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Berkshire Blueprint 2.0 Charts Ambitious Course to Economic Growth

By
Jonathan Butler, left, and Benjamin Lamb
Berkshire County

Designs on the Future

Jonathan Butler, left, and Benjamin Lamb

Jonathan Butler, left, and Benjamin Lamb discuss the plan at a recent public forum.

Jonathan Butler knows what happens to a lot of reports, and he’s determined to avoid that fate.

“This wasn’t intended to be just a two-year study that ends up as a report that sits on a shelf,” he said, referring to Berkshire Blueprint 2.0, an 80-page action plan of sorts for the Berkshire County economy. “It very much means to be a new look at our economy, a new baseline for where we are that identifies challenges we have in different areas and action steps needed to move forward.”

The project, the successor to the original Berkshire Blueprint released in 2007, was overseen by 1Berkshire, the regional economic-development agency Butler serves as president and CEO.

The report’s most notable feature is how it breaks down the economy into five ‘clusters’ — advanced manufacturing, the creative economy, food and agriculture, healthcare, and hospitality and tourism — and then lays out the challenges facing each cluster, who some of the main stakeholders are, and a series of ‘action steps’ aimed at spurring economic growth.

“We’ve made a process that’s accountable to itself and the stakeholders,” Butler told BusinessWest. “We have a small-business economy in the Berkshires, with a lot of business sectors, and approaching it from this vantage point is a helpful way to establish more creative problem solving and open up doors to more scalability for our economy.”

He admitted there are far more than five key clusters in the region’s economy, specifically citing education, financial services, and e-commerce as three others that may be woven into future iterations of the blueprint. But 1Berkshire had to start somewhere, and chose clusters that import wealth — in other words, bring money into the region from outside — and have shown growth over the past decade with the potential to scale up further.

“It’s all about getting different businesses outside of their silos to create more collaboration, more interactivity — to create an environment where things can take off organically.”

‘Scalability’ is a word that comes up repeatedly with Butler, who unveiled the plan at a recent, well-attended public forum alongside Benjamin Lamb, 1Berkshire’s economic development director.

“We’ve lived through the dialogue of a declining economy and job loss, and the narrative for many years has been to bring more jobs into the region,” he explained. “But we’ve pivoted away from that. We don’t need more jobs in the region; we need scalability for existing jobs and a better hiring pipeline. There’s a disconnect between the available workforce and the skill set and type of workforce businesses need.”

“There’s also a strong sense of momentum and progress that wasn’t here 15 years ago. That’s something to be excited about, and something we want to see evolve in the coming years.”

For evidence, Butler said there’s typically 1,300 to 2,000 jobs posted in the region at any given time, and they span the spectrum of the workforce, from entry-level to mid-career, management, and upper management. Many of the blueprint’s action steps take direct aim at identifying, connecting, and training potential workers for lucrative careers.

“A lot of employers here do a great job innovating in their sector, in their market, and are in a position where they can be scaling up, growing, expanding into new products and expanding product lines — but they’re not confident they can take the leap and scale the company because they’re not finding the workforce they need to fill those jobs.”

The Nitty Gritty

As an example of how the report dives into the five sectors, let’s consider the creative economy, which comprises segments like visual arts, performing arts, literary arts, design, film and media, and museums and cultural institutions.

The blueprint notes that the sector has seen 9.5% job growth since 2010, and the concentration of employers in this realm is 62% higher in the Berkshires than it is nationally, spurred by rapid growth in the northern part of the county.

Assets include a diversity of business establishments, institutional support by the likes of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation (BTCF) and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and existing collaborative relationships across the county. Challenges, the report notes, include further engaging local residents, overcoming perceptions to demonstrate the economic importance of the arts, sustaining organizational support, and providing housing and transportation for seasonal employment.

With these factors in mind, the blueprint’s recommended action steps include convening the region’s major cultural institutions in dialogue, developing an intensive business-resources-awareness campaign, providing support to the BTCF and the Creative Commonwealth Initiative, reconvening the Creative Resources Conference, creating a partnership between the Berkshire Innovation Center and the creative community, and expanding the Assets for Artists program, a MASS MoCA initiative that provides professional-development opportunties — and housing — to emerging artists.

Collectively, that’s a mouthful, and it’s only the barest summary of just one of the five sectors. (The full report, and an executive summary, are available at 1berkshire.com.) But it suggests the copious work that must follow if the blueprint is to avoid becoming just another binder collecting dust.

“There are real challenges, and we have to work in collaboration to overcome them,” Butler said. “But there’s also a strong sense of momentum and progress that wasn’t here 15 years ago. That’s something to be excited about, and something we want to see evolve in the coming years.”

While much of the Berkshire Blueprint focuses on the five central clusters, the report also identifies several cross-cutting issues that impact the region at large, including all clusters.

For example, consistent access to high-speed broadband internet has long been a challenge in Berkshire County. Recently, actions on the state level have helped bring communities up to an equitable standard of broadband access and internet speed, but further advocacy and work are still needed, especially for residential access.

In addition, New England’s energy costs are significantly higher than they are in other regions of the country. With the retiring of regional power plants, lack of new plant construction, high cost of fuel distribution, and a limited pipeline infrastructure, the Berkshires face significantly higher energy costs compared to other areas of the country and the Commonwealth.

In the realm of transportation, gaps in public-transit services, inadequate evening bus service, a lack of coordination of private and public transportation assets, and challenges of getting to and from employment reliably are among the region’s nagging challenges.

Finally, population loss has been a persistent issue for decades in the region. 1Berkshire’s Berkshire Initiative for Growth began to lay groundwork for recruiting and retaining individuals to the region to curb this trend. While portions of the report were implemented, a number of components were laid out as the responsibility of other members of the regional business community to integrate.

“Population loss has been a mature conversation in the Berkshires,” Butler said. “The reality is, we’ll probably see another decline of some sort in the 2020 census, which would continue a half-century trend. But I’m optimistic that a lot of work done over the past five or six years will eventually shift that. We’re seeing more and more young families come to the Berkshires for a variety of reasons: quality of life, work-life balance, and the fact that our economy is quite big and diverse for such a small region.”

Then and Now

The blueprint authors were quick to note that the decades-long national decline of traditional manufacturing has had a negative effect on Berkshire County, and that the departures of long-time major employers such as General Electric and Sprague Electric devastated the local economy.

“For too long, the narrative has been that our best days were behind us, confined to faded newsprint and wistful memory,” they note. However, “that narrative is out of date. For several years, Berkshire County leadership has felt a sense of cautious optimism that the tide is turning. New buildings, businesses, and partnerships are springing up everywhere. With the knowledge that Berkshire County has seen $1 billion in investment over the last three years, the writing is on the wall: the days of doom and gloom are over. The new Berkshire narrative is about growth and opportunity in a diversified regional economy, and there is room for everybody at the table.”

That’s optimistic talk for sure, and Butler believes it, noting that he and his wife are in their late 30s, want to stay in the region for a long time, and believe it’s a good place to be.

“When we made the move home to the Berkshires in our late 20s, we saw a lot of potential,” he told BusinessWest — along with plenty of challenges. “But the narrative then and what we see happening in the future are different — and that’s become a more mainstream idea now.”

An idea that, with any luck, will do much more than sit on a shelf.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Agency Promotes the Many Assets of a Unique Region

By
Berkshire County

Changing the Narrative

Created through the merger of several economic-development-focused agencies, 1Berkshire has a broad mission statement, but it can be boiled down to making this unique region a better place in which to live, work, and do business.

Jonathan Butler says he grew up during what was, in most all respects, a down time for many communities in the Berkshires.

This was a period — a few decades in length, by most estimates — when General Electric in Pittsfield and Sprague Electric in North Adams were slowly disappearing from the landscape and taking roughly 25,000 jobs with them.

Butler told BusinessWest that he’s heard countless stories about what it was like when those huge employers were in their heyday and the downtown streets were clogged with people on payday — and every other day, for that matter — and seemingly everyone who wanted or needed a job had one.

“But that’s not part of my narrative,” he said, adding that he grew up on the other side of all that, when the downtowns were populated largely by empty storefronts and jobs were much harder to come by.

“The good-old-days stories are actually getting quite old,” he went on. “That’s because a few generations have grown up not knowing them.”

Instead, there are new stories being told, said Butler, involving everything from ziplining to craft beers; from health spas to new and exotic eateries; from communities’ populations getting larger to populations getting younger.

Indeed, the best stories involve people — a lot of them just like Butler — who grew up during those darker times, left the area (because that’s what they thought they had to do), and are now coming back to enjoy all of those things mentioned above.

Jonathan Butler

Jonathan Butler

“The good-old-days stories are actually getting quite old. That’s because a few generations have grown up not knowing them.”

“We’ve really changed the narrative around what it’s like to live in the Berkshires,” he noted. “People my age that grew up here, went away, and have had the chance to come back, whether it’s to live here or visit family, are shocked at what they see.”

This changing of the narrative was and is the unofficial mission statement for 1Berkshire, an economic-development-focused organization that resulted from the merger of four agencies — the Berkshire Chamber of Commerce, the Berkshire Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Berkshire Economic Development Corp., and Berkshire Creative, a support organization for entrepreneurs and those involved in the arts.

Housed in an historic former firehouse called Central Station in downtown Pittsfield, 1Berkshire’s employees are focused on a number of strategic initiatives collectively aimed at advancing the region’s economy and making this a better place to live, work, visit, and operate a business.

“We spend a lot of time and energy bringing visitors to the Berkshires, but we also spend significant time and energy promoting this as a place for families and for people to relocate to,” he explained.

The ‘visit’ component has always been a huge part of the equation, said Butler, noting that tourism has long been the primary economic driver in the Berkshires. That’s still true today, but visitation is becoming more diversified, or “rounded out,” as he termed it.

 

“We have an extremely robust visitor experience here,” he noted, adding that that tourism spending, up 30% over the past decade ago, now averages about $500 million a year. “There’s the performing arts, the visual arts … but we’ve also become established as a food economy — dining in the Berkshires is great, for the foodie audience but also the more traditional audiences.

“There’s a farm-to-table component of our economy — there’s a lot of agritourism — and there’s also the recreational economy: hiking, biking, adventure sports, scenic rail, and more,” he went on. “People have always come here for nature and culture, but what’s catching up is the recreational economy and the health and wellness economy.”

But those other parts of the puzzle are equally important, he went on, adding that 1Berkshire is also committed to bringing people here to live, work, and start and grow businesses.

Overall, the agency was conceived as a “better way to do economic development,” said Butler, and to date, the evidence, both qualitative and quantitative in nature, would show that it’s succeeding in that role.

“Over the past 15 to 20 years, the Berkshires have been re-energized, but there are still a number of challenges,” he said, adding that the largest involves ongoing efforts to attract young people and lower the age of the region’s population, a vital component to overall vitality and economic sustainability.

For this issue and its focus on Berkshire County, BusinessWest talked with Butler about 1Berkshire and how it has gone about helping to change the narrative in this unique corner of the Commonwealth.

New Breed of Economic Development

‘The Year of the Dog.’

That was the name attached to the 63rd annual Fall Foliage Parade, staged on Sept. 30 in downtown North Adams. When asked, Butler was more than willing to explain, and started by noting that an elementary-school class in that community has the honor of coming up with a name to accompany the much-anticipated event, which draws thousands to that town.

“This is the Chinese Year of the Dog, and they recently opened a dog museum in North Adams,” he noted, referring to the facility located in the former Quinn’s Paint & Wallpaper Co. on Union Street. “So … it all makes sense.”

There was a huge banner at the top of the 1Berkshire website hyping the parade, he said, adding that the promotional support for such traditional gatherings is just one of many functions carried out by the agency.

There’s also something called simply ‘the jobs thing.’ This is a job-posting site on that same website (1berkshire.com). All positions listed (and there is a fee for such postings) must be for jobs in Berkshire County and come with a salary of at least $40,000. Those doing some browsing can search by field (they range from administrative and clerical to hospitality and tourism to sales and advertising) and by experience (entry-level, mid-level, and senior-level).

1Berkshire also has an events calendar filled with a host of programs, including a youth-leadership program and Berkshire Young Professionals events; a ‘relocation’ button on its website that enables visitors to explore every community from Adams to Windsor; and ‘featured opportunities,’ such as a ‘Get Mentored’ program that pairs selected entrepreneurs with experienced mentors. Applications are being accepted now for the winter session.

“We’ve really changed the narrative around what it’s like to live in the Berkshires. People my age that grew up here, went away, and have had the chance to come back, whether it’s to live here or visit family, are shocked at what they see.”

Then there’s the Berkshire Blueprint, a detailed strategic plan for the region — similar in many ways to the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission’s Plan for Progress — that was first drafted in 2007 and is now being updated.

All of these are examples of how 1Berkshire is carrying out that aforementioned assignment — to find a better way to do economic development, said Butler, who was hired to lead the Berkshire Chamber four years ago, and spent much of the next 18 months working out the merger of the chamber and the convention and visitors bureau into 1Berkshire.

Overall, two years after the all the components of this agency came together, the venture is proving to be much bigger than the sum of its parts.

Going back those four years, he said several of the smaller economic-development-related agencies were doing good work but struggling to keep the doors open financially. Discussions commenced on the many potential benefits from bringing them together under one roof and one administrator, he went on, adding that this somewhat unique economic-development model became reality.

That uniqueness is matched by the region itself, he went on, adding that, while the Berkshires is part of Western Mass., or the 413, as many call it, in many, if not all, respects, it is more than just one of four counties.

“We’re a little bit of our own place,” he explained. “We have our own identity, our own brand. People actually know the Berkshires of Massachusetts on a national level, and even internationally, as a destination. But we’re small — only 135,000 people, with about one-third of them living in Pittsfield.”

That small population is matched by a small economy anchored by a few large employers — General Dynamics and a few banks, for example — and dominated in most ways by tourism.

There are many benefits to living and working in the region, Butler went on, adding that 1Berkshire exists primarily to educate people about them and encourage them to take full advantage of it all.

Right Place, Right Time

To carry out its multi-faceted mission, 1Berskshire, with an annual budget of roughly $2 million, relies on revenue from a number of different streams.

They include membership dues — there are currently about 1,000 members — as well as larger donations from so-called ‘investors,’ major employers such as Berkshire Bank, Greylock Federal Credit Union, and General Dynamics. There is also revenue from website advertisements (a spot hyping a Harry Potter-inspired Halloween party at the Blantyre is among those on the site now), the jobs initiative, and other programs; there are actually two web sites — berkshires.org, the primary visitor portal for the region, and 1berkshire.com.

And there is state money, because the convention and visitors bureau is part of the mix and is funded in part by the Commonwealth, and also because the agency is a regional economic-development council.

As noted earlier, a primary function of the agency is to drive visitation to the region, because tourism has a very broad impact on overall vibrancy in the region.

“With visitation, there is a ripple effect that goes well beyond the traditional visitor-stakeholder economy,” Butler explained. “It has an impact on the quality of our downtowns. We have much more vibrant downtowns today than we did 20 years ago, whether it’s Pittsfield, Lee, or Great Barrington. Those communities have benefited from visitor activity, which has made them a better place to live. It’s had a ripple effect into downtown housing projects, new restaurants and eateries, and things to do.

But there are many other aspects to the mission, he went on, listing everything from advocacy for members to the all-important work aimed at bringing new residents to the area, not just tourists.

Tracing his own career, Butler said that, after earning a graduate degree, he went to work for the Commonwealth in economic development and later for state Sen. Ben Downing in the State House.

He “worked his way back” to the Berkshires, as he put it, and worked as town manager for the city of Adams for six years before becoming director of the chamber.

Now, in his new role, he and his staff are working to encourage others to work their way to the Berkshires, or discover it for the first time, not as a place to leaf-peep or hike or ski — although they can do all of that — but as a place to live.

And this is important work, he said, because so many young people of his generation did in fact leave, in part because so many jobs disappeared, leaving communities demographically older and less vibrant.

But many are returning because what they see now is not the Berkshires of their youth.

“There are so many stories of people who choose, after they get their careers started, to come back to the Berkshires,” he explained. “The dialogue for them when they were kids might have been that they needed to get their college degrees and go off somewhere where there was lots of opportunity and be successful.

“Now, that dialogue is starting to shift to ‘go out, get your degree, experience the world, and why not come back to the Berkshires?’” he went on. “That’s important — that’s really important — and we’re seeing more and more of it.”

Good ‘New’ Days

Getting back to those stories about when the major manufacturers like GE were humming, Butler said they’re getting so old, they’re not really worth telling anymore.

That was a different Berkshires region, and so was the one he grew up with in the ’90s.

The Berkshires of today is not like either of those Berkshires. It is different, vibrant, diverse, and always changing — in short, it’s a different narrative, he explained.

Creating that narrative and making the story known is what 1Berskshire is all about, and four years after its formation, it is thriving in that all-important role.

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

Visitor Economy Takes a Hit in the Berkshires

By
Berkshire Theatre Group managed to present a musical in August
Berkshire County

Culture Shock

Berkshire Theatre Group managed to present a musical in August

It took plenty of creativity — in the set design and elsewhere — but Berkshire Theatre Group managed to present a musical in August when no one else could.

For the folks at Berkshire Theatre Group, things were going according to plan.

A three-year sustainability plan, to be specific, developed back in 2018, said Nick Paleologos, the organization’s executive director.

“We had a checklist of things we needed to do in addition to putting on a decent artistic season in 2019, and we hit a lot of goals. As we hit 2020, we had just two or three outstanding boxes left unchecked, when all of a sudden, in mid-March, our world was turned upside down.”

Versions of that story have been told countless times not only in Massachusetts, but around the country and the world. But for the performing arts, it’s been a particularly tough stretch.

“Starting around St. Patrick’s Day, all we were doing was canceling shows and returning money; we were really in a kind of freefall,” Paleologos continued. “What initially saved us in the short term, and bought us time to figure out how to reimagine our 2020 season, was the Paycheck Protection Program. That was a lifeline, and it accomplished exactly what it was supposed to do — it allowed us to stay in business for those crucial eight weeks in the spring.”

The 2020 season — the BTG was planning eight shows in its three indoor spaces in Stockbridge and Pittsfield — was certainly about to change. “All of a sudden, we had no idea whether we’d be allowed to perform at all,” he noted.

The journey that followed, culminating in live, outdoor performances of Godspell in August and September (more on that later), was a remarkable one, but it’s hardly the robust schedule the venerable company normally puts on. Meanwhile, performing-arts destinations like Jacob’s Pillow and Tanglewood canceled their live slates completely.

It’s a story that affects more than arts patrons; it impacts no less than the entire Berkshires economy, which is so intertwined with, and dependent on, culture and tourism.

Nick Paleologos

Nick Paleologos

“We hit 2020, we had just two or three outstanding boxes left unchecked, when all of a sudden, in mid-March, our world was turned upside down.”

“The visitor economy is definitely a backbone sector for us; it supports a tremendous amount of dollars in the region,” said Jonathan Butler, president and CEO of 1Berkshire, the multi-faceted agency that focuses on tourism, economic development, and business retention in Massachusetts’ westernmost county.

In fact, he noted, visitor dollars spent in the region over the years are approaching the $1 billion mark — and the presence of cultural attractions and other tourist destinations, from restaurants to ski resorts, is a major quality-of-life factor in business owners wanting to set up shop here.

“We were pretty heavily involved in the state’s reopening process — we played a key role in getting some of the museums open and fleshing out guidelines for hotels and restaurants,” Butler told BusinessWest, while 1Berkshire’s website has become an oft-updated clearinghouse of information on the region and its public-health response to COVID-19.

Due to belt-tightening everywhere, including among its strategic partners, 1Berkshire hasn’t operated with the same marketing budget it normally would. “But we have been able to raise enough money to do some things, and we’ve pivoted to a vision of the Berkshires that talks a lot about outdoor recreation, and about our museums and hotel properties that have been able to open.

“We’re talking about the Berkshires as an escape from the city,” he went on. “We’ve been trying to tell the story of the Berkshires as a place people can escape to and enjoy the outdoors. And, honestly, we’re feeling better than we were two or three months ago.”

A few success stories will do that, but stakeholders in the region are certainly hoping 2021 looks a lot different than 2020.

Out and About

Take, for example, Bousquet Mountain, which recently hired a new general manager and announced a series of renovations, including a new summit-to-base triple chairlift and a revamped snow-making system with more than 25 new snow guns, as well as new grooming equipment and a new, more accessible beginner area.

In addition, Pittsfield native and two-time Olympian Krista Schmidinger will partner with Bousquet to further the site’s youth programming, contributing to the Race Club and SnowSports School and assisting with race and school-program design, instruction, and one-on-one opportunities for young skiers. All this speaks to a resort expecting a busy season, even in the midst of COVID-19.

As for Berkshire Theatre Group, it had to fight to get a live production staged — a fight marked by creativity, not animosity. In short, the Actors Equity Assoc. wasn’t allowing any of its 59,000 unionized members to work in 2020 unless the safety of the actors could be assured.

Jonathan Butler

Jonathan Butler

“We’re talking about the Berkshires as an escape from the city. We’ve been trying to tell the story of the Berkshires as a place people can escape to and enjoy the outdoors.”

“We’re an Equity company, so that puts a little crimp in our plans,” Paleologos said. To stage Godspell, Artistic Director and CEO Kate Maguire developed a 60-page manual with detailed safety protocols, including quarantining, physical distancing, and regular coronavirus testing for actors. The actors were to be kept six feet apart at all times — 10 feet when singing — with this spacing and plexiglass dividers incorporated into the set design itself.

Maguire was denied at first, “but she was relentless,” Paleologos said. “She wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

When the company and the union finally struck a deal, BTG became the only company in the entire country performing or rehearsing a musical — a major success, he noted, considering that, just weeks earlier, no one knew whether they’d have a live theater season at all, and most companies nationwide didn’t attempt one, moving instead to virtual performances only.

Meanwhile, many patrons of canceled BTG shows exchanged their tickets for future credits or donated the tickets back as contributions, as a show of support for a company — and an industry — so important to locals.

“This is not a sustainable model going forward, performing under a tent for 50 people,” Paleologos said. “But it was a miraculous success story that was totally unexpected. Our goal was just to be a beacon of hope in an otherwise dismal moment in Berkshire County.”

It’s not the only such beacon.

“It’s too soon to gauge anything in the quantitative sense, but from what I’ve heard anecdotally, in conversations with different sectors in the visitor economy, those that have reopened have done all right,” Butler said. “A lot have changed their model — some hotels have a three-night minimum because of the cleaning expenses of turning over a room, and some businesses are closed a day or two a week to focus on cleaning and sanitizing.”

Last week, Main Street Hospitality Group, which operates several hotels in the region, announced the hiring of a COVID compliance officer, or CCO, who makes monthly visits to each hotel for routine inspections and engagement with staff and leadership. A board-certified physician, the officer strictly adheres to mandates from the state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and stays informed on the latest public-health advancements in order to advise on any necessary changes to the hotels’ protocols and procedures.

“In addition to several months of strategic planning that led to our initial creation of safeguards, it is equally important to continue evaluating our health and safety practices with the CCO’s help and expertise,” said Sarah Eustis, Main Street’s CEO. “A trusted editor was needed to process the ever-changing breadth of information out there.”

Meanwhile, the hotel group has also partnered with Blue Canary, a company that trains hotels in hospital-level cleaning methods and conducts regular check-ins. Main Street’s housekeeping leaders participated in three days of intensive sessions that focused on best practices and heightened awareness. Attendants were trained in techniques that include longer cleaning times, stronger disinfectants, new cleaning tools, and identifying critical, high-touch areas that require the most attention to ensure guest health and safety.

“This new reality has impacted our housekeeping teams in a huge way,” Eustis said. “Main Street Hospitality is committed to staying at the forefront of this.”

Restaurants have had barriers to overcome as well, Butler said, especially those that depend on visitor traffic at other area attractions. “Some have been able to pivot and focus on a delivery and takeout model, while others haven’t made the transition as seamlessly, and many don’t have the square footage inside to sit too many, and if they’re not able to adapt some outdoor seats, it can be challenging.”

The soon-to-arrive colder weather will force many eateries to become more creative until the state lifts restrictions on indoor capacity — and patrons feel safe enough to eat indoors.

“We certainly understand some businesses will have to make more permanent decisions about their fate. And some businesses, unfortunately, won’t make it to the other side of this,” Butler said. “But the outdoor recreation scene has been very busy — it’s flourishing this summer, and that will continue into the fall.”

Lessons Learned

Paleologos told BusinessWest that banks did a good job easing loan terms for cultural organizations and other nonprofits in the spring, and argues that the next step would be a permanent shift in that direction.

Writing this month in Berkshire Trade & Commerce, he cited a study in Berkshire Blueprint 2.0, an economic-development plan for Berkshire County, showing that jobs in the creative industry grew at a faster pace than in any of the other sectors examined.

“In other words, cultural nonprofits are absolutely central to the Berkshire brand,” he wrote. “The profitability of other commercial industries depends heavily on the success of this county’s theatres, museums, music, and dance companies. Creating new and innovative financial products that contribute to the long-term sustainability of the nonprofit sector must become a top priority for local banks. As an example, sufficiently collateralized operating loans to nonprofits must be offered at the most favorable rates — not the least.”

Meanwhile, Butler added, bringing visitor traffic back to 2019 levels will depend largely on people’s confidence regarding safety, and the public-health metrics on that front have been very good in the Berkshires. “We’re optimistic that will continue and we’ll come out in a stronger place at the end of this.”

That said, there certainly has been a visitor footprint in the Berkshires this year, he went on.

“We won’t have hard data until 2021, and I’m certain it’s going to be down — we don’t have a lot of the key economic drivers, like Jacob’s Pillow and Tanglewood. But on the plus side, we’ve seen a lot of visitation from Eastern Mass.; they see us as the rural side of the state. We’ve had a lot of visitors from Connecticut and New York. Second homeowners have been living here since March, making their Berkshire residence more permanent during the pandemic. All those dollars circulate back into the local economy, which is a good thing.”

Any forward momentum is welcome, Paleologos added. But so much still remains in flux.

“We can’t guarantee, by the time we get to next summer, we’ll be in a situation where we’ll be able to have shows indoors again,” he said. “The good news is, having had this experience, being able to find a way to do it outdoors, maybe we could incorporate a hybrid model, under tents and indoors. A lot is up in the air at this point, depending on how fast a reliable vaccine comes on the market and how much public confidence there is at its safety and efficacy.”

He noted that the theater business goes back to an amphitheater cut into the hillside at the Parthenon 2,500 years ago — and likely before that.

“From then up to now, the bedrock of our business is people coming together in a single place to have a shared experience and to learn a little bit about what it is to be a human being,” he said. “That’s what we do.”

That’s what the Berkshires do, too, bringing people together every year for an array of activities, many of which have been curtailed in this year of COVID-19.

But the show will go on, eventually — with or without plexiglass.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

COVID Sparks a Surge in Entrepreneurship in the Berkshires

By
Berkshire County Special Coverage

Walking the Walk

Mindy Miraglia was inspired to launch Berkshire Camino by her treks in Northern Spain.

The COVID-19 pandemic has provided many individuals with the motivation, opportunity, and time to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. That’s certainly been the case in the Berkshires, where new ventures launched, or set to be launched, include a new brewery, a guided-hikes venture, and a treasure-hunt concept that introduces consumers to area businesses.

Like most of those people who find themselves walking the Camino de Santiago — the pilgrim trail (actually, several different trails) that end at the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela — Mindy Miraglia was at a crossroads in her life.

Indeed, after many years in advertising and market research, subsequent burnout, and some time working at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health that didn’t end well, she was trying to figure out what could — and should — come next for her.

So, like hundreds of thousands of people each year, she decided to walk the Camino, also known as the Way of St. James, to pause, reflect, and maybe, just maybe, find an answer to her question. And as she tells the story, the Camino — and, specifically, her experiences on the 250-mile trek across Northern Spain — became the answer.

Sort of. Let’s just say it’s a work or progress. Or a business in progress.

It’s called Berkshire Camino LLC, which specializes in guided hikes through the Berkshires, many of which take people from community to community and are thus patterned after what Miraglia experienced in Spain on her two treks on the Camino.

“If you want to get romantic about it … we felt that there was never going to be a better sign from God that it was time to make a change.”

But that was not the original plan. Instead, she wanted to create hostels — the lower-cost, dorm-like hotels that are an important part of the Camino experience — in the Berkshires and thus bring a different type of accommodation for tourists to that market. But reality, in the form of skyrocketing real-estate prices, as well as a lack of capital and few options for obtaining it, has kept that dream in check — at least for now.

But Miraglia, at the advice of mentors assigned to her by the nonprofit EforAll Berkshires, has pivoted and now leads a number of guided hikes within the Berkshires through a venture that is not yet profitable but showing some forms of promise.

Overall, she can find countless ways, and phrases, to compare the rugged challenge that is the Camino to that of starting and growing a business.

Mike Dell’Aquila and Sara Real

Mike Dell’Aquila and Sara Real found the inspiration, and the time, to launch Hot Plate Brewing during the first year of the pandemic.

“It’s a hero’s journey,” she said of the trek in Spain, but also entrepreneurship. “You put yourself onto that path, and you have to overcome challenges and see who you are.”

Miraglia is part of what many are calling a surge in entrepreneurship in the Berkshires, one fueled in part by the pandemic, which left many out of work and looking to start their own business. It left others wanting to leave the city and head for far more rural areas — and, again, start their own business. For still others, the pandemic triggered imaginative ideas for ways to get people out and about, and generate revenue while doing so.

Mike Dell’Aquila and his wife, Sara Real, don’t fit neatly into any of those categories, but in some ways, they encompass all three. They left their condo in Brooklyn for a home in Lenox in July, and are advancing plans to launch Hot Plate Brewing Co. in Pittsfield.

As with all breweries, there’s a story behind the name; in this case, the couple lost gas service in their condo for a period of time just as they were getting serious about transforming this from a hobby to a business. So they famously bought a hotplate so they could continue honing their craft.

There’s more to this story than the name, though, said Dell’Aquila, adding that the pandemic certainly helped provide the motivation — and the time — to take their dream, which has been, well, brewing since 2018, off the drawing board.

“If you want to get romantic about it … we felt that there was never going to be a better sign from God that it was time to make a change,” he told BusinessWest, adding that he and Real were both working day jobs, from home, during the pandemic. Motivated by this ‘sign’ from above, they used the extra hour and half they gained each day from not commuting, as well as Zoom technology, to advance their concept.

They are closing in on a location for their venture and plan to start brewing beer by early next year.

As for Liam Gorman, the pandemic certainly helped inspire his venture, CozQuest, which he bills as “the new way to explore the Berkshires.” It’s a local treasure hunt, as he called it, one that connects consumers and businesses “through their love of community and adventure.”

“The overall demand for services in the tourism and hospitality sector hasn’t changed a lot, and because of that, it’s created opportunities for entrepreneurs to make a run at whatever they wanted to do. We have seen a lot of that kind of activity.”

Using their phones, players solve a puzzle, follow a map, and find and scan a QR code to win a prize from a local business. If a player finds all the prizes, he or she can win some cash. German has created a number of these hunts, in cities and attractions such as Hancock Shaker Village and MASS MoCA, and says the business has developed a loyal following among both players and sponsoring businesses. His plan is to expand the concept and perhaps take it to other markets.

These entrepreneurs and many others are part of an emerging story in the Berkshires. It’s about people finding entrepreneurial energy during the pandemic — and finding ways to harness it.

 

It’s No Walk in the Park

As she goes about trying to grow her venture, Miraglia says there are times when she will actually tell herself that she’s “on the Camino.”

By that, she meant she’s on an arduous journey, one where you’re just trying to get to the next day and really don’t know what’s around the next bend.

“It’s hard,” she said, using that phrase to describe both the Camino and entrepreneurship, which has tested her in every way imaginable.

Indeed, while her concept has drawn interest from adventure seekers across the country and even other countries — not to mention a significant amount of press locally — there have been countless challenges to overcome. These include everything from the weather, which has canceled many hikes, to lingering anxiety about gathering in, or even walking in, large groups, to lingering anxiety about how to generate revenue in the winter months.

Liam Gorman, seen here with his children

Liam Gorman, seen here with his children, believes he’s found a scalable venture in CozQuest.

“I’ve had to refund 15% of my deposits so far because of the weather,” said Miraglia as she referenced a spring and summer of almost incessant rain, adding that these seasons have been challenging enough; winter is a matter that will be decided another day.

Meanwhile, Dell’Aquila, while obviously confident and enthusiastic about his venture, was quite candid about his leap from a steady paycheck to the uncertainty of entrepreneurship.

“It’s definitely terrifying,” he noted. “I vacillate from being super-excited to being super-scared.”

By all accounts, there are more people experiencing these mood swings in the Berkshires these days.

Deb Gallant, executive director of EforAll Berkshire, told BusinessWest that the agency, part of a larger, statewide network that also includes an office in Holyoke, staged its first accelerator program just before COVID-19 arrived in the winter of 2020; it had eight participating businesses. The agency then saw a considerable uptick in applications for the next few cohorts, at the height of COVID, and for all the reasons mentioned above.

“We were really able to spend the quality time needed to put together a business plan, to work on the financial forecast, and do all of that upfront work, so that you’re not just a home brewer with a dream.”

“A lot of people were unemployed, especially those in hospitality,” she explained, noting that many large employers in that sector, such as Canyon Ranch, Kripalu, and others, shut down or curtailed operations. “We had a huge uptick in applications for the next two cohorts.”

The number of applications declined somewhat for the upcoming fall cohort, which she attributes to improved stability at many of those businesses that had shut down partially or completely during the pandemic. But the agency will still have a large cohort, said Gallant, adding there is still a good amount of entrepreneurial activity in this region, which has been reinventing itself for the past 30 years from an economy dominated by manufacturing, and especially General Electric’s massive transformer complex in Pittsfield, to one that is far more diverse and driven in many ways by tourism, hospitality, and the arts.

Jonathan Butler, executive director of 1Berkshire, a multi-faceted economic-development agency, agreed.

From the early days of the pandemic, he noted, he could sense that, while COVID would bring a wide range of challenges to the region, it would also provide some opportunities for the Berkshires as well.

They have come in all forms, he went on, from professionals relocating to the area from urban centers, a migration certainly helped by the growing success of remote working and one that is prompting population growth in cities and towns that have needed such a surge, to an unparalleled explosion in the real-estate market, which has created opportunities and challenges of its own.

And, as noted, COVID has prompted a surge in entrepreneurship, said Butler, adding that it involves both new owners of businesses that failed during the pandemic — there were many, especially in the broad hospitality realm — and a wide range of new businesses as well, many of them fueled by an even greater interest in visiting the area and taking in many types of attractions.

“The overall demand for services in the tourism and hospitality sector hasn’t changed a lot, and because of that, it’s created opportunities for entrepreneurs to make a run at whatever they wanted to do,” he explained. “We have seen a lot of that kind of activity.”

 

Something’s Brewing

For Dell’Aquila, it wasn’t really a matter of whether he and Real would launch their brewery operation. The questions were when and where they would launch.

And COVID helped answer both, but especially the former, he said, adding that it provided the time and impetus to move ahead with their plans. “We were really able to spend the quality time needed to put together a business plan, to work on the financial forecast, and do all of that upfront work, so that you’re not just a home brewer with a dream.”

Now, he and Real are home brewers with firm plans and, hopefully, a location. They are finalizing commitments for investing in their venture from friends and family, exploring possible incentives from local and state sources, and meeting with architects to finalize blueprints for their operation. They also have a slot in the next accelerator cohort for EforAll Berkshire, during which they hope to gain both a better understanding of the local business landscape and garner more feedback and mentoring on their plans and their brand, which they believe will be a solid addition to the local craft-beer landscape.

He said he and Real will bring what he called a “culinary approach” to brewing, with such as offerings as a chamomile-infused blonde ale and a Jalapeno pale ale, in addition to more traditional stalwarts such as Belgian-style farmhouse beers, some classic American pale ales, and an IPA.

Dell’Aquila acknowledged that the Berkshires were already home to a number of solid craft-beer labels, but there is room for more — and more, in his view, creates opportunities for both himself and others.

Indeed, with Barrington Brewery in Great Barrington, Bright Ideas Brewing in North Adams, Shire Breu-Hous in Dalton, and others, the addition of Hot Plate in Pittsfield boosts the potential for what Dell’Aquila called a “beer trail” from the southern part of the county to the northern region.

“One of the things we found when we were really digging in is that there is a lot of excitement and desire for craft beer,” he explained. “And adding more options will only help; to me, density is a good thing.”

While Hot Plate is preparing to launch, CozQuest is looking to build on a solid first year and explore a number of possible growth opportunities, said Gorman, who brings a varied background to his venture. Originally in journalism, he moved to Los Angeles and ventured into television.

After relocating to the Berkshires five years ago in a search for a more stable environment in which to raise children, he became part-owner of the bar Thistle and Mirth and helped reverse its sagging fortunes. He sold his share just prior to COVID’s arrival in the region, and used some of that windfall to start CozQuest, which is in many ways inspired by geocaching, a type of global treasure hunt where seekers use GPS devices to find hidden caches.

“The engagement level has been pretty high; I like to call CozQuest a foot-traffic-building machine,” he told BusinessWest. “It brings people to places they might otherwise not have known about to discover and explore.”

German was a participant in the spring cohort of 2020, and said the experience of working with mentors and other local business owners gave him the confidence to move ahead with the concept, which is currently in what he calls phase 1, where he’s honing the concept and gauging its revenue potential.

The plan is to scale up in all ways, starting with the website, which he built himself. “It looks like someone’s first website, but … it works,” he said, adding that his ultimate goal is to take the concept to other markets.

As for Miraglia, her first 14 months in business have been a learning experience on many levels.

As noted earlier, she did a hard pivot, from hostels to guided hikes, thanks to input from mentors and what she called a “reckoning with reality” when it came to the costs and other challenges or making those hostels reality.

After pivoting and focusing on hikes, she did some proof-of-concept testing in the late summer of 2020, often giving away her product away as she did so. She found that there is promise, but likely more refinement of the business model as she gains more evidence concerning what will sell and generate profits.

Indeed, she’s learned there is considerable interest in private hikes — small groups and even one person going where they want to go and not necessarily on a pre-set course.

As she noted, there have been many challenges and hurdles for this venture. She started it too late to qualify for any PPP money, and has wound up bootstrapping the operation herself, drawing down a retirement fund to do so.

“As a for-profit venture, grant opportunities are scarce,” she said. “I joke that Joe Biden has invested in Berkshire Camino since I’ve invested the pandemic aid that I received as a citizen into the business. He’s welcome to come on a hike with us at no charge.

“My aim is to establish a solid baseline in 2021 that I can use to demonstrate to a lender or investor that this has viability,” she went on, adding that the business is not yet profitable and she is not drawing a salary. “I learned from walking the Camino de Santiago that the journey is long and you take one step at a time, stay present and flexible. Just like in business.”

 

The Finish Line

Miraglia didn’t finish the Camino on her second trek in 2019. She had completed roughly 250 of the 500 miles before she injured herself and was forced to eventually call a halt, pack up, and head home.

She remembers exactly where she had to call it quits, and has plans to go back to back there — 2024, when she turns 60, is the current goal — and finish the walk the Santiago de Compostela.

Between now and then? She has more immediate goals and dreams, especially to take the venture she started to stability and profitability. She is not at all sure she will get there — the road ahead is paved with question marks and uncertainty.

As it is for all entrepreneurs. There are more of them in the Berkshires these days, by many accounts. They’ve launched ventures that have been inspired by, accelerated by, or facilitated by the pandemic — which has provided the time and opportunity to reflect and, and in these cases, move a dream to reality.

 

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

1Berkshire Launches Implementation Phase of Berkshire Blueprint 2.0

By
Daily News

PITTSFIELD — On Feb. 15, 1Berkshire launched the implementation phase of the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0, a strategic economic-development imperative. With more than 300 registered attendees packing the Colonial Theatre in downtown Pittsfield, 1Berkshire members, regional leaders, and elected officials from across the county shared this project, already two years in the making.

The event was the culmination of more than 100 interviews, thousands of hours of work, and more than 20 months of planning and design. 1Berkshire President and CEO Jonathan Butler kicked off the primary outline during the launch by recognizing that $1 billion in regional investments have been made in the Berkshires in just the last three years, noting that investment in the Berkshire is “a good bet.”

Beginning the implementation phase of the Blueprint 2.0 entails a number of action steps, focused on five key industrial clusters, as well as other economic-landscape components and cross-cutting issues. Collectively, this work aims to unite all geographic corners of the county for a common goal of economic development and sustained growth.

John Bissell, 1Berkshire’s board chair, noted that this represents an opportunity to move from a narrative of “scarcity” to a narrative of “potential,” and charged the attendees with the goal of moving beyond historic fiefdoms and into a practice of collective action.

Meanwhile, Tyler Fairbank, Berkshire Blueprint committee chair, noted that the region’s economy is diverse and dynamic and, as a result, requires a variety of different approaches to further development. He added that, instead of a single “silver-bullet” solution, a “silver birdshot” of many different solutions will be needed, helping audience members visualize the numerous actions, large and small, needed to move the needle on the region’s economy.

Berkshire Regional Planning Commission Receives CARES Act Recovery Assistance Grant

By
Daily News

PITTSFIELD — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) awarded a $842,522 CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant to the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) to develop and implement an economic recovery and resiliency plan and provide technical assistance to bolster the region’s ability to withstand future economic disruptions.

The two-year project will fund expansion of Berkshire County’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) to include regional resiliency planning, and will also help identify and support recovery projects; rebuild the region’s online data and economic-indicator tracking capabilities; provide technical assistance and capacity-building opportunities to local businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities; and support workforce and industry-building efforts to facilitate meaningful work toward economic recovery, growth, and resiliency in the long term.

“Positioning Berkshire County for the best possible recovery from impacts of the pandemic is a top priority for Berkshire Regional Planning Commission,” BRPC Executive Director Thomas Matuszko said. “This funding supports a wide range of efforts on behalf of our region, each critical to our future economic well-being.”

Work to overhaul an online data clearinghouse, www.berkshirebenchmarks.org, is already underway, with a focus on improving user experience and encouraging a broader range of agencies to access the site for a better understanding of existing conditions in the county and to support their own grant-writing efforts. Advisory teams from around the county are providing guidance on the most important indicators to measure progress in economic recovery as well as various quality-of-life factors.

BRPC staff will expand upon the county’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy to address long-term economic resiliency, working with members of the CEDS committee and additional stakeholders to develop new protocols for coordination during future disruptions. Staff will facilitate significant recovery-oriented projects from the CEDS priority project list, assisting municipal leaders and project managers in bringing projects to fruition, and will also seek to identity additional grant-eligible projects.

“We’re grateful to receive this investment in Berkshire County,” said Laura Brennan, Economic Development program manager at BRPC. “It allows us to take stock of how the region was impacted over the past year and play an important role in strategizing for the future.”

Local businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities will benefit from access to technical assistance through the EDA-funded initiative. These efforts will provide tools for businesses and organizations to better operate virtually if needed, as well as guidance on accessing state and federal assistance. Technical assistance for municipalities will support improvements to policies and operations for increased responsiveness to business community needs at the local level, including online permitting, revisions to zoning and other regulations, and improved communications with business owners.

The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission will work with 1Berkshire as the primary partner in coordinating technical assistance to local businesses. 1Berkshire will also take the lead role in industry-specific capacity-building efforts, primarily focusing on industry clusters identified in the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0. Additional partners will be identified for the delivery of specialized technical assistance to businesses and municipalities after needs are assessed through online surveys and other outreach.

“This is a fantastic opportunity,” said Jonathan Butler, president and CEO of 1Berkshire. “This level of federal investment into the nuts-and-bolts technical assistance our regional economy needs is critical, and we are excited to play our part to maximize the impact of this effort for businesses and organizations across the Berkshires.”

North Adams Builds on Growing Momentum

By
MCLA President James Birge
Community Spotlight Special Coverage

Community Spotlight

MCLA President James Birge

MCLA President James Birge cuts the ribbon at the official launch of the school’s new nursing program.

 

Jennifer Macksey grew up North Adams, and she’s seen some profound changes in her 50 years — and from many perspectives.

As a young girl, she remembers Thursday nights downtown, which would be bustling as the thousands of employees at nearby Sprague Electric would be out spending their paychecks in the stores, like the one owned by her parents, and restaurants along Main Street and connecting corridors. She also remembers how the landscape changed dramatically, and the vibrancy downtown all but disappeared overnight, after Sprague closed its doors in 1985.

Later, while serving in several positions in City Hall, including chief financial officer and treasurer and collector, and also at the nearby Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) and Southern Vermont College, and then as assistant superintendent of the Northern Berkshire Regional School District, she saw the city’s economy struggle as it also evolved, from one dominated by manufacturing to one centered on tourism and the arts, a shift exemplified, in dramatic fashion, by the transformation of the former Sprague Electric complex into MASS MoCA, the nation’s largest museum of contemporary art, which opened its doors in 1999.

Today, Macksey is mayor of the city, a post she has long coveted (more on that later), and is thus in a position to not only observe, but also shape the ongoing evolution of this city of nearly 13,000.

She reports progress on several fronts, from new stores downtown to signs of development at the long-vacant former TD Bank building on Main Street; from a cannabis-cultivation facility in the Hardman Industrial Park to a small but quite significant rise in population — part of a countywide phenomenon involving residents of large metro centers leaving for the Berkshires, where many of them are working remotely.

Jennifer Macksey

Jennifer Macksey

“We’ve brought a lot of new people into the community, but we’re also focused on getting businesses in here.”

“I’m amazed at the people who are buying property here in North Adams,” Macksey said. “We’re seeing a lot of people who are leaving larger cities and coming here to work remotely, and we’re seeing out-of-town investors buying up property, whether it be for long-term or short-term rental. So our population is starting to go up a bit.”

James Birge, long-time president of MCLA and another native of Berkshire County (he grew up in Lee), has also seen a number of signs of progress, both across the county and in North Adams. In addition to meeting its mission of providing a quality liberal-arts education and enabling students from low-income families to live “an elevated life,” as he calls it, MCLA is helping to fuel a changing Berkshires economy by providing qualified workers and also adding new programs to meet recognized need, such as its new nursing-degree program.

“While 40% of our students come from Berkshire County, 50% of our students who graduate stay in Berkshire County,” he said. “So we’re contributing to the brain gain of Berkshire County.”

The nursing program, initiated this fall, was launched in response to a request from Berkshire Health Systems to help meet an urgent need to put more nurses into the pipeline.

“We thought, ‘here is an opportunity where we can develop an academic program that would be in demand and be responsive to the needs of our community,” Birge said, adding that the program started with 20 students this fall and is expected to ultimately grow to 110-120 students. “This is the fundamental, historic purpose of public higher education — to respond to the needs of the community.”

For this, the latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at North Adams and the many developing stories there.

 

 

Taking the Lead

While growing up in North Adams, Macksey said, her parents always stressed the importance of both giving back and getting involved, qualities she has embraced her whole life.

This passion, coupled with a desire to lead change in a community she said was still struggling in many ways, prompted her to run for mayor in 2021 — and to seek re-election this fall.

“I always wanted to be mayor,” she told BusinessWest. “When I left City Hall, I knew that I would come back someday, but I always said I would come back to the corner office, and that’s what I did. I’m very interested in keeping North Adams moving forward.”

Her focus is broad and covers many issues, from education to public safety, but especially economic development, she said, adding that, like all communities in the Berkshires and beyond, the most pressing need is jobs.

“We’ve brought a lot of new people into the community, but we’re also focused on getting businesses in here, and that is really the charge of my next two years in office, to build out some economic-development plans and to sell North Adams more than it has been.

“North Adams is sold on its beauty and its natural resources, but there are a lot of other things to offer,” she went on. “I’m very focused on the buildings that we do have that are empty and our industrial park and exploring opportunities to bring in some light industry.”

The Hardman Industrial Park recently became home to the Temescal Wellness cannabis growing facility, in a facility that formerly housed Crane Stationery. The facility employs between 75 to 100 people and is thus an important source of new jobs and one of many investments that have taken place in North Adams.

Others include ongoing investment in the Porches Inn at MASS MoCA on River Street and also in the Hotel Downstreet on Main Street — facilities that are catering to the steady volumes of visitors to North Adams, which has increasingly become a destination in recent years — as well as redevelopment of the former Johnson School into much-needed housing.

North Adams at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1878
Population: 12,961
Area: 20.6 square miles
County: Berkshire
Residential Tax Rate: $17.67
Commercial Tax Rate: $37.60
Median Household Income: $35,020
Family Household Income: $57,522
Type of government: Mayor; City Council
Largest Employers: BFAIR Inc.; Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
* Latest information available

In the downtown, most of the storefronts are now occupied, Macksey said, and the former TD Bank facility has been acquired, and redevelopment plans are being blueprinted.

“Our downtown is pretty much full,” she noted. “There were many years when it was empty, and I really applaud the owners of those buildings for hanging in there.”

But there is considerable work to be done, she added. “We’ve got a lot of things going on, but we really need to provide more jobs for our workforce here. And we hope to develop some economic-development plans that will bring some people into the city.”

Creating jobs is a process, she noted, one that involves collaboration and partnerships with business, the education sector, and workforce-development agencies, as well as that notion of more aggressively selling the city and its many types of assets and generating new investments in the community.

“We need to create some jobs that provide some on-the-job training,” she said, citing Temescal Wellness as one example of such an employer. “We also need to be collaborating with places like MassHire and other groups to create opportunities where people can learn a trade as they work.

“And we also need to be aggressive in cultivating a community, even in our high school, of students who want to work here in North Adams, be it in a trade or in an administrative position,” Macksey went on. “But most importantly, we’re looking to work with businesses that are sensitive to hiring people here in North Adams.”

 

Class Act

Birge told BusinessWest that he thought MCLA might fall a little in the annual U.S. News & World Report ranking on the nation’s public liberal-arts colleges, a category that includes the service academies. But it didn’t.

Instead, it held its place at number 7 — this was the third year in a row it finished in that spot and the ninth year in a row it has cracked the top 10, out of roughly 500 institutions — a measure, he said, of not only the school’s commitment to excellence, but its ability to consistently deliver on its commitment to providing a quality liberal-arts education.

As proud as Birge might be of this ranking — and he is quite proud — he is even more satisfied with the school’s rankings on U.S. News & World Report’s listing of top performers when it comes to social mobility, a category the publication initiated in 2019. This is a measure of how well institutions graduate students who receive federal Pell grants, typically awarded to students whose families earn less than $50,000, though most Pell Grant money goes to families with income below $20,000.

In this category, MCLA ranked first in the state and second in the country.

“I like this ranking a little bit more, because we’re meeting our mission — we have a mission of access,” he explained. “We want students who may not be able to afford to go to other institutions to come here and get an outstanding education and then go off and have a life that they wouldn’t have if they didn’t come to us.

“I think that’s a more important measure; we’re the highest-ranked public institution in Massachusetts and the second-highest in the nation, and we’re really proud of that,” he went on, adding that one-third of the school’s students come from families earning less than $30,000 per year, and roughly 40% of them are first-generation college students.

“The average starting salary for an MCLA alum is $46,000,” he went on. “Hundreds of students are graduating and making an average salary of $46,000, and they’re coming from families that made less than $30,000. We’re breaking the cycle of poverty for hundreds of kids in four years — we think that’s a pretty noble mission for a public higher-education institution.”

Overall, MCLA is seeing a surge in enrollment due to a roughly 15% increase among first-year students (total enrollment is largely flat), and Birge attributes this to the value the school presents at a time when value has become an ever-more-important factor among students and their parents. Indeed, one can graduate from MCLA with a fraction of the debt they may assume if they were to attend a private liberal-arts college, he said.

While on the subject of value, Birge said a liberal-arts education still holds plenty of value in this job market and in general, despite growing rhetoric questioning the relative worth of a liberal-arts degree, and some colleges and universities — Simmons and Lasell are among the latest to do so — cutting liberal-arts majors, including history, modern languages, philosophy, and literature because of low enrollment.

“I think those institutions that are cutting liberal-arts programs are not being very visionary, and I think they’re cutting off their nose to spite their face,” he added “In our world today, even more than ever, we need people educated in the liberal-arts tradition. We need people who can understand different perspectives and look at things through different lenses.”

Especially in a changing Berkshire County, he noted.

“The economy has changed; it used to be an industrial economy, and now it’s more of a creative economy, across the county,” Birge said. “And I think that has breathed life back into a lot of our communities, including North Adams. It’s a vibrant moment in the history of Berkshire County, and we try to be as participatory in that as we can.”

MCLA Builds Programs to Meet Industry Needs

By
The Feigenbaum Center for Science and Innovation
Professional Development

Professional Development

 

It’s called the MCLA Leadership Academy.

This is a program designed to help those with aspirations to be a school principal or superintendent take the next steps in their career in education. It blends academic content with practical skill and knowledge development. As students earn 31 credits, they engage in activities that include reading, writing, discussion, group projects, case studies, simulations, lectures by prominent thinkers, project-based tasks, fieldwork, and more.

“This is an area that school district leaders have identified as a critical need — they’re losing so many principals, assistant principals, and superintendents to retirement,” said Joshua Mendel, associate dean of Graduate and Continuing Education for Partnerships and Programs at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, adding that this is one of many initiatives at MCLA that fall into the broad realm of professional development — and also address an identified, and often serious, need for trained professionals.

Others include everything from programs for those desiring careers in ‘outdoor leadership’ — managing a ski resort, perhaps — to those seeking to become nurses and radiologists; from teachers needing licensure to would-be entrepreneurs.

Joshua Mendel

Joshua Mendel

“This is an area that school district leaders have identified as a critical need — they’re losing so many principals, assistant principals, and superintendents to retirement.”

Summing up this ever-growing, always-evolving portfolio of programs, Mendel said they’ve been designed with several goals in mind, but primarily to address the needs of employers across several sectors, all of whom are challenged to find sufficient talent in this difficult job market, and to help individuals find not simply jobs, but careers, or take the next big step in their career.

For this, the latest installment of its series on professional-development programs and initiatives in the region, we visit MCLA and examine the many offerings it has developed over the years and continues to hone to meet the changing needs of employers and job seekers alike.

 

Courses of Action

Mendel said the graduate and continuing-education programs at MCLA essentially focus on needs and opportunities identified by the Berkshire Skills Cabinet, led by MassHire Berkshire, Berkshire Community College, and 1Berkshire and created with the goal of addressing the skills gap by bringing together regional teams of educators, workforce entities, and economic-development leaders to create a blueprint for growth strategies.

“Through the Skills Cabinet, four areas have been identified as having critical growth potential and need,” he said, listing healthcare, education, tourism, and advanced technology. “These are the areas that are seeing a major increase in interest from outside corporations coming into the Berkshires, but are also our strengths when it comes to economic development in the region.”

And these are the areas that MCLA, the public, four-year college in the Berkshires, is focusing on primarily, he said, adding that the school not only serves residents of the Berkshires, but draws students from outside the area, with some of them staying in the region after graduation and starting careers there.

In healthcare, initiatives include the school’s new bachelor’s degree in nursing program that started last fall, as well as a degree program in radiologic technology, a program that resulted from the closure of Southern Vermont College and MCLA stepping in to become that school’s official teach-out partner to enable students to complete their degrees.

MCLA now offers the program, and it is helping to meet a recognized need within the community for such professionals, said Mendel, adding that interest in the program is strong and continues to grow.

The same is true for many of the programs in education, he said, noting that MCLA is helping to meet a critical need for teachers resulting from the retirement of Baby Boomers and other factors.

Elaborating, he said there are many now teaching under emergency licensure, which enables them to teach without a master’s degree. However, this is set to expire within the next year. MCLA has strategically positioned itself to address this situation through a fully online master’s program now being ramped up, with some students starting in the spring and more expected in the summer and fall.

Meanwhile, MCLA has created another new program, a +1 (bachelor’s degree and online master of education degree) program designed as an accelerated pathway for those students who seek to earn a teaching license and undergraduate degree, a second initial license in moderate disabilities, and a master’s degree in education.

“This was an area that was introduced to by the superintendents of this region at our superintendents’ roundtable,” Mendel noted. “They said, ‘we have such a demand for teachers with a background in moderate disabilities that we’ll hire 100% of the students that come out with that discipline.”

As for the Leadership Academy, launched 20 years ago, it enables students to earn their principal or superintendent licensure in Massachusetts, New York, or Vermont.

“It’s a robust program,” Mendel said, adding that about 40 students enrolled this past year, a number that could increase following the closing of the College of Saint Rose, which also has a leadership-academy program for New York’s Capital District.

A third sector that has become a focus at MCLA is tourism, an all-important sector in the Berkshires, one that has been a steady supplier of jobs and one also hamstrung in many ways by the ongoing workforce crisis. Many of the school’s MBA students enter this field, he said, adding that MCLA has created something somewhat unique, an outdoor leadership program that will be a minor within the environmental studies program starting next fall.

“There will courses in environmental studies and courses in leadership that will help students embrace the opportunities they have in the Berkshires for outdoor education and outdoor leadership,” he said, adding that there are career opportunities at ski areas, hiking programs, and related fields.

The fourth area of focus is advanced technologies, specifically a partnership with the Berkshire Innovation Center in Pittsfield, whereby the school’s MBA program is run out of that facility.

“The Innovation Center is doing an amazing job of bringing in entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and advanced technologies,” Mendel explained. “So we’ve created a partnership program with them; our MBA program meets in the cohort model, one class at a time but two classes a semester for 18 months straight, and those classes are both online and in-person, a hybrid model.

“And when they meet in person, they meet at the Innovation Center,” he went on. “The Innovation Center allows our students to meet with local CEOs that are doing amazing things in the area, it allows our students to do research with their companies and organizations, and it’s enabling them to do capstone projects with these new entrepreneurs and learning about new technologies. It’s about elevating our MBA program to focus on the critical needs within these new technology businesses.”

 

Bottom Line

There are many other new initiatives as well, from a minor in entrepreneurship within the business program to address a surge in interest in starting new businesses to a minor in data science, to an Early College program created in conjunction with Drury High School in North Adams that enables students to earn up to 30 college credits before they graduate from high school.

The common denominator with all these programs is a desire to meet those needs identified by employers and economic-development leaders by creating pathways, Mendel said, and then getting individuals on those paths.

Report Details Region’s Workforce Needs — and How to Meet Them

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Training Ground

In all of the region’s key economic sectors, such as healthcare, education, and manufacturing, organizations say, almost with one voice, that the number-one barrier to growth is finding and keeping talented workers — a task made even more difficult at a time of historically low unemployment. BusinessWest sat down with one of the Pioneer Valley’s leading workforce-development voices to discuss an evolving, long-term blueprint to meet those needs — and grow the economy even further.

Healthcare. Education. Advanced manufacturing.

In any conversation about the economic character of the Pioneer Valley — both its rich past and promising future — those three sectors would be high on the list of key factors.

Indeed, a late-2018 report produced by the MassHire Hampden County Workforce Board and the MassHire Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board calls them ‘priority industries,’ meaning the most important to the region’s economic success, and they form the basis of a comprehensive ‘labor-market blueprint’ which aims to narrow workforce talent gaps and help companies — and the overall economy — grow.

A new report, issued just a few weeks ago, follows up on that blueprint, outlining the many ways employers, economic-development agencies, vocational and technical schools, area colleges, and other entities have partnered to do just that.

Needless to say, it’s a daunting challenge, said David Cruise, president and CEO of MassHire Hampden County.

“What we’re doing at the moment is actually going in and implementing the goals and strategies we laid out in the blueprint,” he explained. “One of the priority works we did was to identify, through looking at both supply and demand data, the three priority industries in Pioneer Valley region.”

Beyond healthcare, education, and manufacturing, however, the blueprint also identifies four other critical industries: business and finance; professional, scientific, and technical, including information technology (IT); food services and accommodation, which takes into account the impact of MGM Springfield; and sustainable food systems, a growing sector particularly in Franklin and Hampshire counties.

“We have been working pretty carefully within those seven industries, trying to collect data, trying to make certain the programs we run are consistent with that data,” Cruise said.

The priority industries have two things in common, he noted: long-term growth opportunities for individual companies and the sectors as a whole, and clear career pathways, where people cannot just land entry-level jobs, but steadily progress in their career from there.

“That’s why we’re spending a significant amount of time — and we’re very excited about the work we’re doing — with our regional education partners to make certain they’re developing programs and courses that align with those occupations, within those priority industries, that will allow someone to take courses and get into programs where there’s a pathway that will allow them to, yes, get a job, earn more money, and take care of their families, but also be able to see some pathway forward. That’s what we’re really focused on.”

It’s another way of looking at the value of retention, he added, which allows companies to avoid the time and cost of losing employees and training replacements, but also helps individuals gain career stability and establish deeper roots in the region.

“How do we put in place opportunities that will allow workers, both new and incumbent, to be able to move forward in these companies and in their occupation?” he asked. “That’s how you drive economic growth.”

Getting Resourceful

In the Pioneer Valley, Cruise noted, job growth isn’t generated by a few massive companies.

“We certainly have some publicly traded companies, some large companies, but the growth in the region is really being driven by small and medium-sized enterprises. And we want to support those companies because they don’t necessarily have all the resources they need. They struggle when they can’t retain folks; it becomes a tremendous cost factor for them, spending all that time recruiting and not being able to retain their recently hired folks. We have a significant commitment to try to work with those small to medium-sized companies throughout the Pioneer Valley.”

One way the MassHires do so is through partnerships with numerous vocational and technical high schools offering a wide variety of programs, most of them aligned with the priority initiatives outlined in the blueprint, he noted — not to mention the three community colleges in the Pioneer Valley.

The more recent report on blueprint progress examines programs at the voke-tech schools and community colleges — and Westfield State University — and how their programs connect with priority industries.

David Cruise says today’s successful small to medium-sized business understands the importance of community partners like colleges and economic-development entities.

“We did an analysis of the educational programs and pathways and courses that are really aligned with these occupations within these priority industries,” Cruise said. “We’re asking, ‘where are the gaps?’”

The blueprint creators took particular interest in specific ‘priority occupations’ currently in demand. In healthcare and social assistance, these include social- and human-service assistants; direct-care workers such as registered nurses, nursing and medical assistants, and personal-care aides; and clinical workers such as dental hygienists, pharmacy technicians, medical records and health IT; physician assistants; and physical and occupational therapists.

In education, priority occupations center on educators at all levels, including vocational-technical, STEM, and trades, as well as teachers’ assistants. In manufacturing, the key jobs include supervisors, production workers such as CNC operators and machinists, and inspectors, testers, and quality-control workers.

The report — which provides plenty of detailed evidence that training and degree programs are available in all these fields — will be updated every two years, with the hope that such programs will continue to expand and adapt to evolving workforce needs.

“We’re trying to fashion a regional workforce response as opposed to trying to fashion a workforce response in Hampden County or in Hampshire-Franklin. We want to look at a regional response,” Cruise said. “We think it makes more sense, and we have a better chance at mitigating the supply gap if we combat it that way.”

One important evolution concerns apprenticeships, he added. “We’ve been very aggressively involved in developing registered apprenticeships in healthcare and advanced manufacturing. We have about 74 apprentices involved in programming in the area right now, which is significant. A year and a half ago, we had 16. We’re being very careful about making certain the funding that we have and how we deploy the money is clearly aligned with where the employers are telling us the demand is.”

The two Pioneer Valley MassHires also connected with the MassHire Berkshire Workforce Board to produce yet another study, this one taking a five-year outlook on workforce needs in manufacturing — again, focusing in on key careers, including machinist, CNC operator, quality control, supervisor, and CNC programmer.

“We did an analysis of the educational programs and pathways and courses that are really aligned with these occupations within these priority industries. We’re asking, ‘where are the gaps?”

“We’re focusing our work — at least in this industry — around two things,” he explained. “One is trying to be certain the incumbent employees in our regional companies have the skills they need to be technologically relevant and be able to work in these spaces. But the ongoing concern is, where do we find entry-level CNC operators? In most of these companies, they’re resourceful enough and do enough internal training and continuous improvement where they can deal with some of these areas, like machinists and CNC programming. Where they really struggle is getting entry-level people, particularly operators, to come in.”

To address that need, MassHire is launching three training programs in February that should yield an additional 45 workers to join local companies.

“Even though we’re excited about it, that, in itself, is certainly not going to solve all the problems of supply and demand,” Cruise went on, noting, again, that manufacturing faces the same supply challenges as healthcare and education. “In all these industries, the demand is there. We’re trying to figure out ways we can increase the supply chain so we can minimize this supply gap in all three of these areas.”

Making Connections

One intriguing development involves making connections with comprehensive high schools in the region, Cruise told BusinessWest, recognizing that the state has been innovative in making career-development opportunities available to non-vocational high schools.

“We’re doing a lot of work with these school districts. They’ve made a decision that they want their students to have career-awareness and career-focus opportunities that will allow their students to look at different career pathways. Whether they’re going on to a two- or four-year college or directly to work, they want them to be more knowledgable about what those requirements are, what the pathways look like.”

To that end, the regional workforce boards have sent information to area superintendents about hiring needs and opportunities in the priority sectors and what students need to do to access them.

“In the next few weeks, we’ll send more information to the schools that will be very helpful to superintendents, counselors, and teachers, to help them provide guidance to their students — and also the parents — around career pathway opportunities. We’re really excited about that, and I’m convinced that, over time, students and parents will be making better career decisions.”

At the end of the day — any day — the main workforce challenge for businesses is simply finding the right talent and hanging onto it.

“The people who are able to work and want to work, in a lot of cases, have found employment, yet that supply gap is still there at our two career centers and the one in Greenfield as well,” Cruise said. “We continue to get customers coming in, but the customers that are approaching us need some additional supports and services before we feel they’re able to secure employment and particularly retain employment.”

Meanwhile, he noted, employers find they’re spending more resources than they’d like onboarding individuals they don’t retain over the long term.

“So we’re trying to find ways at our two one-stop centers to talk with our customers, look at the barriers that are the reasons they are not in the labor force, and try to use our community organizations and resources to do the best we can to mitigate some of those barriers.”

Sometimes it’s a simple lack of soft skills, or employability skills, that cause matches to fail — people not reporting to work, or people not having the ability to work in a team concept, he explained. “We can at least put the job seekers that approach us in a better position for companies to retain them. It’s hard work because many folks who are not in the labor market have more than one barrier that has to be mitigated, and that requires significant allocation of resources and time and staff to be able to do that. But we have to do that; that’s our job.”

Many employers say they can train for aptitude, but not attitude. “The employers we work with are saying to us, ‘send me someone who has the aptitude and willingness to learn, who’s going to be here every day, on time, and is going to be willing to accept the instruction we give them, be able to accept constructive criticism when it’s given,’” Cruise said. “Again, it’s something we’re pretty laser-focused on.”

MassHire is fortunate, he added, to work in a region full of companies, mostly small, that understand the value of partnerships and are willing invest time and resources in working with the workforce boards and colleges.

“The whole concept of going alone isn’t going to work anymore,” he said. “You have to figure out a way to be in some collaborative partnerships where you can leverage resources, look at your assets, identify your gaps, and put in place opportunities and programs that will respond to that. We do that well out here. I’m not suggesting it’s not done well in other places, but we think we have a little bit of a copyright on that.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Mill Town Capital Aims to Make an Impact in Pittsfield

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The Mill Town Capital team atop Bousquet Mountain Ski Area.
Commercial Real Estate Special Coverage

A Visionary Approach

The Mill Town Capital team atop Bousquet Mountain Ski Area.

The Mill Town Capital team atop Bousquet Mountain Ski Area.

 

Real-estate development can be a profitable business. In fact, it’s safe to say that’s the key driver for most players in this sector.

For the team at Mill Town Capital, it’s about impact — on more than the bottom line.

Formed in 2016 and based in Pittsfield, Mill Town is an “impact investment platform,” said Tim Burke, the company’s CEO. “Our overall mission and mandate is to really make the area of Pittsfield and the Berkshires a better place to live through traditional investments, impact investments, and pure philanthropic community work.”

But what is impact investment?

“To us, impact investment means focusing on key assets or amenities or projects that have a high potential positive impact on the region,” he explained. “So it’s a little bit different than maybe a traditional impact investment that might look at energy or other areas of impact. Ours is really place-based in terms of our approach.

“When we think about impact, it’s taking on investments that most traditional investors wouldn’t take on either because the rate of return is lower, or it takes a much longer time to realize it, or they’re just really difficult projects,” he added. “We’re not necessarily restrictive to different sectors or industries. It’s really about, is this project good for the region? Is it good for the local economy? Does it have the chance to spur economic development or other potential investment, and, if so, how can we make it work?”

The company’s first ventures into real estate centered on housing-development projects in Pittsfield.

“Impact investment means focusing on key assets or amenities or projects that have a high potential positive impact on the region.”

“Pittsfield used to be a 60,000-person city, but now has 40,000 people. So you would think that there is enough housing for everyone, but the stock itself is significantly deteriorated,” Burke explained. “You have a lot of really old stock, things that are run down, properties where absentee landlords have a lot of deferred maintenance. And the living conditions in some of these are really tough.”

Since taking what he called a “clustered approach” to housing stock in the area, Mill Town has accumulated more than 200 units of housing in Pittsfield alone, as well as a few commercial buildings and mixed-use properties, with apartments on the upper floors and commercial space on the lower floors.

“So the real-estate approach there has been trying to improve neighborhoods with housing at the forefront, but also supporting small businesses and restaurants where we can.”

Bousquet complex

Tim Burke calls the Bousquet complex “a critical local asset that had fallen on some tough times.”

Public investment has sometimes followed that private investment, Burke said, with the city or state coming in with utility upgrades or streetscape improvements.

“So it’s really a multi-faceted approach, and it certainly has a patient-capital component to it as well, where we’re not looking to get in and monetize things really quickly. We have more of a patient, long-term approach to it.”

On the business-enterprise side of the ledger, Mill Town now owns about a dozen local businesses, either directly or in partnerships.

One example is Bousquet Mountain Ski Area, one of the oldest continuously operating ski areas in the country. “We felt that’s a great example of a critical local asset that had fallen on some tough times and needed a lot of investment,” Burke said. “I don’t think many rational investors would have gone in there with a pure investment business case, but we felt like it was worth saving.”

These enterprise investments tend to be clustered in regional assets in real estate, recreation, and hospitality, such as the Central Downtown Inn & Suites in Pittsfield; Gateways Inn in Lenox; Blueprint Property Group in Pittsfield; Framework, a Pittsfield co-working space; and others — about a dozen in all.

“We’ve been involved in those types of projects for a number of years, some of which are business-oriented projects, and some are philanthropic, that we do through our our 501(c)(3) foundation. That includes things like improvements in Springside Park, which is a large, local park in Pittsfield where we helped reshape and reinvest in trail networks there.”

Tim Burke

Tim Burke

“Is this project good for the region? Is it good for the local economy? Does it have the chance to spur economic development or other potential investment, and, if so, how can we make it work?”

Mill Town has also provided contributions to the Berkshire Natural Resources Council for a project that connects the various trail networks in the Berkshire mountains.

“And then we have two businesses that are in the recreation space,” Burke said. “We own an athletic center that’s called Bousquet Sport, which is across the street from the ski area, where we’re currently undergoing a 15,000-square-foot addition plus renovation to the facility, and that’s an investment in tennis, fitness, and pickleball.”

Then there’s Camp Arrow Wood, where the former Lakeside Christian Camp on Richmond Pond was converted into a new, sleep-away summer sports camp.

“We run three- and six-week summer camp sessions out of that property. That’s another project that we kind of uncovered during the COVID period … and we’ve been building that up over the past year and a half or so.”

 

Coming Home

Prior to Mill Town, Burke spent a number of years in corporate finance roles with United Technologies and then later with a couple different biotechnology companies, most recently Biogen in Boston’s Kendall Square biotech cluster.

Camp Arrow Wood

Mill Town transformed the former Lakeside Christian Camp on Richmond Pond into Camp Arrow Wood, a new, sleep-away summer sports camp.

But his connection to Pittsfield was strong, having grown up there, and around 2015, he met Dave Mixer, Mill Town’s founder “and really kind of the motor and the initiative and the capital behind everything that we do,” Burke said. “So I ended up meeting with Dave, and he had a general idea of what he wanted to do.”

Mixer, like Burke, is a Berkshire native and had just come back to the area after being away for a long period of time, and he wanted to make an impact, Burke explained.

“His view of making an impact is a little bit non-traditional from a philanthropic standpoint. He didn’t want to just write checks and then walk away. He really wanted to see if he could drive economic development and job growth and population stabilization and new housing and educational improvements — all across the spectrum of economic development and quality of life.

“It’s been a great, challenging, unique run for us over the past six or seven years, and we’re at a point now where, through Mill Town and our businesses, we employ over 300 people in the area. We’re constantly looking to grow and make this engine work and also kind of preach what we’ve learned over the years to other communities and people and investors and philanthropists and see if there are ways we can help other areas progress with what we’ve done in Pittsfield.”

“I think we’re pretty hard on ourselves in that we think we have a ways to go before we achieve the impact that we want to achieve. But it is validating to a certain degree that people see that we’re heading in the right direction.”

Indeed, Burke firmly believes Mill Town has a replicable model, but it’s one that’s still evolving. “We think we’re in the second or third inning of what we’re doing here in Pittsfield.”

And as someone with a lifelong heart for the city, he envisions what a vibrant, thriving Pittsfield can one day be.

“I think it’s a place where people from all aspects of the economic spectrum can find quality housing. They can send their kids to schools and get them a good education. They can find jobs that will allow them to live here productively and raise a family.

“And then we can provide those systems on the periphery that allow people to have a good quality of life here — places where kids have opportunities to have athletic endeavors in camps, places where adults can enjoy the natural assets that the area has,” he went on. “That comes back to trail networks and all the outdoor recreation assets that we have here.”

After all, he added, those are some of the things the Berkshires are most known for.

“Making sure that we can maximize those benefits for the people of Pittsfield is where we want to make a difference,” Burke told BusinessWest. “That involves a lot of different things and broader socioeconomic issues that are much harder to solve, like education and poverty and addiction. But we still should try to get involved in some of those things through partnerships with organizations who have that expertise.”

 

Moment of Recognition

Last fall, at 1Berkshire’s Celebrate the Berkshires event, Mill Town Capital was recognized as a special honoree for “putting the Berkshires on the map” — an honor that recognized the company’s investments in housing and downtown redevelopment, as well as its philanthropic support around the region.

“When our regional economic-development group recognized Mill Town for the work that we’re doing, it was tremendously gratifying for our team to see that people see the work that we’re doing and that it is having a positive impact,” Burke said. “I think we’re pretty hard on ourselves in that we think we have a ways to go before we achieve the impact that we want to achieve. But it is validating to a certain degree that people see that we’re heading in the right direction.

“That hasn’t always been the case,” he added. “I think when we first started out, there was a lot of skepticism and questioning: ‘what’s the angle?’ ‘What are you trying to accomplish?’ So it was great to see that, at a minimum, people view it as positive-intent work that has the potential to drive change.”

State of Urgency

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AIM Action Plan Strives to Make the Commonwealth More Competitive

AIM coverChris Geehern says he didn’t contrive the phrase (or this particular application of it) — attribution belongs to a Baystate business owner requesting anonymity — but he certainly puts it to work liberally as he talks about the Commonwealth’s innumerable business regulations and the manner in which they are enforced.

“He called it the ‘bad-waiter syndrome,’” Geehern, executive vice president for the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM), said of the individual in question. “He said doing business in Massachusetts is like going to a restaurant where you really like the food, the atmosphere is terrific, and the dessert and drinks are just what you wanted. But the whole experience gets ruined because the waiter is rude and doesn’t really care about whether you like the place or not.

“What we’ve heard repeatedly from employers is that it’s less about the regulations themselves,” he continued, “and much more about the way they are interpreted and enforced — which drives companies crazy.”

Bringing attention to this bad-waiter syndrome and actually doing something about it are two of the many stated goals in a document titled “Blueprint for the Next Century,” the drafting of which is one of several ways — and perhaps the most meaningful — AIM has chosen to mark its 100th anniversary this year.

Composed following extensive polling of the organization’s 4,500-odd members, the blueprint identifies four major public-policy issues, or areas of concern, that members say must be addressed if the state is to remain competitive in an increasingly global economy.

In addition to the need to establish what the report’s authors call a “world-class state regulatory system … that meets the highest standards of efficiency, predictability, transparency, and responsiveness,” these are:

• “Workforce,” meaning a system for educating and training workers and providing them with the skills necessary for companies to succeed;
• “A uniformly strong business climate.” Roughly translated, this involves taking the stunning success enjoyed by the Greater Boston region and expanding it to the rest of the Commonwealth, while also providing opportunity to all business sectors; and
• “Health insurance and energy costs” and the need to lower them to make the state more competitive.

AIM President and CEO Rick Lord, seen here with Gov. Charlie Baker

AIM President and CEO Rick Lord, seen here with Gov. Charlie Baker, says workforce issues are by far the number-one concern among the state’s employers.

None of these areas of concern would in any way be considered news, especially to anyone doing business in Western Mass., said AIM President Rick Lord, and collectively they will defy quick or easy resolution.

“None of these have easy solutions,” he noted. “But we hope to have a second release of this blueprint at the end of this year that will include recommendations that will hopefully move us forward.”

To illustrate these concerns, or challenges, and the threats they pose to the future of the state’s economy, AIM presents the example of a Western Mass. company, Northampton-based MachineMetrics.

Led by Eric Fogg, Bill Bither, and Jacob Lauzier, the venture has created a cloud software solution that improves the productivity of manufacturing facilities by collecting, analyzing, and visualizing data from machines, parts, and people. In many ways, its future is dependent on the health of the state’s manufacturing sector, its ability to attract and retain qualified help, and its proficiency with navigating the state’s costly and highly regulated business environment.

“MachineMetrics is the kind of company that may ultimately determine the ability of Masachusetts to build upon an economy that in many ways remains a paradox — an international center of technology, innovation, medical research, financial services, and higher learning near Greater Boston, but a more traditional, amorphous economy just outside of Route 128,” write the report’s authors. “Fogg, Bither, Lauzier, and innovators like them hold the unique promise of joining the ‘eds and meds’ economy of the 617 area code with existing industries struggling to create jobs for residents in the rest of the state.

“It is a promise that will be played out against a vibrant and unforgiving global economy in which investment, resources, jobs, people, and capital flow at blinding speed to the most competitive environments,” they go on. “States, regions, and nations no longer have the luxury of taking their job bases for granted — failure to nurture the business climate not only impedes the growth of existing companies, but also leads to a silent and corrosive flow of job expansions to other locations that provide employers with the best opportunities for success.”

For this issue, BusinessWest takes an indepth look at “Blueprint for the Next Century” and the challenges and opportunities it identifies for the Bay State moving forward.

History Lessons

Lord said AIM traces its roots to 1915, perhaps the apex of the state’s manufacturing sector, when 27 manufacturers came together in the belief that their interests would be better served by a statewide organization charged with advocating on their behalf.

“They felt they needed an organization that would be their voice in the State House,” said Lord, adding that several of those original 27 members were from the western part of the state, and four — Crane Paper in Dalton, Package Machinery in Holyoke, Hampden Papers in Holyoke, and GE, which had several locations, including a huge complex in Pittsfield — are still paying dues a century later.

AIM remained an association of manufacturers until 1989, when membership was opened to all business sectors and the entity became an employers’ association. Today, there are more than 4,500 members, with roughly 30% of them in the manufacturing sector.

AIM will mark its first 100 years of service in a number of ways. The celebration began, unofficially, with the organization’s annual meeting in May, and will climax with a huge gala slated for Nov. 16 (close to the actual anniversary date) at the Boston Convention Center.

Between now and then, there were will be ceremonies in different regions of the state, staged to mark the centennial but also to honor companies and individuals that have made major contributions to the state’s business community and the cities and towns in which they are based.

One such ceremony will take place in Springfield, in the Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History, on June 15. The honorees will be MassMutual, Yankee Candle founder and Kringle Candle co-founder Michael Kittredge, and the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department’s vocational training program.

Meanwhile, in Dalton, on June 11, AIM honored Onyx Specialty Papers, Berkshire Health Systems, and SABIC Innovative Plastics.

But the most significant aspect of the centennial celebration is “Blueprint for the Next Century,” which attempts to not only identify the challenges facing business owners of all sizes, but also take on the much more difficult task of pinpointing potential solutions.

And this brings Lord and Geehern back to MachineMetrics, which, as they said, embodies both the promise of the future and the considerable obstacles to achieving that promise.

To put things in perspective, the report’s authors presented MachineMetrics’ case and asked a number of poignant questions that apply to most ventures doing business in the Bay State or looking to do so:

• Will the advanced-manufacturing companies to which they want to sell their idea survive in the relentlessly high-cost, high-regulation environment in Massachusetts?
• Will MachineMetrics find the skilled, educated, and motivated people it needs to grow and to develop new iterations of the company’s software?
• Will young companies located in Western Mass. and other areas outside the Cambridge/Boston innovation beltway develop the critical mass needed to extend opportunity throughout the state?
• Will the MachineMetrics platform make manufacturers so efficient that they will be able to increase business without creating new jobs?
• Will government regulators encourage the growth of companies like MachineMetrics, or will they set up bureaucratic impediments like the one that recently convinced a neighboring software company in Amherst to move to Texas?
• Finally, will the government research money that built Massachusetts into a world-class center of higher education, medical science, biotechnology, and defense technology continue to flow or slow to a trickle?

How the state — meaning its business leaders and especially its elected leaders — answer these and other questions will go a long way to determining how the next century, or at least the next few decades, will unfold, Lord said.

Help Wanted

There is probably no issue where the answers are more important than the broad issue of workforce, he went on, adding that virtually every business sector, and every individual business, will be challenged in the years to come with the task of attracting and retaining individuals with the skills needed for that business to succeed.

“This was by far the number-one concern among Massachusetts employers,” said Lord. “We heard it in all geographic areas of the state, from Boston to Western Mass., and we heard it in all industries — particularly, and quite loudly, in manufacturing.

“That’s because the age of the workforce is high — 50% of the sector’s workforce will retire in the next 10 years,” he went on. “So they’re facing a crisis in filling jobs that will become available.”

But the reality is that the word ‘crisis’ is not restricted to that industry, he told BusinessWest, adding that solutions to it lie mostly in the ability of the business community and the state’s education system — meaning preschool to college — to work together to ensure that businesses will have qualified workers.

Specific recommendations include, among other things, taking better advantage of the opportunities provided by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014; elevating the role of vocational education; renewed emphasis on the fundamentals, such as math, science, and communications skills; and expanding performance-based funding for the state’s community colleges and public four-year institutions.

Beyond workforce issues, though, there are other issues challenging business sectors and individual ventures, said Lord and Geehern, adding that one of the most critical is the matter of creating a uniformly competitive structure across all industries, geographic regions, and populations.

Elaborating, Lord said that what the state has done in recent years amounts to picking winners and losers. And this phrase applies to both geography and business sectors.

“We’ve heard from a lot of companies that they believe we need to promote economic opportunity uniformly across the state,” he explained. “The Greater Boston area survived the recent economic downturn pretty well, but other areas of the state suffered more significantly, so economic opportunity is unevenly spread throughout Massachusetts. In addition, over time, the state has adopted policies or incentives that favor certain industries over others. The sense is that economic opportunity ought to be more evenly distributed.”

Geehern agreed, noting that state government, in general, has a tendency to chase whatever the ‘sexy’ industry might be at the moment. In the ’80s, it was personal computers, and at the start of this century, it was Internet-based ventures, he went on, adding that, in recent years, it’s been biotech, a focus punctuated by former Gov. Deval Patrick’s commitment of $1 billion to that sector, an expenditure that primarily benefits the eastern part of the state.

“What we’re trying to say with this [blueprint] is that you can’t just chase after the cool industry, whatever that might be at the moment,” he continued. “You have to think about what industries match up with the skills that are available in Massachusetts and do your best to encourage business growth throughout — meaning throughout all industries and throughout all regions.”

As with the workforce initiative, however, stating the problem and finding solutions to it are two completely different things, they acknowledged.

The blueprint recommends a number of steps, but especially increased focus on the state’s so-called gateway cities, older manufacturing centers, including several in Western Mass., such as Springfield, Holyoke, Pittsfield, and Westfield.

“A lot of this inequity exists in our older, urban areas,” said Lord. “There has been some focus on the gateway cities, but I think there’s more that can be done there; I think the Baker administration will try to do some creative things.”

By Any Measure

Another major issue for the state moving forward is both the number of regulations on the books and the manner in which they are enforced, said Geehern, who drew upon the example of that aforementioned software company in Amherst — the one compelled to relocate to Texas — to get his point across.

“During their first few years in operation, companies usually lose money, and this one was no exception,” he explained. “And the Department of Revenue required them to file their return electronically. That’s fine, but the DOR would not let this company use any of the typical, commercially available online platforms to submit those returns.

“Instead, they had to go out and buy this specialized piece of software that I believe cost about $2,500,” he went on. “Things like this prompted this company — which was a medical software company run by an M.D., so it’s exactly the kind of company that’s in the wheelhouse of Western Mass. — to move to Texas. And when the founder sells in five or 10 years for lots and lots of money, all those capital gains are going to Texas, rather than Massachusetts, not to mention all those jobs.”

Such stories are hardly isolated incidents, said Geehern and Lord, adding that they are a key element in the prevalence of that bad-waiter syndrome described earlier.

“There’s a sense that Massachusetts is just a tough place to do business because of the multitude of government regulations that impact companies in all sorts of ways,” said Lord, adding that, by AIM’s count, there are roughly 2,200 of these regulations, and they are often not reviewed in anything approaching a systematic fashion.

Which is why business leaders were encouraged by the Baker administration’s imposition of a 90-day moratorium on new regulations (since extended) as well as a comprehensive review of all existing regulations announced in April.

“All agencies are in the process of looking at the regulations that their agency has promulgated, and they have to justify whether they should be kept, amended, or repealed,” said Lord. “And we’re soliciting input from our members to help in this process.”

The desired result, he said, are regulations and enforcement policies that protect society, but don’t punish businesses.

But while companies must cope with a highly regulated environment, they must also deal with high costs, especially when it comes to energy and health insurance, said Lord, adding that, as with the other public-policy initiatives, these do not constitute a recent phenomenon.

But they are becoming more of a factor, he said, adding that the Commonwealth now boasts (if that’s the right term) the second-highest per-capita healthcare costs in the nation (15% higher than the national average) and the third-highest electric rates.

“And these put us at a competitive disadvantage to lower-cost places, both in the United States and around the world,” said Lord, adding that relief from these costs will not come easily.

Steps toward progress outlined in the report include, for healthcare, everything from maintaining the current definition of ‘full-time employee’ — the state’s benchmark is 35 hours, while federal reforms put the number at 30 — to repealing the medical-device tax under federal health reform.

As for energy costs, the report recommends steps such as new pipelines to transport natural gas into the Commonwealth and reorganization of the Mass. Department of Public Utilities.

Getting a Tip

Ridding Massachusetts of the ‘bad-waiter syndrome’ is not an assignment for the faint of heart. Such perceptions about the Commonwealth and its general attitude toward business have existed for most all of the time AIM has been in existence.

Real progress is the goal, and AIM is striving to achieve some by not only stating the problems, but eventually providing a road map for finding improvement.

And if that destination can be reached, then this century-old organization will really have something to celebrate.

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

MASS MoCA Continues to Expand and Contribute to the Big Picture in the Berkshires

By
An aerial shot of the sprawling, 26-building campus of MASS MoCA.
Berkshire County

Creating Impact

An aerial shot of the sprawling, 26-building campus of MASS MoCA.

An aerial shot of the sprawling, 26-building campus of MASS MoCA.

Anyone who hasn’t been to the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in the past decade might be surprised at how different it is from its early days. From a near-doubling of art space to a growing array of long-term exhibits to a robust music, theater, and festival business, MASS MoCA has become a true driver of Berkshire County’s creative economy — and that’s by design.

Jodi Joseph understands the challenges of drawing visitors to a museum in — well, it’s not the middle of nowhere, exactly, but it’s also a far cry from Boston or Manhattan.

“We have 13,000 residents in town. We bring over 200,000 people to the galleries every year. That’s a hard thing to do,” said Joseph, director of Communications at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, or MASS MoCA, in North Adams.

But it’s an important thing, she added — not just for the museum, but for the entire region’s creative economy.

“People from 75 miles or more from here know this is a place to see art. Within 75 miles, more people know us as a place to see music and performing arts,” she told BusinessWest during a recent visit. “We are finding more ways to draw connections between the performing and visual arts — to let those visual-arts people know we have this dynamic performing-arts program year-round, and get our performing-arts audience into the galleries to see everything here.”

That’s because more time spent here means more money spent in the northwestern corner of the state.

“Overnight visitors spend six times as much money as day visitors,” Joseph went on. “Part of our economic-development agenda is getting people to understand there’s so much to do at MASS MoCA, and we’re just one of several institutions up here. So if you want to come see us and the Clark [in nearby Williamstown], you’re going to have to spend a night, maybe two nights, to get it all in. Every admission here is good for two days. So stay awhile — there’s so much to see.”

Jodi Joseph, director of Communications at the museum.

Jodi Joseph, director of Communications at the museum.

Much more, in fact, than when the museum opened 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago, for that matter. Growth has been a constant in MASS MoCA’s second decade, with the addition of a robust performing-arts and festival business and a massive expansion of floor space to accommodate something unheard of in the early years: permanent exhibits.

Much credit for the former goes to the Chicago-based rock band Wilco, which, a decade ago, became enamored of Western Mass. and saw it as a place to establish a residency and work on side projects. They couldn’t make a connection with Tanglewood work, but when they visited MASS MoCA, they knew they had something. In 2010, the museum launched Wilco’s first-ever Solid Sound festival, a celebration of music and art now held every other summer.

“Thus began MASS MoCA’s foray into a pretty serious concert-festival business,” Joseph said. “It opened the idea of MASS MoCA, this campus, being a destination for music. It was such an exceptional marriage — the fanbase their music attracts was our target audience. There are many other bands we could say that about, but certainly Wilco is in the top 10.”

Today, MASS MoCA presents more than 75 performances year-round, including contemporary dance, alternative cabaret, world-music dance parties, indie rock, outdoor silent films with live music, documentaries, avant-garde theater, and an annual bluegrass festival known as Fresh Grass.

But the museum’s calling card is still modern art — in particular, large-scale, immersive ‘installation art’ that would be difficult to house in conventional museums. The unconventional works form an intriguing counterpoint to the century-old, high-ceilinged mill buildings that house them, which have retained their raw, industrial character over the years, with plenty of exposed brick, ductwork, and concrete floors.

Joseph said visitors appreciate the palpable sense of history they offer — even as MASS MoCA hurtles into its third decade of challenging the status quo.

Maker Space

The 16 acres of the MASS MoCA’s campus — 26 buildings occupying nearly one-third of the city’s downtown business district — form an elaborate system of interlocking courtyards and passageways, bridges and viaducts; a floor-to-ceiling window in one building overlooks the confluence of two branches of the Hoosic River.

By the late 1700s and early 1800s, businesses at or near the site included shoe manufacturers, a brickyard, a sawmill, cabinetmakers, hat manufacturers, machine shops for the construction of mill machines, marble works, wagon and sleigh makers, and an ironworks.

“Overnight visitors spend six times as much money as day visitors. Part of our economic-development agenda is getting people to understand there’s so much to do at MASS MoCA, and we’re just one of several institutions up here.”

In 1860, O. Arnold and Co. installed the latest equipment for printing cloth; large government contracts to supply fabric for the Union Army swelled business, and over the next four decades, Arnold Print Works became the largest employer in North Adams. By the end of the 1890s, 25 of the 26 buildings in the present-day MASS MoCA complex had been constructed, and by 1905, Arnold Print Works was one of the leading producers of printed textiles in the world, employing some 3,200 people.

In 1942, after a period of decline for Arnold, Sprague Electric Co. bought the site, converting the textile mill into an electronics plant, where physicists, chemists, electrical engineers, and technicians were called upon by the U.S. government during World War II to design and manufacture crucial components of some of its most advanced high-tech weapons systems, including the atomic bomb. After the war, Sprague’s products were used in the launch systems for Gemini moon missions, and by 1966 Sprague employed 4,137 workers. But, again, sales eventually declined, and in 1985, the company closed its North Adams operations.

“This campus has always made things,” Joseph said. “Now, what we make is art — performing arts as well as visual art.”

Indeed, when North Adams leaders began discussing a new use for the campus, the Williams College Museum of Art was seeking space to exhibit large works of contemporary art that would not fit in conventional museum galleries — and the idea of creating a contemporary arts center in North Adams began to take shape. With funding from both public and private sources, MASS MoCA opened in 1999.

Banners promote current, temporary exhibits

Banners promote current, temporary exhibits, but MASS MoCA has developed an array of long-term exhibits by prominent artists as well.

The ‘maker’ spirit of the complex extends to putting up the installations, many of which are not as simple as hanging a painting. The museum typically doesn’t hide the process, which can take several weeks, but instead embraces it.

“Because of the way our galleries are situated, we can’t help but put ourselves on view when installing an artist,” Joseph explained. “You might walk through and observe someone charging through the gallery with a forklift. This time of year, we’re moving from one gallery to the next, installing new art, and all that activity is usually on view to the public, in addition to everything that’s already installed in the galleries.”

She said the complex, for most of its history, has been home to a constant flow of humanity and industry, and the act of creation is as important — and worthy of viewing — as the static display of art.

“Even if you’re not a contemporary-art person, there’s so much to see in the architecture,” she told BusinessWest. “The buildings themselves are art. The fact that we fill them with art and ideas, and made these buildings accessible to the public, is a joyful experience. My grandparents worked here. My mom worked here. That’s real. I love coming to work every day and being in this site where I know my family history looms large.”

Even the performing-arts elements of the museum embrace the process as much as the outcome. For instance, in 2012, rock icon David Byrne teamed up with director Alex Timbers to create a theatrical piece called Here Lies Love — and, rather than perform it only as a finished product, presented it to audiences as a work in progress.

Similarly, just this year, actor Jon Hamm, director Danielle Agami, and Wilco’s Glenn Kotche led a team that developed a piece called Fishing, also performing it as an evolving work to audiences who were then invited to talk about what worked and what didn’t for them.

“It’s a phenomenal exchange — audiences love it,” Joseph said. “In this culture-drenched region, people get really excited about the creative process. Even if you are not the creator, you get to be involved.”

Permanence in Change

The process of developing and expanding an artistic idea has also taken shape on a macro level over the past decade on the MASS MoCA grounds. In 2008, the museum opened its first long-term exhibition, a three-story space housing about 100 works by famed large-scale wall artist Sol Lewitt — a display the Los Angeles Times once called “America’s Sistine Chapel.”

In 2013, the campus opened a previously unused building for a long-term exhibit by painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer. And in 2017, the museum activated more buildings, almost doubling the previous gallery space from 135,000 square feet to 250,000, and installing permanent works by neoconceptual artist Jenny Holzer, multi-media artist Laurie Anderson (who makes use of virtual reality in her gallery), and James Turrell, whose interactive works make intriguing use of light and space, just to name a few.

The museum installed this floor-to-ceiling window

The museum installed this floor-to-ceiling window to give visitors a view of North Adams and, in particular, the point where two branches of the Hoosic River join up.

“Part of the joy of going to a museum is seeing the permanent collection,” Joseph said. “You might return time and again and see new exhibitions, but you can also visit old works in the collection like they are old friends to you. We never had that at MASS MoCA because we only had rotating exhibitions.

“But in 2008,” she went on, “people started to think about MASS MoCA not just as a pilgrimage site for Sol Lewitt fans, but also as a place where visitors could return and find something new at the galleries, but also have this body of work, this artist’s life work, where they were suddenly becoming experts. MASS MoCA members probably know more about Sol Lewitt than many Sol Lewitt scholars.”

The museum has expanded its community connections as well, such as an educational program that brings in 2,500 students from local public schools several times a year. Partner schools develop a curriculum of class projects based on what the students see at MASS MoCA. An invitational program for promising teenagers actually displays their artwork on the museum walls and provides grants to their teachers to stock their classrooms. One area teacher used the grant to purchase a kiln so students can create pottery.

“For these kids, she added, “seeing their art on the walls beside Sol Lewitt kind of raises the stakes for them.”

Another program, called the Studios at MASS MoCA, has hosted more than 500 artists and writers for residencies up to 10 weeks. Hosted by the museum’s Assets for Artists program, selected artists receive private studio space on campus, in addition to housing, free access to the museum’s galleries throughout the residency, optional financial and business coaching from Assets for Artists staff, and a daily group meal.

As part of its examination of the regional creative economy, the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0, a county-wide economic-development plan, recommended expanding the Studios program throughout Berkshire County, she noted. “I’m not sure how that would work, but it’s a great concept.”

And an exciting one, as MASS MoCA has long been a draw to this small city near the New York and Vermont lines — and from that destination status comes myriad ripple effects.

“We were founded with a two-headed mission,” Joseph said. “One was to present the best art of our time, and the second was to be an economic catalyst.”

It does that by leveraging all this activity — not just the performance and display of art, but its very creation — to develop new markets for artists, spur job creation, strengthen community identity, and even boost property values, all of which Joseph has witnessed and hopes to see continue.

“We’re in one of the most robust real-estate moments in North Adams in my adult life,” she said. “We’re happy to contribute to it — even if it’s one by one.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

City Enterprise and Its Ambitious Owner Create a Blueprint for Expansion

By
Wonderlyn Murphy
Construction Cover Story

Building Momentum

 

Wonderlyn Murphy

Wonderlyn Murphy

 

 

Wonderlyn Murphy has some ambitious plans for City Enterprise, the construction company she started nearly two decades ago.

She wants to take it to $150 million in annual revenue — roughly six times the current level. She wants to expand geographically and open new locations, perhaps one in Florida and another in Maine or New Hampshire. She wants to build a new headquarters facility in this region because the company has clearly outgrown its current home on Berkshire Avenue in Springfield. She wants to add more staff, and she wants to broaden the portfolio with larger projects, likely through partnerships with larger construction firms.

Yes, there is a lot on her ‘want’ list. But she believes it’s all realistic, and, more importantly, she has a blueprint for getting there.

“We’re in a transition period now where I’m growing the company,” she said. “And I have some very aggressive goals for the next five years. I want to be a $150 million company, and we get there by scaling, we get there by duplication, we get there through collaboration and partnerships, we get there by building the employees based on our core values, get there through outside-the-box thinking and vision, more than just focusing on getting the next job.”

Getting where she wants to go will certainly be a challenge, but Murphy has already clearly shown that she has the ability to set goals and then reach them through hard work, determination, and overcoming obstacles in her path.

“We’re in a transition period now where I’m growing the company. And I have some very aggressive goals for the next five years. We get there through collaboration and partnerships, we get there by building the employees based on our core values, get there through outside-the-box thinking and vision, more than just focusing on getting the next job.”

Indeed, she has taken City Enterprise from a small, one-person venture that started with Murphy designing, building, and flipping homes to a multi-dimensional company with 14 employees that has secured work with clients ranging from UMass Amherst to the U.S. Park Service; from the General Services Administration to the U.S. Coast Guard.

She’s done all this by making connections, forging relationships, and, yes, taking full advantage of City Enterprise’s status as a woman- and minority-owned business.

Such status has certainly opened some doors, but Murphy has had the entrepreneurial drive, and that determination, to march through those doors and, as noted, put down some ambitious plans for what comes next.

Today, Murphy told BusinessWest, thanks to some new staff additions, and especially the addition of Vice President of Operations Charles Young, she is able to spend more time on the business, rather than in it.

And with that fundamental change, she believes she is putting the pieces in place for a story of change, growth, and taking her company to places that she probably couldn’t have imagined 20 years ago.

But then again, she probably could.

 

Building a Foundation

As noted earlier, City Enterprise has been a work in progress, or a dream in progress, for Murphy for nearly two decades now, or not long after she graduated from Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston with a degree in architectural design technology.

At first, it was a part-time pursuit, something she did after working the overnight shift (midnight to 8 a.m.) as a correctional officer with the Hampden County Sheriff’s Office at the Western Massachusetts Correctional Alcohol Center on Howard Street, since torn down to make way for MGM Springfield. That work was a learning experience on many levels, she said, and one that has helped in her current roles as employer and entrepreneur.

“It was a very interesting experience, to say the least,” she told BusinessWest. “I got to know the population and came to understand what it really meant to be a corrections officer; there’s much more to it than slamming cell doors, even though there were no cell doors there. The population came from varied backgrounds, and to navigate all of that took a certain amount of finesse.”

Abatement work at the former Court Square Hotel

Abatement work at the former Court Square Hotel in downtown Springfield is one of many municipal projects awarded to City Enterprise.

While working in corrections on Howard Street, she designed, built, and sold a few houses, including her first such endeavor, a home on Eastland Street, just a stone’s throw from City Enterprise’s current home on Berkshire Avenue. Later, she designed and built a two-home development on Parkerview Street in Springfield and handled a few renovations and additions as well.

It was difficult to manage both sides of her work life, but she managed.

“I would get out of work at 8, and I would go straight to my job sites and my projects, because I was the only one doing it at the time,” she recalled. “So I had to line up my subcontractors; I had to be on site and make sure everyone was there. I had to schedule everything … and time is always of the essence in real estate, because you want to hit the market at the right time.”

This was the start of City Enterprise, she said, adding that, as she continued to operate her venture out of her basement and create the first of what would be several business plans for its future, Murphy applied for status under what is known as 8A under the Small Business Administration, a program created to help firms owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.

Applying for such status is a difficult and lengthy proposition, she said, adding that it eventually took her three years to gain that designation. At first, she was turned down, in large part, she believes, because she was still working in corrections at the time and thus — to those reviewing her application, at least — she was not fully committed to her business venture.

After waiting a year — and after leaving the Sheriff’s Department in 2012 and making City Enterprise a full-time pursuit — she applied again, and this time was granted 8A status. And during that year, she was making connections and building relationships with agencies ranging from the General Services Administration to the Army Corps of Engineers to the U.S. Navy.

“I was letting these people know that I was coming — I was developing relationships even before I was admitted into the program,” she said. “Because I knew the 8A was more government-contract-driven, I sought out those agencies.

“I was confident because I made the necessary sacrifices to make that happen,” she said. “I knew there were things I had to do to get past that first rejection, and I did them. I took full advantage of that year.”

The 8A designation certainly opened some doors, as noted earlier, especially at government-owned and operated facilities, such as Westover Air Reserve Base, where she earned first commercial contract — renovation work in the bowling alley on the base.

Wonderlyn Murphy, seen here with recently hired Vice President of Operations Charles Young

Wonderlyn Murphy, seen here with recently hired Vice President of Operations Charles Young, is setting some ambitious goals for City Enterprise.

This was another important learning experience, she said, adding that she initially hired the wrong type of flooring company to work on the bowling lanes, but later secured the right subcontractor, a company in Ohio, and finished the project in good order.

“It was a very difficult entry into the commercial space, but we got through it, and it was a great learning experience,” she said, adding that the company would go on to secure projects with a number of government entities in the ensuing years.

 

Drafting a Plan

That list includes the city of Springfield, which hired the firm to handle the abatement of the historic former Court Square Hotel, which is being converted into market-rate apartments; the National Park Service, which hired City Enterprise to undertake restoration of the porch of the commanding officer’s quarters at the Springfield Armory; UMass Amherst, which has contracted with the company on a number of projects, from renovations of the Rand Theater to envelope repairs at several of the dorms; UMass Medical School, which hired the company to do skylight replacement; the U.S. Coast Guard, which used the company for repairs and renovations to its small-arms range; and countless others.

Current projects include installation of a new marquee sign at the MassMutual Center, work at the Beals Library in Winchendon, and construction of a new amphitheater, also in Winchendon. The company has also submitted a proposal for the Old State House in Boston, what would be its most significant project to date, and is awaiting word on that bid application.

The growing list of clients, the wide range of work undertaken for them, and the growing staff at the company, now numbering 14, including an estimating staff, project managers, an accounting department, and that aforementioned vice president of Operations, shows how far this company has come since Murphy started building houses.

More intriguing, though, is where she wants to take it moving forward.

Indeed, as she mentioned at the top, City Enterprise is in a transition stage in its development, and the broad plan is to essentially scale the operation — in many different ways.

One of them is geographic reach. She said she would like to have a location in South Florida, and perhaps another in northern New England to better serve potential clients in that market. She is also looking at growing through acquisition as well.

“Time is always of the essence in real estate, because you want to hit the market at the right time.”

Meanwhile, as noted earlier, she is settling into … not a new role, necessarily, but a different set of responsibilities as the company makes this transition. Indeed, instead of handling many of the day-to-day matters, which will now be handled by Young, she will be even more focused on the proverbial big picture and goal setting.

“I’m not as involved with the day-to-day as I was a year ago because I have brought on a vice president of Operations,” she said. “But I am very involved with executing my vision and getting my team aligned with the vision, and getting the right people to go with me to that number I just mentioned — $150 million — which is probably the most important part.”

the porch at the commanding officer’s quarters at the Springfield Armory.

City Enterprise has tackled a number of assignments involving government agencies, including work to restore the porch at the commanding officer’s quarters at the Springfield Armory.

Elaborating, the company’s broad portfolio of projects — meaning the depth and diversity of the client base and the wide variety of work — is indicative of “where we’re going and who we are,” Murphy said, adding that the focus moving forward is simply on controlled growth and doing what’s necessary to meet those lofty goals.

A new headquarters building is a key part of that equation, she said, adding that she has plans on paper for a new building and a site in mind. Further diversification of the portfolio of clients is another key goal, she said, adding that the company is working to add more colleges and universities, government agencies, municipalities, and healthcare facilities, among others, to that already significant list.

Continued relationship building and potential collaborations with larger construction companies on larger projects is another part of that equation, she said, adding that the company’s status as a woman-owned and minority-owned company could be a huge asset in such collaborative efforts.

 

Bottom Line

Such conversations are ongoing, Murphy said, adding that, as she moves away from the day-to-day of running City Enterprise and more into the broad task of marketing the company and being its “face,” her job description falls into the category of making and building connections.

“It’s a very ambitious place I’m going to,” she said in conclusion, adding that she is putting the pieces in place for something special. The foundation has been built, and she is now ready to build upon it — and in dramatic fashion. u

 

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

Doing Business as Certificates

By
DBA Certificates

The following business certificates and/or trade names were issued or renewed during the month of January 2023. (Filings are limited due to closures or reduced staffing hours at municipal offices due to COVID-19 restrictions).

AGAWAM

Aspen Hill Farm
1207 North Westfield St.
Lenny Blews

Auto Point Motors
1039 Springfield St.
Moe Borhot

Claremont Home Improvements
166 Thalia Dr.
Robert Claremont

Culverine Firearms
1325 Springfield St., Suite 7
Jeffrey Smith

Easterntronics
425 Springfield St.
Dang Huynh

Everestcar
266 Walnut St.
Eduard Pomaznuk

Giovanni’s
719 Main St.
Bruno Russo

AMHERST

The Barbershop Whiskey Barrel
35 Montague Road, Unit E
Malynda Isabelle

The Corner Cupboard
314 College St.
KaiQi Herzig

Crowned by Cage
12 Longmeadow Dr., Unit 21
Monica Cage

Dream Glimmers
85 Amity St., Apt. 201
Jennie Moss

KDQ Designs
170 East Road, Unit 84
Kathleen DeQuence Anderson

Kensie Beauty LLC
150 Fearing St.
Lara Mackenzie

BELCHERTOWN

Aqua Vitae Woodworks
396 Michael Sears Road
Justin Satkowski

M&C Towing
117 South Washington St.
Michael Piechota, Craig Blazejowski

CHICOPEE

A&M Auto Sales & Repair
451 Granby Road
Waleed Obeid

Bias Family Childcare
73 Saint James Ave.
Destiny Sanchez

The Calming Rain Wellness, LLC
1262 Memorial Dr.
Marquise Edmunds

CHS Girls Basketball Booster Club
20 Lord Ter.
Diane Cross, Monica Torres

Eagle Designs & Labels
126½ Cochran St.
Darren Descoteaux

ED Transport LLC
45 Laclede Ave.
Edgardo Diaz

Freihofer Baking Co.
437 Irene St.
Robert Shiwa

EAST LONGMEADOW

413 Power Washing
30 Chadwyck Lane
Regan Held

A&E Styles Inc.
2 North Main St.
Emanuela Hernandez

Amanda’s Pet Sitting and Dog Walking
35 Donamor Lane
Amanda Bousquet

Architecture Environment Life Inc.
264 North Main St., Unit 2
Kevin Rothschild-Shea

Autumn Lane Decor
46 Shaker Road
Judith Cusano

Blend
173 Shaker Road
Jillian Lafave

Ciao Bella Salon
128 Shaker Road
Christine O’Connell

Elevated Anesthesia Service
34 Pembroke Terrace
Nathanael Rosario

Elite Image
489 North Main St.
Stephanie Reid

Exim Communications Inc.
200 North Main St., Unit 4
Jose Borges

Goosehead Insurance
200 North Main St.
Rana Morton

ENFIELD

All American Assisted Living at Enfield
118 Hazard Ave.
Glenn Kaplan

Coin Cloud
307 Hazard Ave.
Christopher McAlary

Forty-Two Ten Consulting
8 Sandpiper Road
Joel Cox Jr.

Joey’s Flooring
40 Indian Run
Joseph Gannuscio Jr.

Liquor Ox
10 Hazard Ave., Unit 6
Gaurav Bishndi

GRANBY

McPherson Consulting Services
111 Taylor St.
Jeffrey McPherson

Mountain View Training Center
203 Taylor St.
Daniel Haber

GREAT BARRINGTON

Allard Engineering
61 Blue Hill Road
David Allard

Barrington Hand and Upper Extremity Rehabilitation
20 Stockbridge Road
Erin Fleig

Berkshire Corporate Retreats
7 Meadow Lane
Sabrina Jaffe, Michael Jaffe

Birches-Roy Funeral Home
33 South St.
Joseph Roy

Blue Heron Reiki
388 Park St. North
Karen Smith Clark

Brownson’s Towing & Repair
115 Gas House Lane
Connor Brownson

Byzantiums
32 Railroad St.
Anne Minifie

Caretaking Unlimited
77 Egremont Plain Road
Jonathan Banks Shapiro

The Chef’s Shop
31 Railroad St., Suite 4
Robert Navarino

D.A. Dempsey Auto Sales
446 Stockbridge Road
David Dempsey

Derek Neaz-Nibur, PsyD
21 Pope St.
Derek Neaz-Nibur

Doula Odessa & Birth Services
80 Maple St., Suite 3
Odessa Bates

Fancy That Antiques
504 Stockbridge Road
Malena Teves

Great Barrington Community Acupuncture Clinic
294 Main St., Suite 6
Michelle Manto

Guarducci Stained Glass Studios
6 Stony Brook Road
David Guarducci

Handy Andy Utility Services
208 South St.
William Crowell Sr.

Happy Nails and Spa Inc.
329 Stockbridge Road, Suite 1
Binh Tran

Jay Amidon
437 Old Monterey Road
Jay Amidon

Leave ’em with Liv
276 North Plain Road
Olivia Van Sant

Lion Cleaning Services
12 Mechanic St.
Maritza Atehortua

GREENFIELD

A.B. Edmonds Construction
127 Shelburne Road
Alfred Edmonds

Aromatic Fillers LLC
38 Hayward St.
Todd Green

Artisan Beverage Corp.
324 Wells St.
Jeffrey Canter

Blake Equipment
28 Butternut St.
Blake Group Holdings

Blue Ganu
62 Grayes Road
Terry Gray

Connecticut River Acupuncture
14 Miles St.
Joshua Warren

Copycat
180 Main St.
Heewon Yang

Cowan Garage
93 Vernon St.
James Cowan, Alice Cowan

Designs by Monique
227 Colrain Road
Monique Richardson

GFC Inc.
347 Wells St.
Eugene Darmanchev, Dmitriy Darmanchev

Joan E. Bitters TBC
698 Country Club Road
Joan Bitters

Joseph S. Rae
347 Wells St.
Joseph S. Rae, LLC

Kathryn Martini LLC
42 Abbott St.
Kathyrn Martini

HADLEY

Budget Auto Repair
8 Pine Hill Road
Kevin Michelson

In the Green Gardens
243 Russell St.
In the Green Gardens Inc.

Kellogg Builders
12 Knightly Road
Larry Kellogg

Mobil
110 Russell St.
Gibbs Oil Co.

HOLYOKE

Brian Boru
37 Commercial St.
Carlo Sarno

China House
322A Appleton St.
China House

Izm Prizm
535 Main St.
Orlando Santos

Kim Lee Nails
322 Appleton St.
Luy Nguyen

LeafLux Cannabis
40 Lyman St.
Albert Babadzhonov

MammaRazzi Photography Inc.
4 Open Square Way
Jenna Medina, Jacqueline Slatton

LONGMEADOW

Aislinn Paige Art
47 Barclay St.
Aislinn Calabrese

Calming Goods
56 Lincoln Road
Kara Upperton, Constance Gumlaw

LUDLOW

A.K. Paint
9 Cady St.
Andrew Kessler

Balance Professional
77 East St.
Lori Miller

Bare Beauty
271 East St.
Katie Chicoine

The Chop Shop
123 Center St.
Jessica Lacosse

Dr. Binca Warren, DMD
77 Winsor St., Unit 102
Binca Warren

Envision Wellness-Acupuncture & Chinese Herbal Medicine
77 Winsor St., Unit 101
Cristina Carreira

Head to Toe Day Spa
36 East St.
Danyun Huang

KWJ Mechanical Services
193 Marion Circle
Kris Johnson

MONSON

Allyson Heintz Eventing
147 Wales Road
Allyson Heintz

Bumblebee Quilting Service
17 Green St.
James Lynch

J&L Lawncare & More
72 Wood Hill Road
Joseph Tetreault IV, Luke Mitchell

Mystic Grove Goods
270 Silver St.
Tracey Kida, Paul Kida

NORTH ADAMS

KT Realty Management
118 Bracewell Ave., Unit 1W
Makayla Thomas

RJ’s Taxi
429 Curran Highway
Obilio Rodriguez

PITTSFIELD

27 Hull Ave.
27 Hull Ave.
Brian Boateng

28 Clinton Ave. LLC
144 Clinton Ave.
Jaryn Pierson

A-Go Transportation Services LLC
52 Linden St.
Michael Agovi

AK Online Store
1278 North St.
Arthur Friederick Jr.

Anna Maria Gifts
144 South St.
Joanna Sokolsky

Auto Tech Repair Inc.
1335 West Housatonic St.
Auto Tech Repair Inc.

Berkshire Automotive
607 West Housatonic St.
Berkshire Automotive Repair and Sales Inc.

Berkshire Screen
35 First St.
B&G Glass LLC

Blueprint Property Group
437 North St.
437 Property Management LLC

Cali Vera Skate Co.
75 Sherwood Dr.
Benjamin LaForest

Camp Arrow Wood
195 Cloverdale St.
Caw II LLC

The Central Downtown Inn and Suites
20 West Housatonic St.
Rivera Properties LLC

Chili’s Grill & Bar
555 Hubbard Ave., Suite 107
Pepper Dining Inc.

Deidre’s Special Day
2 South St.
Deidre Torra Inc.

Dotties Coffee Lounge
444 North St.
Jessica Rufo

Eastern Body Works and Reflexology
765 Tyler St.
Shu Tong Chau

Embrace Potential
26 Pleasure Ave.
Kathleen Riley

Emily Joy Seamstress
101 Gamwell Ave.
Emily Geary

Innovation Renovation & Construction Inc.
30 Warwick St.
Innovation Renovation & Construction Inc.

KJ Home Improvement LLC
200 Montgomery Ave. Ext.
KJ Home Improvement LLC

KRM Remodeling
82 Wilson St.
Skyler Cesan Karns

K’s Merchandise
301 North St.
Kyoung Ja Kim

SOUTH HADLEY

Jim’s Home Improvement
6 Lloyd St.
James Pouliot

Gorse Children’s Center
27 Morgan St.
Valley Opportunity Council

Sevarino Bookeeping Service
42 Lamb St.
Donna Sevarino

SOUTHWICK

40 Up Tackle Co.
813 College Highway
Nathan Kane

Coward Farms LLC
150 College Highway
John Coward

SPRINGFIELD

Arminder Singh MD P.C.
50 Maple St.
Arminder Singh, MD

The B Brand
68 King St.
Mattie McQuarley

Before After
686 Belmont Ave.
Jose Calderon

Beyond Glamorous
524 Main St.
Latisha Smith

Big D’s Collectibles
6 Campechi St.
Darren DiFronzo

Bkaye Self-Storage
553-555 St. James Ave.
St. James Place

A Brush and a Bucket
21 Higgins Circle
Shaquille Rodriguez

The Capanna
1655 Boston Road
Dawn Cincotta

City Beat Multi Media Group
95 Mill St.
Anthony Bass

Class Auto Sales
466 Main St.
Eddy Almanzar

Cortland Dental & Braces
1070 St. James Ave.
Hathaway Road Dental

Couture Property Group
465 Taylor St.
Robert Couture

Cumberland Farms #6717
66 Parker St.
Cumberland Farms

El Sazon Criollo
464 Bridge St.
Waleska Colon

Esporta Fitness
1150 West Columbus Ave.
LAF Inc.

Fired & Grilled Trap House
1269 Berkshire Ave.
Damall Dyer

Food Zone Supermarket
355 Belmont Ave.
D&F Food Service

Hatillo Restaurant LLC
810 Cottage St.
Angel Aviles Cruz

Home Improvement
61 Hall St.
Exal Gonzalez

Jacob Roofing
413 Nottingham St.
Dimas Castaneda

JV Consulting Firm
108 Mooreland St.
Jacqueline Velez

La3pleta
5 Fairdel St.
Yonad Sierra

Lai Z Auto Repair
62 Worcester Ave.
Vidal Morales

Lashed by Madison
143 Main St., Suite 316
Madison Rose

Little Workshop
4 Front St.
Paul Stasiak

Loomis Lakeside at Reeds Landing
807 Wilbraham Road
Margaret Mantini

M&J Illumination
18 Alderman St.
Jesus Rodriguez

Ma’Hjunie Customs
46 Montgomery St.
Kenyetta Hagans

WARE

LJG Properties
45 Old Gilbertville Road
Lisa Gauvin

M&R Concentrates
54 Greenwich Plains Road
Ryan Sinclair

WEST SPRINGFIELD

5 Star Bookkeeping Service
169 Main St.
Jeffrey Chickerella

Advanced Aesthetics Medi Spa LLC
120 Westfield St.
Yelena Ivanov

Atwood Fire & Security
33 Sylvan St.
George Condon

Berkshire Group
76 Van Horn St.
Gary Webster

Colorbomb Studios LLC
1417 Westfield St.
Daniel Soule

Detecto Guard
31-33 Sylvan St.
George Condon

Dr. Christine G. Whalen
1005 Elm St.
Christine Whalen

Dynamark Security Centers
31-33 Sylvan St.
George Condon

Eastern Builders
733 Memorial Ave.
Sergey Kaletin

Hydro Dog Town of West Springfield
640 Elm St.
Joseph Maple

Jen’s Custom Gnomes
176 Woodbrook Terrace
Jennifer Peterson

Landry Lock and Alarm
33 Sylvan St.
George Condon

Lily’s
6 Windpath West
Susan Melchin

Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Co.
174 Brush Hill Ave.
Roland Joyal

WILBRAHAM

Happy Goat Farm
26 Monson Road
Jeffrey Lotterer

Image ‘n’ Ink
2009 Boston Road
Barbara Christie

Briefcase

By
Briefcase

Employer Confidence Slides to Begin 2019

BOSTON — Stabilizing financial markets and continued strong employment were not enough to brighten the outlook of Massachusetts employers during January as business confidence fell for the fifth time in seven months. The Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Business Confidence Index lost 0.9 points to 57.7, its lowest level since October 2016. Confidence has dropped 6.4 points during the past 12 months. The retreat was led by a 7.3-point drop in employer views of the Massachusetts economy and a 2.4-point drop in opinions about the national economy. Overall confidence remains within optimistic territory, but every element of the AIM Index is now lower than it was a year ago. A separate survey within the January Business Confidence Index found that, while 71% of Massachusetts employers have seen some effect from the U.S. government’s imposition of tariffs on goods form China and other nations, only 10% of companies characterize the effect as “significant” or a threat to the existence of their business. The most common consequence of the tariffs has been an increase in raw-material prices, followed by changes to the supply chain, supply interruptions, products affected by retaliatory tariffs, and loss of overseas customers.

1Berkshire Begins to Implement Berkshire Blueprint 2.0

PITTSFIELD — On Feb. 15, 1Berkshire launched the implementation phase of the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0, a strategic economic-development imperative. With more than 300 registered attendees packing the Colonial Theatre in downtown Pittsfield, 1Berkshire members, regional leaders, and elected officials from across the county shared this project, already two years in the making. The event was the culmination of more than 100 interviews, thousands of hours of work, and more than 20 months of planning and design. 1Berkshire President and CEO Jonathan Butler kicked off the primary outline during the launch by recognizing that $1 billion in regional investments have been made in the Berkshires in just the last three years. Beginning the implementation phase of the Blueprint 2.0 entails a number of action steps, focused on five key industrial clusters, as well as other economic-landscape components and cross-cutting issues. Collectively, this work aims to unite all geographic corners of the county for a common goal of economic development and sustained growth.

Study Shows Economic Impact of Westover Air Show

AMHERST — A UMass Amherst economic impact study estimates that the two-day Great New England Air Show (GNEAS) held at Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee in July 2018 generated $4.3 million in direct and induced local spending. The findings confirm increased per-group spending and their impacts on the local economy even though attendance was significantly down; 2018 attendance was estimated to be around 63,475, down from the 375,500 estimated in 2015. The study was undertaken to understand the economic impact and to benchmark the findings of the 2008 and 2015 air shows for the Galaxy Community Council, a charitable corporation of veterans, local business people, and other citizens who work to support the Westover base. The project was completed by the Hospitality and Tourism Management Department of the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst. The overall economic significance including respondents’ expenditures both within and outside the region of the air show for 2018 was estimated to be $4.02 million. However, when local attendees were removed, the direct economic expenditures from non-locals was estimated to be $2.67 million, and the direct and induced sales multiplier impact overall was estimated to be $4.3 million. This compares to an economic significance in 2015 that was $11.6 million and a local direct economic impact (including the sales multiplier) of $14.9 million. In 2008, economic significance was $8.2 million, and the direct economic impact was $12.3 million.

Holyoke Wins Grant to Create Services for Older Victims of Domestic Abuse

HOLYOKE — The city of Holyoke has been awarded a grant of $398,205 from the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women for a period of three years to create and enhance services for older victims of domestic abuse. This will allow the city to create and design Project Combating Abuse in Later Life (CALL) to address domestic abuse for those aged 50 and older who reside in the city. Project CALL will partner with the Holyoke Police Department, the Hampden District Attorney’s Office, Womanshelter Companeras, and WestMass ElderCare and receive advanced training on abuse in later life from the Office of Violence against Women, then conduct training to law enforcement, service providers, and residents to enhance effective service. Project CALL will have an HPD Elder Affairs Officer team up with a victim advocate and conduct direct services and outreach to those designated as high-risk. This team will enhance victim safety by not only providing support and services to the victim, but finding community-based interventions for the abuser while simultaneously placing them on high-risk status and sharing their information with the CALL Task Force and across systems. The collaborative team aims to have contacts at points of abuse and arrests, and include direct support through the court process. This team will also be responsible for community-based monitoring, case management, and responding to emergency referrals and implementing safety plans for the victims. The CALL Task Force will also act as a wraparound support system responsible for identifying the underserved Spanish elderly population by developing, implementing, and distributing a safety-plan brochure in Spanish for elder victims of domestic violence.

Opioid-related Overdose Deaths Decline for Second Straight Year

BOSTON — Opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts declined by 4% in 2018 compared to 2017, marking the second consecutive year-over-year decrease in deaths, according to the latest quarterly opioid-related overdose deaths report released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. That 4% decline follows a 2% decrease in opioid-related overdose deaths between 2016 and 2017. Fentanyl, however, remained a key factor in opioid-related overdose deaths; it was present in the toxicology of 89% of those who died of an opioid-related overdose and had a toxicology screen in the third quarter of 2018. Meanwhile, the rate of heroin or likely heroin present has been declining since 2016, falling to about 34% of opioid-related overdose deaths that had a toxicology screen in the third quarter of 2018. In 2018, preliminary estimates showed 1,974 confirmed and estimated opioid-related overdose deaths, or 82 fewer deaths than the 2,056 confirmed and estimated deaths in 2017. There were 2,099 confirmed deaths in 2016. “The decrease in overdose deaths provides some hope that our approach to combating the opioid epidemic is having an impact,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders. “We must maintain an intense focus on this crisis and continue to expand opportunities to increase harm-reduction initiatives and expand treatment and recovery services.” While the report showed an overall decline in opioid-related overdose deaths, non-Hispanic black males experienced a 45% increase from 2016 to 2017 in the opioid-related overdose death rate.

Historic Restoration Begins at Old Hampshire County Courthouse

NORTHAMPTON — HCG announced the official start of the historic Hampshire County Courthouse restoration. This phase of the project consists of repairs to the roof, tower, as well as windows and masonry. The building is owned and occupied by HCG. Arlington-based Boston Bay Architects Inc. is overseeing the $1.8 million project, and Wesfield Construction Co. Inc. of New Hampshire won the bid for construction. The restoration will begin at the top of the southern facing tower with the replacement of terracotta roof tiles. Exterior repairs include masonry stone restoration and brick stabilization. The tower interior carpentry work will focus on roof, floor, stairs, and railings. At the completion of the tower, the work will continue down the southern façade with window repair and replacement to energy-efficient historical windows. In October 2017, the Baker-Polito administration announced the release of Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) funds to HCG for this current phase of repairs. In 2015, DCAMM released $500,000 for safety repairs to the building’s steps and roof. The Northampton Community Preservation committee has played an integral role in the plans for this phase of renovation, contributing $200,000 to the building restoration. Local Community Preservation Acts contributed an additional $10,000 from Hatfield and $8,000 from Goshen. Area banks have pledged $38,000, and the Hampshire Foundation Buy a Brick program provided $8,800 from local residents and businesses.

Tyler Fairbank

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2008
Age 37: CEO, EOS Ventures

In Greek mythology, Eos is the god of the new dawn.

The name has become synonymous with new beginnings and hope for the future, and that’s why Tyler Fairbank attached it to his intriguing business enterprise.

EOS Ventures, launched just a few months ago, was created to help businesses, colleges, municipalities, and other large electricity users incorporate sustainable-energy programs. It was inspired by the successful installation of a wind-power turbine at Jiminy Peak in Hancock, which is owned and managed by Fairbank’s family, and it was prompted by the intersection of two powerful trends — skyrocketing energy costs and a desire among many businesses and institutions to ‘go green.’

The company will focus primarily on wind power, because of the experience gained at Jiminy Peak and the installation there named Zephyr, but it will also involve photovoltaics (solar power) and biofuels, such as biomass. The common denominators, said Fairbank, are ‘green technology,’ and much-desired energy independence.

EOS Ventures also represents a new beginning for Fairbank — sort of.

He’s always been involved in economic development, mostly from the standpoint of promoting and nurturing it, although he has exemplified it by helping to grow Jiminy Peak into a thriving, year-round venture. He has been active with a number of business groups in the Berkshires, from the Chamber of Commerce to the tourism bureau; from the Regional Competitiveness Council to the Berkshire Economic Development Corp., which he served as president. It was during that last stop that he helped write something called the Berkshire Blueprint, a roadmap for growth and diversification of the Berkshires economy.

In a few short months, Fairbank has gone from drafting the blueprint to being a shining example of what it espouses — a diverse economy dominated by small businesses that represent many business sectors.

The past few months have been a whirlwind — no pun intended — for Fairbank, who packed up his belongings at the BEDC and unpacked them at EOS offices at Jiminy Peak. His nomination for the Forty Under 40 class of 2008 was based mostly on his past work within the community, but also on his promise as an entrepreneur.

While getting this business off the ground won’t be a breeze, Fairbank believes he has the right venture at the right time — and thus, some wind in his sales.

George O’Brien

Picture This

By
Picture This

A photo essay of recent business events in Western Massachusetts April 15, 2019

Email ‘Picture This’ photos with a caption and contact information to [email protected]

Women’s Leadership Conference

Bay Path University staged its annual Women’s Leadership Conference on March 29. The theme for the day was “Why Not Me,” and a number of keynote speakers and focus sessions addressed that broad topic.

More than 1,700 people attended the day-long conference

More than 1,700 people attended the day-long conference

luncheon keynote speaker Mel Robbins shares the ‘five-second rule’ with the audience

luncheon keynote speaker Mel Robbins shares the ‘five-second rule’ with the audience

Rita Moreno, winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony, and Golden Globe, was the closing keynote speaker at the conference

Rita Moreno, winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony, and Golden Globe, was the closing keynote speaker at the conference

he sizable contingent from MassMutual poses for a photo

he sizable contingent from MassMutual poses for a photo

Dr. Ann Errichetti, chief operations and academic officer at Presence Health

Dr. Ann Errichetti, chief operations and academic officer at Presence Health

Kate Kane, managing director and wealth-management advisor for Northwestern Mutual, were both inducted into the Women Business Leaders Hall of Fame

Kate Kane, managing director and wealth-management advisor for Northwestern Mutual, were both inducted into the Women Business Leaders Hall of Fame



Cutting the Ribbon

Ribbon-cutting ceremonies were conducted on April 5 for a new medical/professional building at 15 Atwood Dr. in Northampton, a project led by Development Associates and Northwood Development, LLC.

Ken Vincunas, right, president of Development Associates, with Ronald Waskiewicz, assistant chief probation officer, and Michael Carey, Hampshire County register of Probate, both tenants in the building

Ken Vincunas, right, president of Development Associates, with Ronald Waskiewicz, assistant chief probation officer, and Michael Carey, Hampshire County register of Probate, both tenants in the building

from left, Vincunas, Susan O’Leary Mulhern of Northwood Development, Eileen O’Leary Sullivan of Northwood Development, Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz, and Travis Ward of Development Associates

from left, Vincunas, Susan O’Leary Mulhern of Northwood Development, Eileen O’Leary Sullivan of Northwood Development, Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz, and Travis Ward of Development Associates

officials cut the ceremonial ribbon

officials cut the ceremonial ribbon

O’Leary Sullivan addresses those gathered at the ceremony

O’Leary Sullivan addresses those gathered at the ceremony



Partnering with the Sox

As part of its ongoing Worcester expansion, Country Bank is teaming up with the Worcester Red Sox as one of the team’s 21 founding partners in anticipation of its move to Worcester in 2021. The bank’s recent annual annual meeting in Worcester featured a keynote address that included a video of the site of Polar Park narrated by Worcester Red Sox President Charles Steinberg, along with remarks regarding the team’s decision to relocate to Worcester.

Pictured, from left, are Rob Crain, senior vice president of Marketing for the Worcester Red Sox; Shelley Regin, senior vice president of Marketing for Country Bank; Paul Scully, President and CEO of Country Bank, and Jack Verducci, vice president of Corporate Partnerships for the Worcester Red Sox.

Pictured, from left, are Rob Crain, senior vice president of Marketing for the Worcester Red Sox; Shelley Regin, senior vice president of Marketing for Country Bank; Paul Scully, President and CEO of Country Bank, and Jack Verducci, vice president of Corporate Partnerships for the Worcester Red Sox.



Show of Support

The YWCA of Greater Springfield recently hosted a somewhat unusual, but important gathering — a show of support for Cheryl Claprood, the recently named acting police commissioner in Springfield, a role she assumes at a time of considerable controversy within the department.

Claprood, center, with Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi and YWCA Executive Director Elizabeth Dineen, a former prosecutor in Hampden County. Behind them are some of the more than 30 women who attended the event

Claprood, center, with Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi and YWCA Executive Director Elizabeth Dineen, a former prosecutor in Hampden County. Behind them are some of the more than 30 women who attended the event

Dineen addresses the gathering

Dineen addresses the gathering



Visit from the Earl of St. Andrews

Elms College recently received a visit from the Earl of St. Andrews, a senior member of the House of Windsor, the reigning royal house of the United Kingdom.

George Philip Nicholas Windsor, Earl of St. Andrews, is the elder son of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and his wife Katharine, Duchess of Kent. He holds the title Earl of St Andrews as heir apparent to the Dukedom of Kent. The earl stopped by Elms College on his way through Springfield to attend a conference on the Middle East in Washington, D.C., later this week. The conference was co-sponsored by the Next Century Foundation, where he serves as a trustee with retired ambassador Mark Hambley, who is also a trustee of Elms College.

George Philip Nicholas Windsor, Earl of St. Andrews, is the elder son of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and his wife Katharine, Duchess of Kent. He holds the title Earl of St Andrews as heir apparent to the Dukedom of Kent. The earl stopped by Elms College on his way through Springfield to attend a conference on the Middle East in Washington, D.C., later this week. The conference was co-sponsored by the Next Century Foundation, where he serves as a trustee with retired ambassador Mark Hambley, who is also a trustee of Elms College.



Degrees of Progress

Elms College President Harry Dumay, left, and Springfield Technical Community College President John Cook shake hands after signing a partnership agreement to offer accelerated online degree-completion programs in Computer Science and Computer Information Technology and Security. The bachelor’s degree programs are completely online and accelerated, which means students can earn their degree in 14 months after obtaining an associate degree from STCC.

Elms College President Harry Dumay, left, and Springfield Technical Community College President John Cook

Elms College President Harry Dumay, left, and Springfield Technical Community College President John Cook



Berkshire Blueprint 2.0

1Berkshire recently launched the implementation phase of the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0 at ceremonies at the Colonial Theatre in downtown Pittsfield. The event was the culmination of more than 100 interviews, thousands of hours of work, and more than 20 months of planning and design. 1Berkshire President and CEO Jonathan Butler kicked off the primary outline during the launch by recognizing that $1 billion in regional investments have been made in the Berkshires in just the last three years, noting that investment in the Berkshires is “a good bet.” (Photos by Kara Thornton)

John Bissell, President and CEO of Greylock Federal Credit Union, addresses the large crowd

John Bissell, President and CEO of Greylock Federal Credit Union, addresses the large crowd

Butler, left, with Ben Lamb, director of Economic Development for 1Bershire

Butler, left, with Ben Lamb, director of Economic Development for 1Bershire

from left, Betsy Strickler, chief communications officer for Community Health Programs Inc.

from left, Betsy Strickler, chief communications officer for Community Health Programs Inc.Kevin Pink, Economic Development coordinator for 1Berkshire; and Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer



Safety Awards

Peter Pan Bus Lines recently hosted its annual Safety Awards presentation at the Student Prince and the Fort. A total of 175 drivers were recognized for completing 2018 with no accidents, and the company also recognized drivers, operations, and maintenance departments for outstanding customer service and performance.

Michael Drozd was honored as a 2 million-mile driver

Michael Drozd was honored as a 2 million-mile driver

Siyana Abdulbasir received the company’s Customer Excellence Award for outstanding customer service

Siyana Abdulbasir received the company’s Customer Excellence Award for outstanding customer service

People on the Move

By
Departments People on the Move
Keith Nesbitt

Keith Nesbitt

Community Bank N.A. announced that Keith Nesbitt has been promoted to vice president, commercial banker. In his new role, Nesbitt will manage new business with present and prospective customers, as well as maintain current customer relationships. He will also be responsible for providing direct service to commercial customers pertaining to deposit, loan, and other products and services. “We are very pleased to recognize Keith for all of his incredible efforts and contributions to Community Bank N.A.,” said Geoffrey Hesslink, regional president. “He has always gone the extra mile to meet the needs of our customers and possesses a wide knowledge of loan management. I am excited to see what he will do for our customers at this next level.” Nesbitt joined the Community Bank N.A. team through its acquisition of Merchants Bank earlier this year. He joined Merchants in 2016 as the regional commercial credit officer for NUVO, a division of Merchants Bank. Nesbitt has 12 years of experience in commercial lending, portfolio management, and credit administration in regional and community banking institutions. Nesbitt earned his bachelor’s degree in advertising from University of Georgia, his master’s degree in education from Georgia State University, and his MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management. Outside of the office, he is a member of the Western Massachusetts Football Officials Assoc.

•••••

Sarah Pfatteicher

Sarah Pfatteicher

The board of directors of the Five College Consortium has appointed Sarah Pfatteicher to be its new executive director, succeeding Neal Abraham, who will be retiring after nine years at the helm of the higher-ed collaboration. Pfatteicher is currently associate dean for Academic Affairs and a research professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The board was impressed with the breadth and depth of experience that Sarah will bring to the position,” said Jonathan Lash, president of Hampshire College and of the Five College board of directors. “The level of leadership she’s shown at the University of Wisconsin in both academic and administrative endeavors is remarkable, and will serve the consortium well.” Pfatteicher attended Northfield-Mount Hermon School and graduated from Smith College before earning her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has held a variety of positions at the university and currently oversees more than 70 academic programs, services for 5,000 students, and a budget of $2.3 million. She has extensive experience in both academic and administrative efforts, having created new academic programs, led a major curriculum revision, coordinated strategic planning efforts, and helped develop a blueprint for diversifying the institution, all while teaching engineering courses. “I’m excited to return to the Pioneer Valley and honored to have the opportunity to work with these unique and storied institutions,” Pfatteicher said. “I’m particularly drawn to the unusual breadth of the Five College portfolio and its inclusion of both academic and administrative programs. I believe my own diverse higher-ed background will make me a good fit.” Chosen in a national search that considered some 200 candidates, Pfatteicher will begin working at Five Colleges on April 23.

•••••

Olugbemiga Adekunle

Olugbemiga Adekunle

Holyoke Community College recently welcomed Olugbemiga Adekunle as its new dean of Science, Engineering and Mathematics. Adekunle had previously worked at Blue Ridge Community College in Virginia as a Computer Science professor and more recently as associate dean of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and English. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in instructional design and technology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. Before arriving at HCC in September, Adukenle spent the summer as a research fellow at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland for the third time to gain experience in systems engineering. “All of his experiences will serve him well in this position and support his work on behalf of the division,” said Monica Perez, vice president of Academic Affairs. Adekunle, whose parents moved to the U.S. from Nigeria before he was born, grew up in Nashville, Tenn. and later in Baltimore. At six-foot-five, he is an avid basketball player who also enjoys rapping, comedy, improv, and Star Wars. “I see people as well-rounded,” he said. “I want people to see me that way too.” He said he is excited to have a new challenge and the chance to put his administrative experience into action at HCC. “The focus of my work is making sure that students are successful. I also aim to ensure that faculty are supported and get appropriate training to help them advance their careers.”

•••••

Donna Elmendorf, Dr. Claudia Gold, and Kate Jewson of the Austin Riggs Center have been recognized for their work in the Human Development Strategic Initiative, receiving the prestigious Anna Freud Educational Achievement Award from the American Psychoanalytic Assoc. (APsaA) schools committee. This annual award is presented to a person, school, or educational institution that furthers psychoanalytically informed work with educators, schools, and students in grades pre-K to 12. The prize and the accompanying honorarium will be presented during APsaA’s national meeting in February 2018. Founded in 1911, the American Psychoanalytic Assoc. is the oldest national psychoanalytic organization in the U.S. In 2016, the Austen Riggs Center launched its Human Development Strategic Initiative, the goal of which is to bring a deep, psychoanalytic understanding of human development to address social problems in Berkshire County. In order to do so, the initiative is working in close partnership with existing community organizations, including the Chapter One initiative of Berkshire United Way, a broad community coalition of practitioners who interface with young children and families. The program’s first project, the Discovering Your Baby Project, has as its centerpiece deepening the understanding and practice of infant mental health in Berkshire County through the use of the Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) system. The NBO, a clinical adaptation of the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS) developed by pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, is explicitly designed not as an assessment, but as a relationship-building tool. The NBO is a family-focused intervention that can include mothers, fathers, siblings, and extended family. Thus far, a range of practitioners have been trained, including all maternity nurses at a local hospital (130 to 150 babies delivered each year), who have integrated the NBO into routine care. According to Elmendorf, director of the Austen Riggs Center Therapeutic Community Program, Activities Program, and Human Development Initiative, “we recognize that the capacity for regulation of attention, behavior, and emotion that is essential for success in school is laid down in the moment-to-moment interactions between infants and their caregivers. All those working together in Berkshire County share a primary task of promoting healthy parent-infant relationships starting at birth.” Gold, an infant mental health specialist, added, “families from the full range of socioeconomic backgrounds in our community may have struggled with generations of mental illness, substance abuse, or other adverse childhood experiences. As a small rural community, we are able to offer a population-based, rather than risk-based, intervention, normalizing and destigmatizing the challenges of the transition to parenthood.”

Company Notebook

By
Company Notebook Departments

HAPHousing Is Now Way Finders

SPRINGFIELD — HAPHousing announced it has changed its name to Way Finders. But more than a name change, Way Finders expresses the organization’s expanded purpose: to find a way to build healthy, sustainable communities. Through the formation of two strategic partnerships and the organization’s ongoing work with a host of community collaborators and neighborhood residents, Way Finders addresses the fundamentals necessary for families and their neighborhoods to thrive. These include access to training, jobs, small-business financing, healthy food, safe streets, and engaged citizens in addition to safe, affordable housing. Strategic partnerships with two long-standing organizations will expand Way Finders’ capacity. MBL Housing and Development, LLC is a real-estate development/consulting firm. For more than 20 years, many real-estate developers, including Way Finders, have relied on MBL to create workable financing solutions for beneficial community projects. Common Capital Inc. (CCI) brings its experience as a community-development financial institution to Way Finders. With roots in micro-enterprise lending, CCI has grown to become a multi-million-dollar lender. The people Way Finders serves will now have greater access to home-financing options and small-business lending, and more jobs and more homeowners will lead to greater economic and social vitality. Way Finders, formerly HAPHousing, began as Housing Allowance Project Inc. more than 40 years ago. Over the years, the organization has evolved to become a go-to provider for a full range of housing services as well as a developer and manager of high-quality, affordable housing throughout the region. The organization has now expanded its purpose to deliver comprehensive solutions for the region’s families, neighborhoods, and communities.

Berkshire Bank Named Finalist for Halo Award

PITTSFIELD — Berkshire Bank has been named a finalist for the prestigious 2017 Halo Award, the winner of which will be announced in Chicago on June 1. The Halo Awards recognize corporate social-responsibility initiatives and are presented annually at the Engage for Good conference in Chicago. These prestigious awards look at social campaigns that take innovative and impactful approaches to supporting causes, targeting both consumers and employees. Past recipients of the awards include many of the most globally recognized brands. Berkshire Bank was named a finalist in the Employee Engagement category, which highlights programs focused on meaningfully and measurably engaging a company’s employees in a cause-focused initiative to achieve both a social and a business impact. Berkshire is being recognized for its Xtraordinary Day of Service, which occurred in June 2016, through which it mobilized 95% of the workforce to directly impact more than 100,000 individuals, as well as with its broader XTEAM corporate employee volunteer program. The other finalists for the award include Viacom, Kohl’s, and Xylem Watermark. The XTEAM program provides every employee with paid time off to volunteer during regular business hours at a series of company-supported projects. The company’s entire workforce participated in the program last year, donating more than 40,000 hours of service. The volunteer program complements the company’s commitment to the communities it serves, along with more than $2 million provided annually through grants and sponsorships.

Women’s Fund Announces Executive Transition

EASTHAMPTON — After nearly three years at the helm of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts, Elizabeth Barajas-Román will step down as CEO at the end of March in order to take an appointment as the new CEO of the Solidago Foundation, a Northampton-based national organization. The Women’s Fund board of directors has appointed long-time supporter and strategy consultant Irma González, to serve as interim CEO. González was a member of the Women’s Fund’s most recent strategic planning committee, and is principal of Zoen Resources, where she specializes in change and transition management in support of social justice and human-rights advocacy. Barajas-Román will support the transition through ongoing consultation for the organization’s strategic initiatives. Springfield-based United Personnel will lead the search process for the permanent CEO, which will open in early April. During her tenure, Barajas-Román played a critical role in the development and continued success of the Women’s Fund. In partnership with the board leadership and staff, she led the organization to three consecutive years of fund-raising growth, a 300% increase in social-media visibility, a new three-year strategic plan, and a move of the organization’s headquarters to the renovated Innovation Center in downtown Springfield. The Women’s Fund also worked with the Obama Administration as part of the national Prosperity Together coalition. More recently, the Women’s Fund launched two groundbreaking partnerships: one with Bay Path University to offer academic credit to the Women’s Fund leadership program (LIPPI) participants, and the other with the Partnership for Young Women’s Progress, a multi-sector initiative that, with lead support from the MassMutual Foundation, will help create an economic-prosperity blueprint for young women in Springfield.

Curry Printing, FASTSIGNS to Operate Under One Roof

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Curry Printing announced the addition of FASTSIGNS to its business location. Curry Printing and FASTSIGNS will operate together, under one roof, at 91 Union St. in West Springfield, with the same staff and the same owner. FASTSIGNS has more than 650 centers operating in the U.S., U.K., and beyond, specializing in all types of visual communications. Curry Printing opened in 1976 and has been serving the West Springfield and Greater Springfield area ever since. “We will continue to offer the best in printing and duplicating services while opening up all kinds of sign services for our customers,” owner Stephen Lang said, “including vehicle graphics, directional signs, dimensional signs, and even digital signs.”

Elms Adds DNP Track in Health Systems Innovation and Leadership

CHICOPEE — To help master’s-level nurse leaders reach the pinnacle of their careers, the School of Nursing at Elms College has announced a new doctor of nursing practice (DNP) curriculum in health systems innovation and leadership (HSIL). “Graduates of this program will be awarded a clinical practice doctorate and will be educated at the highest level of nursing,” said Teresa Kuta Reske, director of the DNP program for the Elms College School of Nursing. “The new track will increase the number of advanced-practice nurses who are highly educated, prepared to work within collaborative interprofessional teams, and who can lead changes that improve the outcomes of patient and health systems. We are excited to offer this new track in response to nurse practitioners’ and nurse leaders’ requests to acquire a higher level of knowledge and skills in order to lead effective change of healthcare. Additionally, each student will be assigned a faculty mentor to enhance their professional growth and development throughout the program.” The doctor of nursing practice degree is a terminal degree that prepares expert advanced-practice clinical nurse practitioners, nurse leaders, and nurse educators for the highest level of nursing practice. A DNP-prepared nurse has practice expertise and works to improve the delivery of care to all patients within the micro and macro healthcare systems. The DNP curriculum emphasizes implementing or applying new original research to improve patient outcomes, enhance quality of care, and reduce costs. The curriculum is delivered using a hybrid format — with both on-campus and web-based instruction — and offers courses in systems leadership, evidence-based practice, population health, finance, quality improvement, informatics, and other key areas of study that will build on a scholarly final capstone project. This is a two-year program, designed for nurses who want to continue working while they pursue the DNP degree. The students’ scholarly capstone projects will be related to the areas of nursing where they currently work, or areas in which they have an interest. After earning the DNP degree, graduates can remain in practice, leading in formal and informal leadership roles on cross-professional and interdisciplinary teams to improve and provide quality healthcare. The college will enroll the program’s first students in August to begin studies in September. Ideal candidates include nurse practitioners, midwives, clinical specialists, nurse anesthetists, nurse leaders, and nurse educators who currently hold master of science in nursing (MSN) degrees.

Monson Savings Bank Announces Grant Recipients

MONSON — For the seventh year in a row, Monson Savings Bank asked the community to help plan the bank’s community-giving activities by inviting people to vote for the organizations they would like the bank to support during 2017. The top vote getters are Wilbraham United Players, Shriners Hospitals for Children, River East School-to-Career, Rick’s Place, Boy Scouts of Western Mass., Monson Bellmen Inc., Link to Libraries, Nomads of Hope, the Center for Human Development, and Monson Free Library. Customers voted for more than 200 organizations this year.

Three County Fair Radio Campaign Earns Awards

NORTHAMPTON — The Three County Fair’s 2016 radio advertising campaign won two first-place advertising awards. The Massachusetts Broadcasters Assoc. awarded the fair’s radio campaign first place in the annual Sound Bites Awards competition, while the Massachusetts Fairs Assoc. awarded the campaign first place in its annual Media Awards competition. The campaign was created by Pat Kelly and Joe O’Rourke of Saga Communications, a broadcast company that owns and operates seven radio stations in Western Mass., including Rock 102, the River 93.9, Lazer 99.3, and Bear Country 95.3. The Three County Fair is the oldest continuous agricultural fair in the U.S and will celebrate its 200th year Labor Day weekend of 2017.

Benjamin Lamb

By
40 Under 40 Class of 2020

Director of Economic Development, 1Berkshire; Age 34; Education: Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (BA), the College of Saint Rose (M.Ed.), University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Ph.D.)

Lamb’s work focuses on what he calls ‘wraparound economic development,’ which creates connective tissue between traditional and non-traditional participants in the region’s economic ecosystem — most notably through his development and launch of the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0, an economic-development imperative for the region’s next decade.

Benjamin Lamb

Benjamin Lamb       Photo by Leah Martin Photography

What did you want to be when you grew up? A rock collector.

What three words best describe you? Eclectic, dad, caffeine.

What goal do you set for yourself at the start of each day? Get it done.

Who inspires you, and why? My two-and-a-half-year-old son. His passion for things he loves, his intense focus when he is learning something new, and his celebration of success make me see how even small actions and achievements can have meaningful impacts and reasons to be excited.

What person, past or present, would you like to have lunch with, and why? I’m torn between Nikola Tesla and Bill Nye. Nikola’s mind was so incredible that I would just want to glean from his brilliance. Bill Nye has inspired me since I was a child watching PBS. He made science and learning digestible, regardless of age, and has continued to be someone I deeply admire.

What do you do for fun? Find new and funky ways to celebrate the city I live in and the community I surround myself with.

What’s your favorite hangout or activity in Western Mass., and why? I just love getting outdoors with my family, even if it’s just in the backyard. It helps to remind me of the quality of life I get to enjoy in the Berkshires and the value of our natural surroundings here.

What fictional character do you relate to most, and why? Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation. She somehow fits 25 hours into the day, has a deep and unmatched love for her community and work, and is obnoxiously positive in her outlook 90% of the time. I think most who know me would recognize those qualities in what they experience with me.

How do you relieve stress? Gardening.

What will work colleagues say at your funeral? Who’s going to water his plants?

Scott Keiter

By
Scott Keiter
Class of 2024

CEO, Keiter

He’s Building on a Tradition of Giving Back to the Community

Scott Keiter

Scott Keiter has made the construction company that bears his name one of the fastest-growing ventures in this sector regionally.

And to position his company to achieve that kind of growth, Keiter (pronounced ‘Kiter’) knew early on that he would have to focus most of his time and energy on business, making connections, developing talent, putting the right team in place, and fashioning a blueprint (yes, that’s an industry term) for success.

“As we built the business, the most precious resource was time,” he said. “Anyone who creates a business knows what it takes — it’s every waking hour, so there’s not much time left behind. And then you introduce a child or two, and there’s even less time.”

But he also knew that, once he had the foundation of his business down and was building on top of it, he would eventually shift some of that time and energy toward the community and start to get involved on a number of levels.

And he has followed that blueprint as well, devoting time and talent to everything from an advisory role at Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School’s carpentry program to becoming a trustee at Look Park, to involvement with the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce (GNCC) on many levels, including something called the ‘Keiter Card.’

“He said, ‘I’d like to do something, because we have, fortunately, gained business throughout this horrible period. So I’d like to do something to support the community.’”

This is an initiative to match the value of gift cards sold by the chamber and accepted in more than 100 businesses — one that has put thousands of dollars back into the Greater Northampton economy in late summer, during back-to-school sales and tax-free-weekend time.

In the beginning, it was called the ‘Double Your Money Northampton Gift Card Promotion,’ but eventually it took the name of the company and the philanthropist behind it, making this both an economic driver and an effective branding initiative.

The program, started in 2021 and expanded each year, allows consumers to purchase a $25 Northampton gift card and receive $50 in actual spending power, said Vince Jackson, executive director of the Greater Northampton Chamber, adding that it has provided a real boost for that region’s many small businesses and become somewhat of phenomenon in Paradise City.

The Keiter Card

The Keiter Card has been described as a ‘win-win-win,’ benefiting the Keiter company, the local economy, and small businesses that accept the cards.

Indeed, as he talked about the card, Jackson referenced everything from how quickly they sold out each of their first three years, to how mothers would bring in their children collectively (it’s one Keiter Card per customer) so they could spend part of their allowance on a card, and then talk about where they would go and what they would spend it on.

But while heaping praise on the card and its impact, Jackson saved some for the company and the person behind it, especially as he recalled the circumstances of how it came about.

Flashing back to late summer 2021, when the economy was really starting to open up again after the pandemic, Jackson recalled a conversation he had with Keiter.

“He said, ‘I’d like to do something, because we have, fortunately, gained business throughout this horrible period. So I’d like to do something to support the community,’” Jackson recalled. “So he came up with the idea of donating $10,000 to the chamber, and for everyone who bought a $25 gift card, he would match that amount, up to $10,000.”

For year two, Keiter doubled the amount to $20,000, and in year three, he increased it to $25,000, with the chamber donating another $5,000 to make it a $30,000 matching program. For year four … Keiter leaked to BusinessWest that he will again be donating $25,000 to build on the momentum that’s been generated.

Meanwhile, Keiter, working in tandem with his wife, Jill, continue to expand their involvement in the Greater Northampton area while at the same taking their business to the proverbial next level.

Success in both realms helps explain why Keiter will soon have his name on something else: a Difference Makers plaque.

 

What’s in a Name?

Returning to the subject of the Keiter Card, Jackson said it’s an example not only of Scott Keiter’s genrosity and commitment to the community and its small businesses, but also of how he’s developed into a successful business person, refining several talents, including, in this case, branding and marketing.

Indeed, to purchase a Keiter Card, one first has to say that name, said Jackson, adding that, when needed, those at the chamber will help the buyer along.

“Sometimes they need help with the pronounciation — some will say ‘Keeter,’” he explained, adding that, with each transaction and each card, the Keiter business gets some additional exposure.

Scott Keiter with, from left, Evan Latour, Zak Martinez, and Sean Houlihan

Scott Keiter with, from left, Evan Latour, Zak Martinez, and Sean Houlihan, Smith Vocational Agricultural High School graduates now working for the company.

And it has already been making a name for itself in the region as a growing company, now with 85 employees, focused on both residential and commercial construction. With the former, the company tackles new construction, but mostly renovations. And with the latter, it has developed a deep portolio of clients, including many higher-education institutions, including Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Elms College, and Western New England University. It also counts many businesses and municipalities on its client list.

The business recently spun off Hatfield Construction, which focuses on earth work and site work, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Keiter, and last month, it announced that it had appointed Jim Young, a business consultant and former president of Paragus Strategic IT, as president of Keiter, leaving its founder more time to focus on the proverbial big picture instead of day-to-day operations.

“We’re excited to open a new chapter for the company and focus on growth and development and building on the successes that we’ve already had,” said Keiter, who will assume the title of CEO. “Jim will help me leverage my time so I can remain focused on looking forward, being in the role of a visionary, and guiding the direction of this organization.”

The business plan calls for continued, sustainable growth and further expansion into Hampden and Berkshire counties, he went on, adding that the company has established itself in those markets and wants to build on that presence.

As noted earlier, for the first several years he was in business, Keiter had a singular focus, to get that venture on solid footing and put an aggressive growth plan in place.

As the company’s name, reputation, and portfolio of clients and projects grew, he began to shift some of his time to the community, although the main focus has still been his business.

 

Concrete Examples

Keiter has chosen to get involved in realms where he can lend expertise, and also where he can make a difference.

That includes Smith Vocational, where he has served as an advisor to the carpentry department while also bringing a number of its students into the company through its co-op program, with several of them eventually being hired by the firm.

“We try to get them out to do everything that we do,” he explained. “We try our best to get them out on our projects, where they can work side-by-side with our staff. In fact, we’ve hired a number of them; they’re some of our best employees.”

Keiter’s involvement also extends to Look Park, which he described as a “treasure,” one of the city’s best assets.

But it’s with the Keiter Card that he is making a greater name for himself in the community, literally and figuratively.

And he said it came about through twin desires — to help small businesses in the community and build his brand.

“I had an epiphany one day,” he recalled. “We were comtemplating how to allocate some marketing money, and I wanted to find a way to create a win-win, or what Vince [Jackson] calls a ‘win-win-win.’

“What this card does is give Keiter some good exposure, but it’s also supporting our community, and it’s also supporting the local economy and retailers,” he said, adding that the idea was to build on the chamber’s existing gift-card program, which was “keeping the money local.”

Douglas Gilbert, vice president of Commercial Lending at Florence Bank, another of those who nominated Keiter for the Difference Makers award, put the initiative in perspective, noting that “Scott’s generous support of the Northampton gift-card program has been vital to the program’s success and provides purchasers with a significant financial incentive to support participating area merchants.”

Jackson agreed, adding that the program’s impact has grown each year.

“In 2023, the GNCC experienced year-over year growth of 10% in Northampton gift-card sales, 13% growth in gift-card units, and 22% growth in redemptions — all driven primarily by the excitement and impact of the Keiter Card promotion,” he said, noting that the cards have sold out in a matter of days each year. “That growth in redemptions in significant and signals immediate spending, giving an exceptional boost to small businesses during a traditionally slow sales period.”

Summing up Kieter’s involvement in the community, as well as his success in business, Jackson started by saying the chamber no longer refers to those who join its ranks as members. Instead, it calls them ‘investors.’

And some businesses have earned the designation ‘prestige investors,’ he went on, adding that these are the ones creating jobs, getting involved — in the chamber and in the community — and making an impact.

Keiter — both the company and its owner — have certainly earned that designation, said Jackson, adding that his involvement in the region prompted the chamber’s leadership to present him with a Community Service Award in 2023.

“They’re doing all the right things, practicing good citizenship and promoting economic development along the way,” he noted. “They’re sharing the wealth and rewards that they’ve been blessed to have, and that’s admirable.”

 

Playing His Card

Jackson told BusinessWest that Keiter cycled off the chamber’s board of directors recently, and that it’s a tradition to give departing board menbers a gift, usually something of the ‘gag’ variety.

In this case, those at the chamber wrapped up a Keiter Card and presented it to him, imploring him to spend it wisely and spread the wealth around.

While that card was a gift to him, the Keiter Card program has been a gift to the community —both its residents and its businesses. It is a gift that has become, as Jackson said, a true win-win-win.

Position Statement

By
Joe LoBello and Doug Bowen
Sections Supplements
PeoplesBank Will Aggressively Expand Its Reach
Joe LoBello and Doug Bowen

Joe LoBello, left, and Doug Bowen have charted an ambitious course for PeoplesBank.

Facing life in a stagnant, over-banked market, many area community banks have opted to go public or form mutual holding companies, steps that provide capital and some flexibility. Holyoke-based PeoplesBank has opted for another course, however. It is planning to stay mutual, and has announced ambitious plans to add six more branches over the next two years. The bold initiative was formed in response to current industry trends and recent banking history — and the firm belief that it will repeat itself.

Joe Lobello said he started getting calls seemingly within a few minutes after the story broke about his plans to build six new branches over the next two years, on top of three more opened this year, thus expanding PeoplesBank’s reach into Springfield, West Springfield, Northampton, and other communities where it has lacked a presence.

“People thought I was out of my mind,” said LoBello, longtime president of the Holyoke-based institution. “Everyone knows this area is seriously over-banked and saturated with branches; they thought I was crazy to be adding to six more.”

But there is a method to this perceived madness.

It is grounded in both recent industry trends and some Western Mass. banking history lessons. The former involves continued conversion of local mutual banks into either stock banks or mutual holding companies — Chicopee Savings just went public this summer, and Hampden Bank recently announced plans to do likewise — while the latter concerns the track record of banks after they have gone that route. Statewide, nearly all of them, including Springfield Institution for Savings and Woronoco Savings Bank in this market, were acquired by larger institutions within a few years of going public, actions that were accompanied by loss of market share to remaining community banks.

LoBello firmly believes that history will repeat itself, and he is positioning his bank for when it does.

The expansion blueprint, the lynchpin of a five-year plan crafted by bank officials and consultants in late 2003, calls for the bank to move aggressively into several communities where it has lacked presence beyond ATMs. The first move was into Westfield, with a branch that opened this past spring, followed by the opening this fall of the bank’s first branch in Springfield, at a site on Wilbraham Road in the city’s Sixteen Acres section, and the bank’s second location in South Hadley. On the drawing board are three more locations in Springfield — the locations have not been announced — as well as a branch in West Springfield on Memorial Avenue, another in Northampton at a yet-to-be-disclosed location, and still another in Wilbraham.

That will give the bank 20 locations by the end of 2008 and a presence in most larger communities in Hampden and Hampshire counties, said LoBello, adding that this portfolio will be accompanied by status as one of the last mutual banks left in the region and the third largest in the state. “We’re a vanishing breed,” he explained, noting that, by his count, PeoplesBank and Monson Savings are, or soon will be, the only mutual banks left in Hampden County.

But a breed apart, he continued, noting that he is a firm believer in the mutual bank model, even as fewer institutions follow it. “That model allows us to focus on customers, employees, and the community, rather than shareholders; for more than 120 years, it has been a winning strategy for us.”

Recent performance would validate that claim; the bank has seen double-digit growth over the past year in assets, deposits, and loans, and strong numbers at recently opened branches. Indeed, the East Longmeadow branch that opened in late 2004 is nearing $60 million in deposits, far ahead of industry averages for that time span, and the Westfield branch is approaching $15 million in just over one quarter.

“We’re picking up market share, and that’s why we have confidence in what we’re doing,” said LoBello. “We’ll do well as we expand the franchise because it will be very convenient — people can bank with us in virtually any community in Western Mass.”

This issue, BusinessWest takes an indepth look at PeoplesBank’s blueprint for the future and why it makes perfect sense — to LoBello, if not to some others in the local banking community.

Branching Out

LoBello fully understands why some in the banking community believe mutual institutions are dinosaurs. The access to capital — tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars garnered through IPOs — would seem to give stock banks and mutual holding companies a decided competitive edge and better odds of survival, he said, stressing that word seem.

And he wouldn’t criticize any bank for taking either step — some institutions believe they need that capital if they are to achieve growth in a stagnant region with at least one bank branch at seemingly every intersection. Still, he prefers life as a mutual bank and has some evidence that such institutions remain independent longer — and can grow at comparable if not better rates — than stock banks.

Indeed, among the more than 80 Massachusetts thrifts that converted to stock after Oct. 31, 1982 (when changes in the law permitted them to do so) only a handful remain independent today. That trend has held in this market, where SIS and Woronoco, two banks that have converted within the past 12 years, have been sold. Meanwhile, another stock bank, West Springfield-based Westbank, is being acquired by New Alliance Bancshares of New Haven, Conn.

With three more community banks now or soon to be public (Westfield Bank is converting from a mutual holding company, where a minority of shares are owned by the public, to a fully public company), PeoplesBank is opting to buck that trend, not follow it.

That was the consensus reached during strategic planning sessions that yielded the five-year plan and the bank’s aggressive expansion plans.

“We looked at the market and, like everyone else, said, ‘its over-banked, it’s over-branched, there’s no growth — what do you do?’” he said. “We came to the opinion that we would create an institution, the only large independent bank left, that would have a presence in every major community.

“That would give us a footprint similar to Banknorth and Bank of America,” he continued, “and that would put us in an excellent position for what we believe will be continued consolidation of this market.”

LoBello is committing a substantial amount of capital — an estimated $2 million to $2.5 million per branch in terms of startup costs — to test the validity of this blend of theory and history, but he approaches the exercise with confidence.

The plan essentially calls for the PeoplesBank to widen its reach to virtually every corner of Hampden and Hampshire counties. This process has been ongoing, said Douglas Bowen, the bank’s executive vice president and chief lending officer, noting that the institution has, in recent years, added locations in Longmeadow, Hadley, East Longmeadow and Amherst, and opened the Westfield branch on East Main Street in April.

The recently opened branch in South Hadley gives the bank two locations in that community (the other is on Newton Street), said Bowen, adding that West Springfield, Northampton, the largest community in Hampshire County, and especially Springfield, are the next frontiers.

The Sixteen Acres office, located near the intersection of Wilbraham Road and Parker Street, gives the bank a foothold, said LoBello, adding that plan is to build on that presence over the next few years. And while competition within Springfield is stiff, and growing, and the economy there is still largely stagnant, LoBello sees opportunities for his bank.

“The Springfield market is a natural extension for our expansion because it is the largest city in Western Mass.,” he explained. “One-fourth of the consumer households in Hampden and Hampshire counties are located in Springfield, and there are more than 4,500 businesses in the city that employ over 106,000 people.”

Checks and Balances

While he wouldn’t reveal where the bank is looking to place sites in Springfield, LoBello said the downtown area would not be in the mix, at least not initially. There are already a number of banks along the Main Street corridor, he explained, and some that have joined the roster in recent years, including Westfield Bank, have struggled somewhat.

Meanwhile, the process of finding sites anywhere has become more complicated and often more expensive, he continued. The reasons? For starters, the seemingly non-stop addition of new branches by all area banks has created intense competition within the industry for sites. Meanwhile, a host of national retailers, including CVS, Walgreens, and others, have been adding more and bigger stores in recent years, often assembling large sites at major intersections to do so.

“There are only so many good locations out there, and sometimes it takes some imagination to create a site,” he said, noting that the Sixteen Acres branch was built on parcels that were formerly home to a liquor store and an appliance outlet. “All the good, easy sites are gone.”

Assuming that sites can be assembled in Springfield and elsewhere, the next challenge is gaining market share, and LoBello said recent history allows him a good dose of confidence.

Over the 12 months that ended June 30, the bank saw assets grow by $200 million, or 18%, to $1.3 billion, making PeoplesBank the largest independent, mutual bank headquartered in Hampden County. Meanwhile, deposits grew by 22%, to $863 million, over that same period, while loans grew at a 25% clip, to $950 million.

And while the overall numbers are healthy, the performance at recently opened branches has been particularly strong, said LoBello, noting that, while mutual banks can afford to be more patient than stock institutions when it comes to growth of specific branches, PeoplesBank has seen quick results in many communities.

“The East Longmeadow branch is the most successful I’ve ever seen,” he said, noting the $58 million in deposits and more than $30 million in loans it had amassed as of early September. “The numbers are tremendous for being open just over a year.”

The Westfield branch is off to an equally solid start.

“For historical perspective, in a normal branch, you’d expect to see maybe $5 million the first year, and another $5 in the second and third — that’s the industry standard,” he said. “We’ve done that in less than six months.”

This absorption of market share comes in a community where a major player, Woronoco, was headquartered before being acquired by Berkshire Bank, and also where Connecticut-based Webster Bank has made one of its initial forays into the Western Mass. market. All this bodes well for LoBello, his loyalty to mutuality, and his ambitious five-year plan.

“We’re very confident that within the next five years there will be further consolidation in this market, among not only the large regional stock banks, but also the smaller stock banks,” he said. “We want to be positioned for when that occurs, because we’ve seen what happens when banks are acquired; when Fleet bought Bank of Boston, every community in this area picked up market share.”

Taking Interest

Lobello said he believes the presidents of area banks that are or soon will be public are sincere when they say their intentions are not to sell their institutions.
But history shows that this is the course that most will eventually take. Just when eventually will arrive he’s not sure. What LoBello is sure of is that his bank will be ready and well-positioned for that day.

That’s why he’s confident and, as far as he’s concerned, certainly not crazy.

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

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UMass Vaults to Top 30 in Patents Awarded in 2015

BOSTON — In the latest display of its R&D firepower, the University of Massachusetts vaulted to 30th globally in the Top 100 Worldwide Universities Granted U.S. Patents in 2015. Winning a record 62 U.S. patents arising out of faculty inventions, UMass placed third in Massachusetts and New England and was tied for 24th place among American universities. “Our faculty continues to shine with cutting-edge research and innovation that places us in the top tier of universities in the world. They lead us to new frontiers of human understanding, and their work opens the door to a more prosperous economic future,” President Marty Meehan said. “We’re proud of this accomplishment because today’s patent is tomorrow’s job-creating startup technology company.” The patents awarded are based on UMass research in areas as diverse as gene silencing, high-technology textiles, polymers, and nanotechnology, according to Abigail Barrow, interim executive director of the university’s Office of Technology Commercialization and Ventures. The 62 patents represent a 55% increase over the 40 awarded to UMass in the previous year and is the highest number issued in a single calendar year since UMass began its technology-transfer program in 1995, she added. UMass is also a national leader among universities in licensing income earned on its patented inventions. “Congratulations to the University of Massachusetts for making the Top 100 again this year and for an impressive increase,” said Paul Sanberg, president of the National Academy of Inventors, which produces the rankings along with the Intellectual Property Owners Assoc. One of the UMass patents relates to Geckskin, a super-strong adhesive discovered at UMass Amherst that can be used multiple times without losing effectiveness. This year’s top 10 ranked universities worldwide were: the University of California system, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of Texas, Tsinghua University (China), California Institute of Technology, Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, and University of Michigan. The rankings are calculated using data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. UMass is on pace to match or modestly exceed its record 62 patents in the next report, Barrow said. “Our impressive patent numbers reflect the rapid growth and influence of UMass’ research enterprise and the discovery going on at all of our campuses.” UMass shares the number-30 spot with the University of Utah Research Foundation and the Research Foundation of the State University of New York. The National Academy of Inventors is a nonprofit organization of U.S. and international universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutions with more than 3,000 members. The Intellectual Property Owners Assoc. is a trade association of owners of patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. This is the fourth year they have collaborated to issue the rankings report.

Springfield Regional Chamber Seeks Super 60 Nominations

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Regional Chamber is seeking nominations for its annual Super 60 awards program. Now in its 27th year, the awards program celebrates the success of the fastest-growing privately owned businesses in the region, which continue to make significant contributions to the strength of the regional economy. Each year, the program identifies the top-performing companies in revenue growth and total revenue. Last year, total-revenue winners combined for revenues of more than $1 billion, with only-third of winners exceeding revenues of $30 million. All winners in the revenue-growth category had growth in excess of 20% while one-third experienced growth in excess of 65%. To be considered, companies must be based in Hampden or Hampshire county or be a member of the Springfield Regional Chamber, produce revenues of at least $1 million in the last fiscal year, be an independent and privately owned company, and have been in business for at least three full years. Companies are selected based on their percentage of revenue growth over a full three-year period or total revenues for the latest fiscal year. Companies may be nominated by financial institutions, attorneys, or accountants, or be self-nominated. Companies must submit a nomination form and provide net operating revenue figures for the last three full fiscal years, signed and verified by an independent auditor. All financial information must be reported under generally accepted accounting principles and will be held and considered confidential and not released without prior approval. Nomination forms are available here or by contacting Kara Cavanaugh at [email protected] or (413) 755-1310. Nominations must be submitted no later than Friday, Aug. 12. The Super 60 awards will be presented in partnership with the East of the River Five Town Chamber of Commerce at the annual luncheon and recognition program on Friday, Oct. 28 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Chez Josef in Agawam.

Springfield Launches Futurecity Massachusetts

SPRINGFIELD — On Friday, July 15, the Springfield Central Cultural District (SCCD) will be one of three statewide districts to launch Futurecity Massachusetts, a new approach to transforming cities that puts art, culture, and creativity at the center of redevelopment and revitalization. Futurecity Mass is a joint initiative of the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) and the Boston Foundation. Futurecity Massachusetts will work with mayors, urban planners, and arts and business leaders in Boston, Worcester, and Springfield on key real-estate projects in state-designated cultural districts in the three cities, targeting areas ready for development and job growth. It is the first U.S. effort to advance the strategies of Mark Davy and his London-based Futurecity, which has created more than 200 partnerships across the globe that reposition cultural assets from community amenities to marketplace drivers. Futurecity has been immersed in cultural placemaking projects for more than a decade, and Davy believes Futurecity Massachusetts will secure the Commonwealth’s global position as a cultural leader. Davy will visit Springfield on July 15 to meet and workshop with local cultural and economic-development leaders. He will take knowledge from a walking tour of the Cultural District, an extensive workshop, and a general reception back to his UK team to review. In October, Futurecity will return to present a strategy to the Springfield public. The MCC hopes to eventually expand the program statewide. A press event will take place at 9:30 a.m. on Friday with Davy, MCC Executive Director Anita Walker, Mayor Domenic Sarno, and SCCD Executive Director Morgan Drewniany on the steps of City Hall. Both press and the general public are invited to attend. The Springfield Central Cultural District, which encompasses an area of the metro center of Springfield, is membership-based, involving many of the downtown arts institutions. Its mission is to create and sustain a vibrant cultural environment in Springfield.

Local Business Volunteers Bring JA to Fairview School

CHICOPEE — Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts (JA) and 33 volunteers from area banks, businesses, and colleges teamed up to bring Junior Achievement programs to all 436 students at Fairview School in Chicopee for last month’s JA in a Day event. “This is the sixth year that Chicopee Savings Bank Foundation has sponsored JA in a Day for these students,” noted Jennifer Connolly, president of Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts. “The students and teachers look forward to ending their year with JA, and Junior Achievement looks forward to ending our year with this terrific school. Nowhere else are our JA Volunteers treated to a final assembly with hundreds of cheering students and handmade cards and notes. It is an amazing event.” This year, JA volunteers from Chicopee Savings Bank, Bank of America, Santander Bank, Westfield Bank, Webster Bank, TD Bank, Babson Capital, Elms College, UMass Amherst, and Lead Yourself Youth brought Junior Achievement programs to students in grades K-5 at Fairview School. Carlos DeLeon, a Chicopee Savings Bank volunteer, noted, “the students had a good understanding of how a city runs. They had a great understanding of a savings account, and we talked about how taxes help the city rebuild.” Erika Eisnor, a Santander volunteer who taught JA Our Region in a fourth-grade class, noted that “JA is so much fun and a great learning experience.” Added Kidon Gebersadik from Bank of America, “it’s never too early to learn about good money habits. These exceptional students are learning about building blocks that will lead to more stable financial lives down the road, making our communities and local economies stronger.” Tim Dominick, a teacher at Fairview School, explained that the program “further offered the students a chance to explore their creative thinking process. The students benefited from the teamwork and problem solving the program offered.” JA programs empower students to make a connection between what they learn in school and how it can be applied in the real world, enhancing the relevance of their classroom learning and increasing their understanding of the value of staying in school. Each year, JA reaches more than 10 million students worldwide and helps them develop successful financial-management habits, empowering them to explore the potential of becoming an entrepreneur and providing them with the skills necessary to succeed in a global workforce. Locally, Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts reaches more than 11,000 students.

Baker Signs Transgender Anti-discrimination Law

BOSTON — Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law an anti-discrimination bill, previously passed by the state House and Senate, that gives transgender people the right to use public restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identities, regardless of their sex at birth. The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination will adopt policies to enforce its provisions, a statement from the governor’s office said. “No one should be discriminated against in Massachusetts because of their gender identity,” Baker said, according to CNN. “This compromise legislation extends additional protections to the Commonwealth’s transgender community, and includes language to address the public-safety concerns expressed by some by requiring the attorney general to issue regulations to protect against people abusing the law.”

Area Business Leaders to Head to Capitol Hill

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Regional Chamber will hold its biannual Washington Symposium on September 21-23 hosted by U.S. Rep. Richard Neal. This popular event brings the region’s business leaders to Washington, D.C. to listen to and question some of the country’s most influential leaders, including members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, top federal policy makers, and members of the Obama Administration in its last months in office. Past speakers have included political strategist Stan Greenberg, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, House Ways and Means Chair David Camp, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisors Jason Furman, and Ireland’s Ambassador to the U.S. Anne Anderson. Registrations are limited and include air transportation, airport parking, hotel transfers, hotel accommodations at the Phoenix Park Hotel within walking distance to the Capitol, breakfast and lunch each day, and welcome and closing evening receptions. The reservation deadline is Friday, Aug. 5, and no refunds will be granted after that date. The all-inclusive cost is $1,395 (single) or $1,270 (per person, double occupancy) if made by Friday, July 15. Reservations made after July 15 will increase to $1,495 (single) or $1,370 (per person, double occupancy). Sponsorship opportunities are also available and include complimentary attendance. For reservations or more information, visit www.springfieldregionalchamber.com or e-mail Nancy Creed at [email protected].

BTCF HousingUs Initiative Issues RFP

SHEFFIELD — Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation’s HousingUs initiative is soliciting proposals from nonprofits, community organizations, and public agencies to plan and convene outreach activities that bring residents together to explore the interrelated issues of affordable housing, economic development, and town-center vitality. Grants of up to $10,000 will be available for projects that result in action-oriented community-development strategies or create broader public awareness of the elements of healthy and resilient communities, including the availability of affordable housing. Only collaborative proposals with one lead applicant and at least one other partner will be considered. Organizations serving Berkshire County, Mass.; Columbia County and Northeast Dutchess County, N.Y.; and Northwest Litchfield County, Conn., are eligible. The deadline for submitting proposals is Friday, Aug. 26. For more information, visit www.berkshiretaconic.org/housingus.

AMA Recognizes Benefits of Paid Sick Leave

CHICAGO — The American Medical Assoc. (AMA) recently adopted new policy recognizing the public-health benefits of paid sick leave and other discretionary time off. Citing a growing body of evidence that lack of access to paid sick leave results in the spread of infectious diseases, as well as delayed screenings, diagnoses, and treatment, the new AMA policies support paid sick leave, as well as unpaid sick leave, for employees to care for themselves or a family member. “With both dual-earner and single-parent households on the rise in the United States, it is increasingly challenging for workers to juggle family and work,” said former AMA board chair Dr. Barbara McAneny. “Workers without paid sick days are more likely to work sick and are more likely to delay needed medical care, which can lead to prolonged illness and worsen otherwise minor health issues. Lack of paid leave also has a ripple effect across a worker’s family. Paid sick leave has been shown to aid children’s health, shorten hospital stays, and reduce the risk of disease transmission by allowing parents to stay home with sick children. Paid sick leave keeps our homes, offices, and communities healthier while ensuring the family’s economic security.” The U.S. is the only industrialized nation without a federal family-leave law that guarantees workers may receive pay while taking time to care for themselves or their family. Although the Family and Medical Leave Act mandates that companies provide leave, the law does not require that it be paid. The AMA also reaffirmed existing policy supporting voluntary leave policies that provide employees with job security and the continued availability of health-plan benefits in the event that leave becomes necessary due to medical conditions.

Rep. Neal Releases Rail Study for Northern New England

SPRINGFIELD — U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, dean of the New England congressional delegation, held a press conference in Springfield last week to release the Northern New England Intercity Rail Initiative (NNEIRI), a study funded by the Federal Railroad Administration and requested by Neal and former U.S. Rep. John Olver to identify and improve rail service in the region, including Springfield to Boston. NNEIRI is a conceptual planning study that examines the benefits, opportunities, and impacts of adding more frequent and higher-speed inter-city passenger rail service on two rail corridors, the inland route and the Boston-to-Montreal route. The inland route would run between Boston and New Haven, Conn. via Springfield. The Boston-to-Montreal route would run between Boston and Montreal, Quebec via Springfield. The two routes would share the trackage between Boston and Springfield. The combination of these two rail routes defines the study area that is collectively identified as the NNEIRI Corridor. “More than 2 million people live within three miles of a station along this corridor,” said FRA Administrator Sarah Feinberg. “For everyone to move safely and efficiently, this region needs a robust rail system, and this blueprint will help achieve that goal.”

Report Details State Residents without Insurance Coverage

BOSTON — The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation released a new report, “Massachusetts Residents without Health Insurance Coverage: Understanding Those at Risk of Long-term Uninsurance.” Massachusetts currently has the lowest uninsurance rate in the nation, and as part of the individual mandate to carry health insurance coverage, the state collects detailed information through its tax-filing process about the health-insurance status of more than 4 million residents. This report analyzes 2011 and 2012 state-tax-filer data and provides new information about Massachusetts residents who are prone to remaining uninsured over consecutive years. The findings can help inform stakeholders who want to maintain the state’s low uninsurance rate and strive to lower the number of individuals without health-insurance coverage. Prepared by Michael Chin of UMass Medical School and Audrey Gasteier of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority, the analyses in this report represent the first time that tax-filer data is being used to quantify the state’s uninsured population over a period of two consecutive calendar years. No other state has such detailed information on its residents’ insurance status.

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$5 Million Allocated to UMass Amherst for R&D Center at Westover
CHICOPEE — Gov. Deval Patrick recently released a business plan on growth opportunities at Westover Airport, outlining numerous steps the Commonwealth and Greater Chicopee region can undertake to grow the economy in Western Mass. and to support the mission of Westover Air Reserve Base (ARB), the joint user of the military and civilian airfield. As a result of the plan’s findings, Patrick announced four initiatives to benefit the Westover region, including the proposed creation of a UMass Amherst Research, Development, and Training Center in Chicopee. “Westover Airport and Westover Air Reserve Base are two stellar assets with so much potential for smart growth,” said Patrick. “To support the region’s economy and potential for more private and commercial air service, I commissioned this report to look at a wide variety of options. I’m pleased with the team’s effort and with UMass Amherst’s plan to open a research, development, and training center in Chicopee to tap into the innovative minds in the city and region.” Patrick has allocated up to $5 million to UMass Amherst to support the creation of a research and development partnership program at Westover ARB. This funding would be used to lease and renovate a vacant Westover ARB building to establish a National Aeronautics, Research, Development, and Training Center with UMass Amherst as the lead institution. UMass Amherst is in the process of partnering with NASA on several innovative research projects leveraging promising new technologies to promote efficiencies, safety, and economic growth in aviation. This research would be performed at the proposed center by UMass Amherst and its industry partner M2C Aerospace, a Massachusetts-based, woman-owned small business. The Commonwealth’s funding leverages $15 million in private investment and sponsored research to be conducted by UMass Amherst and benefiting federal agencies. This site would also host a school to train air-traffic controllers and pilots and provide aviation-related courses for the next generation of researchers and engineers to develop future technologies. The proposed aeronautics center will also serve as a nexus for government and industry to collaborate on future aviation initiatives. The Westover site will house state-of-the-art laboratories, including a high-fidelity, 3-D, simulation-based training capability that meets the FAA’s requirements for certifying air-traffic controllers at U.S. aviation facilities. A significant number of air controllers in the New England region are expected to retire in the next 10 years, which will increase the demand for a modern educational facility. This approach could be adapted for new civilian controllers, which — in combination with the transitioning military controllers — would help alleviate the FAA’s shortage of certifiable controllers and allow for joint military training with Westover’s staff. It is estimated that this partnership could generate millions of dollars annually in research, education, and training from a combination of government agencies, such as the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, NASA, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as the aviation industry. This fall, Patrick celebrated the grand opening of the UMass Center in Springfield, and the Chicopee site will add to its already-strong educational assets in Western Mass. “This partnership involving UMass Amherst, NASA, and industry will address vital national needs in the aviation sector and help revitalize the Western Massachusetts economy,” said UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, who also serves as a member of the Military Task Force. “This is a perfect match for our role as one on the country’s top research universities, applying our expertise to enhance the safety of air travel and foster economic opportunity.”

Feb. 6 Deadline Set for 40 Under Forty Nominations
BusinessWest is currently accepting nominations for the 2015 class of its 40 Under Forty program. Launched in 2007, the initiative identifies 40 rising stars in Western Mass., individuals excelling in business, nonprofit management, and service to the community. The process begins with nominations, which will later be sent to a team of five judges for scoring. Nominations should be thorough and essentially answer the question, ‘why is this individual worthy of a 40 Under Forty plaque?’ The winners (those with the highest total scores from those five judges) will be announced in BusinessWest’s April 20 edition, and they will feted at the annual gala on June 18 at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House. Nomination forms can be found in the next few issues of BusinessWest and also online HERE.

Festival of Trees Breaks Fund-raising Record
SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Boys & Girls Club’s 14th annual Festival of Trees had a record-breaking year, drawing more than 13,000 visitors and raising more than $116,000 to support the club’s mission. Featuring 141 trees in 2014, the hallmark holiday event for families and children raises much-needed funds for after-school and summer programs that serve 1,500 inner-city youth each year. The 2014 Festival of Trees officially kicked off on Nov. 28 and closed its doors for the season on Dec. 14. After the final viewing, volunteers made 141 phone calls to the lucky winners of the fully decorated trees that were raffled off as part of the event. All of the trees were donated by businesses, organizations, families, and individuals. The majority of the festival’s visitors participated in the raffle hoping to win one of the trees, valued between $200 and $2,000. The Springfield Boys & Girls Club provides youth-development programs for more than 1,500 children each year in the areas of recreation, educational enrichment, technology training, career development, substance-abuse prevention, health and fitness, and leadership. All of the proceeds from the Festival of Trees directly fund the club’s operations. For more information, visit www.sbgc.org or call (413) 785-5266. The names of all sponsors, and tree winners, can also be found on the website.

Unemployment Up Slightly in November, Down for Year
BOSTON — The state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported that the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rates for November were up in 20 labor market areas and two areas remained unchanged over the month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the year, unemployment rates were down in all the labor market areas. The preliminary statewide unadjusted unemployment rate estimate for November was 5.2%, up 0.1% from October.  Over the year, the statewide unadjusted rate was down 1.5% from the November 2013 rate of 6.7%. During November, eight of the 12 areas for which job estimates are published recorded job gains. The largest job gains were in the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Framingham, New Bedford, Peabody, Worcester, Brockton-Bridgewater-Easton, Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, and Leominster-Fitchburg-Gardner areas. Losses occurred in the Barnstable, Springfield, Haverhill-North Andover-Amesbury, and Pittsfield areas. Since November 2013, all 12 areas added jobs, with the largest percentage gains occurring in the Lowell-Billerica-Chelmsford, Worcester, Barnstable, Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, and Peabody areas. 

State to Strengthen Manufacturing Industry
AMHERST — Building on the Patrick administration’s historic commitment to strengthening the advanced-manufacturing industry in Massachusetts, Housing and Economic Development Secretary Greg Bialecki recently joined Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rachel Kaprielian and State Senate Majority Leader Stan Rosenberg to announce nearly $2 million in funding to support manufacturing workforce training across the Commonwealth. The announcement was made at the Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative (AMC) Pioneer Valley Summit, held at UMass Amherst. “I am proud of the work the AMC has accomplished over the years, creating opportunities for workers with a range of skill levels that will strengthen our economy for years to come,” said Bialecki. “Collaborative efforts like this are a critical reason why Massachusetts is leading the nation in growing a 21st-century advanced-manufacturing sector.” Nearly $1.5 million of the total funding was awarded through the Advanced Manufacturing Pipeline Training Grants Program to support five regional workforce-investment boards throughout Massachusetts. This funding will help recruit and train approximately 280 unemployed or underemployed participants for careers in advanced manufacturing. The grants program is a cross-secretariat initiative between the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development and the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. Two Western Mass. organizations are among those receiving funding:
• The Hampden Regional Employment Board received $219,960 to conduct the Advanced Manufacturing Training Program, in partnership with the Western Mass. Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Assoc. The Hampden Regional Employment Board will contract with local community colleges, part-time instructors from two vocational technical high schools, and an advanced-manufacturing company to train unemployed or underemployed adults of Hampden County.
• The Franklin/Hampshire Regional Employment Board received $276,705 to continue collaboration with employers from across the region, as well as community partners such as Greenfield Community College (GCC), the two area vocational-technical schools, and two adult-education sites, to enable the Regional Employment Board and GCC to offer three additional cycles of entry-level precision-machine training over the next two years in Franklin County. This will expand it from 220 hours to 300 hours and add skill building in the areas of blueprint reading, metrology, grinding, and lean manufacturing.
“The quick turnaround in awarding these grants reflects the urgency the Patrick Administration has adopted in scaling up these pipelines to help fill current job openings in advanced manufacturing all over the state,” said Kaprielian. “These awards will allow the grantees to build upon their proven successes and their capacity to work collaboratively through industry partnerships to increase the number of seats in their existing pipelines.” Through a separate grant program, the Industry Training Capital Equipment grant program, also aimed at supporting the manufacturing industry in Massachusetts, Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton was awarded $400,000 to rebuild its precision-manufacturing training program. With the support of more than 25 regional manufacturing and workforce leaders in Hampshire County, the rebuilt training program will be a site for daytime students and evening adult learners, in partnership with the Franklin-Hampshire Regional Employment Board.

EDC Sounds Alarm on Rising Energy Costs
CHICOPEE — The Economic Development Council of Western Mass. recently voiced its concerns regarding the rising costs of natural gas and electricity in the region. “More expensive energy affects all of us negatively. All of us need to be concerned. Individuals face a reduction of disposable income and increased hardship,” the agency said in a prepared statement. “Businesses face reduced competiveness that threatens job growth and retention. Municipalities face increased energy costs while facing decreasing revenues. Hospitals and higher-education institutions must divert more resources to energy purchases, thus diverting resources from their core missions. Shrinking business and consumer spending reduces investments in those things that define quality of life in Western Massachusetts.” Through a series of meetings and discussions with entities familiar with the issues, the EDC infrastructure committee released the following findings:
• Recent and future closings of oil- and coal-fired plants have boosted, and will continue to increase, Massachusetts’ dependency on natural gas for electric power generation. Nearly 50% of all electricity in Massachusetts is generated by natural gas, and that proportion is rising. These conditions, when combined with inadequate supplies of natural gas, are resulting in dramatically increased power costs during the winter.
• Gas companies serving this region are reaching the limits of their capacity to serve new customers. Berkshire Gas will stop adding customers in Greenfield at the end of 2014, and in Amherst in 2016. Columbia Gas is reaching the end of its capacity to serve Northampton and Easthampton. It could serve 10,000 more customers in the region if it had additional capacity. The inability to serve new customers will negatively affect economic growth in the region.
• Kinder Morgan is proposing a pipeline-extension project through Northern Mass. that will increase natural-gas supply to Berkshire, Franklin, and Hampshire counties as well as Eastern Mass.
• NU/Spectra proposes an expansion of the Algonquin Pipeline that would increase natural-gas supplies available to the Springfield area and Eastern Mass.
• Several New England states have been working to bring electricity generated by Hydro Quebec to the region.
EDC Infrastructure Committee Chair Paul Nicolai summarized the committee’s work, suggesting that “supplying cost-effective, responsibly clean energy for our people and businesses is a complicated problem requiring balanced approaches and moderate thinking. EDC has struck that balance and encourages policymakers to do so as well.” At a recent meeting, the EDC board of directors approved a resolution supporting the following actions, which, if implemented, will help to provide an adequate, stable supply of energy at competitive prices:
• Increase natural-gas supply by permitting both natural-gas pipeline-expansion projects proposed for the region and state;
• Increase the sources of power generation by enabling the purchase of hydro-generated electricity from the north;
• Continue support of conservation and renewable-energy technologies; and
• Encourage a regulatory environment that promotes market stability and competitive outcomes.

Leaders Celebrate Springfield Park and Recreation Investments
SPRINGFIELD — State Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Maeve Vallely Bartlett and Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno recently celebrated Camp STAR Angelina, Mary Troy Park, and Balliet Park, all park projects reflecting the more than $7.7 million invested in parks and open space in Springfield by Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration. “Open space and outdoor recreation investments are a critical component of building robust, healthy communities,” said Bartlett. “Gov. Patrick has made urban neighborhoods a top priority, and the evidence of that is clear today in Springfield and across the Commonwealth.” Sarno thanked Patrick and Bartlett “for your continued vision in providing funding to increase and revitalize recreational and green spaces in urban areas. The legacy you are leaving here in Springfield is one of inclusion and opportunity, which is evidenced by the $3.5 million investment made here in Springfield, which demonstrates the Patrick administration’s commitment in creating strong and healthy communities.” Located in Springfield’s Forest Park and operated by the city, Camp STAR Angelina offers inclusive recreational programs for youth and young adults with and without disabilities, medical concerns, and hearing and visual impairments. EEA provided more than $1.325 million in capital funding to help fund the construction of a nearly complete, fully accessible pool and accessible bath house, as well as a universal outdoor amphitheater, construction of which will begin soon. As part of Monday’s celebration, Sarno announced that the pool and bath-house facility would be named after Gov. Patrick, in recognition of his efforts to increase access outdoor recreation for all children. North Riverfront Park sits along the northern end of Springfield’s portion of the Connecticut River Walk and Bikeway, a proposed 20-mile corridor that would run through Agawam, Springfield, West Springfield, Chicopee, and Holyoke. EEA invested $1.2 million in North Riverfront Park to transform a property surrounded by barbed wire into a welcoming, vibrant site that will better connect Springfield’s North End to the riverfront. The city’s design features a reduction of pavement, installation of picnic tables, and an increase of pervious lawn areas, plant beds, rain gardens, and additional trees to provide shade. The city is contributing an additional $300,000 toward the project, and construction will be beginning shortly. Mary Troy Park, a new park in the densely populated Liberty Heights neighborhood, will provide green space and access to outdoor recreation for residents. The park, set to be completed next spring, was made possible by a $400,000 Parkland Acquisition and Renovations for Communities (PARC) grant from the Patrick administration. The city will use this funding to design and build a new park, including a universally accessible series of free-standing play structures, including a water-spray feature and exercise equipment along a central pathway, as well as park amenities like drinking fountains and trash receptacles. The city of Springfield is contributing $380,000 in federal Community Development Block Grant funding toward the project. Balliet Park received a $400,000 PARC grant to renovate the baseball diamond and tennis courts, install a playground and swingset equipment, establish a picnic area, and improve access to park entrances and walkways. Springfield is using its Our Common Backyards Grant to construct a splash pad at the park, which will be completed by the year’s end. Springfield is one of seven cities to receive funding through the governor’s Signature Urban Parks program.

Construction Employment Expands in Most Areas
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Construction employment expanded in 224 metro areas, declined in 64, and was stagnant in 51 between November 2013 and November 2014, according to a new analysis of federal employment data by Associated General Contractors of America. Association officials said contractors in many parts of the country were benefitting from growing demand, yet labor shortages threaten to undermine the sector’s recovery. “It is good news that construction employment is now rising in two-thirds of the nation’s metro areas,” said Ken Simonson, chief economist for the association. “But now that the unemployment rate for construction workers has fallen to a seven-year low, it has become a major challenge to find qualified workers in many fields.”

Breaking Down the Report Card

By
Ira Rubenzahl
Education Sections
Study on Community Colleges Prompts Questions, Criticism

Bill Messner

Bill Messner


Bob Pura says he found at least a few things to like about the recent Boston Foundation report titled “The Case for Community Colleges: Aligning Higher Education and Workforce Needs in Massachusetts” — especially the main subject of the account.
“I’m glad they focused on community colleges — we need and deserve that kind of attention,” said Pura, the long-time president of Greenfield Community College, noting that this segment of the Commonwealth’s higher-education portfolio is often overlooked due to the prevalence of top-shelf private colleges. He also liked the fact that the report, released late last month, said the 15 institutions are woefully underfunded and that the state needs to step up its commitment to the schools.
Bob Pura

Bob Pura

But beyond that, Pura had some major reservations about the document and its primary message — summed up by a recent local headline: “Report Slams Community Colleges” — that these institutions were essentially failing in one of their primary missions, to train individuals to succeed in today’s technology-driven job market.
Actually, this was the conclusion of two reports released within the same week. In the other, the Commonwealth Corp., in a report titled “Critical Collaboration,” found that the state’s community colleges are not properly aligning their training programs with the specific needs of the health-care industry. According to the report, the schools are not creating important standards that ensure sufficient academic performance from students.
This double whammy had many community-college presidents on the defensive, but those we spoke with mixed praise for the reports — especially the Boston Foundation document — with criticism that it was recommending that things be fixed that aren’t necessarily broken.
Pura said the report seemed far too Boston-focused to be considered complete and fully accurate — one of its main recommendations is the merger of Roxbury and Bunker Hill community colleges — and surmised that those doing the research might not have ventured west of Worcester or even Route 128 as they went about their work. If they were more thorough, he argued, they would have found plenty of evidence that community colleges are successfully training and retraining thousands of individuals.
Bill Messner, president of Holyoke Community College, agreed, and took exception to some of the report’s primary recommendations, including a centralization effort that would do away with local boards of trustees at the community colleges, and a call for a more singular focus on workforce training, presumably, he believes, at the expense of one of his school’s historical strengths — transfer programs to four-year schools.
Meanwhile, Messner, Pura, and others said a move back to a centralized board for all 15 institutions would rob those schools of individuality and probably stifle ongoing efforts at various schools to address many of the concerns listed in the report.
“How’s that going to enhance workforce efforts? I don’t know,” asked Messner in reference to the centralization proposal before answering his own question.
Ira Rubenzahl

Ira Rubenzahl

Meanwhile, Ira Rubenzahl, president of Springfield Technical Community College, said that, while many of the report’s conclusions can be debated, its basic argument — that community colleges have a huge role in both workforce development and economic development, and need more financial support to carry out that role — cannot be.
And this is what he hopes everyone — including the community-college presidents that have assailed the report — can take away from this exercise moving forward.
“The reason for looking at community colleges now is economic,” said Rubenzahl, referring to both the timing of the report and its main thrust. “We’re still in the throes of the Great Recession, and certainly employment has not responded. And if we’re going to have a vibrant economy in Massachusetts, the report argues, and I agree, that community colleges have to play an important role — a bigger role — for that to happen.”

Schools of Thought
The crux of the Boston Foundation’s report — and the reason for its focus on the role and performance of community colleges — can be found in its executive summary:
“Massachusetts has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation and has added more jobs throughout the recession than most states. However, this transition has not benefited everyone,” it reads. “Rather, as blue-collar jobs continue their long decline, it is leaving far too many workers on the sidelines. There are great rewards for those with the requisite levels of education and skills — and far fewer options for everyone  else, as the economy becomes more and more highly specialized.
“While traditional jobs are disappearing, the gap between the needs of the knowledge economy and the educational attainment of the state’s residents is growing every year,” the report continues. “The recession has been especially tough on on those with less than a high-school diploma, leading to unemployment rates that are four times greater than those of college graduates. Already there are regions of Massachusetts where low rates of educational attainment have exasperated high unemployment levels and stalled economic recovery.”
“The economic imperative for aligning the workforce needs of Massachusetts with the needs of students attending community colleges is powerful and growing,” the authors go on. “Massachusetts is at a crossroads in its capacity to compete — and the ability of its residents to fully participate in the current economy and the rewards that employment brings. For the Commonwealth to flourish going forward, a high priority must be placed on training the workforce that is needed by the industries that are driving the Massachusetts economy. That responsibility falls squarely on the Commonwealth’s public higher-education system, most predominately the 15 community colleges.”
To enable these institutions to effectively carry out that assignment, the report’s authors recommend a number of steps, starting with a clarification and simplification of the schools’ mission. Not only is that mission too wordy, says the foundation (252, compared to 102 for North Carolina and an ultra-concise 18 in Virginia), but it is too broad.
The mission statement “is indicative of a lack of focus and an attempt to be all things to all people,” the authors state. “It is time for community colleges to embrace their role as the link between elementary education and career. This encompasses transfer to to a four-year college, technical education, certificate programs, and career retraining programs. The mission should be providing the Commonwealth’s residents with the education and skills necessary for a productive career with a family-supporting wage.”
Other recommendations include:
• “Developing a strategic blueprint for building a system that effectively leverages the capacity of community colleges to be leaders in meeting the workforce needs of Massachusetts”;
• Strengthening the community-college system of governance and accountability. “The existence of 15 community college governing boards, to whom the presidents report, completely independent from the Board of Commissioner of Higher Education, is not conducive to achieving state and regional workforce-development goals,” the authors write;
• Adopting performance metrics;
• Better preparing students for community-college-level work and graduation;
• Forming a community-college coalition; and
• Stabilizing community-college funding and consolidating the funding into one line item managed by the commissioner of Higher Education.
Paul Grogan, CEO of the foundation, told the Boston Globe, “I hope the colleges see this is not a blame game, not an assault, but just the reverse — we’re saying these institutions are crucial to the economic future of the state.”

Grade Expectations
The community-college presidents we spoke with said this message is certainly embedded in the report, although they believe it may likely get lost amid headline-making recommendations such as merging two of the schools, eliminating local governance, and narrowing the schools’ broad focus to workforce-related initiatives.
Meanwhile, they hint strongly that the authors may have overlooked Western Mass. in their research, and thus some evidence that the schools are working on some of the issues the report details — specifically that often-mentioned jobs-skills mismatch — and achieving progress.
“I thought the study lacked perspective on Western Massachusetts,” said Pura. “I thought that the wonderful work that’s going on in Springfield, Holyoke, the Berkshires, and here in Franklin County was not spoken to. That fact is that community colleges are very tied to the workforce agenda, and they’re serving the communities of this region in a rather powerful and significant way.”
As examples, he cited work at Berkshire Community College to partner with business leaders there to help make graduates workplace-ready; a regionwide effort called the Healthcare Workforce Partnership of Western Mass., designed to draw more people into health care fields and train them for those jobs; and the recently announced collaborative between HCC and STCC called TWO (Training and Workforce Options) through which the schools are essentially combining their workforce-training initiatives.
And he also summoned a recent anecdote from his own school that he believes is quite typical of what’s happening across the region.
“I know of one particular individual who was laid off; he worked with the regional employment board, and essentially went through the system,” Pura explained. “He had never been out of work before, and didn’t know how he would provide for his family. He wound up at GCC, got involved in our sustainable-energy program, did an internship with Sandri Energy Co., and is now gainfully employed there.
“If you asked him, this gentleman would say that the system works,” he continued, “and there are countless other people who could say the same thing.”
Messner had some similar observations, but noted quickly that workforce preparation is simply a part of the community-college mission — a large part, to be sure, but only one component that should not become the singular focus of such institutions.
“As you read this report, you come away with the sense that what they mean is we should be focused on short-term training and technical training, and that this whole focus on general education and liberal-arts transfer amounts to resources that are misallocated — which we simply don’t agree with here,” he told BusinessWest. “We’re a comprehensive community college; that’s our mission. We do transfer, we do liberal arts, we do adult basic education.
“Is that a lot? Yes, but that’s what we’re in business to do; that’s what we’re charged with doing,” he continued. “And the notion that we’re somehow going to truncate our mission doesn’t make sense; more and more students are coming to us because they’re being priced out of four-year education, and they’re coming to us for a start in that direction.”
Rubenzahl, meanwhile, without necessarily disagreeing with his colleague’s comments, said he’s choosing to view the report in the most positive way he can, and that is by focusing on its central theme — that community colleges are at the crossroads of education and the workplace, and must function effectively in that role if the state is to reverse those recent trends concerning out-migration, unemployment, and underemployment.
“There has been a fundamental change in the way education has to interact with the economy,” he explained. “We all have to be very thoughtful about how to improve education in order to help the economy recover.”

Thoughts in Passing
Echoing Pura’s thoughts, both Messner and Rubenzahl praised the report’s authors for bringing needed attention to the plight of community colleges as they go about their work.
“I was generally pleased that we’re getting this kind of attention,” said Rubenzahl. “Because generally, community colleges have labored in this state without a lot of recognition, and without the kind of support that goes with more recognition.”
Whether that support is coming is a matter of conjecture, but for now, community-college leaders and state legislators have been given something to think about — and debate — concerning the future of institutions who are finally getting some due, even if it comes complete with large doses of controversy.

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

Entrepreneurs of Necessity

By
Entrepreneurs of Necessity
Features
A Sagging Economy, Other Forces Push Some into Business Ownership

Entrepreneurs of NecessityMaking the transition from employee to business owner is usually a scary proposition. What’s prompting more people to take such a plunge is the realization that the corporate world is no less scary and, in many ways, even less secure. But whether one chooses this route by choice or out of necessity, a challenging roller-coaster ride almost always awaits.

Trisha Thompson called it “working for the Mouse,” as opposed to ‘the man.’

That’s a phrase used by many of those who find themselves in the employ of the massive Disney Corp., which Thompson was, as executive editor of a Northampton-based monthly publication for parents called Wondertime.

That’s was.

Indeed, the corporation abruptly shut down the magazine roughly a year ago, despite what most all involved considered solid early success. “We made all our numbers,” said Thompson, referring to the start-up’s performance over its first several years. “We received some awards, we were on track with our circulation … we were a good magazine. We went from an original staff of seven to 32, but they decided to just shut it down.”

Fast-forwarding things a little, Thompson said this sudden, completely unexpected turn of events provided the rather violent push she and her husband, Fred Levine, then a freelance writer and editor, needed to start their own business venture, called Small Batch Books. Operated out of their home in Amherst, this vanity-press operation specializes in personal memoirs, family histories, and commemorative books.

It was launched last summer after some extensive job hunting and soul searching led the two to determine that this was the best, most practical route for them to take given their ages (Trisha was 49, Fred 52), their career aspirations, and the decidedly unsteady state of the print publishing industry.

“It doesn’t feel safe anywhere anymore — there’s no place to go that’s really all that secure,” said Thompson as she explained why she turned down a few other opportunities in publishing, including one in Iowa, and then stopped looking, even if that meant entering the often-scary world of entrepreneurship. “I thought to myself, I’m going to uproot my family to go to Des Moines, and then in a year they’re going to shut that down? No, thank you.”

And because no place is safe in most all sectors of the economy, many, like Thomson and Levine, have become what Dianne Fuller Doherty calls “entrepreneurs of necessity.”

Elaborating, Doherty, director of the Mass. Small Business Development Center Network’s western regional office, said that most who go into business for themselves do so out of choice or opportunity. But all economic downturns, and especially the so-called Great Recession, have seemingly removed choice from the equation for some who have found themselves downsized and with few, if any, attractive job opportunities.

“We’re seeing many people who are choosing this path out of necessity,” she said, “which isn’t always a good thing. Some people are cut out for this, and some people aren’t.”

Sometimes, such entrepreneurial leaps are brought on by other factors, such as a company’s relocation, discontinuation of programs, changes in administration at a company or institution, or others. For Dan Touhey, the ‘push,’ as those who have made this transition call it, came when his long-time employer, Spalding, which he most recently served as vice president of marketing, announced it would be moving out of Springfield.

The first announced destination was Atlanta, home to Russell Athletic, which bought Spalding several years ago, Touhey explained. But then, when Fruit of the Loom bought Russell, employees were told that if they wanted to stay in the organization they would have to relocate to Bowling Green, Ky.

And Touhey never gave that mailing address any serious consideration.

So after sifting through some offers from recruiters and rejecting them — none looked solid enough in these days of unrest and consolidation in corporate America — he decided to go out on his own last spring with DPT Consulting.

There are two aspects to this business. The first, concerning his primary client, the Berkshire Opportunity Fund, involves channeling small businesses looking for funding to that venture-capital outfit. The second is centered on offering Touhey’s vast experience in business and marketing to small businesses that can use it. These include a cycling-apparel company in Northampton and a start-up that manufactures a product called the ‘bunt-down bat.’

As in all cases when individuals mull the shift from being an employee to being self-employed, those who take this step out of necessity must still perform the needed due diligence, said Lyne Kendell, senior business advisor for the MSBDC, who has counseled many people weighing such a decision.

In short, such individuals must have a solid business concept and a plan of attack, she explained, but also the needed skill sets to be an entrepreneur (not everyone has them), and a passion for what they want to do.

“It can’t be something they just feel like they want to do or should do,” she explained. “And it shouldn’t be just a way to make money. It has to be something they’re passionate about. Without that, it won’t succeed.”

By the Book

This requisite passion was apparently missing the first time Thomson and Levine met with Kendell.

That was seven years ago, when they were pondering a different kind of venture, one involving custom publishing in the corporate realm, or what Thompson described as “extended advertorials” for products and services.

“Within about 10 minutes, she was giving us this weird eye, the stink-eye kind of thing,” Thompson recalled. “We were looking over our shoulders saying, ‘who’s she making this face at?’ It was us. She said, ‘do you really want to do this? I’m getting the feeling you don’t, but feel you could or should.’

“We said, ‘well, of course we do,’” Thompson continued. “But shortly thereafter, we found out she was right, but by then, we had already rented office space and spent money unnecessarily.”

Things were different when Levine and Thompson were again sitting across the MSBDC conference table from Kendell, this time explaining Small Batch Books. The two told Kendell (and BusinessWest) that they believed they had a somewhat unique concept — a soup-to-nuts vanity publishing operation — and something that they truly believed in.

This time around, the body language conveyed the necessary confidence and passion, said Kendell, who said she gave Levine and Thompson a homework assignment of sorts, one they ultimately scored well on.

“I gave them some tasks to do and things to think about, on both the personal side and the business side, and a few weeks later, they came back with those tasks completed and with the confidence that they could take the plunge,” she said. “On the personal side, they have to do what I call a personal retreat — do they have the personal wherewithal to do this? If they’re going to work together, what would the guidelines be for the home life and business life? On the business side, it’s more looking at skills, contacts, potential revenue streams, whether you really know the market, and whether you could, if necessary, live on a part-time job or savings for 12 to 18 months.”

Kendell has been assigning lots of homework these days, as she and others at the MSBDC handle a larger portfolio of cases than would be considered normal, mostly due to the recession.

Many of these cases involve businesses that are hurting, said Allen Kronick, senior business advisor for the MSBDC, noting that some wait too long to seek help. For these businesses he sometimes uses the term ‘dead on arrival’ to describe their condition, meaning that there is nothing he or anyone else can do for them. Many others can be helped, he said, adding that his own portfolio has many cases involving companies trying to find ways to hang on until the economy improves — and succeeding.

Meanwhile, many other cases involve startups, with a good percentage of them blueprinted by individuals who have been downsized and can’t find another job, or at least one to their liking, or who could perhaps find a job similar to what they had before, but are tired of what Kendell called the “rat race.”

Looking over his portfolio, Kronick said he has several clients that fit this description. They include everything from a former MSPCA employee — laid off when that agency shut down its Springfield facility — who is now making and selling cat scratch posts, to a laser engineer who knew his days were numbered with his now-former employer and started his own venture, to some other former executives at Spalding trying to figure what to do next.

Tuohey’s situation involves both the recession and general uncertainty about corporate America. He told BusinessWest that, in this economy, even though things have improved somewhat since last spring, opportunities in marketing, and especially senior marketing positions, are few and far between. But recruiters did call, he continued, and upon listening to what they were saying, he became increasingly convinced that there were few, if any, situations that provided the real security and peace of mind he was seeking.

“When I did find situations, they were less than ideal,” he explained. “They were too similar to what I had just left, and I knew how quickly things could change. I looked at a couple of situations, gave them serious consideration, and decided to decline.”

Eventually, he said he simply grew tired of waiting for the ideal situation to come about and for the economy to rebound, and started his own venture. The work with the Berkshire Opportunity Fund has been steady and has given him a solid foundation, he explained, adding that he’s slowly but surely building a portfolio of clients in sports-related businesses that can tap into his marketing and brand-building expertise.

VOmax, a Northampton-based cycling-apparel maker, is one such client. Tuohey said he recently helped the company secure licenses with the National Basketball Assoc., National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball, to make clothes with team logos and colors. Meanwhile, with the Bunt Down Bat venture, he is helping the owner build brand recognition and take manufacturing operations to a higher level.

Gifted and Talented

For Marge Slinski, the push into entrepreneurship didn’t come from the recession. Instead, it came first from a change of direction regarding the UMass program she had been involved with — one concerning youths at risk — and an informal policy at the school that acted as a career barrier.

Elaborating, Slinski said she had a position of authority with a national program, one that won several million dollars in grants to create and replicate initiatives involving youths at risk. She eventually lost that position when the school opted for a different course, and found out rather quickly that, to attain a position with similar responsibilities, challenges, and opportunities to grow, she would need a doctoral degree, which she didn’t have and didn’t want to put her life on hold to earn.

Instead, she went to the Smith College Career Center (she’s an alum) to get some counseling on what to do next. “I was essentially a person who lost a great job and had no way to replace it,” she explained, adding that those at Smith told her that she could take some of her strengths, specifically those in the arts, and what she called “collaboration building” and perhaps use them to start a business.

She took that advice and started Choices, LLC, a venture run out of her home that is focused on helping companies find appropriate gifts for their corporate clients.

Through collaborations with American artists such as Stephen Schlanser, Jennifer McCurdy, Geoffrey Smith, and others, she’s commissioned suitable, meaningful gifts for clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to locally based banks. The recipients vary, from Mideast oil sheiks to Chinese businessmen to retiring employees, and the occasions vary as well, from celebrations of $1 billion sales (for those Fortune 100 companies, obviously) to employees’ 25th anniversaries.

“I had a new mission,” said Slinski. “Instead of youth at risk, I’m getting corporations to value American arts and crafts as key corporate gifts for their VIPs.”

Starting with a few leads given to her by her husband, who’s in business, Slinski has managed to steadily grow the company over the past few years, and is now looking to take on a partner and take it to the next level.

Meanwhile, Levine and Thompson, who worked in Western Mass. several years ago, then relocated for other job opportunities before returning nearly a decade ago, told BusinessWest that they’ve pretty much understood for some time that they would likely have to go into business for themselves, given the rocky state of the publishing industry in recent years.

“We knew when we moved back here that staying in publishing is not the best place to be, and that we’d probably have to come up with something on our own at some point,” said Levine. “We were lucky along the way in that we did find some staff jobs and we were able to cobble things together with freelance work. But after this last round, with Trisha getting let go, and with the economy taking a huge, huge bite out of print publishing in general, we knew we’d have to do something on our own that would be more stable.”

Over the past several months, they’ve been able to approach stability through several projects involving personal or family histories or other legacy initiatives, most all of them for customers outside the 413 area code; one current work in progress is for a client in Australia.

“There are many who won’t have fortunes to leave behind, but will have thoughts and memories and words,” said Thompson, noting, as one example, the remaining World War II veterans and Holocaust survivors, many of whom, as they approach or reach their ’90s, are thinking about putting their stories into something that can be preserved for future generations.

“They have a legacy to leave behind,” she said, adding that this phenomenon certainly provides some growth potential for their fledgling business.

Free Spirits

When asked about making the transition from employee to employer, or sole proprietor, those we spoke with said there is a definite learning curve that is part and parcel to such a career shift.

There are things to absorb, especially on the financial side of things, and there are some trade-offs. There is no steady paycheck anymore, said Thompson, stressing, as she did repeatedly, that there are no sure things in the corporate world either in this day and age. But there is freedom, more responsibility, and, in general, a pride in ownership that doesn’t come with working for someone.

“It’s very freeing, but’s also a little scary when you’re not working for the mouse,” said Thompson, who noted that, without the strong push that came with the closing of Wondertime, she and Levine may have not made the leap. “It’s freeing because you have as much autonomy and decision-making power as you do responsibility, and that’s unusual. There’s no one else to blame if something doesn’t go right.”

Said Levine, “on the days when it gets dicey for us and we start to get a little scared, we take a step back and look at the people we know from the long careers we’ve had who have stayed with a large publishing company and lost their jobs because the magazine got sold to some other huge conglomerate. It isn’t always better on the other side.

“But maybe the biggest difference for me is realizing how much energy you spent in a
taff job just dealing with personalities and the whole political machinery of it,” he continued. “Now, you can take all that energy and put it into building your business, and also on the creative side as well. Just think about all the time you lose sitting in meetings.”

Roughly a year after he made the transition, Tuohey has no regrets and isn’t looking back, only ahead. He, too, likes the freedom and greater sense of satisfaction that comes with business ownership.

“You definitely make your own breaks,” he said. “The thing about what I’m doing that’s so fulfilling for me is that I’ve earned every penny that I’ve made doing this, and I’ve become much more well-rounded of a professional. I think I’m more determined, and more confident in my abilities.

“Those are the absolute positives,” he continued, “plus I don’t have to jump on a plane every week and fly off and not see my kids.”

Slinski said her background has been in program development, not business management, so she has had to learn many of the basics, from balance sheets, which she’s still mastering, to pricing.

“The hardest thing to learn was to ask for the money I deserved; I would tend to underprice, but I’m getting better at it,” she said. “Overall, I was never a business person; I was great at creating things and developing things systematically, but the business side was all new to me, and I had to learn.”

All those who make the transition to business owner, whether by choice or out of necessity, should be prepared for what Tuohey called a “roller-coaster ride.”

“There are a lot of ups and downs and emotional swings,” he explained. “Most of all, people have to be prepared to work hard and have some determination and some perseverance; it’s not an easy ride by any means.”

The Bottom Line

Touhey says he still hears from recruiters.

“I get calls once in a while,” he said. “I tell them that I’ve stopped looking for a job, but if they want to talk to me, and there’s an ideal situation, I’ll certainly listen.

“But I’m going to be the one dictating the terms; I’m not just going to jump back in,” he continued. “I’ve found something I think I can grow, and in the meantime, I’ve proven to myself and my family that I’m capable of providing for us with this, and there’s a certain amount of accomplishment in that.”

In other words, a former entrepreneur of necessity is now one by choice — and he’s not alone.

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

Art and Science

By
Kevin Shea
Architecture Sections
Architecture EL Seeks a Balance Between Beauty and Function

Kevin Shea

Kevin Shea says his firm has stayed busy in its first five years with a very diverse roster of jobs.

Kevin Shea says many kids grow up watching their dad build a garage or repair a shed. In his case, helping out around the house inspired him to pursue an equally hands-on career.
“I remember seeing old blueprints, and that was of interest to me,” said Shea, owner of Architecture EL Inc. in East Longmeadow. “Architecture actually ended up fitting my personality, that blend of hands-on and creative, mechanical and artistic. It worked out to be a good balance.”
After graduating from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, he took a job with a small architecture firm for 18 years before deciding in 2008 to strike out on his own.
“I grew up in the Hampden-Wilbraham area, so this is pretty much my region,” he said. “Basically, we’re a small office built on the idea of direct design. The final product is never far from my hands.”
Architecture EL — the acronym stands for Environment Life — is essentially a two-person operation, though the firm will contract to bring on a handful of others for big jobs. “We’re trying to grow to the point where we can bring in some additional staff,” Shea said. “It’s just a matter of waiting for the economy to stabilize.”
In fact, the company has never operated in a thriving economy, launching in 2008, just before the financial crash kicked off the Great Recession, from which the region and nation are still trying to recover. But Shea — who repeatedly used the word ‘fortunate’ to describe the past few years while speaking to BusinessWest — said he has kept consistently busy, with dozens of projects on the docket now, albeit most of them small.
“Our work is commercial, municipal, residential … in Western Mass., most architects are jacks of all trades. And with the economy the past few years, you do whatever comes along.”

Built for Success
Shea has weathered an uncertain economic climate, he said, by focusing on personal service — working closely with clients from design conception through construction and occupancy — but also on that flexibility and diversity he mentioned.
“Historically, my base was strongly commercial. It started with medical and multi-family residential projects,” he said, adding that Architecture EL will take on most any type of proposal. “We’re small, so we’re pretty fortunate to have a nice volume of work and some good diversity.”
He detailed some of the firm’s recent and ongoing work to demonstrate that variety, from a demonstration center alongside the jet-engine fabrication facility at Pratt & Whitney in Middletown, Conn. to the Wilbraham Grange building on Main Street, which is being retrofit into a single-family residence.
In addition, “we’re currently bidding for improvements to the Hatfield Town Hall; we’re expanding their primary town offices and meeting rooms, and we also did a study for an elevator and accessible entry throughout the building. We also did a study for the Historical Society in hopes of fitting out the upper level for a museum.”
He also cited work for the Westfield Museum, which is moving into a historically registered building that once housed a whip manufacturing company. “We’re in the first phase — building envelope improvements, masonry restoration, windows, slate roof — and heading toward the next phase, which will really define the museum space. There’s a mix of historical elements, and it has its own host of issues, but it’s a neat little project.”
Almost all the firm’s assignments come from direct referrals, “people who are actually interested in doing the work, not just guys fishing.” The project log is mostly private work, but there are some public projects as well.
“It’s something different all the time,” he said, “but, at the end of the day, it’s all about solving a problem. Sometimes it’s the budget, sometimes it’s technical, sometimes it’s historical or accessibility … the reality is, it’s all about solving problems with a design solution.
“I think we do a pretty good job pulling everything together — the artistic and the technical sides,” Shea added, noting that some firms specialize in the technical side of the industry, while others were trained at universities that stress esoteric design concepts over functionality.
“My background is strongly rooted in creative design, but also supported by buildability and what will serve the client,” he explained. “And, of course, we look to be as forward-thinking as possible in energy-efficient design solutions.”
‘Green’ design is, of course, a hot trend in architecture and construction these days, but not only on large projects. For instance, homeowners and small businesses affected by the freak weather events of 2011 were also looking to rebuild in greener ways.
“There was a definite uptick with the hurricanes, tornadoes, and snowstorm; people were looking at better insulation, generators, better fuels; solar is certainly making inroads.”
The firm designed a few rebuilding jobs in Monson after the twister devastated that community, Shea recalled. “I felt fortunate to help people rebuilding their house or their business. Those were great jobs because people were really struggling, fighting with their insurance companies, and I felt good coming in and helping them, being part of the solution rather than part of the problem.”

Early Inspiration
As he works to meet client needs and eventually grow Architecture EL into a larger company, Shea recalled that his early life inspired not just his career choice, but his work ethic in general.
“Growing up, we were a small family that lived modestly. We used to fix everything that broke; we didn’t call people,” he said. “If we needed something built, we built it. Now, everyone hires someone to mow their lawn.”
He said a “Berkshires can-do mentality” was instilled in him early on. “It helped me all the way through my career. In college, I worked construction in the summer. They told me I was the first college kid who knew how to work. I’ve been working all my life, building and fixing things, very hands-on, and that just translated to how I tackle my business.”
And that work ethic is paying dividends today. “We get hired based on who we are, our experience, and our contacts,” he said. “We provide a great level of service and quality control. That’s what people are looking for.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Agenda

By
Agenda Departments

‘Transformational Leadership’ Forum
March 4: Randy Dobbs, author and protégé of General Electric’s legendary CEO Jack Welch, will be the keynote speaker for a forum titled “Transformational Leadership: a Blueprint for Organizational and Individual Success,” at the Western New England College Law and Business Center for Advancing Entrepreneurship in Springfield. Hosted by the college and Springfield-based UnityFirst.com, the 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. event will offer insights on how individuals, organizations, and businesses can drive significant business improvement by adapting to change. Dobbs will share many tested concepts from his book on transformational leadership. Also, a panel of thought leaders will offer perspectives on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, marketplace, and community. Registration is required to attend the forum, which includes a copy of Dobbs’ book and lunch. To register, contact (413) 221-7931 or [email protected].

National College Fair
March 6-7: The Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield is the setting for the Springfield National College Fair, slated from 1 to 4 p.m. on March 6, and from 9 a.m. to noon on March 7. Sponsored by the National Assoc. for College Admission Counseling and hosted by the New England Assoc. for College Admission Counseling, the event is free and open to the public. The fair allows students and parents to meet one-on-one with admissions representatives from a wide range of national and international, public and private, two-year and four-year colleges and universities. Participants will learn about admission requirements, financial aid, course offerings, and campus environment, as well as other information pertinent to the college-selection process. Students can register at www.gotomyncf.com prior to attending the event to receive a printed, bar-coded confirmation to use on-site at the fair as an electronic ID.

U.S. Navy Band to Salute Springfield on Birthday
March 18: The U.S. Navy Band will treat Springfield to an early birthday gift — a birthday concert — at 7 p.m. at Springfield Symphony Hall. The city of Springfield turns 375 years old in May, and the band concert is just one of several events planned to mark the milestone. As the premier wind ensemble of the U.S. Navy, the band will perform a wide range of marches, patriotic selections, orchestral transcriptions, and modern wind-ensemble fare. Tickets are free and can be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the Spirit of Springfield/U.S. Navy Band, 101 State St., Suite 220, Springfield, MA 01103.

Difference Makers Gala
March 24: BusinessWest will salute its Difference Makers Class of 2011 at a gala slated to begin at 5 p.m. at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House in Holyoke. Initiated in 2009, the Difference Makers program recognizes individuals and groups making outstanding contributions to the Western Mass. community. The 2011 winners will be announced in the magazine’s Feb. 14 issue. For more information on the event or to order tickets ($50 per person, with tables of 10 available) call (413) 781-8600, ext. 10; or log on to www.businesswest.com.

Western Mass. Business Expo
May 4: Businesses from throughout Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire counties will come together for the premier trade show in the region, the Western Mass. Business Expo. Formerly called the Market show, the event, produced by BusinessWest and held at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, has been revamped and improved to better provide exposure and business opportunities to area companies. See the article on page 16 for more information. The cost for a 10-by-10 booth is $700 for chamber members and $750 for non-members; corner booths are $750 and $800, respectively, and a 10-by-20 booth is $1,200 for chamber members and $1,250 for non-members. For more information, log onto www.businesswest.com or www.accgs.com, or call (413) 781-8600, ext. 10.

Springfield 375th Parade
May 14: The Spirit of Springfield is seeking community involvement for the city’s 375th birthday celebration, which will include a parade that represents all that Springfield has to offer, its roots, and its future. If you have a business or group that would like to get involved in the festivities, call (413) 733-3800 or e-mail a message to [email protected].

EASTEC 2011
May 17-19: EASTEC, the East Coast’s largest annual manufacturing event, will once again be staged at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield. For exhibition or registration information, call (866) 635-4692 or visit www.easteconline.com.

Fifth Annual BusinessWest
40 Under Forty Gala
June 23: BusinessWest will present its 40 Under Forty Class of 2011 at a not-to-be-missed gala at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, beginning at 5 p.m. The 40 Under Forty program, initiated in 2007, has become an early summer tradition in the region. Nominations are currently being accepted for this year’s class (see form, page 73), and a team of five judges will complete the scoring of those nominations in late February, with the winners being announced in April. For more information on the event or to order tickets ($60 per person, with tables of 10 available) call (413) 781-8600, ext. 10; or visit www.businesswest.com.

Summer Business Summit
June 27-28: The Massachusetts Chamber of Business & Industry will host its annual two-day business summit at the Resort and Conference Center at Hyannis with a host of educational speakers and presentations by lawmakers. In addition, panel discussions are planned on energy, health care, and taxes and finance. Meanwhile, recognition is planned for Business of the Year, Employer of Choice, and Friend of Business from the local legislature. For more information, call (617) 512-9667.

The Developments That Caught Our Attention in 2016

By
yearinreviewfeature-1216b
Cover Story Features

The Year in Review

 

The region’s business community had no shortage of big developments

The region’s business community had no shortage of big developments for BusinessWest to write about throughout 2016.

As 2016 comes to a close, BusinessWest looks back at what has been a year of significant progress on major regional projects, of a growing economy that nonetheless posed challenges for employers and business owners, and of company mergers, leadership transitions at large employers, and even some untimely deaths. Here are some of the stories that had the Western Mass. business community talking.

January

At the start of the new year, the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast (EANE) unveiled the regional findings from the 2016 National Business Trends Survey conducted by the Employer Associations of America. Results indicated that the majority of executives surveyed were optimistic for 2016, were confident about raising pay, emphasizing recruiting, increasing training budgets. However, regulatory compliance was a bigger concern in the Northeast than in other regions: 42% of the Northeast respondents saw regulatory compliance as a serious long-term challenge, whereas nationally, the average checks in at 34%. With state and national changes looming in the realms of sick leave, pay equality, overtime pay, and others, those results weren’t surprising.

The past year brought a striking number of notable deaths on the national stage, but locally, few matched the impact of Mike Balise and Paul Doherty. Balise, who actually passed away just before the calendar turned to 2016, was more than the co-owner of Balise Motor Sales; he was a dedicated philanthropist who showed the world how to squeeze every moment out of a life he knew would be cut short by stomach cancer. His fierce battle, and his life’s work, inspired his selection as one of BusinessWest’s Difference Makers for 2016. Meanwhile, Doherty, who grew his law firm, Doherty Wallace Pillsbury & Murphy, into one of the largest in the region and cultivated a culture of philanthropy there, was known not only as the man who rarely turned down an opportunity to contribute time and energy to a good cause, but who inspired others around him to do the same. In one month, the region lost two lights who both understood how to live well by doing good.

February

After many months of planning and communicating with Springfield residents and business people, the joint venture of White-Schiavone began demolishing the I-91 viaduct’s reinforced concrete bridge deck, marking the start of a $148 million deck-replacement project that will continue throughout 2017. The lane closures slowed traffic through the artery to a crawl, while a temporary exit helped southbound commuters navigate their way downtown.

Across the state, gambling revenue at Plainridge Park Casino increased by $1.3 million in January, snapping five straight months of revenue declines after a strong start in the spring of 2015. That began a streak of several months of increases at Plainridge. That was good news for casino watchers in Western Mass., who wondered if Plainridge’s first-year performance, which fell well short of projections, would be repeated at MGM Springfield when it opens in the fall of 2018.

The $950 million MGM Springfield project

The $950 million MGM Springfield project took a dramatic step forward in 2016, dramatically altering the South End skyline.

Meanwhile, the MGM Springfield plan was dealing with growing pains of its own. In February, the Springfield City Council approved a revised site plan that includes the elimination of a 25-story hotel tower, replacing it with a six-story, 250-room hotel on Main Street. In another change, MGM’s host-community agreement with Springfield allows MGM to move about 54 proposed market-rate apartments from the casino grounds to a location near the casino.

March

Taking the fight against the state’s opioid-abuse crisis to the next level, Gov. Charlie Baker signed landmark legislation into law to address the epidemic. “An Act Relative to Substance Use, Treatment, Education, and Prevention,” passed with unanimous votes in both legislative chambers, calls for prevention education for students and doctors and a seven-day limit on first-time opioid prescriptions, among other provisions. The state’s estimated rate of 17.4 opioid-overdose deaths per 100,000 residents in 2014 is the highest ever for unintentional opioid overdoses and represents a 228% increase from the rate of 5.3 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2000.

Real gross domestic product in Massachusetts grew at an annual rate of 2.3% in the first quarter of 2016, according to MassBenchmarks, the journal of the Massachusetts economy published by the UMass Donahue Institute in collaboration with the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In contrast, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, national real gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 0.5% during the same period. The pace of economic growth in Massachusetts picked up in the first three months of 2016 after slowing in the second half of 2015.

Also in March, BusinessWest honored its Difference Makers Class of 2016. In addition to Balise, the magazine honored Bay Path University President Carol Leary; Hampden County Sheriff Michael Ashe; Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties; and John Robison.

April

One of the region’s signature banks is no more, at least not in name, as Chicopee Savings Bank was acquired by Westfield Bank in a deal announced in April and made official later in the year. The merger creates the largest locally managed bank in Hampden County and the second-largest bank in terms of deposit market share in the county. The combined company will have total assets of $2.1 billion and 21 branch locations serving customers throughout Western Mass. and Northern Conn. In other merger news, Key Bank acquired First Niagara Bank in a deal that became official this fall.

Massachusetts marked the 10-year anniversary of universal access to healthcare, an achievement that predated the federal Accountable Care Act by several years. “Ten years ago, Massachusetts led the country by creating a landmark healthcare coverage law, and today we are pleased that 96.4% of the state’s population is insured,” Gov. Baker said. “Through our state-based marketplace, individuals and families have the ability to choose their best coverage options, and while there is still more work to be done to increase accessibility and transparency for consumers, we have taken many steps in the right direction.”

John Cook, vice president of Academic Affairs at Manchester Community College in New Hampshire, was selected by the Springfield Technical Community College board of trustees to succeed the retiring Ira Rubenzahl as STCC president.

May

Twelve area startups won a total of $252,000 at the annual Valley Venture Mentors (VVM) Accelerator Awards, led by Celia Grace, whose founder, Marcelia Muehlke, calls her company a fair-trade, ethical wedding-dress seller that gives back and empowers women around the world. Muehlke won $50,000 at the ceremony at the MassMutual Center. The other two top winners were  Homebody Holistics ($45,000), a maker of all-natural, hand-crafted, herbal cleaning solutions using no harsh chemicals or additives; and Scout Curated Wears ($32,000), a designer, curator, and producer of thoughtful women’s accessories.

Robinson Donovan, P.C. marked a year-long celebration of 150 years in business with a series of donations to local nonprofits, from Providence Ministries Service Network and Friends of the Homeless Inc. to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and Bay Path University, just to name a few. The firm’s founder, George Robinson, was a true public servant, said attorney Carla Newton. “That is why we are choosing to celebrate our 150th anniversary, and honor our founder, by supporting local nonprofits. Nonprofits are vital to the fabric of our communities, and we hope to raise awareness for their causes and support important initiatives that benefit us all, which continues the legacy of our founder and our firm.”

June

The University of Massachusetts announced that the system was responsible for $6.2 billion in economic activity in Massachusetts last year — a record high — and helped to support more than 43,000 jobs statewide. “UMass educates more students than any college or university in the Commonwealth and is one of the state’s three largest research universities, but it also has a profound impact on the Massachusetts economy based on the scope and reach of its operations,” President Marty Meehan said. “UMass is a vital economic engine for the Commonwealth, and its impact is felt in every community and by virtually every family across Massachusetts.”

72,000-square-foot addition to the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst

A $62 million, 72,000-square-foot addition to the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst was one of several major undertakings at area colleges and universities launched in 2016.

 

When the Springfield Falcons took flight to Arizona following the 2015-16 season, the city didn’t have to wait long for a new bird to swoop down and replace the Falcons on the ice at the MassMutual Center. The Springfield Thunderbirds, owned by a large group of area business leaders, were unveiled as the new AHL franchise taking the ice for the 2016-17 season.

After more than two years of strategic planning, in a deal valued at approximately $1.6 million, Paragus IT announced in June that its employee stock-ownership plan (ESOP), which distributes ownership of 40% of the company to its 40-plus employees, is officially a go. ESOPs are traditionally formed after the company has fully matured and when a major shareholder is looking to exit. For Paragus, however, it’s about fueling future growth by giving everyone a direct stake and a personal investment in the future of the company, said President and CEO Delcie Bean. “It made sense to give everybody some skin in the game. Now they aren’t just growing a company, they’re growing their company. Which means Paragus is here to stay, and we’re only getting bigger.”

BusinessWest also honored its 40 Under Forty Class of 2016 at a sold-out Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, marking 10 years of shining a light on rising young stars in the region.

July

In a move that echoed similar laws around the U.S., Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law an anti-discrimination bill, passed by the state House and Senate, that gives transgender people the right to use public restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identities, regardless of their sex at birth. “No one should be discriminated against in Massachusetts because of their gender identity,” Baker said. “This compromise legislation extends additional protections to the Commonwealth’s transgender community, and includes language to address the public-safety concerns expressed by some by requiring the attorney general to issue regulations to protect against people abusing the law.”

In local news, Nancy Creed, vice president of Marketing and Communications for the Springfield Regional Chamber, was tapped to succeed Jeffrey Ciuffreda as president of that institution, becoming the first woman chief executive in the chamber’s more than 125-year history. She had played an integral role in the recent chamber restructuring and was responsible for its rebranding effort.

The Thunderbirds weren’t the only new sports team making news in Springfield this year, as the city welcomed the Sting, the first American Basketball Assoc. (ABA) team to call Springfield, the birthplace of basketball, its home when it commenced play in November. The Sting joined the ABA’s Northeast Division for the 2016-17 season, alongside teams in Boston, Providence, New York, Long Island, and New Jersey.

August

August brought more employment news when Gov. Baker signed a bipartisan pay-equity bill aimed at ensuring equal pay for comparable work for all Massachusetts workers and equal opportunities to earn competitive salaries in the workplace. The law, which will go into effect on July 1, 2018, will prevent pay discrimination for comparable work based on gender. The bill allows employees to freely discuss their salaries with co-workers and prohibits employers from requiring applicants to provide their salary history before receiving a formal job offer. “Pay equity is not only a women’s issue, it’s a family issue, and with this new law on the books, we are closer to closing the pay gap in our state,” Attorney General Maura Healey said.

The Valley Blue Sox scored a playoff berth in 2016, and fans responded to the team’s success, with attendance at McKenzie Stadium in Holyoke averaging 2,121 fans per game, enough to rank them 11th nationally out of 169 summer collegiate teams. This placed them second in New England overall to only the Worcester Bravehearts of the Futures League and first overall in the New England Collegiate Baseball League. Furthermore, the Blue Sox ranked 154th overall on Ballpark Digest’s ‘mega list’ of minor-league teams and summer collegiate teams, with the team beating out 20 A-ball teams and three AA teams. The total attendance per game jumped almost 600 fans from 2015.

Not all the news was good in August. Baystate Health announced the elimination of 300 positions from among the system’s 12,500 employees, citing a budget gap of $75 million for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2016. “Many factors are causing this projected shortfall, most significantly the continuing shortfalls in the reimbursements we receive for providing Medicaid services,” said President and CEO Dr. Mark Keroack.

September

In September, BusinessWest detailed Springfield Technical Community College’s $50 million effort to convert its historic Building 19 into a campus center. The 700-foot Armory warehouse, which predates the Civil War, will become home to a wide array of offices and facilities now scattered across the campud, including the library, admissions, registration, financial aid, the bookstore, the welcome center, student government, the parking office, health services, student activities, a café, the IT help desk, meeting and convention space, and more.

building-19

$50 million initiative at STCC

Another landscape-altering project launched in 2016 was a $50 million initiative at STCC to convert Building 19 (seen above in the 1930s) into a new campus center.

 

Meanwhile, state and UMass Amherst officials broke ground on the $62 million Business Innovation Hub at the Isenberg School of Management. The ambitious project will add 70,000 square feet of classrooms, labs, and student spaces, including an expanded career center, advising spaces, and learning commons, as well as faculty offices to the school’s existing facilities. The project is scheduled for completion in September 2018, with occupancy in January 2019.

Speaking of the state’s university system, UMass continued a decade-long surge in enrollment, surpassing 74,000 students for the first time, with 74,678 students enrolled across the five campuses. Over the past decade, student enrollment at UMass has risen almost 27%, from 58,939 in the fall of 2006 to the current 74,678, making UMass one of the fastest-growing universities, public or private, in the nation. In the recently released U.S. News & World Report “Best Colleges” rankings, the four UMass undergraduate campuses for the first time are all represented in the magazine’s top category.

October

The Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Business Confidence Index rose 0.3 points to 56.2 in October, 0.6 points higher than in October 2015. The increase was driven by a 2.6-point jump in the manufacturing index. In fact, the AIM Index, based on a survey of Massachusetts employers, has been rising consistently throughout 2016. AIM President and CEO Richard Lord noted that the economic recovery appears to be benefiting the entire Commonwealth, not just the metropolitan Boston area. “It’s great to see unemployment falling in areas outside the Boston-Cambridge technology belt, which has been enjoying explosive economic growth since the onset of the recovery,” he said. “One of the key tenets of AIM’s Blueprint for the Next Century economic plan for Massachusetts is that lawmakers must make public policy that allows economic opportunity to flourish in all areas of the Commonwealth, from Boston to the Berkshires.”

The $88.5 million rehabilitation of Union Station in Springfield into an intermodal transit hub continued to chug toward its expected completion in January 2017. The project has included the complete renovation of the terminal building and its central concourse, the renovation and reactivation of the Amtrak passenger tunnel linking the terminal building to train platforms and the adjacent downtown area, demolition of the former baggage-handling building and construction of a regional and intercity bus terminal and parking garage, and opening up of 64,000 square feet of leasable commercial space on the upper floors of the terminal building.

November

BusinessWest kicked off November with the sixth annual Western Mass. Business Expo at the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield. Now a fall tradition for the region’s business community, the show featured more than 100 exhibitors, more than 2,000 attendees, dozens of educational seminars, special presentations, breakfast and lunch programs, and much more, including demonstrations of virtual-reality technology that proved to be extremely popular. “There are a great many challenges to doing business today, from harnessing the latest technology to recruiting, developing, and retaining young talent, to creating an environment where several generations can work, and thrive, together,” said BusinessWest Associate Publisher Kate Campiti. Once again, she added, the Expo helped businesses identify and cope with these challenges.

Meanwhile, the state’s total unemployment rate dropped to 2.9% in November, marking the fifth consecutive month the rate went down, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported. The last time the state’s unemployment rate was that low was January 2001. “We are very pleased to see the unemployment rate consistently go down month after month,” said Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Ronald Walker II. “Not only is the unemployment rate declining, but we have continued job growth in key sectors that drive the Massachusetts economy.”

December

Christina Royal, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at Inver Hills Community College in Inver Grove Heights, Minn., was approved as the next president of Holyoke Community College (HCC), succeeding William Messner, who retired in August after serving for 12 years. Meanwhile, HCC announced the details of an upcoming two-year, $43.5 million renovation project that will transform the look, feel, and organization of the campus. The HCC Campus Center is scheduled to close Feb. 3, 2017, and construction will begin soon after. The key features of the project include squaring off the building’s sloping façade and giving the entire building a new exterior shell that will make it both weathertight and energy-efficient. About 9,000 square feet of space will be added to the current 58,727.

The MBTA announced it will place a second order for new Red Line cars with CRRC, the company already contracted to build new train cars at a facility it is building in Springfield. MBTA officials say it’s cheaper to pay $300,000 for each new car than to rehab aging trains. CRRC, the Chinese-owned world leader in rail-car manufacturing, won a contract in 2014 to build 152 Orange Line cars and 132 Red Line cars to replace aging trains. Under the new proposal, CRRC will start building an additional 120 Red Line cars in 2022 after completing the initial order of Red Line and Orange Line cars. The proposal includes an option to purchase 14 more cars after that.

Employer Confidence Strengthens in October

By
Daily News

BOSTON — Confidence among Massachusetts employers rose for a second consecutive month during October, bolstered by a surprising improvement in the outlook among manufacturers and the continued strong performance of the state economy.

The Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Business Confidence Index rose 0.3 points to 56.2 last month, 0.6 points higher than in October 2015. The increase was driven by a 2.6-point jump in the manufacturing index, which has lagged overall confidence readings for the past 18 months as companies struggled with economic weakness in Europe, China, and other key export markets.

The increase came as the Massachusetts unemployment rate fell to 3.6%, its lowest rate since the dot-com boom of 2001.

“Local unemployment rates dropped in 22 of 24 labor market areas throughout Massachusetts during September, which is consistent with gains in the AIM Employment Index over both the month and year,” said Sara Johnson, senior research director, Global Economics, IHS Global Insight, and a member of the AIM Board of Economic Advisors (BEA). “Both sets of numbers indicate that Massachusetts economy continues to perform well. State employment is growing faster than at the national level.”

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. It has remained above 50 since October 2013.

Almost all of the sub-indices based on selected questions or categories of employer were up in October. The Massachusetts Index, assessing business conditions within the Commonwealth, gained 0.9 points to 57.9, leaving it a healthy 3.8 points ahead of the same time last year. The U.S. Index of national business conditions remained unchanged at 49.2, 1.7 points lower than its level of October 2015. Employers have been more optimistic about the Massachusetts economy than about the national economy for 78 consecutive months.

The Current Index, which assesses overall business conditions at the time of the survey, increased slightly to 56, while the Future Index, measuring expectations for six months out, rose 0.3 points to 56.3. The future view is virtually the same as it was a year ago.

The three sub-indices bearing on survey respondents’ own operations also strengthened. The Company Index, reflecting overall business conditions, rose 0.2 points to 57.9, while the Employment Index surged 0.9 points to 55.4. The Sales Index lost ground, however, falling 1.2 points during October and 3.9 points during the previous 12 months.

The AIM survey found that nearly 39% of respondents reported adding staff during the past six months, while 19% reduced employment. Expectations for the next six months were stable, with 38% expecting to hire and only 10% downsizing.

Despite the rise in the Manufacturing Index, non-manufacturing companies still maintain a significantly brighter outlook than manufacturers. The overall Business Confidence Index among non-manufacturers was 59.3, compared to 53.5 for manufacturing companies.

“The year-long weakening of the Sales Index presents some concerns in an otherwise upbeat report since sales ultimately drive employment growth,” said Barry Bluestone of Northeastern University, a BEA member. “In the longer term, concerns remain about the changing demographic structure of the state population, as relatively few young people enter, and a large group of older workers leave — or are poised to leave — the workforce.”

AIM President and CEO Richard Lord, also a BEA member, noted that the economic recovery appears to be benefiting the entire Commonwealth, not just the metropolitan Boston area.

“It’s great to see unemployment falling in areas outside the Boston-Cambridge technology belt, which has been enjoying explosive economic growth since the onset of the recovery,” he said. “One of the key tenets of AIM’s Blueprint for the Next Century economic plan for Massachusetts is that lawmakers must make public policy that allows economic opportunity to flourish in all areas of the Commonwealth, from Boston to the Berkshires. We look forward to bringing that perspective to the Legislature when it begins its new session in January.”

LPV Refines Its Mission to Identify, Develop, and Connect Leaders

By
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Cover Story

Confidence Builders

LPV Executive Director Lora Wondolowski

LPV Executive Director Lora Wondolowski

Created in response to the impending retirement of the Baby Boomer generation and the leadership void this will create, Leadership Pioneer Valley continues to refine and build upon its multi-faceted mission to groom the next generation of leaders.

Lora Wondolowski says she and her staff at Leadership Pioneer Valley do a lot of measuring.

That’s a broad term she used to describe a number of steps aimed at quantifying the overall impact of this program, now in its fifth year, a key milestone in many respects.

For example, LPV, as it’s known, likes to chart the progress of its graduates, she said, adding that some of the statistics are eye-opening. For example, a good percentage of program participants had received promotions, raises, or both within a few years of graduating. Meanwhile, roughly a third had moved on to new and better jobs with greater responsibility by the time they were polled. Also, 60% had joined a new board as a director, and 80% described themselves as more inclusive when it comes to their leadership style.

But there are other intriguing numbers to chew on, said Wondolowski, the organization’s director since it was conceived, and they speak loudly about what LPV is all about.

“When we ask people about their impression of Springfield at the beginning of our ‘Springfield Day,’ there’s usually about 20% to 30% who have a negative view of the city,” she explained while referring to one specific day of programming in LPV’s 10-month regimen. “And when we ask them at the end of the day … every year, it’s been positive, with no negatives.

I had personal confidence, but I didn’t have confidence that the peers around me had confidence in me. I loved what I was doing and had conviction — maybe that’s a better word to use — but I didn’t have confidence that the people who were senior to me believed in me.”

“And it’s the same with Holyoke and Franklin County,” she went on, adding that LPV also has programs focusing on those areas. “And that’s because there are a lot of perceptions out there, and we want people to look at these places with clear eyes. We don’t want to paper over the challenges, and we don’t, but we want participants to get past the stereotypes and what they think they know.”

Those specific words are not in the LPV mission statement, but they certainly go a long way toward explaining why the program was created and why those who conceived it are even more convinced of the need for it five years later.

The aforementioned numbers clearly show the program’s effectiveness in providing a clearer focus for its participants, and thus greater awareness of the region, its assets, problems, and potential.

Katie Stebbins

Katie Stebbins says she took part in LPV because, while she had confidence in herself, she wasn’t sure other people did.

But the numbers don’t really tell the whole story, or tell it as effectively as words can, and for evidence of that, one need only listen to Katie Stebbins.

A member of LPV’s first class, she is the assistant secretary of innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship for the state Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development. That means she’s definitely among those who moved on to a new job, a new title, and a larger number on the paycheck since graduating from the program.

But she was already, in many respects, already a leader when, after working for several years in Springfield’s Economic Development Department, she hung out her own shingle as a consultant. At the time, she told BusinessWest, she didn’t exactly lack confidence, but instead lacked a certain type of it.

“I had personal confidence, but I didn’t have confidence that the peers around me had confidence in me,” she explained. “I loved what I was doing and had conviction — maybe that’s a better word to use — but I didn’t have confidence that the people who were senior to me believed in me; I didn’t necessarily have confidence that I could take that conviction and bring lots of other people along with me.”

To make a long story short, LPV became a way to first test her theory — that she was actually better at getting people to follow than she thought — and then eventually rid herself of such doubts. Both were essentially accomplished through that rugged, 10-month program (one meeting per month) designed to inform, educate, inspire, create connections, and, yes, build confidence.

For this issue, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at LPV as it reaches the five-year milestone, and at what lies ahead for this important addition to the region’s business landscape.

Lead-certified

Looking back, Stebbins recalls that 2012 was a watershed year for her in many respects.

In addition to taking on LPV’s program, she was accepted into Valley Venture Mentors, started homeschooling her children, launched a civic technology startup called BYO Family, and even started playing on a local roller-derby team.

You can’t really do any of that, let alone all of it, without a good amount of confidence, she acknowledged, adding quickly, and again, that in many respects she needed more of that invaluable commodity, and more affirmation that she had the ability to lead and get others to follow. And she credits the experience for helping her get where she is, with the seal of the state on her business card.

“It was really gratifying to hear people I didn’t know before say things like, ‘you’ve got leadership skills,’ ‘we believe in you,’ and ‘you’re going to go a long way,’” she explained. “It put extra wind in my sails, and it really energized me.”

In a nutshell, this is essentially what LPV was created to do.

Officially, the program was action item 7 in an update of the region’s Plan for Progress, first drafted by the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC)  more than two decades ago and revised several times since to reflect changes and new priorities.

Specifically, LPV, which at first was part of the PVPC and is now a standalone nonprofit, was conceived as a response to the overwhelming numbers of Baby Boomers who would be retiring over the next several years and the need to fill the resulting leadership void.

The term ‘silver tsunami’ has come into vogue to describe this phenomenon and the overall aging of the population, and Wondoloski drove home the point that the issue is real and must be addressed.

“The rate of retirement is increasing each year, and that’s going to mean huge turnover at our companies, both at the leadership level and also on our boards of directors,” she explained, adding that, in some rural areas, the average age of the citizenship is at or near retirement age, presenting huge leadership voids.

Looking back on LPV’s first year and what’s transpired since, Wondolowski said that first class was somewhat older than those that have followed, probably because the concept was new and many established business owners and managers wanted to take advantage of an opportunity.

Today, the program is attracting a younger audience — most are now closer to 30 — and a growing number of entrepreneurs, a reflection of this region’s ongoing efforts to promote entrepreneurship and mentor startups.

The classes are also becoming more diverse geographically, and this is another positive development, said Wondolowski, noting that, in the beginning, individuals from Hampden County dominated the ranks, but in recent years, more rural areas, and especially Franklin County, have sent more representatives. This is critical, she noted, because the populations of such areas is aging at an even more pronounced pace as Millennials choose to locate in cities, leaving communities like Greenfield with a strong need for young leaders.

While the makeup of the classes has changed somewhat over the years, the curriculum, if you will, has been more of a constant. It was constructed with three main goals in mind, said Wondolowski, citing LPV’s mission — “to identify, develop, and connect diverse leaders to strengthen the Valley.” These deliverables, if you will, are:

• Increasing participants’ leadership skills through exercises involving everything from cultural competency to communication and critical thinking;

• Increasing participants’ networks, both within their own class and also through programs in and on various cities and regions; and

• Increasing their understanding of the Valley through these programs, which educate participants about the challenges and opportunities facing these geographic areas.

LPV, which has a current tuition of $3,500 with assistance available to those who need it,  accomplishes these goals through a series of monthly programs, including several ‘challenge days’ and ‘field experiences’ staged across the region. The 2016-17 slate is reflective of what’s been done since the beginning.

There will be an opening overnight retreat this coming weekend at the Berkshire Outdoor Center in Becket, followed by the first challenge day, with a focus on collaborative leadership, on Oct. 21. A second challenge day, this one centered on ‘inclusive leadership,’ is set for Nov. 18 at a still-to-be-determined site in Franklin County.

The first field experience, a concentrated program aimed to educate participants about a given region or city, is set for Dec. 16, and will focus on Hampshire County and the Five College area. Others will center on Springfield (Jan. 20), Holyoke and Chicopee (March 17), and Franklin County (April 28).

Other challenge days are slated for Feb. 10, with ‘creativity’ as the theme, and May 19 (‘skilled negotiations’).

Progress Report

As she talked about this milestone year for LPV, Wondolowski said that, in many ways, the organization was at a type of crossroads.

By this, she meant this was a time to revisit the mission, undertake some strategic planning, and devise a blueprint for the organization moving forward. And, in many respects, this work is already underway.

The focus will be on broadening its overall impact and tailoring programs to meet the many challenges facing young professionals, the region, individual communities, and the workplace of today and tomorrow.

As one example, Wondolowski noted, with MGM and rail car builder CRRC MA, and potentially other large employers, coming to the region over the next few years, there will be dozens, and perhaps hundreds, of younger professionals and managers who will need to familiarized with this region and, more importantly, encouraged to be active within it. LPV can, and hopefully will, take a lead role in such efforts.

“There are lots of new executives coming into the area; how do we orient them to what this region has to offer and make sure that they’re connected in with other leaders?” she asked, adding that LPV will work to answer that question. “We have so many who come here for a few years and then leave because they never got connected to the community.”

Meanwhile, there are four generations still active in the workplace (although the so-called Silent Generation is certainly aging out) and a fifth, known as Gen Z or the ‘Boomlets’ (those born after 2000), will be making their presence known within the workforce.

Each of these generations has its own needs, its own character, and even its own nickname, said Wandolowski, noting that hers, Gen X (born 1965-1980), is unaffectionately known as the ‘slacker generation’. And coexistence in the workplace is an issue for virtually every business in the region and a challenge LPV can help address.

“One of the things we’re really interested in at LPV is the new workplace and what it looks like — and it’s not just about Millennials,” she said, acknowledging that many business owners and managers are hard-focused on that group. “It’s about technology, increasing diversity in the workplace, the multiple generations; there are many forces shaping our future workforce and workplaces.”

As part of this focus on generations, LPV will be sharpening its focus on providing assistance to leaders at all stages of their career, she explained, meaning the programming will be appropriate for people of all ages, and, in many respects, always has been.

Meanwhile, it will work to continually increase diversity within its own classes, geographically and otherwise, in an effort to bring more perspectives to the issues confronting the business community and the region.

“If we’re going to solve complex problems, we’re need people with different mindsets coming at things from different directions,” she explained. “We tend to stay in our silos — if you’re a nonprofit person, you tend to reach out to nonprofit folks, and the same in the public sector. We’re really seeing cross-pollination, or interconnectedness, among our graduates, and we’ll need more of that moving forward.”

Leading by Example

Among those who have been accepted into LPV’s class of 2017 is West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt, who was actually turned down when he first applied four years ago.

West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt

West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt, seen here with the city’s terrier mascot for his BusinessWest 40 Under Forty picture, will be among LPV’s class of 2017.

That’s when he was in law school and working part-time, he told BusinessWest, adding that he applied to be part of that first class because he wanted to make connections, learn something, and share what he knew.

He believes this time in his life and career actually works better, because he knows more, can share more, needs to make more connections, and still has a lot to learn about this region and the many aspects of leadership.

“Now that I’ve had more leadership experience, I can speak more from what I’ve done,” he explained. “I thought working with other people from the Valley now would be even more beneficial; I can share a lot, but I can also learn a lot, and I’m looking forward to doing both.”

Such words, as much as those numbers mentioned earlier, explain why LPV has already become a force in the region, and why it will be even more so moving forward.

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

HCC, STCC Create a Culture of Cooperation, Collaboration

By
Rivals Feature0316b
Education Sections

Now Friendly Rivals

Bill Messner, right, and Ira Rubenzahl.

Bill Messner, right, and Ira Rubenzahl.

Located just seven miles apart as the crow flies, Holyoke Community College and Springfield Technical Community College have always competed, and in vigorous fashion, for everything from students to press coverage to state funding for capital projects. But when they arrived at their respective campuses in 2004, Presidents Bill Messner and Ira Rubenzahl found the relationship between the schools to be a case not of healthy competition, but unhealthy animosity. So they set about changing that equation. And as both men prepare to retire, they talked about what would have to be considered a stunning new attitude that prevails at both schools.

Neither man recalls which one of them actually picked up the phone and called the other.

What they clearly remember, though, is that a call, the first of many, was made. And, considering all that’s happened since the conversation ended, it could only be described with the adjective ‘historic.’

Ira Rubenzahl and Bill Messner had been at their new positions, as president of Springfield Technical Community College and Holyoke Community College, respectively, for just a few months (Rubenzahl arrived a few weeks earlier) in that summer of 2004. And while they hadn’t learned everything about the challenges that lay ahead, they did know one thing — that the relationship between the two schools, located just seven miles apart, had to change, and soon.

“Let’s just say that the institutions had not been working well together,” said Messner, his tone blending understatement with a dose of sarcasm as he described what he found upon his arrival. “And that was really not productive.”

Added Rubenzahl, “it didn’t take long to figure out that there was this problem. And we basically said, together, ‘we have to stop competing and start working together.’”

Actually, the competition hasn’t stopped, and both presidents agree that it can’t and won’t because, as the old saying goes, it’s good for the parties involved. But the animosity that prevailed a dozen years ago is mostly gone. And it hasn’t been missed.

For evidence of this, Rubenzahl and Messner pointed to a number of initiatives involving everything from workforce development to adult basic education; from legislative get-togethers to initiatives to train workers for MGM’s planned $900 million casino in Springfield’s South End.

They even listed the fact that the two travel together to meetings in Boston and elsewhere, and did so with a note of wonder in their tone that speaks volumes about just how bad things were.

Perhaps the very best piece of evidence, though, is the Deval Patrick Award for Workforce Development, presented by the Boston Foundation, which the schools earned together in 2014 for their collaborative effort known as TWO (Training & Workforce Options); more on that later.

Getting from where relations (if one could call them that) were in 2004 to where they are now didn’t happen overnight and would never be described as easy, both men noted.

“There are areas in which we’re much better off collaborating than we are competing,” said Messner. “But it took us a couple of years to get our arms around what those areas were, and how we could collaborate effectively.”

Also, the mountain to climb in terms of the level of animosity to be overcome was high and steep, said Rubenzahl.

“Bill and I got comfortable very quickly,” he noted. “But it took a while for the troops to line up because it was so inbred.”

Eventually, the troops did fall in line, both men noted, but the movement clearly started at the top.

Which is exactly why BusinessWest met with both presidents in Messner’s office in Frost Hall earlier this month. They’ve both announced that they’re retiring, with Rubenzahl due to exit stage left in June, and Messner a month or two later.

Yes, the presidents who arrived in the Pioneer Valley together will be leaving it together. And they’re leaving behind a track record of collaboration that couldn’t have been imagined a decade and a half ago.

Perhaps the best news is that both believe this pattern of cooperation has become so ingrained — and so welcomed by the schools’ respective boards — that they find it difficult to imagine a scenario in which it won’t continue after they’ve left their respective campuses.

“It will probably change in some ways to reflect the personalities of the two folks who are going to be following us,” said Messner. “But I think it’s grounded enough that it will continue. And my sense is that, if those two folks don’t choose to continue to collaborate, they’ll pay a price of some sort.”

New Course of Action

To put the dramatic change in the relationship between the two colleges in perspective, both Rubenzahl and Messner took a quick trip back to last summer and a press event that was significant on a number of levels.

Gov. Charlie Baker was coming to Western Mass. to deliver good news for both schools: HCC was getting $2.5 million for much-needed renovations of its cramped, antiquated, and leaky campus center, and STCC was getting $3 million for design work on a planned $50 million project to convert the historic structure known as Building 19 — one of the oldest buildings on the Springfield Armory complex later repurposed into the community college — into a new campus center.

He would announce both awards in a single ceremony at HCC, an arrangement STCC quickly signed off on.

“Before we came, they would never have dared to do that,” said Rubenzahl, saying those words slowly for additional emphasis and using the word ‘they’ to mean both the institutions and their presidents. “There would have been huge objections to doing that.”

Messner agreed, and, like his counterpart, treaded lightly, and diplomatically, when asked about the root causes of the sentiments that prevailed when he arrived.

HCC’s Kittredge Center

The opening of HCC’s Kittredge Center is one of the highlights of Bill Messner’s tenure, which was defined by improved relations with STCC.

However, it was well-known across the region, and even across the state, that the leaders’ predecessors — David Bartley, previously speaker of the Massachusetts House, at HCC, and Andy Scibelli, former Springfield city official and nephew of powerful state Rep. Anthony Scibelli, at STCC — didn’t exactly get along and were ferociously competitive, to put it mildly. And their institutions followed their lead — with a passion.

To explain the mood, Rubenzahl recalled some dialogue at a meeting he convened with several senior staff members at STCC not long after arriving.

“Someone referred to the ‘enemy,’” he recalled. “I said, ‘what enemy? Do you mean Holyoke?’ And he said, ‘yes, Holyoke.’ I was really taken aback by that, and said, ‘they’re not the enemy.’”

Rubenzahl believes that aforementioned phone conversation with Messner had already occurred by that point, but the chosen terminology cemented in his mind — actually both men’s minds, because similar language was being used in the campus off Homestead Avenue in Holyoke — that change was necessary.

And it came about, they said, partly due to those changes at the top, but also because it simply made sense.

Indeed, both presidents and their staffs had concluded that, while the schools would go on competing — “like Ford and Chevy do,” said Messner — they could also collaborate in many ways and, while doing so, achieve much more together than they ever could separately.

Examples abound, but TWO is clearly the most visible and perhaps the most impactful.

Messner described it as a “mechanism” for collaboration, the initiative that resulted from that somewhat time-consuming process he described earlier of determining in which realms the schools could collaborate, and how.

As the name suggests, the program involves creation of individually tailored programs to help solve workforce problems, specifically those related to the skills gap that has impacted virtually every sector of the economy.

Since its creation five years ago, TWO has assisted large corporations, small businesses, and broad economic sectors, said Rubenzahl, and it’s an example of something the schools could do with some success independent of one another, but to a much greater level of achievement together.

School of Thought

While TWO is the most visible manifestation of the new climate of cooperation between the two schools, there are many others, said the two presidents — starting with the meeting they were at just before sitting down with BusinessWest.

This was a gathering of state legislators to discuss matters involving public higher education, especially funding for the schools and individual initiatives. Years ago, there would have been two of these sessions, said Rubenzahl, one for HCC and one for STCC, because, well, that’s how it was done. (Actually, Greenfield Community College and Berkshire Community College had their own sessions as well.)

Now, there’s a single gathering — a practice that began the spring after the two presidents arrived — and it involves not only those two schools, but all seven public colleges and universities in Western Mass. Thus, the sessions are usually more productive because there are more people in the room, and far more convenient for legislators.

“I called Bill and said, ‘doesn’t it make sense to just have one?’” Rubenzahl recalled. “And for a lot of reasons; you’re more likely to get more legislators, and you can be more effective if you have several colleges saying the same thing as opposed to each one stating their individual needs.”

The legislative get-together is a simple yet effective example of collaboration, said Messner, adding that many others share its basic reason for being: common sense.

STCC

STCC President Ira Rubenzahl says his campus now looks for ways to collaborate with its competitor in Holyoke.

That list includes everything from faculty-development programs to the joint hiring of a consultant to create so-called wage grids; from adult basic education — something STCC has become more proficient at thanks to assistance from HCC — to the somewhat daunting task of training hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of the individuals MGM will eventually hire.

When looking back at how the current partnership on casino training came about, both presidents said this is another example of something that wouldn’t have materialized 13 years ago because of the animosity between the schools.

“We have this trust … we have this agreement — we don’t do things separately,” said Rubenzahl, adding that, years ago, the two schools probably would have fought tooth and nail for the entire pie. In this new era of cooperation, they agreed to split the pie long before the Gaming Commission determined the winner of the Western Mass. license.

“It wasn’t clear where the casino was going. Was it going to go to Palmer? Was it going to Springfield? Was it going to go to Holyoke?” he recalled. “But before we knew where it was going, we said, ‘an individual campus is not going to get involved in the training; we’re going to do it together.

“It winds up going in Springfield, but instead of fighting over it, we had already lined up our ducks,” he went on. “We had already figured out that, because Holyoke is really strong in culinary arts, if there’s culinary training, they’re going to get it. They can do it; we can’t do it. And we’re going to do some of the IT training, perhaps.”

Whenever there’s a meeting with MGM officials, the schools go together, said Messner, adding that the casino project is a good example of how the schools work together to meet the workforce needs of the five major sectors of the economy — manufacturing, healthcare, technology, hospitality, and financial services — because neither school can do all that alone.

As still another example of something happening now that wouldn’t have happened years ago — this one involving geography, or territory, as much as anything else — Messner cited initiatives blueprinted by Holyoke schools’ receiver  Stephen Zrike for Dean Technical High School.

“He wants two programs connected to college work,” Messner explained. “One is going to be in healthcare, and we’ll do that one, and the other is manufacturing, and we’re going to do that in conjunction with STCC; we’re not going to try to do that alone.”

Added Rubenzahl, “because of this [new relationship], we can do things we couldn’t do otherwise. Before, you couldn’t do that — you couldn’t go into the other college’s hometown and run a public-school program.”

Class Act

As for those shared rides to Boston and other destinations for gatherings of public-school leaders, both men laughed as they talked about how the practice has evolved and how it never would have happened with their predecessors.

“I drive, and he talks,” said Messner, referring to how a typical journey unfolds.

But while they carpool to such meetings, they usually don’t sit together once they arrive — a tradition that is more strategic than any kind of statement about how the schools, and presidents, get along.

“We don’t want to look like a two-headed monster,” said Rubenzahl, adding that the two are usually of a similar mind on most matters and don’t want to appear to be delivering comments in stereo.

Messner agreed. “You can’t cluster your strength all in one part of the room — you have to spread it out.”

In truth, and despite those seating arrangements, the schools have indeed become a two-headed monster — of collaboration.

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

Communion with Nature

By
Landscape Design Sections
Demand Grows for Low-maintenance Backyard Sanctuaries

Rick Miller

Rick Miller, president of R.J.M. Landscaping

When Cathy Hartley attended the 20th annual Four Chamber Table Top Expo and Business Networking Event last month at the Log Cabin Banquet and Meeting House in Holyoke, she heard the same sentiment expressed repeatedly.

“People said they were tired of winter; they are starved for warm weather and fresh air and wanted to talk about gardening and projects outside,” recalled the wife of Dan Hartley of Hartley Bros. Landscaping Inc. in Westfield, who works in the business.

Dave Graziano of Graziano Gardens in East Longmeadow also believes that people are unusually eager to enjoy the warm weather they hope is soon to come. “The winter seemed so long. There was a lot of snow, and many people have cabin fever,” he said. “They want to get outside, work in their yards, and plan new projects, which may bring an increase in business.”

His brother, Mark Graziano, added that demand for custom-designed outdoor living spaces has increased in recent years. “People are sitting outside, entertaining, and enjoying their property. They’re spending money on their yards instead of moving,” he told BusinessWest.

They’re also looking for creative designs that reflect their taste and personality.

“People don’t want a typical deck or patio anymore — they want something different; they want to make their yards into an entertainment space with a seating area, bar, and firepit,” said Dan Hartley. “Some even have pergolas built so the area looks like an outside living room. They put their big-screen TVs outside and have low-voltage lighting installed around the steps.”

The trend has led to an upswing in the landscape-design business, and local businesses say the spring and summer seasons look promising. In fact, Rick Miller is already booked until June.

“I think we’ll be very busy based on what we have already scheduled and the calls that are coming in,” said the president of R.J.M. Landscaping in Westfield, adding that clients began contacting him in February. “But we’ll be backlogged because of the cold weather. We can’t work until the frost ends.”

Design work requested today ranges from removing old shrubs and replanting new ones to tearing down existing decks and replacing them with new materials; from creating patios made from pavers in a wide range of colors and shapes to transforming entire front and backyards into distinctive spaces. Many people choose to have the work done over several years, but fireplaces and firepits, sitting walls, outdoor kitchens, and unique plantings are in high demand. And although budgets vary, local experts say all jobs share two common denominators: the finished product must be low-maintenance and must be sustainable.

Dave, Chris, and Mark Graziano

Dave, Chris, and Mark Graziano (left to right) say people don’t want to spend their free time working on their yards.

“People don’t have the time to garden and don’t want to be a slave to their yard; they also want to go organic. They don’t want to use chemicals or plant anything that will have an insect problem. They want perfect plants,” said Chris Graziano, adding that new varieties of perennials, shrubs, and ornamental grasses, which require cutting only once a year, make it easy to meet the request.

For this issue and its focus on landscape design, BusinessWest takes a look at what has changed in this industry as well as some local projects that have transformed homeowners’ yards into restful retreats.

Sought-after Designs

Design plans often start with a place to entertain, and Miller said patios have increased in popularity in recent years. “Decking materials have come a long way, but you can do a lot more with natural stone and pavers in terms of flexibility and creativity.”

Mark Graziano added that patios are more permanent than decks, which don’t age well due to harsh New England weather. “People want to spend money on things that will last as long as possible,” he told BusinessWest.

But some homeowners do want to keep their decks. “Sometimes an existing deck has dried, splintered, and aged, and we have to remove the material and rebuild it,” Dave added, noting that they use composite materials that can be cleaned with a hose.

In addition, fencing is being replaced by plants, trees, and shrubs that don’t need to painted or repaired. “We do a lot of buffer plantings to create privacy, using a mix of evergreens, shade and ornamental trees, and flowering shrubs,” he said.

Dan Hartley said tall bushes and trees such as Little King River Birch, which grow to 15 or 20 feet, can be strategically placed to create the look and feel of a natural oasis. “You can create great scenery and cut down the noise from busy roads and glare from headlights with them.”

Dan and Cathy Hartley

Dan and Cathy Hartley say people are spending money to create attractive landscapes that allow them to relax and entertain in their yards.

Miller said the first step in designing a landscape is to ask the homeowner a series of questions, which include how the space will be used, how many people they expect to entertain, and how often they plan to use the area.

He typically presents the homeowner with several concepts, via blueprints or three-dimensional renderings. He said many clients request outdoor kitchens, which can be as simple as installing a built-in grill, or much more elaborate, with sinks, refrigerators, and storage space set into stonework beneath a pavilion or shingled roof.

“A lot depends on peoples’ budgets,” Miller said. “Some projects we’ve done have cost upwards of $50,000.”

The hottest feature, however, is fire. “Last year, every job we did had a firepit,” he noted. “Some clients opt for gas, but most prefer to burn wood. They like to hear it crackle and want to enjoy the sound of an old-fashioned fire.”

Cathy Hartley agreed. “Sitting and staring at flames is mesmerizing and relaxing,” she said.

Dan said many clients also request outdoor fireplaces. “We’ve built them with raised hearths and stone mantels, using concrete blocks or pavers in different colors. We’ve also done inlays with pavers that look like rugs in front of the fireplaces.”

In the past, many people wanted ponds installed in their yards. But Miller said the trend is diminishing. “We’ve removed ponds in the last few years because people are tired of the upkeep and maintenance they require.”

Still, water is soothing, and waterfalls that cascade into a bed of stone or bubble out of rocks have proven to be a viable alternative. “It all comes down to low maintenance. People don’t want to spend their time trimming bushes, weeding, or taking care of their yards,” he reiterated. “Most of what we put in is as low-maintenance as you can get.”

The concept even extends to plantings in front of a home and throughout the rest of the yard. Ornamental grasses in different colors and textures, dedicuous shrubs, evergreens, and a few perennials can create an interesting mix.

“We rarely do formal plantings with tightly trimmed shrubs that have to be constantly trimmed to maintain their shape,” Miller said. “Things have come a long way since the ’70s and ’80s.”

The use of pavers around pools is also more popular than concrete, due to the ease of repair if a pipe breaks, as well as the longevity of the product. “Plus, pavers also allow for more design possibilities, due to the variety of colors, textures, and bandings available,” he said.

Far Afield

Landscape designs sometimes include three-season rooms that lead to a patio. “The room becomes an extension of their home; people can sit outside, barbeque, and enjoy the sun, but if it gets too hot or buggy, they can move to the porch where there is shade and a fan,” Cathy Hartley said. “It offers homeowners the best of both worlds.”

But budgets are the trump card in determining what is done, and many homeowners are taking time to research possibilities before contacting a landscape designer.

“They’re spending their money wisely and are also spending more time thinking about what they want than they did four or five years ago,” Dan Hartley said.

A custom design can change the look of a home. Dan spent two years creating elements for a bungalow with a sloping yard built in the middle of a hay field. A retaining wall, trees, flowers, and perennials made it appear as if it was in the woods, and a native stone wall erected near the road added to the charm. “The wall looked like it had always been there,” he noted, adding that clients often have work done in stages because their ideas continue to evolve.

Mark Graziano said the younger generations are putting more focus on curb appeal. “They want their front yards to look nice.”

But although jobs are diverse and work may be plentiful, many landscapers in recent years have had to travel far afield to keep busy. “We go all over New England,” Miller said. “We were recently in the Berkshires, on the Vermont border, and in the eastern part of the state. Our work used to be more local, but in the past two years, we have to go farther to get it.”

Dan Hartley agreed. “We are definitely going farther west,” he said, adding that, since clients are more educated, more time is also required for the planning process.

His business has had its ups and downs in the last few years. “We had times where we were really busy, then would be slow for two weeks. But it leveled out during the past year, and I think this will be a really good year,” he said.

Cathy Hartley concurred. “We have a lot of clients who have already lined up work,” she said.

Chris Graziano said his company had a great fall, with jobs that included some large commercial projects. However, change has also occurred in that arena that involve environmental considerations.

“We’ve put in rain gardens to accommodate water runoff,” Mark Graziano said, citing an example.

The Grazianos take pride in the fact that one of the brothers is at every job site from start to finish. “But in the past two or three years, we’ve had to work a little harder to maintain the flow of business, and we are traveling farther and expanding our territory,” Mark said.

Sunny Forecast

Hartley Bros. will hold free demonstrations on April 26 that include how to properly install a patio and/or retaining walk, how to plant trees, and how to design container gardens.

But Dan, Cathy, and other landscapers say most homeowners want the work done for them and will line up for it. “People are really looking forward to spring, and there is a project that fits every budget,” Miller said.

The Grazianos agree. “People just want us to make their yards beautiful,” Chris said.

“Every house is different, and we like to get creative,” Dave added.

And with a growing array of hardscapes, low-maintenance plants, and new products, the options are endless, making it possible to design and build cozy, sustainable outdoor living spaces where people can relax, entertain, and enjoy the beauty of nature in their own backyards.

Chamber Corners: Upcoming Events

By
Chamber Corners Departments

ACCGS
www.myonlinechamber.com
(413) 787-1555
• Sept. 11: After 5 – MillFest, 5-7 p.m., at Ludlow Mills. We’re bringing the After 5 networking events back bigger and better tha• ever with a MillFest. We’ll have live music, great food, lots of fun, and, of course, networking. Sponsored by Chicopee Savings Bank with support from HealthSouth and Westmass Area Development Corp. Presented i• collaboratio• with the East of the River Five Tow• Chamber of Commerce, a• affiliate of the ACCGS. Reservations are $15 for members, $25 for general admission. Proceeds will benefit the ERC5 Scholarship Fund. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com or by calling Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.
• Sept. 18: Wester• Mass. Business Forum, 8:30 a.m.-noon, at Holyoke Community College. Businesses operating today are ofte• overwhelmed by state and federal environmental, health, and safety requirements. It’s especially tough for small and mid-size businesses to keep up to date. Joi• the EPA, DEP, and other state agencies and the state’s leading business organizations for a half-day briefing where you’ll be give• the tools to ru• your business safely and i• compliance with the law — and maybe save some money i• the end. Presented i• collaboratio• with Associated Industries of Mass., the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, Partners for a Healthier Community, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Reservations are $25 for the first employee per company, $15 per employee thereafter. Reservations must be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com.
• Sept. 24: Pastries, Politics, and Policy, 8-9 a.m., at the TD Bank Conference Center, 1441 Mai• St., Springfield. For those political and policy junkies. Joi• us for our debut event featuring a policy expert and member of the Patrick administratio• for a breakfast and roundtable discussion. Reservations are $15 for members, $25 for general admission. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com or by calling Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.
• Oct. 1: Rake i• the Business Tabletop and Business Networking Event, 4:30-7 p.m., at the Castle of Knights, Chicopee. This unique tabletop showcase provides businesses and organizations with a• affordable opportunity to exhibit their products and services. Presented i• collaboratio• with the Greater Chicopee, Holyoke, and Westfield chambers of commerce. Exhibitor space is $100 and includes a• 8-foot table, two exhibitor passes, and six complimentary passes for admission. Reservations to attend are $5. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com or by calling Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.
• Oct. 2: Business@Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at the Log Cabi• i• Holyoke. Speed Networking — joi• us for our take o• speed dating, a fast-paced way for you to work the room, making 50 new contacts at one breakfast. Get your elevator speech ready for this unique event. Sponsored by Series Sponsor Masiello Employment Services. Reservations are $20 for members, $30 for general admission. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com or by calling Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.
• Oct. 9: Lunch ‘n’ Learn, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., at One Financial Plaza Community Room, 1350 Mai• St., Springfield. The program, “Birds Tweet, but Should You? Is Social Media Right for your Business?” will discuss strategies behind using social media, determining your retur• o• investment and tips o• how to best deploy social media to your advantage. Reservations are $20 for members, $30 for general admission, and includes networking time and a boxed lunch. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com or by calling Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.
• Oct. 24: A Chocolate Affair, 6-9 p.m., at Chez Josef i• Agawam. Indulge yourself i• chocolate, shopping, and networking. Presented by the Professional Women’s Chamber, a• affiliate of the ACCGS. Exhibitor space is $70. Reservations to attend are $40. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com or by calling Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.
• Oct. 25: Super 60, 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., at Chez Josef i• Agawam. Celebrate the region’s top-performing companies. Now, i• its 24th year, this awards program celebrates the success of the fastest-growing privately owned businesses i• the regio• that continue to make significant contributions to the strength of the regional economy. Presented by Health New England with support from Hampde• Bank, Sulliva• Hayes & Quinn, the Republican, and WWLP-TV 22. Reservations are $50 for members, $70 for general admission. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com or by contacting Cecile Larose at (413) 755-1313.

AMHERST AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.amherstarea.com
(413) 253-0700
• Sept. 13: Amherst Area Chamber Luncheon, 12:30-2 p.m., at the Lord Jeffery Inn, 30 Boltwood Ave., Amherst. Sponsored by UMass Five College Credit Union. Celebrate the growth and impact of local agriculture and the 20th anniversary of Community Involved i• Sustaining Agriculture (CISA). Guest speaker Phillip Korman, executive director of CISA, will discuss the economic impacts and growth of the “Local Hero” movement i• the Pioneer Valley. Tickets cost $25 per person. RSVP to [email protected].
• Sept. 25: Chamber After 5 at Florence Savings Bank, Block Party, 5-7 p.m. Hosted by and sponsored by Florence Savings Bank, 385 College St., Amherst. Explore the whole group of businesses at Amherst Crossing: Amherst Pharmacy, Coldwell Banker-Upto• Massamont Realtors, and Pioneer Valley Ideal Weight Loss. Enjoy tasty treats from Portabella Catering. Admission: $10 for members, $15 for non-members. RSVP to [email protected].
• Oct. 3: Amherst Area Chamber Annual Awards Dinner, 5:30-9 p.m., at the UMass Student Unio• Ballroom. Presented by PeoplesBank. Sponsored by J.F.Conlo• & Associates. Legacy Award: Joh• Coull; Lifetime Achievement i• Business: Ronald Nathan, Amherst Insurance Agency/the Natha• Agencies; Community Service: Family Outreach of Amherst; Chamber MVP: Cinda Jones, W.D. Cowls Land Co. Admission: $75 per ticket.
• Oct. 18: Legislative Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at the Lord Jeffery Inn. Sponsored by Wester• Massachusetts Electric Co. Admission: $15 for members, $20 for non-members.

GREATER EASTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.easthamptonchamber.org
(413) 527-9414
• Sept. 12: Networking By Night Business Card Exchange, 5-7 p.m. Hosted and co-sponsored by Eastworks Event Space, Suite 160, 116 Pleasant St., Easthampton. Co-sponsored by Riff’s Joint, which is providing hors d’ouevres. Beer and wine compliments of Eastworks. Door prizes. Tickets: $5 for members, $15 for future members.
• Sept. 13-14: Fall Recycling Days (Sept. 13: 1-4 p.m.; Sept. 14: 8:30 a.m. to noon). Responsibly dispose of your old computer, monitor, TV, stereo, and/or home or office appliances. Location: Corner of Liberty and Mechanic streets (across from the Liberty Commons Building), Easthampton. Recycling services courtesy of Duseau Trucking, Hatfield. Ope• to the public. Contact the chamber office at (413) 527-9414 for recycling fees; 100% of fees will benefit chamber community programs.
• Sept. 17: GRIST — Get Real Individual Support Today, 9-10 a.m. at the Greater Easthampto• Chamber of Commerce, 33 Unio• St., Easthampton. The GRIST group is a free member benefit, a• ongoing small group of folks who meet regularly to share ideas and get advice o• the daily challenges of running a successful business. RSVP to group leaders Derek Allard at [email protected] or (413) 282-9957, or Fra• Fahey at [email protected] or (413) 529-1189. Free to chamber members and future members.
• Oct. 1: GRIST — Get Real Individual Support Today, 9-10 a.m. at the Greater Easthampto• Chamber of Commerce, 33 Unio• St., Easthampton. The GRIST group is a free member benefit, a• ongoing small group of folks who meet regularly to share ideas and get advice o• the daily challenges of running a successful business. RSVP to group leaders Derek Allard at [email protected] or (413) 282-9957, or Fra• Fahey at [email protected] or (413) 529-1189. Free to chamber members and future members.
• Oct. 8: Mayoral Forum, 6 p.m., Eastworks Meeting Space, Suite 160, 116 Pleasant St., Easthampton. Lear• about the Easthampto• mayoral candidates’ views o• business and their plans for the future of Easthampton. Free and ope• to the public.
• Oct. 10: Networking by Night Business Card Exchange, 5-7 p.m. Hosted and sponsored by Cernak Buick, 102 Northampto• St., Easthampton. Hors d’ouevres, beer, and wine available. Door prizes. Tickets: $5 for members, $15 for future members.
• Oct. 15: GRIST — Get Real Individual Support Today, 9-10 a.m. at the Greater Easthampto• Chamber of Commerce, 33 Unio• St., Easthampton. The GRIST group is a free member benefit, a• ongoing small group of folks who meet regularly to share ideas and get advice o• the daily challenges of running a successful business. RSVP to group leaders Derek Allard at [email protected] or (413) 282-9957, or Fra• Fahey at [email protected] or (413) 529-1189. Free to chamber members and future members.
• Oct. 21: Celebrity Bartenders Night, 6-9 p.m., at Opa-Opa Steakhouse & Brewery, 169 College Highway, Southampton. Joi• us for a night of fu• with local celebrities mixing drinks. Tips benefit the chamber’s holiday lighting fund. Raffles and more fun. Admission: free.

HOLYOKE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.holycham.com
(413) 534-3376
• Sept. 10: “Grow Your Business with E-mail and Social Media Marketing,” from 8:30 (registration) to 10:30 a.m., at the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce Executive Conference Room, 177 High St. Sponsored by PeoplesBank and the Republican. This workshop is designed to give small businesses and nonprofit organizations some simple ideas for growing their customer, prospect, or member networks by using e-mail and social-media marketing. Admissio• is free. Brought to you by Constant Contact. For reservations, call the chamber office at (413) 534-3376.
• Sept. 11: Legislative Coffee Hour, 7:45-9:15 a.m. Hosted by Slainte, 80 Jarvis Ave., Holyoke. Sponsored by Dowd Insurance, Loomis Communities, and Resnic, Beauregard, Waite and Driscoll. Hear what the Holyoke mayoral candidates have to say about some of the key topics that will affect the city of Holyoke. Each candidate will have a• opportunity to speak and will take questions from the audience. Cost: $18 for chamber members, $25 for non-members. Continental breakfast included. The public is invited to attend. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 to sig• up.
• Sept. 17: Holyoke Day at the Big E, 5 p.m.
• Sept. 18: Chamber Annual Clambake, 5-7:30 p.m., at Holyoke Country Club, 1 Country Club Road. Sponsored by United Water, Pioneer Valley Railroad, and Westfield Bank. All tickets are $35. The public is invited to attend. Free golf lesso• at 3:30 p.m., putting contest, music, chowder cook-off, games, door prizes, and raffles. For reservations, call the chamber office at (413) 534-3376.
• Sept. 24: “The Power of E-mail Marketing,” bonus session: “Getting Started with Constant Contact E-mail Marketing,” from 8:30 (registration) to 10 a.m., at the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce Executive Conference Room, 177 High St., Holyoke. Sponsored by PeoplesBank and the Republican. Attendance is free. For reservations, call the chamber office at 413-534-3376.
• Oct. 1: Table Top Showcase, 4:30-7 p.m., at the Chicopee Castle of Knights. Four area chambers — Greater Holyoke, Chicopee, Westfield, and the ACCGS — are getting together to present a tabletop mini-trade show. Tables cost $100. Call the Holyoke Chamber at (413) 534-3376 to secure your table.
• Oct. 3: “Ask a Chamber Expert: the Basics of Blueprint Reading,” 8:30-10 a.m., at the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce, Executive Conference Room, 177 High St., Holyoke. Lear• how to define different types of scales used o• drawings; identify the height, width, and length dimensions of a drawing; interpret the various symbols and notations used o• a drawing; distinguish betwee• plan, elevation, section, and detail views; and become familiar with basic plan-reading terminology. Price includes a continental breakfast. Cost: $10 for members; $25 at the door and for non-members. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 to sig• up.
• Oct. 9: Autum• Business Breakfast, 7:30-9 a.m., at the Log Cabin. Sponsored by the Republica• and Holyoke Medical Center. Recognizing new members, business milestones, and networking breakfast meeting. Cost: members, $22 i• advance, $28 at the door. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 to sig• up.
• Oct. 16: Chamber After Hours, 5-7 p.m., at the Center for Health Education, 404 Jarvis Ave., Holyoke (former Gryn• & Barrett Studios). Business networking event to take place at HCC’s newest educatio• facility. Networking, 50/50 raffle, and door prizes. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for the public. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 to sig• up.
• Oct. 22: Social Media with Constant Contact Workshop, 8:30-10:30 a.m., at the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce, Executive Conference Room, 177 High St., Holyoke. Sponsored by PeoplesBank and the Republican. This information-packed seminar offers a basic review of the essential strategies and best practices a business or organizatio• should understand to successfully get started with social-media marketing. Admissio• is free. Brought to you by Constant Contact. For reservations, call the chamber office at (413) 534-3376.
• Oct. 30: Manufacturing Breakfast, 7:30-9:30 a.m., at the Wherehouse, 109 Lyma• St., Holyoke. For reservations, call the chamber office at (413) 534-3376.

MASSACHUSETTS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.massachusettschamberofcommerce.com
(413) 525-2506
• Nov. 12: Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting & Awards Luncheon, 9 a.m. registration, at the DoubleTree, Westborough. For more informatio• o• ticket sales and sponsorship opportunities, call the chamber office at (413) 525-2506 or e-mail [email protected].

GREATER NORTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.explorenorthampton.com
(413) 584-1900

• Sept. 11: Arrive@5, 5-7 p.m. Monthly chamber networking event. Sponsored and hosted by Baystate Health Outpatient Center, at Northampto• Crossing, 325 King St. Cost:  $10 for members, $15 for non-members. RSVP to [email protected].
• Sept. 26: Business Planning Workshop, 3:30-5 p.m., at the Northampto• Chamber, 99 Pleasant St., Northampton. Presented by the staff of the Frankli• County Community Development Corp. This 90-minute sessio• informs business owners about business planning, the loa• process, where to get help, and how to launch a food product and use the Wester• MA Food Processing Center. Lear• about available resources and walk out knowing your next step. Admissio• is free, but space is limited. RSVP to [email protected].
• Sept. 25: Incite Information, 7:30-9 a.m., at Look Park: the Garde• House. Hosted by the Greater Northampto• Chamber of Commerce. Sponsors: United Personnel, Webber & Grinnell, and Six-Point Creative Works. The speaker will be state Sen. Senator Sta• Rosenberg. Incite Informatio• is a four-part series o• the future of business i• the Pioneer Valley. The format and topics were developed from a survey of chamber members, i• which it was clear that business leaders are looking for more avenues for relevant and highly local informatio• that will help them make decisions more effectively. The series will include expert speakers who will address big issues with a local mindset. Topics for this year will include economic development, high-speed transportation, higher education, and the impact of work culture. Cost: $20 for members, $30 for non-members. RSVP required. To register, contact Esther at [email protected].
• Oct. 2: Annual Chamber Ope• House, 5-7 p.m. Sponsors: Innovative Business Systems, Pioneer Training, and Crocker Communications. The chamber’s largest fall networking event, the ope• house is designed to introduce prospective members to the chamber and its members. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members. RSVP to Esther at [email protected].
• Oct. 8: Business to Customer Marketing Workshop: “On-the-spot Marketing Tips for Increasing Foot Traffic,” 1-3 p.m. Hosted and sponsored by the Greater Northampto• Chamber of Commerce. Presented by the Creative Marketing Group. The Creative Marketing Group will meet with you and your fellow retail business owners and managers at our conference-room table, liste• to your marketing and communications concerns, and help you brainstorm practical, professional solutions o• the spot. Lear• more about how to strategize, advertise, brand, and promote your business, reach the media, and maximize your message i• person, i• print, and online. Cost: free, but pre-registratio• is required, and space is limited. To register, contact Esther at [email protected]
• Oct. 22: Business to Business Marketing Workshop, 3:30-5 p.m., at the Greater Northampto• Chamber of Commerce. Cost: free, but pre-registratio• is required, and space is limited. To register, contact Esther at [email protected].
• Nov. 6: Arrive@5 Chamber Networking Event, 5-7 p.m. Hosted by the World War II Club. Sponsors: Homeward Vets. Catered by Big Kats Catering. The chamber will be collecting donations for Homeward Vets. A list of needed donations will be posted o• its website. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members. RSVP to Esther at [email protected].

WEST OF THE RIVER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.ourwrc.com
(413) 426-3880
• Sept. 26: Coffee with Mayor Cohen, 8-9:30 a.m., at the OMG Training Center, 604 Silver St. Agawam. For more information, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or e-mail [email protected].
• Oct. 2: Wicked Wednesday, 5-7 p.m., at Westfield Bank, 655 Mai• St., Agawam. Wicked Wednesdays are monthly social events hosted by various businesses and restaurants. These events bring members and non-members together to network i• a laid-back atmosphere. Free for chamber members, $10 for non-members. Event is ope• to the public, but non-members must pay at the door. For more information, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or e-mail [email protected].
• Oct. 10: West Springfield Mayoral Debate, 6-8 p.m., at West Springfield City Hall. Event is ope• to the public and free for both members and non-members. For more information, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or e-mail [email protected].
• Oct. 17: Business with Bacon, 7-9 a.m., at Crestview Country Club. Speaker: Gaming Commissioner Bruce Stebbins. Cost: $25 for chamber members, $30 for non-members. For more information, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880, or e-mail [email protected].
• Oct. 23: Business to Business Expo, hosted by the West of the River Chamber, the North Central CT Chamber, the Bradley Regional Chamber, and the East Windsor Chamber, 4:30-7:30 p.m. Hosted by Holiday Inn, Enfield. Cost: $100 for a six-foot table if you are a member of any chamber and pay i• full by Sept. 27, or $150 for a six-foot table if you are not a member of any chamber or do not pay i• full by Sept. 27. For more information, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880, or email [email protected].

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.westfieldbiz.org
(413) 568-1618
• Sept. 11: September WestNet Connection, 5-7 p.m., at the Holiday In• Express, 39 Southampto• Road, Westfield. Sponsored by CityStage & Symphony Hall. A• evening of networking. Don’t forget your business cards, complimentary hors d’oeuvres, and cocktails. Walk-ins are welcome. Cost: $10 for members, $15 cash for non-members. To register, call Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618, or e-mail [email protected].
• Sept. 13: Chamber Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at the 104th Fighter Wing ANG, 175 Falco• Dr., Westfield. Platinum sponsor: Westfield Bank. Gold sponsors: Berkshire Bank and United Bank. Guest Speaker: Eva• Dobelle, president, Westfield State University. Cost: $25 for members. $30 for non-members. To register, call Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618, or e-mail [email protected].
• Oct. 7: Mayor’s Coffee Hour, 8-9 a.m., at the Forum House, 55 Broad St., Westfield. Mayor Knapik will speak about all that is happening around Westfield and field questions. Free and ope• to the pubic. To register, call Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618, or e-mail [email protected].
• Oct. 9: October WestNet Connection, 5-7 p.m., at East Mountai• Country Club, 1458 East Mountai• Road, Westfield. A• evening of networking; don’t forget your business cards. Complimentary hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. Walk-ins are welcome. Tickets: $10 for members, $15 cash for non-members. To register, call Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618, or e-mail [email protected].

Chamber Corners: Upcoming Events

By
Chamber Corners Departments

ACCGS
www.myonlinechamber.com
(413) 787-1555
• June 5: ACCGS June Business@Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at the Richard B. Flynn Campus Union at Springfield College, 263 Alden St., Springfield. Guest speaker will be Kirk Smith, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Springfield, speaking on “A New Way of Doing the Business of a Nonprofit: The Importance of Being VIVID!” Salute to Richard Flynn for his service as president of Springfield College as he leaves the college after 14 years to enjoy retirement. Also to be saluted will be O&G Industries, celebrating 90 years in business. Chief Greeter: John Doleva, president and CEO of Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Season Pass Sponsor: Freedom Credit Union; Season Sign Sponsor: FastSigns; Speaker Sponsor: Jewish Geriatric Services; Coffee Bar Sponsor: Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C.; Table Sponsor: La Quinta Inn and Suites. Cost is $20 for members, $30 general admission. Tickets are available at www.myonlinechamber.com or by e-mailing Cecile Larose at [email protected].
• June 7: “Small Business and the Affordable Care Act — What’s Coming?” noon-1:30 p.m., at Ludlow Country Club, 1 Tony Lema Dr., Ludlow. A panel of experts will discuss the impact of the Affordable Care Act on the regional business community and economy at the East of the River Five Town Chamber of Commerce (ERC5) Annual Meeting. Panelists will include Rick Lord, president of Associated Industries of Massachusetts; Peter Straley, president of Health New England; Steven Bradley, vice president of Government, Community Relations, and Public Affairs for Baystate Health; and David Leslie, controller for Glenmeadow Retirement Community. Cost is $20 for members, $30 general admission. Tickets are available at www.myonlinechamber.com or by e-mailing Cecile Larose at [email protected].
• June 12: Viva Las Chamber!, the June After-5, 5-7 p.m., at Chez Josef, 176 Shoemaker Lane, Agawam. Cost is $5 for members, $10 general admission. Tickets are available at www.myonlinechamber.com or by e-mailing Cecile Larose at [email protected].
• June 26: ACCGS Annual Meeting, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., at the Sheraton Springfield, 1 Monarch Place, Springfield. Featured speaker will be James T. Brett, president and CEO of the New England Council, New England’s voice of business on Capitol Hill. The chamber will also announce this year’s Richard J. Moriarty Citizen of the Year. Cost is $40 for members, $60 general admission. Tickets are available at www.myonlinechamber.com or by e-mailing Cecile Larose at [email protected].

CHICOPEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.chicopeechamber.org
(413) 594-2101
• May 22: Business After Hours, 5-7 p.m., at Berkshire Bank, 1339 Memorial Dr. in Chicopee. For more information, contact the chamber at (413) 594-2101 or e-mail [email protected].
• June 5: Annual Golf Tournament, 10 a.m. start, at Chicopee Country Club. Cost is $125 per golfer; $100 for tee sponsorship. Hole-in-one sponsors: Curry Honda-Curry Nissan and Teddy Bear Pools & Spas. Cart sponsor: Pilgrim Interiors Inc.

FRANKLIN COUNTY
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.franklincc.org
(413) 773-5463
• June 21: 94th Annual Meeting and Legislative Breakfast, 7:30-9 a.m. at Eaglebrook School in Deerfield. State representatives and senators have been invited to speak. Cost is $12 for FCCC members, $15 for non-members.

GREATER EASTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.easthamptonchamber.org
(413) 527-9414
• June 13: Networking By Night Business Card Exchange, 5-7 p.m. Hosted by Freedom Credit Union and Wireless Zone, 422 Main St., Easthampton. Enjoy hors d’ouevres, host beer and wine, and door prizes. Tickets are $5 for members, $15 for future members.
• July 26: 29th Annual Golf Tournament, starting at 9 a.m., at Southampton Country Club. Reserve now before the event sells out. Cost is $400 per team. Tee sponsorships available for $75 and $125. Contact the chamber to sign up a team or arrange a tee sponsor, a raffle prize, or gift donation.

GREATER HOLYOKE
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.holycham.com
(413) 534-3376
• May 21: Chamber Business Connections, 5-7 p.m. Sponsored and hosted by Sovereign Consulting, 4 Open Square Way, Suite 307. If you are in the architecture, engineering, or development industry, please attend as the chamber’s guest. Cost is $10 for chamber members, $15 for non-members. Presented by the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce Ambassadors Committee. Join your friends and colleagues for this informal evening of networking.
• May 29: Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting, 5 p.m., at the Delaney House in Holyoke. Program followed by grand reception, including the Fifield Awards. Sponsored by the Greater Holyoke Chamber Corporate Leaders. Cocktails from 5 to 5:30; annual meeting, 5:30; dinner begins at 6. Admission: $30 in advance, $40 at the door. Open to the public. The chamber will also honor chamber member retirees Rosalie Deane, Holyoke Housing Authority; David Dupont, superintendent of Holyoke Public Schools; and John Kelley, People’s United Bank.
• June 19: Chamber Business Connections, 5-7 p.m., Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, 100 Bigelow St., Holyoke. Sponsored by Northeast IT Systems and Westfield Bank. If you are in the IT/computer equipment, software, or sales industry, please attend as the chamber’s guest. Cost is $10 for chamber members, $15 for non-members. Join your friends and colleagues for this informal evening of networking.
• June 20: Ask a Chamber Expert Series: Blueprint Reading, 8:30-10 a.m., Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce Conference Room, 177 High St., Holyoke. Cost: $10 for members, $25 for the public, includes a continental breakfast. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 to sign up, or register at holyokechamber.com.
• June 26: Summer Recognition Breakfast, 7:30-9 a.m., Yankee Pedlar, 1866 Northampton St., Holyoke. Cost: $20 for members, $25 for the public. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 to sign up, or register at holyokechamber.com.

MASSACHUSETTS
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
(413) 525-2506
• June 26: Manufacturing Matters Lunch Meeting, at Storrowton Tavern, West Springfield. Tickets are $30 for members, $40 for non-members. For more information on ticket sales, call (413) 525-2506 or e-mail [email protected].
• July 22: Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce Golf Tournament, at Tekoa Country Club, Westfield. Shotgun start at 11 a.m. Cost is $100 per golfer. For more information on registration and sponsorship opportunities, call (413) 525-2506 or e-mail [email protected].
• Nov. 12: Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting & Awards Luncheon, 9 a.m., at the Double Tree, Westborough. For more information on ticket sales and sponsorship opportunities, contact the chamber office at (413) 525-2506 or e-mail [email protected]

GREATER NORTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.explorenorthampton.com
(413) 584-1900
• June 6: June Arrive @ 5, 5-7 p.m. Hosted and Sponsored by Florence Savings Bank, 85 Main St., Florence. Help us celebrate Florence Savings Bank’s 140th anniversary. Cost is $10 for members. RSVP at [email protected].

NORTHAMPTON AREA YOUNG PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY
www.thenayp.com
(413) 584-1900
• June 12: Nonprofit Board Fair, 5 p.m., at the  Smith College Conference Center. Part of NAYP’s mission is to promote leadership and volunteerism in the next generation of community leaders. The Nonprofit Board Fair will feature more than 20 organizations that are currently and actively seeking the next generation of leaders, and provide opportunities to showcase board, committee, and volunteering opportunities that exist at their nonprofits. The fair offers attendees a chance to hold discussions with more than 20 local nonprofits in one location. Sponsored by Gage-Wiley & Co. Inc. This event will take the place of NAYP’s June Networking Social, and is open for all community members at no cost.

PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S CHAMBER
www.professionalwomenschamber.com
(413) 755-1310
• June 6: Women of the Year Celebration Banquet, 5:30-8 p.m., at the Cedars Banquet Hall, 375 Island Pond Road, Springfield. Celebrate the accomplishments of Jean Deliso, president and owner of Deliso Financial and Insurance Services. Cost is $55 per person. For tickets, visit www.myonlinechamber.com or e-mail Cecile Larose at [email protected].

WEST OF THE RIVER
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.ourwrc.com
413-426-3880
• June 5: Wicked Wednesday, 5-7 p.m., at Lattitude. Wicked Wednesdays are monthly social events hosted by various businesses and restaurants. These events bring members and non-members together to socially network in a laid-back atmosphere. Free for vhamber members, $10 for non-members. This event is open to the public. Guests must pay at the door if they are non-members. For more information, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or e-mail [email protected].
• June 20: West of the River Chamber of Commerce Annual Breakfast Meeting, 7-9 a.m. at Chez Josef in Agawam. Tickets are $25 for members, $30 for non-members. Featured speaker: Mark Darren Gregor, business and career coach. Presenting sponsor: Hard Rock Hotel and Casino of New England. For more information on registration and sponsorship opportunities contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or [email protected].
• August 19: West of the River Chamber of Commerce 10th Annual Golf Tournament, at Springfield Country Club, West Springfield. Cost is $125 per golfer. Presenting sponsor: Hard Rock Hotel and Casino of New England. For more information on registration and sponsorship opportunities, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or email [email protected].

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.westfieldbiz.org
(413) 568-1618
• June 10: Mayor’s Coffee Hour, 8-9 p.m., at the Arbors, 40 Court St., Westfield. Mayor Knapik will speak about all that is happening around Westfield and field questions. The event is free and open to the pubic. To register, call Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618 or e-mail [email protected]
• June 12: June WestNet Connection, 5-7 p.m. Hosted by Westfield Bank of Southwick, 462 College Highway, Southwick. An evening of networking; don’t forget your business cards. Complimentary hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. Walk-ins are welcome. Tickets: $10 for members, $15 cash for non-members.  To register, call Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618 or e-mail [email protected].
• June 14: June 2013 Chamber Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at Shaker Farms Country Club, 866 Shaker Road, Westfield. Platinum Sponsor: First Niagara. Guest speaker: Steven Grossman, treasurer and receiver general. Anniversary salutes: the Carson Center, 50th; East Mountain Country Club, 50th. Tickets: $25 for members, $30 for non-members. To register, call Pam Bussell at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618 or email [email protected].

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