Month: January 2015

SPRINGFIELD — A. Boilard Sons Inc., a local, family-owned and operated supplier of quality building supplies since 1936, announced that Matthew Boilard has joined the family business. His appointment as sales associate continues a legacy of family leadership, now in its fourth generation.

“This company has always been a part of my life, and I look forward to adding my own outside perspective to the business,” he said. “I’m proud to have an opportunity to be part of a family business, and my goals are to grow the business and look for new opportunities to help it succeed.”

Boilard is a 2011 graduate of Bentley University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in corporate finance and accounting. While he hopes to advance his career into a financial role, he says it is important for him to start in a sales position to learn the business operations.

“We are thrilled to have Matt here applying his business acumen to our day-to-day operations,” said Mike Boilard, Matthew’s father.

MGM Springfield to Stage Meetings on Contractor Opportunities

By BusinessWest Staff January 30, 2015

SPRINGFIELD — MGM Resorts International announced that MGM Springfield is inviting site-fencing and demolition/abatement contractors to attend meetings to learn more about contractor opportunities for early work.

This outreach follows recent MGM Springfield news of tenant-relocation planning and communications, as well as important changes to parking in the South End. These recent activities reflect a continuum of site preparations for MGM Springfield’s spring groundbreaking, as well as an announcement of its general contractor.

“We are picking up steam as we head into spring,” said Michael Mathis, MGM Springfield president. “Much of the early construction activity will involve preparing the site for initial demolition so we have a productive construction season and stay on schedule.”

The upcoming information appointments will take place at the MGM Springfield Community Office located at 1441 Main St. Contractors must schedule an appointment ahead of time to avail a 30-minute slot. Walk-in appointments are discouraged. Site-fencing contractor appointments will be scheduled on Friday, Feb. 6, and the demolition/abatement contractor appointments will be set for Monday, Feb. 9. Call the MGM Springfield Community Office at (413) 735-3000 to make an appointment or for additional information regarding these opportunities.

In order to stay compliant with permitting requirements, demolition of the Zanetti School will begin in the coming weeks, said Mathis, adding that MGM Springfield’s construction-management representatives will interview interested bidders for site-fencing and demolition/abatement services only for the Zanetti School demolition area. Interested bidders will learn about the scope of work for site fencing and demolition/abatement, how to participate in the pre-qualification process, and MGM Springfield’s policy on minority contractors, vendors, and purchasing.

According to Hunter Clayton, executive vice president of MGM Resorts Development, “we will continue to offer these types of opportunities on individual components of the project as they become a priority. That will allow us to set specific terms and expectations and make the best use of everyone’s time. We look forward to meeting potential project partners.”

The construction of MGM Springfield will offer opportunities in a wide range of property components, such as early work and offsite work for the garage, casino, hotel tower, and retail plaza. Each component will allow for various bid opportunities for local contractors, in both prime and sub roles.

Two Local Banks Boost Capital Campaign for Cancer Center

By BusinessWest Staff January 30, 2015

SPRINGFIELD — Mercy Medical Center announced that Westfield Bank and Chicopee Savings Bank Charitable Foundation have pledged gifts of $150,000 and $100,000, respectively, to “Transforming Cancer Care,” the capital campaign for the Sr. Caritas Cancer Center. Westfield Bank’s gift is particularly significant because it reflects the largest corporate gift in the history of the bank.

“Whether we like it or not, every one of us will be touched by cancer, directly or indirectly,” said James Hagan, president and CEO of Westfield Bank. “As an employer and as a community member, I recognize the importance of outstanding hospital care for the health of our community. Supporting this expansion is the right thing for economic, humanitarian, and personal reasons. We’re proud to be a part of this worthy project and encourage other area businesses to support the expansion as well.”

Added Chicopee Savings Bank President Bill Wagner, “Chicopee Savings Bank and its charitable foundation have consistently supported the Sisters of Providence Health System and their various efforts. We have long been impressed by the organization’s mission to serve all members of our community. Cancer affects people across the socio-economic spectrum. This expansion will lift the level of care at Mercy to an even higher level, while expanding Mercy’s ability to meet the growing cancer-care needs of this community.”

Mercy Medical Center recently launched a capital campaign to support the $15 million expansion of the Sr. Caritas Cancer Center at Mercy Medical Center. Specifically, the funds will be used to consolidate all cancer services into a single, unified space and meet increased demand for outpatient cancer services. In the past two years, the number of patients receiving chemotherapy at the Sr. Caritas Cancer Center has increased by more than 200%. By 2022, the need for outpatient cancer services is expected to grow by 26%.

“Through the years, the banking community has been at the forefront of supporting the Sisters of Providence Health System,” said Diane Dukette, vice president of Fund Development for the Sisters of Providence Health System. “Once again, they are among the first to step forward to support a critical community need. We are grateful for their ongoing generosity and commitment to the people we serve.”

AIC to Host Interactive Program on Leadership Skills

SPRINGFIELD — Leadership is a position, a perspective, and a process. In today’s fast-paced, global environment, leaders need to be equipped with proven tools and techniques for leading their organizations’ teams. Successful leaders are masterful in crafting a vision, building alignment, and championing execution. Research shows there are proven best practices that leaders can develop.

“Essential Skills for 21st Century Leaders” is an executive briefing culminating six years of research into the drivers and best practices that support leadership success. It will be held at American International College (AIC) on Thursday, Feb. 5 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Sprague Cultural Arts Center. The event is sponsored by the new AIC Master of Science in Leadership program and Leadership Pioneer Valley. This interactive session addresses real-world demands that face today’s leaders.

“Leaders need more than just vision. They need to be able to align people, processes, and projects with their organization’s mission. They then need to take action to make things happen. That’s the goal of this program,” said Dawn Sherman, director of the leadership program at AIC.

The briefing is designed for leaders in industry and organizations. Leadership faculty and students are also encouraged to attend. Participants will learn about their own leadership priorities, strengths, and blind spots.

According to Leadership Pioneer Valley Executive Director Lora Wondolowski, “with all the changes in our region and the world, leaders need to be forward-thinking, collaborative, and visionary. Leaders aren’t born; they’re educated. We are excited to be offering a program that provides critical insight and strategies for new and seasoned leaders.”

Leadership expert and team coach Ingrid Bredenberg will present the research results and facilitate interactive discovery and discussion. Bredenberg, who will serve as an adjunct professor in the MS in Leadership program at AIC, works in conjunction with Leadership Pioneer Valley and consults with business, healthcare, and government organizations around the country.

To register, contact Sherman at (413) 205-3106 or [email protected].

Springfield Symphony Youth Orchestra to Present Winter Concert

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Symphony Youth Orchestra’s (SSYO) Winter Concert is set for Sunday, Feb. 8 in Parenzo Hall at Westfield State University.

The introductory Springfield Youth Sinfonia concert program will include Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” Mussorgsky’s “The Fair at Sorochinsk,” and Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz from Swan Lake.” The advanced Springfield Youth Orchestra program will include Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” and Dvorak’s “In Nature’s Realm Overture, Op. 91.”

Jonathan Lam, conductor of the youth orchestra, notes that “the SSYO will be performing two contrasting works. Rossini’s ‘William Tell Overture’ will open the concert and display the versatility, warmth, and excitement of the orchestra. Dvorak’s tone poem ‘In Nature’s Realm’ will take the audience through the sounds of the wilderness.”

Tickets are available at the door, and cost $10 for adults and $5 for seniors and youth under 17 years old. Doors open at 2:30 p.m., and the concert begins at 3 p.m.

MassMutual Financial Group is the official season sponsor of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra and the Springfield Symphony Youth Orchestra. Disability Management Services, PeoplesBank, and Baystate Children’s Hospital are the sponsors of the SSYO. The SSYO is also funded in part by the Amherst, Belchertown, and Westfield cultural councils. For more information, call (413) 733-0636, ext. 19.

Greater Westfield Chamber Slates Legislative Luncheon

WESTFIELD —The Greater Westfield Chamber of Commerce, which serves Blandford, Chester, Granville, Huntington, Montgomery, Russell, Southwick, Tolland, Westfield, and Woronoco, has slated its second annual Legislative Luncheon for Feb. 27 at Tekoa Country Club.

Invited state legislators include Sens. Benjamin Downing and Donald Humason and Reps. Nicholas Boldyga, Peter Kocot, Stephen Kulig, William Pignatelli, and John Velis. A host of sponsorship opportunities are still available.

Tickets for the event are $25 for chamber members and $35 (paid in advance) for non-members. For more information on tickets and sponsorships, call the chamber at (413) 568-1618.

First Connecticut Bancorp Reports Fourth-quarter Earnings

FARMINGTON, Conn. — First Connecticut Bancorp Inc., the holding company for Farmington Bank, reported net income of $3.1 million, or $0.21 diluted earnings per share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2014, compared to net income of $2.5 million, or $0.17 diluted earnings per share, in the linked quarter.

Diluted earnings per share were $0.07 for the fourth quarter of 2013. The bank had net income of $9.3 million, or $0.62 diluted earnings per share, for the year ended Dec. 31, 2014, compared to net income of $3.7 million, or $0.24 diluted earnings per share, for the year ended Dec. 31, 2013.

“Despite the low-interest-rate environment which continues to apply pressure to the margin, we continue to generate improved earnings based on our organic growth strategy, coupled with our strategic steps of reducing operating cost through process improvement initiatives,” said John Patrick Jr., First Connecticut Bancorp’s chairman, president, and CEO.

“I am extremely proud of our team for their efforts in 2014, as we have once again prudently grown our asset and deposit base, deepening our market share where we operate. Their effort is evidenced in the improvement in our operating efficiency and annual EPS growth of 158%. We continue to be pleased with the progress of our expansion into Western Massachusetts, and will be opening two branch offices in that market in 2015, as previously announced.”

Also in the fourth-quarter report, net interest income increased $410,000 to $16.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to $16.0 million in the linked quarter, and increased $2.1 million or 14% compared to fourth quarter of 2013. On a core basis, net interest income increased $160,000 in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to the linked quarter.

Strong organic loan growth continued during the quarter, as total loans increased $88.4 million to $2.1 billion at Dec. 31, 2014 and increased $318.7 million or 18% from a year ago. Non-interest expense to average assets was 2.39% in the fourth quarter of 2014 compared to 2.46% in the linked quarter and 2.80% in the fourth quarter of 2013. Tangible book value per share was $14.57 compared to $14.56 on a linked quarter basis and $14.11 at Dec. 31, 2013.

Checking accounts grew by 2.8% or 1,242 net new accounts in the fourth quarter of 2014 and by 13.1% or 5,248 net new accounts compared to Dec. 31, 2013. Asset quality improved, as loan delinquencies 30 days and greater decreased slightly to 0.75% of total loans at Dec. 31, 2014, compared to 0.78% at Sept. 30, 2014 and 0.85% at Dec. 31, 2013.

Non-accrual loans represented 0.72% of total loans, compared to 0.76% of total loans on a linked quarter basis and 0.81% of total loans at Dec. 31, 2013. The allowance for loan losses represented 0.89% of total loans at Dec. 31, 2014 compared to 0.91% at Sept. 30, 2014 and 1.01% at Dec. 31, 2013.

Finally, the company paid a cash dividend of $0.05 per share on Dec. 15, 2014, and paid a cash dividend of $0.17 per share for the year, an increase of $0.05 compared to the prior year. This marks the 13th consecutive quarter the company has paid a dividend since it became a public company on June 29, 2011.

Construction Employment Increases in 40 States over Past Year

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Construction firms added jobs in 40 states and the District of Columbia between December 2013 and December 2014, while construction employment increased in 38 states and D.C. between November and December, according to an analysis of Labor Department data by Associated General Contractors of America.

“Part of the reason for the positive December construction employment figures was the exceptionally harsh weather in much of December 2013 and November 2014 and milder-than-normal weather in December 2014,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “Nevertheless, the underlying trend is very positive, with construction employment expanding at more than double the rate for total non-farm payroll jobs.”

Texas added more new construction jobs (47,500 jobs, 7.7%) between December 2013 and December 2014 than any other state. Other states adding a high number of new construction jobs for the past 12 months included Florida (34,300 jobs, 8.9%), California (26,000 jobs, 4.0%), Illinois (20,200 jobs, 10.6%) and Washington (14,100 jobs, 9.5%). North Dakota (25.7%, 8,300 jobs) added the highest percentage of new construction jobs during the past year, followed by Utah (13.4%, 10,100 jobs), Wisconsin (12.7%, 12,400 jobs), and Arkansas (12.6%, 5,800 jobs).

Ten states shed construction jobs during the past 12 months. West Virginia lost the highest percentage (-9.1%, -3,000 jobs). Other states that lost a high percentage of jobs include Mississippi (-7.5%, -4,000 jobs), Hawaii (-4.5%, -1,400 jobs), and Arizona (-3.4%, -4,300 jobs). Arizona lost the most construction jobs between December 2013 and December 2014, followed by Mississippi, West Virginia, and Ohio (-2,500 jobs, -1.3%).

Thirty-eight states and the District of Columbia added construction jobs between November and December. New York (6,400 jobs, 2.0%) added the most jobs, followed by Illinois (6,000 jobs, 2.9%), Texas (5,100 jobs, 0.8%), and North Carolina (4,100 jobs, 2.3%).

Association officials said the latest construction employment figures are consistent with the optimism many contractors expressed in the association’s recently released annual “Construction Hiring and Business Outlook.” According to the outlook, 80% of contractors report plans to add new construction jobs in 2015. In addition, a majority of contractors expect demand for most construction-market segments this year to grow.

“The construction industry appears on track to add many new construction jobs in 2015,” said Stephen Sandherr, the association’s CEO.

United Financial Bancorp Announces Fourth-quarter Results

GLASTONBURY, Conn. — United Financial Bancorp Inc., the holding company for United Bank, announced results for the quarter and year ended Dec. 31, 2014.

These results represent the second full fiscal quarter as the combined United Financial (merger of Rockville Financial Inc. and legacy United Financial Bancorp Inc.). Rockville was the legal acquirer in the merger of equals with legacy United in a transaction that closed on April 30, 2014, and Rockville changed its name to United Financial Bancorp Inc. at that time.

The company had net income of $1.4 million, or $0.03 per diluted share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2014, compared to Rockville’s net income of $1.8 million, or $0.07 per diluted share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2013.

Operating net income for the fourth quarter of 2014 was $8.3 million (non-GAAP), or $0.16 per diluted share, adjusted for $10.6 million (pre-tax) of expenses related to the merger, $3.4 million (pre-tax) net positive impact of the amortization and accretion of the purchase accounting adjustments (or fair value adjustments) as a result of the merger, $2.6 million (pre-tax) net adjustment for the company’s announced branch-optimization program, and $59,000 (pre-tax) net loss on sales of securities.

Operating net income for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2014 was $10.4 million (non-GAAP), or $0.20 per diluted share, adjusted for $4.5 million (pre-tax) of expenses related to the merger, $3.8 million (pre-tax) net positive impact of the amortization and accretion of the purchase accounting adjustments (or fair value adjustments) as a result of the merger, and $430,000 (pre-tax) net gains on sales of securities.

Operating net income for the prior-year period was $3.3 million (non-GAAP), or $0.13 per diluted share, adjusted for $2.1 million (pre-tax) of expenses related to the merger. Net income for the year ended Dec. 31, 2014 was $6.8 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, and declined from $14.2 million or $0.54 per diluted share for the year ended Dec. 31, 2013.

Operating net income of $26.7 million (non-GAAP), or $0.62 per diluted share for the year ended Dec. 31, 2014 increased from $16.3 million or $0.62 per diluted share for the year ended Dec. 31, 2013. Adjustments to operating net income from GAAP net income are largely related to the merger with legacy United and are itemized in the reconciliation of non-GAAP measures.

“As we close the books on 2014, I am pleased to announce that we reported impressive organic loan growth, successfully completed the conversion to one core operating system, and have materially achieved the company’s objectives related to eliminating redundant expenses by the end of the fourth quarter,” said William Crawford IV, CEO of United Financial Bancorp Inc. and United Bank. “Looking forward to 2015, the operational environment will be challenging; however, I am confident that our strategy to reduce expenses and improve efficiency will enhance long-term shareholder value while maintaining superior service for our customers.”

Family Legacy Partners Expands with Northampton Office

NORTHAMPTON — Karen Curran, CFP and Molly Keegan, CPA are pleased to announce the opening of a Northampton office of Family Legacy Partners Inc., an established financial-advisory firm headquartered in Greenfield. The new office is located in a historic property on Round Hill Road.

Family Legacy Partners is an independent financial-services firm offering financial planning and investment management. Securities are offered through Bolton Global Capital Inc. in Bolton, Mass. Advisory services are offered through Bolton Global Asset Management, a SEC-registered investment advisor.

Rotary Club of Springfield Inducts Two New Members

SPRINGFIELD — Alicia Garcia and Rowland Hawthorne were recently inducted into the Rotary Club of Springfield.

Garcia, a Springfield native and 2014 graduate of Western New England University, is district executive for the Western Massachusetts Council of Boy Scouts of America for Hampden County. She oversees recruitment and fund-raising,  and is actively involved in the Boy Scouts Latino Initiative in Springfield, which hopes to re-engage the Latino community in  scouting.

Hawthorne, a native of South Carolina, recently moved to Longmeadow from Atlanta to be close to family. He is retired from Oliver Walker & Co., a home-furnishing store in Denver, where he was chairman and CEO for 25 years. He has been a Rotarian for 37 years, first in the Rotary Club of Denver for 30 years and more recently in the Rotary Club of Buckhead in Atlanta for seven years.

The Springfield Rotary Club, a member of Rotary International, meets every Friday at 12:15 p.m. in the MassMutual Room at the Basketball Hall of Fame, West Columbus Avenue, Springfield.  For more information on the Rotary Club of Springfield or becoming a member, visit www.springfieldmarotary.org or call Mike Healy, membership chairperson, at (860) 796-1435.

Fueling Speculation

Features

Will Falling Gas Prices Be Good for Business?

The downward trend in fuel prices has delighted consumers, but businesses have mixed thoughts when assessing the long-term impact.

In 2008, as gas prices hit $4 per gallon, the blame game heated up as well, with Congress berating oil-company CEOs for profiteering during an economic slowdown, and the execs sniping at Congress for restricting drilling and refining at home, contributing to a dependence on oil-rich but often-unfriendly foreign governments.

Caught in the middle of that exchange were average Americans, who — already buffeted by an economic crash that bled jobs and drained retirement portfolios — increasingly found themselves diverting money from other household needs in order to fill up the gas tank.

At the same time, businesses of all kinds were forced to make tough decisions, from retail stores pondering whether to pass hefty shipping surcharges to customers, to construction firms seeing profits shrink as the cost of fuel and supplies far outstripped what they had anticipated during the bid process.

Now that gas prices have reversed course and plummeted, even dipping below $2 for regular at many stations in Massachusetts, one would expect those trends to be reversed, giving businesses some reprieve from six years of sky-high rates.

Not so fast.

“What I’ve found funny is that a lot of our paper suppliers — paper companies and different media outlets that make deliveries here — put on a gas surcharge,” said Steve Lang, president of Curry Printing in West Springfield. “But it never seems to come off. When we’re dealing with UPS, they’ll add their little surcharge in there for high gas prices, but it doesn’t come off when the prices come down.”

In fact, some analysts say the plunge in global oil prices will eventually affect small businesses in negative ways. Expected cutbacks and layoffs in the oil industry could be felt in related industries, such as the housing market in areas where petroleum companies operate, as well as restaurants and retailers that rely on oil-industry workers as their customers, Rohit Arora, CEO and co-founder of Biz2Credit, wrote in Inc.

“Lower oil and gasoline prices have many, many benefits for consumers and will likely help vitalize auto-industry sales and the spending of newly found disposable income,” he noted. “This is good news for small-business owners, of course. However, prices that are too low could eventually have serious negative implications longer-term.”

In short, while consumers are pleased with more money in their pockets, the impact on businesses of all kinds remains mixed, and uncertain.

Food for Thought

Retail businesses are anticipating that more disposable income will trickle down as increased sales. But so far, that hasn’t happened at Big Y, said Claire D’Amour, the chain’s vice president for corporate communications.

“Right now, it’s hard to tell, I think,” she told BusinessWest. “Low gas prices means there’s more disposable income, more cash in people’s wallets, but whether that’s translated into opportunities for higher sales, well, we haven’t seen anything specifically pointing to that this year.”

In reality, she noted, “after 2007, people changed their shopping patterns; they became more thrifty. With more money in their wallets now, will we see that change? We did have robust sales for the holiday season, which we’re happy about. But is that a reflection of gas prices? It’s hard to be sure.”

In fact, consumers aren’t seeing lower prices at food stores, for reasons that extend far beyond the retail sector. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, recent food-production challenges include a cattle herd that’s been much smaller than normal, which affects beef prices, and poor weather in the West that has hindered certain crops. High wheat production, on the other hand, has kept cereal and bread pricing relatively stable.

Still, the U.S. Department of Labor reports that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for all items rose just 0.8% over the past 12 months, the second-lowest rise in the past 50 years, exceeded only by 2008, the year financial markets — and the economy in general — spun into crisis. The 2014 CPI has much to do with energy costs, which fell 10.6% over the year, with gasoline falling 21%.

The drop is due mainly to the highest global oil production since 1989, but industry analysts differ when it comes to how long this period might last.

“Most of us in the industry are surprised that it’s fallen as hard and fast as it has,” Ryan Lance, CEO of ConocoPhillips, said at a meeting of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I don’t know that I have a real good answer to that question, other than it doesn’t feel like the fundamentals would support that kind of fall.”

Instead, Lance predicts oil prices will rebound faster than anticipated, as they did in 2009, on the heels of the Great Recession. “People were worried about the global economy, and prices went to $30, $40 a barrel, and just a matter of months later, it was back to $100 a barrel,” he said. “And that’s the kind of volatility we’re in.”

After a strong holiday season, Big Y executives are unsure how gas prices will affect consumer behavior heading into 2015.

On the other hand, Larry Zimpleman, chairman and CEO of Principal Financial Group, told the Wall Street Journal that he predicts the era of relatively tight supplies controlled by OPEC, and resulting high energy prices, to be coming to an end.

The reasons why are numerous, including continuing sluggish growth in both emerging and developed economies, reducing the demand for oil; new technologies, such as fracking, making previously shuttered oil fields productive once again, increasing the volume of oil coming onto the market; and continued incremental improvement in alternative sources of energy, like wind and solar. “Thus,” he said, “I think pressure is likely to remain on oil prices for an extended period.”

That’s good news for general contractors, said Craig Sweitzer, president of Craig Sweitzer & Co., a construction firm in Monson with seven employees.

“It’s absolutely huge,” said Sweitzer, who has seven gas-powered vehicles in his fleet. “We’re lucky, because we decided to upgrade and give everyone a truck last year, which we’d never done before. Add in insurance and taxes and fuel, and it was a huge windfall to have gas prices go down. We drive big trucks that consume a lot of fuel; it’s a very big part of our expenses.”

He noted that some contruction-related industries — like road pavers, which use oil in their asphalt products — have clauses built into their contracts that protect against sudden increases in fuel prices, “but we’re the little guys, and people don’t typically do that with us. The airlines, for instance, pre-buy on their contracts, but we’re completely prey to the market.”

Moving On Down

The drop in energy prices is equally welcome at other businesses that use a lot of gas, like commercial movers.

“In our case, there are two parts to our company,” said Rod Sitterly, president of Sitterly Moving & Storage in Springfield. “One would be local household and commercial moving. Gas prices have very little effect there because everything is local; the truck sits there for five hours, then goes two miles to its destination. So, for the local household and local commercial jobs, there’s very little effect. Some moving companies were charging a fuel surcharge for those moves, but we never did.

“The long-distance moves, that’s a totally different story,” he continued. “Obviously, fuel is a bigger segment of the cost. The major movers, the major van lines — we’re with Atlas, for example — for the moment, they have an 8% fuel surcharge that has been as high as 14%, so there has been a significant decline in that.”

He noted that this environment stems from the days when industry rates were regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission, and companies were allowed to tag on fuel surcharges to reflect rising gas prices.

“Since deregulation, you can charge whatever you want, and over time, a lot of charges have gone away — but the fuel surcharge never did,” Sitterly said. “For long-distance moving, obviously it has a big effect. Even people moving themselves to Florida or someplace long-distances often don’t consider how much they’ll pay to get to their new location.”

Big Y, with more than 50 stores across the region, saw its fuel surcharges on produce trucked from California and other distant locales increase by $1 million in just six months in 2008, when oil prices shot up. While those fees are not an issue right now, D’Amour said, the company is not yet benefiting in other ways one might expect now that energy prices have fallen.

“In terms of our utilities, a lot of utility rates get locked in, so they’re not fluctuating,” she said, adding that the chain has also seen little decrease in production costs — say, for canned goods — passed down to retailers. “We’re not seeing reductions, but there’s a huge lag time.”

As for how less-expensive gas might change customer spending habits, she reiterated that Big Y, like other businesses, are still waiting for positive signs.

“There were lots of lessons learned from 2008 in terms of how people buy — whether they might splurge here or there [with extra cash] or pay off another credit card. Right now, it’s hard to tell.”

For others, like Sweitzer, the benefits are clear and immediate — and come with a political upside.

“Now that America is one of the largest oil producers, you feel good buying gas; it’s a win-win economically and culturally,” he told BusinessWest. “Everyone feels it. I’m sure a lot of people had a better Christmas because of the extra money in their pockets.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Community Spotlight: Pittsfield

Community Spotlight Features

Spirit of Innovation Is Taking Hold in Pittsfield

Mayor Dan Bianchi says the new Berkshire Innovation Center will be a boon to local businesses and will draw attention to the western part of the state.

The city of Pittsfield has a new project in the planning stages that Mayor Daniel Bianchi calls “amazing.”

It is the Berkshire Innovation Center, which is so innovative that it qualified for funding from a $1 billion investment the Commonwealth is making in projects that further the life sciences.

“We’ve been working with the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center in Boston on this for the last few years,” Bianchi said, adding that when he heard about the state’s plan to invest in the field, he thought about how Pittsfield could become part of it.

His initial idea was to build an incubator that would draw entrepreneurs from the Boston area to Pittsfield, which is home to many small, applied materials and plastics companies that make products such as sutures and suturing equipment.

But when it became clear that this concept was not feasible, a new plan was formulated that led to a $9.7 million capital grant from the Life Sciences Center to build the Innovation Center in the William Stanley Business Park on the grounds of the former General Electric complex that dominated this city’s business community for decades.

The new, non-profit facility will enable shared research between local companies and educational institutions; early-stage production and commercialization of products; and workforce training at the site.

Bianchi said officials toured Rensselaer Poly-technic Institute and Hudson Valley Community College’s new science centers, which have been very successful, to help them formulate the plan.

Local manufacturing companies, including General Dynamics, SABIC and Crane & Co., as well as regional educational institutions such as the State University of New York’s College of Nanoscience, MassMEDIC, the UMass campuses in Amherst and Lowell, Berkshire Community College, McCann Technical School, and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts have already expressed interest in becoming affiliated with the center.

“We’ve received more than 20 letters of interest,” said Bianchi, adding that the center will give local companies access to training and advanced technology, including a clean room, 3-D prototype printers, and laboratories with reverse engineering capabilities that will allow them to make new products or improve existing ones. “There are some pretty creative companies in this area, but in order to grow they need this type of facility. A company making complex compounds will be able to work with researchers at UMass Lowell as well as at the Nanotechnology Center in Albany.”

The center will also contain incubator space for entrepreneurs. “It will be unique, and people at the Life Sciences Center are really excited about it,” the mayor said, noting that the facility will be sustainable and generate income through tiered memberships, usage and rental fees on equipment, training, and sponsorships from regional companies.

Ground will be broken this winter, and Bianchi said that if meaningful relationships can be created, it will mean “great things for local companies.”

Meanwhile, other forms of economic development are taking place in this former mill city, everything from new investments in the community’s burgeoning downtown, to more steps to bolster an already thriving creative economy,

For this, the latest chapter in its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest talked at length with Mayor Bianchi about what’s next for the largest city in Berkshire County.

Downtown Transformation

Among the many new developments in Pittsfield is a boutique hotel taking shape within a building on 273 North St. that dates back to the 19th century. The 68,000-square foot, $14 million project will include 42 unique rooms, three conference areas, an atrium with a skylight, a bar, a revolving door, and a marquee sign with “Hotel” spelled out in lights over the entrance.

“They’re keeping the old windows as well as the 8-by-8 posts in the building, and no two rooms will be the same,” said Bianchi in a voice brimming with anticipation. “It’s very exciting because Berkshire County needs more hotel space, and it will really jazz up this part of North Street. The Crown Plaza and area bed and breakfasts are booked solid all summer, so the owners of the property believe it will be a great destination.”

The popular Spice Dragon Restaurant, which was located in the building, has closed, but a new eatery, which is yet to be determined, will take its place.

“The hotel is only a couple of blocks from the Barrington Stage Company and is right behind City Hall,” Bianchi said, adding that it will be a boon to business travelers as well as tourists.

Other improvements are also being made to North Street via a streetscape plan, and the city was able to procure money from the state much earlier than it planned to complete it.

“The work began about six years ago and we expected it would take two more funding cycles to finish it,” Bianchi said, noting that the first phase of the project ran from the corner of East Housatonic Street to Columbus Avenue and included new lighting, sidewalks, and plantings.

“But we were able to leverage the massive investment made by Berkshire Medical Center and private investors,” he continued, adding that the hospital’s new day-surgery center, parking garage, and wound clinic, combined with the boutique hotel and renovation of the Frank Howard Building (more about that later) played into the equation and convinced state officials to grant the city $4.5 million to complete the streetscape work along an additional three blocks. “We received the money six months ago and we hope the infrastructure improvements will lead to an increase in private investments.”

To that end, work on The First Street Common downtown will also be completed in the spring. “It’s one of our largest urban parks and dates back to the early 19th century,” Bianchi said. “It’s a two-minute walk from City Hall and is very important. It has a new spray park and a performance center, and Shakespeare and Co. will stage events there this year.”

Market-rate housing is being built in the Frank Howard Building as part of an historic redevelopment plan that will convert the underutilized structure into 14 apartments, with 10,000 square feet of storefront retail space on the ground floor.

In addition, the Anota Building will also be converted into 25 units of housing with commercial space on the first floor.

“The work will begin in the spring, which is wonderful, because we can’t seem to keep enough market-rate housing downtown,” Bianchi said. “Eleven new units were completed in the old Notre Dame Elementary School at the end of 2013 and they were immediately rented. Encouraging people to live downtown is part of our master plan, because there are 6,000 jobs in the downtown area. So, our downtown is being completely transformed.”

A complete analysis of every street in Pittsfield was also recently undertaken by the engineering firm Kimley-Horn Associates Inc. “It will help us take a scientific approach on how to expend our limited resources,” Bianchi told BusinessWest as he spoke about how the condition of each roadway, coupled with information on when utility work will be done, will make it possible for officials to prioritize work and avoid resurfacing roads that will be torn up a year later. “The overall condition of our streets is good, but the study is important because streets are something everyone notices, whether they live here or are just driving through the city.”

Planning for the Future

The city is also building a new, comprehensive high school. “It’s in the design stage and will have a huge vocational element,” Bianchi said, adding that when he first became mayor and began talking to small business owners, he was reminded that years ago high school students in the vocational track spent every other week working at local companies, which helped them advance their skills and benefitted local companies.

“The school has had an internship program, but the limited number of hours students spend at local businesses does not give them much exposure to their trade, and provides very little value to companies,” he noted. “So we’re framing a new educational model that will benefit students and our small businesses. There has to be a rigorous academic component to it, but there are waiting lists in the state for vocational schools.”

The goal, he continued, is to create a system that will prepare students who don’t want to pursue higher education to go directly into the workforce after graduation.

Courses of study will range from plastics and applied materials to early childhood education, and since Berkshire Medical Center is a large area employer, Bianchi surmises that students who enroll in the latter field of study may decide to become a nurse or pediatrician.

“Vocational education shouldn’t be a limitation, and the high school has to encompass a lot more than a new building. It has to offer a new model of education,” he said, adding that a program in horticulture could plant seeds of interest in farming, which is a growing venture that is being embraced by young adults in the Pioneer Valley again. “I think we can offer our young people some wonderful opportunities, which will also help small and medium-size companies to grow.”

In addition, Pittsfield is creating a partnership with Berkshire Community College that will allow students to complete courses and earn college credits while they are still in high school.

The mayor told BusinessWest that Pittsfield offers a wonderful quality of life, and the hope is that the Berkshire Innovation Center, new high school, and growth downtown will help attract people to the city and advance economic growth.

“We are too small not to have every move integrated, so every project has to have an economic development connection, whether it is housing, entertainment, educational or a new hotel. But we can offer young people a wonderful middle class life and a nice home can be purchased here for $175,000,” he said.

And with the spirit of innovation and change taking place in the city, Pittsfield’s hopes are likely to become reality.

Pittsfield at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1891
Population: 44,057 (2013) 
Area: 42.47 square miles 
County: Berkshire 
Residential Tax Rate: $17.15
Commercial Tax Rate: $35.17
Median Household Income: $42,114
Family Household Income: $56,896
Type of government: Mayor; City Council
Largest Employers: BHS Management Services Inc.; Berkshire Medical Center; BMC Hillcrest Campus; Sabic Innovative Plastics

* Latest information available

Success Stories

Commercial Real Estate Sections

Eastworks Sets the Standard for Repositioning of Old Mill Properties

By KEVIN FLANDERS
It never takes guests very long after passing through Eastworks’s front doors to realize the building hosts an unusually eclectic lineup of tenants — even for a mixed-use facility.

Turn right at the first corridor and you’ll discover a Registry of Motor Vehicles branch. A climb up the stairs to the second floor will position you in the midst of a community of artists and photographers. One floor higher, an array of nonprofit organizations has formed a close-knit micro-community dedicated to improving and enriching lives. And spread out along the first floor are businesses ranging in specialty from fitness to hair care.

It wasn’t always this way.

Nestled on the banks of Lower Mill Pond, the 500,000-square-foot Eastworks building, a converted mill, was once known as West Boylston Textile Company and later served as the headquarters building for Stanhome. But times have changed and so, too, have buildings throughout New England that once brought thousands of jobs during the height of mill and factory operation. In a wave of repurposing projects that marked the early 2000s, many of these buildings have found new life as mixed-use facilities.

And in Western Mass., Eastworks has led the way.

Eastworks’ tenants — from residents of fifth floor loft apartments to artists and artisans creating their latest works — understand that the momentum of one individual is far inferior to the power of teamwork. By working together to organize events and promote each other’s businesses and organizations, the Eastworks community has taken the craft of collaboration to the next level.

Kim Carlino, Eastworks’ marketing and outreach coordinator, said solidarity within the building is one of the major reasons for the success of its tenants. Business owners are focused each day on their own ventures, she said, but also on helping those around them do well.

After all, a flourishing business next door often means more customers dropping in.

“We have a lot of active tenants who want to get involved in different events and support each other,” Carlino said. “Whenever we get those kinds of interactions and guests are coming into the building for events, the tenants feel good about what’s going on. It’s important that they all have a sense that they’re a part of something.”

Eastworks owner Will Bundy stands in one of the few undeveloped spaces within Eastworks.

When Eastworks owner Will Bundy bought the property in 1997, he envisioned a dynamic in which tenants, simply by coming to work every day, could benefit from the building’s evolving diversity. And this vision has become reality.

Indeed, the accessibility of shops, restaurants, offices, and open spaces has facilitated a symbiotic environment, with customers for one business or organization frequently shopping elsewhere in the building once their initial plans are complete.

Sometimes this is the result of word of mouth. On other occasions, it’s due to the many events held each week at the building and an increased emphasis Eastworks’ leaders have placed on marketing.

“We’ve been very successful here; the clientele is loyal, and the building has a lot of foot traffic that really helps,” said Erin Killian, a hair stylist at The Lift Salon, one of many first-floor businesses.

A primary reason for the successes at The Lift Salon and other businesses is the bond that has been strengthened between Eastworks and area communities. Carlino, following her hiring in 2014, made significant progress in improving Eastworks’s already solid relationship with Easthampton and surrounding towns. By organizing a unique mix of promotional events and inviting more people into the building, she has allowed tenants to maximize their exposure.

“One of the biggest things we have to offer here is space, and we try to use that space for as many community events as possible,” added Carlino, who also writes a newsletter that helps bring tenants’ accomplishments and services to the forefront. “It’s very powerful to be able to get people to see and feel everything that’s happening. We want to show them what’s going on, not tell them.”

Eastworks recently hosted a well-attended open studio event that featured the work of its artists, in addition to promoting nonprofit organizations and businesses in the building. The staff has also scheduled panel discussions, performances, and a variety of entertainment options that bring tenants and guests together. The weekly Seth Show, for example — featuring comedian Seth Lepore — has quickly escalated in popularity.

“We’ve had some really interesting events happening throughout the building,” said Bundy, who has been impressed by the quantity and quality of recent programs. “The community aspect has really taken off since Kim came on board. When you dedicate space to events, people want to get involved.”

Building Momentum

When a residential or commercial space becomes vacant in the Eastworks building, it doesn’t remain that way for very long.

With more than 100 business and nonprofit tenants currently calling the old mill home, spots in Eastworks’s lineup are in high demand. Even during the stagnating economy of the Great Recession, new tenants were still coming in between 2007-09.

Bundy said the building’s reputation for accommodating a vibrant, inclusive mixed-use community has served it well over the years, especially during economically challenging times. While many similar operations were losing tenants by late 2008, Eastworks operators saw their framework reaffirmed, a community-based model that has proven sustainable.

“During the recession, very few people were looking for spaces, but the people who came didn’t want to be anywhere but here,” Bundy recalled. “That was a huge indicator that we’d established a brand that is viable.”

Carlino added that the consistency of the Eastworks culture has helped attract many tenants, especially those looking to join the ranks of the arts and nonprofit communities. Unlike some mixed-use facilities, where tenants rarely interact and collaborate, Eastworks has become known for fostering a high level of engagement.

“We have a very established presence and reputation. When people come here, they know what to expect,” said Carlino, who likened every tenant to an individual piece of the building that, when put together as a whole system, makes Eastworks an exciting place to live and work.

So what’s it like to make a living at Eastworks? If you were to ask 20 tenants to name their favorite aspect of the experience, you probably wouldn’t get many repeat responses.

At top, major upgrades and renovations have taken place on every floor at Eastworks. Above, hairdressers are busy at the Lift Salon.

For Andre Boulay, who co-owns YoYo Expert with his wife Devon on the second floor, event space is one of the best benefits for his business, enabling him to put on several yo-yo contests and connect face-to-face with customers. As a retailer of high-end and professional yo-yos, it’s important for Boulay to have space for his business and also events that demonstrate the products.

Boulay has also taken advantage of opportunities to schedule events that overlap with those of Eastworks’ artists. On such days, the increased volume of guests positively impacts everyone involved.

“We’ve coordinated and run our contests in conjunction with those events a few times to help bring in some extra people,” said Boulay, whose business moved to Eastworks from its previous Amherst office in 2013. “There are lots of opportunities like that to work collectively, and that is definitely an appealing aspect to the Eastworks model. Being in a building with so many creative professionals means constant inspiration around every corner.”

Meanwhile, thanks to Eastworks, Heather Beck doesn’t have to worry about a long commute to her second job. In fact, the only thing separating her two vocations is a staircase.

When Beck isn’t in the basement making custom jewelry for her clients of Heather Beck Designs, the business owner enjoys a nice change of pace by spending a few days each week bartending at the Hideaway Lounge upstairs.

“It’s a great community of people from all different backgrounds who seem to end up together in this one vast space,” Beck said of Eastworks. “There are many entrepreneurs who are inspiring to me who have space right down the hall from my studio.”

“From the Seth Show,” Beck added, “to dance competitions, yo-yo meet ups, Nerd Nite, local artists’ installations, and showcasing work in the Holiday Pop-up Shop, there’s no shortage of events to attend and feel like you belong.”

As an artist and an entrepreneur, Beck and others agree that Eastworks provides the best of both worlds. From offering feedback or simply friendship, tenants are always supporting each other and pushing their neighbors to keep chasing their dreams.

Many artists at Eastworks also have a passion for sharing and teaching their crafts. In addition to making jewelry, Beck also conducts workshops out of her studio, where she uses the space in a variety of creative ways.

“Having an artist space here is magical,” Beck said. “It has really propelled my business as a jeweler and teacher forward, and I’m always meeting new artists and like-minded people through the connections made here at Eastworks.”

Though Eastworks is known for its team-centered community of tenants and the events that interconnect them, its smaller perks are equally as meaningful for many individuals. Ted Barber, the co-founder of Prosperity Candle, enjoys the ability to bring his dog to work each day — something many members of the Eastworks family are known for, even Bundy, whose four-legged friend often accompanies him from floor to floor.

“I love being in this building,” Barber said. “It has the perfect balance of everything, from full loading dock services to a great restaurant and bar, plus community events every week. And we’re on the south side, so we get spectacular views all year long.”

What’s Next?

Change, it seems, is a relative constant at the former mill, just as the colors of its mountainous vista are always changing by the season. But this time Eastworks’ neighbors are getting in on the changes as well — a collection of buildings that, along with Eastworks, once comprised the thriving Easthampton mill network.

The owners of five surrounding mills recently joined Bundy in a comprehensive renovation project that will increase accessibility and parking for all guests. The back sides of the mills, Bundy said, are in the process of being revamped, in addition to the creation of new parking spaces and paths that will allow for easier travel between buildings.

The project is expected to be finished by the fall of 2016, and, once complete, guests will be able to park and navigate by foot with greater efficiency and safety. Additionally, the project will allow for the nearby bicycle path to be lighted from Ferry Street to Union Street.

“There will be better cohesiveness between all of the mills when this is finished,” explained Bundy, who described the project as helping to give the buildings an enhanced neighborhood feel. “They’ll be far more attractive and easier to access for guests.”

Bundy was impressed by the level of teamwork shown from the mill owners as they progressed through the project. From the selection and hiring of a civil engineer to the grant application process, owners have collaborated to ensure a safer and more convenient experience for their customers.

“We have had a great relationship throughout the project,” Bundy said. “A number of people came together to make this happen.”

The other mills involved in the project are The Paragon, Sulco, Three Kingdoms, Mill180, and The Brickyard.

At Eastworks, meanwhile, plans are also in place to continue improving the building’s interior. There is currently about 20,000 square feet of available space in the building, Bundy said, and the management team intends to use every last inch for a viable purpose. At least some of that space might eventually house future tenants, while the remaining space could be used for additional community events.

“The spaces are very affordable, and our building is run in a thoughtful manner. Management is always on site,” Bundy said.

Regardless of how the space is used, there is no doubt that, once developed, it won’t be vacant for long.

Dakin Humane Society Urges Emergency Plan for Pet Care

SPRINGFIELD — Due to the large storm expected today, Dakin Humane Society urges everyone with pets to have an emergency plan, especially in case power is lost in the home. Dakin recommends the following:

• Water, food, medications, and blankets should be packed in case of evacuation.

• Ensure your dogs and cats are wearing a collar and ID tag at all times.

• All animals should be kept safe during any necessary travel with a leash/collar, carrier, or confinement appropriate for their species.

• If power is lost, make arrangements to stay overnight with your pets with friends, family, or in a pet-friendly hotel.

• Avoid travel today, which is the worst day of the storm, according to forecasts.

Beginning Wednesday after 3 p.m., Dakin Humane Society can provide temporary care for animals affected by extended power outages at its 171 Union St. facility in Springfield. Special rules apply:

• If your animal lives in a cage or aquarium, you must bring your animal’s food, housing, and all appropriate accessories such as heat and light elements.

• You must bring all medications and food that your animal will require.

• You must bring your dog or cat’s veterinary records, including proof of vaccination and spaying/neutering.

• Keep your animal warm during transport.

• No phone call is necessary. Dakin will accept animals into temporary care between 3 and 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 28 and then during regular business hours beginning on Thursday, Jan. 29 (12:30 to 5:30 p.m.).

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies Departments

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

Belisle, Donald W.
1098 Pleasant St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/30/14

Beltrandi, Michael R.
516 Amherst Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/30/14

Bianconi, Kristen A.
593 Nassau Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/17/14

Boisvert, Peter G.
PO Box 106
Becket, MA 01223
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/23/14

Bonyeau, Daniel F.
50 Beckwith Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/24/14

Boucher, Michelle L.
a/k/a Cornelius, Michelle
78 Smyrna St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/30/14

Bouley, Edmund Albert
Bouley, Dorothy Ann
206 Regency Park Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/23/14

Bullock, Theresa M.
127 Aldrich St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/22/14

Cloutier, Kathleen L.
40 Ludlow Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/30/14

Dombek, Richard M.
Boudreau, Janice E.
36 Maplecrest Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/17/14

Dufrane, Joshua M.
45 Homestretch Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/30/14

Goncalves, Jose A.
436-438 Franklin St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/30/14

Goncalves, Manuel J.
143 Pine Cone Lane
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/31/14

Gurley, Ladd G.
30 High St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/29/14

Haqq, Siddeeq R.
77 Westford Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/22/14

Horsfall, Kimberly A.
a/k/a LaVinge, Kimberly A.
32 Blackinton St.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/24/14

Jorgensen, Lorri L.
a/k/a MacDonald, Lorri L.
28 River Road, Apt. 1
Sunderland, MA 01375
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/23/14

Justice, Barbara
31 Tumbleweed Road
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/18/14

Kopeski, Louis C.
6 Emerson Court
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/19/14

LaPointe, Mark W.
87 Prospect St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/17/14

Nicosia, Paul J.
29 Dover St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/23/14

Norman, Marie R.
123 Beaver St.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/23/14

Norwood, Gregory Francis
Norwood, Heather Lee
110 Millers Falls Road
Turners Falls, MA 01376
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/22/14

Owsiak, Tiffany L.
211 Winsor St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/17/14

Owsiak, Donald E.
30 Everett St., 2nd Fl.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/17/14

Pare’, Warren L.
PO Box 486
Chicopee, MA 01021
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/29/14

Parsons, Barbara
31 Tumbleweed Road
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/18/14

Raymond, Eric J.
71 Northampton St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/17/14

Riley, Darren J.
99 Madison St., Apt. #2
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/17/14

Romero, Jose A.
11 Evergreen Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/23/14

Roush, Gregory S.
Roush, Kimberly J.
155 Ramblewood Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/30/14

Shea, James M.
Shea, Tami J.
73 Bither St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/24/14

St. Charles, Edward J.
27 Breckneck Road
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/29/14

St. Gelais, Ann M.
7 Elmville Place
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/30/14

Sullivan, Heidi L.
756A Bemis Road
Warren, MA 01083
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/23/14

Thayer-Reid, Susan
786 Pleasant St.
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 12/19/14

Vogel, Craig V.
Vogel, Maria M.
83 Powder Mill Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 12/31/14

Real Estate Transactions

Departments Real Estate

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

FRANKLIN COUNTY

BERNARDSTON

219 Bald Mountain Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Craig S. White
Seller: Joel M. Cole
Date: 12/12/14

165 Merrifield Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $177,000
Buyer: Joshua McMahon
Seller: UMass Five College Federal Credit Union
Date: 12/15/14

74 West Mountain Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Merton E. Fisher
Seller: Melinda D. Connors
Date: 12/11/14

BUCKLAND

22 Wellington St.
Buckland, MA 01338
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Justin T. Bardwell
Seller: Richard L. Bardwell
Date: 12/15/14

COLRAIN

42 Adamsville Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Judith A. Slowinski
Seller: James F. Underwood
Date: 12/17/14

181 Call Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $124,000
Buyer: Oona Morrow
Seller: Martina Kacurova
Date: 12/18/14

ERVING

71 State Road
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $215,750
Buyer: Jay R. Niedbala
Seller: Erwin P. Steiner
Date: 12/12/14

GREENFIELD

19-21 Alden St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $134,000
Buyer: Samantha J. Brook
Seller: Richard Brook
Date: 12/22/14

230 Barton Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: John J. Demo
Seller: Cindy T. Mason
Date: 12/10/14

643 Bernardston Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Joseph N. Ruggeri
Seller: Richard E. Sigda
Date: 12/19/14

309 Conway St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Valley Farms Properties
Seller: Adam T. Marchacos
Date: 12/12/14

3 Greenway Lane
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Regina A. Henry
Seller: Stanley K. Holmes
Date: 12/16/14

271 Log Plain Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $172,000
Buyer: Mathew J. Lindner
Seller: Craig S. White
Date: 12/12/14

26 Mary Potter Lane
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Emmy Y. Phelps
Seller: Thomas J. Thompson
Date: 12/16/14

81 Meadowood Dr.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $545,000
Buyer: Amy S. Burnside
Seller: Robert L. Cummings
Date: 12/19/14

128 Mountain Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Kenneth A. Shurman
Seller: Marlowe, Linda C., (Estate)
Date: 12/22/14

21 Prospect Ave.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Pamela G. Adams
Seller: Joseph N. Ruggeri
Date: 12/19/14

26 Sunrise Ave.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Christopher J. Ethier
Seller: Peter F. Fein
Date: 12/16/14

MONTAGUE

223 Federal St.
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $184,000
Buyer: Jeffrey Goscenski
Seller: Frederick R. Momaney
Date: 12/09/14

NORTHFIELD

9 Pine Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Meredith A. Brouillette
Seller: Martha E. Stinson
Date: 12/26/14

ORANGE

15 Meadow Lane
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Michael J. Verock
Seller: Nathan P. Burdick
Date: 12/22/14

SHELBURNE

9 Barnard Road
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $184,000
Buyer: Peter A. Buchanan
Seller: DRC RT
Date: 12/17/14

655 Patten Road
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Anne I. Naughton
Seller: Lawrence W. Bruns
Date: 12/24/14

450 South Shelburne Road
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Luke R. Dejnak
Seller: Regina A. Henry
Date: 12/16/14

106 Shelburne Center Road
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $252,500
Buyer: Richard M. Miller
Seller: Diane D. Rapp
Date: 12/17/14

SUNDERLAND

137 Hadley Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $274,900
Buyer: Jens Meinig
Seller: Nancy Bachand
Date: 12/19/14

WARWICK

520 Orange Road
Warwick, MA 01378
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Jamie D. Munson
Seller: Rummell, Joseph G., (Estate)
Date: 12/23/14

WHATELY

Long Plain Road
Whately, MA 01093
Amount: $132,500
Buyer: Walter R. Thayer
Seller: Diana Kelly
Date: 12/18/14

Masterson Road (ES)
Whately, MA 01093
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Fleming Pancione FT
Seller: Louise D. Hannum TR
Date: 12/09/14

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

9 2 If By St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $203,000
Buyer: Michael J. Millett
Seller: Robert Roy
Date: 12/11/14

523 Franklin St. Ext.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Charlene A. Harnish
Seller: Elizabeth Demaio
Date: 12/19/14

41 Hemlock Ridge
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Kevin A. Ritchie
Seller: Dorothy M. Plante
Date: 12/12/14

456 North Westfield St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Francis Detoma
Seller: Circosta, Dorothy, (Estate)
Date: 12/11/14

70 Provin Mountain Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Alfred T. Ingham
Seller: Robert S. Nelsen
Date: 12/23/14

170 River Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Petr Privedenyuk
Seller: Major, Marion T., (Estate)
Date: 12/17/14

29 Senator Ave.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Sage L. Lteif
Seller: Laura L. Sullivan
Date: 12/12/14

22 Simpson Circle
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $150,898
Buyer: FHLM
Seller: Jennifer L. Graveline
Date: 12/22/14

604 South West St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Anton Melnikov
Seller: Sandra L. Messenger
Date: 12/08/14

577 Suffield St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Yelena Baranov
Seller: Charles R. Kronoff
Date: 12/19/14

235 Valley Brook Road
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Lindsey N. Surprenant
Seller: Richard H. Wodell
Date: 12/17/14

Valley Brook Road (rear)
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Lindsey N. Surprenant
Seller: Richard H. Wodell
Date: 12/17/14

BLANDFORD

5 Glasgow Road
Blandford, MA 01008
Buyer: Daniel J. Gelina
Seller: Rebecca L. Lagasse
Date: 12/18/14

16 Russell Stage Road
Blandford, MA 01008
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Berkshire Land Co. LLC
Seller: Donna L. Arnold
Date: 12/19/14

BRIMFIELD

27 7th St.
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $412,500
Buyer: Michael Maysky
Seller: Matthew A. Toth
Date: 12/08/14

27 Sturbridge Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Rusty J. Corriveau
Seller: Adolph S. Jurczyk
Date: 12/12/14

203 Wales Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Lauren Temple
Seller: Susan E. Caldbeck
Date: 12/22/14

CHESTER

96 Middlefield Road
Chester, MA 01011
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Dennis J. Rabtor
Seller: Carl M. Baldasaro
Date: 12/19/14

CHICOPEE

67 7th Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Casandra Kobylanski
Seller: Donna M. Bitzer-Langlois
Date: 12/12/14

57 Arthur St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $251,000
Buyer: Stephanie M. Potter
Seller: David C. Labrie
Date: 12/19/14

68 Boileau Terrace
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $127,000
Buyer: Brian A. Moreau
Seller: Ronald G. Moreau
Date: 12/15/14

430 Broadway St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $154,000
Buyer: Richard P. Mienkowski
Seller: Cecilia G. Znoj
Date: 12/23/14

82 Dillon St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Rufino Rodriguez
Seller: Oscar Velazquez
Date: 12/19/14

7 Dunn St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $215,500
Buyer: Robert M. Stahlberg
Seller: GFY Enterprises LLC
Date: 12/19/14

31 East St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $625,000
Buyer: 91 East Park Inc.
Seller: 18 Piece Chicopee LLC
Date: 12/15/14

39 East St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $625,000
Buyer: 91 East Park Inc.
Seller: 18 Piece Chicopee LLC
Date: 12/15/14

14 Fairmont St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Kyle R. Larose
Seller: Carol L. Edwards
Date: 12/19/14

57 Felix St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $192,000
Buyer: Christina M. McCoy
Seller: Evelyn Robinson
Date: 12/15/14

74 Hampden St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Grzegorz Czartoryski
Seller: Sacadura, Carlos J., (Estate)
Date: 12/24/14

70 Marguerite St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Steven D. Duffy
Seller: Joseph W. Duffy
Date: 12/19/14

882 McKinstry Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $147,355
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Matthew Messer
Date: 12/10/14

88 Moore St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Joseph T. Trombley
Seller: Alfred C. Bobek
Date: 12/19/14

56 Mount Carmel Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $126,000
Buyer: Valley Opportunity Council
Seller: Scott L. Caney
Date: 12/12/14

95 Nash St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $143,000
Buyer: Kathleen Reed
Seller: Lauria C. Demers
Date: 12/23/14

265 New Ludlow Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $3,732,000
Buyer: Mason Manor LLC
Seller: Manor Realty Apts. LLP
Date: 12/08/14

443 New Ludlow Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $279,000
Buyer: Rihab A. Zubaidi
Seller: Albert R. Beaulieu
Date: 12/10/14

59 New Ludlow Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $4,226,000
Buyer: Partridge Hollow Apts. LLC
Seller: PH Realty Apts. LLP
Date: 12/08/14

425 Pendleton Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $132,000
Buyer: Jeremy Durand
Seller: Paul E. Lafleur
Date: 12/23/14

36 State St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Bradley V. Schultzki
Seller: James A. Brough
Date: 12/19/14

29 Sullivan St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: Elizabeth A. Rabtor
Seller: Kathleen M. Gay
Date: 12/15/14

EAST LONGMEADOW

115 Chestnut St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $133,000
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Jeane W. Clay
Date: 12/11/14

116 Colony Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Steve Wenninger
Seller: US Bank
Date: 12/23/14

73 Hanward Hill
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Paul A. Jorczak
Seller: Raymond I. Weiner
Date: 12/08/14

345 Kibbe Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $371,000
Buyer: Brendan A. Greeley
Seller: Barry M. Stephens
Date: 12/16/14

21 Kingman Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $173,000
Buyer: Christian A. Martin
Seller: Daniel A. Mastroianni
Date: 12/15/14

30 Mill Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $182,500
Buyer: Michael Carabetta
Seller: Dawn Q. Zimmerman
Date: 12/12/14

139 Parker St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $127,500
Buyer: Leonard A. Scarnici
Seller: Ruth M. Sulser
Date: 12/12/14

381 Pease Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $262,000
Buyer: Bryan H. Joyce
Seller: Christopher J. Wakefield
Date: 12/12/14

384 Pease Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Larry L. Stone
Seller: Richard W. Westerberg
Date: 12/16/14

231 Prospect St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $305,000
Buyer: Tracee A. Smith
Seller: Bretta Construction LLC
Date: 12/11/14

140 Westwood Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $296,000
Buyer: William P. Kane
Seller: Raymond C. Caputo
Date: 12/19/14

2 Winterberry Lane
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $387,000
Buyer: Douglas R. Bessette
Seller: Winterberry LLC
Date: 12/11/14

GRANVILLE

7 Crest Lane
Granville, MA 01034
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Melissa Yezierski
Seller: Patricia A. Turner
Date: 12/11/14

631 Main Road
Granville, MA 01034
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: R. S. Cook
Seller: Theresa H. Phelon
Date: 12/22/14

HAMPDEN

24 Brookside Dr.
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Ephraim Carron
Seller: Stephen B. Crafts
Date: 12/19/14

9 Deerfield Circle
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Linda T. Roy
Seller: Ottilie Owsijuk
Date: 12/08/14

HOLLAND

7 Hamilton Dr.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $245,500
Buyer: Kim R. Horyn
Seller: Steven T. Anderson
Date: 12/12/14

64 South Cottage Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: James A. Reith
Seller: Leeanna Babineau
Date: 12/18/14

HOLYOKE

6 Appleton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Anderson Industries LLC
Seller: S&N Industries Inc.
Date: 12/12/14

143 Brown Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $146,145
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Anthony Soto
Date: 12/17/14

18-20 Canal St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $441,250
Buyer: American Supplies & Rental
Seller: CK Realty LLP
Date: 12/16/14

90 Carlton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $254,500
Buyer: Nao Sakurai
Seller: Justin J. Carven
Date: 12/19/14

74 County Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Nicholas W. Kane
Seller: William F. Kane
Date: 12/16/14

66 Fairfield Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $305,000
Buyer: Marco Crescentini
Seller: Steven A. Wardlaw
Date: 12/18/14

12 Florence Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Abby W. Ingram
Seller: Brian D. Michaud
Date: 12/16/14

18 Hemlock Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Patrick J. Clayton
Seller: Alan Czerniak
Date: 12/08/14

77-79 Hitchcock St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $155,000
Seller: Kathleen Wresien
Date: 12/18/14

349-351 Main St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Cook & Assocs. Property Investment
Seller: Cedarstone Management LLC
Date: 12/08/14

8 Michelle Lane
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $379,900
Buyer: Fritz Schmidt
Seller: J. N. Duquette & Son Construction
Date: 12/23/14

39 Moss Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $123,000
Buyer: Tyler D. Spath
Seller: Laura R. Christoph
Date: 12/11/14

111 Nonotuck St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $194,000
Buyer: Michelle L. Walsh
Seller: Jeanne Taylor
Date: 12/08/14

22 Old Rock Valley Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $249,900
Buyer: Jessica A. Messier
Seller: Dicarlo, Patricia, (Estate)
Date: 12/23/14

282-284 Suffolk St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $528,000
Buyer: Holyoke Property Management LLC
Seller: Nottingham Place LLC
Date: 12/12/14

LONGMEADOW

247 Crestview Circle
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Sarah E. Goetz
Seller: J&D Realty LLP
Date: 12/15/14

48 Drury Lane
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Andrew C. Matz
Seller: James R. Willett
Date: 12/11/14

108 Homestead Blvd.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Leonard Groeneveld
Seller: Karen A. Lapienski
Date: 12/23/14

99 Knollwood Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $336,000
Buyer: Maximilian J. Bennett
Seller: Barbara M. Whitehouse
Date: 12/19/14

80 Longview Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $284,572
Buyer: Jason L. Boggus
Seller: Barbara A. Young
Date: 12/19/14

1617 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $630,000
Buyer: Mark W. Baker
Seller: Daniel V. Dineen
Date: 12/12/14

196 Meadowlark Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: William Raleigh
Seller: Donoghue, Thomas J., (Estate)
Date: 12/17/14

54 Ridge Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $237,413
Buyer: Tiffany Shapiro
Seller: Paul D. Feen
Date: 12/12/14

96 Tanglewood Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $765,000
Buyer: Arun S. Uthayashankar
Seller: Robert B. Schwerin
Date: 12/12/14

LUDLOW

Dinis St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $129,900
Buyer: Jorge S. Laires
Seller: Whitetail Wreks LLC
Date: 12/22/14

286 Fuller St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Gregory R. Gay
Seller: Robert P. Fido
Date: 12/10/14

35 Karen Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $239,000
Buyer: Eric W. King
Seller: Lauren A. Dansereau
Date: 12/26/14

135 Lockland Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Judie M. Garceau
Seller: Vincent A. Gabriello
Date: 12/19/14

31 Maple St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $137,000
Buyer: Eric A. Pescetta
Seller: Eric W. King
Date: 12/24/14

36 McKinley Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $139,900
Buyer: Daniel Archambault
Seller: Charlotte A. Clough
Date: 12/08/14

43 Watt Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $154,000
Buyer: Desare Easley
Seller: Robert G. Gordon
Date: 12/12/14

137 West Akard St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $142,000
Buyer: Katimae Strycharz
Seller: Lloyd A. Mills
Date: 12/24/14

236 West St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Michele M. Aguilar
Seller: Jan E. Reynolds-Ziter
Date: 12/10/14

673 West St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Laura L. Poehler
Seller: Bethany A. Ketchale
Date: 12/17/14

55 Yale St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $178,000
Buyer: Brian Chaffee
Seller: Joseph M. Dasilva
Date: 12/09/14

MONSON

32 Green St.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $150,000
Seller: Roberto Botta
Date: 12/15/14

10 Moores Cross Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $326,000
Buyer: Elizabeth A. Clarke
Seller: Tina M. Elgin
Date: 12/08/14

156 Stafford Hollow Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $226,000
Buyer: Michelle Heroux
Seller: David F. Fratini
Date: 12/17/14

187 Wilbraham Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $183,500
Buyer: Matthew J. Guerri
Seller: Polish National Credit Union
Date: 12/23/14

MONTGOMERY

219 Pitcher St.
Montgomery, MA 01085
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Charles S. Wheeler
Seller: Richard J. Champigny
Date: 12/19/14

PALMER

307 Breckenridge St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $147,000
Buyer: Alexander R. Zerwitz
Seller: John W. Lizak RET
Date: 12/19/14

4073-4075 Church St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Donald R. Wood
Seller: Catherine M. Barnes
Date: 12/19/14

41 Ruggles St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $166,000
Buyer: Kaileen A. Russell
Seller: Pamela A. Robak
Date: 12/26/14

46 Strong St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Justin V. Bailey
Seller: Gail L. Conde
Date: 12/12/14

14 Whalen St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $192,000
Buyer: Jeshua G. Charette
Seller: Scott A. Anderson
Date: 12/19/14

21 Whalen St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $182,500
Buyer: Monica L. Turgeon
Seller: Scott Lincourt
Date: 12/19/14

RUSSELL

450 Dickinson Hill Road
Russell, MA 01071
Amount: $197,500
Buyer: Bryan K. Hawley
Seller: Brett A. Stevens
Date: 12/10/14

Dickinson Hill Road
Russell, MA 01071
Amount: $199,000
Buyer: Brenton Keefe
Seller: Frederick J. Wojick
Date: 12/16/14

SOUTHWICK

107 Coes Hill Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $346,000
Buyer: Daniel A. Nicholson
Seller: Karen B. Legace
Date: 12/15/14

241 College Hwy.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Benjamin Hallmark
Seller: Benjamin Hallmark
Date: 12/09/14

143 Feeding Hills Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $134,500
Buyer: Melissa A. Shanahan
Seller: Strong, Kenneth W., (Estate)
Date: 12/12/14

11 Granville Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: John Lynch
Seller: Dori Neuwirth
Date: 12/19/14

64 Honey Pot Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Michael J. Kuzdzal
Seller: Angela D. Delbuono
Date: 12/22/14

73 Klaus Anderson Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Francis A. Mancini
Seller: Michael P. Paulin
Date: 12/08/14

47 Lexington Circle
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: Harry L. Opal
Seller: Raymond W. Zenkert
Date: 12/12/14

292 North Loomis St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Anthony J. Dorsey
Seller: Tessier, Joseph H. Jr., (Estate)
Date: 12/17/14

297 North Loomis St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $229,900
Buyer: Angela D. Delbuono
Seller: Valerie Lane
Date: 12/22/14

132 South Loomis St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $222,500
Buyer: Richard J. Girard
Seller: Paul A. Miles
Date: 12/12/14

144 South Longyard Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $194,900
Buyer: Joseph A. Menzone
Seller: Barbara A. Miffert
Date: 12/23/14

SPRINGFIELD

81 Alexander St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Catfish Properties LLC
Seller: Macfish Properties LLC
Date: 12/12/14

115 Arcadia Blvd.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $152,000
Buyer: Joseph B. Lewis
Seller: Denise M. Dangelantonio
Date: 12/15/14

24-26 Beauregard St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Delissa S. Kraus
Seller: Edwin Torres
Date: 12/23/14

411 Belmont Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Mister Mister LLC
Seller: Hallerin Realty LLP
Date: 12/11/14

906-908 Belmont Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: 906-908 Belmont RT
Seller: John Olszewski

234 Birchland Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $209,000
Buyer: Dion Creative Construction LLC
Seller: Grace A. Lavalley
Date: 12/19/14

50 Bissell St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $130,579
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Maria Rivas
Date: 12/22/14

16 Bliss St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $8,400,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Redevelopment
Seller: C&W Real Estate Co. LLC
Date: 12/12/14

27 Bliss St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $8,400,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Redevelopment
Seller: C&W Real Estate Co. LLC
Date: 12/12/14

53-57 Bliss St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $1,100,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Redevelopment
Seller: 300 State St Realty Co.
Date: 12/12/14

Bliss St. (SS)
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $600,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Redevelopment
Seller: Lyman Taylor Realty Co.
Date: 12/12/14

21 Brentwood St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Ronald Doe
Seller: Kristen M. Smidy
Date: 12/19/14

80 Burns Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $139,900
Buyer: John W. Kiah
Seller: Darlene F. Sandman
Date: 12/18/14

1508-1514 Carew St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $124,425
Buyer: Yuk Chang
Seller: Nationstar Mortgage LLC
Date: 12/22/14

246 Central St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $119,415
Buyer: AHAP LLC
Seller: JJS Capital Investment LLC
Date: 12/24/14

5 Crest St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Nelson Rios
Seller: Angela Cosenzi
Date: 12/17/14

22-24 Crown St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Catfish Properties LLC
Seller: Macfish Properties LLC
Date: 12/12/14

1524-1526 Dwight St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Catfish Properties LLC
Seller: Macfish Properties LLC
Date: 12/12/14

1357 East Columbus Ave.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $600,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Redevelopment
Seller: Lyman Taylor Realty Co.
Date: 12/12/14

94 Eddywood St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $119,900
Buyer: Sarah Bys
Seller: Center Court Apts. LLC
Date: 12/22/14

64 Euclid Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Catfish Properties LLC
Seller: Macfish Properties LLC
Date: 12/12/14

52 Fresno St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $119,000
Buyer: Brittney T. Karowski
Seller: Brian P. Heroux
Date: 12/17/14

109 Gardens Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Ernestina C. Bess
Seller: Colleen E. Palmer
Date: 12/12/14

271 Gifford St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $148,500
Buyer: Abrah N. Orth
Seller: Maureen K. McNeely
Date: 12/22/14

106 Gillette Circle
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Brianna H. Stellato
Seller: Mary T. Petrone
Date: 12/22/14

187 Hampshire St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Catfish Properties LLC
Seller: Macfish Properties LLC
Date: 12/12/14

21-23 Harlan St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $116,500
Buyer: Nancy Santiago
Seller: Patricia A. Fairbanks
Date: 12/08/14

131 Hastings St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $119,900
Buyer: Robert Wanzo
Seller: Sergey Savonin
Date: 12/22/14

24 Helberg Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $157,500
Buyer: James P. Habel
Seller: Curtis K. Andrews
Date: 12/12/14

34 Herman St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Janet R. Topey
Seller: Ly T. San
Date: 12/17/14

Howard St. (NS)
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $4,450,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Redevelopment
Seller: Lyman Taylor Realty Co.
Date: 12/12/14

Howard St (NS)
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $1,000,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Red LLC
Seller: Marvin Gardens of Conn. LLC
Date: 12/22/14

26 Howard St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $4,450,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Redevelopment
Seller: Lyman Taylor Realty Co.
Date: 12/12/14

48 Howard St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $1,100,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Redevelopment
Seller: 300 State St Realty Co.
Date: 12/12/14

10 Ingraham Terrace
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Hampden Bank
Seller: Alan James LLC
Date: 12/12/14

12 Ingraham Terrace
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Hampden Bank
Seller: Alan James LLC
Date: 12/12/14

29 Joanne Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $119,000
Buyer: Brandon A. Lapointe
Seller: Sherry O’Neill
Date: 12/09/14

17 Keddy St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Steven R. Dudeck
Seller: William Lambros
Date: 12/19/14

72 Kensington Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Catfish Properties LLC
Seller: Macfish Properties LLC
Date: 12/12/14

25-27 Kopernick St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $166,000
Buyer: Anthony C. Fowler
Seller: Henry A. Lizon
Date: 12/09/14

260 Lake Dr.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $161,000
Buyer: Ronald Krupke
Seller: Virgilio Rios
Date: 12/10/14

88 Lorimer St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $124,000
Buyer: Justin C. Tracy
Seller: Deborah M. Tracy
Date: 12/10/14

29 Louis Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Irene Kaminaris
Seller: Church In Acres
Date: 12/17/14

19 Macomber Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Karen Laughlin
Seller: Terrence M. Leahy
Date: 12/09/14

83 Magnolia Terrace
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Mark R. Blackmon
Seller: Stephen H. Cosenke
Date: 12/22/14

1008 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Amount: $2,135,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Red LLC
Seller: David R. Dudley
Date: 12/23/14

1090-1104 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Amount: $700,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Red LLC
Seller: Main & Howard Realty LLC
Date: 12/23/14

1106-1114 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Redevelopment
Seller: C&W Equities LLC
Date: 12/12/14

1156-1178 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Amount: $1,100,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Redevelopment
Seller: M&I Frost Realty LLC
Date: 12/12/14

1200 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Amount: $8,400,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Redevelopment
Seller: C&W Real Estate Co. LLC
Date: 12/12/14

67-69 Massachusetts Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $128,000
Buyer: Joshua A. Reid
Seller: Akinlabi Olawuni
Date: 12/16/14

52 Mattoon St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Chart Organization LLC
Seller: Susan N. Rice
Date: 12/08/14

370 Nottingham St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $161,349
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Carlos M. Seixas
Date: 12/23/14

62-64 Olmsted Dr.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Hyacinth C. Henry
Seller: JJS Capital Investment LLC
Date: 12/19/14

76-78 Olmsted Dr.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $269,000
Buyer: Kevin K. Darjee
Seller: Brian J. Cunnane
Date: 12/09/14

1070 Parker St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $169,900
Buyer: Brian G. Howard
Seller: Kathleen Beane
Date: 12/23/14

153 Plainfield St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $559,000
Buyer: TMRE LLC
Seller: RAM Construction LLC
Date: 12/17/14

1291 Plumtree Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $131,875
Buyer: Christopher T. Phelps
Seller: Kathleen A. Hydal
Date: 12/15/14

45 Pocantico Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $147,500
Buyer: Patrick M. McGinity
Seller: Wells Fargo Bank NA
Date: 12/16/14

408 Roosevelt Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Muna Tiwari
Seller: William J. Lodi
Date: 12/12/14

198 Saffron Circle
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $156,500
Buyer: Luis A. Lopez
Seller: Jennifer L. Cianflone
Date: 12/18/14

106 Saint James Circle
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Jennie Rivera-Gonzalez
Seller: Phillip A. Lees
Date: 12/23/14

1271 Saint James Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Freddy Correa
Seller: Jabir Jebir
Date: 12/11/14

128 Shawmut St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $116,000
Buyer: Andrew Famiglietti
Seller: Mary M. Wright
Date: 12/19/14

Spring St.
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Britalian LLC
Seller: Abdou Mourad
Date: 12/08/14

95 State St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Amount: $8,400,000
Buyer: Blue Tarp Redevelopment
Seller: C&W Real Estate Co. LLC
Date: 12/12/14

1079 Sumner Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $122,000
Buyer: Marta Subira
Seller: Daniel J. Murray
Date: 12/12/14

167 Sunrise Terrace
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $157,500
Buyer: Jose M. Sanchez
Seller: Mario A. Campora
Date: 12/23/14

53 Talmadge Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $129,000
Buyer: Damrais Morales
Seller: James W. Fiore
Date: 12/09/14

23 Treetop Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $140,071
Buyer: Bank New York
Seller: Beverly Gomes
Date: 12/10/14

3 Ventura St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: 855 Liberty Springfield LLC
Seller: Corey Fisher
Date: 12/12/14

50-52 Vermont St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Catfish Properties LLC
Seller: Macfish Properties LLC
Date: 12/12/14

288 West Allen Ridge Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $121,000
Buyer: Arlene F. Howe
Seller: Paula J. Hodecker
Date: 12/11/14

77 Wilmont St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Catfish Properties LLC
Seller: Macfish Properties LLC
Date: 12/12/14

65 Wilshire Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Steven R. Gaynor
Seller: FHLM
Date: 12/16/14

800 Worcester St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $209,769
Buyer: Super Worcester LLC
Seller: Beam Worcester Street LLC
Date: 12/11/14

1391-1393 Worcester St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $179,900
Buyer: Trevor W. Gordon
Seller: Grace Dias
Date: 12/16/14

557 Worthington St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Britalian LLC
Seller: Abdou Mourad
Date: 12/08/14

TOLLAND

16 Chipmunk Xing
Tolland, MA 01034
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Gregory T. Ullen
Seller: Stephen P. Thomas
Date: 12/19/14

WESTFIELD

28 Butternut Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $232,000
Buyer: Justin A. Tietze
Seller: Martin P. Bannish
Date: 12/12/14

1 Crown St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $173,000
Buyer: Kyle T. Smith
Seller: Kathleen T. Miller
Date: 12/12/14

178 Llewellyn Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Paul A. Miles
Seller: Cynthia J. Geiger
Date: 12/12/14

253 Granville Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $167,600
Buyer: Janet Ruiz
Seller: Clifford J. Edgerton
Date: 12/10/14

6 Highland Ave.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: James M. Moriarty
Seller: Patricia A. O’Brien
Date: 12/12/14

135 Hillside Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Elena Pascal
Seller: Daniel G. Kotowski
Date: 12/09/14

52 Janelle Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Jason Polan
Seller: Fernando J. Carreira
Date: 12/23/14

23 Meadowbrook Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Karl Baush
Seller: Deane, Truxton, (Estate)
Date: 12/09/14

257 Montgomery Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $323,500
Buyer: Paul E. Cesan
Seller: Bent Tree Development LLC
Date: 12/18/14

N/A
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: Joseph J. Maslar
Seller: Donna J. Forte
Date: 12/24/14

76 Orange St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $219,000
Buyer: East Mountain Inc.
Seller: William F. Barry
Date: 12/22/14

Sackett Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Marc J. Denoncourt
Seller: Gordon T. Smith
Date: 12/09/14

100 Squawfield Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: James E. Davenport
Seller: Laurene B. Bertera
Date: 12/23/14

WEST SPRINGFIELD

70 Garden St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $203,000
Buyer: Christopher A. Yager
Seller: Louis W. Champiney
Date: 12/22/14

34 Harwich Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $220,000
Seller: Hugh B. Mickel
Date: 12/22/14

39 Irving St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $176,000
Buyer: Denis Rahubenco
Seller: Matthew B. Gray
Date: 12/24/14

24 Kelly Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $181,500
Buyer: Thomas L. Sudnick
Seller: Patricia M. Marotte
Date: 12/09/14

134 Main St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Gulnara Lachinova
Seller: James W. Fiore
Date: 12/19/14

1059-1071 Memorial Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Shreeji Shayona LLC
Seller: Brian C. Slayton
Date: 12/12/14

45 Merrick St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Maytham A. Almashhadi
Seller: KOT Realty Co. LLC
Date: 12/12/14

133 Morton St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Betsy Arseneau
Seller: Carol L. Young
Date: 12/08/14

103 Ohio Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: Lizbeth T. Doubleday
Seller: Peter J. Bushnell
Date: 12/08/14

67 South Blvd.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Maria Rivera
Seller: Vitaly Dzhenzherukha
Date: 12/24/14

WILBRAHAM

15 Bellows Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $417,500
Buyer: William J. Aguilar
Seller: Thomas E. Leoni
Date: 12/12/14

12 Glenn Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Jeanne D. Kubik
Date: 12/22/14

3 Longfellow Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $222,000
Buyer: Melanie A. Secundino
Seller: Carol A. Ball
Date: 12/18/14

33 Longview Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $246,500
Buyer: Aniello Denardo
Seller: Peter N. Hassiotis
Date: 12/18/14

499 Ridge Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Elizabeth J. Pecoy
Seller: Joel K. Pecoy
Date: 12/19/14

Soule Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $249,900
Buyer: Mary T. Petrone
Seller: Richard C. Teed
Date: 12/17/14

75 Springfield St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $152,000
Buyer: Joseph A. Pellegrino
Seller: Nancy S. Williamson
Date: 12/26/14

740 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $159,000
Buyer: Richard T. Martins
Seller: Norman F. Rauscher
Date: 12/17/14

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

31 Blossom Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $440,000
Buyer: Marie A. Hess
Seller: Barbara G. Rollinson
Date: 12/11/14

49 Glendale Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Martha Toro
Seller: Elizabeth B. Musto
Date: 12/08/14

758 North Pleasant St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $460,000
Buyer: HGMS LLC
Seller: HAZ 2 LLC
Date: 12/19/14

1057 North Pleasant St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $336,000
Buyer: North East Awad Group LLC
Seller: 1057 N. Pleasant St. RT
Date: 12/12/14

149 Pomeroy Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Adriana Powell
Seller: May L. Chen
Date: 12/10/14

261 Potwine Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $465,000
Buyer: Eric J. Gonzales
Seller: Robert A. Levitt
Date: 12/12/14

BELCHERTOWN

20 Green Ave.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Michael J. Bishop
Seller: Wanda L. Cote
Date: 12/23/14

20 Hemlock Hollow
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $217,348
Buyer: Nataliya B. Versace
Seller: USA HUD
Date: 12/12/14

107 Howard St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $192,000
Buyer: Lynn M. Arthur
Seller: Bryan D. Adamski
Date: 12/18/14

45 Jabish St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $127,000
Buyer: Allen F. Wentworth
Seller: Oberly, Clare M., (Estate)
Date: 12/22/14

44 Maple St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Max W. Bock
Seller: Ellen L. Lord
Date: 12/19/14

56 Pine St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Sarah F. Zelechoski
Seller: Betty P. Lamery
Date: 12/19/14

136 Railroad St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Steven R. George
Seller: Melva L. Toutant
Date: 12/23/14

S Gulf Road #6
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Heidi A. Dollard
Seller: Robert Mileski
Date: 12/15/14

356 Springfield Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $328,000
Buyer: Grace Lavalley
Seller: Dion Creative Construction Inc.
Date: 12/19/14

EASTHAMPTON

45 Kingsberry Way
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $305,000
Buyer: Katie A. Morin
Seller: Crown Meadow Corp.
Date: 12/19/14

12-14 Knipfer Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Kevin P. Larkin
Seller: Kevin C. Netto
Date: 12/11/14

53 Mount Tom Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Richard T. Schlosser
Seller: Donald Carr TR
Date: 12/08/14

1 Park Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Sandra M. Costello
Seller: Robert A. Canon
Date: 12/18/14

10 River Valley Way
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $278,334
Buyer: Nathan A. Costa
Seller: EH Homeownership LLC
Date: 12/23/14

95 Union St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Cheryl S. Campbell
Seller: Judy D. Peloquin
Date: 12/16/14

43 Westview Terrace
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $289,500
Buyer: Sarah A. Liles
Seller: Henry R. Geryk
Date: 12/12/14

GRANBY

266 Batchelor St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $270,100
Buyer: Julie R. Jackson
Seller: Lafleur & Son Inc.
Date: 12/08/14

122 Carver St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $132,000
Buyer: Alexandr Nejelski
Seller: US Bank
Date: 12/22/14

HADLEY

82 Bay Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $259,000
Buyer: Fikriye King
Seller: William Korzec
Date: 12/10/14

15 Frost Lane
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $395,000
Buyer: Walter C. Schaeffler
Seller: Lois A. Hartman
Date: 12/19/14

11 Indian Pipe Dr.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $583,000
Buyer: Guoping Zhang
Seller: Bercume Construction LLC
Date: 12/23/14

4 Indian Pipe Dr.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $690,000
Buyer: 4 Indian Pipe Drive TR
Seller: Bercume Construction LLC
Date: 12/17/14

HATFIELD

6 Church Ave.
Hatfield, MA 01088
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Andrew J. Black
Seller: Daniel J. Barch
Date: 12/22/14

40 King St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Scott R. Yarosh
Seller: Dorothy J. Yagodzinski
Date: 12/22/14

HUNTINGTON

11 Kennedy Dr.
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $299,900
Buyer: Kathleen F. Harmon
Seller: Rosemary S. Caputo
Date: 12/17/14

NORTHAMPTON

Bridge Road
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $222,500
Buyer: Harold R. Fitzgerald
Seller: Garrett Fitzgerald
Date: 12/15/14

13 Finn St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $324,000
Buyer: Tyler E. Boudreau
Seller: Kathryn M. Reagan-Talbot
Date: 12/23/14

41 Locust St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $700,000
Buyer: 41 Locust Street LLC
Seller: Omasta LT
Date: 12/16/14

65 Nonotuck St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Mary E. Asher
Seller: Christopher J. Tarvit
Date: 12/10/14

157 North Main St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: John D. Dahl
Seller: Helen Driscoll
Date: 12/23/14

33 Northern Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $319,000
Buyer: Sumanth Prabhaker
Seller: Anne E. White
Date: 12/12/14

22 Phillips Place
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $405,000
Buyer: Michael P. Stoddard
Seller: Edward J. Canzano
Date: 12/19/14

222 River Road
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $3,200,000
Buyer: Leeds Landlord MA LLC
Seller: Overlook Health Center
Date: 12/23/14

24 Summer St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Kevin Brigham
Seller: Brigham FT
Date: 12/19/14

6 Wright Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $328,000
Buyer: Mathieu J. Tebo
Seller: John W. Kowalski
Date: 12/12/14

PELHAM

54 Arnold Road
Pelham, MA 01002
Amount: $193,800
Buyer: Mary S. Booth
Seller: David L. Parrish
Date: 12/16/14

57 South Valley Road
Pelham, MA 01002
Amount: $172,500
Buyer: Carol M. Johnson RET
Seller: Zachary B. Rubinstein
Date: 12/12/14

SOUTH HADLEY

50 Bardwell St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Thomas A. Douglas
Seller: Marc A. Bisson
Date: 12/12/14

329 Hadley St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $467,000
Buyer: Andrew K. Carey
Seller: Scott R. Keen
Date: 12/12/14

7 Landers St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $257,000
Buyer: Amy S. Hermans
Seller: Brian S. McClaflin
Date: 12/17/14

1 Lexington Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Elizabeth M. Goulet
Seller: Sandra M. Costello
Date: 12/18/14
36 Lincoln Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $164,500
Buyer: Christine Kane
Seller: Rose M. Zdybel
Date: 12/26/14

36 Noel St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $219,000
Buyer: Margaret E. Perri
Seller: Christopher D. Fontaine
Date: 12/12/14

2 Normandy Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $123,000
Buyer: Sylke M. Avalo
Seller: Marijcke Lamers-Tilman
Date: 12/26/14

41 Old County Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Jared Carver
Seller: Richard M. Bradley
Date: 12/16/14

416 Pearl St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $385,500
Buyer: Liza G. Smith
Seller: Letellier FT
Date: 12/17/14

7 Ralph Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Kristina F. Nadeau
Seller: Wayne E. Gilbert
Date: 12/19/14

33 Upper River Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Anthony J. Scibelli
Seller: Steven D. Vautrain
Date: 12/23/14

SOUTHAMPTON

18 Camp Jahn Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: William F. Garrand
Seller: Matthew P. Giguere
Date: 12/15/14

9 Glendale Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Meghan L. Labonte
Seller: Charles D. Graves
Date: 12/08/14

6 Nicholas Lane
Southampton, MA 01085
Amount: $440,640
Buyer: Alan B. Czerniak
Seller: James F. Boyle
Date: 12/15/14

Old Harvest Road #12
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $129,900
Buyer: RCT T LLC
Seller: Triple 7 LLC
Date: 12/19/14

Old Harvest Road #7
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Theodore H. Blais
Seller: Triple 7 LLC
Date: 12/24/14

105 Pomeroy Meadow Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $242,500
Buyer: Sara Lamontagne
Seller: Kevin P. Larkin
Date: 12/11/14

37 Strong Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $475,919
Buyer: Heather A. Vigue
Seller: Thomas M. Bacis
Date: 12/15/14

WARE

58 Cummings Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $116,000
Buyer: Dustin Sanderski TR
Seller: Dennis J. Dennis
Date: 12/19/14

122 North St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Todd Russo
Seller: Todd A. Maki
Date: 12/15/14

124 North St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Todd Russo
Seller: Todd A. Maki
Date: 12/15/14

WESTHAMPTON

101 Montague Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Silvio J. Baruzzi
Seller: Barbara Debold
Date: 12/19/14

WORTHINGTON

116 Huntington Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Frances S. Crossman
Date: 12/23/14

People on the Move

Departments People on the Move

William Crawford IV, CEO of United Financial Bancorp Inc. and United Bank of Glastonbury, Conn., announced that United Bank has recruited the following bankers from People’s United Bank to cover the Greater Springfield region:
• Dan Flynn, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Wholesale Banking. Flynn will report to David Paulson, executive vice president and head of Wholesale Banking. His primary role will be to drive numerous enterprise-wide commercial-banking functions for United’s wholesale-banking team. He will have oversight of United’s Greater Springfield commercial banking operations, as well as management responsibilities for the bank’s shared-national-credit business and all business-banking teams. Most recently, Flynn was senior vice president and market manager at People’s United Bank, primarily for Western Mass., for seven years, where he was responsible for managing and coordinating all aspects of C&I lending activities. In his previous roles at People’s United, he held similar responsibilities for managing and coordinating all aspects of a significant C&I portfolio in the Central Mass., Western Mass., and Vermont markets. Before People’s United acquired Bank of Western Massachusetts, Flynn was executive vice president and senior lender from 1989 to 2009 for the Bank of Western Massachusetts.
• Tony Liberopoulos, Senior Vice President and Commercial Banking Regional Executive. Liberopoulos, who will be directly responsible for United Bank’s commercial-banking practice in Greater Springfield, brings 27 years of commercial-banking experience, most recently holding the position of senior vice president and regional manager for People’s United Bank in Springfield. He also spent more than a decade at Fleet Bank and BayBank in various positions, including underwriting, loan resolution, and lending.
• Rick Rabideau, Senior Vice President and Commercial Banking Team Leader. Rabideau also comes to United from People’s United Bank, where he most recently served as senior vice president and team leader. He will take on a dual responsibility with United as a commercial banking officer, focusing on developing and growing commercial-banking opportunities as well as a player-coach role in leading and mentoring other teammates on the commercial team. Rabideau’s career in banking started in 1986 with Shawmut Bank, where he was a commercial banker from 1988 to 1996. He then joined First International Bank/UPS Capital, eventually ascending to senior vice president with the key responsibility of managing 10 lenders who made up the Springfield and Hartford market lending units. In 2008, he joined People’s United Bank.
• Sheryl McQuade, Senior Vice President and Massachusetts Senior Credit Officer. McQuade has more than 25 years of corporate and commercial banking experience, most recently serving as senior vice president, commercial regional leader for Berkshire Bank, where she was responsible for all commercial teams and production in Connecticut. She worked for Bank of America and predecessor banks in a variety of senior production and credit roles for the business-banking, middle-market, and corporate-banking divisions.
•••••

Nancy Buffone

The Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce announced the election of Nancy Buffone, Executive Director of External Relations and University Events for UMass Amherst, as President of the organization. Buffone assumes leadership of the chamber following the two-year term of Lawrence Archey of Hampshire College. Julie Marcus, principal of New England Environmental, has been elected Vice President of the chamber. The chamber also announced the election of six community leaders to join the chamber’s board of directors:
• Robin Brown, Lord Jeffery Inn;
• Sean Cleary, Amherst Copy and Design Works;
• Heidi Flanders, Integrity Development;
• Katelyn Lockhart, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County;
• April Williams, J.F. Conlon and Associates; and
• Peter Vickery, Esq., attorney at law.
The chamber also acknowledged those stepping off the board after years of dedicated service to the organization:
• Kathryn Grandonico-Chiavaroli, Lincoln Real Estate;
• John Kokoski, Mapleline Farm;
• Reza Rahmani, Moti Restaurant; and
• Meredith Schmidt, UMass Campus Center.
•••••

Christopher Neronha

Christopher Neronha, an attorney with extensive experience in higher education, has been named General Counsel at Springfield College. Neronha will provide legal counsel and guidance to the leadership of the college and will serve as secretary to its board of trustees. He will be a member of the president’s senior leadership team. Neronha has 19 years of experience as an in-house corporate attorney, nine of those as a senior in-house attorney for Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I., where he previously was employed since 2006, as the associate general counsel and executive director of risk management. Prior to Roger Williams, Neronha was assistant general counsel and assistant secretary at National Life Insurance Co. in Montpelier, Vt., where he provided legal support for all company operations. He is an attorney licensed in the federal and state courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Vermont. A graduate of Providence College with a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in political science, Neronha received a juris doctor, magna cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame Law School.
•••••
FieldEddy Insurance Inc., which recently became a division of HUB International New England, LLC, a leading global insurance broker, has announced several appointments:

Olga Tracy

• Olga Tracy has rejoined the agency as the newest Personal-lines Account Manager in the Monson office. She will be responsible for educating and ensuring that clients have the proper insurance coverage;

Marylou “Lou” Rosner

• In the East Longmeadow office, Karen Britt has accepted a promotion to Middle-market Account Manager, Heather Fleury has been named Small-business Account Manager, and Peggy Grundstrom will be a part of the quality-control team.
The agency also recognized Marylou “Lou” Rosner upon her retirement. She leaves FieldEddy with more than 29 years of devoted customer care.
•••••
Main Street Hospitality Group announced a new addition to its management team, appointing sommelier Dan Thomas to the position of Wine and Bar Director. Main Street Hospitality Group is a hospitality-management company based out of Stockbridge. The group owns and manages the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, where Thomas has held the role of sommelier since 2007. Over his seven years at the inn, Thomas has expanded the wine list to include more than 400 selections and 50 half-bottle selections, with a focus on international artisan producers and local and regional wines. The Red Lion Inn was awarded the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for the 16th consecutive year in 2014. Thomas possesses an extensive knowledge of oenology and has completed the first level of the Court of Master Sommeliers.

Company Notebook

Company Notebook Departments

Doctors Express Forges Partnership with Large Practice Group
WORCESTER — Doctors Express, the largest independent urgent-care provider in the Commonwealth, announced a partnership with one of the largest independent cooperative physician groups, the Central Massachusetts Independent Physicians Assoc. (CMIPA). This first-of-its-kind partnership will offer more resources for patients, better communication between providers and patients, as well as continuity of care. Doctors Express operates under parent company Medvest, LLC, which serves as the master developer of the urgent-care franchise throughout Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. In particular, this will be an opportunity for patients in Worcester to find accessible and affordable care. Doctors Express and CMIPA plan to launch their first site in Worcester (115 Stafford St., late spring) and another Worcester location (address and date to be announced shortly). This announcement comes on the heels of a successful partnership between Doctors Express and the Steward Health Care System, based in the Greater Boston area. Through the partnership, urgent care provided by Doctors Express is now available to all Steward patients. As Doctors Express continues to grow with more locations, affiliations between urgent-care providers and major medical systems is the way of the future, said Jim Brennan and Rick Crews, CEO and president, respectively, of Medvest, LLC. “Our partnership with CMIPA continues the objective at Medvest to redefine how patient care is delivered,” said Brennan. “We are partnered with Steward Health Care System, the largest fully integrated community care organization and community hospital network in Eastern Massachusetts, and now CMIPA, one of the largest physician cooperative groups in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.” Existing urgent-care locations have not completely satisfied the need for affordable and accessible care, said Gail Sillman, CEO of CMIPA. “We thought about setting up our own urgent-care center while evaluating our options. We even hired a consultant and became familiar with all the urgent-care providers nationally and locally.” With the help of a consultant, Sillman identified Doctors Express as the most viable option. “Together we saw the benefits of a true partnership where other urgent-care providers did not,” she said. “Doctors Express will honor our patient relationships and extend patient care on nights and weekends for a true, mutually beneficial partnership. Furthermore, Doctors Express has the name brand and market recognition that we were looking for, largely due to the quality of their patient care.” Doctors Express currently has Massachusetts locations in Braintree, Burlington, Dedham, Malden, Marlboro, Natick, North Andover, Saugus, Springfield, Waltham, Watertown, and West Springfield, with several new locations in development. In addition to the two Worcester locations to be opened this year, the company plans to open a location in New Bedford later this month. The Marlboro location is the most recent addition to the Massachusetts-based operations of Doctors Express, having opened on Dec. 5 under the leadership of Managing Director Bing Yeo.

UMass Amherst, Amazon.com Create Virtual Bookstore
AMHERST — UMass Amherst has contracted with Amazon.com to replace its traditional on-campus textbook store with a virtual bookstore expected to save students about 30% compared with current prices on course materials and provide free, one-day shipping to the campus and nearby communities. This will be Amazon’s first online university store in the Northeast and its third nationwide, with potential annual savings of $380 per student. “We know students struggle with the high cost of textbooks and other course materials, and they have been moving to online purchasing. We are delighted to help them get the most competitive prices and first-rate service,” said James Sheehan, UMass Amherst’s vice chancellor of administration and finance. “By seamlessly linking our online campus information system to Amazon, we will make it convenient as well as economical for students to get the items they need for their classes, delivered in one day with no shipping charge to campus and nearby addresses.” Beginning in May, students will be able to order new, used, rental, and digital textbooks and other course materials through Amazon or through personalized links in SPIRE, the university’s online student-information system. To make finding UMass textbooks easier for students, Amazon will integrate relevant course and section information on customized Amazon product pages. In June, Amazon will also open a staffed customer pick-up and drop-off location in the Lincoln Campus Center. For several years, students have been turning from traditional textbook stores to online sources to save money. The university’s five-year contract with Amazon will accelerate the online-purchasing trend and save UMass Amherst students money, particularly through free shipping either to campus or to addresses in Amherst, Hadley, Northampton, Pelham, South Deerfield, and Sunderland. UMass Amherst officials said Amazon was chosen from six companies that submitted proposals because of its low prices and its ability to deliver superior customer service. Based on a sample of more than 1,500 course materials used in UMass Amherst classes during the 2014 spring semester, Amazon estimates it can offer UMass students a savings of 31% versus current bookstore prices, or around $1.4 million based on sales of textbooks at the existing UMass Bookstore. The College Board estimates that a student at a four-year state university spends $1,225 per year on textbooks and supplies, but that number varies across courses of study. Based on this rough estimate, UMass Amherst students could save about $380 annually.

Atlantic Fasteners Moves to Larger Facility
AGAWAM — Atlantic Fasteners has moved to a 44,500-square-foot facility in Agawam, bringing all employees under one roof. The 100%-employee-owned company, which sells industrial and aerospace fasteners and supplies nationwide, previously operated out of three locations in neighboring West Springfield. The new facility has the capacity to hold four times the company’s current inventory and accommodate 25% more office employees. It includes a 22-foot pickup counter, complete with 17 technical fastener wall charts to help customers with measuring fasteners, identifying head styles, and other important information. The ISO 9001:2008 and AS9120-certified firm was founded by Western Mass. businessman Patrick O’Toole in 1981. He sold the company to his employees in 2005.

WSU Online Programs Lauded by U.S. News
WESTFIELD — Westfield State University led Massachusetts’ state universities and placed in the top 30% out of 214 schools in U.S. News & World Report’s 2015 “Best Online Education Programs” rankings. Westfield State’s official ranking was 58 out of 214 in the category of online-education bachelor’s programs. “We are committed to finding new ways to expand access to a high-quality college education,” said Elizabeth Preston, president of Westfield State University. “Offering online access to our academic programming allows us to support the needs of students who might not otherwise be able to take advantage of the educational opportunities we offer.” Westfield State has offered online classes since 2002 and currently offers six online bachelor’s-degree-completion programs, in business management, criminal justice, liberal studies, history, sociology, and psychology. Evolving the program has been key to its success and expansion. Last year, Westfield State signed the MassTransfer Plus agreement that allows students who have completed an online associate’s degree at Holyoke Community College (HCC) to transfer to the university’s online bachelor’s-degree program, making it possible for them to complete a four-year degree fully online. The MassTransfer Plus agreement builds on the growing number of fully online degree programs available at HCC and Westfield State, as well as the institutions’ determination to make it easier for Massachusetts residents to obtain an education and move into higher-paying, in-demand career fields.

VertitechIT Launches New, Interactive Website
HOLYOKE — With sales at an all-time high, a modern headquarters, and a new, national business alliance focused on IT network infrastructure and unified communications, VertitechIT is celebrating with the launch of its new, interactive website, www.vertitechit.com. The site uses humorous, black-and-white photography and poignant headlines to draw in visitors, poking light fun at what can be a very staid and highly technical profession. “IT industry websites tend to be rather formulaic,” said VertitechIT Principal Partner Greg Pellerin. “It was important for our new site to reflect our corporate culture, one that promotes fun and creativity along with cutting-edge technical expertise.” The privately held company, which caters to the business and healthcare industries, just concluded its most successful year ever and recently moved into its new national headquarters in a converted 19th-century paper mill in Holyoke. VertitechIT also recently announced the formation of a national IT-solutions coalition with Microsoft platform provider Software Logic and unified communications expert Partner Consulting. The new Stability Alliance (www.stabilityalliance.com) is focused on building IT network infrastructures that allow businesses and healthcare systems to increase capacity, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.

SC Recognized for Community Engagement
SPRINGFIELD — Springfield College has been recognized by the Carnegie Foundation as one of a select group of colleges and universities throughout the country to earn its community-engagement classification. This classification recognizes Springfield College for its curriculum, which involves students and faculty addressing community needs, as well as outreach and partnerships that benefit the external community and the campus community. “This classification is highly respected and valued by the higher-education community,” said Springfield College Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Jean Wyld. “The essence of a Springfield College education is preparing students for careers and personal lives that improve the lives of other people, and this classification attests to that mission.” Springfield College is one of 361 institutions that now hold the community-engagement classification. This honor represents a higher-education institution’s excellent alignment among mission, culture, leadership, resources, and practices that support dynamic and noteworthy community engagement.

Springfield JCC Receives Grant for Wellness Project
SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield JCC Kehillah Special Needs Department’s Fitness Buddies Program is the recipient of a $10,000 grant from Ronald McDonald House Charities of Connecticut & Western Mass. for a wellness project that will significantly improve quality of life for young people with special needs. Recognizing the need in the Greater Springfield area for a fitness center with adapted equipment for teens with special needs, the JCC established a Fitness Buddies program with seed money from the Doug Flutie Foundation in 2013. As the popularity of the program increased, additional specialized equipment was needed to accommodate individuals with Down syndrome, Williams syndrome, and autism-spectrum disorders. Ronald McDonald House Charities stepped in to underwrite the cost of two Expresso S3Y youth bikes, which are safer than a conventional treadmill or elliptical machine. This type of bike is also being used in a pilot program with Harvard School of Public Health. Adding modified equipment puts special-needs individuals on a par with their friends and gives them access to aerobic and fitness equipment that otherwise would be excluded from their workout. “Innovations such as these accessible bikes for teens and young adults with special needs opens up yet another opportunity for profound self-development — in this case, exercising in a typical fitness center,” said Stocky Clark, executive director of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Connecticut & Western Mass. “RMHC is honored to partner with the JCC to bring this innovation to individuals with a range of special needs participating in the Kehillah Special Needs Department of the JCC.” Increased social interaction between the special-needs community and general members helps create healthy relationships and empowers individuals with special needs. Best Buddies matches teens and young adults who have social challenges with teens and adults in the community. Together, they work out at the Springfield JCC, and participants make new friends while learning healthy habits. Research shows that exercise yields a range of physical and mental-health benefits for children. The Springfield JCC serves the Greater Springfield and Northern Conn. communities, offering hundreds of programs for all ages with a strong commitment to individuals with special needs.

WMECo to Rebrand as Eversource Energy
SPRINGFIELD — Western Massachusetts Electric Co. (WMECo) announced it will undergo a corporate rebranding, complete with a new name, Eversource Energy. The change will become official on Feb. 2. All subsidiaries of Hartford-based Northeast Utilities will take the new name, including WMECo, NSTAR, Connecticut Light and Power Co., Public Service Co. of New Hampshire, and Yankee Gas Services Co. Tom May, chairman, president, and CEO of Northeast Utilities, stated in a press release that “consolidating our brand was the obvious next step for us as we continually strive to improve energy delivery and customer service to our 3.6 million electricity and natural-gas customers across the region.”

Real Pickles Wins Good Food Award
GREENFIELD — Dan Rosenberg and Addie Rose Holland of Greenfield-based Real Pickles joined top artisan food producers from around the country on Thursday for the Good Food Awards ceremony at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Real Pickles was awarded a top honor at the event for its organic beet kvass, a fermented beverage traditional to Eastern Europe. “One of our goals at Real Pickles has always been to promote the flavor and health benefits of fermented foods,” said Rosenberg. “Receiving a national honor like the Good Food Award helps us get this message out.” Real Pickles uses the traditional pickling process — without vinegar — to make its line of fermented vegetables. The organic beet kvass is made with certified organic vegetables from northeast family farms, as are all of the company’s products. The kvass is available by the bottle from area retailers, including Green Fields Co-op Market in Greenfield, River Valley Co-op Market in Northampton, and Whole Foods Market in Hadley. The Good Food Awards are given to artisan producers in five regions of the U.S. in 11 categories — beer, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, confections, honey, oil, pickles, preserves, and spirits — and highlight outstanding American food producers who are making food that is exceptionally delicious and supports sustainability and social good.

MassMutual to Continue Sponsorship of Hampden County Legal Clinic
SPRINGFIELD — The Hampden County Bar Assoc. announced that MassMutual will be continuing its sponsorship of the Hampden County Legal Clinic for 2015 with a grant of $20,000. The grant will help carry on the expansion of pro bono activities as well as the promotion of the clinic. MassMutual has been the Hampden County Legal Clinic’s exclusive sponsor since 2012, not only providing financial support but also taking a leadership role in developing new pro bono opportunities and encouraging its in-house lawyers, paralegals, and staff to participate in the clinic’s programs. “Sponsoring the Hampden County Legal Clinic enhances access to justice for a significant number of local residents, ultimately benefiting the Greater Springfield community as well,” said Mark Roellig, executive vice president and general counsel. “We are proud to continue this relationship and hope to see growing numbers of legal volunteers donating their time through the clinic’s programs.”

Chamber Corners: Upcoming Events

Chamber Corners Departments

AFFILIATED CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE OF GREATER SPRINGFIELD
www.myonlinechamber.com
(413) 787-1555

• Jan. 28: January 2015 Lunch & Learn, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Springfield College (Dodge Room in Flynn Campus Union), 263 Alden St., Springfield. The event topic is “Question 4: Mandated Sick Leave … Now What?” presented by Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C. Core concepts discussed include who is eligible and who isn’t, what it means for your workforce, and the subtle nuances of the law. Sponsored by Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C. Tickets are $25 for members, $35 general admission. For more information, contact Sarah Mazzaferro at (413) 755-1313.

• Feb. 4: Business@Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at Crestview Country Club, 281 Shoemaker Lane, Agawam. Featuring: “You’re a Piece of Work! Celebrate Joy, Passion, and Influence,” presented by Dr. Steve Sobel, humorist and motivational speaker. Saluting: FIT Solutions — 10th anniversary; GZA GeoEnvironmental — 50th anniversary; and Shriners Hospitals for Children — 90th nnniversary. Sponsored by United Personnel. Reservations are $20 for members (in advance, $25 members at the door), $30 general admission. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com.

• Feb. 12-March 26: Leadership Institute 2015, to be staged Thursdays, 1-4:30 p.m., between Feb. 12 and March 26. The opening session will be held at Sheraton Springfield, One Monarch Place, Springfield, and all remaining sessions will be held at TD Bank Conference Center, 1441 Main St., Springfield. In partnership with Western New England University, this seven-week program is designed to teach mid- and upper-level managers the crucial thinking and problem solving skills needed to enable them to be effective leaders in service to the community and in their workplaces and designed to develop high energy and high involvement leadership. Sponsored by MassMutual with scholarship support from the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation. For information, contact Kara Cavanaugh at [email protected].

AMHERST AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.amherstarea.com
(413) 253-0700

• Jan. 29: Chamber After 5, 5-8 p.m., at artALIVE, 35 South Pleasant St., Amherst. Ever try a Wine & Paint night? Here’s your chance to do so. Don’t know how to paint? Who cares, neither do we. We’re all on the same level, folks — that’s why we will have an instructor. Admission is $20, and the price includes wine and two and a half hours with a personal instructor.

GREATER CHICOPEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.chicopeechamber.org
(413) 594-2101

• Jan. 28: January Business After Hours, 5-7 p.m., at H & R Block, 1475 Memorial Dr., Chicopee. Tickets are $10 for members, $15 for non-members.

• Feb. 11: CEO Luncheon, 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. Hosted by Collegian Court Restaurant, 89 Park St., Chicopee. Tickets are $25 members, $30 for non-members.

• Feb. 18: February Salute Breakfast & Annual Meeting, 7:15-9 a.m., at the MassMutual Learning & Conference Center, Chicopee. Tickets are $23 for members, $29 for non-members.

GREATER EASTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.easthamptonchamber.org
(413) 527-9414

• Feb. 9: Getting Down to Business about Business, 8-9 a.m., on the second Monday of each month. Mayor Karen Cadieux will be hosted by one of Easthampton’s businesses for casual question-and-answer sessions.

• Feb. 14: Second annual Easthampton WinterFest, starting at 11 a.m. The Nashawannuck Pond Steering Committee and Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce invite you to the second annual Easthampton WinterFest. This community-wide event features family-friendly winter activities held throughout the day, featuring an historical ice harvest on Nashawannuck Pond, horse-drawn wagon rides, snowshoeing, snow sculpture, a chili cook-off, a community bonfire, and much more. There will also be winter-themed indoor activities for all ages. Most events are free or by donation. A lineup of the day’s events will be posted on www.nashawannuckpond.org.

GREATER HOLYOKE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.holycham.com
(413) 534-3376

• Jan. 30: Legislative Coffee Hour, 7:45-9 a.m., at the Summit View Banquet House, 500 Northampton St., Holyoke. Speakers will be state Sen. Donald Humason and state Rep. Aaron Vega. Tickets are $25 for members with reservations, $35 for non-members and at the door. Price includes a continental breakfast.

• Feb. 3: “How to Start and Maintain Your Business: Staff – Hiring and Firing,” 5:30-7:30 p.m., at the chamber conference room. This program, the latest in a series, will provide all you need to know about employee handbooks, insurance, performance evaluation, job descriptions, sexual harassment, sensitivity training, and human resources. Tickets are $20. Series sponsors: PeoplesBank, Common Capital, Mass Cultural Council/the Artery in partnership with the Holyoke Creative Arts. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 or sign up online at holyokechamber.com.

• Feb. 18: Chamber After Hours, 5-7 p.m. Business networking event includes complimentary appetizers, 50/50 raffle, and door prizes. Sponsored and hosted by Gary Rome Hyundai, 1000 Main St., Holyoke. Tickets are $10 for members, $15 for the public. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 or sign up online at holyokechamber.com.

• Feb. 24: “How to Start and Maintain Your Business: Marketing Your Business,” 5:30-7:30 p.m., at the chamber conference room, 177 High St. This program, the latest in a series, will provide all you need to know about designing a logo, branding your business, advertising opportunities, social media, and developing a website. Tickets are $20. Series sponsors: PeoplesBank, Common Capital, Mass Cultural Council/the Artery in partnership with Holyoke Creative Arts. Call the Holyoke chamber at (413) 534-3376 to sign up or online at holyokechamber.com.

GREATER NORTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.explorenorthampton.com
(413) 584-1900

• Jan. 27: New Member Orientation at Northampton Chamber of Commerce, noon to 1 p.m. This is the chance to tell us more about your business and how the chamber can best serve you, meet other new members, and learn how to make to the most of your chamber membership. RSVP to (413) 584-1900 or [email protected]. Cost: free.

• Feb. 6: Google Docs for Nonprofits Workshop, 9-11 a.m., at the chamber office, 99 Pleasant St., Northampton. Presented by Pioneer Training. The class is an introduction to Google Docs and Google Drive, the online storage location for Google Docs. Since this software is available at no cost, many non-profit organizations are using it extensively for collaboration purposes and to supplement or even replace Microsoft Office. In this two-hour workshop, you’ll learn how to set up a local Google Drive folder, which automatically synchronizes with Google Drive on the Web. You’ll learn to create new documents in the Google Docs format, as well as how to work with Word documents in Google Docs and how to convert Word documents to the Google Docs format. The class will focus on basic v and editing techniques in Google Docs, but will also cover best practices for using Google Docs. Since it is a collaboration tool that lets you share documents in real time with other users, you’ll need to be mindful of issues related to safeguarding confidential data. You’ll learn the difference between viewing and editing, and how to set permission levels for collaborators. You’ll also learn simple tips that will help you avoid accidentally overwriting data or accidentally publishing confidential data. Cost is $20 for members, $30 for non-members. Pre-registration is required; space is limited. To register: visit [email protected].

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.westfieldbiz.org
(413) 568-1618

• Feb. 2: Mayor’s Coffee Hour with Westfield Mayor Dan Knapik, 8-9 a.m., at McDonald’s, 182 North Elm St., Westfield. This event is free and open to the public. Call Pam at the chamber at (413) 568-1618 to register.

• Feb. 11: February After 5 Connection, 5-7 p.m., at Betts Piping Supply Co., 14 Coleman Ave., Westfield. For more information, contact the chamber at (413) 568-1618.

PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S CHAMBER
www.professionalwomenschamber.com
(413) 755-1310

• Feb. 10: Ladies Night, 5-7 p.m., at It’s All About Me!, 2 Somers Road, Hampden. Enjoy complimentary wine and refreshments.  Reservations are complimentary but required. Contact Gwen Burke at (413) 237-8840 or [email protected]. The Professional Women’s Chamber is an affiliate of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield.

WEST OF THE RIVER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
www.ourwrc.com
413) 426-3880

• Feb. 4: Wicked Wednesday, 5:30-7:30 p.m., at Flowers By Webster 82 Elm St., West Springfield. Wicked Wednesdays are monthly social events hosted by various businesses and restaurants. These events bring members and non-members together to network in a laid-back atmosphere. Free for chamber members, $10 for non-members. Event is open to the public; you must pay at the door if you’re a non-member. For more information, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or e-mail [email protected].

• Feb. 19: Networking Lunch, noon to 1:30 p.m., at Lattitude, 1338 Memorial Ave., West Springfield. One must be a member or guest of a member to attend. Enjoy a sit-down lunch while networking with fellow chamber members. Each attendee will get a chance to offer a brief sales pitch. The only cost to attend is the cost of your lunch. Attendees will order off the menu and pay separately the day of the event. Please note that we cannot invoice you for these events.  For more information, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or e-mail [email protected].

• Feb. 25: Legislative Breakfast, 7-9 a.m., at Storrowton Tavern, 1305 Memorial Ave., West Springfield. The breakfast will feature a panel of various leaders, including state Sen. James Welch, state Sen. Donald Humason, Agawam Mayor Richard Cohen, and West Springfield Mayor Edward Sullivan. Tickets are $25 for members, $30 for non-members. For more information on ticket sales, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or e-mail [email protected].

Picture This

Departments Picture This

Send photos with a caption and contact information to: ‘Picture This’ c/o BusinessWest Magazine, 1441 Main Street, Springfield, MA 01103 or to [email protected]

Hoophall Honors

From left, Springfield College President Mary-Beth Cooper, sport management major Emily Vance, Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame President and CEO John Doleva, and sport management major Eric Pouliot take part in the 2015 Hoophall Classic Leadership Award ceremony on Jan. 19 at Blake Arena on the college campus. Both Vance and Pouliot were named the 2015 Hoophall Classic Leadership Award recipients, an honor that recognizes both a male and female junior majoring in sport management who has demonstrated a combination of service to Springfield College and the Hoophall Classic, and who has maintained a successful grade point average.

Agenda

Agenda Departments

ACCGS Lunch ‘n’ Learn
Jan. 28: The November election has passed, and the voters have spoken, approving ballot question #4 approving of mandated sick leave, making Massachusetts only the third state in the nation to guarantee paid sick days for workers. Timothy Murphy, Esq., partner with Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C. and leading expert on the subject for the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield (ACCGS) Legislative Steering Committee, will explore the impact of the law at the ACCGS Lunch ‘n’ Learn from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Dodge Room of the Flynn Campus Union at Springfield College, 263 Alden St., Springfield. Murphy will discuss what the law entails for both large and small businesses, how the law will impact companies already providing sick leave or those that provide personal time off incorporating sick leave, which workers are eligible and which are not, what it means for a company and its workforce, and the subtle nuances of the law. Murphy joined Skoler, Abbott & Presser in 2001 after serving as general counsel to an area labor union. He represents and advises both union and non-union employers in a wide range of labor and employment matters. He regularly represents employers in matters before state and administrative agencies and courts. His work includes assisting employers to remain union-free, defending unfair labor practices, negotiating collective-bargaining agreements, and handling grievance arbitrations. Murphy is on the executive committee of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce and, is the former chair of the ACCGS Legislative Steering Committee, and is the go-to resource for the ACCGS on the issue of mandated sick leave. Reservations for the January Lunch ‘n’ Learn are $25 for members, $35 for general admission. Registration includes lunch and one-on-one discussions with Murphy. Reservations may be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com or by e-mailing Sarah Mazzaferro at [email protected].

ACCGS Breakfast
Feb. 4: Shriners Hospitals for Children will be among the honorees at the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield’s (ACCGS) Business@Breakfast on Wednesday, Feb. 4 from 7:15 to 9 a.m. at Crestview Country Club, 281 Shoemaker Lane, Agawam. Shriners Hospital for Children will be honored for its 90th anniversary. The hospital provides medical care to children with orthopaedic, neuromusculoskeletal, cleft-lip, and palate disorders and diseases. As well, GZA GeoEnvironmental Inc., a professional-services consulting firm focused on geotechnical, environmental, water, ecological, and construction-management services, will be saluted for its 50th anniversary, and FIT Solutions, a leader in IT staffing, will be honored for its 10th anniversary. The breakfast will feature Dr. Steve Sobel, humorist and motivational speaker. Sobel will present “You’re a Piece of Work! Celebrate Joy, Passion, and Influence.” Sobels’s presentation will use humor to illuminate life’s possibilities and provide attendees with the tools needed to help them bring their ‘A’ game to their companies and customers. Sobel, a speaker, educator, success coach, and trainer throughout the U.S. and Canada, blends humor with targeted and inspirational messages to companies, businesses, athletic teams, and professional groups. He is a former award-winning school principal and continues to teach part-time at the college level, including many courses on entrepreneurship and visionary leadership. Reservations are $20 in advance for ACCGS members in advance ($25 at the door) and $30 for general admission. Reservations can be made online at www.myonlinechamber.com.

Chicopee Chamber CEO Luncheon
Feb. 11: The Greater Chicopee Chamber of Commerce will present its first CEO luncheon of 2015 from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Collegian Court Restaurant, 16 Park St., Chicopee. The speaker will be Elizabeth Barajas-Román, CEO of the Women’s Fund of Western Mass. Barajas-Román has been a leader in progressive movements, including advocating at the national level for the health and rights of immigrant women and their families. Most recently, she was a manager at the Pew Charitable Trusts, where she directed a portfolio of partners that campaigned for state and federal policy change to improve government performance on issues that impact children’s health. Barajas-Román brings a background in impactful philanthropy, data-driven strategy design, fund-raising through philanthropic partnerships, creating coalitions, and mobilizing partners. Previously, she served as the director of Policy at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and directed the organization’s Washington, D.C. office. Barajas-Román was frequently invited to be a voice in national-policy discussions at the White House and on Capitol Hill. She is a graduate of Oberlin College and received her master’s degree in international policy from Harvard University. To register for the luncheon, visit ‘Upcoming Events’ on the chamber’s website, www.chicopeechamber.org. The cost is $25 for chamber members and $30 for non-members.

‘Pink in the Rink’
Feb. 21: Noble Hospital is the major sponsor the Springfield Falcons’ “Pink in the Rink” event against the Portland Pirates. This annual event helps to raise funds for and awareness of breast cancer. Falcons players wear special pink jerseys that will be autographed and auctioned off after the event. Visit www.ebay.com/usr/springfieldfalcons to bid on the pink jerseys after the game. In addition to the hockey game, breast-cancer survivors will be honored, there will be giveaways and raffles, and Noble Hospital will provide an information booth. Members of a support group, the Pink WAY, will also attend. Noble Hospital’s Center for Comprehensive Breast Health, under the direction of Dr. Steven Schonholz, provides a wide range of options and services in a single location. Pink bracelets will be available for donations at the Noble table; funds raised will go towards Noble’s breast-cancer awareness programs and to help local patients going through treatments. Area residents can support Noble Hospital by purchasing tickets to the game at give.noblehospital.org/pinkintherink. For more information, contact the hospital’s Community Development Office at [email protected] or (413) 568-2811, ext. 5520.

West of the River Chamber Legislative Breakfast
Feb. 25: The West of the River Chamber of Commerce announced that it will stage its Legislative Breakfast, an event that brings members and non-members together for a morning of breakfast and legislative updates, from 7 to 9 a.m. at the Storrowton Tavern Carriage House in West Springfield. Attendees will have the opportunity to connect with local business people over breakfast, and later will enjoy an informational session presented by a panel of legislators including state Sens. Donald Humason and James Welch, state Rep. Michael Finn, Agawam Mayor Mayor Richard Cohen, and West Springfield Mayor Edward Sullivan. Political consultant Anthony Cignoli will emcee the event and offer economic updates. Sponsors for the event are Health New England, OMG, the Insurance Center of New England, Ormsby Insurance, and Spherion. The cost is $25 for members, $30 for non-members. For more information, call the chamber office at (413) 426-3880.

PAWSCARS Fund-raiser
Feb. 28: Dakin Humane Society will present a fund-raising event at the MassMutual Center in Springfield that will affectionately spoof Hollywood, the Oscars, and red-carpet fashion. Dubbed “The PAWSCARS & Red Carpet Fashion Parade,” the show will be emceed by Ashley Kohl and Seth Stutman, hosts of Mass Appeal on WWLP-22News. Beginning with a VIP Reception at 6 p.m. and a plated dinner at 7 p.m., the evening will also include a red-carpet fashion parade featuring local people of prominence, accompanied by rescue dogs (among them former Dakin dogs, now adopted). Short videos of animals recreating iconic moments in cinematic history, created by members of the public, will also be screened during the evening. “We’re looking forward to presenting a one-of-a-kind event with the PAWSCARS,” said Dakin Executive Director Leslie Harris. “We’re blending fashion, fun, and film with a healthy dose of humor for an unforgettable night. Plus, as our major fund-raising event of the year, it will be a terrific opportunity for our supporters to come together and enjoy themselves while providing much-needed aid for the many animals in our care.” With a targeted audience of 500, The PAWSCARS is Dakin’s most ambitious fund-raising event in its 45-year history. Tickets for the event are available at www.dakinhumane.org for $125 per person (dinner and show) or $50 (show only). Corporate sponsors for the PAWSCARS include Baystate Health, Piepul’s Camera Center, Clinical & Support Options, United Personnel, C.A.R. Data Management and Program Evaluation Services, Hampden Bank, and Robinson Donovan. Visit www.dakinhumane.org for more information about the event.

Difference Makers
March 19: The sixth annual Difference Makers award program, staged by BusinessWest, will be held at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House. Details on the event will be published in upcoming issues of the magazine. Difference Makers is a program, launched in 2009, that recognizes groups and individuals that are, as the name suggests, making a difference in this region. The class of 2015 will be unveiled and profiled in the upcoming Feb. 9 issue. Tickets on sale for $60 each. Table of 10 available. Call (413) 781-8600.

40 Under Forty
June 18: The ninth annual 40 Under Forty award program, staged by BusinessWest, will be held at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House. Details on the event, which honors the region’s most accomplished and civic-minded professionals under age 40, will be published in upcoming issues. Nominations are now open for the class of 2015, and are due by the end of the day (5 p.m.) on Feb. 6. The nomination form can be found at HERE.

Dates with Destiny

Sections Women in Businesss

Lanie Delphin Brings Couples Together with Mass Match

Lanie Delphin

Lanie Delphin met her husband, Bud, through a dating service 16 years ago. And that got her thinking about how lucky they were.

Actually, that’s the wrong word; Delphin doesn’t believe relationships are built on luck — or fate, for that matter — but on solid, common-sense matches. And she decided she wanted to be a matchmaker.

“At the time, we realized there were just no good ways to meet people,” she told BusinessWest. “Internet dating was just taking off. I always believed I’d find someone, but it’s very hard to find people in this culture. People typically don’t want to meet at work, friends typically don’t want to fix you up, many people don’t go to religious institutions anymore. And if you do meet someone randomly, you don’t know if that person is looking for someone — or even single.”

Fascinated by the dating business, she bought a license in 2002 from a national company called Single Search and launched the online dating service Single Search Western Mass.

“We started the business as a way to help people find the success we had found,” she said. “When we started, I had never run a business, so I was grateful for the help I got being a licensee of this company; I wouldn’t have known where to begin.”

But she was less enamored of the computer-matching algorithms that Single Search — which no longer exists — employed. “They had a computer program that matched people; that was the original model. I very quickly learned I didn’t like the matches the computer made. I went over every single match — it was very time-consuming — and most of them didn’t make sense to me. So after that, I decided, if I’m claiming to be a matchmaking service, I need to meet people. I completely changed the model. I changed the name; I changed everything about it.”

A few years after first dipping her toe into the matchmaking business, Delphin was meeting personally with 99% of her clients, and the company — now operating as Mass Match — was attracting hundreds of members and generating success stories.

“It’s interesting — Match.com and some of these other dating sites are, from what I’ve been told, plateauing in terms of business, so now they’re offering some of these boutique services, hiring matchmakers in many cities. They came to understand something I knew from the beginning, which is, how do you match people if you haven’t met them?

“The difference between them and personal dating services like mine is that they charge thousands of dollars,” she went on. “We’ve held true to our mission from the beginning to provide a personal, private, and affordable way to meet. I have not raised my prices in five years. The economy’s been bad, but even so, I don’t want to gouge people.”

Customers pay an annual $295 fee, not a monthly rate, which they appreciate, Delphin said, because it allows them to relax and avoid the temptation to rush into a serious relationship (more on that later).

“Most of the money I make goes back into advertising,” said Delphin, who runs the day-to-day operations of Mass Match herself. “It feels important work for me to do. You may find the love of your life; many have. But you might not. I want to keep the price fair. The business needs large numbers of people, so I don’t want to charge too much money.

“If I could guarantee everyone the love of their life, the value of that would be incalculable,” she added. “But nobody can do that — not even the people charging thousands of dollars. But I want everyone to be able to take a chance.”

Personal Touch

The process of signing up for Mass Match is simple, but it’s not for people who want to meet their next love solely from a PC screen.

“Most people sign up online, and I send them information in the mail and set a time to meet up,” Delphin explained. “The form asks about their age, education, some interests, politics, religion, marital status, kids, and some of the same things about who they’re looking for — what interests them, what’s important to them.

“I tell everyone they shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes online filling this out because, when we meet, we redo it,” she went on. “I get to know them and their story. When we meet, we go over their past, what worked and what didn’t work, what kind of person they’re looking for. I give them a lot of advice I’ve learned over the years that I believe makes for a healthy relationship. A lot of people have told me, even if they didn’t find anybody, the advice I gave them set them off in the right direction, and that was worth the price alone.”

When Delphin makes a match, both parties receive an e-mail with contact information. If neither is interested enough to reach out, that’s fine. But if one party responds, she requires the other to write back, if only to politely decline, because that’s simply a civil way of interacting.

“They don’t have to meet, but they do have to answer politely,” she said. “The Internet is full of rude behavior. Some people think saying nothing is better than saying ‘I’m not interested,’ but I don’t agree with that.”

Clients appreciate the fact that Delphin’s personal involvement screens out much of the outright deception prevalent on dating websites, and they’re often willing to take a chance on someone they might not have considered based on a questionnaire alone. “Sometimes I think outside the box because I think two people are a good match.”

Members range in age from their 20s to their 80s and represent all religions, political persuasions, and sexual orientations, she added. “One thing they all have in common is they are serious about meeting someone, but they don’t want to meet someone at a bar. Some don’t want marriage, but they’re looking for a long-term relationship.”

Once the matches start flowing, she considers herself an on-call relationship coach. “To me, giving personal service is key. I’ve been at an opera, on vacation, at a movie theater, watching TV, and I have answered people.”

The advice begins on that first meeting, when Delphin shares some of her personal philosophy about relationships.

“I tell everyone to slow down and date,” she said, putting an emphasis on that last word. “I’ve met thousands of people in 13 years, and the biggest mistake is rushing it. It takes a lot longer to get out of a relationship than get into one, and often people hunker down and stay with someone for the wrong reasons.”

In fact, she encourages people to give it three to five casual dates before getting serious, and even advises going on dates with other people during that time, believing that if a match has potential, it will survive a cautious approach.

Delphin repeats a mantra of four ‘Cs’ that she believes is the key to any relationship. The first is chemistry. “Nobody has to be reminded of that; it means you look forward to seeing them at the end of the day. They don’t bore you.”

The second is communication, which means being willing to address conflicts that arise. “Obviously, abuse isn’t good, but neither is avoiding conflict completely.”

She doesn’t, however, advise filling up the first dates with too much baggage. “The mistakes include sharing too much personal information; sounding negative, bitter, angry, or sad; or sounding too busy to date. I advise a Buddhist mindset of living in the present tense and getting to know people slowly.”

The third and fourth Cs — character and compatibility — are far more important, she said. “If you both have good character and you’re compatible with each other, all will be well. If not, all will not be well. It can take a long time to see. But if you have a character problem or a compatibility problem, get out.”

Of course, there is one flag to look for right from the first date. “Notice how they treat the waitstaff.”

Be My Valentine

Delphin is understandably proud of the hundreds of relationships — and marriages and children — that have grown from her initial match.

“Widowed couples are finding love the second time around, and people who never had a relationship are finding love. Many people are divorced and finding the right person the second time around. We’ve had so many happy couples, and many people are still looking, like you’d expect.”

Still, she sees Mass Match as a way to not only bring people together, but to encourage their personal growth.

“One of the most gratifying things to me is the educational component — I have a master’s in education, after all,” she told BusinessWest. “Seeing people change their mind about something, or open their mind, is as gratifying as finding the right person. It’s when they figure out it’s not going to be how tall someone is, or how much they weigh, or how rich they are — it’s going to be who they are. It’s never going to be the objective things; age differential isn’t why things don’t work out for people.

“When people figure out it’s the subjective things, who that person is,” she added, “they start thinking outside their own box, that’s an amazing accomplishment.”

Valentine’s Day is coming up, which Delphin obviously sees as an opportunity for Mass Match, yet she encourages people not to put too much stock in the social expectations of one day on the calendar, and to keep their eyes on the long term.

“Those who are single need to remember that, for the first time in history, more than half the adult population is in the same boat they are. And many married folks are not in healthy relationships, so it is best not to romanticize or sentimentalize anyone else’s situation,” she noted. “It would be a big mistake to rush into something just so you can receive candy and flowers, only to pay a huge price for them down the road.”

Instead, she stresses that being single is a valid choice, too, and Valentine’s Day shouldn’t put any extra pressure on.

“I would advise people who just started dating to make light of the whole notion of Valentine’s Day. We tend to couple off too fast anyway, long before we have time to see if the person we are with really makes sense for us,” she reiterated. “If everyone is putting their best foot forward — because, as Cupid knows, positive energy attracts — then by going slowly and meeting and dating different people, we can use our heads and figure out which of their little quirks we learn about down the road are cute, which are merely annoying, and which are downright unacceptable. Over time, we will figure out who makes the most sense for us.”

Knowing that half the adult population is single, however, doesn’t make it easier for people who long for love. And Delphin is ready to sit down with them and talk all about it.

“There are no good ways for anybody to meet, so they’re stuck,” she said. “And they’re tired of Internet dating; they often tell me it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack, trying to figure out who’s real and who isn’t. They tell me they’re done wasting their time.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Western MA Baseball Hall of Fame to Induct Seven on Wednesday

SPRINGFIELD — The Western MA Baseball Hall of Fame committee will induct seven new members at a banquet on Wednesday, Jan. 28 at 6 p.m. at La Quinta Inn & Suites in Springfield, in the 12th-floor ballroom. Red Sox radio broadcaster Joe Castiglione — who called his first-ever game at Mackenzie Stadium in Holyoke — will give the keynote address.

“We’re really proud of this class and feel that their inclusion is a precise representation of what we want this to be,” said Valley Blue Sox President and Hall of Fame committee member Clark Eckhoff. “There’s a tremendous amount of diversity in this class and a wonderful blend of professional, amateur, collegiate, and high school representation.”

The banquet will be presented in a joint effort by La Quinta Hotel & Suites, MassLive/the Republican, and the Valley Blue Sox. Tickets cost $45 or $425 for a table of 10. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Blue Sox front office at (413) 533-1100 or via e-mail at [email protected]. The night will include sports-memorabilia auctions, a cocktail hour at 6 p.m., and a buffet dinner at 7 p.m. Local TV personality Scott Coen will serve as master of ceremonies.

The 2015 inductees were chosen by a committee of local baseball executives, media members, and former players. They are:

• Joe Castiglione has called more than 5,000 regular-season games and 112 post-season games in 33 years for the Red Sox, including four World Series.

• Joseph McCarthy was baseball coach of Holyoke High School from 1981 to 1989, where he posted a 143-46 record during his tenure. His run included four Valley League titles, two co-championships, and a Division I state championship in 1985.

• Art Ditmar was a pitcher who won 72 games during his Major League career, including starts in Games 1 and 5 of the 1960 World Series. He played for two teams during his nine-year career.

• The 1934 Post 21 American Legion Team has a special place in local baseball lore. The team of 15 boys agreed together to withdraw from an eastern sectional tournament in Gastonia, N.C. when they learned that officials would not allow their team’s only African-American player — Ernest “Bunny” Taliaferro — to play. The team’s willingness to forfeit a shot at a national championship to stand by their friend and teammate came 13 years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball.

• Vic Raschi, one of West Springfield’s most significant contributions to baseball history, was a member of the ‘big three’ from the New York Yankees pitching staff from the late 1940s and early 1950s. He won six World Series championships with the Bronx Bombers and was named to the American League All-Star team four times.

• Richard Bedard played for Springfield Technical High School and Amherst College before being drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1971. Later, as a coach, he built American International College into a regional baseball power before taking the reins of the college’s athletic department.

• Stan Ziomek presided over Amherst Junior Baseball for more than 60 years. In 2011, he was elected to the Babe Ruth League Hall of Fame and is a winner of the Ed Hickox Award for meritorious service in youth baseball. He served all his years in the game as a volunteer.

Monson Savings Bank Announces Three Promotions

MONSON — Monson Savings Bank recently announced three promotions. Robert Chateauneuf has been promoted to vice president, commercial loan officer; Corinne Sawyer has been promoted to vice president, business development officer; and Dodie Carpentier has been promoted to human resources officer.

Chateauneuf joined Monson Savings Bank in 2012 as assistant vice president and is a key member of the bank’s commercial-lending team. He possesses indepth knowledge of the Western Mass. small-business marketplace and is a trusted advisor to business customers. He is a member of the 2014 class of BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty, and is a graduate of UMass Amherst.

Sawyer joined Monson Savings Bank in 2001 and was promoted to assistant vice president in 2007. She works with the bank’s business customers to optimize cash flow, financial workflow, and efficiency using the bank’s deposit, cash-management, and eBanking products. She serves on the board of directors of the East of the River Five Town Chamber of Commerce and is a graduate of Elms College.

Carpentier joined Monson Savings Bank in 2006 as assistant branch manager and was promoted to branch manager in 2008. In 2012 she assumed a dual role as branch manager and education coordinator. With her growing interest in training and HR, she obtained certification in Supervision in Banking and Human Resources Management from the Center for Financial Training. She was awarded the position of human resources officer after an extensive search to replace her predecessor, Elaine Grimaldi, who retired last year after a long and successful career in banking and as vice president of Human Resources for Monson Savings. Carpentier is a board member of River East School to Career.

“We are extremely pleased to announce these well-deserved promotions,” said Steve Lowell, president of Monson Savings Bank. “Rob, Corinne, and Dodie are important contributors to our success.”

Court Dockets

Court Dockets Departments

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

CHICOPEE DISTRICT COURT
Stewart Staffing Solutions, LLC v. Spic n Span Cleaning Company, LLC
Allegations: Non-payment of services rendered: $9,846.11
Filed: 12/30/14

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT
Ellen Simes v. Drug Stores II, LLC d/b/a Innovo Specialty Compounding Solutions
Allegations: Breach of contract: $435,000
Filed: 11/26/14

Maurice Christopoher Chin v. Garda CL New England Inc.
Allegations: Negligence, libel, and defamation: $93,000
Filed: 11/24/14

SPEC Process Engineering and Construction Inc. v. Vertrolysis, LLC and Ricar, LLC
Allegations: Breach of contract: $341,467.96
Filed: 12/3/14

VIP Physical Therapy Inc. v. Elco Administrative Services
Allegations: Breach of contract and unfair and deceptive practices: $1,000,000
Filed: 11/24/14

HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT
Christian A. Fitzgerald, personal representative of the estate of Rebecca A. Turner v. Richard Romano, M.D., Jena Marie Comeau, R.N., and Baystate Mary Lane Hospital
Allegations: Medical negligence resulting in pain, suffering, and death: $5,075,000
Filed: 12/30/14

Miranda Design Studio Inc. v. Flat World Knowledge Inc.
Allegations: Failure to pay for services rendered: $46,288
Filed: 12/9/14

NORTHAMPTON DISTRICT COURT
Denise Lussier v. Bob’s Aluminum Supply and Robert Lamy
Allegations: Failure to complete proposed three-season room in accordance with contract: $29,484
Filed: 12/15/14

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT
Liberty Mutual Insurance Company v. SMP Real Estate Investment & Development Company, LLC d/b/a SMP Realty Development, LLC
Allegations: Balance owed for insurance premiums: $7,778.56
Filed: 12/23/14

Ted Ondrick Company, LLC v. GML Construction Inc. and Victor R. O’Brien Jr.
Allegations: Non-payment of construction materials and landscaping services rendered: $20,768.19
Filed: 12/16/14

WESTFIELD DISTRICT COURT
W.W. Grainger Inc. v. Odd Job Doctor Inc.
Allegations: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $9,448.90
Filed: 11/13/14

Building Permits

Building Permits Departments

The following building permits were issued during the month of January 2015.

CHICOPEE

A& C Fernandes, LLC
800 Sheridan St.
$135,000 — Build 80’ x 60’ garage

Falls View Apartments
30 West Main St.
$25,000 — Strip and re-roof

Federal Home Loan
648 Montgomery St.
$4,000 — Install vinyl siding

LUDLOW

BlackDiamond Development
483 Holyoke St.
$240,000 — Interior alterations

Gremio Lusitana Club
385 Winsor St.
$23,000 — Alterations

Mateus
14 Worcester St.
$18,000 — Commercial alterations

Pioneer Sewall
360 Sewall St.
$30,000 — Install siding

Western Mass Area Development
100 State St.
$4,000 — Alterations

NORTHAMPTON

Atwood Drive, LLC
22 Atwood Dr.
$18,000 — Replace 9 antenna panels

CFP Properties, LLC
320 Riverside Dr.
$22,000 —Renovate interior for brewery

Coolidge Park Condos
50 Union St.
$22,000 — Repair stairs

Smith College
69 Paradise Road
$8,600,000 — Construct five two-story dormitories

Stop & Shop Supermarket
228 King St.
$263,000 — Build-out for Moe’s Southwest Grill

Suffolk St. Real Estate Trust, LLC
182 King St.
$50,000 — Replace roof

SOUTH HADLEY

Mt. Holyoke College
50 College St.
$25,000 — Install cell tower

Mt. Holyoke College
50 College St.
$18,000 — Renovations

Western Mass Girls Scouts
274 Amherst Road
$12,500 — Install cell tower

SPRINGFIELD

BC Colonial Estates
One Beacon Circle
$401,000 — Interior renovations of existing 10,000-square-foot community building

FL Roberts Company
275 Albany St.
$4,500 — Interior renovations

Inland Management, LLC
800 Boston Road
$17,000 — Minor remodel of existing Kohl’s beauty area

Pizza Royal
161 Boston Road
$41,000 — Reconstruct storefront

WESTFIELD

Pilgrim Union Realty Trust
16 Union Ave.
$5,500 — Interior renovations

William Sorel
530 Pochassic Road
$40,000 — Replace metal building

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Baystate Fuel Oil
20 Roanoke Ave.
$9,000 — Strip and Re-roof

Fred Aaron
145E Riverdale St.
$3,000 — Minor interior renovations to a retail space

Kent Pecoy
215 Baldwin St.
$50,000 – Install new pitched roof

Plastic Packaging Corporation
1227 Union St.
$60,000 — Renovate two existing bathrooms

Tesla Motors
935 Riverdale St.
$120,000 – Charging station for electrical vehicles

William Keavany
46 Daggett Dr.
$625,000 — Interior renovation for a tenant space

STCC Diversity Council to Host Bonnie St. John

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield Technical Community College Diversity Council will welcome Bonnie St. John to the STCC campus on Wednesday, Feb. 4 at 10 a.m. in the gym in Building 2 (Scibelli Hall).

Despite having her right leg amputated at the age of 5, St. John became the first African-American ever to win Olympic or Paralympic medals in ski racing, taking home a silver and two bronze medals in downhill events at the 1984 Paralympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

St. John is also a bestselling author, a highly sought-after keynote speaker, a television and radio personality, a business owner, and a Fortune 500 leadership consultant. She is the author of six books, and her most recent number-one bestseller, How Great Women Lead, is co-authored with her teenage daughter. The STCC event is free and open to the public.

For Sale, for Lease

Commercial Real Estate Sections

A listing of available commercial properties

Click HERE to download the PDF chart

Briefcase

Briefcase Departments

Applications Sought for 2015 Leadership Institute
SPRINGFIELD — Applications are now being accepted for the 2015 session of Leadership Institute, Rethinking Leadership: Sharpening Skills for Organization and Community Service, sponsored by MassMutual Financial Group with scholarship support from the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation. The Leadership Institute is a unique collaboration between the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield (ACCGS) and Western New England University (WNEU) aimed at teaching mid- and upper-level managers the crucial thinking and problem-solving skills needed to enable them to be effective leaders in service to the community and in their workplaces, and designed to develop high-energy and high-involvement leadership. Since 1982, the program has developed members of the business community for volunteer service to community organizations. Institute alumni represent many accomplished and distinguished leaders in business, education, government, and nonprofit communities, including U.S. Rep. Richard Neal; former state Sen. and Hampden County Clerk of Courts Brian Lees; Henry Thomas, president and CEO of the Urban League of Springfield; and MassMutual Financial Group Vice President Carol Demas and Community Responsibility Consultant Glenn Davis. Directed by WNEU Dean of the College of Business Julie Siciliano and Executive-in-residence Jack Greeley, Leadership 2015 will challenge participants to think in new ways and to analyze their own strengths and organizational challenges within a dynamic economy. Taught by Western New England faculty, participants will focus on problem solving, learning to ask the right questions, and implementing creative solutions for both nonprofit and for-profit organizations. Participants will actively explore best practices of leaders; analyze their own leadership, learning, and problem-solving styles; and experience the synergies that come from high-performing teams. Emphasis will be on experiential activities that identify, develop, and refine skill sets for effective leadership. The Leadership Institute runs for seven consecutive Thursdays from 1 to 4:30 p.m., Feb. 12 through March 26. The Feb. 12 opening session will be held at the Sheraton Springfield, One Monarch Place, Springfield, with the remaining sessions held at the TD Bank Conference Center, 1441 Main St., Springfield. The program culminates in April with the ACCGS Beacon Hill Summit, the chamber’s annual trip to Beacon Hill, and a graduation ceremony and dinner. Tuition is $885 per participant and includes all materials, several learning and personality inventory tools, the summit, and the graduation ceremony and dinner. Not-for-profit organizations interested in participating may apply for scholarship funding provided by the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation. Interested participants must complete an application, obtain a letter from a sponsor supporting the application, and provide a written letter of interest with background. Information and applications are available by contacting Kara Cavanaugh at the ACCGS at (413) 755-1310 or [email protected]. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, Feb. 4.

Rebuilding Together Unveils New Name, Expanded Services
SPRINGFIELD — The Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Assoc. of CDCs recently certified Rebuilding Together as a community-development corporation. In addition, the organization has officially changed its name to Revitalize Community Development Corp., or Revitalize CDC for short. Its focus will continue to be making meaningful improvements to homes that help reduce energy use, save money, and create a safe, healthy, and sustainable living environment for their residents and the community. Revitalize CDC also announced expansion of its services with a Small Business Technical Assistance Program targeting the underserved Latino community in the city. Leslie Belay, senior program manager at Massachusetts Growth Capital Corp., awarded new funding to Revitalize CDC to build out the program.

State Announces $30M Solar Loan Program
BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration announced the final design of a $30 million residential solar loan program to complement the nation-leading solar market in Massachusetts. The Mass Solar Loan program, designed to make it easier for homeowners to finance solar-electric projects on their homes, will work with banks and credit unions to expand borrowing options through lower-interest-rate loans, while encouraging loans for homeowners with lower incomes or lower credit scores. “Solar installations provide important economic and environmental benefits to Massachusetts,” said state Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Maeve Bartlett. “The Mass Solar Loan program will provide opportunities for homeowners to control and reduce their energy costs and for local banks and credit unions to offer a new business product.” The program, which has been in development since early 2014, follows a Department of Energy Resources (DOER) study that demonstrates lifetime net benefits to homeowners 10 times greater for direct solar ownership relative to third-party ownership. Beginning in early 2015, local lenders will be able to sign up to participate in the program, which is scheduled to begin providing loans in the spring of 2015. “Massachusetts has seen incredible growth in the solar market, with installations in 350 of the Commonwealth’s 351 cities and towns,” said DOER Commissioner Meg Lusardi. “The Mass Solar Loan program will ensure that this growth continues at the local level, increasing opportunities for homeowners to take their energy future into their own hands.”

Tongues Untied

Education Sections

Cultures Connect with a Purpose at International Language Institute

Alexis Johnson says she emphasizes using a new langage immediately and not stressing over every detail.

In 1984, Alexis Johnson was a language teacher without a job. But she didn’t lack for vision or passion.

“Thirty years ago, another teacher, Janice Rogers, and I were working for a school that closed, and we said, ‘what are we going to do now?’” Johnson told BusinessWest.

The answer they settled on was a language school, one that would meet the needs of myriad clientele, from local non-English speakers aiming to improve their workplace communication to student visa holders preparing for college stateside, to Americans skilled in other languages seeking training to become teachers overseas.

“We said, ‘let’s go for it,’” Johnson went on. They expanded a language program Johnson had already begun at Hampshire College and opened the International Language Institute in Northampton in August 1984. “We had both taught for a long time. I’m passionate about teaching — but especially good teaching.”

That drive for excellence has helped her lead the International Language Institute (ILI), now located in Northampton, for three decades. She takes pride in comments like the one she heard after a Spanish class at the South Deerfield offices of Dr. Hauschka Skin Care, which wanted its employees to better communicate with the region’s large Hispanic population.

“I started a Spanish class with Dr. Hauschka,” Johnson said, “and a woman told me, ‘I learned more in the first five minutes than I did in high school.’”

That’s no accident, but a direct result of ILI’s teaching style, which ditches rote memorization for an immersion approach where constantly putting language into practice, student to student, trumps getting every word perfect.

“You’re not memorizing things; you’re not talking about stuff that doesn’t interest you,” she said. “We have wonderfully trained teachers getting people to use the language rather than memorizing it. I want people to have fun; I want to hear laughter coming out of the classes. People are coming here after work, they’re tired, the roads are lousy … at the end of class, we want people saying, ‘what time is it? It’s over?’ We want it to go by quickly because they’re having fun.”

Thirty years have gone by quickly at ILI, but Johnson anticipates no slowdown in the need to communicate across cultures.

Worldly Concerns

Perhaps the most well-known of ILI’s programs is its World Language Program, which teaches a number of languages to students with a variety of goals. Some have a son or daughter marrying someone from another country. Others want to boost their communication skills on the job — or their employees’ skills — in an increasingly multi-cultural world, from the Spanish-language learners at Dr. Hauschka Skin Care to a midwifery practice in Framingham that brought in an ILI instructor to teach Portuguese.

“In our World Language Program, we have taught a lot of Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese,” Johnson said. “We’ve also taught Swedish, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Catalan, and Esperanto. People take classes here, and we can also do these on site.”

Again, she stressed the open, interactive nature of the classes, where students are encouraged to seek connection and broad understanding above nailing the details, which invariably come later.

“We’re passionate about this, and we want people to love it and want them to feel confidence,” she explained. “Are you going to make mistakes? Yes. Is that OK? Of course. We want people to use language, do things with language. We want people to travel if that’s what they want, or get better at their job.”

On the flip side is the Intensive English Program, which offers an immersive education for international students, with 21 hours of instruction weekly.

Chris Elliott says many people coming to America to study need a “soft place to land” to acclimate to the language and culture.

“The program has become increasingly academic to meet the needs of aspiring college students — young 20- and 30-somethings who plan to attend American universities, and come here with variying English levels,” said Chris Elliott, the program’s coordinator. “Some are Fulbright scholars with basic English proficiency for college; they just need a soft place to land to acclimate to American culture. Some have English proficiency but don’t know how to write essays. At the other end of the spectrum, some students come in as true beginners. They know this is a long-term plan, and we help them over a year or two to develop their English.”

ILI boasts partnerships with colleges and universities like Bay Path, Elms, Western New England, and Springfield College, added Caroline Gear, the institute’s director. “We help prepare the students so they can transition to life in the university. We are their landing place so they can make a smooth transition and be successful.”

That academic group, with the goal of English proficiency for college, comprises about half the Intensive English Program enrollees, while another 40% or so are career professionals who want to improve their English to advance in their companies, Elliott explained. A third, much smaller group are tourists who want to improve their English for travel.

“What all of these people have in common is, they need to come into a classroom where English is the only language spoken, so they can learn to use it in an effective way.”

Another popular ILI option is the Free Evening English Program, or FEEP, a partially grant-funded initiative that provides free classes for immigrants and refugees. The institute also relies on fund-raising events to support the program (it will be the sole recipient of the silent auction at the Paradise City Arts Festival over Memorial Day weekend), and would like to expand it soon.

ILI also offers a volunteer tutor program that trains English speakers to help students studying English. Other initiatives include private tutorials, workplace training in English and Spanish, and programs in Spanish, French, Italian, and other tongues at area colleges, including Hampshire College and Springfield College. “On other campuses,” Johnson said, “if they don’t have a program, we can help set them up.”

Training the Trainers

The other major component of ILI’s programs is teacher training, specifically the World Learning SIT TESOL Certificate program, which becomes the graduate’s ticket to teaching language, both in the U.S. and internationally.

“The program has people focus on ‘how do I do it, and how can I do it better?’” Johnson said. “It’s a wonderful program. Some people are looking for a new career. Some people got into teaching through the back door and didn’t think they needed training, but realized they did when they came here. It’s an opportunity to reflect and have people observe you, so you can improve.”

Susan Redditt has a doctorate in special education and has been teaching in that field for many years, but began to see a need for more comprehensive language instruction, so she enrolled in the certificate program to broaden her career opportunities.

“As someone who has been teaching a long time, to sit down and think deeply about my teaching … I don’t get that chance often with colleagues,” she told BusinessWest. “I realized, maybe I can do better.”

It helps that Redditt has a passion for helping people communicate across cultures. “Often, language is power. If you don’t have language, then you’re marginalized.”

Johnson, who speaks Spanish, Catalan, and varying degrees of French, Italian, and Esperanto, and has studied Arabic and Chinese — and would like to add other languages to her repertoire — helped initiate several of ILI’s key programs right at the start in 1984, including the Intensive English Program, the World Language Program, and FEEP. Today, the institute boasts 10 full-time employees and between five and 10 part-timers, depending on the month.

“What almost killed us was 9/11,” she said, noting that enrollment in the Intensive English Program, in particular, all but dried up in the months following the terrorist attacks. “People were afraid to come to the United States. A number of language schools closed after that — big ones, too. After that, of course, we were hurting financially. We had debt, and I was using credit cards.”

Thirteen years later, however, “we have no debt. It took a long time. We’re proud of that.”

She also continues to be proud of an interactive, student-to-student approach to language that surprised the Dr. Hauschka employees and continues to impress hundreds of other program enrollees.

“Adults are like kids — we need reinforcement; we need support,” she said. “I’d much rather students learn from each other than from me. When you’re using the language, not seeing it, you train your ear.”

That said, Johnson added, “even though there’s a lot of goofing around here, we take what we do very seriously. We don’t take ourselves seriously, but we take language seriously.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Editorial

Features Opinion

Free Community College: A Worthy Concept

President Obama proposed plans for providing a free community-college education for many students at his State of the Union address last week. The proposal, “America’s College Promise,” which would benefit an estimated 9 million students annually, is still very much in the formative stages, and there are a number of rather sizeable hurdles to be cleared before this concept can advance, let alone become reality, but we believe the proposal should be given full consideration and at least a chance to succeed.

Why? Because, as we’ve said on many occasions, the key to economic growth and prosperity for this region — and one of the keys to closing the huge income gap between the haves and the have-nots in this state and across the country — is education, and free community college for those who qualify is a possible place to start.

Not everyone who attends community college goes on to graduate — in fact, far more than half don’t — or get a good-paying job, and these facts won’t change if such an education suddenly becomes available free of charge. But such a development could have enormous potential to prompt more people to start college and finish it. And since one needs a high-school diploma, or the equivalent, like a GED, to get into a community college, it makes sense that providing that option free would inspire more people to stay in school.

And that’s important in communities like Springfield and Holyoke, where high school drop-out rates are sky high and a major contributor to poverty and a growing skills gap within the workforce.

But let’s back up a minute. Free community college as a national policy is certainly a long shot. The principal problem is funding it. Under the plan the president is proposing, estimated to cost $60 billion over a decade, states would have to pay roughly 25% of the cost.

Well, this state, according to Gov. Charlie Baker, is facing a budget gap of roughly $765 million, and none of the options for closing that gap are particularly attractive. And there are many states in that same boat.

Beyond the fiscal challenges, though, there are some stern logistical challenges as well. Can community colleges like the four in this region handle a surge in their student populations? Perhaps, but not easily and not without expansion of current infrastructure and the hiring of more teachers and administrators, which would greatly increase the program’s price tag.

Also, whenever something is provided free, it tends to lose some of its value. This can’t be allowed to happen in this case, and to ensure that it doesn’t, strict eligibility guidelines must be attached to a free community-college education. In the case of the president’s plan, there are such rules — students must attend at least half-time, maintain a grade point average of at least 2.5, and make “steady progress” toward graduating.

And there are philosophical and political challenges to overcome as well. Indeed, some lawmakers simply don’t believe it is the government’s — and, ultimately the taxpayers’ — responsibility to be providing a free college education. Garnering necessary political support will be difficult.

But as we said earlier, Obama and his administration should fully explore this concept. Many governments around the world subsidize or partially subsidize higher education, and they do so because they view such expenditures as a sound investment in their future.

We should have the same attitude here. It should be clear to everyone by now that, while one could become a member of the middle class decades ago without a college education, or even a high-school education, the odds of doing so now are much slimmer.

And while there are many reasons why individuals don’t enter or finish college, financial wherewithal is easily the biggest.

Providing a free community-college education is a bold, challenge-filled proposition, but it’s a concept that holds great promise and should be pursued.

Doing Business as Certificates

DBA Certificates Departments

The following Business Certificates and Trade Names were issued or renewed during the month of January 2015.

CHICOPEE

Arbour Cuts
1523 Memorial Dr.
Debra Arbour

Diamond Nails
325 Front St.
Van K. Cao

Doogan’s Deli & Pizza
140 Broadway St.
Douglas Girorard

Dream Star Nails
347 Chicopee St.
Hoa Phu

Gary’s Barber Shop
471 Grattan St.
Gary Ruel

Herbarium
258 Exchange St.
Jonathan Evans

Jenco Property Maintenance
5 Newell St.
Mark Jenco

HOLYOKE

Jadhai
254 Maple St.
Oneida Rivera

Majeya’s Avon
254 Maple St.
Ana D. Torres

Merrell
50 Holyoke St.
Hush Puppies Retail Inc.

Riverside Auto & Cycle
85 North Bridge St.
Michael Richardson

LUDLOW

J.B. Meats
141 Center St.
Joseph Batista

Joy’s Restaurant
481 Center St.
Aziz Turan

Ludlow Public Market
46 Birch St.
Isidoro Fernandes

Manuela’s Designs
116 Southwood Dr.
Manuela Docarmo

NORTHAMPTON

A Better Move
141 South Main St.
Terry Blanchard

Ancient Roots Healing Arts
160 Main St.
Sheila Petigny-Perry

Applied Mortgage
211 North St.
Gregory Korn

Asenka Consulting
67 Old South St.
Wendy Aasenkamp

Crimson & Clover Farm
215 Spring St.
Jennifer Smith

Gemini Research
220 Grove St.
Rachel Volberg

Pleasant Street Laundry
185 Pleasant St.
Sun Chong

Ralph’s Blacksmith Shop
36 Smith St.
Arthur Grodd

Strong’s Healthy Smiles Inc.
40 Main St.
Suzanne R. Keller

PALMER

Griswold Glass & Aluminum
1184 Park St.
Jeremy Griswold

Lasting Impressions
1552 North Main St.
Mark Corbett

SPRINGFIELD

Bay Street Bottles
836 Bay St.
Khan H. Nguyen

Baystate Builders
44 Bither St.
Gino Decesare

Beyond Shoes
10 Kendall St.
Vito Resto

Big Daddy Boomerangs
88 Coral Road
Jeffrey LeBeau

Bosslife Inc.
2383 Main St.
Rafael Nazario

CCNE
27 Carver St.
Monica J. Caldwell

Charlotte Julienne
77 Wayne St.
Amy B. Dewar

Concentra Advanced
140 Carando Dr.
Joan O. Lenahan

Fragrant Elegance
13 Lawn St.
Malachi Tresch

J. Horne Photography
143 Main St.
Jesse E. Horne

J.J. Knox Food Market
17 Knox St.
Jabir Khan

Jay Harland Corporation
504 St. James Ave.
Richard M. Black

JPML Holdings Inc.
380 Dickinson St.
Phung M. Le

Knots Indeed
63 Lakevilla Ave.
Rita F. Bartholomew

WESTFIELD

Ace Vapor
227 East Main St.
Ace Vapor

China Star
36 Southwick Road
Westfield China Star Inc.

J.E. Hibert Auto Body
32 Chapel St.
James E. Michael

Pizza Works
18 School St.
Yagmur, Inc.

Raja Mart
286 Southampton Road
Raja Mart

San-Man Graphics
16 Union Ave.
Edgardo Sanchez

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Bertera Chrysler Jeep
539 Riverdale St.
Bertera Motors

Cornerstone Construction
105 Hampden St.
Anatoliy Paliy

Market One
70 Robinson St.
Nicholas Toma

Mortgage Master
371 Park St.
Peter MacDonald

Once Upon a Child
1458 Riverdale St.
Lawrence A. White

Windy Ridge Enterprises
1530 Piper Road
Geraldine E. MacDonald

Opinion

Opinion

Education Reform: More Work to Do

By PAUL REVILLE

When the education reform bill was enacted in the early 1990s, its main goal was to educate all students to high levels. And all meant all. Many reforms and investments were implemented, and the state is now the national leader in student achievement. Still, there are deep, persistent achievement gaps and inequality of opportunity that don’t meet our goal of “all means all.’’ Too many students leave school unprepared for college or a career. Until this is addressed, we cannot consider our prodigious reform efforts and investments successful.

Since the early 1990s, education reform has been a collaborative effort between leaders in the public and private sectors and educators. This has allowed the state to avoid many of the “education wars” that have embittered the climate in other states. To be sure, there have been fierce and healthy policy disagreements here, but opposing parties have usually kept their eyes on the consensus goal of education reform: all students learning at high levels.

Education reform is always a work in progress, requiring regular changes in policy, strategy, and practices. And now, after more than two decades of good work, we must admit that our strategies — regardless of their comparative success — have failed to achieve our overall goal of all students learning at high levels. We need to ask once again: What more needs to be done? How do we customize education to meet each child’s needs so that every child achieves success?

Looking ahead, one of the major challenges is obviously the budget. Current and anticipated budget shortfalls will pose serious threats to progress. Of course change in education doesn’t always have to cost more money, but it’s clear that we will eventually have to spend more on specialized services, including early childhood education, extended school days, summer learning, tutoring, and health and human service supports. We also need to reduce the cost of higher education.

Another challenge will be to avoid distractions and debilitating conflicts. Extremists would happily drive us into full-blown warfare over their favorite causes — whether safeguarding a sacrosanct version of standards and tests or tearing down the reform architecture of the past 20 years. For example, extremists in the charter school war want us to do continuous battle over whether charters are the “silver bullet” salvation of the public schools or the scourge of public education. We have fought these battles many times before and they are costly distractions from the business of formulating effective, long-term strategies for improving the education of our students.

There are a number of strategies that the state needs to develop over the next few years, including early childhood education, expanded learning time, career pathways, increased turnaround work, the better utilization of education technology, expanded access to top quality charter and innovation schools, higher education reform, and improved quality of teaching.

This is an enormous agenda. No single player could begin to accomplish it. Collaboration will be essential. Innovation will be vital. Making progress will depend on the cooperative efforts of the state and local elected officials, educators, unions, business leaders and the media, as well as students and their families. Education is vital to our success as a people, as a state, and as a nation. Getting to “all means all” would be an unprecedented achievement, but Massachusetts is still very well positioned to make a run at such an ambitious and historic goal.

Paul Reville is professor of practice of policy and administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he also leads the Education Redesign Lab. He is a former Massachusetts secretary of Education.

Foreign Policy

Cover Story

Area Colleges Step Up Efforts to Recruit International Students

Michelle Kowalsky’s business card declares that, among other things, she is the director of International Admissions at Western New England University.

She’s the first person in the 95-year history of the school to take the title, and that fact speaks to a rather large movement within higher education — and education in general.

Indeed, while schools in this region and across the country have always admitted international students, they have not pursued them in anything approaching the aggressive manner that they are now — for several reasons.

For starters, many schools, WNEU among them, have made it part of their strategic-planning initiatives to become more culturally diverse, because of the many benefits that such a quality brings (more on all that later). Also, there are simply fewer domestic students to pursue as high-school graduation rates continue to decline and schools scramble to fill seats while keeping academic standards high.

And there is an important practical consideration as well. In many cases, the parents — or the government — of the student being recruited is ready, willing, and able to pay full price for the privilege of being educated in the U.S.

Add it all up, and people like Kowalsky are racking up frequent-flyer miles and mastering important phrases in several languages as they engage in what those we spoke with described as a spirited, heightened, but mostly friendly competition for students from China, Saudi Arabia, Central and South America, Japan, and other spots on the globe.

Michelle Kowalsky recently added the title ‘director of International Admissions’ to her business card, and she is one of many to do so in recent years as the competition for foreign students has heated up.

Spirited, because the stakes are somewhat high. For those reasons listed above, international recruitment is now much more of a necessity than a stated goal, said Kowalsky. And friendly, because schools in this region at least are not necessarily pursuing the same international students.

And often, they’re traveling in groups to various countries or working together through initiatives like Study Massachusetts, a consortium of Bay State colleges that promotes and guides international students to study within the Commonwealth, which Kowalsky currently serves as chair.

A quick look at some numbers shows that various schools’ efforts to recruit internationally are bearing fruit — and changing the dynamic on their campuses in the process.

Bay Path University, which had eight international students in 2012, now has 30 (some undergraduate, but mostly graduate), said Jill Bodnar, who also recently acquired the title of director of International Admissions and now works for the school full-time.

Meanwhile, at Springfield College, which has always had a steady, if small, population of international students because of the school’s historic relationship with the YMCA, has seen its numbers rise to include more than 20 nationalities, said Deborah Alm, director of the school’s Daggett International Center.

At UMass Amherst, administrators realized several years ago that, with international enrollment at roughly 1% of the student population, the school lagged well behind other state universities, which were usually at 5% or higher, said James Roache, assistant provost for Enrollment Management. The university set a goal of 3% by 2014 and surpassed that mark, he noted, and expects to hit 5% (roughly 230 students) this year.

Dawazhanme, who came to Bay Path University from Tibet, says she found the school through a Google search, and liked the small size of the campus and the classes.

And at WNEU, the number of international students has climbed from two or three a decade ago (students, said Kowalski, “who just happened to find us”) to the 30 who were on campus for the start of this spring’s semester.

Anastasia Ilyukhina is among them.

She was a student at Moscow State University and doing some interpreting for Kowalsky and others at a recent conference in that city when she mentioned to the WNEU administrator that she was interested in studying in the U.S.

Fast-forward a few months, and she was on the school’s campus in Sixteen Acres, majoring in International Studies, and enjoying, among other things, the vast variety of foods in this country and a level of interactivity in the classroom between student and teacher that is, well, foreign to her.

“Teachers here are like your friends — you can talk with them after classes or sit with them in the cafeteria and talk about life,” said Ilyukhina, who has designs on one day working in an embassy as a diplomat or interpreter. “It’s not like that in Russia, and that’s one of the reasons I like going to school here.”

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest looks at how and why more people like Ilyukhina are able to enjoy such experiences, and why, for the schools that are hosting them, international recruitment is becoming an ever-more-important part of doing business.

A World of Difference

She is from Tibet, specifically the village of Dzongsar. Her parents are, among other things, yak herders — although there are fewer yak to herd these days, and that’s another story. She found Bay Path University as a result of a Google search for business schools in the U.S. She makes documentary films (she’s done one on yak, for example) and when she returns to Tibet she wants to help her parents and others create new business opportunities.

All of this helps explain why people like Dawazhanme (in her culture, one name is generally used) are now populating campuses like Bay Path’s, and also why schools want to recruit people like her.

“She has a fascinating story … she’s very talented, and she brings so much to the Bay Path community,” said Melissa Morris-Olson, the university’s provost and also a professor of Higher Education Leadership. “Having students like her on campus has certainly helped expand the horizons of our other students.”

The desire to bring people like Dawazhanme to the Longmeadow campus is part of a broader strategy to “expose students to the broader world,” said Morris-Olson, noting that there are several components to this assignment.

“Roughly 60% of our undergraduate students come from first-generation families,” she explained. “Many of those students, if not most, have never been on an airplane; they’ve never been out of the region. We do have study-abroad experiences, but a lot of students don’t have the money to do that, so bringing students here from other places becomes particularly important as one way of internationalizing the curriculum and the campus and exposing our students to students of other cultures.”

Those same sentiments are being expressed by college administrators across the state and across the country, and they certainly help explain what would have to be called an explosion in international recruitment efforts among area colleges.

“Most schools are recognizing that, as the world gets smaller, we need to expose our students to other cultures, and therefore we welcome international students into our classrooms and living places with our students, which enriches all of us,” said Alm, echoing Morriss-Olson and others we spoke with.

But there are many reasons for this phenomenon.

Chief among them is a strong desire among foreign governments and individual families in those countries to send young people to the U.S. to be educated. The reasons why vary and include the comparatively high quality of the education to be found here, as well as a shortage of quantity in the countries in question.

In many cases, these efforts have become organized and sophisticated, and they involve students of all ages, even grammar school.

In China, for example, there are now myriad education agencies, large and small, that exist primarily to link families and students with educational opportunities in the U.S. and elsewhere, said Bodnar, who spent 15 years in China on various business endeavors, including work with a developer to open health clubs for women, and developed a number of contacts on the ground there.

“China was really exploding in every industry, and as that was happening, Chinese families became increasingly interested in their children coming to the U.S. to be educated,” she said, adding that this sentiment exists even though those who do attend a university in China do so free of charge.

Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, the government there has stepped up its efforts to send young people stateside to be trained in a number of fields, from healthcare to engineering, said Bodnar, adding that Bay Path wasn’t necessarily targeting young people in that country, but an opportunity presented itself through an education agency similar to those in China.

“We got an e-mail from someone at the agency saying he worked with Saudi students to look for graduate programs in the U.S. and wanted to know if we were interested,” she explained. “We answered in an e-mail, asked for some more details, and it it just took off from there — we were flooded with applications.”

Textbook Examples

To be part of this international-recruitment movement and bring that coveted diversity and other benefits to their campuses, area colleges and universities must be more aggressive in their recruiting, build name recognition for their institutions, forge relationships with those aforementioned agencies and other entities created to facilitate study here — and do all of this within a budget.

Indeed, travel is very expensive, and schools are being creative, and prudent, in when and how they undertake it.

Jill Bodnar, left, and Melissa Morris-Olson noted that Bay Path University has gone from a handful of international students to more than 30 in just a few years.

At Springfield College, for example, Alm took an open seat (the college’s president, Mary-Beth Cooper, took another) when the school’s basketball team traveled to Japan for an exhibition on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the sport in that country. She used the opportunity to visit some YMCAs and build visibility for the school.

Overall, said Morriss-Olson, schools must take their commitment to international recruitment to another plane, which Bay Path has done by hiring Bodnar and taking other steps to become a player on the international stage.

“The establishment of Jill’s position really does reflect somewhat of a turning point for us at Bay Path,” Morriss-Olson explained, noting that, while the school has always had a handful of international students on campus — it has long had an exchange program with Ehwa University in South Korea, for example — like other schools, it has dramatically increased those numbers and intends to continue that trend.

At UMass Amherst, the school now recruits from a number of countries, including India, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, but most of its time and energy is focused on China, said Kregg Strehorn, assistant provost for International Recruitment, who, when asked to describe the school’s overall strategy, summoned the phrase ‘reverse engineering.’

“We’re lucky enough to have been a popular school to attract international students for decades, and what I basically did was gather as much data as a I could about who we were getting applications from, and then really drilling down to find out where we were already popular and why,” he explained. “And then, we’d drill down further into those cities, districts, and those schools to find out why were getting 20 or 30 applications from this one school in Southern China.

“Then, we took it further to find out where we already had students from, and reverse engineered that information,” he went on. “I reached out to those schools and said, ‘we have two students from your school; I’d love to tell you how they’re doing here,’ and by doing that, I was able to develop relationships with individual schools. And that strategy has been very successful — it’s low-maintenance, and it gave us a quick way to jump into the market.”

At WNEU, said Kowalsky, the school’s administration has made a formal commitment to international recruitment, which has manifested itself in a number of ways, including her new title and changed responsibilities (international recruitment was once a minor component of her work; now it occupies roughly 90% of her time) — and a much larger travel budget.

Kowalsky said she’s made several trips in recent years, sometimes by herself but usually as part of a group, to a number of different countries. In recent years, she’s had her passport punched in several Asian countries, but also Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic.

Her most recent junket was to Guangzhou, China, to attend the China-U.S. Principals Forum for Internationalization of High School Education. The gathering brought together Chinese principals and guidance counselors from 43 high schools across Northwestern China to meet and consult with several U.S. university representatives, with the goal of helping the Chinese educators better guide their students through the U.S. college-application process.

Overall, she said, progress for WNEU in the international forum has come slowly but steadily. It certainly wasn’t something that happened overnight.

“I had said to the higher administration that, if they wanted me to do this, we would need to invest three to five years minimum in order to see any kind of results, because we’re not a brand name; we’re not a household name,” she told BusinessWest. “We needed to really get out there and continuously brand ourselves to reap the benefits down the road. And we’ve definitely seen that, and I’m happy that the administration supported that idea.

“On my first trip, they weren’t looking for me to come back and we’d suddenly have 20 applications or even 10,” she went on. “After that first trip, I don’t think we had even one new student that I could directly tie to that trip. It was more of a continual branding and building of those important relationships.”

Study in Creativity

Patience, commitment, and diligence are all-important qualities in efforts to recruit internationally, said all those we spoke with, because, while this competition is mostly friendly, as mentioned earlier, it is still a competition.

And one that is becoming more intense with each passing year.

Indeed, in the course of her many travels, Kowalsky has seen the number of schools hitting the road escalate and the ranks swell to include Ivy League schools, including Harvard, which enjoy tremendous brand recognition and strong reputations for excellence.

“The landscape has become much more competitive because everybody wants a piece of the international pie, basically, and a lot more schools are traveling,” she explained.

“Until recently, I had never seen Harvard on the road, but this fall I was traveling with a small group of five universities, something we put together ourselves,” she went on. “We were visiting a couple of high schools, and the Ivy League schools were there, which was shocking to me because I had never seen that before. But it’s understandable, because they’re out there competing against each other for the best of the best.”

As they compete against schools across the country, area colleges and universities have some advantages, and some obstacles as well. Clearly, the reputation of the Northeast, and especially Massachusetts, as a place where the world goes to be educated certainly helps, said Morriss-Olson. However, the relative anonymity of schools like Bay Path, WNEU, and Springfield College can be a disadvantage.

Alm noted that, while Springfield College is certainly well-known within the YMCA community and also for programs such as those in the health sciences and rehabilitation, it is not considered an established brand.

“And so we do have to educate the people we talk with about our many other programs and all that we have to offer,” she said, adding quickly that she must often also educate those she meets about the word ‘college.’

In many countries, especially those that were once part of the United Kingdom, ‘college’ translates roughly into ‘high school.’

“In the mindset of parents, ‘college’ is not yet higher education,” she noted. “Explaining what it means in this country is just part of the education process.”

Strehorn said he and others at UMass have had to do their fair share of explaining things as well. Those duties encompass everything from defining phrases like ‘flagship campus’ and ‘university system’ — “there is no translation in Chinese for the word ‘flagship,’” he noted — to making students, parents, and school administrators understand why the top-ranked public school in the region is not located in Boston.

And geography can also be a factor within this competition, Alm went on, noting that, for some in Asian countries, the East Coast is not only much further away than the West Coast, and therefore more difficult and more expensive to travel to, it is also more of an unknown quantity.

While in some respects it is difficult for schools in more rural settings like Bay Path to compete with major urban settings such as Boston, New York, and San Francisco, Bodnar said, many of the students they’re recruiting don’t come from big cities and would rather not go to college in one.

Dawazhanme told BusinessWest that she also looked at Dartmouth, the University of Oregon, and University of Texas in Austin, among others. She was ultimately attracted to Bay Path by the small size of the school and its classes. There were also corresponses with Bodnar that added an attractive personal touch to the process.
“She would write to me almost every month,” she explained. “That gave me a chance to really get to know about the university and the people here.”

Overall, schools will take full advantage of any edge they can get, said Kowalsky, adding that WNEU has an usual one.

“These kids all know The Simpsons, and so they all know about Springfield, and I’m fine with that,” said Kowalsky, noting that, while the show doesn’t identify its host city as being in the Bay State, it doesn’t really matter. “As far as they’re concerned, Springfield is one place in the United States, and if our banner says Springfield and they make an association because of that, I’m fine with it.”

Meanwhile, at UMass Amherst, the school’s name resonates thanks to solid U.S. News & World Report rankings, which are a big factor overseas (the university was recently ranked among the top 30 public schools in the country), as does its celebrated food-services department, ranked first or second in most national polls, said Strehorn.

“My family and I eat in the dining commons once a week — my kids love it, they think it’s a five-star restaurant, and for all intents and purposes, it is,” he told BusinessWest. “Ken Toog (executive director of Auxiliary Enterprises) for the university) has brought an international flavor to it — we serve international food. Last year, I had a bunch of colleagues from China come to visit, and one I’d never met before told me this was the best Chinese food she’d ever had outside of China.”

Course of Action

Kowalsky said that her travels have taken her to a number of intriguing spots on the globe, from Beijing to Rio de Janeiro to Hong Kong, but she hasn’t had many opportunities to take in the sights.

“There’s never really time — when I’m visiting a city, I’m not there long — and besides, I’m not there on vacation,” she said, adding that there is important work to be done, and time and resources must be allocated prudently.

This is a new and different time for colleges across the country, a time to make the planet smaller and bring it to their campuses and classrooms. The race for international students is indeed a competition, but it also represents a world of opportunity — in more ways than one.

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

A Changing Landscape

Construction Sections

Outlook Improves for Commercial Builders, Despite Stiff Competition

Fred Snyder, left, and Eric Forish spend a moment outside the new Westfield Senior Center, one of many projects keeping Westfield-based Forish Construction busy.

It’s only January, but Keiter Builders Inc. in Florence already has challenging projects on its roster for spring and summer.

“We’re seeing signs that 2015 will be busy, and the year is shaping up to be a good one,” said company President Scott Keiter, as he went through a list of contracts the firm was recently awarded. “We don’t have all the work we need yet, but we’re looking forward to getting more in the spring. This time of year is always slow for us, but the jobs we have are multi-dimensional and we’re excited about what we have lined up.”

Dave Fontaine Jr. said Fontaine Brothers, Inc. in Springfield is also doing quite well and has enough to work to last through the end of the year.

In fact, he expects 2015 to be better than 2014, which was solid.

“Public projects slowed down last year compared to what we saw immediately following the recession. It wasn’t dramatic, but there was a little less work,” said the company’s vice president. “We do a lot for the Massachusetts School Building Authority, and they didn’t have as many jobs. But things seem to be normalizing and we have a lot of good opportunities for 2016; a decent amount of large-scale public work and private clients who want projects done; things seem to finally be settling into a relatively normal economic climate.”

Eric Forish agrees. “The recession has passed,” said the president of Forish Construction in Westfield as he explained that private projects diminished significantly for a few years during the downturn in the economy, but are on the rise again. “Last year was our best year ever and I believe that 2015 will be a very good one.”

Renaissance Builders in Turners Falls has also had plenty of work. “We were extremely busy last year. We hired four new field personnel and one new office worker,” said President Stephen Greenwald, adding that most of the company’s commercial projects were privately funded. “While they haven’t been large in volume, they were extremely steady throughout the year.”

Still, commercial builders agree that competition is stiff, particularly for public jobs, which requires meticulous attention to detail and an ability to bid low, but not too low.

“The economy has stabilized, but it’s a new reality; we’re still adjusting to it and don’t know whether we can trust it,” said Greenwald. “The margins are better, but they will never go back to what they were before the recession. If you want to stay competitive, and busy, you have to be extremely accurate in your bidding. There is no room for mistakes.”

Keiter concurred, and said his company works very hard to estimate projects appropriately, and more importantly, execute them. “Margins are lean, but we are bidding to be successful. We win some and lose some, but we believe our systems are efficient, which helps us stay more cost effective than some of our competitors,” he explained. “We put a lot of energy into developing systems across the board from sales and estimating to production.”

Local companies say that downsizing their expectations helped some of them weather the recession. “Things got tight for a few years and a lot of companies dove after work and lost money. But we knew what we needed to do; we were cautious and realistic and did not try to maintain the same volume,” Fontaine said.

Forish Builders took a similar approach. “One of the keys to our success is that we have always been a very lean and aggressive company,” said its president. “This was not the first recession our company has gone through, and because we have learned from our experience, we made adjustments quickly.”

Competitive Arena

Although the economy is improving, the landscape has changed for commercial builders, as national companies are now competing for local projects.

“Firms are setting up offices in Springfield,” Fontaine said, adding that there are two ways that commercial builders get public jobs. The first is by prequalifying as a general contractor and bidding competitively; and the second is to be selected as a construction manager at risk. In this scenario, the property owner or agency chooses a contractor based on its experience and fees, and they join the project team during the design phase.

Dave Fontaine Jr. says the volume of both public and private construction projects has increased in recent months, and the trend should continue into 2015.

“It’s a fee-based system and that’s the market where a lot of larger companies are competing with us,” said Fontaine, adding that very large firms typically have sophisticated sales and marketing departments. “But we have been relatively successful. We have hard bid cost-efficiency experience as well as the expertise it takes to be a construction manager, which sometimes works to our advantage, especially with clients we’ve worked for in the past.”

Greenwald also noted an influx of competition.

“We showed up to walk through a simple job priced at $50,000, and there were 16 builders there, so we didn’t bother to bid on it,” he said. “In the last two years, we have seen more and more builders from out of the area bidding on public-works jobs that range from $50,000 to $2 million, so if we think we will be outbid, we don’t follow through.”

Renaissance Vice President Tricia Perham added that it takes time and money to put together a bid, and in the current market, the investment is not always worthwhile. “As a result, we’re focusing our energy on referrals and past clients. But ironically, sometimes a municipality wants to hire us but has to hire someone else, because they are mandated to take the lowest bid,” she said, adding that this happened recently in the town of Montague.

Forish recalled a recent public job that he believes might have drawn four to six bids prior to the recession. “There were 12 companies bidding for it,” he told BusinessWest. “There is less opportunity right now in the public sector than in the private sector. But I don’t worry about what other companies are selling. We are selling ourselves and our product is very strong.”

Some local contractors speculate that the national companies opening offices in the area are doing so because of the $800 million MGM Resorts International Casino that will be built in Springfield’s South End.

However, area commercial builders don’t expect to be hired to build the casino and although it is far too early to tell who will get the job, they believe it will go to a massive national or international company.

“But there may be other opportunities as companies relocate or find they need to expand when they begin providing services to the casino, so, it may indirectly help area contractors,” Forish said, adding that suppliers and subcontractors are likely to benefit from the casino complex.

Plentitude of Work

The firms BusinessWest interviewed say they are doing well, however, despite fierce competition and other factors.

Fontaine Brothers recently finished a new $85 million high school in West Springfield and is close to finishing work on the new, $33 million Auburn High School, which was done under construction management at risk.

In addition, the firm recently completed a new junior/senior high school in East Bridgewater as well as Monomoy Regional High School in Chatham.

“Worcester has also been a very strong market for us for the past 15 years, and we have a presence in Eastern Mass.,” said Fontaine. “But Western Mass is our home market.”

His company will continue to be busy throughout the winter as it begins work on a new elementary school in Athol and ground is broken for a library renovation in Shrewsbury. “We are also finishing up the renovation of the old Chicopee High School,” Fontaine said, adding that the entire interior was gutted.

Other projects include demolishing the Plains Elementary School in South Hadley and building a new one, as well as additions to Pioneer Valley Chinese Charter Immersion School in Hadley and Southwick High School.

“Our work through 2015 is solid, so we are focusing on picking up projects late in the year that will carry us through 2016-17,” Fontaine said.

Keiter Builders does some residential work and has contracts to build a few new homes this year. But it has also landed a significant number of commercial jobs, and recently finished the Convino Restaurant in the basement of Thornes Market in Northampton, which opened several weeks ago.

“The work was very involved, because the space had never been used for a restaurant before,” Keiter explained.

The builder also completed demolition and reconstruction of the entryway to the Smith College Conference Center last summer, and is wrapping up work on the Carroll Room in the Campus Center at the college, where it installed maple paneling.

Other projects include shoring up a number of large granite stairways for a private client on an historic, commercial building in Northampton and a residential housing upgrades project at Smith College.

“It’s multifaceted, involves multiple buildings, and will include roofing, new windows, paint, and upgrades to their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems,” Keiter said of the work at Smith. “The work will be done during an eight-week period over the summer when students are on break.”

In addition, Smith hired the firm to handle the McConnell Hall Observatory project, which includes removing a flat roof and putting a domed ceiling on the structure.

“We’re also working for Western Builders on a commercial project in Holyoke,” Keiter said, noting that it’s not uncommon for his company to subcontract with other area builders on large projects.

Forish said his firm is also busy. “We’re finishing a fire-protection system at the UMass Dubois Library as well as a wastewater treatment plant for Kanzaki Specialty Papers in Ware. And last summer we completed a highway department complex in Deerfield and a large addition to Holyoke Charter School,” he said, adding that work on the new Westfield Senior Center and a new facility for Sarat Ford Lincoln in Agawam is underway, as are large additions to Pioneer Valley Christian School and Astro Chemicals Inc.

Renaissance Builders also has its share of contracts. It is upgrading a manufacturing facility, renovating a multi-family apartment building for a commercial landlord in Northampton, and will replace a condominium complex in the spring in Gill that burned to the ground.

Paradigm Shift

Greenwald said the margins on private work have improved compared to what they were a few years ago. But improvement is relative, he added, because five to seven years ago, the numbers were a lot better. “We bid on projects if we think we have a good chance of getting the work, especially if it is a unique job with difficult logistics or circumstances and we have a good idea of how to solve the problem,” he told BusinessWest.

Indeed, the ability to do specialized work helps local commercial contractors. Fontaine said 90% of its work involves green building, and last year the firm was named as one of the “Top 100 Green Building Contractors” by the Engineering News Record.

Renaissance Builders also does its share of green building, and Perham said that has given the company an edge over other commercial builders. “We’ve put a lot of energy into training our employees in green-building techniques and energy efficiency. We have also done work for chemically sensitive clients,” she said.

Since the economy has improved, contractors agree that the forecast appears bright for the coming year. “Things in our network are slowly progressing in the right direction, and the year ahead in the Pioneer Valley looks good,” Keiter said.

Fontaine agreed. “The landscape has changed as larger firms have entered our market. But we are also competing with local firms that have been in the valley for decades,” he said. “Overall, we’re excited to see what 2015 will bring, and we certainly hope other local contractors do well, as it helps the local economy to have work stay here.”

Forish concurred. “Everyone had at least one tough year during the recession,” he said. “But we adjusted quickly, and things look better, at least for the short term. We hope it continues in the long term.”

Declaration of Inspiration

Construction Sections

Recreation of Monticello Was A Project for the Ages

S. Prestley Blake takes a photo of the replica of Monticello he had built in Somers.

Bill Laplante remembers the phone call like it was yesterday.

That’s because it seemingly came out of nowhere, and also because it marked the unofficial start of easily the most intriguing — and also one of the more challenging — endeavors in his long career as a home builder, and what he would repeatedly call “the opportunity of a lifetime.”

On the other end of the line was S. Prestley Blake, the then-98-year-old co-founder of Friendly Ice Cream and admirer of both Jefferson and the Laplante company’s work — it built the home his daughter and son in law now reside in, and also the new residence for the president of Springfield College (erected a dozen years ago), for which Blake developed a deep appreciation regarding both its design and workmanship.

“He said ‘Bill … I’m thinking about building a replica of Monticello in Somers,’” said Laplante, president of the East Longmeadow-based firm launched by his father, Ray. “He said he wanted me to come over and assess the property, take a look at things, review the site plans … that’s how it all started.”

It all ended just a few months ago, with a black-tie party that was combination early 100th birthday bash and open house attended by more than 250 people at what would have to be called ‘Blake’s Monticello,’ although it’s highly unlikely that he’ll ever spend a night in it.

This Monticello, slightly smaller than the original, Thomas Jefferson’s home in Charlottesville, Va., is what Blake, reached by BusinessWest in Florida, called, alternately, a “gift to the community,” his “swan song,” and “something I’m doing for posterity, not profit.”

Indeed, he expects to certainly lose money on the home currently on the market with a sticker price of $6.5 million, roughly $1 million less than what it cost to buy the land, raze what was on it, and build the landmark. There have been a few inquiries, and those interested will have to eventually impress Blake, who has the final say on this sale and insists he’ll only sell to someone who has both the requisite financial wherewithal and the same commitment to the community that he does.

As for Laplante, his crews, and lead design consultant Jennifer Champigny (not to mention Prestley Blake and his wife Helen) the endeavor quickly became a labor of love, a project no one really wanted to see end, although everyone involved was firmly committed to getting things done before Blake became a centenarian last November. Overall, the huge undertaking was completed in an impressive 14 months, more than three decades less than it took Jefferson to complete the original.

“The whole project, from start to finish, was a lot of fun … everyone who worked on it, from day one, thoroughly enjoyed it,” said Laplante. “It truly was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The building process, began in the spring of 2013, soon after Blake closed on the nine acres of land off Hall Hill Road, just a few hundred yards from the Massachusetts border, and the structures built on it (owned then by the estate of the late Big Y co-founder Gerry D’Amour and his wife Jeanne). It was preceded by a visit to the original Monticello by Laplante and his father.

They took hundreds of photographs, made volumes of notes, and purchased the book Monticello in Measured Drawings, which soon became invaluable.

Bill Laplante, standing in the foyer at the
Somers Monticello, called the project the “opportunity
of a lifetime.”

Using these resources, the Laplante company built an almost exact replica of the exterior of Jefferson’s home, and an ultra-modern, luxurious — and ‘green’ —interior. Both elements can certainly turn heads.

“I think this is the most prominent private house in the country,” Blake told BusinessWest in reference to his creation, noting that this assessment is based on aesthetics and the model that inspired it, not sheer size or features. “The White House is the most prominent house in the country, but that’s owned by the government. This is a private house I built on my own.”

For this issue and its focus on contruction, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at why Blake’s Monticello came to be built and how. In the course of doing so, it became clear why those who view the house use the same word to describe it as those called upon to recount the building process: memorable

Landmark Decisions

They eventually dubbed it ‘Monticello Highway.’

That was the name given to the path that Blake had carved between the site of the Somers Monticello and his own home, just a few hundred yards away (the properties abut).

Blake would take that path on his small, four-wheel-drive motorized vehicle called a ‘Gator,’ said Laplante, adding that he was at the construction site by 7:30 a.m. almost every day he was in this region to observe, take photos, and offer both suggestions and commentary — mostly the latter, because he gave great latitude to the builders.

What the Blakes saw emerge on the gently rolling parcel is one of the few replicas of Monticello in this country — there’s a bank modeled after it in Monticello, Ind., and a chiropractor’s office in Paducah, Ky., for example — and certainly the most extensive and expensive.

The Monticello in Somers has a number of things the one in Charlottesville doesn’t, including:

• A three-car garage;
• A tiled patio atop the three-car garage, which was a very popular gathering spot during the party in October;
• An elevator;
• Laundry rooms on the first and second floors;
• A wine chiller;
• Wolf and Sub-Zero appliances;
• A pantry with floor-to-ceiling cabinets, a so-called library ladder to reach those heights, and leathered granite counter tops;
• Five full baths complete with walk-in showers, towel warmers, and other amenities;
• Coffee stations in most of the rooms and a second-floor kitchenette; and
• Geothermal heating and cooling.

It does, however, have many of the same exterior features, including the white columns, roof ballustrades, and signature dome at the front of the structure (or the back at the original Monticello; the back entrance was the main entrance in Jefferson’s time), and some interior elements as well, including a tea room, a lavish foyer (although the one in Somers has a double staircase), ornate hard-wood floors, and so-called great room.

At top, the dining room in the Somers Monticello, and above, the bathroom off the master bedroom.

Retelling the story of how it all came about, Laplante said Blake was never particularly fond of the large estate built by the D’Amours, and has always been enamored with Monticello, architecturally and otherwise, and conceived a project to replace one with the other and, in the process, build something memorable and lasting.

As Blake was finalizing his purchase of the site, he was also engaging Laplante on the undertaking to come.

The trip to Charlottesville was educational and therefore quite helpful, said Laplante, adding that this was his first visit to the landmark.

“We met with the people giving the tours of Monticello, we toured the entire facility, and took a number of photographs, including many detailed photographs,” he explained. “We were focusing on the exterior of the building, because the original plan called for building a replica of Monticello, especially with regard to the exterior façade, but make it into a modernized single-family home on the inside — something that someone would be interested in purchasing and living in.”

Monticello in Measured Drawings became a valuable resource, he went on, adding that it was assembled by an architectural group that recreated scaled drawings of the original.

“It was very difficult, because there were areas that were 1:32 scale, because of the size of the house and obviously the size of the book,” Laplante explained. “We were dealing with very, very small scale, but it was very helpful having that, as well as the photos we took of the original and the tours we took.”

Glory Details

Beyond the basic mission of reproducing the original Monticello’s exterior, the Blakes’ only real instructions to the builders were simple, said Laplante, adding that he was told not to spare any expense, to build a replica as exacting as possible, and, inside “to make every room spectacular.”

And by all accounts, he and his crews followed those instructions to the letter.

Attention to detail can be seen in many aspects of the recreation work, including the brick used. Bricks in the original were hand-made made on-site in Virginia, said Laplante, adding that those used in Somers were also hand-made and cast to look like what was used in the early 19th century.

The decision was made early on to place the dome at the front of the house, the side facing Hall Hill Road, said Laplante, adding that the ‘front’ façade of the replica is, by his estimation, 98% accurate to scale.

One of the main differences between the two Monticellos is that the one in Virginia has an open porch, complete with arched-brick openings, on the left side, while the one in Somers has an enclosed hearth room, located just off the kitchen, in that location.

Also, Jefferson’s Monticello had a room inside the dome, while the one in Somers does not, and the second-floor windows in the replica are larger than those in the original to meet modern building codes.

“Working around the windows was perhaps the biggest challenge in designing this, because we were designing an interior around an exterior that was built 200 years ago,” he said, adding that both the original and replica (at least from the ‘front’ view) are two-story homes that don’t look like two-story homes.

The kitchen in the Somers Monticello is certainly different than the one in Thomas Jefferson’s original in Charlottesville, Va.

And while creating a modern interior within a two-century-old shell came complete with many challenges, that assignment gave the builders and designer plenty of opportunities to stretch their collective imaginations.

“From the beginning, the Blakes said, ‘we want every room we walk into to be spectacular,’” said Laplante. “But they didn’t micro-manage the design and the details; they let us come up with what we thought should be done.”

Some of the details were taken from the original, he went on, citing such things as floor patterns (although slightly different wood species were used), but the interior obviously bears little resemblance to the one in Charlottesville.

The kitchen in Jefferson’s Monticello was a simple facility in the basement. The kitchen in Somers is massive, with the most modern appliances and quartz countertops. The Monticello in Virginia had five outdoor privvys; the one in Somers has nine baths, many of then featuring Carrara marble.

The biggest difference between the two landmarks, however, is the ‘green’ nature of the replica. Jefferson heated with wood. The Somers home features geothermal heating and cooling equipment (which Laplante said is becoming increasingly popular due to attractive tax credits). It also has LED lighting, energy-efficient windows and doors, and icynene spray foam insulation. Meanwhile, raw materials from the site, including oak and cedar trees and red stone harvested from the parcel were used in the construction.

Overall, the buildings are worlds apart in terms of building materials and processes and creature comforts, but they look remarkably similar in large, framed photographs hanging side by side in the wood-paneled garage.

History in the Remaking

In addition to the party in October, the Blakes had a small gathering in the Somers landmark just before the holidays.

For the event, dubbed ‘Christmas at Monticello,’ the Blakes actually borrowed a few pieces of furniture and had some tables placed in the great room, said Laplante, who was among those invited.

The scene was a little strange, he recalled, but understandable because while the Blakes built the home, technically, it’s not theirs.

Soon, if the right buyer and right price come together, it will belong to someone. But it many respects, it will always belong to the community, said Blake, adding that, like the original, it was built to last and built to inspire.

And it is already doing just that.

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

Class Acts

Education Sections

A chart of area colleges and universities

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Going Up