October 6, 2015 - BusinessWest

ABG Thrives in Complex World of Benefits Administration

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Cover Story

Bob Cummings, CEO and managing principal

When Bob Cummings started out in benefits administration, health-insurance co-pays were $3, premiums were well under $100 a month, his office ran on MS-DOS, and it issued paper statements. Much has changed since then, obviously, but not his company’s success formula, based on personalization, creativity, knowledge of a complex and ever-changing subject, and what American Benefits Group prefers to call ‘enabling technology.’

Bob Cummings calls it his “acronym glossary.”

It’s aptly named, and those in his industry, known as benefits administration solution providers, really need one. Actually, it’s their clients that do, so Cummings and others at Northampton-based American Benefits Group, which he serves as CEO and managing principal, always have some on hand.

Comprehending what all those letters stand for will go a long way toward at least better understanding conversations involving benefits these days, he said, noting that there are no fewer than 60 acronyms listed on the two-page sheet.

They range alphabetically from AD&D (accidental death and dismemberment plan) to WHCRA (Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act), with an alphabet soup of agencies, acts, products, and services in between.

There’s COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act), EOI (evidence of insurability), HDHC (high-deductible health coverage), MSA (medical savings account), POP (premium-only Section 125 cafeteria plan), PCE (pre-existing condition exclusion), and PWBA (Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration), which, as everyone knows, is now called the EBSA (Employee Benefits Security Administration), which is obviously listed earlier in the glossary, in the ‘E’ section.

Got it? Of course not.

And Cummings and his team members, who collectively serve as benefits consultants, or advisors, understand that. They also understand that knowing what those letters and phrases, such as ‘Cadillac tax,’ stand for isn’t what’s really important. Rather, it’s being able to decipher which products add up to the best, most practical options for a company’s employees.

And because it excels at that basic mission, American Benefits Group (ABG — that acronym’s not in the glossary) is enjoying a period of profound growth and expansion of an already diverse portfolio.

“This is a really exciting time for us — we’re enjoying a major growth spurt,” said Cummings, who segued into benefits work in the mid-’80s after running a small insurance agency. “Hardly a day goes by that I’m not sending out new client proposals.”

Cummings attributed this growth to an intriguing blend of services — including ‘360-degree benefit-solutions packages’ and account administration — and operating traits that together add up to solid, dependable service that he categorized through early and frequent use of the phrase ‘customer-centric.’

The recipe calls for equal and generous portions of personalization, innovation (meaning investments in what the company calls enabling technology), creativity (more about what that means later), and knowledge, all of which translates into a single word (no acronym required): value.

To help explain his points on innovation and technology, which has been a staple of the company since the beginning in 1987, Cummings held aloft the so-called American Benefits Group Benefits Card, which was created in response to one of the most significant and far-reaching additions to that acronyms list, the FSA, or flexible spending account.

“This has been a real game changer,” Cummings said of the card, roughly 30,000 of which are now in circulation, a number that could rise 25% by year-end. “I can go use it at the doctor’s office, the hospital, the pharmacy, the dentist, the vision provider … it won’t work at a restaurant or a gas station — it’s a specially programmed card — but it will work at the MBTA [Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority] to buy my transit pass, and I can pay for my parking with it, too — any eligible merchant.”

Bob Cummings, seen here with Clodagh Parker, director of Flexible Compensation Services, and Herb Mayer Jr., director of Operations, says ABG is experiencing explosive growth.

The benefits card, which acts in much the same way as a bank account, is just one piece of the equation, though, he went on, listing as just one example a mobile app that allows one to access their account through any connected device. But it’s an apt illustration of how this company has managed to adjust with the times to effectively serve customers and enable business owners and managers to more effectively navigate the complex issues involved with benefits.

For this issue, BusinessWest talked at length with Cummings and others at the company about the constantly and profoundly changing landscape of employee benefits, as reflected in that glossary, and how this firm has come to be a star performer on a highly competitive playing field.

Dollars and Sense

As he talked about the current benefits landscape, Cummings said it would be prudent to first turn the clock back nearly 30 years, when he first entered this field, and not long before he started writing a column on insurance benefits for a recently launched publication known as the Western Mass. Business Journal (WMBJ), now known as BusinessWest (no accepted acronym, although BW is gaining ground).

The benefits world was much different back then, of course, he said with a laugh, citing as evidence the $3 co-pays levied upon health-insurance policyholders, the emerging phenomenon known as the HMO (health maintenance organization), and the MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) platform on the office’s computers.

“In those days, I was one of a handful of people who were actually doing group benefits and group health insurance,” he recalled, noting that he first set up shop on King Street in Northampton and chose the name American Benefits Group because he liked to think big and thought that brand reflected this philosophy. “And I can remember when group health insurance was less than $100 a month for the premium, and people paid $5 for an office visit and $3 for a prescription, so nobody thought twice about going to the doctor when they needed to. That was the world we lived in in 1987.”

That world soon changed, however, as the cost of health coverage increased in double-digit increments on a seemingly annual basis, and new products began to emerge along with yet another acronym that would eventually dictate the course of an industry — CDHC, or consumer-driven health care.

“By 2002, we saw the creation of health savings accounts [HSAs] and health reimbursement arrangements [HRAs],” Cummings went on. “Of course, no one knew what they were, just like no one knew what a flexible spending account was in 1988. I knew what a flexible spending account was in 1988, and said, ‘no one knows what this is, but I have the feeling that eventually, every employer will want to offer these to their employees.’

“So in 1988, in the MS-DOS world, I put my big toe in the water — actually, I put everything in the water, and I started administering flexible spending accounts,” he went on. “And I was one of the first people in New England, maybe on the East Coast, to do that.”

He started with a handful of clients based in and around Northampton — Florence Bank, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College, AAA of Pioneer Valley, among others — and gradually built the portfolio.

Before he could administer a company’s plan, however, he had to educate the employer — and the employees — about the specifics of the plan and its many benefits. It was a huge part of the equation, and it remains so today.

Indeed, while technology, products, the amount of the deductibles on the health plans, and much more have changed exponentially since Ronald Reagan patrolled the White House, the basic assignment for companies like ABG hasn’t, he went on.

Indeed, success still comes down to those four qualities listed earlier — personalization, innovation, creativity, and knowledge, said Cummings.

When a Plan Comes Together

The company’s customer-centric approach, along with all that aforementioned technology, including cloud-based systems, has in many ways leveled the playing field when it comes to TPAs, or third-party administrators.

This phenomenon, coupled with the company’s partnership with NFP (National Financial Partners), one of the nation’s largest distributors of financial-services products, has enabled ABG to greatly accelerate its growth pattern over the past decade or so.

Over that time, the company has expanded the portfolio of FSA administration from 40 employers and 1,200 participants to hundreds of employers and more than 30,000 participants, said Clodagh Parker, ABG’s director of Flexible Compensation Services, adding that the firm has gone from four or five employers to more than 30 in that period.

That portfolio is diverse, she went on, noting that it includes major employers across several sectors, including carmakers Fiat, Mitsubishi, and Ferrari North America (she jokes that Ferrari let her sit in one of its vehicles once), and Wall Street giant Cantor Fitzgerald.

But its core business, its sweet spot, if you will, is smaller companies with dozens of employees, rather than hundreds. Such businesses usually don’t have large human-resources departments (or even an HR person) and, thus, do need a partner and benefits-solutions provider and, quite often, an FSA administrator.

“I know that every small-business owner is majorly challenged today with just trying to figure out what they’re supposed to do,” Cummings said. “The average small-business owner needs help — they don’t have a full-time department to do all this stuff. If they have a bookkeeper or office manager, he or she is also wearing the double hat as the defacto HR person. These companies generally need to know not just what they’re supposed to do, but how they’re supposed to do it. And that’s been the biggest change from what I guess I would call the good old days.”

The process of serving these companies — and all other clients, for that matter — begins with that aforementioned 360-degree benefits solution, said Cummings.

“It includes strategic analysis for the client and helping the client design a program that’s going to meet their cost objectives and diverse employee needs,” he told BusinessWest. “It also includes providing all of the communication and the carrier negotiations — the pricing-market negotiations with insurance carriers; providing the technologies for the administration of the program, including the web-based, paperless enrollment and communications technology for the employees; and the administration services we offer on a national level, with the FSAs being the biggest.”

Elaborating, he said many of the clients the company has added over the past several years already offered benefits, obviously, but didn’t believe they were getting adequate value when it came to what was being offered and the prices being paid.

With the advent of mandated healthcare coverage, first in Massachusetts and then nationwide, there is considerably less room for negotiation on price, he went on, so the value comes in finding the right set of products for the employee group in question.

Bob Cummings calls the American Benefits Group Benefits Card a “game changer.”

“Maybe we go to the $2,000-deductible plan, and we implement an HSA, so we send less premium to the insurance company, and we use some of that savings to help cover some of the out-of-pocket expenses for the employee participants,” he said, offering one example of where the quest for value may take a business owner or manager. “If the client is of sufficient size, we can look at other strategic funding alternatives, including what’s known as partial self-funding, where we might use insurance to protect against more catastrophic risk, and have the employer fund the claims up to that limit.

“We would look to first develop a strategy in terms of the benefits program and looking at the existing benefits program and doing an audit,” he said. “Compliance is a very big issue these days — there’s so much more compliance today than at any other time in history, and it just got much, much bigger. In many cases, employers don’t even know about the regulations, let alone how to comply with them.”

In a nutshell, ABG analyzes a client’s data, needs, budget, and more, and comes up with a solution in the form of what Cummings called an “employer benefits HR web portal,” a platform solution called Employee Navigator, which eliminates paper and provides considerably more efficiency when it comes to enrollment, communication, and other facets of effective plan administration.

Letters of the Law

Summing up all that’s happened over the past three decades or so, Cummings said long gone are the days when companies in this industry were called upon to do little more than get quotes on insurance coverage.

“The bar has certainly been raised for insurance brokers and people working in the employee-benefits marketplace,” he explained, adding that companies aren’t looking for quotes, they’re looking for comprehensive, cost-effective solutions.

By becoming proficient at providing them, ABG is enjoying a period of profound growth triggered by still another acronym it’s been providing from the beginning: ROI.

And every business owner and manager knows what that stands for.

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

Building Permits

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Building Permits Departments

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

AMHERST

Abbass Bozorg
722 Main St.
$4,500 — Install replacement windows

KSCBJ Properties, LLC
33 Farmington Road
$3,000 — Install new deck

CHICOPEE

Pride
363 Burnett Road
$8,500 — Construct fuel sales counter and renovate lounge area

U.S. Tsubaki Inc.
106 Lonczak Dr.
$113,000 — Floor excavation to construct a reinforced concrete pit

VOC Early Education and Care
374 Montgomery St.
$1,287,000 — Construct new 6,859-square-foot building

GREENFIELD

Amerada Hess Corporation
253 Federal St.
$150,000 — Remodel interior of Speedway

Argotec Inc.
46 Greenfield St.
$21,000 — Install safety storage building

Robar Inc.
249 Mohawk Trail
$4,400 — Install new kitchen hood fire system

Sander Greenfield, LLC
367 Federal St.
$51,000 — Install new sprinkler system

Sandri Realty Inc.
295 Federal St.
$403,000 — Remodel gas station addition for Dunkin Donuts

LUDLOW

Cumberland Farms
101-105 West St.
$498,000 — Commercial alterations

SPRINGFIELD

Anthony Falcetti
1755 Boston Road
$30,000 — Install handicap ramp

Baystate Health
1759 Chestnut St.
$35,000 — Construct five new offices

City of Springfield
116 Alden St.
$19,000 — Repairs to school

City of Springfield
120 Ashland St.
$25,000 — Construct walls to separate classroom spaces

Roth Maid
205 College St.
$42,000 — Repair fire damage

Springmeadow Association
28 Canon Circle
$52,000 — Renovations

WESTFIELD

Can Am Po, LP
35 Turnpike Industrial Park Road
$1,192,000 — 8,790-square-foot addition to warehouse

162 Southampton Westfield, LLC
162 Southampton St.
$570,000 — Construct new convenience store

Stephen Kantany
342 East Main St.
$1,340,000 — 6,250-square-foot restaurant

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Carrabbas Italian Grill
955 Riverdale St.
$49,500 — New roof

Rite-Aid
99 Westfield St.
$125,000 — New roof

Real Estate Transactions

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

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.

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

3 1 If By Lane
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Gina A. Donovan
Seller: Mark S. Higgins
Date: 09/01/15

24 Agnoli Place
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $139,500
Buyer: Daniel L. Montagna
Seller: Richard N. Lapierre
Date: 09/04/15

71 Bradford Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Melissa Malec
Seller: Aaron C. Tauscher
Date: 08/26/15

46 Hampden Lane
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Anthony R. Bosini
Seller: Ellen M. Davilli
Date: 08/24/15

77 Hastings St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $148,750
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Richard Lavoie
Date: 08/25/15

31 High Meadow Road
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Douglas F. Averill
Seller: Richard R. Berryman
Date: 08/25/15

97-99 Maple St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Andriy Dulyepov
Seller: Heiden, Frank R., (Estate)
Date: 08/27/15

54 Roberta Circle
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $178,000
Buyer: John G. Fisher
Seller: Chantal Nadeau
Date: 08/28/15

Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $184,900
Buyer: Matthew Riley
Seller: Sandra A. Matroni
Date: 08/27/15

7-19 Springfield St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $2,900,000
Buyer: FRP Holdings Agawam LLC
Seller: Cook Associates Inc.
Date: 08/25/15

638 Springfield St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Stateline Realty LLC
Seller: Paul G. Byrne
Date: 09/02/15

15 Sunset Terrace
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $224,000
Buyer: Katherine A. Bitzas
Seller: Brendon M. Murray
Date: 08/31/15

100 Sylvan Lane
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Leanne M. Fortini
Seller: Anthony R. Bosini
Date: 08/24/15

5 Tannery Road
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $214,900
Buyer: Joshua T. Solek
Seller: Douglas F. Averill
Date: 08/25/15

122 Valentine St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $259,000
Buyer: Tara C. Clark
Seller: Richard Tonelli
Date: 08/24/15

BRIMFIELD

150 East Hill Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Jeffrey A. Sheldon
Seller: Thomas A. Parkman
Date: 08/28/15

25 Paige Hill Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $439,000
Buyer: Harold Lemieux
Seller: James P. Griesing
Date: 08/26/15

CHESTER

25 Ed Lebleau Road
Chester, MA 01011
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Thomas H. Gelb
Seller: Keith Bloomrose
Date: 08/25/15

CHICOPEE

162 Arcade St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: David B. Kelliher
Seller: Gary J. Majewicz
Date: 09/04/15

301 Britton St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $193,000
Buyer: Owen Graves
Seller: Christine L. Lessard
Date: 08/31/15

1191 Burnett Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $138,900
Buyer: Daniel A. Potter
Seller: Alan R. Menard
Date: 08/28/15

8 Caddyshack Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $256,500
Buyer: Naz Naji
Seller: Teresa Blask
Date: 09/03/15

239 Carew St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $137,000
Buyer: Kevin A. Masek
Seller: Wesley Blask
Date: 08/27/15

101 Chateaugay St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $185,000
Seller: Felix L. Correa
Date: 09/03/15

158 College St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Soren W. Johnson
Seller: Kathleen M. Gaouette
Date: 08/31/15

49 Clover St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $302,500
Buyer: Carleen M. Nahorniak
Seller: Janice E. Allard
Date: 08/28/15

45 Coolidge Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $209,000
Buyer: William A. Carriveau
Seller: Leonard Chapdelaine
Date: 08/31/15

10 Cooney Place
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Jacqueline Hadden
Seller: James R. Bennett
Date: 08/28/15

191 Dale St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $126,172
Buyer: FHLM
Seller: Susan L. Boudreau
Date: 09/01/15

16 Dejordy Lane
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Timothy M. Howell
Seller: Jessica J. Damours
Date: 08/31/15

37 Devlin Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Christopher Chateauneuf
Seller: Bayview Loan Servicing
Date: 08/24/15

372 East Main St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Jeffrey J. Robidoux
Seller: Joseph G. Dasilva
Date: 09/03/15

40 Francis St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $128,250
Buyer: Antonio Morgado
Seller: Jeffrey D. Pike
Date: 08/31/15

1195 Grattan St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $166,000
Buyer: Robert J. Hinkel
Seller: William J. Cichaski
Date: 08/28/15

199 Hampden St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Kenneth R. Tessier
Seller: Yelena Ivanov
Date: 08/31/15

35 Henry Harris St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $184,500
Buyer: Ibrahim M. Mustafa
Seller: Roman Catholic Bishop Springfield
Date: 09/04/15

56 Lemay St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $139,000
Buyer: Alba I. Vasquez
Seller: Rodney E. Robare
Date: 09/01/15

77 Manning St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $141,000
Buyer: Nathan Zyla
Seller: Charles E. Proulx
Date: 08/31/15

25 Mayflower Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Mikhail G. Chikrizov
Seller: Antonio A. Pereira
Date: 08/28/15

1945 Memorial Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Cassandra C. Allard
Seller: Gary A. Gemme
Date: 08/28/15

231 Moore St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Ricardo Salvador
Seller: Evelyn J. Josefiak RET
Date: 08/28/15

57 Rzasa Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Julian Soja
Seller: Stacia S. Stadnicki
Date: 09/03/15

154 School St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: 1890 Chicopee LLC
Seller: RCS Properties LLC
Date: 09/02/15

192 School St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Morgado Scholl Street RT
Seller: Serena T. Pease
Date: 09/03/15

314 Springfield St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $229,000
Buyer: Phillip A. Laflamme
Seller: Sonny Mello
Date: 08/28/15

49 Sunnymeade Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $159,900
Buyer: Maggie L. Krawczyk
Seller: James Banas
Date: 08/31/15

EAST LONGMEADOW

16 Anne St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $136,000
Buyer: Timber Development LLC
Seller: David K. Ritchie
Date: 08/26/15

52 Birchland Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $178,000
Buyer: Angelina R. Recchia
Seller: Brian J. Milbier
Date: 08/24/15

73 Hillside Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Joseph J. Impagnatiello
Seller: Peter S. Baran
Date: 08/26/15

Industrial Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $19,426,597
Buyer: Cartamundi E. Longmeadow
Seller: Hasbro Inc.
Date: 09/01/15

67 Lasalle St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Sarah J. Greer
Seller: Rafael Pereira
Date: 08/27/15

353 Pease Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Donna V. Wheeler
Seller: Vince J. Cassamasse
Date: 08/26/15

60 Pilgrim Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $377,000
Buyer: Brian J. Milbier
Seller: Joseph P. Milbier
Date: 08/28/15

395 Shaker Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $19,426,597
Buyer: Cartamundi East Longmeadow
Seller: Hasbro Inc.
Date: 09/01/15

443 Shaker Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $19,426,597
Buyer: Cartamundi East Longmeadow
Seller: Hasbro Inc.
Date: 09/01/15

39 Tracey Lane
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $337,500
Buyer: HL Holdings LLC
Seller: Peter M. Mancuso
Date: 08/24/15

43 Windsor Lane
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Thomas C. Rand
Seller: Susan J. Netter
Date: 09/04/15

GRANVILLE

9 Cross Road
Granville, MA 01034
Amount: $222,000
Buyer: Darin Aulston
Seller: William P. O’Neill
Date: 08/27/15

567 South Lane
Granville, MA 01034
Amount: $257,000
Buyer: Emily J. Brunet
Seller: Kathleen M. Kellogg
Date: 09/01/15

HAMPDEN

570 Main St.
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $193,000
Buyer: Kevin C. Wiley
Seller: Phillip C. Wiley
Date: 08/27/15

20 Martin Farms Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Trevor T. Howell
Seller: Raymond A. Barrett
Date: 08/31/15

HOLLAND

19 Sandy Beach Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $448,000
Buyer: Nadine C. Casey
Seller: John P. Briere
Date: 09/04/15

31 Shore Dr.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $370,500
Buyer: Douglas W. Kroncke
Seller: 31 Shore Drive LLC
Date: 09/03/15

293 Stafford Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Joseph M. Yiznitsky
Seller: Thomas J. Crouse
Date: 09/03/15

HOLYOKE

133 Allyn St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Scott Forest
Seller: FHLM
Date: 08/31/15

104 Brookline Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Therese L. Williams
Seller: Christine M. Munro
Date: 09/04/15

19 Cherry St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $193,000
Buyer: Raymond R. Rivet
Seller: Ronald J. Stebbins
Date: 08/25/15

11-13 Elmwood Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $157,500
Buyer: John Biela
Seller: Jozef M. Orszulak
Date: 08/31/15

53 Fairfield Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Marie-Volcy Pelletier
Seller: Enola Nelson
Date: 08/31/15

110 Homestead Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $161,000
Buyer: Kyle Kiepke
Seller: Geraldine Gabrysz RET
Date: 09/04/15

51 Homestead Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $144,000
Buyer: Vilmarie Bermudez
Seller: Howard A. Swaby
Date: 09/01/15

15 Keefe Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $154,145
Buyer: Jacqueline Sampson
Seller: FNMA
Date: 08/28/15

15 Liberty St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $259,000
Buyer: Brandon Ducheney
Seller: Gregory T. Roman
Date: 08/28/15

125 Mountain View Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $283,000
Buyer: Cathy J. Thomas
Seller: Natalie A. Cohen
Date: 08/24/15

100 Northampton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $187,000
Buyer: David B. McKenney
Seller: Peter C. McKenney
Date: 08/24/15

609 Northampton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Zachary M. Berry
Seller: Kimberly A. Moran
Date: 08/28/15

693 West Cherry St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $220,500
Buyer: Edmund T. Sosnoski
Seller: Brendan M. Landers
Date: 08/31/15

121-123 Westfield Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $192,000
Buyer: Corey M. Holmes
Seller: Marc J. Stanislas
Date: 09/01/15

LONGMEADOW

43 Barrington Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $213,000
Buyer: Charlene A. Clark
Seller: Anne Klupa
Date: 08/27/15

96 Birchwood Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Andrew Barbosa
Seller: Melissa A. McCoy
Date: 08/28/15

7 Briarcliff Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Richard J. Corsi
Seller: William A. Ruark
Date: 08/31/15

75 Colton Place
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $274,900
Buyer: Christine Spelman
Seller: Brian R. Curran
Date: 09/04/15

911 Converse St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Michael Gesin
Seller: Harriet L. Brisk
Date: 08/25/15

123 Crestview Circle
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Todd M. Adelson
Seller: Delia M. Killeen
Date: 08/28/15

129 Farmington Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $645,000
Buyer: Jennie V. Garver
Seller: Jeffrey S. Weldon
Date: 09/01/15

65 Laurel St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $279,000
Buyer: Leslie Haynes-Hodgins
Seller: Roger J. Schwartz
Date: 08/28/15

780 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Michelle R. Lavallee
Seller: Phyllis A. Lavallee
Date: 08/24/15

84 Massachusetts Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Tessa L. Smit
Seller: Kathryn P. Ehresman
Date: 08/28/15

63 Oakwood Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $289,000
Buyer: Lavy Kosofsky
Seller: Joel L. Pitchon
Date: 08/31/15

51 Oxford Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $800,000
Buyer: Bianca J. Kiely
Seller: David A. Thor
Date: 08/28/15

75 Pioneer Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: David G. Chapdelaine
Seller: Nancy A. Collins
Date: 08/31/15

88 Redfern Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Eric W. Pohlman
Seller: Kenneth Jaffe
Date: 08/25/15

267 Williams St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Christine A. Rigali
Seller: Todd A. Biggs
Date: 09/04/15

302 Williams St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: David F. Fernandes
Seller: Gabriel H. Kitchener
Date: 08/28/15

32 Williston Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $415,000
Buyer: Andrew E. Berke
Seller: Gerda S. Maissel
Date: 08/28/15

511 Wolf Swamp Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Michael J. Wing
Seller: CIG 2 LLC
Date: 08/27/15

LUDLOW

67 Briarwood Lane
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $199,900
Buyer: Craig M. Labrie
Seller: Squarok, John C., (Estate)
Date: 08/26/15

493 Fuller St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $223,500
Buyer: John A. Sniegowski
Seller: Nancy M. Currier
Date: 08/26/15

161 Pine St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Rachael R. Jurgensen
Seller: Maria Coelho
Date: 08/25/15

41 Stivens Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Luis A. Hernandez
Seller: Judith A. Tauer
Date: 08/28/15

328 West St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $211,000
Buyer: Luis C. Cibrao
Seller: Michael J. Hill
Date: 09/01/15

MONSON

4 Brimfield Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Robert C. Webb
Seller: Daniel F. Kmiecik
Date: 08/25/15

255 Main St.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Robert S. Thibodeau
Seller: Gail A. Sanderson
Date: 09/02/15

63 Moulton Hill Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $264,000
Buyer: Ian M. Haskins
Seller: Shirley P. Candage
Date: 08/25/15

34 Thayer Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Timothy F. Savage
Seller: Mary A. Mylanokis
Date: 08/31/15

174 Wales Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $243,500
Buyer: Eric Raymond
Seller: Laura J. Wright
Date: 09/04/15

30 Washington St.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $170,500
Buyer: Heather A. Morse
Seller: I-Buysellhomes LLC
Date: 09/04/15

MONTGOMERY

1576 Southampton Road
Montgomery, MA 01085
Amount: $298,000
Buyer: Glenn R. Stanisewski
Seller: Mary E. Purdy
Date: 08/25/15

PALMER

200 Breckenridge St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Gregory A. King
Seller: Cynthia A. Connell
Date: 08/31/15

2034 Calkins Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $197,000
Buyer: Michael J. Nathanson
Seller: John J. Chmura
Date: 08/28/15

2 Carter St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $147,478
Buyer: Bayview Loan Servicing
Seller: Randy R. Sheldon
Date: 09/01/15

15 Fieldstone Dr.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Richard T. Sliney
Seller: Steven J. Weaver
Date: 08/28/15

76 Saint John St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Paul J. Novinsky
Seller: Lionel G. Pilon
Date: 09/01/15

863 Ware St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Harris Holdings LLC
Seller: Barbara L. Doyle
Date: 08/27/15

RUSSELL

84 Shattuck Road
Russell, MA 01071
Amount: $187,500
Buyer: Kyle Kleis
Seller: Anna H. Wing
Date: 08/27/15

SPRINGFIELD

1023 Allen St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $153,000
Buyer: Noor K. Naji
Seller: Peter A. Bernard
Date: 09/04/15

26-28 Arthur St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $171,000
Buyer: Giuseppe Leone
Seller: William J. Persch
Date: 08/26/15

63 Audley Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $142,500
Buyer: Diane M. Johnson
Seller: Karen C. King
Date: 08/25/15

12 Baird Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Matthew J. Condon
Seller: Deborah Tracy
Date: 09/02/15

30 Bangor St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Nigel D. Greaves
Seller: Catherine E. Fauteux
Date: 08/28/15

88-90 Beverly Lane
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $179,900
Buyer: Jorge I. Marquez
Seller: International Christian
Date: 08/31/15

121 Bowles Park
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $129,900
Buyer: Dennis E. Harkins
Seller: Paul M. Santangelo
Date: 08/27/15

90 Brianna Lane
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $262,500
Buyer: Maria T. Barroso
Seller: Pamela K. Ross
Date: 08/28/15

158 Cherokee Dr.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $118,000
Buyer: Rachel Mogilka
Seller: James A. Thomas
Date: 08/28/15

41-45 Colton St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $126,500
Buyer: Stone Soul Inc.
Seller: Tyburski, David T., (Estate)
Date: 08/31/15

91 Connecticut Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Joanna Orszulak
Seller: Annamaria C. Roberson
Date: 08/31/15

187 Connecticut Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $124,900
Buyer: Oniel Morrison
Seller: Juan A. Santana
Date: 08/25/15

205 Durant St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $122,000
Buyer: Larry Lin
Seller: Aileen J. Turcotte
Date: 08/26/15

136 Eddy St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $122,500
Buyer: Jose M. Torres
Seller: Patricia S. Reilly
Date: 09/01/15

223 Emerson St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $133,000
Buyer: Laura M. Murphy
Seller: Yudelka Kotjahasan
Date: 08/31/15

30 Endicott St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Margaret W. Crafts LT
Seller: Louisa M. Brady
Date: 08/25/15

74 Fairfield St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Springfield Museums Corp.
Seller: Zenaida Guadalupe
Date: 09/01/15

63 Gates Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Natalya Gavel
Seller: Vladimir Dolzhenko
Date: 08/26/15

272 Hartwick St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Kenneth L. Fitzgibbon
Seller: Diem Doan
Date: 09/01/15

19 Hickox St.
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Hector I. Claudio
Seller: Bretta Construction LLC
Date: 09/01/15

47 Laurel St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Vanyeline M. Claudio
Seller: Hector Claudio
Date: 09/01/15

55 Lindsay Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $198,000
Buyer: Louis P. Marinaro
Seller: Ronald Kempf
Date: 08/28/15

140 Mazarin St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $163,400
Buyer: Benjamin C. McNeil
Seller: Francisco Lavaredas
Date: 08/28/15

264 Newhouse St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Thomas F. Connors
Seller: Lisa Muise
Date: 08/26/15

27 Newhouse St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Latoya N. Hayles
Seller: Sharon L. Haluch
Date: 08/28/15

21 Onondaga St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $146,500
Buyer: Dana Bartlett
Seller: Matthew P. Blain
Date: 09/04/15

18-20 Palm St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $149,000
Buyer: Wilmington Savings Fund Society
Seller: Maria A. Flores
Date: 09/01/15

22 Pecousic St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Claribel Parra
Seller: Ara Degray
Date: 08/28/15

290 Plumtree Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $158,000
Buyer: Joshua Roy
Seller: David K. Nichols
Date: 08/24/15

560 Plumtree Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $177,700
Buyer: Timothy M. Nguyen
Seller: Michael J. Gasperini
Date: 09/01/15

184 Pondview Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Jennifer Lin-Weinheimer
Seller: Alex Preston
Date: 08/28/15

170 Shefford St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Garibaldi Torres
Seller: McCormick, Lorraine T., (Estate)
Date: 08/28/15

283 Spikenard Circle
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: Steven Cassesse
Seller: R2R LLC
Date: 08/24/15

11 Sumner Terrace
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $182,900
Buyer: Alicia Lockwood
Seller: Lawrence Banks
Date: 08/31/15

54 Sunbrier Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $162,792
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Thomas A. Rodriguez
Date: 08/31/15

92 Sunrise Terrace
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $232,500
Buyer: Juan C. Acevedo
Seller: Nu-Way Homes Inc.
Date: 08/28/15

380 Tinkham Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Ryan J. McDowell
Seller: Frances H. Prendergast
Date: 08/31/15

26 Tioga St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $177,000
Buyer: Joshua A. Gougeon
Seller: Lauren S. Gougeon
Date: 09/04/15

50 Tourigny St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $137,800
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: James T. Patchkofsky
Date: 08/24/15

72 Washburn St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $169,000
Buyer: Constant O. Ogutt
Seller: Roger W. Williams
Date: 09/03/15

18 Webber St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $128,500
Buyer: Carla M. Valdes
Seller: Boland, Paul E., (Estate)
Date: 08/28/15

130 Winton St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $134,000
Buyer: Annamaria C. Roberson
Seller: Cynthia L. Visi
Date: 08/31/15

SOUTHWICK

42 Fernwood Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: Billyjo Asselin
Seller: Tammy J. Wrigley
Date: 08/25/15

3 Gloria Dr.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $189,900
Buyer: Frank N. Dixon
Seller: Alfred S. Hish
Date: 08/25/15

11 Great Brook Dr.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Erica L. Heng
Seller: Michelle D. Parker
Date: 08/24/15

4 Lauren Lane
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $417,000
Buyer: Michael J. Foint
Seller: Aube Homes LLC
Date: 08/26/15

27 Mort Vining Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $266,900
Buyer: Kris Abelin
Seller: Francis J. Delmastro
Date: 08/31/15

161 South Loomis St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $439,000
Buyer: Robert J. Desnoyers
Seller: Gary Palmer
Date: 08/31/15

1 Tree Top Lane
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $299,900
Buyer: Tracy L. Cesan
Seller: Michael J. Foint
Date: 08/26/15

TOLLAND

75 School House Road
Tolland, MA 01034
Amount: $324,900
Buyer: Michelle D. Parker
Seller: John W. Stonesifer
Date: 08/24/15

WALES

163 Monson Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Shawn M. White
Seller: FNMA
Date: 09/03/15

24 Sichols Colony Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $345,000
Seller: Kenneth L. Fitzgibbon
Date: 09/03/15

WESTFIELD

8 Columbia St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $123,886
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Arthur W. Purdy
Date: 09/01/15

19 Eastview Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Michael G. Letellier
Seller: SSMG Ltd Co.
Date: 08/27/15

68 Elizabeth Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Taryne M. Curran
Seller: Patrick J. McGrath
Date: 09/04/15

85 Falley Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: David D. Arthur
Seller: Jeanne M. Keller
Date: 09/03/15

24 Floral Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Karrie A. Pierce
Seller: Rabtor, David M., (Estate)
Date: 09/04/15

6 Grant St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Double D. Investments LLC
Seller: Cheryl Denardo
Date: 08/25/15

244 Honey Pot Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $487,900
Buyer: Mark B. Platt
Seller: Glenn A. Korostynski
Date: 08/26/15

12 Jaeger Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $246,000
Buyer: Joshua P. Vight
Seller: Christopher P. Benton
Date: 08/28/15

45 King St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Agnes Properties LLC
Seller: Christoper D. Fager
Date: 09/02/15

75 Laura Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $258,000
Buyer: Benjamin J. Dansereau
Seller: Josephine A. Cheika
Date: 08/28/15

131 Long Pond Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $184,900
Buyer: Gloria D. Lebeau
Seller: Mongeau, Mary A., (Estate)
Date: 09/03/15

20 Marla Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $389,900
Buyer: David Barton
Seller: Donald A. Bieker
Date: 08/31/15

115 Northwest Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $168,500
Buyer: Kevin F. Aste
Seller: Nancy A. Allman
Date: 09/01/15

34 Otis St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $172,000
Buyer: Eleanor R. Bannon
Seller: Cheryl Denardo
Date: 08/26/15

151 Paper Mill Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Jean A. Moulton
Seller: Elizabeth Mcalpine
Date: 08/27/15

Raymond Circle #70
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Jeffrey R. Daley
Seller: Michael F. Parent
Date: 08/28/15

35 Ridgecrest Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $338,750
Buyer: Paul A. Preston
Seller: John A. Marcinek
Date: 08/31/15

76 Ridgeway St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $197,900
Buyer: Edward J. Abbe
Seller: John E. Kelley
Date: 08/28/15

16 State St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Lisa A. Gonzalez
Seller: Gary D. Emmershy
Date: 08/31/15

25 State St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Melvin E. Jensen
Seller: Kimberly J. Dorsey
Date: 08/31/15

2 Walnut St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Edwin Caride
Seller: Kristen M. Emrick
Date: 09/01/15

14 Westwood Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $262,900
Buyer: Ann M. Boisvert
Seller: Jeffrey R. Daley
Date: 08/28/15

99 White St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $177,000
Buyer: Roland S. Barbeito
Seller: Julian S. Tenczar
Date: 09/01/15

WILBRAHAM

22 Brainard Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $219,000
Buyer: Jennifer L. Gay
Seller: Paul E. Ugolini
Date: 08/31/15

8 Devonshire Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Laura M. Bovino
Seller: Luann T. Trigo
Date: 09/04/15

21 Devonshire Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Nicholas Bailey
Seller: Derek Fergus
Date: 08/27/15

4 Edson Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $292,000
Buyer: Gene Salvador
Seller: George F. Vitek
Date: 08/31/15

15 Leemond St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Anthony Rossi
Seller: Susan L. Leege
Date: 08/28/15

155 Main St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $281,500
Buyer: Brian J. Maloney
Seller: Philip A. Robichaud
Date: 09/02/15

6 Merrill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Russell L. Powell
Seller: Ricky D. Powell
Date: 08/24/15

6 Pheasant Farm Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Elizabeth M. Moriarty
Seller: John R. Barber
Date: 08/28/15

647 Springfield St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Luke Jenne
Seller: Reid B. Savoie
Date: 08/28/15

777 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $245,500
Buyer: Keith J. McInnes
Seller: Harlan D. Cuklanz
Date: 08/25/15

913 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $203,951
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Todd G. Kosel
Date: 08/25/15

75 Washington Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $154,900
Buyer: Noraimi Rivera
Seller: Maria Panasian
Date: 08/31/15

WEST SPRINGFIELD

137 Althea St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $205,500
Buyer: Steven S. Gifford
Seller: Joseph Spiriti
Date: 09/02/15

24 Appaloosa Lane
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $575,000
Buyer: Mary C. Matias
Seller: Ali B. Kitchell
Date: 08/28/15

29 Braintree Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $224,400
Buyer: Christopher P. Katsoulis
Seller: James J. Hanly
Date: 08/27/15

30 Gaskill Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $169,000
Buyer: Sarah L. Carver
Seller: Matthew L. Coppola
Date: 09/01/15

18 Glenview Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $232,500
Buyer: Austin H. Putman
Seller: Paul L. McCarthy
Date: 09/04/15

27 Greystone Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Almina Ceric
Seller: Faith M. Smith
Date: 09/04/15

281 Lancaster Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $273,000
Buyer: Ahmed A. Mustafa
Seller: Grace A. Bobskill
Date: 08/31/15

44 Larivee Lane
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $247,000
Buyer: Jonathan A. Breton
Seller: John E. Knight
Date: 09/04/15

650 Main St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $129,952
Buyer: Deutsche Bank
Seller: Jennifer Jasmin
Date: 09/01/15

63 Prince Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $156,000
Buyer: Brian W. Cayo
Seller: Andrea C. Izzo
Date: 08/31/15

38 Ridgeview Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: April Salvador-Macadam
Seller: Deborah A. Nickerson
Date: 09/04/15

14 Van Horn St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $191,000
Buyer: Alexander P. Seymour
Seller: Allison J. Skowron
Date: 08/27/15

302 Woodmont St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $153,000
Buyer: Michael P. Sullivan
Seller: Francis M. Pikula
Date: 08/31/15

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

170 Columbia Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $268,000
Buyer: Wendy J. Hogans
Seller: Ellen B. Eagan
Date: 09/01/15

16 Eames Ave.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: 220 North East Street LLC
Seller: Gassan, Richard, (Estate)
Date: 08/28/15

42 Hartman Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Jae-Hwang Lee
Seller: Jennifer E. Booker RET
Date: 08/31/15

55 High Point Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Ayano Kataoka
Seller: Louis D. Parrot
Date: 08/25/15

63 Pokeberry Ridge
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Brett A. Marquard
Seller: Michael J. Wolff
Date: 08/28/15

74 Potwine Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $299,900
Buyer: Robert C. Hawley
Seller: Louis K. Epstein
Date: 08/27/15

122 Spring St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $292,000
Buyer: Razvan Sibii
Seller: Sarna, Jennie R., (Estate)
Date: 08/26/15

31 Weaver Circle
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $547,000
Buyer: Adam C. Lau
Seller: Paul S. Beacher
Date: 08/28/15

BELCHERTOWN

22 Clearbrook Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $228,000
Buyer: Alexander Tuohy
Seller: Pamela A. Letendre
Date: 09/04/15

23 Clearbrook Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Ahmed Gonzalez
Seller: Elizabeth Barnes
Date: 09/04/15

689 Federal St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $241,000
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Judyann Brandon
Date: 09/01/15

881 Federal St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Henry J. Walas
Seller: Nancy W. Eckert
Date: 09/04/15

42 Hickory Hill
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Michael Burke
Seller: J. N. Duquette & Son Construction
Date: 08/28/15

135 Kennedy Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $249,900
Buyer: Christian S. Bourdeau
Seller: Janet E. Simeone
Date: 08/27/15

N/A
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $283,000
Buyer: David Cohen
Seller: Leonard G. Abraham
Date: 09/01/15

334 North Liberty St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $305,100
Buyer: Jason R. Ballou
Seller: Craig H. Bodamer
Date: 09/04/15

277 North St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Michael E. Akresh
Seller: Danielle Kadinoff
Date: 08/26/15

71 Pondview Circle
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $405,000
Buyer: Leah M. Carver
Seller: Jean Girard
Date: 08/28/15

47 Segur Lane
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Jameson Gaspar
Seller: Kiawa Krzcuik
Date: 09/01/15

19 Sheffield Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $318,000
Buyer: Michael J. Bernard
Seller: David T. Vacchi
Date: 08/27/15

187 Sheffield Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $342,000
Buyer: Jeffrey R. Leboeuf
Seller: Timothy J. Kenney
Date: 08/27/15

534 South St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $141,973
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Margaret A. Garde
Date: 08/25/15

331 Stebbins St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Scott C. Thurston
Seller: Steven M. Auclair
Date: 08/28/15

140 Summit St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $203,000
Buyer: Beth M. Spencer
Seller: Jeannine R. Berger
Date: 08/31/15

20 Terry Lane
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $309,000
Buyer: John A. Alo
Seller: Sean A. Mason
Date: 08/28/15

CHESTERFIELD

8 Antin Road
Chesterfield, MA 01012
Amount: $199,900
Buyer: Gary S. Krol
Seller: Pettersen, Charles, (Estate)
Date: 08/26/15

EASTHAMPTON

20 Ashley Circle
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $439,000
Seller: Verla R. Mantegna
Date: 08/25/15

42 Campbell Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $186,500
Buyer: Francine S. Murphy
Seller: Alice M. Tougas IRT
Date: 08/31/15

14 Duda Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Bryce B. Wallace
Seller: Duane S. Stoddard
Date: 08/28/15

23 East Maple St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Ralph R. Morton
Seller: Emily E. Casella
Date: 08/31/15

192 East St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: John P. Regish
Seller: Ann M. Malinowski
Date: 08/31/15

6 Elliot St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $216,000
Buyer: Shawn E. Hainsworth
Seller: Lisa J. Brusco
Date: 08/27/15

3 Emily Lane
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $249,000
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Andrew D. Nicotera
Date: 08/24/15

35 Fort Hill Road
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Hunter S. Keil
Seller: Eliza Lake
Date: 09/01/15

5 Fox Run
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Leslie H. Button
Seller: Arthur J. Franz
Date: 08/31/15

8 Fox Run
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $408,000
Buyer: Erik A. Karella
Seller: Anthony F. Swana
Date: 08/28/15

64 Highland Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $260,500
Buyer: Joseph M. Palombella
Seller: Christopher J. Gottardi
Date: 09/03/15

11 Kingsberry Way
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $359,000
Buyer: Eric J. Grenier
Seller: Czelusniak Custom Homes
Date: 08/31/15

12 Lux Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $191,200
Buyer: Danica E. Achin
Seller: Melikian IRT
Date: 08/28/15

21 Lyman Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Malinda S. Lovic
Seller: Erik A. Karella
Date: 09/04/15

33 Meadowbrook Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Robert E. Dragon
Seller: Sean A. Echols
Date: 08/28/15

16 Oliver St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Adam Z. Stein
Seller: Judith A. Almeida
Date: 08/28/15

165 Park St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Helen Clement
Seller: Philip S. Finkle
Date: 08/28/15

29 Phelps St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Courtney L. Leeming
Seller: Norwich Properties LLC
Date: 08/24/15

23 Pinebrook Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $269,900
Buyer: Joshua W. Churchill
Seller: Craig R. Spaulding
Date: 08/24/15

38 Spring St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $204,500
Buyer: Lauren M. Kessler
Seller: Karen A. Adamski
Date: 08/27/15

20 Torrey St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $296,000
Buyer: Michael R. Keefe
Seller: Kevin Riordon
Date: 08/31/15

36 Torrey St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $211,200
Buyer: Robert A. Canon
Seller: Bryce Wallace
Date: 08/28/15

GOSHEN

6 Cape St.
Goshen, MA 01096
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Lawrence M. Rowen
Seller: Catherine Damato
Date: 08/25/15

583 East St.
Goshen, MA 01096
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Kara B. Burke
Seller: Anne M. Hendry
Date: 08/28/15

105 Lake Dr.
Goshen, MA 01032
Amount: $386,500
Buyer: Martha P. Sites
Seller: Joseph T. Tortoriello
Date: 08/27/15

GRANBY

310 Amherst St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $492,950
Buyer: Steven Pomeranz
Seller: Edward H. Parker
Date: 08/31/15

93 Carver St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $364,900
Buyer: Pierre Jacques
Seller: Jean C. Peloquin
Date: 08/31/15

21 Greenmeadow Lane
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $257,500
Buyer: Jason D. Siudak
Seller: William A. Gargiulo
Date: 08/27/15

32 Greenmeadow Lane
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $229,000
Buyer: Scott Soverino
Seller: Kris A. Glinka
Date: 08/27/15

Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Fei Ma
Seller: Steven R. Pelletier
Date: 08/24/15

12 Pheasant Hill
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Joseph L. Larrivee
Seller: Ingham, James I., (Estate)
Date: 08/31/15

176 Taylor St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $122,750
Buyer: Kevin P. Godbout
Seller: Christine A. Mendrala
Date: 08/25/15

284 Taylor St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $419,000
Buyer: Clifton C. Ting
Seller: Raymond J. Mackenzie
Date: 09/01/15

HADLEY

118 Bay Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $605,000
Buyer: Lindsay A. Berry
Seller: Merrill B. Blanksteen
Date: 08/24/15

7 High Meadow Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Theresa A. Ahrens
Seller: Lauter FT
Date: 08/25/15

7 Norwottuck Dr.
Hadley, MA 01035
Buyer: Jaime A. Lavallee
Seller: Christine A. Lynch
Date: 09/02/15

22 Woodlawn Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $359,000
Buyer: Robert M. Bankert
Seller: Donna L. Lecourt
Date: 08/24/15

HATFIELD

33 Jericho Road
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: James H. Benson
Seller: Debra G. Harlow
Date: 08/28/15

476 Main St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Brendan R. Johnson
Seller: Scoot, Katherine B. C., (Estate)
Date: 09/04/15

HUNTINGTON

69 Bromley Road
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $229,000
Buyer: Mark R. Scott
Seller: Kathie A. Morrison
Date: 09/04/15

45 County Road
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $273,500
Buyer: Robert Paquette
Seller: Timothy J. Seney
Date: 09/03/15

6 Lowell Lane
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $293,000
Buyer: Robert J. Boyer
Seller: Pierre Jacques
Date: 08/31/15

62 Searle Road
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Alyshia Horvath
Seller: Dennis M. Robare
Date: 09/04/15

MIDDLEFIELD

71 West Hill Road
Middlefield, MA 01243
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Leslie Blake-Davis
Seller: Douglas F. Robare
Date: 09/04/15

NORTHAMPTON

95 Autumn Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $248,000
Buyer: Stephen A. Brown
Seller: Stephen G. Sireci
Date: 08/27/15

67 Beacon St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $312,000
Buyer: Andrea L. James
Seller: Galusza, Bertha V., (Estate)
Date: 09/02/15

101 Bridge Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $196,000
Buyer: Lisa Laprade
Seller: Margaret M. Garrett
Date: 08/31/15

532 Bridge Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $229,900
Buyer: Keith W. Miller
Seller: Robin J. Wood
Date: 09/02/15

540 Bridge Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $277,000
Buyer: Timothy P. Miner
Seller: Joanna L. Jordan
Date: 08/31/15

67 Chestnut St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $368,000
Buyer: Tara T. Brewster
Seller: Stephen B. Edwards
Date: 09/01/15

98 Deerfield Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $213,500
Buyer: Susan J. Biggs
Seller: Sharon M. Gross
Date: 08/24/15

28 Elizabeth St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $297,500
Buyer: D. Murphy Properties LLC
Seller: Amy T. Bedell
Date: 09/01/15

5 Hockanum Road
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $489,900
Buyer: Danica M. Phelps
Seller: Carol J. Robinson
Date: 09/04/15

26 James Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: Marilyn Fichman
Seller: Howard E. Bond
Date: 08/26/15

195 Kennedy Road
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $587,500
Buyer: Carla R. Imperial
Seller: Sherri L. Meade
Date: 08/27/15

21 Laurel St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $390,365
Buyer: Felix E. Margolin
Seller: Transformations Inc.
Date: 09/02/15

55 Lincoln Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $321,000
Buyer: Marisela A. Fermin-Schon
Seller: Alexa Beach
Date: 09/01/15

51 Loudville Road
Northampton, MA 01027
Amount: $534,900
Buyer: Laura T. Beltran
Seller: Aaron O. Patrick
Date: 08/31/15

205 Nonotuck St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Alyx Akers
Seller: W. Marek Inc.
Date: 08/27/15

200 North Elm St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Jae McAuley
Seller: Bill & Marie G. Emerson RET
Date: 09/01/15

150 North St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $368,000
Buyer: Elizabeth A. Armstrong
Seller: Archambault, G. R. Sr., (Estate)
Date: 09/04/15

726 Park Hill Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $395,000
Buyer: Kevin M. Riordon
Seller: Phillip J. Pilewski
Date: 08/31/15

64 Ridgewood Terrace
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $435,000
Buyer: Kevin Brigham
Seller: Frank P. Willard
Date: 08/31/15

418 Ryan Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Tina T. Champagne
Seller: Thomas E. Dawson-Greene
Date: 08/28/15

267 Turkey Hill Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $434,000
Buyer: James C. Pinney
Seller: Andrew Chambers
Date: 08/27/15

43 West St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $937,500
Buyer: Smith College
Seller: Standick TR
Date: 09/01/15

1504 Westhampton Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Maureen A. McMahon
Seller: Daniel E. Hewins
Date: 09/04/15

3 Wright Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Isobel A. McMahon
Seller: Gretna Green Development
Date: 08/31/15

PELHAM

11-B Bray Court
Pelham, MA 01002
Amount: $260,500
Buyer: William A. Wright
Seller: Shawn R. Adams
Date: 09/02/15

11 Harkness Road
Pelham, MA 01002
Amount: $443,500
Buyer: Sally B. Kaufmann
Seller: Robert C. Hawley
Date: 08/27/15

SOUTH HADLEY

526 Amherst Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $172,500
Buyer: Mary Miller
Seller: H. A. Fulmer
Date: 09/04/15

26 Ashton Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $328,000
Buyer: Roger W. Tucker
Seller: Jean P. Aubin
Date: 08/25/15

3 Burnett Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Jenny Scobel
Seller: Jennifer C. Pyke
Date: 08/27/15

21 Cedar Ridge
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $405,000
Buyer: Brendan M. Landers
Seller: Carrie R. Ingham
Date: 08/31/15

79 Granby Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $224,000
Buyer: Scott K. Jarry
Seller: Western Mass. Training Consortium
Date: 08/31/15

10 Karen Dr.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Douglass R. Baker
Seller: Chester A. Pupek
Date: 08/31/15

12 Lakeview Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: Wyatt B. Couture
Seller: Bonnie Quenneville
Date: 09/01/15

14 Lakeview Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: G&A RT
Seller: Lizak, Iwalter F., (Estate)
Date: 09/04/15

259 Lathrop St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $289,000
Buyer: Gary C. Capone
Seller: Edward J. Tierney
Date: 08/24/15

38 Lexington Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $163,000
Buyer: Katie Diemand
Seller: Mary T. Lenarcen
Date: 08/25/15

113 Lyman St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $209,000
Buyer: Sally Granada
Seller: Elizabeth M. Buelow
Date: 09/03/15

19 Magnolia Terrace
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Robert Mathieu
Seller: FNMA
Date: 08/28/15

48 McKinley Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: A. L. Byrne
Seller: Daniel G. Laprade
Date: 09/04/15

611 Newton St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $172,500
Buyer: Mary E. O’Neill
Seller: Mariann Ingraham
Date: 08/27/15

10 Richview Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Jacob Dziadek
Seller: Susan E. Brennan
Date: 08/24/15

21 South St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $124,000
Buyer: Scott Family Properties
Seller: William Normand
Date: 08/28/15

19 Woodbridge St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: ABKG Enterprises LLC
Seller: Mount Holyoke College
Date: 08/27/15

SOUTHAMPTON

15 Bissonnette Circle
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: Kevin Coyne
Seller: Jerrald Gatlin
Date: 08/24/15

106 College Hwy.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Sarah A. Kirley
Seller: Joshua P. Vight
Date: 08/28/15

124 East St.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $218,000
Buyer: Bruce R. Butman
Seller: Daniel T. Towse
Date: 09/03/15

8 Pomeroy Meadow Road Ext.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $268,000
Buyer: Aaron C. Tauscher
Seller: Ruth A. Baraniuk
Date: 08/26/15

84 Russellville Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $342,500
Buyer: Frederick R. Benda
Seller: Edward F. Podlovits
Date: 08/31/15

110 White Loaf Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Matthew J. Provencal
Seller: Robert Paquette
Date: 09/03/15

WARE

273 Belchertown Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $294,999
Buyer: Chrysler Szarlan
Seller: Jean E. Broom
Date: 09/04/15

140 Bondsville Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $115,500
Buyer: Michael T. Fitzpatrick
Seller: Beth Zajchowski
Date: 08/28/15

6 Chestnut St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Tara A. Driscoll
Seller: Cheryl Wesolowski
Date: 09/01/15

55 East Main St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: 118 Main Street Ware LLC
Seller: Lestek Inc.
Date: 09/04/15

105 Gilbertville Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Michael S. Anair
Seller: Susan K. Demore
Date: 08/31/15

28 Pine St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $129,900
Buyer: Angelique C. Cordeau
Seller: Michael Davis
Date: 08/28/15

WESTHAMPTON

3 Hathaway Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Jeremy P. Payson
Seller: Michael Georgiadis
Date: 09/04/15

49 Northwest Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Robert W. Gougeon
Seller: Rebecca A. Stefan
Date: 08/24/15

95 Southampton Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Melissa A. Packard
Seller: Brian D. Burrows
Date: 08/28/15

WILLIAMSBURG

21 Goshen Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Joseph S. Barker
Seller: Florence Savings Bank
Date: 08/31/15

145 Goshen Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: William Burke
Seller: Fred W. Gohr
Date: 08/28/15

122 Petticoat Hill Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $455,000
Buyer: Brad H. Wolansky
Seller: Marilyn R. Schuster
Date: 09/03/15

WORTHINGTON

19 Ireland St.
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $257,500
Buyer: Peggy Klineman
Seller: Thomas M. Wootton
Date: 08/31/15

54 Witt Hill Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $147,500
Buyer: Caleb J. Roach
Seller: Deane Messeck
Date: 09/01/15

Bankruptcies

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Bankruptcies Departments

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

Aiken, James G.
PO Box 319
Huntington, MA 01050
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/18/15

Blake, Paul
Blake, Katherine H.
52 Alderman St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/26/15

Burke, Barbara J.
a/k/a Dupuis, Barbara J.
78 Amherst St.
Granby, MA 01033
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/19/15

Camyre, Helen R.
a/k/a Kapinos, Helen
37 Sitnik Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/31/15

Carson, Todd R.
17 Peloquin Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/26/15

Case, Glenn A.
150 Elm St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/23/15

Chirgwin, Scott M.
20 Penrose St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/19/15

Cianna Designs
Nielsen, Crystal Anna
2 Morgan Place
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/17/15

Connelly, Robert M.
93 White Fox Road
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/21/15

Cooper, Lawrence William
30 Charles St.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/27/15

DeLuccia, Paul
718 Lenox St.
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/31/15

Dieppa, Jennifer
491 Bridge Road, Apt. #12
Florence, MA 01062
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/17/15

Dionisi, Paul
133 Entrybrook Dr.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/24/15

Fajen, Catherine Lynn
a/k/a Goldman, Catherine F.
310 Elm St., Apt. 1R
Northampton, MA 01060
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/19/15

Falcon, Juan R.
71 Dickinson St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/31/15

Galecki, Christopher B.
19 Ogden St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/19/15

Gamble, Anthony
192 Marsden St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/24/15

Green, Michael A.
Green, Heike N.
7 Tree Top Lane
Southwick, MA 01077
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/29/15

Hayhurst, Constance M.
a/k/a Beaudette, Connie
65 Kelly Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/17/15

Johnson, Jennifer A.
1 Becker St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/23/15

Kenyon, Amanda Jean
46 Fairview St
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/31/15

Kerr, Hugh F.
115 Dunmoreland St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/23/15

Krause, Sara Marie
a/k/a Cote, Marie Krause
22 Canal St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/18/15

Krzykowski, Laura
31 Alfred Circle
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/24/15

Kulwich, Matthew R.
11 Union Court
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/31/15

Lamagdelaine, James E.
89 Granby St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/20/15

Lane, Mark Steven
19 Greenleaf Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/26/15

Lavelli, Beverly J.
a/k/a Austin, Beverly J.
519 E River St., Lot 141
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/28/15

Levasseur, Lynn
a/k/a Gonzalez, Lynn
58 Robinridge Road
Chicopee, MA 01022
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/26/15

Lewis, Eugenie
190 Oak St.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/28/15

Lugo, Lillian I.
193-195 Oak St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/26/15

Mairo, Thomas Herbert
514 Michael Sears Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/27/15

Markol, Thomas Michael
Markol, Kelly L.
0 Millers Falls Rd
Turners Falls, MA 01376
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/27/15

Martin, LeeAnne
195 Glenoak Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/26/15

Matlasz, Jonathan D.
30 Holmes Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/22/15

Maurer, Jodi L.
59 Millbrook Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/24/15

McDonald, Craig R.
17 Peloquin Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/26/15

Mcleod, Willie C
17 Dartmouth St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/25/15

Mena, Carmen
693 Carew St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/20/15

Morera, Jose A.
P.O. Box 366
Thorndike, MA 01079
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/25/15

Morin, Jeffrey William
10 Alamo Court
Florence, MA 01062
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/27/15

Perez, David
163 Atherton St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/31/15

Potter, Jessica L.
82 Bridge St.
Warren, MA 01083
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/29/15

Quinn, Melissa A.
128 Garland St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/21/15

Randall, George M.
10 Myrtle St
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/27/15

Redondo, Angie W.
872 Plumtree Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/27/15

Rivera, Yanira
143 Kathleen St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/22/15

Roberts, Stephen B.
265 Main St.
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/19/15

Romero-Dumeng, Maria D.
97 Spring St., Apt 27
Springfield, MA 01105
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/31/15

Roy, John F.
425 Queen Lake Road
Phillipston, MA 01331
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/31/15

Shea, Francine M.
17 Raymond Dr.
Hampden, MA 01036
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/29/15

St. Germain, Martin O.
70-72 West Main St.
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/25/15

Tobin, Morgan R.
Tobin, Jennifer M.
a/k/a Chmura, Jennifer M.
1375 Pendlton Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01022
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/31/15

Torres, Heriberto
Torres, Kristen
2 Summit Ridge Road
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/19/15

Tortoriello, Matthew J.
670 Chestnut St., 3rd F
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/19/15

Valentin, Reinaldo
18 Campechi St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/27/15

Vieu, Eric J.
138 Elmar Dr.
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 08/19/15

Webb, Douglas W.
Webb, Edith H.
76 South Maple St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/31/15

Wilson, Gabriel A.
369 Main St., Apt. 16
Ashfield, MA 01330
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 08/24/15

Doing Business As Certificates

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

DBA Certificates Departments

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

CHICOPEE

ABM Transmission & Engine Technology
1090 Chicopee St.
Mark MacDonald

Jayda Party Rental
106 Meeting House Road
Leslie O. Torres

GREENFIELD

D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches
68 Mohawk Trail
Lanod Corporation

Designs by Carleigh
94 Main St.
Carleigh Niedzwiedz

Dollar Express
10 Colrain Road
Andrea Jaffe

Franklin Chiropractic Center
77 Mohawk Trail
Jeffrey Denny

Patty’s Cleaning Service
15 Frederick St.
Parry Stratton-Poulin

Stobierski & Connor
377 Main St.
Pamela Stobierski

HOLYOKE

90’s Nails
50 Holyoke St.
Hung Huynh

Amed Ed’s Restaurant
8 North Bridge St.
Antonio DiBendetto

C Britton Foundry
85 Sargeant St.
Christopher Britton

Fresh Ink Tattoo
138 High St.
Enrique Guerra

Holyoke Mini Market
657 High St.
Daniel Santiago

La Favorita Mini Market
156 High St.
John Almonte

ModaPlu Lola
254 Maple St.
Alice Gonzalez

Rayzor Sharp Images
118 Maple St.
Raymond Rodriguez

Solstice Marketing Concepts
50 Holyoke St.
Jan Michel

Subway
330 Main St.
Daisy Florek

PALMER

DSDS Shop
1152 Main St.
Oleg Loginov

Pervez Transports
81 Springfield St.
Rehman Chaudhary

War Collectibles Inc.
1426 Main St.
Randy Schofield

Your Comfort Zone
2094 Main St.
Jeffrey Drolet

SPRINGFIELD

16 Acres Barbershop
1194 Parker St.
Khalil Chehimi

AD Family Cleaning Services
174 Prospect St.
Alberto Dominguez

Adam Beshara Inc.
479 Breckwood Blvd.
Adam Beshara

Alberto Marte
895 Carew St.
Alberto Marte

Alex & Millie Security
48 Massasoit St.
Alexander Santiago

Alex D. Cleaning
109 Arbe Ave.
Alexander Dominguez

Caylan’s Lawn Care
38 Bartlett St.
Edward L. Wallace

Cocoa Cleaning
109 Arbe Ave.
Esteban Dominguez

Egnardo Inc.
344 Orange St.
Rafael Cruz

Four Seasons Buffet
1714 Boston Road
Liyu Qui

H & F Services Corporation
50 Maynard St.
Lucas Hernandez

HSD Corporation
314 Bay St.
AamirWani

Instant Tattoo, LLC
141 Main St.
Edward Zuzgo

J & D Polishing
33 Mohawk Dr.
Dennis Nelson

JP Heating
131 Penrose St.
Juan L. Pagan

Jones Fun House
128 Tallyho Dr.
Helena Davis

Law Office of Christopher B. Myhrum
1500 Main St.
Christopher B. Myhrum

Liberty Mini Mart
739 Liberty St.
Jose N. Aponte

Life Choices Enterprise
145 Ambrose St.
Richard Mills

Los Gigantes De la Plena
1655 Main St.
Freddy Rivera

MagnetiqMuziq
12 Ladd St.
Benjamin Blake

Maxi Drug Inc.
126 Island Pond Road
Michael Podgurski

Miss Glamour
304 Allen Park Road
Ras Morgan

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Debrons Salon
242 Westfield St.
Deborah Lynn

Macadvocate
1267 Riverdale St.
Robert Fuller

Manchester Home Improvement
209 Rogers Ave.
Barry Manchester

Royal Nails
935 Riverdale St.
Hoang Vo

Incorporations

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Departments Incorporations

Incorporations were not available at press time. They will be published in the next edition of BusinessWest.

Briefcase

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Briefcase Departments

News of interest about the region’s business community October 6, 2015

MGM Springfield Presents Updated Design to City

SPRINGFIELD — MGM Springfield announced it has presented updated renderings and new details of its design to the city of Springfield. The new drawings are the result of a complete site-plan review driven by several factors, including a one-year opening-date extension, final directives on historic property use, construction market trends, and in-depth conversations with Mayor Domenic Sarno and city officials. In a letter to the mayor, MGM executives hailed the new design as a better approach to immediately activating the Main Street corridor and spurring new economic development, while reconfirming September 2018 as the completion date. “I believe this is one of the most exciting moments in the history of MGM Springfield,” said Michael Mathis, MGM Springfield president. “As we collaborate with the city on what is best from an economic-development perspective, the finer details are taking shape, and our programming is improving minute by minute.” This more integrated urban design features off-site residential space, which opens up room for a Main Street hotel that would encourage tourists and visitors to more readily engage Springfield’s downtown. Conversations are underway with property owners of nearby potential residential sites that would complement the resort-casino development. As the final design evolves, the project will feature a new five-story hotel atop a floor of retail, creating an improved scale on Main Street. The 250-room hotel would now become the eastern anchor at Howard Street of the 14.5-acre development. “This design brings to life our commitment to develop new residential activity in downtown Springfield,” Mathis noted. “Through our extensive and detailed review, we determined off-site residential would more quickly encourage ancillary development across the downtown. We are currently talking to potential partners in developing market-rate residential units.” Under the revised design, the historic columned façade at 73 State St., which had been the iconic focal point for the hotel tower, will remain as such for the updated structure, which will be home to what is tentatively being called the South End Market. With floor-to-ceiling windows, the market will be an inviting, trendy gathering space featuring local and national food and beverage vendors. “We have never lost sight of how important it is to integrate our development and its unique design needs with this historic New England downtown,” Mathis said. “We think the changes along Main Street and this new layout are more in line with a true downtown mixed-use development that will make MGM Springfield the premier urban resort in the industry.”

EANE Releases Insurance & Benefits Survey

AGAWAM — The Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast announced its findings from the 2015 Insurance & Benefits Survey, conducted earlier this year, with 121 companies participating from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The survey posed more than 130 questions. It covered health insurance, including cost, coverage, eligibility, and employee cost sharing. It also addressed retirement plans, disability benefits, and voluntary benefits. The greatest change in the survey findings continues to be in health insurance. Employers will offer, or have introduced, methods to control costs, while attempting to comply with the Affordable Care Act. These methods include shifting deductible costs and co-share to employees by altering plan design. More specifically, the survey indicates the employers’ contribution towards an employee’s coverage option has decreased from 2013 levels. While monthly premiums illustrate minimal changes, the annual deductible per person and per family has increased. As a result, employers have reassessed their benefit packages, and long-term-care benefits are affected. “Everyone is looking at the bottom line, and controlling healthcare costs is often on the top of that list,” said Mark Adams, director of HR Solutions for EANE. “That said, employers want to remain attractive to new employees and preserve their benefit packages.”

Ad Club Announces Five Pynchon Award Winners

SPRINGFIELD — The Advertising Club of Western Massachusetts announced five recipients of the Order of William Pynchon Awards for 2015 — the 100th anniversary of the awards, which were first presented in 1915. This year’s honorees include Gary Bernice, band director at Springfield High School of Science and Technology; entrepreneur and philanthropist Harold Grinspoon; Sue Ellen Panitch, who has volunteered with dozens of organizations; and Ronn and Donna Johnson, who founded the Brianna Fund for Children with Physical Disabilities. The Pynchon Awards honor members of the community who have distinguished themselves through their service. The Advertising Club will fete this year’s honorees on Nov. 19 at the Springfield Museums. Tickets cost $65, and more information is available at www.adclubwm.org.

State Receives Grant for Apprenticeship Programs

BOSTON — The state’s Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development was awarded a $2.9 million federal grant to expand apprenticeship opportunities in high-growth industries in Massachusetts. The American Apprenticeship Grant, awarded by the U.S. Department of Labor, will enable the state to help 300 residents gain apprenticeship training in industries with a growing demand for new employees, such as healthcare, technology, and advanced manufacturing. The funds will support the Massachusetts Apprenticeship Initiative (MAI) to increase the number of apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship opportunities in those industries. There are more than 7,500 registered apprentices in the state in 2015. “As many employers in Massachusetts struggle to find the skilled labor to fill available jobs, this grant will enable training for individuals in high-demand industries and provide more job opportunities for the people of the Commonwealth,” Gov. Charlie Baker said. The U.S. Department of Labor awarded $175 million in American Apprenticeship Grants to 46 awardees across the nation to expand apprenticeships in high-growth industries. The Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development will use the grant to build upon apprenticeship opportunities and address the skills gap for underserved residents. “Our team worked incredibly hard to be awarded one of these highly competitive grants,” said Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Ronald Walker, II, who chairs the Workforce Skills Cabinet. “These funds will help us in our mission to meet employers’ demands for highly skilled workers so they can continue to grow their businesses. Businesses cannot grow if they cannot find enough skilled workers.” Created by the governor through an executive order, the Workforce Skills Cabinet’s goal is to align education, economic- and workforce-development programs, and policies to increase opportunities for training and employment for residents while helping businesses meet their growth needs.

Project Manager Chosen for PVTA Bus Operations, Maintenance Facility

SPRINGFIELD — City Point Partners announced it has been selected by the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) to oversee the design and construction of the new Bus Operations and Maintenance Facility on Cottage Street in Springfield, replacing the existing, 100-year-old facility. The new, 280,000-square-foot, $70 million facility will be built on an 18-acre site and will provide bus maintenance and storage for the PVTA’s Springfield fixed-route operation. The facility will be able to accommodate approximately 150 fixed-route buses, including standard-size diesel buses and articulated buses. Included in this new facility will be management office space, fuel bays, wash bays, bus and van storage bays, garage and body-shop areas, parts storage, exercise rooms, locker rooms and showers, lounge, dispatch center, employee parking, and green spaces. A new cell tower will also be installed onsite to support the PVTA’s IT communications. The new facility will seek LEED certification under the U.S. Green Building Council’s green-building rating system. City Point Partners will provide owner’s project-management services advising with respect to the design, scope of work, cost estimating, construction manager-at-risk and subcontractor selection, schedule overview, and performance monitoring. With ridership expected to continue its steady increase and a number of high-profile development projects in the Springfield area scheduled to be completed within the next two to three years, the PVTA is planning for a greater expansion of service and consequently will require larger facilities to support this service expansion. “We are very excited to be working with City Point Partners on this critical project. A larger operations center is a vital part of supporting the expanded service that our ridership demands,” said Mary MacInnes, administrator of the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority. Added Colleen Moore, president and founder of City Point Partners, “this is a very exciting time for the PVTA. Both the public- and private-sector developments planned for the Springfield area will change the city of Springfield itself and the Pioneer Valley. We are confident that we will be able to help the PVTA meet the rising demand of their ridership, which will result from these developments and ultimately stimulate increased economic activity in the region. We are very happy to be working for the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority.” City Point Partners has a growing owner’s project-management practice with multiple projects across Massachusetts.

State Unemployment Rate Remains at 4.7% in August

BOSTON — The state’s total unemployment rate remained at 4.7% in August, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development announced. The new preliminary job estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate Massachusetts gained 7,200 jobs in August, marking the 12th consecutive month of job gains. Year to date, Massachusetts has added 56,500 jobs. Preliminary August estimates show the number of employed residents declined by 20,600 and the number of unemployed residents decreased by 2,500, reducing the labor force by 23,100. Over the year, the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell 0.9% from 5.6% in August 2014. The August state unemployment rate remains lower than the national rate of 5.1% reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Massachusetts continues to add jobs that strengthen our economy, and the unemployment rate is holding steady, lower than the national average,” Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Ronald Walker II said.

Company Notebook

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Company Notebook Departments

News and notes about area businesses October 6, 2015

SC School of Social Work, Peace Corps Announce Fellows Program

SPRINGFIELD — The Springfield College School of Social Work and the Peace Corps announced the launch of the new Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Program, which will provide graduate-school scholarships to returned Peace Corps volunteers. Program fellows will serve as interns in local, underserved communities while they complete their studies, allowing them to bring home and expand upon the skills they learned as volunteers. “We are delighted to partner with Springfield College to support our returned volunteers as they pursue higher education and continue their commitment to service,” Peace Corps Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet said. “Communities are moved forward by the selflessness of volunteers, and returned Peace Corps volunteers have unique skills and experiences to offer their local communities.” Selected applicants will receive a graduate fellowship while enrolled in the Springfield College Master of Social Work program. As part of the Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Program, students will complete an internship, receive a stipend, and have tuition credits waived each year. “Springfield College was founded in 1885 with the mission of educating students in spirit, mind, and body in leadership for service to others,” said Springfield College Vice President and Provost of Academic Affairs Jean Wyld. “Given this mission, we are excited to partner with the Peace Corps and look forward to welcoming our Coverdell fellows to the School of Social Work. The college is pleased to collaborate with the Peace Corps for this new program and to extend the impact of the School of Social Work still further.” Peace Corps volunteers who are involved in the program will earn their master’s degree in social work from Springfield College. As part of the program, students will complete 1,050 hours of service in the field in partnership with more than 1,000 agencies in New England and New York. “There is a synergy between Springfield College’s mission to educate future leaders in service and the Peace Corps’ mission to create sustainable change through dedicated partnerships around the world,” said Francine Vecchiolla, dean of the Springfield College School of Social Work. “Our welcoming school community will offer abundant opportunities for a Coverdell fellow to help promote a better understanding of other cultures and a cross-cultural ethical mandate that is central to social-work education.” Through their internships, Coverdell fellows will apply what they learn in the classroom to a professional setting. They not only gain valuable, hands-on experience that makes them more competitive in today’s job market, but they also further the missions of the Peace Corps and Springfield College. By sharing their global perspective with the communities they serve, fellows help fulfill the Peace Corps’ commitment to strengthen Americans’ understanding of the world and its people. To learn more about the Coverdell Fellows Program at Springfield College, contact Karen Clark-Hoey at [email protected].

People on the Move

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Departments People on the Move

Local news hires, promotions, awards, and appointments October 6, 2015

Nancy Shendell-Falik

Nancy Shendell-Falik, who for the past two years has served in a dual position at Baystate Health as senior vice president/chief operating officer and chief nursing officer for Baystate Medical Center, has been promoted to president of Baystate Medical Center and senior vice president for hospital operations at Baystate Health. Her appointment becomes effective Oct. 1. “During her two years at Baystate, Nancy has propelled the organization as both a system leader and COO/CNO of Baystate Medical Center. Her new role is an important step in our journey toward becoming a fully integrated health system, ensuring that we deliver care most effectively and efficiently,” said Dr. Mark Keroack, president and CEO of Baystate Health. “As Baystate Health continues to develop a regional model of care, an important new directive for Nancy will be to help us to achieve a greater alignment between our five hospitals, physicians, and other community providers.” Baystate Health consists of Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield, Baystate Mary Lane Hospital in Ware, and its newest members, Baystate Wing Hospital in Palmer and Baystate Noble Hospital in Westfield. In Shendell-Falik’s new role, the presidents of Baystate Franklin Medical Center, Baystate Health’s Northern Region, Baystate Noble Hospital, and Baystate Health’s Eastern Region will report to her. Before coming to Baystate, Shendell-Falik — an experienced healthcare and nurse leader with years of success improving the quality of patient care, hospital efficiency, and patient satisfaction — served as senior vice president for Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at Tufts Medical Center and Floating Hospital for Children in Boston. During her tenure there, she demonstrated a collaborative style of leadership in championing numerous initiatives to improve clinical quality, patient safety, and patient experience. She implemented a system of performance scorecards across all departments, served as executive sponsor of Tufts’ Patient and Family Advisory Council, and sponsored a novel leadership-education program. Prior to her work in Boston, Shendell-Falik served as senior vice president, Patient Care Services, at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in New Jersey. While at the 673-bed, regional-care teaching hospital, she led similar successful initiatives to improve quality and safety, implemented a nurse-residency program, and reduced nursing vacancy rates. Since joining Baystate in July 2013, Shendell-Falilk has encouraged new interdisciplinary collaborations as a way to further improve patient experience, and served as the architect behind developing standard attire for various caregivers to help patients identify who is providing their care. Also, under her leadership, Baystate Medical Center was named to an elite group of High Performing Hospitals in America by U.S. News & World Report for 2015-16. Shendell-Falik holds a master’s degree in nursing from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Rutgers College of Nursing. She was a fellow of the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Program. She holds membership in numerous professional societies and organizations, including the Mass. Organization of Nurse Executives, the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows Alumni Assoc., the National Assoc. for Female Executives, and the American Organization of Nurse Executives. She has published more than a dozen peer-reviewed articles in national journals on topics such as team-based care, achieving Magnet status, and implementing clinical practice guidelines. Keroack noted that Shendell-Falik’s appointment is a milestone in the history of Baystate Health, marking both the first female president and first nurse as president of Baystate Medical Center. “I am extremely excited about the opportunity to guide our nationally recognized hospital into the future,” she said. “I look forward to working collaboratively with staff and leaders of all Baystate facilities to deliver care that is compassionate, of the highest quality, and affordable. As I prepare to assume my new role, I am honored and humbled to be the first woman and nurse to hold this position at Baystate.” For more information on Baystate Medical Center, visit baystatehealth.org/bmc.

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Jason Curtis

Tighe & Bond, a New England leader in civil engineering and environmental consulting, recently hired mechanical engineer Jason Curtis to bolster its growing mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) team. He has experience designing a range of institutional, educational, residential, healthcare, commercial, and combined heat and power projects throughout the region. He will work primarily out of the firm’s corporate office in Westfield. Curtis has managed projects from the conceptual design phase through construction administration. He has completed HVAC system designs and overseen the production of MEP and fire-protection construction documents. Known for working closely with owners and architects in design-coordination efforts, he also has performed energy models and life-cycle cost analyses to evaluate various prospective energy-conservation measures for renovation projects. “Jason is a welcome addition to our MEP team,” said David Pinsky, president and CEO of Tighe & Bond. “As the demand for our mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering services has grown, we have expanded our staff to better serve our clients and provide more integrated services. We now have a robust MEP team of 10 that quickly respond to our clients’ needs.” Curtis earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Union College. He is licensed in both Massachusetts and Connecticut, and is registered in Accredited LEED AP Building Design + Construction. In addition, he is a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers.

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Regional accounting firm Whittlesey & Hadley, P.C. announced the following promotions to senior audit associate: Timothy Bessette, Nicholas Deets, Patrick Kelly, Caitlin Main, Alex McCabe, James Mercadante, Steve Norris, Andrew Pires, Michael Ray, and Kyle Rounseville. In addition, Rachel Hahn has been promoted to senior tax associate. In the firm’s wholly owned subsidiary, the Technology Group, LLC, Hadas Davis was promoted to senior network engineer, and Kenneth Blain was promoted to network engineer. “I am pleased to see our team’s dedication to accounting and technology excellence,” said Drew Andrews, the frm’s managing partner. “These promotions are the result of our clients’ continued satisfaction in all that we do for them.”

•••••

Elizabeth Fitzgerald

Joseph LeMay

Robert Spano

Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C. announced the hiring of three new associates: Elizabeth Fitzgerald, Joseph LeMay, and Robert Spano. Fitzgerald graduated summa cum laude from Elms College with two bachelor’s degrees, in accounting and information systems and in business management and marketing. She is currently enrolled in the MSA program at Elms. As an undergraduate student, she earned the Jane M. Klausman Women in Business Scholarship, the Margaret & Agnes O’Donnell Scholarship, and the Donald A. & Dorothy F. Axtell Grant Scholarship. Before pursuing accounting, Fitzgerald worked as a customer-service professional at a local bank. In her current position, she works closely with clients to meet their engagement needs and supports the lead accountant in matters including compliance testing and financial analysis. LeMay comes to MBK from Westfield State University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business management and an MSA. He brings a background in bookkeeping, cost-accounting analytical research, and public-accounting experience to his position through various internships in both public accounting and private industry, including an internship with Meyers Brothers Kalicka. As an associate, his responsibilities include performing audit testing for various industries as well as tax returns for individuals and businesses. Spano holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from American International College, where he is currently enrolled in the MSAT graduate program. He specializes in field work and compliance testing. Before joining the firm, he completed an internship at a local firm, where he gained experience in taxation and fraud examination. “Elizabeth, Joseph, and Robert represent the next generation of accountants in our profession,” said Howard Cheney, partner and director of the firm’s Audit and Accounting practice. “They are young, vital, and motivated to provide quality service to our clients. At MBK, we believe strongly in the development of our next generation to ensure the continuity of the service we provide to our clients. We couldn’t have asked for better candidates.”

•••••

HUB International New England, a division of HUB International Limited, a global insurance-brokerage, risk-advisory and employee-benefits firm, announced multiple new hires in its East Longmeadow office to meet the needs of its expanding products, services, and customer demand:

Eileen Maxwell

• Appointed as an employee benefits client relationship manager, Eileen Maxwell will be responsible for assisting staff with client relations, service, sales, and administrative activities of new and existing group benefit accounts. With almost 30 years of experience, she has an extensive background in planning, evaluating, implementing, relationship building, and managing all aspects of employee benefits; and

Marayda Pagan

• Marayda Pagan joins the Personal Lines department as an account manager and will be responsible for assisting clients with their home, auto, and personal-liability umbrella coverages. She has held various positions in the insurance industry, starting out as an office assistant before being promoted to processor. She also held the position of Personal Lines manager. Cynthia Squires has been hired as the manager of Select Business for small to medium-sized business accounts in the Commercial Lines department. She has been in the insurance industry for almost 30 years and brings an extensive amount of knowledge and leadership skills to the agency. She will be responsible for the day-to-day management and servicing of small-business accounts, providing oversight and direction to commercial-lines staff, leading quality-control and product-analysis processes, managing departmental retention, acquiring new business goals, and staying on top of the latest industry changes and trends. “We’re thrilled to welcome Eileen, Marayda, and Cynthia on board during this exciting period of growth for the company,” said Timm Marini, president of HUB International New England, formerly FieldEddy Insurance. “Their respective experience will be an essential part in helping to further the agency’s goals of expanding our products and services while maintaining the highest level of service standards and best value to our clients.”

•••••

After 20 years at Dakin Humane Society, Executive Director Leslie Harris announced her resignation effective Oct. 2 to pursue a new opportunity at Quonquont Farm & Orchard in Whately. “Leslie’s vision and leadership has given Dakin incredible momentum and untold success stories,” said Charlotte Cathro, Dakin’s board treasurer. “Since joining the organization in 1995, Leslie grew Dakin from an all-volunteer, foster-based network to one with more than 60 employees between its two locations in Springfield and Leverett, a full-time spay/neuter clinic that has performed more than 60,000 surgeries, and a multi-million-dollar budget. I know I speak for the entire board in expressing my appreciation for Leslie’s stewardship of Dakin and wish her great success in her new role.” Under Harris’s leadership, Dakin Humane Society grew from serving 300 animals in its first year to more than 20,000 in 2014. She led the charge to merge operations with Greenfield’s Pioneer Valley Humane Society in 2006 and the expansion of operations to Springfield in 2009. Today, Dakin encompasses two adoption centers and the Community Spay/Neuter Clinic. Due to Dakin’s affordable, wide-reaching spay/neuter programs, intake of local homeless kittens has declined 46% in the past six years. Dakin has met its dual goals of eliminating euthanasia as a means of controlling pet overpopulation in the Pioneer Valley and guaranteeing the placement of every adoptable animal that arrives at its front doors. Harris currently oversees the organization’s $3.7 million budget. “It has been my honor and pleasure to serve as Dakin’s executive director,” Harris said. “This was a hard decision to make, given my love for animals and Dakin, but I know the organization will continue to thrive and evolve thanks to its dedicated staff and volunteers. I will continue to be an enthusiastic supporter of Dakin’s work.” Dakin’s board voted to appoint its recent president, Nancy Creed, to the position of interim executive director. The board will now conduct a search for a permanent replacement who, according to Cathro, “exemplifies our guiding principles, is committed to our mission, and can lead the organization into the next phase of its development, expand community goodwill, and challenge the Dakin nation to bigger and better things.” Dakin Humane Society is a local, nonprofit organization that relies solely on contributions from individuals and businesses that care about animals to bring its services to the community. For more information, visit www.dakinhumane.org.

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Facial Cosmetic & Maxillofacial Surgery, P.C. announced the hiring of surgeon Justin Clemow. Clemow earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, then attended the UConn School of Dental Medicine from 2003 to 2007, where he was awarded the Student Oral Surgery Award. In 2007, Clemow was accepted into the oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) residency at the University of Florida Jacksonville. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine in 2011, completed an internship in general surgery at Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, and completed his OMFS training as the administrative chief resident in 2013. He was decorated with multiple awards during residency, including the Resident Advocate Award, Best Teaching Resident Award, and SICU Resident Award. After residency, Clemow worked for two years in private practice with Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery in Cleveland. He served as assistant clinical professor for the Case Western Reserve OMFS residency, provided level-1 trauma coverage at MetroHealth Medical Center, and also provided trauma and OMFS call coverage at Fairview Hospital, part of the Cleveland Clinic system. Clemow’s specific surgical interests include facial trauma and reconstruction, general anesthesia, corrective jaw surgery, obstructive sleep apnea surgery, and complex dental implant procedures, including bone grafting. He is a fellow of the American Assoc. of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery and a diplomate of the American Board of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons (board-certified). He maintains certification in BLS, ACLS, PALS, and ATLS.

•••••

Dress for Success (DFS) announced that it has appointed Gina Golash Kos to its board of directors. Golash Kos brings vast nonprofit leadership experience to the table — both in her role as CEO at Sunshine Village and in leadership positions in the region’s nonprofits. She is currently a trustee of Elms College and a member of the executive committee of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County. She previously served on the board of trustees of Westfield State University and is a past chairperson of the boards of the Greater Chicopee Chamber of Commerce.

•••••

The board of directors of the newly-formed Springfield Regional Chamber has elected officers to lead the organization: Daniel Keenan, chair; Patricia Canavan, vice chair; Barbara-Jean Deloria, treasurer; and David Parke, clerk. “The leadership of our new organization is incredibly strong,” said chamber President Jeffrey Ciuffreda. “With their breadth of knowledge and experience, combined with the talent, commitment, and capabilities from the entire board, the Springfield Regional Chamber is poised for continued growth and to maximize the investment our members place in us.” Keenan is senior vice president of government and community relations for the Sisters of Providence Health System. He has been a member of the chamber’s legislative steering committee since 2006, previously serving as its chair. He had served on the board of directors of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield (ACCGS) since 2010, most recently as its vice chair. Prior to joining SPHS, he served six terms as a Massachusetts state representative, holding several key committee assignments, including vice chair of Insurance, Ways and Means, and Taxation. Canavan is president of United Personnel. A member of the board of directors of the Springfield Chamber of Commerce, she most recently served as its vice chair. Canavan also served on the ACCGS board for the past two years. Canavan lends her leadership to other boards of directors, including the Baystate Health Foundation, Springfield Public Forum, and the Northampton Chamber of Commerce. Deloria is a senior vice president at Florence Bank. She was a member of the ACCGS board of directors since 2005 and served as its board treasurer since that time. She is a past president of the West Springfield Chamber of Commerce and Dress for Success Western Massachusetts and serves on the Mass. Small Business Review Board. Parke is a partner with Bulkley Richardson and a member of its business and finance department, focusing on general corporate and business matters, mergers and acquisitions, and other transactional work. He served on the ACCGS board for the past nine years and, according to Ciuffreda, was instrumental in the formation of the Springfield Regional Chamber. He serves on Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Inc. and is past chair and current member of the Friends of the Homeless board of directors.

Chamber Corners: Upcoming Events

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Chamber Corners Departments

AMHERST AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.amherstarea.com
(413) 253-0700

• Oct. 30: Chamber Legislative Breakfast, 7: 15-9 a.m., at the Lord Jeffery Inn, 30 Boltwood Ave., Amherst. Sponsored by Eversource. Cost: $15 for members, $20 for non-members.

GREATER CHICOPEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.chicopeechamber.org
(413) 594-2101

• Oct. 13: Table Top Expo & Business Networking Event, 4:30-7 p.m., at the Castle of Knights, 1599 Memorial Dr., Chicopee. Presented by the Greater Chicopee, Holyoke, Westfield, and Springfield Regional chambers of commerce. Exhibitor tables are $125 for members of the participating chambers. Cost to attend: $5 in advance, $10 at the door. Open to the public.

• Oct. 16: Lunch & Learn with Thom Fox, 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the Hampton Inn, 600 Memorial Dr., Chicopee. “Want to Make More Money: All You Have to Do is Ask!” Cost: $15 for members, $23 for non-members.

• Oct. 21: Salute Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at the Hadley Farms Meeting House, 41 Russell St., Hadley.

• Oct. 28: Business After Hours, 5-7 p.m., at Loomis House, 298 Jarvis Ave., Holyoke.

GREATER EASTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.easthamptonchamber.org
(413) 527-9414

• Oct. 8: Networking by Night, at the Cooley Dickinson Hospital Health Center Southampton. Join us and our host for a Fall Fiesta celebration, and enjoy a fun night of networking, interactive health stations, and appetizers provided by Meyers Catering. Sponsored by Dollars for Scholars.

• Oct. 19: Celebrity Bartenders, 6 p.m., at Opa Opa Brewery. Join in on all the fun and laughs as you help support funding this season’s holiday lights.

• Nov. 4: Networking by Night, 5-7 p.m., at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. Join the Greater Easthampton, Greater Northampton, and Amherst Area chambers along with our host, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, for a networking extravaganza. Sponsored by Duseau Trucking.

• Nov. 6:  CheckPoint 2015 Legislative Summit. Registration and networking, 11 a.m.;  welcome, lunch, and keynote speaker, noon to 1:30 p.m.; Chamber View Dialogue with chamber executives, followed by legislative response, 1:30-3 p.m.; cocktail reception with heavy hors d’oeuvres, 3-4 p.m. Keynote speaker: state Senate President Stanley Rosenberg. Also hear from Tim Wilkerson, regulatory ombudsman of Economic Policy Development at the Executive Office of Housing & Economic Development. Guests will have the opportunity to ask questions to invited legislators.

• Nov. 7: 15th Annual Greater Easthampton Chamber Viva Las Vegas Bowl-a-Thon, at Canal Bowling Lanes, 74 College Highway, Southampton. Two sessions: 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. A night of fun, laughs, music by DJ Jay Paglucia, and pizza as you help support funding this season’s holiday lights.

• Nov. 11: Monday Morning with the Mayor, 8-9 a.m., Burger King, Easthampton.

• Dec. 3: Holiday tree lighting and visit from Santa, 6:30-8 p.m., at Pulaski Park, Easthampton.

• Dec. 4: Greater Easthampton Chamber Snow Ball, 6-11 p.m., at the Garden House, Look Park. An old-fashioned, elegant, holiday affair. Sit-down dinner featuring Meyers Catering, live music, and dancing featuring Maxxtone. Dress in style, black tie optional.

GREATER HOLYOKE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.holycham.com
(413) 534-3376

• Oct. 7: The Chamber Coffee Buzz Morning Networking, 7:30-9 a.m., at Dean Technical High School, 1045 Main St., Holyoke. The Coffee Buzz is a great way to jump-start your day with the opportunity to meet business and community leaders while enjoying coffee and a light breakfast. The Coffee Buzz series is sponsored by Lyon & Fitzpatrick, LLC. Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse will help launch the chamber’s new morning networking series. Public-school receiver Stephen Zrike Jr. will be the guest speaker. Free to the business community. Sign up online at holyokechamber.com or call the chamber office at (413) 534-3376.

• Oct. 13: Table Top Expo & Business Networking Event, 4:30-7 p.m., at the Castle of Knights, 1599 Memorial Dr., Chicopee. Presented by the Greater Chicopee, Holyoke, Westfield, and Springfield Regional chambers of commerce. Exhibitor tables are $125 for members of the participating chambers. Cost to attend: $5 in advance, $10 at the door. Open to the public. Call the Holyoke chamber at (413) 534-3376 to secure your table or sign up online at holyokechamber.com.

• Oct. 14: Autumn Economic Development Business Salute Breakfast, 7:30-9 a.m., at the Log Cabin, 500 Easthampton Road, Holyoke. Sponsored by Holyoke Medical Center, Ferriter & Ferriter Law, and Resnic, Beauregard, Waite and Driscoll. Rick Sullivan, president and CEO of the Economic Development Council of Western Mass., is keynote speaker. Other guests include Andrew Crystal, vice president at O’Connell Development Group Inc.; Marcos Marrero, director of the Holyoke Economic and Development Office; E. Denis Walsh of Weld Management; and John Aubin of Open Square. New members Holyoke Signs & Design, Elevation Art and Framing, Century Homecare, and Presley Law, PLLC will also be recognized, as well as FlynMar Rubber & Plastics’ 45th anniversary and Open Square’s 25th anniversary. Tickets include a buffet breakfast and cost $25 for members with advance reservations and $30 for all others. Reservations may be made online at holyokechamber.com.

• Oct. 21: Chamber After Hours, 5-7 p.m., at Northeast IT Systems Inc., 777 Riverdale St., West Springfield. Business networking event. Refreshments, 50/50 raffle, and door prizes. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for all others. Call the chamber at (413) 534-3376 to sign up, or visit holyokechamber.com.

• Oct. 22: Leadership Holyoke/Meet at Wistariahurst Museum, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A leadership series with HCC faculty members participating as instructors and facilitators. Community leaders will participate as speakers. Sponsored by PeoplesBank and Holyoke Community College.

• Oct. 28: Murder Mystery Dinner, 6-9 p.m., at the Yankee Pedlar, 1866 Northampton St. Networking cocktail hour at 6-7 p.m., with full-course dinner to follow. Sponsored by Meyers Brothers Kalicka and Baystate Restoration Group. During “Mystery at the Masquerade,” trade clues with other guests and solve the crime at this night of masks and murder. Cost: $49.95 for members, $52.95 for non-members and at the door.

GREATER NORTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.explorenorthampton.com
(413) 584-1900

• Oct. 7: October Arrive @ 5 Open House, 5-7 p.m., at the chamber office. Sponsored by Pioneer Training, Innovative Business Systems, and Florence Savings Bank. Cost: $10 for members.

• Nov. 4: November Arrive @ 5 Open House, 5-7 p.m. Hosted by Cooley Dickinson Hospital, 30 Locust St., Northampton. Cost: $10 for members.

• Dec. 2: December Arrive @ 5, 5-7 p.m., at Hampshire Council of Governments, Northampton. Sponsored by Applied Mortgage. Cost: $10 for members.

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.westfieldbiz.org
(413) 568-1618

• Oct. 13: Table Top Expo & Business Networking Event, 4:30-7 p.m., at the Castle of Knights, 1599 Memorial Dr., Chicopee. Presented by the Greater Chicopee, Holyoke, Westfield, and Springfield Regional chambers of commerce. Exhibitor tables are $125 for members of the participating chambers. Cost to attend: $5 in advance, $10 at the door. Open to the public.

• Oct. 14: Oktoberfest After 5 Connection, 5-7p.m., at East Mountain Country Club, 1458 East Mountain Road, Westfield. Sponsored by Highland Valley Elder Services and MedExpress Urgent Care. Cost: $10 for members, $15 cash at the door for non-members. To register, call Pam at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618.

• Oct. 19: Long-term-care Planning, 4:30-5:30 p.m., at Holiday Inn Express, 39 Southampton Road, Westfield. Sponsored by Renaissance Advisory. Cost: free for chamber members, $30 for non-members. To register, call Pam at the chamber office at (413) 568-1618

NORTH CENTRAL CONNECTICUT CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.ncccc.org
(860) 741-3838

• Oct. 20: Networking Lunch, noon-1:30 p.m. For more information, contact the chamber at (860) 741-3838 or [email protected]

• Oct. 22: Business to Business Expo, 4:30-7:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn, 1 Bright Meadow Blvd., Enfield, Conn. For more information, contact the chamber at (860) 741-3838 or [email protected]

NORTHAMPTON AREA YOUNG PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY

www.thenayp.com
(413) 584-1900

• Oct. 8: October Networking Social, 5 p.m., at McCray’s Farm. Join us for our monthly networking social, complete with fall fun such as pumpkin picking and hayrides. Cost: free for NAYP members, $10 for non-members. RSVP with the chamber.

PROFESSIONAL WOMEN’S CHAMBER

www.professionalwomenschamber.com
(413) 755-1310

• Oct. 7: PWC Headline Luncheon, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the Munich Haus, 13 Center St., Chicopee. Featuring Kathleen Corbett, former president of Standard & Poors, lead director of the MassMutual board of directors, and founder of Cross Ridge Capital. Cost: $30 for PWC members, $40 for general admission. Reservations may be made online at www.professionalwomenschamber.com.

• Oct. 20: PWC Ladies Night, 5-7 p.m., at Kate Gray, 398 Longmeadow St., Longmeadow. Enjoy complimentary wine and refreshments. Reservations are complimentary but required. Reservations may be made by contacting Gwen Burke at [email protected] or (413) 237-8840.

SPRINGFIELD REGIONAL CHAMBER

www.myonlinechamber.com
(413) 787-1555

• Oct. 7: Springfield Regional Chamber Business@Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., at Crestview Country Club, 281 Shoemaker Lane, Agawam. Featuring Duane Cashin, sales growth strategist, motivational speaker, sales trainer, business development consultant, and author. Saluting Noonan Energy (125th anniversary) and Adam Quenneville Roofing, Siding and Windows (20th anniversary). Sponsored by United Personnel. Cost: $20 for members in advance, $25 for members at the door, $30 for generation admission. Reservations may be made online at www.springfieldregionalchamber.com.

• Oct. 13: Table Top Expo & Business Networking Event, 4:30-7 p.m., at the Castle of Knights, 1599 Memorial Dr., Chicopee. Presented by the Greater Chicopee, Holyoke, Westfield, and Springfield Regional chambers of commerce. Exhibitor tables are $125 for members of the participating chambers. Cost to attend: $5 in advance, $10 at the door. Open to the public. Reservations may be made online at www.springfieldregionalchamber.com.

• Oct. 14: Springfield Regional Chamber Lunch-n-Learn, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., at La Quinta Inn & Suites, 100 Congress St., Springfield. “Creating Marketing Campaigns Perfect for the Holiday Season,” with local authorized Constant Contact representative Liz Provo. Cost: $25 for members, $35 for general admission.Reservations may be made online at www.springfieldregionalchamber.com.

• Oct. 23: Springfield Regional Chamber Super 60, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at Chez Josef, 176 Shoemaker Lane, Agawam. Honoring the region’s top performing companies. Featuring keynote speakers Emily and Oliver Rich – the Tea Guys. Cost: $50 for members, $70 for general admission. Tables of eight or 10 available. Reserve by Oct. 14. No walk-ins accepted, no cancellations after deadline. Reservations may be made online at www.springfieldregionalchamber.com.

WEST OF THE RIVER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.ourwrc.com
413-426-3880

• Oct. 6: West Springfield Mayoral Candidates Forum, 6 p.m., at West Springfield Town Hall. For more information, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or [email protected].

• Oct. 7: Wicked Wednesday, 5:30-7:30 p.m., hosted By John P. Frangie, M.D., West Springfield. Wicked Wednesdays are monthly social events, hosted by various businesses and restaurants, that bring members and non-members together to network in a laid-back atmosphere. For more information, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or [email protected].

• Oct. 28: Food Fest West, 5:30-8 p.m., at Chez Josef, Agawam. The event will feature the foods of area restaurants, including Chez Josef, Classic Burgers, Crestview Country Club, EB’s, Hofbrau Joe’s, Murphy’s Pub, Partner’s Restaurant, Pintu’s, and more. Proceeds raised by Food Fest West will go toward the Partnership for Education and the WRC Educational Fund, which provides grants to businesses for on-the-job training and continuing-education needs. Cost: $25 in advance, $30 at the door. Tickets may be purchased online at www.westoftheriverchamber.com. For more information, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or [email protected].

Agenda

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Agenda Departments

Rake in the Business Table Top Expo

Oct. 13: The Springfield Regional Chamber is once again partnering with the Greater Chicopee, Holyoke, and Westfield chambers of commerce on the 18th annual Rake in the Business Table Top Expo and Business Networking Event from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Castle of Knights, 460 Granby Road, Chicopee, sponsored by Nuvo Bank & Trust Co. The expo provides local vendors an affordable opportunity to exhibit products and services to consumers. Last year, more than 100 vendors participated in the event, including photographers, marketing firms, staffing firms, banks, entertainment venues, and health insurers. Exhibitor space is available for $125, which entitles the exhibitor to an eight-foot, skirted display table and two complimentary entry passes. Electricity is limited but available upon request. The Table Top Expo is open to all chamber members as well as the general public for a nominal fee of $5 per person in advance, $10 at the door. Reservations may be made online at www.springfieldregionalchamber.com. The event is sponsored by platinum sponsors Health New England, PeoplesBank, MedExpress Urgent Care, and Noble Visiting Nurse and Hospice Services; gold sponsors Nuvo Bank, Peoples United Bank, and BusinessWest; and silver sponsors Spectrum Business, Chicopee Savings Bank, Elms College, Dave’s Truck Repair, the Republican, Easthampton Savings Bank, and First American Insurance Agency. For more information or to exhibit, contact Sarah Mazzaferro at [email protected] or (413) 755-1313.

Women’s Fund Men of the Year Award

Oct. 13: The Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts (WFWM) will celebrate its inaugural Men of the Year Award recipients from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at Twin Hills Country Club in Longmeadow. The Women’s Fund Men of the Year Award will honor three men from our region who, in their professional or personal lives, have made significant contributions to ensure economic and social equity for women and girls. More than 200 participants are expected to attend, including local and state elected officials. The event is open to the public and will include craft beers, dinner, and live music. Tickets cost $65 and may be purchased online at www.womensfund.net. “We are thrilled to host this inaugural awards event that will highlight how men are working with us to create a better world for women and girls,” said WFWM CEO Elizabeth Barajas-Román. “Together, we can make a difference.” The Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts is a public foundation that invests in local women and girls through strategic grant making and leadership development. Since 1997, the Women’s Fund has awarded more than $2 million in grants to nearly 100 organizations in the region.

Warm Up the Night

Oct. 22: The Family Outreach of Amherst will host its fourth annual Warm Up the Night event from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Lord Jeffery Inn, 30 Boltwood Ave., Amherst. The tent at Lord Jeffery Inn will be transformed into a strolling culinary extravaganza. Enjoy delicious small bites, sips, and tastes from an eclectic mix of local food vendors, including 30Boltwood, Bistro 63 at the Monkey Bar, the Blue Heron, Bread and Butter, Carr’s Ciderhouse, the Alvah Stone, Jasper Hill Farm, Sun Kim Bop Food Truck, and more. Features this year include a pig roast, live music by musicians the Winterpills and Roger Salloom, and a special appearance by local guitar legend J Mascis. Tickets are $45 per person. Visit www.chd/familyoutreach for more information or to register, or contact Rachel Condry at (413) 548-1272 or [email protected].

Western Mass. Business Expo

Nov. 4: Comcast Business will present the fifth annual Western Mass. Business Expo at the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield, produced by BusinessWest and the Healthcare News in partnership with Go Graphix and Rider Productions. The business-to-business show will feature more than 100 booths, seminars and Show Floor Theater presentations, breakfast and lunch programs (the former featuring Harpoon Brewery CEO Dan Kenary as keynote speaker), and a day-capping Expo Social. Current sponsors include Comcast Business, presenting sponsor; Health New England, Johnson & Hill Staffing Services, MGM Springfield, and Wild Apple Design Group, director-level sponsors; the Isenberg School of Business at UMass Amherst, education sponsor; Better Business Bureau, professional sponsor; and 94.7 WMAS, media sponsor. Additional sponsorship opportunities are available. Exhibitor spaces are also available; booth prices start at $750. For more information on sponsorships or booth purchase, call (413) 781-8600, ext. 100.

Court Dockets

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

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

Sysco Connecticut, LLC v. Family Roasters Inc. and Benjamin Vargas
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $3,439.12
Filed: 9/1/15

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT

A.J. Virgilio Construction Inc. v. Bast Hatfield Construction, LLC and Galaxy Sutton, LLC
Allegation: Non-payment of services, labor, and materials: $73,867
Filed: 9/11/15

Cach, LLC v. Totally Cellular Inc. and Todd M. Demers and James R. Demers
Allegation: Non-payment on commercial credit agreement: $91,475.80
Filed: 8/31/15

Cach, LLC v. Totally Cellular Inc. and Todd M. Demers and James R. Demers
Allegation: Non-payment on commercial credit agreement: $84,214.09
Filed: 8/31/15

Nuevo Cuba Supermercado, LLC v. Sabrosura Supermarket Inc.
Allegation: Unpaid rent: $35,500
Filed: 9/1/15

PALMER DISTRICT COURT

Cach, LLC v. RP Auto and Peter Standre
Allegation: Non-payment pursuant to a credit-card agreement: $19,541.95
Filed: 9/1/15

SPRINGFIELD DISTRICT COURT

Beacon Sales Co. v. A.P.T. Builders and Adam Trufant
Allegation: Default on commercial credit agreement: $5,903.56
Filed: 7/13/15

Gary Linski d/b/a Green Street Logistics v. 126 King Street, LLC
Allegation: Non-payment of services rendered: $12,500
Filed: 8/14/15

Perkins Paper, LLC v. Boston Natural Foods, LLC and Joseph B. Deluca
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $68,216.56
Filed: 7/20/15

The Vape Bar Escape, LLC v. The Big Cloud Vape Shop, LLC & Margaret Drollett
Allegation: Conversion, unjust enrichment, tortuous interference with business relations: $17,755
Filed: 7/6/15

Wellborn Cabinet Inc. v. Sterling Architectural Millwork Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment of goods sold and delivered: $14,453.63
Filed: 7/15/15

WESTFIELD DISTRICT COURT

Marion’s Air Conditioning & Refrigeration Inc. v. Maurice Casey Inc.
Allegation: Non-payment for repairs, parts, and services to refrigeration systems: $8,686.51
Filed: 9/4/15

Picture This

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

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]

Cutting the Ribbon

Balise Ribbon Cutting Balise

Balise Motor Sales staged a ribbon cutting and South End Celebration on Sept. 24 at its recently opened Hyundai dealership on Columbus Avenue in Springfield. At top, at the official ribbon cutting, from left: Brian Houser, general manager of Balise Hyundai; Leo Florian, president of the South End Citizens Council; Springfield Mayor Dominic Sarno; Jeb Balise; Dylan Balise; Isabelle Balise; Mike Balise; Kateri Walsh, Springfield City Councilor; state Rep. Carlos Gonzalez; Dave O’Brien, Hyundai regional marketing manager; Kim Bucci, Hyundai regional parts & service manager; and Bill Peffer, president and COO, Balise Motor Sales. At bottom, from left: Dave Zucowski, president of Hyundai North America; Mike Balise, vice president of Balise Motor Sales; and Jeb Balise, CEO of the company.

A New Chapter

Link to Libraries recently passed two significant milestones — 400,000 books donated to area schools and agencies, and 100 readers in the reading programs at those schools and organizations. A number of area elected officials and LTL officers and volunteers gathered at the company’s headquarters at Rediker Software in Hampden to mark the occasion. Top: Link to Libraries co-founder Susan Jaye Kaplan with state Sen. Eric Lesser. Bottom, from left: Stephen G. Kaplan, LTL board member; Gail Baquis, LTL Read Aloud Project director; Amy Rediker Anderlonis, marketing and public relations director for Rediker Software; Andrew Anderlonis, president of Rediker Software; Susan Bennett, the 100th LTL reader; Lesser; state Rep. Brian Ashe; Springfield City Councilor Kateri Walsh; and Chicopee Mayor Richard Kos.

Succeeding at Succession

Mike Vann, a principal with the Springfield-based Vann Group, addresses those gathered at the Student Prince & the Fort on Sept. 30 for the second installment in an ongoing lecture series sponsored by BusinessWest and the Healthcare News. Presented by Vann and his father, Kevin, also a principal with the company, the program, titled “Heading for the Exit: Business Succession Planning Realities & Process,” provided a wealth of information on the issues involved with transitioning a business. The program will be repeated on Oct. 7 at the Smith College Conference Center. Registration is at 7:15 a.m., with the program beginning at 7:30. To register, visit www.businesswest.com.

Greater Holyoke Chamber Launches Morning Networking Series

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Daily News

HOLYOKE — The Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce announced the launch of a new networking series, “Chamber Coffee Buzz.”

The Coffee Buzz is a fast-paced networking event designed to help business professionals connect before starting the work day, said Kathleen Anderson, chamber president. Meetings include short introductions by attendees and a brief business presentation by the host, with the remainder of time devoted to exchanging business leads and information.

The Chamber Coffee Buzz series is sponsored by Lyon & Fitzpatrick, LLP and will be held on a quarterly basis at various host locations from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. The opening event will be on Wednesday, Oct. 7, hosted by Dean Technical High School at 1045 Main St., Holyoke. The guest speaker will be Stephen Zrike, receiver for Holyoke’s public schools. Coffee and a continental breakfast, prepared by Dean Tech culinary students, will be available in the Tea Room at 7:30 a.m.

The event is free with advance notice and is open to all business professionals. To sign up for the Coffee Buzz, contact the chamber office at (413) 534-3376, or sign up at holyokechamber.com.

United Way Women’s Leadership Council Hosts Wine and Beer Tasting

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — The United Way of Pioneer Valley Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) will host its second annual Wine and Beer Tasting and Silent Auction on Wednesday, Oct. 7 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the TD Bank Center in Springfield. The event will raise money to support WLC membership; financial literacy; and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) initiatives for middle-school girls.

“When women in the WLC connect around an idea to improve lives, anything is possible,” said Kathryn Dube, senior vice president of TD Bank and event co-chair.

Wednesday’s event will bring together local wine and beer distributors and restaurants offering a variety of food and beverage options that attendees can enjoy while browsing a selection of auction items donated by local companies. Sponsors for the event include African American Point of View, Berkshire Bank, BusinessWest, Comcast, Health New England, the Markens Group, Springfield Technical Community College, TD Bank, and WEIB Smooth Jazz.

For more information about the Women’s Leadership Council, visit www.facebook.com/wlcpv.

Revitalize CDC Announces Expansion of Services into Paper City

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Daily News

HOLYOKE — Revitalize CDC, formerly Rebuilding Together Springfield, announced the expansion of its reach into Holyoke.

The organization, founded in 1992, has performed critical repairs, modifications, and rehabilitations on homes and nonprofit facilities since its inception. To date, these projects have always been geographically located in Springfield. Now, Revitalize CDC will also be able to serve low-income families with children, the elderly, military veterans, and people with disabilities in neighboring Holyoke.

“We are thrilled to welcome Revitalize CDC into the community,” said Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse. “On the heels of the remarkable projects they have achieved in Springfield, our residents are excited to roll up their sleeves and join them in helping those with need in our city.”

For more than two decades, Revitalize CDC has worked to stabilize Springfield neighborhoods, strengthen the tax base, and allow elderly homeowners to age in place. Last year was no different, as it rebuilt 53 Springfield homes.

“The first project Revitalize CDC will undertake in Holyoke is part of the organization’s JoinedForces initiative and will serve Air Force E4 veteran Scott Leary and his family,” said Collen Loveless, president and CEO. The home the Leary family lives in was built in 1901 by Scott’s great-grandfather, and has been in the family since that time. Scott shares the home with his wife, Jessica, and their three children, all under the age of 14. The family has struggled with many challenges, including Jessica’s permanent disability due to a back injury sustained working as an emergency medical technician and a child with autism.

“Their home is currently in desperate need of repairs,” Loveless continued, “and although they have been working tirelessly on it themselves, they are in need of help. Mr. Leary served our country from 1990 to 1996 in the Air Force, and now it is our chance to serve him in return.”

A Top-10 Guide to Heavy Lifting and Data-center Migration

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Sections Technology

Data-center Migration

By GERRY GOSSELIN

Gerry Gosselin

“OK, twist to your left. No, your other left! … wait, sorry, you were right the first time. Now I’ll go higher. Stop, stop! Put her down for a moment.” And so it went until the couch finally squeezed through the front door.

This is how my team and I felt maneuvering a 500-pound UPS package off a short pickup truck, onto a loading dock, in the rain. “Next time we’ll check for a height difference — have someone with a big umbrella,” I noted.

Planning a data-center migration is one of the most time-consuming and underappreciated aspects of the job, and as those of us who have performed dozens of these exercises over the years know all too well, the planning can’t just wait until the last minute.

The Packet Pushers podcast (packetpushers.net) recently ran a wonderful 90-minute show on data-center migration. Guest Chris Church contributed an outstanding outline to the podcast’s show notes that brought so many of those simple but integral tasks into focus. Here is a collection of his (and our) 10 overlooked items that you might want to add to your data-center-migration checklist.

1. I can do this, right? Don’t let the inspector test the big red button after you’ve gone live in production. If you just built your own datacenter, get your permits and inspections scheduled far ahead of time. Municipal inspectors operate at 56k-modem speed.

2. Put your print on it. If you’re moving into a high-tech, collocated facility, make sure everyone has proper access to the data center. This may be as simple as the correct name on a list, or as advanced as biometrics. Packet Pushers even relayed a story of their moving truck breaking down and the new truck not being allowed up to the data center’s loading dock because it didn’t match the original make and model.

3. Don’t touch that. Single-phase, 3-phase, 220, 110. The right time to learn what that means is before you hear a pop (ask me how I know). Make sure you humbly chat with facilities folks about power.

4. More inter-tubes. If you can, order new circuits for your new data center and pay the extra cost (rather than cutting over from your old data center to the new during the move). This gives you an opportunity to test and configure well in advance. As a veteran in the ISP space, trust me when I say that you do not want to get in touch with your ISP’s provisioning department at 3 a.m. Saturday morning.

5. We’re live in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Remember to adjust your external DNS TTLs a week in advance. The lower you can set your TTLs, the faster the world will find your new data center. You simply can’t do this on a moment’s notice.

6. Fifteen minutes could save you 1,500%. If you are moving gear yourself, ask your company if it has adequate insurance. Are you legally able to move gear yourself? Some equipment leases can be moved only by the vendor.

7. Anyone have a camera? Simple snapshots of the monitoring systems before the move assure that, afterward, all the proper services are back in the same state they were before you started. Your team doesn’t need to be troubleshooting an application that was broken eight months before the migration even took place.

8. Where’s the boss? Stakeholders should be available after the migration to test all of their systems and give the thumbs up before your team leaves the site.

9. Snacks, sleeping bags, and essentials. This will be a long, tiring night or weekend. Everyone will perform best when they’re well-fed, have a place to grab a quick power nap, and thoroughly know their tasks, how to validate when their task is complete, and who to check in with along the way.

10. Go team! Data-center migration is a team sport. It’s best to ensure some non-technical folks are on your team who can objectively deal with timelines, coordination, and communication with the executives who may be waiting at home for an update. Your team should also include folks outside of your organization (vendors, consultants, or VARs). You may do this type of migration only once every decade, but your consultant does it several times a year. Pick up the phone.

With every data-center migration, there will be a couch-twisting-in-the-doorway moment. Time spent working on a great plan can facilitate a smooth migration and keep your door jambs intact.

Gerry Gosselin is director of Technical Operations for VertitechIT, a rapidly growing healthcare and business IT consultancy. He is a nationally known expert in systems programming, automated network monitoring and management, as well as network engineering and administration; (413) 268-1621; [email protected]

Wild Apple Design Group Specializes in Creative, Responsive Websites

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Sections Technology

Capturing Attention

Amy Scott, Eric Belliveau, and Rory Hurlburt offer a next-generation model of marketing, expressed in their tagline, “Marketing Agency, Evolved.”

Amy Scott and her team at Wild Apple Design Group say technical expertise is a must when designing websites that engage customers, but so is an element of “surprise and delight.” The goal, she insists, is to create relationships with clients that are transformational, not transactional — and fun to boot.

The little critters are called Worry Eaters.

Their names are Betti, Bill, Flamm, Polli, Enno, Saggo and Schnulli, and more than 2.5 million of the plush characters, with zippered mouths that allegedly ‘eat’ a child’s worries when they are written down and fed to them, have already been sold in Europe.

“Let us carry your worries so you don’t have to,” they shout on their newly developed website, which includes a video in which a worry eater banishes a little girl’s fear that a monster is lurking under her bed.

The website launched earlier this summer, and purchases can be made on an e-commerce shopping cart, thanks to Wild Apple Design Group in Wilbraham, which was hired earlier this year to introduce the toy to the North American market by the Haywire Group, a Springfield-based game designer and manufacturer.

The result is not only endearing, it earned the company marketing awards from the Advertising Club of Western Massachusetts. Wild Apple was recently feted as a Silver winner for consumer-product website design in the Summit Creative Award competition for its work on the Worry Eaters microsite, and received a Summit Creative Bronze for website redesign for its work for Kino West Media, a cinematic videography company in Palmer. In addition, that website redesign earned Wild Apple a Silver Creative Award.

Overall, the firm is known for its unusual creativity, and founder Amy Scott says that, although clients don’t expect it, there is always an element of “surprise and delight” in their finished product.

“Our major goal is to create a relationship with our clients that is transformational, rather than transactional,” said the director of project management and business development. “We want to listen to them, learn about their goals, then surprise and delight them by exceeding their expectations.”

This stems from work done by Rory Hurlburt, Scott’s brother and the company’s creative lead, art developer, and senior designer.

“Clients usually have no idea that we will do something fun,” Hurlburt said. “But we’re a modern marketing agency, and these things make someone want to watch a video or talk about what they have seen.”

However, the lure of an attractive site has to be backed by technical expertise, and that’s where Eric Belliveau enters the picture.

“There are many considerations and elements that go into a website and digital marketing; for example, it requires science, analytics, and technology to get someone to add something to an e-commerce shopping cart, then complete the sale,” said Wild Apple’s director of operations, technology, and Internet marketing, who explained that Worry Eaters are sold at a number of retailers, and creating the e-store was an important piece of the development process.

“It had to be responsive, which means it was built so the different characters could be viewed on smartphones,” he told BusinessWest. “But this all takes place behind the scenes, and the user is completely unaware that the intersection of more than one technology is required.”

Amy Scott says her company was one of the first in the area to design responsive websites, which work on multiple platforms.

A new site for LEAP Bookkeeping in West Springfield and Greenfield was just launched, and although it contains all the pertinent and necessary information potential clients need to know, there are also unexpected — nee, delightful — surprises: Bakers showing off rising dough, a panting dog, two people raising their fists and giving each other a high five, and a woman wearing a cape with the LEAP logo on it, who is standing on the edge of a building that overlooks a city skyline, which seems to suggest she could easily leap into those buildings to help them solve their bookkeeping problems.

Hurlburt says creating such a finished product is neither quick nor easy, and it requires not only technical acumen, but a complete understanding of the clients and their needs.

“I live, eat, and breathe the project I’m working on at any moment in time,” he noted. “I want to understand as many facets of the business or organization as I can, and also seek to learn who the client is, and how that personality can shine through the company or organization.

“But technology is behind everything we do; we’re experts at leveraging it and provide outstanding designs with a ‘wow’ factor,” he went on, adding that data is brought together into a visual design that represents the brand they are working on.

Scott said that’s important. “Almost every company has a website. But they often have an unfulfilled dream to convey their business digitally in a way that draws more prospects and tells their story.”

Talent Merger

Scott says she cut her teeth in marketing during a stint in the garment-manufacturing industry.

“I was the buyer, not the provider, but always felt there was so much room for improvement in leveraging the multitude of services required to drive successful marketing campaigns,” she said. “I was driven to create them.”

That drive compelled her to embark on a career change, and in time, her vision, energy, and success in graphic-design artistry inspired her to open Wild Apple Design in 2000, focusing on print marketing.

However, Scott occasionally collaborated with Belliveau. He began working in the field of web development in 2000, shortly after the dot-com crash, and eventually opened his own web-design and development company, which included consulting services.

Scott also called on her brother for help with a number of projects. Hurlburt was working as a freelancer and started his career with the idea of pursuing comic-book illustration, but soon found he enjoyed layout and design. “I spent 15 years designing for everything from web to print, which taught me that being well-equipped with information and strategy increases the value and viability of any well-designed art,” he said.

Although the trio had worked together on an occasional basis, their collaboration morphed into something much larger in 2009, after it became clear that the combination of their honed talents and expertise made them a unique team.

At the time, ABC decided to film an episode of the popular show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in Suffield, Conn. Scott was hired to do the publicity, and after being told she needed to create a website, she contacted Hurlburt. Coincidentally, Belliveau got in touch with her and asked her to create a logo, explaining that he had a few clients serving as vendors for Extreme Makeover.

The trio ended up working together for ABC, and after overcoming a multitude of challenges, they decided to do another project together.

Eric Belliveau says it requires science, analytics, and technology to get someone to add something to an e-commerce shopping cart, then complete the sale.

That happened in 2011 after Scott was awarded a contract by Rockville Bank to build a website for the institution. Although the project turned out to be larger than they expected, their success resulted in a major decision to work together on a permanent basis under Scott’s umbrella.

She rented space in Post Office Park in Wilbraham and was joined by Hurlburt and Belliveau, who left his business, then religiously began evaluating every available technology.

Today, he focuses on digital marketing and the complex mechanics involved with setting up and maintaining websites. Meanwhile, Hurlburt is responsible for the creative-design work, and Scott focuses on marketing.

It’s all come together nicely, but when they first joined forces, their new, combined venture was a gamble.

“We felt we could do better and more business together, but it was an investment that involved blood, sweat, and tears; when we moved into this building, we were not sure if it would pay off,” Hurlburt said. “At the time, our goal was simply to survive.”

Fast-forward to 2015, and the company has not only survived, it is thriving. Rows of awards line the walls, and a year ago, Wild Apple created the tagline “Marketing Agency — Evolved,” which is indicative not only of its success and the wide range of services it offers, but the risks it has taken, which includes a foray into the world of responsive websites.

“We were one of the first to adopt the technology. When mobile traffic started to increase, it only involved an avenue or two and was an innovative area,” Belliveau recalled, explaining that, four years ago, sites were built either for desktops or mobile devices and typically didn’t function for both.

“But today, it’s becoming standard; all sites need to be responsive and function on tablets, smartphones, desktop computers, Kindles, and tablets,” he said, noting that the smartphone is usually the first point of contact.

“Roughly 40% of a website’s traffic will be on a mobile or handheld device; it’s also the place where most people access their e-mail,” Belliveau continued, adding that responsive websites need to be tactile, which means they can be manipulated by swiping or touching the screen, then clicking on an option.

The firm’s entry into this arena resulted in a world of experience, and today Wild Apple is able to deal with the entire ecosystem of marketing, which can include a responsive website; e-mail; social media; print, TV, and radio advertising; and a logo, branding, and identity design.

Detailed Process

When the firm gets a new client, Scott conducts an in-depth interview to unearth its specific goals, needs, and vision for its products and services.

Once she has gathered all the information she needs, Hurlburt puts pencil to paper and begins sketching, and typically comes up with three or four ideas.

Rory Hurlburt takes pride in the creativity he brings to websites developed by Wild Apple Design Group.

“What he creates has to align with the client’s goals, have a ‘cool’ factor, and yield results, which means grabbing someone’s attention,” Scott explained. “First impressions are important, as the general rule is that you have between eight and 10 seconds to get someone’s attention.”

Since about 35% of their clients are schools, creating surprise and delight can mean showcasing their colors, mascot, or “whatever their pride and joy is, in a unique way,” Scott continued.

For example, she discovered that the mascot for Cross Schools in South Carolina was a stingray, but they weren’t using an image of one. So Hurlburt took that information and created a happy little sea creature which has been imprinted on the students’ uniforms as well as the school’s signs, website, and marketing materials.

However, Belliveau’s expertise is also critical to the development process. “I’m in the forefront of emerging technologies such as responsive mobile website design and deploying the next generation in content-management systems,” he said. “I keep the team up to speed with the latest and greatest technologies so they can articulate what’s new or, in some cases, what’s changed in the ever-evolving landscape of web-based software.”

This work is ongoing for many clients as well as those who come to Wild Apple for an initial visit. “They want our critical eye on their brand. It’s about how it will hold up in a mobile environment, which involves more than aesthetics,” Hurlburt said. “And that’s what makes us different: we have design, marketing, and technology well in hand.”

Thanks to that winning combination, the company’s clients are unlikely to need to unzip the mouth of a Worry Eater and feed it to banish their marketing fears.

Wedding-dress Maker Fashions a Business Niche

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Features

Celia Grace

Marcelia Muehlke displays one of the many fair-trade weddings dresses her company now offers.

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles that will appear over the next several months to shine a spotlight on the growing amount of entrepreneurial energy being tapped in the region.

Emily Cohen admits she didn’t know a whole lot about wedding dresses and the process of finding one when she informally launched her search at the start of this year, roughly four months after she and Ted Eiseman announced their engagement.

In fact, she told BusinessWest she was surprised to learn it would likely take several months to choose a dress and fulfill an order, a reality that provided a new sense of urgency to the matter as January turned to February.

And it was to be compounded by feelings of frustration as she visited various shops and mulled the myriad, almost universally unappealing, options presented to her.

“I went to three or four local wedding stores, and it was just not a good fit for me,” said Cohen, an acupuncturist by trade. “Everything was factory-made, polyester, made in China, with a lot of it catering to a real Disney-princess-slash-Barbie-doll look. I’m more oriented to natural fibers, and because of what I do, I’m into holistic things. I was having trouble finding something that was flattering and well-made and suited my tastes.”

These were just some of the sentiments she was expressing to a friend when that individual put her on the path to an eventual solution.

“She said, ‘I babysit for someone who has a fair-trade wedding-dress company — her dresses are beautiful; go take a look online,’” said Cohen, adding that she followed up on that tip, met Marcelia Muehlke, founder of Celia Grace Wedding Dresses, and was eventually fitted for a silk dress known as the ‘Jane.’

That’s short for Jane Goodall, the British primatologist, anthropologist, leading expert on chimpanzees, and one of several pioneering women for whom Muehlke has named her various creations.

There’s also the ‘Teresa’ (Mother Teresa); ‘Eileen’ (Eileen Collins, one of the first female astronauts); ‘Eleanor’ (crusading first lady Eleanor Roosevelt); ‘Maya’ (poet and author Maya Angelou); ‘Amelia’ (aviator Amelia Earhart), and many others.

Putting women like Cohen on a first-name basis with all those first names is one of the many challenges Muehlke has confronted while launching and developing one of the more unique of the many new entrepreneurial ventures unfolding across the region.

Indeed, she said most women have never considered the concept of a free-trade dress (one produced in a country and manner that respects human rights and environmental sustainability), know that such a dress exists, or know that Muehlke’s the reason one exists.

The process of changing all that and moving the business well beyond the ‘friend-of-a friend’ stage in terms of how awareness is generated — although that still happens, obviously — has been a learning experience, and one that is ongoing for Muehlke and partner and dress designer Alix Kivlin.

Summing up her first three years in business, Muehlke says the venture has gone from concept to what she called a “nationally acclaimed brand,” with the ‘Jane,’ ‘Teresa,’ and others now sold in shops in or just outside several major cities, with Brooklyn and Washington, D.C. being the latest additions.

“We’ve built a stable, ethical, international supply chain, which is ready to grow with us,” she explained. “We’ve earned coverage in eight of the top 10 online wedding magazines, we’ve developed 20 bestselling styles, and we have two thriving sales channels, in stores and direct, that gives us full coverage of North American and Europe. That’s pretty good, especially in such a slow-moving industry.”

Looking forward, she plans to continue what has been a very controlled pattern of growth (more on the importance of such a pace later) and thoughtfully move the company in several potential-laden directions.

The evolving strategy includes adding shops in more markets — both in this country and eventually abroad — as well as expansion into other product lines (everything from mother-of-the-bride dresses to First Communion outfits, all worthy of the label ‘free trade’), and exploration of new revenue streams, such as the emerging trend of wedding-dress rentals, rather than purchases.

Emily Cohen — seen here with her husband, Ted Eiseman, after their wedding this summer — was sold on every aspect of the ‘Jane’ dress.
Photo by Darlene DeVita Photography

For this, the second installment in its series on emerging entrepreneurial ventures across the region, BusinessWest looks at an enterprise blending concepts that are old, new, borrowed, and, well, you get the idea.

Sew Far, Sew Good

As she talked with BusinessWest about her venture and what comes next, Muehlke was involved with the many aspects of preparation for New York International Bridal Week. In fact, she had just finished up some calls with bridal-shop owners to set up appointments.

The three-day, biannual spectacle, to be staged Oct. 10-12 at Pier 94, is, in many respects, this industry’s Super Bowl, with hundreds of exhibitors, many of them wedding-dress makers, looking to catch the attention of thousands of retailers and wholesalers from across this country and around the world.

Muehlke, who will patrol booth #262 (there are nearly 1,000 of them), said that, during the last show, she and Kivlin were able to essentially cinch a deal with another prominent bridal shop (this one just outside Boston) and make countless new introductions — connections that will hopefully pay dividends down the road.

The goal for this year’s show is simple — more of the same, she said, adding that, while relationship building is a key to success in any business sector, that’s especially true in the wedding industry, a roughly $50 billion business.

That’s because, while styles can change profoundly with one royal wedding (Kate Middleton’s dress brought back sleeves and lace, for example), overall, this industry moves slowly compared to most components of the fashion business, and those who sell the dresses devote money and valuable showroom space to new makers only after careful consideration and confidence that the product will sell.

“Bridal shops buy the dresses — usually one of the most popular styles in a size 12 — and then they place orders off those dresses year-round,” she said while explaining how most of her dresses are sold. “So it’s a fairly deep initial cost for them, especially when it’s a fairly new line like ours. And it’s a risk, because they need to know that we’re going to deliver every single dress on time and in perfect condition.

“It takes a while to build that trust,” she went on. “They want to get to know us personally and as a business, and that can take a while. Some shops will say, ‘I love this idea’ and pick you up, but, generally speaking, it takes some time to earn that trust; it took one of our shops more than two years to go from first contact to buying the collection.”

New York International Bridal Week is a time for advancing that process, she said, adding that she enjoys the show for many reasons, including the fast pace, tremendous energy, high stakes, and those opportunities to make an impression.

But there’s something else.

“I think my favorite part is being surrounded by so many smart, savvy, interesting businesswomen,” she explained. “The bridal industry, as you’d expect, is dominated by women and women business owners, so it’s just really neat to get together with all these women of different ages and from different states and countries, all coming together to make their businesses successful.”

While she’s still rather new to the industry, Muehlke certainly seems worthy of those adjectives she used to describe her peers, although she readily admits she’s still learning by doing.

Muehlke said that, like many business ventures, this one was born of necessity — she desired a free-trade dress for her own wedding, and when she couldn’t find one, she decided to not only make one, but also fill the void for others. Indeed, after completing her MBA at UMass Amherst, she traveled to Asia and set up a supply chain that would create high-quality garments that she and others could wear with pride.

She began working with women in a sewing group in Cambodia, contracted with a designer in New York, and got her venture off the ground and on the runway.

She’s won a number of awards and accolades for her early success — everything from a Grinspoon Entrepreneurial Success Spirit Award in 2011 to membership in BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty Class of 2015 (she’s only 31).

More importantly, she’s made considerable progress with not only selling dresses, but selling a concept.

She defines ‘free trade’ as a global, social movement that leverages trade, instead of monetary aid, to help people in the world’s poorest countries. In her case, she partners with shops in Cambodia and India that pay a living wage, do not use child labor, and ensure safe, healthy, and empowering work conditions.

“We trust those people to use that money to better themselves, better their families, and better their communities in ways they see fit,” she explained, adding that the shops employ mostly women. “And research has shown that, when you put money in the hands of women, they are more likely than men to invest in the health and education of their children. So it has a much more positive ripple effect when you’re investing in — and empowering — women.”

Growth Patterns

Cohen said she didn’t really know she wanted a fair-trade dress until she was introduced to the idea. And her only regret is that she didn’t know about such a dress sooner.

“I didn’t know such a thing existed,” she told BusinessWest, adding that she was attracted not only by the quality, but also the fact that the dress was made from silk, which made her dress both comfortable and meaningful.

“Once I picked out the dress, tried it on, and ordered it, Marcie sent me pictures of the women making the dress in Cambodia,” she explained. “They’re in this beautiful, light-filled space … it looked like they were having a good working experience. It makes me feel good to spend my money that way.”

The ‘Jane,’ a.k.a model 1504, features a “wonderful fit-and-flair shape that helps the body in all the right places, so it and provides a comfortable and flattering fit,” said Muehlke, adding that it is made from something called ‘heirloom eco-silk,’ which is hand-woven on wooden looms that use no electricity, thus carrying on a centuries-old tradition.

“Jane has clean and elegant lines, thanks to a timeless sweetheart bodice accented with vintage-inspired floral lace and a gently flared slim A-line skirt that can’t wait to be danced in,” reads the description on the company’s website. “The finishing touch? Delicate straps and a low, dipping back with covered buttons beautifully showcase a feminine back.”

The model, which sells for about $2,600, which is toward the higher end for a wedding dress, has caught and passed the ‘Teresa’ as the most popular of the dresses now offered, although others are enjoying success as well.

Overall, Muehlke’s business plan, one that continues to undergo alterations (yes, that’s an industry term), calls for continued but very controlled growth.

Indeed, moving too quickly and expanding too broadly is an unwise course not only in the wedding industry, but the free-trade genre, if you will, as well, she said.

“In the bridal world, if you miss a deadline and you miss a wedding, that’s terrible both for the shop and for your brand, and something we can’t let happen,” she explained. “And in the fair-trade world, if we do a 10-fold increase in our orders, we need to make sure that our supply chain can handle that without doing crazy things and making their workers work terrible overtime hours and cancel their vacations or pay them improperly for that.

A view of the back of the ‘Teresa,’ named after Mother Teresa, one of the most popular options in the Celia Grace collection.

“So we are slowly and gradually building our supply chain in two ways,” she went on, adding that the company is building capacity with its existing partners — two in India and one in Cambodia — by working with them to add seamstresses and capacity and create more time on their schedule for Celia Grace production. At the same time, it is adding producers, including one in Nepal, another candidate in Cambodia, and other groups under consideration.

“We’re onboarding them slowly, getting to know them, and putting them through their paces,” she noted, “so, as we grow, we’re able to bring them online.”

Growth could come in several ways, she said, adding that, while there is still plenty of room for new designs (and first names) in wedding dresses, there are other avenues as well. These include other types of fair-trade clothing, such as mother-of-the-bride dresses and options for other occasions.

Meanwhile, the company looks to broaden its reach internationally and add shops in other countries.

“Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada are quite a bit ahead of us in terms of eco- and ethical weddings,” she explained. “So that’s the next big frontier for us — getting shops to carry us in those countries.”

Meanwhile, another important challenge is simply to raise awareness of the concept of the free-trade wedding dress, something that would greatly facilitate efforts to reach and surpass some of those expansion goals.

“There are so many brides out there who would love the concept if they even knew it was an option,” Muehlke explained. “We have to figure out how to find those brides who have a big heart, but don’t know that their wedding dress can be so much more meaningful.”

Fabric of the Community

Emily Cohen was found in time, and she sees some poetic justice in that eventuality.

Indeed, she told BusinessWest that she was hoping to have her grandmother, a dressmaker, fashion something for her wedding, but she passed away just a few months shy of her 100th birthday, well before the big event.

A Celia Grace wedding dress was easily the next best thing, Cohen went on, adding that the values it represents echo those that dominated her grandmother’s life.

“She was in my heart and in my mind as I was searching for a dress, because she really cared about those things, and I felt that she would have been proud to have me wear that dress,” Cohen said.

Her story helps explain how this entrepreneurial venture has managed to weave its way to its success, and why women are finding its products are such good fits — in so many ways.

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

MGM Casino: the Tower Is Not the ‘Wow’

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Opinion

Editorial

Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby has been off the mark with his comments a few times since his group began its work nearly three years ago. OK, more than a few; actually, much more.

But he was on the money — figuratively and perhaps literally as well — with his remarks when he was asked by the local press whether MGM’s planned downtown Springfield casino had lost its ‘wow’ factor with the announcement that the company is proposing, amid spiraling construction costs, to ditch its plans to erect a 25-story hotel tower and instead opt for a six-story facility to be built on the corner of Main and Howard streets.

“The wow factor is such a subjective thing,” he told the press, noting that, with this change of plans, MGM could be trading off the ‘wow’ from the tower with gains from increased street activity and other factors.

What we were hoping he would say is that the ‘wow’ that this state and the people of Springfield are hoping for comes not from a glitzy hotel, but from an enterprise that can create thousands of good jobs, bring more visitors and conventions to the region, be an important piece of the larger downtown revitalization puzzle, and, more importantly, be profitable (and therefore sustainable) for many decades.

If the casino can do all that, then we’ll all be, well, wowed.

Does MGM Springfield need a 25-story hotel with colored glass to do that? Perhaps, but don’t forget that there are several now-shuttered casinos along the boardwalk in Atlantic City that had taller towers, plenty of glitz, gobs of glamor, and no shortage of ‘wow,’ at least the superficial kind.

Let’s get back to that in a minute. First, a few words about design and that planned tower.

Yes, design is very important when it comes to casinos. They must have a certain amount of style — although many of the thousands of visitors getting off and then back on buses pulled up to the front door each day, and who won’t ever see the lobby of the hotel, will hardly notice the appointments.

After all, one of this casino’s main challenges will be to lure away some of those who have been going to Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun for years, places where there is plenty of glitz and ‘wow,’ as hyped in those commercials referring to the “wonder of it all.”

And it will also have to compete with a billion-dollar casino to be built by Steve Wynn in Everett that promises a tower — two of them, in fact, according to the latest plans — and a good deal of ‘wow.’

Meanwhile, locally, many people were looking upon that planned tower as a chance to alter and enhance (although the latter is a subjective term to be sure) a Springfield skyline that has remained the same for nearly 30 years, a sad reminder of just how much the city stagnated for years.

We can collectively mourn or regret the loss of the tower in the plans for this casino — if that’s what eventually happens; negotiations are ongoing — but we suggest that the more prudent measure is to keep the focus on the much bigger picture of creating a casino that provides what’s really important: sustainability, jobs, increased tourism and convention business, and, overall, more vibrancy.

MGM can do all that without building an elevator that goes to the 25th floor. It can do it by creating positive experiences for the many types of visitors it will attract, and this, more than anything else, is what MGM is promising.

And it is that component of the plan — that ingredient in the formula for ‘wow’ — that can’t be taken out.

Investing in Global Health Is Critical

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Opinion

By LAWRENCE H. SUMMERS

One of the things I am proudest of having done in Washington was having the idea as chief economist of the World Bank that the bank should devote its annual World Development Report to making the case for improving both the quantity and quality of global health investment. The 1993 report, produced by a team led by global health economist Dean Jamison, proved more influential than I could have hoped, not least because it drew Bill Gates into the global-health arena.

The report made a strong case that the benefits of the right health investments far exceed the costs. Indeed, I believe the moral and economic case for investments in healthcare — both prevention and treatment — is as or more compelling than in any other area in the developing world. The dramatic declines in child mortality and increases in life expectancy demonstrate that policy can make an immense difference.

Dean and I chaired a commission, timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the initial report, under the aegis of the distinguished medical journal the Lancet. The commission took stock of the remarkable progress made over the last 20 years and emphasized what is possible over the next generation.

The primary conclusion of our commission was that our generation has the opportunity to achieve a “grand convergence” in global health, reducing preventable maternal, child, and infectious diseases to universally low levels by 2035. We further concluded that the necessary investments would have benefits that exceed their costs by a factor of 10. But we cautioned that grand convergence would not just happen. It would require commitments to health-system reform and to new domestic and international resources that go well beyond what is in place today.

Although there is ample evidence for the value of investing in health, you wouldn’t know it by looking at how most countries allocate resources. Too many countries, particularly low- and middle-income nations, treat health services as a cost to be minimized rather than an investment to be maximized.

Yet, access to health services is a core driver of prosperity. Over the last decade, improvements in health accounted for about 11% of economic growth in low- and middle-income countries as measured in their national income accounts. This figure is only part of the picture, as good health (i.e., living longer) has an intrinsic value on top of greater income. When the value of additional life years is factored in, improvements in health accounted for one-quarter of income growth in low- and middle-income countries.

Investments in health today will return huge future dividends. Our report found that providing every person with a package of essential prevention and treatment services — such as basic vaccines, family-planning methods, and treatments for conditions like malaria, TB, and HIV infection — could bring infectious-disease deaths to universally low levels within one generation. The impact of these services would be dramatic: the investment would return more than 10 times its cost within a generation.

However, there is a huge barrier to realizing this possibility. Around the world, the vast majority of health spending is transacted out of pocket, meaning people are charged a user fee each time they fall sick or need care. Each year, an estimated 150 million people are bankrupted trying to access healthcare they cannot afford. Our report argues that adopting “pro-poor” pathways to universal health coverage would be an efficient way for governments to support grand convergence and also greatly reduce the burden of poverty from medical expenses. Low- and lower-middle income countries striving to expand health coverage, we argued, should initially focus on the diseases that disproportionately affect the poor.

I was excited when the Rockefeller Foundation asked me to work with them to develop a declaration that a broad spectrum of economists could issue underscoring the importance of global health efforts. The 266 economists who have joined our declaration come from 44 countries and at least as many political and ideological perspectives. But they are united in their belief in the importance of expanding and improving healthcare globally.

Our declaration was published in the Lancet last week. I hope the world listens. Millions of lives are at stake.

Lawrence H. Summers is the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and president emeritus of Harvard University. He was also secretary of the U.S. Treasury.

Diverse Projects Showcase Easthampton’s Vitality

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Community Spotlight Features

Community Spotlight: Easthampton

Mayor Karen Cadieux says Easthampton has witnessed an exciting year marked by constant buildouts and growth.

The view from Mayor Karen Cadieux’s Easthampton office is stunning.

Sunshine glints off of the serene waters of the newly opened Nashawannuk Pond Promenade Park, and the boardwalk that spans it is busy.

“The park was planned to become a destination; it’s located right in the heart of our cultural district, and it’s booming,” Cadieux told BusinessWest. “Every day, people stroll along the boardwalk, sit and relax on the benches, do yoga, fish from one of the three handicapped-accesible boat ramps, or launch their boats. Families have been bringing their children to the park … it has something for everyone and offers enjoyment for all walks of life.”

The $945,000 park project is just one of many developments completed over the past year. They range from new housing for people at all income levels to infrastructure and interior improvements in the city’s old mill buildings — which have made those spaces more attractive to businesses — to the continued growth of the creative economy, which is thriving.

In fact, the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Nashawannuck Pond Promenade Park was staged June 13 in conjunction with the start of the second annual Cottage Street Cultural Chaos festival. “Thousands of people attended, and it was wonderful; there were vendor booths as well as music and performers,” said Moe Belliveau, executive director of the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce.

She added that the new boardwalk is beneficial to nearby shops and businesses, which include the downtown area and the thriving Cottage Street Cultural District, which is populated by artists, galleries, gift shops, and restaurants.

“The Promenade project has increased foot traffic downtown, which is wildly important. The businesses there have done well, but now people are on the boardwalk all the time. They walk along eating ice cream from Mount Tom’s on Cottage Street and holding bags with items purchased from nearby stores,” Bellieveau noted, adding that a new restaurant known as Bliss Café, whose menu includes vegetarian and vegan options, opened at 42 Cottage St. last month.

An $18 million development has also been completed across the street from the park. The historic, 125,000-square-foot Dye Works factory, which closed in 2005, has been turned into Cottage Street Apartments. Cadieux said the project involved a complete renovation of the brick structure into 50 affordable-housing units, which were immediately occupied after it opened in May.

“More than 250 people applied, so there is a long waiting list,” she said. In addition, construction on a brand-new, six-building, affordable apartment complex called Parsons Village, which came about thanks to Valley Community Development Corp., had just been finished, and people began moving into the units at the beginning of the month.

“Another very exciting development has taken place across the street from Parsons Village,” Cadieux continued. “The former Parsons Street School that was surplused by the school department in 2013, has been turned into a luxury apartment complex called Parsons Place.”

The building was purchased by developer Kevin Perrier, president of Five Star Building Corp., which served as general contractor for the project, and the city was paid all the back taxes owed on it. “It contains 16 high-end units, and the entire top floor is a penthouse that rents for $3,500 a month,” Cadieux said, adding that every apartment contains stainless-steel appliances, mahogany flooring, tiled bathrooms, 12-foot ceilings, and central air conditioning.

New developments are also brewing in Easthampton’s old mills. This year the city was feted with an award for the Best Tasting Drinking Water in the U.S. by the National Rural Water Assoc. in Washington, D.C., and beer makers are taking advantage of it.

“We have two breweries in the Pleasant Street mills,” said Cadieux. “Abandoned Building Brewery opened last year, and New City Brewery is in the process of opening. In addition, Fort Hill Brewery opened in a new, state-of-the-art building last year.”

For this, the latest installment in its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest looks at the many types of development taking place in Easthampton, and how this former mill town has evolved into a cultural destination.

New Developments

The mayor noted repeatedly that Easthampton has been extremely fortunate in many respects. “It’s been an exciting year because there have been constant buildouts and growth. Businesses want to come here because we’re a thriving community,” she told BusinessWest.

But the economic growth is far more than a simple matter of luck; Cadieux and other town officials have worked hard to promote partnerships that encourage and promote growth.

An example of the communiuty’s success is a collaboration between the city and the owners of all five mills on Pleasant Street. It resulted in the Pleasant Street Mills project, which was funded by three major MassWorks grants.

“It started with work by the city that was done for safety reasons, so our fire department could access the back of the building,” Cadieux said, adding that it quickly morphed into a larger project that is now in its final phase.

The goal is to connect three of the revitalized, 19th-century brick mill buildings and create a main public entryway behind them. “The design includes a landscaped parking lot with new lighting and ties the back of the mills to the Manhan Rail Trail and Lower Mill Pond,” the mayor explained.

She added that the city purposely zoned its old mills for mixed use and worked closely with the Pleasant Street owners, who spent a significant amount of money upgrading their interior space. As a result of the magnitude of the project, Eversource (formerly WMECO) upgraded the electric lines going into the buildings.

“It’s something they had not planned to do for 10 years, but they were inspired by the project and the fact that the mill owners invested money to do renovation at the same time,” Cadieux explained.

Belliveau said the three-stage MassWorks project will bring even more vitality to the town. “It’s a storybook partnership and has spurred a lot of private reinvestment by the mill owners, which is key to renting available space,” she noted. “There’s a tremendous amount of energy and synergy in Easthampton, and a lot of growth and renaissance going on.”

Cadieux said the Pleasant Street mills are doing well, housing art galleries, hair salons, restaurants, and beautiful apartments. “And the Conway School of Landscaping opened a new facility in Mill 180 this month,” she added.

The creative-arts community is also growing, and the lobby of the historic Old Town Hall on 43 Main St., which has become a center for Easthampton’s arts organizations, underwent a major renovation that was completed last month.

CitySpace Inc., a nonprofit that maintains the building as a center for the arts, received a $133,000 tourism grant to do the work, and the City Council approved an additional $256,000 of Community Preservation Act funds for the project. “There are new doors, refurbished floors, new lighting that goes up the stairs, and more,” Cadieux said.

An August ribbon cutting for the entranceway was staged during Easthampton’s monthly Artwalk, which has been highly successful and draws people from many communities, said the mayor, adding that the city is also actively seeking grants to renovate the second floor of the building, which would be used to host theater groups and other functions. At present, it is not handicapped-accessible.

She added that the soaring popularity of the town extends to the housing market. “Easthampton has become the place to live, and in some neighborhoods, where the houses are priced in the $200,000 range, they have been selling in two days,” the mayor said, noting that three homes in her neighborhood took deposits for full-price offers recently on the same day. She attributes it to the city’s low tax rate, vibrant downtown, and Easthampton’s new, $40 million high school, which just received a Level I rating.

“The students moved in two years ago, but we just closed out the project this year,” she explained.

Belliveau said the Chamber of Commerce also established new programs and partnerships during the past year, along with new events, such as the day-long 2015 Checkpoint Legislative Summit, which will be held for the first time in Easthampton on Nov. 4 in collaboration with other chambers.

In addition, a partnership was formed with Williston Northampton School, and a chamber breakfast was held there in June featuring a speaker. “It was such a success that it will become an annual event with different speakers,” she told BusinessWest.

The chamber’s first Beach Ball was also held recently at the Oxbow Marina. The summer event was created to mirror the successful winter Snowball, with its silent and live auction, dinner, and dancing, said Belliveau, adding that the city also partnered with the Greater Holyoke Chamber and staged a legislative luncheon with that body in April.

Moving Forward

Belliveau told BusinessWest that Easthampton is thriving. “This is a community that really loves who and what it’s become, and it’s an exciting time.”

Cadieux agreed. “We’ve had a lot going on in the past year. We’re vibrant, but we are still growing and want to remain attractive to new businesses.

“There is still space available in the mills, available land zoned for highway business along Route 10, or Northampton Street, and a blighted building on 1 Ferry St. for sale,” the mayor continued. “We’re striving to keep our diversity so there is something for everyone here. It’s the key to our success.”

Easthampton at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1809
Population: 16,036
Area: 13.6 square miles
County: Hampshire
Residential Tax Rate: $15.15
Commercial Tax Rate: $15.15
Median Household Income: $57,134
Family Household Income: $78,281
Type of government: Mayor, City Council
Largest employers: Berry Plastics; Williston Northampton School; Argotec
* Latest information available

From Beer to Manufacturing, the Expo Has It All

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Features

Making It Happen

The final countdown is underway.

Indeed, the fifth annual Western Mass. Business Expo is now a month away, and the final details are falling into place. The show, which will showcase more than 150 area businesses and feature more than eight hours of programs that will be informative, educational, and inspirational, will bring together popular elements from Expos past, and introduce some new ones.

“Since we started the show in 2011, one of the slogans we’ve used to promote it has been, ‘why would you be anywhere else?,’” said Kate Campiti, BusinessWest’s associate publisher and sales manager. “And that’s especially true this year. On November fourth, the MassMutual Center is the only place you’d want to be.”

If you were anywhere else, you’d miss what promises to be an enlightening and entertaining start to the day at the Springfield Regional Chamber’s October breakfast. It will feature Dan Kenary, CEO and co-founder of Harpoon Brewery, in a “casual conversation” with BusinessWest Editor George O’Brien. Kenary will also take questions from the audience.

If you were elsewhere, you would miss a timely and thought-provoking talk by Alison Lands, senior manager in Deloitte’s Strategy & Operations practice. She served as a co-author and editor of the New England Council and Deloitte’s recently published report, “Advanced to Advantageous: The Case for New England’s Manufacturing Revolution,” which will form the basis of her talk at a lunch hosted by the Professional Women’s Chamber.

If you were anywhere else, you couldn’t take in any of the 16 educational seminars scheduled on four tracks: Sales & Marketing, Workforce Development, Entrepreneurship, and ‘Hottest Trends.’ The 45-minute talks, scheduled throughout the day, include “Building a Pipeline of Sales Opportunity,” “Inside Tech Foundry: Workforce in Progress,” “Bullying in the Workplace,” “How to Work with Humans: Harnessing the Power of Employees,” “Securing Your Business from White-collar Crime,” “7 Essential Elements of a Successful Business,” and much more.

And if you happened to be elsewhere, you’d miss a number of special features and programs; the return of last year’s highly successful Retail Corridor; the ever-popular Pitch Contest staged by Valley Venture Mentors; a Healthcare Corridor; a robotics demonstration by students at regional schools, including Pathfinder Regional High School; a Technology Corridor; the day-capping Expo Social (one of the best networking events of the year); and much more.

Comprehensive details of the show and a map of the show floor will be presented in a special Expo Preview to appear in the Oct. 19 issue of BusinessWest, and also in a special Show Guide to be inserted into the Nov. 2 issue of the magazine and distributed at the Expo itself.

The Expo will again be presented by Comcast Business, which has been the show’s lead sponsor since BusinessWest began producing it in 2011. Director-level sponsors are Health New England, Johnson & Hill Staffing Services, MGM Springfield, and Wild Apple Design Group. The Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst is the education sponsor, and 94.7 WMAS is the media sponsor.

Fast Facts

What: The Western Mass. Business Expo
When: Nov. 4
Where: The MassMutual Center, Springfield
Events and Activities: Breakfast hosted by the Springfield Regional Chamber, featuring Dan Kenary, CEO and co-founder of Boston-based Harpoon Brewery; lunch hosted by the Professional Women’s Chamber; Show Floor Theater presentations; informational seminars; Pitch Contest; matchmaking opportunities; robotics displays; Business Support Center hosted by the Economic Develoment Council of Western Massachusetts; and more.
Exhibitor Information: 10’ x 10’ booths from $750.
For More Information: Call (413) 781-8600, or go to www.wmbexpo.com

Auto Dealers Report Record Sales for New Vehicles

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Autos Sections

Full Speed Ahead

As the calendar cruises into October, area auto dealers report that they are well on their way to a banner year. A combination of factors — from a need to replace aging cars to lower gas prices to an improved economy — are fueling solid sales across virtually all classes of vehicles. And as the final quarter commences, dealers are keeping their foot on the gas when it comes to programs and incentives to drive more purchases and leases.

Jay Dillon called it the “perfect storm.”

But instead of a maelstrom of events leading to a disastrous outcome, the co-owner and dealer operator for Dillon Chevrolet in Greenfield was referring to a strong and rising gale that is driving new-car sales in the region and across the country.

Local dealers say their numbers have exceeded January forecasts by industry leaders, who predicted an increase of 3% and a rise in sales for the sixth year in a row, which would translate to 17 million new vehicles, a figure that hasn’t been seen since 2005.

And even though many people stayed inside last winter due to the bitter cold and record snowfalls, pent-up demand resulted in what Dillon called an “amazing” spring.

“Every day when we opened our doors, there were people waiting to come in,” he told BusinessWest.

Other major dealerships also reported healthy spring and summer sales, and as to that storm, well, it resulted from a convergence of conditions related to the economic climate. People held onto their cars during the downturn in the economy, so the average auto on the road today is 10 or 11 years old, which means its useful life is coming to an end. Meanwhile, gas prices have dropped significantly, while consumer confidence has risen and manufacturers have become aggressive in their competitive quest to attract buyers, offering incentives that range from cash back to 0% interest on many makes and models. In addition, buyers are enticed by advances in safety, design, and technology.

“People have been able to keep their cars longer because they are much more reliable than they were in the past,” said Bill Peffer, president and chief operating officer at Balise Motor Sales. “Quality has become a commodity, but eventually they have to be traded in, and everyone in the industry has benefit1ed from this factor. Buyers also have more choices than ever before.

“The biggest segment of growth is in crossovers; they have great fuel economy and the capability of a truck, but are more compact,” he went on. “Manufacturers continue to build new products that give people compelling reasons to purchase a vehicle, and overall, our sales have exceeded our expectations; they are equal to or greater than those in the general market.”

TommyCar Auto Group is also doing well. “Our sales are up over last year by quite a bit in every store, especially Hyundai,” said President Carla Cosenzi, adding that small crossover vehicles such as the Nissan Rogue and Hyundai Tucson have become big sellers, and she expects sales to remain high through the end of the year.

Carla Cosenzi says TommyCar Auto Group is planning major promotions to ensure that solid sales continue throughout the fall.

“Although we expected an increase, we kept our projections conservative, but we have definitely outsold what we anticipated, and are looking forward to a really strong end of the month in September, October, and November,” she said. “A lot of people are beginning to think about the weather. As we head toward winter, they want to make sure they are in a safe, reliable car, and we will have great offers that should make a difference in our year-end sales. We have two major promotions that will start in October and run until January. We have revamped our strategy and are excited to roll it out.”

However, local dealers differ in their tactics to attract buyers and retain customers, so for this edition and its focus on auto sales, BusinessWest explores the strategies that help fuel sales.

Tried and True Methods

Cosenzi said TommyCar’s three dealerships each gave away a brand-new car in recent weeks — a Volkswagen Passat, a Hyundai Accent, and a Nissan Versa.

Advertising for the promotional event kicked off at the beginning of the summer, which increased volume during the busiest time of year. “It drove a lot of traffic,” she said, adding that many people who entered the drawing decided to test-drive a vehicle, and the 0% financing offered by Hyundai and Nissan on leases propelled sales higher.

It’s not the first time TommyCar has given away new automobiles; in the past it staged a jingle contest and a TV-commercial contest, and the winners drove home new vehicles. But it never had a contest people could enter simply by showing up and dropping an entry form in a bucket.

“Our customers couldn’t believe it, and three happy people went home with new cars. Two had shopped us before, one was waiting to buy until she saw if she had won, and the other had recently purchased a car from us,” said Cosenzi, adding that “a really aggressive plan for the coming months should make 2015 the strongest and best year we have had in some time.”

The deals are sweetened across the board right now, however, thanks to the ‘summer selldown’ events taking place at every dealership. The 2016 models are rolling in, and spokespeople say manufacturers are offering special incentives to clear out the 2015 editions.

“It’s a time of year when people can get a really great price on a new vehicle,” said Dillon.

Peffer agreed. “Although new models are launched throughout the year, manufacturers typically offer aggressive incentives in the fall before the majority of new vehicles arrive, so we create a market,” he explained. “We’re motivated to sell all of our 2015 models before Jan. 1, when they automatically become a year older.”

Again, one of the factors in that perfect storm Jay Dillon referred to plays heavily into the stream of buyers seeking a good deal: the age of the average vehicle on the road, which is around 10 years. “Many people are facing the situation of having to repair or replace their vehicle due to its mechanical issues and high mileage. The entire industry is benefiting from this; it’s a wave we’re riding right now,” Dillon said.

Tom Dillon, co-owner and general manager of Dillon Chevrolet, said many people bring their older car into his dealership for service, and when they find out what it needs in terms of repairs, they are driven to purchase a new one. In the majority of cases, that purchase is at Dillon Chevrolet.

“We’re big on retention and people return to us because they have gotten good service. My father opened this business in 1962 and always said, ‘the sweet taste of a good deal is quickly soured by bad service,” he said, explaining why exceptional service has always been one of the dealership’s priorities.

Tom and Jay Dillon say most 2015 Chevy products are equipped with 4G LTE wi-fi hotspots, which make them particularly attractive to young buyers.

“Three-quarters of our sales are repeat customers. We’re hands-on owners who are here every day, and if someone has an urgent problem, we accommodate them immediately. We are a small town and are selling to our friends and neighbors,” Jay Dillon noted, adding that they discount vehicles beyond manufacturer’s rebates, and most customers spend less than an hour completing a sale.

It’s that same loyalty that Balise relies on to spur sales.

“We offer state-of-the-art facilities and low prices,” Peffer said. “We’re a large dealer group, and we’re consistent with our advertising, which is based on our great selection, facilities, and the fact that we treat our customers right. We generate trust and do an excellent job of staying connected to our customer base.

“Our focus is on retention, so our strategy is to develop a long-term relationship with our customers. And we have so many brands that we can offer a solution to anyone’s driving,” he continued, remarking that, although sales at all of the company’s dealerships are growing at a fairly consistent rate, Balise Subaru in Rhode Island is doing exceptionally well. “But we want people to think of Balise first, before they think of any type of vehicle.”

Attractive Options

Special promotions, such as the free cars TommyCar Auto Group gave away a few weeks ago, increased the number of visitors to the group’s dealerships. “We welcome people into our showrooms, and after they see the amenities we offer and meet our staff, they often buy a car,” Cosenzi said.

But other things attract buyers as well, and Tom Dillon says General Motors’ 2016 products will be game changers for the industry and his family dealership.

Bill Peffer says sales have been robust at Balise Auto Sales, and he expects the upward trend to continue into 2016.

“The all new Chevy Malibu is a big player in the mid-size segment; it’s a hybrid with a turbo engine that gets 47 miles per gallon. And the 2016 Chevy Cruze has been redesigned; it gets 42 miles per gallon, is safer, more efficent, and has 10 airbags,” he told BusinessWest. “There is also a new Camaro coming out that is lighter and has more horsepower and better handling. And every GM car will have 4G LTE.

“GM is the only one with 4G in all their new products, and we’re seeing more and more young people in our brand because of the technology — it gives us a competitive edge,” he continued, adding that manufacturers constantly make changes, but complete redesigns of a multitude of vehicles like this take place only every eight or nine years. “The Equinox will also be all-new, and demand will be high.”

Peffer agrees that technological advances are effective lures. “The new-car experience is exciting because of rapid changes in products, style, technology, and performance,” he said. “More and more cars are equipped with parking assist and lane departure, which started in Lexus. It allows the vehicle to sense if another automobile is in the blind spot, and warns the driver with a beep or a light. Back-up cameras, which offer a 360-degree, bird’s-eye view of what is in every direction, didn’t exist a few years ago, and some are in entry-level products, including most, if not all, Hondas. There are also cars with wi-fi hotspots that allow passengers to connect to the Internet in real time. Competitiveness in the industry has led to more choices for consumers than ever before.”

Leasing is another sales avenue on the rise because these vehicles are under factory warranty, payments are low, and regular maintenance is the only out-of-pocket expense.

“People see advertisements for payments on a brand-new car that are less than they are paying for an older vehicle, which entices them to visit the dealership,” Cosenzi said, adding that the value of trade-ins get worked into the deals.

Racing Ahead

New auto sales plummeted in 2008 due to the downturn in the economy and the fact that gas prices reached $4.25 a gallon. Those factors affected all dealers as well as a multitude of other industries, but fast-forward to 2015, and it’s an entirely different market.

“Our sales were up by 20% in the first six months of this year, and we have already approached our 2007 numbers,” said Tom Dillon. “We’re expecting that 2015 should be the biggest year ever for the entire auto industry.”

Peffer expects sales at Balise’s 13 dealerships to continue to be robust through the end of the calendar year and into 2016, due to manufacturer’s promotions and the aforementioned economy-related conditions that are inspiring people to get behind the wheel of a new car.

“For anyone considering buying a new vehicle,” he concluded, “it’s a great time to buy.”

Four-wheel Drive or All-wheel Drive? That Is the Question

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Autos Sections

Measures of Control

Brian Farnsworth says all-wheel drive is appealing because drivers don’t have to think about turning it on and off.

Though casual car shoppers may speak of four-wheel drive and all-wheel drive as if they’re interchangeable, that’s far from the truth, Damon Cartelli says. Which system is preferable comes down to how that vehicle will be used.

“Any time you have an option that adds security — that allows people to drive to their destination with a little more security than in a traditional front-wheel-drive vehicle — people want that,” said Cartelli, president of the local Fathers & Sons chain of auto dealerships.

But while four-wheel drive dominated the market for a long time, all-wheel drive has long been recognized as the superior option for driving in inclement weather — including those snowy and icy days of a typical Massachusetts winter.

“With four-wheel drive,” Cartelli said, “each tire receives 25% of the vehicle’s power at all times. So, while a rear-wheel drive car gets 50% in each of the two rear wheels, with four-wheel drive, the power is broken down evenly between right front, right rear, left front, and left rear.

“The difference with all-wheel drive is, the system has the capability of transferring power to the wheels that are gripping, based on sensors detecting which wheels have lost traction,” he continued. “The result is better traction in wet or inclement weather — or any weather, for that matter.”

Cartelli said Audi was a pioneer of all-wheel drive back in the 1980s with its Quattro system, which helped it dominate rally racing for a decade. “Audi was eventually banned from this race circuit because the Quattro system gave them an unfair advantage against rear-wheel-drive cars.”

Today, he noted, all-wheel drive is a selling point in a wide range of cars for drivers who want stability in any weather condition.

“If you’re not buying a truck, you’re looking for classic all-wheel drive, and you don’t have to worry about anything. You get in and do your thing,” added Brian Farnsworth, a sales consultant with Marcotte Ford in Holyoke, which features four-wheel drive in Ford trucks and larger SUVs, like the Expedition, but all-wheel drive in cars and smaller SUVs.

“The main thing with all-wheel drive is, there’s no user input. You don’t have to select it; it’s always monitoring road conditions and what you’re doing, whether that’s steering, braking, or accelerating,” Farnsworth noted.

The latest all-wheel-drive systems use high-tech software and wheel sensors to detect wheel slippage more quickly than ever before, then react by activating traction control to reduce that slippage while rerouting engine torque to the wheel with the best grip on the road — as opposed to the evenly divided torque of four-wheel drive.

“It may sense when you’re taking a corner too quickly and transfer power to the wheels that are getting the grip,” Farnsworth said. “In that scenario — in any scenario, whether it’s hitting ice, sand, whatever — it senses spin in milliseconds, sometimes correcting it so that it doesn’t happen in the first place. Same thing when you take an off ramp too quickly, things like that.”

It also automatically reverts to two-wheel drive when cruising on the highway to improve fuel economy, he added.

“Four-wheel drive is a lot more heavy-duty, more work-oriented, for things like towing a boat out of the water, towing up a grade, things like that,” he went on. “It can’t be used on dry pavement, so if you take that off ramp too quickly, it doesn’t help you.”

Pros and Cons

In short, dealers say, the choice often comes down to how much off-roading a driver expects to do.

Four-wheel drive, they note, provides added traction when needed and is generally less expensive than all-wheel drive because it’s based on simpler technology. And, of course, it’s the preferred system for difficult terrain.

However, it doesn’t provide extra traction and better handling in everyday driving situations — but drivers often believe it does, leading some to take more chances on the road. The driver also has to actively turn four-wheel drive on and remember to turn it off afterward to prevent draining fuel economy.

On the other hand, all-wheel drive increases grip and control under any condition and works all the time. While it can’t match the levels of traction in low-speed off-roading that traditional four-wheel-drive systems provide, all-wheel drive does pose some clear advantages, notes Peter Braun at digitaltrends.com.

“In the sort of winter road conditions that most drivers experience, it’s nice to have a drivetrain, like a modern AWD system, that responds instantly without the driver having to toggle any switches,” he writes. “In addition, most vehicles featuring AWD tend to have better weight distribution, which also aids in traction.”

For many drivers, he added, particularly those down south who rarely experience wintry driving conditions, basic front- or rear-wheel drive is fine. Still, many drivers value the added level of comfort and peace of mind an all-wheel-drive system provides.

Farnsworth said Ford, like other car makers, has incorporated a number of different all-wheel-drive systems that shift power around in different ways, but one thing they all have in common is the ability to operate without any user input or thought, and then switch back off under normal conditions. “It’s always on when you need it most, but always trying to save you gas when you don’t.”

That does not, however, free drivers from basic common sense when operating in wintry weather, like speeding down hills during snowstorms.

“Some people think they’re invincible. They think if they’re going down a hill and hit ice, they’ll be fine because of their four-wheel or all-wheel drive,” he explained. “But it only helps you get going. It doesn’t help you stop.”

It’s also no substitute for tires that have proper tread, Farnsworth added. “It really all comes down to this: no matter what kind of drive train you have, your tires are the most important thing. The fanciest all-wheel drive in the world is not going to help you if your tires are bad. It’s just simple common sense. It’s constantly monitoring slippage, but if nothing’s getting a grip, if the tires aren’t catching, you’re not going anywhere.”

That’s a common refrain in the industry, even among those who sing the praises of all-wheel and four-wheel drive.

“You can’t put a price on safety, but shelling out [for all-wheel drive] isn’t a get-out-of-a-ditch-free card either,” writes Ben Bowers at gearpatrol.com. “No matter what you wind up picking, our advice is to study up on good winter driving skills, focus on regular maintenance, and work on improving your decision making behind the wheel first. After all, at the end of the day, it’s the man behind the machine, not the other way around.”

Peace of Mind

Even today’s front-wheel-drive vehicles handle well in wet or snowy weather as long as they’re fitted with the proper seasonal tires and the driver is careful, Cartelli said. But for people who don’t have the option of staying home from work during those New England snowstorms — doctors and nurses, for example — all-wheel drive brings an added layer of comfort. “If you have to be somewhere no matter what, all-wheel drive with the right tires will get you there.”

No matter how they use their vehicles, Farnsworth added, purchasing drive-train options beyond front- or rear-wheel drive is an investment worth making, if only for the peace of mind.

“All the new SUVs drive much like cars; the all-wheel-drive systems are not as bulky, so they don’t drive like a truck,” he said, adding that many drivers come to take the systems for granted — until it’s time to buy a new vehicle. “When they come in, it’s the first thing out of their mouth: ‘I need that all-wheel drive.’ It makes them feel safer; it’s definitely a security blanket for them.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Event Aims to Raise Awareness, Funds for Breast-cancer Research

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Autos Sections

It’s a Pink Party

By any measure, Sandy Cassanelli is living the American success story at a young age, raising two daughters and serving as CEO of Greenough Packaging in West Springfield, the business she co-owns with her husband, Craig.

But she also understands that youth is no guarantee against cancer.

Cassanelli was diagnosed with stage-3 breast cancer in 2013, at age 37, well before women typically start regular mammograms. After a tough fight that included a bilateral mastectomy, eight rounds of chemotherapy, and 28 days of radiation, doctors told her she was cured.

“I was fine for about two years,” she told BusinessWest. “Then, in April of this year, they told me my breast cancer had spread to my liver.”

It was a devastating blow, because, as she explained, once cancer metastasizes into other parts of the body, “you’re never cured. You can be treated, but not cured. I’m lucky enough to be at Dana Farber right now, being treated with a new medicine that was a trial and was recently approved by the FDA, in hopes it won’t metastasize further and spread to other parts of the body.”

Throughout her cancer fight, Cassanelli forged a bond with representatives of the Massachusetts and Connecticut chapters of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting breast cancer. Impressed by the charity and its assurance that all money raised locally stays local, she wanted to do something to boost its profile. So, with the help of the Fathers & Sons auto group and Max Catering & Events, she’s throwing a party.

The purpose of the “Pink Party” — to be held Thursday, Oct. 15 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Fathers & Sons dealership at 989 Memorial Ave. in West Springfield — is to raise awareness of the mission of the Massachusetts affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure and to raise funds to support the local fight against breast cancer.

There is no cost for admission, but donations are appreciated. Cocktails and hors d’ouevres will be provided by Max Catering and Events. Silent-auction items include Patriots tickets with club-level seating and premium parking. Guests are encouraged to wear pink in support of those fighting breast cancer. Anyone wishing to attend should RSVP to Cassanelli at [email protected]. Those who cannot attend but wish to donate to the cause may do so at www.komenmass.org.

The Massachusetts affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure (Komen Mass) works with, and on behalf of, breast-cancer survivors and those who support them in local communities. The organization is dedicated to protecting the most vulnerable residents in Massachusetts from the impacts of breast cancer, particularly those who face barriers to care. Komen Mass sponsors various fund-raising events, including the Race for the Cure, and is a resource for information and education on breast health throughout the Commonwealth.

Cassanelli said she had met Fathers & Sons President Damon Cartelli at Komen events and was pleased that he offered to host the Pink Party. “We want to raise awareness of what Komen does for the people of Massachusetts, and encourage people to get their mammograms early,” she added. “Really, early detection is key, and we want to get the word out.”

Massachusetts has the second-highest incidence of breast cancer in the U.S. This year alone, more than 5,000 Massachusetts residents will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Seventy-five percent of funds raised by Komen Mass are invested back into Bay State communities through local grants that provide education, screening, and treatment services. The remaining 25% is invested into life-saving research.

To date, Komen Mass has invested over $68 million in Massachusetts-based organizations and an additional $26 million in research in the Commonwealth, and has contributed to numerous breast-cancer research breakthroughs over the past 30 years.

Cassanelli’s voice broke a little bit as she expressed hope that research funded by Komen and others may pave the way for a cure, and that she will be able to watch her daughters grow up. “People don’t realize this does affect young people. But it can happen to anybody.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Chart of Auto Dealers in Western Mass.

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Autos Sections

Lots of Choices

Click HERE to download the PDF chart Auto Dealers in Western Mass.

Why Divorce Mediation Is an Appealing Alternative to a Court Fight

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Law Sections

Let’s Talk

WeddingDivorceARTdp

Couples who decide to end their marriage are often dealing with the most upsetting, stressful time of their lives, and the prospect of fighting tooth and nail in court to decide issues like child custody, visitation, and finances only piles on the emotional trauma. That’s why divorce mediation — a less costly, less stressful alternative to a contested divorce — is gaining in popularity. It’s a process that doesn’t deal in who’s right or wrong, but allows two people to take control of a bad situation and talk it out — often for the first time in years.

Divorce is difficult — perhaps the roughest, most emotionally draining experience of a person’s life.

So why, Michael Frazee asks, would a couple want to make it even harder?

“The court system already struggles to problem-solve in divorce, and then they add regulations, they add rules, and they add requirements to each divorce without regard for the actual needs of the parties, and especially the needs of the children,” said Frazee, a family-law attorney who practices with Divorce Mediation Group in Springfield.

“Mediation doesn’t impose any template on any case because every family situation is different,” he went on. “We help them navigate the divorce process by applying creative problem solving. Really, we help people come to their own solutions, as opposed to imposing a boilerplate approach on them, which is what the court system does.”

In other words, he told BusinessWest, while the litigated divorce process has only become thornier to people already going through a tough time, “we live in solutions; we don’t live in problems.”

Increasingly, divorcing couples are taking notice, and the field of mediation has experienced an uptick in recent years even as the divorce rate has quietly crept down.

“The goal is to have a more respectful, less expensive process — both emotionally and financially — while trying to resolve issues of divorce or dissolution of marriage,” said attorney Julie Dialessi-Lafley, who counts divorce mediation among her practice areas at Bacon Wilson in Springfield. “That can include child-custody issues, who pays for college education, uninsured medical expenses … anything the parties might disagree on. In mediation, it’s supposed to be a non-litigious setting with a neutral mediator, who tries to help the parties come to their own agreements and resolution.”

At its heart, the process is all about control, she explained.

“Mediation differs from litigation in the sense that the parties craft their own settlement; they’re advocating for themselves,” she said, noting that, while the couple may occasionally retain attorneys, they don’t control the process for the two parties. “The mediator’s role is really as a facilitator. The goal is to get them to an agreement. Judges don’t want to make this decision. A judge will say, ‘I’ll decide this, but at the end of the day, you’re in the best place to know what’s in your best interest and your children’s best interest; you know more about your life than I do.’”

For this issue’s focus on law, BusinessWest examines the process of divorce mediation, and — considering the financial and emotional benefits — asks the question, why would a couple not choose mediation?

Give and Take

As it turns out, there are several answers to that question.

“I think some people have the perception that their spouse will not engage in a cooperative process, and some feel like they need the additional strength of having a laywer to rely upon,” said Bruce Clarkin, who launched Divorce Mediation Group in 1989. “But the people we see are so relieved to have a solution to the biggest problem they ever face in their life; I think it motivates them to work really hard to get a solution.”

And they’re doing so at a much lower cost than paying two attorneys to fight out every issue in court.

Julie Dialessi-Lafley says the cost of mediation — both financial and emotional — is typically far less than in a litigated divorce.

“At a time when the legal cost of divorce is exploding exponentially, the costs of a mediated divorce remain pretty stable and predictable,” Clarkin said. “We can predict at the outset what mediation is going to cost about 80% of the time, and the typical cost is between $1,500 and $2,000.

“The reason the cost is so low is the process is so efficient,” he went on. “It’s very problem-solving-oriented. You learn how your clients see the future and try to help them achieve that goal. Meanwhile, litigation has only become more expensive and is often so unsatisfactory.”

Frazee agreed, adding that it’s mainly a lack of awareness about the mediation process that holds some couples back. “It’s a cooperative, collaborative process. And, again, when you consider the expense of litigated divorce versus the expense of a contested divorce, why wouldn’t someone at least try it? We do a free consultation, and the vast majority of people who meet with us come to understand what the process is, and want to engage in the process right away.”

He added that some 80% of all litigated divorces wind up back in court for some tangential issue. “Whereas, with a mediated divorce, you’re rarely back in court. You’ve already set yourself, as a divorcing couple, on a path to better parenting and better communication, as opposed to being adversaries in the court system.”

Dialessi-Lafley says the overwhelming majority of clients are positive about forging an agreement they can both live with. One exception would be couples with serious, closeted issues involving each other or their children that need to be worked out in therapy before they can work on their divorce agreement.

“We’re definitely not therapists,” Dialessi-Lafley said, but the training necessary to be certified as a divorce mediator emphasizes getting divorcing couples to communicate more effectively — perhaps more than they have in years.

“In all these years,” she said, thinking back over 19 years in practice, “the common thread in every divorce is lack of communication. They don’t communicate about intimate issues, child issues, financial issues … whatever the issue is, communication is the problem.”

Agreeing to mediation, she went on, is basically an agreement to communicate — to be willing to talk and listen in equal measure.

“There’s no blame here. It’s more, ‘let’s see if you can actually hear each other,’” she told BusinessWest. “I have had parties who would run each other over in the street if given the chance. When they come in, they’re angry and tense and negative about the process. But if they’re willing to try it, and you can get them to open up, it’s a start.”

Some couples require what she called ‘shuttling’ at first, putting them in separate rooms initially and talking with them one on one. Often, they eventually wind up in the same room, talking.

As for couples who choose litigation, “they may not know about mediation or understand it,” Dialessi-Lafley went on. “Or, very commonly, one party may have a stronger personality, and the other thinks, ‘I won’t be able to advocate for myself and say what I need to say.’ One party may be worried they’ll give up more than they should.”

However, she added, “the goal is to get to a resolution, and the process itself is designed to keep the parties respectful of each other — I wouldn’t use the word ‘amicable,’ but at least able to have less tension and less consternation between them.”

Building Trust

Alison Patton, a family lawyer and mediator who blogs at lemonadedivorce.com, said the ideal mediator, first and foremost, listens intently and asks questions not for the purpose of deciding who’s right or wrong, but to better understand two people who are seeking to resolve some very challenging issues.

“When your mediator is listening, validating, and empathizing with your spouse, this is a good thing,” Patton writes. “It may not feel good; it may bring up the ‘not true! What about me!’ feelings typical of what one feels in mediation when the other person is getting to talk.

“But know that your mediator’s focus on your spouse is intentional and necessary to get your case to a settlement,” she continues. “It doesn’t mean your mediator is taking sides or agreeing with what your spouse is saying. It doesn’t mean your mediator likes your spouse more or that he doesn’t believe your version of the facts. You have a good mediator if he is intently listening and nodding his head and asking your spouse clarifying questions and summarizing what your spouse said (as long as you get your turn too).”

Frazee agreed. “Being an active listener is imperative as a mediator, and guiding the discussion — and note that I didn’t say controlling the discussion.”

Clarkin went a step beyond that and said the mediator’s role is one of leadership, which includes getting both parties to totally buy into the process and have confidence that he is neutral. “Some people come here and fight like cats and dogs, and we’re trained to deal with that. But even then, when clients have confidence in the process, it most often works out in their favor.”

Bruce Clarkin, left, and Michael Frazee say a good mediator shows the kind of leadership that breeds confidence in his or her neutrality.

It helps, Frazee added, that anything said to a mediator is completely private and confidential and, importantly, inadmissible in court on the rare occasions the couple can’t work out their own solution and opt for litigation. Those who come to recognize the mediation room as a safe space often surprise themselves, and their partners, with their candor.

“Honestly, a lot of people say things to each other that could have been said — and should have been said — years before they sat down with us,” he went on. “That sort of openness — especially between parents — is critical to the success of the process. I agree that the mediator leads in the sense of guiding the dialogue between the parties, but the goal is always working toward a resolution of the issue.”

That said, Clarkin added, “I don’t inquire about what went wrong in the marriage. I always see that as information that belongs to clients, and most of the time, it’s not helpful for me to hear it.”

A Few Clicks Away

What has been helpful for practitioners of divorce mediation, Clarkin told BusinessWest, has been the tendency of consumers to research what they plan to purchase on the Internet — a trend that affects everything from car sales to travel bookings to … divorce.

“Mediation is coming of age at the same time the Internet is becoming the default resource for the middle-class consumer,” Clarkin said. “Years ago, when someone was on the cusp of divorce, they asked their brother-in-law what lawyer they should call; now, when a divorce is on the horizon, they go to the Internet. It’s self-determination; people are making decisions before they even call. And by the time people get through using the Internet to research this, they’ve already made a decision whether mediation is likely to work for them. It’s really changed the landscape in a huge way.”

In some cases, Frazee said, “we see people who have already started charting an agreement and want to make sure their agreement will be approved by the court. They’re not coming to us for verification, necessarily, but a lot of them understand what the process is and have already started framing some areas of agreement and disagreement.”

In other words, they’re taking control. “If the same people go to the court system, they have a template and expenses imposed on them.”

That matter of control, for couples who can bring themselves to talk rationally with each other, is a major benefit of mediation, Dialessi-Lafley said. After all, the issues involved in divorce are wide-ranging and can impact families for decades. “And you can’t quantify the emotional impact of a litigated divorce.”

A contested divorce is also subject to the scheduling whims of the court, whereas a couple in mediation agrees to their own schedule and timeline, which peels back another layer of stress, Dialessi-Lafley added.

For an increasing number of divorcing couples, just stepping back from the stress of constant fighting and actually trying to communicate makes a lot of sense.

“When I see one spouse listening, validating, asking questions, and empathizing, I don’t assume he or she is agreeing with what is being said or backing down. It means to me that this person is mature and kind enough to honor and respect their spouse’s feelings, in spite of it all,” Patton writes. “Truly, the real secret of divorce mediation is that simple — feeling heard, honored, and respected by the person you loved enough to marry.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Healthcare Proxy vs. MOLST

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Law Sections

Do I Need Both Documents to Ensure My Wishes Are Carried Out?

By VALERIE VIGNAUX, Esq.

Remember the Obamacare ‘death panels?’

Valerie Vignaux

In the months leading to the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Sarah Palin coined that term to describe a provision that allowed Medicare to reimburse doctors for end-of-life discussions with their patients. It was a successful public-relations ploy to turn the American public against the act, painting it as the work of a nefarious bureaucracy out to kill off the old and sick to save a buck.

The offending provision was removed before Congress passed the Affordable Care Act.

The tides have changed. Medicare is soon to announce that end-of-life, or ‘advance-planning,’ conversations will be reimbursed. The proposed regulation was introduced in July of this year by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and, with little to no opposition, is expected to take effect in January 2016.

What does an advance-planning conversation sound like?

A doctor (or nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant) should get a sense of what her patient’s wishes are regarding resuscitation, intubation, life support, and palliative care. These wishes can then be documented in a medical orders for life-sustaining treatment (MOLST) form. In addition, the medical professional should encourage her patient to consider who can be trusted to make medical decisions in the event the patient is incapacitated.

That trusted individual can be named in a healthcare proxy. Both the MOLST and the healthcare proxy are vital documents, but each involve different aspects of advance planning. Here’s what you need to know.

MOLST

The Massachusetts medical orders for life-sustaining treatment form is a medical document, signed by the patient and a medical professional. This document is similar to a prescription and contains medical orders to withhold or provide various treatments, such as CPR, intubation, and sustained ventilation.

Many people are familiar with DNRs, or do-nor-resuscitate orders. The MOLST is similar but broader, and can include a DNR order. One can have both a DNR and a MOLST, but if a situation calls for resuscitation, the most recently signed form will take precedence. If the emergency requires consideration of other treatments, the MOLST will apply.

This document is often printed on bright pink paper and kept near the individual — on a bedside table or refrigerator, for example — and travels with her, as an alert to emergency responders to follow the medical orders outlined. The MOLST form is not recommended for everyone, but for individuals who have a serious illness or injury, it can offer important protections. Anyone can sign a MOLST; for those patients under age 18, a guardian’s signature is valid.

Healthcare Proxy

A healthcare proxy, by contrast, is a legal document signed by the individual, witnessed, and notarized. This document appoints a healthcare agent — someone the individual trusts to make medical decisions if (and only if) she is incapacitated and unable to make decisions herself.

Many hospitals have basic healthcare proxy forms available for individuals admitted for care. While they can be helpful in some short-term cases, these forms are usually not comprehensive. Very often there is space to name only one agent. In the event that the named agent is unwilling or unavailable to make decisions in a crisis, such forms do not provide a backup proxy.

Additionally, these basic healthcare proxy forms usually do not include guidance for the healthcare agent. While there is no living-will statute in Massachusetts, some attorneys integrate living-will language into the healthcare proxy. This allows the individual to express her wishes regarding end-of-life care.

Some decisions to be addressed may include a desire not to be kept alive artificially if there is no chance for recovery, to donate organs, or to be cremated. Even if the individual has had this conversation with her named agent, in a highly emotional medical crisis, written wishes serve as a powerful and comforting guide.

Healthcare proxies are a good idea for all individuals, healthy and ailing, but can be signed only by those over age 18. Without a healthcare proxy, family or friends may be forced to petition the court for guardianship in order to receive medical information and make medical decisions for a loved one.

How are the MOLST and healthcare proxy different, and are they both necessary?  For those who are not suffering from a serious illness or injury, a healthcare proxy alone should be sufficient. A document naming a trusted agent and a backup (or two), with language expressing the individual’s end-of-life wishes, is valuable for all.

The healthcare proxy is a legal form, and while it provides the necessary appointment of an agent and expression of wishes, it carries little weight with emergency responders. In a life-threatening emergency, responders will not abide by a healthcare proxy, but will treat and transport the patient to the hospital. It is there in the hospital that the healthcare proxy can be invoked if the patient is incapacitated. In contrast, emergency responders will almost always abide by the directions in a MOLST, provided they are aware of the document when answering a call.

For those who have been seriously injured or diagnosed with a life-threatening condition, both a healthcare proxy and a MOLST are recommended.

Valerie Vignaux is an associate attorney with Bacon Wilson and a member of the firm’s Estate Planning and Elder Law team. She assists clients with all manner of estate planning. She also spent a year serving as Superior Court clerk to the justices of the Massachusetts Trial Court; (413) 781-0560; [email protected]

Chart of the Region’s Law Firms

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Law Sections

In Any Case

Click HERE to download the PDF chart of the region’s law firms

New Book Offering Outlines a Fiduciary’s Responsibilities

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Retirement Planning Sections

By the Book

Charlie Epstein

Charlie Epstein, president of the 401(k) Coach, LLC, says his new book, Save America, Save! The Secrets of a Successful 401(k) Plan, could not be considered a sequel to his first offering, Paychecks for Life, published in 2012. The latter was intended for employees, while the former was written for plan fiduciaries (employers) who face a long list of responsibilities. And failure to live up to them can have consequences, as a recent Supreme Court ruling shows.

Charlie Epstein calls them “blind squirrels” and “two-plan Tonys.”

These are just some of the colorful names he has for individuals and firms who don’t handle a lot of retirement plans — hence it’s a ‘two-plan Tony’ — but can still manage to sell themselves and their services to employers looking to save a few bucks, cut a few corners, or do a favor for an old friend.

“They have a couple of retirement plans, they’re overcharging fees, there’s bad investments … there’s no process in place for monitoring anybody; nobody’s sitting with the employees and helping them, guiding them,” Epstein, president of Holyoke-based 401(k) Coach, LLC, told BusinessWest. “Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while, but…”

He didn’t finish that sentence, but didn’t really have to; the implication was clear. Most of the time, the blind squirrel doesn’t find the acorn.

That’s why employers large and small looking for someone to manage the retirement plan they’ve created for their workers should look upon two-plan Tonys with a very wary eye, said Epstein, adding that this isn’t just his opinion or what most would consider sage advice.

Instead, it’s what he called a “duty” that employers share, and, even more importantly, it’s the law, as a number of recent court cases have shown.

It’s all spelled out on page 51 of Epstein’s relatively new book (it came out several months ago) titled Save America, Save! The Secrets of a Successful 401(k) Plan. It’s a how-to book of sorts, and while writing it, Epstein probably broke the ‘m’ key on his computer while repeatedly typing out the word ‘must.’

“If you’re an employer and you sponsor a 401(k) plan, you have a fiduciary responsibility to do what’s in the best interests of your employees,” he writes in a chapter titled “Your Role as a Fiduciary.” “Employers must remember that a 401(k) plan is established under ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits to participants and their beneficiaries.

“As a plan fiduciary, you have a duty of loyalty and a duty of prudence,” he went on. “You must be loyal to your participants and their beneficiaries, and avoid any conflicts of interest or prohibited transactions. You must act prudently in managing the plan and the plan’s investments. That means you must have a repeatable process to monitor the plan’s investments, and to fire and hire the managers if they are not performing to certain metrics.”

He explains those metrics in great detail in a book that is his second on the broad subject of the 401(k) but would not be considered a sequel. In fact, Epstein calls them “bookends.”

Indeed, while Paychecks for Life: How to Turn Your 401(k) into a Paycheck Manufacturing Company, published in 2012, was, as that title implies, intended for the employee, Save America, Save! was written for the employer, spelling out those obligations and ‘musts.’

It differs from Paychecks for Life in a few other respects as well. Epstein’s first book took him three and a half years and two ghostwriters to complete — he says he wound up rewriting 90% of their contributions — while the second was penned over a weekend, by his estimation. And while the former was intended for sale ($22.99 is the listed price) and has sold more than 15,000 copies, the latter is essentially being given away to all who want and need to read it.

What’s more, Epstein is committed to helping financial advisors like him across the country to write their own version of the same book.

“I’m now in the author business, and I’m helping advisors across the country become authors,” he explained, adding that he’s partnering with his publisher, Advantage Media Group, to put similar works in print and thus add another element to his coaching activities.

He admits that this strategy seems nonsensical to the casual observer, but to him it makes all the sense in the world, because his ultimate goal is not only to have employees commit themselves to creating paychecks for life, but also to help employers make sure the job gets done. And that means sharing the wealth, or, in their case, the insight, into not only 401(k) management, but how to write the definitive book on that subject.

For this issue and its focus on retirement planning, BusinessWest talked at length with Epstein about his book, but especially the larger issue of effective plan management and how it doesn’t happen by accident.

Saving Grace

As he talked about his book, why he wrote it, and the growing sense of urgency attached to the matter of the responsibilities incurred by plan fiduciaries, Epstein borrowed the famous quote attributed to the prolific bank robber Willie Sutton.

Only, he didn’t know it was Sutton who, according to lore, when asked by a reporter why he robbed banks, said, “because that’s where the money is.”

Epstein deployed the line as he explained the importance of the case known as Tibble v. Edison, in which the Supreme Court ruled that fiduciaries have a continuing duty to monitor the investments in a retirement plan, the service providers, the fees, and more — and why he believes there will be many more suits like it in the years to come. (Actually, others are already winding their way through the courts.)

“There have been numerous ERISA lawsuits, and there will be a lot more,” he explained. “Why? Simply stated, the lawyers sued the tobacco industry, they sued the pharmaceutical industry, they sued the asbestos industry, and now that we have $4 trillion or $5 trillion in retirement-plan assets, the lawyers are licking their chops.”

Charlie Epstein says his new book is designed to help business owners with the task of enabling employees to do as the cover suggests.

Edison International, a holding company for a number of electric utilities and other energy interests, provided a 401(k) plan serving 20,000 employees that was valued at $3.8 billion during the litigation. Epstein said his book wasn’t really written for those kinds of companies — although he admits that maybe their top executives should read it anyway — but was intended for employers dealing with plans involving two or three fewer zeroes.

Such companies don’t have large departments handling their 401(k) plans, and, more to the point, the entrepreneurs behind them need to be more focused on running their venture than on administering a retirement plan.

“A plan sponsor fiduciary’s roles and responsibilities are very clearly spelled out under ERISA,” he noted, “but in the small and mid-sized workplace, business owners are not professional fiduciaries — they’re running businesses; they’re making widgets.”

But, as he said, regardless of the size of the company, the basic responsibilities with regard to managing a plan are the same, as are the many forms of trouble a company can run into if those responsibilities are not met, as evidenced by what happened to another, now much-better-known energy company.

“Along came Enron a few years back, which woke everyone up and had people thinking, ‘what is a fiduciary?’” he told BusinessWest. “Enron taught us all the bad things that bad people can do as fiduciaries to their participants, and that set in motion where we are today.”

And by ‘today,’ he meant, among other things, the Supreme Court ruling in Tibble v. Edison. The corporation tried to argue that the statute of limitations had run out and it didn’t have to continue monitoring certain investments (those initiated more than six years earlier, to be specific).

“But the judges said ‘au contraire,’” noted Epstein, “because the laws used in a retirement plan are trust laws, and under trust laws, a fiduciary’s duty never ceases.”

Chapter and Verse

So what does the court’s ruling mean? “It means people need to read this book,” said Epstein with a laugh, noting that its 130-odd pages comprise “a compilation of everything that I have taught and preached for the last 30 years — but in simple terms.”

He said he wrote it because there are, indeed, two parts to the equation when it comes to whether employees can effectively save enough for retirement, and both are equally important. Actually, the employer’s role is more so.

“Even if the employee does everything I say in this book,” said Epstein, holding up Paychecks for Life, “if the employer screws it up…”

The book has five parts, each with its own set of ‘action steps.’

Part one is titled “Our Savings Crisis,” which, as those words suggest, outlines why there is a crisis when it comes to retirement savings and how it can be stemmed. It includes sections on the very uncertain future of Social Security and the emergence of the 401(k) as the “best place to save.”

Part two, meanwhile, is called the “Power of Auto5,” and deals with, among other things, the five automatic features in a plan — enrollment, QDIA (qualified default investment account), escalation, re-enrollment, and something called the ‘stretch match,’ designed to incentivize employees to save a greater percentage of their pay.

While there are detailed references to these automatic features in Paychecks for Life, Epstein said he revisits them here to drive home the point that employers need to be proactive when it comes to helping their employees save.

“Employees, left to their own demise, won’t get it done,” he explained, “so there are some things that I think employers need to do automatically with their retirement plan, such as automatically enroll and automatically increase the contribution.”

Part three is titled “Your Role as a Fiduciary,” and goes into great detail about all those ‘musts’ listed earlier. Part four is called “Creating Smart Savers,” and the concluding section is titled “Measuring Employees’ Success.”

Throughout, there are formal industry terms such as ‘safe-harbor match,’ and far-less-formal phraseology, such as ‘the green-bathrobe effect,’ an anecdote designed to show the folly of taking unnecessary risks with OPM (other people’s money). It would take too long to explain in this space (there’s another reason to get the book).

Overall, the book is designed to create a world of better-informed fiduciaries, said Epstein, adding that, with that knowledge, plan managers can help foster an appetite for more — and more effective — retirement-savings activities, and avoid common mistakes, such as hiring blind squirrels, not monitoring investments, and failing to benchmark those investments.

And that brings him back to that new wrinkle — helping other financial advisors write their own book on the subject.

Already, three advisors he’s working with — in Idaho, New Jersey, and Colorado — are writing their own versions, he told BusinessWest, and there are roughly eight more in the pipeline.

Bottom Line

On the inside of the book jacket for Save America, Save! Epstein writes, “are you doing everything you can to ensure your employees feel confident that they will have enough money to retire and pay for all they desire to do someday? Save America Save! reveals the ‘secret strategies’ that will significantly impact retirement-outcome results for you and your employees.”

By publishing the book, Epstein is making sure those strategies are no longer secret, and that’s exactly what he wants.

Instead, he wants them to be common knowledge. If that goal can be reached, fiduciaries can stay clear of trouble, and, far more importantly, this country can retire that word ‘crisis’ when it comes to retirement savings.

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

In Retirement, Planning Is Key to Making Your Money Last

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Retirement Planning Sections

For the Long Haul

By KATE KANE

Kate Kane

Some people have a clear idea of how they want to live once they stop working. For many others, however, retirement is a step into the great unknown. The problem is, without a road map for turning your savings into a sustainable stream of income, it’s difficult to create the type of lifestyle you want for the future.

Planning for retirement is a lifelong process that should begin as soon as you start working and continue throughout your retirement years. Whether you are five years from retiring or 30, the following steps can help you achieve financial security for when the big day finally comes.

1. Practice Retirement

Like most people, you may spend years fantasizing about the day when you can finally stop working. But what will your retirement look like? Financial experts recommend that you think about what you want to do when you retire and then ‘practice’ some of it first.

For example, if you’d like to move to a warmer climate, try vacationing there several times to get a sense of what it might cost and how it feels not just in the winter, but in the heat of summer. Or, if you plan to watch your grandkids full time, take a week or two to do a test run. The goal is to try out your plans, determine whether you truly enjoy and can afford them, and make needed adjustments before you commit.

2. Match Your Expenses and Income

As you think about your lifestyle in retirement, your expenses will fall into two groups: essential expenses (your needs) and discretionary expenses (your wants). Within discretionary expenses, you also may have one-time expenditures, such as funding a grandchild’s education or adding a sunporch to your home. Whether you make a spreadsheet on your computer or simply list your expenses on a pad of paper, the goal is to create a retirement budget that captures as many anticipated costs as possible.

Next, consider the money you’ll have coming in. Typically, retirees draw from three categories of income in retirement: guaranteed sources of income (such as Social Security, pensions, and lifetime income annuities), savings and investments, and any employment income.

Once you know what you’re likely to have coming in, pair your income and expenses based on their priority, matching your needs with your guaranteed income sources first. If the predictable income you expect won’t cover all your essential expenses, you may want to either adjust your plans or consider converting a portion of your savings into a regular stream of income. Conversely, if you have a surplus, you can use the extra money to cover any discretionary expenses.

3. Decide Which Account to Tap First

One way to maximize the amount of money you may have in retirement is by planning the order in which you spend your different investment accounts. The starting point is to consider whether you plan to use your assets for ongoing expenses in retirement or to pass them along to your heirs or charities.

For many, it makes sense to draw from taxable accounts first in order to keep the assets in retirement accounts growing tax-deferred for as long as possible. Tax-exempt accounts, such as Roth IRAs, should be spent last. However, there is no rule of thumb when it comes to the order in which you should liquidate your assets.

If you plan to pass your assets along to your heirs or charities, you may want to spend tax-deferred assets with the intention of bequeathing taxable assets, which receive more favorable tax treatment when inherited.

The order in which you withdraw your retirement savings is an important decision that becomes even more complex once you reach age 70½. That’s when you must begin taking annual required minimum distributions from your IRAs and retirement plans.

Because each person’s situation is unique, you should include both your financial professional and tax advisor in these discussions.

4. Protect Your Savings

Consider putting enough money into a savings or liquid money-market account to cover your withdrawal needs for at least two years. This can help prevent taking money out of your investments when the market and share prices are trending downward.

If you haven’t already, consider funding a long-term-care (LTC) plan as well. LTC funding can help protect your retirement nest egg from the financial impact of the costs of extended care either at a facility or in your home.

5. Fine-tune Along the Way

Spending retirement assets can be even more complex than building them. Your retirement savings need to provide reliable income to meet your ongoing expenses for the rest of your life. Reviewing your plan annually and keeping it current is vital to making this happen.

Consider just some of the things that can change in a year: your marital or health status could change, your investment returns and inflation rate could fluctuate, and your employment status and expected retirement date might shift. Each of these can have a profound impact on the amount of money you may have to spend in retirement.

That’s why it’s important to work with a financial professional who understands that retirement planning is an ongoing process — someone who knows what it takes to accumulate assets for retirement, mitigate the risks that can affect your retirement years, and turn your funds into a distribution plan designed to generate sufficient income to meet your lifestyle needs for as long as you need it to.

This article was prepared by Northwestern Mutual with the cooperation of Kate Kane. Kane is a wealth management advisor with Northwestern Mutual, the marketing name for the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. (NM), Milwaukee, Wis., and its subsidiaries. Kane is an agent of NM based in Springfield; (413) 748-8700; [email protected]; springfield-ma.nm.com. This information is not intended as legal or tax advice.

Chart of Area Financial Services/brokerage Firms

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Retirement Planning Sections

Future Now

Click HERE to download the PDF chart of area financial services/brokerage firms

Comcast Cable Appoints Michael Parker Region’s Senior Vice President

By BusinessWest Staff October 6, 2015

Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Comcast Cable announced that Michael Parker has been named senior vice president of the company’s Western New England Region, which includes Western Mass. In this role, Parker is the top executive responsible for operations, performance, and customer experience for the region, which employs more than 1,700 people and encompasses 300 communities in Western Mass., Connecticut, Vermont, Western New Hampshire, and New York.

“I am confident that Michael’s strong leadership and dedication, combined with his passion for fostering a culture focused on delivering superb service, make him the natural choice to lead the Western New England Region,” said Kevin Casey, president of Comcast’s Northeast Division.

Parker has held a series of progressively larger management positions at Comcast over the past 14 years. He most recently served as vice president of Operations for Comcast’s Greater Chicago Region and also previously held leadership roles for the company in New York and Connecticut, Baltimore, and Detroit. Before joining Comcast, Parker worked for Tele-Communications Inc. and began his career serving as Illinois assistant attorney general.

Parker will work with his leadership team to implement the company’s multi-year strategy to transform the customer experience. The plan centers on looking at every decision through a customer lens and making measureable changes and improvements across the company.

“I look forward to ensuring that we not only deliver the most innovative and reliable products, but that we exceed our customers’ expectations,” he said.

Parker is active in many community and professional organizations, including the National Assoc. of Multi-Ethnicity in Communications (NAMIC), the Cable & Communications Assoc. for Marketing (CTAM), and the National Black MBA Assoc. He is a graduate of NAMIC’s Executive Leadership Development Program, CTAM’s Executive Management Program, the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers’ Tuck Executive Leadership Program, and Comcast’s Executive Leadership Forum. He has been named among the “Most Influential Minorities” in the cable industry by Cablefax: the Magazine for the past 10 years, and was also previously honored on the “Top 50 Under 50” list of Black MBA magazine.

Parker holds an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and earned degrees from the University of Miami School of Law and Lake Forest College. He is also a graduate of the Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Va., and attained the rank of first lieutenant during his service with the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.