Month: July 2017

HOLYOKE — Do you know someone who wants to start a business? SPARK will present a Launch class information session on Monday, July 17 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, 100 Bigelow St., Holyoke.

Attendees will learn more about SPARK and the partners it works with, and get an overview of the application process and course curriculum to see if it’s a fit. They will also hear about what kinds of opportunities are available for graduates of the program, including grant opportunities and technical assistance.

If you or someone you know is interested in starting a business and would like to learn what SPARK has to offer, register by clicking here. The next Launch class starts on Tuesday, Sept. 12, and the deadline to apply is Monday, Aug. 1. Contact SPARK at [email protected] or (413) 534-3376 with any questions.

Greenfield Co-operative Bank Promotes Barbara Campbell

GREENFIELD — Michael Tucker, president and CEO of Greenfield Co-operative Bank, announced that Barbara Campbell has been promoted to assistant vice president, Commercial Loans.

Campbell has been with the bank since 2010, first as a credit analyst and for the past two years as a commercial loan officer. Prior to joining the institution, she worked at TD Bank, the Bank of Western Massachusetts, and People’s United Bank in various mortgage-lending roles. She is a graduate of Greenfield Community College with a degree in business management.

Bay Path University Awarded Council of Independent Colleges Grant

LONGMEADOW — Bay Path University has been awarded a $13,000 grant from the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) program “Intergenerational Connections: Students Serving Older Adults.” This program is supported by the AARP Foundation. The grant will be used over a one-year period to enhance connections between undergraduate students, particularly those majoring in health and human studies fields, and older adults in the community suffering from memory loss and dementia, a progressive disease with no known cure.

For many caregivers and families, there is a grieving process when a loved one is diagnosed with dementia. They often do not know what to say or how to respond to behaviors associated with the disease. Communication difficulties can lead to frustration and anger, which causes stress in the relationship and reduced quality of life for all involved. Students participating in this program will gain empathy and invaluable skills in working with not only the affected older adults, but also families and caregivers.

Utilizing standardized memory kits consisting of common household items, undergraduate students will learn to communicate in meaningful ways with older adults who may suffer from this disease and train others to do so, helping to preserve and/or improve their quality of life. This project stems from the evidence-based CONNECT (Communicating Naturally with Every Caring Touch) program, developed by two Bay Path University professors of Occupational Therapy, Cheryl Boucakis and Melissa Green, to address the challenges faced by caregivers and family of individuals with dementia.

CONNECT was piloted in 2016 at a local assisted-living facility, engaging graduate students in Bay Path’s master of occupational therapy program in research and implementation. Building upon this work, the CIC-funded project will extend participation in the CONNECT program to undergraduate students at a level appropriate to their education and experience, working with older adults at agencies and nonprofits in Massachusetts and Connecticut where Bay Path University has established partnerships serving this population.

International Language Institute Adds Three Board Members

NORTHAMPTON — Aimee Furaha Salmon, Harry Montalvo, and Markus Jones have joined the all-volunteer board of directors for the Northampton-based International Language Institute of Massachusetts (ILI).

“We welcome Aimee, Harry, and Markus to ILI,” said board president Eric Wirth. “Their backgrounds and experiences bring a wealth of skills and knowledge to support ILI’s work, including high-quality language instruction and teacher training, free English classes for immigrants and refugees, and volunteer opportunities throughout the Pioneer Valley.”

Salmon, currently a student in Greenfield Community College’s Health Science program, is the former administrator of CAMME DRC, a nonprofit organization that helps youth in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) achieve lives free of exploitation. She is a former ILI student and is now the volunteer leader of the school’s International Club. Salmon has a degree in development management from Institut Superieur d’Informatique de Gestion, DRC.

Montalvo, Community Development specialist at bankESB, has an extensive background in the private sector, with emphasis on human resources, safety, and business development. His career includes work in his home country of Puerto Rico and in Western Mass, where he founded the Western Massachusetts Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Montalvo earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Puerto Rico and is certified in readiness training, credit counseling, and computer operations.

Jones, philanthropy officer at Baystate Health Foundation, brings more than 10 years of experience in fund-raising and the foundation world to ILI. His commitment to community building includes heading up United Way of South Mississippi rehab/rebuild projects for homes and nonprofit offices along the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. He also provided United Way management support following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Jones holds a bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County Wins Award

SPRINGFIELD — Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County has been selected to receive a 2016 Gold Standard Award by Big Brothers Big Sisters of America in recognition of its commitment to program quality. The agency celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2017.

The Gold Standard Award recognizes agencies that have increased their revenue by at least 5% and grown the number of matches, year over year. Out of more than 300 Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies nationwide, the Hampden County agency was one of only 16 agencies to receive the award.

“We are incredibly proud of the high-quality mentoring support we provide, year after year, to so many kids in our area,” said David Beturne, executive director, who was presented with the award at the Big Brothers Big Sisters national conference in San Diego on June 26. “Our mentors have profound impacts on the lives of Hampden County youth, and we are honored to be able to work with and support such a dedicated group of volunteers.”

Added Pam Iorio, president and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, “earning this award shows the commitment of not only Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County but also the whole community, including donors, board members, and staff. We thank Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County for pursuing growth and quality to serve more children throughout the region.”

Pop-Up Painted Piano Performances Begin in Downtown Springfield

SPRINGFIELD — Residents, employees, and visitors to Springfield have recently been treated to a series of unusual art installations downtown: painted pianos. Three beautified, moralized, upright units were decorated and placed throughout the Springfield Central Cultural District (SCCD) in early June, with the mission to bring music to the people, and people to the streets. The locations are at 1350 Main St., the Shops at Marketplace, and 1550 Main St. Now, professionals will be playing every Wednesday during lunch.

“We’ve seen such a diverse crowd interacting with this public art,” said Morgan Drewniany, executive director of the SCCD. “I saw a construction worker on his break playing a beautiful classical piece at 1350, and videos of children delighted by tinkling the keys at 1550, the School Department building. We want to continue this excitement by programming the pianos.”

Beginning today, July 12, local professional pianists will be playing on the painted pianos during the 12-1 p.m. lunch hour. Pedestrians are invited to leave their offices to stop by, or simply enjoy the music on their walk. Programming will continue every Wednesday through August, but between performances, the public is still invited to stop by at their leisure.

Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno is scheduled to receive his first piano lesson ever on the unit at 1350 Main Street. “Following the mayor’s excitement for the project, we’re even having a special performance on August 9,” said Drewniany.

This programming is made possible by individual and organizational sponsors, including the Doleva family, Lessard Property Management, NAI Plotkin, Rus Peotter, Sarno, Springfield Techinical Community College, and state Sen. James Welch. Funding for the pianos was provided by the Springfield Cultural Council, the Community Music School of Springfield, and ChooseSpringfieldNow.com.

Northampton Is Not About to Rest on Its Laurels

Community Spotlight Features

Community Spotlight

By Kathleen Mellen

Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz says the city has a solid foundation, but it is not about to rest on its laurels.

You could say Northampton has “good bones.”

Once dubbed “the paradise of America” by opera singer Jenny Lind, it is home to one of the nation’s premier colleges, it boasts a regional general hospital as well as one for military veterans, its population of nearly 30,000 is diverse and well-educated, its labor force is highly skilled and mostly employed, it has a crime rate that is lower than the state average, and it’s one of the hottest locales in the region for shopping, dining, and partaking of a multitude of performance and visual arts.

That’s a strong foundation, said Mayor David Narkewicz, that the city can seize upon to nurture and grow its economy. And, indeed, after weathering economic recessions and a housing bubble that burst, he noted, economic indicators, such as property taxes, meals-tax revenue, and the number of visitors to the city, show a sturdy economy.

But the city is not resting on its laurels.

One of its main engines for economic success, Narkewicz says, is its vibrant downtown area, home to an array of unique retailers, eclectic dining choices, and active arts organizations.

“The success of downtown businesses affects our property taxes and our tax base, which then affects the kinds of services we can provide, the schools we can provide. We all have an investment in it.”

The mayor said the city is making a number of strategic investments that take advantage of that strength.

Indeed, if you drive into Northampton from the south these days, you’re likely to join a long line of traffic as it makes its way slowly along Pleasant Street toward the city’s center. Think of it as a good thing.

The heavy traffic is the result of Northampton’s investment in its downtown infrastructure, which includes roadwork and utility upgrades. Funded by a $2.5 million MassWorks economic-development grant, the work is mainly in support of two housing developments that are going up on that street. The goal, said the city’s Economic Development director, Terry Masterson, is to make Pleasant Street an extension of Main Street and, in turn, to drive investment in that part of the city.

“If people see other people investing, they see the city investing, it creates a momentum,” he said.

The two housing developments are a 58,000-square-foot space at 155 Pleasant St., which will have 70 studio and one-bedroom apartments, as well as a 45,000-square-foot space at 256 Pleasant St., which will feature 55 living units. Both buildings will offer retail and office space, as well as a mix of market-rate and affordable housing. Narkewicz said centralized, affordable housing is an investment in the economic health of the city.

“We want to be a place where people of all income levels can live,” he noted, adding that many of the people who inhabit affordable housing are part of the city’s vital workforce. “That they can live and work in the same city is really important.”

What Makes Downtown Click?

Although its positive effects on downtown development might not be immediately evident, Narkewicz said the purchase in June of 114 acres on the outskirts of the city, which increases the amount of protected, open space to more than 25% of the city’s land, will not only bolster’s Northampton’s ongoing land-preservation and recreation programs, it will also help drive economic growth downtown.

“We want to concentrate development closer to the urban core where most people live,” he said. “So many studies show that one way to keep a downtown vibrant — to support small markets or small restaurants — is to have people living in it.”

The work along Pleasant Street will also include a small park, more parking spaces, and improved sidewalks and bike lanes.

“We’ve already created an incredible bike trail that runs through the city, which we know draws people here,” Narkewicz said. “Now the city is also looking at ways to become even more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly, as a way to draw people into the downtown area.”

One of the biggest boons to the city’s economy may well be the plan to expand the train platform at 170 Pleasant St., erected in 2014.

In order to improve the downtown district, Masterson said, it’s crucial to know what’s bringing folks in, and what keeps them coming back.

“We’re working on a complete list of every foot-traffic driver in the downtown area — hotels, train stations, arts and culture institutions, entertainment venues, special events, and regular events,” he said, which will be invaluable to the city in attracting new businesses. While the study is still ongoing, and under wraps for the time being, he says he already knows from past studies that the arts scene is a big downtown draw. For example, the Academy of Music, a live-performance, downtown venue, boasts 55,000 visitors and 116 performances a year.

“That’s like 1,000 people a week who are consistently coming into downtown,” Masterson said. “To know that you have a driver that’s bringing in people, that’s really, really impressive.”

Plans are now in the works to create an online map and calendar tool that will combine the activities of all the city’s arts organizations in one place, making it easier, Narkewicz said, for visitors to plan their outings. Beta testing is underway, and the calendar should be up and running later this summer. And, yes, there will be an app for that.

Coming Back for More

Finding ways to bring new business owners, residents, and guests to the downtown area, and keeping them happy while they’re there, is all part of the city’s master plan, Masterson said.

It’s no secret, for example, that parking in downtown Northampton can be a challenge, especially during the busiest hours. And how infuriating is it to run into a store to get change for a meter, only to return to find a ticket on your car?

That’s been taken care of, Narkewicz told BusinessWest. The city’s 25 parking kiosks were upgraded in late June with a pay-by-plate system that accepts credit cards as well as coins. So, instead of going to a kiosk, inserting money (assuming you have the correct change), then taking the ticket back to the car to be displayed on the dashboard, users can simply pay and be on their way.

Later this summer, there’ll be an app for that, too.

“These are the kinds of things people see when they go to other cities, the amenities people expect,” Narkewicz said. “It’s part of creating a customer-friendly environment for visitors.”

Another major development in downtown is the renovation of Pulaski Park in the heart of the city, which was completed last year and is already showing signs of stimulating a positive economic response; realtors and restaurateurs have told the mayor they have seen an uptick in foot traffic since the completion of the renovation.

“A realtor just sold a building across from Pulaski Park for $120,000 over asking price,” he said, adding that looking across the street at that scenic park, as opposed to what the grounds were like four years ago, made a huge difference.

Indeed, it’s crucial, Narkewicz said, for the city to maintain a clean, safe, well-lit, and attractive downtown, with prime spots like Pulaski Park; otherwise, its other efforts may be for naught.

Much of maintaining the welcoming downtown atmosphere is handled by the Downtown Northampton Assoc. (DNA), a voluntary organization open to property owners, businesses, and city residents, whose members work to improve the business and cultural strength of the downtown area through investments in programming, beautification, and advocacy.

It is associated with the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce, and works in collaboration with the city, which employs a full-time worker who cleans and maintains public property in the downtown business district.

The DNA handles such things as city plantings and holiday lights, and sponsors events that bring visitors to downtown, like the first annual Holiday Stroll, held in December, which drew hundreds of visitors to Main Street for a host of family-friendly activities, even as the temperature dipped to 20 degrees. It was so popular that a Summer Stroll is planned for July.

“The Summer Stroll should be a lot warmer,” Narkewicz quipped.

Riding in on a Rail

One of the biggest boons to the city’s economy may well be the plan to expand the train platform at 170 Pleasant St., erected in 2014 when Amtrak added Northampton as a stop on its Vermonter line.

Northampton at a Glance

Year Incorporated: 1884
Population: 28,483
Area: 35.75 square miles
County: Hampshire
Residential Tax Rate: $16.69
Commercial Tax Rate: $16.69
Median Household Income: $59,274 (2015)
Type of government: Mayor; City Council
Largest Employers: Smith College; Cooley Dickinson Hospital; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Central Western Massachusetts Healthcare System
* Latest information available

State Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack announced in June that her department will add to the existing, 46-foot-long boarding platform by next summer, extending it to a length of 120 feet — a response, Narkewicz said, to its use, which has exceeded all expectations. Projections had estimated that just over 10,000 passengers would use the platform in a year, but, according to the National Assoc. of Railroad Passengers, it was used by 17,197 passengers last year, making it the third-busiest stop on the Vermonter line.

The state has also agreed to a pilot program, scheduled for fall 2019, in which two morning trips and two afternoon trips will be added to Northampton’s train service.

The mayor said that activity will surely drive further growth in the city. “Having public transit that close to downtown — that’s critical.”

While the tax base is strong in Northampton, he told BusinessWest, the city’s two largest employers, Smith College and Cooley Dickinson Hospital, are nonprofit, and, therefore, tax-exempt, which has been a bone of contention.

“They consume, but don’t pay taxes for, city services,” said Narkewicz, who addressed the issue in 2015 with the institution of a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program, in which the nonprofits agree to pay a portion of what they would be taxed if their properties were taxable. As a result, both Smith and CDH made three-year commitments to make voluntary gifts to the city.

Smith has since made investments in projects around the city that support affordable housing, as well as in public-safety features along Elm Street, where the college is located. CDH continues to be an important partner with the city relative to public safety and public health, teaming up to work on such things as disease prevention and breast-cancer awareness. It is also a key partner on the county’s opioid task force, on which the city has taken a leading role.

“We’ve had some collaboration there,” Narkewicz said. “There’s still more discussion to have.”

The Flavor of Northampton

While Northampton’s economic picture is pretty rosy, the mayor noted, there are challenges, of course, including the plethora of Internet companies that are cutting into brick-and-mortar profits. But there are some things, he adds, that one can’t buy online, like Northampton’s unique flavor and one-of-a-kind products.

Narkewicz says he’s mindful of the degree to which the hard work and persistence of downtown business owners have contributed to the city’s overall economic success.

“I have incredible admiration and thankfulness for the work they do, the sacrifices they make,” he said. “People tell me they want their downtowns to be like Northampton. That’s very flattering, but we can’t lose track of the fact that we have to work consistently to maintain that and build on it. It is an important part of our economy, so we want to make sure it continues to be successful.”

Summer Activities Bring Risk, but Problems Are Preventable

Sections Summer Safety

Heat of the Moment

The rising temperatures are a great reason to have fun outdoors. But those summer activities pose myriad dangers, from sunstroke to tick-borne illnesses to drowning. Fortunately, most of these risks can be reduced and even eliminated through proper planning and common sense.

It’s not exactly news that kids spend too much time indoors, sedentary, in thrall to their electronic devices. The warm weather of summer should be an antidote, providing plenty of opportunity for exercise and recreation that doesn’t involve a screen.

On the other hand, the outdoors poses other types of hazards.

“Any time there are extremes in temperature, we start seeing things, and during the summer, there’s a big increase in minor stuff as well as some major stuff,” said Dr. Louis Durkin, director of the Emergency Department at Mercy Medical Center. “That’s the reality. So while it’s good to get the kids out of the house, where they’re not playing video games and watching TV, you take the danger with the benefits.”

Many issues, as he noted, are indeed relatively minor, from sunburns and poison ivy to overexertion injuries to weekend warriors who spent the cold months indoors and then overdo it with sports or home projects once the weather warms up.

However, Durkin continued, “on the bigger, more tragic side, we see an increase in drownings, people diving into the shallow end of pools and sustaining neck fractures, even violence. Usually, on the first hot days, when people get outdoors and have more exposure to each other, we see an increase in violence.”

The good news, he said, is that most summertime health and safety hazards, from heatstroke to trampoline injuries, are preventable. For this issue’s focus on summer safety, BusinessWest examines several common summer dangers — and strategies for reducing the risk of each.

It’s Getting Hot Out Here

Simply put, said Dr. Heba Wassif, “hot weather can be deadly.”

Wassif, who practices with the Heart & Vascular Program at Baystate Medical Center, noted that extreme heat — considered the number-one weather-related killer in the U.S. — affects people in different ways, and those at greatest risk include adults with existing heart and other chronic diseases, the elderly, and children.

“Sweating is the body’s defense mechanism to cool down, but at the same time, it results in the loss of more fluid than usual from your body,” she said. “This can cause your blood pressure to drop and your heart rate to increase to compensate for your fluid loss, so you may feel palpitations as your heart beats faster.”

Warning signs of an oncoming heat-related illness, she explained, could include excessive sweating, leg cramps, flushed skin, nausea and vomiting, dizziness, headache, and rapid pulse. Anyone experiencing such symptoms should get indoors or into shade and drink liquids, and, if they don’t better soon, should call a doctor or visit the ER.

In fact, Wassif went on, heat stroke can cause death or permanent disability, including damage to the brain and other vital organs, and requires immediate emergency medical treatment. Warning signs of heat stroke can vary, but may include body temperature of 103 degrees or higher, dizziness, throbbing headache, nausea, confusion, rapid pulse, and, in critical cases, unconsciousness.

Dr. Louis Durkin says emergency departments see an uptick of heat-, water-, and even violence-related incidents when summer arrives.

“The best advice I can give to anyone in the extreme heat, whether healthy or predisposed to any health conditions, especially cardiac disease, is to take it slow and easy and not exert yourself,” she said. “Try to stay out of the heat during the hottest part of the day, usually between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and stay hydrated by drinking plenty of water and sugar-free drinks while avoiding alcohol or caffeinated beverages.”

Dr. Joseph Schmidt, Baystate’s vice chair and chief of Emergency Medicine, noted that hot weather can affect certain medications as well.

“If you are taking certain medications, whether prescription or over the counter, sunlight may not be the best for you,” he said. “Certain drugs can impair your ability to deal with the heat and increase your sensitivity to sunlight, called drug-induced photosensitivity. As a result, your skin can burn at a much quicker rate than usual, even with a lower intensity of sunlight.”

Then there’s the issue of closed, overheated cars in the summer — a moment of carelessness that too-often kills children and pets, Durkin said. “Obviously, every year you hear about these tragedies, people forgetting about infants or pets in cars.”

Even many parents who would never leave their child alone in a hot car don’t have qualms about leaving their dogs there. But while humans cool themselves by relying on a system of sweat glands and evaporation, animals have a harder time staying cool, leaving them extremely vulnerable to heatstroke, according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

For example, on a day when it’s 70 degrees outside, the temperature inside a car with all the windows closed can approach 90 degrees in just 10 minutes, according to the American Veterinary Medical Assoc. On a particularly hot day, the temperature inside a closed car can shoot as high as 114 degrees in the same amount of time.

For that reason, it is legal in Massachusetts to break an animal out of a car, under certain circumstances. Specifically, after making reasonable efforts to locate the vehicle’s owner and notifying law enforcement or calling 911 before entering the vehicle, someone who believes entry into the vehicle is necessary to prevent imminent danger or harm to the animal, and plans to stay with the animal nearby afterward, may force their way into the vehicle to remove the animal, free from criminal or civil liability.

Dr. Michael Klatte

Children are especially at risk for acquiring RWIs since they usually play in the water for longer periods of time and swallow more water than adults typically do..”

Water, Water Everywhere

The other major summer killer after the heat itself is one of the ways people beat the heat: the water.

“Water safety is simple stuff,” Durkin said. “If you can’t swim, or if you’re out boating, wear a flotation device. Swim only in designated areas, and never swim alone. And if you have small children, put an alarm on the pool; those save lives.”

The American Red Cross lists several tips for enjoying the water safely, including:

• Swim in designated areas supervised by lifeguards, and always swim with a companion.

• Ensure that everyone in the family learns to swim well by enrolling in age-appropriate water-orientation and swimming courses.

• Never leave a young child unattended near water, and do not trust a child’s life to another child. Have young children or inexperienced swimmers wear U.S. Coast Guard-approved lifejackets around water, but do not rely on lifejackets alone.

• Set limits based on each person’s ability, do not let anyone play around drains and suction fittings, and do not allow swimmers to hyperventilate before swimming underwater or have breath-holding contests.

• Even if you do not plan on swimming, be cautious around natural bodies of water, including ocean shorelines, rivers, and lakes. Cold temperatures, currents, and underwater hazards can make a fall into these bodies of water dangerous.

• Install and use barriers around a home pool or hot tub. Safety covers and pool alarms should be added as additional layers of protection.

Drowning isn’t the only water hazard, however. Recreational water illnesses (RWIs) can pop up in both treated and untreated waters — from pools, hot tubs, and water parks to freshwater lakes, rivers, ponds, and even the ocean, said Dr. Michael Klatte, who works in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Baystate Children’s Hospital.

RWIs are caused by germs and chemicals found in these waters, which can result in gastrointestinal, skin, and ear diseases, chemical irritations of the eyes and lungs, and, sometimes, neurologic and wound infections. The most commonly reported RWI is diarrhea, frequently caused by germs such as Cryptosporidium and E. coli. Otitis externa, commonly known as swimmer’s ear, is another common RWI. Those with weakened immune systems and pregnant women are at greater risk for more severe water-borne illnesses.

“Children are especially at risk for acquiring RWIs since they usually play in the water for longer periods of time and swallow more water than adults typically do,” Klatte said. He advises swimmers not to swallow water, to stay out of the water if they have diarrhea or an open wound, to shower before swimming, and to check diapers and change them in a bathroom or diaper-changing area — not waterside.

Clear Your Head

No matter what the activity, Durkin said, alcohol will invariably increase the risk of harm or death, so people need to monitor their intake. Alcohol impairs judgment and coordination, affects swimming and driving skills, and affects the body’s ability to regulate heat.

But having fun while sober is just one of many common-sense ways to enjoy the summer safely. Shriners Hospitals for Children recently got into the act with a program called Superheroes of Summer Safety, which offers tips to reduce the risk of injuries during the summer months.

“As a father and Shriner, I know that, within seconds, a fun-filled day can take a turn when an unexpected accident occurs,” said NASCAR driver David Ragan, the program’s spokesperson. “Shriners Hospitals and I want to provide families with simple ways to reduce the risk of childhood injuries so that kids can enjoy a safe summer.”

With the help of the National Assoc. of School Nurses, the national health system printed 125,000 safety materials to be distributed to kids and families. Advice includes playground tips like sliding feet first and swinging while sitting down; keeping children inside when lawnmowers are in use; keeping several feet away from firepits, campfires, or grills; and the usual warnings about sun protection and swimming with a lifejacket and a companion.

“At the very least, we can decrease the chances of bad things happening, if not outright prevent them. Most of this is common sense,” Durkin said. “Being active is good, but being active and smart is better.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Holyoke, Easthampton Chambers Launch Women’s Conference

Sections Women in Businesss

‘The Art of Risk’

Kathy Anderson says risk isn’t bad, “it’s just scary sometimes.”

It was more than a decade ago now, but Kathy Anderson can clearly remember the many emotions that accompanied her decision to seek the role of director of the Holyoke Office of Planning and Development.

They included doubt — there was some of that, and on many levels — as well as uncertainty and perhaps a bit of fear as well. But there was also confidence and anticipation about what she could do in this role and what it would mean for her career.

Anderson recalls that what she needed — and what she got from her friend, fellow Holyoker and mentor of sorts, Joan Kagan, director of Square One — was some inspiration in the form of thoughtful advice on how to approach and manage this episode in risk taking, as well as some needed encouragement and reassurance that she was certainly well-equipped to succeed in that big job.

“That was a male-dominated field, and people were questioning whether I could even do that job,” Anderson recalled. “And she (Kagan) said, ‘Kathy you can do this; you’re the conductor in an orchestra. The conductor doesn’t need to know how to perform all the pieces … they just need to know how to conduct the orchestra, and that’s what you’re doing.’”

It’s because Anderson has never forgotten those words, or how important they were to her, that she has enthusiastically partnered with colleague Maureen Belliveau, director of the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce, to launch a new women’s leadership event and make the broad subject of risk the focus of the inaugural program, slated for Friday, Sept. 22 at the Log Cabin Banquet & Meeting House in Holyoke.

Make that “Women & The Art of Risk.” That’s the formal title of the event and a template to be followed moving forward, said Belliveau, adding that ‘Women & The Art of ….’ will become a brand, of sorts, with the noun to change with the year.

And risk, or the process of assessing, assuming, and managing it, is truly an art, she went on, adding that women encounter risk on many levels and at many stages in their life — in their careers, in their family life, and in the constant struggle to balance those two forces.

To help with this assignment, the two chambers have put together this leadership conference, one that will feature workshops, discussions, and career-development opportunities. Some of the day’s programming has fallen into place, but in many ways, the canvas still needs to be filled in, said Anderson, adding that a big component still taking shape is the series of inspirational stories of risk-taking that organizers plan to present.

They’re calling them, appropriately enough, ‘stories of risk,’ and the chambers invited women to submit entries (via 500-word essays or two-minute videos) for the right to tell their story.

A number of entries have been received, said Anderson, and they are currently being reviewed, with the winners to be announced in the weeks to come.

Whatever stories are chosen, they are certain to generate discussion and debate, while also inspiring those in the audience, which is what organizers had in mind when they blueprinted this program.

Climate Change

As she talked about how and especially why the women’s leadership conference came about, Belliveau began by turning the clock back a few decades to when she was starting her career.

Desiring to be careful with her words and not generalize, she nonetheless strongly implied that back then … well, women were, by and large, less willing (and perhaps less able) to be of assistance to other women, especially when it came to career ladder climbing, mentoring, and more.

“We were trying to enter the male-dominated workforce, and because it was so competitive, women were not necessarily jumping up to help one another,” she recalled. “But now I feel the environment has changed; the energy has shifted, and now is the time when we can come together in a really strong way and support each other.”

So, in many ways, this new women’s leadership conference is a celebration of this phenomenon and an attempt to take full advantage of it, for the betterment of women across the region.

This greatly improved climate when it comes to women helping and mentoring other women was coupled with a desire by the leadership at both chambers to create programming that went beyond traditional networking and beyond the prototypical legislative roundtable.

“Kathy has been wanting to do a conference-type event for women for some time now, and I’ve wanted to do something on inspirational leadership,” said Belliveau, noting that the two chambers have collaborated to present an event involving area legislators each spring for several years now. “We started talking in January about what we were going to do this year, and things just kind of snowballed.”

Maureen Belliveau says organizers of the September women’s conference are working hard to avoid falling into the clichés involving the subject of women and risk.

Anderson agreed, and noted that, in some ways, the collaborative relationship between the two chambers, and the two chamber leaders, helped inspire the women’s leadership conference, its theme, and its tone.

“We’re two women in business, and we’re trying to help people in business,” she explained. “When Mo and I first met, we instantly clicked; we’re helping each other, and we’re mentors to each other.

“We’re inspired by each other and we get ideas from other, which benefits our members and the region as a whole,” she went on. “We felt like we wanted to bring that feeling of inspiration and camaraderie to a bigger stage, if you will.”

As the notion of a women’s leadership conference began to crystalize, organizers, from the start, sought to take the discussion to a higher plane than most women in business have previously, and repeatedly, encountered.

“We’re trying to stop ourselves from falling into clichés concerning this topic, which is pretty easy to do,” said Belliveau. “Instead of hearing, again, ‘you need to schedule time on your calendar to relax and be by yourself,’ how about information about how women are being sucked into a lot of other agendas that aren’t supporting their own agenda, and advice on how to clear all that out so they can focus on what’s really important?

“At the end of the day, we want people to leave inspired,” she went on. “And we want them to leave with something they didn’t have when they came, whether that was a connection or a new way to look at things.”

And they are expecting the various presentations, and especially those ‘stories of risk’ noted earlier, will go a long way toward accomplishing that goal.

Indeed, such sagas will provide a personal, real-life tone to the discussion, said Anderson and Belliveau, and they will, if chosen properly, portray the full gamut of risk, address the many forms it takes, and drive home the point that risks must be weighed and taken at all stages in one’s life.

The wording in the invitation to submit an entry is very telling and speaks to why organizers put this program together. “Have you taken a bold move in your career?” it reads. “Have you struggled with work/life balance but took a risk to bring it back into balance? Have you had a gnawing feeling you wanted to quell that compelled you to take a risk? Has there been something looming over you that involved risk to overcome?”

Most women would answer ‘yes’ to most if not all of those questions, said Anderson, and that’s why she and Belliveau are expecting a strong turnout on Sept. 22.

As noted earlier, programming for the event is coming into place, and it will have a strong local flavor.

The keynote speaker will be Colleen Del Vecchio, director of Alumnae Engagement at Smith College, and a Gallup-certified strengths coach. Breakout sessions will feature:

• Natasha Zena, co-founder and publisher of Lioness Magazine;

• Angela Lussier, author, founder of the Speaker Sisterhood, and host of the “Claim the Stage” podcast;

• Tahirah Amatul-Wadad, an attorney with the Mass. Commission on the Status of Women;

• Dora Lewis, career coach at the Sullivan Career & Life Planning Center at Bay Path University; and

• Mollie Fox, a consultant and trainer specializing in leadership and negotiation.

Tickets to the conference are $99 if purchased before Aug. 25, and $119 after that date. Tables of eight are $750. For more information on the event, visit www.holyokechamber.com or www.easthamptonchamber.org.

Save the Date

Summing up the broad subject matter for this fall’s conference, Anderson, who should know, said, “risk isn’t bad … it’s just scary sometimes; it’s the unknown.”

It’s scary almost all the time, actually, and by creating an informative, interactive environment where risks can be shared, discussed, debated, and dissected, organizers of this women’s leadership conference expect that perhaps they can make such exercises somewhat less scary.

This was the motivation for the event, and the two chambers — and their leaders — believe the time, the environment, and the energy is right for such a program.

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

This Intrepid Entrepreneur Has Long Been Focused on Four-legged Clientele

Sections Women in Businesss

Dogged Determination

Good Dog Spot Managing Director Elizabeth Staples

Elizabeth Staples turned a life-long love of dogs into one of the region’s most notable pet-friendly success stories, the Good Dog Spot. From one small location to two large spaces, 25 employees, and more than 2,000 customers, Staples has built her growing daycare and grooming business according to one driving philosophy: each furry client is someone’s family member, and deserves more — much more — than a hard floor and a cage.

Elizabeth Staples always wanted to be around dogs. Fortunately for her, some early disappointment gave way to an abundance of canines in her life — and a successful second career.

“When I was younger, I wanted a dog, and my mom said no,” she told BusinessWest. “But when I was old enough to get a job, I started working at a local kennel, a family-run place. I liked it — they were able to set their schedule around their family, kids, whatever they had going on.”

That was an important lesson, one she would one day apply to her own venture, the Good Dog Spot, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary in Chicopee this year, as well as the first anniversary of its second location in Northampton.

That part of her story begins in 2007, when Staples, who worked for MassMutual at the time, couldn’t shake her love for animals, and a growing desire to craft a career around them.

As a board member with the national Pet Care Services Assoc., she noticed doggie day cares were becoming more popular, many launched by people in the corporate world who had built some savings and decided they’d rather play with dogs all day. But the centers she saw springing up regionally left her cold. She saw an opportunity to do better.

“On the East Coast, I was seeing chain-link kennels, warehouse kennels … just places for the dog to stay until their owners came back,” she said. “But out west, in California and Texas, you were seeing cage-free dogs playing with each other. It seemed like a more labor-intensive thing, but the dogs enjoyed themselves more. I thought that just made sense.”

So she launched the Good Dog Spot in Chicopee in 2007, envisioning a place where canines can mingle and have fun during the day, a model, she said, that more accurately reflects the pet-owner relationship when the pet and owner can’t be together.

She maxed out a credit card and convinced a bank to give her a small loan, which she used to open the business in a small space on Old James St. in Chicopee, which she quickly outgrew by 2009, moving to a warehouse about a mile away on North Chicopee Street. “Whatever we were doing was working, because we grew right away.”

Groomer Kathy Jarvis works on a patient customer at the Northampton site.

What she was doing, in fact, became one of the region’s more successful pet-related ventures, one that continues to expand its customer base and introduce more dogs to a daycare experience that involves more than cold floors and chain-link fences.

Groomed for Success

At first, the Good Dog Spot focused on day care and grooming, the latter service overseen by Lisa Peloquin, Staples’ business partner and senior groomer.

“Shortly after that, people started asking us about overnight care, so we put in some overnight suites — crates we built into the walls,” Staples said. The area was designed with a homey feel, but the sleepover dogs are typically plenty tired after a day at the Good Dog Spot.

That’s because play and socialization are critical elements of the business model. First-time visitors begin with a day-long evaluation to make sure they get along with the other dogs.

“One of the things we decided early on was to really get to know the dogs,” she said, explaining that dogs that have interaction issues are kept separate from their fellow day campers (but still given plenty of human interaction), while the more social dogs are grouped by age, size, and play style, so senior dogs, for example, aren’t overwhelmed by puppies and high-energy dogs.

“They play all morning, and around 11 or so, we take them in their groups outside for outdoor play time and potty break,” Staples explained. “Then it’s back in to settle down and take naps.” Naptime is roughly from noon to 2, just like a child would at a daycare. “When they’re active and they go, go, go all day long, they can get cranky.”

The staff-to-dog ratio is never less than one per 10 to 15 dogs, so the handlers can give individual attention as needed, she added.

“Every dog-owner relationship is different. There’s so many reasons they might be using daycare. Maybe the dog is destructive at home, and they can’t go home during the day and let the dog out of the crate. Or maybe we can help reinforce basic potty training.”

Even the grooming customers, who tend to schedule regular visits every six to eight weeks, on average, can benefit from professional expertise, she went on. “Maybe the dog’s fur is really matted because the owner doesn’t know how to brush properly. We can talk with them, and a lightbulb goes off, and they get it.”

Whatever the issue — and often there’s no issue at all except a desire to give their pets some socialization during the long daytime hours — Staples said her goal is to strengthen the dog-owner relationship. “I love being able to make a difference. If the dog has issues at home, we work to make the relationship better, and make the bond between the owner and dog stronger.”

They play all morning, and around 11 or so, we take them in their groups outside for outdoor play time and potty break. Then it’s back in to settle down and take naps. When they’re active and they go, go, go all day long, they can get cranky.”

She makes that promise to well over 2,000 clients with the help of 25 employees. Besides Staples and Peloquin, the Good Dog Spot’s leadership team includes Corey Staples (Elizabeth’s husband), director of operations; Jacob McCarty, office manager; Shannon O’Connell, daycare manager; and Jennifer Rueli, Northampton facilities manager.

“I knew I didn’t want the business to rely solely on me, so we’d be functionally useless unless I was in the building,” said Staples, who, like the kennel she worked for as a teenager, aims to provide work-life flexibility for her employees, just as her services offer the same flexibility to clients.

New Leash on Life

The Chicopee site, which initially offered almost 5,000 square feet of space, has since expanded twice to double that size — while adding amenities like a small retail shop and the Bark Bus shuttle service — but that still wasn’t enough room.

“We knew we were nearing capacity in our Chicopee location,” Staples said. Northampton made sense as a second site, but she was only feeling out the area, not intending to commit, when her real-estate agent found a King Street building that wound up working perfectly — a wide-open, rectangular structure that she would be able to customize into a flow that would meet the Good Dog Spot’s needs.

That location was also successful right from the start, buoyed by a number of Chicopee clients who switched over because Northampton was more convenient for them, and also by the company’s growing reputation, paired with an expanded advertising and marketing presence.

“The Northampton community was so welcoming as a whole,” she said. “The city was easy to work with, and it’s such a dog-loving community. I really feel fortunate to be where we are.”

dogspot2

Staples’ commitment to pet welfare extends to her training — and that of her staff — in pet first aid and CPR through the American Red Cross. She has also donated time and resources to Dakin Humane Society, Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control & Adoption Center, and Rainbow Rescues, and donated pet oxygen masks to local fire stations.

But her most lasting contribution to pet welfare may be her embrace of a model of doggie daycare that treats dogs like family — the way most pet owners today treat them.

“We definitely think we see friendships form between our daycare dogs,” she wrote recently on the Good Dog Spot blog. “Many dogs come on certain days of the week and regularly see the same dogs every time they come. We notice that dogs will be excited to see certain other dogs, and play together every time they come. The dogs here will even form cliques with each other, with a whole group of dogs playing together and becoming friends.”

New clients are sometimes bemused by the report cards and even art projects that get sent home with their furry friends each day, but they quickly understand Staples’ view of dogs as furry kids, and worthy of being treated as such.

“We want to support pet people in our community,” she told BusinessWest. “People around here are so passionate about their dogs, and we’re there to help in whatever way we can.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Ryan Hall Embraces His Move to the Public-course Realm

Sections Sports & Leisure

Course Change

Ryan Hall says his move to the public-course realm is a learning experience that is ongoing.

Ryan Hall acknowledged that he really didn’t know what to expect when he left the posh private-club realm within the broad business of golf, specifically Avon Country Club in Connecticut, for Springfield’s two public courses, or ‘munis,’ as they’re called, this spring.

But in making that dramatic and somewhat unique career course change, he strongly implied — without actually and officially saying it — that the unknown was and is a better bet for him than something he’d for known for pretty much his entire career.

Thus, his move to Franconia Golf Course and Veterans Memorial Golf Course speaks volumes about the state of this game and what Hall sees happening — or not happening — down the road.

In short, the landscape has changed dramatically across the golf spectrum and at private clubs in particular, especially as the Great Recession put a huge dent in discretionary spending such as club memberships.

“The recession really clobbered the private clubs,” Hall told BusinessWest, adding that the past several years have been, in a word, a struggle — to build and maintain membership and bring more people into the game. “And to me, that model is in real trouble.”

Elaborating, Hall said Avon, like most other clubs like it, is “surviving,” a term that could not have been used, or perhaps even imagined, a few decades ago. And he doesn’t really see that landscape changing in any significant way in the years to come, especially amid conjecture that the Millennial generation is unlikely to enthusiastically embrace the country-club life.

SEE: List of Golf Courses in the Region

So Hall chose to go work in a far different landscape, the daily-fee world of municipal golf courses, where cash is actually exchanged, there are nine-hole rates, and no one really knows who might walk in the pro-shop door.

As he talked with BusinessWest in his small office in the back of the pro shop at Franconia on Dwight Road, Hall noted that, while he didn’t know what to expect at the city’s two courses, what he’s seen and experienced has nonetheless surprised him in many ways.

Elaborating, he said the crowded sheets for tee times, packed leagues, and steady play all seven days of the week have been somewhat inspiring revelations that have left him feeling pretty good about his career decision.

“It really has shocked me how busy this place and Veterans are; Saturday and Sunday morning, the tee sheets are full from 6 o’clock till noon, and during the week, it’s just non-stop,” he said, adding that people are still playing golf, but more of them are likely to be playing public or semi-private courses rather than private clubs.

Still, Hall, like golf pros everywhere and at public courses as well as private operations, knows that these are ultra-challenging times for the game, and business, of golf.

Young people are not embracing it with the enthusiasm of previous generations, and the cost and time involved with playing 18 are considerable obstacles to those thinking about taking it up.

Thus, public-course managers must be creative — a word you never heard in this business years ago but now hear all the time — and also resilient, and laser-focused on providing something not often thought about in golf until this century: value.

Hall takes over Springfield’s courses at a time of lingering controversy. Well, sort of. His predecessor, Kevin Kennedy, was essentially relieved of his duties amid an investigation involving the Internal Revenue Service. An audit undertaken by the city hinted strongly at revenue skimming on Kennedy’s part as well as a distinct lack of institutional oversight on the city’s part.

The latter seems to be a thing of the past, with a number of new policies, procedures, checks, and balances in place. And the former is mostly in the past as well, said Hall, who is firmly focused on the present and future tenses, which are challenging exercises in their own right.

For this issue and its focus on sports and leisure, BusinessWest talked at length with Hall about his move to Springfield’s courses and the public-track world, and also about the state of the business and its prospects for the future.

Rough Estimates

As noted earlier, Hall, who grew up in Springfield, played both of its municipal courses, and graduated from Cathedral High School, had really only known the private-course world, career-wise, until last March.

Indeed, he cut his teeth at Springfield Country Club, working in the bag room under long-time pro Harry Mattson Jr., and later served as an assistant to Dave DiRico at Crestview Country Club in Agawam before gravitating to Avon in 2001.

In the private sector, we were working so hard the last few years to bring golf to people, to grow the game through junior golf and women’s clubs,” he said. “We had to be so creative and think outside the box to secure these golfers for the future.”

When he later became head pro there, he had a front-row seat, or pro-shop-window view, if you will, to the profound changes that have come to most all private clubs, including exclusive ($25,000 for an initiation fee) clubs like Avon.

“In the private sector, we were working so hard the last few years to bring golf to people, to grow the game through junior golf and women’s clubs,” he said. “We had to be so creative and think outside the box to secure these golfers for the future.”

To get his points across, Hall summoned some numbers.

“When I started as an assistant at Avon, we had 425 members and a waiting list,” he noted, adding that many private clubs were similarly healthy at that point. “At Avon right now … we had a very strong membership drive last year, and they’re still below 300 members and no waiting list.

“And this is Avon,” he went on, accenting that word for a reason. “This is what I view as a protected sort of environment, a very affluent area where you would think that a private club would survive very easily. It’s not to say that they won’t, or aren’t, but it became very, very challenging.”

So much so that Ryan eventually became one of two bidders for the contract to manage Springfield’s courses, a career change he described as a “learning experience,” and one that is very much ongoing.

“I’m learning every day — culturally, it’s definitely much different here,” he said in a classic bit of understatement when asked to explain this career move, something he had to do a lot in the spring and is still doing. “When I learned of the opening, I viewed it as an opportunity to do some different things.”

And thus far, as he said, the scene is in most all ways healthier than what he expected (although he didn’t really know what to expect) and healthier than what he left.

Despite a late start — mid-April, as opposed to early April or even late March most years — and some wet weather that wiped out a few precious Saturdays in May, both courses are off to a solid start, revenue-wise and otherwise.

“It’s the end of June, and things are very promising,” he said, adding that the volume of play generally picks up once school is out and students and their teachers are looking for ways to fill their summer days.

And, as noted earlier, one of the things Hall has learned since arriving is that the decline in interest in private clubs has in some ways benefited public courses, or at least those that are in good condition, present a solid test, and offer value.

“We’re seeing groups coming up from Connecticut and groups from Eastern Massachusetts,” he said, adding that the condition of the two courses and their low price ($40 for 18 holes and a cart on a weekend) are attractive selling points, and news, in the form of word-of-mouth referrals, travels fast. “And I enjoy that aspect of it; if I see a group come through on a weekend and I don’t know them, I’ll ask where they’re from, and they’ll say ‘we’re from Glastonbury.’

“Price drives things,” he went on. “They hear $40 with a cart and the course is in great shape, they come and they check it out, and then they go tell their buddies. We’re seeing that happening more and more.”

Still, there are serious challenges confronting all those doing business within the broad realm of golf, said Hall, adding that perhaps the biggest of these involves getting more women and young people involved in the game.

Women have become a particularly stern challenge, and for a number of reasons.

“In the private sector, I’ve watched the level of play among women diminish — it’s very challenging,” he explained. “And it comes down to the commitment — there’s the time involved, but also the cost. When it comes to the household budget, where does golf fall? What’s important, and what’s not?”

But there is another factor involved, one that Hall says he and other club pros might be able to do something about: the intimidation factor.

By that, he meant everything from the difficulty of the sport to the number and complexity of the rules.

“There are women who are definitely intimidated by golf,” he explained. “I spoke to the group here at Franconia, and some were really concerned that some of the women weren’t counting all their strokes.

“Let’s not worry so much about their strokes,” he went on. “Let’s get them out there playing; let’s grab hold of them and get them comfortable and willing to continue golf; let’s not worry about the competitiveness of golf.”

Elaborating, he said his experience at Avon showed that some women don’t like the word ‘tournament,’ or the notion that they have to play for something, be it a trophy, money, or whatever.

And that led to one of those creative strokes he talked about, a group he called the ‘no-holers.’

“We had the 9-hole ladies, the 18-hole ladies, and then the no-holers,” he explained. “We would invite them out late in the afternoon, give them a glass of wine and some cheese, and just talk about golf, maybe show them the course and introduce them to it. We were trying to get them off on a different foot than that fear many of them experience.”

Going for the Green

While Hall is certainly settled in now at Franconia and Veterans, the learning curve, as he called it, continues.

This was the relative unknown that he chose over the world that he had known since the start of his career.

Thus far, his choice seems like a sound course of action in a business — and a game — where there are challenges around every turn and things can change in a hurry.

And where the phrase ‘going for the green’ is definitely a risk-reward scenario.

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

Blue Sox Are Winning on the Field and in the Stands

Sections Sports & Leisure

Keeping Score

Valley Blue Sox owner Clark Eckhoff

As the region’s only collegiate summer-league baseball team, the Valley Blue Sox are surging both on the field and in the front office, which is celebrating league-topping attendance last year and a growing reputation for on-field success. Those victories didn’t come overnight, but result from both skilled roster building and a recognition that the product should be, above all, affordable and fun.

When Darth Vader or one of his stormtrooper henchmen roam the third-base line, it’s understandable that not every eye is fixed between the white lines of the diamond.

That’s OK, though, in the world of college-level baseball, and particularly the world of the Valley Blue Sox, who have turned MacKenzie Stadium in Holyoke into a bona fide summer destination.

“We have to be reaching out through promotions and engaging people who might not otherwise have interest in the game, but they’ll come out for a fireworks show or to see Star Wars characters,” General Manager Hunter Golden told BusinessWest. “There’s a hook, something other than the game.”

That’s true of minor-league and amateur baseball organizations across the country, a culture known as much for its mascot races and bobblehead giveaways — in short, family fun — as for the product it puts on the field. But the Blue Sox are garnering increasing attention in the New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) for both the crowds it draws, thanks partly to those promotions, and the quality of the play itself, which is turning casual visitors into devoted fans.

It’s a success story that didn’t happen by accident.

This is truly a team that reaches the entire area; we have fans driving down from Northampton, Amherst, and Hadley.”

In fact, team owner Clark Eckhoff, a veteran of minor-league baseball who oversaw the revival of a team in the Great Lakes region before buying the then-Holyoke Blue Sox in 2013, saw potential in this team and its surroundings, and had a vision for how to grow its popularity.

“This is truly a team that reaches the entire area; we have fans driving down from Northampton, Amherst, and Hadley,” he said — not to mention the fact that Springfield itself is the largest metro area in the country lacking professional baseball. Consider the success of the AA-level Hartford Yard Goats, who are selling out most of their tilts, and it’s clear a regional appetite for baseball has long existed. The challenge was to field a product — on field and off — to sate it.

Blue Sox attendance ranked first in its league last year, and 11th among 169 summer colleague teams.

So far, mission accomplished. Canny roster building (more on that later) resulted in a deep playoff run last year, and a hot start in 2017 that included a nine-game winning streak in mid-June. Off the field, the team’s heavy promotional schedule of giveaways and events, plus ramped-up efforts to engage with the community, have turned the Blue Sox into the NECBL’s top draw, ranking 11th nationally among 169 summer collegiate teams in 2016, and besting the turnout of 20 A-level professional teams — and three AA squads — to boot.

“I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to take something literally close to not even existing — based on where the team was trending in 2011 and 2012 — and seeing the fanbase grow,” Eckhoff said. “The majority of these kids will be in A ball in two years, so the quality of baseball is really good, and the other things we do provide a great family experience.

“I love going to Fenway Park,” he added. “It’s the most historic stadium; it’s iconic. But the majority of people can’t afford to go there more than once or twice a summer. Here, tickets are $7 — $5 for kids — with affordable concessions, and you can get autographs from guys who will sign pro contracts in a year or two.”

All that and stormtroopers? It’s proven to be a winning combination, both literally and figuratively.

Call of the East

Eckhoff previously owned the Wausau (Wisconsin) Woodchucks of the Northwoods League for 13 years, and was looking for a change of scenery when he bought the Blue Sox in 2013. When he bought the Woodchucks in 1999, the team was drawing some 600 fans per night. By his 10th year, attendance averaged 2,000. He attributes that to the team getting the word out about the quality of play — some 15 of his players eventually made the majors, including Ben Zobrist — but the fun factor as well.

Hunter Golden says building a winning roster means recruiting not only talented players, but those who will best fit into the culture of the team and its region.

“There was a study done showing that 80% of fans who walked into a minor-league baseball game were leaving the game in the sixth or seventh inning and couldn’t tell you the opponent or the score, but they knew it was bobblehead night, and that they had enjoyed an affordable night out,” Eckhoff said.

Golden arrived in the baseball-management world much more recently, after parlaying a passion for sabermetrics — an innovative way to analyze a baseball player’s potential by crunching his in-game performance into, essentially, hard math — into a nationally visible role as a blogger and speaker on the subject. That caught the eye of Eckhoff, who tapped Golden as an advisor early on and later offered him the GM’s chair.

They have proven to be a solid team, pairing Eckhoff’s nose for creating a memorable fan experience with Golden’s ability, tested on the fly, to turn his sabermetrics expertise into actual roster building.

It’s a blend of science and art, Golden said, that extends far beyond the numbers.

“The first is key is building the culture you want,” he said. “There’s a lot of great talent out there, but it’s not just about how much talent a kid has. It’s the best kid versus the right kid — finding not only a baseball player who has great ability, but also a kid who’s going to thrive in our area and culture.”

The NECBL has long competed regionally with the Cape Cod Baseball League, and good players concerned with the difference in scenery between the two won’t make good Blue Sox candidates, he went on.

“I tell college coaches, ‘I don’t have a beach. They won’t be taking their parents out to dinner at a nice restaurant on the boardwalk. Guys that prioritize that stuff won’t have success here.’ I want guys who wake up in the morning, and what they’re looking forward to most is grabbing a bat and glove and getting out there to play baseball. That first month, everyone is into it, but when you get into your second month of three-hour bus rides, the first type of kid starts to run out of gas, but the second type of kid wants to be on that bus. That’s what we’re looking for.”

In return, the Blue Sox offer players a robust array of host families — there’s currently a waiting list to house a player for the summer — and activities ranging from trips to Fenway and Cooperstown to gym memberships and opportunities to engage with the community through educational baseball clinics and other events.

It’s a model that makes recruiting easier each season, Golden said. “Schools want to send their guys to us when they see how they’re treated and how they enjoy their time here.”

College students are also paying attention to how successfully NECBL players transition to the pros. In the recent Major League Baseball draft, 11 former Blue Sox players were drafted, led by left-handed pitcher Aaron Leasher, a sixth-round pick of the Red Sox, followed by outfielder Garrett McCain (Tigers, round 10) and catcher Erik Ostberg (Rays, round 13).

Sound Investments

The city of Holyoke has noticed the recent run of Blue Sox success too, and has been making financial investments in the team, including $3,000 to improve the playing surface. The bullpens are also new, and the left-field fence — where long fly balls long went to die — was pulled in to boost home runs and, by extension, excitement.

Eckhoff also credited the businesses that are finding it increasingly rewarding to buy sponsorships in the club. “In the summer, we reap what we sow in the offseason,” he said of those relationships. “That’s what drives the engine — people buying billboards, community nights, ticket sales. It’s become easier for businesses to support you when you’ve got 2,800 fans out there for almost three hours, looking at the signage and hearing public-address announcements promoting businesses. It tends to multiply.”

Hopefully, he added, a new scoreboard is in the works for 2018. “You add some new pieces every year to improve the experience for fans. That’s our goal.”

The key, Golden said, is to take player development seriously, but also understand that families that show up at MacKenzie Stadium want to have a good — even silly — time. That’s where the bobbleheads and ketchup-and-mustard races come in. But the team doesn’t shy away from meaningful displays as well, such as a recent ceremony that honored the World War I hero for whom the stadium is named.

“What keeps the engine going is the fan experience,” Golden said. “The minor-league teams that fail appeal too much to the hardcore baseball guy. You should want as many people as possible to have access to baseball, and that means going out of your way to appeal to non-traditional fans.”

But the sabermetrician and lifelong baseball fan in him certainly appreciates the product he’s helping put on the field.

“There’s not a lot of difference between low-A ball and the best of college baseball,” he told BusinessWest. “It’s great that our community has access to that. It’s affordable entertainment families can enjoy on a Friday night. We’ve been able to do it the right way, and that’s the plan going forward.”

In other words, play ball.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Steps Taken Now Can Make a Difference on Your 2017 Return

Banking and Financial Services Sections

Mid-year Tax Moves

By Kristina Drzal Houghton, CPA, MST

Kristina Drzal-Houghton

Most people don’t include tax planning on their summertime agenda, but maybe they should.

The problem with waiting until the end of the year is that you reduce the time for planning strategies to take effect. If you take the time now to do mid-year tax planning, you’ll still have six months for your actions to make a difference on your 2017 tax return.

In addition, proposed tax reform could be cause for additional changes to your tax plan. Planning now for 2017 taxes not only helps reduce your tax burden, but it can help you gain control of your entire financial situation.

This year may seem especially tricky with the uncertainty of potential changes in the tax laws. This article is going to focus on planning assuming there is no change, since executives, lobbyists and Wall Street analysts increasingly believe the administration — distracted by repeated crises while facing a short and crowded legislative calendar — will be unable to deliver on President Trump’s promise to slash corporate and individual tax rates this year and ignite significantly faster economic growth.

While Hill Republicans argue that ongoing issues related to the current administration will have no impact on tax reform, movement on Capitol Hill has slowed momentum and emboldened Democrats to try to block Republicans’ every move. And Wall Street analysts believe it will help push tax reform into 2018 and perhaps even beyond next year’s midterm elections.

Here are a few things you should consider.

Assess Changes That Affect Your Situation

Have you experienced any life events that can change your tax situation? Here are some examples:

• A job change. If you are eligible for a distribution from your former employer’s retirement-savings plan, consider rolling the money into another tax-favored plan or an individual retirement account (IRA) to avoid the receipt of currently taxable income.

• A home sale. You may exclude profit — within limits — on the sale of your principal residence from your taxable income if you meet the tax law’s requirements.

• A marriage or divorce. File a new W-4 withholding allowance certificate with your employer, or, if you pay quarterly estimated taxes, review the amount you are paying.

• A new child arrives. As a parent, you may be eligible for various tax breaks.

Size Up Deductions and Credits

Use last year’s tax return to estimate what your highest tax bracket will be and how you can reduce your tax liability through deductions and credits. For instance, you might make deductible charitable donations of money or property to reduce your marginal tax rate.

This might be particularly important for 2017 since rates are expected to decrease in the future.

Examine Your Investment Portfolio

You can harvest capital losses from securities sales to offset capital gains plus up to $3,000 of ordinary income each year. You may also use capital gains to offset capital losses from earlier in the year.

Planning your securities activities early will help you prepare for tax time.

Take Retirement Plans into Account

When possible, boost contributions to retirement plans within the generous tax-law limits. You may also be able to supplement your retirement plan at work with contributions to an IRA plan.

On the flip side, you’re generally required to take annual required minimum distributions from retirement plans after reaching age 70½. Keep that in mind if you will reach that milestone this year.

Focus on Higher Education

If you have a child in college, you may be able to claim higher-education credits even if the child graduates this year. However, each credit is phased out for upper-income taxpayers. The tuition deduction expired after 2016, so make sure to plan for the best use of the remaining education tax benefits.

Update Your Estate Plan

Finally, review your estate plan to ensure you’re maximizing tax benefits. Currently, transfers between spouses are completely exempt from estate and gift tax, while other transfers are sheltered by a $5.49 million exemption in 2017 ($10.98 million for a couple).

While estate-tax reform remains a strong possibility, if not in 2017 then in a future year, waiting to plan may not be prudent.

Outside Collection Agencies

While many things in the tax arena remain uncertain at this point, two changes at the IRS have taken effect in 2017 that you should be aware of.

First, the IRS is now using outside collection agencies to collect unpaid tax obligations. This new program will start slowly, with only a few hundred taxpayers receiving mailings. The number will grow into the thousands later in the summer.

Taxpayers who are contacted will first receive several collection notices from the IRS before their accounts are turned over to the private collection agencies. The agency will then send its own letter to the taxpayer informing them that the IRS has transferred the account to the agency.

These agencies are required to identify themselves as working with the IRS in all communications. Unfortunately, a change like this can often lead to confusion among taxpayers, which gives scammers a new opportunity to steal taxpayer dollars. The IRS is aware of the potential fraud problems and plans to continue to help taxpayers avoid confusion.

The IRS reminds taxpayers that private collection companies, like the IRS, will never approach taxpayers in a threatening way, pressure taxpayers for immediate payment, request credit-card information, or request payments in gift cards, prepaid debit cards, or a wire transfer. A legitimate letter from a collection agency associated with the IRS will instruct taxpayers to write a check directly to the IRS.

Correspondence Audits on the Rise

The IRS is now handling many routine audit reviews through form letters called correspondence audits. These letters come from the IRS and ask for clarification and justification of specific deductions on your tax return.

Common issues that trigger a correspondence audit are large charitable deductions, withdrawals from retirement accounts and education-savings plans, excess miscellaneous deductions, and small-business expenses.

Don’t panic if you get one of these audit form letters. The IRS often uses computer programs to compare individual return deductions with the averages for a person’s income level or profession. If you’ve received a letter, you may have simply fallen outside the averages.

As long as you respond promptly, thoroughly, and with good documentation, it won’t necessarily become a contentious issue. The key is to keep proper, well-organized documentation under the assumption you may need it to support your deductions. If you do this right, the correspondence audit will end with a ‘no change’ letter from the IRS, acknowledging you’ve addressed their concerns.

These are just a few possible mid-year tax-planning moves to consider. In between summer picnics and family outings, take the time to review actions that might be beneficial to you at tax time next year. It will be here before you know it.

Kristina Drzal Houghton, CPA, MST is a partner and director of the Taxation Division at Meyers Brothers Kalicka in Holyoke; (413) 536-8510.

Florence Bank Makes Its Move into Hampden County

Banking and Financial Services Sections

West Side Story

A rendering of the new Florence Bank branch in West Springfield.

After recording impressive growth during his 22-year tenure as president, John Heaps Jr. says Florence Bank is ready to take the next strategic step, by opening its first branch in Hampden County later this summer. The move comes at an opportune time, he said — a time when many Greater Springfield banks are being bought up and merging with institutions based well outside the region. A community-focused bank like Florence, he believes, is well-positioned to fill the gap.

John Heaps Jr. has deep roots in Hampden County. A 37-year resident of East Longmeadow who attended Cathedral High School and started his career at Valley Bank & Trust Co. in Springfield, he has personal reasons to celebrate Florence Bank’s first Hampden County branch, set to open in West Springfield in August.

“For me, it’s like coming home,” he said. “I grew up here in East Forest Park, and I’ve lived here all my life. So this is home to me, and coming here is just something that feels like coming back home, even though I live here.”

But as much as the move means to him personally, it says more about the bank’s growth, and the opportunities available to a community-focused institution in the midst of industry consolidation that has left the region without a Springfield-headquartered bank.

“The first part of my career with Florence Bank was focused on expanding within Hampshire County, and now it just makes sense to expand into Hampden County,” said Heaps, who has served as the bank’s president since 1995. “Because of the significant consolidation, many of the independent players are gone. There’s a real need for a community bank. People want banking decisions made locally, by local people and for the right reasons. That’s what we do.”

Bank President John Heaps Jr. visits the construction site.

Construction is nearing the final stages at what will be a 9,000-square-foot plaza at 1010 Union St., one-third of which will house Florence Bank’s new Hampden County Banking Center, scheduled to open this summer.

All Florence Bank services will be offered through the new center, including deposits and loan products, mobile services to provide 24-hour access to accounts, mortgage-application services, debit-card issuance, commercial-loan capacity, and investment services. The center, which will also offer a drive-up ATM and night depository, will be staffed by eight employees, led by Branch Manager Maureen Buxton.

Heaps said the recent spate of mergers — United Bank was acquired by Rockville Savings Bank in 2014; the following year saw Hampden Bank acquired by Berkshire Bank, First Niagara Bank sold to Key Bank, and NUVO Bank & Trust acquired by Merchants Bancshares; and Westfield Bank acquired Chicopee Savings Bank in 2016 — creates an uncommon opportunity for a mutually-held bank that makes decisions about what’s best for customers and the community without input from stockholders.

SEE: List of Banks in Western Mass.

“The Springfield area needs our kind of independent institution,” he said, and the bank has already found success in Hampden County following its opening, in 2007, of a loan-production office in West Springfield. It’s success helped boost the bank’s total commercial-loan portfolio to more than 36% from Hampden County-based businesses.

In fact, between the loan center, an ATM in Springfield, a relationship with the Basketball Hall of Fame, and employees — like Heaps — who live in Hampden County, the bank already boasts nearly 3,000 retail customers and more than 400 commercial clients in the Greater Springfield region. The bank also has a relationship with 97 nonprofits in Hampden County that have received over $300,000 in grants and gifts in the past five years.

In short, Heaps said, the time was right for the West Springfield branch.

Steady Growth

Florence Bank, headquartered in its namesake town, has long been a Hampshire County institution, with branches in Amherst, Belchertown, Easthampton, Granby, Hadley, Northampton, and Williamsburg. Heaps has seen the bank grow in his tenure from a $250 million institution with two branches to $1.3 billion and 10 branches. But growth didn’t mean abandoning the community culture.

“It was clear the bank wanted to stay mutual and wanted to grow, and quite frankly, we did that in Hampshire County,” he said. “Our capital has grown from $25 million to $135 million, which is really nice growth, so we’ve been extremely profitable while still being able to keep our focus on what we wanted, which was to stay mutual.”

From left, John Heaps Jr., West Springfield Mayor Will Reichelt, developer Frank Colaccino, and West Springfield Fire Chief Bill Flaherty were among those who attended a recent hard-hat tour of the site.

Another goal was to stay current with technological trends, he added. “We’ve got the best of both worlds; we’ve been able to keep the focus on customer service, but we’ve also added technology that has allowed us to keep up with the Bank of Americas. There’s nothing you can get there that you can’t get at Florence Bank, things like mobile management to get into your bank account, stop a debit card, pay bills, things like that.”

In fact, in the past five years, the percentage of customers using the bank’s mobile services has risen from about 5% to around 40%, and it’s still on the rise, among all demographics.

“Sometimes it’s just a matter of showing people,” he said. “If you come in the branch to talk about mobile banking, we’ll give you a $5 deposit check, and we’ll ask you to deposit it to set up your account. You wouldn’t believe how many people thank us for that.”

Customers aren’t the only ones with questions, however. “Strategically, other senior managers and even the board asks about bricks and mortar, why we continue to build branches when transactions have gone down in the branches,” Heaps said. “Clearly, the number of transactions has gone down significantly in the past five years — to around 60% of what it was. That obviously has an impact.”

But a physical branch still plays a critical role in the communities where a bank operates, he went on, not only because the majority of customers still do business there, but because it shows commitment to a city or town.

“Do you need 10 tellers? No, but you certainly need the branch,” he said, adding that branches of the future are likely to be smaller than in the past, and division of roles between tellers and customer-service professionals at Florence Bank will be blurred, with employees able to handle either task, so the teller window, or pod, will be a one-stop shop of sorts.

John Heaps Jr. stands before what will be the teller pod area in the new West Springfield branch.

“That’s the teller of the future, and it allows you to have a smaller footprint, and to do everything with much fewer people,” he said. “With remote capture, customers don’t even need to go to the bank to make deposits.”

The result, he said, has been a streamlined workflow, so as the bank has grown in size, it hasn’t added many employees, instead shifting roles to boost efficiency. A branch like the one in West Springfield, had it opened a decade ago, would have required more staff and a larger footprint, he noted.

Branching Out

To create the new space, the Colvest Group of Springfield is developing the new building where St. Ann Roman Catholic Church was once located, at the intersection of Union Street and Memorial Avenue.

The building’s exterior will feature stone wainscoting on the first few feet near ground level and tan siding and multiple windows across the front. Florence Bank will occupy one-third — or 3,000 square feet — of the new plaza, and up to three additional commercial tenants will fill the remaining space, said developer Frank Colaccino.

“We certainly think it’s a high-quality location, and the building is very attractive, he added. “We’re excited to have Florence Bank as our anchor tenant, and we’re confident we’ll have some good-quality tenants in addition to Florence Bank.”

It’s the same promise Heaps sees in the site and, more importantly, in the Greater Springfield region.

“There’s just so much happening in Hampden County,” he said, adding that the region’s economic vibrancy is reflected in Florence Bank’s steadily growing loan activity there. He noted that, at a time when mergers and acqusitions are the order of the day, retail and business customers are still looking for a community-bank experience and a financial partner across all aspects of life. “Eighty percent of our mortgage customers have checking accounts with us; that’s an amazing statistic.”

Which is why West Springfield is just the first stop along the way to the bank’s goal to become much more than a Hampshire County institution.

“It’s not just going to be one branch, just sticking our toe in the water,” he told BusinessWest. “Over the next three or four years, we’ll be adding between three and four new branches as part of a strategic move. I think Hampden County is ready for us, and we’re ready for Hampden County.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

East-West Rail Would Lift Entire State

Opinion

By Eric Lesser

It’s no secret that Boston is booming. On my drive to the State House every week, I see new buildings, new apartments, new restaurants. I can’t throw a baseball there without hitting a construction crane. The city’s reputation for leading advances in biomedicine and investing in tech startups has made it the envy of the world.

But outside Boston’s 617 area code, the story of our state is much different.

Long before I reach my exit for downtown, I pass the long-abandoned factories of Westinghouse, American Bosch, and Chapman Valve. While Boston’s unemployment rate is about 2%, Springfield’s is nearly 7%. Our Commonwealth’s lopsided growth is leaving Western Mass. behind — and it’s hurting the entire state.

As new companies draw more and more young professionals to Boston, the high cost of housing squeezes their finances, and they struggle to pay back student loans. Meanwhile, those young people leave behind gaping holes in the communities they move away from: fewer families, an aging population, a growing housing glut, and a declining tax base.

Reliable, high-speed commuter rail service between Springfield and Boston would help solve this two-sided problem by creating an exchange between regions.

East-west rail would give employees in Western Mass. access to higher-paying jobs in Eastern Mass. And it would give those who are struggling to afford housing in Eastern Mass. more affordable options in Central and Western Mass.

The current economy of Massachusetts is not properly using our different regions’ comparative advantages to their full potential. Western Mass. is a beautiful place to live and raise a family, with plenty of open land to accommodate even more residents. Eastern Mass. has the opposite problem, but offers more job opportunities and more paths to career advancement.

East-west rail is not just a Springfield project or a Western Mass. project. This is a project that would benefit the entire Commonwealth — and business leaders are starting to take note.

The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce has endorsed east-west rail as a way to open up expansion opportunities and consumer markets to businesses in Boston. Realtors and housing advocates have told me that east-west rail would not only ease Boston’s critical housing shortage, but would also be a boon to housing markets outside the city.

But the most important voices in this discussion are those of the workers and families themselves. On June 19, I took a whistlestop tour across the state to raise awareness of my proposal to study the feasibility of a high-speed rail line between Springfield and Boston. When I stopped in Palmer, I met an older woman who told me about the many times she had been laid off because a company had closed or downsized or moved to a different region.

Each time, she said, she would have to go back to school or retrain for a new skill. And each time, when she looked for a new job, the openings were farther and farther away from Palmer — from her hometown, her friends, and her family.

When Western Mass. gets left behind, this is what it looks like: a laid-off worker with very few options.

This is the story being told outside of Boston’s 617 area code. And it would have a happier ending with an east-west rail link that would bring this woman — and other workers like her — to job opportunities closer to home.

State Sen. Eric Lesser represents the First Hampden & Hampshire District.

A Winning Formula for Sports, Business

Opinion

Editorial

It wasn’t so long ago — just a few years, actually — when people were wondering out loud whether this region could effectively support minor-league professional sports teams, and often answering the question with a ‘no,’ or, at best, a cautious ‘maybe.’

This was a time not long after Springfield had lost its team in the NBA’s Developmental League, the Armor (it never really caught on at all, as you might recall), and was soon to lose its franchise in the American Hockey League, a far bigger blow, because AHL hockey had been part of the fabric of Springfield since FDR was in the White House.

How things have changed in the matter of a few years.

Springfield’s new entry in the AHL, the Thunderbirds, had a hugely successful first season, according to a number of yardsticks, including attendance, season-ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, visibility (the team’s logo is everywhere in Springfield), and three awards from the league at its annual marketing meeting last month.

Meanwhile, the Valley Blue Sox, an affiliate of the New England Collegiate Baseball League, have made Holyoke and MacKenzie Stadium a true summertime destination for families across the region (see story, page 29).

The team, which struggled earlier this decade, has blossomed into the NECBL’s top draw, ranking 11th nationally among 169 summer collegiate teams in 2016; it’s even doing better, attendance-wise, than 20 A-level pro teams and three AA squads.

The teams are flourishing for three main reasons. First is a huge emphasis on marketing and brand building, something many businesses put too far down on the list of priorities. Second, they’re listening to the customers and responding to what they’re hearing. And third, they’re firmly focused on that most important ingredient in business success: value.”

All this is good for the region, because it needs things for families to do, and it needs more of the things (and there are many of them) that will attract tourists, and, more importantly, young professionals, to this area.

But the answer to the question ‘how are these teams doing this?’ is the most important, and inspirational, part of the equation, and there are actually lessons here for all business owners.

The teams are flourishing for three main reasons. First is a huge emphasis on marketing and brand building, something many businesses put too far down on the list of priorities. Second, they’re listening to the customers and responding to what they’re hearing. And third, they’re firmly focused on that most important ingredient in business success: value.

And because they’re doing all that, the numbers flashed on the scoreboards at the MassMutual Center and MacKenzie Field are only a small factor in the success quotient.

Indeed, Hunter Golden, general manager of the Blue Sox, hit the nail on the head when he said, “what keeps the engine going is the fan experience.” The Blue Sox and Thunderbirds have fully embraced that concept with promotions and attractions ranging from live music to a Star Wars Night, from guest appearances from iconic professional wrestlers to ketchup-and-mustard races; from low-priced tickets to deals on concessions.

These aren’t gimmicks — OK, in some cases, they’re gimmicks — but they are proven methods of creating a market for a product by providing value and what the customer is ultimately looking for.

As we said earlier, these are valuable lessons for all those doing business today. So, not only have people stopped asking if this region can support minor-league teams, they’re looking at those teams as models when it comes to how to succeed in business.

GM Alex Dixon Gets to Work Building a Culture

Cover Story

The ‘Pulse’ of MGM Springfield

Alex Dixon

Alex Dixon, a self-described third-generation casino worker, has assumed the duties of general manager of the $950 million MGM Springfield resort casino complex. This is a large job with a broad set of responsibilities that he boils down to creating a winning culture. Roughly 15 months out from the grand opening, his work is focused mainly on assembling a team — and especially the corps of senior leaders — and essentially bringing this facility to life.

When Alex Dixon was assistant general manager at the Horseshoe Baltimore Casino, he went to great lengths to fully understand all aspects of virtually every job at the sprawling complex and what it was like to perform such duties.

In fact, he performed them himself.

“I put on a valet’s uniform and parked cars — that’s the best way to learn valet,” he told BusinessWest. “I put on an environmental-services uniform and learned how to clean toilets. I put on the uniform of many of the positions, if not all the positions, in the facility to spend three or four hours with that group to really understand how I, as a leader, can impact the day-to-day lives of my front-line team members.”

And he plans to do the same in his new role, as general manager of MGM Springfield, both before that $950 million facility opens its doors in the fall of 2018, and after. So visitors should keep their eyes peeled, because they might just spot him dealing them in at blackjack, greeting them at the front door, or parking their car.

That happened quite often in Baltimore, actually.

“It’s amazing the reaction you’ll get from customers when they see you on the floor in a security uniform welcoming guests alongside those team members,” said Dixon, 36, who described himself as a third-generation casino worker (more on that later). “But that’s how you fully understand the challenges with each job; in many cases there are very small things we can do to make things easier, and we need to do those things.”

This is the textbook definition of a servant leader, which is the phrase Dixon summoned when asked to describe his management style and what he will bring to Springfield’s South End.

“There’s not a job in our facility that I would not do myself,” he said. “And we really need to understand the day-to-day life of our employees, because that’s who our customers interact with.”

And that’s clearly why, as he talked with BusinessWest a few months after his arrival in Springfield, Dixon turned the discussion early and often to the people, an estimated 3,000 of them, who will be working at the casino complex — on the front lines and behind the scenes — to present visitors with an experience.

Fifteen months or so out, the assignment for Alex Dixon and the team he’s assembling is to bring MGM Springfield, seen in this rendering, to life.

He went on at length about how he will not only play a lead role in hiring team members — especially the eight to 10 people who will comprise the senior management team — but also create the environment in which they will work and the culture that will pervade not only the casino floor but every component of this facility, from the shops to the movie theater to the bowling alley.

This is the very essence of casino operations, he explained, adding that such facilities are not about slot machines and restaurants, ornate hotels, and elaborate shows. They’re about the people providing a brand of service that will draw in visitors — and then bring them back.

With that as a backdrop, Dixon noted that if Mike Mathis, president of MGM Springfield, is the face of the operation, as most would say he is, then he is the “pulse,” or “heartbeat.”

For this issue, BusinessWest talked at length with Dixon to fully grasp everything he meant by that statement.

Background — Check

Before sitting down with BusinessWest, Dixon offered a quick tour of what amounts to MGM’s new, temporary nerve center on the 20th floor at Monarch Place.

The company, which will eventually settle in at 95 State St., adjacent to the casino complex, was operating out of a smaller suite of offices on the ninth floor at Monarch, but with its leadership team starting to come together, more space was deemed necessary.

There is a good deal of it on the 20th floor, where Dixon gestured to a succession of small offices, almost all of them vacant at that time, which will be occupied by seasoned individuals who will have, in some cases, business cards with titles never before seen in Western Mass.

Like ‘vice president of Slots’ and ‘vice president of Table Games,’ for example, two of the positions mentioned by Dixon as he noted who will be occupying some of the offices he passed. There will be other, more traditional roles, such as vice president of Facilities and vice president of Marketing, he went on, adding that he will be spending a good amount of his time in the next several weeks deciding who will take on such responsibilities.

How Dixon came to occupy what amounts to the corner office on the 20th floor, complete with a window from which he can see the casino complex taking shape, is an intriguing story.

Indeed, while he grew up in and around casinos, Dixon didn’t seem in any way destined for work in that industry. But fate and a few chance encounters would change the trajectory of his career path and ultimately put him on a course for the City of Homes.

Our story really begins … well, where you might expect it would when we’re talking about someone with casino work in his blood — Las Vegas — but, as noted, the tome didn’t develop exactly according to script.

“My family moved from the deep south out to Las Vegas to be the porters, the maids, the cooks, the housekeepers, and then, eventually, dealers, in the casinos,” he explained. “My grandmother was a housekeeper, and my dad was a bartender, and I’ve been fortunate to rise in the ranks to general manager.

Alex Dixon, seen here in MGM’s nerve center in Monarch Place, says that if Mike Mathis is the face of the company and its casino, he is the ‘pulse’ or ‘heartbeat.’

“I remember the burgeoning of the casino industry before my eyes,” he went on. “In 1990, the Mirage was the first really big facility built with institutional capital. You can imagine what it’s like growing up in Las Vegas as a young boy and seeing this great volcano coming up in the middle of the Las Vegas desert; I thought that was really cool.”

When he was a senior in high school, and student body president, he recalls the theme for his senior year being “Viva Las Vegas,” with each class decorating its hallway in the theme of one of the resorts operating at the time.

But while casinos were in most ways the backdrop for his childhood, his passions were business and government, and he went east, to Washington, D.C., to pursue a degree in Finance at Howard University’s School of Business.

There, he caught what he called the “investment banking bug,” and did his first internship at J.P. Morgan, gaining an introduction to Wall Street and the world of mergers and acquisitions.

He had a second internship at Goldman Sachs and its Energy & Power group, and took a job there upon graduation in 2003. Later, he had the opportunity to join the company’s international operation and spent the better part of 2005 in London, before moving on to the Los Angeles office, where, still focused on M&A, he was a member of the team that advised Disney on its $7.5 billion acquisition of Pixar.

He and his wife would gravitate to Las Vegas to raise a family, though, and upon returning, he made a number of phone calls as he pursued various opportunities. One of them was to Bill Hornbuckle, currently president of MGM Resorts International, who at the time was president and COO of Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.

“Bill put the sell on,” Dixon recalled. “I don’t even remember what the role was, but at the time it just wasn’t the right fit; it was too steep of a financial decline after Wall Street and with the new family and everything else.”

I was very fortunate to learn the business by sitting at the feet of people who had built some of these great facilities in Las Vegas. I had a great number of mentors — people who were able to coach me and inspire me, really.”

Instead, he joined Silver Pacific Advisors, LLC, a boutique investment bank in Vegas that raised capital for developers seeking to build casinos. And it was in that setting that he gained what he considers his first real exposure to general management.

“The developers would put together a management team, the head of slots, the head of table games, and so on,” he recalled. “And in working on the deal as a financial associate, I said, ‘hmmm … that’s what I want to be when I grow up.’”

Odds and Ends

That epiphany, if you will, compelled him to leave Silver Pacific and join Caesars Entertainment, starting as a director of Planning & Analysis and eventually rising in the ranks to vice president and executive associate in Enterprise Shared Services. Along the way, he said, he had the opportunity to learn from some of the best in the business.

“I was very fortunate to learn the business by sitting at the feet of people who had built some of these great facilities in Las Vegas,” he told BusinessWest. “I had a great number of mentors — people who were able to coach me and inspire me, really.”

In 2013, he became assistant general manager of the Horseshoe Baltimore Casino, developed by a group that includes Caesars Entertainment. Like MGM Springfield, the Baltimore operation is an urban casino, one with roughly 1,500 employees, 2,200 slots, and 150 tables.

There, he was in charge of day-to-day activities, and doing pretty much what he will be doing in Springfield, an opportunity that came about by happenstance and, more specifically, a dinner meeting with Mathis.

Dixon interviewed for the position last fall, prevailed over what he assumes was a large field of candidates — he believes his experience with an urban casino on the East Coast certainly helped his cause — and officially joined the team in February.

But he didn’t really put his boots on the ground in Springfield until several weeks later, because there was first a substantial learning curve involving MGM and how it ran its facilities.

“I spent a lot of time getting to know MGM,” he explained. “I was coming from outside the company, and before coming here, I spent a lot of time in Detroit, in Las Vegas, in National Harbor [Maryland], really making sure I got the ethos of the company before coming here to Springfield.”

When asked for a quick synopsis of his job description as general manager, Dixon said it comes down to essentially replicating what he saw at those MGM locations, while also giving the company’s newest casino its own, unique flavor, or culture.

At the Horseshoe Baltimore Casino, Dixon joined the management team roughly two years before the facility opened, a timeline similar to that unfolding in Springfield. And as he talked about what will happen between now and the fall of 2018, he said there is a series of formal and informal timelines, with many of them involving the formation of a team.

Indeed, while there a number of strategic initiatives taking place at once — from the actual buildout of the various facilities to bringing together components of the retail piece, including the restaurants, to the critical work in marketing to get the message out about this facility — the process of assembling a team is paramount.

“In this pre-opening phase, we’re responsible for bringing the facility to life, and that is done by people, so we are going through the interview process for all the roles here,” Dixon said, noting he was on a tight schedule that morning, with several of those interviews also on his calendar.

Much of the focus now is on that senior management team, Dixon went on, using some of those new-to-the-region job titles to explain who might eventually earn them, what goes into those top posts, and how he goes about selecting a candidate.

The vice president of Table Games, for example, is a big job, one to be held down by an individual who will eventually lead a team of several hundred people, he said. Candidates will need to bring an extensive résumé to the table, one that reflects experience at all levels of this gaming division, if you will, as well as leadership abilities.

There will be candidates from within the MGM family, and from across the industry — what Dixon called a “very small world,” despite its seemingly large size — as well, common denominators for each of these top-level jobs.

“You have a new facility that you’re opening in a new town … I had the opportunity to interview for a role, and through a meritocratic process, that’s where I landed,” he said. “So I’m committed to making sure that we give our internal MGM team members a great opportunity, but that we’re also willing to look to the outside to get a great benchmark of how we can infuse talent.

“The VP of Table Games … this is an individual who started at the ground level, as a table-games dealer, and worked their way up,” he explained. “From a game-protection standpoint, as well as how you teach and how you coach — it’s such a technical job that you pretty much have to have done it at all levels to take on this job.”

The table-games employees will comprise the single largest group on the property, Dixon said, adding that there are several layers of administration within that sphere, and the individual at the very top will have a number of responsibilities.

These include working with the area community colleges and other partners to establish a so-called ‘dealers school.’

“He or she will need to identify the location, work with the community colleges on the curriculum, find the instructors who will teach people how to not only count to 21, but ultimately do it with a smile,” Dixon explained. “He or she will be supported by several layers of people — shift managers, assistant shift managers, pit bosses, table-games supervisors, and more.

“The table-games operation will employ upwards of 500 people,” he went on. “And there will be an entire organization, from the people in suits helping to oversee the games to the actual dealers.”

Team-building Exercises

As for the positions several levels down, the ‘front-facing’ team members, as Dixon called them, as opposed to those working behind the scenes, strategies will be put in place for those mass hirings.

When asked about them and the philosophies that will drive the hiring process, Dixon summed it all up by saying, “overall, we hire for attitude, but we train for aptitude,” before elaborating.

“When we go to market and we try to find people, we’re really looking for people who want to smile, who want to learn, who have a great hustle about them to be able to serve guests,” he explained. “We can teach you how to deal cards, we can teach you how to fix a slot machine, we can teach you how to make a great meal, but you have to have that desire on day one, and our hiring process is geared toward finding those people, cultivating them, and getting them into the right roles.”

Dixon acknowledged that he won’t be involved with interviewing and selecting each of the 3,000 people who will eventually wear an MGM Springfield name tag. But he did say that he will “touch” them in some respect, which was his way of saying that he will get to know them whenever possible, and at the very least come to understand every nuance and challenge of the job they perform.

And this brings him back to his track record of donning various uniforms and taking on the corresponding roles for several hours at a time, but also taking the time to listen whenever and wherever he can.

“A big part of my role is to help facilitate and build a culture,” he explained. “And the only way you can do that is by touching people and having an opportunity to not only impart the vision, but listen.

“Part of my job is to understand what impacts the day-to-day role of the front-line employee,” he explained. “So if they’re having trouble getting to work because of a bus drop-off, or if they want to talk about the uniforms they wear or the food in the cafeteria, or about how they can grow and develop outside of work, we need to listen, and we need to provide a workplace that’s best in class.”

As he elaborated, he went all the way back to high school in Las Vegas and his experiences as student body president.

“I had to get to know the nerds, the geeks, the freaks, the jocks, the cheerleaders, and everyone else,” he explained. “And in many respects, it’s the same in this role. “You have the dealers who sit at this table, you have the slot attendants there, and they come in at different times, and because we’re open 24 hours, it’s important to get to know people on all those different shifts; it’s not a Monday-through-Friday, 9-to-5 kind of job.”

And once the doors open at MGM Springfield, they won’t ever close, said Dixon, which is why the next 15 months are so critical to this operation in terms of everything from hiring the right people to putting that culture in place.

“Once we flip on our lights, it’s not like we go home on the weekends,” he explained. “When we flip on to welcome our guests, we don’t close our doors. So once you get on that hamster wheel, you need to be a well-oiled machine.”

Elaborating, he drew an analogy to a marathon, which is what operating a casino is — a long race that, in this case, never really ends.

“If you look at it from the standpoint of a long-distance runner, we’re getting ready for the marathon,” he told BusinessWest. “At this point in the process, we’re in training for this big race that we’re going to run.”

Bottom Line

As part of that training, Dixon is willing to put on — and probably will put on — almost every uniform that will be worn by someone working for MGM Springfield.

He’ll probably have his ‘Alex Dixon’ name tag on, too, complete with his hometown listed underneath — a factoid designed to generate conversation and make connections.

That’s all part of the culture that Dixon was essentially hired to create. It’s a huge job, one that will come with a host of challenges and rewards.

He’s looking forward to all of it — especially the part about being the ‘pulse,’ or the ‘heartbeat,’ of this billion-dollar operation.

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

Why You Need Sunscreen Outdoors This Summer

Sections Summer Safety

Hot Topic

By Meghan Rothschild and Dr. Antonio Cruz

Meghan Rothschild’s own skin-cancer scare started her on a path toward skin-health advocacy on the national level.

Many of us are far too familiar with the unsightly consequences of having too much fun in the sun (redness, possibly even swelling, blisters, and peeling of the skin), but what isn’t as obvious is the damage being done underneath the skin.

A sunburn is a preventable risk factor for accelerating aging of the skin and skin cancer. Dermatologists agree that the most effective way to keep skin looking young and healthy is to protect ourselves from the sun. With the season of long, sunny days upon us, let’s review why this simple bit of advice is important to adhere to.

A sunburn is an inflammatory response of the skin caused by excessive ultraviolet radiation (UVR) exposure. Both UVA (320 to 400 nm) and UVB (280 to 320 nm) wavelengths can induce a sunburn; however, UVB are the most successful at provoking erythema (superficial reddening of the skin) and DNA damage. The risk of a sunburn is inversely related to latitude; therefore, the greatest risk is closest to the equator, where UVB intensity is most significant. No matter how close to the equator you may find yourself this summer, remember that UVB intensity is highest everywhere between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

So what exactly is happening to the skin as it’s absorbing all this UVR? UV photons damage the bonds between the four nucleotides that make up cellular DNA (thymine, cytosine, adenine, and guanine). These damaged cells then undergo apoptosis (programmed cell death), which leads to a cascade of unfortunate events. Within 30 minutes, the superficial blood vessels under the skin begin to vasodilate. Blood, along with inflammatory mediators, rush to the site of damage to help with the healing process. As a result, we experience redness and painful inflammation of the skin.

Dr. Antonio Cruz

The acute skin manifestations associated with sunburns typically resolve on their own within three to seven days. The damage that happens on the cellular level is not always as transient.”

The acute skin manifestations associated with sunburns typically resolve on their own within three to seven days. The damage that happens on the cellular level is not always as transient. Sometimes, UVR causes damage to the DNA repair process in a way that allows cells to mutate and acquire the ability to avoid dying, which leads to the disease process known as cancer.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the U.S. Susceptibility to a sunburn is a red flag for susceptibility to skin cancer; however, everyone, regardless of skin type, is at risk for the potential adverse effects of UVR. Therefore, the use of sunscreen should be a part of everyone’s daily skin-care routine. Broad-spectrum products with a sun-protection factor (SPF) of 30 or greater are recommended.

Sunscreen should be applied generously, repeatedly, and to all parts of the skin that are exposed to the sun. You can use the ‘shot-glass rule’ when applying sunscreen; studies have shown the average-size adult or child needs about the amount of sunscreen that it takes to fill a shot glass in order to evenly cover the entire body. Experts also agree that it is best for sunscreen to be applied 15 to 30 minutes before going out in the sun to allow formation of a protective barrier, and should be reapplied every two hours. Avoidance of the sun during peak daylight hours and the use of protective sunscreen are vital to keeping your skin young and cancer-free.

Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is easily preventable. When sunscreen is used on a regular basis, we know that your chance of developing skin cancer decreases.

Here are some great tips on how you can ensure you and your family are being sun-safe:

• Wear SPF 30 or above regularly, especially when outdoors, using a full 1-ounce portion to cover all exposed parts of your body;
• Be sure to rub the sunscreen in thoroughly and to reapply every two hours;
• Wear a hat, protective clothing, and sunglasses; and
• Don’t forget the tops of your ears, feet, and back of the hands.

This summer, remember to protect yourself against the sun’s harmful UV Rays. Here are some great tips on how you can ensure you and your family are being sun-safe:

• Wear SPF 30 or above regularly, especially when outdoors, using a full 1-ounce portion to cover all exposed parts of your body;

• Be sure to rub the sunscreen in thoroughly and to reapply every two hours;

• Wear a hat, protective clothing, and sunglasses; and

• Don’t forget the tops of your ears, feet, and back of the hands.

IMPACT Melanoma, a national nonprofit aimed at reducing the incidence of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is committed to sun safety. Recently, it conducted an independent national survey of 1,016 adults inquiring about frequency of sunscreen application by season, sunscreen preference, and opinions about free public sunscreen.

The results were in some ways anticipated, with 86% of participants always or sometimes using sunscreen during the summer months, but also surprising, finding a near-complete reversal of use between summer and fall, lower use of sunscreen in Southern states despite the warmer climates, and a concerning lack of use among African-Americans, even in summer months. Remember, is important to protect yourself all year, as the sun’s harmful UV rays are always present.

Meghan Rothschild is Marketing & PR manager for IMPACT Melanoma, and a 12-year melanoma survivor who started her own awareness organization, Surviving Skin, 10 years ago. She advocates for skin health through interviews with national media and by appearing as a speaker at various engagements across the Massachusetts. Dr. Antonio Cruz is a dermatologist with SkinPros in Providence, R.I., focusing his practice on Mohs micrographic surgery, dermatologic surgery, and cosmetic dermatology.

Take Steps to Lower Your Risk for Lyme Disease

Sections Summer Safety

Tick Talk

By Dr. Amy Jaworek

Summertime has arrived, and with it comes swimming, hiking, outdoor traveling … and ticks. If you enjoy hiking, gardening, or engaging in pretty much any outdoor activity, there are some things you should be aware of to help prevent tick-borne illness.

Ticks are arachnids, with eight legs, just like their spider cousins. They do not jump, fly, or fall from trees; rather, they crawl from grasses onto the legs of animals and humans, clothing, and boots. Ticks feed on the blood of animals, mainly white-footed mice and deer. If infected with bacteria, viruses, or parasites, a biting tick poses a risk to human health.

Amy Jaworek
Some infected people don’t have any symptoms, while others experience joint pain, muscle soreness, flu-like cold symptoms, or general achiness.”

Ticks are most often found living in places where small rodents are active, such as stone walls, under leaves or brush, in tall grassy fields and pastures, in woodlots, along borders between homes and woods, and around building foundations where there is shrubbery, foliage, or tall grass.

Scientists are predicting the warm, humid summer months could bring an unusual abundance of ticks and tick-borne illnesses this summer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported nationwide each year, while studies suggest the actual number of people diagnosed with Lyme disease is more likely about 300,000.

Many people don’t realize they are at risk. Now is a good time to learn, and employ, prevention techniques. There are some simple steps you can take to reduce your chance of being bit by ticks this summer.

According to the American Lyme Disease Foundation (ALDF), Lyme disease is an infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, a type of bacterium called a spirochete (pronounced spy-ro-keet) that is carried by deer ticks.

“An infected tick can transmit the spirochete to the humans and animals it bites.” according to the ALDF. “Untreated, the bacterium travels through the bloodstream, establishes itself in various body tissues, and can cause a number of symptoms, some of which are severe. Lyme disease manifests itself as a multi-system inflammatory disease that affects the skin in its early, localized stage, and spreads to the joints, nervous system, and, to a lesser extent, other organ systems in its later, disseminated stages. If diagnosed and treated early with antibiotics, it is almost always readily cured.

“Generally, LD in its later stages can also be treated effectively,” the ALDF notes, “but because the rate of disease progression and individual response to treatment varies from one patient to the next, some patients may have symptoms that linger for months or even years following treatment. In rare instances, Lyme disease causes permanent damage.”

When you’re bit by a tick, you won’t necessarily see a bull’s-eye type of rash, as is commonly thought. A tick bite could manifest in the form of a persistent rash, bump, or red spot on the skin. If you question such an area, have it checked out by your doctor.

Some infected people don’t have any symptoms, while others experience joint pain, muscle soreness, flu-like cold symptoms, or general achiness. If you experience symptoms out of the ordinary for you, see your doctor to find out whether Lyme, or another tick-borne illness, could be the culprit.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides tips for removing an embedded tick from your body: grasp it with fine-tipped tweezers as close to the skin as possible; pull upward with steady, even pressure to keep the tick intact; and clean the bite site and your hands thoroughly with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub, or soap and water. Place the tick in a baggie and seal it with tape, or flush the tick down the toilet. The CDC recommends checking with your doctor before sending a tick on for testing.

Other prevention tips from the CDC include:

• Avoid the border areas between lawns and woods, which is where ticks make their habitats;

• Use tick repellent on your body (with DEET) and clothing (with permethrin);

• Don’t let your dog off leash, instead keeping them in the middle of trails;

• Tuck your pants into your socks or boots when hiking in the woods or field areas;

• Shower as soon as possible after coming in from outdoors;

• Do regular full-body tick checks of yourself, your children, spouse, etc.;

• Check your pets, gear, and backpacks for crawling ticks;

• Around the home, try to create a tick-safe zone: clear brush, leaves, and tall grasses; mow the lawn frequently; stack wood in a dry area; and discourage unwelcome animals such as deer, raccoons, and stray dogs; and

• Tumble-dry clothing in a dryer on high heat for at least 10 minutes (this kills ticks, whereas cold or medium temperatures do not).

Dr. Amy Jaworek is an infectious-disease and primary-care physician at Holyoke Medical Center.

Picture This

Departments Picture This

Celebrating Union Station

More than 550 civic and business leaders turned out at Springfield’s Union Station on June 24 for a black-tie gala to celebrate the four-decade struggle to renovate the landmark and return it to its former glory. The gala was part of a weekend-long series of events that marked the reopening of the station, which was built in 1926 and sat mostly vacant and deteriorating since the late ’70s.

Students from American International College, dressed in period (late ‘20s) outfits and standing in front of a 1930 Cadillac V-16 Sport Phaeton loaned by owner George Holman for the event, served as greeters for the gala.

Gov. Charlie Baker addresses those gathered in the restored grand concourse.

Cutting the ceremonial cake are, from left: William Hornbuckle, president of MGM Resorts International, one of the gala’s sponsors, Baker; Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno; U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who spearheaded efforts to renovate the station; Roger Crandall, chairman, president, and CEO of MassMutual, another of the gala’s sponsors; Maura McCaffrey, president and CEO of Health New England, another gala sponsor; and William Pepin, president and general manager of WWLP-22 News, another gala sponsor.

Neal makes his remarks, thanking a number of individuals and groups that made the restoration of the station possible.

PeoplesBank Hosts Free Business-improvement Webinars

HOLYOKE — Based on the success of its live seminar series, PeoplesBank has launched a free lunchtime business-improvement webinar series.

The series will feature bank experts who will present topics related to improving and protecting business operations, including protecting data and managing vendor risk. The seminars are designed for business owners and management and operations professionals. Each of the Friday webinars will be offered live and will start at noon. The webinars are:

• July 14: “Best Practices to Keep Your Data Safe” (30 minutes). Every day, there are millions of attempts against companies to compromise data. Attacks like phishing and ransomware can be prevented with simple steps and employee education.

• Aug. 11: “ Managing Vendor Risk” (30 minutes). In today’s world, businesses rely more than ever on vendors to help with their core business, including providing access to sensitive information.

• Sept. 22: “Leveraging Technology to Improve Collection Efforts” (30 minutes). Creating efficiencies in collections allows you to concentrate less on banking and more on your core business.

• Nov. 10: “Anatomy of Fraud and Protecting Your Business (1 hour). Fraud happens from both internal and external sources. Internal fraud is said to cost businesses more than $3 billion per year.

More information and registration for each of the free business-improvement webinars can be found at bankatpeoples.com/business/seminars.

Bacon Wilson Welcomes Katrina Anop, Tabitha Vianna

SPRINGFIELD — Bacon Wilson announced that Katrina Anop and Tabitha Vianna have joined the firm as associate attorneys.

Anop is a graduate of the Western New England University School of Law. She is a member of Bacon Wilson’s real estate, family law, probate, employment, and immigration practice groups. Fluent in Spanish, she works primarily from the firm’s Springfield office.

Vianna is a cum laude graduate of the Western New England University School of Law. She is a member of Bacon Wilson’s business and corporate practice group, where much of her work is devoted to assisting clients with commercial loan closings. She is licensed to practice in both Massachusetts and Connecticut.

St. Germain Investment Management Named to National Top-300 List

SPRINGFIELD — St. Germain Investment Management announced it has been named to the 2017 edition of the Financial Times “300 Top Registered Investment Advisers” list, which recognizes top independent RIA firms from across the U.S.

“We’re thrilled to be selected again,” said Michael Matty, president of St. Germain Investment Management. “The Financial Times selected us in 2016, and this year’s recognition further reinforces our mission to do what’s best for our clients.”

This is the fourth annual 300 list, produced independently by the Financial Times in collaboration with Ignites Research, a subsidiary of the publication that provides business intelligence on the investment-management industry.

RIA firms applied for consideration, having met a minimum set of criteria. Applicants were then graded on six factors: assets under management (AUM); AUM growth rate; years in existence; advanced industry credentials of the firm’s advisers; online accessibility; and compliance records. There are no fees or other considerations required of RIAs that apply for the FT 300.

The final FT 300 represents an impressive cohort of elite RIA firms, as the average practice on this year’s list has been in existence for 24 years and manages $2.7 billion in assets. The top 300 RIAs hail from 37 states and Washington, D.C.

The FT 300 is one in series of rankings of top advisers by the Financial Times, including the FT 401 (DC retirement-plan advisers) and the FT 400 (broker-dealer advisers).

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County Welcomes New Director

AMHERST — Following last month’s retirement of long-time Director Renee Moss, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County (BBBSHC) hired Jessie Cooley as its new director.

“Jessie brings a wealth of experience in working with children and families and that was among our chief priorities in our hiring process,” said Erin Couture, BBBSHC advisory board president. “As we got to know Jessie, it became evident that she also brings a thoughtful leadership skill set along with a deep understanding and strong value for the mentor/mentee relationship. We could not be more pleased to introduce her as our new director.”

Cooley has worked for 12 years with the BBBS organization, first in Boston and then in Franklin County, where she grew up. Most recently, she worked as the district director for state Rep. Paul Mark. She earned her master’s degree in education at UMass Amherst, and her bachelor’s degree in Spanish and secondary education from Northeastern University. She is a 2013 graduate of the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts’ Leadership Institute for Political and Public Impact.

“I am truly honored to join the phenomenal staff of this great program, and to work with them and our dedicated advisory board to match more children in Hampshire County with caring ‘bigs,’” said Cooley. “Having been a Big Sister myself, and after working with Big Brothers Big Sisters for more than a decade, I know the powerful, positive impact our mentoring programs have on children, their families, their mentors, and the larger community. I couldn’t be more thrilled to have this opportunity.”

Comcast Appoints Four New Leaders in Western New England Region

BERLIN, Conn. — Comcast announced the appointment of four leaders for the company’s Western New England region, which is headquartered in Berlin, Conn. and includes more than 300 communities in Connecticut, Western Mass., New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.

In the Human Resources department, Judith Rudge was named director of Talent Management, while Taissa Gawronski was named director of Human Resources. In Sales and Marketing, Matt Frascone was named director of Retail Sales, and in the Communications department, Elizabeth Walden was appointed manager of Public Relations.

Rudge came to Comcast with more than 12 years of recruiting experience. In her new role, she oversees talent management and recruiting efforts for the company’s Western New England Region, which currently employs more than 1,800 individuals across five states. Prior to joining Comcast, she was the senior manager of talent acquisition at Verizon in Atlanta, where she owned the end-to-end recruitment of information technology, engineering, product, and sales positions for 86 national office locations. She graduated from Dickinson College.

Gawronski joined Comcast with 10 years of human-resources experience. In her new role, she is responsible for the human-resources needs of the company’s retail and door-to-door sales channels, as well as those on the Comcast Business team and in Sales and Marketing administration. Before joining Comcast, she was director of Human Resources at C&M Corporate, a custom cable manufacturer in Killingly, Conn., where she evaluated and maintained the company’s organizational design, as well as oversaw its workforce-recruitment and retention efforts. She graduated from Framingham State College.

Frascone recently relocated from Comcast’s Greater Chicagor to Comcast’s Western New England region to oversee 10 XFINITY stores and three service centers across Connecticut, Western Mass., and Vermont. He is also responsible for Indirect Sales, which involves Comcast’s partnerships with Walmart, Target, and Best Buy. Previously, he spent the last year as director of Comcast’s flagship XFINITY store in Chicago. He joined Comcast with 20 years of retail experience and, prior to Comcast, was a director for two Apple stores in Atlanta, where he managed a staff of 177 sales associates. He was also a U.S. Navy Reservist.

Walden came to Comcast with seven years of public-relations experience. In her new role, she is responsible for helping shape the company’s image with external audiences across the Western New England region. Prior to joining Comcast, she was vice president at Quinn, a lifestyle public-relations firm in New York City, where she oversaw a team of public-relations executives who carried out day-to-day media and operations for a portfolio of 20 business, real-estate, and technology clients, in addition to being responsible for building the firm’s client base and developing strategic public-relations campaigns. She graduated from Clark University in Worcester.

Court Dockets

Court Dockets Departments

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

CHICOPEE DISTRICT COURT

John Siedel v. Guiseppe Scuderi, individually and as trustee of Scuderi Realty Trust, and Scuderi Realty Trust

Allegation: Negligence causing injury: $720.05

Filed: 5/31/17

HAMPSHIRE DISTRICT COURT

Roberta Joy Bergins v. City of Northampton

Allegation: Slip and fall causing injury

Filed: 4/13/17

John Southergill v. Sovereign Builders Inc. and Todd Cellura

Allegation: Non-payment of wages, non-payment of overtime wages, and retailiation for engagingin protected activity under the Wage Act: $25,000

Filed: 4/19/17

Nyrva Germain v. Stop & Shop Supermarket Co., LLC and Edens Limited Partnership

Allegation: Slip and fall causing injury: $5,711.23

Filed: 4/27/17

HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT

Susan Foster, individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated v. Four County West Inc. d/b/a Griswold Home Care and Kirby Detmers

Allegation: Money owed for services, labor, and materials: $25,000+

Filed: 6/19/17

HD Supply Waterworks, Ltd. v. GML Construction Inc. and Berkshire Hills Music Academy Inc.

Allegation: Money owed for materials supplied: $11,137.38

Filed: 6/21/17

HOLYOKE DISTRICT COURT

Noella Santos v. the Stop & Shop Co.

Allegation: Slip and fall causing injury: $14,731.20

Filed: 5/11/17

Lisa Stone v. T.J. Maxx Inc.

Allegation: Slip and fall causing injury: $13,324

Filed: 6/14/17

PALMER DISTRICT COURT

D & S Linen d/b/a Aladco Linen Services v. Wilbraham, LLC d/b/a Wilbraham Motel

Allegation: Money owed for rental of garments and liquidated damages: $21,293.02

Filed: 6/6/17

WESTFIELD DISTRICT COURT

Connecticut Valley Artesian Well Co. Inc. v. Devine Construction Inc.

Allegation: Money owed for labor and materials: $7,749.79

Filed: 5/31/17

Barbara A. Plumadore v. Chase Quinn d/b/a Slipenhalo Tattoo

Allegation: Cellulitis surrounding tattoo: $24,999

Filed: 6/8/17

People on the Move

Departments People on the Move

Shannon Rudder

The Providence Ministries for the Needy Inc. (PMN) board of trustees named Shannon Rudder executive director of PMN’s multi-human-services agency. First appointed interim director in May, Rudder previously served as executive director for MotherWoman Inc. in Hadley for four years. Prior to that, she was associate director of Housing Opportunities Made Equal Inc. in Buffalo, N.Y. “Shannon’s leadership, contagious enthusiasm, solid business acumen, strong operational skills, team-building focus, and dedication to building strong community relationships will advance our mission into the bright future ahead,” said Jean Zaleski, board chair. Rudder is currently on Springfield Technical Community College’s Foundation board; Mama’s Voice, a community-based participatory research project with Holyoke Community College; the grant review committee for United Way of Pioneer Valley; and United Way’s Women’s Leadership Council, and is an instructor at Bay Path University and Cambridge College. In addition, she has served as a guest lecturer at Springfield College, Smith College, and UMass School of Regional Planning. BusinessWest included Rudder in its 40 Under Forty class of 2016. “We are thrilled to have Shannon as our new executive director,” said James Wall, chair of PMN’s personnel committee. “She brings a great breadth and depth of experience that will help take Providence Ministries to the next level.” PMN is a member of the Sisters of Providence Ministry Corp. and is a mission-driven, nonprofit organization serving the Holyoke community with programs to feed, clothe, and shelter the poor and marginalized. These include Kate’s Kitchen, foodWorks at Kate’s Kitchen, Broderick House, Loreto House, McCleary Manor, Margaret’s Pantry, and St. Jude’s Clothing Center.

•••••

Anthony Hayes

Following a nationwide search, Anthony Hayes has been selected as the new general manager for public broadcaster WGBY in Springfield. Hayes comes to WGBY with nearly two decades of executive experience in public TV and radio in Connecticut and Washington, D.C. He succeeds Rus Peotter, who retired last fall after leading the station for 15 years. “Anthony is a visionary leader, and his extensive background in strategic development and engaging with audiences will advance WGBY’s mission and vital role in the community and across the region,” said Liz Cheng, Television Stations manager for the WGBH Educational Foundation, which includes WGBY. Hayes will lead the station in its strategic planning, editorial operations, and community engagement, serving its public-media mission of advancing the educational and cultural life of Western New England. “As a highly accomplished media executive, Anthony’s management skills, experience, and style will be a great fit for WGBY. His industry knowledge and community focus will be of tremendous value in leading our public-media initiatives,” said Crist Myers, chair of the WGBY board of tribunes. Most recently, Hayes served as senior vice president for Engagement at Connecticut Public Broadcasting in Hartford, which includes CPTV and WNPR, where he guided fund-raising and sponsorship initiatives to develop new strategic opportunities and growth. Prior to that, he was at WAMU-FM, American University Radio, where he oversaw the sponsorship sales division and designed and implemented integrated fund-raising, communications, and outreach strategies, locally and nationally, that increased stakeholder engagement. Earlier in his career, he was with WETA, public TV and radio in Arlington, Va., where he managed corporate marketing and developed non-traditional revenue initiatives. “I couldn’t be more pleased to have this opportunity to magnify the impact of this exceptional organization,” said Hayes. “I will work collaboratively and strategically to build upon WGBY’s rich history and advance its core mission, focusing on building a stronger community through engagement, learning, and understanding. I believe WGBY is poised to expand its reach throughout Western New England, and I am eager to lead the charge.” Hayes holds a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the New York Institute of Technology, and a master’s degree in media entrepreneurship from American University. He will join WGBY on July 10.

•••••

Mike Hamel, owner of Summit View Banquet House and Hamel’s Creative Catering, has been named 2017 Business Person of the Year by the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce. Hamel’s Creative Catering was established in 1990, but the Hamel family business roots go back to 1963, when his family owned and operated Hamel’s Market in South Hadley and Edgar’s Market in the Churchill section of Holyoke. “Mike is an exemplary model of a home-grown success story. This is a great story of small business success,” said Kathleen Anderson, president of the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce. “It includes a family legacy, following a passion, having a dream, and overcoming obstacles to achieve something significant and lasting. We are very proud of Mike and his family, and congratulate them on this achievement.” The award has been presented annually to an outstanding business person who is community-oriented, is innovative, possesses a high degree of integrity, and for business accomplishments in Greater Holyoke’s business community. Marge Manton, treasurer and CFO of Loomis Communities and chairman of the chamber board of directors, also announced the selection of Harry Montalvo of bankESB to receive the Henry A. Fifield Award for Voluntary Service to the Chamber. The award is named for the late Henry A. Fifield, former Amped executive and civic leader who served in leadership positions with the chamber. Montalvo’s service includes the chamber ambassador committee, the board of trustees of the Chamber Centennial Foundation, and chamber liaison between the two chamber boards. Montalvo has also been a mentor to many of the Chamber Foundation’s SPARK Launch Class graduates. Both award winners will be honored at the Business Person of the Year and Fifield Volunteer Award Dinner on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. at the Delaney House. Information can be found online at holyokechamber.com or by calling the chamber office at (413) 534-3376. Everyone is invited to attend.

•••••

Sarah Jordan

James Kelly, president and CEO of Polish National Credit Union (PNCU), announced that Sarah Jordan has joined the credit union as a marketing specialist. Jordan’s responsibilities include internal and external communications, marketing and public-relations campaigns, community relations, and website management. She comes to PNCU from Westfield Bank/Chicopee Savings Bank, where she served as marketing coordinator. She is a graduate of the University of Hartford with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, and has held marketing and communication assignments with the Greater Chicopee Chamber of Commerce, where she is a member of the marketing committee; the Barney School of Business Leadership Council; and the National Society of Leadership and Success – Sigma Alpha Pi. She has also been an active volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, the Spaulding After School Program, and Loaves and Fishes. “We look forward to Sarah’s success in promoting Polish National Credit Union and its products and services to both current and future members,” said Kelly. “We are pleased to welcome her to our team.”

•••••

Grace LaValley

Grace LaValley, who earned her doctor of nursing practice (DNP) degree in the inaugural DNP class at Elms College, had a paper accepted to the American Assoc. of Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR) for a podium presentation at AACVPR’s 32nd annual meeting in October, where it is a candidate for the conference’s Beginner Investigator Award. The paper Lavalley will present at the AACVPR conference was her capstone project in the DNP program at Elms College. Each DNP student is required to complete a scholarly capstone project that contributes to the field of nursing. The project topics are related to the areas of nursing where they currently work or areas in which they have a particular interest. Lavalley’s project earned her the 2017 DNP Capstone Award from Elms College, which honors a DNP student who has developed a distinguished capstone project that demonstrates scholarly rigor, innovation, and outcomes that improve health or health-related outcomes for a specific population, and has the potential to advance nursing science, practice, or policy. The paper is titled “A Telephone Intervention to Improve Patient Return Rates in Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Pilot Study” and focuses on cardiac rehabilitation, or CR. “Cardiovascular disease accounts for 17.3 million deaths per year, a number projected to reach 23.6 million by 2030,” Lavalley said. CR improves patient outcomes and reduces risk in the earlier post-discharge period, but it remains highly underused, she added. Despite its benefits, many patients are at risk for not following the CR program, for a variety of reasons. She and her colleagues decided to investigate whether a telephone call focused on patient motivation, education, risks, and goal setting would improve return rates among patients identified as at risk for non-adherence to the CR program. “Telephone interventions are known to be an important tool to provide support and help overcome barriers after discharge,” she noted. They studied 100 patients in Baystate Medical Center’s outpatient CR program and found that those who received the telephone call were more likely to attend their second session of CR as scheduled, compared with patients who did not receive this intervention (80% versus 51%). The overall return rate was higher in the intervention group as well. “This straightforward strategy represents an attractive adjunct to current management of outpatient CR patients,” she said. Lavalley’s coauthors are Heidi Szalai, Dr. Quinn Pack, and Andrew Storer, associate professor of Nursing at Elms. Their paper will be published in the September/October 2017 issue of the AACVPR’s Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention. Storer was the capstone chair for Lavalley’s project; he supervised the project from the development stage through implementation and analysis. The project, he said, “has made a positive impact in the quality of care for the patients, institutions, and communities served.” Added Lavalley, “this project may be of great value to other cardiac rehab programs around the nation, particularly in this complex healthcare environment.”

•••••

Paulo Marques

LUSO Federal Credit Union announced that Paulo Marques, senior loan originator, ranked fourth among top loan originators by volume for credit unions in Western Mass., with loan volume of $23.4 million. He also ranked fourth for top loan originators by number of loans for credit unions in Western Mass., with 156 loans. These results were reported by the Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.

•••••

Deborah Jordan of Shamrock Financial in Wilbraham was named 2017 Affiliate of the Year by the Realtor Assoc. of Pioneer Valley (RAPV). The announcment was made during the association’s annual awards banquet held June 8 at the Log Cabin in Holyoke. As the highest honor given to an affiliate member, the award is bestowed upon the one person who has shown outstanding service and devotion to the organization during the past 17 months in the areas of affiliate-related association activity, community service, and business activity. A member of RAPV for five years, Jordan has served on the affiliate/Realtor, Education Fair & Expo, and community service committees. Her committee involvement includes the annual Benefit Golf Tournament, Playhouse Build for the Boys and Girls Clubs, and blanket and book drives to benefit Shriner’s Hospitals for Children – Springfield. Jordan’s additional community activities include serving as president-elect for the Ludlow Rotary Club, volunteering with Revitalize CDC, and serving on the Buy Springfield Now Committee to promote home ownership.

Incorporations

Departments Incorporations

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

BELCHERTOWN

Hodgen Landscape Company Inc., 40 Sargent St., Belchertown, MA 01007. James D. Hodgen, same. Landscaping services.

EASTHAMPTON

Hackworth School Of Performing Arts Inc., 396 Main St., Easthampton, MA 01027. Lisa A. Anthony, 126 Whiteloaf Road, Southampton, MA 01073. Dance and performing arts instruction.

GREENFIELD

Fop Greenfield Massachusetts Lodge #50 Inc, C/O Greenfield Police Department, 321 High, Greenfield, MA 01301. William R. Gordon, 559 Country Club Road, Greenfield, MA 01301. To inspire and develop camaraderie between police officers.

Greenfield Public Library Foundation, Ltd, 402 Main St., Greenfield, MA 01301. Ann R. George, 61 Madison Circle, Greenfield, MA 01301. Foundation to benefit the Greenfield Public Library, Inc.

Hairloft Salon Inc., 91 Main St., Suite 6, Greenfield, MA 01301. Peter Bartini, 1083 Dickinson St., Springfield, MA 01108. Hair salon.

HOLYOKE

Holyoke City Pizza Co., 420 High St., Holyoke, MA 01040. Necmi Kupuc, 70 Hill St., 3rd Floor, West Springfield, MA 01089. Pizza restaurant.

LUDLOW

Francis J. Feeney, D.M.D., M.D.S., P.C., 733 Chapin St., Suite 300, Ludlow, MA 01056. Francis J. Feeney, D.M.D., same. Orthodontics.

SOUTH DEERFIELD

Franklin County Massachusetts Rotary Foundation Inc., 54 Sawmill Plain Road, South Deerfield, MA 01373. Leah Phillips, 43 Green St., Shelburne Falls, MA 01370. Non-profit whose purpose is to promote charitable and educational purposes and to serve the public and assist in community and societal betterment.

SOUTH HADLEY

Family Pizza & Grinders Inc. 334 Newton St., South Hadley, MA 01075. Alfredo Falvo, 8 Mayflower Lane, East Longmeadow, MA 01028. Full-service pizza restaurant.

SOUTHWICK

House Of Prayer For All, 653 College Hwy, # 258, Southwick, MA 01077. Taiye A. Awe, same. Church.

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Gilroy Property Renewal Incorporated, 169 West Autumn Road, West Springfield, MA 01089. William V. Guiel, same. Property remodeling and rehabilitation.

Doing Business as Certificates

DBA Certificates Departments

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

AMHERST

Competitive Advantage
226 Strong St.
Alan Goldberg

K.S. Dunn Associates
664 Main St., Suite 60
Kathryn Dunn

Shoots to Roots Nursery
539 Market Hill Road
Elizabeth Riley

CHICOPEE

C.F.B. Cleaning Inc.
43 Dickinson St.
Flavia Borges

Gung Ho Powerwashing
41 Old Chicopee St.
James Zabik

The Hair Professionals
974 Chicopee St.
Carlos Fonsera

J.E. Capital Home Improvement
27 Glendale St.
Joel Almonte

Joseph A. Wagner, State Representative — District Office
333 Front St., 1R
Joseph F. Wagner

Purpose Built Motorcycles
63 Britton St., Chicopee
John Freeman Jr.

DEERFIELD

Baranowski Cleaners & Tailors
7 Elm St.
Jerzy Bielski, Theresa Bielski

BJ’s
2 Hobbie Road
Bette Sokoloski

Dresser Real Estate
110 South Mill River Road
Lori Baronas

Korpita Masonry
165 Pine Nook Road
Paul Korpita Jr.

Pioneer Valley Sales & Service Inc.
253 Greenfield Road
Michael Bedard

Richard’s Automotive
242 Greenfield Road
Richard Bottego

EASTHAMPTON

kttrending
46 Holyoke St.
Katherine Trouern-Trend

Taxland
31 Union St.
Tina Chandler

Three Posies
124 Cottage St., Apt. A
Bronwen Hodgkinson

The Valley Arts Newsletter
124 Cottage St., Apt. A
Bronwen Hodgkinson

EAST LONGMEADOW

Graziano Brothers Landscaping Inc.
280 Elm St.
Christopher Graziano

Mary M. Barton Bookkeeping Services
46 Powder Hill Road
Mary Barton

Styles by Shelley at Ciao Bella
128 Shaker Road
Shelley McCloskey

GREENFIELD

Auto Plus Auto Parts
63 French King Highway
TEH Auto Parts, LLC

Environmental Labs
5 Adams Road
Susanne Newman

Shaw’s Mart
239 Main St.
Mehwish Shahid, Naxmart LLC

Transitions
94 Main St.
Seana Pitts, Shannon Bassett

Turn Signal Media
16 Lincoln St.
Danae DiNicola

HADLEY

AT&T Mobility
359 Russell St.
New Cingular Wireless

Benjamin Co.
2 Bay Road, Suite 200
Paul Benjamin

Brain Analysis & Neurodevelopment Center
195 Russell St., B-13
Integrated Health Solutions, LLC

Concussion Center of Massachusetts
195 Russell St., B-13
Integrated Health Solutions, LLC

Hedgehog Farms
8 Grand Oak Farm Road
Lisa Seymour

Petsmart
367 Russell St.
Petsmart Inc.

Pioneer Valley Growers
112 East St.
Glenroy Buchanan

Pioneer Valley Pain Relief Therapies
245 Russell St.
Gabriella Booth

Riverside Fencing Club
162 Russell St.
Taro Yamishita

Wendy’s
376 Russell St.
Massachusetts Baked Potato, LLC

HOLYOKE

3M Consulting
8 Ross Road
Willie Spradley, Patricia Spradley

B & M Property Services
266 Whitney Ave.
Michael Oates

Mahboob Inc.
333 High St.
Yasser Hussain

Northeast Powersports
161 Main St.
Felix Santana Jr.

Paper City Art Kids
92 Race St.
Natasha Colon Ortiz

Spradley Deluxe Coffee
8 Ross Road
Willie Spradley, Patricia Spradley

LUDLOW

Ludlow Family Dental
77 Winsor St., Suite 102
Binca Warren

Remsport Manufacturing
566 Holyoke St.
Ronald Chaisson

RJM Carpentry
181 Chapin St.
Gary Decoteau

NORTHAMPTON

Burke Chevrolet Inc.
200 North King St.
Bryan Burke

Cochrane Dental Associates
264 Elm St., Suite 11
Rebecca Cochrane

Dragonfly Industries
785 Ryan Road
Rochelle Friedman

Hazard Health
45 Jackson St.
JoAnna Hazard

Pangaea Sushi
330 North King St.
Su Su Min Aung

Paradox Projects, Studio 347/5
221 Pine St.
Karen Dolmanisth

Talk More Wireless New England, LLC
134 King St.
James Ralph

Water or Bread Theatre
31½ Grant Ave.
Christopher Gonzalez

PALMER

Kopec’s Auto & Truck Service
1219 Thorndike St.
Christopher Kopec

Marciano/Holloway Painting
3067 High St.
Nicholas Marciano, Paul Holloway

Superior Door and Millwork
21 Wilbraham St., Bldg. 64
Wesley Dupuis

Tailgate Tavern
24 Homestead St.
Tim Burke, Joy Burke

SOUTHWICK

CH Designs
57 Powder Mil Road
Cynthia Houle

SPRINGFIELD

3 Brothers Seafood
405 Dickinson St.
Hong Nguyen

Adonis Construction
120 Draper St.
Joseph Montero Sr.

All About You Hair Salon
27 Archie St.
Shawna Edmonds

Auveri Repairs & Sales
700 Berkshire Ave.
Rafael Fontanez

The Beauty Studio
535 Main St.
Marsia Nogueira

Chelo’s Towing
9 Bowdoin St.
Jesus Moran

Controlled Chaos Real Estate
34 Prakwood St.
Matthew Bienia

Dominguez Landscape
79 Tavistock St.
Jodaryn Dominguez

Fort Pleasant Convenience
102 Fort Pleasant Ave.
Akif Ali Khan

GLS Properties
23 Colonial Ave.
Grayce-Lynda Sypteras

JJ Barber Shop
1614 Main St.
Yoanda Carpio

J.D. Home Improvement
107 Oregon St.
John Olszewski

Jackie’s Pressure Wash
87 Melville St.
Jackie Perez

Kaezem Law
26 Thames St.
Alexander Kaezem

Kevin’s Painting
10 Rollins St.
Kevin Dowe

Master’s HVAC
98 Massachusetts Ave.
Eric Van Allen

Microblading by Greta D’Amours
3455 Main St.
Greta D’Amours

NeiSeba Carpeting
107 Naismith St.
Neidy Cruz

On the Move
64 Lawton St.
Otis Collins

Solutions Car Sales
4 Langdon St.
Rivera Rincon Francis

Tay Do Beauty Salon
287 Belmont Ave.
Kathy Truong

UR Discount Tobacco & Lottery
1207 Parker St.
Fazal Rehman

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Bertera Chrysler Dodge Jeep
539 Riverdale St.
Michael Bertera

Best Painters
19 Hill St.
Daniel Santiago

Boondocks & Blossom
78 Smyrna St.
Michelle Boucher

Forward Change Experience
270 Sibley Ave.
Antonia Santiago

Fred Music Academy
70 New Bridge St.
Hector Fred

Fresh Air Pet Services
317 Circle Dr.
Catherine Scoles

Gold Chopstick II
12 Chestnut St.
Shuangying Liao

Jorge Santiago Trucking Services, LLC
270 Sibley Ave.
Jorge Santiago

Mamma Mia’s Pizzeria
60 Park St.
Maria Alfarone

WILBRAHAM

Accurate Termite & Pest Control Co. Inc.
8 Wilson St.
Kevin Cox, Nancy Cox

Cleaning Done Right
19 Bridge St.
Alexis Valinho Rauscher

L.S. Home Improvement
28 Brookmont Dr.
Louis Saso

Suzanne Andre Salon — Charlene Freeman
2341 Boston Road
Charlene Freeman

Wilbraham Animal Hospital
2424 Boston Road
Amy Zander, Andrew Hersman

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies Departments

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

Aiken, Holly N.
225 Meadow St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/17

Andre, Lenna
137 Vienna Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/13/17

Beynor, Gail J.
1150 Thorndike St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/05/17

Bushay, Louis Robert Muise
87 Congress St.
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/07/17

Chesky, Phillip A.
12 West Parkview Dr.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/03/17

Coppa, Robert Lee
P.O. Box 1981
Westfield, MA 01086
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/17

Crump, Lorraine
184 Thompson St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/13/17

Cuellar, Theresa Lynn
76 Riverboat Village Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/17

Curto, Anthony T.
293 Suffield St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/17

Degonzaque, Rose
34 Reed St. – Apt 1
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/12/17

Franta, Dennis T.
PO Box 3
Turners Falls, MA 01376
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/17

Gagnon, George D.
194 Walnut St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/05/17

Gent, Rebecca Lynn
17 Falcon Circle
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/06/17

Gloss De Velazquez, Ydelsa E.
133 Springfield St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/01/17

Grillo, Lydia
a/k/a Chin, Lydia
4 Moss Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/08/17

Hight, Anna Louise
98 Maple St., #2
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/02/17

Hillenbrand, Meggan Anne
150 Fountain St.
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/15/17

Hurley, Ann
130 Connecticut Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/13/17

Jackson, Cedric
58 Roosevelt Terrace
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/06/17

Jenny’s Cleaning Service
Cizek, Jennifer Lynne
95 Morton St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/15/17

Juliano-Nadolny, Joann
144 Hendom Dr.
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/12/17

Kellogg, Catherine J.
7 Walnut St.
Great Barrington, MA 01230
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/01/17

Langford, Martin
33 Norman Terrace
Feeding Hills, MA 01030
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/01/17

Lynn, Shauna
39 Main St.
Shelburne Falls, MA 01370
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/10/17

Mansfield, Sean E.
36 Hunt Seat Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/03/17

Martin, Joseph R.
PO Box 262
Westfield, MA 01086
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/05/17

Miller, Barbara Susan
174 Briar Way
Greenfield, MA 01301
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/08/17

Nowicki, Paul A.
105 North St.
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/01/17

O’Connor, Douglas T.
O’Connor, Amy R.
28 Chartier Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/17

Orcutt, Bonnie J.
1251 Saint James Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/02/17

Patterson, Ronald Arthur
91 Manor Court
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/17

Peters, Mark Francis
Peters, Barbara Jean
20 Hampton Ave., Apt 30
Northampton, MA 01060
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/08/17

Ricardi, Theresa Ann
61 Hawthorn St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/17

Rice, Linda M.
760 Granville Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/06/17

Rivera, Keila E.
227 Pine St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/12/17

Rossetti, Karen M.
330 Flynt St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/07/17

Roumeliotis, Nadine Noel
494 School St., Apt. 3
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/14/17

Roussell, Nancy A.
64 Prospect St.
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/05/17

Skiffington, William J.
40 Rosemont Ave.
Orange, MA 01364
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/09/17

Smith, Raymond H.
34 Meadowbrook Manor
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/05/17

Southwick-Hall, Nicholas G.
54 Pine St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/05/17

Szymanski, Charles A.
Szymanski, Catherine J.
PO Box 121
Pittsfield, MA 01202
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/01/17

Vanhorne, Guinevere A.
a/k/a Cerone, Lesia Yakeneane
21 Prospect St., Apt 101
Northampton, MA 01060
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/05/17

Vogel, Robert
Vogel, Betty
75 Morton St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 06/05/17

Weissman, Gordon R.
174 Abbott St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 06/05/17

Zdonick, Stanley Walter
Zdonick, Jill Elaine
122 Albermarle Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106-2604
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/17

Zdonick, Stanley Walter
Zdonick, Jill Elaine
122 Albermarle Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 05/31/17

Real Estate Transactions

Departments Real Estate

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

FRANKLIN COUNTY

ASHFIELD

69-B Pfersick Road
Ashfield, MA 01330
Amount: $261,000
Buyer: Luke Meyer
Seller: Elice D. Pieropan INT
Date: 06/05/17

846 West Road
Ashfield, MA 01330
Amount: $342,000
Buyer: Robert J. Barba
Seller: John Ratte
Date: 06/09/17

CHARLEMONT

56 Vincent Road
Charlemont, MA 01339
Amount: $158,000
Buyer: Robert W. Sullivan
Seller: Equity T Co.
Date: 06/01/17

COLRAIN

434 Main Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $298,000
Buyer: Laurie J. Francis
Seller: Noah Grunberg
Date: 06/08/17

DEERFIELD

14 Conway St.
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $386,900
Buyer: Budlia LLC
Seller: Malcolm J. Cichy
Date: 05/31/17

46 Old Main St.
Deerfield, MA 01342
Amount: $1,500,000
Buyer: Fenwick LLP
Seller: Andres Galperin
Date: 06/09/17

199 Stillwater Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Timothy F. Viles
Seller: William E. Lewis TR
Date: 06/08/17

ERVING

90 Mountain Road
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Jessica A. St.Amand
Seller: Kahn, Sandra, (Estate)
Date: 06/02/17

39 Swamp Road
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $299,000
Buyer: Jason A. Burnett
Seller: Carl G. Svendsen
Date: 06/01/17

GILL

8 Myrtle St.
Gill, MA 01354
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Mauria Sirum
Seller: James T. Deery
Date: 05/30/17

GREENFIELD

890 Bernardston Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Rhiannon M. Thackeray
Seller: Michael Swan
Date: 06/01/17

94 Columbus Ave.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $132,000
Buyer: Christopher Guyre
Seller: Richard T. Pelott
Date: 06/02/17

96 Country Club Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Michael B. Hassay
Seller: Stephen J. Simon
Date: 05/31/17

239 Green River Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $179,000
Buyer: Mark A. Maloni
Seller: Alexander R. Lattanzio
Date: 06/01/17

38-46 Greenfield St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $2,019,277
Buyer: Store Master Funding 9
Seller: Store Master Funding 7
Date: 06/07/17

90 Highland Ave.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Daniel J. Bensen
Seller: Dean J. Fusto
Date: 05/31/17

8 Laurel St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $146,300
Buyer: Wilmington Savings
Seller: Michael W. Clarke
Date: 06/08/17

25 Madison Circle
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Annie Clarke
Seller: Amy S. Clarke
Date: 06/02/17

HEATH

101 Route 8A
Heath, MA 01346
Amount: $217,000
Buyer: Maria B. Topitzer
Seller: Janice M. Boudreau
Date: 05/31/17

17 West Main St.
Heath, MA 01346
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Richard Udale
Seller: Lisa D. Rose-Andrews
Date: 05/31/17

LEVERETT

83 Long Plain Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Richard Kassirer
Seller: Shirley J. Nopper
Date: 06/01/17

LEYDEN

376 East Hill Road
Leyden, MA 01337
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Miles P. McCloy
Seller: Mark J. Natale
Date: 06/09/17

MONTAGUE

132 L St.
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $699,665
Buyer: Pioneer Valley Redevelopment LLC
Seller: Obear Construction Co Inc.
Date: 06/01/17

6 Taylor Heights
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $313,100
Buyer: Robert I. Shulman
Seller: Philip A. Dumas
Date: 06/05/17

46 Randall Wood Dr.
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Zaharia Nichita
Seller: Tina L. Palso
Date: 06/02/17

NEW SALEM

10 Jenne Horr Road
New Salem, MA 01355
Amount: $132,000
Buyer: Marcia L. Gary
Seller: Pamela Bailey
Date: 05/31/17

NORTHFIELD

79 Caldwell Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $125,968
Buyer: Deutsche Bank
Seller: Silvia Terounzo
Date: 05/30/17

46 Maple St.
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Richard M. St.Clair
Seller: Peter W. Pullen
Date: 06/09/17

148 Wanamaker Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $147,000
Buyer: Tyler L. Leroux
Seller: Linda M. Smith
Date: 06/07/17

ORANGE

399 East River St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $162,880
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Shaun J. Crawford
Date: 05/30/17

188 Holtshire Road
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $243,000
Buyer: Paul D. Gervais
Seller: Raymond C. Harris
Date: 06/02/17

10 Old South Road
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $179,900
Buyer: Joshua J. Joseph
Seller: Resilient Investments LLC
Date: 06/02/17

313 South Main St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Michael J. Sabourin
Seller: John Griffiths
Date: 06/09/17

11 Shingle Brook Road
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: David R. Ciaschini
Seller: O’Donnell, Arline M., (Estate)
Date: 06/08/17

302 Wheeler Ave.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $249,900
Buyer: Kurt Berry
Seller: Brian J. Fournier
Date: 06/09/17

ROWE

32 Shippee Road
Rowe, MA 01367
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: John Rose-Fish
Seller: Jeffrey E. Parent
Date: 05/31/17

SHUTESBURY

74 Pelham Hill Road #O
Shutesbury, MA 01072
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Keren A. Rhodes
Seller: Gregory Briggs
Date: 06/02/17

712 Pratt Corner Road
Shutesbury, MA 01072
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Sharon Weizenbaum
Seller: Michael Lavine
Date: 06/06/17

Pratt Corner Road
Shutesbury, MA 01072
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Sharon Weizenbaum
Seller: John Rowan-Stern
Date: 06/06/17

SUNDERLAND

Russell St.
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Monterey Rose LLC
Seller: Franklin Land Trust Inc.
Date: 06/07/17

WARWICK

12 Chase Hill Road
Warwick, MA 01378
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Brent W. Alderman-Sterste
Seller: Agnes H. Piscopo FT
Date: 06/07/17

WHATELY

345 Haydenville Road
Whately, MA 01093
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Stephen S. Kloc
Seller: Joanne O’Shea
Date: 06/06/17

148 North St.
Whately, MA 01093
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Desharone RET
Seller: John E. Dubois
Date: 05/31/17

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

29 Central St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $199,900
Buyer: Nicolas Vassel
Seller: Noah J. Foint
Date: 06/01/17

250 Colemore St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $217,000
Buyer: Kimberly A. Poulin
Seller: Lucille B. Forgues
Date: 06/09/17

46 Cooper St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Jason A. Kirk
Seller: Maryellen F. Chiariello
Date: 06/09/17

300 Cooper St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $217,500
Buyer: William D. Fairlie
Seller: Elizabeth A. Smith
Date: 05/31/17

70 Forest Hill Road
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Keith Q. Sullivan
Seller: Gary J. Lambert
Date: 05/31/17

44 Greenock St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Alexandr I. Zgerya
Seller: Norman W. Colburn
Date: 06/05/17

33 Halladay Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $248,000
Buyer: Ivan Chebanov
Seller: Frank Grimaldi
Date: 06/09/17

24 Main St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Route 75 Main Street AGA
Seller: Kozah, Hanna, (Estate)
Date: 06/08/17

73 North St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $146,000
Buyer: Vladimir Melnichuk
Seller: Raymond E. Pellerin
Date: 06/06/17

52 Ridgeview Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $306,000
Buyer: Andrea R. Stevenson
Seller: Peter J. Polito
Date: 06/09/17

143 River Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Timothy Murphy
Seller: Patriot Living LLC
Date: 06/09/17

232 Rowley St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Raymond L. Germano
Date: 06/07/17

489 Shoemaker Lane
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Christopher B. Souza
Seller: Lisa Clark
Date: 06/01/17

420 Springfield St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $159,900
Buyer: Edna Olowo
Seller: Falcor Homes Inc.
Date: 06/09/17

68 Willow Brook Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $329,500
Buyer: Tanner Bathel
Seller: Marlene A. Christy
Date: 05/30/17

BLANDFORD

170 Otis Stage Road
Blandford, MA 01008
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Deborah G. McPhee
Seller: Raymond J. Thibault
Date: 05/31/17

CHICOPEE

107 Beauchamp Terrace
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $174,500
Buyer: Michael Finch
Seller: Jason M. Dufresne
Date: 05/31/17

223 Broadway St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $192,000
Buyer: Andrew S. Lawton
Seller: Coakley Corp.
Date: 05/31/17

521 Broadway St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $244,000
Buyer: Andrew M. Gatzounas
Seller: R2R LLC
Date: 06/09/17

12 Daniel Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $205,250
Buyer: Andrew J. Moore
Seller: Mark J. Hammon
Date: 06/09/17

1036 Granby Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Vladimiro Marques
Seller: Lance C. Dolgas
Date: 06/07/17

100 Haven Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Jose T. Aponte
Seller: David C. White
Date: 05/31/17

177 Holyoke Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Christine Humel
Seller: Shawn G. Kelley
Date: 06/02/17

93 Kirby St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Corey Tomlinson
Seller: Alexander M. Los
Date: 06/09/17

105 Lachine St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Krystyna M. Gazda
Seller: Corey R. Tomlinson
Date: 06/09/17

135 Paderewski Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Axel D. Berrios
Seller: Bayview Loan Servicing
Date: 06/08/17

808 Pendleton Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Marissa J. Rogers
Seller: Mark Rogers
Date: 05/30/17

31 Roy St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $189,500
Buyer: John M. Clark
Seller: Mary E. Paradysz
Date: 06/09/17

73 Saint James Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $129,000
Buyer: Maribel Rosario
Seller: Furman, Rose Helen, (Estate)
Date: 06/09/17

24 Saint Anthony St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $227,900
Buyer: Lindsy M. Canuel
Seller: Warren C. Marriott
Date: 05/31/17

14 Sitnik Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $177,000
Buyer: Mariano Rodriguez
Seller: Nunesbertha, (Estate)
Date: 06/02/17

64 Terimar St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Mark C. White
Seller: Judy Dumont
Date: 06/02/17

59 Wayfield Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Diane M. Bessette
Date: 06/07/17

EAST LONGMEADOW

12 Brook St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: James H. Dunnigan
Seller: Richard T. Brown
Date: 05/31/17

250 Chestnut St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Aubrey Neil
Seller: Winston E. Moore
Date: 06/09/17

443 Dwight Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01108
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Brendan J. O’Leary
Seller: Linda A. O’Leary
Date: 06/01/17

154 Elm St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Jack M. Casey
Seller: Zuccala, Rose M., (Estate)
Date: 06/09/17

78 Fernwood Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: David W. Suchcicki
Seller: Olive B. Thompson
Date: 06/05/17

40 Harkness Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Harkness Avenue LLC
Seller: Pham-Nguyen LLC
Date: 06/05/17

213 Mountainview Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $268,900
Buyer: William J. Driscoll
Seller: Derrick D. Driscoll
Date: 06/01/17

164 Parker St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Darryl Taylor
Seller: Lawrence J. Levine
Date: 06/02/17

14 Pine St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Michael P. McManus
Seller: Denise M. Boutin
Date: 06/01/17

592 Prospect St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $423,000
Buyer: Lazaros Yiannos
Seller: Monica M. Bleasius
Date: 06/05/17

357 Somers Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: Brian M. Carey
Seller: Sandra P. Lobik
Date: 06/02/17

58 Speight Arden
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $217,900
Buyer: Douglas E. Girouard
Seller: Gallagher Agency LLC
Date: 06/02/17

6 Townview Circle
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Yi Q. Zhu
Seller: Stephen F. Buzzelle
Date: 06/09/17

HAMPDEN

27 Bennett Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $178,200
Buyer: Michael J. Marion
Seller: Doris D. Kuzminski
Date: 06/06/17

86 Thresher Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Michele L. Strum
Seller: Gregory J. Clewes
Date: 06/05/17

HOLLAND

117 Butterworth Ext.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Alexey Lyashenko
Seller: George Markopoulos
Date: 05/31/17

83 May Brook Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: Paul J. Novinsky
Seller: Tamera A. Reinhart
Date: 05/31/17

30 Pine Tree Dr.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Amanda Rutherford
Seller: Joseph D. Peters
Date: 05/31/17

26 Shore Dr.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Salvatore Carrillo
Seller: Richard W. Schif
Date: 06/09/17

HOLYOKE

78 Bemis Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $278,000
Buyer: Idoia Martinez-DelMozo
Seller: Clifford W. Kelly
Date: 06/08/17

23 Brenan St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Laura E. Carmody
Seller: Michael D. Griffin
Date: 06/08/17

18 Claren Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $299,500
Buyer: Alexandr Brooke-Peterson
Seller: Alison S. Mcalear
Date: 06/08/17

530 County Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $305,000
Buyer: Michael D. Griffin
Seller: Troy M. Copeland
Date: 06/08/17

4 Deer Run
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $451,000
Buyer: Christopher P. Roy
Seller: Darlene M. Kubas
Date: 05/31/17

322 Elm St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Lydia E. Vazquez
Seller: Virgen M. Irizarry
Date: 06/01/17

19 Greenwood Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Sara Jones
Seller: Flippin Good Home Buyers
Date: 06/02/17

2 Hawthorne Lane
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $275,400
Buyer: Don H. Oyer
Seller: Frank J. Stearns
Date: 05/30/17

152 Homestead Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $176,000
Buyer: Sarah E. Forfa
Seller: Robert A. Hoeppner
Date: 05/31/17

7 Longfellow Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $384,000
Buyer: Timothy Noonan
Seller: Stanley R. Zakrocki
Date: 06/02/17

116 Morgan St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Frank T. Bayliss
Seller: Margaret M. Kelly
Date: 06/06/17

135 Mountain View Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $395,000
Buyer: Debra A. Turgeon
Seller: Rolf Gasser
Date: 05/31/17

18 Myrtle Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $158,500
Buyer: Matthew Godin
Seller: Catherine M. Livingston
Date: 06/09/17

1145-1147 Northampton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $407,500
Buyer: Aviva J. Galaski
Seller: Mary R. O’Connell
Date: 06/09/17

23 Vermont St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: Caitlin Clarke
Seller: Alyssa F. Carrus
Date: 06/09/17

454 Westfield Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $166,000
Buyer: Kara L. Canata
Seller: Rosalind Morales
Date: 05/31/17

45 Yale St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Karen A. McCarthy
Seller: Bank Of America
Date: 05/30/17

LONGMEADOW

9 Althea Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Ivonne I. Rivera
Seller: Agustin Rivera-Cruz
Date: 06/01/17

120 Ashford Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $1,037,500
Buyer: Dennis S. Oh
Seller: Lynn M. Papale
Date: 05/30/17

152 Burbank Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Joseph M. Lataille
Seller: Stephens, Carlene D., (Estate)
Date: 05/31/17

292 Captain Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: William T. McCarry
Seller: Robert G. Derby
Date: 05/30/17

201 Converse St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Jeffrey M. Barry
Seller: Catherine C. Lafountain
Date: 06/08/17

100 Dover Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Jeffrey A. Lomma
Seller: John J. Deluca
Date: 05/31/17

38 Fernleaf Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Zachary L. Schepart
Seller: Lauren L. Lafond
Date: 06/09/17

26 Homestead Blvd.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Patriot Living LLC
Seller: Robbie Cox
Date: 06/01/17

25 Lincoln Park
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Cedar Investment Group
Seller: FNMA
Date: 06/02/17

223 Redfern Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $284,900
Buyer: Raju K. Panta
Seller: Fulvia DeMaio
Date: 06/09/17

19 Quinnehtuk Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $460,000
Buyer: Amrita Roy
Seller: Noah E. Rosen
Date: 06/01/17

54 Stirling St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $292,000
Buyer: Erik M. Wheelock
Seller: Courtney A. Langieri
Date: 05/30/17

57 Warwick St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $284,000
Buyer: Corey G. Condardo
Seller: Dorothy C. Basdekis TR
Date: 06/09/17

32 Wendover Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $475,000
Buyer: Stephen M. Langieri
Seller: Timm T. Tobin
Date: 06/09/17

121 Willow Brook Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $610,000
Buyer: Nico W. Vehse
Seller: Thomas J. Doney
Date: 06/01/17

LUDLOW

24 Charles St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $254,900
Buyer: Jared D. Fluet
Seller: John C. Hicks
Date: 06/09/17

Cislak Dr. #4
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: James J. Baillie
Seller: Baystate Developers Inc.
Date: 05/31/17

Daisy Lane
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $127,500
Buyer: Daviau Construction LLC
Seller: Manganaro Home Builders
Date: 06/07/17

361 Miller St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $267,500
Buyer: Edivania M. Dasilva
Seller: Theodore V. Bernier
Date: 06/01/17

36 Overlook Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $217,500
Buyer: Zachary D. Smola
Seller: Diogo M. Ribeiro
Date: 05/31/17

43 Russell St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $159,900
Buyer: Miguel A. Cordero
Seller: PNC Bank
Date: 05/30/17

12 Sunset Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Quinn M. Hogan
Seller: Richard G. Belisle
Date: 05/31/17

69 West St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $155,900
Buyer: Baron Coates
Seller: Joseph A. Clemente
Date: 05/31/17

MONSON

19 Betty Jean Dr.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Edward Meissner
Seller: Gary A. McCauley
Date: 06/01/17

12 Brimfield Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: Adam R. Kane
Seller: Sarah L. Becker
Date: 06/02/17

10 Sand Hill Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $399,900
Buyer: Lynn A. Chase
Seller: Paul Woloshchuk
Date: 06/02/17

118 Wales Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $248,200
Buyer: Karen Ladd
Seller: Michele L. Strum
Date: 06/05/17

MONTGOMERY

4 Jourdan Road
Montgomery, MA 01085
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Henry F. Crochier
Seller: Erik M. Wheelock
Date: 05/30/17

PALMER

28 Arnold St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $191,900
Buyer: Frank Caruso
Seller: David E. Fisher
Date: 05/31/17

1428-1434 Main St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $495,000
Buyer: Ke Q. Chen
Seller: Garabedian Properties LLC
Date: 06/01/17

55 Olney Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $178,994
Buyer: MA Home Buyers LLC
Seller: Wells Fargo Bank
Date: 06/01/17

215 Ware St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Kelly A. Doyle
Seller: Richard Dunderdale
Date: 06/01/17

RUSSELL

417 Huntington Road
Russell, MA 01071
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Heart & Home Realty LLC
Seller: Debra Kreider
Date: 06/08/17

SOUTHWICK

32 Bungalow St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $159,900
Buyer: Sharon Dellagiustina
Seller: Stephen P. Royer
Date: 06/06/17

151 Granville Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $133,341
Buyer: Brian Banta
Seller: USA VA
Date: 05/30/17

238 Sheep Pasture Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $258,000
Buyer: Louis M. Derise
Seller: Paul A. Laquerre
Date: 06/05/17

24 Woodland Ridge
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $349,900
Buyer: Bradley W. Langston
Seller: Erin T. Terpos
Date: 05/31/17

SPRINGFIELD

31 Aberdeen Road
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $119,000
Buyer: Isac A. Medina
Seller: Robert Baranoski
Date: 06/09/17

1187 Allen St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $141,996
Buyer: FHLM
Seller: Reha Bostancioglu
Date: 05/31/17

1349 Allen St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Chunri Zhao
Seller: W. Paul Lemieux
Date: 06/02/17

33 Amos Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Song D. Au
Seller: Carl H. Quist
Date: 05/30/17

33 Arden St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $132,900
Buyer: Kisra F. Campbell
Seller: Justin J. Orwat
Date: 06/09/17

51 Avon Place
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $118,000
Buyer: Javier Vargas
Seller: Adam P. Brunet
Date: 05/31/17

515 Bay St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $147,500
Buyer: Jamie Snell
Seller: Felix Cruz
Date: 06/01/17

23 Beaumont Terrace
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $154,000
Buyer: Samuel Taveras-Guzman
Seller: Leon Hutt
Date: 06/09/17

57 Brewster St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: William A. Womeldorf
Seller: Marilyn J. Mathieson
Date: 06/05/17

73 Brickett St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $137,000
Buyer: Yeliann I. Ayala
Seller: Luis A. Gonzalez
Date: 05/31/17

67 Brunswick St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $169,900
Buyer: Edmel Irizarry-Santiago
Seller: Nasser Zebian
Date: 06/09/17

70 Brunswick St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $143,000
Buyer: Joshua T. McLain
Seller: Christopher J. Roberts
Date: 06/01/17

40 Burnside Terrace
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $234,000
Buyer: Henry Arias
Seller: Vadnais Builders Springfield
Date: 06/06/17

1668 Carew St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $123,000
Buyer: Ramona Cintron
Seller: Kimberly Brodeur
Date: 06/09/17

61 Clantoy St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Ricardo Nieves
Seller: London Realty LLC
Date: 05/31/17

213 Cooper St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $164,900
Buyer: Susan P. Lawson RET
Seller: Lindsay A. Linnehan
Date: 06/02/17

34 Crystal Brook Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $224,000
Buyer: Kristina E. Tenggren
Seller: Lisa Santaniello
Date: 06/02/17

129 Dartmouth Terrace
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $299,000
Buyer: Barry D. Merrill-Baker
Seller: Shirley L. VanKainen
Date: 06/02/17

84 Derryfield Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Adhip Darji
Seller: David Suchcicki
Date: 06/05/17

15-17 Dorne St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Norberto A. Reynoso
Seller: Timothy J. Luce
Date: 05/31/17

141 Druid Hill Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $187,250
Buyer: Daniel R. Gibson
Seller: Elizabeth Vanderscoff
Date: 05/30/17

143-145 Euclid Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $154,639
Buyer: J. Santiago-Hernandez
Seller: Homer J. Foucher
Date: 06/07/17

391 Gillette Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Matthew C. McRobbie
Seller: Robert Y. O’Sullivan
Date: 05/31/17

15 Gourley Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Garfield James
Seller: Joan A. Fontaine
Date: 06/05/17

70 Grenada Terrace
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $965,000
Buyer: Grenada LLC
Seller: Yellowbrick Property LLC
Date: 06/08/17

33 Groton St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $129,897
Buyer: Ricardo Cabrera
Seller: Scott M. Madore
Date: 06/09/17

185-187 Hampden St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Marco A. Amaya
Date: 06/08/17

276 Harkness Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Stacy M. Arsenault
Seller: FNMA
Date: 06/07/17

8 Harper St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Glen D. Martell
Seller: Nicolle A. West-Paley
Date: 06/09/17

70 Harrow Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Juan R. Rodriguez
Seller: FNMA
Date: 06/01/17

79 Hartwick St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $174,500
Buyer: David J. Torre
Seller: Marjorie C. Marcotte
Date: 06/01/17

33 Inglewood Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Marilia Silva
Seller: Joseph S. Malmborg
Date: 06/09/17

3 Intervale Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $178,000
Buyer: Jamison O. Atkins
Seller: Angelina Santiago
Date: 05/31/17

210 Jamaica St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $171,500
Buyer: Danielle M. Jakubasz
Seller: USA HUD
Date: 06/06/17

33-35 Jenness St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $124,000
Buyer: Seamus Warwick
Seller: Fu J. Chen
Date: 06/08/17

152 Lake Dr.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $117,500
Buyer: Meghan K. Lightbown
Seller: Kevin D. Pescetta
Date: 06/09/17

90 Leavitt St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Beatriz Santana-Rosario
Seller: Flora Tung
Date: 06/09/17

35 Long Terrace
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Noah D. Borders
Seller: Jane A. Colston
Date: 06/01/17

43 Maplewood Terrace
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Frank Grimaldi
Seller: Blue Mountain Homes Inc.
Date: 06/09/17

102 Marsden St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $149,200
Buyer: Staci A. Guerrero
Seller: Christian B. Wiernasz
Date: 06/07/17

18 Mayflower Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Dorothy V. McGovern
Date: 05/30/17

9 Meadowbrook Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $228,000
Buyer: Rey Ocampo
Seller: Christopher J. Noyes
Date: 05/31/17

23 Merrimac Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Julio C. Goncalves
Date: 05/31/17

80 Merrimac Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Patricia Merced
Seller: Sophia C. King
Date: 06/06/17

427 Orange St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Rasmas Properties LLC
Seller: Cinzias Property LLC
Date: 06/02/17

40 Peekskill Ave.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $214,000
Buyer: Susan E. Dise
Seller: Norman A. Drapeau
Date: 06/08/17

45 Peekskill Ave.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $125,375
Buyer: MHFA
Seller: Michael J. Thonus
Date: 06/01/17

114 Pennsylvania Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $207,000
Buyer: Tammy J. Burm
Seller: Kathleen F. Potter
Date: 05/30/17

151 Pine Acre Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $139,900
Buyer: Robert W. Cyr
Seller: Geoffrey, Raymond J., (Estate)
Date: 06/02/17

77 Prospect St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Katherine A. Lopez
Seller: Pablo Diaz
Date: 05/30/17

157 Prouty St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Tomasa I. Martinez
Seller: Brian J. Garrity
Date: 05/31/17

178 Redlands St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $127,500
Buyer: Yenitza Harrison
Seller: Louis R. Bortolussi
Date: 06/09/17

70 Sherman St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $138,000
Buyer: Orange Park Management
Seller: Orange Park Management
Date: 05/30/17

25 Sierra Vista Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $146,900
Buyer: Robin Bixby
Seller: Matthew R. Papia
Date: 06/08/17

Signal Hill Circle #1
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Grahams Construction Inc.
Seller: Michael Carabetta
Date: 05/30/17

81 Slater Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $130,400
Buyer: Abimael Santana
Seller: Charles H. Richard
Date: 05/30/17

55 South Tallyho Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $233,000
Buyer: Adam Robbins
Seller: Dennis Volz-Benoit
Date: 06/06/17

61 Spencer St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $159,000
Buyer: Vita C. Filippone
Seller: April C. Pollock
Date: 06/02/17

99 Sunridge Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Tara N. Adhikari
Seller: Adam E. Connors
Date: 05/31/17

37 Suzanne St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Hipolito Resto
Seller: German Garcia
Date: 06/01/17

59 Terrace Lane
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $142,000
Buyer: Shavone L. Gauthier
Seller: Simone M. Roy
Date: 06/09/17

176 West Allen Ridge Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $176,000
Buyer: Lucas J. Nickerson
Seller: Jennifer L. Janisieski
Date: 06/02/17

53-55 Wilmont St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Delilah Singleton
Seller: Adeleke Thomas
Date: 06/02/17

38-40 Windsor St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $132,000
Buyer: Candida Santos
Seller: Derrick J. Hatwood
Date: 06/05/17

1396 Worcester St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $118,750
Buyer: Shawn A. Jacobs
Seller: Kevin S. McNamara
Date: 06/02/17

29 Wrentham Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $139,000
Buyer: Hilda Saloritos
Seller: Joseph Queiroga
Date: 06/09/17

35 Wrenwood St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Debra A. Searles
Seller: Michael Alexik
Date: 06/08/17

WEST SPRINGFIELD

13 2nd St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: William Gonzalez
Seller: Frederick D. Richter
Date: 05/31/17

639 Birnie Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $259,900
Buyer: Samuel Rodriguez
Seller: Graham, Thomas J., (Estate)
Date: 06/09/17

124 Boulevard Place
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $117,000
Buyer: Robert J. McNamara
Seller: Thomas J. McNamara
Date: 05/31/17

128 Boulevard Place
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Tel Properties LLC
Seller: David C. Centracchio
Date: 06/01/17

28 Brookside Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $209,000
Buyer: W. Michael Picco
Seller: Bernard J. Amrich
Date: 05/30/17

267 City View Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Gary J. Lambert
Seller: Larry Sheridan
Date: 05/31/17

71 Galaska Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $368,900
Buyer: Justin D. Greenia
Seller: Jeanette M. Nemoda
Date: 06/01/17

37 Hillside Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Max La
Seller: Karl F. Schwarzkopf
Date: 06/05/17

41 Plymouth Terrace
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: V&A Realty LLC
Seller: Jeffrey R. Joseph
Date: 06/05/17

62 Overlook Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $174,401
Buyer: Caitlin R. Menard
Seller: Susan M. Brosnan
Date: 06/02/17

32 Worthen St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $188,000
Buyer: A&R Cerrato LLC
Seller: HSBC Bank
Date: 06/06/17

WESTFIELD

118 Bates Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Cory Bruno
Seller: Nicole M. Massai
Date: 05/31/17

57 Bristol St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $137,000
Buyer: Kevin J. Irujo
Seller: Henry M. Bisbee
Date: 06/05/17

39 Butternut Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Mark T. Pawlowski
Seller: Helen V. Pawlowski
Date: 05/31/17

14 Clark St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $127,920
Buyer: Pennymac Loan Services LLC
Seller: Linda L. Bonney
Date: 06/01/17

13 Cleveland Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Kayla R. Neveu
Seller: Erik D. Loiko
Date: 06/07/17

365 East Mountain Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $243,900
Buyer: Thomas Champine
Seller: William G. Mundell
Date: 06/09/17

1039 East Mountain Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $209,900
Buyer: Jose V. Contreras-Parra
Seller: Trisha L. Leary
Date: 06/01/17

117 Franklin St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Eric Adams
Seller: Kayla R. Neveu
Date: 06/06/17

9 Furrow St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Jessica L. Boistelle
Seller: Robin Sheldon
Date: 06/02/17

28 Heritage Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $324,000
Buyer: John Niedzielski
Seller: Aaron J. Florek
Date: 05/30/17

69 Hillcrest Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Norman W. Colburn
Seller: Michael S. Patten
Date: 06/02/17

35 Montgomery St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Justin P. Dekarz
Seller: USA HUD
Date: 06/05/17

25 Pearl St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $213,000
Buyer: Laurie Webster
Seller: Jimmy N. Cook
Date: 05/30/17

93 Sackett Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $161,000
Buyer: Yuriy A. Kripakov
Seller: Smith, Alma N., (Estate)
Date: 05/31/17

52 Union St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Robert G. Gordon
Seller: Wells Fargo Bank
Date: 06/01/17

WILBRAHAM

4 Blacksmith Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $269,900
Buyer: Shannon T. Caney
Seller: Adnan H. Jaafar
Date: 05/31/17

2523 Boston Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: JD2 Enterprises LLC
Seller: 2523 Boston Road Corp.
Date: 06/01/17

6 Brooklawn Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Andrew Michaels
Seller: Wells Fargo Bank
Date: 05/30/17

2 Conifer Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $319,000
Buyer: Timothy Martin
Seller: Joseph M. Lataille
Date: 05/31/17

9 Ely Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $167,000
Buyer: Della Ripa Real Estate
Seller: Kimberly J. Lewis
Date: 06/06/17

106 Faculty St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $353,000
Buyer: Guy E. Larkins
Seller: Kari E. Belcastro
Date: 06/07/17

5 Fernwood Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Randy P. Pascale
Seller: Patricia F. Ricci
Date: 05/31/17

6 Old Farm Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $446,357
Buyer: Peter Houser
Seller: Lisa R. Hagopian
Date: 06/02/17

13 Rochford Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $361,900
Buyer: Jeffrey K. O’Connor
Seller: Phyllis B. Brand
Date: 06/01/17

159 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $194,000
Buyer: Wendy Solomon
Seller: USA HUD
Date: 06/09/17

1183 Tinkham Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Patriot Living LLC
Seller: HSBC Bank
Date: 06/05/17

43 West Colonial Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Sheryl Pace-Webb
Seller: Susan S. Staples
Date: 05/31/17

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

67 Aubinwood Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Heather E. Sheldon
Seller: Joan M. Holmes 2016 TR
Date: 06/07/17

544 Bay Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $289,900
Buyer: Anna-Clare K. Lipsmeyer
Seller: Falguni A. Sheth
Date: 06/07/17

46 Chesterfield Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Dylan R. Tunnell
Seller: Carmen Z. Almandos
Date: 05/31/17

Concord Way #10
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Bercume Construction LLC
Seller: Tofino Associates LLC
Date: 06/01/17

84-86 East Leverett Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Jeffrey Stevenson-Dykes
Seller: Darryl E. Clark
Date: 06/02/17

171 Lincoln Ave.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Lincoln Avenue Partners
Seller: Hsu-Tung Ku
Date: 06/01/17

Lindenridge Road #25
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Bercume Construction LLC
Seller: Tofino Associates LLC
Date: 06/01/17

623-625 Main St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Lincoln Avenue Partners
Seller: Yih-Ming Hsiao
Date: 06/01/17

8 Moss Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Peter M. Hanley
Seller: Duncan J. Irschick
Date: 06/01/17

23 Sheerman Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $417,900
Buyer: Yubing Sun
Seller: David M. Ford
Date: 06/07/17

21 Woodlot Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $462,500
Buyer: Yucai Wang
Seller: Mallika Desu
Date: 06/01/17

36 Woodlot Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $515,000
Buyer: Philip J. Doherty
Seller: Conrad A. Marvin
Date: 05/31/17

BELCHERTOWN

180 Barton Ave.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $282,000
Buyer: Angela Leung
Seller: Dianne L. Chamberlain
Date: 05/31/17

281 Boardman St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $294,000
Buyer: Erika A. Medina
Seller: Dana R. Vigneault
Date: 06/09/17

14 Brandywine Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $287,000
Buyer: Jonathan P. Young
Seller: Kristopher E. Galenski
Date: 06/05/17

35 Dressel Ave.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $267,800
Buyer: Robert M. Sweet
Seller: Gary E. Arnhold
Date: 06/09/17

33 Maplecrest Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Nicole M. Carlson
Seller: Dennis H. Jurkowski
Date: 05/30/17

5 Old Farm Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Susan D. Loring
Seller: Joshua E. Laplante
Date: 06/02/17

179 Orchard St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Kunga Gyaltsen
Seller: Jeffrey R. Waskiewicz
Date: 06/01/17

270 South Liberty St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $148,600
Buyer: Daniel Martinez
Seller: Deutsche Bank
Date: 06/08/17

6 Trillium Way
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Cole D. Fitzpatrick
Seller: Mark G. Jackson
Date: 06/09/17

CHESTERFIELD

182 East St.
Chesterfield, MA 01012
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Shawn B. Robbins
Seller: UMassfive College FCU
Date: 05/31/17

EASTHAMPTON

26 Beyer Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $238,000
Buyer: Shoshanna D. Brady
Seller: Henry F. Crochier
Date: 05/30/17

24 Lawler Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $306,000
Buyer: Andrew J. Crystal
Seller: Mehdi N. Sattari
Date: 05/31/17

9 Lawler Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $248,000
Buyer: Christopher M. Schultz
Seller: Jeremy Jones
Date: 06/01/17

76 Loudville Road
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Tyler F. Lebeau
Seller: Christopher J. Denis
Date: 05/31/17

116 Lovefield St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $226,000
Buyer: Susan Parker-Burns
Seller: Isler, David C., (Estate)
Date: 06/05/17

26 Oliver St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Goshen Mortgage REO LLC
Seller: Vandy Som
Date: 06/01/17

9 River Valley Way
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $363,000
Buyer: Robert J. Hobbs
Seller: Carey Morgan
Date: 06/09/17

GOSHEN

69 Lake Dr.
Goshen, MA 01096
Amount: $430,000
Buyer: Christopher H. Perry
Seller: Tara Bennett-Goleman
Date: 06/06/17

GRANBY

6 Grandview Ave.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Jason Dufresne
Seller: Michael S. Hyer
Date: 05/31/17

24 School St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $309,000
Buyer: Alexander Los
Seller: John J. Grabowski
Date: 06/09/17

HADLEY

8 Highland Circle
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $246,000
Buyer: David P. Dilorenzo
Seller: Theresa B. Quartulli
Date: 06/09/17

424 Russell St.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $1,567,883
Buyer: National Retail Properties LP
Seller: Mecu Hadley LLC
Date: 05/31/17

HATFIELD

8 Circle Dr.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $426,000
Buyer: Elizabeth N. Clarke
Seller: Todd O’Brien-Dostal
Date: 06/07/17

3 Pine Edge Way
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $480,000
Buyer: Russell Pitre
Seller: Dorothy J. Yagodzinski
Date: 06/01/17

7 Prospect Court
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Eliza A. Lacroix
Seller: Russell P. Pitre
Date: 06/01/17

NORTHAMPTON

20 Charles St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $454,000
Buyer: Katherine A. Mason
Seller: Black Sheep Development
Date: 05/31/17

40 Crestview Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $239,900
Buyer: Robert W. Holley
Seller: Ryan J. Attwood
Date: 06/05/17

69 Drewsen Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Patricia A. Wilcox
Seller: Joseph R. Broden
Date: 05/31/17

27 Fox Farms Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Stephen E. Krause
Seller: James M. Burke
Date: 06/07/17

48 High St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Miles Q. Ott
Seller: Thomas P. Hartley
Date: 05/31/17

29 Landy Ave.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $276,000
Buyer: Celeste R. Palladino
Seller: Samuel L. Brody
Date: 06/09/17

50 Liberty St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Andrea J. Bertini
Seller: Richard Iacovelli
Date: 05/30/17

27 Norfolk Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $1,257,000
Buyer: Katryna Nields
Seller: Julia S. Rose
Date: 06/02/17

17 Northern Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $344,900
Buyer: Marissa Rose-Weiss
Seller: Michelle M. Goldshlag
Date: 06/01/17

15 Pioneer Knolls
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $269,500
Buyer: Donald R. Warburton LT
Seller: Norwich Properties LLC
Date: 06/06/17

27 Reservoir Road
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Adam P. Maroney
Seller: Maryann E. Rogers
Date: 05/31/17

39 Ridgewood Terrace
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $303,800
Buyer: Alison Novack
Seller: Daniel P. Guidera
Date: 05/31/17

906 Ryan Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $213,000
Buyer: Angela E. Perry
Seller: Thomas E. Dawson-Greene
Date: 06/05/17

42 Warner St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $312,000
Buyer: Jessica S. Bond
Seller: Terrence Erdt
Date: 06/07/17

892 Westhampton Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $221,000
Buyer: Jeremy Jones
Seller: Maeve E. Hughes TR
Date: 06/01/17

PELHAM

30 Boyden Road
Pelham, MA 01002
Amount: $266,000
Buyer: Christopher S. Sutherland
Seller: Fidan A. Kurtulus
Date: 06/01/17

31 Harkness Road
Pelham, MA 01002
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Joseph Cox
Seller: John Edwards
Date: 06/07/17

PLAINFIELD

287 West St.
Plainfield, MA 01070
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Levi G. Gershkowitz
Seller: Gordon E. Massman
Date: 05/30/17

SOUTH HADLEY

54 Amherst Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $159,750
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Brian R. Mannix
Date: 05/30/17

554 Amherst Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $132,499
Buyer: Ken Wood
Seller: US Bank
Date: 06/01/17

4 Benger Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: David A. Dean
Seller: Olvaldo A. Molina
Date: 05/31/17

11 Bunker Hill
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $232,000
Buyer: Bradley F. Podliska
Seller: Emily J. Cole
Date: 06/06/17

14 Camden St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $232,000
Buyer: Jonathan S. Mazur
Seller: Linda G. Lavigne
Date: 06/08/17

161 Granby Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $299,900
Buyer: Linda G. Lavigne
Seller: Home Improvement Assocs.
Date: 06/08/17

84 Hadley St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $159,000
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: James P. Pellerin
Date: 05/30/17

16 Lois Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $211,000
Buyer: Ryan L. Mackechnie
Seller: Mark J. Gubala
Date: 05/31/17

120 Lyman St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Pamela J. Linscott
Seller: John D. Kuc
Date: 06/09/17

135 Lyman St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Maureen F. Sweeney
Seller: Brendan Kavey
Date: 05/31/17

2073 Memorial Dr.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: Joel Martinez
Seller: Michael E. Regish
Date: 06/02/17

79 Pittroff Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $287,000
Buyer: Brandy A. Sullivan
Seller: Raymond Turgeon
Date: 05/31/17

9 Rivercrest Way
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $339,000
Buyer: Lisha Xu
Seller: Rivercrest Condominiums
Date: 06/09/17

34 Searle Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $183,000
Buyer: MTGLQ Investors LP
Seller: Jennifer Dexter
Date: 06/05/17

6 Spring Meadows
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $390,000
Buyer: Shorrie R. Hunter
Seller: John K. Sullivan
Date: 05/31/17

SOUTHAMPTON

13 Belanger Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: John C. Workman
Seller: Richard L. Talbot
Date: 06/02/17

4 Cheryl Lane
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $423,750
Buyer: Barbara A. Schmidt RET
Seller: Katherine E. Lipman
Date: 06/09/17

14 Gilbert Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Rebecca A. McKenzie
Seller: Pamela M. Dumais TR
Date: 06/09/17

13 Glendale Woods Dr.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Trisha L. Leary
Seller: Edward H. Moszynski
Date: 06/01/17

45 Pomeroy Meadow Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $371,900
Buyer: Thomas S. Livingston
Seller: Paul A. Talbot
Date: 06/05/17

42 Wolcott Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Frank N. Fournier
Seller: Mary Koch-Rodriguez
Date: 05/31/17

WARE

33 Eddy St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $118,500
Buyer: Joyce J. Lheureux
Seller: Toby A. Miller
Date: 05/31/17

150 Greenwich Plains Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Eric M. Volz-Benoit
Seller: Michaelen Murphy-Tapanes
Date: 06/06/17

42 Greenwich Plains Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Nancy Ackerman
Seller: Ann F. Podsiadlo
Date: 06/09/17

214 Old Belchertown Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Adam Cornelius
Seller: Kathleen P. Boucher
Date: 05/30/17

287 Osborne Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $142,500
Buyer: Patricia L. Tooker
Seller: Donna Young
Date: 06/02/17

97 West Main St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Michael S. Goss
Seller: Joel Pentlarge
Date: 06/07/17

WESTHAMPTON

299 Northwest Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: Christopher Sugrue
Seller: Anita M. Sever
Date: 06/06/17

WILLIAMSBURG

37 Village Hill Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $248,000
Buyer: Judith A. Salosky
Seller: Cathy A. Longinotti
Date: 05/31/17

WORTHINGTON

64 Harvey Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Amy Mottor
Seller: Andrew V. Iglesias
Date: 06/09/17

328 Ridge Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $306,000
Buyer: Christopher J. Chase
Seller: USA VA
Date: 06/02/17

110 Williamsburg Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $115,101
Buyer: Gabriel K. Shippee
Seller: FNMA
Date: 06/06/17

Building Permits

Building Permits Departments

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

AGAWAM

Behavioral Health Network Inc.
30 Southwick St.
$7,000 — Infill three openings, frame two new door locations, replace cabinets and counter, trim and drywall

Dragon Paradise, LLC
27 Main St.
$14,000 — Add one loading dock and one garage door

John Kudlic
491-505 Springfield St.
$21,000 — Install illuminated box sign

CHICOPEE

Amir Paracha
1057 Montgomery St.
$32,800 — Remodel interior, coolers, HVAC, handicap bathroom

Johnson Road Properties Inc.
20 Johnson Road
$12,000 — Extend retaining wall and finish with brick veneer, connect two classroom by removing partition wall

Johnson Road Properties Inc.
20 Johnson Road
$17,000 — Replace siding, paint decks, repair windows, repair pavement and concrete

Stag Chicopee, LLC
2189 Westover Road
$66,000 — Replace 26 skylight domes and fall-protection screens

DEERFIELD

Deerfield Academy
68 Greenfield Road
$484,800 — New wood-frame building

Steve Schecterle
53C South Main St.
$10,000 — Remove and replace doors and windows

EASTHAMPTON

7-Eleven Inc.
97 Union St.
$350,000 — Complete fuel line, underground storage tank, canopy, and dispenser replacement

1776 Brewing Co., LLC
30 Fort Hill Road
$242,00 — Construct addition to brewery for a tasting room/assembly use

Autumn Properties, LLC
184 Northampton St.
$400,000 — Construct new, mixed-use, two-story building

Eastworks, LLP
116 Pleasant St.
$142,000 — Interior build-out for Easthampton Media Center

Williston Northampton School
40-50 Park St.
$61,000 — Remove and replace gymnasium roof

EAST LONGMEADOW

L.E. Belcher Inc.
227 Shaker Road
$5,000 — Fire/smoke alarm

Reflections by Claudia
87 Shaker Road
$35,000 — Commercial alterations

GREENFIELD

Peter Bagley, Elaine Bagley
207 Silver St.
$29,400 — Roofing

GCC Foundation Inc.
270 Main St.
$9,896 — Modify walls and remove wall

Girls Club of Greenfield
35 Pierce St.
$32,900 — Roofing

Greenfield Church of Christ
341 Conway St.
$800 — Remove exterior door, close opening, and install siding

Jebco Realty Associates, LLC
289 Main St.
$30,500 — Renovate third floor for mercantile use, small kitchenette, and office space

Nouria Energy Group
63 Main St.
$19,875 — Roofing

HADLEY

T-Mobile
367 Russell St.
$62,320 — Remodel store, including new wall, paint, and flooring

W/S Hadley Properties II, LLC
353 Russell St.
$4,200 — Signs

LUDLOW

Baystate Blasting
36 Carmelinas Circle
$90,000 — Commercial alterations

Durolast Roofing
84 Westover St.
$16,800 — Commercial alterations

Head to Toe Day Spa
36 East St.
$900 — Illuminated sign

NORTHAMPTON

Bible Baptist Church
722 Florence Road
$350 — Remove and replace sheetrock and insulation

Coolidge Northampton, LLC
249 King St.
$5,600 — Install non-bearing load partition

Coolidge Northampton, LLC
249 King St.
$14,650 — Remove non-load-bearing walls and build non-load-bearing walls

Cumberland Farms
53 Main St.
$3,000 — Illuminated wall sign

King Street, LLC
242 King St.
$2,000 — Reface illuminated pole sign

King Street, LLC
242 King St.
$2,200 — Reface illuminated wall sign

Smith College
102 College Lane
$10,990 — Install interior doors, remove and patch existing door, install shelves, and paint

PALMER

BC Palmer Green, LLC
1 Beacon Dr.
$20,000 — Remove old salt shed and replace with new wood-frame structure

SPRINGFIELD

Baystate Health
3350 Main St.
$305,000 — Equipment replacement and room renovations

Chestnut Springfield Inc.
146 Chestnut St.
$7,500 — Remove partition walls, create new partition walls, new unisex bathroom

CRRC MA
655 Page Blvd.
$300,000 — Construct entrance to CRRC MA office building

Frank DiMarinis
339 State St.
$30,000 — Remove boiler building and interior finishes

Orionis, LLC
428 Belmont Ave.
$10,000 — Remove six antennas and install six antennas and hybrid cable to existing T-Mobile facility

Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield
153 Eddywood St.
$275,140 — Window and door replacement at St. Michael’s Academy

Springfield Redevelopment Authority
55 Frank B. Murray St.
$261,000 — New management office on mezzanine level of existing terminal building

Springfield Redevelopment Authority
55 Frank B. Murray St.
$97,000 — Renovate tenant space to create a Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant

Western New England University
1215 Wilbraham Road
$407,000 — Interior renovations to Blake Law Center

WARE

Kids Stop
70 Pleasant St.
$23,000 — Install demising wall to divide a room, rework door opening

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Bertera Family Realty
539 Riverdale St.
$11,000 — Install flagpole at Bertera Chrysler Jeep

Ralph Colby
140 Baldwin St.
$492,000 — Build addition to commercial structure

West Springfield Investment Group, LLC
242 Interstate Dr.
$320,000 — Build steel building for medical-marijuana dispensary

Eleven Years of Excellence

40 Under 40 The Class of 2017

Scenes from the Class of 2017 June Event

The Log Cabin in Holyoke was once again bursting with energy and excitement as more than 700 people packed the house to celebrate the 40 Under Forty class of 2017 — the 11th class of successful young professionals so honored by BusinessWest since the program’s inception in 2007.

Photos by Leah Martin Photography

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Presenting Sponsors

STCC Announces Instant Accept Days

SPRINGFIELD — Planning on applying to Springfield Technical Community College for the fall semester? The college will instantly accept prospective students who bring their official high-school transcripts, GED, or HiSET certification to the Admissions Office in Garvey Hall, Room 121. No appointment is necessary.

“We find many recent high-school graduates are still unsure of their fall plans. We see students looking to STCC as the smart and economical choice at this time of the year,” said Dean of Admissions Louisa Davis-Freeman. “Our Instant Accept initiative makes the first step in the college registration process easy so prospective students leave the office knowing they’ll be attending college in September.

“We have extended hours until 6 p.m. on Wednesdays, and in addition to recent high-school graduates, we welcome returning adult students looking to expand their skills or change careers,” she went on. “Our students range in age from 16 to 80, and our diversity is what makes us so vibrant and welcoming.”

The Admissions Office hours are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call (413) 755-3333 or visit www.stcc.edu.

South Hadley & Granby Chamber Rolls Out New Logo, Website

SOUTH HADLEY — The South Hadley & Granby Chamber of Commerce announced it now has a new logo representing both Granby and South Hadley, courtesy of graphic designer Paul J. Pereira, who won the chamber’s logo contest held in May and June, which invited the public to submit entries for consideration.

Pereira was presented with a $150 Village Commons gift certificate on June 28 at the chamber’s BBQ Bash at Brunelle’s Marina for current and potential new members. The Village Commons and Brunelle’s Marina are chamber members.

The chamber also publicly presented at the BBQ Bash its new website (www.shgchamber.com) developed by Thomas Moore of Tigerweb, which is designed to provide members and the public with timely and helpful information on chamber business members and community resources, to allow members to network and collaborate with each other, and to highlight social-media platforms for the chamber such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

“The chamber board and I are delighted with the website,” said Mariann Millard, executive director. “We feel it will represent Granby and South Hadley well and will significantly enhance our core mission, which is to help promote and grow the businesses of our members.”

E. Denis Walsh to Be Honored at Memorial Dedication Today

HOLYOKE — A memorial service for E. Denis Walsh, formerly president of Weld Management, is scheduled for today at 11 a.m. at Veterans Park in Holyoke. Walsh passed away on Dec. 26, 2016.

Walsh was instrumental in renovating Holyoke’s historic architecture into the grand condition of days past. His most notable projects included the Caledonian Building at 189 High St., the current home of the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce at 177 High St., and most recently the renovation of the neglected former Holyoke Catholic High School and the convent.

He graduated from Boston College with a degree in economics. After graduating from Boston College, he traveled to the Middle East, where he taught English at Baghdad College in Iraq. When he returned, he earned his MBA from Boston College and joined the Army Reserve. Later, he began his real-estate career and in 1976 founded his own real-estate-development company, Weld Management, where he worked with his son Lucas.

Walsh will be honored at a dedication ceremony for his vision and investment in improving downtown Holyoke. Mayor Alex Morse and Chamber of Commerce President Kathleen Anderson will preside. Also in attendance will be Mountain View Landscapes and Lawncare President Stephen Corrigan, who prepared the dedication parcel directly across from the Chestnut Park Apartments, as well as friends and family of Walsh.

The public is invited to attend. Anyone interested in attending the memorial service may contact the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce at [email protected] or (413) 534-3376.

Today Is the Last Day to Nominate a Healthcare Hero

SPRINGFIELD — This afternoon, July 10, at 5 p.m., nominations close for Healthcare Heroes, an exciting recognition program involving the Western Mass. healthcare sector, launched this spring by HCN and BusinessWest.

Sponsored by American International College, Bay Path University, Elms College, and Renew.Calm, with additional sponsorships available, the program was created to shed a bright light on the outstanding work being done across the broad spectrum of health and wellness services, and the institutions and individuals providing that care.

Individuals, groups, and institutions may be nominated in the following categories: Patient/Resident/Client Care Provider; Innovation in Health/Wellness; Community Health; Emerging Leader; Collaboration in Health/Wellness; Health/Wellness Administration/Administrator; and Lifetime Achievement. The nominations will be scored by a panel of judges to be announced in the coming weeks. The winners will be chosen later this month and profiled in the September issue of HCN.

Nomination guidelines are available at healthcarenews.com and businesswest.com/healthcare-heroes.

Employer Confidence Rises in June

By BusinessWest Staff July 7, 2017

BOSTON — Massachusetts employer confidence rose for the ninth time in 10 months during June amid optimism about an economy that is finally attracting more people into the workforce.

The Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Business Confidence Index rose one point to 61.8 last month, leaving it 5.7 points higher than a year ago. The Index has gained ground in each of the past two months after slipping in April.

The results come a month after state officials reported a long-awaited expansion of the Massachusetts labor market; the labor-force participation rate rose to 66.7% in May, its highest mark since before the Great Recession.

“Employer confidence in both the state and national economies remains well above the level we saw a year ago, especially among manufacturers,” said Raymond Torto, chair of AIM’s Board of Economic Advisors (BEA) and lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Design. “Key Massachusetts indicators such as total jobs, wages, and gross state product far exceed pre-recession levels, and that is outweighing concerns about long-term growth.”

The AIM Index, based on a survey of Massachusetts employers, has appeared monthly since July 1991. It is calculated on a 100-point scale, with 50 as neutral; a reading above 50 is positive, while below 50 is negative. The Index reached its historic high of 68.5 on two occasions in 1997-98, and its all-time low of 33.3 in February 2009. The index has remained above 50 since October 2013.

The constituent indicators that make up the overall Business Confidence Index were mostly positive during June. The Massachusetts Index, assessing business conditions within the Commonwealth, gained 2.1 points to 64.2, leaving it 5.7 points higher than in June 2016.

The U.S. Index of national business conditions rose 2.8 points to 57.4 despite lingering uncertainty about federal economic policy. June marked the 87th consecutive month in which employers have been more optimistic about the Massachusetts economy than the national economy.

The Current Index, which assesses overall business conditions at the time of the survey, rose 1.5 points to 61.9, while the Future Index, measuring expectations for six months out, increased 0.4 points to 61.7. The Future Index was 5.1 points higher than a year ago.

The Company Index, reflecting overall business conditions, was unchanged for the month at 62.4 and up 4.7 points during the 12-month period. The Employment Index fell 0.4 points to 58.1, while the Sales index rose 0.6 points to 62.6.

The AIM survey found that 39% of respondents reported adding staff during the past six months while 18% reduced employment. Expectations for the next six months are stable, with 38% expecting to hire and only 10% downsizing.

Alan Clayton-Matthews, a professor in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, said the supply of workers remains one of the most important factors in the ability of Massachusetts to maintain long-term economic growth.

“There is little slack left in the labor market,” he said. “Unemployment rates are back to pre-recession levels, and employment rates are very close to pre-recession levels. The slack that does remain is largely among young workers, those with less than a high-school education, and part-time workers who have been unable to find full-time work, suggesting that many workers lack the skills that employers are seeking.”

Overall participation in the labor force nationally has hovered below 63% during the recovery, compared with more than 66% before the recession.

Eastern Mass. companies were more confident in June than those in the western portion of the Commonwealth, posting a 61.8 confidence reading in June versus 60.8 for Western Mass. employers.

AIM President and CEO Richard Lord, also a BEA member, said employers are increasingly concerned about a passel of potentially expensive and disruptive Beacon Hill proposals, including a surtax on incomes more than $1 million, paid family leave, and an employer assessment to close a budget gap in the MassHealth program.

“Massachusetts employers have led what is now one of the longest and most consistent economic recoveries of the past 100 years. Much of that growth reflects the fact that policymakers have refrained from unnecessarily raising business costs and imposing inefficient regulation,” Lord said. “We look forward to working with the Legislature and the Baker administration to ensure that those policies continue.”

Real-estate Sales Licensing Course Starts Sept. 6

By BusinessWest Staff July 7, 2017