Month: November 2017

SPRINGFIELD — Edward Alford has been elected president of the 1,800-member Realtor Assoc. of Pioneer Valley. The election took place at the association’s annual membership meeting held recently at the Delaney House in Holyoke. Alford owns and operates Advanced Global Realty in South Hadley.

As president, he will oversee the association’s activities and operations, including meetings of the board of directors, and act as a liaison to the association’s various committees. He is the official spokesperson of the association on issues related to the real-estate industry and the local housing market.

The other 2018 officers and directors are Kelly Bowman, president-elect; Susan Drumm, treasurer; Elias Acuna, secretary; and Rick Sawicki, immediate past president. The directors include Shawn Bowman, Peter Davies, Janise Fitzpatrick, Sara Gasparrini, Sharyn Jones, Cheryl Malandrinos, Susan Rheaume, and Russell Sabadosa.

Organized in 1915, the Realtor Assoc. of Pioneer Valley is a professional trade organization serving Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties.

Rainbow Rescues Joins Global #GivingTuesday Movement

By BusinessWest Staff November 17, 2017

CHICOPEE — Rainbow Rescues has joined #GivingTuesday. Occurring this year on Nov. 28, #GivingTuesday is held annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving and the widely recognized shopping events Black Friday and Cyber Monday, to kick off the holiday giving season and inspire people to collaborate in improving their local communities and to give back in impactful ways to the charities and causes they support.

Rainbow Rescues launched a GoFundMe Campaign for Rainbow Rescues Medical Emergencies. The organization rescued five medically needy dogs at the end of October. At their initial veterinary exams, three of the dogs were diagnosed as heartworm-positive.

“As it always seems to happen, when it rains, it pours, and we have a flood of dogs on our hands who all are extremely medically needy,” said Rainbow Rescues President Maria O’Brien. “Most of these pups were scooped up from local animal controls who cannot afford the extensive medical care these sweet dogs require. Not only are the medical costs for these poor dogs high, but they will be with us much longer due to the treatments they require. One single round of heartworm treatment will not only consume $1,500 for medical fees, but one of our wonderful fosters will need to care for that particular dog for several months before we even begin to find a new home. Extra support at this time will help us to not only medically treat these dogs, but support their extended care as well.”

Although all three dogs have a serious case, the most critical case is Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea is an 8-year-old pointer who has clearly not had the best life. She is significantly underweight, has mammary tumors, and her heartworm is so severe, it is taking her eyesight.

All five dogs are safe now, have started their treatments, and are receiving necessary medical care. They are in foster homes with people who love them and want to see them thrive.

By participating in #GivingTuesday, Rainbow Rescues hopes to raise the funds to cover the costs, which have taken on toll on the small-budget organization. As of Nov. 16, donors have raised $1,870 of the $6,500 cost.

“It is truly inspiring to see the generosity of others during a time of need,” said Jenny Franz, Rainbow Rescues director of marketing. “Thirty-two donors have raised nearly 30% of the medical costs being received by these five rescue dogs. Just think about what can be accomplished on a national giving day. I can speak for Sweet Pea, Fiona, Jezebel, Buddy, and Bentley and tell you that they are so very grateful, as are all the volunteers at Rainbow Rescues.”

Those who are interested in joining the Rainbow Rescues #GivingTuesday initiative can visit www.rainbowrescues.org/givingtuesday or visit the GoFundMe campaign directly by clicking here.

New Report Features Fund-raising Advice to Aid Nonprofits

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Nonprofit Network (MNN) released its latest edition of its Commonwealth Insights report series. The report, titled “From the Experts: Advice to Inform Your Organization’s Fundraising,” features advice from interviews with four successful Massachusetts nonprofit fund-raisers in an effort to inform and support year-end fund-raising efforts of nonprofit organizations.

In an early 2017 survey of its membership, nearly 60% of MNN member nonprofits cited fund-raising as the largest challenge facing their organization. With many nonprofits currently accelerating their fund-raising operations to coincide with the end of the calendar year, MNN believes this report will be useful to its over 700 nonprofit members representing every region of the state, as well as members of the state’s nonprofit sector at large.

“Fund-raising is an ever-present challenge — and opportunity — for all types of nonprofits. This edition of Commonwealth Insights focuses on ideas that can help nonprofits take their fund-raising to new heights,” said Jim Klocke, CEO of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network.

The report is centered on general strategies for fund-raisers to consider in their efforts and is supplemented with actionable advice. In a fast-paced and changing fund-raising landscape, all four experts agree that the need to consistently engage donors and provide them with new, creative ways to be involved with a nonprofit organization is critical to building and retaining support.

The report also touches upon a concern of those working in fund-raising, particularly at smaller organizations: that current events and overwhelming needs from across the country and world could further heighten the competition for donors’ support. The interviewed experts agreed that, while this concern is understandable, donors of all ages are looking for even more ways to support causes they care about.

“I think that many people are looking for more ways to make a difference, and I think that is what we need right now,” said Margaret Keller, executive director of Community Access to the Arts in Great Barrington, one of the experts featured in the report. “Donors are more engaged and more committed than ever.”

This is the third edition of Commonwealth Insights MNN has published in 2017. Earlier editions focused on federal tax reform and the Earned Income Tax Credit. The series is made possible by support from the Barr Foundation.

STCC to Host Health Careers Exploration Night on Nov. 29

SPRINGFIELD — On Wednesday, Nov. 29, Springfield Technical Community College will offer Health Careers Exploration Night, an opportunity for anyone interested in becoming a healthcare professional to learn more about STCC’s programs.

Open to the public, the free event will take place from 4 and 6 p.m. While no registration is required, visitors should check in with organizers in the first-floor lobby of Building 20, on the Pearl Street side of the campus.

The night will feature tours of STCC’s SIMS Medical Center, a nationally recognized patient-simulation facility, and tours of departments. Visitors can meet faculty and current students and observe demonstrations and hands-on activities. The event is ideal for anyone thinking about changing careers or becoming a medical professional, to find out if the healthcare field is a good fit.

“This event is a wonderful opportunity for prospective students to explore health careers and meet faculty, staff, and current students. Attendees will be able to ask questions and experience hands-on opportunities that will allow them immersive experiences in each of the healthcare professions offered at STCC,” said Christopher Scott, dean of the School of Health and Patient Simulation.

STCC offers more than a dozen programs to get started on the path to a health career, including cosmetology, dental assistant, dental hygiene, diagnostic medical sonography, health information technology, medical assistant, medical coding and billing specialist, medical laboratory technician, medical office administrative assistant, nursing, occupational therapy assistant, physical therapist assistant, radiologic technology, respiratory care, sterile processing technician (a new program), and surgical technology.

Anyone needing accommodations to fully participate in this event should contact the Office of Disability Services at (413) 755-4785. For more information, contact the School of Health & Patient Simulation at [email protected] or (413) 755-4510.

Balise Supports Students in JA Stock Market Challenge

SPRINGFIELD — On Nov. 9, Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts turned the MassMutual Center’s Exhibition Hall into Wall Street for the largest one-day student stock-market event in the U.S.

Students from West Springfield High School and St. Thomas the Apostle School in West Springfield were among more than 130 student teams from 24 area schools who competed thanks to the generosity of Balise.

As a platinum sponsor of the event, Balise allowed more than 50 West Springfield youth to compete to amass the highest net worth by the end of the 60-day investment period. The catch was that each day was only 60 seconds. Just like in a real trading day, the student teams had access to tips and news that impacted the market and influenced whether they should buy or sell.

Team FYM from West Springfield High finished 15th, and Team Terriers on Main Street finished 20th. Each team increased their portfolios by more than 53%.

Alexa Napolitan from Balise had the opportunity to meet with the student teams before the opening bell rang. “Although Balise has been a sponsor of the JA Stock Market Challenge for years now, this was my first chance to be a part of the day. It was something special. The students were focused and enthusiastic from the moment the starting bell rang, and our West Springfield teams performed incredibly well. We are honored to support an event which fosters young talent and will help develop future community business owners and leaders.”

Jennifer Connolly, president of Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts, noted that “schools like St. Thomas and West Springfield High School get to experience learning outside the classroom because of the commitment that businesses like Balise make to the community. It is a pleasure and an honor to be able to work with companies like Balise to inspire and prepare our youth to own their economic future.”

Family Business Center Offers Two New Book-reading Groups

AMHERST — Do you enjoy reading well-written and practical business books that can make major improvements in your company and life?

Then you may want to join Family Business Center of Pioneer Valley’s two new book-reading groups (six people — owners and key managers of Western Mass. businesses — in each). The group discussions will be led by Alan Robinson, UMass Isenberg professor and author of several bestselling books about idea systems and corporate creativity. The groups will each read two of these five books and participate in a panel discussion about them at a dinner forum on June 13, 2018.

The cost to participate in this program is $300 per person, which includes the books (in print or audible). For more information, contact Ira Bryck at (413) 835-0810 or [email protected].

DevelopSpringfield Wins Award for Merrick-Phelps House

SPRINGFIELD — DevelopSpringfield was presented with a 2017 Massachusetts Historical Commission Historic Preservation Award by Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin at a ceremony on Nov. 2.

“The Massachusetts Historical Commission is proud to recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of this year’s awardees,” Galvin said. “The projects the commission is recognizing this year are particularly diverse and represent the many creative ways that significant historic resources are being preserved across the Commonwealth. With this project, the Merrick-Phelps House will now be an important contributor to Springfield’s economic future.”

Constructed in 1841, the Merrick-Phelps House, located at 83 Maple St., is one of Springfield’s most significant historic buildings. The house was built by Solymon Merrick, inventor of the monkey wrench and a key player in Springfield’s history of industry and innovation. The house was then sold in 1847 to Ansel Phelps, who later became the city’s mayor. Many residents still refer to this as the ‘Mayor’s House.’ After Phelps’s death in 1860, the building continued to house families of the Springfield elite well into the 20th century.

The Merrick-Phelps House, situated on the corner of Maple and Union streets, is a Greek Revival-style, two-story, single-family house featuring a low hipped roof and an elaborate, two-story portico with fluted Corinthian columns. A one-story porch on the Union Street elevation was added in 1890. The primary entrance on Maple Street is accentuated by a Greek Revival-style door surround and a pair of glass-and-wood-panel doors. The windows are all original wood windows. Notable interior features include a grand center hall with a curved staircase along the wall, a large parlor and dining room with decorative trim, and five original fireplace mantels.

Toward the end of the 20th century, the house began to show signs of neglect, and it was abandoned in 2007. When DevelopSpringfield purchased the house in 2013, it had been vacant for several years and was in an advanced state of deterioration.

DevelopSpringfield worked with a team of experts to assist in the successful rehabilitation of this historic property, including architect Marco Crescentini of Dietz & Co. Architects, general contractor Peter Hamm of Historic Preservation Associates, preservation specialist Gregory Farmer of Agricola Corp., preservation consultant William Young of Epsilon Associates, and Dennis Keefe of Westfield Bank (financing).

MassMutual Names Sean Newth Chief Accounting Officer, Controller

SPRINGFIELD — MassMutual announced the appointment of Sean Newth as chief accounting officer and corporate controller, effective immediately.

Newth, who has nearly two decades of accounting experience in financial services, will oversee MassMutual’s corporate-accounting operations and financial reporting. He will report to Elizabeth Ward, the company’s chief financial officer and chief actuary.

“Sean’s strong business acumen, depth of knowledge, and outstanding reputation in the industry make him an excellent addition as a senior leader to our team,” said Ward. “Additionally, his experience and demonstrated global accounting and reporting expertise will be invaluable in helping to drive MassMutual’s continued strategic growth momentum, operational transformation, and success.”

Newth comes to MassMutual from State Street Corp., where, after joining the firm in 2005, he served as chief accounting officer and controller since 2014. He also held a range of other senior positions in State Street’s Accounting department, including deputy controller and director of accounting policy.

Newth began his career at KPMG in 1997, where, during his eight years at the firm, he served in various transaction services, accounting advisory and assurance roles.

A certified public accountant, Newth holds a bachelor’s degree in accountancy from Providence College, and earned his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He serves as chairman of the board for the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston and is a member of the Providence College Boston President’s Council.

Comcast Business Expands Portfolio with VoiceEdge Select

SPRINGFIELD — Comcast Business announced a new addition to its voice-solutions portfolio: VoiceEdge Select. Designed specifically for small businesses, VoiceEdge Select is a cloud-based phone service with a full set of standard and advanced calling features, a mobile app, and business-grade phones priced affordably by the seat.

Comcast Business’ VoiceEdge Select includes all of the traditional calling features small businesses expect but also includes, at no additional cost, advanced features such as automated attendant, hunt groups, simultaneous ring, and readable voice mail. Business-grade Panasonic phones are included with the cost of the service, and customers can select from cordless and desk phone options. The service is delivered over Comcast’s nationwide network.

“Small businesses are the heart of the American economy, and they need services that can help them better serve their customers and compete against larger brands. VoiceEdge Select gives them professional call handling and an easy-to-use portal and mobile application, letting them tailor the service to their needs to ensure they never miss a call in or out of the office,” said John Guillaume, vice president, Product Management & UX at Comcast Business.

Comcast’s technicians will provide installation and instruction for customers to get them up and running quickly. Businesses can keep their existing phone number, and with the mobile app, employees can receive and make calls from any device, including their desk phone, mobile phone, or home phone, using their business-caller ID. Because the service is in the cloud and managed through an intuitive online portal, upgrades and configuration changes can be made easily without requiring an IT staff.

“Services like VoiceEdge Select are leveling the playing field for small businesses by giving them access to capabilities similar to those of large enterprises,” said Diane Myers, senior research director, IHS Markit. “The advanced call features and inherent flexibility of VoiceEdge Select will be attractive to small businesses looking to gain a competitive advantage, easily scale alongside business needs, and better manage their infrastructure and costs.”

Bay Path Hosts Fifth Annual Cybersecurity Summit

LONGMEADOW — At the fifth annual Cybersecurity Summit held recently at the Longmeadow campus of Bay Path University, keynote speaker and Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech) CEO Timothy Connelly told summit attendees that cybersecurity is a top issue for Gov. Charlie Baker and MassTech.

According to Connelly, MassTech is making cybersecurity a priority “because we recognize this is the fastest-growing sector. This is why we established the MassTech Cyber Growth and Development Center. Governor Charlie Baker thinks this is a terrific market that can produce sustainable jobs as long as we develop the needed talent.”

MassTech CEO Timothy Connelly and Bay Path President Carol Leary

Connelly noted that there is currently a talent deficit in the field, with more than 8,000 available jobs in cybersecurity in Massachusetts. The Commonwealth is the number-one generator of STEM graduates nationally, and is home to 37 of the 500 most innovative security companies in the world, second only to California, he added.

MassTech is a public agency created to support the innovation economy in the Commonwealth and help support formation and growth of the state’s technology sector. Connelly is head of the newly established Cybersecurity Center at MassTech.

Other speakers at the summit included Tim Russell, supervisory special agent in Cybersecurity, FBI Boston; and Carol Leary, Bay Path president. This year’s summit was titled “Building a Cybersecurity Ecosystem: the Roles of Higher Education, Law Enforcement, and Technology.”

“It is critical for higher education to be a central part of this emerging cyber ecosystem,” said Leary, who serves as a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Academic Advisory Council. “We are developing the right talent, the diverse talent needed to be a part of the cybersecurity workforce. To the students pursuing a cybersecurity career — you are the future, you are qualified, and we need you more than ever.”

Added Russell, “cybersecurity is a human-capital issue and is an entire company endeavor. All should be part of developing a cyber ecosystem. Engagement and collaboration with government and law enforcement is important in detection.”

The summit was co-sponsored by the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts. According to Rick Sullivan, president and CEO, “The EDC is focused on growing our economy, and one of our greatest assets is higher education. We want to develop economic-development sectors that are new and cutting-edge. We can become a center of excellence in cybersecurity, and our colleges and universities can help us grow that sector. I want to thank Bay Path University for being the leader in the cybersecurity sector, and we are here to follow your lead.”

According to Thomas Loper, associate provost and dean of the School of Science and Management at Bay Path, the summit drew over 200 people, including professionals in the cybersecurity field; small-business owners; executives from financial-services, manufacturing, insurance, and healthcare organizations; and students, faculty, and staff from the region’s colleges.

Baystate’s Jane Albert Embraces Change in Many Ways

Sections Women in Businesss

Market Shift

From her early days in marketing, Jane Albert had a goal — to work in the field of healthcare, and specifically for Baystate Health, the region’s largest health system. To achieve that goal, and eventually be part of the organization’s senior leadership, she was willing to take risks, welcome new opportunities as they arose, and continually make connections — all the while never losing sight of who her customers are and how to most effectively meet their needs.

When she was 8 years old, Jane Albert was the only one of her friends allowed to ride her bike from her Springfield neighborhood all the way to City Line Pharmacy in East Longmeadow. She immediately saw the money-making possibilities.

“I would buy candy there and set up a table on my front lawn to sell candy to all the kids in my neighborhood, and I’d mark the candy up,” she said. “I evaluated the demand for certain types of candy; at first, I bought what I liked, but then I saw what they were buying.”

When someone would complain about the prices, she’d note they could easily ride to the pharmacy and buy their own. Except that they couldn’t.

What she didn’t realize at the time, she said, was that she was exercising the four ‘Ps’ of marketing that students of the subject learn in college: product, price, place, and promotion. “The candy was the price, and the price was the markup based on the demand. The place was local — my front yard — and promotion was word of mouth; kids rode their bikes around and said, ‘Jane’s selling candy.’”

While Albert didn’t know at the time that marketing and business development would become her career and driving passion, it’s easy now to look back and recognize an early aptitude for it — and the connecting threads between candy and healthcare as she settles into her latest role at Baystate Health, as senior vice president of Marketing, Communications & External Relations.

“It all goes back to that entrepreneurial spirit — even in healthcare, what do people want, and how do we deliver that and make them happy? And how do you determine what people want, or give them something they can’t get somewhere else?”

Her marketing career started in the 1990s with a moment of ‘bartering’ with Braman Chemical owner Jerry Lazarus, who was in her home on a pest-control call. “I shared ideas with him on how he could improve his marketing outreach. He was so taken with the ideas, he didn’t charge me. I thought, ‘oh, this is really valuable. I have good things to offer that I could package.’”

With a baby at the time, and a part-time teaching gig at what was then known as Western New England College, she launched a solo venture as a marketing consultant — something she could do with her skills and still be home with her family at night.

During that time, Albert developed a footprint across the Northeast and partnered with marketing and research firms and ad agencies to increase the value of what they brought clients. Some were more receptive that others — one client didn’t think she brought as much value working from home than someone with a “fancy office.”

“I said he was getting me 24/7 and wasn’t paying for overhead — just paying for brainpower,” she recalled. He challenged her by calling her at 6:45 one evening, when he figured she’d be cooking dinner. She took the call with one hand while stirring food on the stovetop with the other.

I’m always looking to the future and what’s next — I’m a visionary planner. And I knew my next step was not going to be a college president. So I asked, what’s next for me?”

Meanwhile, she was proving her value in other ways as well. While teaching at WNEC, she developed a plan to create a marketing department. Later, “the president called and said, ‘we like what you did. Will you be our first director of marketing?” She took that job, and when current President Anthony Caprio came on board, he promoted Albert to vice president of Advancement and Marketing.

She liked that job, though she missed the classroom culture, that moment of seeing the lights go on for a student who made a connection between the textbook and real life. “But I was able to promote a good school, and that was gratifying as well.”

But it would not be her final career stop. Far from it.

“I’m always looking to the future and what’s next — I’m a visionary planner,” she told BusinessWest. “And I knew my next step was not going to be a college president. So I asked, what’s next for me?”

The answer, she decided, was in healthcare.

“I was born at Baystate and raised in Springfield, and I wasn’t going to relocate anywhere,” Albert said. “I had heard a lot about Baystate’s leadership under [then-President] Mike Daly, and that’s where I had my sights set. You can have so much impact on people in healthcare, and I saw the impact Baystate had on so many people, so I wanted to work there and get involved in healthcare.”

But no opportunities in her field of marketing were available right away, so, as a stepping stone, she went to work for Veritech, a 25-person multi-media company that specialized in healthcare, heading up its business-development arm — a move that baffled friends and family who wondered why she would shed the prestige of being a college’s vice president for something seemingly much less glamorous.

But she had a plan.

“The core of their business was healthcare education,” she explained. “The founder was really a man ahead of his time. He created digital patient-education programs online, but it was too soon; there was no payment model for it. But I loved his company. My thought was that I’d take over his company when he retired, or use that as a launchpad to get to Baystate.”

Two years later, she got a call from the head of Baystate’s Marketing department — a job opportunity had opened up, with the health system looking to install a manager of Medical Practices Marketing. Again, friends wondered whether it had been worth leaving her vice presidency at WNEC to wind up in a managerial role in a massive health system.

“I did it because, looking at the long term, I wanted to be here at Baystate,” she said. “It was a significantly different job, obviously, compared to Western New England, but I said, ‘I’m in it for the long haul, and I’m going to go for it and do the best I can.’”

Fifteen years later, she’s sure that was the right decision.

Up the Ladder

When preparing to take a photo for this article, Albert joked that BusinessWest should take one of all her Baystate business cards. Indeed, it’s an impressive collection.

For instance, Baystate’s physician practices, the focus of her first stop, is an important part of the network, today boasting more than 80 primary- and specialty-care doctors. “My job was to promote the physicians and the practices to the general community, so they would know what we had to offer.”

During her time in that role, Albert presented the first marketing plan to integrate two legacy medical groups to become one organization, known today as Baystate Medical Practices.

But much of the day-to-day work was about building bridges between the doctors and their patients, and between the practices and their communities, she added. “That’s the most important piece, the relationships. That’s what it’s all about. When doctors have good relationships with patients, the patients share that with others. When the doctors have good relationships with other doctors, they refer to one another.”

She was later appointed manager of Corporate Marketing, overseeing Baystate Health’s marketing efforts, loyalty programs, and events, followed by a stint as director of Public Affairs & Internal Communications. She then returned to Baystate Medical Practices, successfully launching the organization’s first physician-referral office, working under the leadership of Mark Keroack, who later became president of Baystate Health.

“That office was really about developing relationships between Baystate doctors and community physicians, and paving a pathway for better access to each other, and for patients to get appointments,” she explained. “I knew so much about Baystate that moving into this operations role was really exciting. It was a place I could grow and have an impact.”

But not long after, a search committee embarked on a nine-month search for a key dual role in the system: vice president of Philanthropy for Baystate Health and executive director of the Baystate Health Foundation. They failed to identify the ideal candidate, however, and turned inward, to someone with a deep understanding of the system’s needs and some experience in fund-raising. That’s right — it was time for Albert to order a new set of business cards.

Among her accomplishments in that role, she led a transformation of the foundation to align philanthropic support with a new strategic plan, and oversaw the completion of a $5 million capital campaign for the new surgical center at Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield.

Four years later, though, it was time for another move, this time into the health system’s senior leadership team. As a member of Keroack’s cabinet, she now oversees the functions of marketing and digital strategy, government and public relations, community relations and public health, communications, and philanthropy.

That’s … quite a long list.

And it’s not a job performed in the quiet of her office; with a wry smile, she held up that day’s schedule, an uninterrupted block of meetings with different departments — squeezing in BusinessWest among them — and made it clear most days are like that. But she relishes her raft of new responsibilities.

“There’s been a lot of change over the last few years,” Albert said, referring to both her role and the evolving shape of healthcare as well. “But change brings opportunity. Healthcare is changing every single day, and so is our environment, so we have to be able to change, to meet the needs of our patients, families, donors, and legislators.”

The biggest challenge in healthcare is government changes and reimbursements. You’re dealing with an industry where more than half the revenues are provided by the government. There’s continual change, and that makes it difficult.”

Indeed, that latter group is often the most demanding.

“The biggest challenge in healthcare is government changes and reimbursements. You’re dealing with an industry where more than half the revenues are provided by the government. There’s continual change, and that makes it difficult.”

In addition, Baystate serves a population with high levels of poverty, and Medicaid reimburses only 75% of costs, on average. “We’re losing 25 cents on the dollar for every Medicaid patient. And when you have a charitable mission to take care of everybody — no one gets turned away — it becomes challenging to afford all that we need to do.”

Improving the Prognosis

‘All that’ extends well beyond everyday care, of course, including attracting top talent, investing in innovative technology, providing the teaching resources of an academic medical center, and, now, partnering with UMass Medical School on a Springfield branch.

“That’s why philanthropy is so important,” she added, particularly at a time when hospitals are expected to keep communities healthy, improve the patient experience, and reduce costs — the so-called ‘triple aim.’

“Healthcare used to be based on, the more you did, the more you got paid,” she said. “You’d send a patient for six tests, an X-ray, and three specialists. Now, healthcare is reimbursed based on how healthy you keep patients.”

And preferably not in hospitals. Take asthma, for instance, a particularly pervasive issue in the Pioneer Valley. If a child’s asthma is not controlled and he or she winds up in the hospital, it results in poor school performance, missed work for the parents, and higher costs for the health system — a vicious cycle. The better option? Preventive efforts to keep the child healthy at home.

“Where do you find a business that tries to keep you away from that business, and that’s a success?” Albert asked. “But that’s where we are. Our goal is population health and doing all we can do to keep people healthy. We look at social determinants of health — access to food, incidence of diabetes and obesity, which can lead to heart disease … all those things drive the cost of health way up. It’s a much better picture when people are healthy, and that’s what we want.”

Achieving that goal requires everyone in the health system to align behind a single mission, and that requires a culture change, she explained, from the doctors performing cutting-edge surgery to maintenance staff raking leaves and improving the aesthetic appeal of a building that few customers are really happy about entering.

“There aren’t a lot of businesses where people don’t want to come to your business, so we want to make it as pleasant an experience as possible,” she said. “That is our focus. The world is changing, so we need to understand what the patient wants and how we can best deliver it.”

The bottom line, Albert said, is trying to make a difference and make the world a better place, as cliché as that might sound.

“I’m excited about where I am in this role,” she said, reflecting simultaneously on all the stops along the way. “People can see you can go from a manager up the line. An organization of this size provides those opportunities.”

It’s certainly a long way — figuratively, anyway — from just over the border in East Longmeadow, where an 8-year-old with a knack for marketing first began figuring out what her customers wanted and how to deliver the goods.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Development Associates Begins Third Northampton Office Building

NORTHAMPTON — Agawam-based real-estate firm Development Associates has begun construction of a 66,000-square-foot, three-story office building at 15 Atwood Dr. in Northampton, immediately south of I-91 exit 18. The project is being developed by Northwood Development LLC, whose owners are longtime local investors Edward O’Leary and his daughters, Eileen O’Leary Sullivan and Susan O’Leary Mulhern.

The project is located on the site of the former Clarion Hotel and Conference Center that was demolished in 2016 to prepare for redevelopment. The overall site-development plan was recently approved by the city of Northampton, and provides for two new office buildings on the site, the one under construction being closer to Route 5, and a future multi-story building at the rear of the property near Interstate 91.

The new building plan offers professional and medical space for lease with occupancy expected at the end of 2018. The Massachusetts Trial Court has leased 22,000 square feet, consisting of the entire first floor plus a portion of the second floor. The remainder of the second floor and the entire third floor, which offers more than 20,000 square feet, are available for new tenants.

According to Ken Vincunas, managing partner of Development Associates, “the brand-new open floor plan allows the initial tenants the opportunity to have floor plans custom-designed to suit their exact requirements, and we are already attracting quite of bit of tenant interest.”

The construction plans show that the building will have abundant windows, a covered drop-off lane, two elevators, energy-efficient design, and hundreds of parking spaces.

This is the third major office building developed by Development Associates at this location, following two earlier successful three-story buildings on the south side of Atwood Drive. These previous buildings, which came online in 2012 and 2013, are fully leased, primarily to Mass General/Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

The new building is being built by general contractor R.P. Masiello of Boylston, with architectural design by Gregory J. O’Connor Associates Inc. of Worcester. Development Associates is the construction manager and leasing broker for the project.

Rural Franklin County Is Making Strides Toward Becoming a Destination

Community Profile Features

‘Something’s Bubbling’

Downtown Greenfield is becoming a destination, as are other communities in Franklin County.

Franklin County, the state’s most rural county, and also its poorest, faces a host of challenges today — from a declining and aging population to poor broadband service in most of its communities, to statistically lower wages for comparable jobs. But those working to spur economic development and improve quality of life here see progress in many forms and vast opportunities to attract the young people who covet many of things this region can offer them.

John Lunt was looking to make a point about Franklin County in general, and the amount of developable land in and around Greenfield in particular, and to do so effectively, he recalled a recent conversation he had with Jay Ashe, the state’s secretary of Housing and Economic Development.

“We were talking about land that small precision manufacturers could potentially develop on, and he said something like, ‘you’re in Western Mass., Franklin County — you must have a ton of land,’” said Lunt, director of Special Projects and Economic Development in Greenfield, adding quickly that this is not the case at all.

“The land that we have available for those kinds of manufacturing jobs is pretty much gone,” he explained, referring especially to Greenfield. “We have some land that’s zoned ‘planned industrial,’ but there isn’t a business in the world that would build on it because of slope and ledge and things that make it to difficult to prepare.”

John Lunt says collaboration is a necessary quality in rural Franklin County, as is independence and an entrepreneurial approach to progress.

Lunt recalled his conversation with Ashe to make another point — that many of the perceptions about rural Franklin County, like the one about land to develop, are not exactly on the mark.

Others include the widely held belief that families and businesses do not want to locate there, the notion that the region doesn’t have much of what the Millennial generation is looking for, and the perception that manufacturing is all but dead in a region that had been economically dominated by it for centuries.

“Manufacturing is still doing very well here, but it’s changed somewhat; many large companies involved in traditional manufacturing have left,” said Patricia Crosby, executive director of the Franklin Hampshire Regional Employment Board. “Many smaller ones have stayed, and new companies have come here; they’re mostly involved in precision manufacturing or fabricated metals, and they’re doing extremely well, and they’re adding a few employees each year.”

Meanwhile, others we spoke with said Franklin County is, in fact, becoming a landing spot for Millennials — generally older Millennials who are ready to settle down, and especially those who are active and into outdoor sports (much more on that later).

Unfortunately, though, many other perceptions about this region are far more accurate, to the point where they become statistics. These include the fact that this is the poorest county in the state; that wages here are well below the state average for comparable jobs — a real factor in the region’s struggles to attract young people; that broadband service doesn’t exist in many of the communities in the county; that public transportation is sorely lacking; that the age of the population in those communities is rising at almost alarming levels; and that, while unemployment is fairly low at 3%, this is a misleading statistic because many individuals have stopped looking for work, and others are unemployable.

But while rural Franklin County has more than its fair share of challenges, there are a number of signs of progress and abundant hope that there will be many more in the months and years to come.

Start with the Five Eyed Fox, a restaurant and bar in Turners Falls that is making that community just east of Greenfield a destination and what some even called a ‘hot spot,’ a term not used in that community for some time.

“It’s super hip and cool to be in Turners Falls,” said Natalie Blais, executive director of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, and also the local tourism board. “It’s the place to be; Turners is sort of leading this whole retro, hip scene.”

It’s super hip and cool to be in Turners Falls. It’s the place to be; Turners is sort of leading this whole retro, hip scene.”

Then there’s the Orange Innovation Center, a co-working space in a community in what’s known as the North Quabbin area, the eastern edge of the county. Created in a factory where General Foods once produced Minute Tapioca pudding for roughly seven decades, the space now hosts an eclectic group of tenants ranging from a music studio and to a fitness club to the Center for Human Development.

And at Greenfield Community College (GCC), the only college in the county, a number of new programs have been created to help provide job seekers with the skills they’ll need to succeed in a changing, information-based economy.

Linda Dunleavy says Franklin County is becoming an attractive landing spot for what she called ‘older Millennials,’ who are looking for a place to settle down.

Perhaps most importantly, though, an ecosystem is emerging. It’s comprised of a number of nonprofits, the college, government entities, and employers across several sectors, and while it’s still taking shape and finding its bearings, it is addressing the issues and problems facing the region through collaboration and efforts to maximize available resources. And it is also taking a more organized approach to the work of bringing families, businesses, young people, retirees — and opportunity — to the region.

For this issue, BusinessWest talked with several individuals who are part of this ecosystem about the various forms of progress being recorded — and the considerable work that remains.

Buy the Numbers

Collaboration is needed because the challenges facing Franklin County are numerous, and many of them are complex and defy easy answers — or any answers, for that matter.

Indeed, after talking about how wages in Franklin County are statistically lower than those in other areas and roughly 65% of what is paid statewide, Crosby, who noted that it’s been this way since she came to the REB 16 years ago, was asked the obvious question: why?

She paused for a moment and said simply, “because employers can get away with it.” And they can, because the factors that drive wages higher in other areas — a scarcity of workers and heightened competition for qualified talent — are not in evidence here, with some exceptions, as we’ll see.

That statistic regarding wages is only one of many eye-opening numbers that come to the forefront when talking about Franklin County. Many of the others drive home just how rural this area is: there are 72,000 people living in 26 communities across 725 square miles. In several communities, such as Rowe, Hawley, Heath, and others, stating the total population requires only three digits. In Monroe, one barely needs three; the latest census had 121 people living there.

The people living in those 26 towns are the poorest in the state in terms of per-capita income and, as noted, average wage per job, said Linda Dunleavy, executive director of the Franklin Region Council of Governments.

And, by and large, the population of the county is falling, said Alyce Stiles, dean of Workforce Development & Community Education at GCC. She said the enrollment at the county’s public schools is down significantly in recent years — which doesn’t bode well for the college or the region and its business community.

“That has layers of ramifications for us,” she said. “There are fewer people going into the community-college system, and then fewer people going into the workforce.”

And the population is getting older, said Roseann Martoccia, who should know. She’s the executive director of LifePath Inc., a nonprofit that works to help seniors age in place. She noted that 17% of the county’s residents are over age 65 (the state average is 15%), and in some of the smaller, western communities, the number exceeds 20%.

“And those percentages, in some communities, are expected to double by 2030,” she told BusinessWest. “And that’s not that far away.”

Behind all the numbers is a kind of operating mindset, if you will, one defined by a form of independence that is understandable when one considers how far away this county is from Boston or even Springfield — and not just in terms of geography.

“Collaboration comes from necessity,” said Lunt. “We have to be more independent, and we have to be more entrepreneurial, because whether we want it or not, most people realize that help isn’t really coming from farther east.”

The statistics, as well as this mindset, are just some of the things that Cindy Russo has learned she since became president of Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, the county’s largest employer, roughly 18 months ago.

“I knew absolutely nothing about Franklin County before I came here, and about the only name I recognized was Yankee Candle,” she said, referring to the iconic Deerfield-based manufacturer and retailer. “Everything else, I had to learn.”

Cindy Russo, who became president of Baystate Franklin Medical Center in 2016, says she can sense gathering momentum in the region.

She’s learned, among other things, that the region has a strong sense of community spirit, as well as a great deal of natural beauty and a bounty of outdoor recreation to offer, from fishing to hiking; from skiing to whitewater rafting. She’s also learned that a large number of nonprofits operate in the region — often in collaboration with each other to meet a wide variety of missions.

She’s also come to recognize that it’s somewhat difficult to recruit doctors and other medical professionals to this rural area, despite its various amenities and lower lost of housing and living in general.

“That is certainly a challenge,” she said. “One of the biggest ways we’re able to attract people is if there’s a connection — they have family here or their roots are here — but also the beauty of this region and the hiking and other outdoor activity; those are strong selling points.”

Another challenge, meanwhile, is keeping young professionals, she said, adding that more than 50% of Baystate Franklin’s employees have less than five years of experience.

“Many times, we’ll get a new nurse from GCC, and they’ll start their practice at Baystate Franklin,” she explained. “But then they might be looking out for the sexier markets, like Boston. So we have to think of ways to keep them here.”

But since arriving, she’s observed something else — gathering momentum when it comes to the region being a destination for everything from a fun night out to a place to raise a family, to a spot where one can enjoy retirement. “There’s something bubbling here; even in the short time I’ve been here, I’m feeling it,” she said, adding that the region is becoming something it probably doesn’t want to become — a best-kept secret.

Land of Opportunity

There was some general agreement about that notion of something bubbling among those we spoke with. People talked about momentum and the region making strides toward becoming something it’s never really been, or hasn’t been for some time — a destination, on several levels.

Start with a night out — at the Five-Eyed Fox, or a growing number of alternatives.

“There’s great food and drink; there’s much more of a local arts scene than people than people think,” said Lunt. “We actually toured the Mass. Cultural Council around, and they were kind of blown away by what they saw out here.

“There are a lot of artists studios,” he went on. “There’s a lot of local theater, and Greenfield’s gone from having not that many restaurants to having 13 different kinds of cuisine. It’s not uncommon at all to do something you really couldn’t do here 10 or 15 years ago — families go out, have something to eat, and then go to a local show or theater or listen to some music.”

And then, there’s tourism in general. Blais said the region has built a solid infrastructure of attractions that includes ski resorts, ziplining and whitewater-rafting outfits, fishing, boating, and more, and needs to more aggressively promote what it has and build that important sector of the economy.

But those within this ecosystem also talked about destination in a bigger sense — as in a place for a family to settle or a business to put down roots.

And some younger families are moving into Greenfield and other communities, like Turners Falls, because of what they offer, said Blais.

“There’s lots of culture and live music,” she explained. “And with all the breweries and cideries in the region, we’re really seeing young people being interested in coming here.”

Dunleavy agreed, but narrowed the definition of ‘young’ somewhat. She said the region is more attractive to older young people, those with familes, those who might have roots in the region, or those who might have left in search of something else and now value what they left behind.

“It’s Millennials at a different stage of their life,” she said, adding that, despite recognized progress in this realm, there needs to be a large, concerted, and collaborative (there’s that word again) effort to sell the county as an attractive place to live.

“As a group of organizational leaders, we were talking about how we need to have the same mission — attracting young people and young families to Franklin County,” Dunleavy explained. “We should all identify how our organization will do that and work together to implement a region-wide strategy, because we need to bring more people to Franklin County and younger people to Franklin County.”

As for attracting businesses and jobs, the region faces a number of challenges, ranging from those broadband issues to the lack of developable land that Lunt mentioned.

“We never turn anyone away,” he said. “But we struggle when someone says, ‘we want a 40,000-square-foot building and 22 acres’ — we just don’t have that available.”

What is available are smaller lots, some old mill spaces, and office buildings downtown, he noted, adding that all of the above can be used toward something that Millennials, in general, seem to like: co-working space.

Several projects in this realm are already underway or in the planning stages, said Lunt, adding that they will helped by the town’s creation of a municipal broadband network that includes Internet, phone, and data services.

“The goal is to move people into these spaces by offering them more 21st-century infrastructure,” he explained, “because, as manufacturing-driven as we’ve been, we just can’t be in the future, because we just don’t have the space for it; we have to try to develop higher-tech businesses, and those are also businesses that pay well.”

Another challenge for the region involves the workforce. As noted earlier, unemployment is relatively low, but there are many who lack needed skills, have stopped searching for work, or are unemployable.

Stiles said the broad goal is to help individuals gain needed skills and fill positions in growing fields, such as healthcare and precision manufacturing.

She mentioned specific programs created at GGC for the precision-manufacturing and medical-assisting fields, just two of many where jobs exist and will exist in the years to come, and where companies consistently struggle to find good help.

Moving forward, she and others said the primary goal is to make the workforce larger and stronger, an initiative that is, in all ways, a work in progress.

Moving the Needle

Surveying the situation from many different angles, including that of a long-time resident and also someone working to stimulate economic development in the region, Lunt said the path Franklin County is on is the right one.

Elaborating, he said the many groups working to spur economic development and improve quality of life are moving the needle when it comes to generating progress and addressing the overriding challenge facing the county — creating enough good jobs to support the lifestyle that is the primary draw for this region.

“We could all live somewhere else, but we don’t — we choose not to,” Lunt told BusinessWest. Speaking for all those now part of the county’s emerging ecosystem, he said the broad goal is simply to inspire more people to take that same attitude.

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

Capturing These Benefits Requires Knowing Where to Look

Accounting and Tax Planning Sections

Tax Incentives for Business Owners

By Brenden Healy, CPA

Brenden Healy, CPA

Whether we like it or not, taxes are a part of any business strategy. From the federal level on down, tax obligations go side-by-side with running a business. And while the economy is getting better for much of the country, business owners need to continue to improve their bottom line. One good way to strengthen business cash flow is by taking advantage of tax credits or tax incentives. Business owners sometimes do not harvest these opportunities, most often because they don’t know about all the options available to them or because they don’t fully understand the requirements.

Capturing these benefits requires knowing to look for them, which can be an issue in the diverse tax rules of the IRS or state taxing authorities. Here are some tax opportunities that every business owner should know about:

• Research and Development Tax Credit: This credit was introduced as an incentive to encourage new innovation in the U.S., but remains one of the most overlooked tax opportunities out there. There’s a lot of misconception that a research-driven credit must be limited to modern, large tech firms that are putting out new products. However, the purpose of this credit is to fuel innovation and development, which is relevant to a variety of industries, of all sizes. Recent changes in IRS regulations have opened up this tax credit to many industries. Manufacturing, investment-management services, software development, and even construction are major industries that can take advantage of this tax-savings opportunity, but it can be applied to other industries in certain scenarios.

• Export Sales: The IRS allows companies that produce goods in the U.S. and then export them outside the border to take advantage of a reduced tax rate for some of the profits relating to those export sales. This is accomplished by converting the business income related to the exports into long-term capital-gain income, which is usually taxed at about half the normal business tax rate.

• Write-Off of Asset Purchases: This incentive is one of the most beneficial ones for small businesses. The IRS continues to allow generous write-offs for purchasing equipment, machines, computers, etc. through the Section 179 tax-expensing election with a 2017 deduction limit of about $500,000, or the 50% ‘bonus’ depreciation deduction, which could be used after that spending cap is reached.

• New IRS Capitalization-policy Rules: Just by making a special election on the tax return, a small business can adopt a policy of expensing items purchased during the year, up to $2,500 for each item. As an example, if a business buys 10 computers for $1,500 each, it could expense the full $15,000 of computers under this capitalization policy rule.

• Roof Repairs and Other Building Maintenance Costs: The IRS is also allowing real-estate owners to take advantage of writeoffs relating to building maintenance items. Under new IRS rules, certain roof repairs and other building maintenance items can be expensed in the year they are completed, instead of capitalizing those costs and depreciating them over a 39-year period of time, which was the old requirement.

• ‘Segregation’ of Building Costs for Tax Expensing: When a business owner buys a new building or makes significant improvements to a building, there can be ways to expense those costs faster than the normal, 39-year depreciation life that the tax law allows. By identifying certain costs such as non-structural items, wall coverings, or specialty lighting, the IRS allows the building owner to expense these costs at a faster rate. Thus, performing a ‘cost-segregation study’ can create large tax writeoffs up front instead of waiting 39 years to recover the investment.

• Compensation and Retirement Planning: The IRS also allows business owners to put away large amounts towards their retirement as well as the retirement of key employees of the business. By properly designing a compensation strategy and deferred-compensation planning options, business owners can take care of their key employees while saving tax money.

Leveraging tax incentives can greatly help buffer a company’s bottom line, but more often than not, business owners don’t know what’s available to them. It’s crucial that business owners have open conversations with their accountant about the work of the company to see if there are opportunities available. While these programs can be complex and difficult to navigate, they can save a business a significant amount of money.

Brenden Healy, CPA, is a partner at Whittlesey with significant experience in consulting with business owners to identify tax incentives and strategic planning for their future.

Steps Taken Now Can Reduce Your Tax Burden Later

Accounting and Tax Planning Sections

A Time to Plan

It’s never a bad time for companies to assess their tax situation and plan ahead, but with the end of 2017 approaching — and plenty of uncertainty over potential tax reform clouding the picture — it’s an especially good moment to start formulating a strategy to save tax dollars down the line. Here’s a checklist of actions based on current tax rules that may help businesses do just that.

By Kris Houghton, CPA

Taxes and the possibility of tax reform have been in the news so frequently, many are just tuned out on the subject. However, with year-end approaching, it is a good time to think of planning moves that will help lower your tax bill for this year and possibly the next.

Kristina Drzal-Houghton

For many years, experts have suggested the approach of deferring income until next year and accelerating deductions into this year to minimize taxes. This time-honored approach could turn out to be even more valuable this year if Congress succeeds in enacting tax reform that reduces business tax rates beginning next year in exchange for slimmed-down deductions.

Regardless of whether tax reform is enacted, deferring income also may help you minimize or avoid AGI-based phaseouts of various tax breaks that are applicable for 2017. Except in general terms, I will refrain from comparing the current tax laws to proposed legislation since its enactment in its current form is very speculative.

Regardless of whether tax reform is enacted, deferring income also may help you minimize or avoid AGI-based phaseouts of various tax breaks that are applicable for 2017.”

The following is a checklist of actions based on current tax rules that may help you save tax dollars if you act before year-end.

Year-end Tax-planning Moves for Businesses and Business Owners

• Businesses should consider making expenditures that qualify for the business-property-expensing option.

For tax years beginning in 2017, the expensing limit is $510,000, and the investment-ceiling limit is $2,030,000. Expensing is generally available for most depreciable property (other than buildings), off-the-shelf computer software, air-conditioning and heating units, and qualified real property-qualified leasehold improvement property, qualified restaurant property, and qualified retail improvement property. The generous dollar ceilings that apply this year mean that many small and medium-sized businesses that make timely purchases will be able to currently deduct most if not all their outlays for machinery and equipment.

What’s more, the expensing deduction is not prorated for the time that the asset is in service during the year. The fact that the expensing deduction may be claimed in full (if you are otherwise eligible to take it), regardless of how long the property is held during the year, can be a potent tool for year-end tax planning. Thus, property acquired and placed in service in the last days of 2017, rather than at the beginning of 2018, can result in a full expensing deduction for 2017.

• Businesses should also consider making expenditures that qualify for 50% bonus first-year depreciation if bought and placed in service this year (the bonus percentage declines to 40% next year). The bonus-depreciation deduction is permitted without any proration based on the length of time that an asset is in service during the tax year. As a result, the 50% first-year bonus write-off is available even if qualifying assets are in service for only a few days in 2017.

• Businesses may be able to take advantage of the ‘de minimis safe-harbor election’ (also known as the book-tax conformity election) to expense the costs of lower-cost assets and materials and supplies. To qualify for the election, the cost of an item of property can’t exceed $5,000 if the taxpayer has a certified audited financial statement along with an independent CPA’s report. Otherwise, the cost of an item of property can’t exceed $2,500.

• Businesses contemplating large equipment purchases also should keep a close eye on the tax-reform plan being considered by Congress. The current version contemplates immediate expensing — with no set dollar limit — of all depreciable asset (other than building) investments made after Sept. 27, 2017, for a period of at least five years. This would be a major incentive for some businesses to make large purchases of equipment in late 2017.

• A corporation should consider deferring income until 2018 if it will be in a higher bracket this year than next. This could certainly be the case if Congress succeeds in dramatically reducing the corporate tax rate, beginning next year.

• A corporation should consider deferring income until next year if doing so will preserve the corporation’s qualification for the small-corporation AMT exemption for 2017. Note that there is never a reason to accelerate income for purposes of the small-corporation AMT exemption because, if a corporation doesn’t qualify for the exemption for any given tax year, it will not qualify for the exemption for any later tax year.

• A corporation (other than a ‘large’ corporation) that anticipates a small net operating loss for 2017 (and substantial net income in 2018) may find it worthwhile to accelerate just enough of its 2018 income (or to defer just enough of its 2017 deductions) to create a small amount of net income for 2017. This will permit the corporation to base its 2018 estimated tax installments on the relatively small amount of income shown on its 2017 return, rather than having to pay estimated taxes based on 100% of its much larger 2018 taxable income.

• If your business qualifies for the domestic production activities deduction (DPAD) for its 2017 tax year, consider whether the 50%-of-W-2 wages limitation on that deduction applies. If it does, consider ways to increase 2017 W-2 income, e.g., by bonuses to owner-shareholders whose compensation is allocable to domestic-production gross receipts. Note that the limitation applies to amounts paid with respect to employment in calendar year 2017, even if the business has a fiscal year. Keep in mind that the DPAD would be abolished under the tax-reform plan currently before Congress.

Year-End Tax-planning Moves for Individuals

• Higher-income earners must be wary of the 3.8% surtax on certain unearned income. The surtax is 3.8% of the lesser of: (1) net investment income (NII), or (2) the excess of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) over a threshold amount ($250,000 for joint filers or surviving spouses, $125,000 for a married individual filing a separate return, and $200,000 in any other case).

SEE: List of Accounting Firms

As year-end nears, a taxpayer’s approach to minimizing or eliminating the 3.8% surtax will depend on his estimated MAGI and NII for the year. Some taxpayers should consider ways to minimize (e.g., through deferral) additional NII for the balance of the year, others should try to see if they can reduce MAGI other than NII, and other individuals will need to consider ways to minimize both NII and other types of MAGI.

• The 0.9% additional Medicare tax also may require higher-income earners to take year-end actions. It applies to individuals for whom the sum of their wages received with respect to employment and their self-employment income is in excess of an unindexed threshold amount ($250,000 for joint filers, $125,000 for married couples filing separately, and $200,000 in any other case).

Employers must withhold the additional Medicare tax from wages in excess of $200,000 regardless of filing status or other income. Self-employed individuals must take it into account in figuring estimated tax. There could be situations where an employee may need to have more withheld toward the end of the year to cover the tax. For example, if an individual earns $200,000 from one employer during the first half of the year and a like amount from another employer during the balance of the year, he would owe the additional Medicare tax, but there would be no withholding by either employer for the additional Medicare tax since wages from each employer don’t exceed $200,000.

• Realize losses on stock while substantially preserving your investment position. There are several ways this can be done. For example, you can sell the original holding, then buy back the same securities at least 31 days later. It may be advisable to discuss year-end trades with a qualified advisor.

• Postpone income until 2018 and accelerate deductions into 2017 to lower your 2017 tax bill. This strategy could enable you to claim larger deductions, credits, and other tax breaks for 2017 that are phased out over varying levels of adjusted gross income (AGI). These include child tax credits, higher-education tax credits, and deductions for student-loan interest. Postponing income is also desirable for those taxpayers who anticipate being in a lower tax bracket next year due to changed financial circumstances. Note, however, that, in some cases, it may pay to actually accelerate income into 2017.

• If you believe a Roth IRA is better than a traditional IRA, consider converting traditional-IRA money invested in beaten-down stocks (or mutual funds) into a Roth IRA if eligible to do so. Keep in mind, however, that such a conversion will increase your AGI for 2017.

• It may be advantageous to try to arrange with your employer to defer, until early 2018, a bonus that may be coming your way. This could cut as well as defer your tax if Congress reduces tax rates beginning in 2018.

• Consider using a credit card to pay deductible expenses before the end of the year. Doing so will increase your 2017 deductions even if you don’t pay your credit-card bill until after the end of the year.

• If you expect to owe state and local income taxes when you file your return next year, consider asking your employer to increase withholding of state and local taxes (or pay estimated tax payments of state and local taxes) before year-end to pull the deduction of those taxes into 2017 if you won’t be subject to alternative minimum tax (AMT) in 2017. Pulling state and local tax deductions into 2017 would be especially beneficial if Congress eliminates such deductions beginning next year.

• Estimate the effect of any year-end planning moves on the AMT for 2017, keeping in mind that many tax breaks allowed for purposes of calculating regular taxes are disallowed for AMT purposes. These include the deduction for state property taxes on your residence, state income taxes, miscellaneous itemized deductions, and personal-exemption deductions. If you are subject to the AMT for 2017, or suspect you might be, these types of deductions should not be accelerated.

• You may be able to save taxes by applying a bunching strategy to pull ‘miscellaneous’ itemized deductions, medical expenses, and other itemized deductions into this year. This strategy would be especially beneficial if Congress eliminates such deductions beginning in 2018.

• Take required minimum distributions (RMDs) from your IRA or 401(k) plan (or other employer-sponsored retirement plan). RMDs from IRAs must begin by April 1 of the year following the year you reach age 70½. That start date also applies to company plans, but non-5% company owners who continue working may defer RMDs until April 1 following the year they retire. Failure to take a required withdrawal can result in a penalty of 50% of the amount of the RMD not withdrawn.

Although RMDs must begin no later than April 1 following the year in which the IRA owner attains age 70½, the first distribution calendar year is the year in which the IRA owner attains age 70½. Thus, if you turn age 70½ in 2017, you can delay the first required distribution to 2018, but if you do, you will have to take a double distribution in 2018 — the amount required for 2017 plus the amount required for 2018.

Think twice before delaying 2017 distributions to 2018, as bunching income into 2018 might push you into a higher tax bracket or have a detrimental impact on various income-tax deductions that are reduced at higher income levels. However, it could be beneficial to take both distributions in 2018 if you will be in a substantially lower bracket that year.

• Make gifts sheltered by the annual gift-tax exclusion before the end of the year and thereby save gift and estate taxes. The exclusion applies to gifts of up to $14,000 made in 2017 to each of an unlimited number of individuals. You can’t carry over unused exclusions from one year to the next. Such transfers may save family income taxes where income-earning property is given to family members in lower income-tax brackets who are not subject to the kiddie tax.

• If you were affected by Hurricane Harvey, Irma, or Maria, keep in mind that you may be entitled to special tax relief under recently passed legislation, such as relaxed casualty-loss rules and eased access to your retirement funds. In addition, qualifying charitable contributions related to relief efforts in the Hurricane Harvey, Irma, or Maria disaster areas aren’t subject to the usual charitable deduction limitations.

These are just some of the year-end steps that can be taken to save taxes. Consider meeting your tax advisor to discuss your unique tax situation so they can tailor a plan that will work best for you.

Kristina Drzal-Houghton, CPA, MST is the partner in charge of Taxation at Holyoke-based Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.: (413) 536-8510.

East Longmeadow Embraces Change, Progress

Community Spotlight Features

Community Spotlight

Denise Menard says low taxes, streamlined permitting, and quality of life are all factors in making East Longmeadow an attractive landing spot.

When East Longmeadow switched from a town-meeting style of government to a Town Council and town manager, Denise Menard said the change wasn’t meant to be simply cosmetic.

Rather, noted Menard — who came on board as interim town manager in 2016 before shedding the ‘interim’ title earlier this year — creating her position and replacing the three-member Board of Selectmen with a seven-member, elected Town Council provided the momentum to launch several new municipal departments aimed squarely at improving quality of life.

That included East Longmeadow’s first-ever Human Resources department; a new director of Finance and director of Planning and Community Development; and a three-member Board of Health overseen by a full-time director.

That latter division has launched two successful vaccination clinics — to prevent flu, shingles, tetanus, and other maladies — while the town has also boosted recycling efforts, launched an innovative 911 database that collects resident information to be used by first-responders, and is looking to begin town ambulance service.

“We don’t sell widgets; we only provide services,” Menard told BusinessWest. “So we try to provide the best service we can. That’s really paramount in my eyes. I’ve had people come in and say they’re very happy with the way things are going.”

The health, emergency, and recycling services all target healthier or greener lifestyles for residents, she added, and the town’s new charter has given municipal leaders a strong foundation from which to further expand programs to benefit citizens.

East Longmeadow at a glance:

Year Incorporated: 1894
Population: 15,720 (2010)
Area: 13.0 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential Tax Rate: $20.77
Commercial Tax Rate: $20.77
Median Household Income: $62,680 (2010)
Median Family Income: $70,571 (2010)
Type of Government: Town Council, Town Manager
Largest Employers: Cartamundi; Lenox Tools; Redstone Rehab and Nursing Center

“I think we’ll see more great things in the years moving forward,” she said. “People need to know they’re valued and that their tax dollars are going to good things.”

There’s a strategy to those quality-of-life efforts that do more than make residents happy, however. A town’s amenities and services speak directly to its ability to attract new business, and so does how many barriers a town throws into their path.

“People coming into the community have a much more streamlined process now,” said Don Anderson, one of the Town Council members and a business owner in East Longmeadow for 28 years with the Cruise Store.

“We have a full-time town manager in office as opposed to a part-time board of selectmen with a town administrator who has no real power,” he went on. “Also, in terms of permitting, we now have a Building Department and Planning Department and Zoning Department under one umbrella.”

At the same time, he added, the town was wise to keep certain things intact, like taxing businesses and residents at the same rate. “That policy did not change, so that’s also a welcoming sign to outside businesses wanting to come into East Longmeadow.”

From the Ground Up

As for companies setting up shop and expanding, a few big projects have given a shot of energy to the town’s economic-development landscape.

Last year, L.E. Belcher broke ground on a 6,500-square-foot convenience store on a lot at 227 Shaker Road that was empty for many years. That project stalled when Atlantis Management Group bought out the property, but after a second round of permitting and approvals — the proposed hours will shift from 24/7 to 5 a.m. to 1 a.m. each day — “they seem very anxious to get started,” Menard said.

Also underway is an 18,000-square-foot medical office building at 250 North Main St. being constructed by Associated Builders for Baystate Dental Group, which will have 90 parking spaces. The dental office will occupy the first floor, and the second floor will be rented as medical or office space.

Another, more complex project in the health realm is a joint venture with the town of Longmeadow — a medical complex that will add to East Longmeadow Skilled Nursing Center at 305 Maple St., cross town lines, and provide benefits to both communities.

The project includes four structures on a 20-acre site: a 50,000-square-foot medical office building in Longmeadow that would be occupied by Baystate Health; a two-story, 25,000-square-foot office building in East Longmeadow; and an assisted-living facility and expansion of an existing skilled-nursing facility run by Berkshire Health.

One of the most exciting current projects, to hear Menard tell it, is the Planning Board’s discussion of an overlay zone for the former Package Machinery building at 330 Chestnut St.

“The building is in pretty poor shape, and the planning proposal is to create a mixed-use site which would have commercial, retail, and possibly small offices in the front part of the building, and above will be some residential apartments or condos,” she explained.

We don’t sell widgets; we only provide services. So we try to provide the best service we can. That’s really paramount in my eyes. I’ve had people come in and say they’re very happy with the way things are going.”

With sensitivity to the environment, the proposal includes preserving green space around the property and creating walking trails to encourage outdoor activity, she added. “There will be a real New England feel to it, and it’s going to be be a pretty upscale development. It’s shaping up to be a good project.”

Anderson noted that East Longmeadow has been home to a number of retail and restaurant ‘firsts’ in Greater Springfield, including the region’s first Boston Chicken franchise, its first Homegoods store, and its first 99 Restaurant.

“If they’re picking East Longmeadow, that says East Longmeadow has the economic range to support businesses,” he told BusinessWest. “People like the fact that the tax basis goes beyond just housing, that we can generate taxes through business as well. There’s a good balance there. When they look at a community that gives a clear message of supporting business, then businesses feel welcome. Personally, I haven’t been disappointed.”

Menard hopes others feel the same way. “People are coming to live and work and develop businesses here. We strive to be business-friendly, and I think we’re getting there.”

Spreading the Word

Change has been positive in East Longmeadow, Anderson went on, but it takes more work than just changing the charter and streamlining processes. One challenge has involved the various town departments and the Town Council learning how to work together. “People coming in fresh don’t always realize how matters before the Planning Board affect the council. Something the Board of Health might be doing may impact the Town Council as well, and we have to be aware of that.”

Another challenge has been spreading the word about how the municipal changes and new services benefit people, as local media haven’t always been diligent about covering the town’s day-to-day business.

“There has been a lack of interest in the government by the media,” Anderson said, “I saw that was happening, so I’m chairing a new commission on media relations. We’re working on strategies to find more organized ways of getting messages out to people, such as through social-media methods. We need to find modern ways to get the message out when the media is not covering us the way they used to.”

And East Longmeadow does have news to share, he went on. “Things are happening. You can drive through and see the construction going on, see properties that have been vacant for a number of years come to life, how the old Vanguard Bank on North Main Street is going to be a dentist’s office, or the interest in the old Package Machinery area. Obviously, people are attracted to this community.”

It’s a civic-minded community as well, he noted, evidenced by the 32 people who ran for the first Town Council seats last year.

“We have beautiful housing, some of the best schools around, some beautiful parks, and we have a healthy mix of commercial and residential,” Menard added. “It’s a well-rounded town with a reasonable tax rate, and people just seem to be amenable to coming here.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Owners Need to Get Realistic — and Proactive

Banking and Financial Services Sections

Business Valuation

By Brandon Mitchell

Brandon Mitchell

For business owners looking to sell in the near future, there is plenty to be optimistic about.

Buyers have access to capital at low interest rates through banks. Stocks are at all-time highs, driving individual net worth and access to down payments. The Massachusetts economy is vibrant. Most recent reports show GDP growth and unemployment rates outperforming the national average. There is positivity around MGM coming to Springfield, a new GE headquarters moving to Boston, and the potential for business-friendly legislation coming down the pipeline.

These factors will drive buyers to jump into the market and take the keys to a business, but there is a catch. With more than 1,100 businesses listed for sale across Massachusetts right now, buyers have options and are willing to wait for a value that makes sense.

When figuring the value of their business, owners can fall into the trap of including sentimental value in their estimation. Some are relying on what a similar business sold for in a different market or, worse, have a target number they drew up without any real anchor to reality.

Owners should resist the temptation to ‘pull the parachute’ as they get closer to the finish line.”

For business owners who have dedicated their lives to a business, it can be hard to take a step back and objectively consider what their business is worth. Business owners who are willing to take an objective look at the value of their business can be proactive now instead of reactive when they are ready to retire and list their business for the first time.

The value of a business is dynamic. While there is no way to get a buyer to price sentimental value into a purchase price, there is a potential to make changes to the business that will increase the value over time.

There are three approaches to valuing a business — asset, income, and market approaches. For most privately held companies, valuators rely on either the income approach, market approach, or a combination of the two. The basic formulas for these calculations are widely available online, but what owners can do with this information may be less obvious.

First, it’s important to know that the years leading up to the valuation or sale are the most important. A long history of profits can show stability for a small business; however, only the most recent three to five years are going to be considered in a calculation. Small-business owners with eyes on an exit have a tendency to disconnect from the business during this most important period when they should be pushing in the opposite direction.

Flat revenues or increases in expenses during this period have the potential to erase even decades of growth and profitability. Owners should resist the temptation to ‘pull the parachute’ as they get closer to the finish line. Continue to push for revenue growth, and pay close attention to expense control. This is the time to let the numbers showcase the full potential of the business.

Nobody knows the ins and outs of a small business like the owner. Buyers and valuators weigh heavily on the impact the seller’s exit will have on the future of the business. Owners should focus on replacing themselves in the areas in which they are most intertwined in the business to lessen the impact. To identify these high-dependency areas, owners can interview managers and employees, noting issues that cannot be resolved without them.

Key areas of focus generally depend on the industry or business model but usually include sales generation, relationship management, product development, strategic decision making, or day-to-day business management. If continuity can be achieved through process improvement or process documentation, it should be a key focus. Some results can be found through training current employees and empowering them. Consider restructuring tasks and delegating the current owner’s duties to rising managers.

Finally, clean up the financial statements. For various reasons, including tax motivations, small-business owners have a tendency to let their personal and business lives collide on their company financial statements. Documentation is important for any personal expenses being charged to the business. Owners should be ready to prove which expenses were not necessary for the business so that buyers and valuators exclude the expenses to calculate the value — buyers will not report findings to the IRS.

Performing a financial analysis can also help owners understand how their business compares to the rest of the industry, making them ready to articulate strengths and defend or improve weaknesses.

Overall, the current market is friendly to someone looking to sell their business. It’s also a great time to be proactive in managing an exit strategy, whether it lies around the corner or several years out. Getting realistic about the value of their business enables owners to take steps to improve it and make informed decisions.

Brandon Mitchell is a certified valuation analyst and owner of BLM Valuation Services, LLC, which specializes in certified independent business valuations for SBA lenders and small-business owners; (413) 306-1940.

Peoples United Relocates Office, Names New Manager

Banking and Financial Services Sections

Moving Forward

Jim Curran was asked about the heightened state of competition within the commercial-lending realm in Western Mass. and how People’s United Bank is responding to this changing landscape.

Jim Curran

He began his answer by noting that, while conditions in this region are perhaps somewhat more competitive than they were when he first started working in this market more than 30 years ago, the reality is that there have always been a lot of strong competitors for People’s United, formerly the Bank of Western Mass.

And he knows that because he worked for some of them.

“It’s been a competitive market for 30 years,” said Curran, the recently named senior vice president and regional manager for Central and Western Mass. “When I sit and talk with people about how competitive the market is today, that’s the same conversation we were having 20 years ago; nothing’s really changed in that regard.”

But many other aspects of banking, and doing business in general, have changed over the past few decades, including everything from the way people work to the technology they use, and that’s why Curran will be managing an office occupying the 10th floor of Monarch Place.

Indeed, the 32 employees at the regional office have moved only a few hundred feet across Main Street in downtown Springfield, but the relocation from the property most still know as Harrison Place (even though it had the People’s United name over the front) to Monarch Place is a considerable step forward, said Patrick Sullivan, the bank’s market president for Massachusetts.

He told BusinessWest that the move has been in the planning stages for more than 18 months, and arose from simple necessity.

When I sit and talk with people about how competitive the market is today, that’s the same conversation we were having 20 years ago; nothing’s really changed in that regard.”

“That’s an old building, and its functionality just doesn’t suit today’s world with the technology and the way people work; when you have an old building, you just can’t do certain things,” he explained. “We were spread out over four floors at one time, and, more recently, we were in two or three floors; now, we’re all on one floor, and that’s much more efficient.

“The new building will allow for greater synergies and collaboration between our cross-functional teams,” Sullivan went on, “including commercial, wealth management, consumer, and insurance services.”

The search for new quarters was an extensive one, he noted, adding that a number of sites were considered — within downtown, outside it, and also outside Springfield itself. Ultimately, the bank, which had been headquartered at Harrison Place for more than 20 years, decided to stay in the central business district.

“Although our customers are spread throughout Western Mass., centrally, downtown Springfield is the best place for our people,” he explained.

Curran agreed, saying that “there’s a lot of really good, positive energy with this move.”

As noted, Curran brings to his new position at People’s United a wealth of experience in banking, commercial lending, and in serving business owners in the Western Mass. market.

Most recently, he served seven years as executive vice president of Berkshire Bank and regional manager of the Western Mass./Central Mass. and Northern Conn. commercial-banking teams. In that role, he established Berkshire Bank’s present Central Mass. location, recruited the commercial-lending and credit team, built market identity and brand awareness, and built a loan portfolio from scratch to $215 million.

Prior to that, he served in a similar role with Santander Bank and its predecessor, Sovereign Bank, managing a team with a portfolio of commercial loans that approached $1 billion prior to the Santander acquisition of Sovereign in 2009. He got his start in banking with Bank of New England (later Fleet Financial) in 1983.

Those stops on his résumé translate into being part of that considerable competition within the commercial lending market that he spoke of earlier, so he obviously speaks from experience when he addressed how to thrive within such an environment.

Specifically, he said it comes down to several factors, including having a large portfolio of products, being local (instead of just saying your institution is local), and understanding customers and their needs.

“That’s the beauty of this bank,” he said. “When you go into a relationship, you have everything in front of you to deliver the financial services and products to that customer — whether it’s the retail side or additional services like treasury management, or whether you’re looking to do an interest-rate derivative on a large commercial real-estate deal or you’re simply looking to do payroll for a manufacturer with 30 people.”

Sullivan agreed. “The competitive advantage we have is to keep all our bankers as local as possible,” he said. “But we have people who know how to take care of a Western New England University or a Springfield College, or a healthcare system, or make a $200,000 loan fast. We stick to our core competency, which is commercial lending, which is important, because it’s competitive out there.

“We respect the fact that the local banks are good competition,” he went on. “We have to out-local them and also out-product them; that’s the world today.”

— George O’Brien

KeyBank Aims to Be a Broad Resource for Customers

Banking and Financial Services Sections

Unlocking Financial Health

KeyBank’s Courtney Jinjika and Jeff Hubbard

KeyBank is fairly new to the Western Mass. financial marketplace, taking over eight Hampden County branches following its acquisition of First Niagara Bank last year. But its leaders are already fluent in speaking the language of the region’s customers, who want their institutions to be customer-friendly and civic-minded. With a host of high-tech products melded with a focus on helping customers effectively use them to manage their financial health, Key seems ready to unlock more business.

It’s called HelloWallet.

“It’s an online platform that KeyBank uses to help customers make smarter, more confident financial decisions. The user first inputs information about their account balances, income, spending, demographics, and more to produce a score of sorts — a picture of where they are financially, where they want to be, and how to get there, by setting budgets, planning for retirement, and more.

“We focus on bringing financial confidence and wellness to all of our customers — individuals and business — across a broad spectrum of needs,” said Courtney Jinjika, the bank’s regional retail executive for Connecticut and Western Mass. “A key differentiator for us is HelloWallet, an online, real-time financial-assessment and planning tool, which, coupled with personalized guidance from their trusted banker, helps our clients achieve financial wellness and accomplish their goals.”

When it acquired HelloWallet last year, KeyBank saw it as one of several strategies for better connecting their clients, both retail and commercial, to helpful financial resources.

“Our focus is on our clients’ overall financial wellness and helping them make solid financial decisions,” Jinjika explained. “With HelloWallet, we integrated a tool into our system that allows clients to assess where they stand within a few components of overall financial wellness; it actually gives recommendations and feeds information back to bankers, who are able to reach out to clients and help them make difficult financial decisions and guide them to better financial wellness.”

As a digitally based tool, it also appeals to the growing set of customers who prefer resources they can access at any time, not just in a branch, said Jeff Hubbard, Key’s market president for Connecticut and Western Mass. “It’s an exciting tool to offer to customers, and a way to better focus on financial literacy.”

SEE: List of Banks in Western Mass.

The theme of connection is one KeyBank touts in its marketing efforts and its services, Hubbard noted. When the institution, currently the 29th-largest bank in the U.S. by asset size, acquired First Niagara Bank in 2016, it inherited a large footprint in Western Mass. and Connecticut to complement its existing New England presence in Maine, Vermont, and the Boston area.

And if there’s one thing Hubbard understands about Western Mass., where KeyBank now operates eight branches boasting 70 employees, it’s that customers appreciate a community-focused model.

Those eight branches — in East Longmeadow, Feeding Hills, Holyoke, Ludlow, Southwick, Westfield, and two in West Springfield — have been busy introducing resources including commercial lending, residential mortgage lending, investments, wealth management, and insurance.

In doing so, Hubbard said, it’s also touting the value of “meeting customers on whatever playing field they might want to be on.”

High-tech, Personal Touch

Jinjika said bank employees are skilled at helping customers navigate the various high-tech banking options available to them, from online bill pay and remote deposit capture to the HelloWallet tool, and show them how they can use them to monitor their financial wellness. There’s also an online scheduling tool customers can use to make appointments at the branch and outline what issues they want to discuss.

After all, Hubbard said, online banking hasn’t killed branch banking, not by a longshot. It has certainly forced the branch model to evolve in the ways Jinjika described, but a street-level presence remains crucial.

“Lots of people want to visit a branch for lots of reasons,” Hubbard said. “Here, they’ll visit highly trained, experienced people who want to help them. To be successful in the Springfield market, you need to meet people anywhere they want to meet.”

A decade ago, he went on, products like remote deposit capture for businesses seemed strikingly innovative, and now clients have come to expect them as a baseline. Meanwhile, Millennials might have led the way in adopting technology that allows them to control their finances from their computers and smartphones, there’s less of a demographic breakdown today.

“Millennials get on board faster; they’re quicker adopters, but they’re targeted at everyone,” Jinjika said. “Keeping people out of the branch line is a good thing, so adoption rates are pretty strong.”

In addition, Jinjika said, the vast majority of customers seeking to make major life changes, like a home mortgage, want to sit down with a professional.

“When our clients have a concern or are making major financial decisions, they want to do that in person at the branch,” she explained. “What we find is that they’ll do their research online, but when it actually comes down to fully making that decision, they want to sit down with someone and get answers face to face.”

The same goes for commercial customers, Hubbard said, noting that Key likes to tout itself as a “Main Street bank with Wall Street capabilities,” which can leverage its investment-banking team and industry-specific bankers to bring added resources to commercial clients. We believe that these capabilities, along with our state-of-the-art cash-management services and insurance and benefit consulting services, give us a competitive advantage with our business clients.

He understands the fierce competition in a market that many analysts have called overbanked in recent years, but said loan demand is steady.

“We’re certainly getting our fair share,” he told BusinessWest. “Springfield is a wonderful market with lots of opportunities. We’re grateful to have into some very large clients, very good-sized companies in Greater Springfield, in addition to small, mom-and-pop businesses.”

Another business-minded program is Key@Work, which partners with companies and provides free and discounted banking services employees at no cost to the employer. A dedicated Key@Work ‘relationship manager’ delivers a customized program on site to meet the specific needs of workers through financial-education presentations and one-on-one financial assessments.

It’s another way KeyBank aims to broaden its customer base in its existing branches, rather than having to open new branches to grow.

“We’re very happy with the branch locations we have today,” Hubbard said. “The objective is to get our employees out of the branch into the community and grow our business organically.”

Community Ties

The bank also understands that the region’s community-banking culture means community involvement on a charitable level, Hubbard said, noting that Key expects to make $100,000 in community sponsorships and charitable grants to nonprofits serving the Greater Springfield market in 2017. “We think it’s very important to support the market where we live and work. That’s something we take seriously.”

On a national level, KeyBank also released its National Community Benefits plan last year, which includes $16.5 billion in investments across the communities it serves. The commitments are part of a comprehensive blueprint for steps Key will take over the next five years.

As part of a partnership with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, KeyBank committed to $16.5 billion in mortgage lending, small-business lending, community-development lending, and philanthropy, with the goal of stimulating job and economic growth in those communities. KeyBank has also committed to reducing neighborhood blight as well as maintenance and disposition of foreclosed properties.

Additionally, the KeyBank Foundation is committing $175 million in philanthropic investments for its traditional priorities of education and workforce development. The investments will also focus on the stabilization of urban neighborhoods and rural communities through local capacity building, affordable housing, and building technical assistance to execute locally.

Nationwide, KeyBank employees will support the plan through local service projects and board leadership. Employees will continue to be heavily engaged in their communities, with the expectation of 500,000 of additional volunteer hours over the next five years.

“Key has jumped into this in a big way,” Hubbard said, noting that the effort crosses 15 states, but each market will feel an impact. “This is a broad but very meaningful delivery of strong foundational support.”

The bank has also earned national recognition as one of Points of Light’s top 50 most community-minded companies for the last three consecutive years; a Top 50 Company for Diversity by Diversity Inc. for the last seven years, and eight annual ‘outstanding’ ratings from the Community Reinvestment Act for its levels of lending, investment, and service to low- and moderate-income communities — one of less than 10% of all U.S. banks to achieve that goal.

Those accolades further demonstrate, Jinjika noted, that KeyBank aims to be an effective partner both for customers who walk in the branch and in the communities surrounding those branches.

“We keep clients at the center of all we do,” she told BusinessWest. “We compete where some of the bigger banks won’t, and where the smaller banks can’t. We really think about the individual in front of us when we put together a package that will work for their financial wellness.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Declare Opioid Crisis a National Disaster

Opinion

By Henry Dorkin, M.D.

The opioid crisis, which is taking the lives of friends, neighbors, and family members across the country, should rightly be declared a public health emergency. However, in order to truly stem the tide of this epidemic, the declaration must be matched by a coordinated federal effort that is equivalent to what is already being done at the state level.

This crisis knows no borders, and it impacts people from all walks of life, of all ages, across the U.S. Here in Massachusetts, despite having had a wide range of public and private efforts underway for several years, we saw roughly 2,000 opioid-related overdose deaths just last year.

Our experience has demonstrated the value of patient-focused partnership between the medical community and elected officials at all levels. The Commonwealth’s 2014 declaration of the opioid epidemic as a public health crisis helped lead to a dramatic increase in the use of the state’s prescription drug-monitoring system, MassPAT.

Gov. Charlie Baker’s commitment to make the system a true clinical tool for physicians has had a major impact. According to data from the Department of Public Health, while MassPAT searches increased by 500% between the first quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2017, the number of Schedule II opioid prescriptions written dropped by 23%, and the number of individuals receiving prescriptions dropped by 24%.

But there is still much work to be done in implementing change that saves lives — a goal we should all share.

Massachusetts has been an innovator and a leader in identifying and implementing state and federal policies that slow the spread of opioid-use disorder and improve the ability of affected patients to get the care that they need in pursuit of recovery. For this, we thank our elected leaders, including local officials; Gov. Baker, state lawmakers and public health officials; and members of our Congressional delegation, who have fought successfully for legislation that has addressed the crisis nationally.

The data from Massachusetts confirm that policy changes can help make a difference in slowing the growth of the crisis and the countless tragic deaths that it causes. While we appreciate the effort from the Trump administration to bring to bear the strength of the federal government, we also believe that this crisis requires the allocation of adequate federal resources to make a meaningful difference in the lives of the people impacted by opioid-use disorder.

Dr. Henry Dorkin is president of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

Perhaps the Tide Has Turned

Opinion

Editorial

In the days and weeks after the Harvey Weinstein story broke and new wrinkles were continually added, there was growing commentary that maybe some kind of milestone had been reached, that maybe the tide was turning when it came to sexual harassment in the workplace.

This commentary was generally greeted with large amounts of skepticism, in the same way that there was skepticism with thoughts, and hopes, that the latest mass shooting would be the one to finally stimulate action (in whatever form it could possibly take) to make sure this was the last such tragedy.

And that skepticism is warranted, because, like gun violence, sexual harassment has longed seemed like a problem we just couldn’t solve, something that people, and especially women, would just to have to live with. There is a ‘that’s just how it is’ sentiment about it.

But increasingly, it seems that, while there is still ample room for skepticism on this topic, there is also space for some optimism, some hope that maybe a sea change is in the offing. Some promise that people may soon be saying ‘that’s how it was’ instead of ‘that’s how it is’ or ‘that’s how it will always be.’

Why? Well, there are several reasons. Let’s start with the manner in which the Weinstein case has shed light on the subject and shown that, when people come forward — even if it’s years or decades after the fact — offenders can be brought to justice (in whatever form it takes), and a situation might change.

As just one example, the Massachusetts Legislature has come under scrutiny in recent weeks in the form of allegations that people in positions of power (most all of them men) wielded that power in ways that created a truly hostile workplace, where women became convinced that saying ‘no,’ or not putting up with harassment, could derail everything from specific pieces of legislation to their careers.

In a statement given to the Boston Globe, House Speaker Robert DeLeo said he was “infuriated and deeply disturbed” to hear that women had described being harassed in the State House. It doesn’t say he was surprised, because he was probably wasn’t. But something else he said is quite telling.

“While I understand and support their desire to remain anonymous, the fact that victims fear the consequences to their careers of reporting the harassment is as upsetting as the harassment itself.” Upsetting, but hardly surprising.

But it’s here where the sea change might lie. There is sentiment that, increasingly, women (and, in some cases, men) are becoming less fearful about reporting harassment, and this willingness to come forward is changing the landscape and bringing the careers of formerly powerful men to an abrupt end.

Harvey Weinstein. Bill O’Reilly. Mark Halperin. Kevin Spacey. The list is growing longer, and that’s a very positive thing. As is the outrage concerning those who protected what have come to be known in some circles as “superstar harassers” and put people in harm’s way because of their actions. In some cases, their careers are being destroyed as well; Bob Weinstein might just be every bit as radioactive as his brother.

Make no mistake, society in general and the business world in particular still have a long way to go when it comes to being able to refer to the Weinstein case and others in anything approaching the past tense — as in ‘that’s how it used to be.’

But there is now much more than hope that some kind of corner has been turned. There is emerging evidence that this is, indeed, the case. And hopefully, we’ll see much more progress in the years to come.

FogKicker Principals Have a Vision, and Like What They See

Cover Story

A Huge Opportunity — Clearly

From left, principals Marc Gammell, Yinyong Li, and Kenneth Carter

There’s no word yet on whether the creators of FogKicker will embrace Johnny Nash’s 1972 reggae hit ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ as their theme song, but it would certainly work. The product, developed in the polymer science lab at UMass Amherst, has proven itself successful in keeping a range of surfaces, from scuba masks to bathroom mirrors, clear of fog. Partners Yinyong Li, Marc Gammell, and Kenneth Carter are scaling up their venture, Treaty Biotech LLC, and while their vision of the future isn’t totally clear, it is certainly coming into focus.

They call it ‘big glass.’

That’s the term the principals at Treaty LLC, developers of the product known as FogKicker, summon as they talk about larger surfaces such as car windshields, bathroom mirrors, and shower doors.

And they foresee a day when their product will be in widespread use on all of the above, and more, to clear away annoying — and sometimes dangerous, especially when it comes to those windshields — fog.

We made a strategic decision to go after this niche market, where we knew there was a problem, where there are anti-fogging products out there that work fairly miserably, and where we knew we could gain a foothold.”

But for now, they’re more focused on what would have to be labeled ‘small glass,’ or at least ‘smaller glass,’ as in the goggles used by scuba divers, snorkelers, swimmers, skiers, mountain climbers, and others. And in this realm — large in its own right by any estimation — those who developed FogKicker in the polymer science lab at UMass Amherst can see some clear opportunities, pun obviously intended.

“There are certainly a number of applications for this product — everyone has a bathroom mirror,” said Yinyong Li, who, along with Kenneth Carter, a professor in the Polymer Science and Engineering Department at UMass Amherst, discovered that nanocellouse, a biological material plants use to help them absorb and circulate water, could also be used to solve one of society’s big problems — keeping glass surfaces free of fog.

Cellulose, of course, is used in the production of a number of paper products, said Yinyong, adding that, in many respects, FogKicker acts like an invisible paper towel to absorb moisture and keep glass surfaces clear of fog.

Yinyong, the company’s chief technology officer, who attained his Ph.D. from UMass in 2016; Carter; and third partner Marc Gammell, who recently earned his undergraduate degree at UMass, are making giant strides forward in the process of taking FogKicker from discovery in the lab to successful business venture.

They have succeeded in raising capital, and also in raising the product’s — and the company’s — profile, through appearances like the one late last month on the CNBC reality program Adventure Capitalists, for example.

The video clip shows Gammell and Carter (an experienced diver himself), both clad in FogKicker pullovers, appearing on a dock somewhere with the ocean in the background, making a pitch for their product — and also for what the two called ‘smart capital,’ as well as individuals to join their team.

The creators of FogKicker are in the process of scaling up their venture, focusing first on sports goggles and other smaller glass surfaces.

“We want someone who has industry-specific connections,” Gammell, the company’s CEO, says in the video, referring specifically to the diving market. “Someone who has some serious marketing clout, someone who knows their way around building a brand; we want a real team player that brings that to the table.”

In a nutshell, that short video, which also goes into some detail about the product and how it works, neatly sums up where this company is right now and what it’s doing to get where it wants to go.

It has a product that works — one that those in the diving industry have been quick to embrace, as we’ll see — and a road map of sorts for getting to the next level with small glass and ambitions for doing the same with big glass.

For this issue, BusinessWest talked at length with the FogKicker team about their vision for their product and their company, and how things have come into focus, in every sense of that word.

Glass Act

As they talked with BusinessWest about FogKicker and their plans for it, Yinyong, Gammell, and Carter were getting ready to travel.

Their destination was Orlando and, more specifically, the week-long Diving Equipment & Marketing Assoc. (DEMA) trade show. Armed with a new and vastly improved show booth, the partners were — wait for it — looking to make a splash with their growing portfolio of products.

Or another splash, to be more precise.

Indeed, it was at the 2016 DEMA show in Las Vegas that the partners first caught the attention of the diving community, and in a big way.

The FogKicker principals, from left, Kenneth Carter, Marc Gammell, and Yinyong Li, display their products at one of the many trade shows they’ve exhibited at recently.

“We were met with huge enthusiasm, and seemingly overnight, our product was available all over the world, because this is a worldwide conference, and people were buying cases and cases of it,” said Carter, the company’s chief scientific officer.

This response came, he went on, because FogKicker established itself as a clear (literally) improvement over other methods of keeping scuba masks clear of fog — from saliva to soaps that were already on the market, both of which eventually wash off and lose their effectiveness. “This is one of the first water-resistant anti-fogging coatings that have been produced.”

But to tell this story, we need to go back further, to earlier this decade, when Yinyong and Carter, using funding from the National Science Foundation, started to look at ways that nanocellulose, derived from paper pulp, could be used in electronics.

“Cellulose is one of the most abundant products in the world; it’s the basis of wood, paper, trees, algae, and plants in general,” said Carter. “Paper makers grind it up into a pasty pulp, and they spread it over wires, and that’s how we make paper — it’s essentially just dried cellulose.

“What was discovered a while ago is that, if you keep breaking that pulp down, mechanically breaking it down and chemically treating it, you can get to what’s known as nanocellulose — nanoscopic particles of cellulose,” he went on. “We were playing around with it, and trying to think of other things we could do with nanocellulose.”

The two discovered they could take many common sources of the material, such as waste paper, cotton, or recycled paper, and convert them into nanocellulose. The bigger discovery, as it turned out, came when they placed this material on various surfaces and, in doing so, created completely transparent coating that did not fog up when exposed to humid air or steam.

“Because it’s paper, it’s very absorbent to water — we all know that paper loves water,” Carter explained. “When things fog up, what’s happening is that water vapor in the air is hitting a cooler surface, and it condenses, forming tiny beads of water, which we see as fog.”

When water hits the nanocellulose films, it gets absorbed, said Yinyong, and doesn’t form those beads, thus eliminating fog.

Fast-forwarding through the all-important discovery phase to ensure that the product is unique and the patent-disclosure process, Yinyong made the concept an entry in the 2015 Innovation Challenge at UMass Amherst, and he came away with the $20,000 grand prize.

He also came away with an eventual partner in this fledgling business venture. Indeed, Gammell was another contestant at the Innovation Challenge. He didn’t fare nearly as well with his entry, but he would also have to be considered a winner, because he was so impressed with what Yinyong brought to the table that he asked if he could be a part of it.

“I was pitching my own crazy business idea, and Yingong was pitching FogKicker,” he recalled. “Yingong wound up going to the finals, and I went just to watch him do his extended pitch, and afterwards, I was so pumped up about FogKicker and his work with nanocellulose that I introduced myself and told him I wanted to help him any way I could.”

Things have accelerated at an impressive pace since then, with FogKicker and Treaty Biotech LLC moving on to more innovation and entrepreneurship competitions, including the Venture Well program in Hadley and Valley Venture Mentors’ Accelerator program, and winning some prize money at nearly all of them.

They also took part in the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps, or I-Corps, as it’s called, a program that prepares scientists and engineers to extend their focus beyond the university laboratory and move forward with NSF-funded projects ready for commercialization.

“It’s like a boot camp — they scrutinize everything you do,” said Carter, adding that Treaty LLC won $50,000 to do customer discovery.

And those efforts took the partners to Tek-Divers, a Middle Eastern outfit that offers a wide range of recreational diving and extreme deep diving.

“They dive under some of the most extreme conditions out there — so we went to talk to them, realizing, who better could tell us whether we had something interesting than people who put their lives on the line?” said Carter. “And immediately, they loved us; they said, ‘boy, this stuff is great.’ And they bought a lot of it.”

View to the Future

The partners at Treaty LLC have been putting the capital they’ve attained from competitions and other sources to use in the many specific areas covered by that broad term ‘scaling up.’ That process includes everything from prototype development and production (now taking place at a location in Springfield) to marketing, like the DEMA show; from gaining more capital, through a variety of methods, including that Adventure Capital episode, to adding more team members, something the partners expect will happen over the next several months.

Product development was an exercise in listening to the experts and responding to what they said, Yinyong noted, adding that initial thoughts about possibly creating one-use disposable wipes were discarded amid feedback from divers and environmentalists fearful of the ocean being littered with the packages for those wipes.

What emerged instead was a felt-tip-marker-like device that places drops of FogKicker on a surface to be rubbed in. To date, the company has sold roughly 30,000 small bottles of various solutions.

As noted earlier, Treaty Biotech is, for the most part, focused on that ‘smaller glass’ market, and especially the sports-goggle market and the scuba/snorkeling market.

“We thought really hard about what would be best way to roll this out,” said Carter. “Of course, you would sell more volume and more bulk material if you put it in squirt bottles for home use, but how do you even approach that market?

“So we made a strategic decision to go after this niche market,” he went on, “where we knew there was a problem, where there are anti-fogging products out there that work fairly miserably, and where we knew we could gain a foothold.”

Even within that seemingly small niche, the numbers are impressive and the sales potential considerable, said Yinyong, noting that the business plan estimates that there are 14 million scuba divers and snorkelers in the U.S. alone, and maybe 25 million worldwide.

Educating them about their product is important, he said, because many are firmly convinced that anti-fogging products don’t work, or don’t work any better than their own saliva.

The appearance on Adventure Capitalists, a show billed as the outdoor person’s Shark Tank, is expected to help boost efforts in this regard. Contestants make presentations to a panel of investors — all of them involved in sports, business, and investing — who then put those products through their paces, often in harsh conditions.

But there are, of course, much bigger numbers in the ‘big glass’ market, said Gammell, who did some quick math and estimated that there are more than 250 million car and truck windshields in this country alone.

Meanwhile, there are probably 100 million bathroom mirrors within the residential market alone, he said, adding quickly that the commercial market — hotels, motels, gyms, and other segments — is equally potential-laden.

And there are other markets as well, including the huge healthcare field, Gammell noted, adding that all of these markets and others are potentially within the company’s reach.

To reach them, the company and its principals are moving in a number of directions, from an aggressive push for seed funding from investors to talks with contract manufacturers about scaling up production; from a website makeover to a new trade-show booth for the DEMA event and many others to follow.

“Big glass … we could be there in a year,” said Gammell. “And in a year, hopefully we’ll have big accounts with Dick’s Sporting Goods, CVS, Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops, and others. And we’ll have some hires — we’ll have a bigger team.”

Bottom Line

If you listen to the lyrics from “I Can See Clearly Now,” they include lines you would never, ever hear from aspiring entrepreneurs, such as “I can see all obstacles in my way,” or “I think I can make it now, the pain is gone,” or “all of the bad feelings have disappeared,” or even (and especially) “look all around, there’s nothing but blue skies … look straight ahead, nothing but blue skies.”

Yinyong, Gammell, and Carter certainly know better. They know there are obstacles they probably can’t see, and there are obviously some clouds within that blue sky.

But overall, the future is certainly bright for FogKicker, and there are enormous opportunities for this venture — clearly.

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

Brightside Angel Campaign Continues Tradition of Hope

SPRINGFIELD — The Brightside Angel Campaign has long been a local holiday tradition, offering gifts with special meaning. All proceeds from the annual campaign directly benefit those served by the programs and services of Brightside for Families and Children. Each year, Brightside serves more than 580 children, their siblings, and their families in their homes and schools with in-home counseling and family support.

A special event will be held to kick off the 2017 Brightside Angel Campaign on Saturday, Nov. 18 at the Holyoke Mall (upper level, in front of Target). Beginning at 11 a.m., the program will include face painting, a performance by the St. Stanislaus Children’s Choir under the direction of Margaret Bielin, and a Christmas-story reading by Western Mass News anchor Dave Madsen.

In addition to the traditional paper Brightside Angels, several angel items will be available this year, including porcelain ornaments, magnets, Kringle Candles, and handmade bracelets. These items can be purchased throughout the day at the Holyoke Mall on Nov. 18 and on weekends through Dec. 23. Brightside Angel products will also be available at the Mercy Medical Center Gift Shop at 299 Carew St. in Springfield, the lobby at Providence Behavioral Health Hospital, Pat Parker and Sons Florist at 1516 Allen St. in Springfield, and Raymour & Flanigan at 895 Riverdale St. in West Springfield. Purchases can be made online at brightsideangels.com.

“Brightside’s work is at the heart of our mission — offering in-home counseling, mentoring, family support, and services tailored to the unique needs of each child and their family,” said Allison Gearing-Kalill, vice president of Fund Development, Mercy Medical Center. “Thanks to the generosity of our host locations and many supporters, Brightside is able to provide services to many children and families in our community.”

Dan Berger Joins International Language Institute Governing Board

NORTHAMPTON — Dan Berger, partner in the Northampton-based law firm Curran & Berger, has joined the board of directors for the International Language Institute of Massachusetts (ILI).

“We are pleased to welcome Dan to ILI,” said board president Eric Wirth. “His legal background and considerable experience in immigration issues bring a wealth of skills and knowledge to support ILI’s work, which includes free English classes for immigrants and refugees, high-quality language instruction and teacher training, and volunteer opportunities throughout the Pioneer Valley.”

Berger has been an attorney at Curran & Berger since 1998, and is active in immigration matters locally and nationally. He is a founding member of the American Alliance of International Entrepreneurs, an honorary member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, and regulatory practice coordinator for the National Assoc. of Foreign Student Advisers. He has been quoted in various media, including the Atlantic and the Huffington Post; has spoken at conferences and universities across the country; and has edited the books Immigration Options for Academics and Researchers and Diplomatic Visa Guide.

Berger developed his interest in immigration during college, where he studied immigration history and taught English to adult refugees. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Cornell Law School.

Lynn DeNucci Recognized by Working Mother Magazine

SPRINGFIELD — Lynn DeNucci, a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch in Springfield, was named to the 2017 “Top Wealth Advisor Moms” list by Working Mother magazine, the first list of its kind to recognize working mothers in the financial-advice field. Advisors were judged on a number of factors, including assets under management, industry experience, compliance records, and client retention.

DeNucci, a graduate of Brown University, has nearly 25 years of experience helping families, individuals, and business owners manage wealth and achieve their financial goals.

Building Permits

Building Permits Departments

The following building permits were issued during the month of October 2017.

AGAWAM

Crown Atlantic Co., LLC
628 Meadow St.
$2,500 — Add APU generator to existing compound area for T-Mobile

Grand Run Holdings 1, LLC
4-28 Southwick St.
$1,200 — Install sign

LRB Realty Trust, LLC
1805 Main St.
$13,000 — Replace nine antenna panels and add three remote radio heads

Walnut Plaza, LLC
377 Walnut St. Ext.
$20,000 — Renovations, including ceiling tiles, floors covering, removing and strengthening some inner office walls

AMHERST

Amherst College
220 South Pleasant St.
$303,000 — Modify existing softball facility with new dugouts, bullpens, and batting tunnels, and align small section of fencing

Amherst South Pleasant, LLC
55 South Pleasant St.
$3,600 — Install two signs

Chabad at the Five Colleges Inc.
194 Amity St.
$2,500 — Install sign for Chabad Nation/Rohr Jewish Center

CHICOPEE

Chicopee Hospitality, LLC
440 Memorial Dr.
$50,000 — Illuminated and non-illuminated signs

Legacy Realty Associates, LLC
162 East Main St.
$15,000 — Remove and replace front deck, reinforce porch and staircase

DEERFIELD

Deerfield Industrial, LLC
5 Industrial Dr.
$327,186 — Construct loading dock

Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield
29 Sugarloaf St.
$108,435 — Roofing on Holy Family Parish Center

EASTHAMPTON

1776 Brewing Co., LLC
30 Fort Hill Road
$23,000 — Install fire-suppression system

Public Library Assoc. of Easthampton
9 Park St.
$371,000 — Interior renovations to lower-level bathrooms, waterproofing, electrical, plumbing, etc.

SSMZ, LLC
183-185 Pleasant St.
$33,105 — Install roof-mounted solar array

EAST LONGMEADOW

American Legion Post 293
3 Legion Court
$1,800 — Repair porch

Cartamundi
443 Shaker Road
$496,000 — Roofing

Eversource Energy
175 Denslow Road
$18,518.28 — Solar farm

Local 98
2 Center Square
$48,500 — Roofing

GREENFIELD

278-302 Main St., LLC
278 Main St.
$48,418 — Rebuild front entrance

Abercrombie Greenfield, LLC
56 Bank Row
$1,775,000 — Renovate building for district attorney’s office

CC MA Realty, LLC
7 Legion Ave.
$719,000 — Renovate existing facility into dispensary

Federal St. Realty Trust
343 Federal St.
$4,500 — Roofing

Franklin Regional Transit Authority
12 Olive St.
$47,900 — Construct storage garage

Town of Greenfield
189 Wells St.
$175,000 — Erect Clearspan storage structure

Town of Greenfield
209 Wells St.
$292,000 — Roofing

Town of Greenfield
141 Davis St.
$57,900 — Install fire sprinkler system

HADLEY

Aldi U.S. Inc.
354 Russell St.
$373,000 — Remove and replace existing coolers and back wall to expand sales floor

Parmar and Sons Inc.
41 Russell St.
$694,394 — Construct new retail building for Manny’s

LONGMEADOW

Fairview Extended Care Services Inc.
21 Dwight Road
$8,500,000 — Construct new medical building

Longmeadow Country Club
400 Shaker Road
$20,000 — Demolish and remove concrete poolside bunker

Rinaldi’s Realty, LLC
398 Longmeadow St.
$91,150 — Demolish ceiling, interior partitions, cabinets, counters, carpet, electrical and plumbing fixtures

LUDLOW

Basics Mini Mart
192 East St.
$5,000 — Illuminated sign

NORTHAMPTON

Berkshire Electric Cable Co.
118 River Road
$631,308 — Install solar panels on roof

Bermor, LP
84 Main St.
$110,000 — Roofing

Greenfield Savings Bank
327 King St.
$2,500 — Non-illuminated wall sign

Massachusetts Electric Co.
130 West St.
$91,450 — Roofing

Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield
87 Beacon St.
$75,000 — Roofing

Smith College
7 Neilson Dr.
$56,441 — Demolish Neilson Library

PALMER

Baystate Wing Hospital
40 Wright St.
$95,400 — Sprinkler system

SPRINGFIELD

405 Armory St., LLC
405 Armory St.
$25,300 — Install exhaust hood with make-up air and gas-fired heater; construct soffit in front of hood; relocate menu boards

3500 Main St., LLC
3500 Main St., First Floor
$185,788 — Interior alterations and renovations to existing office space for new orthotics medical office

Elks Lodge 61
440 Tiffany St.
$11,000 — Move walk-in cooler from inside kitchen to outside deck

Honore, LLC
417 Liberty St.
$16,500 — Reconfigure garage into two offices; reconfigure two other offices to become small waiting area and pharmacy space

MassMutual
1295 State St.
$203,000 — Install HVAC, sprinklers, life-safety, and other equipment; new ceiling and exterior wall

WESTFIELD

Parts Services International, LLC
251 Union St.
$75,000 — Reconfigure office space

Rosow Westfield, LLC
66 South Broad St.
$6,250 — Create hallway to access bathroom

Spirit SPE Portfolio 2006-4, LLC
70 Turnpike Industrial Park Road
$738,334 — Interior and exterior repairs

Michael Ventrice
77 Mill St.
$26,000 — Soundproof a space in building

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Kendell Knapik
1050 Main St.
$1,716,092 — Renovate, alter, and add space to existing structure to accommodate gun range, classroom, lounge, rental, and sales

Kevin Kousch
581 Westfield St.
$35,000 — Add new dressing rooms, lighting, and flooring; patch walls; new trim and paint

KQUAD, LLC
340 Memorial Ave.
$64,843 — Roofing at Footit Medical Supplies

Gary Sheehan
1554 Riverdale St.
$8,800 — Roofing at Red’s Towing

Universal Electric
79 Wayside Ave.
$32,050 — Roofing

WILBRAHAM

HD Development of Maryland Inc.
2001 Boston Road
$1,464,432 — Construct outdoor natural-gas clean energy-saver equipment on concrete pad

Palazzesi Realty, Inc.
2400 Boston Road
$1,200 — Install two signs for Loan Depot

Real Estate Transactions

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

828 Murray Road
Ashfield, MA 01330
Amount: $600,000
Buyer: Murray Road TR
Seller: Peter T. Curtis
Date: 10/10/17

837 Murray Road
Ashfield, MA 01330
Amount: $600,000
Buyer: Murray Road TR
Seller: Peter T. Curtis
Date: 10/10/17

1255 Williamsburg Road
Ashfield, MA 01330
Amount: $256,000
Buyer: Nikolas D. Asikis
Seller: Robert J. Barba
Date: 10/05/17

BERNARDSTON

127 Hillcrest Dr.
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Peter Santiago
Seller: Doreen Gexler
Date: 10/10/17

CONWAY

244 Whately Road
Conway, MA 01341
Amount: $542,000
Buyer: Elise L. Starr RET
Seller: Thomas C. O’Brien
Date: 10/13/17

DEERFIELD

31 Elm St.
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $650,000
Buyer: Quabbin ACM LLC
Seller: John P. Paciorek
Date: 10/12/17

137 North Main St.
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $279,000
Buyer: Michael D. Dupuis
Seller: Karen M. Gingras
Date: 10/10/17

ERVING

27 Maple Ave.
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $149,900
Buyer: Neil M. Stebbins
Seller: Corina B. Bezio
Date: 10/06/17

13 North St.
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Devon W. Gaudet
Seller: Holly H. Burnett
Date: 10/03/17

8 Park St.
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Donna J. Flagg
Seller: Sandra J. Niedzwiedz
Date: 10/06/17

GILL

100 River Road
Gill, MA 01354
Amount: $185,500
Buyer: Thomas Storrow
Seller: Hugh Barton-Bales
Date: 10/04/17

GREENFIELD

80 Beech St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $130,920
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Christina Robert
Date: 10/10/17

14 Congress St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: John M. Bednarski
Seller: Carroll E. Bednarski TR
Date: 10/04/17

148 Conway St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: John Burek
Seller: Elaine P. Burek IRT
Date: 10/06/17

72 Graves Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Douglas P. Smith
Seller: Reid, Walter F., (Estate)
Date: 10/10/17

47 Phillips St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: Susan E. Laing
Seller: Corinne I. Gougeon
Date: 10/11/17

52 Union St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $176,000
Buyer: Jeffery Murdock
Seller: Jennifer R. Dewitt
Date: 10/13/17

MONTAGUE

19 Central St.
Montague, MA 01349
Amount: $167,500
Buyer: Judy Travis
Seller: Daniel W. Gobillot
Date: 10/04/17

25 I St.
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $122,000
Buyer: Marshall W. Sisson
Seller: Daniel Newell
Date: 10/10/17

39 X St.
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Elinor Janvrin
Seller: William J. Doyle
Date: 10/10/17

NORTHFIELD

288 Birnam Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $221,000
Buyer: Jesse J. Morgan
Seller: Susan B. Lloyd
Date: 10/10/17

69 Pine St.
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: FHLM
Seller: Jason H. Clemons
Date: 10/06/17

ORANGE

10 Athol Road
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $118,400
Buyer: Leonard L. Lenois
Seller: Steven J. Lacouture
Date: 10/13/17

25 Eddy St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $133,500
Buyer: Nova Taylor-Wheeler
Seller: Kenneth A. Gulliver
Date: 10/13/17

125 South Main St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: David N. Ingram
Seller: Adele Mehr
Date: 10/12/17

91 West Myrtle St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Brenda S. Woodbury
Seller: Robert A. Rivers IRT
Date: 10/13/17

SHUTESBURY

64 Pratt Corner Road
Shutesbury, MA 01072
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Robert Moss
Seller: Debra Cote
Date: 10/06/17

SUNDERLAND

299 Falls Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $145,300
Buyer: Gary Briere
Seller: Virginia Richardson
Date: 10/13/17

121 North Main St.
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $550,000
Buyer: Emily C. Pettit 2017 TR
Seller: North Main 121 RT
Date: 10/12/17

180 River Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: John M. Skribiski
Seller: Edwin S. Skribiski
Date: 10/10/17

WENDELL

167 Mormon Hollow Road
Wendell, MA 01379
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: James Facey
Seller: Joseph Landry
Date: 10/02/17

WHATELY

72 River Road
Whately, MA 01093
Amount: $250,425
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: David F. Jackson
Date: 10/13/17

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

48 Barney St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Cheryl A. Chavis
Seller: Ann M. Santaniello
Date: 10/02/17

209 Cooper St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Samantha L. Lyman
Seller: Robert A. Ferioli
Date: 10/11/17

251 Cooper St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $173,600
Buyer: Ahmed AlZuhairi
Seller: Hart, Robert J., (Estate)
Date: 10/13/17

195 Leonard St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Ilim Muradov
Seller: Vladmir Stebenkov
Date: 10/06/17

14 Liberty Ave.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $204,250
Buyer: HSBC Bank
Seller: Jessica R. Damours
Date: 10/02/17

45 Liswell Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $256,000
Buyer: Gary C. Sedelow
Seller: Kara Krupa
Date: 10/13/17

238 Maple St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $2,500,000
Buyer: Dow Realty Management LLC
Seller: Elizabeth Manor Apts. LLC
Date: 10/12/17

77 Nicole Terrace
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Vitaliy V. Galdysh
Seller: Yuri Grechka
Date: 10/06/17

66 School St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $187,500
Buyer: Samantha W. Debiasio
Seller: Craig S. Hartmann
Date: 10/03/17

BRIMFIELD

1154 Dunhamtown Brimfield Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Cory S. Lapan
Seller: Tina M. Ledonne
Date: 10/03/17

260 Warren Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $117,000
Buyer: Bayview Loan Servicing
Seller: John Surprenant
Date: 10/10/17

CHICOPEE

51 Anson St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $139,200
Buyer: Nancy J. Kos
Seller: Kenneth C. Barnes
Date: 10/13/17

53 Armanella St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Zoraida N. Alicea
Seller: Patrick S. Sullivan
Date: 10/13/17

176 Carew St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $174,900
Buyer: Gerard L. Audette
Seller: Wojtowicz, Joanna K., (Estate)
Date: 10/06/17

521 East Main St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Daniel A. Rivera
Seller: Gail M. Dupuis
Date: 10/10/17

167 Fernhill St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $187,000
Buyer: Thomas N. Rice
Seller: Thomas L. Murca
Date: 10/10/17

962 Granby Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $184,000
Buyer: Silktree Properties LLC
Seller: Mark M. Santos
Date: 10/06/17

415 James St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $218,000
Buyer: David L. Arrasmith
Seller: Arthur W. Britton
Date: 10/12/17

39 Ivy St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $167,475
Buyer: Flag Realty LLC
Seller: Ernest D. Laflamme
Date: 10/06/17

56 Ludlow Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $159,000
Buyer: Melanie A. Hines
Seller: Roger M. Benoit
Date: 10/06/17

45 Marion St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $139,400
Buyer: M&T Bank
Seller: Robert T. Poloski
Date: 10/10/17

54 Munger Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Kenneth O’Neil
Seller: Richard J. Chiecko
Date: 10/06/17

79 Newell St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Marcolino Belen
Seller: Irene M. Giguere
Date: 10/13/17

85 Orchard St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Citibak
Seller: Edward Fletcher
Date: 10/11/17

94 Royal St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Center For Human Development Inc.
Seller: Henry H. Dejordy
Date: 10/13/17

21 Slate Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $283,000
Buyer: Orlando Ovalles
Seller: Stephen W. Hopkins
Date: 10/06/17

33 Tardy Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $264,000
Buyer: Luis J. Crespo
Seller: Keith A. Blohm
Date: 10/02/17

113 Wheatland Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Roger S. Bouffard
Date: 10/10/17

EAST LONGMEADOW

37 Melwood Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $275,001
Buyer: Mark S. Robbins
Seller: Brett A. Ralph
Date: 10/06/17

17 Overbrook Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Jameson R. Williams
Seller: Anthony R. Giuggio
Date: 10/12/17

8 Park Place
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: John F. Devlin
Seller: Ralph E. Cooley
Date: 10/06/17

HAMPDEN

165 Bennett Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: William G. Barrett
Seller: Bart Lipkens
Date: 10/10/17

35 Charles St.
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $168,800
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Mohammad A. Yousaf
Date: 10/05/17

HOLLAND

14 Roberts Park Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Paul Burns
Seller: Peter M. Mitus
Date: 10/06/17

HOLYOKE

95 Beech St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Stephen J. Bosco
Seller: Algernon D. Anatol
Date: 10/12/17

66 Davis St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $179,900
Buyer: Nalany Garcia
Seller: Jesus Pagan
Date: 10/02/17

58-60 Elmwood Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $231,000
Buyer: Drew W. Nalewanski
Seller: Israel Acosta
Date: 10/06/17

64 Lawler St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Patrick J. Stoddard
Seller: Phillip A. Lees
Date: 10/13/17

243 Oak St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $229,500
Buyer: Raymond G. Estrada
Seller: Erin B. Brunelle
Date: 10/06/17

251 Sargeant St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $169,000
Buyer: Rondey Allen
Seller: Derand LLC
Date: 10/10/17

218 West Franklin St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Armando J. Pardave
Seller: Nikhil Sadathia
Date: 10/02/17

1 Woodland St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Perry R. Dulude
Seller: Jason W. Santaniello
Date: 10/06/17

LONGMEADOW

144 Academy Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $379,000
Buyer: Kihan F. Lee
Seller: Nicholas Hadzekyriakides
Date: 10/12/17

19 Annawan Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $524,950
Buyer: Kalani D. Silva
Seller: Robert W. Strempel
Date: 10/12/17

95 Benedict Terrace
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Ryan D. McGonigle
Seller: Donald E. Bergeron
Date: 10/10/17

39 Birchwood Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Mark S. Fuller
Seller: Ann Zaher-Deeba
Date: 10/10/17

85 Canterbury Lane
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Suzanne F. Murphy
Seller: Talal N. Khan
Date: 10/04/17

182 Captain Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $335,300
Buyer: Xuefeng Zhang
Seller: Oliver D. Deex
Date: 10/05/17

109 Dover Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $422,500
Buyer: Stephen M. Kearney
Seller: Benjamin J. Gilluly
Date: 10/06/17

21 Dwight Road
Longmeadow, MA 01108
Amount: $2,000,000
Buyer: Longmeadow Medical Arts
Seller: Fairview Extended Care
Date: 10/11/17

132 Maple Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Kevin L. Zabel
Seller: Daniel L. Richmond
Date: 10/06/17

73 Shaker Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Winslow W. Reed
Seller: Timothy C. Beaulieu
Date: 10/13/17

945 Shaker Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $1,235,000
Buyer: North Harlow 6 LLC
Seller: JIN Realty Inc.
Date: 10/13/17

34 South Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: William H. Low
Seller: Christopher A. Gaudreau
Date: 10/13/17

53 South Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Buffalo LLC
Seller: RHL Properties LLC
Date: 10/13/17

105 Whitmun Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Anatoliy Shvetsov
Seller: USA HUD
Date: 10/06/17

LUDLOW

599 Alden St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $204,000
Buyer: Austin Berneche
Seller: Kristopher T. Grimshaw
Date: 10/02/17

32 Beachside Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $182,360
Buyer: Christine A. Simard
Seller: Lapanne, Jean F., (Estate)
Date: 10/12/17

53 Bridle Path Circle
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Brian J. Fioravanti
Seller: Raymond E. Parylak
Date: 10/04/17

157 Cady St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $207,500
Buyer: Vanessa Jenness
Seller: Waddell, Sonja A., (Estate)
Date: 10/11/17

223 Chapin St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Brian P. Steigmeyer
Seller: Robert S. Kulig
Date: 10/02/17

42 Fairway Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: John B. Murphy
Seller: Brian J. Makarewicz
Date: 10/10/17

53 Gaudreau Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $219,900
Buyer: Brendan Prout
Seller: Jennifer Frisk
Date: 10/02/17

118 Grimard St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $194,000
Buyer: Timothy Terbush
Seller: Couture, Rita R., (Estate)
Date: 10/04/17

30 Isabel Lane
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $470,000
Buyer: Thomas E. Godek
Seller: Antonio Vital
Date: 10/13/17

10 Laroche St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Damaris Rivera
Seller: VDS Properties LLC
Date: 10/02/17

Marias Way
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Mario P. Santos
Seller: M&G Investors LLC
Date: 10/12/17

261 Moore St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $223,000
Buyer: James D. Beaudry
Seller: Judith A. Fredette
Date: 10/05/17

191-193 Sewall St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Eric Figueiredo
Seller: Vigneault, Lisa A., (Estate)
Date: 10/10/17

78 White St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $189,900
Buyer: Gregory W. Singleton
Seller: Robert E. Dilley
Date: 10/13/17

MONSON

92 Lakeshore Dr.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Nicholas J. Peters
Seller: Bank Of New York Mellon
Date: 10/05/17

37 Old Reed Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $246,000
Buyer: David P. Amadei
Seller: Richard D. Wiesner
Date: 10/03/17

123 Palmer Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $149,000
Buyer: Zachary Anson
Seller: Elias G. Poulopoulos
Date: 10/06/17

337 Silver St.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $276,250
Buyer: Grahm L. Easton
Seller: Scott L. Easton
Date: 10/13/17

170 Wales Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Daniel W. Coates
Seller: Matthew Gautreau
Date: 10/06/17

PALMER

1010 Church St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: PJD Real Estate LLC
Seller: TR Props LLC
Date: 10/02/17

2 Sharon St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $154,000
Buyer: Kevin O’Connor
Seller: Irene O. Taylor
Date: 10/12/17

118 State St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Todd Snow
Seller: Christopher A. Elias
Date: 10/02/17

SOUTHWICK

150 Berkshire Ave.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Ronald W. Chechile
Seller: Phillip Milidantri
Date: 10/11/17

38 Lexington Circle
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $492,000
Buyer: Brett A. Ralph
Seller: Jeremy J. Williams
Date: 10/06/17

133 North Lake Ave.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $206,000
Buyer: James G. Waversak
Seller: Norman H. Storey
Date: 10/05/17

30 Woodland Ridge
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Paul A. Miles
Seller: Pari L. Hoxha
Date: 10/06/17

SPRINGFIELD

32-34 Ainsworth St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $122,900
Buyer: Travis Franco
Seller: Wilmington Savings
Date: 10/12/17

40 Amore Road
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Carlos M. Cruz
Seller: Mya Realty LLC
Date: 10/13/17

53 Arcadia Blvd.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Michael Boutin
Seller: Michael J. McIntyre
Date: 10/10/17

62 Barrington Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $316,000
Buyer: Dollymae Carnegie
Seller: Carlos Rivera
Date: 10/10/17

107 Bartels St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $149,000
Buyer: Cory A. Taylor
Seller: Peggy J. Davis
Date: 10/11/17

1685 Boston Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $1,000,000
Buyer: 1685 Boston Road LLC
Seller: Macys Retail Holdings Inc.
Date: 10/06/17

217 Cabinet St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $163,000
Buyer: CIG 2 LLC
Seller: Raphael E. Elias
Date: 10/13/17

73 Derryfield Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $139,900
Buyer: Sagrario Caceres
Seller: John I. Lyons
Date: 10/06/17

27-29 Dunhill St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Devon A. Gibson
Seller: Scott R. Lester
Date: 10/06/17

25-27 Eagle St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $139,000
Buyer: Ian A. Riley
Seller: Luis A. Villanueva
Date: 10/02/17

41-43 Edgemont St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Alfredo Garib
Seller: Orange Park Management
Date: 10/06/17

277 El Paso St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: Ruperto Soto
Seller: Harriet R. Bryan
Date: 10/06/17

216 Ellsworth Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Glenn P. Vigneault
Seller: Juan F. Latorre
Date: 10/13/17

126 Fair Oak Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $171,000
Buyer: Luis A. Diaz
Seller: Steven P. Haggerty
Date: 10/13/17

63 Garvey Dr.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $199,900
Buyer: Wilfred J. Pelletier
Seller: Daniel L. Ford
Date: 10/11/17

40 Gertrude St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $159,000
Buyer: Jamil Y. Asad-Ubinas
Seller: Donald J. Henn
Date: 10/02/17

203 Glenoak Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Angela Allen
Seller: Philip S. Ashton
Date: 10/11/17

125 Granger St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $119,000
Buyer: Cedar Investment Group
Seller: Mark E. Pariseau
Date: 10/03/17

55 Groton St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Luis Montanez
Seller: Insight Homes LLC
Date: 10/10/17

60 Hannon St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: Northeast Terminals LLC
Seller: Suburban Propane LP
Date: 10/02/17

18 Hickox Place
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $172,000
Buyer: Andres Martinez
Seller: Bank Of New York Mellon
Date: 10/02/17

89 Hyde Ave.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $146,100
Buyer: Daniel S. Albizu
Seller: Liz O. Febres
Date: 10/13/17

790 Liberty St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Patalano Property Mgmt.
Seller: Amaral Properties MA LLC
Date: 10/06/17

205-209 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: NE Conference Corp. Of 7th
Seller: Iglesia De Dios Viviente
Date: 10/10/17

35 Mary Louise St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $148,075
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Marques A. Barnett
Date: 10/03/17

226-228 Mill St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Erasmito Gonzalez
Seller: Moises Villa
Date: 10/10/17

66-68 Monmouth St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $159,000
Buyer: Matrisa R. Crapps
Seller: Stanley B. Wright
Date: 10/12/17

110 Oak Hollow Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $184,500
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Filomena Regan
Date: 10/12/17

199 Parkerview St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: William H. Russell
Seller: Timber Development LLC
Date: 10/13/17

100 Perkins St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $177,000
Buyer: Rafael Irizarry
Seller: Connor M. Knightly
Date: 10/13/17

42 Prouty St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Sandra Milledge
Seller: Donald L. Ferri
Date: 10/05/17

21-27 Putnam Circle
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Hedge Hog Industries Corp.
Seller: Antonio Francisco
Date: 10/02/17

13 Ringgold St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Angeline Poulis
Seller: Jonathan Poulis
Date: 10/10/17

45 Russell St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Jose A. Sanchez
Seller: Robert S. Park
Date: 10/03/17

208 Russell St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $128,000
Buyer: Scott A. Hamel
Seller: Askwith, Grace J., (Estate)
Date: 10/13/17

54 Scott St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Khoa A. Nguyen
Seller: John Macisaac
Date: 10/04/17

85 South Tallyho Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: William N. Clarke
Seller: FNMA
Date: 10/13/17

44 Sherbrooke St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Richard P. Larson
Seller: Katherine M. Pappas
Date: 10/12/17

870-880 State St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: 870 State Street Holdings
Seller: Boynton Property Group
Date: 10/06/17

320 Sumner Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $158,000
Buyer: Nancy Brens
Seller: Rony E. Galindo
Date: 10/03/17

122 Wayne St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $199,999
Buyer: Kevin P. McDonough
Seller: RBT Enterprise LLC
Date: 10/11/17

212 West Allen Ridge Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $172,400
Buyer: Genesis Arekeria
Seller: Loni M. Kearney
Date: 10/06/17

111 West Crystal Brook Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Santiago Canosa-Oliver
Seller: Patricia T. Sfreddo
Date: 10/04/17

15 West Hill Road
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Dalila Navarro
Seller: Sapphire Property Development LLC
Date: 10/13/17

102 Woodmont St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Ruby Rodriguez
Seller: Eliana Febus
Date: 10/03/17

WALES

23 McBride Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $351,000
Buyer: Deutsche Bank
Seller: Erin N. Murray
Date: 10/13/17

WESTFIELD

15 Ashley St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: David S. Prouty
Seller: Gregory A. O’Neil
Date: 10/10/17

263 Buck Pond Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Cheryl Denardo
Seller: Roger L. Stawasz
Date: 10/06/17

16 Ely St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Alan D. Slesser
Seller: Kayla C. Slesser
Date: 10/12/17

66 Flynn Meadow Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $449,050
Buyer: William C. Weltlich
Seller: RSP Realty LLC
Date: 10/10/17

34 Kittredge Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Kenneth P. Lombardini
Seller: Michael J. Skehan
Date: 10/05/17

178 Llewellyn Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Kimberly J. Tonlino
Seller: Paul A. Miles
Date: 10/06/17

37 Miller St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: Miguel A. Colon
Seller: Daniel J. Mahoney
Date: 10/13/17

45 Pleasant St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Argishti Gukasyan
Seller: 45A&B Pleasant Street LLC
Date: 10/06/17

30 Rosedell Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Roger I. Beach
Date: 10/11/17

1006 Southampton Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: ABW Realty LLC
Seller: Robert A. Wagner
Date: 10/11/17

71 Tannery Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $196,500
Buyer: Russell H. Klaubert
Seller: David M. Smithies
Date: 10/05/17

68 Western Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Timothy Sawtelle
Seller: Keith A. Plant
Date: 10/03/17

WILBRAHAM

4 Beechwood Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $284,000
Buyer: Melissa Washington
Seller: Van D. Schermerhorn
Date: 10/13/17

2641 Boston Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Mary E. Starzyk
Seller: Anna F. Jasmin
Date: 10/13/17

18 Bungalow Point
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $415,000
Buyer: David P. Markman
Seller: John F. Crane
Date: 10/04/17

2 Melikian Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $259,000
Buyer: Xiaoquin Zhou
Seller: Salpie Cavros
Date: 10/13/17

445 Monson Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $319,900
Buyer: Cynthia A. Scott
Seller: New England Equities LLC
Date: 10/06/17

11 Peak Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Richard Bonney
Seller: Big Sky Properties LLC
Date: 10/03/17

851 Ridge Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Joseph S. Fusco
Seller: Christopher C. Hill
Date: 10/06/17

3 Sylvan Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $282,000
Buyer: Christopher Roberts
Seller: Anthony S. Bergeron
Date: 10/13/17

WEST SPRINGFIELD

79 Austin Lane
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $550,000
Buyer: Askar Lachinov
Seller: Currin L. Buchmann
Date: 10/02/17

77 Christine Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $433,000
Buyer: Ripalkumari J. Solanki
Seller: Lynn Roy
Date: 10/02/17

87 City View Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Joseph L. Parillo
Seller: Joseph P. Dechristopher
Date: 10/13/17

86 Connecticut Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $181,000
Buyer: Brahman Holdings LLC
Seller: Stephen Hardy
Date: 10/03/17

73 Ely Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Kellie M. Reid
Seller: Elizabeth Jasse
Date: 10/02/17

182 Ely Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $187,500
Buyer: Jeremy M. Rankin
Seller: Julie A. Cafasso
Date: 10/13/17

28 Garden St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $139,900
Buyer: William Godard
Seller: Kevin M. Schumacher
Date: 10/13/17

Hyde Road #8
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Yelena Sergeychik
Seller: John G. Kudlic
Date: 10/04/17

44 Orchardview St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $193,000
Buyer: Kingford Aidoo
Seller: Frank P. Matuszczak
Date: 10/11/17

131 River St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $4,525,000
Buyer: Dow Realty Management LLC
Seller: Imperial Apartments LLC
Date: 10/12/17

15 Silver St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $133,000
Buyer: Sarmad M. Alkarimi
Seller: Deborah Belden
Date: 10/03/17

811 Union St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Beatrice A. Siwek
Seller: Barbara A. Bouchard
Date: 10/06/17

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

17 Curtis Place
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $278,700
Buyer: Matthew L. Wolaver
Seller: Christina G. Salgo
Date: 10/06/17

27 Kendrick Place
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: 27 Kendrick Place LLC
Seller: Sanford Pooler
Date: 10/11/17

Lindenridge Road #61
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Bercume Construction LLC
Seller: Tofino Associates LLC
Date: 10/03/17

39 Longmeadow Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $240,539
Buyer: Dai D. Nguyen
Seller: Karella, Nancy A., (Estate)
Date: 10/02/17

66 Woodside Ave.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Amherst Collage
Seller: Hadley P. Arkes
Date: 10/03/17

BELCHERTOWN

689 Federal St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $228,000
Buyer: Honest Beginnings Inc.
Seller: Vision Investment Props.
Date: 10/12/17

2 Fox Run Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $219,900
Buyer: Christopher Elias
Seller: Tara M. Gabriel
Date: 10/02/17

286 Gold St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Michael W. Fenimore
Seller: James C. Baj
Date: 10/13/17

46 Sabin St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Michael A. Vitale
Seller: Traci G. Protzenko
Date: 10/02/17

CHESTERFIELD

188 Bryant St.
Chesterfield, MA 01012
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Janet McCann
Seller: Janine E. Nye
Date: 10/02/17

23 North Road
Chesterfield, MA 01012
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Nancy A. Wyman
Seller: Thomas A. Oborne
Date: 10/13/17

CUMMINGTON

36 West Main St.
Cummington, MA 01026
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Christine Flannery
Seller: David Elia
Date: 10/13/17

EASTHAMPTON

190 Hendrick St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $258,000
Buyer: Michael Comando
Seller: Timothy H. Hopkins
Date: 10/13/17

12 Lyman St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Gary J. Morgenegg
Seller: Marianna Dudkiewicz
Date: 10/13/17

24 Paul St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $392,500
Buyer: Henry E. Hopkins
Seller: David Garstka Builders
Date: 10/04/17

79 Strong St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $172,200
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Tha C. Kim
Date: 10/10/17

GOSHEN

47 Fuller Road
Goshen, MA 01032
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Nitara S. Condon
Seller: Marcus L. Soifer
Date: 10/13/17

GRANBY

127 Aldrich St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Daniel C. McCarthy
Seller: Eugene C. Dube
Date: 10/10/17

238 Batchelor St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: James M. Rivest
Seller: Esther Castro
Date: 10/13/17

59 Ferry Hill Road
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $670,000
Buyer: Raymond L. Brousseau
Seller: Cheryl M. Chevalier
Date: 10/06/17

32 Lyn Dr.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $169,000
Buyer: Brian Fay
Seller: Kathleen M. Emery
Date: 10/06/17

147 West St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Deutsche Bank
Seller: Kathy H. Nolan
Date: 10/03/17

HADLEY

19 Grand Oak Farm Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $422,000
Buyer: Xue Z. Zhang
Seller: Dean A. Paddock
Date: 10/13/17

16 Laurana Lane
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Chenghui Zheng
Seller: Laura E. Norcutt
Date: 10/06/17

131 Middle St.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $362,000
Buyer: Christopher M. Condon
Seller: Brad M. Reed
Date: 10/13/17

125 Rocky Hill Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Paula Boulanger
Seller: Ronald Allard
Date: 10/13/17

21 West St.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $554,000
Buyer: Brendan Meyer
Seller: Charles T. Verrill IRT
Date: 10/06/17

HATFIELD

119 Chestnut St.
Hatfield, MA 01088
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Kristina L. Hodges
Seller: William D. Hurley
Date: 10/06/17

230 Straits Road
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Kathryn M. Harris
Seller: Symanski, Genowefa, (Estate)
Date: 10/06/17

NORTHAMPTON

20 Bridge Road #32
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $538,574
Buyer: Susan K. Lewis
Seller: Bridge Road LLC
Date: 10/12/17

130 Cardinal Way
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $510,000
Buyer: Lewis E. Rosenthal
Seller: Judith L. Berry
Date: 10/11/17

156 Chestnut St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $365,500
Buyer: Antonia Krell
Seller: Deborah C. Muyskens
Date: 10/02/17

37 Clement St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $555,000
Buyer: Donna C. Meisse
Seller: Elise L. Starr RET
Date: 10/13/17

165 Crescent St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $268,000
Buyer: Robert J. Movothy
Seller: Richard J. Novotny
Date: 10/12/17

59 Elizabeth St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: William M. Miglore
Seller: Lawson, Robert W., (Estate)
Date: 10/02/17

1006 Florence Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $454,000
Buyer: Alyx S. Akers
Seller: Gregory C. Marotta
Date: 10/04/17

5 Fruit St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $462,000
Buyer: Grace Ganssle
Seller: Polly Normand
Date: 10/11/17

15 Gilrain Terrace
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Christiane Holden
Seller: Holland W. Gage
Date: 10/10/17

666 Kennedy Road
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $635,000
Buyer: Jo R. Roessler
Seller: Gail Hartnett RET
Date: 10/12/17

38 Ladyslipper Lane
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $503,000
Buyer: Jeffrey Schmale
Seller: Alexander Simon
Date: 10/11/17

44 Laurel Park
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Arthur C. Grinath
Seller: Jennifer J. Pelissier
Date: 10/10/17

13 Munroe St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $810,000
Buyer: Safe Journeys LLC
Seller: Sequoia Properties LLC
Date: 10/03/17

SOUTH HADLEY

16 Alvord St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $283,500
Buyer: John W. Marceau
Seller: John A. Marceau
Date: 10/13/17

101 Amherst Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $207,000
Buyer: Molly O. Farber
Seller: John A. Moss
Date: 10/02/17

2 Bach Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $200,097
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: David S. Averill
Date: 10/06/17

7 Benger Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Christine L. Piquette
Seller: Presz, Irene J., (Estate)
Date: 10/12/17

64 Brigham Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Alan R. Schadel
Seller: Stephen A. Foster
Date: 10/02/17

21 Dale St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $229,900
Buyer: Benjamin J. Heidenreich
Seller: Karen E. Lynn
Date: 10/05/17

148 Hadley St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $133,000
Buyer: Bruce S. Helm
Seller: Karen A. Couture
Date: 10/03/17

34 Highland Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Muhammad B. Chaudhery
Seller: Judith A. Bush
Date: 10/04/17

91 Main St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Fuel Services Inc.
Seller: William E. Johnson
Date: 10/03/17

199 Old Lyman Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Thomas L. Lamothe
Seller: Terrance B. Sugrue
Date: 10/03/17

25 Priestly Farms Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Brendan Kavey
Seller: Robert A. McGee
Date: 10/03/17

40 Viviani St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $222,000
Buyer: Richard M. Juang
Seller: Susan D. Christopher
Date: 10/06/17

SOUTHAMPTON

7 Buchanan Circle
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Jennifer K. Ledoux
Seller: Kyle Johnson
Date: 10/06/17

275 College Hwy.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $399,900
Buyer: Ryan L. Geeleher
Seller: Pamela O. Leduc
Date: 10/13/17

8 David St.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $376,400
Buyer: Robert S. Cowell
Seller: David Garstka Builders
Date: 10/05/17

53 Glendale Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $281,000
Buyer: Marianna Dudkiewicz
Seller: James D. Parker
Date: 10/13/17

94 Gunn Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $520,000
Buyer: Traver Gumaer
Seller: James F. Roessling
Date: 10/06/17

85 Russellville Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $263,000
Buyer: Mark R. Sarafin
Seller: James D. Boudreau
Date: 10/12/17

40 Valley Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $120,875
Buyer: Louise M. Brodeur
Seller: Monica Labrie
Date: 10/13/17

WARE

56 Beaver Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Jonathan A. Fetler
Seller: Ross K. Kiely
Date: 10/13/17

2 Boivin Ave.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $172,000
Buyer: David E. Meyer
Seller: Matthew C. King
Date: 10/06/17

39 Crescent St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $201,000
Buyer: Kenneth J. Ostiguy
Seller: Lorraine J. Lavigne
Date: 10/06/17

40 Dunham Ave.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $173,000
Buyer: Leah M. Mustakangas
Seller: William C. McFaul
Date: 10/13/17

185 Monson Turnpike Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Tara L. Joslin-Murphy
Seller: Mary E. Starzyk
Date: 10/13/17

WORTHINGTON

123 Capen St.
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $262,500
Buyer: Roger A. Provost
Seller: Samantha L. Kabat
Date: 10/13/17

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies Departments

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

Artioli, Martin D.
42 Greenleaf Dr.
Hampden, MA 01036
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/17

Barry, Lynn M.
281 Chauncey Walker St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/11/17

Belair, Michael L.
Belair, Jeanne A.
112 Morningview Dr.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/11/17

Burlingham, William B.
1083 Memorial Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/04/17

Clapp, Christopher R.
Clapp, Carey J.
113 Line St.
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/12/17

Costigan, John R.
90 Baldwin St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/02/17

Dansereau, Richard M.
23 Yorktown Dr.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/12/17

Elia, Frank R.
71 Breakneck Road
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/10/17

Fernandez, Edgardo L.
31 Delaware Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/03/17

Fotiathis, JoAnn L.
a/k/a Camyre, Jo-Ann
943 River Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/09/17

Geanacopoulos, Michael
106 Pinehurst Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/17

Hernandez, Mildred
69 Portland St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/17

LaBrecque, Joseph E.
355 Little River Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/17

Laferriere, Gordon J.
6 Fairgrounds Road
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/03/17

Lalumiere, Brendan M.
135 Hubbard St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/10/17

Leese, Killian J.
152 Housatonic St.
Lenox, MA 01240
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/03/17

Lindsey, Gary E.
Lindsey, Jill A.
P.O. Box 175
Gilbertville, MA 01031
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/10/17

McGunagle, Samantha D.
74 Congress St., Apt. 4
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/29/17

McGinn, Maureen Judith
11 Sandra Road
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/17

McNamee, William T.
2230 Old Turnpike Road
Oakham, MA 01068
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/13/17

Medina, Danny S.
53 Scenic Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/04/17

Nicholson, Gerald L.
Nicholson, Charlene M.
137 Minechoag Heights
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/06/17

Nopper, April A.
a/k/a Martin, April A.
98 Dawn Dr.
Becket, MA 01223
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/12/17

Pagan, Wilfredo A.
Pagan-Cruz, Jeandy A.
16 Chapel St., 1st Fl.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/03/17

Potter, Antoinette
548 Montgomery St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/03/17

Quinn, Donna M.
52 Portulaca Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/17

Racicot, Claire Louise
91 Batchelor St.
Granby, MA 01033
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/11/17

Reyes, Wanda I.
151 Monroe St., 2nd Fl.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/17

Roberts, Donna L.
61 Jasper St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/17

Roman, Magda I.
12 Royce Ct., Apt. 3C
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/06/17

Shaw, Victoria L.
17 Tully Road
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/12/17

Smith, Sarah C.
137 Emerald Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/12/17

Solla, Yvonne
10 Chestnut St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/03/17

Souza, Chelsea A.
1393 Santuit-Newtown Road
Cotuit, MA 02635
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/03/17

Sternowski, Laura L.
15 Teakwood Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/02/17

Van Buren, Randall P.
Van Buren, Maureen A.
28 Wolcott St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/13/17

Westbrooks, Kelly L.
44 Derryfield Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/03/17

Wheeler, Francis R.
149 Pequoig Ave.
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/12/17

White, Lillian M.
49 Riviera Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/06/17

Doing Business as Certificates

DBA Certificates Departments

The following business certificates and trade names were issued or renewed during the month of October 2017.

AMHERST

The Crypto Merchant
747 South East St.
Jed Rovhana

Polestar Therapy
96 North Pleasant St.
Jamie Daniels

BELCHERTOWN

Bay Path Farm
84 Old Bay Road
David Fournier

Family Tree and Home
54 Pine St.
Nicholas Southwick-Hall

High Expectations Advocacy
192 Daniel Shays Highway
Sandra Fitzpatrick

LLR2000
219 Federal St.
Lisa Ducharme

SPG Logging
171 Old Enfield Road
Stephen Glaszcz, Beth Glaszcz

CHICOPEE

Favorites Candy Shop
145-147 East Main St.
Julissa Rawana

Lavallee Custon Creations
77 Lapa Farm Road
Melissa Lavallee

Mutt Cuts, LLC
102 Grove St.
Lori Jerusik

Mutt Rescue Inc.
102 Grove St.
Lori Jerusik

SNG Construction
4 Coolidge Road
Sergey Gorobinskiy

EASTHAMPTON

Northern Atlantic Enterprises
76 Oliver St.
Canerd Hopkins

EAST LONGMEADOW

CMJ Advocates
75 Hanward Hill
Christine Markell

Lucky Nails & Spa
68 Center Square
Tong To

Springfield Valley Hypnosis Center
280 North Main St.
Sandra Neumann

GREENFIELD

C-A-B Transportation
76 Vernon St.
Cynthia Aldrich

Shayla Caldwell
224½ Federal St.
Shayla Caldwell

The Solar Express/The Laundry
176 Federal St.
Alexander Fiorey

Spiker’s, LLC
324 Wells St.
Kate Broughton

Taproot Psychotherapy
25 Bank Row, 3rd Floor
Alexandra Osterman

Vehicle Inspection Center Inc.
188 Federal St.
Nell Lorenz

V.O. Rell Enterprises
332 Deerfield St.
Dan Viorel Oros

HAMPDEN

Isham Construction
156 Wilbraham Road
Daniel Isham

Safe Auto Sales
484 Main St.
Felix Perez

HOLYOKE

Auto Plus Auto Parts
239 South St.
Michael Englert, Matthew Flannery, Art Wenda

Goodfellas Barbershop
665 High St.
Ferdinand Rivera

Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc.
15 Holyoke St.
Ulta Salon Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc.

LONGMEADOW

Brushback
36 Captain Road
Michael Corvin

Invisible Fence of Western Mass.
42 Meadowlark Dr.
Joseph Fitzgerald

West Mass Drone
60 King Philip Dr.
I. Christopher Rinaldi

LUDLOW

JMA Web Consulting
118 Wedgewood Dr.
Joseph Alvaro

Liberty Tax Service
61 East St.
Diane Dos Reis

Palatino Auto & Truck Repair
110 Moody St.
Adelino Palatino

NORTHAMPTON

BBQ Pellets Online
6 Court St.
Seth Fischer

Carrie Ferguson Music
68 Cherry St.
Carrie Ferguson

Forget Me Not Florist
1 Round House Plaza
Rebecca Fitzgerald

PeoplesWealth Advisory Group
300 King St.
PeoplesBank

Sandri #139
776 North King St.
Nichael Behn

Valley Mediation
355 Bridge St.
Miriam Krell Bounce

Zachary Tate Art
54 Old Ferry Road
Zachary Saltzman Birnbaum

PALMER

Bruce O’Brien Electric Service
P.O. Box 5
Bruce O’Brien

Buzz for Bait
1624 Park St.
Rose Gagnon

healing-you Hipnotherapy
1479 North Main St.
Kelly Booth

NanoSOLV Technologies
21 Wilbraham St.
John Becker IV

Retail in Perfect
368 Wilbraham St.
Katarzyna Reopel

Samantha Clay Real Estate
21 Wilbraham St.
Samantha Clay

SprayKraft International
21 Wilbraham St.
John Becker IV

Surewood Systems
21 Wilbraham St.
John Becker IV

SPRINGFIELD

2EZ Sportswear
111 Mayher St.
2EZ Sportswear

Advanced Orthopedics
300 Stafford St.
David Kruger

Barry Development
591 Tinkham Road
Cornelius Barry

Blackwood’s Transportation
84 Wexford St.
Andrew Blackwood

The Crazy Grill & Restaurant
2757 Main St.
Carmen Olivencia

Destiny’s Design
69 Jennings St.
Katherine Goodman

First We Feast, LLC
232 Worthington St.
Brendan Walker

Gifts and Grabs
1655 Boston Road
Tyra Adeeko

Hair 2000
459 Main St.
John Marnelakis

Jay’s Metal Refurbishing
45 Daytona St., Second Floor
Jason Perez

Kwik Fix Auto Repair
491 Allen St.
Alex Dominquez

L. Messier Services
63 Sunapee St.
Louis Messier

Life Dental Specialties
1795 Main St.
Anthony Quinta

Minutemen Remodeling
302 Gifford St.
Robert Granger

Neon Works
281 Taylor St.
Winslow Reed Jr.

New Traditions Wedding Music
19 Ingersoll Grove
Stephen Moser

P.L. Krynicki Insurance Agency
459 Main St.
Pamela Krynicki

RRG Trucking, LLC
97 Pine St.
Roberto Gray

Saint Luke’s Home
85 Spring St.
Trinity Continuing Care Services

Springfield First Fridays
112 Berkshire Ave.
Sheldon Hanson

WESTFIELD

Alex Sheremet Photography
102 Elm St., Suite 17
Alex Sheremet

Andrea York Photography, LLC
16 Union Ave.
Andrea York

Cindy’s Cleaning
44 Laro Road
Cindy Donahue

Finding Space in Your Place
287 Falley Dr.
Tracy Racicot

Greg’s Auto Repair Inc.
301 North Elm St.
Greg’s Auto Repair Inc.

Midac Corp.
6 Coleman Ave.
Midac Corp.

Park Square Realty
44 Elm St.
PSQ Inc.

Ray Davidson’s Home Improvement
45 Rogers Ave.
Raymond Davidson

Rovithis Realty, LLC
16 Union Ave. Suite 26
Steven Rovithis

Seven Colors Painting
26 Hunter Slope
Pavel Shevchuk

Sophy Nails and Spa
84 Main St.
Lida Lim

Westfield Liquors
95 Main St.
Patel Liquor, LLC

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Expo Liquors
1122 Memorial Ave.
Dadson Inc.

Fathers & Sons Volkswagen
434 Memorial Ave.
Damon Cartelli

Greener Side Property Service
22 Bascom St.
Matthew Sawyer

Pioneer Valley Chimney Sweeps
362 Amostown Road
Thomas Cowell

PS Salon & Spa
110 Monastery Ave.
Salon PS

Olive Garden Italian Restaurant
919 Riverdale St.
GMRI Inc.

Union Street Auto Sales
697 Union St.
Joshua Martel

WILBRAHAM

Adam Long Painting
231 Monson Road
Adam Long, Natalie Long

Blush Beauty Boutique
2812 Boston Road
Faith Blanscet

Interskate 91
2043 Boston Road
Kevin Baker

Simply Dip-Licious
2341 Boston Road, Unit 4
Tracy Peloquin

Stony Hill Landscaping
1 Leemond St.
Joseph Pessolano

Incorporations

Departments Incorporations

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

HOLYOKE

Panamericana Multiservice Inc., 34 Martin St., Holyoke, MA 01040. Zoraida V. McEvoy, same. Shipping, translations, and other services.

LONGMEADOW

Sean Byrne Memorial Music Foundation Inc., 17 Cherry Lane, Longmeadow, MA 01106. Stephen A. Byrne, same. Promotes funding and support directed to educational and performance opportunities in the musical arts.

ORANGE

Orange Solstice Riverfest Inc., C/O Neely, 150 West Orange Road, Orange, MA 01364 Laurie A. Neely, same. Volunteer organization formed to celebrate the history and local culture related to the Millers River in Orange.

Storming the Greens Inc., 185 Mountain View Drive, Holyoke, MA 01040. Ryan McMahon, same. Raises funds for cancer-related service and research organizations, including organizations treating and researching glioblastoma and other forms of brain cancer.

PITTSFIELD

Silver Therapeutics Inc., 82 Wendell Ave., Suite 100, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Joshua Silver, 89 Court St., Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. Provides natural medical treatments to the public and for all such other purposes.

SOUTH HADLEY

South Hadley Baseball Association Inc., 6 Chatham Way, South Hadley, MA 01075. AJ Provost, 27 Tampa St., South Hadley, MA 01075. Summer baseball league.

SPRINGFIELD

Senda De Renovcion Y Restauracion Inc., 788 Parker St., Springfield, MA 01129. Victor Gali Rivera, 805 Km. 2.3 St., Bo. Negros Corozal, PR 00783. Non-profit organization that provides a meeting place for social, community, and religious purposes.

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Pro Solution Construction Inc., 116 Lancaster Ave., West Springfield, MA 01089. Petr Gavrilyuk, same. Construction.

WESTHAMPTON

Regnaleb Enterprises Inc., 218 North Road, Westhampton, MA 01027. Arthur E. Belanger, same. Consulting and investment.

WILLIAMSTOWN

Pacelli Zepka Corporation, 1136 Main St., Williamstown, MA 01267. Allison M. Pacelli, same. Math camp.

Briefcase

Briefcase Departments

Employer Confidence Hits Another High for 2017

BOSTON — Employer confidence in Massachusetts hit another high for 2017 during October as economic growth accelerated and companies remained optimistic about the national outlook. The Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Business Confidence Index edged up 0.3 points to 62.7, leaving it 6.5 points better than in October 2016. The uptick was driven by a brightening view of employment growth and firming confidence among manufacturers. The reading came as MassBenchmarks reported that the Massachusetts economy grew at 5.9% during the third quarter, almost double the rate of the national economy. Payroll employment grew at a 2.1% annual rate in Massachusetts in the third quarter as compared to 1.2% nationally. “The acceleration of the Massachusetts economy in the third quarter provided additional fuel to an already solid sense of confidence among employers as we head for 2018,” said Raymond Torto, chair of AIM’s Board of Economic Advisors (BEA) and lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Design. “At the same time, optimism about the national economy suggests that employers believe growth rates throughout the U.S. will increase even more if Congress follows through on its proposal to lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%.” The AIM Index, based on a survey of Massachusetts employers, has appeared monthly since July 1991. It is calculated on a 100-point scale, with 50 as neutral; a reading above 50 is positive, while below 50 is negative. The Index reached its historic high of 68.5 on two occasions in 1997-98, and its all-time low of 33.3 in February 2009. The Index has remained above 50 since October 2013. The constituent indicators that make up the overall Business Confidence Index were largely higher during October. The Massachusetts Index, assessing business conditions within the Commonwealth, slipped 0.3 points to 65.1, still 4.1 points more than a year earlier. October marked the 91st consecutive month in which employers have been more optimistic about the Massachusetts economy than the national economy. The U.S. Index of national business conditions rose 2.7 points to 62.5, continuing a 13.3-point surge for the 12-month period. The Current Index, which assesses overall business conditions at the time of the survey, increased 0.7 points to 63.6, while the Future Index, measuring expectations for six months out, remained even at 61.9 points. The Current Index has risen 7.6 points and the Future Index 5.6 points during the past year. The Company Index, reflecting overall business conditions, lost 0.3 points to 62.0. There was better news in the Employment Index, a key predictor of economic health, which rose 2.0 points to 57.8.

Arrha President Testifies on Bill to Modernize Credit-union Laws

SPRINGFIELD — Michael Ostrowski, president and CEO of Arrha Credit Union, testified on an act to modernize credit-union laws before the state Joint Committee on Financial Services. Ostrowski testified on allowing technological advances, increasing transactional authority for chartering and merging credit unions, and increasing state authority for low-income designation. “A top priority of Arrha Credit Union is to be able to fully utilize today’s advances in technology. We are not allowed to offer electronic loan applications, along with other credit unions. Our members want technological convenience in today’s advanced electronic world,” Ostrowski said. “Also, mail was meaningful during the time this law was enacted; however, today’s electronic voting has largely taken the place of mail ballot voting, and is more easily accessible for members to actively participate in our governance. Such technological advances will provide convenience, time-saving opportunities, and cost-saving opportunities. It is important for Arrha Credit Union to stay as technically advanced as possible to best serve our membership and communities.” Arrha Credit Union supports the provisions of this bill, which allows the Massachusetts commissioner of Banks to recognize the credit-union low-income designation for state-chartered credit unions. A credit union that receives the low-income designation is a credit union in which has more than half of its members have a family income 80% or less than the median family income for the metropolitan area where they live or national metropolitan area, whichever is greater. This authority will open an opportunity for credit unions to gain access to grant money to provide additional training opportunities for its staff, better and more tailored products for its low-income base, and other such improvements. It will also allow for expedited and easier recognition of credit for Community Reinvestment Act purposes. “Arrha Credit Union is considered a low-income-designated credit union and has used its low-income designation in the area of auto lending with 100% loan-to-value ratios, which allows us to better and more timely serve our members,” Ostrowski said. “It is clear that values and general banking business dynamics change very quickly in this day and age; as a result, it is necessary that our laws are also kept up-to-date, modernized, with today’s needs.

Unemployment Rates Decrease Across State in September

BOSTON — Local unemployment rates decreased in 19 labor-market areas, increased in two areas, and remained the same in three areas in the state during the month of September, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported. Compared to September 2016, the rates were up in 18 labor-market areas and remained the same in six labor-market areas. Six of the 15 areas for which job estimates are published recorded seasonal job gains in September. The gains occurred in the Springfield, Worcester, Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, New Bedford, Peabody-Salem-Beverly, and Leominster-Gardner areas. From September 2016 to September 2017, 14 of the 15 areas added jobs, with the largest percentage gains in the New Bedford, Haverhill-Newburyport-Amesbury, Barnstable, Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Lynn-Saugus-Marblehead, and Springfield areas. In order to compare the statewide rate to local unemployment rates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates the statewide unadjusted unemployment rate for September was 3.5%. Last week, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported the statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped to 3.9% in the month of September. The statewide seasonally adjusted jobs estimate showed a 9,300-job gain in September and an over-the-year gain of 62,300 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.

Board of Higher Education Votes to Join Agreement on Online Learning

BOSTON — The state Board of Higher Education recently authorized the state’s commissioner of Higher Education to submit an application to join the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA), a multi-state approach to regulating the growing number of online learning programs offered by colleges and universities across the U.S. The board’s unanimous vote follows an extensive review of what joining SARA would mean for the Commonwealth. Last year, Massachusetts Education Secretary James Peyser chaired a legislative Special Commission on Interstate Reciprocity Agreements, which issued a report that was reviewed by the Board of Higher Education as part of its decision-making process to join SARA. In December 2016, the U.S. Department of Education incorporated recommendations from the state Board and Department of Higher Education, the Office of the Attorney General, and the Executive Office of Education in final authorization regulations for postsecondary online education. “As we strive to make higher education more affordable and accessible for residents of the Commonwealth, adding online learning options is a critical step in the right direction,” Gov. Charlie Baker said. “We are pleased to join SARA with the assurance that we would be able to continue vital consumer protections for our students, and look forward to preparing our application.” Added Peyser, “if Massachusetts’ application for SARA membership is approved, students in the Commonwealth will see a multitude of options in online education open up for them, and our state’s colleges and universities will find it less cumbersome and costly to offer online courses to students in other states.” Massachusetts will be the 49th state to join SARA, if its application is accepted by the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements. Currently, the Board of Higher Education regulates the degree-granting authority of most post-secondary institutions with a physical presence in the Commonwealth, granting them the ability to offer specific credit-bearing programs of study and to use the terms ‘college’ or ‘university’ in their names. At present, it does not exercise oversight over out-of-state institutions that offer only online programs to Massachusetts students. With the proliferation of distance-learning providers and modalities, the need for a new, more nimble regulatory approach that will allow for greater access and options for students — while maintaining robust student protections and safeguards — has emerged. “Massachusetts has a strong history when it comes to regulations and standards that benefit consumers — in this case, students — and we were willing to take our time in deliberating whether to join SARA rather than rush into an agreement that might shortchange them,” said Carlos Santiago, state commissioner of Higher Education. If Massachusetts’ application to join SARA is accepted, institutions in the Commonwealth may be able to submit applications to begin operating under SARA by the summer of 2018.

Connecticut Airport Authority Seeks Development Proposals

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. — The Connecticut Airport Authority is seeking developers to enter into a long-term land lease to develop, operate, and maintain commercial property owned by Bradley International Airport located on a vacant, 4.8-acre parcel on Ella Grasso Turnpike. A pre-proposal meeting will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 8 at 10 a.m. in the Human Resources Conference Room located at 334 Ella Grasso Turnpike, Suite 100, Windsor Locks. Full copies of the request for proposal may be downloaded at www.ctairports.org/economic-development/procurement, or by e-mailing [email protected].

Company Notebook

Company Notebook Departments

STCC Partners with Northeastern University

SPRINGFIELD — A new educational and workforce-development partnership between Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) and Northeastern University creates an opportunity for current STCC students, graduates, and the general public to earn bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering technology and advanced manufacturing systems on site at STCC. In a recent ceremony at STCC, leaders from both institutions officially signed a memorandum of understanding to mark this partnership. In the planning stages for more than a year, the agreement with STCC marks the first time Northeastern has partnered with a community college to offer bachelor’s degrees on site. “Our engineering and manufacturing programs continue to be a signature of STCC, and we are very pleased to collaborate with Northeastern to deepen and enhance workforce efforts for Western Massachusetts,” said John Cook, STCC president. Added Mary Loeffelholz, dean of Northeastern University College of Professional Studies, “we’re pleased to partner with Springfield Technical Community College as it expands opportunities for students. Both of our institutions value experiential learning and industry-aligned degrees to prepare students for career and life success.” Students may choose either a pathway to a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering technology or in advanced manufacturing systems from Northeastern to be completed online and at STCC. Both degrees are part of the Lowell Institute School at Northeastern, which offers 15 bachelor’s-degree programs, 10 of which are available completely online. “This partnership with STCC is in keeping with the mission and tradition of the Lowell Institute School, which began when A. Lawrence Lowell created the Lowell Institute School for Industrial Foremen in 1903,” said Kemi Jona, founding director of the Lowell Institute School and associate dean of Undergraduate Programs. “The goal then was to bring essential knowledge and opportunity to the people doing the work driving the economy of the new century. Today, the Lowell Institute School is still committed to this goal, reaching students in new ways and places.” The agreement maximizes convenience and cost-effectiveness for STCC graduates who wish to obtain bachelor’s degrees in the two programs, said Adrienne Smith, dean of the School of Engineering Technologies & Mathematics at STCC. Smith said most STCC students have families in the area and would prefer to get their bachelor’s degrees in the Springfield area. In addition to some online courses, classes will take place in the evening and possibly Saturdays.

United Bank Foundation Supports Baystate Project

SPRINGFIELD — The United Bank Foundation Massachusetts recently approved a $50,000 grant designated to help Baystate Medical Center and Baystate Health Foundation establish a permanent Acute Care for Elders (ACE) unit at the hospital. Baystate launched its ACE unit as a pilot program in September 2014, providing nationally recognized and award-winning geriatric care that has resulted in many positive clinical outcomes for elder patients at the medical center, including reducing the length of hospital stays for elderly patients, enhancing patient safety, boosting training for medical staff, and increasing the number of patients who return directly home after their hospital stay. Due to the success of the pilot program, Baystate is seeking partners like United Bank to help establish a permanent, state-of-the-art ACE unit. This 32-bed unit would enable Baystate to provide acute care to more elderly patients in Western Mass. To date, Baystate’s ACE unit has treated approximately 500 elderly patients. According to the Baystate Health Foundation, the elderly population in Western Mass. — which is currently among the highest in the state — is expected to rise by nearly 15% in 2018. By 2030, the older adult population will increase to more than 70 million and account for one in every five Americans. “For anyone who has an elderly family member who required a prolonged hospital stay, you want peace of mind knowing your loved ones are comfortable in a compassionate setting, receiving top medical care, and are on course to return home to lead independent lives when they are discharged,” said Dena Hall, the bank’s Western Mass. regional president and president of the United Bank Foundation Massachusetts. “Baystate has a proven record for meeting these patient-care goals and successfully addressing the unique physical and psychological needs of elderly patients. We know our $50,000 financial commitment will help Baystate continue to be a leader in transforming elder care in Western Mass.”

AIC Named to Top 10 Small Colleges in State

SPRINGFIELD — Zippia.com, a website dedicated to helping people find and pursue the right career, has named American International College (AIC) one of the top 10 small colleges in Massachusetts. Zippia sorted schools in the Bay State by enrollment, limiting their report to institutions with fewer than 2,000 students. They assessed data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and college scorecard data from www.ed.gov to determine what small schools offer the best career opportunities and school performance. Career considerations included mean earnings after six and 10 years, and the ratio of people working to not working after 10 years. School performance was measured in terms of admissions rate (the more selective, the better), graduation rate, average cost of attendance (the lower, the better), and debt upon graduation. Once career opportunities and school performance were calculated, Zippia examined the 32 institutions of higher learning in Massachusetts enrolling fewer than 2,000 students. American International College is one of the private schools to be recognized. AIC admits 67% of its students and is the 10th-least-expensive small college to attend in the Commonwealth.

Westfield Bank, Customers Raise Hurricane-relief Funds

WESTFIELD — Westfield Bank presented a donation for $8,000 to the Westfield Spanish American Assoc. and the Western Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico coalition to aid relief efforts in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. The funds were raised during the Bank’s “Casual for a Cause” event held earlier this month, in which employees could earn the privilege of dressing casually by contributing to the fund-raiser. Bank customers were also invited to drop contributions in collection boxes located at the Bank’s 21 branch offices. Together, employees and customers donated $4,000, and Westfield Bank matched their efforts with an additional $4,000. According to Ed Diaz, co-founder of the Westfield Spanish American Assoc. (WSAA) and chairman of the association’s hurricane relief fund, the bank’s donation will be sent directly to the United for Puerto Rico relief fund. Together, the WSAA and Western Massachusetts United for Puerto Rico form a coalition of community groups; civic and business leaders; volunteers from Springfield, Holyoke, Westfield, and Chicopee; and others in Western Mass. working to bring relief to the people of Puerto Rico. “Over $100,000 has been raised thus far,” said Diaz, “and we have collected other items such as batteries, water, sanitary products, canned foods, and radios at drop-off points at the Westfield Boys & Girls Club, the Westfield YMCA, and the Westfield school superintendent’s office. We have shipped over 250 boxes of goods to Puerto Rico, and we thank Westfield Bank and everyone who donated to this cause and volunteered their time and talent for this effort.” Both Westfield Bank and the WSAA plan to continue their efforts on behalf of Hurricane Maria relief. With significant support from the WSAA and the Portuguese American Club in Chicopee, a group of Westfield Bank employee volunteers is organizing a benefit dance on Saturday, Dec. 2. The dance will be held from 6 p.m. until midnight at the Portuguese American Club, 149 Exchange St., Chicopee. For more details, visit any Westfield Bank office.

State Awards HCC $229,500 for Culinary Arts Institute

HOLYOKE — The HCC MGM Culinary Arts Institute got a big boost yesterday from the governor’s office with the awarding of a $229,500 grant for the purchase of computer and kitchen equipment for the new downtown training facility, which is expected to open next month. During an appearance at Nashoba Valley Technical High School in Westford, Gov. Charlie Baker announced a total of $9.5 million in Workforce Skills Capital Grants to 32 community colleges, high schools, and educational institutions to enhance and expand career training programs like the ones Holyoke Community College (HCC) will be operating at the Cubit Building on the corner of Race and Appleton streets in the city’s Innovation District. “These Skills Capital Grants will help boost our economy and equip students with new skills, knowledge, and experience with state-of-the-art equipment across the Commonwealth,” Baker said. “We look forward to continuing our work with these 32 institutions and previous awardees to enhance their programs and develop a skilled workforce ready to meet the needs of the Commonwealth.” The HCC grant will be used to buy 32 computer workstations, networking infrastructure, and software programs unique to hospitality- and culinary-industry workplaces, as well as kitchen equipment such as refrigerators, grill and fry tables, ice machines, skillets, griddles, steamers, and dishwashers. “All the items purchased with the grant will directly support workforce training for occupations within the growing hospitality and culinary-arts industry of Western Massachusetts, including preparing workers for MGM Springfield, one of our major employer partners,” said Amy Dopp, HCC’s interim vice president of Institutional Advancement. She said the new equipment will allow the college to increase the number of seats available in its credit and non-credit programs and be able to customize instruction to meet the needs of local employers. Construction of the HCC MGM Culinary Arts Institute, which will occupy nearly 20,000 square feet on the first and second floors of the Cubit Building, is expected to be completed in late November, with non-credit workforce-training programs beginning in December. HCC’s credit programs in hospitality and culinary arts will relocate from the main campus to the new facility for the beginning of the spring 2018 semester.

People on the Move

Departments People on the Move

Elizabeth Quick

Bulkley Richardson has named Elizabeth Quick its new executive director. In this position, she is responsible for overseeing all business operations including finance, human resources, information technology, business development/marketing, and facilities. “We are pleased that Elizabeth will be joining us,” said Peter Barry, chairman of the firm’s executive committee. “She has directed many programs and business systems for law firms throughout Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Washington, D.C. Based on her experience and her abilities, we are confident that she will be a major contributor to continuing the firm’s success.” Quick said she is excited about her new opportunity. “I look forward to working with this talented group of professionals as we continue to serve Bulkley Richardson clients and the community. Continuous improvement of systems and management to foster the firm’s delivery of superior legal services is an important focus for me.” An experienced operations professional, Quick’s career spans more than 25 years as a legal-industry administrator. She has developed and implemented new processes, along with coordinating all administrative functions required to ensure smooth day-to-day operations. She has a strong network of colleagues and vendors which has allowed her to streamline tasks to bolster productivity and performance. Prior to joining Bulkley Richardson, she worked as a multi-location administrator for a law firm with offices in New York, Washington, D.C., and Connecticut. She was responsible for strategic planning, expansions and moves, human resources, budgeting, day-to-day operations, business lines of insurance, and cohesive interaction with the management group in benefits, finance, technology, recruiting, and marketing to forward the firm’s overall success and business operations. Quick earned her bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, from Eastern Connecticut State University, and received her associate degree from Manchester Community College, and was honored with the David A. Greenberg Award for Academic Excellence and the Fred A. Ramey Jr. Award for Outstanding Business Student. She is a member of the Assoc. of Legal Administrators (ALA), and also a member of the Nutmeg and Capitol chapters of ALA. Quick is based in Bulkley Richardson’s Springfield office. She succeeds Patrick Hourihan, who retired in September after 36 years of service to the firm.

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Jodie Gerulaitis

Country Bank President and CEO Paul Scully announced that Jodie Gerulaitis has been promoted to vice president of Community Relations. “Jodie’s commitment to the local communities we serve and her deep understanding of the bank’s mission made her the obvious choice for this new position,” Scully said. “Jodie will further enhance the bank’s long-standing commitment to helping those in need and work with local nonprofits on various events while managing the bank’s charitable-giving programs.” Gerulaitis has been with Country Bank for 24 years in various positions and holds several certifications from the Center for Financial Training. She is currently attending the New England School for Financial Studies, serves as a local treasurer of the Salvation Army, and is on the West Brookfield Elementary and Stanley M. Koziol school councils. Annually, Country Bank partners with more than 500 local nonprofits to support their needs and was recently recognized as one of the Top 100 Charitable Giving Companies by the Boston Business Journal.

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Pierre Joseph

The Solidago Foundation, a national social-justice foundation, appointed Springfield native, Amherst College graduate, and Truman scholar Pierre Joseph to the newly created role of program associate. Within this role, Joseph will have a critical role in developing four new signature projects as well as researching, recruiting, and managing new national and state partners. “Pierre is joining our growing team at a pivotal time for the foundation,” said CEO Elizabeth Barajas-Román. “We are excited about the expertise and fresh perspective he’ll bring to our ongoing work.” Prior to working at the Solidago Foundation, Pierre worked as a policy analyst at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. There, he staffed the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services and worked on many issues including two-generation approaches to child poverty, family implications of substance-use disorder, and linking health-systems transformation to the social determinants of health. “In this new role, I am very interested in how emerging financing strategies, blended funding streams, and democratized access to capital can build wealth, expand opportunity, and increase economic mobility in underserved communities throughout the United States,” he said. Joseph is also responsible for working with senior staff on supporting the team’s budgeting, financial analysis, and planning efforts. “I am thrilled to be working alongside Pierre,” said Jeff Rosen, CFO of the Solidago Foundation. “We are lucky to have a person who has gained so much experience in both local and national arenas to bring to the next phase of our work. Pierre offers the rare blend of practical focus and long-range vision. He will be an invaluable field and thought partner, and we look forward to working together on a host of new initiatives.”

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Michelle Cayo

Florence Bank, a mutually owned savings bank serving the Pioneer Valley through 10 branch locations, has hired Michelle Cayo of Granby in the position of vice president, Credit Administration manager. She brings nearly 20 years of commercial credit experience to her new role. Cayo studied at Bay Path University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in business with a concentration in finance, and her master’s degree in communications and information management. She completed the New England School for Financial Studies program and is in the process of completing the Graduate Banking Program from the American Bankers Assoc. Cayo serves her community as a member of the Jimmy Fund Council of Western Mass. In the past, she has also served as president of the Professional Women’s Chamber of Western Mass. In 2013, she was recognized by Western Mass Women magazine as Volunteer of the Year to recognize her work for children with pediatric cancer. She was also recognized by BusinessWest as a member of the 40 Under Forty Class of 2011, which celebrates young business and civic leaders in the Pioneer Valley. “We are thrilled to announce the addition of Michelle Cayo to our Florence Bank family,” said President and CEO John Heaps Jr. “She has an impressive background in commercial credit, and we feel she’s the ideal candidate to take on the role of VP/Credit Administration manager. I know we will be seeing excellent results from her in the years to come, and I look forward to watching her success.”

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John Garvey

John Garvey, president of Springfield-based digital-marketing and public-relations firm Garvey Communication Associates Inc. (GCAi) recently completed a certificate program in corporate reputation management offered by the Public Relations Society of America. The eight-week program was taught by communications experts from global brands including Weber Shandwick, the Hershey Co., MasterCard, Revlon Inc., and Burson-Marsteller. The program included modules on “Reputation and the CEO,” “Key Performance Indicators,” “Digital Reputation,” and “Reputational Risks.” The program is designed to help communications professionals navigate the space between marketing, public relations, and digital, as well as to recognize the importance of reputation and the CEO’s impact on brand value. Garvey was also a keynote presenter at the 2017 Massachusetts Bankers Assoc. Executive Officers Conference, where he presented on “Managing the Media and Your Reputation in a Crisis.” He has close to four decades of public-relations and reputation-management experience, having worked as a consultant to a variety of corporations and nonprofits, as well as a political campaign consultant. Garvey earned a bachelor’s degree from Marquette University and has served as a guest lecturer at the university’s Diederich College of Communications. He earned a master’s degree in organizational development at American International College. He is also a judge and mentor for the Boston-based global startup accelerator MassChallenge, where he has worked with cohorts from Spain, Columbia, Morocco, France, and Mexico.

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Ivonne Vidal

Ivonne Vidal, a staff attorney for the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Springfield, has been appointed to the Holyoke Community College board of trustees by Gov. Charlie Baker. Vidal holds a law degree from Boston University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Economics from Brown University. As an undergraduate, she spent a year studying international relations and economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. A native Spanish speaker, Vidal grew up in Cuba and has been living in the U.S. since she was 15 and in Western Mass. for the past six years. “As a public defender and an immigrant, I am keenly aware of the transformative role education plays in a person’s life,” Vidal said. “Holyoke Community College is at the forefront of this movement, finding innovative ways to engage and improve the lives of residents in Holyoke and Western Massachusetts. I am very excited to become a part of this institution, and I’m looking forward to helping advance its mission.” Before coming to New England for college, Vidal worked as an aide at the English Center in Miami, helping to teach classes in English as a second language and citizenship. She also spent summers during college in Miami working as an executive intern in the public defender’s office. As a law student at Boston University, she worked for Greater Boston Legal Services and as a legal intern with Masferrer & Associates, P.C. “Ivonne’s background in law and fluency in Spanish will strengthen our already-talented board,” said Robert Gilbert, board of trustees chair. “Our goal is to foster an environment where students can succeed not only academically in college, but in their lives as well. New trustees bring fresh ideas that will help guide HCC into the future and strengthen our connections with community partners.”

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Shaun Jennings

OMG Roofing Products has hired Shaun Jennings as digital marketing specialist. In his new role, Jennings is responsible for all digital marketing activities for OMG Roofing Products, including company websites, social media, and mobile marketing activities. He is based in Agawam and reports to Sam Everett, director of Marketing Communications. Jennings joins OMG Roofing from SABIC, a manufacturer of high-performance plastics, where he led digital platform development for the Specialties business unit in the Americas region, based in Houston. He holds a bachelor’s degree in interactive media advertising from Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Headquartered in Agawam, OMG Roofing Products is a manufacturer of commercial roofing products including specialty fasteners, adhesives, edge metal systems, drains, pipe supports, and advanced productivity tools.

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Michael Koziol

Spiros Hatiras, president and CEO of Holyoke Medical Center and Valley Health Systems, announced the appointment of Michael Koziol as chief financial officer at Holyoke Medical Center (HMC). “Mike has over 30 years of experience in nonprofit organizations, including several hospitals throughout New England,” said Hatiras. “His knowledge and successful contributions to organizational financial stability and improved operating efficiencies have already proved to be an asset to the leadership team of Holyoke Medical Center and Valley Health Systems.” Koziol has served as interim CFO at HMC since April 2017. His prior experience includes executive-level finance positions with Southcoast Physicians Group in Fairhaven, Mass.; MaineGeneral Health in Augusta, Maine; South County Hospital Healthcare Systems in Wakefield, R.I.; Massachusetts Eye & Ear Associates in Boston; Rhode Island Hospital in Providence; and Memorial Hospital of South Bend in South Bend, Ind. He received his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Illinois State University and completed his MBA at the University of Illinois. “I have spent the past six months as interim CFO with Holyoke Medical Center, and I am very happy to be a part of this organization,” said Koziol. “The people who work here are wonderful, and enable a bright future in continuing to provide high-quality, cost-effective care to the community.”

•••••

Rachel Turgeon, a United Personnel employee who has worked in a variety of customer-service roles for the past five years, has been awarded the 2017 United Personnel Academic Merit Award. Turgeon received the $1,000 scholarship to defray student-loan payments related to her bachelor’s degree she received from Elms College last June. As an aspiring oncologist, Turgeon hopes to begin medical school next year. In addition to her work as a United Personnel contract employee, Turgeon is currently a women’s leader at Celebrate Recovery. In 2010, she suffered from an autoimmune disorder, and, in order to grow and heal from that occurrence, she began to counsel women in similar situations. She wanted women to see their beauty and worth beyond their physical impairments, such as hair loss. It was through this experience that she realized her calling and began taking steps to one day specialize in oncology, with the dream of traveling the world through Doctors Without Borders. “Working at United Personnel has taught me that hard work pays off,” Turgeon said. “United Personnel has been a blessing to work for. They have helped me during an extremely tough time in my life, and through them I found a job that has supported me and my long-term goals. I am extremely grateful to receive the United Personnel scholarship. Because of this scholarship, I can pay off a portion of my student loans and process quite a few medical-school applications. United Personnel has brought me one step closer to my goals, and I am so thankful for their support.” Each year, United Personnel identifies one contract employee, or the child of a United Personnel contract employee, who has worked at least 160 hours and is currently enrolled or is a recent graduate of an accredited college as the winner of its annual Academic Merit Award. This $1,000 award recognizes hard work both inside and outside of the classroom, and can be utilized to defray current costs or for loan forgiveness.

Chamber Corners: Upcoming Events

Chamber Corners Departments

1BERKSHIRE
www.1berkshire.com
(413) 499-1600

• Nov. 15: Chamber Nite, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Security Supply, 50 Roberts Dr., North Adams. Remember to bring your business card to enter a drawing to win a door prize.

GREATER CHICOPEE
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.chicopeechamber.org
(413) 594-2101

• Nov. 15: Veterans Day Salute Breakfast with Stephanie Shaw, Chicopee’s new Veterans Services officer, 7:15-9 a.m., hosted by the Castle of Knights, 1599 Memorial Dr., Chicopee. Sponsored by the La Quinta Inn & Suites and Westfield Bank. Cost: $23 for members, $28 for non-members, which includes breakfast buffet. Veterans are free. Sign up online at chicopeechamber.org/events.

GREATER HOLYOKE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.holyokechamber.com
(413) 534-3376

• Nov. 15: Chamber After Hours, 5-7 p.m., hosted and sponsored by Elms College MBA Program, 129 Springfield St., Chicopee. A casual networking event with appetizers, refreshments, and a raffle. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members. Register online at holyokechamber.com or call the chamber at (413) 534-3376.

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.westfieldbiz.org
(413) 568-1618

• Nov. 15: 57th annual Meeting & Awards Dinner, 5:30-8 p.m., hosted by East Mountain Country Club, 1458 East Mountain Road, Westfield. Congratulations to our Award Winners: Business of the Year: ProAmpac; Nonprofit of the Year, Kevs Foundation; and Lifetime Achievement Award: the Perez Family of East Mountain Country Club. Event sponsor: Baystate Noble Hospital. Cost: $50 for chamber members, $60 for potential members. Online registration is available at www.westfieldbiz.org. Sponsorship opportunities are available on the website as well. For tickets, sponsorship opportunities, or additional information, contact Pam at the chamber at (413) 568-1618 or [email protected].

SPRINGFIELD REGIONAL CHAMBER
www.springfieldregionalchamber.com
(413) 787.1555

• Nov. 16: Government Reception, 5-7 p.m., hosted by the Carriage House, Storrowton Tavern, 1305 Memorial Ave., West Springfield. An opportunity to meet socially with local, state, and federal officials. Cost: $60 for members, $70 general admission. Res ervations may be made online at www.springfieldregionalchamber.com.

WEST OF THE RIVER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.ourwrc.com
(413) 426-3880

• Nov. 16: Lunch N Learn Seminar – How to Promote your Business on Social Media, noon to 1:30 p.m., hosted by the Carriage House at Storrowton Tavern, 1305 Memorial Ave., West Springfield. Enjoy lunch while learning about the do’s and don’ts of promoting one’s business on social media, including best practices, target audience, boosting, and other aspects of promotion. Cost: $30 per member or guest. Register online at www.westoftheriverchamber.com. For more information, contact the chamber at (413) 426-3880 or [email protected].

CHD, Health Center Come Together in Unique Care Concept

Community Profile Features

Change Agents

The old Sears Roebuck store on Main Street in Greenfield will soon be home to an innovative health partnership.

If you’re looking for symbolism — or some irony — in the fact that that the new development to be known as the Greenfield Center for Wellness will be located at the former site of a Sears Roebuck, well, there’s plenty of both.

Indeed, in 1929, when this one opened, Sears was the place where you could go to find almost anything — from a Lady Kenmore washer to a fly rod; from a new pair of sneakers to a tractor; from a monkey wrench to a new battery for your Packard. It was one-stop shopping personified, and the new wellness center, a partnership between the Center for Human Development (CHD) and the Community Health Center of Franklin County, will have that same quality.

But, and this is a big but, the Sears sign over the front of 102 Main St. has been gone for a long time now — so long that no one who spoke to BusinessWest about the new wellness center could put a date on it. The best anyone could do was a guess: “in the early ’70s — I think.”

It’s long gone because shopping habits have certainly changed — going to Sears (for almost anything) is no longer how it’s done. And in most all respects, the new wellness center is being created because the way people are receiving health and wellness services is also changing, and this location represents the future, not the past — even if those involved have secured a grant to restore the original Sears storefront.

From left: Cameron Carey, Community Health Center development director; Jim Goodwin; Ed Sayer; and Shannon Hicks, CHD clinic director.

Like we said, symbolism and irony, and lots of it.

Simply put, the new wellness center, a $6 million project, has, as its foundation, the integrated-care concept, said Jim Goodwin, executive director of CHD, noting that it will bring a host of services, including primary care, dental, and counseling for emotional wellness under one large roof.

“Providers can deliver complementary services that treat the whole person,” said Goodwin, noting that this is an important consideration in a region that has both a host of healthcare issues and a poor public transportation system.

And it also represents a relatively new model in the delivery of health and wellness services, he went on, adding that progressive states such as New York, Oregon, and others have seen the creation of similar integrated-care facilities, and the facility in Greenfield is a reflection of this movement, if it can be called that.

Meanwhile, the center, slated to open its doors early next year, also represents a somewhat unique case of collaboration between nonprofits working to improve the overall health of the communities they serve through that integrated model of care, said Ed Sayer, chief executive officer of the Community Health Center of Franklin County.

“You’ll find a single corporate entity that has primary health, behavioral health, and sometimes dental,” he explained. “But it’s rare to find this degree of partnership where two different corporate entities come together under one roof.

“CHD and the health center have really worked together almost as one organization,” he went on. “This facility is very exciting and quite unique.”

And, in yet another parallel to the Sears store — at least in its heyday — the Greenfield Center for Wellness will be an economic catalyst, a magnet that will draw people to a changing and re-emerging downtown Greenfield.

Indeed, between 80 and 100 people will work at the center, and at least another 100 are expected to visit it on a daily basis, said Sayer, adding that this critical mass of potential consumers will help existing business ventures downtown and probably spur new ones.

“We really want to be part of the redevelopment of downtown Greenfield,” he told BusinessWest, “and spearhead some of the economic recovery of the downtown area.”

For this issue and its focus on Franklin County, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at the wellness center and how it is expected to help change the landscape in that rural region — in many different ways.

Brand New

When asked how the center came to be, Goodwin told BusinessWest it was the product of a recognized need and a unique, if challenge-laden, opportunity to meet it in a forward-thinking manner.

Talks began roughly three years ago, he noted, adding that they were prompted by changes brought about by healthcare reform, a sharpened focus on population health, and much greater emphasis on recognizing — and addressing — what are known as the social determinants of health.

That list includes everything from housing, or a lack thereof, to transportation, of a lack thereof, to unemployment and poverty and the many ways they impact one’s ability to address their health and well-being.

“Medical costs were rising, and not just because the cost of medical care was going up, but also because people were showing up in emergency rooms, being hospitalized, and becoming in need of services for a variety of reasons that included high levels of anxiety, depression, and disorganized living,” Goodwin explained.

These forces, if you will, coincide with what are known as ‘1115 waivers.’ As Goodwin explained, the Massachusetts 1115 Demonstration provides federal authority for the state to expand eligibility to individuals who are not otherwise eligible for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), offer services that are not typically covered by Medicaid, and use innovative service-delivery systems that improve care, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.

An integrated-care facility in Greenfield would accomplish all of the above, he went on, adding that CHD, which provides a number of behavioral-health services in Franklin County through its Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative, sought out a partner to create such a center.

It found one in the Community Health Center of Franklin County, a 20-year-old nonprofit founded with the mission of providing excellent medical care to all residents of Franklin County, regardless of insurance status or income. It currently has three locations, one in Orange providing medical and dental services, another in Turners Falls offering dental services, and a third in Greenfield offering medical services.

Initial talks gathered momentum, said Goodwin, adding that the discussions focused on creating what would be a new model, in many ways, for improving the overall health of the community.

Sayer agreed, noting that the two nonprofits came to the realization that they could more effectively meet their respective missions if they came together at one location.

“We’re all really trying to create the health and wellness center of the future,” he said of the joint venture. “What is healthcare going to look like in five or 10 years? That’s the question that’s driving us, and we’re trying to make the experience as seamless as possible. It’s not just having everything in one place; it’s being taken seriously as a whole person in terms of your healthcare needs. I think that’s a very exciting thing.”

With a collective vision for an integrated health center taking shape, a search was commenced for a suitable location. A number of options were considered, and eventually the parties focused on the old Sears building, which had several benefits, including adequate space and parking and a convenient location in the center of Greenfield, just a block or so down from a famous department store still doing business — Wilson’s.

However, the site, in recent years home to everything from an antiques shop to the Franklin County District Attorney’s office, also needed a lot of work.

“The building was not in great shape — the second floor was; the DA had renovated it, but the rest of it was in general disrepair,” said Goodwin. “The parking lot was a mess, and everything needed to be upgraded; it didn’t have the capacity for the kind of IT needs that the health center would have.”

On top of all that, there was oil that had to pulled out of the ground, remnants from the automotive center that Sears operated at the site.

But the leaders of both nonprofits saw past those problems and kept their focus on the vast potential of an integrated health center at that address and on what it would mean for the region.

“The type of facility we’ll have here is just way ahead of anything that exists in this region,” said Goodwin. “In many ways, it represents the future of how healthcare services will be delivered.”

What’s in Store

Putting the center and its importance to the region — on many different levels — in perspective, Sayer said the facility is “not just a mental-health clinic, and not just a doctor’s office — it’s something that’s truly greater than the sum of its parts.”

That’s saying something, because there are quite a few parts to this venture.

The same could be said of the Sears that operated at 102 Main St. for decades, of course, which brings yet another layer of symbolism and irony to the this project and its historic home.

You could say something remarkable is in store for Greenfield and the surrounding area — in all kinds of ways.

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

Court Dockets

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.

FRANKLIN SUPERIOR COURT
Kevin v. Chickering v. City Tire Co. Inc. d/b/a Lodge Tire Co. and John Doe
Allegation: Motor-vehicle negligence causing injury: $105,822.54
Filed: 9/21/17

HAMPDEN DISTRICT COURT
Bob Pion Buick-GMC Inc. v. Daigle’s Truckmaster Inc.
Allegation: Failure to pay for vehicle repairs: $9,619.23
Filed: 9/29/17

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT
Leah LaRock and Sarah Chartier v. Mardi Gras Entertainment Inc. and Anthony Santaniello, individually
Allegation: Breach of employment contract: $1,000,000+
Filed: 10/2/17

Dontay Hall v. Marc L. Nierman, M.D.
Allegation: Medical malpractice, wrongful death: $101,400
Filed: 10/2/17

Emilio Hernandez v. Pyramid Management Group, LLC; Holyoke Mall Co., LP; Fahad Alsadoon; and Sarah Ali
Allegation: Negligence, escalator suddenly stopped, causing injury: $41,371.54
Filed: 10/3/17

Desert Aire, LLC f/k/a Desert Aire Corp. v. Sage Engineering & Contracting, Wojtkowski Bros. Inc., and Khem Organics Inc.
Allegation: Breach of contract/mechanic’s lien: $39,338.62
Filed: 10/4/17

Matthew Buchberg v. Six Flags Entertainment Corp.
Allegation: Negligence causing injury on roller coaster: $40,866.79
Filed: 10/5/17

Geraldine DePretto v. Sears Roebuck & Co. and Pyramid Management Group
Allegation: Negligence, trip and fall causing injury: $24,055.03
Filed: 10/10/17

Peter M. Phillips v. Howmedica Osteonics Corp. d.b.a Stryker Orthopaedics
Allegation: Product liability: $2,500,000
Filed: 10/11/17

HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT
Thomas Mulrooney v. Whole Foods Market and WS Asset Management
Allegation: Negligence, slip and fall causing injury: $48,000+
Filed: 10/3/17

Lalla Orman v. Cumulus Media Inc.; Atwood Drive, LLC; Securitas Security Services USA; Amherst Development Associates, LLC d/b/a Hampshire Hospitality Group; and Oldway Leasing
Allegation: Negligence, fall in unlit area causing injury and property damage: $96,000
Filed: 10/12/17

Picture This

Departments Picture This

The Super 60

The Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce staged its annual Super 60 Luncheon at a packed Chez Josef in Agawam on Oct. 28. Now in its 28th year, the program recognizes high-performing companies in two categories: Total Revenue and Revenue Growth.

Bill Grinnell (center), president of Webber & Grinnell Insurance, a winner in the Total Revenue category, accepts his plaque from Ashley Allen, vice president of Sales & Marketing for Health New England, the presenting sponsor, and Don D’Amour, chairman of Big Y Foods, a platinum sponsor

Ralph Crowley Jr., CEO of Polar Beverages in Worcester, delivers the keynote addres

Paul Whalley, vice president of Whalley Computer Associates, the top finisher in the Total Revenue category, accepts his plaque from Allen and D’Amour

Drive Time

A host of local and state officials were on hand on Nov. 1 for the ribbon cutting for Mercedes-Benz of Springfield, the $12 million dealership created at the site of the former Plantation Inn in Chicopee. First conceived nearly three years ago, the dealership marks the return of Mercedes-Benz to the Greater Springfield area after a decade-long absence.

Attendees mingle in the showroom prior to the ceremonies

Jay Ashe, state secretary of Housing & Economic Development, addresses the attendees

Cutting the ribbon are, from left, state Rep. Joseph Wagner, Ashe, Chicopee Mayor Richard Kos, partners Peter and Michelle Wirth, partner Richard Hesse, and his wife, Amy

Peter Wirth says a few words to the attendees

Agenda

Agenda Departments

Farmington Bank Food Drive for Gray House

Through Nov. 14: Farmington Bank is collecting non-perishable food items through Tuesday, Nov. 14 at its West Springfield and East Longmeadow branch offices. All collections will be donated in time for Thanksgiving to the Gray House Food Pantry, which is located in the north end of Springfield and serves 80 to 120 households per week. “Thanksgiving is an important time to show appreciation and give back to the communities in which we live and work,” said John Patrick Jr., chairman, president, and CEO of Farmington Bank. “We invite the public to join our food-collection efforts to help our neighbors in need in West Springfield and East Longmeadow.” The public is invited to donate non-perishable food items at 85 Elm St. in West Springfield and 61 North Main St. in East Longmeadow. During the same time, all Farmington Bank locations in Connecticut are collecting food items for Hartford-based social-service agency Hands On Hartford.

Diabetes Wellness Fair

Nov. 15: Holyoke Medical Center will host a free Diabetes Wellness Fair from 3 to 7 p.m. in the HMC Auxiliary Conference Center. This event is free and open to the public. The fair will offer free blood-pressure checks, a type-2 diabetes risk test questionnaire, raffles, and more. Medical experts will be on hand to offer information on preventing diabetes-related complications, including skin, foot, dental, eye, and ear health. Demonstrations on exercise and food portion control will be presented and allow for hands-on participation. Pharmacists will be on hand to discuss medications available to treat diabetes. Private consultations for those with more in-depth questions about medications and how to manage their diabetes can be scheduled. These one-on-one, half-hour meetings will be by appointment only; call (413) 534-2789 to register. In conjunction with the Diabetes Wellness Fair, a free flu clinic will also be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Registration for flu shots is required by calling (413) 534-2533. Complimentary valet parking will be available. HMC also offers regular transportation services throughout Holyoke, Chicopee, and South Hadley, which will be available for a portion of the fair. To inquire about and arrange transportation, call HMC Transportation Services at (413) 534-2607.

Undergraduate Open House at WNEU

Nov. 12: Western New England University will host high-school and college students and their parents at an open house from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the St. Germain Campus Center. Guests will have the chance to tour the campus and residence halls, meet current students, get a general overview of the admissions and financial-aid process, and have academic questions answered by members of the faculty. The day concludes with an exhibit where students can gather more information on student clubs and activities, honors programs, and athletic opportunities at both the NCAA and intramural levels, as well as hear from the Career Development Center regarding the varied internship and career opportunities Western New England University students are receiving. The event is free, but advance reservation is requested. To register, call (413) 782-1312 or (800) 325-1122, ext. 1312, or visit wne.edu/openhouse. Prospective students interested in learning more about careers in sport management or social work are invited to specialized information sessions during the open house. The Career in Sport Management Panel is open to prospective students at all levels who want to learn more about the program’s outcomes. The panel will include Sharianne Walker, chair of the Sport Management program, and several professional leaders in sport management, including Ethan Lang, director of Operations for the XL Center and Pratt and Whitney Field; Chelsea Johnson, director of Educational Programs, Basketball Hall of Fame; and WNEU alum Laura Madaio, marketing manager at Athletes of Valor. Also on the panel is senior Tim Smith, president of the Sport Management Assoc., who works for the Springfield Thunderbirds as a gameday operations coordinator and recently completed an internship with the Travelers Golf Tournament, and recent graduates who will share how Western New England University’s Sport Management program helped them to break into the field. Western New England University is one of only three programs in the country with both the Commission on Sport Management accreditation and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business accreditation. The Social Work Luncheon is open to prospective students at all levels who want to have a chance to meet with a small group of faculty members, current students, and alumni of the Social Work program, and to discover more about the program’s accreditation, including the opportunity to complete four internships in four years. This luncheon is open to all students and families who want to learn more about the field of social work and the benefits of the WNEU program. The Council on Social Work Education has awarded its highest marks to the Western New England University Social Work program. This accreditation qualifies students to apply for advanced standing in master of social work programs to earn their master’s degree in one year, rather than two. “We are in a time in our nation where there is a lot of focus on the state of higher education, and for good reason. We know that families are not only looking for a quality academic experience, but expect a clear return on investment,” said Bryan Gross, vice president for Enrollment Management and Marketing. “With so much national attention on the rising cost of college, the fact that Western New England University opened the fall 2017 semester with its largest undergraduate class in university history demonstrates our clear commitment to providing value to our students. Our student outcomes are impressive, and both students and employers are taking notice that we are a university with a unique focus on student success. The undergraduate open house is the perfect opportunity to tour our beautiful campus, meet with members of our faculty, [and] ask questions to current students.”

Girls on the Run 5K

Nov. 19: Girls on the Run of Western Massachusetts will host a 5K celebration at 10:30 a.m. at Smith College. Girls on the Run is a positive youth-development program that uses physical activities, fun running games, and dynamic discussions to teach life skills to girls in third to eighth grade. During the 10-week program, girls participate in lessons that foster confidence, build peer connections, and encourage community service while they prepare for an end-of-season celebratory 5k event. Participation in the 5K event on Nov. 19 is open to the public. The program boasts about 400 girls and 120 volunteer coaches this season, and more than 1,200 participants are expected. The registration cost is $20 for adults and $12 for children and includes a GOTR 5K event shirt. After a group warm-up and remarks from Smith College President Kathleen McCartney, the event will begin on the Smith College athletic fields. Registration is open at www.girlsontherunwesternma.org. Registration on the day of the event will begin at 8:30 a.m. The run will begin at 10:30 am, but the opening festivities will begin at 10 a.m. Early arrival is suggested. Visit the website for more information about the event, how to register, and volunteer opportunities.

Lawyer on the Line

Nov. 20: The Hampden County Bar Assoc., in conjunction with WGGB, will hold a Lawyer on the Line event from 5 to 6:30 p.m. The volunteers will provide legal advice on a variety of topics from callers during the evening news broadcast. Individuals needing advice should call (413) 846-0240 to speak to a volunteer. Founded in 1864, the Hampden County Bar Assoc. is a nonprofit organization representing the interests of lawyers, the justice system, and the public in Hampden County. It provides professional support, education, and networking opportunities to its members, and advocacy on behalf of lawyers, the judiciary, and the public.

Baystate Bloodmobile

Nov. 22: Celebrate the season of Thanksgiving by donating blood as part of your plan before the holiday weekend. The community is invited to join a blood drive from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Baystate Mary Lane on the Baystate Health bloodmobile. The bloodmobile will be parked in the north (visitors) parking lot, located at 85 South St. in Ware. “Please help us to ensure a safe and adequate blood supply is available by donating blood with the Baystate Health Blood Donor Program,” said Deb Oberg, co-coordinator of the blood drive, which is sponsored by Country Bank and Baystate Mary Lane. “One donation helps to save two lives, and 100% of all blood collected on the bloodmobile stays in our community for use in Baystate Health hospitals and facilities.” Blood donations take approximately one hour to complete, including the interview, donation, and refreshments. Donors must be at least 17 years old, weigh at least 110 pounds, have a photo ID, be in good health (no colds or sore throat), and not have donated blood within the past eight weeks. All eligible donors will receive their choice of a gift card. For more information or to book an appointment, call (413) 967-2180. Walk-ins are welcome.

Babysitters Academy

Dec. 2: Baystate Medical Center will hold a Babysitters Academy to prepare area youth for their babysitting responsibilities. The one-day program will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the BRL Conference Room at the Baystate Health Education Center, 361 Whitney Ave., Holyoke. Participants should bring their lunch. Babysitters Academy is a certified babysitter program for young adults ages 11½ to 15. The session offers potential babysitters instruction in baby care, first aid, CPR, fire safety, home security, child behavior, and accident prevention. Participants will also receive a course booklet containing helpful tips and other information, as well as a graduation certificate upon completion of the course. The program, offered by the Parent Education Department at Baystate Medical Center, costs $75. Space is limited, and pre-registration is required. To register, visit baystatehealth.org/parented.

American International College to Host AIDS Memorial Quilt

By BusinessWest Staff November 13, 2017