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He’s Found the Right Ingredients for Career Success

Doug Bowen

Doug Bowen, president and CEO, PeoplesBank


Doug Bowen says cooking is a big part of who he is — in more ways than one.
He and his wife, Anna, have traveled to Europe a few times for culinary tours, or extensive learning experiences (more on those later), and he really enjoys bringing new recipes off the page of a book and onto a plate — although he admits that Anna does most of the cooking at home.
Meanwhile, he jokes that it was someone else’s cooking that just might have enabled him to launch what has become a 35-year career in banking, all with the same institution: PeoplesBank.
“My wife’s mom was a short-order cook at one of the luncheonettes in Holyoke,” he said while explaining how he eventually landed work after a lengthy search in the midst of the recession of the mid-’70s. “It just happened to be where Warren Rhodes, the president of the bank, went for lunch every single day; she just kept plugging me to Warren.”
Whether it was his future mother-in-law’s persistent selling or Bowen’s résumé that landed him in PeoplesBank’s leadership-development program is a matter of speculation. What is known is that Bowen made it all the way from the teller’s window (that’s where all those in the program began, and still start today) to the president’s office, and in so doing, he provided a dramatic illustration of one of the bank’s commonly used tag lines: ‘a passion for what is possible.’
“We make it happen every day for employees and customers,” said Bowen. “When you start as a teller and end up in the corner office, that just shows that anything’s possible.”
These days, Bowen and the extended team are making PeoplesBank known for much more than a catchy marketing slogan. Indeed, it is taking the lead in everything from ecologically minded programs and ‘green lending’ to corporate philanthropy.
Indeed, toward the end of the interview in Bowen’s office at the PeoplesBank Executive Office Park in Holyoke, the bucket of a boom truck suddenly appeared in one of the windows, lifting a worker toward the top of one of the light poles in the parking lot outside the complex.
“We’re replacing the bulbs with more energy-efficient products,” he explained, adding that this exercise is one of many at the bank, which acquired the office tower a decade ago, that fall into the broad category of green initiatives. Others include everything from a LEED-certified branch in Springfield, opened earlier this year, to LED lights on holiday displays, which those in the boom truck were also putting up.
The environmentally friendly steps are like PeoplesBank’s now-regular standing near the top of the Boston Business Journal’s annual list of top corporate givers in the Commonwealth, and its recent listing among “America’s Best Banks to Work For” — just some of the ways the institution reflects the character of its president and CEO, who is quite involved in the community.
But Bowen, whose leadership efforts in all of these areas, as well as his extensive work in the community — he currently sits on six boards — helped make him one of BusinessWest’s first Difference Makers in 2009, is prolific in his use of the words ‘team’ and ‘we.’ And he states repeatedly that leadership in such things as corporate giving and going green reflect the mood and direction of an institution, not one person.
Consider this remark when he was asked about his management style and strategy. “I’m a big fan of ‘good to great,’ and I think it all starts with people, getting the right people on the bus, as they say metaphorically, getting them in the right seats, and then providing the driving and direction for the bus. My philosophy is simple: you get good people, give them some direction, and then get out of the room; they do all the heavy lifting.”
For this, the latest installment of its Profiles in Business series, BusinessWest talks with Bowen about everything from his take on the local banking scene to his fascination with wine and wine-making, to what he called a “holistic approach” to both work and life.

Shedding Some Light
Bowen said the economic conditions that prevailed when he graduated from Salem State College in the spring of 1975 were quite similar to what exists today.
“The unemployment rate was around 9%, about what it is now,” he explained. “I was looking for work — GE was right there in Lynn, and Polaroid was close by as well — but no one was hiring.”
Engaged to be married to Anna, his high-school sweetheart, at that time, Bowen started focusing his employment search in Western Mass., and eventually applied to jobs at PeoplesBank, MassMutual, and the former Third National Bank. With that assist, whatever it was worth, from his future mother-in-law, he landed in downtown Holyoke — and has never left.
He credited the leadership-development program with putting him on the proper path and honing the skills he would need to stay on it. And he now considers such talent development some of the most important and intriguing work he does.
“Our program is a little more accelerated now — we put people through it in about six to 12 months as opposed to two years when I did it,” he said. “And we still start people off as tellers, because that’s great experience. Most banks don’t have programs like this anymore, but we’re at a size where we need to have a constant influx of these management-development candidates, so we hire two to three a year, sometimes out of the Isenberg School of Management at UMass, and sometimes out of other schools in New England.
“Leadership development is probably the most fun part of my job; it’s rewarding to see these young people come on and work their way up,” he continued. “I was given the opportunity so many years ago, and it’s great to see these people at the beginning of their careers and know that there’s no limits for them. People can do what I did.”
Indeed, to say that Bowen made the most of his opportunity would be a huge understatement. Before becoming just the 10th president in the history of the 125-year-old bank in 2007, he held just about every title one could have in such an institution.
He acknowledged that most people don’t stay with one bank for 35 years, but quickly added that PeoplesBank is one of a maybe a handful of institutions in this region that someone could work with for that long, given the large number of banks that have disappeared from the landscape or been absorbed by larger banks.
“I was fortunate to work in pretty much all areas of the bank,” he explained. “I started in retail, moved on to operations, and actually trained to be the new chief financial officer, but the person who was going to retire didn’t, so I moved on, which was a good thing. I moved on to the lending areas — consumer lending, residential mortgages, and then in the early ’80s, started the commercial-loan department — before eventually becoming executive vice president.”
Today, Bowen is driving the bus at PeoplesBank, in that metaphoric sense. He has steered it toward leadership in not only green initiatives such as paper-use reduction and those LED lights on the Christmas decorations, but also in green lending. The bank has funded a number of clean-energy business initiatives, ranging from wind-power projects to a partnership with the Holyoke Gas & Electric Department to develop and expand hydroelectric facilities.
He’s also taking the bank ever higher on the Boston Business Journal’s list of the most charitable companies doing business in Massachusetts. In the most recent ranking, involving 2009 numbers, the bank was at number 35 with $705,000 in corporate giving, behind only MassMutual on the list of companies based in Western Mass. Two years earlier, it was 52nd, at $412,000.
Bowen said the bank has historically been generous in its corporate giving, but management, and the workforce as a whole, have made this even more of a priority in recent years.
As for the local banking scene, Bowen said it is more competitive than ever, and that individual institutions, like businesses in most all sectors, must work harder, and be more diligent and creative, to record the profits they have enjoyed over the years.
As an example, he cited one of the bank’s recent initiatives, a drive to open new checking accounts that included a $125 incentive, to match the bank’s 125th birthday.
“It was hugely successful; we did better than we anticipated,” he said, adding quickly that banks have to keep such creative ideas coming. “You need more programs like that because people will copy your idea or try something similar; you have to keep developing new concepts for generating business.”

Recipe for Success
Bowen says PeoplesBank got what he calls a “two-fer” when it hired him.
By that, he meant that his wife, Anna, while never actually an employee, has nonetheless been a visible and, in some cases, integral part of some of the things Bowen and the bank have been doing within the community.
“The bank got me, and it got her, too … she’s such a huge part of my life,” he said, adding quickly that the two do almost everything together, be it in Western Mass. or the Hawaiian islands, where they vacation for a few weeks every late winter, around the time the whales are migrating.
“Sometimes, we’ll kayak out to see the whales — there are hundreds of them,” he said, adding that Hawaii is the perfect place to leave the often-frenetic pace, and formal wardrobe, of a bank president far behind. “It’s a great place to relax and unwind; it’s all T-shirts, flip-flops, and shorts.”
Things were a little different when the two traveled to France and later Italy with friends to learn from some of the best chefs in the world.
The first culinary tour, to the Bordeaux region of France, was 10 compelling days spent with Jean-Pierre Moulle, long-time head chef at the renowned Chez Panisse restaurant, and his wife, Denise.
“It was an incredible experience,” Bowen recalled. “We’d go to the market every day and pick out what we wanted, we’d cook for a good part of the day, then go do a little sightseeing in the afternoon — maybe see cheesemakers or see where they made wine barrels — and then come back, finish cooking, and eat what we had prepared; we had a blast.”
The second trip was to Tuscany in Italy, “another 10-day adventure,” Bowen called it, at a facility connected with a restaurant. “Some of the things we cooked were actually served to guests that evening, and I guess we did OK — no complaints,” he said. “It’s a great way to learn about food, and for a long time I’ve been fascinated by food and how to properly prepare it.”
Bowen was quick to say that he had nothing entrepreneurial in mind when it comes to his culinary interests, and dispatched the notion that he might spend retirement running a restaurant somewhere.
“No, this is something I like to do on a very small scale; I’d never want to do this on a large scale for other people,” he explained, adding that he rarely cooks at home. “My wife is a great cook; on most days, my job is to pick out the wine for dinner, which I’m fine with. Maybe down the road I’ll do more cooking.”

The Bottom Line
Bowen says he’s not looking too far down the road at this point. He’s only 57 and not even thinking about retirement, except to the extent that, when it does come, he’ll be able to spend more time, perhaps a month or more, in Hawaii each year.
“I do two weeks now; maybe I can get it to three — I’ll have to check with the board,” he joked.
In the meantime, he’s perfectly content to keep driving the bus for the bank, helping to find new ways to be green, giving back to the community, and, perhaps most importantly, helping people unlock their passion for what’s possible.

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

Sections Supplements
At Storrowton Tavern, History and Fine Dining Come Together

From left, Vincent Calvanese, Donald Calvanese, and their father, Andrew Calvanese,

From left, Vincent Calvanese, Donald Calvanese, and their father, Andrew Calvanese, say they love the history of Storrowtown and the memories it has created for patrons.

Three things prompted Andrew Calvanese to leave Suffield Country Club in 2003 and take over the food operation at Storrowton Tavern in West Springfield with his sons Vincent and Donald, after operating the Connecticut club’s restaurant and pub for 18 years.
“First, there was the challenge of revitalizing an incredible establishment. Second, it was a great opportunity for my two sons. And third, there are the memories at the Tavern, not only that I have, but that many other people had,” he told BusinessWest. “I love this place because of the personal feelings I have attached to it. And I love people, and I wanted to bring it back for them.”
The historic tavern that is a vital part of Storrowton Village was closed for two years before the Calvanese family reopened the doors, serving New England foods that have been enjoyed there for more than a century.
“Today, there is life here again, and I am very proud of what we have accomplished; this establishment is more than 200 years old, and it’s open once more. The restaurant business is hard work and takes a lot of dedication, but I was made for this,” said Andrew, who began his restaurant career 47 years ago when he was hired as a weekend cleaning person making $1 per hour at Friendly’s Ice Cream in Springfield.
The Calvanese family is happy to be in the restaurant business together and run Storrowton as a true family operation. Andrew handles public relations, while Donald is the general manager, Vincent is the executive chef, and his son Vincent is a cook.
They all love the business and believe they couldn’t find a better place to be. Before coming to West Springfield, Donald ran the food service at Wilbraham Country Club with his late mother, Doreen Calvanese, and Andrew and Vincent were at the helm of Suffield Country Club’s restaurant and pub.
However, the sons wanted to work together at a place that would allow them to grow. Donald said they looked at many restaurants before reading in a newspaper that the Eastern States Exposition sales department was looking for someone to reopen Storrowton. But nothing had seemed right — until they set foot on the old tavern grounds.
“I fell in love with it the first time I saw it,” Donald said, adding he had never eaten there. “The location is great, the building is great, and its history is interesting. The floors are uneven, and it’s impossible to heat and cool, but it has a lot of character, and we work with it.”
Andrew said the people at the Big E liked the concept of having a family run it, and the decision was made. He is proud that they were chosen out of a field of more than 40 applicants, and calls their relationship with the Big E “incredible … we are like a big family with them.”
Donald agreed and said exposition staff members played a role in helping them get the restaurant back on its feet. “It’s so nice to have a restaurant like this open again, especially with all of the chains going up. There is a lot of competition, but things are going well.”
Wayne McCary, president and CEO of the Eastern States Exposition, says the Calvanese family fit the bill.
“Storrowton Tavern is a unique part of the culture of Eastern States Exposition and its year-round events, and it was critical to create a business relationship with partners who would operate the Tavern in conjunction with the Exposition itself as well as the many shows on our grounds,” he said. “The Calvanese family is a great choice and represent the tradition of Storrowton Tavern well.”

Course of Action
However, it took a tremendous amount of work to ready the historic buildings for use again. But the family worked as a team and began renovating and cleaning even before negotiations were finished. They got down on their hands and knees and scrubbed floors, painted rooms and ceilings, put in new carpeting, and renovated the entire kitchen.
In November 2003, after months of hard work, they opened the doors Thanksgiving week and were thrilled to have 600 people enjoy the holiday there.
This year, they will feed more than 1,000 at both a sit-down meal inside the old building and at a buffet in the Carriage House across the green.
Andrew says people love the ambience of the old tavern, and they treat it and the people who come there like family. He filled a large bookcase near the doorway with part of his late wife’s collection of more than 1,000 cookbooks for people to peruse while waiting for a table, and recently finished restaining the paneled walls, which took months of painstaking labor. He and his second wife got married there, and Storrowton is his favorite place because of the “romance here,” he said.
The old tavern has a fascinating history, as it is actually two buildings that were joined together. One is Atkinson Tavern, which was built around 1789 at Atkinson Hollow in the town of Prescott. The original owner was John Atkinson, Prescott’s last surviving Revolutionary War veteran, who used it as a store, tavern, and home for his family.
Andrew likes to point out that the Vermont Room, located on the second floor above the pub and tavern, was once used as lodging for guests who stayed there.
In 1928, when the state took Prescott by eminent domain along with three other towns in the Swift River Valley to create the Quabbin Reservoir, Helen Storrow had the building moved to the Early American village she was creating in West Springfield. In 1930, the Baptist meeting house, believed to be built around 1822, was brought to Storrowton Village from Southwick. It was joined to the tavern in 1957, doubling the size and scope of the restaurant.
The tavern has five dining rooms, which are furnished with period antiques. Andrew said his family members brought many of their own heirlooms there, which include a set of Gone with the Wind commemorative plates and a glass case filled with Hummel figurines.
The Calvaneses also took over the operation of the Carriage House, a modern banquet facility which sits on the other side of the green across from the tavern. It accomodates parties of up to 350 people.
Donald loves the atmosphere and the fact that the tavern is part of the village. “You can leave the restaurant with a glass of wine and walk around the green or sit on a park bench. It looks like something out of the Colonial days,” he said, adding that they like seeing patrons enjoying the grounds.
Vincent also loves the diversity of events held on the Exposition grounds, which add to their business. “What I love about Storrowton is that there is always action here. We can have a post-funeral reception in the afternoon and a wedding at night. Plus, there are events such as the horse shows and the Big E,” he said.

Just Desserts
Andrew’s career in the restaurant business began as a cleaning person at Friendly’s. A month later, he was promoted to dishwasher, and, a month after that, he became the evening shift manager. “Within three months, I was the highest-paid part-time employee at the store, making $2.50 an hour; the food business just fit me,” he said.
After that, he spent 20 years as delicatessan manager at Gus & Paul’s Bakery and Deli in Springfield, where he discovered not only how much he enjoyed working with people, but how fulfilling it was to help them create memorable life events. His next move was to Suffield Country Club, where he stayed until moving to Storrowton.
His passion for the business was passed on to Donald and Vincent, who both worked as dishwashers at the Mountain Laurel Restaurant in Enfield, Conn. when they were young teens. Donald went on to become a waiter at area restaurants, then moved on to Mount Holyoke College, where he worked as chef/manager of its food-service operation for four years, before spending four years at Wilbraham Country Club.
Vincent was introduced to the business at age 12, when he helped out at a wedding his parents were catering. “I remember how happy we made people,” he said, adding that knowing he plays a role in people’s memorable life events continues to be rewarding, even though he is behind the scenes. During the course of his career, he worked at several area restaurants and opened one in Haydenville named DaVinci’s, which he operated for two years.
At one point, he was offered the position of head chef at Storrowton Tavern, but didn’t take it because he didn’t want to leave his family members.
Family is extremely important to the Calvanese men and women, and so is history.
“I feel like this is my second home because, when I came in here, I thought about my personal memories. And now, we are creating them for others,” Andrew said. “When we hold a party here, it’s like having a party in our own home. This is a landmark that we have revitalized, and so many people are happy this is open again.”
Vincent agreed. “We have something special here. We are working owners and always have been. We are here just to make people happy. It’s our goal, and what we want to continue to do. When I was first offered a job here, I didn’t want to leave my family. But I somehow felt like I belonged here, and here I am now. Operating Storrowton is a challenge, but one that is interesting, due to the many events staged on the Exposition grounds.”
Andrew says many people think Storrowton Tavern is open only during the Big E, and some come back every year at that time, making their own history. But memories have always been made within the tavern’s walls, and that tradition will continue, which suits him just fine.

Features
Building on the Foundation of a Family Business

David Fontaine, president of Fontaine Bros. Inc.

David Fontaine, president of Fontaine Bros. Inc.

Dave Fontaine was in his conference room, referencing the pictures on the walls, all representing projects this family business had undertaken — from perhaps its biggest initiative, the complex at UMass Medical School, to one of the most visible in this region, Scibelli Hall on the campus of Springfield Technical Community College.
But it was one not spotlighted within this collection — there are many pictures elsewhere — that soon captured his attention as he attempted to place the history and longevity of Fontaine Bros. Inc. in perspective.
“Chicopee Comp High School … we built the new one, but as part of the project, we also had to raze the old one — which we also built, in 1962,” he said. “In this business, you never think about being around long enough to tear down your own work.”
Fontaine Bros. has been part of the construction landscape in this region for nearly 80 years. Dave Fontaine, its president since 1995, has been involved essentially since his father took a more prominent leadership role with the company in the late ’70s (more on that later). That means he’s been around long enough to experience at least five or six serious swings in the economy, both up and down.
But there’s been nothing that can compare with the current downturn, he said, adding that it is unlike those that have preceded it in many respects, but not all ways.
“We can always see them coming,” said Fontaine of dips in the economy large and small, noting that construction work is traditionally a lagging indicator, but those in the sector can easily see the dark clouds forming on the horizon. “And we can usually guess how long they’re going to last. With this one, no one knows, and I mean no one.”
There are other aspects to this downturn that are equally mystifying and compelling, he continued, citing the lack of method and what appears to be some madness when it comes to how companies are bidding on projects.
Indeed, Fontaine has come in as the runner-up in no less than 25 projects over the past 18 months or so — initiatives ranging from the new Putnam Vocational High School in Springfield to the new Longmeadow High School, to perhaps a half-dozen police and fire stations across the Commonwealth. The winning bids have been so low, he continued, that in at least 20 of the 25 cases, Fontaine Bros. simply wouldn’t take the job at the price it was awarded at.
When asked what it’s like to come that close, but apparently not that close, two dozen times, Fontaine simply shook his head repeatedly, as if to say he didn’t know how to put it into words and also didn’t need to.
In retrospect, Fontaine says this historically slow period for the company should have been a time to perhaps play a little more golf — he’s a 14-handicapper at Longmeadow Country Club and the incoming president of that institution. “But I always thought that the call that would turn things around for us would come in … and I’d be out on the course,” he laughed.
So like most in this business, he’s been in the office, doing some muttering and stewing about the economic conditions, while also welcoming the fourth generation of the family to the business (his son David), as well as his energy and imagination.
“He went to Bentley, and he’s bringing a lot of that business education to the company,” said Fontaine. “He has a lot of good ideas on how to generate new business.”
For this, the latest installment of its Profile in Business series, BusinessWest talks at length with Fontaine about his business, construction, overcoming shyness (a lifelong challenge for him), and cutting the grass.

Mow Town
That’s right, cutting the grass.
Fontaine says he’s always loved doing it and still does — and that’s good, because he and his wife, Beth, recently moved from East Longmeadow to a six-acre farm in nearby Somers, where she tends to a few horses and copes with a considerably larger lawn and a 200-year-old home that is decidedly high-maintenance.
Looking back, Fontaine said his first entrepreneurial venture was a neighborhood grass-cutting operation that lasted from the fifth grade well into high school. And he might have wound up pursuing a career in landscaping had not the family business started suffering through another of those pronounced downturns he described earlier.
Before telling that story, Fontaine ventured back to the 1930s, when his grandfather and one of his great uncles left their family farm in Canada at the ages of 12 and 13, respectively, to come to this country and seek their fortune. They landed in Chicopee Falls and eventually started building porches. They shaped this specialty into a residential construction company that would later be led by first cousins George and Ray Fontaine, who would transform it into a commercial builder.
Starting with some buildings at what was then Westover Air Force Base, the Fontaine company quickly evolved into one of the region’s largest construction companies, handling mostly public work that included everything from dormitories, academic buildings, and the Fine Arts Center at the rapidly expanding UMass Amherst campus to dozens of schools across the region and far outside it, to a host of municipal buildings.
The biggest project in the portfolio was the UMass Medical Center complex in Worcester, a $50 million project when built in 1970s, but perhaps a $500 million venture today, when adjusted for inflation.
But then, the bottom fell out — and in a big way.
“Overnight, the construction market just stopped,” he said. “It went from being the busiest time in the company’s history to a period when it had zero work.”
Things looked so bleak that Ray Fontaine, who was now alone at the top following George’s passing in 1972, was thinking about shutting things down. Before he did, he asked Dave’s father, Lester, a long-time field supervisor for the company, if he wanted to take a more active role in overseeing the business, its construction work (what little there was), and its many commercial real-estate properties, especially apartment complexes.
“It wasn’t a hard choice for my father,” Dave recalled. “It was essentially be out of work or give this a try; he gave it a try.”
The younger Fontaine started working at the family business part-time almost immediately upon graduation from high school, but he said his father informed him that, if he ever wanted to take a leadership role in the business, he would need more education.
So he enrolled in STCC’s Civil Engineering Technology department and graduated in 1982. He credits that experience with giving him not only the necessary skills for his eventual career path, but also some needed self-confidence. Today, he sits on the school’s board of trustees.

Nerves of Steel
Fontaine now manages the business with his first cousin, Chris, who handles the estimating work — all those bids — while Dave tackles the day-to-day operations.
In recent years, the portfolio and, in some cases, the office walls have been bolstered by work that includes the MassMutual Center, the new Chicopee Comp (perhaps its largest public-school project), and, more recently, the new Minnechaug Regional High School and soon-to-open Center for the Sciences and Pharmacy at Western New England College.
There are currently six projects on the company’s books — roughly half the number during what would be considered a typical year, if there is such a thing. Business has picked up slightly, said Fontaine, but there is still a ways to go before this sector can approach what can be considered normalcy.
Waiting for that time to arrive is more than a little nervewracking, he told BusinessWest, adding quickly that some of the anxiety is self-inflicted.
“After all this time and all these cycles, I should know better,” he said of the hand-wringing he’s been doing. “Eventually, things are going to pick up — I know that.”
He said those who remain cautious about the economy and moving ahead with building projects should understand that, while there are risks to doing so, the conditions, especially in terms of prices, won’t be better for a long, long time.
“We’re doing a four-story building at Holy Cross College,” he said. “The way the bids came in, they’re getting the fourth floor for free. There’s a lot of that going on.”
While waiting impatiently for conditions to improve, Fontaine is enjoying having the next generation of the Fontaine family come to the Cottage Street offices for work every day — a decision that wasn’t the foregone conclusion it was for the third generation.
“We had some discussions before he went to college,” he recalled. “I had always indicated that we’d love to have him and that there would always be a place for him, but it really needed to be his decision because there are certainly other ways to make a living, and if it was his idea, that would be terrific, but it had to be his idea.”
And Fontaine is happy that the younger David did choose this way to make a living.
“He’s been spending some time learning the estimating side of the business,” Fontaine continued. “And he’s become very proactive with getting our name out to the private-sector client base.”
Meanwhile, Fontaine has officially taken over as president of Longmeadow Country Club after working his way up the leadership positions. He’s expecting that his tenure, which could last anywhere from one to three years, will help in his seemingly lifelong battle against shyness and putting himself before large groups.
“I’m incredibly shy, and I fight that virtually every day of the week,” he explained. “From college on, it’s been one of my goals to get over that, and I’ve done a pretty good job of that. But every time I have to go speak or say something or meet new people, I think about it for a couple of days in advance; I’m still not comfortable with it.
“I am getting better — I think,” he continued, “and being president of the club will force me to get better still. I keep telling myself that I’m better than I think I am.”

Building Blocks
Looking ahead to 2011 and the plight of the construction sector, Fontaine said there is evidence that the skies are brightening somewhat.
Just when a pronounced turnaround will begin is anyone’s guess, though, he said, adding that it’s likely there will be more of those maddening runner-up finishes in project biddings in the months to come.
But there are some things to distract him — bringing his son along in the business, taking the country club through the process of installing a new irrigation system, and, starting in the spring, anyway, more chances to mow the grass.
At least that activity isn’t impacted by those wild swings in the economy.

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

Departments Incorporations

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

AMHERST

Uppermark Inc., 20 Gatehouse Road, Amherst, MA 01002. Paddieh Jalali, same. Educational materials and services.

BELCHERTOWN

LKB Realty Inc., 93 Canal Dr., Belchertown, MA 01007. Lloyd Butler Jr., same. Invest, acquire, and maintain real estate.

Quadcom Carting Inc., 260 Turkey Hill Road, Belchertown, MA 01007. Eric Duseau, same. Residential and commercial waste removal and recycling.

CHICOPEE

Samlep Inc., 74 Roosevelt Ave., Chicopee, MA 01013. John Pelmas, same. Package delivery.

SMEB Corp., 386 Irene St., Chicopee, MA 01020. Suzanne Marotta, 69 Sherwood Ave., West Springfield, MA 01089. Provides physical, emotional and spiritual health through varied types of yoga instruction.

Ten-90 Inc., 44 Dwight Street, Apt. #2R, Chicopee, MA 01013. Aristides Nunes, same. Bar and restaurant.

EAST LONGMEADOW

The Jos Salvon Memorial Scholarship Inc., 75 Canterbury Circle, East Longmeadow, MA 01028.

Tickets for Groups Inc., 337 Pinehurst Dr., East Longmeadow, MA 01028. Deborah Axtell, same. Group ticket sales.

EASTHAMPTON

Up From the ground Inc., 6 Laura Ave., Unit 1, Easthampton, MA 01027. Brian Farr, same. Delivery business.

HOLYOKE

Larochelle Construction Inc., 7 Westernview Road, Holyoke, MA 01040. Daniel Larochelle, same. Construction services.

Mrs. Mitchell’s Kitchen Inc., 514 Westfield Road, Holyoke, MA 01040. John Mitchell, 18 Cass Ave., West Springfield, MA 01089. Restaurant.
 
LEE

Lynchristopher Homes Inc., 170 Orchard St., Lee, MA 01238. Cindy Giovine, same. General building construction.

NORTHAMPTON

National Alliance of Concerned American’s for the Wellbeing of All People and Earth Inc., 101 Washington St., Northampton, MA 01060. Doug Wight, same. Non-profit organization designed to educate and inform Americans on capitalism, consumption, waste, and pollution and their effects on our environment.

PITTSFIELD

Taconic Conservation Foundation Inc., 59 Oak Road, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Francis Tremblay, Route 44 Orchard Ave., Pittsfield, MA 01201. Non-profit organization designed to provide educational programs to the public.

SOUTH HADLEY

Wicked Willows Inc., 37 Prospect Street, Apt. A, South Hadley, MA 01075. Nancy Cote, same. Sales of Halloween costumes.

SPRINGFIELD

Minority Business Workforce & Technology Council Inc., 1655 Main St., Suite 403, Springfield, MA 01103. Carlos Gonzalez, 44 Dover St., Suite 403 Springfield, MA 01107. Non-profit organization aimed at training and workforce development.

Murphy’s Law Sports Bar & Pub Inc., 1019 Main St., Springfield, MA 01103. Yasser Hussain, 10 Button Road, Easthampton, MA 01027. Sport bar.

New Leadership Charter School, 37 Alderman St., Springfield, MA 01108. Peter Daboul, 1242 Stony Hill Road, Wilbraham, MA 01095. Charter school.

Premier Accounting Inc., 1127 Main St., 4th Floor, Springfield, MA 01103. Felix Morales, 10 Magnolia Ave., Holyoke, MA 01040. Accounting, payroll, tax, and consulting services.

Ridgewood Neighborhood Improvement Initiative Corporation, 101 Mulberry St., PH 605, Springfield, MA 01105. Michael Thomes, same. Organization dedicated to improving the amenities and historical significance of the greater Ridgewood neighborhood.

State Street Laundromat Inc., 555 State St., Springfield, MA 01109. Mario Tedeschi, same. Laundromat.
 
WEST SPRINGFIELD

Synergy It Inc., 635 Piper Road, West Springfield, MA 01089. Mark Lilly, 6 Old Rochester Road, Suite 302, Silver, NH 03830. Computer networking, software and hardware.

WESTFIELD

Magic Printing USA Inc., 14 Lisa Lane, Westfield, MA 01085. Emily Wechter, same. Graphic design sales and service.

New England Lawn Care Inc., 491 West Road, Westfield, MA 01085. James Yarasavych, same. Landscaping.

Westfield Historic Industries Preservation Project Inc., 360 Elm St., Westfield, MA 01085. Peter Martin, 110 Western Circle, Westfield, MA 01085. Non-profit organization designed to develop and maintain a museum to display and preserve artifacts relating to Westfield’s industrial revolution.

Building Permits Departments

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

AGAWAM

Six Flags New England
1623 Main St.
$1,000,000 — Erect new Wild Mouse Roller Coaster

Six Flags New England
1623 Main St.
$187,000 — Form and pour concrete footings for Blitz ride

AMHERST

Amherst Court Trust
26 South Prospect St.
$14,000 — Renovation

Sandra M. Southwick
7 North Pleasant St.
$10,000 — Office space renovation on second floor

CHICOPEE

Chicopee Public Schools
125 Montgomery St.
$54,000 — Install modular classrooms

Chicopee Public Schools
125 Montgomery St.
$219,000 — Install new fire-protection system

Hampden Charter School of Science
20 Johnson Road
$100,000 — Remove wall to enlarge gym and replace flooring

Oxford Valley estates
283 Fuller Road
$58,000 — Strip and re-roof

United Brothers, LLC
872 Meadow St.
$20,000 — Interior and exterior renovations

GREENFIELD

Francis McDonald
377 Main St.
$3,800 — Office renovations

George Balis
34 Bank Row
$16,500 — Replace siding, glass, and aluminum framework

Sarah E. Brown
20 Church St.
$13,000 — Replace windows

HADLEY

Jeremy Ober
12 Russell St.
$4,600 — Window repair

Pyramid Management Group
367 Russell St.
$9,400 — Exterior renovations at JC Penney mall entrance

HOLYOKE

Holyoke Mall Company, L.P.
50 Holyoke St.
$238,000 — Remodel existing Bath & Body store

NORTHAMPTON

City of Northampton
221 Riverside Dr.
$12,600 — Install attic insulation at the Feiker School

Cooley Dickinson Hospital Inc.
30 Locust St.
$36,000 — Replace broken bricks to west wing

DAS Property Group, LLC
108 Main St.
$88,000 — Renovate third floor

J W Inc.
13 Old South St.
$10,000 — Strip and shingle roof

Northampton Terminal Associate
1 Old South St.
$8,000 — Create new space

Smith College
53 College Lane
$350,000 — Renovate college club

SOUTH HADLEY

Loomis Community
5 Spruce Run
$3,500 — Install insulation

SPRINGFIELD

Appleton Corporation
837 State St.
$180,000 — Renovations in six apartments

Ivette Cruz
34 Mulberry St.
$45,000 — Change existing rooms to offices

Maple Springfield Associates
125 Maple St.
$98,000 — Re-roof

WESTFIELD

Human Resources Unlimited Inc.
55 Broad St.
$10,000 — Renovations

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Central Chevrolet, Inc.
675 Memorial Ave.
$270,000 — Renovate 7,000 square feet of existing space for a car dealership

Fountain Prospect Realty Corp.
492 Prospect Ave.
$1,577,600 – Construction of a 21,000-square-feet addition to existing building

Karen McMahon
315 Main St.
$16,000 – Renovate 1,962 square feet of space for a dance studio

Oleg Abramchuck
553 Main St.
$6,000 – Re-roof commercial portion of mixed-use structure

Sunil Patel Gokul, LLC
2260 Westfield St.
$10,000 – Renovate existing space for a yoga studio

Sections Supplements
Sturbridge Landmark Has Location and Charm — in Abundance

Publick House General Manager Michael Glick in the Tap Room.

Publick House General Manager Michael Glick in the Tap Room.

Back when things got started, in 1771, the Publick House was a stagecoach stop, a place to eat and sleep on the way to somewhere else. In recent times, though, this landmark has become a true destination, one known for its classic, charm, holiday decorations, traditional New England cuisine, and even a purported ghost sighting or two.

It’s called the Library.
This is one of the smaller dining rooms at the Publick House in Sturbridge. It was given that name because there are old books lining the walls — well, sort of.
Because this room is rather small and space was needed to comfortably sit people and serve them, the books, perhaps 100 or more of them, were sawed in half decades ago (no one really knows when), placed within shallow bookcases, and glued to the walls. Visitors who don’t know this have tried to pull books out, sometimes tearing the binding in the process.
“We’ve thought about getting some new volumes, but the ones with the binding coming off … they add a little old charm to the room,” said Michael Glick, general manager of this landmark, parts of which date back to 1771.
Charm can be found in many places here, and in many forms. This includes some of the other dining facilities, such as the Card Room — which dates back to when the Publick House was a stagecoach stop; women were not allowed in this room then, and had to gather outside in the ‘women’s sitting room,’ which still exists today, although men sit there, too — and the Pumpkin Room, so named because of the wood used within.
But it also includes traditions, such as the scarecrow-decorating contest recently staged, the ‘breakfast with Santa’ event upcoming, and the smiley-face cookies given to each child upon completion of their meal. There’s also the menu, dominated by old New England favorites, such as pot roast, chicken pot pie, and especially turkey and sweet rolls.
And then, there are the ghost stories. “No one here now has actually seen one,” said Glick, “but there are stories … people say we have ghosts here, and we’ve had a few mediums in here to look around.”
Take all this charm and put it at what would have to be called the crossroads of Southern New England — Sturbridge sits at the intersection of I-84, the Mass. Turnpike, and Route 20 — and it would certainly seem like a recipe for business success. And some of the numbers Glick has would certainly certainly confirm this.
He estimates that roughly 1,500 people will be served dinner this Thanksgiving, the busiest day of the year for the Publick House. Meanwhile, the facility will probably handle 135 weddings this calendar year, including 11 in December, a popular month for such ceremonies at this institution because of its elaborate holiday decorations. Meanwhile, the landmark’s bakery, which records more than $500,000 in business annually by itself, will turn out more than 300,000 of those sweet rolls each year, as well as 950 pies each Thanksgiving. As for turkey, they serve more than 60,000 pounds per annum.
Overall, more than 110,000 people will visit the Publick House complex annually, for lunch, dinner, banquets, weddings, assorted get-togethers, and, of course, Thanksgiving. Some will stay in one of 115 guest rooms, 23 at the historic inn, or 92 at a motor lodge across the 62-acre complex.
For this special look at the restaurant sector, BusinessWest visits the Publick House and details why it has become a destination for people from across New England and beyond.

At a Crossroads
As he discussed the Publick House, its history, and location, Glick used the word ‘converge’ early and often.
People do a lot of that in Sturbridge, he explained, noting that, because the community is approximately in the center of Southern New England, and easy to get to from Springfield, Hartford, Worcester, Boston, New York, and just about anywhere else, families, business groups, civic organizations, and even senior-living complexes will make this the place to meet.
The ease with which people can get to the Publick House — not to mention its track record for success — is borne out in the results of a recently conducted survey of patrons.
“We asked people how far they came, and for how long they’ve been coming here,” said Glick. “The survey revealed that, on average, they’ve been coming for more than 25 years, and traveling more than 50 miles.”
Those numbers would indicate that the Publick House is truly a destination, something it wasn’t when it was founded as an inn and tavern by Col. Ebenezer Crafts in 1771. Then, as now, at least in some respects, it was a place to stop on the way to somewhere else.
Indeed, located just off the old Boston Post Road (now Route 20), the Publick House was a popular stop for those traveling or bringing commerce across the state to its capital, or from New York to Boston, something that had to be done by land during the War of 1812 because of a British blockade in the Atlantic.
Now owned by the Harrington family, which also owns the Hawthorne Inn in Salem, the Publick House complex has been expanded numerous times over the years. As he led BusinessWest on a tour, Glick pointed out a maze of hallways and staircases designed to connect buildings and additions.
Today, there are two main dining areas — the Tap Room, which can seat just over 100, and Ebenezer’s Tavern, which can host about 80. There are several other smaller rooms used for a la carte dining, however, including the Library, the Pumpkin Room, the Card Room, the Pineapple Room (so-named because the wallpaper features that fruit), and the Conference Room, among others.
There are also some larger facilities, such as the Barn Room, called that because it was an actual barn decades ago. It is often used for receptions prior to weddings and other small functions. There’s also Crafts Hall, named after the founder, obviously, which can seat 50 and is ideal for corporate meetings, and Paige Hall, named after a long-time innkeeper, and the most recent addition to the complex, in 1981. It was built over an old deck, can seat more than 200 people, and has become popular for class reunions, team functions, and other gatherings.

Talking Turkey
As he took BusinessWest through each of the rooms at the Publick House, Glick said many are not in use every night (and the restaurant is open 365 days a year), but do come into play for various types of functions or when the complex is especially busy.
But each one is full on Thanksgiving, he noted quickly. “Every nook and cranny of the place is used; there are tables everywhere — but in a comfortable fashion.”
In the Library, for example, there’s a large table that can sit 12 people comfortably. There’s also a small, alcove-like space. “People can put the kids there, just like they might at home,” he said.
Meanwhile, the bakery, which is humming most days, is especially busy on Thanksgiving and, even more so, on the Wednesday before, Glick noted. “You’ll usually find me working in the bake shop on Thanksgiving Eve,” he said, adding that many additional hands are needed to take and ring up orders, and box the pies and other desserts made for that holiday. “We sell thousands of sweet rolls for Thanksgiving.”
As for the menu, Glick said, “every day is Thanksgiving.” By that, he meant that turkey is always a popular choice, and in fact, there are two options within the ‘classics’ section of the menu — a roasted turkey dinner and a ‘Publick House Thanksgiving dinner.’ The latter comes with deep-dish apple pie or Indian pudding with ice cream, and coffee or tea.
Other ‘classics’ include baked scrod, fish and chips, chicken pot pie, shepherd’s pie, and prime rib. There is a also a ‘specialty fare’ page of the menu that includes ‘Chicken Quinn’ (topped with lobster meat, asparagus, and hollandaise sauce), barbequed salmon, peppercorn-crusted swordfish, a half rack of lamb, and Jamaican pork chop topped with pineapple salsa.
“We’re old-world New England,” Glick said, when searching for words to describe the cuisine. “Things like pot roast, chicken pot pie, lobster pie … these are New England classics; we have menus going back to the ’50s, and those items are on them — and they’ll always be there.
“What we say in our advertising,” he continued, “is that our chefs have taken those old favorites and added modern, unique twists to that menu.”
Overall, the Publick House has held up well during the prolonged downturn, said Glick, noting quickly that, like all establishments of this kind, this landmark has been impacted by the wide decline in discretionary spending, but also has benefited in some ways.
In response the global belt-tightening, the Publick House has done some discounting, which is somewhat out of character, he explained, but the specials, such as a two-for-one deal covering lunch or dinner on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, have certainly helped increase volume on those traditionally slower days of the week.
“Business is definitely a little slower on Thursday because of that coupon,” he explained. “But now, it’s not unusual for us to have 80 people in for dinner on a Monday, whereas before the coupon, and before the recession started, we wouldn’t approach that volume.”
The wedding business, meanwhile, has been helped by the addition of a large tent — in place between May and November — that provides couples with a different, lower-priced option. The tent has played a key role in boosting overall wedding bookings from just over 100 on average to more than 130 for 2010, and 27 ‘tent’ weddings have already been booked for 2011.
The tent, the discounting, the continuation of age-old traditions, and the addition of some new ones have definitely helped bring more people to the old inn on Route 131, said Glick, from across town, but also across the region.

The Spirit Moves Them
Glick recently received a book in the mail, an autographed copy of New England Ghosts, by David J. Pitkin. In it, on page 209 under the subheading “A Publick Ghost,” Pitkin relays the story of a couple that had an apparent encounter with a ghost while staying at the inn during the holidays in 2000.
Actually, it was the young woman who saw it while her husband was out of the room for a moment. “All at once, I had an experience I’ll never forget,” she’s quoted as saying. “To the left of the room’s doorway, another person appeared. It was an older man in a top hat and wearing what looked like an old, black, Inverness-style caped coat. He didn’t move, and didn’t seem to look directly at me. He was there for a minute surrounded by a mist or fog. He was visible for just a few minutes, and then he was no longer there.”
Glick had yet to read that account before meeting with BusinessWest, but he was aware of the story mentioned, as well as a few others. He said one of the landmark’s bartenders insisted that, through a window, he saw the ghost of Mehetable Chandler, Ebenezer Crafts’ wife, sitting at a table in the Pineapple Room (there’s a picture of her on one of the walls, so the staff would know what she looked like). And there was another incident where several guests, in different parties, said they were awoken by the sounds of glass breaking and other indications of a large-scale incident in the Tap Room. No evidence of anything was ever found.
Whether there’s any substance to these reported sightings, or encounters, is a matter of conjecture. But ghosts aside, there are plenty of other sources of charm at the Publick House — not to mention turkey and sweet rolls.
Together, it all makes this 240-year-old landmark a great place to converge.

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

Chamber Corners Departments

ACCGS
www.myonlinechamber.com
(413) 787-1555
n Dec. 1: ACCGS Business@Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., hosted by the Springfield Marriott. Cost: members $20, non-members $30.
n Dec. 3: ERC Holiday Breakfast, 7-9 a.m., hosted by Elmcrest Country Club, East Longmeadow. Cost: members $20, non-members $25.
n Dec. 7: Springfield Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee meeting, 12-1:30 p.m., EDC Conference Room, Springfield.
n Dec. 8: ACCGS After 5, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Festival of Trees, located at Tower Square, 2nd Floor. Co-sponsored by YPS and Festival of Trees. Cost: members $10, non-members $20.
n Dec. 10: ACCGS Legislative Steering Committee meeting, 8-9 a.m., TD Bank Conference Center, Springfield.
n Dec. 15: ERC Board of Directors meeting, 8-9 a.m., hosted by the Gardens of Wilbraham, Community Room, 2 Lodge Lane, Wilbraham.
n Dec. 15: ACCGS Ambassadors’ meeting, 4-5 p.m., EDC Conference Room, Springfield.
n Dec. 16: ACCGS Executive Committee meeting, 12-1 p.m., TD Bank Conference Center, Springfield.
n Dec. 28: WRC Board of Directors meeting, 8-9 a.m., hosted by Captain Leonard House, Agawam.

Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield
www.springfieldyps.com
n Dec. 8: December’s YPS social networking event will join with the ACCGS at Tower Square for the Festival of Trees, 5-7 p.m. Cost: free to YPS members; general admission is $10 or a toy donation.
n Dec. 31: YPS New Year’s Eve Gala, 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., Springfield Sheraton at Monarch Place. Music provided by the Hot House Band and JX2 Productions. Book early, as tickets are limited. For more information, visit www.springfieldyps.com.
 
Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce
www.amherstarea.com
(413) 253-0700
n Dec. 3: Merry Maple (in downtown Amherst), 4-7 p.m. The Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce kicks off the holiday season downtown with the lighting of the Merry Maple. Festive music by the Middle School Chorus and the Minuteman Marching Band, hayrides, cider donuts, crafts, and an appearance by Santa. Cost: free.
 
Chicopee Chamber of Commerce
www.chicopeechamber.org
(413) 594-2101
n Dec. 8: Holiday Open House, 4:30-6:30 p.m., 264 Exchange St., Chicopee. Cost: free for members.
n Dec. 15: Salute Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., Castle of Knights 1599 Memorial Dr., Chicopee. Cost: members $18, non-members $25.
 
Franklin County Chamber of Commerce
www.franklincc.org
(413) 773-5463
n Dec. 3-4: Home for the Holidays, Dec. 3, 5-8 p.m., and Dec. 4, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., downtown Greenfield. Wreath judging, caroling, activities for the whole family.
n Dec. 6: Greenfield Business Association Soup & Games Night, 5-8 p.m., hosted by Hope & Olive, 44 Hope St., Greenfield. Benefit to support the holiday lights and downtown trimmings. Cost: free, donations accepted.
n Dec. 21: Holiday Breakfast and Recorder Citizen of the Year, 7:30-9 a.m., hosted by Deerfield Academy Dining Hall. Sponsored by the Recorder. Music, gifts, and sumptuous food. Cost: members $23, non-members $25. 
 
Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce
www.holycham.com
(413) 534-3376
n Dec. 8: Holiday Salute Breakfast, 7:30 a.m., hosted by the Delaney House, One Country Club Road, Holyoke. Sponsored by Holyoke Gas & Electric and Health New England. Cost: $20. Tables reserved for parties of eight.
n Dec. 15: Chamber After Hours, 5-7 p.m., hosted and sponsored by the Delaney House, One Country Club Road, Holyoke. Cost: members $5, non-members $10 cash. 
 
Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce
www.easthamptonchamber.org
(413) 527-9414
n Dec. 3: Holiday Stroll and Visit from Santa, 7 p.m. Hosted by Maple Street School. An event for the entire family. Stroll and carol through downtown Easthampton to Pulaski Park and help Santa light the green with thousands of twinkling lights. Visit with Santa in the gazebo. Cocoa and cookies for the kids. Cost: free.
n Dec. 16: Holiday Dinner Dance, 6-11 p.m., hosted by the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House, 500 Easthampton Road, Holyoke. An evening of friends and holiday spirit including the Chamber Annual Awards , a $5,000 raffle drawing, butlered hors d’ouevres, multi-station entrees, Viennese dessert table, cash martini and full-service bar, music provided by Michael J Productions. Public invited. Excellent business party opportunity. Cost: $45 per person inclusive; group reservations available. 
 
Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce
www.explorenorthampton.com
(413) 584-1900
n Dec. 8: Arrive @ 5, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Silverscape Design, 1 King St., Northampton. Sponsored by Johnson & Hill Staffing Services and Florence Savings Bank. A casual mix and mingle with colleagues and friends. Cost: $10 for members. Contact the chamber at (413) 584-1900 or [email protected] for tickets and sponsorship opportunities.
n Dec. 10: New Member Breakfast, 8-9 a.m., hosted by the Northampton Chamber of Commerce, 99 Pleasant St., Northampton. This is our chance to sit down with you and learn more about your business and how the chamber can best serve you; introduce you to people who are active in the chamber; and tell you how to make the most of your chamber membership. A light breakfast will be served. Cost: free. RSVP to (413) 584-1900 or [email protected].
n Dec. 14: Meet & Eat, 7:30-9 a.m., hosted by the Delaney House, Route 5 at Smith’s Ferry, Holyoke. Sponsored by Easthampton Savings Bank. Learn from your colleagues at breakfast with the chamber. Cost: $15 for members.
 
Three Rivers Chamber of Commerce
www.threeriverschamber.org
(413) 283-6425
n Nov. 28: Christmas on the Common, 5-6:30 p.m., Three Rivers Common. Guest of honor: Santa and Mrs. Claus, who will arrive at 6 p.m. on a fire truck with the help of the Three Rivers Fire Department. Families are welcome to bring a decoration for the community tree and a camera to record their visits with Santa. The event is scheduled to last an hour and a half but may be shortened by extreme cold or inclement weather. Event also includes cookies, hot chocolate, and coffee as well as gift bags for all children. Michael Rondeau will create an ice sculpture, and the Palmer High School Chorus will lead a holiday singalong. Cost: free. For more information, contact Kim King at Kim’s Hair Care, (413) 289-1775.

Bankruptcies Departments

BANKRUPTCIES

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

Almeida, Christine M.
69 Wealthy Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/24/10

Asselin, Shirley M.
33 Sargeant Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/28/10

Auger, Raymond R.
971 Reed St.
West Warren, MA 01092
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/25/10

Baribeau, Steven G.
100 Byers St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Bauman, John Allen
43 Charpentier Blvd.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/27/10

Bennett, Daniel E.
102 Parallel St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/19/10

Benson, Patricia Mary
10 Roberts Pond Lane
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/20/10

Bernardo, Alfred J.
Bernardo, Susan E.
PO Box 723
Lee, MA 01238
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Betournay, Norman Robert
28 Feeding Hills Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/20/10

Bilodeau, Joan I.
104 Ashley St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Biron, Kevin B.
1091 Park St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/27/10

Blount, Alfred C.
265 Fern Bank Road #21
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Boonnag, Kanit S.
Boonag, Torpong
19 Glendale St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/27/10

Bowler, John Joseph
949 Hampden St., Apt 2
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/25/10

Brennan, John S.
Brennan, Janet R.
43 Demont Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/19/10

Brida, James R.
60 Pencasal Dr.
Florence, MA 01062
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Briggs, Jeffrey D.
244 Chicopee St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Brown, Virginia M.
172 Summer St. #4
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Bruno-Buonomo, Carmen
PO Box 70299
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/25/10

Burns, Lauren E.
Bouvier, Lauren E.
17 Homestead Blvd.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/20/10

Burt, Daryl J.
1189 Carew St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Cardinal, Sandra J.
34 Chartier Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Carr, Tamara L.
36 Bay St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Carroll, Daniel R.
Carroll, Debora R.
73 Wilder Ter.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/28/10

Clark, David B.
108 Langevin St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/25/10

Clark, Marshall G.
Clark, Antoinette
351 West Housatonic St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/18/10

Clark-Cardinal, Tami A.
135 Moore St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Collins, Paul J.
170 East Hadley Road #50
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/25/10

Colon, Francisco
Colon, Blanca
43 Webster St., #2
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Connors, Diane
263 Center St.
1st Floor, Apt. A
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Cornelius, Grace E.
104 White St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Craig Sound
Craig Aquatic Specialties
Craig, Scott N.
1012 Main St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/29/10

DePriest, Carlton T.
41 Rosedale Ave.
Springfield, MA 01128
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/28/10

Destromp, Roland L.
Destromp, Ruth J.
423 Springfield St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/25/10

Don’s Carpet Care
Beaupre, Donald H.
Beaupre, Linda M.
90 Kanawha Ave.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/25/10

Dubour, Kathleen M.
68 Blanchwood Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Dunlap, N. Leigh
19 View St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/28/10

Dusseault, Matthew F.
20 Mount Carmel Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Ear 2 Track
Kometani, James K.
1 Springfield St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/27/10

E-Force Protective Coating
Wrigley, Roger M.
Wrigley, Karen L.
a/k/a Branch, Karen L.
a/k/a Hanson, Karen L.
40 School House Road
Phillipston, MA 01331
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Engle, Brenda J.
Engle, Brenda H.
P.O.Box 103
Sheffield, MA 01257
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/27/10

Espinosa, Ann Marie
47 Mohawk Dr.
Springfield, MA 01106
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/20/10

Fennyery, James R.
163 Mountainview St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Freeman, Ernestine
204 Pearl St., 2L
Springfield, MA 01105
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Gonzalez, Omaris
54 Bradford Dr. #A2
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/20/10

Grady, Shaun P.
Grady, Tami J.
106 Windsor Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/19/10

Harris-Poyser, Majester L.
7 Clayton St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/19/10

Hayes, Jennifer A.
116 Pleasant St., #414
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Hogan, Thomas M.
137 Hendrick St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Holden, Melissa M.
95 Cheshire Road
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/19/10

Hotaling, William J.
Hotaling, Katherine E.
30 Massachusetts Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/25/10

Independent Administrative and Technical Support
Calderwood, Maryelen
a/k/a Brown, Maryelen C.
82 Sanderson St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/28/10

Johnson, Kristen Elizabeth
52 Cold Hill
Granby, MA 01033
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Jones, Brian W.
Jones, Tiffany B.
4 Lathrop Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/27/10

Keough, Renee
312 Amherst St. #2
Granby, MA 01033
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Khodadadian, Siranoosh
19 South Shore Dr.
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/27/10

Kida, Lawrence R.
38 Robinson Road
W. Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Labonte, Leo J.
28 Simard Drive, Apt. 1
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/29/10

Lambert, Todd C.
136 Pontoosic Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/18/10

Laporte, Jessica Walker
6 Daniel Square Ext.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/28/10

Leavitt, Joseph R.
Leavitt, Donna L.
72 Paige St.
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/18/10

LeBlanc, Deborah
43 Craig Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/29/10

Lee, Linda
Smith, John A.
55 A Danek Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/29/10

Lefebvre, Richard A.
Lefebvre, Nancy E.
400 Britton St. #223
Chicopee, MA 01022
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Lemon, Donna Rae
633 Sisson Hill Road
Great Barrington, MA 01230
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/29/10

Loglisci, Lynne A.
a/k/a Blais, Lynne Ann
13A Oak St.
Monson, MA 01057
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/19/10

Long, Maureen P.
6 Pearl Lane
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Lopez, Osvaldo E.
51 Atwater Road
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Lyman, Janet Ann
a/k/a Cook, Janet Ann
75 Mechanic St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/25/10

Magill, Kori K.
Kielbania, Kori K.
34 Kazbeck St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/29/10

Malave, Cristobal
433 Prospect St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Malone, Michael T.
Malone, Frances Ellen
71 Morningside Park
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Mark A. Ogoley Construction
Ogoley, Mark A.
31 Scantic Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/28/10

Martel, Steven M.
105 Amherst Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Martelli, Nicholas
200 Baldwinville Road
Phillipston, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/28/10

Martin, Robert F.
Martin, Kelly D.
71 Tulsa St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Martinez, Alba N.
74 Edendale St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/18/10

Matos, Lydia E.
61 Wentworth St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/18/10

Matte, Rene O.
163 Sunnymeade Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Mawaka, Laura Ann
26 Mechanic St.
Monson, MA 01057
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Maynard, Kathleen
a/k/a Hullette, Kathleen
111 Brickyard Road, Apt. 2G
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/18/10

McKenzie, David Jeremiah
40 Bartels St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/25/10

McLain, Thomas S.
McLain, Patricia B.
16 Richmond St.
Adams, MA 01220
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

McQuade, Daniel P.
McQuade, Kristen A.
396 Frank Smith Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/27/10

Medina, Jose A.
265 Mill St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/29/10

Mendez, Hipolito
Mendez, Mayra
37 Mercury Court, 2-L
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/18/10

Moncrieffe, Ivan
28 Dunmoreland St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Morgan, Travis Levar
Morgan, Myra Marintha
37 Emily St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/29/10

Moses, Ola M.
70 Chestnut St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Mosher, David
131 Main St.
Russell, MA 01071
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/19/10

Mosher, Theresa F.
c/o Eric Kornblum
94 North Elm St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/19/10

Odiorne, Sharon M.
4 Ross Ave.
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Ortiz, Evelyn
Ortiz-Pacheco, Evelyn
101 Lowell St., Apt. 601
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Pacheco, Jose A.
43 Hebron St., 2nd Fl.
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Park Street Foundry Inc.
P.O. Box 327
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 11
Filing Date: 10/24/10

Partlow, Stacy L.
74 A James St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Ponce, Efrain
74 Edendale St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/18/10

Prentice, Stanley
Prentice, Dawn M.
28 Cole Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/18/10

Provost, Linda A.
657 Poole St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/29/10

Richardson, Keith W.
Richardson, Heather E.
a/k/a Lusco, Heather E.
PO Box 81
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Rivas, Michelle M.
a/k/a Demers, Michelle M.
59 Aldo Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/20/10

Rodriguez, Bethzaida
22 Brookline Ave.
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/29/10

Rodriguez, Milagros
68 Farnum Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/18/10

Rossetti, George L.
91 Lantern Lane
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/17/10

Rossi, Diana M.
477 Kings Hgwy.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/20/10

Rossi, Richard S.
Rossi, Kaija
114 Mashapaug Road
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Saez, Wilberto M.
25 Collins St., Apt. A
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/29/10

Samek, Sandra Mary
71 Doverbrook Road
Chicopee, MA 01022
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/25/10

Serafino, David S.
43 Vienna Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Serafino, Donna M.
43 Vienna Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Sergeychik, Mikhail
38 Lower Mass Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/25/10

Sheldon, Patricia A.
15 Beaufort Circle
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/29/10

Small, Rose M.
219 Seymore Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Smith, Eric J.
Smith, Tammy L.
25 White St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Sullivan, Jennifer A.
Deming, Jennifer A.
65A South St.
Bernardston, MA 01337
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/25/10

Swett, Howard H.
221 New Boston Road
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Swiss, Kirk P.
17 Constitution Road
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/19/10

Taillefer, Jean R.
48 Riverview Ter.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/19/10

Thomas, Rachelle Rutkowski
53 King St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Trott, Margaret Evelyn
400 East St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Trudel, Gary S.
38 Maynard St.
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/28/10

Villafane, Mirta Luz
a/k/a Martinez, Mirta L.
54 Bradford Dr., Unit A
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/20/10

Voytko, Christine E.
12 Cypress St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/21/10

Warchut, Walter W.
81 Autumn Dr.
Florence, MA 01062
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Weeks, Almont E.
93 South Maple St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

Weeks, Carol A.
PO Box 42
Southwick, MA 01077
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/22/10

White, Michael
White, Jennifer
51 Hillside Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/29/10

Whitney, Blair P.
33 Brickhouse Mountain Road
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/19/10

Yanbul, Ibrahim
Yanbul, Hulya
a/k/a Topcu, Hulya
23 Cypress St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/26/10

Features
This Town Manages to Strike a Winning Balance

Selectman Jack Villamaino

Selectman Jack Villamaino can trace his family’s business roots back generations — a common story in East Longmeadow.

East Longmeadow Selectman Jack Villamaino is a lifelong town resident, from a family that traces its business roots to the last century.
He says that his great-grandfather’s farm is currently the fourth hole at Franconia Golf Course, but in the 1950s, his grandfather started the landscaping and asphalt-paving company that bears his family’s name to this day.
His story is not uncommon in this town of 16,000, where homeowners share space with a thriving retail sector, as well as one of the area’s healthier hubs of industry. He started out as “the coffee boy” for EJ Villamaino Paving contractors, and Villamaino said that there are “tons of guys I grew up with who work for their dads.”
“Those businesses might have started out as entrepreneurial enterprises,” he continued, “but now they employ a handful of people. And I think we’re fortunate for that, because they’re doing work in town, and they still live here. They have a stake in what they do in and around East Longmeadow.”
The town’s percentage of residential property to commerce and industry is around 78% to 22%, he said, and for Villiamaino and others in town, this is a winning mix.
“It’s a well-planned community, really,” said John Maybury. “There’s the proper amount of industrial and commercial development in the right zones.” And he should know; not only has he lived in East Longmeadow for most of his life, but he is one of the community’s most successful business owners, as president of Maybury Associates, a materials-handling firm.
Not far from his company on Denslow Road, the southwestern section of East Longmeadow is home to several world-class manufacturing plants. The world headquarters of Hasbro is nearby on Shaker Road, as well as Lenox Saw and Sullivan Paper, among many others. Maybury calls his and other businesses with a national and global reach “economic importers” for the town.
And while industry stays strong in East Longmeadow, those imported dollars find homes in a robust retail sector. Several large-scale plazas dot the landscape, with mom-and-pop stores alongside national retailers. At the East Longmeadow Center Village, Rocco Falcone said the plaza just filled its last available storefront.
A principal with Falcone Retail Properties, owner of that plaza, as well as the president of Rocky’s Hardware, Falcone is another native son who finds the balance of residential and industry a good fit, not just from the perspective of a fully tenanted plaza, but as a business owner.
“For Rocky’s to be one of the anchor tenants in that plaza,” he said, “this works on two levels. The locals like to do their purchasing within the town, and we have everything that a homeowner would need. But we also have accounts with some businesses in the industrial parks, for maintenance and supply products for the large companies.”
In this, the latest installment of its Doing Business In series, BusinessWest looks at some of those economic importers in East Longmeadow, a town that most observers say has struck the perfect balance between business and residential neighborhoods.

The Family Way
Villamaino said East Longmeadow is fortunate to have maintained this balance, some of which he calls just plain luck in the way developments have evolved over the past few decades.
“But part of that has to do with a master plan that goes back before I was born,” he continued, “with planning boards of the 1960s and earlier.”
As one of the current legislators, he said that Town Hall continues to work at keeping that balance.
“As far as the selectmen go,” he said, “I’ve voted four times — every time, really — in favor of the single tax rate. As long as I’ve been on the board, we’ve looked upon businesses as partners, not prey. We don’t want to subject them to unjustly high tax rates.
“They are dutiful taxpayers,” he continued, “and you have to consider them as landowners that aren’t sapping much of the municipal resources. For example, Hasbro isn’t putting any kids into the school system. Lenox uses their own waste-management system, not what the homeowners are using.”
Talking further about the Lenox complex in town, Villamaino expanded on the legacy from that business, and the original owners, in East Longmeadow. “You can’t credit the Davis family enough,” he said. “They owned it when it was American Saw, and they always made it a priority to keep the manufacturing and headquarters here. When they sold it to Newell Rubbermaid, they lobbied very strongly to ensure that all who were employed here remain here. Lenox employs somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 people. You don’t find that a lot in this area anymore.”
To this day, that home-field advantage has been broadened to encompass many other brands in the NR portfolio, with a list of household names such as Graco, Calphalon, Levolor, and many others. A training facility has been created at the East Longmeadow location for brand representatives of all NR products. “They spent about $50 million upgrading to make this a key component of their whole organization,” Villamaino said. “They’ve invested a lot to stay here, and we want to do whatever we can for them to stay.”
Speaking to his history as a town resident and entrepreneur, Maybury said that there have always been questions about large businesses that choose to stay in this region. “Usually it has to do with money — lower cost of a building, lower tax rates,” he explained. “But when you consider the bigger picture, and the roots that we have been able to sustain here, and the ability to network from here, there’s no reason to go.
“Even though there might be some other areas in the region that we could move to,” he added, “we have been able to retain a competitive advantage by staying local, staying with the people that are here. There’s an excellent core workforce, with a lot of tradesmen and machinists.”
In other words, people like himself. Maybury started the company from his parent’s garage as a teen, and while the business — selling and servicing forklifts and all the equipment behind the scenes to get the goods out on the shelves — has grown exponentially, it has never become too large for East Longmeadow.
Having just spoken at a meeting that day presented by the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, titled “Thriving in a Difficult Economy,” Maybury echoed Villamaino’s comments that the town is a good partner for the business sector within it.
“It’s easy to do business here,” he said. “For the people who want to grow here, there’s a clear process through the Planning Board. As long as you put a comprehensive package together, it can happen really quickly. I’m involved in the Western Mass Development Collaborative, which is a part of the EDC, and we do a lot of the industrial-park buildouts. There are some other towns where businesses just can’t get things to happen fast enough, from the time someone has the idea and funding to the time when they want to be underway — that window can be very short.”
Maybury said that his firm has branched out to an office in Wallingford, Conn., and a sister operation in New Jersey. Not only is that good for his business, but also for the town it calls home.
“The cool part for East Longmeadow is that we are still going to be here, as an economic importer of dollars,” he explained. “Like some of our neighbors — Hasbro, for instance, with all of those jobs, selling all over the world, while the money comes back here. Similarly, although not to such a degree, we’re doing business all over Connecticut, the Worcester region, into New Jersey and New York. More than 70 employees here take a paycheck and distribute that locally.”

Center of Attention
Situated at the intersection of two roads leading into the rotary at the town’s center, the East Longmeadow Center Village is a relative newcomer to the retail district of town, but an addition that fits in comfortably with the community.
“In terms of marketing,” said Villamaino, “you can’t go anywhere in East Longmeadow without at some point passing through here. We as a town are lucky to have a few good people take advantage of opportunities to increase retail in town.”
In the not-too-distant past, an A&P sat on the property fronting North Main Street. Falcone said that a group of investors, including his father, bought the parcel, and one of the first Rocky’s went into the former grocery site. In the 1980s, the property increased, encompassing what is now the Healthtrax building, and a subsequent property venture brought along the other parcel, connecting the site to Maple Street.
Today, the bustling plaza is home to A.O. White, Spoleto, Starbucks, Sleepy’s, and a handful of other businesses. The buildings are handsomely styled, and Falcone said that considerable attention went into creating an architectural aesthetic that was suitable for the community. “We wanted a higher-end development that would attract a higher-end tenant,” he explained.
While Healthtrax is currently considering a sublease for what Falcone called a “synergistic” tenant to move into a small portion of that building, the retail component of the sprawling plaza is solidly filled. An adjacent property might be a potential addition to the plaza, but Falcone said that there are no specific plans yet to add on.
In Town Hall, Villamaino said that work continues to ensure that, with regard to East Longmeadow’s growth, those balanced scales are kept even for a town that has watched its population climb in the last few decades.
“Business is a great neighbor,” he said, “and, yes, it does make you a more solvent community. But you don’t want haphazard growth — you want to be sensible, with an eye to the future, so that the decisions we make today aren’t penny-wise and pound-foolish. I certainly don’t think we’re done growing — there are certainly people who want to live here, and I think we’re going to see, as that work base increases, business is going to want to locate itself near that population.”
As he looked out the windows from Town Hall on the busy intersection at the center of town, he smiled and said, “we’ve got a good thing going.”

Features
Mick Kittredge Isn’t Just Waxing Nostalgic

Mick-and-Mike-Kittredge

Mick Kittredge doesn’t want to copy the business model of his father, Mike, but instead wants to give customers a more boutique experience.

It isn’t often in life when you get a chance to do it all over again, either personally or professionally. But Michael Kittredge II is getting that opportunity, and he can thank his son for that.
Mike, as he’s called, founded, developed, and later sold Yankee Candle Co., in what is arguably the region’s most celebrated entrepreneurial success story. You probably have heard that it all started on an old Queen Anne stove in his parents’ house in South Hadley, on which he made a candle that became a present for his mother. What you might not know is that his son, Michael Kittredge III, “Mick,” also made his first candle on that very same stove a few decades later.
Today, the Queen Anne holds pride of place just inside the front door at the Kringle Candle Company’s retail store and headquarters in Bernardston. In many ways, it represents not only the elegantly shelved candles in the store beyond, but the connection between a father and son.
At Kringle, Mike is on hand to collaborate with Mick on marketing, making gift baskets, and keeping an eye on the retail side of things — he said that “retail was always something that I really loved, so I’ll walk around the store, put a little more of this here and there. When a company is just starting out, there are a lot of hats that everyone has to wear.”
The only difference this time is that Kringle is Mick’s idea, and he’s the one at the helm.
The all-white, scented candles began as an idea just over a year ago as part of a marketing class Mick was taking at Greenfield Community College, and today they are rapidly becoming another success in the Kittredge family. The path of the chandler was always one he had envisioned, Mick said, explaining, “I knew that I wanted to do something with candles, not quite sure how specifically. When I was younger, I had thought about running Yankee someday.”
But when Mike sold the company in 1998, both men agreed that the culture they knew had changed. “I decided against trying to work up the ladder over there. It was a little too corporatized to me, especially as I remember what it used to be like,” Mick said, referring to a close-knit and very family-oriented work and retail environment.
“Going into this company,” he continued, “with my father and me discussing different names, we wanted to be associated with Christmas, with the warm feeling you get from the holidays. That’s really what I’m looking to do here.”
What that translates to is a retail and marketing experience that, as company president, Mick says he works hard at to make fun for all involved, customers and employees alike. “That’s why people are going to come here,” he explained. “It’s the fundamental and underlying need of all people to want to have some fun in their lives.”
And, Mike added, “if it’s fun, you’re going to want to do it again.”
The basic design of the Kringle Candle is all-white and highly fragrant. Currently, the lineup features more than 40 different scents, from florals to foods; from spices to holiday favorites. The retail store is set up with rooms of both classically presented shelves and inspired vignettes — like a refrigerator stocked with fruit-scented candles in reusable culinary containers.
Shedding light on his own distinct approach to the business, Mick said, “we’re honest with our prices, we’re honest with our quality, and we’re striving to keep that honesty in the marketplace.” He uses both the highest-quality fragrance oils available and domestically produced 100% food-grade paraffin to create the distinctly white premium candles.
“There’s no line of candles out there that’s anything like it,” he added. “Unique shapes, styles, scents, and the whole concept of the white candle. It throws more light, it’s décor-neutral; it’s for someone who’s looking for some ambience and art in their life.”
Mick’s first foray into the retail market was a single point of sale at Jackson & Connor, in Northampton. But just a year ago, he and his father came across the ‘for sale’ sign outside their present headquarters while on a foliage drive.
“The original idea was that it would encompass 3,000 square feet of retail in the front, then distribution, warehousing, and production all here, all contained within this building,” Mick said.
“Today, less than a year later,” he continued, “we have a 15,000-square-foot distribution center, we own more than 200 acres in Bernardston, and we are already unable to continue within the confinements of this one building.” Success is coming fast for Kringle; Kathie Lee and Hoda proclaimed the candles one of their “favorite things” on NBC’s Today show.
As one would expect, all eyes are on Mick’s venture into what was, essentially, the family business, and Kringle has attracted international media attention. But he takes it in stride. “My father started what became the largest candle company in the world,” he explained. “Those are big shoes to fill, and it’s a lot of work, but a lot of fun trying.
“The product quality is top-notch,” he continued, “we have a great concept, and we have a good idea of what we want for the future. My dad knows what works and what doesn’t, and he’s giving me a great deal of knowledge, as any son would go to their father for advice. He’s the best teacher I could ever have. He’s done it before, and it just so happens that he was the best in the world at that.”
Mike added that it’s a different story this time — Mick’s, not his. Those big shoes he built over at Yankee might have turned into “giant fishing boots,” but, he added, “this is a different-style company — a boutique company. For people who know the difference between high quality and all the rest. Mick is here filling his own very cool boat shoes.”
The comparisons to Yankee will be inevitable, but Mick is adamant about keeping Kringle his own. “I don’t want it to get so large where I lose touch with every facet of the company,” he explained. “I come in still and make candles, I’m in the retail store talking to customers, I’m working online, doing marketing. I’ll take the growth as it comes, but always keeping it the way I remember it, the way it used to be.”
Because, like his father who famously created an empire by doing things his own way, Mick has his eyes on a business model that goes much further than a balance sheet. In many more ways than one, Mick is rekindling an old flame. n

— Dan Chase

Opinion
Time for Springfield to Get Its Message Out

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno is right.
The city is, in many respects, like a company with products, he told BusinessWest. And like those companies, it has to sell itself if it wants to grow and prosper. And so, what is being touted as Springfield’s first major marketing program is getting underway.
‘Make it Happen’ is the new marketing slogan, or tagline, and while it remains to be seen whether that message resonates with people here and elsewhere, and if the $100,000 budgeted over the next two years is anywhere near enough to properly convey the message — there is no debating that Springfield simply must begin to market itself, and in a big way.
Why? Well, there are several reasons, all of them spelled out in the Urban Land Institute (ULI) report completed a few years ago. In short, marketing works — whether it’s for a car manufacturer, a cereal maker, a political candidate, or a city — if it’s done properly and consistently. And while the city is late getting into this game, late is better than never.
To elaborate, marketing is, in most all cases, a proactive and very necessary activity. And for far too long, Springfield has been much too reactive. In other words, the city has been far too content to let others control the message being sent about it, and that simply must change.
That’s because the message out there, by and large, is that Springfield is an old, tired manufactured city whose best days are years, decades, or perhaps a century or more behind it. The message being sent is that the City of Homes is a place where it’s not happening, and probably can’t happen.
So to achieve progress, Springfield needs to change the message, and more importantly, it has to back up what it says.
‘Make it Happen’ is a nod to Springfield’s past, when it was, as everyone knows by now, a city of firsts, from the motorcycle to the board game; from the ice skate to the parking meter. All those things and many others happened here. But it wasn’t just products, it was highly successful companies created to make those products.
It’s been some time since there’s been a real first in Springfield, and many things have changed since the city earned that reputation. Competition is truly global now, and Springfield is in many ways at a disadvantage in terms of climate, geography, and the cost of doing business. But people can still makes things happen here, as FloDesign Wind Turbine, Seahorse Bioscience, and those bringing the Scuderi engine to the marketplace can attest.
It’s time Springfield started to tell these stories, and join cities like Lowell, Providence, and countless others and get its message out.
And a big part of this process is creating awareness, and a positive attitude within this market. Indeed, it’s probably safe to say that people far outside this market have a better impression of Springfield than many people who live and work here. Putting the ‘Make it Happen’ image on a billboard or the side of a bus won’t change attitudes overnight, but they can perhaps get people thinking that maybe, just maybe, the glass is actually half-full.
For too long, city officials and civic and business leaders have taken the approach that, if they can just get the local media to stop focusing so much on crime, poverty, and high dropout rates, then things will be much better. It doesn’t work that way; cities have to do things about those problems, not wish them away. And they have to change attitudes.
Like it or not, the perception of Springfield is that this city, like many older manufacturing centers, is troubled and tired, a place where you must summon the past tense when using terms such as ‘vibrant,’ ‘energetic,’ and ‘relevant.’
Whether this perception is indeed reality is a matter of conjecture. But there is no debating that, unless the city takes steps to change and control the message — and marketing is a big part of this equation — then perception will become reality.

Sections Supplements
Changes Are Coming to Lease-accounting Rules

The recently issued exposure draft on lease-accounting rules proves to be one of the more significant and far-reaching proposals presented this year. Even though proposed lease-accounting changes are in draft form as we write this, they have been years in the making. As a result, the core elements are unlikely to change and will impact every organization that enters into a lease agreement.

Kyle Richard

Kyle Richard

Therefore, lessors, lessees, and other concerned parties must engage in conversations about the effect the proposed changes will have on their financial statements and their business, and be prepared to adjust operations accordingly.
Generally speaking, the proposed lease-accounting rules will require that all assets and liabilities arising from leased assets are recorded on the balance sheet. This will effectively eliminate off-balance-sheet accounting for operating leases. The proposed requirements would affect most any organization that enters into a lease. These changes are intended to more closely align the U.S. Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) standards with those of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), acknowledging the global nature of today’s market.

Apply Right Model
The FASB’s exposure draft states that, with a few exceptions, lessees and lessors should apply a ‘right-of-use’ model in accounting for all leases. On its balance sheet, a lessee would recognize an asset representing its right to use the leased asset for the lease term and a liability to make lease payments. Meanwhile, the lessor would recognize an asset representing its right to receive lease payments depending on its exposure to risks or benefits associated with the underlying asset. Your accountant should be prepared to share additional details about this part of the proposed lease changes.
Calculating these assets and liabilities can be a challenge because the exposure draft assumes the longest possible lease term that is more likely than not to occur. To make these calculations, management, with its accounting professionals, must make certain assumptions, including expected future payments, probability of lease renewal, current and future market conditions, and other considerable changes that may affect the assets and liabilities.
A larger liability could exist in the event that lease-extension options stated in the original lease contract are exercised. For example, if the exercised lease agreement states a five-year contract, with options to extend an additional five years, and management determines it will use the space for the entire 10 years, then all 10 years of lease payments must be recorded as a liability at the present value based on all 10 years.

Joe Milardo

Joe Milardo

The FASB also notes that the life-of-lease estimate may need to be reassessed at each point of financial reporting if significant changes to the facts and circumstances surrounding the lease would impact the original estimate and present value. The ‘right-of-use’ asset (which at initial recording is equivalent to the lease payment liability) would then be amortized over the life of that tenant’s estimated occupancy. Certain initial direct costs incurred to originate the lease and/or place the right-of-use asset into service (commissions, legal fees, negotiation of lease terms) can be capitalized, placing the right-of-use asset at a higher cost basis than the lease liability.

Key Accounting Changes
If confirmed, the proposals included in the exposure draft will result in considerable changes to the accounting requirements for both lessees and lessors.
Impacts to profit-and-loss statements as a result of the proposals in the exposure draft will be significant, as will balance-sheet alterations. Compared to current U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) standards, if accepted, the proposals could result in much larger reductions on the profit-and-loss statements. For example, currently, U.S. GAAP requires the recognition of only a lease expense in an entity’s financial statements. The new proposal will require that same entity to recognize an interest expense on the lease liability, as well as an amortization expense on the right-of-use asset.
Here, the right-of-use asset is also subject to impairment. So an entity could record this right-of-use asset at the present value of its future minimum lease payments and immediately have to impair the asset as a result of fluctuations in the market. This could result in an extraordinary loss that would require close accounting and valuation attention as it comes into effect.

Response by Banks and Regulators
As a result of the new lease-accounting standards, balance sheets reflecting these new rules will be subject to immediate change. Will regulators and bankers consider the impact of the new lease-accounting rules when calculating financial-statement ratios and debt covenants? That’s uncertain.
We’ll have to wait and see how regulators and bankers interpret financial statements after the accounting change. To strengthen relationships with regulators and bankers, take a proactive approach by engaging in conversations about how the new lease-accounting rules will affect your business and financial statements.

Looking Forward
Tenants may prefer shorter-term leasing options to avoid recognizing larger lease liabilities. The downside is that shorter leases may increase lease rates to recover leasehold improvement build-outs and/or commissions paid to originate the lease. Some tenants may even be enticed to purchase real estate because there will no longer be a benefit to excluding these assets and liabilities from their financial statements.
The proposed lease-accounting changes will have a profound impact on all those entities that enter into leases — especially in the real-estate industry. Attending to your business yet ignoring the impending changes would be a mistake. Instead, in anticipation of the adoption of the new lease-accounting rules, talk with your accountant and build a plan to ensure the financial position of your company.

Kyle Richard, CPA, and Joe Milardo, CPA, are members of the Real Estate Services Group at Kostin, Ruffkess & Co., LLC, a certified public-accounting and business-advisory firm with offices in Springfield, as well as Farmington and New London, Conn. Beyond traditional accounting, auditing, and tax consulting, the firm also specializes in employee-benefit-plan audits, litigation support, business valuation, succession planning, business consulting, forensic accounting, wealth management, estate planning, fraud prevention, and information-technology assurance; (413) 233-2300; www.kostin.com

Company Notebook Departments

United Personnel Among Top Women-led Businesses
SPRINGFIELD — Mary Ellen Scott, founder of United Personnel, has been recognized again by the Boston Business Journal and the Commonwealth Institute with a Top 100 Women-Led Business Award for 2010. United Personnel is in its 26th year of operation, offering regional companies staffing support with temporary, temp-to-hire, and direct-hire placements. Scott noted that the past two years have been “very challenging” for most small and large businesses. She added that these 100 women have demonstrated they can navigate “difficult waters” with the economy and still create jobs and maintain their commitments to family, philanthropy, and community activities that benefit all of society. Since 1997, the Commonwealth Institute has assisted more than 1,000 women in growing their businesses. The awards ceremony, planned for Dec. 8 at the Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, will celebrate and honor the region’s top women-led businesses. United Personnel has two offices, at 1331 Main St. in Springfield and 250 Northampton St. in Easthampton.

Royal & Klimzcuk Moves to New Location
NORTHAMPTON — The law firm Royal & Klimczuk is relocating its offices to 270 Pleasant St. in Northampton. The firm will be in its new facilities on Nov. 29. Amy Royal, a principal with the firm, said the company needed space to grow, and the new location provides it. The firm, which has seven lawyers working in two locations, represents businesses exclusively in all aspects of labor and employment law, including wage-and-hour matters, discrimination and harassment, disability and leave, labor relations, affirmative action, and many others. The firm’s phone number, (413) 586-2288, will not change.

MMWEC Wins National Communications Award
LUDLOW — The 2009 annual report of the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC) has earned an award for excellence in communications from the American Public Power Assoc. (APPA), the national organization of consumer-owned utilities. Each year the APPA recognizes “high-quality annual reports that exhibit excellence in writing, design, photography, organization, and creativity” while communicating a utility’s unique message. MMWEC is among 11 utilities nationwide receiving annual-report awards this year from APPA, which serves more than 2,000 public power utilities in the U.S. The theme of MMWEC’s 2009 Annual Report, “Old Fashioned … But Not,” highlights the organization’s commitment to traditional public-power values and its pursuit of innovative solutions to the challenges posed by greener energy policies, wholesale power-market reforms, and increased financial risks. MMWEC is a nonprofit, public corporation and political subdivision of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that provides a variety of power-supply, financial, risk-management, and other services to the state’s consumer-owned, municipal utilities.

DiGrigoli Salon Honored on Veterans Day
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Professional stylists from the DiGrigoli Salon provided free haircuts to all veterans who attended a veterans’ outreach event in October at the War Memorial building in Holyoke. As a thank-you to the stylists and students, each received certificates of appreciation on Veterans’ Day at the DiGrigoli School of Cosmetology on Riverdale Street from Laurence White, a member of Vietnam Veterans of America, which co-sponsored the outreach event. Six times per year, DiGrigoli School of Cosmetology provides free haircuts to veterans, all under the supervision of licensed instructors. For more information, visit www.digrigoli.com.

Comcast Launches Local Wireless Data Service
SPRINGFIELD — Comcast recently launched its wireless data service in Western Mass., continuing its nationwide rollout of XFINITY Internet 2go. In its initial offering, Comcast’s XFINITY Internet 2go provides nationwide wireless Internet service via a wireless data card, and is being bundled with one or more services including XFINITY TV or XFINITY Voice products. By the end of the year, Comcast will also offer XFINITY Internet 2go as a fourth-generation (or 4G) wireless, high-speed data service via the Clearwire network in Western Mass. Comcast is selling wireless data services following its investment in Clearwire in November 2008. For more information, visit www.comcast.com/2go.

Colebrook Brokers HCPA Lease Expansion
SPRINGFIELD — Colebrook Realty Services Inc. recently brokered the lease expansion of tenant Hampden County Physician Associates, LLC (HCPA) at 354 Birnie Ave. HCPA extended occupancy from 4,400 square feet to more than 15,000 square feet for a term of five years. Colebrook principal Mitch Bolotin represented property owner Klondike Investment Group Inc. The building remains at full occupancy. HCPA, an independent, multi-specialty network of health care professionals, has housed its administrative headquarters at 354 Birnie Ave. since August 2000. The need for a larger space is related to management-team growth and anticipated expansion in directions HCPA believes “will better serve the community,” according to Al Ogoley, director of facilities for HCPA. Ogoley noted that the Birnie Avenue site is “ideally located” to service its 16 locations throughout Western Mass. and beyond. In addition to HCPA, the property’s other occupant is Baystate Medical Center Inc.

Big Y Continues Growth
SPRINGFIELD — Big Y Foods Inc. recently opened the first two of several supermarkets that were acquired from A&P on Nov. 1. The first two Connecticut locations to open are in West Hartford at 772 North Main St. and in Branford at 1060 Main St. All of the former A&P pharmacies have remained open throughout this transition period. The West Hartford and Mystic pharmacies have been converted to Big Y pharmacies, and A&P’s Naugatuck pharmacy has been relocated into the Big Y World Class Market in Naugatuck. Its Middletown pharmacy has been sold to Walgreens there.

Oregon Company Acquired by APT
SPRINGFIELD — Energy Conservation Training Company (ECONTC), a Portland, Ore., startup firm specializing in training contractors and unemployed workers to become home-energy analysts, has been acquired by Applied Proactive Technologies Inc. (APT). Jeff Catlin, ECONTC’s founder and president, will join APT as director of education services. Educating utility customers on how to make their homes more energy-efficient has been a focus of APT’s work from the start, according to Dave Leishman, president of APT. Leishman noted that homeowners are “very motivated” to save money on utility bills, and utility companies are looking for ways to get deeper energy savings through services like duct sealing, insulating, and improving the performance of heating and cooling equipment. Leishman added that acquiring ECONTC and expanding services in the area of whole home performance “was a logical next step.” Leishman predicts that demand for ECONTC’s training services will grow as more consumers and businesses seek to reduce their energy use and realize cost savings.

Springfield Police Select M&P Pistol
SPRINGFIELD — Smith & Wesson Corp. recently announced that the Springfield Police Department has chosen to equip all of its officers with primary-duty sidearms from the Military & Police (M&P) Pistol Series. The M&P40 will be issued to each officer to replace pistols that had previously been in service at the department. The Springfield Police Department has received 580 M&P40 pistols, and is currently in the process of transitioning officers over to the new firearms. The department said that the M&P pistol was well-suited to meet the needs of its diverse officer makeup, noting such features as the firearm’s interchangeable grip sizes and ambidextrous controls. During testing of the new sidearm, the M&P pistol was further recognized for its ease of maintenance, accuracy, and flexibility to adapt to a wide variety of applications in the field. Each pistol will be laser-engraved with ‘Springfield Police Department’ on the side along with a special control number across the top. In addition to the new sidearm, Springfield police are currently using M&P15 tactical rifles as the department’s issued patrol rifles. Throughout their history, Smith & Wesson and the Springfield Police Department have enjoyed a long-standing partnership, according to Leland Nichols, vice president of sales for Smith & Wesson.

MassMutual Adds Lyman Products to Roster
SPRINGFIELD — MassMutual’s Retirement Services Division has been selected by Lyman Products as the new provider for the company’s $6.3 million 401(k) plan. Lyman Products, based in Middletown, Conn., is a manufacturer of products for the shooting and reloading industry with more than 100 employees. Denis LeBlanc, controller at Lyman Products, noted that his firm sought a “financially stable” retirement plan provider that offered high-touch service and strong educational resources for employees. LeBlanc added that MassMutual’s “demonstrated strengths” in these areas were important in its selection as the new retirement plan provider. Smith Brothers Insurance of Glastonbury, Conn. assisted with the search process.

CHD Opens New OT Center
SPRINGFIELD — The Center for Human Development recently opened its new occupational therapy center, the Institute for Dynamic Living, at 342 Birnie Ave. The facility is fully licensed as both an occupational-therapy clinic and behavioral-health clinic, offering a wide range of services for children, adolescents, and adults. Services include individual and group therapy assessments, consultations, educational trainings, and workshops. Tina Champagne is the program director. She holds a doctorate in occupational therapy and is also a registered and licensed occupational therapist. Programs offered include sensory processing, neurofeedback and independent-living skills, free monthly informational sessions for parents, and professional workshops in areas such as clinical aromatherapy, sensory processing, and weighted-blanket training. For more information on the facility, visit www.chd.org/ot.

Fran Johnson’s Adds Golf Simulators
WEST SPRINGFIELD — Fran Johnson’s Golf & Racquet Headquarters has launched a new division of its business called Tee2Green2. It features 3-D, high-definition golf simulators that will enable people to play such classic courses as Pebble Beach, the Blue Monster at Doral, and Casa De Campo without getting on an airplane. The simulators offer a playing experience that includes perfect weather, no lost golf balls, and no slow play. Fran Johnson’s acquired two of the simulators, and is now booking tee times. Golfers of all ages and skill levels can enjoy the simulators, and can book times by calling (413) 734-4444. The average time for a foursome to play 18 holes is 3 to 3 1/2 hours.

Court Dockets Departments

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

CHICOPEE DISTRICT COURT
Capital One Bank, N.A. v. ABM Clothing and Beverley Thorington
Allegation: Monies owed for credit advanced: $3,117.19
Filed: 10/8/10

FRANKLIN SUPERIOR COURT
Alyssa Alger v. The Yankee Candle Co. Inc.
Allegation: Negligent maintenance of business property, causing injury: $41,392.18
Filed: 10/7/10

Christopher and Bethany Maselli v. Eric Freeman, D.O. and Ravi Kumar, M.D.
Allegation: Medical malpractice: $1,025,000
Filed: 9/20/10

GREENFIELD DISTRICT COURT
David A. Perok v. Rice Oil Co. Inc.
Allegation: Negligent maintenance of a worksite, causing injury: $6,151.30
Filed: 9/30/10

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT
Dave Sakowski v. Baystate Contracting Services Inc.
Allegation: Failure to pay wages: $30,000
Filed: 9/30/10

Nellum Realty Trust v. Gliptone of Mass. & Lyons Home Improvement
Allegation: Non-payment for rent of commercial building: $81,000
Filed: 10/4/10

Superior Products Distributors Inc. v. Shawn’s Lawns, Inc., RIV Construction Group, and HD Westfield, MA Landlord, LLC
Allegation: Failure to pay under the terms of a construction contract: $297,361.45
Filed: 10/4/10

Western Mass. Environmental, LLC v. Dapri Rentals, LLC and Mary & Chris Clark
Allegation: Non-payment of services rendered: $36,816
Filed: 10/13/10

HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT
Roger Harrington v. C.H Nickelson & Co. Inc.
Allegation: Plaintiff was working on a roof at a construction site where the defendant was a general contractor, when he slipped and fell: $164,817.88
Filed: 9/20/10

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Arrow Concrete Products Inc. v. W.A.L. Development, LLC
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $10,413.92
Filed: 8/27/10

Comcast Spotlight Inc. v. Direct Finance Corp.
Allegation: Non-payment of advertising services: $4,215.44
Filed: 8/26/10

Margaret N. Broughton v. Fifth Third Bank, et al.
Allegation: Breach of agreement for payment of car loan: $10,000
Filed: 9/7/10

Slope Properties, LLC v. J.K.A. Contracting
Allegation: Breach of home-improvement contract. Monies received and work not performed: $3,301.95
Filed: 8/23/10

United Rentals Inc. v. Tetreault Masonry Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment for materials, equipment, and services provided: $5,485
Filed: 9/9/10

Western Mass Electric v. Dog Days & Nights, LLC
Allegation: Non-payment of utility services provided: $6,584.04
Filed: 8/27/10

WESTFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Capital One Bank, N.A. v. TRM Consultants, LLC & Thomas R. Mihalek
Allegation: Breach of credit agreement and monies owed: $16,031.67
Filed: 9/3/10

Carole Fabrics Inc. v. King Brothers Painting & Staining
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $2,738.98
Filed: 10/8/10

Briefcase Departments

Moen Named President and CEO of SPHS
SPRINGFIELD — Daniel P. Moen, president and CEO of Heywood Hospital in Gardner, Mass., has been named the new president and CEO of the Sisters of Providence Health System (SPHS). Moen, who will assume his new position in January 2011, will succeed Dr. William Bithoney, who has been serving in an interim capacity since the prior CEO, Vincent McCorkle, left the organization in June 2010. Moen was selected after a nationwide search by the Sisters of Providence Health System’s board of trustees. “Daniel Moen is a well-respected, pragmatic health care leader with many years of experience managing complex hospital operations,” said Dr. David Chadbourne, board chair of SPHS. “He is an excellent choice to lead the Sisters of Providence Health System. We are confident his talents will not only help sustain our rich legacy of providing high-quality and compassionate care, but will also help us reach new levels of service to our community.” Moen brings more than 28 years of senior leadership experience in health care in the state of Massachusetts; for 23 of these years he has served as a CEO. Since 1990, he has served as president and CEO of Heywood Hospital, a 125-bed, full-service community hospital based in Gardner. Under Moen’s leadership, the hospital has added key inpatient and outpatient services, initiated a major capital-expansion project, and built outstanding relations with its community. Prior to joining Heywood Hospital in 1990, Moen served for 10 years in progressively responsible leadership positions with Holden Hospital in Holden, Mass., including two years as its president and CEO. “We are pleased to have Daniel Moen join the Sisters of Providence Health System,” said Judith M. Persichilli, president and CEO of Catholic Health East, of which SPHS is a member. “He has extensive experience in the Massachusetts health care environment, an impressive track record of high performance in challenging times, and a strong commitment to the mission and core values of the Sisters of Providence Health System and Catholic Health East. We look forward to Dan’s contributions; we are convinced that he will prove to be an important asset to our entire health care ministry.” Moen earned a master’s degree in health administration from Clark University and UMass Medical School, a bachelor’s degree in management from Worcester State College, and an associate’s degree in radiologic technology from Quinsigamond Community College, all in Worcester. He is also a past chair (2006-07) of the Mass. Hospital Assoc., helping to lead that organization in the midst of groundbreaking health care reform legislation. “I am honored to be selected for this important role,” said Moen. “It will be a privilege to serve the Sisters of Providence Health System, Catholic Health East, and the Western Mass. community.”
AIM Business Confidence Index Surges in October
BOSTON — The Associated Industries of Massachusetts Business Confidence Index shot up 7.7 points in October to 55.3, its highest level since August 2008. Raymond G. Torto, Global Chief Economist at CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. and chair of AIM’s Board of Economic Advisors (BEA), noted the monthly gain was “unprecedented” in the 19-year history of the index, adding, however, that “we must regard it cautiously.” Nevertheless, he noted, there are reasons to take the improvement in employer sentiment seriously. Torto said the October result in effect returns the state, after a three-month gap, to the upward trend of the first half of the year, and is based to a considerable extent on a less negative, and probably more realistic, assessment of prevailing conditions in the national economy. He added that Massachusetts employers remain predominantly positive about conditions for their own operations, and they now expect significant improvement in the business climate generally over the next six months. Even in that timeframe, however, Torto foresees conditions approaching neutral, rather than rapid, expansion. The AIM index was up 12 points from its level of October 2009, and 13.9 over two years. It reached its historic low at 33.3 in February 2009, and its all-time high of 68.5 on two occasions in 1997 and ’98. Among the component sub-indices, the U.S. Index of national conditions led October’s rise with a gain of 12.2 points to 48.7, while the Massachusetts Index of conditions within the Commonwealth added 7.7 to 49.4. The Current Index, assessing overall conditions at the time of the survey, was up 7.1 points in October to 53.2, and the Future Index of prospects for six months ahead gained 8.5 to 57.0, while the Future Index edged up three-tenths to 48.4. In the past year, the Current Index has picked up 10.5 points, while the Future Index has gained 2.5. The sub-indices relating to respondents’ own operations all rose in October. The broadest of them, the Company Index, was up 5.8 points, and the Sales Index was up 5.5, both at 58.9, while the Employment Index added 2.3 to 53.7. Confidence levels moved up together among employers in Greater Boston (+7.6 to 54.4) and those elsewhere in the state (+7.6 to 56.7). The monthly Business Confidence Index, initiated by AIM’s Board of Economic Advisors in July 1991, is based on a survey of AIM member-companies across the state, asking questions about current and prospective business conditions in Massachusetts and the nation, as well as for respondents’ own operations. On the Index’s 100-point scale, a reading above 50 indicates that the state’s employer community is predominantly optimistic, while a reading below 50 points to a negative assessment of business conditions. A number of component sub-indices are derived by analyzing responses to selected questions or those of particular groups of respondents.

Pilot Energy-saving Program Underway
SPRINGFIELD — Western Mass Saves, a pilot energy-efficiency program, was recently launched by Western Massachusetts Electric Company (WMECO). The program helps customers manage their electric use and rewards energy savings with points that can be redeemed at national and local merchants. Under Western Mass Saves, selected customers receive printed reports in the mail that provide personalized recommendations to reduce and track their home-energy use. The report also shows customers how their energy use compares to the average use in their community. While selected customers will receive printed reports, all customers are eligible to participate through the Web site, www.westernmasssaves.com. Under the one-year pilot program, customers can log into the Web site for personalized online electric-bill savings advice. Customers can also review more than 250 ways to reduce their energy consumption, design an individualized energy-savings plan, track the results, and earn rewards. The program is a partnership among WMECO, Efficiency 2.0, RecycleBank, and SmartPower.

Art & Soles Gallery Open
to the Public
SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Business Improvement District announced that the popular six-foot sneaker sculptures known as Art & Soles have moved indoors for the holidays. The 20 painted sneakers will be prominently displayed in the Art & Soles Gallery, located at 1391 Main St., at the corner of Main and Harrison Avenue. The space is being donated by owner Glenn Edwards. The sneakers will be auctioned off at a later date. The gallery will be open to the public Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Thursdays until 8 p.m.), and also on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. In addition to the 20 sneakers, artists will have other merchandise available. Art & Soles is a public art project created by a team of volunteers, including the Greater Springfield-UMass Amherst Partnership, TSM Design, and the Springfield Business Improvement District.

Business Hiring Still Lackluster
WASHINGTON — In the week ending Nov. 6, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 435,000, a decrease of 24,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 459,000. The four-week moving average was 446,500, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 456,500. The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.4% for the week ending Oct. 30, a decrease of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week’s revised rate of 3.5%. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending Oct. 30 was 4,301,000, a decrease of 86,000 from the preceding week’s revised level of 4,387,000. The four-week moving average was 4,388,250, a decrease of 35,750 from the preceding week’s revised average of 4,424,000. The advance number of actual initial claims under state programs, unadjusted, totaled 449,905 in the week ending Nov. 6, an increase of 28,808 from the previous week. There were 531,743 initial claims in the comparable week in 2009. The advance unadjusted insured unemployment rate was 3.0% during the week ending Oct. 30, unchanged from the prior week. The advance unadjusted number for persons claiming UI benefits in state programs totaled 3,745,901, a decrease of 13,638 from the preceding week. A year earlier, the rate was 3.8%, and the volume was 4,961,610. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending Oct. 23 was 8,624,679.

Sections Supplements
Guy Gaulin Keeps a Proud Tradition Alive at Hitchcock Press

Guy Gaulin

Guy Gaulin has spent a lifetime sharing his passion for letterpress.

Guy Gaulin started his career in printing as a letterpress assistant more than 60 years ago. He never lost his passion for that craft — even when most of the industry left it behind.
“In the ’50s, offset printing and computerized typesetting came along, and that had some advantages over letterpress. It costs less, and you can do more with offset in the way of color process,” Gaulin told BusinessWest. “So letterpress became practically obsolete.”
But not at Holyoke-based Hitchcock Press, which was well-known for letterpress printing from its earliest days as the Wisly Company in the late 19th century, and still touts itself as a leading purveyor of the craft in the Pioneer Valley.
“This is what I’ve always wanted to do,” Gaulin said. “I liked letterpress, and it does have its place. It was my background, and I was good at it. Because offset was a lot less expensive, letterpress just got rolled over, but you did have some folks who stuck to letterpress, basically for things like limited-edition books and cards. The people doing letterpress were mainly one- and two-man shops. But for them, it was a passion. I put myself in that group.”
But he has grown Hitchcock Press to much more than that since purchasing it in 1971. The shop employs about 15 people, and commercial offset work remains the major revenue generator, allowing Gaulin to cultivate his letterpress passion for a smaller — but growing — number of clients who appreciate the artistry of the method, whether it’s for wedding invitations, business cards, letterhead, or any number of other uses.
“Commercial offset is really the core of our business, but the focus of the business is letterpress,” said Deanna Gaulin, Guy’s daughter and the shop’s vice president. “What I like about letterpress is that it’s something we can offer that other area printers do not. It’s definitely the fastest-growing area of our business, too.”
Despite its expense compared to offset printing, “our volume is increasing on letterpress,” Guy said, “which is the part I enjoy most.”

Coming Home
Gaulin was born in Holyoke to Canadian parents; when the Great Depression deepened in the 1930s, they returned to Quebec. While attending school there, he discovered a passion and aptitude for art which would continue throughout his life.
In 1944, he returned to Holyoke and joined the U.S. Navy shortly thereafter. Following the service, he began his graphic-arts career at American Pad and Paper Co., completing his letterpress apprenticeship and working as a pressman for several years before being promoted to head of AMPAD’s printing operation.
He introduced offset printing to the company, but his heart remained in letterpress.
“Offset printing took over at that time, and I did bring in offset at AMPAD,” he noted. Wisly, which changed hands in 1956 and underwent a name change to Hitchcock Press, was seeing similar changes. “But when I bought Hitchcock in 1971, it had both letterpress and offset, and we converted more and more into letterpress.”
Letterpress, which uses a reversed, raised surface to press relief text and art onto the paper, has a distinguished history; in fact, its creation in Germany by Johannes Gutenberg around 1440 is considered by many to be the most important invention of the past millennium.
His method of printing from movable type allowed, for the first time, the mass production of books; Gutenberg produced an estimated 180 copies of his most famous work, the Gutenberg Bible, in about a year, the same time it would have taken a scribe to complete one copy by hand. Fifty years after the invention of letterpress, more than 15 million books in about 30,000 titles existed in the world — changing the course of human history.
Over the next 500 years, letterpress printing continued to improve and gradually became more mechanized. But what originally made the process so revolutionary — its speed and efficiency — was a factor in its decline starting in the mid-20th century, as offset printing proved to be even faster and less expensive; it still dominates the industry today.
But the public didn’t abandon letterpress completely, and recent years has seen a resurgence in its popularity, Gaulin said.
“It came back because it has what no other printing has: depth,” he noted. “By comparison, you might say offset printing is completely flat, whereas letterpress has a different feel; it has depth, what we call an impression.”
The artistry and aesthetic pleasure of letterpress products are their major appeal to Gaulin, who has always considered himself an artist and photographer at heart but a printer by trade. Several years ago, he created a line of letterpress notecards created from his own artwork, earning an Award of Recognition at the 2005 Premier Print Awards, the world’s largest competition of printed products.
Many clients who approach Hitchcock for invitations, cards, and other projects submit designs through its Web site.
“We receive computer files, and we have plates made; we use magnesium plates because I consider them superior,” Gaulin said. Type is set manually, and artwork is placed directly onto the plate by an engraver. “When the plate is made, we run it on the letterpress.”
For wedding invitations, Deanna said, “we’ll give the bride the plate if they want it; sometimes they’ll frame it.”
Clients may design their own products or hire someone else to do it, she added, but if not, Hitchcock also offers design services. “We will help anyone who needs help to make it unique.”
And some of the shop’s recent products are striking indeed, with invitation cards ranging from a wedding reception at the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round (complete with die-cut horses) to a wedding on Oct. 30, with intricate Halloween-themed artwork rising subtly from the paper along with the text. Guy also showed off a card featuring both letterpressed text and offset artwork — a way for a client to save money.

Sharing a Passion
Gaulin has been an innovator as well. For example, he developed what he calls the GrayTone method of letterpress printing for a series of note cards and prints. Unlike halftone printing, which uses black ink only, requires one plate, and goes through the press one time, GrayTone uses gray inks and black ink, and the art is computer-manipulated to yield a certain number of gray values, each given its own plate, along with one black plate.
To demonstrate, he showed BusinessWest a calendar he produced, featuring a photo he took in the Grenadines, that was converted to five sets of plates and went through the letterpress five times to achieve a depth and richness halftone doesn’t offer.
Gaulin shares his passion for letterpress in other ways, including a blog he publishes at www.hitchcockpress.com, where he posts descriptions of various customers’ jobs, along with step-by-step photos.
It is there where he explains why he has continued working into his 80s.
“To my friends who wonder why I do not retire,” he writes in one entry, “I met a charming young lady and made her happy by designing and producing a fine letterpress wedding invitation package for her … and we became friends. What a wonderful world.”
After more than six decades in the business, Guy Gaulin is still making impressions for customers — and they’re still making an impression on him. n

Joseph Bednar can be reached
at [email protected]

DBA Certificates Departments

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

AMHERST

Community Photo Access
534 Main St.
Anibal Gonzalez-Rivera

NJ Company
135 Lincoln Ave.
Naomi Elliot

North Amherst Gulf
24 Montague Road
Joseph Sacco

CHICOPEE

Lugos Family Barber Shop
257 Hampden St.
Agustin Lugo Jr.

Phantazm Media Publishing & Printing
419 Front St.
Geoffrey Watson

Win-Wes Contractors
1731 Memorial Dr.
Paul Winters

WirelessZone AII
1519 Memorial Dr.
AII Inc.

GREENFIELD

Call’s Corner Store
124 Conway St.
Shahid Habib

Feeding Landscapes
24 Franklin St.
Abrah Dresdale

Rite View Farm
493 Leyden Road
Ronald Wright

Smart Computer
345 Main St.
Jonathan Heburt

Zinnia
116 Federal St.
Mandy Lyn Sweet

HADLEY

Ascent Audiology & Hearing
104 Russell St.
Susan Russell

Mukora’s Fine Arts & Crafts
367 Russell St.
John Mukora

Nail Pro
367 Russell St.
Charles Tran

HOLYOKE

Amy’s Hallmark
50 Holyoke St.
Steven C. Salter

Hillside Auto Sales
911 Main St.
Emil Krassler

J & G Enterprise
100 Nonotuck St.
John Hurley

JAGD
14 Greenwood Ave.
James D. Watson

Stop & Shop Gas
28 Linclon St.
Mark Puza

LUDLOW

Bon-Chien
26 Kirkland Ave.
Bonnie Delviscio

Butter Carpet Cleaning Company
23 Cady St.
Carl Mesheau

Great Clips
433 Center St.
Rachel Barowsky

Rock School Music Academy
95 Windsor St.
Miguel Goncalves

Stratia Electric
636 Fuller St.
Christopher Szczepanek

NORTHAMPTON

BestDealz.com
414 Acrebrook Dr.
Jeffrey Costigan

Cardinal Strategies
35 Maynard Road
William Rosen

Digital Media Army
95 South St.
Lukas B. Snelling

Downtown Auto Sales
110 Pleasant St.
Christopher Cahillane

Hair by Jodi
151 Main St.
Jodi A. Nowak

Jude Enterprise
59 Chestnut St.
Angela Parro

Polished!…A Nail Salon
59 Conz St.
Kerry A. West

Salon Allure
59 Conz St.
Pamela Laprade

Sushi City
228 King St.
Soe Naing

TJDGass.com
58 Phillips Place
Timothy Domkowski

Tout Sweet Confections
44 Sheffield Lane
Pamela Wicinas

PALMER

General Machine
11 Walnut St.
Bruce Baldyga

New England Cable Engineering Services
2170 Main St.
Tracy Merrill-Kalesnik

Stolar Realty LLC
2001 Calkins Road
Christopher J. Stolar

SPRINGFIELD

Haircuts by Minerva
560 1/2 Page Blvd.
Minerva Santana

JRG Enterprise
30 Governor St.
Jose Bolivar

K & F Masonry
133 Sumner Ave.
Kevin W. Thompson

Kenia’s Beauty Salon
519 Main St.
Rigoberto Oscar

KJR Cleaning
24 Stonybrook Road
Kelly Raleigh

L & R Remodeling
2994 Main St.
Luis O. Rivera

Lindalee Boutique
1655 Main St.
Hilda Matos

Los Bandoleros Barber Shop
616 Belmont Ave.
Ramon J. Rios

Majestic Barber Shop
444 Chestnut St.
Jose A. Martinez

Miguel’s Towing LLC
155 Rocus St.
Miguel Santiago

McKinney & Burbach Tavern
1127 Main St.
Julie Waniewski

Nails by Carol
24 Island Pond Road
Carol M. Rolandini

Nails Model
459 Main St.
Truong Minh Tai

Neighborhood Deli
158 Island Pond Road
Demetrice L. Mitchell

Nelson’s Remodeling & Painting
17 Drake St.
Nelson Garcia

Ritchie’s Handyman Service
230 El Paso St.
Ritchie Nebar

S.W.A.G.G.E.R.
94 Wilbraham Road
Clarence W. Smith III

SCB Marketing and Consulting
483 Dickinson St.
Stephen Burrell

Sleep Management Solutions
100 Wason Ave.
Thomas P. Gaffney Jr.

Stamps Williams Realty
431 White St.
Robin L. Jones

TNT Fast Stop
402 King St.
Tyshun O. Riles

The-N-Zone
152 Rifle St.
Elijah R. Lyles

The Fortress West
34 Front St.
George W. Sidor Jr.

Triple Seven Cyber Center
296 Cooley St.
En Yu

Vigo Remittance
2460 Main St.
Jackie L. Hill

WESTFIELD

A Cut Above the Rest
37 Elm St.
Isander Robles

Freshwater Wetland Services
2 Collins St.
Katie A. Bednaz

Ginger Snacks
281 Lower Sandy Hill Road
Mark Simone

Onsite Computer Repairs of Westfield
66 Janis Road
Michael Monahan

Simplicity Salon
1144 Southampton Road
Janine LaPointe

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Alanna Scully Photography
291 City View Ave.
Alanna Scully

Bath & Kitchen Gallery
1060 Memorial Ave.
John J. Regan Jr.

Big Lare’s Bass Excursion’s
1291 Morgan Road
Lawrence W. Marsh

Bottega Cucina
46 Morgan Road
Philip C. Hillenbrand

Dollar Tree
465 Memorial Ave.
Dollar Tree Stores Inc

Drisdelle Quality Carpentry
115 Morton St.
John R. Drisdelle

Frasco Fuel Oil
2383 Westfield St.
David K. Frasco

I love my Jojo’s
179 Daggett Dr.
Joanne Contrino-Guilbault

Owais Khan Traders
20 Elmdale St.
Muhammad Owais

Wireless Zone
7 Westfield St.
Kevin Sinclair

Opinion
Putting the Pioneer Valley Back on Track

A $70 million federal grant to rebuild the Pioneer Valley’s main, north-south rail line has generated excitement and anticipation across the region. Another $210 million of committed rail-corridor grants in neighboring Connecticut and Vermont underscores the strategic importance of this critical Northeast rail link connecting New York City with Montreal.
Next year, this $70 million award will begin funding the wholesale rebuilding of the rail line from Springfield north to Vermont — construction work that will take 24 months to complete. Thus, by 2013, we can look forward to rail passenger service being reintroduced and expanded to Holyoke, Northampton, and Greenfield, which all lost service in 1989 due to poor, unsafe track conditions. Rail revitalization constitutes a game changer, enabling the Valley to regain an asset that’s crucial to a prosperous and sustainable future.
The opportunity for the Valley’s 700,000 residents to access metro centers including New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield, plus major Northeast Corridor mega-regions like New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, is a rail benefit most area residents understand and are eager to take advantage of. Less known are the ways new and improved rail service constitutes an economic engine providing a powerful catalyst that spurs development and employment opportunities, especially around the stations that will serve thousands of train riders.
As has been demonstrated in the U.S. and around the globe, the introduction of intercity and/or commuter rail service stimulates new economic-development opportunities, which, locally, are projected to exceed $240 million in value. In the specific case of the Knowledge Corridor, a variety of economic opportunities are anticipated:
• Fostering transit-oriented developments in and around rail stations along the rail corridor that grow residential, commercial, and mixed-use developments by taking advantage of their proximity to rail; think of Springfield’s $70 million redevelopment of Union Station or Greenfield’s new Intermodal Center.
• Connecting rail-passenger services to transportation providers such as PVTA’s regional system and intercity carriers like Peter Pan Bus Lines; think PVTA and Peter Pan bus services feeding Five College students to new rail stations in Northampton and Holyoke.
• Reducing the Pioneer Valley’s overreliance on single-occupant automobile trips at a time of intensifying concerns about the cost and reliability of worldwide energy supplies and stark warnings about the urgent need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
• Linking rail service to Bradley Airport and, by so doing, boosting transit ridership while gaining air travelers from both Connecticut and Massachusetts; think affordable and congestion-free rail access to Bradley.
As we await the start of reconstruction on the region’s north-south rail corridor, no one should overlook the importance of reinvigorating the east-west rail line connecting Springfield to Palmer, Worcester, and Boston. The Mass. Department of Transportation will soon launch a long-awaited, $1.9 million planning study to address this designated high-speed rail corridor.
Passenger trains are capable of moving people quickly, efficiently, comfortably, and safely. In addition, they are environmentally friendly, energy-efficient, and positively contribute to enhanced levels of national security by reducing our reliance on scarce natural resources. These benefits, coupled with the ancillary economic-development and job gains, add up to a significant and impressive return on investment that’s bolstered by a highly favorable 3-to-1 benefit-cost ratio. Given these favorable metrics, we can’t afford to forfeit these benefits nor the increased property-tax revenues generated from transit-oriented developments.
More than a century ago, as railroads emerged as a major force in growing and connecting a young nation, it was a small clique of local, private investors who used their funds to ensure that Springfield would be located adjacent to the rail lines that would connect the Commonwealth to a rapid westward expansion. These investments spurred Springfield’s growth into the region’s largest urban center.
Now, 170 years later, Pioneer Valley residents are once again confronted with the question of whether to invest in rebuilding a rail network capable of transporting the Valley into the 21st century and thereby achieve the sustainable success that will keep the Valley connected, competitive, compact … and special. v

Timothy Brennan is executive director of the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission; (413) 787-1547.

Agenda Departments

“What’s in Your Dash?”
Nov. 9: Harold T. Epps, president and CEO of PRWT Services Inc., based in Philadelphia, will present “What’s In Your Dash?” at noon as part of the speaker series at the Western New England College Law and Business Center for Advancing Entrepreneurship in Springfield. Epps will discuss how quickly time and a career can go by and the importance of the choices people make as they balance their professional and personal lives. The lecture is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided. For more information, call (413) 796-2030 or visit www.wnec.edu/lawandbusiness.

‘Secrets of Successful Businesses’
Nov. 9: The next program in the Innovative Thinking & Entrepreneurship Lecture Series features three speakers on “Secrets of Successful Businesses” from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. in Blake Student Commons at Bay Path College, Longmeadow. Stanley Kowalski III, chairman of the board of FloDesign Inc.; Alaina Hanlon, Ph.D., president and CEO of Phenotype IT; and Anthony Newman, owner and founder of the Barkers Dozen, will be the presenters for the morning session. A continental breakfast will be served from 7:30 to 8:15 a.m. To register, call Briana Sitler at (413) 565-1066 or e-mail [email protected]. Seating is limited.

AIM Energy Summit
Nov. 16: Associated Industries of Massachusetts will host a Western Mass. Energy Summit from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Mass. Career Development Institute in Springfield. The program will feature a discussion on energy-related tax incentives and capital incentives. Also, networking with representatives from various energy programs and resources is encouraged. Speakers will include Bob Dvorchik, supervisor of commercial and industrial conservation programs, and Dick Oswald, manager, both of WMECO; Jeff Cady, general manager of Chicopee Electric; Paul Trangedi, president of ECS; Gene Giuliano of Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, and Beka Kasanovic of the US-DOE Save Energy Now Program. The event is free; however, registration is required. For more information, contact Dawn Creighton at [email protected].

Forensics Night
Nov. 16: Bay Path College in Longmeadow will host its annual Forensics Night from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The program is designed for young women in high school who are considering a forensics-related career path. The keynote speaker will be Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth D. Scheibel, the first woman district attorney in the history of the Commonwealth. Also, participants and their families will have the opportunity to tour Carr Hall, which houses Bay Path’s new science facility. The program is free; however, space is limited. To register, call (800) 782-7284, ext. 1331, or (413) 565-1331. For more information, visit ww.baypath.edu.

Staying Healthy Program
Nov. 16: Holyoke Medical Center will present a program on helping area residents stay healthy at 6 p.m. in the Auxiliary Conference Center. The program is free as part of the hospital’s community education series Dessert with the Docs. Dr. Garry Bombardier will be the featured speaker, discussing physical exams, blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking, and diet. Refreshments will be served. Pre-registration is required, and seating is limited. For more information, call (413) 534-2789.

Advanced Manufacturing Competition & Conference
Nov. 16: The first highly concentrated, cluster-centric, regional manufacturing conference of its kind will be held at the MassMutual Center in Springfield. The event, called the Advanced Manufacturing and Innovation Competition & Conference (AMICCON), is being staged in response to growing recognition among area manufacturers and supply-chain members that there is an urgent need to find and meet one another. “AMICCON was formed to identify who’s here in manufacturing, expose them to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and procurement, and to make these introductions,” said co-founder Ellen Bemben. “The ultimate goal is to be the advanced manufacturing region in the U.S., where exotic manufacturing, such as micro, nano, and precision, meet higher specifications and tighter tolerances, and short runs are the norm.” Industry sectors to be represented at the event will include plastics and advanced materials, precision machining, paper and packaging, electronics, ‘green’/clean technology, and medical devices. Business opportunities in defense and aerospace will also be highlighted at the event. OEMs and their supply chains are being invited personally to participate. For more information, visit www.amiccon.com.

DBA Certificates Departments

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

AMHERST

Crestview Farming
340 North East St.
Patricia Wagner

Digital Assets
305 Strong St.
Thomas Prutisto

Homestead Community Farm
39 Autumn Lane
Naomi Dratfield

CHICOPEE

Athena’s by Natasha
83 Edgewood Ave.
Natasha Gauthier

Fountain of Life Outreach Ministries Inc.
37 John St.
Ellery Brevard

J. Max Home Improvement
248 Sletele Dr.
John Makselon

Kaeble Oil Inc.
11 Casey Dr.
Michael Kaeble

GREENFIELD

Art’s Tire Inc.
10 Silver St.
James Lafleur

Bart’s Homemade Ice Cream
80 School St.
Gary L. Schaefer

Baystate Home Infusion of Respiratory Services
489 Bernardston Road
Brian Simonds

Terry’s Heating & Cooling
51 Pierce St.
Terry Sinclair

Tranquility Hair Salon
118 Federal St.
Jamie Potter

HADLEY

Pioneer Tax & Business Services LLC
41 Russell St.
Helen McGuire

Realty Rate
8 Bayberry Lane
Peter Gelinas

Riverbend Animal Hospital
43 Russell St.
David Thomson

HOLYOKE

Day by Day Calendar
50 Holyoke St.
Edward J. Jackson

Fashion Nails
293 High St.
Tai Do

Fru Veg Farm
1500 Northampton St.
Syed R. Mobeen

Knoxworx Multimedia
36 Maplecrest Cir.
Mark Knox

Verizon Wireless
50 Holyoke St.
Karen M. Shipman

LUDLOW

AJ Electric
109 Lavoie Ave.
Nidal Abeid

Ellison Farms
555 Miller St.
William Ellison

Po-Folks Farm
93 Cady St.
Alan Gregoire

Upper 90
987-389 East St.
Aristides Nunes

Your Project Consultant
85 Moody St.
Chris Rust

NORTHAMPTON

Chestnut Mountain Tree
383 Westhampton Road
Jacob Schrader

Grassroots Connection
50 Straw Ave.
Richard Puchalsky

Molly’s Mani’s
166 North Main St.
Molly Dissinger

NewKind Marketing
44 Cherry St.
Margot Zalkind

Raw Artifacts
351 Pleasant St.
Robert Whitcoms

Red Barn Honey Company
43 Fort Hill Terr.
Richard H. Conner

Slate Roof Studio LLC
28 North Maple St.
Cheryl Cross

Strong & Healthy Smiles
40 Main St.
Suzanne Keller

Sugarplum Originals
133 Crescent St.
Jean Gauger

Valley Stress Reduction
30 Locust St.
Ellen Kaufman

PALMER

Ravenwood Vapors
50 Lariviere St.
John P. Taylor

TheDiaperHut.com
12 Paul St.
Donna M. Madigan

The Hock Shop
1364 Main St.
James Heney

SPRINGFIELD

AAA Pioneer Valley Driver
270 Cooley St.
Chris Mensing

African Basket Culture
5 Harbour Road
Modesto Biney

AMJ Construction & Home Repair
56 Newport St.
Joseph R. Lopez Jr.

Andy’s Barber Shop
727 Sumner Ave.
Andres Ortiz

Auto Imports
62 Winter St.
Raymond Tirado

Barranco Construction
99 Johnson St.
Santos J. Miguel

Burke Restorations
44 Eleanor Road
John Burke

C & J Beauty Boutique
135 Wilber St.
Carleen Virginia

Car Credit Funding Corporation
603 Sumner Ave.
Alex J. Friedman

CSRWIRE LLC
250 Albany St.
Emilio J. Sibilia

Divine Greeting Card Service
33 Joan St.
Ricky R. Morris

DJ Xtreme Production
122 Oak Grove Ave.
Xavier Figueroa

Dorset Mini Mart
11 Dorset St.
Miguel M. Soto

DTF Enterprises Inc.
53 State St.
Kenardo Herbert

EM Construction Services
385 Worthington St.
Egidio Morales

Eldorado
817 State St.
Suk H. Forrester

Elements
194 Chestnut St.
Jose A. Baez

Empire Games
133 State St.
D.J. Almodovar

Fabulous Cuts Barber Shop
363 Boston Road
Joe C. Long Jr.

Family Storage and Moving
34 Front St.
George W. Sidor Jr.

First Student Inc.
767 Cottage St.
Brian J. Beechem

Fufu’s Beauty Supply
605 Dickinson St.
Dine Amadou

Gordon-Tana Realty
133 Pine Grove St.
Mauricio H. Gordon

Grimaldi Inc.
1121 East Columbus Ave.
Luciano J. Grimaldi

H & E Affordable Kitchen
87A Mill St.
Horace John

WESTFIELD

Edgewood Apartments
134 Union St.
Sam Ross

Happiness Through Choice
475 Granville Road
Robin Reed

Help of Angels
21 Prospect St.
Lisa A. Smith

413 Lacrosse
276 North West Road
Louis Scarfo

Olexandr Mayloroda Home Improvement
90 Putnam Dr.
Olexandr Mayloroda

Scavotto’s Property Preservation Services
77 Mill St.
David Scavotto

Union Mart
420 Union St.
Amir M. Paracha

White Hat Affiliates
362 Granville Road
James P. Gavioli

WEST SPRINGFIELD

All in One Home Improvement LLC
127 Warren St.
Sandro Scirocco

Common Ground
25 Park Ave.
The Cup Incorporated

Costco Wholesale
119 Daggett Dr.
Costco Wholesale Corporation

Fitzgerald & Company Inc.
88 Elm St.
Brian J. Fitzgerald

Igor’s Painting
19 East School St.
Igor Iglov

Ron’s Flooring
18 Ferry Ave.
Ronald J. Charbonneau

Super Petro Inc.
75 Union St.
David J. Vickers

T-Mobile
935 Riverdale St.
T-Mobile Northeast LLC

West Side Design
33 Clayton Dr.
Aldo L. Paier

Opinion
Path to Recovery Poses Many Challenges

Incumbent Gov. Deval Patrick defied the national Republican tidal wave to win a second term at the helm of a commonwealth still seeking a post-recession economic identity. Massachusetts voters also retained overwhelming Democratic majorities in both House and Senate on Beacon Hill, sent a blue delegation to a newly red Congress, and defeated a proposal to reduce the state sales tax by more than half.
The Massachusetts that Gov. Patrick surveys as he savors his accomplishment is a paradox — stronger economically and with many more growth assets than other states, yet fragile in its ability to deliver on the promise of opportunity to all citizens of the Commonwealth.
The Bay State enjoys a lower unemployment rate at 8.4% than the nation as a whole, and the $2.5 billion state budget deficit pales in comparison with the fiscal disaster in California. But the 292,300 jobless people in Massachusetts and thousands of employers struggling to hold onto their businesses are anything but sanguine about what the future holds.
The challenges facing the governor and other policymakers seeking to promote economic growth are sobering — soaring health-insurance premiums, a looming 40% increase in average unemployment insurance rates, tight commercial credit markets, consumer uncertainty, and a state regulatory system that discourages innovation while creating little public benefit. Underlying many of these challenges is a pervasive sense among employers — many of whom expressed the opinion at the Associated Industries of Massachusetts’ recent regional policy briefings — that neither policymakers nor the general public really appreciate the complexity and risk of running a business in Massachusetts.
Bay State employers have solutions to offer and look forward to participating in the debate on the future of the Massachusetts economy. AIM represents thousands of employers who stand for jobs, economic opportunity, fiscal responsibility, business formation, and a government that acknowledges that the private sector has the unique ability and responsibility to create the common wealth for the people of Massachusetts.
We look forward to working with the governor, the Legislature, and the Congressional delegation to build support for several key principles of economic recovery:
• A uniformly favorable environment for business development across all industries and all regions of the Commonwealth;
• Economic policy that balances key public investments with a competitive cost structure that keeps jobs in Massachusetts;
• Predictable, responsible, and long-term state fiscal policy;
• Well-conceived and collaborative regulation that creates measurable benefits; 
• A nimble, world-class education system that provides opportunity for all Massachusetts citizens and the knowledge base for economic growth; and
• Collaboration be-tween business and government to ensure mutual success.
These principles will provide the foundation for a sustainable recovery that touches every sector of the diverse Massachusetts economy, from manufacturing to high technology to retail and hospitality.
Successful economic policy creates uniform benefit throughout the marketplace, balancing the need to invest in the future without simultaneously harming the industries of the present that employ the vast majority of Massachusetts residents.  
We look forward to the challenge.

Rick Lord is president of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

Sections Supplements
New Tax Provisions Could Benefit Small-business Owners

Nicholas LaPier, CPA

Nicholas LaPier, CPA

As tax practitioners, we are often asked by our clients during tax time to help them lessen their overall tax burden. So we employ various tax strategies that apply to them and calculate their taxes. We remind our clients that we should talk often during the year so that we can better assist them with their needs.
Our job is to keep up with the ever-changing tax laws, and we can do better tax planning during the year, not after. Almost comically, I tell my clients to “contact your legislator.” Call, write, e-mail, text, blog, Facebook, or Twitter them. Our elected officials are always working on tax legislation at some point during the year, and their votes will have a direct impact on what you pay for taxes.
Both of these recommendations are important, and here is why. As for contacting your legislator, to quote John F. Kennedy, “my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can you do for your country.”
How does this apply to an article on taxation? The answer is simple: service via involvement. In the speech from which the above quote originates, he was encouraging all citizens of our country to become involved.
The economy of our country relies on the success of small business. The Small Business Administration (SBA), in its 2009 report to the president states that “half of all Americans that work in the private sector are employed in a small firm.” There are millions of small firms in America. By getting and staying involved, small businesses can and will have an impact on how they are taxed. When the small business can reduce both its own taxes and its owner’s taxes, it theoretically would have more resources available to grow the business and, ultimately, enhance the overall economy.
In 2010, there were various lobbying efforts led by businesses and business associations (or their lobbying groups). Because of this, many new tax laws were passed this year to help businesses.
However, there is a lot more tax relief needed for individuals. For example, there’s the alternative minimum tax (AMT), which, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, could affect approximately 28 million taxpayers in 2010 unless Congress acts before the end of the year. The AMT is a second tax calculation that impacts higher-income taxpayers who itemize their deductions on Schedule A.
And let’s not forget about the Bush tax cuts from 2001 that will expire on Dec. 31, 2010, which will affect every business and individual. The 10% personal income tax bracket will go away, the marriage penalty will come back, and capital gains tax rates will increase. Congress, by not acting on this, will raise everyone’s taxes on Jan. 1, 2011. Ouch.

Recently Enacted Tax Changes
The remainder of this article focuses on the recent Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, which was signed into law by President Obama on Sept. 27. These are the highlights of this legislation:
• SBA loan limit increase. It’s no secret that, during a recession, credit for businesses is hard to obtain, if not impossible. With revenues down, many small businesses are becoming undercapitalized, and may also have a lot of cash tied up in receivables or inventories. An option available for credit has always been by way of a Small Business Administration loan, or SBA loan for short, obtainable through most banking institutions.
These loans have federal government backing that makes a favorable credit decision by your bank a lot easier to obtain. In this new legislation, the maximum lending limit for SBA loans was permanently increased to $5 million for two of its largest loan programs, the 504 and 7(a) loan. A manufacturer could qualify for up to $5.5 million in the 504 program. It also temporarily increases the more popular SBA express loans from a maximum of $350,000 to $1 million. Smaller businesses often utilize these fast-track loans with fast approval and lower fees.
• Increase in Section 179 capital acquisitions. This provision gives a company the option to expense up to $500,000 of eligible new capital equipment and furnishings purchased, if the total capital outlays are less than $2 million. This section of the federal tax code, more commonly referred to as the Section 179 deduction, was set to return to a maximum of $25,000 to write off in 2011. Congress, in expanding the total capital purchases limit to $2 million, significantly expands this favorable tax deduction to up to $4.5 million for individuals and businesses to get this benefit, according to the president’s press release on Sept. 27, when he signed this legislation into law.
• New $30 billion lending fund. This new fund was established to provide smaller banks with much-needed capital and incentives to then lend out to small businesses. According to the legislation, eligible institutions “must provide to the government a small-business-lending plan describing how the institution’s business strategy and operating goals will allow it to address the needs of small businesses in the areas it serves, as well as a plan to provide linguistically and culturally appropriate outreach, where appropriate.”
• Health-insurance deduction for the self-employed. This provision now allows a self- employed business owner to deduct the cost of their own health insurance premiums on their Schedule C profit or loss from business. These business owners were previously allowed to take this as a deduction from their adjusted gross income and reduce their taxable income only. The new provision allows for the health-insurance deduction against the self-employment tax, which could amount to a 14.13% tax savings on the premiums paid.
• $10,000 deduction for start-up costs. This provision allows for a new company to expense its startup costs of up to $10,000, if no more than $60,000 is spent. Startup costs, which typically include initial fees for attorneys, consultants, state filing fees, and other one-time setup costs, are normally capitalized and amortized over a number of years. A new company may elect to opt out of the expensing option, especially if it already has a loss for the first year.

Meet with Your Outside Accountant
Chances are you have one. If you don’t, consider getting one. The reason you’re in business is because you have a niche and do it well enough to have your own business. The reason you need an outside accountant is because they too have a niche and do it well enough to help you and your business. In other words, do what you do on a daily basis because it is what put you where you are in the first place, and use the expertise of an independent accountant or CPA to advise you on tax strategies.
Your CPA should be acutely aware of your business and keep you abreast of any new or changing tax initiatives that apply to you and your business. Your CPA should also know your banker and be able to work directly with you and them in designing lending programs that fit. Remain in contact with your CPA frequently during the year, even if it’s a quick phone call or e-mail. Even more importantly, schedule a review of your year-to-date financials well before Dec. 31 so that you will have ample time to implement their suggestions into your own personal scenarios.

Conclusion
One key to success for you and your business is to stay in contact with your accountant. He or she can be an important and reliable asset to you and your business, whether it’s by helping you with financing, business advice, or tax planning. And stay on those legislators; they may even help you with tax relief if enough businesses and individuals get involved.

Nicholas LaPier, CPA, is the principal at Nicholas LaPier CPA, P.C., located in West Springfield; (413) 732-0200; www.lapiercpa.com

Sections Supplements
Management Must Set the Tone When It Comes to Preventing Fraud

Donna Roundy, CPA

Donna Roundy, CPA

It is good business practice to periodically review and revise control activities. Internal control is the process designed to ensure reliable financial reporting, effective and efficient operations, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. Safeguarding assets against theft and unauthorized use, acquisition, or disposal is also part of internal control.
Monitoring your company’s assets can improve year-end bonuses to deserving employees and the owners. It safeguards funds to invest in company equipment or pay down debt, and ensures the accuracy of financial reporting to the bank.
Ultimately, the responsibility for internal control rests with the management and owners of an organization; monitoring the controls can be an ongoing exercise as staffing levels fluctuate and responsibilities change. If controls are not monitored, you risk using line-of-credit funds to offset misallocated cash or replace stolen inventory.
The news has brought us many stories of fraud over the past few years. There are three requirements for fraud — incentive or pressure, opportunity, and attitude or rationalization. Greed is not the only driving force; unfortunately, this economy brings many pressures, and an individual faced with a desperate situation can consider actions very unlike their character.
To reduce the risk of fraud, you need to break the triangle. Create an ethical environment, reduce opportunities, and monitor pressures on employees (without invading their privacy). Be alert if a staff person is experiencing financial difficulties. Prevention and detection techniques include performance reviews (for example, comparing current financial reports to other information, perhaps reported sales to merchandise shipments), independent checks (an employee’s work is re-performed or tested by a supervisor or the computer), and rotating employee responsibilities.
In speaking of internal controls, you’ll hear the phrase ‘tone at the top.’ Company leaders can let their employees know they value honesty and encourage whistle-blowing. Violators should be prosecuted.
In monitoring controls, consider first which assets are most vulnerable to theft or fraud. In most cases this is cash, although you could also have inventory that is easy to take and sell outside the company. As you review organizational control procedures and contemplate risk, consider implementing the following:
• An owner should avoid relying solely on one trusted individual, even if that person maintaining the ledgers is family or like family. Don’t let personal relationships blur your perspective.
• Know your company’s procedures. If they aren’t already, consider putting them in writing. Written procedures avoid misinterpretation. Start by asking each person to write down what it is they do. Review with an eye as to how and where in the process things can go wrong.
• Require employees to take one- or two-week vacations. This includes cross-training employees so that someone else does the job during the vacation.
• The business owner should receive the bank statement unopened, possibly sent to his home address. He should review the bank statement for reasonableness; note signatures on the imaged cancelled checks, the payees, and the amount; and check that transfers and other charges are appropriate.
• Once the bookkeeper has prepared the monthly bank reconciliation, the owner should review the reconciliation to question unusual reconciling items.
• Someone other than the bookkeeper should open the mail. A third office person can make a dated listing of the incoming checks that can later be compared to the related validated deposit ticket.
• Someone other than the person posting the payments to the customer ledger should inquire of customers regarding old accounts receivable. Periodically evaluate customer credit limits to their outstanding balances. Perhaps customers with old balances haven’t had their accounts suspended. Only the owner should approve customer write-offs, never the individual collecting the cash.
• Ideally the bookkeeper should never have check-signing authority or access to a signature stamp. The owner should sign all checks after reviewing attached invoices.
• Payroll registers should be reviewed for correct number of hours, proper pay rates, that withholdings are subjected and not shown as a negative (an add-back), and that all names are known employees. A separate individual could track paid time off to be sure the amount taken is in agreement with pre-approved days or hours.
• Review general journal entries for unusual items, and randomly review backup documentation. Journal entries should be approved by someone with authority over those who create and post the entry.
• All equipment should be marked for ownership.
• Inventories should be adequately safeguarded; it is often more difficult to prevent and detect inventory fraud than other asset thefts. This is due to the large quantity of items in the inventory, the number of employees with access to inventory (possibly due to complicated processes involved in production), and the many entries and possibly complex systems used to account for the inventory and production process. Inventory that is small, portable, high in value, or in high demand is more susceptible to theft.
Theft of inventory can include the following: stealing inventory and scrap for personal use or resale; scrapping good merchandise and, with collusion, selling it to customers or distributors; returned product being recorded as sales returns but never restocked and instead sold by the perpetrator; or concealing other fraud by increasing the inventory accounts, as when a perpetrator writes a check to himself and records the debit to inventory.
Preventive or detective controls for inventory include securing the perimeter of the building, separating the duties of purchasing and warehousing from approving inventory purchases and disbursements; and periodically analyzing the components of costs of sales (material, labor, and overhead) as a percentage of sales. Inventory should be periodically counted, costed, and compared to control accounts and/or perpetual records.
Business owners and managers can ask their office staff for internal control information in addition to regular monthly financials. Depending on what your business is, you could request product sales statistics, reports on inventory shrinkage, old inventory information, sales returns reports, and edit reports that compare like-items from different areas of the business.
In summary, know your company’s procedures — who, what, when, which document, and where can things go wrong. Implement cross-checks, and review procedures periodically. Are they being performed as designed, or do the procedures need to be modified to address a change in staff or business activities?
Your CPA can help if you have a question. Effective controls start and stop with management and the business owner. This doesn’t mean that you, individually, have to perform every check and balance. Set the tone, and let your employees and vendors know you adhere to good business standards. It also means making sure the controls are happening as designed, with periodic inquiries to staff and viewing their logs. Call your accountant to schedule their visit to your business to receive details on these and other steps that can help secure your business assets. This could reveal critical controls that have been overlooked. n

Donna Roundy, CPA serves as the senior audit manager in charge of the not-for-profit practice at Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. in Holyoke. She is also the firm’s technical advisor on uniform financial reporting and compliance. Her primary focus is auditing and includes servicing not-for-profit and real-estate organizations with subsidized housing, as well as financial-statement preparation for closely held businesses; (413) 536-8510.

Features Sections Supplements
Medical Society Study Shows Continued Primary Care Shortages

The Mass. Medical Society recently released its annual Physician Workforce Study, showing a fifth consecutive year of shortages of primary care physicians, half of primary care practices closed to new patients, shortages in 10 of 18 physician specialties across the state, and community hospitals continuing to be the most affected by persistent physician shortages.
The 2010 study is the society’s ninth annual look at multiple aspects of the physician workforce, and builds on the previous eight years of data. The study surveys teaching hospitals, community hospitals, practicing physicians, medical directors of medical groups, and resident and fellow programs throughout the state. It is the most comprehensive examination of the physician workforce in the state done on an annual basis.
The report’s key findings include:   
• The primary care specialties of family medicine and internal medicine are in critically short supply, the fifth consecutive year of shortages for these specialties;
• Ten of 18 specialties studied have been found in short supply, three more than last year;
• High percentages of primary care practices are closed to new patients: 54% of family medicine physicians and 49% of internal medicine physicians are not accepting new patients;
• Wait times for new patients for primary care continue to be long, with an average wait time of 29 days for family physicians and 53 days for internists;
• With the exception of Boston, physician shortages exist in all regional labor markets across the state;
• Community hospitals continue to be the most seriously affected by the physician shortages, with difficulty filling vacancies and retaining physicians, resulting in the need to alter services and change staffing patterns; and
• The fear of being sued remains a substantial negative influence on the practice of medicine, affecting access to and availability of physician services.
“The findings from this latest analysis,” said Dr. Alice Coombs, president of the Mass. Medical Society, “clearly show how fragile access to care for patients is across the entire Commonwealth.
“The state’s universal health care plan has improved access to care,” she continued, “but universal coverage and access can only be sustained with a strong physician workforce. As we continue to look at reforming the health care system, we must do so carefully and deliberately in all aspects, and that includes the next steps for cost control, particularly with respect to establishing a fair system of payment reform.
“A strong physician workforce is critical to delivering top-quality and cost-effective care,” Coombs went on. “If physicians think that the viability of their practices is threatened or unsustainable under a new payment system, Massachusetts may encounter further problems with recruitment and retention. And that, certainly, will affect patient care.”
Coombs said the physician workforce in Massachusetts continues to be affected by a lingering poor practice environment in the state. The Society’s Physician Practice Environment Index, a statistical indicator of nine factors that shape the environment in which physicians provide patient care, dropped 0.8% in 2009, and has fallen in 16 of the past 18 years. Since 1992, the Massachusetts Index has declined by 26.4%, significantly more than the 21.3% decline in the comparable national index. The index takes into account such factors as the cost of maintaining a practice, median physician income, liability insurance rates, and hours spent on patient care.
Here are some details on the report’s key findings: 
 
Specialties Classified in Short Supply
The medical society’s 2010 analysis found 10 of 18 specialties studied in short supply: dermatology, emergency medicine, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, neurology, orthopedics, psychiatry, urology, and vascular surgery.
Over the last three years (2008-10), six specialties have been operating within tight labor market conditions in each of those years: family medicine, internal medicine, vascular surgery, urology, dermatology, and neurology.
A trend analysis over a five-year period (2006-10) shows that 11 specialties have been in short supply in at least three of those five years: family medicine, internal medicine, vascular surgery, urology, dermatology, neurology, psychiatry, general surgery, orthopedics, emergency medicine, and neurosurgery.
  

Primary Care Practices Closed to New Patients; Long Waits
The primary care specialties of internal medicine and family medicine continue to be under intense pressure following the establishment in 2006 of the state’s health care reform law, which resulted in some 440,000 residents being added to the insurance rolls.
A survey of physician practices showed that approximately half of primary care physicians are not accepting new patients. The percentage of family medicine physicians who are not accepting new patients has increased from 30% in 2007 to 54% in 2010 — the highest it has been in four years. The percentage of internal medicine physicians no longer accepting new patients decreased slightly from the previous year to 49% in 2010 — the same level it was in 2007.
Meanwhile, long wait times for appointments for new patients continue. For internal medicine, the average wait time increased to 53 days, nine days longer than last year’s figure of 44 days and the highest it has been in six years. For family medicine, the average wait time is 29 days, 15 days shorter than last year’s figure of 44 days.

Shortages Across the State
A regional analysis of the 18 specialties for the five metropolitan statistical areas in the state (Boston, Worcester, Springfield, New Bedford/Barnstable, and Pittsfield/Western Mass.) found that, with the exception of Boston, all regional labor markets were experiencing shortages of physicians. Critical shortages exist in Pittsfield/Western Mass. and Worcester.
In an analysis of the 18 specialties examined by the study, the percentage of practicing physicians in the four labor markets of New Bedford/Barnstable, Pittsfield/Western Mass., Springfield, and Worcester who responded that they were dealing with an inadequate pool of physicians, had difficulty in filling vacancies, needed to alter services, and needed to adjust staffing exceeded the percentage of physicians in the Boston market by at least nine percentage points.
In the four labor markets outside of Boston, more than two-thirds of the practicing physicians said there was an inadequate pool of physicians for recruiting. This characteristic was especially acute in New Bedford/Barnstable and Pittsfield/ Western Mass., where more than eight out of 10 said the pool was inadequate.

Community Hospitals Are Most Affected By Shortages
Community hospitals continue to be the most affected by the consequences of physician shortages. All (100%) of the medical-staff presidents of community hospitals reported they are experiencing difficulty filling vacancies, and 82% reported that the amount of time to recruit a physician has risen, an increase of 5% over the average of the previous eight years of the studies.
Community hospitals are also reporting the most difficulty with retaining physicians, with 64% saying retention has become harder over the past three years. However, this is an improvement from the average of the previous seven-year period, when 79% reported difficulty in retaining physicians.
Additionally, 64% of community hospitals reported that physician shortages required them to alter the services they provide, a substantial increase from 43% in last year’s study. Meanwhile, 82% of medical-staff presidents responded that physician-supply problems required adjustments in their staffing patterns, a large increase from 64% last year and the average ratio of 56% for the years 2003-09.

Professional Liability Hinders Practice of Medicine
The 2010 study once again found that medical malpractice concerns and the fear of being sued continue to have a substantial negative influence on physicians and the practice of medicine. This finding is consistent with the society’s previous workforce studies and its first-of-a-kind Investigation of Defensive Medicine in Massachusetts, released in November 2008, which showed that the fear of being sued is a serious burden on health care. Findings from the 2010 Workforce Study:
• A full 46% of practicing physicians surveyed said their practice has been altered or limited because of the fear of being sued, the same percentage as last year; and
• More than half of physicians in five specialties said they have altered or limited their practice because of the fear of being sued: neurosurgery (82%); urology (74%); emergency medicine (70%); orthopedics (70%); and obstetrics/gynecology (60%). Also, 40% or more of physicians in nine other specialties have changed their practice for the same reason: cardiology, neurology, gastroenterology, general surgery, dermatology, psychiatry, radiology, internal medicine, and family medicine.

Additional Findings
For the first time, more physicians (43%) expressed satisfaction with the practice environment than not (41%).
However, more physicians expressed displeasure with the tradeoff between patient care and administrative tasks. More than half (51%, up from 44% last year) of all practicing physicians regardless of specialty expressed displeasure with the abundance of administrative measures. Among primary care physicians, 59% expressed displeasure.

Sections Supplements
Hospital Interpreters Translate More Than Just Words

Ramona Quintana says says a hospital interpreter must, in a way, become the patient.

Ramona Quintana says says a hospital interpreter must, in a way, become the patient.

A law requiring interpreter services in Massachusetts hospitals is less than 10 years old, but most facilities have offered them for much longer — and for good reason. At some hospitals, tens of thousands of non-English speakers walk through the doors each year, facing not only a language hurdle, but cultural barriers as well. As local patient interpreters explain, they play a critical role in health care, one that extends beyond mere words.

Tim Moriarty says some patients who don’t speak English want to bring their own interpreter — a friend or family member — into the examination room. But that’s usually not a good idea.“They tend to withhold information from the patient. They might not know some vocabulary. And they often provide opinion, and you don’t know that they’re saying, ‘your cousin Bill had this same procedure last year, and he died, so you shouldn’t have it,’” said Moriarty, manager of Interpreter and Translation Services for Baystate Health.
Better to use one of the professional interpreters that hospitals are required by law to provide patients who don’t speak English.
“One of the standards of practice is transparency, to relate what’s said without adding or omitting anything,” he told BusinessWest. “Interpreters actually speak in the first person: ‘I feel pain today.’”
And when speaking for the doctor or nurse, they address the patient in the same way, as if they were the provider.
Ramona Quintana, who coordinates interpreter services at Mercy Medical Center, said it’s all about becoming a conduit, as if the third person in the room doesn’t exist.
“As an interpreter, I am not me,” she explained. “I’m trying to be as invisible as I can become, and my words and even my gestures become that of the patient, so the provider gets an idea of what’s going on, so he knows how to treat that patient — not just medically, but also with other issues that might be present.”
Quintana said some people have the impression that interpreting in a medical setting is easy work, simply reciting back and forth. “But it’s not just repeating words; it’s interpreting meaning.”
And it’s complex work, which is why a national certification for hospital interpreters has been established, starting with Spanish speakers this year; other languages will follow.
This month, BusinessWest examines how interpreter services are implemented at area hospitals, and why such programs are so necessary. After all, at such a critical moment in someone’s life, it’s important to have someone speaking not on their behalf, but directly in their place.

Beyond the Law
While most hospitals in Western Mass. have had interpreter services available from at least the mid-’90s, if not before, such programs were not mandated by state law until 2001. The law requires hospitals to provide ‘competent,’ trained interpreters, not family members. It also requires hospitals to designate a coordinator or director of such services; to post notices in emergency rooms, psychiatric units, and registration areas advising patients of their right to an interpreter; and translate relevant documents into languages commonly encountered at the hospital.
“Patients have a right to an interpreter, and that’s posted,” Quintana said, a standard document that outlines that right in dozens of languages. Quintana said Mercy sees not just Spanish speakers, but also Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Chinese speakers, among others.
“It’s quite a diverse community we serve as we try to meet these needs. And the languages we don’t speak, we reach through agencies in the area,” she explained, adding that interpreters need to be aware of vocabulary and cultural differences even within the same language group. “There are so many different cultures that speak Spanish, and South America is different than Mexico.”
While Massachusetts is among the states that have been responsive to the need for interpretive services, others cannot make the same claim, which is why national certification is a good idea, Moriarty said.
“Right now there are no national minimum requirements for interpreters,” he noted. “Some states have instituted testing and certain requirements, but most states don’t have that. National certification will require the interpreters in the field to demonstrate their knowledge or functional understanding of their practice, their knowledge and fluency in English and a second language, and their knowledge of medical terminology in both languages.”
Those requirements, he continued, will make it much easier for managers doing the hiring, because they can make assumptions that someone has a high skill level prior to being hired and not just count on someone’s education and state certification, if any, the requirements for which can vary widely from state to state. “Now, interpreters, will have to prove their skills before we bring them on board, and that minimizes the risk, especially to the patient. It ensures that communication between the patient and provider will be very clear.”
Because of Baystate’s size and the fact that about 80,000 patient visits require language translation each year, it boasts a wider range of interpreting skills in house than other regional hospitals, Moriarty said. Its staff of 45 can interpret Spanish, Vietnamese, Polish, Arabic, and Mandarin, and it works with two local agencies to provide services in Swahili and Khmer, among others. “Then, if a really unusual language comes up, which sometimes it does, we have telephonic interpreting with a company that assists us with more than 100 languages in less than 30 seconds.”
At Holyoke Medical Center, Spanish is the overwhelming language barrier, said Rafael Mojica, coordinator of the Community Outreach Department, of which interpreter services are a part. “Last year alone, we had almost 18,000 visits from Spanish-speaking patients who didn’t speak English, but we also had about 2,400 visits from patients who didn’t speak English but spoke another language, like Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese, or Arabic,” he explained. Other patient visits required interpretation of Cantonese, French, Tagalog, Italian, Somali, Urdu, Gujarti, and sign language.
“We have staff in person from 6:30 in the morning to 11:30 at night, and overnight we have telephonic interpreting services that speak about 150 languages,” Mojica said. And because the hospital experience can be confusing and frustrating for a non-English speaker from a different culture, Mojica’s department goes beyond making sure services are provided when patients come through the door during the day.
“We originated what we call daily rounds,” he explained. “Every single morning, we have a medical interpreter visit all the bilingual patients and new admissions, and every morning we get a report making sure they can either speak the language or are informed of our services. And we make sure that, if any provider comes in, they call the interpreter. It’s pretty simple; we carry cell phones around the hospital, and we’re a phone call away.”

Emma Dias

Emma Dias used to be an architect, but she gets more satisfaction building bridges between patients and care providers.

Emma Dias, coordinator of Medical Interpreter Services at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, said it’s gratifying to see interpreters make a real difference in someone’s hospital experience, which is often an anxious time even without language and cultural barriers.
“It’s very rewarding,” she said. “I was an architect for more than 10 years, and I never felt that rewarded. This is a really great field.”
Because CDH, like most all Western Mass. hospitals, also encounters more Spanish speakers than any other non-English language, Dias serves as a Spanish-speaking coordinator, and two per-diem interpreters also specialize in that language. Another per-diem interpreter speaks Portuguese (as does Dias), and the hospital contracts with an outside agency for other commonly heard languages, including Korean, Cambodian, and Chinese.
The hospital ensures that an interpreter stays with a patient who needs assistance throughout his or her visit, leaving when there’s a wait and returning for the next test or meeting with a provider.

Beyond the Language
Even without the national certification, New England hospitals have proven to be progressive when it comes to honing interpretive skills. Moriarty serves as president of FOCIS (the Forum on the Coordination of Interpreter Services), members of which meet bimonthly at different hospitals across Massachusetts. They discuss issues including interviewing interpreters, working with interpreter contract agencies, defining patient encounters, and developing a basic assessment tool. The FOCIS model has since migrated across the Northeast and even to North and South Carolina.
And what hospitals are assessing isn’t just how well an interpreter knows the language, but, as Quintana noted, how well they help patients from different backgrounds and cultures navigate an often-anxious time.
“We need to guide patients,” she told the BusinessWest. “We not only serve as interpreters, but we meet different cultural needs. When a patient comes in, we ask that patient through an interpreter if they have any cultural needs that would make their stay more comfortable.”
At Holyoke Medical Center, Mojica said, not only are the interpreters fluent in at least two languages (English and Spanish), have formal interpretive training, and understand medical terminology, but they’ve also received specialized training in the areas of substance abuse, mental health and crisis intervention, domestic violence, oncology and bereavement, cultural competence, and diversity. Recently, interpreters underwent a five-week training course on health interpretation taught with the specific needs of the hospital in mind, reflecting the sort of emphasis on continuing education seen in many Massachusetts hospitals.
“It’s a very rewarding job,” said Mercy’s Quintana. “We do and see it all. It is about quality of life, and that spreads out to the community when patients leave, and society as a whole benefits.”
Yet, while seeing and hearing plenty during patient encounters, she said interpreters are trained not only to be good listeners, but also “fast forgetters,” due to the obvious privacy issues raised by having a third person in the doctor’s office or testing room.
“We also have to read body language. Different cultures have different body language,” she said, noting that certain gestures that are friendly in one culture are disrespectful in another. “Interpreting is more than words.”
Still, she said she sees herself largely as a conductor of language, like metal conducts electricity, hopefully presenting the meaning unchanged to the doctor, and the provider’s instructions back to the patient.
Her job, and that of other medical interpreters, is like electricity in another way, too, shining a light on what might otherwise be a dark, confusing experience. n

Joseph Bednar can be reached at
[email protected]
“They tend to withhold information from the patient. They might not know some vocabulary. And they often provide opinion, and you don’t know that they’re saying, ‘your cousin Bill had this same procedure last year, and he died, so you shouldn’t have it,’” said Moriarty, manager of Interpreter and Translation Services for Baystate Health.
Better to use one of the professional interpreters that hospitals are required by law to provide patients who don’t speak English.
“One of the standards of practice is transparency, to relate what’s said without adding or omitting anything,” he told BusinessWest. “Interpreters actually speak in the first person: ‘I feel pain today.’”
And when speaking for the doctor or nurse, they address the patient in the same way, as if they were the provider.
Ramona Quintana, who coordinates interpreter services at Mercy Medical Center, said it’s all about becoming a conduit, as if the third person in the room doesn’t exist.
“As an interpreter, I am not me,” she explained. “I’m trying to be as invisible as I can become, and my words and even my gestures become that of the patient, so the provider gets an idea of what’s going on, so he knows how to treat that patient — not just medically, but also with other issues that might be present.”
Quintana said some people have the impression that interpreting in a medical setting is easy work, simply reciting back and forth. “But it’s not just repeating words; it’s interpreting meaning.”
And it’s complex work, which is why a national certification for hospital interpreters has been established, starting with Spanish speakers this year; other languages will follow.
This month, BusinessWest examines how interpreter services are implemented at area hospitals, and why such programs are so necessary. After all, at such a critical moment in someone’s life, it’s important to have someone speaking not on their behalf, but directly in their place.

Beyond the Law
While most hospitals in Western Mass. have had interpreter services available from at least the mid-’90s, if not before, such programs were not mandated by state law until 2001. The law requires hospitals to provide ‘competent,’ trained interpreters, not family members. It also requires hospitals to designate a coordinator or director of such services; to post notices in emergency rooms, psychiatric units, and registration areas advising patients of their right to an interpreter; and translate relevant documents into languages commonly encountered at the hospital.
“Patients have a right to an interpreter, and that’s posted,” Quintana said, a standard document that outlines that right in dozens of languages. Quintana said Mercy sees not just Spanish speakers, but also Russian, Polish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, and Chinese speakers, among others.
“It’s quite a diverse community we serve as we try to meet these needs. And the languages we don’t speak, we reach through agencies in the area,” she explained, adding that interpreters need to be aware of vocabulary and cultural differences even within the same language group. “There are so many different cultures that speak Spanish, and South America is different than Mexico.”
While Massachusetts is among the states that have been responsive to the need for interpretive services, others cannot make the same claim, which is why national certification is a good idea, Moriarty said.
“Right now there are no national minimum requirements for interpreters,” he noted. “Some states have instituted testing and certain requirements, but most states don’t have that. National certification will require the interpreters in the field to demonstrate their knowledge or functional understanding of their practice, their knowledge and fluency in English and a second language, and their knowledge of medical terminology in both languages.”
Those requirements, he continued, will make it much easier for managers doing the hiring, because they can make assumptions that someone has a high skill level prior to being hired and not just count on someone’s education and state certification, if any, the requirements for which can vary widely from state to state. “Now, interpreters, will have to prove their skills before we bring them on board, and that minimizes the risk, especially to the patient. It ensures that communication between the patient and provider will be very clear.”
Because of Baystate’s size and the fact that about 80,000 patient visits require language translation each year, it boasts a wider range of interpreting skills in house than other regional hospitals, Moriarty said. Its staff of 45 can interpret Spanish, Vietnamese, Polish, Arabic, and Mandarin, and it works with two local agencies to provide services in Swahili and Khmer, among others. “Then, if a really unusual language comes up, which sometimes it does, we have telephonic interpreting with a company that assists us with more than 100 languages in less than 30 seconds.”
At Holyoke Medical Center, Spanish is the overwhelming language barrier, said Rafael Mojica, coordinator of the Community Outreach Department, of which interpreter services are a part. “Last year alone, we had almost 18,000 visits from Spanish-speaking patients who didn’t speak English, but we also had about 2,400 visits from patients who didn’t speak English but spoke another language, like Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Vietnamese, or Arabic,” he explained. Other patient visits required interpretation of Cantonese, French, Tagalog, Italian, Somali, Urdu, Gujarti, and sign language.
“We have staff in person from 6:30 in the morning to 11:30 at night, and overnight we have telephonic interpreting services that speak about 150 languages,” Mojica said. And because the hospital experience can be confusing and frustrating for a non-English speaker from a different culture, Mojica’s department goes beyond making sure services are provided when patients come through the door during the day.
“We originated what we call daily rounds,” he explained. “Every single morning, we have a medical interpreter visit all the bilingual patients and new admissions, and every morning we get a report making sure they can either speak the language or are informed of our services. And we make sure that, if any provider comes in, they call the interpreter. It’s pretty simple; we carry cell phones around the hospital, and we’re a phone call away.”
Emma Dias, coordinator of Medical Interpreter Services at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, said it’s gratifying to see interpreters make a real difference in someone’s hospital experience, which is often an anxious time even without language and cultural barriers.
“It’s very rewarding,” she said. “I was an architect for more than 10 years, and I never felt that rewarded. This is a really great field.”
Because CDH, like most all Western Mass. hospitals, also encounters more Spanish speakers than any other non-English language, Dias serves as a Spanish-speaking coordinator, and two per-diem interpreters also specialize in that language. Another per-diem interpreter speaks Portuguese (as does Dias), and the hospital contracts with an outside agency for other commonly heard languages, including Korean, Cambodian, and Chinese.
The hospital ensures that an interpreter stays with a patient who needs assistance throughout his or her visit, leaving when there’s a wait and returning for the next test or meeting with a provider.

Beyond the Language
Even without the national certification, New England hospitals have proven to be progressive when it comes to honing interpretive skills. Moriarty serves as president of FOCIS (the Forum on the Coordination of Interpreter Services), members of which meet bimonthly at different hospitals across Massachusetts. They discuss issues including interviewing interpreters, working with interpreter contract agencies, defining patient encounters, and developing a basic assessment tool. The FOCIS model has since migrated across the Northeast and even to North and South Carolina.
And what hospitals are assessing isn’t just how well an interpreter knows the language, but, as Quintana noted, how well they help patients from different backgrounds and cultures navigate an often-anxious time.
“We need to guide patients,” she told the BusinessWest. “We not only serve as interpreters, but we meet different cultural needs. When a patient comes in, we ask that patient through an interpreter if they have any cultural needs that would make their stay more comfortable.”
At Holyoke Medical Center, Mojica said, not only are the interpreters fluent in at least two languages (English and Spanish), have formal interpretive training, and understand medical terminology, but they’ve also received specialized training in the areas of substance abuse, mental health and crisis intervention, domestic violence, oncology and bereavement, cultural competence, and diversity. Recently, interpreters underwent a five-week training course on health interpretation taught with the specific needs of the hospital in mind, reflecting the sort of emphasis on continuing education seen in many Massachusetts hospitals.
“It’s a very rewarding job,” said Mercy’s Quintana. “We do and see it all. It is about quality of life, and that spreads out to the community when patients leave, and society as a whole benefits.”
Yet, while seeing and hearing plenty during patient encounters, she said interpreters are trained not only to be good listeners, but also “fast forgetters,” due to the obvious privacy issues raised by having a third person in the doctor’s office or testing room.
“We also have to read body language. Different cultures have different body language,” she said, noting that certain gestures that are friendly in one culture are disrespectful in another. “Interpreting is more than words.”
Still, she said she sees herself largely as a conductor of language, like metal conducts electricity, hopefully presenting the meaning unchanged to the doctor, and the provider’s instructions back to the patient.
Her job, and that of other medical interpreters, is like electricity in another way, too, shining a light on what might otherwise be a dark, confusing experience.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at
[email protected]

Building Permits Departments

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

AGAWAM

Southworth Company
265 Main St.
$37,000 — Re-roof five flat roof areas

AMHERST

South Congregational Church
1066 South East St.
$9,500 — Renovate existing second floor

Yosrex, L.P.
266 East Hadley Road
$7,000 — New roof

CHICOPEE

Chicopee Neighborhood Development
24 Billings St.
$175,000 — Interior renovations

Leclerc Properties
34 Crawford St.
$40,000 — Install new roof and interior remodel

Padgette Street Partners
150 Padgette St.
$95,000 — Interior office fit-up

Teddy Bear Pools
41 East St.
$4,000 — Install temporary containers on site

GREENFIELD

Franklin Medical Center
164 High St.
$205,000 — Renovations for pharmacy relocation

Servicenet Inc.
26 Raymond Road
$18,000 — Remodel bathroom

Sphere STP, LLC
1 Newton St.
$900,000 — Construction of a retail commercial building

HADLEY

Mark Klepacki
190 Russell St.
$9,000 — Create new exam room

HOLYOKE

Hazen Paper Company
717 Main St.
$92,500 — Install two new rubber roofs

NORTHAMPTON

Clinical and Support Options Inc.
29 North Main St.
$17,000 — Construct handicap ramp

Edward Olender Jr.
355 Bridge St.
$7,900 — Replace roof

Forty Main Street Inc.
40 Main St.
$22,000 — Frame new wall for Suite 206

Nonotuck Mill, LLC
296 Nonotuck St.
$10,500 — Construct partition wall at elevator lobby

The Northampton Historical Society
66 Bridge St.
$3,500 — Exterior renovations

Smith College
50 West St.
$3,500 — Add wind screen to stairway

SPRINGFIELD

East Coast Development
365 Cadwell Dr.
$18,000 — Construction of a masonry wall with metal studs

Jart Realty Trust
977 Boston Road
$300,000 — Construction of a new bank branch building with a drive-thru

Nomaira Naseem
806 Main St.
$8,100 — Renovation of tenant space

Pynchon I Apartments
3 Clyde St.
$16,000 — Strip and re-roof

WESTFIELD

Westfield Property Associates, LLC
1014 Southampton Road
$22,000 — Build 25-by-12-foot wall

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Brightside Inc.
229 City View St.
$8,000 — Finish basement

Cohen, Gilbert, & Andrew Trust
241 Memorial Ave.
$15,000 — Renovate checkout area

171 Baldwin St. Land Trust
171 Baldwin St.
$9,000 — Repair damaged roof

Ed Squires
2223 Westfield St.
$8,000 — Strip and re-roof

Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini/Catholic Diocese
475 Main St.
$10,000 — Upgrade front entrance doors

Triad, LLC
83 Verdugo St.
$10,000 — Repair foundation

Departments Incorporations

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

AGAWAM

DW Holdings Inc., 835 Suffield St., Agawam, MA 01001.Wladimyr Duarte, 3 Hale Road, Enfield, CT 06082. Restaurant ownership and operation.

Family Ford of Northampton Inc., 245 Springfield St., Agawam, MA 01001. John Sarat Jr., 3 Pineridge Road, Westfield, MA 01085. Auto dealership

AMHERST

Foundation for Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies Inc., 758 Pleasant St., Amherst, MA 01002. Joseph Bohan, 123 Blackberry Lane, Amherst, MA 01002. Charitable corporation, organized to aid, support and raise funds.

CHICOPEE

Chicopee Electronics Company, 277 Grattan St., Chicopee, MA 01020. Sandy Averill, same. Sales and installation of electrical equipment.

FDAS Corp., 536 East St., Chicopee, MA 01020. Anthony Scibelli, same. Automotive transportation and used car sales.

EASTHAMPTON

J. Newsome and Sons Construction Inc., 12 Ballard St., Easthampton, MA 01027. Jeffrey Newsome, same. General Contractor

FEEDING HILLS

Anderson Family Enterprise Inc., 154 Cambridge Street, Feeding Hills, MA 01030. Edwin Anderson, Jr. same. Convenience and liquor store.

HAMPDEN

It’s All About Me Inc., 2 Somers Road, Hampden, MA 01036. Diane Merrick, 2 Somers Road, Hampden, MA 01036. Retail sales.

HOLYOKE

G & J Management Inc., 5 Whittier Circle, Holyoke, MA 01040. Ronald Munroe, same. Mail, package, and parcel delivery.

Kennedy Foods Inc., 333 High St., Holyoke, MA 01040. Yasser Hussian, same. Fast-food restaurant.

LUDLOW

K Benefit Group Inc., 60 Clearwater Circle, Ludlow, MA 01056. Jeannie Kwatowski, same. Insurance broker.

MONSON

EMC Trucking Inc., 7 Woodridge Road, Monson, MA 01057. Edward Bernat, same. Trucking and package delivery services.

Kelley Building Group Inc., 129 Palmer Road, Monson, MA 01057. Kimberly Kelley, same. Construction.

PALMER

Clyvanor Corp., 16 2nd St., Palmer, MA 01069. Stephane Blanchette, 2125 951EME Rue St., Georges QC, FF G5Y8J1. Manufacturer of roof and floor trusses.

Easrshot Technologies Inc., 493 Newton St., South Hadley, MA 01075. Edward Wall, 80 Searle Road, South Hadley, MA 01075.

SPRINGFIELD

AutoService Inc., 867 Boston Road, Springfield, MA 01119. Moshe Ronen, 24 Churchill Dr., Longmeadow, MA 01106. Auto repair.

Business Solutions Inc., 32 Dickinson St., 1L, Springfield, MA, 01108. Darnel Ali, same. Voice-over-Internet protocol and connectivity.

Capital One Building Services Inc., 47 Grand St., Springfield, MA 01108. Gideon Innis, same.

Care for our Troops Inc., 733 Memorial Ave., Springfield, MA 01089. Michele Cabral, 314 Edgewood Road, West Springfield, MA 01089. To raise funds and advocate for United State service members. Non-profit organization designed to raise funds and advocate for United States service members.

Community & Employee Benefits Group Inc., One Monarch Place, Suite 2510, Springfield, MA 01144. Lance Letourneau, same.

Entrepreneurship Institute Inc., 1500 Main St., Springfield, MA 01115. Scott Foster, 1587 Longmeadow St., Longmeadow, MA 01106. Organization designed to work cooperatively and collaboratively with UMass Amherst to develop and implement a cutting-edge academic based experience.

Global Partners PC Inc., 125 Frank B. Murray St., Springfield, MA 01103. Ronald Eckman, 4 Squire Dr., Wilbraham, MA 01095.

Hampden County Employable Garments Inc., 41 Pomona St., Springfield, MA 01108. Gymmetta Brantley, 154 Orange St., Springfield, MA 01108. Charitable organization.

Jay’s Communications Inc., 56 West Alvord St., Springfield, MA 01108. Educate consumers and business on computer design and wireless technologies on how to save money and promote growth in the Commonwealth.

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Beech Hill Construction Inc., 88 Cedar Woods Glen, West Springfield, MA 01089. Construction services.

Common Ground Holding Inc., 25 Park Ave., West Springfield, MA 01089. Michael Sullivan, 174 Edgewater Road, Agawam, MA 01001. Real estate holdings.

Fuel First Elm Op Inc., 592 Birnie Ave., West Springfield, MA 01089. Ami Patel, same. Gasoline service station and convenience store.

KD Orthodontics, P.C., 232 Park St., West Springfield, MA 01089. Robert Matthews, 35 Bolles Road, Wilbraham, MA 01095. Orthodontic dentistry.

WESTFIELD

Jai Ganesh Corporation, 49 Sabrinabrook Lane, Westfield, MA 01085. Umangkumar Patel, same. Retail liquor store.

WILBRAHAM

Access to Angels Inc., 27 Brookmont Dr., Wilbraham, MA 01095. Carol Hunt, same. Consulting and communications services.

FloDesign Sonics Inc., 380 Main St., Wilbraham, MA 01095. Arthur Martin, same. Design and manufacture services and equipment sales for water purification.

WORTHINGTON

Cash is King Inc., 129 Old North Road, Worthington, MA 01098. Peter Ricci, same. Entertainment management.

Sections Supplements
AMICCON Event Will Spotlight Companies, New Technologies

AMICCON

AMICCON

Ellen Bemben said she wasn’t sure this past summer how many manufacturers were coming to AMICCON, but she’s no longer concerned.
“If you asked us five or six weeks ago, it was going slowly, but then in September, people were getting back from vacations, and this thing pretty much took off,” said Bemben, one of the event organizers. “What a lot of manufacturers are telling us is that they finally have their own personal forum. There’s a lot of enthusiasm. This is going to be a happening.”
AMICCON, or the Advanced Manufacturing & Innovation Competition and Conference, was conceived in the fall of 2009, when area business leaders began discussing the issue of manufacturers awarding contracts outside the region, in most cases because they are not aware of the qualified supply-chain members and innovators doing business in their own backyard.
The program’s initial stage is a Nov. 16 event at the MassMutual Center in Springfield that will bring together manufacturers in several different categories to make key business connections.
“The goal is to bring business to the region and increase awareness among local manufacturers about what other manufacturers in the area are doing,” said Eric Hagopian, president of Hoppe Tool in Chicopee and an AMICCON steering committee member. “Together, we can really build on our reputation as a region for precision manufacturing of all types.”
According to event organizers, despite the richness and diversity of the region’s manufacturing sector, many manufacturers and supply-chain members are not aware of all that is produced in the Springfield-Hartford corridor.
As a result, they look outside this area — to other regions of the U.S. or even internationally — to supply goods that are actually being produced locally. When that happens, they lose potential customers — and profits.
The Nov. 16 event should start to turn that around, Bemben said.
“Manufacturers are excited. I think it’s because we’re grassroots, bootstrapping, apolitical,” she noted. “I like that they’re coming in from all areas, not just Massachusetts and Connecticut; some folks are coming in from as far away as New Jersey, New York, and New Hampshire.”
According to the AMICCON steering committee, the program’s goals include:
• Soliciting and exposing innovation in manufacturing, in areas ranging from products, processes, and IT to nanotechnology, robotics, coatings, and advanced materials, integrated systems, inventory management, and order tracking;
• Identifying local, qualified supply-chain members and introducing them to the region’s manufacturers through a dedicated Web site and database;
• Introducing original equipment manufacturers, procurement, and government contractors to the region’s advanced manufacturers through a continuum of highly focused programs;
• Promoting the region’s strengths in precision machining, plastics, paper and packaging, green technology, electronics, and medical devices; and
• Creating the region’s first manufacturing innovation competition, designed to promote the sort of forward thinking that has lent the Springfield area its manufacturing heritage.
Event organizers say that, while Western Mass. manufacturers must compete to survive, they also benefit when the entire sector is healthy, and to create that robustness, they need to show each other what they have to offer, along with attracting customers from outside the region.
Bemben said companies will have a chance to spotlight new technologies on Nov. 16 at a venue called the Innovation Station. For example, FloDesign plans to discuss a prototype for water purification using sonic technology, while Poly-Plating will show off a closed-loop system it created to recycle acidic water. Meanwhile, Universal Plastics might bring a thermoformed birthing tub, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will be on hand with a variety of robotics.
“I think it’s going to be a very fast day,” Bemben said, stressing again that the event is only the first step in a long-term effort to boost manufacturing in the region. “It’s not going to be just one day, one event, where we walk away and say, ‘yippee, yay, we did something.’”
Hagopian, like Bemben, is pleased to hear that enthusiasm is rising.
“Any event like this is difficult to get off the ground in its first year,” he told BusinessWest. “But once you build up that momentum, people get excited and sign on. And when they see the value the show brings to the table for the region, they come back, and it’s a lot easier to get it done the next year. It becomes a bigger, more effective show.”
And a stronger, more robust region.

— Joseph Bednar

Features
This Growing Company Puts Its Brand on Business

Pam and Andy Boryea

Pam and Andy Boryea say both corporate clients and individual customers are key to their success.

The term ‘visual branding’ translates roughly to depicting a specific design or logo — corporate, academic, political, personal — on everyday objects. For Andy and Pam Boryea, owners of Lil’ Dogs, the possibilities for what medium that takes knows few bounds.
Clothing, banners, those perforated vehicle wraps that one sees commonly on buses, the ubiquitous political lawn placards, as well as the smaller office objects like pens, travel mugs, and many, many other promotional items, all have passed through the shipping dock of the Ludlow-based company.
“It’s a one-stop shop,” Andy said. But the origins of the company were a bit more specific.
Back in 1997, three friends, all professional soccer players, decided to start a youth soccer camp. Stu MacRury and Glen Jusczyk asked Andy Boryea onboard to provide the goalie for the camp.
When Boryea bought into the business, he found that his partners had purchased some used screen-printing equipment. “They thought they were paying too much for the 60 camp T-shirts they ordered,” he told BusinessWest.
At the time, he knew nothing about that process, but as word-of-mouth spread locally that the trio could make T-shirts, the orders started coming in. “Friends and friends of friends would ask us to do shirts for construction companies, landscapers, you name it,” Boryea said. “My father was one of my first customers.”
Deciding to learn more about the process, he jumped in headfirst and went to school for advanced training. And that, he explained, is how the business got its start.
MacRury sold his share of the company, and Jusczyk and Boryea decided that the screen-printing facet needed its own name. Jusczyk had recently bought his girlfriend a Jack Russell terrier puppy, and after determining that a toll-free number could be acquired to correspond to the words ‘lil’ dogs,’ their own brand became visualized.
“After a while it was just Glen and myself, doing both camps and printing,” Andy continued. “So here we were, working a ‘real job’ during the day, landscaping or whatever soccer players do to make a living — roofing, siding, landscaping, you name it — then we would do the soccer practices after that, and then late at night, we’d be printing T-shirts.”
Around 2000, the state regulated athletic camps more stringently, requiring medical doctors to sign off on their health plans. Boryea said the cost to do so was prohibitive, and in 2001, they sold the soccer camp and became a full-time print shop. Pam joined the team in 2007, and a year later, husband and wife bought the company outright.
What started out as approximately $15,000 in sales in 1998 has grown exponentially each year.
Pam said that the year she joined the company, Lil’ Dogs was posting $2.5 million in total sales. There were some acquisitions along the way, she said, citing the purchase that year of Advantage Athletics in Palmer. But the pair credits a good part of the growth to both word-of-mouth and the aggressive sales techniques of their former partner.
“We were doing no advertising,” Andy said. “But the miles that Glen would rack up … 100,000 a year, easily. He was all over, pushing the company. He’d go play a match and come back with orders from the other team.”
But as sole owners, the Boryeas said that one doesn’t become a multi-million dollar company as a local screenprinter, so they made the shift toward corporate and academic clients, often doing subcontracted work for some of the most recognizable athletic brands.
But the individual customer is just as important, Andy emphasized. “We’re a one-stop shop for all visual branding because I don’t want my clients to need to go to someone else for different products. Because if I don’t have the ability to do it all, someone else will.”
And to keep that one stop always on the cusp of unfolding technology, Andy belongs to trade organizations and consults within the industry. “I’ve seen a lot, I know a lot, and we can offer more than our competition before they even hear about unfolding innovations,” he said, noting that a recent acquisition represents the latest word in specialized printing: wide-format digital. “Take your home printer and multiply its dimensions by 20. That printer can work on a multitude of rolled materials.”
Pushing their industry further, Pam said that she’s at work launching a Web-based self-created clothing program for customers, offering the ability to design online one T-shirt or many. But still, the pair said that their attention will always be on the customer’s immediate needs.
Andy related the story of how Nike contracted Lil’ Dogs to manufacture some transfer designs for the New York Yankees this past season, to be sold and custom processed at their home in the Bronx.
“They told me on a Monday night that they ‘might’ want me to print some transfers for sale at the stadium,” he said, pausing a beat for effect before adding, “for Wednesday morning.”
“So, I said, ‘OK … well, you have to let me know if you do want them,’” he continued. “They said, ‘we’ll let you know.’ I had to report back to the stadium on Tuesday, and at that time they said, ‘OK, but we don’t have any art for you.’
“So it’s Tuesday at 3:30, and I finally got the art,” he continued. “Given the technology we use, I was able to log into the office from my hotel room in New York and send it to Ludlow. By 5 that night we printed them all out, and they were in a box by the time I showed up for duty the next day.”
Of course, if the Yankees’ postseason was as successful as the work done by Lil’ Dogs, Red Sox fans would be a little less cheerful these days.

— Dan Chase

Sections Supplements
Take Advantage of the Repeal of the Generation-skipping Tax

Timothy P. Mulhern, Esq

Timothy P. Mulhern, Esq

Dec. 31, 2010 may be the last time, ever, to make large gifts to grandchildren without having the gifts carry a 55% tax burden.
No, this is not about grandparents giving birthday, holiday, or other small gifts, because gifts with a combined value of $13,000 annually generally carry no tax, even when made to grandchildren. The $13,000 exception (called the annual exclusion) makes a gift of the latest gaming device or even a car to a grandchild free from tax, unless the gaming device comes wrapped in a house or the car is a Telsa Roadster.
Before this year, big gifts or, more often, an interest in a trust that holds an appreciating asset (an interest in a business venture or the family lake house) carried the full 55% tax burden when received by a grandchild. However, the tax could be zero if the gift is made before the end of this year.
This year only, a high-value asset may be given to a grandchild or placed in a trust for grandchildren and later generations, and avoid the 55% generation-skipping tax (GST), regardless of when the asset is distributed.
Since it was enacted in 1986, the GST has been due whenever valuable assets are distributed to persons at least two generations younger than the person who made the transfer initially. But not this year. The GST is repealed, and the impact of repeal can be huge. For example, assume Grandpa funds a trust with $1 million of GrowthCo stock on Dec. 15, 2010, the trust stays in place for 20 years, and assume that in the next 20 years the GrowthCo stock increases in value to $10 million. In year 20, when the GrowthCo stock is distributed to grandchildren, the distribution may be subject to some other taxes, but no GST will be due.
If Grandpa waits until Jan. 1, 2011 to establish the same trust with the same $1 million of GrowthCo stock, when the stock is distributed in 20 years it will be subject to a 55% GST, $5.5 million in tax. The $1 million of GrowthCo stock staying in the same trust for the same 20 years, appreciated to the same $10 million of value, will yield only $4.5 million to the grandchildren, and the federal government will get the $5.5 million difference.
The same gift made before the end of 2010 would yield the full $10 million. The only difference between the two is the application of the GST to the trust established on or after Jan. 1, 2011.
The GST is a tax that sits on top of the better-known federal estate- and gift-tax structures. The estate and gift taxes are essentially taxes on the privilege of distributing accumulated wealth. Wealth distributed during life is a taxable gift unless there is an exemption. Wealth distributed at death is subject to the estate tax, again after exemptions. The rates for the estate and gift taxes are essentially the same. The GST rate is the maximum estate-tax rate applicable when the tax is due: 45% last year, zero this year, and back to 55% next year.
Most of the popular press has focused on the temporary repeal of the estate tax in the year 2010. George Steinbrenner has been called a master tax planner for having avoided the estate tax. Unfortunately, this level of planning requires that one die in 2010. The press does not often say that the gift tax remains in effect in the year 2010. Nor do they mention the $1 million lifetime exemption from the gift tax.
At its simplest, the generation-skipping tax can be understood as a tax levied on the privilege of passing assets that skip over an entire generation. It can be illustrated by a couple of examples from 2009, before the temporary repeal. If Grandpa gave his granddaughter the $2.5 million lake house in 2009, he made what the tax law calls a ‘direct skip.’ Up until the end of 2009, Grandpa’s gift would have been subject to the gift tax when made (or would use up some of his $1 million exemption), and it would also be a subject to the GST, which was at 45% in 2009. If instead, again in 2009, Grandpa put the lake house in trust for the grandchildren, the gift to the trust would have been subject to the gift tax when the gift was made, but also subject to the GST, not at funding in 2009, but when the lake house is distributed to the grandchildren out of the trust (what your tax advisors would call a taxable termination or distribution), and using the value of the asset at distribution.
If the lake house was valued at $2.5 million in 2009 on the date of the gift, the gift tax would be paid or the exemption used at that time. The trust might provide that the house would be held for grandchildren for 20 years. If the house appreciates to $10 million in those 20 years, then on distribution to grandchildren (the taxable termination or distribution), the GST will apply at the maximum estate tax rate. At next year’s rate of 55%, the $10 million distribution would carry with it a GST liability of $5.5 million.
Like the estate tax, the generation-skipping tax is repealed for the year 2010 only. The law simply says that the GST “shall not apply to generation-skipping transfers after Dec. 31, 2009.” This opens a door for a few more weeks that has been closed since 1986.
The GST repeal effectively permits large amounts of value to be placed in trust for later generations without the later application of the GST. For the first nine months of 2010, most tax practitioners believed that Congress would act to close this substantial loophole and re-impose the GST effective as of Jan. 1, 2010. Now, as the year winds down, it appears increasingly less likely that Congress will act at all, and even if it was to act, constitutional challenges might prevent a reinstitution of the GST effective Jan. 1, 2010.
Nonetheless, making a generation-skipping trust gift on the belief that Congress won’t create a retroactive application of this tax requires some nerve, but unlike George Steinbrenner, you don’t have to die to try it. This is a door open only until Dec. 31, 2010, and it is unlikely that Congress will ever leave it open again.

Timothy P. Mulhern, Esq. is a partner at Springfield-based Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C., providing tax and business legal services since 1979; (413) 737-1131; [email protected]

Features
UMass Wants to Raise Its Status Among Research Institutions

New Laboratory Science Building

New Laboratory Science Building

It’s called the New Laboratory Science Building, or NLSB, a $156 million, state-of-the-art facility now taking shape on the UMass Amherst campus. It’s part of a larger, nearly $300 million initiative, which also includes the Integrated Science Building opened in late 2009, to create a life sciences ‘precinct’ or ‘community’ on the campus that is being designed to greatly increase research capacity and facilitate collaborative efforts among science departments. The new facilities are expected to play a lead role in helping the university meet its stated goal of doubling its overall research volume by 2014 and climb within the ranks of the nation’s leading research institutions.

Karen Hayes says that, when it comes to word associations, many possible answers come to mind when one mentions UMass Amherst.
A beautiful suburban campus is one of them, said Hayes, who works as director of Strategic Communications and Outreach for the university, while strong undergraduate programs might be another, and service to the Commonwealth could be a third. One phrase you probably won’t hear is ‘major research institution,’ or words to that effect, she continued, adding that, while it’s certainly not written down anywhere, it’s part of her job description to change that equation.
Part of the strategy for doing so is simply telling the university’s story better and with a louder voice, she said, noting that there are currently a number of intriguing research initiatives underway on the campus, such as one she’s written about herself involving work that sequenced the first full genome of a female Hereford cow.
“We need to get our name out in the public,” she said. “When the Boston Globe or the New York Times or the national publications talk about discoveries in science, we have to be there; our name has to be out there as much as Harvard, Ohio State, MIT, the University of Michigan, or any of the other research powerhouses.”
For that to happen, the university needs to have more for those publications and others to write about, Hayes continued, and the $156 million New Laboratory Science Building, or NLSB, as it’s called, now taking shape on the campus should certainly provide a real boost for those efforts. The 310,000-square-foot facility will provide not only the physical space for additional research initiatives, but also a collaborative environment in which scientists across a number of different fields can more easily work together on projects, she said.
Mike Malone, the university’s vice chancellor of Research Engagement, agreed. He told BusinessWest that the NLSB will play a lead role in helping the university meet its ambitious goal, set in 2009, of doubling its level of federally funded research within five years.
“The NLSB will greatly increase our capacity for doing research,” he explained. “It will give us more equipment, more people, and more modern laboratories. Most importantly, though, it will bring people together in collaborative efforts.”
The NLSB is actually the second phase of a nearly $300 million initiative to create what many are calling a life sciences ‘precinct,’ or ‘community’ on the Amherst campus. The first was the university’s $114.5 million Integrated Science Building, which brings classrooms and labs for the life, chemical, and physical sciences together in one building, thus improving the prospects for collaboration.

Steve Goodwin

Steve Goodwin says the Integrated Science Building brings people in several different disciplines together to effectively solve problems.

This clustering process is part of a nationwide trend, said Steve Goodwin, dean of the College of Natural Sciences at UMass, noting that science, as well as the way it is taught, is changing, with an emphasis on integrating the various disciplines, hence the name on the new building.
For this issue, BusinessWest takes an indepth look at UMass Amherst’s emerging life-sciences precinct, how it will play a lead role in ongoing efforts to move the university to another level when it comes to research institutions, and also how the process of moving up in the ranks requires more than building more lab space.

Good Chemistry
Tom Whelan, a chemistry professor at the university, told BusinessWest that it couldn’t, or shouldn’t, print the words used by many of his students when they first glimpsed the new laboratory facilities in the ISB. “Holy sh—— was the most common refrain,” he said, not actually using the offending word in question.
That and other colorful phrases were needed to adequately put into the perspective the difference between what the students had for facilities in their former home at Goessmann Lab and what they now enjoyed at the ISB, said Whelan, noting that everything in the new science building is spacious and state-of-the-art.
“It’s great space — it’s a better learning environment, and it’s already changing the way we do things,” he said, adding that, while the ISB is bigger, it allows educators to work smaller in terms of attention to individual students. Meanwhile, it improves the flow of communication between departments that were in separate buildings and brings more opportunities for collaboration.
Goodwin agreed. As he led BusinessWest on a tour of the ISB, he said the building’s design encourages interaction among students and faculty, certainly much more so than was possible when departments were scattered around the campus in buildings as much as a century old and with outdated facilities.
He said the underlying concept for the building actually started to take shape 10 to 15 years ago, when those in the field noticed that the way science was done was changing.
“Therefore, we concluded that the way we train people should change as well,” he explained. “We realized that bringing people from multiple disciplines together to solve problems is the way things move forward. So this building was built on a teaching concept that said, ‘OK, we want to teach in the same way; we want to take the people who are taking introductory chemistry and physics and biology, bring them together in the same building, and give them opportunities to interact.’
“The exciting thing is that, over time, that notion has become more and more defined,” he continued, citing a new program initiated this fall called iCONS, short for Integrated Concentrations in the Sciences, where faculty members across several fields try to bring multiple disciplines together to solve problems.
This notion of bringing people together to work in collaboration is also at the heart of the NLSB, said Malone, adding that the facility is being designed with the goal of promoting collaboration, while also greatly upgrading the facilities in which people are performing critical work.
“Now, faculty members are typically located in individual buildings or parts of buildings that are assigned to their particular departments,” he explained. “And that makes it not impossible, but a little more difficult for their students and they themselves to get together. In this new facility, they’ll be living and working in the same environment.
“And it’s a great upgrade for our facilities,” he continued. “We have quite a backlog of deferred maintenance on campus, and this will put people who are, in many cases, from labs that aren’t state-of-the-art into a state-of-the-art facility.”
Roughly half the NLSB will be finished labs, and the rest will be shelf space, said Malone, noting that this will provide the university with cost-effective room to grow for the future.

A New Culture
And that room will eventually be needed if the university is to meet that stated goal for doubling its research volume by 2014, and then continuing a steady pace of growth. For the fiscal year that ended last June 30, the university logged $170 million in research projects from all sources, a number aided by large amounts of federal stimulus money, compared to $137.5 million for the prior year.
For fiscal 2011, the first-quarter numbers are tracking just ahead of the ’09 figures, which was expected as the level of stimulus funding drops, he continued, adding that the university wants to reach or exceed $270 million by 2014.
With that goal in mind, Malone has created a new Office of Research Development, which will work to identify funding sources and assist individuals and departments with putting proposals together.
The life sciences have been identified as a large growth area for the university, said Malone, noting that, at present, 45% of the federal funding awarded to the school is from the National Science Foundation.
“We have room to grow in areas supported by the National Institutes of Health, and some of that growth will be enabled by a collaboration with people at our medical school,” he explained. “They just got what’s called a Clinical and Translational Science Award from the NIH to support projects that link basic science with the practice of medicine — translating the results from the benchtop to the bedside. This translational area is a good one for us in terms of growth.”
And as research volume grows, and the university escalates its efforts to tell those stories regionally and nationally, UMass will make headway in its ongoing efforts to become more well-known as one of those aforementioned research powerhouses, said Hayes, noting that the story-telling process is an important, sometimes overlooked part of the equation.
“If we want to build our image with the general public and other constituencies, we need to be able to tell our story well,” she told BusinessWest. “Telling your science story well is something we haven’t done, and it’s a challenge. How can you connect the average person who doesn’t know a lot about science to what going’s on here in a way that helps them understand what’s in it for them? That’s what we have to do.”
The new science facilities on the campus will help the university raise its stature in a number of ways, said Hayes, adding that the ISB is a powerful tool in attracting students and faculty to the school.
“It’s a springboard to talk about research on campus and students’ opportunities there,” she said, adding quickly that the new facilities are all about creating more of these opportunites. “In the past, if you were a student who wanted to get research experience on campus, you had to be bold, you had to approach a faculty member, engage them directly, and take the initiative. With these new facilities and new programs that we have to connect students to research experiences, it is so much easier for them to seize opportunities.”

The Bottom Line
The NLSB is slated to open in the summer or fall of 2012. In time, and probably not much it, the facility is expected to generate those collaborations that Malone and Goodwin talked about, as well the critical momentum the university will need to take its name and reputation within the world of science to a higher level.
And perhaps sometime soon, when people do play word-association games with UMass Amherst, the phrase ‘major research institution’ will be appropriate, and widely used, vocabulary.

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

Bankruptcies Departments

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

Ahern, Jeffrey T.
Ahern, Brenda M.
39 Jessie Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/07/10

Anderson, Alan L.
Anderson, Judith C.
68 Kimberly Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/14/10

Anderson, Eric S.
83 South St.
Barre, MA 01005
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Anderson, Paul
1037 West St.
Barre, MA 01005
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/11/10

Ball, Brian C.
67 Wilmont St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/15/10

Barfitt, Ronald G.
213 Birnam Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Batorfi, Andrea Katalin
8 Fiske Hill Road
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/13/10

Bean, Robert R.
Bean, Susan L.
46 Washington Ave.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Berg, Robert
Berg, Leea
66 Colorado St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/15/10

Boulette, James P.
P.O. Box 1446
Warren, MA 01083
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/13/10

Brown, Marcia E.
943 Massachusetts Ave.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/13/10

Bruso, Shannon A.
27 Hawthorn St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/02/10

Candee, Melissa J.
17 Green River Valley Road
Great Barrington, MA 01230
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Carron, Joan A.
14 Highview Dr., #D
Colonial Gardens
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/09/10

Cayo, Edward J.
5 Countryview Lane
Granby, MA 01033
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/08/10

Chaput, Marilyn E.
154 Franklin St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/12/10

Chumsae, Jamie J.
459 Hubbardston Road
Barre, MA 01005
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/07/10

Collins, Brad Garett
1038 North St. Ext.
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/04/10

Costa, Tony A.
Costa, Katherine L.
47 Thyme Lane
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/07/10

Curtis, Benjamin M.
PO Box 241
Brimfield, MA 01010
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/06/10

Czuchra, Shellie J.
235 Ontario Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/13/10

D’Agostino, Michele
D’Agostino, Paula D.
25 Webber St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/08/10

Davis, Frankie L.
Davis, Patricia M.
a/k/a McCray, Patricia
2062 Page Blvd.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Delargy, James R.
Delargy, Susan S.
42 Sheridan St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Deshaies, Norman J.
80 Billings St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/01/10

Dixon, John G.
Dixon, Frances L.
95 Clough St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/06/10

Dizik, Marina
a/k/a Dizik, Marina J.
a/k/a Dizik-Latourelle, Marina
5 Pinnacle Road
Monson, MA 01057
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Ducharme, Sharon Diane
269 Osborne Road
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/08/10

Duprey, Dwayne J.
Duprey, Gina M.
a/k/a Hentosh, Gina M.
358 Main St.
Becket, MA 01223
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Elie, Leonard G.
1467 Main Road
Granville, MA 01034
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/04/10

Estrella, Eddie M.
71 Orchard St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/12/10

F.S. Whitney & Sons Inc.
814 East St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/04/10

Farrington, Daniel Scott
Farrington, Leslie
25 Tyringham Road
Lee, MA 01238
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/08/10

Ferret, Karl Stanley
49 Old South St.
Apt. 501
Northampton, MA 01060
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/13/10

Finn, Donna Ann
1241 Elm St. – A6
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/01/10

Fumo, Rosary
93 Old Poor Farm Road
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/08/10

Gardner, Tanya J.
48 Pine Lodge Park
Williamstown, MA 01267
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/06/10

Garney, Linda N.
a/k/a Rayner, Linda N.
298 Hungerford St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/04/10

Gasparini, Ronald G.
343 Chicopee St., Unit 23
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Gil, Rita L.
161 Jasper St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/14/10

Glassman, Robert Charles
PO Box 862
Amherst, MA 01004-0862
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/04/10

Gomes, Nancy M.
24 Daley St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/14/10

Grajales, Elizabeth
a/k/a Camacho, Elizabeth
1142 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/06/10

Graveline, Jennifer Lee
22 Simpson Circle
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/13/10

Griswold, William R.
Griswold, Charlann
45 Cleveland St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Hale, Chester Kenneth
Hale, Carol Ann
740 James St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/12/10

Harrity, James M.
122 North Maple St.
Florence, MA 01062
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/04/10

Henin, Sherif A.
1607 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/10

Hurley, Lynn A.
3 Seneca Dr., Box F3
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/07/10

Ingles, Roberta N.
328 Oakland St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/13/10

Integral Medicine
Hemingway, Michelle L.
a/k/a Maffeo, Michelle Hemingway
204 High St.
Lee, MA 01238
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/06/10

Jones, Richard B.
19 Locust St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Kang, Kye
78 Glenwood St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/06/10

Keating, Daniel M.
Gallus-Keating, Constance R.
180 Leyfred Ter.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/07/10

Kurtzhalts, Michael J.
Kurtzhalts, Aimee M.
a/k/a LaBaff, Aimee M.
23 Derryfield Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Laramee, Ernest L.
Laramee, Cheryl Ann V.
80 Sun Valley Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/01/10

Liquori, Carol A.
20 Alberta St.
Springfeild, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/08/10

Mailloux, Wayne J.
56 Riverside Road
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Maslowski, Elena L.
110 Florence St.
Leeds, MA 01053
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/11/10

Mathisen, Larry
Mathisen, Claudette
1134 Worcester St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Maynard, Jill A.
20 Colony Road
Unit 20
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/08/10

McLaughlin, Craig A.
30 Morgan Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/05/10

McMahon, Thomas Jon
1245 Bradley Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/15/10

Meade, Louise Ann
Meade, Guy Christian
965 Mckinstry Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/02/10

Melendez, Lydia E.
146 Mill St., Apt. 9
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Meuser, David John
11 Bancroft Road
Northampton, MA 01060
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/10

Mitchell, Brian Anthony
Mitchell, Gina Ann
48 Plain St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/13/10

Molina, Euphemia J.
a/k/a Calero, Euphemia J.
31 Westhampton Road
Florence, MA 01062
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/13/10

Montes, Magali
a/k/a Montes-Benitez, Magali
162 Maple St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/04/10

Morin, Michelle A.
69 Starling Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/12/10

Neill, James Brockway
16 Market St. Apt. 3A
Northampton, MA 01060
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/06/10

O’Connor, Patricia A.
8 Rosemary Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Omartian, Virginia N.
1454 South Branch Parkway
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/06/10

Papini, Donald G.
294 Lincoln Ave.
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/15/10

Perrier, Gail A.
48 School St., Apt. 4
Northampton, MA 01060
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/08/10

Peskin, Robert J.
Peskin, Marilyn C.
9 Westminster St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/04/10

Petrenko, Vera
Petrenko, Anatoliy
45 Belle Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/04/10

Pizarro, Eva E.
15 Herbert Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/08/10

Polak, Deana M.
35 Karen Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/13/10

Polley, Debra A.
344 Warwick Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/15/10

Price, Wendy B.
a/k/a Kudo, Wendy
82 Debra Dr., Apt. 3A
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/14/10

Renaud, Thomas J.
Renaud, Lynne M.
58 Roy St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/15/10

Robert, Benoit
24 Fariview Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/07/10

Rooney, Kathleen A.
95 Sterling St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/08/10

Russett, Bernard A.
34 Foucher Ave.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/06/10

Rutstein, Ronald J.
P.O. Box 501
Richmond, MA 01254
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/01/10

Sagan, Edward A.
P.O. Box 2
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/08/10

Samson, Edward J.
Samson, Barbara
266 Monson Turnpike Road
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/14/10

Sandomierski, Thomas C.
40 Palmer Road
Monson, MA 01057
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/12/10

Sardeson, Nancy J.
115 State St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/14/10

Saunders, Lawrence M.
75 Edgemont St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Schmukler, Kristina Ruth
12 North Main St.
PO Box 434
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/07/10

Sladdin, George A.
PO Box 86
365 Main St.
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/01/10

Sluter, Lois N.
140 Collier Cemetary Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/10

Snow, Betty Ann
13 Oak St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/13/10

Soley, Jeffrey J.
2 Greenwood Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075-1612
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/14/10

Sternowski, Scott James
1009 Berkshire Ave.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Sundara, John P.
Sundara, Vieng N.
56 Lois St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/12/10

Surprenant, Doris P.
PO Box 342
Brimfield, MA 01010
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/08/10

Teto, Matthew R.
67 Gage Road
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/10

Thomes, Harold C.
Thomes, Gabrielle M.
164 Westwood Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/14/10

Total Technology Solutions
Patryn, Brenna J.
100 Cummings Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Tougas, Laurie
164 Chapin Ter.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/14/10

Ugolini, Gina A.
69 River Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/08/10

Vaughn, Nicolas J.
28 Rapalus St. Apt 5
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/14/10

Waple, James J.
Waple, Christine L.
73 Hall Road, #21
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/03/10

White, Beverly K.
8 Taylor St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/10

White, David J.
PO Box 975
Chicopee, MA 01021
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/05/10

Woodbury, Michael J.
5 Mattawa Circle
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 09/30/10

Yacovone, Michael J.
194 Vineland Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 10/07/10

Zilin, Robert Lyle
P.O. Box 494
Northampton, MA 01061
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 10/13/10