivers, MA 01080
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/20/16

Mailloux, Wayne Joseph
56 Riverside Dr.
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/20/16

Munroe, Michael J.
Farrell-Munroe, Anne M.
a/k/a Munroe, Anne N.
83 Alfred Dr.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/29/16

Nguyen, Maritza H.
81 Manor Court
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/18/16

Ok, Kork Vantha
44 Southpoint Dr., Apt. A
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/29/16

Ostrowski, Kristie A.
12 Allman Dr.
Chester, MA 01011
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/29/16

Perez, Jacqueline
84 Governor St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/20/16

Reid, Richard
U.S. Penitentiary
Inmate Mail/Parcels
Florence, CO 81226
Filing Date: 12/28/16

Rosa, Felipe
51 Strong Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/29/16

Roy, Wayne R.
Roy, Sandra J.
21 Walton St., 2nd Fl.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/29/16

Sendek, Cheryl Marie
37 Woodcrest Court
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/22/16

Sharpe, Graydon Kerry
23A Otis Ave.
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/22/16

Smith, Andrew J.
121 North Main, Apt. J8
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/22/16

Suzor, Louis P.
55 Fuller St
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/24/16

Talbot, Sheileen R.
603 Allen St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/27/16

Thomas, Lawrence E.
Thomas, Lorraine A.
28 Pidgeon Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/27/16

Trask, Laura Ann
a/k/a Callery, Laura Ann
13 Johnson Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/22/16

Tynan, David E.
88 Danforth Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/23/16

Urban, Gayle
74 Old Jarvis Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/28/16

Velazquez, Tatyana M.
96 Kirk Dr.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/22/16

Westbrooks, Ryan W.
276 Amherst Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/29/16

Zabik, Todd W.
Zabik, Rebecca S.
55 Boardman St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/30/16

Building Permits Departments

The following business permits were issued during the months of December 2016 and January 2017.

AGAWAM

Bay State Elevator
275 Silver St.
$60,000 — Demolish and reconstruct dividing walls, rework sprinkler system

O’Leary-Vincunas No. Two, LLC
200 Silver St.
$2,000 — Erect a dividing wall between reception area and nurses station in medical practice

CHICOPEE

Meadow Chicopee 425-521 LLC
425 Meadow St.
$35,000 — Remove section of concrete floor, pour concrete floor and walls for new pit

Bernard Richard Jr.
19 C Ames Ave.
$49,000 — Frame metal walls for gym area and bathroom

EASTHAMPTON

Keystone Enterprises
122 Pleasant St.
$900,000 — Interior buildout for medical-marijuana facility

Rainbow Properties
61-63 Garfield Ave.
$2,600 — Attic insulation and air sealing

EAST LONGMEADOW

Go Graphix
31 Benton Dr.
$205,000 — Addition

Town of East Longmeadow
60 Center Square
$15,000 — Convert hearing room

GREENFIELD

278-308 Main St. LLC
278 Main St.
$22,500 — Roofing

Community Action of the Franklin, Hampshire, and North Quabbin Regions Inc.
154 Federal St.
$29,775 — Bring bathroom up to ADA code, handicap ramp

Hangar of Greenfield
30 Federal St.
$27,000 — Enlarge opening to bathroom, remodel bar, make room ADA-compliant

Sander Greenfield LLC
367 Federal St.
$35,000 — Construct two new accessible bathrooms, front doors and windows, back egress door, infill old windows and doors

HADLEY

Pyramid Mall of Hadley Newco LLC
367 Russell St.
$125,000 — Repair roof

HAMPDEN

Bagel Nook
34 Somers Road
$6,000 — Renovate interior of kitchen

LONGMEADOW

Willie Ross School for the Deaf
32 Norway St.
$4,255 — Replace sign

LUDLOW

JL Massa Collision
287 Miller St.
$126,000 — Commercial addition

So Cool Gifts
345 Holyoke St.
$7,300 — Illuminated sign

NORTHAMPTON

Academy of Music
274 Main St.
$500 — Install temporary pressure-treated landing steps over deteriorated steps until Spring repairs

First Church of Christ, Scientist
46 Center St.
$1,000 — Install temporary rear-exit door for First Night activities

Om Bhavya Inc.
100 Main St.
$115,247 — Tenant fit-out of half the first floor

Smith College
25 College Lane
$1,350,000 — Interior alterations and addition to existing boathouse, including new HVAC, plumbing, windows, handicap ramp

T-Mobile Northeast LLC
170 Glendale Road
$15,000 — Install three antennas on existing tower

World War II Veterans Assoc. of Hampshire County Inc.
50 Conz St.
$54,908 — Water damage: repair wiring damage, re-insulate, drywall, reset appliances

PALMER

Sanderson MacLeod Inc.
1199 South Main St.
$17,000 — Renovate cafeteria

SOUTH HADLEY

Steven Duval
549-553 Newton St.
$438,500 — Construct commercial office building

Riverboat Village Assoc.
Riverboat Village Road
$22,975 — Re-roofing on Building 6

Riverboat Village Assoc.
Riverboat Village Road
$22,975 — Re-roofing on Building 13

Town of South Hadley
153 Newton St.
$195,000 — Renovate entrance of South Hadley High School

SPRINGFIELD

405 Armory St., LLC
405 Armory St.
$103,997 — Take down existing wall partitions, floor, ceiling finishes

City of Springfield
50 Empress Court
$1,419,313 — Install replacement windows and doors, make accessibility upgrades at Mary M. Walsh Elementary School

Five Town Station LLC
270 Cooley St.
$635,000 — Interior buildout of existing space into an IHOP restaurant

Newport 555 State Street LLC
555 State St.
$220,000 — Alter 9,200 square feet for new retail tenant, Dollar Tree

Hampden Homebuyers
1344 Allen St.
$12,500 — Roofing, siding, windows

Holy Trinity Church of God in Christ
57 Bay St.
$36,186 — Install footings and bearing wall, lift up sagging floor

Pioneer Valley Surgical Center
3500 Main St.
$4,050 — Flood cut eight walls due to sewage backup

Ronald McDonald House
34 Chapin Terrace
$67,700 — Renovate bathrooms to make them handicap-friendly, finish upgrades in four bedrooms

Springfield College
258 Middlesex St.
$1,500 — Build partition wall to add office space

WARE

Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield
59 South St.
$56,000 — Accessible entrance and accessible bathroom at St. Mary’s Church

VH West Brookfield
33 Gilbertville Road
$1,750,000 — Ground-mounted solar project

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Food Bag
884 Westfield St.
$85,000 — Store remodel

Eighty Congress Street LLC
900 Memorial Ave.
$25,365 — Remove sheetrock wall to enlarge room, other renovations

Sunny’s Convenience
2260 Westfield St.
$4206.88 — Installation of steel security gates

Heka Health
242 Interstate Dr.
$320,000 — Erect 15,000-square-foot steel manufactured building

ATC
1201 Westfield St.
$80,000 — Installation of six antennas on existing cell tower for Verizon Wireless

WILBRAHAM

911 Stony Hill Road LLC
911 Stony Hill Road
$2,500 — Re-roof back dormer

2342 LLC
2342 Boston Road
$40,000 — Re-roofing

Departments Real Estate

The following real estate transactions (latest available) were compiled by Banker & Tradesman and are published as they were received. Only transactions exceeding $115,000 are listed. Buyer and seller fields contain only the first name listed on the deed.

FRANKLIN COUNTY

ASHFIELD

204 Buckland Road
Ashfield, MA 01330
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Andrew A. Pasquale
Seller: Christine A. Barry
Date: 12/15/16

BERNARDSTON

102 Northfield Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Erin Bernard
Seller: Klem W. Croteau
Date: 12/16/16

BUCKLAND

23 Birch Road
Buckland, MA 01338
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Charles W. Chmura
Seller: Kay G. Herbert
Date: 12/20/16

43 Hog Hollow Road
Buckland, MA 01338
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Brian C. Rose
Seller: Christopher C. Rose
Date: 12/16/16

CHARLEMONT

159 Main St.
Charlemont, MA 01339
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Todd M. Gerry
Seller: John-Michael Properties
Date: 12/23/16

CONWAY

590 East Guinea Road
Conway, MA 01341
Amount: $149,900
Buyer: Michael A. Wickline
Seller: FNMA
Date: 12/12/16

198 Maple St.
Conway, MA 01341
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Heather A. Vickery
Seller: William Sheehan
Date: 12/13/16

DEERFIELD

83 Hillside Road
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $625,000
Buyer: Michael A. Matuszko
Seller: Patricia A. Wojcicki
Date: 12/15/16

15 Ward Ave.
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $219,000
Buyer: Philip J. May
Seller: Louise J. Harper
Date: 12/20/16

ERVING

21 French King Hwy.
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $167,000
Buyer: Casey M. Dyer
Seller: MHFA
Date: 12/20/16

GILL

13 French King Hwy.
Gill, MA 01354
Amount: $144,000
Buyer: James R. Bates
Seller: Dennis M. Goshea
Date: 12/23/16

GREENFIELD

1135 Bernardston Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $3,811,500
Buyer: Cube HHF Northeast MA LLC
Seller: Stiles Lake Investments 3
Date: 12/22/16

661 Bernardston Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Wheaton Mahoney
Seller: Paulin J. Bukowski RET
Date: 12/22/16

262 Federal St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Katherine A. Fish
Seller: Timothy C. Fish
Date: 12/22/16

9 Monroe Ave.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Sergiy P. Lyvytsky
Seller: Norman H. Schneider
Date: 12/12/16

13 Newell Court
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: John Gibson
Seller: Diane D. Peterson
Date: 12/20/16

271 Silver St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $309,021
Buyer: Bank Of America
Seller: Jason Stone
Date: 12/15/16

40 Vernon St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $162,500
Buyer: Kimberlee A. Clark
Seller: Edward F. McCaffrey
Date: 12/21/16

LEVERETT

88 Cave Hill Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Sarah A. Fletcher
Seller: Godfrey, Wallace E. Jr., (Estate)
Date: 12/21/16

HAWLEY

74 East Hawley Road
Hawley, MA 01339
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Marianne Lorenzen
Seller: Robert B. Caplan
Date: 12/16/16

LEYDEN

186 Glen Road
Leyden, MA 01301
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Sidney F. Herron
Seller: Samuel Lovejoy
Date: 12/15/16

MONTAGUE

88 Federal St.
Montague, MA 01349
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Jordan Zukowski
Seller: Corey A. Dyer
Date: 12/23/16

NEW SALEM

12 Jenne Horr Road
New Salem, MA 01355
Amount: $171,000
Buyer: Joseph P. Nawrocki
Seller: Pamela Bailey
Date: 12/16/16

NORTHFIELD

574 4 Mile Brook Road
Northfield, MA 01354
Amount: $258,500
Buyer: Jacob S. Balk
Seller: Harley L. Mullen
Date: 12/12/16

31 Fisher Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $435,000
Buyer: Rock Island Farms LLC
Seller: Rodger T. Gaglione
Date: 12/20/16

504 Mount Hermon Station Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Lane Construction Corp.
Seller: Joyce A. Roberts
Date: 12/13/16

ORANGE

15 Canon Lane
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $142,300
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Daniel Atwood
Date: 12/16/16

64 East Road
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $184,000
Buyer: Christy L. Page
Seller: Walter G. Owens
Date: 12/23/16

31 James Lane
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $136,000
Buyer: Derek Catrambone
Seller: Brandon R. Newell
Date: 12/16/16

40 Lake Mattawa Road
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $212,000
Buyer: Ryan Langen
Seller: Edward A. Holden
Date: 12/22/16

75 West River St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Nathaniel P. Bernard
Seller: Judith E. Lovell
Date: 12/23/16

SHELBURNE

97 Main St.
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $134,000
Buyer: Marjorie J. Winfrey
Seller: Diane M. Stacy
Date: 12/21/16

14-16 Maple St.
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $321,500
Buyer: Stacey Gemmill
Seller: Stachelczyk LT
Date: 12/22/16

31 Water St.
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $287,500
Buyer: Ann McCormack
Seller: Paul S. Moyer
Date: 12/20/16

SUNDERLAND

162 Hadley Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $299,000
Buyer: Marie Hudson
Seller: 162 Hadley Rd RT
Date: 12/16/16

121 Old Amherst Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Vincent Sarno
Seller: Albin Koblinski
Date: 12/19/16

8 South Main St.
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Kimberly W. Wissemann
Seller: Snicker, Gerald D., (Estate)
Date: 12/15/16

WHATELY

55 Egypt Road
Whately, MA 01093
Amount: $415,000
Buyer: Robert W. Driscoll
Seller: Michael A. Matuszko
Date: 12/15/16

297 Haydenville Road
Whately, MA 01093
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Virginia L. Cowles
Seller: Karen K. Murphy
Date: 12/16/16

15 River Road
Whately, MA 01093
Amount: $228,000
Buyer: Scott J. Matusiewicz
Seller: Kristyn M. Wood
Date: 12/16/16

11 Sugarloaf St. Ext
Whately, MA 01093
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Jacy R. Birdsong
Seller: Ronald W. Korza
Date: 12/12/16

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

21 Channell Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Richard A. Kroll
Seller: William A. Bessette
Date: 12/13/16

112 Farmington Circle
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: James J. Graham
Seller: Hillside Development Corp.
Date: 12/23/16

84 Forest Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $171,200
Buyer: Alexandra M. Bonavita
Seller: USA HUD
Date: 12/22/16

1046 North St. Ext
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $355,500
Buyer: Joseph J. Halpy
Seller: James J. Graham
Date: 12/22/16

42 Reed St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $203,900
Buyer: Cindy L. White
Seller: Anthony J. Grillo
Date: 12/13/16

64 Silver St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Anthony J. Rose
Seller: Robert S. Brock
Date: 12/12/16

34 Simpson Circle
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: John W. Weed
Seller: Nicole M. Baginski
Date: 12/19/16

36 Spring St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Lucas J. Giusto
Seller: Duane Asta-Ferrero
Date: 12/16/16

37 Sterling Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $180,250
Buyer: Amanda Arbelaez
Seller: Gina L. Rogers
Date: 12/19/16

172 Suffield St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $226,000
Buyer: Shirley A. Midura
Seller: Xhemail Ahmeti
Date: 12/23/16

BLANDFORD

105 Otis Stage Road
Blandford, MA 01008
Amount: $144,900
Buyer: Nicholas L. McCaul
Seller: John S. Carrington
Date: 12/14/16

16 Woronoco Road
Blandford, MA 01008
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Jonathan Jacque
Seller: Marcia Yost
Date: 12/14/16

BRIMFIELD

43 6th St.
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Deborah C. McKinstry
Seller: Robert J. Lamontagne
Date: 12/15/16

96 Cubles Dr.
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Michelle Gebo
Seller: Raymond M. Hapcook
Date: 12/16/16

15 Mill Lane
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $183,000
Buyer: Andrew J. Rasys
Seller: Ann F. Howell
Date: 12/23/16

27 Sturbridge Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Daniel Morean
Seller: Rusty J. Corriveau
Date: 12/23/16

CHICOPEE

34 Beverly St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Rimor Properties LLC
Seller: Daviau, Eva D., (Estate)
Date: 12/12/16

23 Bonneville Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Danielle Stratton
Seller: Garvin C. Headley
Date: 12/20/16

370 Broadway St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $233,000
Buyer: Linda M. Ledbury
Seller: Thomas J. Malek
Date: 12/16/16

657 Burnett Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $139,500
Buyer: Matthew Hartmann
Seller: Denn, Richard E., (Estate)
Date: 12/14/16

126 Chapel St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Jillian M. Laliberte
Seller: Priscilla R. Fleury
Date: 12/19/16

43 Chapin St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $212,400
Buyer: Keith J. Bedard
Seller: Jennifer A. Scaringi
Date: 12/16/16

470 Chicopee St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Tergan NT
Seller: Max T. Bobala
Date: 12/20/16

64 Dixie Terrace
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Melvin Irizarry
Seller: Loraine E. Pothier
Date: 12/13/16

1531 Donohue Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Lynn Koontz
Seller: Kevin J. Lamothe
Date: 12/13/16

101 Fairview Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: William M. Parker
Seller: Elie Makhoul
Date: 12/22/16

116 Garland St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $251,000
Buyer: Jeanne Fredette
Seller: Ruth A. Montcalm
Date: 12/13/16

401 Irene St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $213,000
Buyer: Mert E. Basarir
Seller: James D. Piantoni
Date: 12/19/16

47 James St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $176,000
Buyer: Raul Mota-Rodriguez
Seller: Daniel J. Garnett
Date: 12/12/16

39 Labelle Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Guidewire Inc.
Seller: Elizabeth A. Cote
Date: 12/19/16

82 Lafayette St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $209,900
Buyer: Cassie Freeman
Seller: John L. McDonald
Date: 12/23/16

125 Langevin St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Lori A. Myslinski
Seller: Lillian B. Kennedy
Date: 12/22/16

264 Mandalay Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $232,900
Buyer: Tiffini Christy
Seller: Robert Rojowski
Date: 12/16/16

97 Mary St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Samuel E. Hicks
Seller: Donald L. Patenaude
Date: 12/15/16

28 Palmer Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Kelly Candon
Seller: Richard S. Stefanik
Date: 12/15/16

20 Parker St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $184,000
Buyer: Brett J. Proctor
Seller: Herminio Delgado
Date: 12/12/16

725 Pendleton Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $570,000
Buyer: Waycon Inc.
Seller: Cong Rodphey Sholom
Date: 12/15/16

25 Quebec St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Kimberly A. Kapinos
Seller: Keem LLC
Date: 12/14/16

105 Stebbins St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $182,500
Buyer: Eric J. Morin
Seller: Marco Scibelli
Date: 12/23/16

39 Westport Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $253,650
Buyer: John L. McDonald
Seller: Western Mass Properties
Date: 12/16/16

62 Willwood St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Leeanne E. Orluk
Seller: Kenneth J. Athas
Date: 12/16/16

EAST LONGMEADOW

49 Capri Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $641,919
Buyer: 49 Capri LLC
Seller: Kent Pecoy & Sons Construction
Date: 12/16/16

Capri Dr. #26
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $149,900
Buyer: Kent Pecoy & Sons Construction
Seller: Bella Vista Land Holdings
Date: 12/13/16

156 Hampden Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: C&M Builders LLC
Seller: Tammy J. Nimmo
Date: 12/20/16

50 Harkness Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $249,590
Buyer: Bank Of America
Seller: Thomas K. Brown
Date: 12/16/16

20 Pecousic Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Steve Berkovich
Seller: Liam R. Jones
Date: 12/22/16

21 Redstone Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $159,600
Buyer: Andrew Michaels
Seller: USA HUD
Date: 12/19/16

43 Schuyler Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Daniel Konieczka
Seller: Dennis P. Donahue
Date: 12/19/16

515 Shaker Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $625,000
Buyer: Secure Energy Realty LLC
Seller: Biolitec Inc.
Date: 12/21/16

13 Silver Fox Lane
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $495,000
Buyer: Daniel F. Duggan
Seller: C&M Builders LLC
Date: 12/20/16

142 Westwood Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Kyle A. Sonoda
Seller: Denault, Martha A., (Estate)
Date: 12/21/16

GRANVILLE

557 Beech Hill Road
Granville, MA 01034
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: David Bedford
Seller: Jon A. Sandman
Date: 12/16/16

HAMPDEN

9 Mohawk Dr.
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Maria Carvalho
Seller: Wilmington Savings
Date: 12/22/16

HOLLAND

9 Joanie Lane
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $268,000
Buyer: Nova Crevier
Seller: Patrick Ryan
Date: 12/16/16

31 Lakeshore Dr.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Jayson D. Wilbur
Seller: William Cromack
Date: 12/16/16

58 Leno Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $208,250
Buyer: Country Bank For Savings
Seller: Steven M. Lamica
Date: 12/13/16

37 Polly Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $415,000
Buyer: Patrick Ryan
Seller: Real J. Poirier
Date: 12/16/16

166-B Stafford Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $238,000
Buyer: Nathan R. Trombley
Seller: Carl Johnson
Date: 12/19/16

245 Stafford Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $263,500
Buyer: Carl Johnson
Seller: Janet M. Reed
Date: 12/19/16

HOLYOKE

8 Bray Park Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $119,429
Buyer: Andrew I. Cote
Seller: US Bank
Date: 12/16/16

26 Coit St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $164,900
Buyer: Yarelis Cartagena-Perez
Seller: Jeffrey S. Viviano
Date: 12/15/16

5-7 Corser St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Behnam Roohi
Seller: John T. Dean
Date: 12/16/16

76 Dartmouth St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $233,500
Buyer: Joseph P. Hudson
Seller: Constance M. Tague
Date: 12/16/16

23 Dicsal Lane
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $425,900
Buyer: Kerry B. Dumbaugh
Seller: Linda L. Porten
Date: 12/19/16

47 Hampton Knolls Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $142,000
Buyer: Olmstead RT
Seller: Bank New York Mellon
Date: 12/22/16

47 Hampton Knolls Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $166,400
Buyer: Bank New York Mellon
Seller: J. Henry Pangborn
Date: 12/14/16

45 Longwood Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Jorge I. Alvarez
Seller: Carol E. Lesperance
Date: 12/23/16

1070 Northampton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Dakota J. Hebert
Seller: Mark Alexander
Date: 12/20/16

382 Pleasant St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $136,000
Buyer: F. Samantha Hemmingsen
Seller: Jonathan W. Phillips
Date: 12/23/16

43-45 Portland St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $224,000
Buyer: Andrew Holl
Seller: AVET RT
Date: 12/14/16

3 Shawmut Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $144,900
Buyer: Nelson Lopez
Seller: Binczewski, Walter, (Estate)
Date: 12/20/16

20 Sterling Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Kathleen Cavanaugh
Seller: Suzanne Drentlaw
Date: 12/23/16

60 West Glen St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: David Roman
Seller: Donald J. Blanchard
Date: 12/14/16

LONGMEADOW

103 Crescent Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Matthew Desmarais
Seller: Todd M. Volk
Date: 12/23/16

194 Deepwoods Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $485,000
Buyer: Lawrence Ault
Seller: W. Lowell Putnam
Date: 12/15/16

16 Edson St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $264,900
Buyer: Luke A. Charles
Seller: Andrew J. Stevens
Date: 12/16/16

73 Falmouth Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: James B. Punderson
Seller: National Property Services
Date: 12/15/16

339 Frank Smith Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $261,000
Buyer: Francesco Ferrentino
Seller: Gerald E. Sheldon
Date: 12/15/16

410 Frank Smith Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $244,900
Buyer: Majid Mehmood
Seller: Selma M. Greene
Date: 12/22/16

1215 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Brandon W. Stepp
Seller: Nikolas Andreopoulos
Date: 12/19/16

106 Longview Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Kathleen Phelps
Seller: Lynn L. Harvey
Date: 12/22/16

955 Maple Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $226,000
Buyer: Steven G. Richter
Seller: Stanley S. & S. E. Goldaper TR
Date: 12/16/16

141 Pleasantview Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Richard F. Belloff
Seller: Armand A. Souliere
Date: 12/14/16

180 Rugby Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $700,361
Buyer: Timothy G. Egan
Seller: John J. Egan
Date: 12/22/16

37 South Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $185,950
Buyer: Jaime F. Cabezas
Seller: Gary R. Provencher
Date: 12/12/16

62 Stirling St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Andrew J. Stevens
Seller: Leigh-Ann Price
Date: 12/16/16

83 Stirling St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $327,000
Buyer: Kevin M. Labutta
Seller: Lawrence J. Ault
Date: 12/14/16

34 Tennyson Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $750,000
Buyer: Laura C. Murphy
Seller: Stacy Barkoff
Date: 12/23/16

78 Wimbleton Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $389,900
Buyer: Marc L. Arbour
Seller: Ali Ozan-Koseoglu
Date: 12/16/16

568 Wolf Swamp Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $730,000
Buyer: Jennifer A. Buentello
Seller: Debra L. Purrington
Date: 12/15/16

LUDLOW

167 Chapin St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Joseph Mosher
Seller: Edward L. Mari
Date: 12/22/16

32 Daisy Lane
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Helder Pires
Seller: Arthur Pires
Date: 12/12/16

29 Deer Hill Circle
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $465,000
Buyer: Francisco L. Estrada
Seller: Arlindo Alves
Date: 12/16/16

631 East St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $119,000
Buyer: Grace Dias
Seller: US Bank
Date: 12/16/16

724 Fuller St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Chris Makusiewicz
Seller: Donald P. Bonzek
Date: 12/19/16

Lyon St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Joseph M. Ribeiro
Seller: Grabowski, Antoni F., (Estate)
Date: 12/15/16

Mariana Way #7
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Artur Pires
Seller: M&G Investors LLC
Date: 12/16/16

38 Michael St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $124,000
Buyer: Jimmy Rodrigues
Seller: Bank Of America
Date: 12/22/16

205 Parker Lane
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $511,200
Buyer: Ian D. Premo
Seller: Tuukakorp LLC
Date: 12/12/16

604 Poole St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $187,500
Buyer: James A. Lemieux
Seller: Edward A. Lemieux
Date: 12/15/16

MONSON

107 Bogan Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Jennifer B. Herrick
Seller: Adam Hageman
Date: 12/19/16

222 Bumstead Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Sean P. Mulcahy
Seller: Jonathan A. Wietecha
Date: 12/15/16

143 Butler Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Eldi A. Nissenbaum
Seller: Ian S. Emery
Date: 12/16/16

78 Butler Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Nicholas W. Turnberg
Seller: Smith, Donald E. Jr, (Estate)
Date: 12/16/16

PALMER

143 Breckenridge St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Jeffrey D. Staiti
Seller: Valerie J. Joyce-Heffner
Date: 12/14/16

168 Gates St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $268,500
Buyer: Ian S. Emery
Seller: Joseph J. Nietupski
Date: 12/16/16

2178-2184 Main St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $277,000
Buyer: Robert J. Carrison
Seller: Robert S. Dupuis
Date: 12/21/16

863 Ware St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $1,580,000
Buyer: Palmer Paving Corp
Seller: Harris Holdings LLC
Date: 12/15/16

SOUTHWICK

109 Congamond Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $327,000
Buyer: 109 Traveltown LLC
Seller: David B. Spillane
Date: 12/14/16

9 Ed Holcomb Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Morgan K. Ireland
Seller: Steven J. Picard
Date: 12/16/16

26 Laurel Ridge Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: Nicole E. Apostle
Seller: US Bank
Date: 12/12/16

7 Reservoir Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $350,100
Buyer: Miroslav Tkach
Seller: USA HUD
Date: 12/16/16

174 South Loomis St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Kimberly Grunwald
Seller: Brian J. Morrissey
Date: 12/12/16

17 White St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $136,000
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Karl R. Saunders
Date: 12/16/16

SPRINGFIELD

36-38 Acorn St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

479 Allen St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Latoya Monroe
Seller: Greater Springfield Habitat
Date: 12/16/16

306 Arnold Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Maritza Rivera
Seller: Mark H. Smith
Date: 12/22/16

1208 Berkshire Ave.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $116,000
Buyer: John A. VonRoemer
Seller: Teri A. Lee
Date: 12/19/16

1340 Boston Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $1,133,550
Buyer: Boston Road & Pasco RT 20
Seller: East Street & Boston Road LLC
Date: 12/16/16

77 Bowles St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Silverio A. Tavarez
Seller: Legacy Property Investment
Date: 12/14/16

Cadwell Dr.
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Lomoc LLC
Seller: O’Day Cadwell LLC
Date: 12/19/16

109 Cambridge St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

118-120 Cambridge St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

122 Cambridge St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

19 Cambridge St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

44 Cambridge St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

99-101 Cambridge St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

26 Cherokee Dr.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $144,900
Buyer: Jenara Burgos
Seller: Chad A. McLeod
Date: 12/12/16

22 Cherrelyn St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Alexander Anaya
Seller: James W. Fiore
Date: 12/12/16

125 Clement St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $188,500
Buyer: Jessica E. Lopez
Seller: Anthony Nguyen
Date: 12/19/16

162-164 College St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

167-169 College St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

170-172 College St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

177-179 College St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

178-180 College St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

185-187 College St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

193 College St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

195 College St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

255-257 College St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

19-21 Dawes St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

43 Dawes St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

45 Dawes St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

49 Dawes St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

74 Dawes St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

1777 Dwight St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $875,000
Buyer: Smails LLC
Seller: Murray & Glynn LLC
Date: 12/23/16

58 Grandview St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $158,000
Buyer: Rebecca A. Jones
Seller: Gary Kelley
Date: 12/20/16

100 Harmon Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Christopher S. Flack
Seller: Patrick D. Murphy
Date: 12/23/16

67 Hazen St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Claire A. Dye
Seller: Paul S. Palmer
Date: 12/22/16

36 Holly Hill Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $149,000
Buyer: Gillian O. Archer
Seller: Thomas G. Gennette
Date: 12/12/16

25 Huntington St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $119,000
Buyer: Jordan P. Healy
Seller: Luis Dejesus
Date: 12/23/16

35 Jean Dr.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $124,900
Buyer: Kimberly A. Kusmierczak
Seller: Frank J. Bauer
Date: 12/22/16

95 Kensington Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Damian A. Gawle
Seller: Homer J. Foucher
Date: 12/23/16

43 Hudson St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $117,810
Buyer: Wilmington Savings
Seller: James Chifay
Date: 12/12/16

101-103 Kenyon St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

17 Kenyon St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

25-27 Kenyon St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

31-33 Kenyon St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

39-41 Kenyon St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

49-51 Kenyon St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

55-57 Kenyon St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

66-68 Kenyon St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

9 Kenyon St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

153 King St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $165,900
Buyer: Yaritza I. Amaro-Pena
Seller: Maritza Rivera
Date: 12/22/16

Main St. (WS)
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: New England Farm Workers
Seller: Neil Wong
Date: 12/23/16

17 Mary Coburn Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Oushane O. Lewis
Seller: Michael P. Sico
Date: 12/16/16

86-88 Maynard St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

88 Mildred Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Living Stone LLC
Seller: Living Stone LLC
Date: 12/23/16

10 Morison Terrace
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Christian D. Levy
Seller: Kathleen J. Goltz
Date: 12/21/16

100 Narragansett St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $175,500
Buyer: Isabel Rijo Dela Rosa
Seller: AAD LLC
Date: 12/12/16

747 North Branch Pkwy.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $116,500
Buyer: North Harlow 4 LLC
Seller: Bank New York Mellon
Date: 12/22/16

225 Oak Grove Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

75 Parker St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $126,600
Buyer: Pierre J. Saintilus
Seller: Michael J. Chmura
Date: 12/22/16

122-124 Parker St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $194,000
Buyer: Juan Rivera
Seller: Tomasz Swiech
Date: 12/16/16

253 Pasco Road
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $1,135,000
Buyer: Reliance Associates LLC
Seller: Sahara LLC
Date: 12/16/16

45-47 Ranney St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Shannon M. Mann
Seller: Alex Adorno
Date: 12/23/16

18 Santa Barbara St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $129,000
Buyer: Lisandra Lopez
Seller: Fancy Living LLC
Date: 12/19/16

44 Schley St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $134,900
Buyer: Tammy M. Billings-Rankin
Seller: James W. Fiore
Date: 12/14/16

32-34 Shattuck St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

36 Shattuck St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,260,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: BH Kenyon LLC
Date: 12/15/16

66-68 Shattuck St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

69 Shattuck St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $1,940,000
Buyer: BH EHT 1 LLC
Seller: Neighborhood Homes LP
Date: 12/15/16

1385 South Branch Pkwy.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Charles E. Tremble
Seller: James L. Lobik
Date: 12/21/16

386 Stapleton Road
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Jodi S. Rodriguez
Seller: Melro Associates Inc.
Date: 12/12/16

33 Strong St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $146,000
Buyer: Sonia I. Aponte
Seller: Liam P. Hayes
Date: 12/14/16

26 Stuart St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $128,500
Buyer: Nancy Marrero
Seller: Joseph C. Basile
Date: 12/16/16

93 Stuart St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $143,500
Buyer: Jessica Soto-Alvarado
Seller: MTGLQ Investors LP
Date: 12/22/16

456 Sumner Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $1,600,000
Buyer: Persam Springfield LLC
Seller: G. F. Enterprise 2 LLC
Date: 12/20/16

363 Sunrise Terrace
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $139,000
Buyer: Pete Bernal
Seller: Lawrence O’Sullivan
Date: 12/21/16

86 West Allen Ridge Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Sarah E. Sherry
Seller: James Niedbala
Date: 12/16/16

151 West Alvord St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Gregory E. Brown
Seller: Marcus Earley
Date: 12/15/16

121 West Crystal Brook Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $156,000
Buyer: Daniel E. Dwarska
Seller: Donna M. Sisitsky
Date: 12/21/16

94-96 Wallace St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $149,867
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Jason Medeiros
Date: 12/20/16

38 Washington Road
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Elvis Leiva
Seller: Carolyn Fisher
Date: 12/21/16

122 Wayne St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $117,900
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Derek S. Chatman
Date: 12/22/16

110 Wheeler Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $191,000
Buyer: Brandon Chase
Seller: Barbara L. Johnson-Wiley
Date: 12/22/16

167 Woodcrest Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: William Younes
Seller: James J. Bregianes
Date: 12/20/16

TOLLAND

60 Forest Road
Tolland, MA 01010
Amount: $166,000
Buyer: Robert S. Tonino
Seller: Nanette Tummers
Date: 12/20/16

16 Lakeside Dr.
Tolland, MA 01034
Amount: $199,000
Buyer: Christopher Eley
Seller: David E. Koerber
Date: 12/16/16

WALES

6 Lake Shore Dr.
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $124,900
Buyer: Bettina Nadeau
Seller: Gary J. Langlois
Date: 12/15/16

87 Monson Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $154,000
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Ronald M. Rizzo
Date: 12/12/16

3 Reed Hill Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $156,480
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Manuel Suarez
Date: 12/16/16

WEST SPRINGFIELD

111 Beacon Hill Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Genevieve M. Broderick
Seller: Daniel J. McCarthy
Date: 12/15/16

43 Bonair Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: William J. Fitzsimmons
Seller: Cindy L. Daigle
Date: 12/21/16

117 Bridle Path Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $197,000
Buyer: James Labranche
Seller: Gary B. Liquori
Date: 12/13/16

40 Churchill Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $224,500
Buyer: William E. Cicia
Seller: Sarah M. Greenway
Date: 12/20/16

88 Lancaster Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $150,685
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: James J. Cremonti
Date: 12/22/16

412 Massachusetts Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $182,000
Buyer: Joseph V. Vitorino
Seller: Luke A. Charles
Date: 12/16/16

43 Rockland Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Elena M. Dore
Seller: William M. Gray
Date: 12/16/16

1155 Piper Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Hector L. Lopez
Seller: Stephen J. Wyzga
Date: 12/20/16

29 Van Horn St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Brian J. Sears
Seller: Michael Grandfield
Date: 12/20/16

204 Wayside Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Norman Petit
Seller: Michael R. Girard
Date: 12/12/16

82 Westwood Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $236,000
Buyer: Edvard Kolak
Seller: Joseph J. Halpy
Date: 12/22/16

WESTFIELD

17 Carriage Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $293,000
Buyer: Carlos W. Dejesus
Seller: Allen P. Maloney
Date: 12/16/16

20 Chestnut St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Andrei Litvac
Seller: FNMA
Date: 12/19/16

11 Dickens Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $293,550
Buyer: Randall D. Smyth
Seller: Christopher M. Dolan
Date: 12/16/16

67 East Glen Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $284,000
Buyer: Traci M. Hebert
Seller: Raisa Gelmudinov
Date: 12/16/16

1511 East Mountain Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $375,500
Buyer: Raymond L. Wellspeak
Seller: Antonio Capua
Date: 12/16/16

182 Falley Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $267,000
Buyer: Joanne L. Bigelow
Seller: Frisbie, Sheila R., (Estate)
Date: 12/21/16

85 Feeding Hills Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $248,000
Buyer: Steven M. Peabody
Seller: John W. Wilson
Date: 12/15/16

6 Franklin Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $174,000
Buyer: Michael R. Knowlton
Seller: John M. Alamed
Date: 12/19/16

44 George St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $132,500
Buyer: Tatyana Belyakova
Seller: Richard Baetens
Date: 12/20/16

28 Green Pine Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $239,500
Buyer: Rafal P. Janusz
Seller: Benjamin J. Leclair
Date: 12/16/16

12 Laro Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $204,000
Buyer: Jennifer L. Ciepiela
Seller: Lorelei A. Schmidt
Date: 12/16/16

2 Linden Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $156,000
Buyer: Jamin Fuller
Seller: Susan M. Bloomrose
Date: 12/20/16

154 Little River Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $179,000
Buyer: Timothy J. Grady
Seller: Tyler D. West
Date: 12/23/16

33 Magnolia Terrace
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Richard G. Labrie
Seller: Diane Reardon
Date: 12/13/16

29 Otis St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Yuriy Chemeris
Seller: Glenn W. Juvinall
Date: 12/20/16

274 Paper Mill Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $232,000
Buyer: David J. Root
Seller: Norwich Properties LLC
Date: 12/16/16

6 Rider Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $193,000
Buyer: Jeannette F. Pierce
Seller: Todd A. Duso
Date: 12/21/16

81 Roosevelt Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $136,320
Buyer: Bank Of America
Seller: Kelli L. Hubbard
Date: 12/16/16

10 South Maple St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $199,000
Buyer: Jeremiah C. Vazquez
Seller: Richard Harty
Date: 12/12/16

1091 Shaker Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $219,000
Buyer: Dominick L. Uguccioni
Seller: Michael J. Barnes
Date: 12/16/16

17 State St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Valentina Druzhkova
Seller: Susana M. Pettus
Date: 12/16/16

28 Summit Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $158,000
Buyer: Eric J. Metivier
Seller: Robert J. Sabonis
Date: 12/16/16

7 Tow Path Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $238,900
Buyer: Brian E. Valezquez
Seller: Anthony Ford
Date: 12/22/16

618 West Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Allan A. Young
Seller: Keena L. Ashford
Date: 12/23/16

112 White St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Proud Properties LLC
Seller: Alan J. Bielunis
Date: 12/15/16

WILBRAHAM

14 Arbor Lane
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $216,120
Buyer: Shawn M. Summers
Seller: Edgar W. Darling
Date: 12/22/16

8 Decorie Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $152,400
Buyer: Joseph P. Saimeri
Seller: Kenneth S. Korhonen
Date: 12/14/16

34 Decorie Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: William J. Kern
Seller: Dorothy J. Leblanc
Date: 12/23/16

684 Ridge Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Dana Gahres
Seller: Monson Savings Bank
Date: 12/16/16

112 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $174,999
Buyer: Elizabeth Krauza
Seller: Cecilia A. Sousa
Date: 12/16/16

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

77 Cottage St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Alan P. StHilaire
Seller: Walter B. Bruce RET
Date: 12/20/16

180 East Leverett Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $433,665
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Kanokwan Chaimongkol
Date: 12/22/16

East Leverett Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Town Of Amherst
Seller: Sandra L. Stosz
Date: 12/21/16

28 Farmington Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $239,250
Buyer: Dorje Romito
Seller: Valerie K. Hood
Date: 12/19/16

101 Farmington Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $356,000
Buyer: Robert P. Chalif
Seller: Marilyn J. Dyer
Date: 12/12/16

Hawthorn Road #43A
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Deborah Mack
Seller: Tofino Associates LLC
Date: 12/15/16

85 Mount Holyoke Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $349,900
Buyer: Adam M. Fox
Seller: Kaye E. Dougan
Date: 12/15/16

BELCHERTOWN

53 Amherst Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $306,000
Buyer: Nicholas J. Smetana
Seller: Robert B. Martin
Date: 12/22/16

741 Daniel Shays Hwy.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Troy M. McLaughlin
Seller: Charles G. Nothe
Date: 12/22/16

181 Franklin St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: Jessica M. Daly
Seller: Barbara E. White
Date: 12/19/16

43 Main St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Alden Pond Properties LLC
Seller: R. Douglas Reynolds
Date: 12/20/16

169 Munsell St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $392,500
Buyer: Michael P. Jasinski
Seller: Filip Z. Muszynski
Date: 12/23/16

26 Pondview Circle
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $347,500
Buyer: Anastasia Seager
Seller: Tara M. Orzolek
Date: 12/15/16

147 Shea Ave.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Gary M. Martins
Seller: Meredith FT
Date: 12/16/16

81 Sheffield Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: David Biancamano
Seller: Dennis H. Connor
Date: 12/23/16

166 South Washington St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $308,000
Buyer: James D. Piantoni
Seller: Walter M. Kozlowski
Date: 12/19/16

35 Summit St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $155,536
Buyer: FHLM
Seller: Edward W. Martell
Date: 12/19/16

163 Summit St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $359,654
Buyer: Merrimack Mortgage Co. LLC
Seller: Kevin S. O’Fallon
Date: 12/12/16

73 Turkey Hill Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $179,900
Buyer: Morgan H. Lavalle
Seller: William Geer
Date: 12/23/16

CUMMINGTON

335 Berkshire Trail
Cummington, MA 01026
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Gregor B. Prentice
Seller: Alexander S. Risk
Date: 12/12/16

EASTHAMPTON

11-13 Boylston St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Kevin Netto
Seller: Lisa J. Brusco
Date: 12/23/16

1 Fox Run
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $392,000
Buyer: Sonia Bergmann
Seller: David A. Hardy Contractor
Date: 12/22/16

23 Oliver St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Matthew Chieffo
Seller: Marcia S. M. Funk IRT
Date: 12/12/16

31 Paul St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $390,000
Buyer: Amy Christenson
Seller: David Garstka Builders
Date: 12/14/16

GRANBY

9 Greystone Ave.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $233,000
Buyer: Lilin Tseng
Seller: Gary S. Toth
Date: 12/23/16

4 Ridge Path
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Ryan S. Merrill
Seller: Susan Nieuwpoort
Date: 12/23/16

187 West St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Nicholas Dente
Seller: Christine J. Proulx
Date: 12/23/16

HADLEY

102 Rocky Hill Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $258,000
Buyer: Timothy Edgcumbe-Ford
Seller: Sonny J. Cirincione
Date: 12/22/16

HATFIELD

176 Main St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $395,000
Buyer: Lorelei A. Schmidt
Seller: Larry E. Williams
Date: 12/16/16

343 West St.
Hatfield, MA 01066
Amount: $233,500
Buyer: Gregory Papageorge
Seller: Michael D. Sucharzewski
Date: 12/15/16

HUNTINGTON

13 East Main St.
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $152,000
Buyer: Farrah M. Holmes
Seller: Artur Muszynski
Date: 12/16/16

14 Kennedy Dr.
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $286,000
Buyer: Daniel S. Fennessey
Seller: Maureen Lucey
Date: 12/23/16

NORTHAMPTON

2 Beaver Brook Loop
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $132,000
Buyer: John B. Carmody
Seller: Beaver Brook NT
Date: 12/20/16

301 Coles Meadow Road
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $142,500
Buyer: Richard C. Bishop
Seller: FNMA
Date: 12/19/16

22 Hancock St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $392,000
Buyer: Daniel P. Guidera
Seller: Emery A. Conz
Date: 12/15/16

17 Holly Court
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Matthew A. Motamedi
Seller: Hall, John F., (Estate)
Date: 12/13/16

19 Langworthy Road
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $702,500
Buyer: James M. Morrill
Seller: Stuart R. Mieher
Date: 12/13/16

35 Laurel Park
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Dennis Tarpey
Seller: Lynda E. Holliday
Date: 12/15/16

47 Laurel Park
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $181,500
Buyer: Dale M. Schmidt
Seller: Joseph P. Hudson
Date: 12/16/16

16 Mann Terrace
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $315,500
Buyer: Lynn Mikolajczak
Seller: Rainbow Properties LLC
Date: 12/12/16

691 Park Hill Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $515,000
Buyer: David Perkins
Seller: Robert W. Driscoll
Date: 12/15/16

236 Pleasant St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Vikram Budhraja
Seller: Crossover Properties LLC
Date: 12/20/16

179 Prospect Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Michael D. Houle
Seller: Alice M. Morini
Date: 12/19/16

4 School St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $373,000
Buyer: Laurent C. Levy
Seller: Arlene Castelli
Date: 12/15/16

315 Sylvester Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $247,000
Buyer: PHH Mortgage Corp.
Seller: Alexander Grevior
Date: 12/12/16

34 Westwood Terrace
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $154,000
Buyer: Shannon E. Santangelo
Seller: Malley, Ruth C., (Estate)
Date: 12/19/16

PELHAM

147 Packardville Road
Pelham, MA 01002
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Almadan Inc.
Seller: Universal Structures
Date: 12/20/16

PLAINFIELD

West St.
Plainfield, MA 01070
Amount: $117,500
Buyer: Mary O’Brien
Seller: John E. Figari
Date: 12/21/16

752 West Main St.
Plainfield, MA 01070
Amount: $390,000
Buyer: Stephen A. Bzomowski
Seller: Paul R. Fuhrman
Date: 12/16/16

SOUTH HADLEY

17 Carlton St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $209,900
Buyer: Charles W. Brock
Seller: Custom Homes Development Group
Date: 12/22/16

23 Columbia St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $208,950
Buyer: Kye E. Poronsky
Seller: Michael Daly
Date: 12/23/16

18 Country Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Michael J. Evans
Seller: David L. Morrissette
Date: 12/16/16

1 Hillside Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Heidi Rademacher
Seller: John P. Hardman
Date: 12/21/16

44 Hillside Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Vitaliy Andriychuk
Seller: Deutsche Bank
Date: 12/21/16

44 Lamb St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $182,000
Buyer: Michael F. Lenart
Seller: Isam O. Abdalla
Date: 12/23/16

17 McKinley Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $199,900
Buyer: Amanda L. Dzialo
Seller: Donna Gajewski-Zatowski
Date: 12/23/16

3 Normandy Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: Nicole P. Saenz
Seller: John A. Magri
Date: 12/19/16

59 Westbrook Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $178,000
Buyer: Brittany Josephson
Seller: Byrnes, Doris L., (Estate)
Date: 12/14/16

SOUTHAMPTON

31 Crooked Ledge Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Matthew N. Sarafin
Seller: Jean B. Peret
Date: 12/20/16

17 Rattle Hill Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Francois Y. Turgeon
Seller: Robert Fondakowski
Date: 12/14/16

117 Russellville Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $179,900
Buyer: Jacob J. Belanger
Seller: Keith R. White
Date: 12/15/16

Woodmar Lane
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Stephen Carrere
Seller: Chester J. Kellogg
Date: 12/22/16

WARE

437 Belchertown Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: James R. Kaczuwka
Seller: David E. Cote
Date: 12/15/16

30 Cherry St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $127,000
Buyer: Cynthia E. Howe
Seller: May, Wanda L., (Estate)
Date: 12/23/16

79 Eagle St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Ronald W. Gresty
Seller: Deutsche Bank
Date: 12/16/16

16 Eddy St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: David G. Gambino
Seller: Cynthia Provencher-Howe
Date: 12/22/16

7 Gould Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $132,000
Buyer: Arthur Bechard
Seller: Melvin R. Mayo
Date: 12/21/16

29 Mountainview Dr.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $122,500
Buyer: Timothy Leckie
Seller: Maynard, Floyd R., (Estate)
Date: 12/21/16

7 School St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $136,000
Buyer: David S. King
Seller: Steven P. Sullivan
Date: 12/16/16

Class of 2017 Difference Makers

Steady Course

The Community Colleges of Western Massachusetts

Berkshire Community College, Greenfield Community College,
Holyoke Community College, and Springfield Technical Community College

The region’s community-college presidents

The region’s community-college presidents, from left, Bob Pura, Ellen Kennedy, John Cook, and Christina Royal.

Jeff Hayden had spent more than an hour talking about the critical roles played by community colleges in this region — while also listening to colleagues do the same — and desired to put an exclamation point of sorts on matters with a story about a woman whose case he had come to know first-hand.

She was about to earn a certificate of completion in a specific field from Holyoke Community College (HCC), and had a job interview set for the following week. She still had considerable ground to cover in terms of starting and then forging a new career, but she had a new-found confidence and sense of purpose, and wanted to let HCC officials know that — and know why.

“She said, ‘I’ve been out of work for almost five years; I thought I wasn’t worth anything, I didn’t think I could do anything, and my kids thought I could never do anything,’” Hayden, vice president of Business and Community Services at the school, told BusinessWest. “She went on, ‘the opportunity you’ve given us through this program is something that has not only changed my life, but changed my children’s lives as well.’

“Frankly, those of us at the region’s community colleges hear those stories often, which is great, and it’s a feel-good kind of thing,” Hayden went on. “But it’s one story at a time, and with the power of the four institutions here, it’s thousands of stories a year that happen in our region, where people are changed, and hopefully changed in a way that helps them with their family and with their career.”

Jeff Hayden, seen here with new HCC President Christina Royal

Jeff Hayden, seen here with new HCC President Christina Royal, says community colleges provide a vital pathway to an education, especially for first-generation college students.

With that, Hayden effectively and somewhat concisely explained why the four community colleges serving residents of Western Mass. — HCC, Berkshire Community College (BCC), Greenfield Community College (GCC), and Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) — have been chosen collectively as Difference Makers for 2017.

Through use of those phrases ‘the power of the four institutions’ and ‘thousands of stories,’ he hit upon the real and profound impact of the four schools, which have been making a difference now for almost 60 years in some cases.

Echoing Hayden, Bob Pura, president of GCC, said the community colleges act as both a door of opportunity, especially for those who don’t have many open to them, and a pathway to both careers and four-year degrees at other schools.

And GCC is a perfect example. It is the only institution of higher learning in Franklin County, the poorest and most rural in the state, said Pura, while stressing that point about access to an education, and it has one of the highest rates of transfer to four-year schools among the state’s 15 community colleges.

“I don’t think there is a region in this state better served by community colleges,” said Pura, who stressed the plural and saw the six other people gathered around the table in a classroom at HCC’s Kittredge Center nod their heads in agreement. “We’re the pathway for the infrastructure in our community; the socioeconomic futures of our communities pass through the doors of our collective colleges.”

By ‘better served,’ Pura meant work beyond the schools’ historic mission of providing potentially life-altering opportunities to their students. Indeed, they are also playing important roles in a host of ongoing economic-development initiatives across Western Mass.

HCC’s involvement in the Cubit building project

HCC’s involvement in the Cubit building project in downtown Holyoke is just one example of how community colleges have become forces in economic-development efforts.

In fact, if one were to name a key issue or specific program, one will likely find one of the community colleges involved with it at one level or another.

Start with the region’s workforce. The schools are the proverbial tip of the spear in initiatives ranging from the retraining of manufacturing workers displaced by the decline of that sector to preparing individuals for the myriad jobs in the broad healthcare field that will have to be filled in the years to come; from training area residents for many of the 3,000 or so jobs to be created by the MGM Springfield casino to providing specific help with closing the so-called skills gap now plaguing all sectors of the economy and virtually every business, a problem addressed mostly through a program called TWO, as we’ll see later.

But there are other examples, as well, from STCC’s work to help precision manufacturers build a steady pipeline of talent to BCC’s involvement with efforts to create new opportunities for jobs and vibrancy at the sprawling former General Electric complex in Pittsfield, to HCC’s decision to move its culinary arts program into a mostly vacant former mill building in downtown Holyoke, thus providing the needed anchor for its revitalization.

All of these examples and many more help explain why the region’s community colleges — individually, but especially as a group — are true Difference Makers.

Schools of Thought

Community colleges, formerly known in some states as junior colleges, can trace their history back to 1901 (Joliet Junior College in Illinois is generally considered to be the first).

There are now nearly 1,200 of them enrolling close to 8 million people. They come in all shapes and sizes, some with just a few hundred students and others with enrollment in the tens of thousands.

In the Bay State, community colleges can trace their roots to 1958, when an audit of state needs recommended the establishment of a community-college system to address the need for more diversity and access to higher education in the Commonwealth, which, then as now, has been dominated by a wealth of prestigious (and expensive) private colleges and universities.

The reality is that the mission of a community college — to provide access to excellent education for the local community — is what we do, and we do it in sometimes unique ways. But what we also do is recognize the fact that there are times when shaking the hand and working together is far more effective than trying to go out on our own.”

 

The recommendation was adopted by the Legislature in August of that year, and the accompanying legislation included formation of the Board of Regional Community Colleges, which established nine of the current 15 schools within a five-year period, starting with BCC in 1960.

“We were the first one,” said Ellen Kennedy, president of that Pittsfield-based institution, with a discernable note of pride in her voice, while acknowledging that what is now HCC has a longer history, because that school began as Holyoke Junior College, which opened in 1946.

GCC opened its doors in 1962, and STCC, housed in the historic Springfield Armory complex, which was decommissioned in the mid-’60s, opened amid some controversy — HCC is only eight miles away as the crow flies, and many thought there wasn’t a need for two community colleges that close together — in the fall of 1967.

Today, community colleges in Massachusetts and across the country face a number of common challenges, including smaller high-school graduating classes, which are impacting enrollment; funding levels that are imperiled by dips in the economy and devastated by serious recessions, such as the one that began nearly a decade ago; and graduation rates that are impacted by the many burdens faced by the community-college constituency — everything from finances to life issues (jobs and family) to even transportation.

But overall, community colleges are seeing a surge of sorts. Indeed, amid the soaring costs of a college education and the ever-rising amounts of debt students are being saddled with, the two-year schools are being seen by many as a practical option to at least begin one’s education.

Meanwhile, host cities and regions are becoming more cognizant of their ability to help provide solutions to workforce and other economic-development-related issues and problems.

This is especially true in Western Mass., where many gateway cities, including Springfield, Holyoke, and Pittsfield, are facing stern challenges as they attempt to reinvent themselves and move on from their collective past as industrial centers, and regions (especially Franklin County) face spiraling unemployment, aging populations, and outmigration of young people.

ge-pittsfield-aerial-1946

BCC’s efforts to develop new opportunities for the former GE complex

BCC’s efforts to develop new opportunities for the former GE complex in Pittsfield (in its heyday, above, and today) is another example of community colleges becoming involved in economic-development initiatives.

But at their very core, community colleges are still all about access — that open door that Pura mentioned. They all have what’s known as open admission, meaning anyone who has a high-school diploma or GED must be admitted. But while getting in isn’t a problem, staying in, and hanging in until a diploma or certificate is earned, can be, and often is.

Thus, increasingly, schools have been focusing on that broad, multi-faceted assignment of helping students succeed — with whatever it is they are trying to succeed at.

There are many elements that go into this equation, said those we spoke with, from programs focused on basics, including language skills, to new degree and certificate programs to meet specific industry needs, to a host of partnerships with area four-year schools that include not only articulation agreements but efforts to bring those schools’ programs onto the community-college campuses to help those facing time and transportation issues.

Meeting this role, this mission, makes the community colleges unique in the pantheon of higher education, and even public higher education. It is a niche, if you will, or, for many, including those we spoke with, a career path they’ve chosen for any of several reasons, but often because they can relate to the students in their charge.

Such is the case with Christina Royal, the recently named president of HCC, who is so new to the role she chose to let others, like Hayden, speak about the school’s history and specific current projects while she got fully up to speed.

But in a candid interview with BusinessWest upon her arrival, she said that, when she went to Marist College, a private liberal-arts school in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., she was the first in her family to attend college, and it was a struggle for the family to send her there.

So she understands what community-college students are up against, and chose that constituency, if you will, as the one she wanted to serve.

“The experience of community colleges — dealing with a lot of first-generation college students who don’t always understand the value of what they’re doing and also how to navigate it to be successful — these are things I can relate to from my own background,” she said. “And I think that has created a connection with the community colleges for me and helps me understand the students we serve. I’ve found a home in the community-college system.”

The original faculty and staff at STCC

The original faculty and staff at STCC pose in front of the old officers’ quarters at the Springfield Armory. The school was created in 1967 to focus on preparing students for careers in technology-related fields.

John Cook, who succeeded Ira Rubenzahl as president of STCC last summer, is similarly attracted to the community-college mission and unique role.

Formerly the vice president of Academic Affairs at Manchester (N.H.) Community College, he cast a wide net when seeking opportunities to lead a school, but was specifically focused on community colleges, which, he said, have a direct role in serving their communities (hence that middle name for all these institutions) and their residents, not employers across the country or halfway around the world, as the major private institutions do.

Pura agreed. “The students who come to our colleges are those who stay here,” he explained. “They’re the ones who will run the ice cream shop and the small nonprofit, and they’re going to be part of the leadership for our hospitals.”

The Jobs at Hand

Beyond providing access and pathways to opportunities, however, the region’s community colleges have become increasingly larger role players in area workforce and other economic-development-related initiatives.

Such roles are natural, said Cook, noting that the schools pride themselves on being nimble, responsive, and, overall, good listeners when it comes to the community — including the business community — expressing specific concerns and needs.

And while such programs solve problems for businesses, the communities they’re based in, and the region as a whole, said Bill Fogarty, HCC’s vice president for Administration and Finance, who served as interim president until Royal arrived, they also benefit individuals who may or may not have a job, but instead need a career.

“All of our capital investments, whether it’s the new Center for Health Education or the Cubit Building and the culinary center, or any of the others, have been geared toward getting people in the door,” he explained, “and getting them a basic type of credential they can use, and then providing pathways so they can further their education.”

Examples of economic-development-related initiatives that are also creating opportunities for individuals abound, and we’ll start with BCC, which has been active in efforts to help that region move past the huge shadow left by GE and other elements of a manufacturing-based economy, said Bill Mulholland.

He recently retired after a lengthy career at BCC, most recently as vice president of Community Education and Workforce Development, a title that speaks volumes about the work he was involved with in recent years. And as he started talking about that work, he referenced a Berkshire Eagle headline — “High-paying Jobs Going Unfilled” — from January 1998.

Upon reading it, he called Pura and invited him to lunch, at which there was broad discussion that eventually led to creation of something called the Berkshire Applied Technology Council.

“This is an industry-driven organization focused on workforce development,” Mulholland explained. “As we got all the companies together, we said, ‘what are your biggest needs?’ And when we boiled it all down, the commonality was basic math, writing, all of the basic skills.”

That’s where organizers started with a program that would be called (here comes that word again) Pathways, he went on, adding that the initiative effectively checks many of the boxes community colleges are trying to check, including direct involvement with businesses, providing individuals with the basic skills needed to contend for jobs and careers, working in collaboration with other community colleges and other partners, and creating progress with efforts to keep young people from migrating out of the region.

Another very specific example is the college’s involvement in the work to create an advanced manufacturing facility (the Berkshire Innovation Center) that will become the centerpiece of the William Stanley Business Park, created on the former GE site. Specifically, the school is developing training programs for individuals that will be employed by companies based there.

“What’s significant about this, for us and for the Commonwealth, is that we’re reinventing our manufacturing,” he said. “It’s about high-technology capabilities; so many of the original equipment manufacturers are outsourcing up to 70% to small and mid-sized enterprises because we’re quick, we’re nimble, and we innovate. That’s the focus of the innovation center, and it’s more about the human capital now than it is about the equipment, although that’s important as well.”

Human capital, and creating more of it, is at the heart of many BCC initiatives, he went on, adding that the school is also involved with efforts to bolster the creative economy that is becoming a force across Berkshire County and especially a revitalized Pittsfield, as well as the tourism industry that has always been a pillar.

As examples, he cited a filmmaking course designed to help provide trained individuals for the many film companies and special-effects houses that now call that region home, and also a special customer-service course for those seeking to enter the hospitality industry.

Manufacturing Momentum

Meanwhile, at GCC, manufacturing is also a prime focus, said Pura, adding that the region has lost a number of large employers in this sector over the past several decades and is intent on both retaining the companies that remain and attracting new ones.

To this end, a manufacturing collaborative was formed involving the college, employers such as Yankee Candle and Valley Steel Stamp, the Regional Employment Board, career centers, and area high school.

“What became clear was that we needed to invest in our infrastructure; facilities were very antiquated,” said Alyce Stile, dean of Workforce Development and Community Education (same title as Mulholland) at GCC, adding that, with $250,000 in seed money from many of the employers and grant money attained as a result of that investment, Franklin County Technical School has been transformed into a state-of-the-art facility.

With that foundation, GCC was able to start its first adult-education evening program — one firmly focused on the basics — with the help of considerable feedback from STCC, BCC, and other partners.

No, the region’s community college presidents have not been reassigned

No, the region’s community college presidents have not been reassigned. They’re merely using some artistic license to display a pattern of cooperation and collaboration that is only growing.

To date, more than 100 students have gone through the program, said Stiles, with the even better news being an employment rate of more than 80%.

Other recent initiatives have included a nursing ladder program designed to put more individuals in that important pipeline, and also a comprehensive study of just what area employees want and need from the workers of today and tomorrow. The results were not exactly surprising, but they were enlightening.

“Employers made it clear that what’s needed are the communication skills, the ability to critically think through and problem-solve in an innovative way, and the ability to work well with other people,” he explained, adding that a panel comprised of area employers ranging from Herrell’s Ice Cream to Baystate Franklin Medical Center recently emphasized these needs and discussed the next critical step — programming to help ensure workers possess these skills.

In Hampden County, meanwhile, initiatives involving the two community colleges there have generated considerably more press, and, like those in the other regions, have involved high levels of collaboration between the schools and a wide variety of other partners.

At the top of the list, perhaps, is TWO (Training and Workforce Options), a joint effort between STCC and HCC that provides custom contract training for area businesses and industry-sector collaborations.

To date, TWO has created training programs for call centers and customer-service workers, manufacturing production technicians, hospitality and culinary positions, home-health-aide workers, and healthcare-sector employees who need to become versed in the recently introduced medical coding system known as ICD-10, among others.

Another collaborative effort, this one involving all the community colleges, is the Mass. Casino Careers Training Institute, which, as that name suggests, is designed to help area residents become qualified for many of the positions that MGM Springfield — or any of the other casinos to open in the Commonwealth — will need to fill.

Other specific examples range from STCC’s involvement with CRRC, the Chinese company that will soon be building subway cars in Springfield’s East End, to secure a trained workforce, to HCC’s investment in Holyoke’s Innovation District through the Cubit project.

Degrees of Progress

As the presidents of the region’s four community colleges posed for some photographs for this piece, they each gathered up their respective school’s pennant, in a colorful, pride-nurturing exercise in effective identification.

Then, as a bit of fun, Pura had them shuffle the deck, if you will. This drill yielded some laughs and intriguing facial expressions, but also some symbolism if one chooses to look for it and accept it.

Indeed, while the schools remain immensely proud of their histories and track records for excellence, and do compete on a number of levels — for students, in some cases, and on all sorts of playing fields, especially — they also collaborate, and in ways that are often changing the local landscape.

It wasn’t always this way, especially when it came to HCC and STCC, mostly because of their proximity to one another and often-overlapping programs. But this spirit is certainly in evidence now, and the obvious reason is that the schools have realized that they can do more for the region by working together than by trying to do it alone, often with parallel initiatives.

“The reality is that the mission of a community college — to provide access to excellent education for the local community — is what we do, and we do it in sometimes unique ways,” said Hayden. “But what we also do is recognize the fact that there are times when shaking the hand and working together is far more effective than trying to go out on our own.”

Maybe the best example of both sides of this equation is the TWO program. Prior to its formation, the schools went about trying to forge skills-gap solutions themselves, and would often “bump into each other,” as he put it.

“It was not uncommon for a business owner to say, ‘Jeff, you’re here … but the guy from STCC was here last week,’ or vice versa,” he explained. “What we’ve recognized through some of these partnerships is that we need to work together; it’s better for the customer, it’s better for the student, and it’s better for the business.”

The effectiveness of that particular collaboration caught the attention of the Boston Foundation, which awarded the two schools the inaugural Deval Patrick Award for Community Colleges in 2015 (it came with a $50,000 unrestricted grant that they split), and in many ways it serves as an example of what other schools can do together — if they are so inclined.

The Mass. Casino Careers Training Institute, which will train workers for MGM Springfield

The Mass. Casino Careers Training Institute, which will train workers for MGM Springfield (see here in this rendering) and other casinos, is another workforce initiative involving the region’s community colleges.

“In the Boston market, they’re still really trying to figure out how to put such partnerships in place,” Hayden went on. “We talk about how we’re eight miles away from STCC or 21 miles away from Greenfield or 58 miles or whatever it is from Berkshire, but in Boston, you have four community colleges that could almost throw rocks at one another, and they can learn from this.

“The establishment of that kind of collaboration was more common sense than anything else,” he went on. “Why duplicate efforts? Why waste resources? Why not work together?”

There are countless other examples of this mindset, said Mulholland, who cited BCC’s addition of a medical-coding program.

“Our local health system said, ‘we’re going to ICD-10 — we need help here,’” he recalled. “We picked up the phone and called STCC, and we had the curriculum in no time. We were able to put it in and met the system’s needs in ways we never could have without partnering like that.”

Such partnering continues on many levels, and the schools are constantly looking for new ways to forge collaborations, said Cook, adding that he was calling and texting Royal within days of her arrival on Jan. 9 to initiate such discussions and continue a legacy of cooperation that has been handed down to the two of them.
“We have an obligation to do well by that tradition of cooperation,” he said. “It’s good for our schools, and it’s good for this region.”

Course of Action

Hayden said he doesn’t make a habit of it, but once in a while he will allow himself to think about what it would be like if HCC did not exist in that city.

It’s a whimsical exercise, but a nonetheless important one, he said, adding that, while some schools provide jobs, vibrancy, and a boost to service-related businesses in the city or town they call home, community colleges have an impact that runs much deeper. And it goes back to those words he and others would use early and quite often — ‘door’ and ‘pathway.’

Pura agreed, and to further the point, he summoned a comment he attributes to Allen Davis, former director of GCC’s foundation, and one he relates often.

“He said, ‘if Amherst College were to close, those students would find somewhere else to go; if GCC were to close, it would devastate this community,’” noted Pura. “And I think you can say that about all four of our institutions; if you were to close any of them, students would come to dead ends.”

The community colleges have instead made it their mission to provide inroads to better lives. And their success with that mission makes them more than worthy of the title of Difference Maker.

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

Class of 2017 Difference Makers

Seizing the Brass Ring

Friends of the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round Are Preserving a Treasure

Friends of the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round

Some of the many passionate Friends of the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round: from left, Jim Jackowski, Barbara Griffin, Angela Wright, and Joe McGiverin.

The giant scrapbooks, their newspaper clippings turning yellow and their heavy leather covers fraying and kept on with shoelaces, are getting on in years — as are the people who created them.

But the truly inspiring story they tell never gets old.

It’s about how one of the poorest communities in the Commonwealth, then and now, came together, in every sense of that phrase and against very long odds, to raise nearly $2 million during a stubborn recession to keep the historic Mountain Park merry-go-round in Holyoke.

Carefully chronicled in those scrapbooks, this story relates tireless fund-raising efforts — from generous donations given by large corporate players to a fishing derby with a $10 entrance fee that went to the cause; from phone-a-thons and mailed solicitations featuring carefully crafted pleas for support to sales of everything from sweatshirts to Christmas-tree ornaments out of a donated kiosk at the Holyoke Mall.

It also captures work to find, finance, build, staff, open, and operate a home for the merry-go-round in Holyoke’s Heritage State Park in late 1993, an important chapter in this tale and one with many twists and turns.

John Hickey, a.k.a. “Mr. Holyoke,”

John Hickey, a.k.a. “Mr. Holyoke,” rallied the city to seize a “glittering brass ring.”

And those scrapbooks poignantly reflect, through photos, news stories, and his own commentary in the daily Holyoke Transcript Telegram, the passion, commitment, and drive of one John Hickey, known to most as “Mr. Holyoke,” who rallied the city and unified it behind what was, at the time, a most unlikely cause.

“He was determined; he felt like this was an important piece of Holyoke’s history and that there needed to be a way to save it,” Angela Wright, long-time volunteer director of the merry-go-round and one of the leaders of the effort to keep it in the Paper City, said of Hickey, then head of the Holyoke Water Power Co., who passed away in 2008. “He was like a pied piper … he went to every meeting, every organization, every business he could to stress the importance of this. And he got a city behind him.”

Indeed, Hickey ended one of his op-ed contributions (a piece that has become part of Holyoke lore) with a question that doubled as a rallying cry.

“There’s a glittering brass ring out there,” he wrote in reference to the carousel. “Will the people of Holyoke extend themselves to capture it?”

Indeed, they would, as the pages of those scrapbooks make clear, and more than 1.2 million people have gone for a ride.

But the last entry in those volumes is from Dec. 1, 1994 — a short story about upcoming Christmas happenings at the carousel — and, therefore, they don’t tell the whole story.

Indeed, while the efforts to buy the carousel and then begin its next life in downtown Holyoke could be described as ‘heroic’ and ‘monumental,’ what has transpired over the past 23 years or so and continues today is worthy of equal praise, said Jim Jackowski, business liaison for Holyoke Gas & Electric and long-time president of Friends of the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round Inc., the organization created to not only buy the treasure, but manage it and preserve it for future generations.

The second part of the equation isn’t captured in the scrapbooks because, for the most part, that hard work doesn’t generate headlines, he said. But the challenges to operating and properly maintaining the carousel — everything from spiraling insurance costs to non-stop maintenance to restoration work on the ornate horses — are many and formidable.

But the same passion that went into raising the money to buy PTC 80 (the 80th carousel built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Co.) goes into the work to keep the ride spinning today — and tomorrow, said Jackowski.

“It’s been a labor of love — it was then, when we were raising the money to buy it, and it still is today,” he explained.

One of the many ads designed

One of the many ads designed to emphasize what Holyoke would lose if the merry-go-round went to another buyer.

And that sentiment is perhaps best summed up with words from the Transcript Telegram, which played its own sizable role in the efforts to save the carousel.

Its presses fell silent in January 1993 as the paper succumbed to disastrous losses in the wake of the early-’90s recession. But it still has a voice on this subject (and this Difference Makers award) thanks to an editorial published just a few weeks before the paper closed.

The occasion was a decision of the state Department of Environmental Management to award $300,000 for the construction of a building in Holyoke’s Heritage State Park for the carousel, providing it with a home and, essentially, sealing the deal.

“If one project in recent history had to be chosen to represent the best Holyoke has to offer in community spirit, from the youngest child to the most senior resident,” the paper roared, “then the campaign to save the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round is it.”

More than 24 years later, those words still ring true.

Mane Attraction

Among the many individuals, groups, and businesses that donated in-kind services to the cause of saving the merry-go-round was the Hartford-based marketing and advertising firm Adams & Knight Communication.

The firm had a number of specific assignments — from designing promotional brochures destined for potential donors to crafting copy for print ads that ran in the Transcript Telegram and elsewhere. But one of its very specific tasks, apparently, was finding children with the ability to look sad. Really, really sad.

Children recruited for ads used in the merry-go-round campaign had plenty of practice looking sad.

Children recruited for ads used in the merry-go-round campaign had plenty of practice looking sad.

For example, there’s one young girl displaying that talent in an ad (that appeared in multiple outlets) in which she stands next to one of the carousel’s horses wearing a sign around its neck reading ‘sold.’ She’s holding on to its reins as if she doesn’t want to let go, clear symbolism of the city’s attitude at the time.

She makes another appearance, along with two other children, in an ad that features a broad view of the carousel with the headline “Imagine Telling Them That the Ride Is Over … for Good.”

And there’s a despondent yet still-hopeful young boy featured in yet another full-page ad. He’s holding out his piggy bank, as if to offer whatever’s in it. The headline reads, “Why He’s Putting All His Money on a Horse.”

But it wasn’t just young people enlisted to send this message. Indeed, several teenagers (from the ’50s, presumably, based on their attire) are featured in still another ad with the headline, “If You Care About Holyoke’s Future, Put Money Down on Her Past.”

In essence, this is what the campaign started in 1988 was all about, said those we spoke with, adding that it wasn’t just about keeping PTC 80 from being sold off as a unit or piece by piece and shipped overseas.

It was also about people investing in the city’s future, said Jackowski, meaning both the generations to come and the city itself, which needed a boost to spark its sagging fortunes and deteriorating downtown.

These sentiments are reflected in comments attributed to then-Mayor Marty Dunn (another of this story’s many heroes) in one of the many promotional pieces created to solicit support.

“This is not a toy,” said the mayor. “It is a folk-art masterpiece and a powerful attraction for our downtown.”

The merry-go-round has, by most accounts, become that spark, that attraction, thanks to the campaign to save it and, more specifically, that group that came to be known as the Friends of the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round.

It was created and led by Hickey, who first approached John Collins, owner of Mountain Park, who closed that attraction in 1987, with a proposal to allow the city of Holyoke to buy the carousel and thereby keep it ‘home.’

By most accounts, this wasn’t exactly a hard sell. Indeed, while Collins reportedly had some handsome offers for the merry-go-round on the table, including a rumored $2 million, he was supportive of the efforts to keep it in the city, and thus he set the bar, or price tag, low — $875,000.

While there was considerable support for the merry-go-round, in Holyoke and beyond, all those involved knew that raising that kind of money, at that time and in that community, would be very difficult. And, as we’ll see, the community would soon see that number rise considerably.

It’s been a labor of love — it was then, when we were raising the money to buy it, and it still is today.”

And this is where our story — the one told through the clips in those scrapbooks — really begins.

However, those we spoke with say it really starts with John Hickey.

Indeed, he was the one, said Wright, who convinced Holyokers, then facing a mountain of other, seemingly more pressing issues, from rampant unemployment to soaring poverty to a declining downtown, that the merry-go-round was still a treasure worth saving.

“In the beginning, people were saying, ‘are you kidding — a merry-go-round?’” Wright said while trying to capture the mood at the time. “There were so many other problems, from homelessness to the schools to downtown. People said, ‘how can you be thinking about raising money for a merry-go-round?’

“John would say to them, ‘you don’t understand — beauty is for your soul; there needs to be art, music, and beauty in this world, for everyone,’” she went on. “He would say, ‘this is as important as food’; he would make that comparison and stress the importance of art in one’s life.”

Round Numbers

To effectively reach the people of Holyoke, and beyond, Hickey would make early and frequent use of the Transcript Telegram’s op-ed page. Some of his early entreaties capture his passion for the project and his belief that it was an important part of the city’s history, identity, and psyche.

“A city needs more practical things, like sewage-treatment plants, snow plows, water filtration, better roads, and good school buildings,” he wrote on March 5, 1988, just as the campaign was being conceptualized. “But it also needs objects that nourish its spiritual life. A beautiful and historic, million-dollar merry-go-round may be a bit of mirthful indulgence, but it will give us, for generations, a special kind of happiness and pride.

“It is sad that we are losing our historic amusement park,” he would go on a few paragraphs later, “but it would be tragic if we stood by, doing nothing, and letting its centerpiece, the merry-go-round, become the object of pride and fame in some other distant city.”

Merry-go-round employee Kathie McDonough, left, staffs the concession stand with long-time volunteer Maureen Costello.

Merry-go-round employee Kathie McDonough, left, staffs the concession stand with long-time volunteer Maureen Costello.

Beyond passionate rhetoric, though, Hickey understood that this campaign needed a solid foundation on which to build, and to erect one, he turned to the many banks and other prominent corporate citizens at that time, said Wright.

“He pulled together all the CEOs and banking leaders and put them in a room,” she recalled, adding that, prior to this now-historic gathering, he took them to Mountain Park for a ceremonial and sentimental look at the carousel. “He talked for an hour about the value of this merry-go-round, not only to families and kids, but for history, nostalgia, as an anchor to downtown … he went through the whole thing.

“And he said, ‘unless you people commit a big number — and I mean a big number — then we can’t do it,’” she went on. “And by then, he had them practically in tears.”

Before the meeting convened, a big number, $300,000, had indeed been pledged, she went on, adding that, as for the rest … well, there were a variety of imaginative, and effective, strategies put to use, as told by the stories, ads, and posters clipped into the scrapbooks.

Famously, schoolchildren in the city raised $32,000 in two weeks from selling cookies and candy door-to-door, and for that work, a plaque was placed next the armored lead horse in their honor (such plaques were placed under each horse to commemorate donors.)

There was that fishing derby at the Jones Ferry Marina (“now is the time not to flounder,” wrote the creative scribe at the Chicopee Herald); Holyoke Community College raffled off a free semester of study to aid the cause; musicians performed at a benefit concert; the city’s aldermen launched a charity ball, with the merry-go-round as the first recipient of proceeds; commemorative stamped envelopes were issued with the likeness of the lead horse on them (the price was 25 cents, which will tell you how much water has passed under the bridge).

Also, schoolchildren sold Christmas ornaments; artists sold limited lithographs of the carousel; there were car washes, phone-a-thons, a 10th-anniversary party at the mall, with the carousel as the beneficiary. And at the Merry-Go-Round Gift Store (the storefront donated by the mall) and other locations, supporters could buy hats, ornaments, tote bags, sweatshirts, a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, mugs, notecards, and several different posters with carousel imagery. The headline on the ad promoting it all in the Dec. 9 issue of the Transcript read, “Now You Can Finally Get a Pony for Christmas.”

Turn for the Better

As noted, the brass ring Hickey mentioned became the unofficial prize, if you will, and the phrase appeared repeatedly in ads and news stories throughout the campaign.

But even as the original goal of more than $1 million came closer to reality, the bar moved, and in a big way, said Wright, noting that, from the beginning, organizers knew they would have to build a home for the carousel.

They had a pledge from the state of $300,000 to build that home, she said, but as time went on, huge doubts emerged about whether the state could uphold its end of the bargain given the enormous financial pressure it was under, and whether that amount would be enough.

As things turned out, the state did keep its promise, but that figure wasn’t nearly enough (bids for the structure came in at twice that total).

Photography by Leah Martin

Photography by Leah Martin

But funds to cover the difference were raised with significant help from Warren Rhoades, then-president of PeoplesBank, she said, adding that this triumph would be one of the countless enduring stories from the campaign to save the carousel and then operate it, many of which simply didn’t generate headlines, but certainly contributed to that phrase ‘labor of love.’

As she recounted some of them, Wright said she didn’t really know where to start.

She eventually settled on Jim Curran, a contractor and owner of the Wherehouse banquet and meeting facility in downtown Holyoke, who not only stored a large amount of the carousel’s thousands of components — most of the horses were kept in a locked railroad car, and Hickey even kept some in his living room — but also took the carousel apart and played a huge role in the very complex, time-consuming effort to put it all back together.

“It was like a giant puzzle,” she explained. “There were boxes and boxes of nuts and bolts; it was mind-boggling to me.”

Wright also mentioned her husband, Joe (the couple have a long history of philanthropy in their native Holyoke), who assisted with piecing the carousel together and maintaining it; Tim Murphy, the architect who designed the carousel’s new home in Heritage State Park; Will Girard, a neighbor of the Wrights who has assisted with seemingly endless repairs and maintenance; the Gaul family, which donated the huge concession stand now at the carousel, replacing what amounted to a card table that was there at the start; Craig Lemieux, who volunteered the time and labor that went into building the ramp to make the carousel handicap-accessible; and the Steiger family for gifting to the carousel the Tiffany window that graced its downtown Holyoke store.

And on she went, noting that there were, and still are, volunteer angels whose names she never knew and faces she never saw.

“When we first opened, we didn’t have any money; we had no debt, but we also had no money,” she said. “And people just did things. Like cleaning the windows — people would appear … in the dark of night; I don’t know, I never saw them.”

The Ride Stuff

In many respects, this community spirit and volunteerism continues today, said those we spoke with, adding that the task of keeping the carousel open and operating is daunting, and a small army of volunteers is still needed.

Speaking in broad terms, Jackowski said operating a merry-go-round is a tough business these days — so tough that many have actually closed in recent years — and this one is no exception.

He cited everything from the myriad competitors for the time and attention of children and families to the rising cost of doing business (and generally flat revenues), to changes in Holyoke itself.

“It’s like any other business — there are fixed expenses and just stuff that you have to do,” he said, adding that there is quite a lot of ‘stuff’ with this ride that is now nearly 90 years old. “It’s a piece of machinery that requires maintenance and upkeep and hardware. And the community has changed in the 20-plus years since we opened; we had a bigger presence of retail and shopping when we first opened, and a lot of what was downtown and drew people to the downtown is unfortunately not there anymore.”

As one example, he cited Celebrate Holyoke, the annual summer festival that drew tens of thousands of people to Holyoke during its four-day run, which was discontinued several years ago.

“That used to be a huge weekend for us — we would get 20,000 riders in four days,” he explained. “Once that went away, it was hard to make up those riders; even at $1 per head, that was $20,000.”

And that challenge goes a long way toward explaining why a ride now costs $2, which is still a great bargain and one of the lowest prices to be found for a merry-go-round.

But, as with the vast majority of museums and other types of attractions, admission doesn’t cover annual expenses, said Joe McGiverin, another long-time member of the Friends of the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round board, noting that labor (there are seven staff members) and, especially, insurance top the list of rising costs.

Thus, other sources of income must be developed and nutured.

Birthday parties, private functions, and a handful of weddings each year have long been one such source, said Barbara Griffin, another long-time board member and former staff member at the Log Cabin, who, with Jackowski and others, would handle the logistics of such events.

“That’s just one example of how of this is truly a working board — we don’t just go to meetings,” she explained, adding that, while the staff manages the carousel day-to-day and is largely responsible for that perfect safety rating, the attraction is dependent on volunteers today as much as it was when the money to buy the attraction was being raised.

And many of these volunteers have their own specific assignments, said Wright, who offered one of many examples.

“Joe is the security person — if the alarm goes off in the middle of the night, it’s his responsibility to go in there and see what’s going on,” she said. “Everyone on the board has a job, in one way or another.”

But overall, the volunteers are generalists, said McGiverin, and help with everything from keeping the grounds clean to staging the semi-annual Kentucky Derby-themed fund-raiser, called Derby Dazzle, at the site.

But there is another source of help at the carousel that speaks volumes about its hold on people — and its special place in Holyoke.

These would be the young people — and there are more than a few of them — who would like to ride but don’t have $2, said Griffin, adding that staff members will often let them take a spin in exchange for pushing a broom for a few minutes.

“If they want to sweep the floor or pick something up, we’d be more than happy to give them a little something in return,” she said, noting that, in the larger scheme of things, the carousel is what has been given to all of Holyoke, and the region as a whole, in return for the generosity that kept it here.

Wright agreed. “These kids … they know what we have, and you can’t let a kid walk by and just look in the window all day. You need to let them ride.”

That’s the kind of community spirit John Hickey was talking about all those years ago.

Words That Ring True

In March 1988, not even Hickey could have known what an attraction, and an institution, the merry-go-round would become.

Then again, maybe he did know. Or maybe … there’s no maybe about it.

What was it he wrote? “A beautiful and historic merry-go-round may be a bit of mirthful indulgence, but it will give us, for generations, a special kind of happiness and pride.”

Sounds quite prescient, as does that comment from the Transcript Telegram. Indeed, this was, and still is, the best Holyoke has to offer in community spirit, from the youngest child to the most senior resident.

And that’s why, nearly 30 years after this saga began, three decades after Hickey implored a city to reach for that “glittering brass ring,” the story about how it all happened never gets old.

And that’s also why the many Friends of the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round — those who have passed and those who still keep the city’s happiness machine turning — are true Difference Makers.

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

Class of 2017 Difference Makers

Cut and Dried

In Business and the Community, Denis Gagnon Is a Role Model

Denis Gagnon

Denis Gagnon

Denis Gagnon Sr. was asked about the origins of the signed, framed Tom Brady jersey that dominates one wall of his spacious office at Excel Dryer in East Longmeadow.

Rather than answer that question, he bolted up out of his chair and said, “think that’s nice? I’ve got something better … follow me.”

And with that, he walked briskly down the hall, with BusinessWest in tow, to the conference room, apologized as he ever-so-briefly interrupted a meeting in progress, and proudly pointed to a huge framed, autographed photo of Malcolm Butler, depicting the moment he stepped in front of Russell Wilson’s final pass in the 2015 Super Bowl, sealing a Patriots victory.

“How about that?” Gagnon, the company’s president, said of the photo, a gift from Pats owner Robert Kraft, who is now a valued customer of Excel Dryer, which, according to company literature — not to mention most people who have placed their hands under one of its products — has revolutionized the long-maligned hand-dryer industry.

Later, amid considerable and quite necessary prodding, he grudgingly revealed that signed photos and jerseys are just some of the many benefits that have come through what is now a very solid and multi-faceted marketing relationship between the Patriots and Excel (and donations to the team’s charitable foundation), up to and including the opportunity for Gagnon to actually get on the hallowed turf at Gillette Stadium, practice with the team, and play some catch with TB 12.

As noted, such reflections came reluctantly, because it is simply not in Gagnon’s nature to call attention to his actions or accomplishments. Those who know him well say he basically just goes quietly — and quite efficiently — about his business.

Denis Gagnon with his wife, Nancy, and sons Denis Jr., left, and Bill, right.

Denis Gagnon with his wife, Nancy, and sons Denis Jr., left, and Bill, right.

And by ‘business,’ they aren’t referring specifically to Excel and its signature product, the XLERATOR, although that’s certainly a big part of the conversation — the part referring to his strong entrepreneurial instincts, success in making the company’s products a global phenomenon, and even pride that the dryers are made not only in America (the only ones that can make such a claim), but in the 413 area code.

“I’m in the men’s room at Heathrow Airport … and I see East Longmeadow, Mass. on the XLERATOR,” recalled Gene Cassidy, president of the Big E, who has known Gagnon for years, “and it sends shivers up my spine; I wanted everyone in the lavatory to know that I knew Denis Gagnon.”

No, by ‘business,’ they were mostly referring to Gagnon’s strong track record of service to the community, which is notable for many reasons.

For starters, there’s simply the depth of that service, which includes everything from decades of work with the Boy Scouts and the Children’s Study Home to his multi-layered involvement with Link to Libraries (LTL).

There is also his ability to inspire others to become involved and make a difference in their own way.

He’s a man who not only sees the need, but takes action. He is very empathetic to those people in need and especially the young people of our community.”

Dana Barrows, a financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual, another long-time acquaintance and long-time LTL volunteer, explains.

“I was in Denis’ office four years ago, and I saw a picture of him with Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno,” he recalled. “I said, ‘what are you doing?’ and he replied that he was reading a book to school kids as part of Link to Libraries. And he told me I should check it out.

“I did, I’ve been reading ever since, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it,” he said, adding that this is but a small example of how Gagnon not only gets involved, but gets others to follow suit.

Humbly, Gagnon said simply, “if you have the good fortune of being in a good corporate job or owning your own business, like we’ve been able to do, you have a responsibility to give back to that community.”

And this philosophy was certainly handed down to his children, including those involved with him at Excel, Denis Jr. and Bill, who are both very active in the community (Bill is a member of BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty class of 2013).

Mike Suzor, assistant to the president at Springfield Technical Community College and a serial entrepreneur himself, was a classmate of Gagnon’s at Cathedral High School, in the class of 1968. He remembers Gagnon as an excellent student, a multi-sport athlete, and someone who knew what it took to succeed on any stage, or playing field.

Mike Suzor

Mike Suzor, a long-time friend and former classmate of Denis Gagnon’s at Cathedral, says Gagnon has always understood what it takes to succeed at any level.

“I never met his parents, but they must have been great people,” he said, “because Denis learned very early on the value of honesty, integrity, and hard work — ‘don’t pass it off to someone else; get it done yourself.’ That attitude was there in high school, and it has stayed with him all through his career.”

“If you measure success financially, then he’s clearly successful,” Suzor went on. “But if you measure success by what kind of human being someone is … he’s one of the most successful people I’ve ever met.”

Rarified Air

Over the past 18 years or so, Gagnon has sat across from interviewers representing all manner of media outlets curious about the XLERATOR, from the small weekly paper that covers Longmeadow and East Longmeadow to the Wall Street Journal; from a host of trade publications, such as Restaurant Daily News, to Inc. magazine.

While the comments vary, obviously, he will undoubtedly tell the inquirer something he told BusinessWest back in 2003 — that, as entrepreneurial gambles go, Excel Dryer was anything but a rock-solid bet.

That’s because the company made a product that, by Gagnon’s own admission, people don’t like or want — electric hand dryers, a product that, historically, didn’t dry people’s hands as much as they would like.

As he explained back then, and has gone on explaining ever since, most businesses and institutions that installed hand dryers in those days did so because satisfying the customer — and that’s a relative term in this case — was not a priority, and saving money was. As examples, he listed airports, train stations, colleges, municipal buildings, sports stadiums, and even correctional facilities.

Today, businesses and institutions like those mentioned above, but also some certainly not on that list, are installing Excel models because they do place a premium on customer service — and also on protecting the environment and saving money.

Changing the hand-dryer landscape wasn’t exactly the stated mission when Gagnon bought a piece of Excel in 1992 and later acquired the entire company, but it quickly became not only a goal, but an obsession — one of those who knew Gagnon well firmly believed he would succeed with, even given the chosen product’s dubious history and uncertain future.

To explain, Suzor went into the wayback machine to Cathedral High, then home to 3,000 students, and memories of Gagnon the student-athlete.

“He was an incredible wrestler and first-team All-Western Mass. placekicker,” Suzor recalled. “In the wintertime, he would go out and kick field goals in the snow to practice; he was absolutely dedicated to excellence and doing whatever it took to be the best he could be. Going back to high school, he showed that.”

This pattern would continue at UMass Amherst and later in business, especially at what was then Milton Bradley, later Hasbro, and now Cartamundi, where Gagnon would rise in the ranks to vice president of International Sales.

This was a rewarding job in a number of ways, but also one that took him away from home quite often (he was responsible for the Pacific Rim region).

Desiring a change, and something closer to home, he and his wife Nancy would both join her family’s business, Springfield-based Bassett Boat, and he would help it achieve dramatic growth in the late ’80s. But the deep and lengthy recession that began at the end of that decade put a serious hurt on discretionary spending and thus the boat business, and Gagnon began searching for an entrepreneurial adventure of his own.

He and a partner thoroughly researched options, and set their sights on Excel Dryer, but the partner got cold feet, leaving Gagnon to pursue plan B, as he called it, which was to acquire a piece of that company and acquire the rest over time as he ran its sales and marketing efforts.

By 1997, when the acquisition was complete, he would begin the process of changing the equation when it came to the product that seemingly no one liked or wanted by partnering with (and essentially bankrolling) some inventors with a revolutionary new concept.

In time, it would come to be called the XLERATOR, which, as that name suggests, was painstakingly designed to reduce the time it took to dry one’s hands, while actually getting the job done.

Gagnon explains the technology, sort of, in one of the many interviews he’s given, this one with Restaurant Daily News.

“If I could describe the new drying system in layman’s terms, I would say that it delivers a focused, high-velocity air stream, which blows off excess water in three to four seconds,” he told that publication, “and evaporates the remaining boundary layer of moisture very rapidly. With a conventional hand dryer, it takes over 20 seconds before effective evaporation takes place, and 30 to 45 seconds overall to completely dry your hands.”

Denis Gagnon

Denis Gagnon stands beside one of the first XLERATORs, the hand dryer that changed perceptions about that product.

He skipped over much of the proprietary science and engineering that would eventually solve a noise problem and enable the XLERATOR to live up to its considerable promise and become the best-selling hand dryer in the world, with more than a million units now in use.

The map outside Gagnon’s office, the one with multi-colored push pins on seemingly every continent (covering more than 70 countries in which the product is now sold), does an effective job of explaining how far this company has come in less than two decades.

Having a Blast

But there are other ways to measure its success, and at Excel, there are many of them, including:

• Evolution of the venture into a true family business. Indeed, while Denis Gagnon is president, his wife, Nancy, who has been involved with the company from the beginning, serves as vice president, while son Bill, who joined after college when Denis was developing the XLERATOR and has since helped grow the company, is vice president of Marketing and Sales, and son Denis Jr. is vice president of International Sales;

• Continued expansion and diversification of the product line, including a new “XLERATOR integrated sink system,” as Gagnon described it (there’s a prototype at the Fort restaurant in Springfield and 168 of them at MGM’s new casino in Maryland). Developed in collaboration with Sloan Valve, it includes an automatic soap dispenser, automatic faucet, and an automatic dryer coming out of what looks like a faucet head. “You never have to leave the sink — you soap, wash, and dry your hands right there,” he explained, adding that the product is being brought to the marketplace by a separate LLC called D13 Group, run by his son Bill and son-in-law Lance;

• Continued expansion of the plant complex in East Longmeadow to accommodate a growing company and staff (the company now employs 49 people). Town officials recently approved plans for 5,000 square feet of additional warehouse, R&D, and engineering space;

• Official designation as an American-made product and being named as the inaugural winner of the ‘Made in the USA Certified Award’ in the ‘medium company’ category in 2013; and

• Continued exposure in the press. Over the years, the company and the XLERATOR has earned all kinds of ink and face time. It was one of Terry Bradshaw’s ‘picks of the week,’ on his CNN Headline News segment, for example, and has also been on the Science Channel’s How It’s Made show, the Discovery Channel’s Things We Love to Hate series (actually, the show was about how the XLERATOR is changing perceptions about hand dryers), and many more.

But, as noted earlier, success in business is really only one chapter in the Denis Gagnon story, and not the most important one, according to those who know him well.

Excel Dryer employees

Excel Dryer employees gather for a shot at the plant in East Longmeadow. The company has registered explosive growth in recent years.

Instead, it’s his work within the community that resonates most.

As he talked about that work — again, something he doesn’t like to do and would rather leave to others — he referenced a more-than-half-century-long relationship with the Boy Scouts of America and the many lessons imparted him through that involvement.

Especially those from his youth. Indeed, Gagnon, a member of Troop 424, which met at the Nativity Church in the Willimansett section of Chicopee, became an Eagle Scout at the age of 12, something that couldn’t be done today (one needs to be at least 14) and was a very rare achievement back then.

He remembers some of the scout credos, or marching orders, if you will, and said they’ve never left him.

“What’s the motto of the Boy Scouts? ‘Do a good turn daily’ — in other words, do something to give back to help other people,” he explained. “They teach you to be self-reliant, but they also teach you to give back, and that stays with you.”

Likewise, he’s never really left the Boy Scouts. He served as board president for eight years, for example, and, during that time, merged the Pioneer Valley Council and the Great Trails Council into the Western Massachusetts Council of the Boy Scouts of America. And he’s still on the board.

In addition, he’s been a long-time supporter of a number of agencies, including the United Way, the American Red Cross, Western New England University (he’s a trustee), and a host of veterans’ organization, including Wounded Warriors.

Also on that list is the Children’s Study Home, the oldest nonprofit in Western Mass., which was created in 1865 as the Springfield Home for Friendless Women and Children, serving mostly the widows of Civil War veterans.

He’s served that agency, which provides a host of innovative and educational programs to strengthen children and families, in a number of roles, including the current one — president emeritus.

“That means that, whenever something big happens, they know who to call,” he joked, adding that his son Bill is now on the board.

Buy the Book

Actually, a number of agencies have called Gagnon’s number over the years, generally because he rarely says ‘no,’ but especially because he does much more than simply write a check.

That was the case with Link to Libraries, which, as that name suggests, places books on school-library shelves, but also brings business leaders into the classroom to read and essentially adopt the school in question.

Excel Dryer now sponsors two schools, and eight people at Excel volunteer to read, he said, adding that this is a company-wide effort that goes beyond read-alouds. Indeed, the company has funded a field trip to Sturbridge Village and other initiatives. And, as noted, Gagnon has encouraged others, including Barrows, to become involved and sponsor schools themselves.

Susan Jaye-Kaplan, founder of Link to Libraries and one of the first Difference Makers brought to the stage at the Log Cabin back in 2009, said Gagnon’s involvement with LTL is a good example of how he immerses himself in a cause and offers support that goes well beyond a cash contribution.

“He’s one of the most humble and caring men that I know,” said Jaye-Kaplan, who was one of many to invoke the phrase ‘role model’ as she talked about Gagnon. “He has never forgotten where he comes from or the people who helped make him the man he is today.

“He’s a man who not only sees the need, but takes action,” she went on. “He is very empathetic to those people in need and especially the young people of our community.”

Cassidy agreed, and put to use some of the same words and phrases others would deploy as they talked about Gagnon: ‘quiet,’ ‘humble,’ ‘generous,’ ‘impressive,’ ‘family man,’ and ‘inspiring,’ to name a few.

“He works quietly and mostly behind the scenes,” he said. “I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from him throughout my career from the way he works with people, the way he deals with adversity, and especially his generosity to the community.”

Barrows, who’s been doing business in Western Mass. for more than 40 years now, went so far as to put Gagnon in the same company (and sentence) as the late Dick Stebbins, the long-time regional president of BayBank whom most credit with setting the standard locally when it comes to community service, and said Gagnon is essentially the standard bearer for his generation.

Stebbins and Gagnon had different platforms in the business community — the former with a large public corporation, and the latter with a much smaller, family-owned company, but both worked in essentially the same way, Barrows explained.

“When I think of the people of that stature in today’s Pioneer Valley business community, I think of John and Steve Davis, and I think of Denis Gagnon,” he explained, adding that there may be others he is less familiar with.

“Denis is a little more private, a little more anonymous with his work in the community,” he went on. “But his actions speak very loudly. He’s a major player, and he inspires others with what he does and how he does it.”

Suzor agreed, noting that, in his philanthropic efforts, as with his business exploits, Gagnon takes a measured, results-driven approach to his giving.

“Even with his generosity, he would want to know the plan — ‘if I’m giving you money, what are you going to do with it? How are you going to use it? And how are you going to measure how successful you are at using it?’” he explained. “He’s a very bright businessman who always says, ‘let’s do what makes sense, and let’s not do what doesn’t make sense,’ and it was the same with his work in the community.”

Cut and Dried

In Business and the Community, Denis Gagnon Is a Role Model
That’s the Ticket

Returning to the subject of the Patriots and the various perks derived from that relationship, Gagnon noted that the company now has several season tickets.

In what should come as no surprise to anyone who knows him, Gagnon doesn’t use them much himself. (In fact, by late December, he had taken in only the Rams game a few weeks earlier, and that very ugly loss to Buffalo in early October, when Brady was still serving his Deflategate ‘vacation,’ as the quarterback called it).

Indeed, as any smart businessperson would, he bestows most of those tickets on very good customers and those who may attain such status. But he also puts them to use within the community — he donates tickets to the Boy Scouts, for example, for one of its fund-raisers, and, through his son Denis Jr., a board member with the United Way, that organization has received a few as well.

That’s a small example, but one of many, of someone who very quietly and humbly goes about his business — or businesses, as the case may be.

There’s the one that makes electric dryers, and then there’s the business of giving back to the community.

He’s, well, very hands-on, as one might say, with both — and certainly making a difference across Western Mass. in every sense of that phrase.

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