Day: September 5, 2019

Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Robinson Donovan, P.C. announced that Partner Jeffrey Trapani will receive the Massachusetts Bar Assoc. (MBA) Community Service Award. It will be presented during the Hampshire County Bar Assoc. (HCBA) annual meeting on Thursday, Sept. 26, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Garden House at Look Park in Florence. The guest speaker for the event will be state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa.

Trapani concentrates his practice in civil litigation, including insurance defense, employment law, municipal liability, business litigation, and professional malpractice. He also represents landlords in summary process action and housing-discrimination claims, and insurance companies in unfair-settlement claims and coverage issues. His practice requires him to appear before federal and state courts throughout Massachusetts, as well as various administrative agencies, including the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. In addition to trial work, he also represents clients in mediations and arbitrations.

Last year, Trapani was appointed a member of both the Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil and Appellate Procedure of the Supreme Judicial Court and the MBA’s Joint Bar Committee on Judicial Appointments as the representative for the HCBA. He is also a hearing officer for the Board of Bar Overseers and serves on the legislative steering committee for the Springfield Regional Chamber, for which he served as chair from 2016 to 2018.

“We congratulate Jeff on this tremendous honor,” said James Martin, partner at Robinson Donovan. “He is a passionate advocate for our clients and a role model in our profession. The MBA clearly recognizes his contributions to the field of law, as do all of us at Robinson Donovan.”

Trapani is a member of the federal, Massachusetts, Hampden County, and Hampshire County bar associations, as well as the Defense Research Institute and the Massachusetts Defense Lawyer Assoc.

For more information or to purchase tickets to the HCBA annual meeting, call (413) 586-8500 or e-mail [email protected].

OTELCO Welcomes David Chaplin to Granby Office

Daily News

GRANBY — OTELCO recently welcomed back David Chaplin as a senior ISP engineer in the company’s Granby office.

Chaplin has an associate degree in telecommunications from Springfield Technical Community College and a bachelor’s degree in church leadership from Southeastern University. He spent 31 years with Verizon as an OSP technician and staff management assistant, and has additional experience working as an engineering project manager for Verizon and as an electronics and communications specialist for ISO New England.

Kresge Foundation Awards $100,000 to Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts

Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — The Kresge Foundation awarded the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts a $100,000 grant to advance policy solutions aimed at improving climate resilience and equitably reducing health risks in low-income communities. The Springfield Climate Justice Initiative, a new project of the Live Well Springfield coalition convened by the Public Health Institute, is one of 15 community-based collaborations nationwide receiving grant funding as part of the planning phase of Kresge’s Climate Change, Health and Equity initiative.

The Springfield Climate Justice Initiative will focus on planning and implementing strategies identified in the 2017 “Strong, Healthy, & Just: Springfield Climate Action & Resilience Plan” for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions and improving climate resilience in Springfield. The planning will focus on developing front-line residents’ capacity to accelerate municipal action on the top greenhouse-gas emissions reduction strategies included in the Climate Action Plan.

With this funding, the collaborators who worked together to develop the city’s “Strong, Healthy & Just” plan — the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, Arise for Social Justice, and the city of Springfield — will work with partners from other sectors to develop multi-year work plans to address community-defined health and climate priorities. New partners in this Live Well Springfield initiative are Way Finders, Ener-G-Save, and the city of Springfield’s new sustainability coordinator. Specific activities will include building the capacity of residents and stakeholders related to climate action and its health-equity impacts, conducting additional research to rank and prioritize climate actions, and identifying the health-equity impacts of proposed actions.

“With a 10-year opportunity to avert the worst consequences of our climate crisis, this grant will give us the opportunity to build, nurture, and develop community leadership and advocacy to accelerate implementation of the city’s 2017 climate plan,” said Jessica Collins, executive director of the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts.

Lois DeBacker, managing director of the foundation’s Environment Program, added that “climate change is impacting people in real ways — today. The good news is that community leaders across the country are making smart choices about how they can combat climate change while improving people’s lives and well-being. Our newly awarded grants will help more communities proactively tackle the health risks that climate change introduces or exacerbate.”

Following the one-year planning phase, Kresge will award multi-year grants to up to 12 planning grant recipients. The organizations will be supported by the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), which serves as the national program office for the planning phase of the community-based strategy of the Climate Change, Health & Equity initiative. ISC’s mission is to help communities around the world address environmental, economic, and social challenges to build a better future.

Family Business Center Practices What It Preaches on Succession

Features

Transition Game

Photo by Sandra Costello

As the founding director of the Family Business Center of the Pioneer Valley, Ira Bryck has spent countless hours talking about the importance of succession planning and how to execute it properly. When it came time for his agency to transition, he — and his board — followed his own advice.

Ira Bryck knew it was time — as in time to put a succession plan in place — when he attended a gathering of family business center directors just over a year ago, took a quick look around the room, and concluded that he was the only first-generation leader still on the job roughly a quarter-century after this “movement,” as he called it, began.

“They were all second- and third-generation administrators,” he said of the other 39 people in the room. “I was the elder statesman, and that was a wake-up call.”
He laughed as he recalled this — it was one of those Baby-Boomer-realizing-he’s getting-on-in-years laugh — but there was considerable seriousness in his voice as he talked about the subjects of succession and succession planning.

As leader of the Family Business Center of the Pioneer Valley Inc., and as a fourth-generation member of a family business himself, he knows that far too many companies, large and small, don’t have succession plans, or don’t have them until it’s too late.

For this reason, the transition in leadership at the FBC, as it’s called, from Bryck, whose name is pretty much synonymous with that agency, to Jessi Kirley became not just a succession, but what amounted to an exercise in successful succession planning.

And, no, these two are certainly not shy about using that phraseology this early on — just as Kirley is about to officially take the reins at the FBC’s 25th anniversary gala next month at the Log Cabin. They really believe that this is how it should be done.

“The family business, as a topic, has a lot to do with succession, and I have coached a lot of other people how to go through succession, and I did see it with my own family,” said Bryck, who will remain with the FBC on a very part-time basis working on special projects and coaching. “I believe what we’ve done here is a good model to follow.”

Kirley concurred, and noted that this transition has been different from most she’s observed in the way that the process used has enabled her to establish relationships and trust with the board and the FBC’s members before her tenure officially began, helping to ensure a smooth passing of the baton.
“Ira’s been talking about this transition for a long time,” she explained, “giving the members time to absorb it, to ask questions, to share concerns, and being really available.”

Elaborating, the two said the board of the FBC, which currently boasts nearly 60 members, was involved in not only making sure Kirley was a proper fit — she and Bryck both took a battery of personality tests — but that the transition was given the time, resources, and blueprint to help ensure success.
By time, they meant nearly 10 months of the two working together at the FBC, and by resources, they meant the payroll flexibility to have them both on the clock for that extended period.

And by blueprint, they meant a plan of action whereby Bryck would hire a program manager who then would be assessed to determine if he or she had what it took to become the FBC’s second executive director. And for this assessment, the chosen candidate (Kirley) would quickly start making key decisions and assuming a leadership role.

“One of the first things I said to her was, ‘I’m throwing you in the deep end of the pool and making sure you don’t drown,’” said Bryck, adding that this strategy paid off. “Right away, she took ownership.”

Kirley agreed, and described this succession as a “slow, conscientious hand-off.”
For this issue, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at this handoff to detail both this important change at the FBC at its 25th anniversary, and also the manner in which this became what Bryck and Kirley both believe could be a model transition.

Following the Script

Bryck called it a “rainy-day fund.”

That’s what the FBC, like many businesses, agencies, municipalities, and states, calls money put aside for emergencies and unforeseen expenses.
It was this account that was tapped to enable Bryck and Kirley to be on the payroll for several months together — budget flexibility that they readily acknowledged that many businesses and nonprofits don’t have.

The FBC didn’t officially rename the fund, but Kirley did unofficially, suggesting that it might be called the ‘growth and sustainability fund.’
Such thinking helps explain the mindset that all those involved in this transition — Bryck, Kirley, the FBC’s board, and its membership — took with this exercise.

“One of the first things I said to her was, ‘I’m throwing you in the deep end of the pool and making sure you don’t drown.”

Photo by Sandra Costello

It was, indeed, a slow, conscientious handoff, one designed to secure perhaps another 25 years for this agency, devoted, as the name suggests, to providing education and insight to those involved in family businesses — however they are defined, and there are several working definitions.

And while this story officially began with Bryck walking into that conference meeting room, it started to gather steam when he got back. Not long after, he talked with his board and conveyed the need to start the process of succession.

“I knew I needed to find someone who did what I did, but would do it differently if they really wanted to increase the capacity,” said Bryck, “and do the second quarter-century the right way.”

This was a huge moment in the FBC’s history, because Bryck had been there from the beginning and was (and still is) quite popular with members — and for many reasons.
They include his innovative methods — right down to writing and then performing plays about various aspects of being in business with family members — as well as a hands-on approach and first-hand experience with being in a family business, specifically a children’s clothing store.
So it was important not only to pick the right successor but orchestrate a smooth transition that would not only retain members, but create momentum and enthusiasm for the next 25 years.

The process started with finding the right person. Kirley was recommended to Bryck by a mutual friend who, Bryck recalled, kicked things to a higher level with the comment, ‘why haven’t you hired Jessi Kirley yet?’

Jessi Kirley says the deliberate, well-orchestrated passing of the baton at the FBC helped her build confidence before officially taking the helm.
Photo by Sandra Costello

After several interviews with Kirley, who was looking for a new challenge after working in administrative positions for a succession of healthcare-related businesses, Bryck decided she had the requisite skills and potential. And she decided that was where she wanted that search for a new challenge to end.
“It was clear that there was a growth-oriented mindset built into the fabric of what Ira has created over 25 years,” she recalled. “I felt like I was home, that I was around people who want to learn and love and care for their business; it’s what I had always been looking for.”
Thus began a lengthy process of making sure she was the right fit for the executive director’s position, one that included several personality assessments, for both Kirley and Bryck.

“They wanted to make sure that she had the leadership style, the ability to gather a community together, and the ability to tap into what a lot of people have in common,” Bryck explained. “They also wanted to determine if she was coachable and if she could scale this over the next 25 years.”

Bryck originally thought this process of evaluation and eventual succession would take roughly two years. But in practice, it has gone much more quickly, roughly 10 months, in part because of that decision to throw Kirley into the deep end of the pool.

“He let me try things,” she recalled. “Within my first month, he let me book a speaker, which was a big risk for him. He’s let me try to throw on new systems that ask him to do things differently. He could have said, ‘we’re going to do things this way, and then when you have full reins, you can do what you want,’ but he didn’t.

“There’s something to be said for taking risks with a safety net,” she went on. “Having Ira there and being able to test ideas and try things little by little … I don’t know if enough rising leaders get to do that. And it built my confidence quicker, as well as my credibility, and it allowed us to know sooner that this was going to go well.”

“There’s something to be said for taking risks with a safety net.”

Bryck and Kirley acknowledged that certainly not all businesses and nonprofits can transition in this manner. Many simply wouldn’t have the payroll flexibility or an environment that would allow responsibilities to be shared in such a manner. But when possible, they said, the slow, conscientious handoff could help ensure a successful succession.

Bottom Line

Several weeks ago, both Bryck and Kirley both went to the 2019 edition of the gathering that triggered this succession process.
Still the elder statesman in the room, Bryck felt much more comfortable this time, because he no longer had to be concerned about succession; he and his board had found a successor.

Not only that, they provided to their members a real-life demonstration of how to put a plan in place and then execute it.
And that’s something else to celebrate as this important resource for the region’s business community celebrates a critical milestone and moves on to what’s next.

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

People’s United Stresses Local Connections as It Acquires United Bank

Uniting Forces

People’s United Bank is no longer the small, Springfield-based institution, then known as the Bank of Western Massachusetts, that made its name three decades ago through a strong emphasis on local commercial lending. And the now-Connecticut-based institution is growing again, with a planned acquisition of United Bank that will push its assets well above $50 billion. But local connections are still key to the People’s United ethos, its Massachusetts president says — and he hopes United Bank customers feel the same way.

Patrick Sullivan thinks People’s United Bank has built a strong reputation in Western Mass. — and hopes customers of United Bank feel the same way following a recently announced acquisition.

“We trust that customers kind of know us already in Western Mass., and that they’re confident this isn’t a big change in the sense of somebody they don’t know. They’ve known us for a long time,” said Sullivan, Massachusetts president of People’s United, the Bridgeport, Conn.-based bank that began life in downtown Springfield 32 years ago as the Bank of Western Massachusetts.

“We have people that have worked for either the Bank of Western Mass. or People’s United for a long time,” he added. “Long-term relationships are valued here, and long-time principles and dynamics don’t change. Local is local.”

The two institutions announced in July that People’s United Financial Inc., the holding company for Peoples’s United Bank, would acquire United Financial Bancorp Inc., the holding company for United Bank, in a 100% stock transaction valued at approximately $759 million. Then banks’ leaders characterized it as a strong cultural fit that would benefit customers.

“We are excited to welcome United Bank to People’s United,” said Jack Barnes, chairman and CEO of People’s United Financial. “With the fourth-largest deposit market share in the combined Hartford and Springfield market, a complementary array of commercial and retail capabilities, and a shared legacy of community giving, United will solidify our presence in the Central Connecticut market and strengthen our franchise in Western Massachusetts.”

William Crawford, president and CEO of United Financial Bancorp, added that “People’s United Bank has long been a premier brand in Connecticut that is committed to building meaningful relationships with its customers and communities. We are confident their broad array of products and services, in-market knowledge, and the size and strength of their balance sheet will deliver enhanced value to our stakeholders.”

Patrick Sullivan says the acquisition of United Bank makes sense on a number of levels, both financially and culturally.

Indeed, the move is, in one sense, the story of two Connecticut-based banks —United is based in Hartford — but both banks have a long history and a strong presence in Western Mass.

Sullivan — who joined People’s United six years ago as Massachusetts president and also oversees the bank’s commercial, industrial, and business banking, noted that the institution was already the eighth-largest bank in Massachusetts, and will obviously be slightly larger, growing from 56 branches in its multi-state footprint to around double that, though some are expected to close (more on that later).

“Because of the economy in Massachuetts and the size of the market, we’ve invested a lot in people from other institutions that have joined us with specific expertise in lending, commercial markets, retail, wealth, insurance, whatever,” he went on, citing its government-banking niche as one strength.

“We had a good government business in Western Mass. before I came on six years ago. Today, we’ve got 90 clients in Western Mass. with $162 million in deposits. It’s a big business for us. Likewise, it’s a big business for us throughout the whole company. The city of Springfield is a major customer,” he explained, as are Worcester, Pittsfield, Easthampton, and many others.

For this issue’s focus on banking and finance, BusinessWest spoke with Sullivan about the broadened services and technology People’s Bank will bring to United Bank customers, and why he feels this growing institution will continue to maintain a local focus in the communities where it operates.

Growth Pattern

Immediately after the merger, People’s United will go from five branches in Hampden County to 20, from five to 10 in Worcester County, and from three to four in Hampshire County; its roster of three branches in Franklin County won’t change.

Still, not every branch will remain open; in some communities, both banks now operate within a block or so of each other, which means consolidation is inevitable, Sullivan said. “We’ll make a decision in the best interests of our customers, according to where they bank. But all the retail employees have been told they will have positions with us.”

Just as it has during its growth over the years — People’s United boasts assets around $47.9 billion, and is acquiring a bank with about $7.3 billion — Sullivan said the institution stresses local decision making when it comes to lending, philanthropy, and other matters.

“We still operate just like we did when we had $30 billion. We want to keep it local,” he told BusinessWest. “Our biggest client has its headquarters in Western Mass. Our challenge has been small businesses, those $100,000 loans, the startups. We try to take care of the small-business segment. Let’s face it, those are the heart of a lot of the communities we’re in, and we’re always trying to be more responsive to them.”

In recent years, People’s United has made significant investments in its commercial specialties, including hiring teams of specialized industry experts to better serve customers. Among these niches are technology companies, restaurant franchises, and a healthcare finance team. While those divisions are based out of Boston, they serve the bank’s entire New England and New York footprint and beyond.

The bank has also invested heavily in technology, said Steven Bodakowski, vice president of Corporate Communications.

This United Bank branch in downtown Springfield is just a couple blocks from the People’s United branch — one of many examples of overlapping branches the organization must examine post-merger.

“We’re constantly focused on on how, when, and where we interface with customers in this changing age of banking,” he noted. “Technology and digital enhancements continue to be a major focus for the bank as we aim to stay one step ahead of customer needs and deliver a truly integrated service model that blends the best in customer service with technology.”

To that end, People’s United has developed a strategic initiative to provide customers with online and digital solutions for a suite of its most popular offerings.

“This digital banking experience is designed to mirror and be an extension of the branch experience — serve as another path to interact with and receive guidance from bankers, based on individual customer preferences,” Bodakowski said. “Our bankers are being trained to become digital advocates.”

Offerings include a technology-based home-lending platform designed to simplify and transform the way customers apply for a home-equity loan or home mortgage, providing the ability to virtually interact with mortgage account officers in real time to complete the online application.

Other features include a refreshed online and mobile solution for opening checking and savings accounts, a digital small-business loan application for loans $250,000 or less, a direct-to-client robo-advisory offering, and a new, digitally driven financial-literacy platform that allows customers and the community to access financial-literacy classes and modules.

The latter is an especially important tool to help young people, the elderly, and anyone, really, become more financially savvy, make better decisions, plan for the future, and avoid scams.

“We also launched a new website in May with a fully optimized user experience,” Bodakowski said, one that delivers a fully optimized user experience for mobile devices, an enhanced ‘storefront’ feature to highlight key product areas, and a robust support and security center and new content areas designed to engage and educate customers.

The bank has also enhanced its marketing capabilities to more accurately target its customers and understand their lifestyles, through the use of integrated third-party digital e-mail and marketing platforms such as Marketo and Salesforce.

“We look forward to welcoming [United Bank’s] well-established customer base and delivering to them our enhanced technology and digital capabilities, combined with our network of expert bankers,” Barnes said when the acquisition was first announced.

Living Local

That’s a lot of growth since the institution opened its doors in 1987 as the Bank of Western Massachusetts with $9.3 million in assets. By way of contrast, People’s United awarded almost half that total — about $4 million — to nonprofits last year, about $2.3 million of that in Massachusetts. Of that latter figure, more than $854,000 was contributed by the bank in donations and sponsorships, while more than $1.4 million was awarded in grants by People’s United Community Foundation and People’s United Community Foundation of Eastern Massachusetts.

Those giving decisions remain, as they always been, local, Sullivan said, because the local bankers know the market and its needs. He knows that’s part of the community-bank ethos in Western Mass., and even banks that have grown far beyond community-bank size still have to operate like one.

“Our philanthropy is very local. We take very seriously how things get allocated to these organizations,” he added. “Our principles are always to stay local, whether it’s the specialty expertise in the market or our volunteerism and philanthropy. That’s in our DNA.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Hall of Fame Project Is a Shining Example of Teamwork, Coordination

Construction

Sphere of Influence

Work continues on an intriguing and highly visible project to put a fresh, more watertight face on the sphere at the Basketball Hall of Fame. The project is a study in efficient teamwork and bringing intricate work to a polished finish — quite literally.

While the Campanile and the larger Court Square complex are perhaps the most recognizable landmarks in Springfield, the large sphere that encompasses the museum at the Basketball Hall of Fame has certainly joined that list.

And right now, that sphere has taken on the look of a giant jigsaw puzzle — with some pieces in place and many still missing — which, in many respects, is exactly what it is.

Indeed, the Hall of Fame is in the midst of a $4 million project to repair the outside of the dome, easily the most visible component of a larger project will modernize the Hall and make it far more user-friendly.

The dome work, which began in March, has become somewhat of a spectator sport because of the Hall’s high degree of visibility, especially from I-91 and even the MGM Springfield parking garage. What people can see is dramatic change between what would be considered the old and the new, even though the 900 panels that make up the sphere are not actually being replaced.

What people can’t see, though, is how intricate and challenging this reconstruction project is, and the high level of choreography involved as crews attempt to make a museum façade comprised of nearly 1,000 panels look like one very shiny globe.

Paul Dowd, president of Bloomfield, Conn.-based Managed Air Systems LLC, which is leading the initiative, explained that “what makes it unique is there are not many spherical buildings out there. This replication of a basketball is a unique structure in and of itself.”

“It didn’t give us the opportunity to really reflect all the content that’s out there, whether it was a long-time-ago hall of famer or an honoree just enshrined last year; we weren’t able to really bring them alive. The objective in our new Hall of Honor will be to provide as much information as we possibly can on all the hall of famers, no matter what era they came in, and have it be much more engaging.”

Elaborating, he said that, again, like a jigsaw puzzle, no two pieces of this dome are exactly the same, despite how things look to the naked eye and even the photographs on these pages. This means each panel must be marked when it is taken down in order to ensure that it is put in the same place when it is returned.

After they’re removed and marked, 10 pieces at a time are shipped to Managed Air Systems where they are sanded and painted — a process that takes several hours per panel.

Each panel is unique and must be marked before being taken off, repaired, and put in the exact same spot it came from.

Although his firm specializes in this kind of work — Managed Air applies protective or decorative coating to anything that needs it, from cars to planes to furniture — the Hall project is somewhat different in that requires a focus on timeliness and ensuring an ultra-high level of consistency across 900 individual panels weighing 110 pounds each.

“One of the big concerns going into this was having a coordinated effort from the people taking the panels off to the people doing the rubber membrane repair on the inside to us getting the panels repaired and back to them,” said Dowd. “It was a very large, coordinated effort to make this all go smoothly.”

For this issue and its focus on construction, BusinessWest takes an in-depth, up-close look at the Hall project and how it is a shining example, figuratively but also quite literally, of effective teamwork in construction — and reconstruction.

Round Numbers

By now, a good number of people across the region have seen John Doleva, president and CEO of the Hall of Fame, hold up and talk about what he affectionately refers to as a ‘spaceship.’

That’s his pet term for the individual lights that were affixed to the museum dome as it was constructed nearly 20 years ago — the lights that took on different colors for various occasions.

He calls them ‘spaceships’ because, well, they take on the 1950s-ish, sci-fi shape of a UFO.

There are — or were — 900 of these lights — one for each panel — and roughly half of them leaked, said Doleva, adding that the damage caused by these leaks inspired the $4 million reconstruction project which will restore the panels to the original luster and replace the spaceships with LED lighting.

The project commenced in the spring, and, as both Dowd and Doleva noted, it’s been an intriguing project that requires a high level of coordination among Managed Air Systems and a host of local contractors.

John Doleva says the $4 million dome reconstruction should be finished by the end of September.

That list includes Western Builders of Granby, Chandler Architectural Products Inc. of Springfield, Kent Brothers Excavating of Southampton, Superior Caulking & Waterproofing of Palmer, Collins Electric of Chicopee, Healey & Associates of Belchertown, and project management by Colebrook Realty Services of Springfield and Holyoke.

“That was a key element as we chose vendors,” said Doleva. “We wanted them to be qualified, but there are plenty of qualified vendors in our area, and we wanted to make sure that we were employing people from our region.”

Managed Air Systems spends about 10 hours, on average, refurbishing each of the panels. Some have been damaged over the years and need additional repairs, meaning they need to be kept overnight. Once the repair and reconditioning work is done, the panels are painted to give the dome a fresh, new look.

Doleva said construction is moving quickly, so when these panels aren’t quite ready to be placed back in their positions, they are stored in the garage located under the Hall of Fame.

Dowd said the board at Hoop Hall chose a high-gloss finish for the panels, which will provide long-term durability against UV rays and weather.

“It almost looks wet when you look at the panel, very similar to a freshly painted car part,” he explained. “That glossy finish helps protect it more long-term from the exposure to the sun and the elements.”

But there’s more to it than slapping some paint on. There are three different materials that go on the panels — a sealer that allows the paint to go on, a grey metallic coating, and a clear coat that encapsulates and seals the panel. Dowd says each panel is painted in a downdraft-heated paint booth that he compares to a giant convection oven. Once the panels are painted in the booth, the press of a button cures the panels at up to 200 degrees.

Perhaps the most intricate part of this process is making sure each panel looks the same as the rest, even though they are all slightly different sizes.

“From our end, the biggest challenge we have is to have the repeatability in the quality of finish,” Dowd said, adding that the company has had to redo some panels that weren’t quite right. “You want this globe, when it’s all done, if someone was to walk around it, to have the same luster and shine and quality on it to look consistent as if it was just one giant globe.”

Once the dome is finished, LED projection lighting will be installed to light the front of the building.

“I think it will attract a lot of attention,” Dowd said. “You can’t miss it when you drive on 91 — it should get some ‘wow’ factor.”

The Bigger Picture

That phrase ‘wow factor’ applies to the many other components of the Hall renovation project as well, said Doleva.

These include the new Hall of Honor, which recently opened. It allows visitors to view any hall of famer in a brand-new, digital manner.

“It didn’t give us the opportunity to really reflect all the content that’s out there, whether it was a long-time-ago hall of famer or an honoree just enshrined last year; we weren’t able to really bring them alive,” said Doleva in reference to the old display. “The objective in our new Hall of Honor will be to provide as much information as we possibly can on all the hall of famers, no matter what era they came in, and have it be much more engaging.”

This includes the next phase of the indoor construction: a complete remodeling of the top floor of the museum. Doleva says this exhibit, sponsored by the NBA Players Assoc., will feature 16 key moments in basketball displayed in graphics on the ceiling.

“We’re going to take advantage of the verticality of that space by having a big sailboat sail of graphics and then an exhibit in front of it,” he said, adding that, while they are taking a more digital approach, they are not totally abandoning the original values of the museum, which includes physical artifacts. “What we haven’t lost sight of is what makes a sports museum different than going on your telephone and looking up sports history.”

Meanwhile, the outside of this particular sports museum will have a different look and feel as well.

The refurbished sphere will reflect a new era at the Hall — in all kinds of ways.

Kayla Ebner can be reached at [email protected]

Remote Employees Aim for a Healthy Work-life Balance

Technology

Mom Tech

Many people assume that working from home is less productive than spending time in the office. However, the opposite is oftentimes true. This is especially true now that technology allows for quick and easy communication between home and office, giving employees, especially moms, the ability to work efficiently from home while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

When Tiffany Appleton looks back on raising her now-19-year-old daughter, she remembers how difficult it was to have a full-time job on top of the 24-hour job called parenting. As a single parent, she really didn’t have a choice whether to go to work or not — she had to find a way to balance the two.

And she did — but she also realizes how much easier that might have been in today’s world, where technology allows employees to work from home productively and sustain a healthy work-life balance.

Appleton, recruiter and director of the accounting and finance division at Johnson & Hill Staffing, finds more and more people are working from home, and sees benefits for both the employee and the employer.

“I’ve interviewed many people who have had a work-from-home schedule, and usually they say that they end up working more than they would if they were in the office,” she explained, adding that it is oftentimes easier to be productive at home than working in an office environment, with the myriad distractions found there.

“I think much of this desire for having flexibility to work remotely came from moms who wanted to have their hands in balancing both the career and raising a family, and not having to feel like they could only do one or the other.”

In fact, the work-from-home population has grown by 159% since 2005, and the number of employers offering a remote option has grown by 40% in the past five years. The start of this fairly new trend, Appleton said, can be attributed to the moms.

“I think much of this desire for having flexibility to work remotely came from moms who wanted to have their hands in balancing both the career and raising a family, and not having to feel like they could only do one or the other,” she said.

Mary Shea, vice president of digital strategy at GCAi, can attest to this. She’s a new mom of a 4½-month-old boy. She commutes from Sturbridge but works from home on Mondays and Fridays, a schedule she says took some getting used to but now allows her use her time more productively while helping her maintain a healthy lifestyle. Her position at GCAi includes building and managing ad campaigns for her clients, a job she says she can do very well remotely.

Between her long commute and having a new baby boy, Mary Shea says working from home twice a week makes a huge difference in her life.

“Most of the time, I don’t have to be in the office,” Shea told BusinessWest. “I’ve set it up where Mondays and Fridays are my set schedule. Those are the days I’ll work on things that I know are online, and then, the other three days, I come into the office or go on location for a video shoot.”

Working from home saves Shea three hours a day that would otherwise be spent in a car — time she spends either working more, grocery shopping, or fitting in some exercise. And she never feels disconnected from the company, knowing her team back in the Springfield office is only a phone call away.

“Technology today has enabled parents, particularly moms like me, to work remotely,” she said, adding that hard and soft technology like the cloud-based project-management system GCAi uses and applications on her phone make this possible. “Being able to work remotely in the situation I’m in now is pretty vital because it’s just such a busy week.”

Barriers to Success

Shea isn’t the only mom, or employee in general, who feels this way. Karen Buell, vice president of Operations at Payveris and mother of two, has been working from home three days a week for eight years.

“Some women are pushing off having a family or they’re choosing between a career and having a family. For me, I can choose both,” she said, adding that being part of a tech company makes this a pretty easy thing to do.

Tiffany Appleton says Western Mass. businesses are adopting work-from-home policies slower than bigger cities, but it is still becoming more normal in the area.

In fact, Buell says about a third of the employees at Payveris are 100% remote.

But for some employers, this can be a difficult thing to embrace. Appleton says the negative stigma that surrounds those who work from home can sometimes prevent employers from making the jump.

“I’ve found, in Western Mass., we’re a little slower to adopt it than the cities are,” she said. “Sometimes employers get scared by work-life balance and think, ‘that means people don’t want to work, they just want to have a life and pretend they’re working.’ They just assume the worst.”

This negative perception is one of the things Buell experienced in her early work-from-home days, with people telling her she’d have a hard time being visible or ever being promoted. Despite the lingering stereotype, she was promoted at Payveris just a couple months ago.

“It doesn’t hold you back. If you’re there and you’re showing up and being productive, you can do anything,” she said. “It’s not about where you are, it’s about how productive you can be.”

Another challenging aspect about working from home is maintaining a connection with those who are at the office. Both Appleton and Shea agreed this responsibility lies largely with the employee, but also the cooperation of co-workers to maintain connectivity.

“Keeping the culture of the office is probably the most important thing the employer can do when having people who are not in the office all the time — finding ways to make sure that they are included, even if they’re not there in person,” Appleton said.

This may even include something as simple as telling a co-worker not to bring a lunch tomorrow because the office is ordering pizza or letting them know that so-and-so down the hall got engaged.

“Those are the things that usually irk people,” she continued. “Making sure there are ways to include the people when they’re not there — and being very conscious to include them and make them feel like they are part of the team — is important.”

Karen Buell says employers would benefit from seeing the upside of remote work instead of focusing on the negatives.

Technology makes all this especially simple. Appleton says more and more employers are investing in the kinds of technology that can be accessed remotely, such as Freedcamp, a collaborative project-management system that GCAi uses for everyday business and communication.

Win-win Situation

With increasingly adaptive technology that allows employees to do things like videoconferencing and sending documents through group-sharing software within seconds, disconnectedness is becoming less and less of a problem.

“Taking the next step to make sure the tools you’re investing in for the office have those abilities for people to work from anywhere is crucial,” Appleton said.

When she thinks about becoming a working parent 19 years ago, she realizes how helpful modern technology would have been when her daughter was home sick from school and she had to take the day off from work. Or on a snow day, when it wouldn’t have been necessary to get in the car and drive to the office to be productive.

“It’s nice now that you can do everything you need to do from home,” she said. “I think it’s good for the employees and the employers at the end of the day.”

Kayla Ebner can be reached at [email protected]m

Hadley’s Route 9 Remains in a Constant State of Motion

Community Spotlight

As anyone who lives in Hadley, visits the town, or drives through it knows, Route 9, the main commercial thoroughfare in this still largely agricultural community, is in a seemingly constant state of motion.

In this case, motion translates into everything from high traffic counts to a continuous flow of new businesses across a wide spectrum that includes service ventures, retail outlets, and hospitality-related companies, to infrastructure work aimed at improving traffic flow.

And Hadley is seeing all of the above at the moment, as Town Administrator David Nixon noted as he talked with BusinessWest about the state of his community.

There are a number of new additions to the commercial landscape in various stages of development, said Nixon, listing a new Homewoods Hotel that recently debuted — bringing the total number of hotel rooms in town to 612 — as well as a Five Guys, L.L. Bean, Harbor Freight Tools, and 110 Grill that will be unveiled soon.

“There’s a lot of demand, and obviously the infrastructure is in place to support that demand except for the gas moratorium,” said Nixon, referring to an ongoing ban on new or expanded natural-gas service in Hampshire and Franklin counties due to a lack of capacity, a source of considerable controversy and consternation within the community. “The University of Massachusetts and the other colleges in the area, as well as 25 other campuses within an hour’s drive of this spot, make the area recession-proof.”

“Route 9 is a big economy booster for the town of Hadley and is continuously being renovated to provide services to both residents and visitors.”

And they make Hadley, population 5,000 or so, a much more populated place during what would be called business hours, with between 35,000 and 80,000 visiting the community each day.

But Hadley has always been much more than a place to visit or travel through on the way to somewhere else, especially the college towns that border it, Amherst and Northampton. Indeed, a mix of culture, recreation, and bucolic countryside makes it an attractive place to live.

Which brings us back to the aforementioned infrastructure work and a mix of municipal projects designed to make it even more attractive.

That latter category includes a new, $3.9 million library that can be seen from the top of Hadley’s Town Hall building. Molly Keegan, general government liaison for the Hadley Select Board, said the state’s Library Building Assoc. is matching 50% of the project costs.

“Like many communities, we were suffering from deferred maintenance on some of our older town properties,” she noted, “and we were able to move forward with a funding strategy that allowed us to build a new library and take advantage of the state grant program.”

Right next door to the library, a new, $7.1 million senior center is under way, and a new, $3.5 million fire substation is being constructed on River Drive.

Meanwhile, the infrastructure work includes a number of road and bridge projects, all aimed at improving traffic flow along Route 9.

For this, the latest installment in its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest looks at how the word ‘Hadley’ remains seemingly synonymous with both ‘change’ and ‘progress.’

Routes and Roots

As is the case with most infrastructure projects, progress usually comes after a lengthy period of inconvenience. And that will certainly be the case in Hadley.

Three major road projects will be taking place simultaneously over the next few years, said Nixon, adding that all are needed for the community to better accommodate those tens of thousands of visitors every day.

Currently underway is work on the roundabout at the west side of the Calvin Coolidge Bridge in Northampton.

“The current configuration is not efficient — it doesn’t allow cars to go through quickly,” he explained. “They’re going to put an exchange with the ramps, the bridge, and the surface streets, so that will get traffic moving a lot quicker.”

In addition, the Bay Road Bridge over Fort River is being completely replaced. The bridge will be reconstructed with wider shoulders and new sidewalks, with construction set to begin in the spring of 2021.

Finally, a four-year project is set to widen Route 9 from Town Hall to 2.5 miles east by the malls. This project will add another lane to the popular route in hopes of significantly reducing traffic tie-ups.

“Traffic congestion has been a real problem in some areas, but is now becoming a real problem all over the East Coast,” Nixon said. “Taking care of the infrastructure is of regional importance.”

Hadley at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1661
Population: 5,250 (2010)
Area: 24.6 square miles
County: Hampshire
Residential Tax Rate: $12.36
Commercial Tax Rate: $12.36
Median Household Income: $51,851
Median Family Income: $61,897
Type of Government: Open Town Meeting, Board of Selectmen
Largest Employers: Super Stop & Shop; Evaluation Systems Group Pearson; Elaine Center at Hadley; Home Depot; Lowe’s Home Improvement
* Latest information available

Equally important is maintaining what has been a diverse business community, he noted, adding that, while the retail and hospitality sectors have exploded along Route 9 in recent decades, agriculture remains a huge part of the town’s vibrancy — and its identity.

“Agriculture is a part of our heritage,” he said. “This is still very much an agricultural town.”

He’s talking about the six dairy farms and endless acres of preserved farmland on town property that accompany the booming business on Route 9.

The town has the most protected farmland in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, he said, adding that the strong commercial and industrial base helps the community to not only preserve its agricultural base, but keep its residential tax rates comparatively low.

But while small in size (population-wise) and mostly rural in character, Hadley is facing some big-city challenges.

“We are, at our core, a small town,” Nixon said. “We have the resources of a small town, and yet we’re dealing with much larger issues.”

Chief among them is traffic, he said, adding that this is a seasonal concern for the Berkshires and Cape Cod, in Hadley, it’s a year-round problem, although conditions are somewhat better when the colleges are not in session.

The town will have some help as it goes about taking on these various challenges in the form of a higher bond rating.

On June 21, Hadley was informed that its bond rating was upgraded from AA+ to AAA, an achievement only three other towns in Massachusetts — Northampton, Great Barrington, and Lenox — can currently boast.

“That’s quite an achievement for a small town,” said Nixon. “We’re insufferably pleased with ourselves. It’s an accomplishment not only of the town government and the million things that we do, but it’s also an accomplishment for the entire business, residential, and agricultural community. It’s something that everyone can take pride in and feel good about and take credit for.”

Keegan added that a financial team has been working hard alongside elected officials to make the higher bond rating possible.

“Having that bond rating … not only is it public recognition of all the good work being done by the municipal employees and volunteers, but it also puts us in the best position we can be in in terms of borrowing,” she said. “The timing on that could not have been any better.”

Planting Seeds

As for the future, Nixon hopes Hadley continues to build upon its recent successes and especially that higher bond rating.

What is distinctly clear is that the town is in a period of ongoing growth and evolution, all while maintaining the rural quality and agricultural character that makes Hadley, well, Hadley.

And like that AAA rating, this is something to celebrate.

Kayla Ebner can be reached at [email protected]

ABA Urges Cannabis Banking Reform in Senate Testimony

Growing Concern

The American Bankers Assoc. argued it’s critical that legal, cannabis-related businesses have access to the regulated banking system as it urged the Senate to advance the SAFE Banking Act in recent testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.

Joanne Sherwood, president and CEO of Citywide Banks in Denver and chair of the Colorado Bankers Assoc., testified on behalf of ABA. Sherwood explained how current federal law prevents financial institutions from banking any money derived from cannabis-related businesses and how a narrow, banking-specific remedy to the cannabis banking problem will reap immediate public-safety, tax, and regulatory benefits.

“Because cannabis continues to be illegal at the federal level, handling funds associated with cannabis businesses can be deemed money laundering,” said Sherwood. “That federal/state divide has particularly severe repercussions for banks and communities like mine, where the cannabis industry is fully operational, but it also impacts banks in every state.”

With limited access to banking services available, large amounts of cash remain on site in many of the cannabis-related businesses, which creates significant safety concerns for the communities where they are located. For example, on average, more than 100 burglaries occur at cannabis businesses each year in Denver, according to the Denver Police Department.

“Providing a mechanism for the cannabis industry to access the regulated banking system would help those businesses and their surrounding communities by reducing the high volume of cash on hand, thereby reducing instances of cash-motivated crime,” Sherwood said.

Additionally, since many cannabis businesses do not have a bank account, they are forced to pay their taxes in cash at local IRS offices. Processing paper-based returns costs the IRS nearly 17 times more compared to an e-filed return — a cost borne by taxpayers. Cash-based taxpayers are also more likely to underreport income than those who receive payment by check or those subject to third-party reporting or withholding.

“Banking the cannabis industry is a straightforward way to ensure that businesses have the means and motivation to remain fully tax-compliant,” Sherwood said.

The SAFE Banking Act, which is currently before the committee for consideration, would help address this urgent problem. The bill specifies that proceeds from a state-licensed cannabis business would not be considered unlawful under federal money-laundering statutes or any other federal law and directs the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and federal banking regulators to issue guidance and exam procedures for banks doing business with legitimate cannabis-related businesses.

“Although the SAFE Banking Act does not cure all of the cannabis-related banking challenges, it would help the 33 states that have legalized cannabis in some form to make their communities safer, collect their taxes, and regulate their cannabis markets effectively,” said Sherwood. “ABA supports the SAFE Banking Act and urges the committee to mark up and advance this legislation as soon as possible.”

PeoplesBank Internship Program Named to Top-100 List

On the Way Up

PeoplesBank joined Google, Facebook, BMW, Southwest Airlines, and more top companies on the 2019 WayUp Top 100 Internship Programs list. WayUp is a professional networking application that connects college students and recent graduates to career opportunities with reputable employers.

According to WayUp, the bank was selected because “PeoplesBank interns not only get a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to operate a bank, they also get hands-on experience to work on passion projects like Habitat for Humanity’s Build Days.” The list is determined by a panel of industry experts who consider everything from public votes to internship-program highlights. More than 1,000 employers participated in this year’s assessment.

“Our internship program instills that we can learn just as much from our interns as they can learn from us.”

“PeoplesBank interns make an immediate and direct impact on the organization and the communities that the bank serves,” said Danielle St. Jean, HR Coordinator and Training Specialist. “Each intern is also assigned to a home department at the bank. In addition to day-to-day assignments and value-add projects completed within that department, the group of interns are involved in several hands-on activities.”

PeoplesBank interns participated in on-site professional development, a Habitat for Humanity Build Day, employee-engagement planning, banking-topic webinars, and job shadowing. They also were able to discuss their career paths with senior leadership in the bank’s finance, human resources, information technology, marketing, and retail operations. After spending the summer at PeoplesBank, the interns have returned to study at colleges throughout Massachusetts as well as Connecticut and Colorado.

“Our internship program instills that we can learn just as much from our interns as they can learn from us,” St. Jean said. “We ask for lots of feedback from our group of interns, and even have a private ‘PeoplesBank Internship Alumni’ group on LinkedIn so that we keep in touch with them at the conclusion of the program.”

Recruitment for the next PeoplesBank summer internship program kicks off during the winter. Interested students are encouraged to complete an application on the bank’s career page, www.bankatpeoples.com/careers.

Heirs Are Often Unaware of Family Wealth Decisions, Study Finds

In the Dark

By Susan Atran

Bank of America recently announced the findings of a new study conducted by Merrill Private Wealth Management, which found that 64% of wealth holders have never talked with family members about how or why they intend to pass on their assets. While 48% plan to communicate this information eventually, or assume family members already know, 10% vow never to divulge details of their estate plan, primarily because they consider it personal and no one else’s business. But is that a good decision?

“This research is designed to help families make better decisions and secure the promise of wealth, including the impact it can have within and beyond one’s family and lifetime,” said Andy Sieg, president of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.

For this study, Merrill asked more than 650 high-net-worth individuals across the country how different types of financial decisions are made and communicated within their family. Part of an ongoing series of white papers on wealth sustainability from the Merrill Center for Family Wealth, findings from this study were published in a report titled “How Do Families Make Effective Wealth Decisions?” Among them:

• Decisions about family money — such as gifting to family and charities, dividing assets among heirs, and establishing trust provisions or limitations — ranked as the most important and hardest to make, compared to decisions about saving, investing, spending, and other day-to-day finances;

• Just 33% of people have informed their family of lifetime gifts already made or committed to, such as assets held in a trust or funding of education, a down payment on a first house, or another purpose;

• Seventy-two percent have not discussed their philanthropic commitments;

• When asked what they consider to be the most important idea to communicate when discussing wealth with family, the top response was to be a good steward and handle family money wisely. However, only 46% have talked with heirs about fundamental family values and operating principles;

• On the distribution of their estate, 69% of wealth holders plan to divide their assets equally among heirs, while the rest say allocation decisions are based on specific criteria, such as merit for individual contributions (11%) or need (8%); and

• While 22% plan to openly share details of their estate plan with the whole family, 17% would share information only as it applies to each person.

“Decisions about family money have the potential to change lives, yet the outcome depends on how well the purpose and reasoning behind those decisions are understood, and too often that is left unsaid,” said Stacy Allred, head of the Merrill Center for Family Wealth. “Misunderstanding can lead to family conflicts, resentment, and other unintended consequences, including the misuse or loss of family wealth.”

The Merrill Center for Family Wealth specializes in helping families define the purpose of their wealth. This study found that, in six in 10 families, there is no formal structure or rigorous process in place to ensure family wealth decisions are made and communicated effectively. When asked how wealth decisions are typically made, the most prevalent response was an autocratic and top-down approach whereby one person makes decisions with little or no input from anyone else. Seventeen percent of families make financial decisions democratically with collective input or representation of all members.

Three-quarters of participants, including more men (79%) than women (68%), report complete confidence in their financial decisions. Looking back on decisions they’ve made, however, just 56% of people said their decisions always turned out well. The rest reported mixed results, including 21% who said their decisions turned out badly or they delayed making decisions because they were unsure of the outcome.

“The best form of financial parenting and a big part of improving the outcome of decisions involves putting more care into the decision-making process itself,” said Matthew Wesley, director of the Merrill Center for Family Wealth. “Family wealth decisions can be complicated by family dynamics, a long-time horizon, and unrecognized biases that call for a deliberate and disciplined approach.” u

Susan Atran is senior vice president of Communications for Bank of America.

National Backlog of Construction Projects Reaches New High

Construction

A Surge of Confidence

By Kathleen Prause and J.D. Harrison

Results from the USG Corp. and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index from the second quarter of 2019 indicate that more than half of contractors are highly confident that the market will provide sufficient new business opportunities in the next 12 months.

Overall, the Q2 composite score of 74 — up two points from 72 in the first quarter — shows a vibrant commercial construction sector, although contractors’ revenue expectations slightly decreased.

“The construction industry is a reflection of our country’s broader economic health, so contractor optimism is a great sign for everyone,” said Chris Griffin, president and CEO of USG Corp. “Even so, it is important that we think about solutions to our big challenges, like building a healthy pipeline of new workers and incorporating technology to make our job sites safer and more efficient.”

More than half of contractors (52%) are highly confident about the ability of the market to provide new business opportunities in the next 12 months, an 11% increase over last quarter’s findings. The backlog ratio — comparing contractors’ average current backlog of projects to the ideal amount of work companies would like to take on — reached 82, the highest since the Index launched in 2017. Hiring expectations also recovered between Q1 and Q2 2019, with most contractors (60%) anticipating employing more people in the next six months.

Furthermore, 60% of contractors report confidence that revenue will remain stable. They also expect access to capital to continue, with 66% believing access to financing will get easier or remain the same over the next six months.

In a notable shift from the last three quarters, the number of contractors who report “high concern” about the availability of skilled labor declined to 46% (down from 54% in the first quarter. While confidence in having access to skilled labor shows some improvement, 85% of contractors still express high concerns about the cost of that skilled labor.

For the third time since the launch of the Index in 2017, this quarter’s survey explored sustainability practices in construction. The findings show that the average share of green projects for contractors is declining. This finding is interesting, since other industry studies reveal no slowdown in the number of green construction projects. One explanation may be that the majority of green work is becoming more concentrated among a smaller group of specialized companies. The study shows that green projects are done more frequently by large contractors.

The Index also reports a mismatch between green standards and green incentives, with most contractors (84%) saying they must meet green standards on at least some projects, but fewer than half (47%) take advantage of green incentives. Finally, general contractors report that the most important green attributes swaying their purchasing decisions are energy efficiency (80%), materials without harmful chemicals (65%), and water efficiency (64%).

The Index comprises three leading indicators to gauge confidence in the commercial construction industry, generating a composite index on the scale of 0 to 100 that serves as an indicator of health of the contractor segment on a quarterly basis. The second-quarter results from the three key drivers were:

• Backlog: contractors’ ratio of actual to ideal backlog rose five points (to 82 from 77), hitting its highest point since the Index launched in 2017;

• New business confidence: the level of overall confidence rose three points (to 74 from 71), suggesting a return of optimism about the market’s ability to provide new business opportunities in the next 12 months; and

• Revenue: the revenue score dropped one point (to 66 from 67), although most contractors (60%) expect revenue to remain the same.

Kathleen Prause is director of Corporate Communications for USG Corp., a manufacturer of building products and innovative solutions. J.D. Harrison is executive director for Communications & Strategy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Facebook Phishing Surges, While Microsoft Is Often Impersonated

Technology

Baiting the Hook

By Jenna Finn

Vade Secure, a global leader in predictive e-mail defense, recently published the results of its Phishers’ Favorites report for the second quarter of 2019. According to the report, which ranks the 25 most impersonated brands in phishing attacks, Microsoft was by far the top target for the fifth straight quarter. There was also a significant uptick in Facebook phishing, as the social-media giant moved up to the third spot on the list as a result of a staggering 176% year-over-year growth in phishing URLs.

The report was developed by analyzing the number of unique phishing URLs detected by Vade Secure. Leveraging data from more than 600 million protected mailboxes worldwide, Vade’s machine-learning algorithms identify the brand being impersonated as part of its real-time analysis of the URL and page content.

“Cybercriminals are more sophisticated than ever.”

Microsoft has ranked number one on the Phishers’ Favorites list every quarter since the official rankings were first released early in 2018. In the most recent quarter, Vade’s AI engine detected 20,217 unique Microsoft phishing URLs, for an average of more than 222 per day. This represents a 15.5% year-over-year increase compared to the second quarter of 2018.

Microsoft phishing has become a potential goldmine thanks to the growth of Office 365, which boasts more than 180 million active monthly business users. Office 365 is increasingly the heart of companies, providing the essential services (e-mail, chat, document management, project management, etc.) that businesses depend on to run. Each set of Office 365 credentials provides a single entry point not just to the entire platform but the entire business, allowing cybercriminals to launch insider attacks targeting anyone in the organization in just one step.

Meanwhile, Facebook phishing has been on a tear throughout 2019 and advanced one spot up to number three in the most recent quarter thanks to a 175.8% increase in phishing URLs. One explanation for this rise in popularity could be the prevalence of social sign-on using Facebook accounts, a feature called Facebook Login. This is particularly attractive to cybercriminals because they’ll be able to see what other apps the user has authorized via social sign-on, and potentially compromise those accounts as well.

The rest of the most-impersonated brands on the Phishers’ Favorites report include PayPal (number 2), Netflix (4), Bank of America (5), Apple (6), CIBC (7), Amazon (8), DHL (9), and DocuSign (10). Amazon phishing URLs saw a massive spike in the second quarter of 2019, growing 182.6% over the first quarter and 411.5% year over year. This coincides with reports of a new Amazon phishing kit in May, as well as the lead up to Prime Day 2019.

In terms of the most impersonated industries, cloud companies took the top spot for the fifth straight quarter with 37.6%, followed by financial services (33.1%), social media (15.6%), e-commerce/logistics (7.7%), and internet/telecommunications (5.2%).

A large majority of phishing (80%) took place on weekdays, while Tuesdays and Wednesdays were the most popular days for cybercriminals to take their shot.

“Cybercriminals are more sophisticated than ever, and the ways they target corporate and consumer e-mail users continued to evolve in Q2,” said Adrien Gendre, chief solution architect at Vade Secure. “Microsoft Office 365 phishing is the gateway to massive amounts of corporate data, while gaining access to a consumer’s Facebook log-in information could compromise much of their personal, sensitive information. The fact that we saw such a significant volume in impersonations of these two brands, along with the coinciding new methods of attack, means that virtually all e-mail users and organizations need to be on heightened alert.”

Jenna Finn is an account manager with Vade Secure.

Healthcare Heroes Are Everywhere

By Editorial September 5, 2019

Opinion

Editorial

There’s no set timeframe to be a hero. It’s more about taking advantage of opportunities that emerge. And that can happen quickly, or over a lifetime.

One of the goals of the Healthcare Heroes recognition program, now in its third year, was to create a vehicle for relaying some of the many amazing stories taking place within the region’s healthcare industry, stories that convey energy, compassion, innovation, forward thinking, and, above all, passion — for finding ways to improve quality of life for those that these people and organizations touch every day.

And, as noted, this heroism takes a lot of different forms.

Take Katherine Wilson, who has spent the past three decades building and shaping Behavioral Health Network into a $115 million network that continues to expand and find new ways to provide care and support to those in need. This honor goes far beyond the vast portfolio of programs her agency offers. It’s also about a lifetime spent advocating for those with mental illness, substance-abuse issues, or development disabilities, anticipating and then meeting their needs.

Linda Uguccioni, on the other hand, has been with executive director at Linda Manor Assisted Living in Northampton for only four years. But in that time, she’s put it on the fast track when it comes to growth, vibrancy, and recognition, doubling occupancy from 40 to more than 80, with a waiting list. She does so with a lead-by-example style and an ability to make each and every team member feel not only valued but a key contributor to the health and well-being of all residents.

Frank Robinson, like Wilson, has been working for a healthier community for much of the past four decades, developing and growing initiatives in realms ranging from children’s oral health to asthma; from food insecurity to sexual health; from health education to overall population health. As he turns 70 this month, he has no plans to slow down, citing both a passion for his work and the fact that so much of that work remains to be done.

Meanwhile, it’s been less than two years since Tara Ferrante, director of the Holyoke Outpatient Clinic at ServiceNet, launched the agency’s OCD and Hoarding Disorder Program, leading a team of clinicians who are seeing progress every day in helping people escape the shackles of these often-debilitating conditions — and overcoming the social stigma that accompanies them.

The fact is, a Healthcare Hero can emerge quickly, or he or she can become part of the fabric of the community for a very long time. The common thread is how they make a positive, palpable impact on lives in Western Mass.

BusinessWest has other recognition programs — 40 Under Forty, Difference Makers, and Women of Impact — but it became clear through the years that something distinct for the healthcare sector was needed, and that there was no shortage of stories to tell — stories that are just beginning, or gaining mid-career momentum, or starting to wind down after setting the stage for others to continue the fight for this region’s health and well-being.

We were right — as this year’s class of Healthcare Heroes continues to make clear. Enjoy their stories, be inspired, and realize that we could honor far, far more heroes if we had the time and space. They’re all around you — and we have a lot more stories to write in the coming years.

Stunts Trivialize Education Debate

By Editorial September 5, 2019

Opinion

By John Regan

A so-called ‘beach party’ set up recently outside the State House by education funding advocates was a disrespectful and frivolous stunt carried out by people who should instead be focused on the well-being and economic futures of Massachusetts schoolchildren.

The point of the beach party, complete with beach balls and shaved ice with flavors such as ‘accountability slime lime,’ was to excoriate the Legislature for going on summer recess without passing a massive restructuring of the funding formula for public schools.

The fiscal 2020 budget Gov. Charlie Baker signed last month includes a $268 million increase in state assistance for K-12 education, but activists want a multi-year commitment to ramp up education spending and address gaps in the quality of education from one community to another. The beach party was the latest in a series of questionable antics perpetrated by the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance and allies who want billions of dollars in additional education spending with no accountability for results.

In May, Massachusetts Teachers Assoc. President Merrie Najimy posted a photo to Facebook of herself and three other women smiling and clutching fake pearl necklaces with a caption that read, “Alice Peisch, let go of the wealth and #FundOurFuture.”

Rep. Alice Peisch, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Education, often wears pearls, and the prop suggested she could not understand the circumstances of poorer students because she lives in the wealthy suburb of Wellesley.

Members of the teachers union have also been observed at public meetings carrying blank checks to signal their distaste for any measurements to accompany additional spending.

The 3,500 member companies of Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) who depend upon the public schools to prepare the workforce of the future support education reform that contains specific and measurable performance objectives. Anyone who owns or manages a business tracks return on investment, and the investment we make in our public schools and students should be no different.

The stakes in the debate are enormous, beginning with an estimated price tag in the neighborhood of $1 billion. The governor and the Massachusetts Legislature deserve credit for proceeding cautiously on education reform. u

John Regan is president and CEO of Associated Industries of Massachusetts.

Contractors Report Difficulty Finding Qualified Craft Workers to Hire

Construction

People Pipeline

Eighty percent of construction firms report they are having a hard time filling hourly craft positions that represent the bulk of the construction workforce, according to a national, industry-wide survey released last week by Autodesk and Associated General Contractors of America (AGC). Association officials said the industry was taking a range of steps to address the situation but called on federal officials to assist those industry efforts.

“Workforce shortages remain one of the single most significant threats to the construction industry,” said Stephen Sandherr, AGC’s CEO. “However, construction labor shortages are a challenge that can be fixed, and this association will continue to do everything in its power to make sure that happens.”

Of the nearly 2,000 survey respondents, 80% said they are having difficulty filling hourly craft positions, Sandherr noted. All regions of the country are experiencing similarly severe craft-worker shortages, with 83% of contractors in the West and South reporting a hard time filling hourly craft positions, slightly higher to the 81% rate in the Midwest and 75% rate in the Northeast.

Seventy-three percent of firms report it will continue to be difficult, or get even harder, to find hourly craft workers over the next 12 months. One reason for their worries is that contractors are skeptical of the quality of the pipeline for recruiting and preparing new craft personnel. Forty-five percent say the local pipeline for preparing well-trained and skilled workers is poor. And 26% say the pipeline for finding workers who can pass a drug test is poor.

Labor shortages are prompting many firms to boost pay and compensation. Two-thirds of firms report they have increased base pay rates for craft workers. And 29% report they are providing incentives and bonuses to attract craft workers. Firms are also taking a greater role in developing their own workforce. Forty-six percent say they have launched or expanded in-house training programs, and half report getting involved in career-building programs.

“Construction workforce shortages are prompting many firms to innovate their way to greater productivity,” said Allison Scott, head of Construction Integrated Marketing at Autodesk. “As the cost of labor continues to increase and firms look to become even more efficient, technology can enable better collaboration and ultimately lead to more predictable outcomes. There is also opportunity in untapped pools of talent such as tradeswomen, veterans, and young people looking for an alternative to the traditional four-year university.”

Scott noted that 29% of firms report they are investing in technology to supplement worker duties. One-quarter of firms report they are using cutting-edge solutions, including drones, robots and 3-D printers. Meanwhile, 23% of firms report they are taking steps to improve job-site performance by relying on lean construction techniques, using tools like building information modeling and doing more off-site prefabrication.

Association officials called on the federal government to boost funding for career and technical education. They also called on federal leaders to allow more immigrants to enter the country to work in construction, let construction students at community and career colleges qualify for federal Pell Grants, and make it easier for firms to establish apprenticeship and other training programs.

Frank Robinson, Ph.D.

This Public Health Leader Is a Visionary and Innovator

Frank Robinson, Ph.D.

“Dr. Frank Robinson is a true visionary. He sees partnerships and systems that most other people don’t see. He doesn’t stop there … and he doesn’t allow other people’s short-sightedness or lack of imagination to get in his way. He persists because he loves to see other people, particularly young people, grow and thrive and achieve their dreams.”

Over the next few pages, you’ll read quite a bit of material that will help explain why Robinson, currently vice president of Public Health for Baystate Health, is one of two Healthcare Heroes in the Lifetime Achievement category for 2019. But none of the words to come can do that more effectively that those at the top.

They’re from the nomination form submitted by Jessica Collins, executive director of the Public Health Institute of Western Mass., a job Robinson once held himself, when the agency was known as Partners for a Healthier Community.

And Greater Springfield has, indeed, become a healthier community because of Robinson, who, over the past 35 years or so, has conceived or been closely involved with initiatives in realms ranging from children’s oral health to asthma; from food insecurity to sexual health; from health education to overall population health.

And who really knows if he would have been involved in any of that had it not been for … Hurricane Agnes.

The storm barreled into Elmira, N.Y. in late June, 1972, flooding the recently opened Elmira Psychiatric Center, where Robinson was working as a psychiatric social worker. That’s was, because the storm put him out of work.

He found new work essentially counseling youths displaced by the hurricane and relocated to nearby Elmira College.

“Dr. Frank Robinson is a true visionary. He sees partnerships and systems that most other people don’t see. He doesn’t stop there … and he doesn’t allow other people’s short-sightedness or lack of imagination to get in his way.”

“A call came out for help because these youngsters were running wild in the dorms unsupervised,” Robinson recalled, adding that he and a friend were dispatched to the scene because they were staff at a facility called the Elmira Neighborhood House — Robinson taught boxing there and knew most of the teens.

In some ways, Hurricane Agnes blew Robinson onto a different, more community-focused career path that, early on, featured extensive work with young people. And, by and large, he has stayed on that path.

Fast-forwarding through his résumé, he worked locally for the Mass. Department of Mental Health (at the same time as the other Lifetime Achievement hero for 2019, Katherine Wilson; see story on page 22); the W.W. Johnson Life Mental Health Center in Springfield; the Springfield Community Substance Abuse Partnership and Prevention Alliance, part of the Springfield Department of Health and Human Services; Partners for Community Health; and Baystate Health, first as director of Community Health Planning and now as vice president of Public Health.

At each stop, he has been a visionary and an innovator, leading initiatives ranging from the BEST Oral Health program to Baystate Academy Charter School to the Baystate Springfield Educational Partnership.

“Over the years, I have worked in positions that have advanced my specific interest in creating a healthier community and preventing health problems from occurring by giving people what they need,” he said while summing up his life’s work in a simple yet effective way, adding quickly that, while progress has been made, there is still a great deal of work to be done.

And he’s still doing it.

Indeed, Robinson, who turns 70 this month, acknowledged that he is working past what would be considered retirement age. He attributes this to both a passion for his work and the simple fact that he has some projects he’s still working on that he wants to see to conclusion.

These include something called 413 Cares, an online community-resource database that provides resource and referral information to residents as well as healthcare and social-service agencies across the region, and also works to make Baystate an “anchor network” within the region.

Explaining the latter, he said that, by adjusting and refocusing some of its spending — in such areas as goods and services, hiring, and real-estate facilities — an institution like Baystate can have an even more profound impact on the communities it serves.

“Simply by changing our business practices in terms of how we spend money — spending it deliberately, intentionally, to benefit communities where there’s been substantial disinvestment or there are substantial disparities — we can change those community conditions,” he noted. “That’s the healthcare anchor institution mission and vision.”

A lifelong desire to change community conditions for the better explains not only why Robinson is still working — and still innovating — but also why he’s a Healthcare Hero. Again.

Background — Check

Indeed, this will be Robinson’s second trip to the podium at the Healthcare Heroes gala.

He was one of a large contingent on hand to accept the award in 2017 in the category called Collaboration in Healthcare. The name on the envelope, if you will, was the Healthy Hill Initiative, or HHI, a broad effort to change the health landscape in the Old Hill neighborhood of Springfield.

Robinson, one of nearly a dozen players involved in the initiative who were gathered around a conference-room table at Way Finders to talk about it, described it as a program that existed at “the dynamic intersection of two social determinants of health — public safety and access to physical activity.”

And he should certainly know. In many respects, he has spent his whole career working to address the many social determinants of health, including poverty, food insecurity, inadequate housing, lack of transportation, domestic abuse, and the stress that results from all of the above.

Retracing his career steps, Robinson said there have been some pivots — such as the one forced by Hurricane Agnes — along the way, and also some pivotal moments.

One of the latter was the consent decrees that eventually closed Northampton State Hospital and Belchertown State School and the creation of community-based programs to serve the residents of those facilities.

Frank Robinson has been called a true visionary by those who have worked with him over the years, and a long list of accomplishments bears this out.

Robinson was involved in this work during his time with the Department of Mental Health, and he remembers it leaving him inspired in many ways.

“Both of those institutions were closed by forward-thinking insiders who worked with progressive outsiders, or advocates, and formed this sort of perfect union around change,” he told BusinessWest. “That was a pivotal event; I knew I could create large-scale community change if you got the formula right and if you got in front of problems, prevented problems, and worked to change the lives of individuals.”

And over the past 40 years or so, he has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to create community change by getting in front of problems and using teamwork to address them.

This has been the formula at each career stop, including a brief stint as deputy commissioner and superintendent of the Northeast Ohio Development Center in Cleveland in the early ’80s before returning to this area and working at the W.W. Johnson Life Mental Health Center, the community substance-abuse partnership, and especially at Partners for a Healthier Community, where Robinson spent nearly 20 years at the helm.

During his tenure there, his ability to convene, create partnerships, and stare down difficult problems resulted in several new initiatives to improve the overall health of the Greater Springfield community.

One such effort is the BEST Oral Health program, blueprinted to address the alarming problem that children with MassHealth had very limited access to oral-health preventive and comprehensive treatment services. Robinson secured state funding to launch a demonstration project in Springfield that became the BEST program; it created a local system of education, screening, and treatment for preschoolers to decrease oral-health disease.

Another example of coalition building during his tenure at PFC is the Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition, which strives to improve asthma management and indoor air quality in Springfield and other area communities where substandard housing contributes to this ongoing health problem.

The Big Picture

Looking back over his career, Robinson said one of the goals — and one of the big challenges — has been to create change and generate solutions that would have an impact much longer than the typical three-year grant cycle.

“What you really need are initiatives with lasting impact where you can see change occur at a level where you improve the conditions of a whole population — where you can say, ‘we’ve changed community conditions,’” he explained.

With that thought in mind, he said there are two programs that “rise to the top,” as he put it, when he talks about career accomplishments.

One is the Baystate/Springfield Educational Partnership, an initiative that brings hundreds of students into the Baystate system to learn about careers in healthcare and places many of them in internships.

“Over the past 20 years, there have been substantial gains from our ability to work together across sectors and across organizations. And that’s new; there’s that essential element of trust across organizations that didn’t exist 15 years ago or 20 years ago, to be sure. And in spite of the competitive nature of social-service organizations in healthcare, there tends to be more agreement today that there is a public space where we can all come together and make a difference.”

These internships often lead to careers in healthcare, he went on, adding that, over the first 10 years of the program, there are many examples of this.

“Some of them are physicians, some of them are nurses — it’s across the whole spectrum,” he explained. “I know there are youngsters who are now physicians because of this program.”

The other program is the Baystate Academy Charter School, a 6-12 grade school based in Springfield and focused on healthcare careers.

The school graduated its first class of students, 45 of them, in June, said Robinson, adding that there was a 100% graduation rate and each graduating student was accepted at a two- or four-year college.

“The social determinant of health solution there is education,” Robinson explained. “The idea is that, if you graduate from Baystate Academy Charter School, you are college-ready.

“These two programs will be around long after I’m gone, producing change on a large scale and at a population level for our community,” he went on. “I’m very proud of both of them.”

Looking at the proverbial big picture from his unique vantage point, Robinson told BusinessWest there have been significant gains in many areas and many respects, especially when it comes to agencies and providers of healthcare working collaboratively, but significant challenges remain.

“Over the past 20 years, there have been substantial gains from our ability to work together across sectors and across organizations,” he explained. “And that’s new; there’s that essential element of trust across organizations that didn’t exist 15 years ago or 20 years ago, to be sure. And in spite of the competitive nature of social-service organizations in healthcare, there tends to be more agreement today that there is a public space where we can all come together and make a difference.

“This is especially true with matters of equity,” he went on. “We understand that there are significant challenges for large segments of our community, and the only way you’re to change those conditions is if people work together collaboratively and pool resources. There’s a clear recognition that this is the way to go.”

Elaborating, Robinson said there have always been coalitions, but today there is greater strength and “sophistication” to such partnerships, which has generated progress in a number of areas.

But when asked if Springfield is a much healthier community than it was 20 or 30 years ago, Robinson paused for several seconds and said ‘no.’

He based that answer on standard health measures and still-apparent gaps, or disparities, in overall care as viewed through what he called a “racial-equity lens.”

“If I compare poor people to the average, and black or brown people to the average, there are huge health-disparity gaps,” he noted. “The infant-mortality rate is still three times higher for black women than it is for white women; although the rate for black women has improved over time, the gap still exists.

“We find that same gap in issues such as low birth rate,” he went on. “These are measures not necessarily of the quality of healthcare, but measures of the conditions under which people live. Those gaps still exist, and so this city is still not healthy.

“We’re great as a community, and as a health system, when it comes to dealing with stuff that occurs inside the skin,” he continued, referring to the care provided at Baystate and other area facilities. “But if you think of health as things outside the skin that actually determine one’s health, we haven’t really improved there; poor people are sicker.”

These problems are not unique to Springfield, obviously, said Robinson, adding that most large urban centers continue to have these inequities in overall health based on income and opportunity. Progress has come, slowly, and the hope is that, by continuing to build coalitions and get in front of problems, more progress can be achieved.

This is what Robinson has spent a career doing, and he shows no signs of slowing down.

View to the Future

“Dr. Frank Robinson has worked tirelessly over the past 30 years to address public health and health inequities in our city and beyond. He is a recognized leader and a visionary in creating systems that make it easier for people to access needed healthcare services and creating systems in our neighborhoods that make it easier for people to make the healthier choice.”

There’s that word ‘visionary’ again. This time, it was put to use by Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, in that same nomination submission, as he went on about trying to put Robinson’s career, and his contributions, in perspective.

And visionary certainly fits. He’s been able to look at the community he serves, identify needs, and most importantly, create solutions for meeting those needs.

He’s spent a lifetime doing that, and that’s why he’s a Healthcare Hero.

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

Katherine Wilson

While She Manages People and Programs, Her Job Is About Changing Lives

Katherine Wilson

It’s probably fair to say that the discussions had at the dining room table when Katherine Wilson was in high school were not like those going on in most households in the mid’-60s.

Indeed, Wilson’s father was a physician, specializing in family medicine. Beyond the work at his practice, he was one of the pioneers of a sort when it came to the broad subject of healthcare management.

“From having a solo private practice, he got into the development of systems of delivery of healthcare,” she recalled. “He started an HMO, he was the first medical director of Community Health Center … my father was a big part of the systems that are now in place.

“We had discussions around the kitchen table about healthcare,” she went on. “His interest was in healthcare management, and he was progressive in his thinking at a time when they didn’t have community health centers and they didn’t have HMOs; he did a lot of work with the community physicians and community hospitals.”

One might say that Wilson, certainly inspired by not only those dinnertime talks, but later work at her father’s practice and in one of the first community health centers, has a made a career — a long and very successful career — of working innovatively and in partnership with others to find new and better ways to manage healthcare, and especially mental and behavioral healthcare, in this region and across the Commonwealth.

She’s done this in a variety of settings, most notably, for the past 30 years, as president and CEO of Behavioral Health Network Inc.

Created in 1992 through the merger of four entities — the Child Guidance Clinic of Springfield, Agawam Counseling Center, Community Care Mental Health Center, and the Hampden District Mental Health Clinic — BHN now serves more than 40,000 individuals annually in a service area that stretches across the four western counties.

There are 40 locations in all and more than 2,000 employees. Together, they provide and manage services that come in a variety of forms, from detox centers and ‘step-down’ facilities to a wide variety of counseling services for adults, youth, children, couples, and families; from a 24-hour crisis-intervention service to a host of developmental and intellectual disability services.

“In a society where, even today, stigma may still surround mental illness and those it affects, Kathy not only keenly understands, but goes to every length to help others understand as well. Kathy Wilson has changed innumerable lives for the better, and she’d be the first to say her work is far from finished.”

Wilson has spent the past three decades building and shaping BHN into a $115 million network that continues to expand and find new ways to provide care and a support network to those in need. In recent years, she has been at the forefront of efforts to better integrate general healthcare with behavioral healthcare, particularly in the Medicaid population, with the goal of driving down the ballooning cost of care nationally (more on that later).

And certainly this work to build and manage BHN goes a long way toward explaining why Wilson was chosen as a Healthcare Hero for 2019 in the Lifetime Achievement category. Actually, she is one of two who tied for the high score. The other winner is Frank Robinson, vice president of Public Health at Baystate Health (see story, page 19). Suffice it to say, these two won’t have to introduce themselves when they meet at the Healthcare Heroes gala on Oct. 17. They both worked for the Department of Mental Health in the late ’70s, and both worked to create community programs for residents of Northampton State Hospital and Belchertown State School after those institutions were ordered closed. And they’ve been working in concert on many initiatives ever since.

But there is more to this honor than the vast portfolio of programs and initiatives that is today’s BHN. Indeed, it’s also about a lifetime spent advocating for those with mental illness, substance-abuse issues, or developmental disabilities, anticipating and then meeting their needs, and then asking the difficult but necessary question, ‘what else can be done?’

It’s a philosophy, or mindset, perhaps best summed up with these words from her nomination form, submitted by her daughter, Amy Greeley, formerly a nurse manager at BHN:

“Kathy exemplifies a unique combination of innate compassion and fervent determination that’s led to the helm of a regionally renowned institution. It’s from a position from which she never stops working for greater, more advanced, and even more accessible services for all who need them.”

“In a society where, even today, stigma may still surround mental illness and those it affects, Kathy not only keenly understands, but goes to every length to help others understand as well. Kathy Wilson has changed innumerable lives for the better, and she’d be the first to say her work is far from finished.”

Care Package

It’s called the ‘Living Room.’

As that name suggests, this is a warm, home-like place where anyone age 18 or older can come to “regroup and get help,” said Wilson.

Elaborating, she said the facility, one of many that BHN has carved out of old, mostly unused or underutilized manufacturing buildings in the Liberty Street area, is one of the latest additions to the agency’s portfolio. It was designed for people in a developing crisis, a current crisis, or a post-crisis situation, and is a place where people “can find help from others who have had similar experiences and who can provide support, encouragement, and guidance,” according to a brochure on the facility.

The Living Room, as noted, is just one of dozens of facilities under the BHN umbrella, and its creation speaks to Wilson’s ongoing work — and mission — to continually find new and different ways to meet unmet needs and build support networks for those who desperately need them.

And, as mentioned, this has been her career’s work — going all the way back, in some ways, to those discussions at the dining-room table.

Retracing her route to the corner office at BHN, Wilson said that, after working at her father’s practice and other health settings while in high school and college, she eventually decided that psychology, not healthcare, would be her chosen field; she earned a bachelor’s degree in that field at Denison University and a master’s in clinical psychology at SUNY Plattsburgh.

After a very short stint as a psychotherapist, she applied for a job with the Department of Mental Health, and was hired as a planner during that critical time when Northampton State Hospital and Belchertown State School were ordered to close.

“It was my responsibility to identify individuals from both institutions, look at what their needs were, and see what we could create in the community,” she recalled, adding that she worked to develop some of the group homes that are in use today. “I also worked with agencies that began to adopt the agenda of creating community programs to support people, such as the Community Care Mental Health Center in Springfield, which created day programs so individuals could get some of their rehabilitation in a clinical setting.”

The consent decrees that shuttered the institutions in Northampton and Belchertown coincided with national initiatives imbedded within the Community Mental Health Act, established by President John F. Kennedy. It made federal funds available to create more community systems of care, said Wilson, adding that, locally, a consortium of agencies was created to administer this flow of federal money.

“We got together and said, ‘survival means you have to get bigger, you need to have a stronger base at the bottom to support what we do, and this will give us a platform for growth.”

Called the Springfield Community Mental Health Consortium, it administered a number of initiatives, including hospital supports, group-living environments, outpatient systems of care, emergency services, and more, said Wilson, who transitioned from working for the state to being employed with the consortium as a planner.

“It was my responsibility to help establish the Community Mental Health Center range of services,” she explained. “Now that we had more people in the community living with mental illness, we needed to create the system of healthcare support.”

When the Reagan administration closed the tap on federal money for these services, with funding to be secured through state-administered block grants instead, the agencies that were part of the consortium broke apart and continued to do their own work, said Wilson, who then went to work with Child Guidance Clinic of Springfield, first as Business and Finance director and then executive director of the Child Guidance Clinic of Springfield.

As funding for mental-health programs became more scarce, Wilson said, she and the directors of three other agencies — Agawam Counseling Center, Community Care Mental Health Center, and the Hampden District Mental Health Clinic — decided that the best strategy was to merge those entities into one corporation.

“We got together and said, ‘survival means you have to get bigger, you need to have a stronger base at the bottom to support what we do, and this will give us a platform for growth,’” she recalled, adding that this new entity would become BHN.

And over the years, it would continue to get bigger and widen that base of support, as those administrators knew it had to, through additional mergers and the addition of many new programs.

Room to Grow

As president and CEO of BHN, Wilson wears a number of hats and logs tens of thousands of miles each year traveling back and forth to Boston for meetings on a range of topics and with a host of groups and individuals.

As for those hats, Wilson said she is the face of BHN and, for many, a first point of contact. She also considers herself a problem solver and a “convener,” a strategist, a mentor for many, and even an interior designer.

“I’m often the one that picks the colors for the walls,” she said, referring to the seemingly constant work to open and renovate new facilities, not only at what has become a ‘BHN campus’ off Liberty Street in Springfield, but across the region, while also noting that much goes into to picking those colors.

All those skills have been put to use over the past 30 years, an intriguing time of growth and evolution for BHN as it responds to emerging needs within the community, said Wilson, who cited, as one example, profound expansion into addiction services.

“One of the areas we identified maybe 10 years ago is that we were seeing many more of the parents of the children we were seeing at the Child Guidance Clinic, and many more adults coming in to adult outpatient clinics having mental-health issues co-occurring with substance use,” she explained. “And we said, ‘we can’t just treat mental-health problems without acknowledging the fact that there is a substance-use disorder concurrently, and that we really need to think about building a system of care that serves that population.’”

As a result, BHN collaborated with Baystate Health, which had a community-based system of care that included a detox and some community group-living environments for post-detox care, said Wilson, adding that Baystate asked BHN to manage those facilities and eventually transfer them into its system of care.

“We inherited Baystate’s system of community services for those with addiction,” she said. “And once we did that, we got established with the Department of Public Health and its Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, and we became known as an agency that could handle co-occurring treatments as well as individuals whose primary diagnosis was addiction, and from there, they helped us grow a system of treatment for people with substance-abuse disorder, and that really took off because the state was making significant investments in that world.”

That system now includes two detox operations, two step-down facilities, and a number of beds in what are called ‘residential recovery,’ or group-living facilities, she told BusinessWest, adding that this is just one example of how BHN continues to grow and evolve.

And it’s also just one example of how Wilson has led efforts to improve access to a wide array of care at a time when more people need access. The creation of the Northern Hope Center and Recovery Services in Greenfield, blueprinted in response to needs created by the opioid crisis in Franklin County, is still another case in point.

And these initiatives provide ample evidence of the additional emphasis placed on integrated healthcare and behavioral healthcare with the twin goals of improving population health and bringing down the cost of care, said Wilson, adding that BHN has been at the forefront of these efforts.

“This is what the federal government wants its funding to support, particularly for the Medicaid population,” she explained. “This is the population whose behavioral health — addictions or mental health — really interfere with their managing health.

“You have this small group of people that is driving high costs to Medicaid and both commercial and private insurance,” she went on. “So the move these days is for physicians and healthcare systems to work with behavioral-health systems of care and provide wrap-around services for individuals to see if you can manage the behavioral health, because that will help bring the cost of healthcare down.”

BHN adopted this rather profound operational shift several years ago, said Wilson, adding that, overall, it is part of her job description to keep the agency on the cutting edge of trends and developments in healthcare, while also making sure it remains viable and able to function properly in the years to decades to come.

That means continuing to find more ways to grow the network (the ‘N’ in BHN), building upon its base of support, and developing new methods for providing all-important access to care.

When asked about her most significant accomplishment, she quickly changed the subject of that question to ‘we,’ meaning BHN, but in doing so still managed to sum up her career’s work.

“I think we’ve created excellent, value-based, top-of-the-line service delivery for people who need access, sometimes very quickly, to good treatment,” she noted. “I have excellent medical leadership on both the addiction and behavioral healthcare side, and we hire really good, skilled, competent people. So I think people who are not used to getting good access to care now get it.

“Also, we’ve hired so many people that we have helped come from an addiction to sobriety, reunification, and now they’re BHN employees,” she went on. “To me, that warms my heart to know that people have been able to turn their lives around with the help of BHN.”

Change Agent

Which brings us back to that passage from Wilson’s nomination form. There are a number of key phrases within it that explain why she will be at the podium on Oct. 17 to receive her Lifetime Achievement award.

There’s the part about battling the stigma attached to mental illness, something she’s been doing for more than four decades. There’s also that point about how she would be the first to acknowledge that her work isn’t finished — because it never is.

But perhaps the words to remember most are those concerning ‘changing thousands of lives for the better.’

Indeed, while Wilson manages people, programs, and facilities for BHN, changing lives is what she does for a living.

And that’s why she’s a Healthcare Hero.

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

Shriners Hospitals for Children – Springfield

‘There’s a Magic Here,’ Built on Dedication, Innovation, and Culture

H. Lee Kirk Jr. was speaking at a public event recently, when a woman stood up to tell him about her 3-year-old grandson’s experience at Shriners Hospitals for Children – Springfield.

“She said, ‘when we take him to the doctor’s office or another healthcare provider, he cries going in, and he’s sprinting out the door to get back home. When he comes to Shriners, he’s sprinting on the way in and happy to be coming, and he’s kicking and screaming when he has to leave,’” he related. “There’s a magic here that’s really hard to get your arms around.”

But Kirk, administrator of the 94-year-old facility on Carew Street in Springfield, tried to explain it the best he could over the course of a conversation with BusinessWest after the hospital was chosen as a Healthcare Hero for 2019 in the Patient/Resident/Client Care Provider category.

“This is a special healthcare organization because of the mission,” he said. “The culture is unlike any other I’ve been involved in. We want to be the best at transforming the lives of kids. And we get the privilege of seeing that every day here.”

It’s a culture that employees find attractive, said George Gorton, the hospital’s director of Research, Planning, and Business Development, adding that consulting physicians from other hospitals say, after visiting, that it’s the happiest place they’ve ever worked.

“It’s a palpable difference,” he went on. “As employees, we love that caring, family feeling of being employed by an organization that aligns with our own personal mission. That’s just not seen anywhere else.”

Last year, the hospital produced some short videos with employees to celebrate the opening of its inpatient pediatric rehab unit. In one of them, a nurse hired specifically for that unit talked about how she’s wanted to be a nurse at Shriners since being treated there for a rheumatology issue when she was a child.

“She was in tears, expressing the joy and positivity she had, to be able to take that experience of receiving care and become the person who provides that care to other people,” Gorton said. “It was a really touching moment to hear her express that.”

Then there’s the boy Gorton — who’s been with Shriners for more than a quarter-century — examined decades ago in the motion-analysis center; he’s now a physician assistant at the hospital.

Gorton said it’s impossible to single out any individual person responsible for creating the generational success stories and culture that makes Shriners what it is. The judges for this year’s Healthcare Heroes program agreed, making a perhaps outside-the-box choice in a category that has previously honored individuals, not entire organizations.

Yet, the choice makes sense, said Jennifer Tross, who came on board two years ago as Marketing and Communications manager, because of that unique culture that draws people back to provide care decades after receiving it, and that has kids shedding tears when they have to leave, not when they show up.

“The day I arrived,” Tross said, “I went home and said, ‘I knew this place would change my life, and it has.’”

Countless families agree, which is why Shriners is deserving of the title Healthcare Hero.

Step by Step

When a boy named Bertram, from Augusta, Maine, made the trek with his family to Springfield in February 1925, he probably wasn’t thinking about making history. But he did just that, as the hospital’s very first patient. The Shriners organization opened its first hospitals primarily to take care of kids with polio, but Bertram had club feet — a condition that became one of the facility’s core services.

After the first Shriners Hospitals for Children site opened in 1922 in Shreveport, La., 10 other facilities followed in 1925 (there are now 22 facilities, all in the U.S. except for Mexico City and Montreal). Four of those hospitals, including one in Boston, focus on acute burn care, while the rest focus primarily on a mix of orthopedics and other types of pediatric care.

As an orthopedic specialty hospital, the Springfield facility has long focused on conditions ranging from scoliosis, cerebral palsy, and spina bifida to club foot, chest-wall deformities, cleft lip and palate, and a host of other conditions afflicting the limbs, joints, bones, and extremities — and much more.

While many of the hospitals overlap in services, each has tended to adapt to the needs of its own community. In Springfield’s case that includes pediatric specialties like rheumatology, urology, and fracture care, as well as a sports health and medicine program that includes three athletic trainers and a pediatric orthopedic surgeon with training in sports medicine.

H. Lee Kirk (left, with Jennifer Tross and George Gorton) says Shriners is a special healthcare organization because of its mission.

The latter, Kirk said, includes services to kids without medical problems, as the hospital works with schools, clubs, and leagues help provide more preventive and conditioning services and follow up when injuries occur.

Meanwhile, the BFit exercise program targets kids with neuromuscular problems who normally don’t participate in physical activity, sports, or even gym class. The program aims to improve the physical activity of this group, and does it by involving students from area colleges who are studying fields like physical and occupational therapy, exercise science, sports medicine, and kinesiology.

“They volunteer as personal coaches,” Gorton said. “The child learns to adapt their environment and become physically active, and those students learn what it’s like to care for children. Many have gone into pediatric healthcare to do that kind of training because of their experience here. They see it here, and it spreads like a good virus through the population.”

Then there was the 2013 community assessment determining that an inpatient pediatric rehabilitation clinic would fill a persistent need. That 20-bed clinic opened last year following a $1.25 million capital campaign that wound up raising slightly more — reflective of the community support the hospital has always received, allowing it to provide free care to families without the ability to pay (more on that later).

Still, more than 90% of the care provided in Springfield is outpatient — in fact, the facility saw 12,173 visits last year, a more than 40% expansion over the past several years.

The care itself, the clinical component, is only one of three prongs in the Shriners mission, Kirk said. The second part is education; over the past 30 years, thousands of physicians have undertaken residency education or postgraduate fellowships at the various children’s hospitals. In Springfield, residents in a variety of healthcare disciplines — from orthopedics to nursing, PT, and OT — have arrived for 10- to 12-week rotations.

The third component of the mission is research, specifically clinical research in terms of how to improve the processes of delivering care to children. That often takes the shape of new technology, from computerized 3D modeling for cleft-palate surgery to the hospital’s motion-analysis laboratory, where an array of infrared cameras examine how a child walks and converts that data to a 3D model that gives doctors all they need to know about a child’s progress.

More recently, a capital campaign raised just under $1 million to install the EOS Imaging System, Nobel Prize-winning X-ray technology that exists nowhere else in Western Mass. or the Hartford area, which enhances imaging while reducing the patient’s exposure to radiation. That’s important, Kirk said, particularly for children who have had scoliosis or other orthopedic conditions, and start having X-rays early on their lives and continue them throughout adolescence.

Averting Disaster

It’s an impressive array of services and technology, and collectively, it meets a clear need — and not just locally. While about 60% of patients hail from a 20-mile radius, the hospital sees young people from across New England, New York, more than 20 other states, and more than 20 countries as well.

Yet, only a decade ago, the hospital was in danger of closing. At the height of the Great Recession, the national Shriners organization announced it was considering shuttering six of its 22 children’s hospitals across the country — including the one on Carew Street.

In the end, after a deluge of very vocal outrage and support by families of patients and community leaders, the Shriners board decided against closing any of its specialty children’s hospitals, even though the organization had been struggling, during those tough economic times, to provide its traditionally free care given rising costs and a shrinking endowment.

To make it possible to keep the facilities open, in 2011, Shriners — for the first time in its nearly century-long history — started accepting third-party payments from private insurance and government payers such as Medicaid when possible, although free care is still provided to all patients without the means to pay, and the hospital continues to accommodate families who can’t afford the co-pays and deductibles that are now required by many insurance plans.

“It was a wise decision to accept insurance — but it was a controversial decision,” Kirk said. Yet, it makes sense, too. A very small percentage of patients in Massachusetts don’t have some kind of coverage, yet 63% of care at Shriners is paid for by donors — a disconnect explained by the fact that Medicaid doesn’t pay for care there, and gaps exist in other insurance as well.

So, if a family can’t pay, the hospital does not chase the money, relying on an assistance resource funded by Shriners and their families nationwide.

“Donor support allows us to provide free care,” Kirk said. “We don’t send families to collections and contribute to the number-one cause of personal bankruptcy in America, which is medical care. It’s a very unique model, and a unique healthcare-delivery system.”

And one that, as Kirk noted, treats a patient population that can be underserved otherwise. For instance, the cleft lip and palate program — a multi-disciplinary program integrated with providers from other hospitals in the region and serving about 30 partients at any given time — begins assessing some patients prenatally, and most need care throughout adolescence and even into young adulthood.

Those consulting relationships are critical to the success of Shriners, which doesn’t seek to compete with other providers in the region, but supplement them while striving to be, in many cases, the best place for young people to receive specialized treatment, whether for orthopedic conditions or a host of other issues.

When Kirk arrived in 2015, the hospital underwent a comprehensive self-assessment process that made two things clear, he said: that there’s a real need for what it does, and that it needs to reinvest in its core.

“And that’s what we did. And that’s about people, not bricks and mortar,” he went on, noting that the facility has added about 70 positions since that time.

“We’re a completely different place today than we were in 2009,” Gorton added, noting that the hospital is stronger in leadership, internal communication, and external connections. Among the 22 Shriners specialty hospitals, Springfield ranks second in the proportion of the budget offset by donations. “Why? Because we have a great relationship with the community. We’ve become more outward-facing, and we’re integrated everywhere in the community.”

The Next Century

Getting back to that 3-year-old who doesn’t want to leave when he visits Shriners, surely the hospital’s child-friendly playscapes and colorful, kid-oriented sculptures and artwork help create a welcoming environment, but those wouldn’t make much difference if the people providing care didn’t put him at ease.

That environment begins with employees who love what they do, Kirk said, and this Healthcare Hero award in the Provider category is definitely shared by all of them. Other families feel the same way, as the facility regularly ranks in the 99th percentile on surveys that gauge the patient and family experience.

“We have happy employees who love being here, who love working with kids, who love delivering the mission — and the patients and families sense that and respond to that,” Gorton said.

That’s why the hospital’s leaders continue to examine the evolving needs of the pediatric community and how they can continue to deepen its clinical relationships and expanding services most in demand — always with the philosophy of “mission over model,” Kirk said.

“We are always thinking about the future,” he added, “so we can sustain this healthcare system for the next 100 years.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Cristina Huebner Torres, Ph.D.

This Leader Is Focused on Dismantling the Barriers That Limit One’s Ability to Thrive

Cristina Huebner Torres, Ph.D.

Dr. Cristina Huebner Torres was moving into a new home a little while back, and during the unpacking process happened to come across the essay she wrote while applying for entry to New York University for her master’s degree.

Re-reading it gave her the feeling that, career-wise, she really was doing exactly what she knew she always wanted to do. Well, sort of.

“I have always had a goal of creating a multi-cultural wellness center where people explore their health, bodies, creativity, minds and their holistic self through integrating movement, art, nutrition and other forms of … biomedical and traditional medicine,” she said, quoting from the essay, adding that at the time her work was largely focused on women and women’s reproductive health.

As things worked out, as vice president of Research & Population Health for the Caring Health Center (CHC) in Springfield, she’s working with a much larger constituency — and a much broader range of health matters. And rather than just ‘having a career’ at this facility, she has assumed a pivotal leadership role in efforts to not only study the many and persistent social determinants of health — such things as poverty, food insecurity, inadequate housing, crime, lack of transportation, and more — but doing something about them.

Her ongoing work has earned her the 2019 Healthcare Heroes award in the highly competitive category called ‘Innovation in Healthcare and Wellness.’

Huebner Torres has helped develop and administer a number of initiatives designed to improve the overall health and well-being of the generally underserved population that comes to the Caring Health Center, including creation of its Wellness Center.

Opened a decade ago — a significant milestone, to be sure — this facility lives up to its name and is a unique, innovative addition to a federally qualified community health center. It includes both a fitness center and a full kitchen, where individuals (generally referred to as patients, but also clients) can learn about general nutrition and how to prepare healthy meals for their families.

“After conducting a year and half of focus groups with community and patients, we found that the community was asking for a place where they could engage in group-based exercise, that was cost-free, culturally tailored, taught by someone who was licensed or trained in the area, and located within primary care,” she said, adding that the Wellness Center was developed to meet these community-identified needs.

“She is steadfast in her belief that services that are respectful of gender and sexual identity, widely accessible, culturally tailored, and based on the individual strengths and interests of the patient stand the best chance of bringing about long-lasting health.”

Huebner Torres said there are many ways to qualify and quantify the impact of the many facets of her work, and especially the wellness center, on the overall health and well-being of those served by the CHC. And she’s currently working to attain grants to help with this measuring process. But she believes there is already ample evidence that the center and other initiatives are helping to support patients actively engaged in their wellness.

And all of this is embodied — figuratively, but also quite literally — in an individual who asked to be identified only as ‘Lamont.’

He started coming to the wellness center the first day it opened, not long after his cancer surgery and when Huebner Torres was leading the fitness classes. Today, he leads several classes himself, helping a wide range of individuals with stretching, cardio exercises, and more.

He said these classes are doing what they did for him back when he first started.

“I had lost quite a bit of weight and wasn’t in very good shape,” he said, referring to the impact of the cancer medication. “I told my doctor, ‘I don’t want to stay home, I don’t want to deteriorate, I want to do everything possible that I can to get healthy.”

Many of those he’s now instructing arrive with a similar attitude, and this is exactly what Huebner Torres had in mind when she conceptualized the facility.

Her work, and her approach to it, is best summed up in this summation in the nomination submitted by CHC’s president and CEO, Tania Barber:

“Cristina’s core values and goals are informed by her belief that people are healthier when they feel safe and respected, eat nutritious foods, have opportunities for regular exercise, are knowledgeable about health and well-being, openly celebrate their cultural traditions, and receive services in their own language,” she wrote. “Her work is focused on dismantling the barriers that limit each person’s ability to thrive, both in the community at large as well as the healthcare setting, increasing access to community and social support, addressing structural bias, and promoting peer-led models are important aspects of her approach. She is steadfast in her belief that services that are respectful of gender and sexual identity, widely accessible, culturally tailored, and based on the individual strengths and interests of the patient stand the best chance of bringing about long-lasting health.”

Stress Test

As she talked about her work at the Caring Health Center, especially in the broad realm of the social determinants of health, Huebner Torres honed in on the subject of stress.

More specifically, she talked about how those who come to the CHC combat what would have to be considered a different, more virulent strain of stress.

“We’re not talking about a morning being stressful because you had some extra traffic on your daily commute,” she explained. “We’re talking about not having sufficient food every day for you and your family, and not having sufficient housing for you and your family, or many of those things co-occurring, and the effects of that over time.”

One might say researching this higher level of stress — resulting from those aforementioned social determinants of health — and doing something about it have become Huebner Torres’s life’s work.

As she noted, it was essentially her life’s ambition and she went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Medical Anthropology from Mount Holyoke College, while also focusing on modern dance. She earned a master’s degree in somatic studies from New York University, and her doctorate in Epidemiology at the UMass School of Public Health and Health Sciences.

Cristina Huebner Torres stands in the kitchen in the Wellness Center at the CHC, which hosts many popular classes in cooking and nutrition.

Building on her undergraduate and master’s studies, she focused her doctorate in social epidemiology on the social determinants of chronic disease management. Her work considers the role of food insecurity and social stressors on the ability to prevent or manage diseases like diabetes and hypertension within community health center settings. She started her career at the Hispanic Health Council in Hartford, where she also interned while in college.

“This was an applied-research environment in a community-based setting, and it really set the stage for my career,” she told BusinessWest, “because I’ve been a community-based investigator, meaning that I find ways to create and partner in opportunities for conducting research within a public health practice and applied framework.

“It’s research driven by emerging trends within the community,” she went on, “and we use that research to inform opportunities for intervention that are culturally and community informed and making sure those interventions are actionable and integrated and sustainable.”

This explanation sums up her job description at the CHC, which she came to in 2007 as director of Research and Wellness. Since opening in 1995, the CHC has become the preferred health provider in Springfield serving a population that is diverse and challenged in many ways. Indeed, 70% of the more than 21,000 are Medicaid beneficiaries and the majority have one or more chronic illnesses. Nearly half of the patients speak languages other than English, and most live with medically complex conditions, often comprised of two or more chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, emphysema, heart disease, viral hepatitis, and chronic pain. And many patients also navigate behavioral-health conditions such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, or engage in opioid, alcohol, or other substance abuse.

The culturally diverse population served by CHC has many strengths as well as complex needs, and in her time at the CHC, Huebner Torres has collaboratively led the development of a number of services and programs to address them. These include an award-winning community health worker program that addresses the social determinants of health, as well as writing the grant to integrate the behavioral-health department with staffing and innovative programming to meet the culturally and linguistically diverse needs of refugee and immigrant individuals and families, and to support patients navigating multiple chronic co-morbidities.

Each of these innovations has been supported by leadership at CHC, she went on, and are sustained by a “tremendous collaborative team of dedicated and talented staff at CHC.”

The Shape of Things to Come

As she led BusinessWest on a tour of the Wellness Center, Huebner Torres started in the Wellness Center teaching kitchen.

There, she said, the center provides both nutrition education and cooking demonstrations, such as the very popular “Ask and Cook with the Dietitian!” sessions staged every Thursday by CHC’s registered dietician Vela Nicasio.

The kitchen-focused programs are designed to support patients as they look to follow primary-care treatment plans and recommendations for dietary improvements. The same is true of the workout facilities, which feature a number of cardio machines, weights, and large spaces for group classes in ‘stretching and restoring,’ cardio fitness, and open wellness (including one for women only).

‘Lamont,’ who first came to the Wellness Center the day it opened as a participant recovering from cancer surgery, is now an instructor.

The foundation of all that takes place in the center is the acronym CLAS, which stands for culturally and linguistically appropriate services, said Huebner Torres.

“It’s in the mission of what we do; it’s the heart of what the Caring Health Center does,” she explained, adding that the underlying goal behind creation of the center was to create a place where everyone could exercise and feel comfortable, including populations that just didn’t have such a space.

As an example, Huebner Torres listed Muslim women.

“They didn’t have a place to go because that place couldn’t include men, and it needed to not include music,” she explained. “And if you walk into any gym environment, there’s men and music. So early on, we created a Muslim-women-only exercise class, and it’s the first and only one in this area that we’re aware of.”

That class eventually became simply a women-only class because the Muslim women decided to open it to all women, she went on, adding that, overall, these classes and other programs are designed to help patients deal with health issues, but also the enormous amounts of stress they face in their lives — and do so in a group setting where they can interface with others facing similar challenges.

“A huge part of what people said they wanted in a center like this was for it to be group-based, and I think the concept of social support and social engagement, for many patients, becomes the number-one driving factor in why to attend,” she explained. “It’s not about ‘did I lose a pound or 10 pounds in so much time’; instead, it’s about ‘I was able to join in with other people like me and with some leadership that cares. And it was fun, I learned something, and I was engaging with people.’”

In short, the center and its programs are designed to educate and inspire commitment to getting healthy and staying healthy.

Which brings us back to Lamont.

“I started going to the wellness center once or twice a week, and I could really see myself making changes in my health,” he recalled, returning to the days and weeks after his cancer surgery. “I started to regain some strength and stamina, and from there I took it to another level; I started getting out to the park and running three or four miles a day, every other day. And I started working out at the wellness center four times a week.”

As he continued to grow stronger health-wise and become a role model, Lamont was advised by his doctor to become involved with a movement known as MOCHA — Men of Color Health Awareness, a name that goes a long way toward explaining what it is and does.

“Men of color have issues with going to the doctor and talking to the doctor, and that’s why a lot of us are dying today,” he said, adding that, as part of his participation in MOCHA, he gave a speech on this subject on the steps of Springfield City Hall.

He credits the Caring Health Center with saving his life when he had cancer, and now he gives back to the center through his role as a certified group exercise instructor and overall work to help others become actively engaged in their health and wellness.

“When it comes to stress, nutrition, getting off the couch and working out two or three times a week … all these things I learned from here,” he said, referring to the CHC and its wellness center. “I learned how to be proactive in talking to my doctor when things are going on and having a conversation.”

From a big-picture, community-health perspective, this is exactly what Huebner Torres had in mind when she blueprinted the Wellness Center a decade ago based on community and patient input.

Practicing Patience

In nominating Huebner Torres as a Healthcare Hero for innovation, Barber listed a number of attributes, all quite necessary for this kind of work.

For example, “Cristina demonstrates respect, consistency, and graciousness toward everyone she encounters. She listens well, speaks directly and honestly, and displays a quiet, well-timed sense of humor … she is intelligent, patient, and calm under pressure, and widely admired by those around her.”

When asked which of these is perhaps her strongest trait, Huebner Torres didn’t hesitate in saying ‘patience,’ adding that it’s more than a virtue when dealing with the complex issues she addresses every day — it’s a necessity.

“The other key factor — and perhaps most important of all — is partnership,” she said. “All of these initiatives are innovative and successful because of the team at CHC, the community, the patients, partner organizations and investigators, and the funders who have supported our efforts.”

“Nothing happens overnight — you have to be able to stick with it over time,” she went on.

Throughout her career, she has shown an ability to do just that, and the nutrition classes and group workout sessions at the Wellness Center are evidence that, when you do stick with it, you can bring about positive change in the lives of individuals — and in a community.

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

Amy Walker

This Nurse Midwife Gave Birth to an Intriguing Concept in Care

Amy Walker

‘Accountability.’

After pausing to give the matter some thought, this was the word a woman who chose to be identified only by her initials — S.M. — summoned when asked about what the New Beginnings program at Cooley Dickinson Health Care has given her.

There were other things on that list, to be sure, she said, listing camaraderie, friends, ongoing education, and even role models of a sort. But accountability, on many levels, was what was missing most from her life, and New Beginnings, which supports pregnant women with an opioid-use disorder with education, skills development, peer support, and goal setting, helped her develop some at a time when she needed it most.

“I wanted to come even though I was struggling to stay sober,” she said, referring to the regular group meetings attended by mothers facing similar challenges. “I didn’t have to come, but I wanted to; it’s hard to explain, but it was the beginning of me being responsible and accepting the fact that I was pregnant and here with the other women in the same situation.”

These sentiments speak volumes about why Amy Walker, a certified nurse midwife at Cooley Dickinson Hospital (CDH), created the program in 2018, and also about its overall mission.

“We want to empower women to be successful mothers,” said Walker, whose efforts to create New Beginnings have not only filled a critical need within CDH’s broad service area but earned her the Healthcare Heroes award in the ultra-competitive Community Health category.

She said the foundation of the program is a group approach, which is nothing new when it comes to expectant mothers, but it is new when it comes to this specific at-risk population, which makes New Beginnings somewhat unique and innovative.

“I wanted to come even though I was struggling to stay sober. I didn’t have to come, but I wanted to; it’s hard to explain, but it was the beginning of me being responsible and accepting the fact that I was pregnant and here with the other women in the same situation.”

“There are a couple of other places in the country that are doing this,” she explained. “There’s not a lot of studies on this yet, but it made sense, because it works so well in general and has these added benefits of providing community and more education, that it seemed like the way to go.”

While the program is still in its relative infancy (pun intended), it is already providing some rather dramatic, and measurable, results. Indeed, since the initiative was launched, 10 women with substance-abuse disorders who have participated in the program have delivered at the Childbirth Center at CDH, and nine of the 10 babies went home with their mothers. Walker believes that number would have been much lower had it not been for New Beginnings.

To send more mothers suffering from opioid-abuse disorder home with their babies, New Beginnings provides the many things these women need at this critical, and vulnerable, time in their lives. That list includes what amounts to a support network at a time when family and friends may be unable or unwilling to fill that role.

Indeed, S.M. told BusinessWest that, while her mother was quite supportive during her pregnancy and the period to follow, her friends were still using drugs, and thus, she didn’t want to be around them.

Support is provided in the months and weeks prior to delivery, during delivery, and then during the post-partum period, said Walker, adding that, while post-delivery is a challenging time for most all mothers, it is especially so for those suffering from opioid-abuse disorder.

“The riskiest time for relapse is in the post-partum period,” she explained. “We find that many women are able to maintain sobriety during pregnancy, but of course, the stresses of parenting, and sometimes parenting with limited resources, can be a triggering factor when it comes to relapse.”

The program also provides education and help to mothers with babies diagnosed with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), the incidence of which is growing as the opioid crisis continues, said Walker.

Such babies are fussy, cry a lot, and are hard to soothe, she went on, adding that many remain in the hospital for several weeks. New Beginnings addresses these needs through something called the ‘eat/sleep/console’ method of evaluating and treating newborns with NAS, an initiative that results in shorter hospital stays and less opioid use for the newborn.

Above all else, New Beginnings provides a judgment-free zone that offers both compassion and quality care, said Walker, adding that all three ingredients are needed to properly provide for both mother and baby.

Pregnant Pause

Flashing back to her first New Beginnings group session roughly 16 months ago, S.M. remembers feeling relatively calm, but also a little uneasy about what she was getting herself into.

“I think was kind of numb and a little nervous,” she recalled, adding that she was struggling with sobriety at that time, when she was on methadone. “But at the same time, it felt comforting knowing what it was for; it was for women with addiction problems who were having babies. It was exactly what I needed at that time.”

S.M. said she was referred to New Beginnings several weeks earlier, about three months into her pregnancy and while she was still using heroin, which she described as her “drug of choice.” She said she was experiencing a number of emotions, but mostly anger — directed at herself.

“I was going through a really tough time accepting that I was pregnant,” she told BusinessWest while sitting in the same small room where the group sessions are held. “I couldn’t face the fact that I was using while I was pregnant, because I was really mad at myself. I came here because I wanted to do everything I could to try to do my best and get my life in order.”

Amy Walker says the New Beginnings program provides a critical judgment-free zone for pregnant women and new mothers battling opioid addiction.

In most every case, these emotions, these sentiments, and this particular drug of choice make S.M. typical of a growing number of women who are going through pregnancy while still using opioids or struggling with sobriety, usually through medication-assisted treatment such as methadone or Subutex, said Walker. She added that this growing demographic is an intriguing and sometimes overlooked aspect of the opioid epidemic — one that has now become a focal point of her work as a certified midwife.

And in many ways, this work reflects the values and passions (that’s a word you’ll read often) that brought her to the rewarding profession of midwifery — and will her bring to the podium at the Healthcare Heroes gala on Oct. 17 to accept the award in Community Health.

Our story begins during her undergraduate work when Walker took a job with Planned Parenthood in Gainesville, Fla. She worked at the front desk, selling birth-control pills and checking people in for their appointments.

“I was really inspired to grow in women’s health,” she explained. “I met nurse midwives and nurse practitioners who worked there, and started working in the Health Education department there, doing sex education, HIV-prevention outreach, and more, and from there I decided I wanted to go to midwifery school.”

She would earn her degree at Columbia University and, while doing so, see her career ambitions crystalize.

“My roots were really in gynecological care, but then I developed a love for caring for women and families during pregnancy and birth,” she explained. “I found that I love that intimate connection that you make with families.

“Meanwhile, one of my biggest passions was caring for underserved populations — people who maybe didn’t have access to all the care options,” she went on. “I wanted to provide them with the same type of care as someone who was more able to select what kind of care they wanted; that was really important to me.”

These twin passions have come together in a powerful way with New Beginnings, which Walker conceptualized several years after coming to CDH in 2014 after stints at Leominster Hospital and in St. Croix.

Tracing the origins of the program, she said it was one of many strategic initiatives that sprang from the work of an opioid task force created by CDH in 2016. That group’s work revealed that there were many unmet needs and, overall, that services needed to be better-organized and better-focused.

“I really wanted to be involved with that task force because I felt that the care we were giving to patients with substance-abuse disorders wasn’t really poor care, but it was all over the map,” she told BusinessWest. “There was no consistency in the messages that patients were getting and the education they were getting, and I knew that we could do better.”

One of those many efforts to do better is New Beginnings.

Delivering Results

At the heart of the program and its group sessions is the belief that women going through pregnancy while using opioids or trying to stay sober can benefit from being in the same room together, talking about their experiences, their emotions, their fears, and their hopes for the future.

And S.M.’s story, and her recollections of her year in the program, provide ample evidence that these beliefs are well-founded.

“It was really helpful coming here and knowing that there were other pregnant women who were either going through the same thing or had been there,” she said. “There were other women I’d met through New Beginnings who had kids and had them taken away. That made me feel … I don’t want to say better. It made me feel … well, not as mad at myself, knowing that someone else had been through this and had struggled with being able to have their kids in their life because of their addiction.

“I also came to know the risks of actually having her taken away,” she went on, referring to her daughter, who was playing with other children in the middle of the room as S.M. talked. “And knowing how mad I was just for using, that made me want to just do everything I could.”

These sentiments speak to that goal of empowering women to become successful mothers, said Walker, adding that empowerment comes through accountability and being responsible, but also through education.

And from the start, education has been one of the main focal points for New Beginnings, said Walker, who cited neonatal abstinence syndrome as an example.

“We expect it, and it’s treatable, but it can be challenging, because that baby may need a lot of soothing care, and sometimes needs to be held or soothed or rocked 100% of the time,” she explained. “All this could be challenging for anyone, but if you are someone with your own chronic illness who may not have a lot of support … all those things add up to make it really challenging.

“So if someone was coming into that without having any knowledge of how to care for their baby or what to expect from their hospital stay, that can be really shocking,” she went on. “I felt that we could do a better job of providing that educational prenatally, and there needed to be an avenue for that.”

Elaborating, she said that, typically, most pre-natal visits (for all women) run only about 15 minutes or so. This isn’t much time for women to learn or be supported. In response to this, she created two-hour group prenatal sessions for those involved with New Beginnings. The first hour would be the physical exam, she noted, while the other 90 minutes would be spent providing education and support in a group setting.

“We can cover so many more topics in that amount of time, as opposed to the 15-minute sessions, and you’re also speaking to many patients at a time,” Walker said. “And one of the great things about group prenatal care is that patients are able to hear from other patients and get their perspective.”

As noted earlier, the group sessions can extend to the post-partum period, which, as Walker said, is an extremely vulnerable time for those trying to stay sober.

“What we’re finding statistically is that the biggest risk for relapse is in the six- to 12-months post-partum time,” she noted. “Initially, in the first six months, there’s still a lot of that new-baby glow — even though it’s a hard time, there can still be sweetness. As they get older, it can get more draining; as one patient, who framed it in a good way, told me, ‘the newness wears off.’”

Only a year or so since working with its first participants, New Beginnings is generating measurable results.

Changing Room

S.M. told BusinessWest that the post-partum period was, indeed, a difficult time for her as she worked to keep sober amid the many changes and challenges that came into her life with motherhood.

She said she kept coming to group sessions staged by New Beginnings not because she had to, but because she wanted to — and needed to.

“I was having a hard time, but I just kept holding myself accountable,” she said. “There were days when I wanted to stay home and watch TV, but I made myself come to those meetings.”

She still struggles with being a mother — and with staying sober — but she knows she doesn’t have to face these challenges alone.

And that’s what New Beginnings is all about.

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

Emily Uguccioni

This Assisted-living Facility Manager Leads by Example

Emily Uguccioni

It’s safe to say that, at the age of 13, most people don’t know what they want to be when they grow up.

But Emily Uguccioni thought she had it all figured out; she wanted to be an attorney or judge — a figure in the courtroom. At the very least, she knew what she did not want to do — work with the elderly.

But a volunteer position at the Alzheimer’s Resource Center in Connecticut changed her perspective. The facility, right across the street from her middle school, became the foundation for what would become a career she completely fell in love with.

“I wanted an assignment anywhere not near an old person,” noted Uguccioni when explaining her decision to volunteer at a nursing home, but not work with or near those living there.

All her friends read to residents or took them to activities, but she wanted no part of that; instead she got a job in the library organizing all the books. One day, she was instructed to bring a paper to a nurse on one of the units, and upon her arrival, she ran into an old woman.

“This lady said, ‘I’ve been here for four days, and no one has come to pick me up,’” Uguccioni recalled, adding that she did not realize at the time that people with dementia have a disassociation from time. This women had actually been living at the facility for several years.

Feeling bad for the confused woman, Uguccioni said she would try to resolve her issue and offered to get her a drink from the juice cart. Together, they sat and talked for a while until a nurse came by.

“I pride myself in knowing all the residents and all the family members here by name. I pride myself in knowing all the staff by name. I think I know a lot about the residents themselves in terms of what they like, what they dislike, and what might be a concern for them or their family, which is sometimes very different things.”

“She said, ‘you’re the only person in a week that has been able to get her away from that door,’” Uguccioni recalled, adding that, when word got back to the activities director that she was able to do that, she was promptly transferred from her library job and to a position as a resident volunteer.

Fast-forward to today, as Uguccioni sits as executive director at Linda Manor Assisted Living in Northampton, a facility she has put on the fast track when it comes to growth, vibrancy, and recognition.

Indeed, since arriving in 2015, she has doubled occupancy from 40 to more than 80, and there is now a waiting list.

Meanwhile, Linda Manor has been named the best assisted-living facility in Northampton by both the Daily Hampshire Gazette and SeniorAdvisor.com. Under Uguccioni’s direction, the facility has twice won the Silver Honor Affiliate Excellence Award through Berkshire Healthcare Services.

But it’s not so much what she’s accomplished as how that has earned her the Healthcare Heroes award in the category called Health/Wellness Administrator/Administration.

The ‘how’ boils down to a lead-by-example style and an ability to make each and every team member feel not only valued but a key contributor to the health and well-being of all the residents at Linda Manor.

Nicole Kapise-Perkins, Human Resources manager at Linda Manor, summed this up effectively and poignantly in nominating Uguccioni for the award.

“Emily’s fairness and open, engaging manner has had a huge impact on employee morale, and as a result, the services we provide to our residents and families is rated the best in the Northampton area,” Kapise-Perkins wrote. “She lets her staff members know they are appreciated, and they give 110% on the job.”

Manor of Speaking

One of the first things Uguccioni did when she came to Linda Manor was relocate her office.

She moved it out of the administration “suite,” as she called it, and into an office that any person can see the moment they walk into the lobby. This seemingly innocuous change is an effective representation of one of Uguccioni’s biggest personal goals as both a manager and a leader: visibility.

On any given day at Linda Manor, one could find her chatting with residents at breakfast, meeting with staff members to get updates about how they are doing, or attending a check-in meeting with residents and their families, an important time for both constituencies.

“I pride myself in knowing all the residents and all the family members here by name. I pride myself in knowing all the staff by name,” said Uguccioni, noting that there are more than 80 people working with her (not for her). “I think I know a lot about the residents themselves in terms of what they like, what they dislike, and what might be a concern for them or their family, which is sometimes very different things.”

This doesn’t sound like the 13-year-old who took a job in the library because she didn’t want to work around old people.

And it’s not.

As noted earlier, that chance encounter with the woman looking for someone to pick her up changed the course of Uguccioni’s career — and her life.

Emily Uguccioni’s goal is to make every team member know they are valued and a key contributor to Linda Manor’s success.

The volunteer experience she embarked upon after transferring out of library lasted three years until she was hired to be an activities assistant, where she worked at night and on weekends.

“When I was there, I got to see the operations of a nursing home, and I got to see what nurses do and how you interact with the residents and how important a long-term care facility is,” said Uguccioni, adding that this prompted her to explore options in healthcare degrees for her college education.

She graduated from Springfield College in 2006 with a degree in health services administration, knowing she wanted to end up at a higher-level administration or perhaps an executive-director position.

After graduation, she served as a therapeutic recreation director and managed the activities department in various assisted-living homes in Connecticut. Most recently, she worked as director of Operations and Services at Seabury Active Life Community in Bloomfield, Conn., a position she was offered when her previous boss left.

She came to Linda Manor just a year after it opened in 2014, and immediately commenced changing its fortunes.

The facility sits next to Linda Manor Extended Care Facility, also affiliated with Berkshire Healthcare Services, which opened in 1989, and Uguccioni immediately recognized opportunities to create synergies and potential growth for both facilities.

“My vision was to create community and to build a campus concept with the extended-care facility so that the community as a whole saw this campus as a place where housing meets healthcare, a unique concept without a buy-in fee that many of the competitors have,” she said. “Because we are not a ‘life-care community,’ the referral flow and process were not already built into the campus of care with a blink of an eye.”

Elaborating, she said that, while a strong, mutually beneficial relationship between the two facilities seemed like a natural outcome, it took time, patience, and diligence to make it work.

This meant months of working with Mark Ailinger, administrator at the extended-care facility, and his team to build a solid relationship.

“That [relationship] was missing, and I could see that right when I got here,” said Uguccioni, adding that was a problem that could have affected several facets of both facilities had it continued. In order for facilities like Linda Manor to be financially stable, Uguccioni told BusinessWest, maintaining a consistent resident census at or above the target, as well as managing controllable operating expenses, are crucial. But, in order to accomplish this, facilities need solid referral sources, and wellness programs and models for the residents. All this comes much easier when you can utilize the resources at the extended-care facility right next door.

So Uguccioni and Ailinger worked together to build trust between the two buildings so that the extended-care facility could become a consistent referral source at the assisted-living facility, and vice versa.

“It is one of my proudest accomplishments since my tenure here,” she said.

At Home with the Idea

But there have been many accomplishments since Uguccioni’s arrival, including those ‘best-of’ awards.

They are generally a measure of customer service, and Uguccioni said she believes quality in this realm is a function of having a staff that knows it is valued and appreciated.

Indeed, it takes a village to run a successful assisted-living facility that leaves residents and their families happy, and Linda Manor does that well by putting an emphasis on relationships.

To help staff members accomplish this, Uguccioni helps them realize the impact they have on residents, and the value they have in affecting their lives.

For example, she said a certified nursing assistant providing daily services to a resident, like giving medication or offering assistance in the bathroom, translates into much more than completing a simple task.

“You’re really here to be an integral part of that person’s day,” Uguccioni said. “You’re the first person that they see in the morning, and, therefore, their interaction with you really shapes how their day might be.”

This, she says, is the key to running a successful assisted-living community.

“If you don’t have a staff that’s committed and engaged, you don’t have anything,” she said. “I think that it’s really important that you have people and staff in general that are invested in their role and they realize the value that they have in assisted living, and what they mean to the people that live here.”

But building a strong, caring team is not an easy task in this employment environment. Uguccioni says one of the biggest challenges in running an assisted-living facility is that not many people seem to want to be aides.

“There’s a lot of open positions in healthcare for certified nursing assistants, and we don’t find as many people seeking that out as a desired level of employment,” she said, adding that she puts staff satisfaction high on her list in order to reduce turnover.

“I don’t ever want someone here to feel like ‘oh, I just work in housekeeping,’ or ‘I’m just the server in the dining room; what do I know?’ Everybody here knows a tremendous amount,” Uguccioni added. “It’s not just me that runs the building, it’s all of us. If one person could do it, I wouldn’t have everybody else that works here.”

This attitude has helped Linda Manor to continue to be recognized as one of the best assisted-living facilities in the area, and Uguccioni is always thinking about ways to improve.

“I’m always looking at how we can positively affect someone’s life through the residents and the families,” she noted, adding that she has positive experiences every day that remind her why she does what she does.

She recalls one instance from a few years ago, while she was covering for someone in the Admissions department while they were on vacation. A woman walked in looking for a place for her mom to live. The minute she sat down in Uguccioni’s office, she began to cry.

“This woman was in a terrible predicament. Her mother lived in a totally different part of the country, and she didn’t know how to talk to her to tell her she couldn’t live alone anymore,” she said.

In this instance, Uguccioni advised the woman not to tell her mom why she couldn’t live alone, but explain how living in an assisted-living facility would help her live an easier, happier life.

The next week, the woman got her mom on a plane and moved her into Linda Manor.

“Being able to help her, I really do feel like I have a pivotal piece to that,” Uguccioni said. “Every time I see her when she comes in, she says, ‘I thank you every day.’”

Live and Learn

When she reflects back to that experience she had at the Alzheimer’s Resource Center as a 13-year-old girl, Uguccioni is grateful that the nurse sent her to deliver that paper, because it put her on a path to a career she loves every day.

“If I hadn’t had that volunteer experience doing something that was completely out of my comfort zone, I would never have what I have today,” she said. “I would never be in this field at all.”

But she did go down that path, and doing so started her on her journey to be a Healthcare Hero.

Kayla Ebner can be reached at [email protected]

Tara Ferrante

She’s Forging Pathways to Help People Overcome OCD and Hoarding Disorder

Tara Ferrante

To illustrate one of the many ways obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, can manifest itself, Tara Ferrante said everyone has stood at a rail atop a high building, looked down, and thought, what if I jumped? It’s a little scary, and basically harmless.

“But with OCD,” she continued, “you actually evaluate that thought and think it could happen, and then, ‘I must be a terrible person to have that thought.’ Or it creates anxiety because that thought means something, and you have to do something to feel better.”

OCD often begins as an intrusive thought, she explained, and everyone has intrusive thoughts. What sets OCD sufferers apart, though, is their response to those thoughts. “Sometimes it’s a compulsion, sometimes avoidance — ‘I can’t be in tall places,’ or ‘I can’t be around knives, because I imagined myself stabbing someone once, so I must be a dangerous person. What person must think something like that? I must be a horrible person. People shouldn’t be around me.’”

But while avoidance — or whatever compulsive, repetitive action helps to mitigate that intrusive thought — might bring temporary relief, it also reinforces the initial evaluation of that thought, she went on, “so the next time that thought comes up, you’re stuck in that same cycle where you have to do something to feel better.”

Then there’s the behavior known as hoarding, which buries people, both psychologically and literally, in their own possessions because they’re unable to get rid of anything — presenting a wide variety of dangers.

“It can be a fire risk, or it can be a fall risk, especially as people get older, or someone may have other health issues and the path’s not wide enough for a gurney to get into their house for emergency support,” Ferrante said.

“It also causes people to isolate more — they’re afraid to have people in the home, or to reach out to people,” she went on. “There’s a thing called clutter blindness, where they might not see all the clutter, but when another person is there, it’s striking. There’s the shame and the guilt and everything else that comes up around that, so a lot of people do isolate more because of the clutter.”

Ferrante is program director of the Holyoke Outpatient Clinic at ServiceNet, one of the region’s largest behavioral-health agencies, and treats patients with a wide range of behavioral-health conditions. But it’s her work leading ServiceNet’s OCD and Hoarding Disorder Program that earned her recognition as a Healthcare Hero in the category of Emerging Leader.

To be sure, Ferrante doesn’t see herself as a hero — just someone passionate about helping people overcome behaviors that range, depending on the patient, from mildly annoying to completely debilitating.

“It feels so good to see people thriving in their lives who wanted to die at points,” she told BusinessWest. “While their lives may not be perfect by any means, they’re able to live their lives the way they want to, with much more ease.”

Starting the Journey

Ferrante’s journey in this specialized field began while working with a client who was experiencing extreme distress from OCD symptoms. She had read about emerging OCD treatments, learning that the most effective approach seemed to include a mix of structured clinical treatment and home-based and peer support.

So, two years ago, when ServiceNet’s senior leadership proposed the launch of an OCD program in Western Mass., she jumped at the opportunity to lead the program.

“They saw this area as a kind of desert in terms of people who can really specialize and are able to provide good care to people with OCD and hoarding disorder,” she explained. “I was super interested, and I expressed interest in overseeing it.”

“It feels so good to see people thriving in their lives who wanted to die at points. While their lives may not be perfect by any means, they’re able to live their lives the way they want to, with much more ease.”

Before launching the program, Ferrante and fellow clinicians first completed four days of training in OCD and hoarding disorder, then conducted a series of consultations with two nationally recognized experts on these conditions: Dr. Randy Frost, a professor of Psychology at Smith College, and Denise Egan Stack, a behavioral therapist who launched the OCD Institute at McLean Hospital in Belmont, a Boston suburb.

“We’ve been so lucky,” Ferrante said. “People have invested so much time and energy in our program to get it off the ground and get it going and helping me as a leader. It’s been really great.”

Currently, six ServiceNet clinicians provide specialized OCD and hoarding-disorder treatment at the agency’s Holyoke, Greenfield, and Northampton clinics. The program’s model continues to evolve, but several facets have crystalized, including the use of Smith College students as interns in the program. Frost trains the students for adjunct work in the community, such as conducting ‘exposures’ with clients battling OCD, Ferrante explained.

“They’ll give emotional support to people [with hoarding disorder] as they are sorting and discarding, or as they go out and practice non-acquiring — going to a store where they like buying things, and then not getting anything, sort of building up the tolerance of resisting that urge.”

Tara Ferrante says people with OCD and hoarding disorder span all ages and demographics.

The student collaboration has been valuable and productive, she noted. “We’re limited in how much we can get out into the community or into the home between sessions. The introduction of the interns has helped create steady progress.”

The term ‘hoarder’ is actually out of fashion, she noted, having taken on a stigma in recent years, thanks partly to TV shows that often vilify those who struggle with the condition. Frost has written extensively about the reasons people hoard; some call themselves ‘collectors’ or ‘finders-keepers’ because they see value in every item in their cluttered homes.

“That’s a strength, to be able to see value where other people don’t, or to see beauty where other people don’t,” Ferrante said. “But it’s a strength that’s gone too far, and that can make a hindrance in being able to get rid of things. Also, people don’t want to be wasteful, they don’t want things to go into landfills, and again, that’s really a wonderful quality — but it then impedes their quality of life.”

Hoarding is also a form of perfectionism, at least in the eyes of collectors, she went on. “You want to use something to its full ability, or it needs to go to the just right place. Or, if it’s going to be given away, it needs to be given to just the right person who’s going to love it fully, and if you can’t find that person, then you’re just going to keep it, and that can stall progress sometimes.”

As for OCD, like many mental-health conditions, it can differ in severity from one person to another, Ferrante said.

“Sometimes people can function pretty well, but even for those people who aren’t seeking treatment, it can affect their ability to have relationships, to get to work on time, even to leave their house,” she explained. “There are so many ways it can make people’s lives difficult. And even if they can function sometimes, they’re living in this constant state of anxiety and panic, which is really unpleasant.”

Then there are the more severe cases — stories of people unable to touch their children or their partners for years, or unable to leave their home, hold a job, or participate in life in any way.

The standard treatment in Ferrante’s program is known as exposure and response prevention, a form of cognitive behavior therapy.

“We form a relationship and create situations where they get exposed to the anxiety, the intrusive thought, and we don’t do the compulsion,” she explained. “We do it in a supported way at first, in session, and then we have the interns who can do that out in the community, and eventually we want people to do it on their own. We make exposure part of life — this idea of, ‘let’s turn toward anxiety rather than away from anxiety.’ It takes the power out of it, and they’re able to really start living their lives the way they want to be living.”

Many patients are treated with a combination of therapy and medications, often anti-depressants. “But not everyone needs meds,” she said. “I see a lot of positive outcomes with just exposure and response prevention on its own.”

Breaking Through

The ServiceNet program runs a series of support groups called Buried in Treasures, named after a book Frost co-authored. Ferrante also sits on the board of the Western Massachusetts Hoarding Disorder Resource Network, which puts on conferences that focus on what resources are available in the community for those who struggle with the condition. ServiceNet also brings in experts for lectures where mental-health professionals can earn CEUs for learning more about hoarding and OCD.

All this training is aimed at broadening resources for a patient population that cuts across all socioeconomic barriers and cultures around the world. Hoarding, in particular, is often seen as an older person’s condition, but that may be because they’ve had more time to accumulate, so the signs are more readily apparent.

Progress in overcoming a compulsion to hoard can be slow, Ferrante added. “That stuff didn’t get in the home overnight, and it’s not going to get out overnight. I mean, it can get out of the house overnight, but that generally is going to make things worse — it creates a trauma, it makes the person treatment-resistant, and doesn’t actually address how it all happened.

“It’s almost a guarantee, if someone has a forced cleanup, they’re going to fill their space up again,” she went on. “So we take a slower approach that looks at what got someone there and creates the skills they need to declutter on their own, and not have it return.”

While people who hoard often struggle with stigma, OCD sufferers are plagued with the opposite: the many Americans who think they have OCD because they have certain routines, and proclaim it with an odd sense of pride.

“They say, ‘oh, I’m so OCD,’ and it really minimizes it for people who are suffering,” Ferrante explained. “It’s not just being really clean or wanting things in a certain order. If those things are torturing you and you can’t function, sure, but people can have certain obsessions or compulsions and not have OCD. The ‘D’ part of OCD is that it’s impairing your ability to function, and most people who say, ‘I’m a little OCD’ … well, they’re not.”

On the other hand, it’s also frustrating for someone with OCD to be misdiagnosed, she added.

“I get calls from people saying, ‘I’ve been looking for help forever; no one knows what I’m talking about.’ Sometimes, when people think they’re dangerous because of an intrusive thought, then a therapist buys into that because they’re not sure what this is, and it reinforces that belief. But even suicidal thoughts can be OCD. People can get hospitalized when that’s not the right intervention. You want an expert making sure you’re making the right call there.”

Outside of her OCD and hoarding work, Ferrante continues to manage all the clinicians at the Holyoke clinic, and handles a caseload of about 15 patients at a time, dealing with a wide range of mental-health concerns, from substance-use disorders to trauma, anxiety, and depression. In that sense, she and her team were already doing heroic work before launching the OCD and Hoarding Disorder Program.

But since that launch, she’s been able to help a patient population that often finds it difficult to access resources — and wind up suffering in silence, and often falling prey to other conditions; in fact people who hoard are 80% more likely than the general population to develop depression.

“It’s amazing to see people get better,” she told BusinessWest, whether progress occurs quickly or not. “It’s not always simple — sometimes there’s more than just OCD going on, and it’s more complicated. But if people are coming in, they’re already motivated to do the work, and progress can be pretty quick.”

She thinks of the client who inspired her interest in OCD research, and said “it blows my mind” how far he’s come.

“It’s so, so great when people graduate and don’t need therapy anymore. To see even small progress — people being able to do things they couldn’t do before — makes my job totally worth it.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Carol Constant

She’s One of Many Improving Quality of Life for People with Dementia

Carol Constant

As director of Community Engagement at the Loomis Communities, Carol Constant has developed a number of ways residents of the three sites — Loomis Village in South Hadley, Loomis Lakeside at Reed’s Landing in Springfield, and Applewood at Amherst — can be, well, engaged with the world outside their walls.

“It’s not a silo — we’re out supporting the community, and the community is invited to be a part of what we do,” she said, citing examples like supporting awareness walks, food drives, and other events relevant to area seniors.

But it was a resident of Loomis Village, named Rachel Tierney, who got her thinking about the concept of engagement in a new, broader way.

“She had been a long-time caregiver for her husband, and she’s a retired psychiatric nurse,” Constant said. “She had heard about the dementia-friendly movement, and when she saw my title, she approached me and said, ‘hey, do you want to think about this?’”

Constant did. In fact, the idea of dementia-friendly communities — a movement that aims to teach first responders, municipal workers, and business owners how to interact with people with dementia — appealed to her, so she was pleased when her first meeting in South Hadley, in March 2015, drew a wide range of stakeholders: fire and police chiefs, the town administrator, a librarian, the senior-center director, and Chamber of Commerce members, to name a few.

“They’re going to the bank, they’re going to the grocery store, they’re out in the community. So how can we, as a broader community, recognize it and be helpful to them?”

“We sat them down in a room and said, ‘we have this idea about educating and raising awareness about dementia. How have you experienced dementia in your daily lives?’” she recalled. “These are busy people, and we promised to take only an hour of their time, but just going around the room hearing the stories took an hour. Everyone had a story.”

That’s because, of the approximately 5.3 million Americans currently living with Alzheimer’s disease or some form of dementia, 70% are living in the community, rather than assisted living or nursing care — and 30% of that group are living alone. Going by these estimates, approximately 8,460 individuals with dementia in the Pioneer Valley are living in their homes, and 2,538 are living alone.

“They’re going to the bank, they’re going to the grocery store, they’re out in the community,” Constant said. “So how can we, as a broader community, recognize it and be helpful to them?”

More than four years after that first meeting, the loose coalition known as Dementia Friendly Western Massachusetts (DFWM) has drawn the support of dozens of area organizations, sponsored myriad awareness and education events, and, most importantly, made area communities better places to live for people with dementia.

It’s an effort that will only become more important as Baby Boomers continue to march into their senior years, living longer, on average, than previous generations. The number of Americans with Alzheimer’s is projected to rise by 55% by 2030, and by 2050, the Alzheimer’s Assoc. estimates the total number could explode to nearly 14 million.

Proponents of the dementia-friendly movement say greater public awareness and support programs will reduce the stigma of dementia and improve the quality of life for these individuals and their families. In addition, greater public awareness may lead to earlier detection and earlier treatment.

“There’s a huge stigma around dementia,” Constant said. “How can we make people recognize that there’s no shame in it, that nobody who has dementia did something bad? One of the goals is to destigmatize it because people get worried they’re going to embarrass themselves.”

It starts with small steps, she added. “Just check yourself. You may be in a hurry at the store, there’s a long line at the register, and this person is having a hard time counting their money. So slow down and recognize what’s happening and how to be helpful.”

For taking those steps along with a raft of like-minded individuals and organizations, Constant is positively impacting an often-forgotten population, and teaching entire communities that there’s plenty of work left to do.

Knowledge Is Power

The work of Dementia Friendly Western Massachusetts includes several basic activities, including:

• Education and training for those who might encounter an individual with dementia, including fire and EMT first responders, faith communities, and frontline workers in banks, retail stores, and restaurants;

• Development of support groups, memory cafés, and other programs that support individuals and their families; and

• Development of a website and materials that provide a calendar of events and resources available to families the region.

These supports are critical, Constant said, as research shows that supportive care helps people living with dementia and their caregivers experience less physical and emotional stress, better health, fewer hospitalizations, and less time in long-term-care facilities. Additionally, caregivers need support, as caring for someone with dementia puts a strain on their physical and mental health as well as relationships with other family members. Finally, educational programs that build awareness of the challenges faced by these individuals and their families will help assure that, when they are in the community, they are treated with respect and dignity.

To Constant, much of this work comes down to one question. “How can we be supportive of people in the community and destigmatize dementia? When they get embarrassed and shamed, they isolate and become depressed, and that does not help — that further exacerbates the problem for them. This is a movement to raise awareness and destigmatize dementia, in addition to providing education and support for people in the community about dementia.”

Carol Constant says many people with dementia are out in the community, and the community needs to know how to interact with them.

Take memory cafés, for example — places where people with dementia and their loved ones and caregivers can hang out and relax, free from the stress that often accompanies other community outings, because everyone knows everyone else in the room understands their experience.

“So often, we get caught up with caregiving, and we forget to have fun with the person we’re caring for,” she explained. “So it’s an hour, hour and a half where people can meet someone in a similar situation, hang out together, relax, and have fun.”

Memory Cafés have been established at Armbrook Village in Westfield and councils on aging and senior centers in Holyoke, South Hadley, Belchertown, Hampden, Greenfield, and Shelburne Falls. Heritage Hall East in Agawam is in the process of starting one.

Meanwhile, dementia support groups have been established at Armbrook Village, Heritage Hall East, Loomis House, the Holyoke Soldiers Home, and the Belchertown, Holyoke, and South Hadley councils on aging and senior centers.

Constant is gratified to be recognized as a Healthcare Hero, especially considering the category — Collaboration in Health/Wellness. On several occasions during her interview with BusinessWest, she emphasized that she can’t take credit for all this work; it’s about creating partnerships with area agencies that serve older adults. “We got the right people together in the room, and we started programming.”

Those partners in Dementia Friendly Western Massachusetts include the Alzheimer’s Assoc.; the communities of South Hadley, Holyoke, and Springfield; the Department of Elder Affairs; Holyoke Medical Center; WestMass ElderCare; Greater Springfield Senior Services; Holyoke Community College; Chapin Center; A Better Life HomeCare; Springfield Partners for Community Action; Grupo de Apoyo de Demencia at Baystate Medical Center; the Public Health Institute; PeoplesBank; O’Connell Care at Home; Massachusetts Councils on Aging; Silverlife Care at Home; River Valley Counseling Center; Safe Harbor Adult Day Services; UMass College of Nursing; Springfield College; and the Holyoke VNA.

The purpose of their collective efforts, simply put, is to build broader community awareness of the issues around dementia, not only through the website and materials promoting support resources and programs, but by encouraging and training organizations, agencies, and towns in the region to become involved in the dementia-friendly movement.

First Response

To date, DFWM organizations have established and led hundreds of educational programs across the region, including educational programs to a wide array of audiences, including first responders, city and town employees, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, councils on aging, schools and colleges, hospitals, nursing homes, home healthcare agencies, chambers of commerce, businesses, Rotary clubs, faith communities, retirement communities, civic organizations, elder-law programs, and local and national conferences.

Each target audience has different needs and different ways to connect. For example, first responders often feel frustration when encountering people with dementia, because their role is often to stabilize a situation and then move on. When they encounter a situation where it’s obvious that someone in a home is struggling with dementia and may not have the supports they need, they often feel there’s not much they can do, Constant said.

With that in mind, Dementia Friendly Western Massachusetts developed a visual resource, the size of a business card, that’s printed, in both English and Spanish, with the contact information of organizations that can provide dementia-related resources to families. First responders can leave this card with a family when they feel it’s warranted.

“First responders rush in and rush out — assess the situation and get everyone safe. Then they leave,” Constant said. “There’s a sense of frustration when they know the situation is bigger than ‘we got the fire out.’ This is something they can hand to the family member.”

Or, when police arrive at a home, they might encounter someone who’s agitated and on edge, but not dangerous or mentally ill — they simply have dementia and are trying to navigate a stressful situation.

“Maybe we need to slow it down a little bit, make eye contact, get at their level,” she said. “When I talk to first responders, I see and hear that they do this naturally, but a little layer of education around it is also really helpful. And I’ve heard that from police chiefs in all the communities we’ve been working in.”

It’s just one way she and the other coalition members are changing the conversation around dementia — right down to the very words people employ.

“So much of the language we use around dementia is ‘afflicted,’ ‘stricken,’ ‘the tsunami’ — all this negative language,” she noted. “No wonder it’s stigmatized. So, how do we make people feel not ashamed, not embarrassed about it, and not isolated?”

The community education goes beyond words, as well, and gets to the heart of how people with dementia are treated. For instance, people will sometimes stop talking to an individual with dementia altogether — instead always addressing their companion — even though there’s often many years between diagnosis and the time when someone becomes so debilitated they can’t go out anymore.

“The essence of that person is still there,” Constant said, citing a Maya Angelou quote — not first uttered in reference to dementia, but nonetheless applicable: “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

“They can still experience joy; they can still experience humor,” she went on. “So what are we doing when we say, ‘you are no longer able to cognitively keep up with this fast-paced conversation, so sit in the corner by yourself.’ One of the goals of all this work is to improve quality of life.”

That goes for everyone — individuals with dementia, their care partners, and the community as a whole.

Filling the Room

Constant is grateful the Loomis Communities gives her a “long leash” when it comes to her work with Dementia Friendly Western Massachusetts, but not surprised, as it’s really in Loomis’ best interest.

And she’s also thankful for the individual moments that demonstrate the value of engaging people with dementia fully in society.

“Having someone who’s living with dementia come up and talk to you and start a conversation and share their experience and that of their care partner, it’s wonderful to see,” she said. “If we can do one thing to make the quality of life for someone better, why wouldn’t we?”

When her mother-in-law was diagnosed with dementia 30 years ago, she added, she didn’t have the resources available today; no dementia-friendly initiatives existed back then. But she wishes they had. “I learned all my lessons the hard way. I wish I had known as much about it as I do now.”

Still, there’s a lot to learn, she added, and a lot of passionate people — again, this is certainly a collaborative award — working on improving quality of life, one person and one community at a time.

“It’s been great making these connections, and that’s really powerful,” Constant concluded. “If it was up to just one person to do this, it wouldn’t happen. It’s all about getting all the right people in the room.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Picture This

Picture This

A photo essay of recent business events in Western Massachusetts / August 2019

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

Rolling Away

Food Truck Friday at MGM Springfield is coming to a close on Sept. 13 and has been a big success, drawing large crowds and long lines to the end-of-week fun. Business owners, employees working in the area, families, and more have been visiting the casino to indulge in the wide variety of foods provided by the trucks.

Lydia Riccio takes lunch on a busy Friday at Murphy’s Mobile, where the Reuben sandwich tops the list of the truck’s most popular items.

Sandra Torres (left) and Danielle Powell, both employees at MGM, enjoy a snow cone during a recent Food Truck Friday.

Overcoming Barriers

Energy provider Eversource recently announced it will bring the Dress for Success Professional Women’s Group to Western Mass. as part of a new partnership with the global nonprofit to support women overcoming barriers to employment so they can thrive in work and in life. Operating in more than 150 cities in 30 countries, Dress for Success provides an extensive network of support to empower women, including professional attire and development tools that build confidence for success. The partnership was announced late last month at a fundraiser for Dress for Success at the Valentine Mansion.

from left: Jessica Dupont, Dress for Success Western Mass. board president; Eversource Transmission President Katherine Prewitt; Margaret Tantillo, executive director of the Dress for Success Western Mass. chapter; and Kassandra Carrasquillo, a participant in the Dress for Success program

Getting a Taste

Members of the media were invited to the Carriage House at Storrowton Village on Aug. 23 to taste and rate some of the foods that are set to hit the streets of the Big E this month.

Chef Antoine Alston and Manager Pam Vadnais of Storrowton Tavern serve up cheeseburger chowder and fried oysters

a table of tastes from Noujaim’s Mediterranean Bistro

the signature Big E cream puff will be topped with a chocolate ganashe for the first time ever

a cucumber-flavored vodka will be one of V-One’s fair selections

Just Down the Road

The Dowd Agencies, LLC officially opened its new Southampton office during an open house on Aug. 21. Having outgrown its previous space in town, the Dowd Agencies packed up at 170 College Highway and moved down the road to 124 College Highway, lured by the desire for expanded parking and office space.

from left, David Hess, David Griffin Jr., David Griffin Sr., Jackie Routhier, Diane Cygan, John Dowd Jr., and Jack Dowd

Court Dockets

Court Dockets

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.

HAMPDEN DISTRICT COURT

Amp Electrical Inc. v. Contractor’s Network Inc.

Allegation: Breach of contract: $6,913.21

Filed: 8/8/19

United Rentals (North America) Inc. v. Tree413 Inc.

Allegation: Money owed for goods sold and delivered unjust enrichment: $19,898.03

Filed: 8/12/19

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT

Jill Smith v. MGM Resorts International a/k/a MGM Springfield, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and City of Springfield Police Department

Allegation: Common-law false arrest, common-law false imprisonment, battery, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent infliction of emotional distress

Filed: 7/8/19

Excel Nursing Services Inc. v. SRC Springfield Inc.

Allegation: Breach of contract: $72,481.80

Filed: 7/10/19

Excel Nursing Services Inc. v. Wingate at Wilbraham Inc.

Allegation: Breach of contract: $51,861.90

Filed: 7/10/19

Excel Nursing Services Inc. v. SRC East Longmeadow Inc.

Allegation: Breach of contract: $34,414.40

Filed: 7/10/19

Excel Nursing Services Inc. v. SRC West Springfield Inc.

Allegation: Breach of contract: $54,874.27

Filed: 7/10/19

Michael Calderon v. Horizon Sheet Metal Inc.

Allegation: Negligence; slip and fall causing personal injury: $52,805.81

Filed: 7/11/19

Hahn Chanh and Melissa Nguyen d/b/a Westfield Nails & Spa v. Jericho Commercial Construction, LLC and Gregory G. Dabney

Allegation: Misrepresentation: $30,100

Filed: 7/11/19

J.R. Kakley & Sons Inc. v. LD Builders, LLC and David A. Ward

Allegation: Money owed for goods sold and delivered: $34,261.41

Filed: 7/18/19

Kenneth Tobias v. State & Bond, LLC; Steve Barton; Robert Tuttle; and Paul Gelinas

Allegation: Failure to pay wages, failure to pay overtime due, misclassification as an independent contractor, unjust enrichment: $37,449.75

Filed: 7/22/19

Earl Burney v. Central Chevrolet Inc.

Allegation: Negligence causing personal injury: $45,088.28

Filed: 7/22/19

BSD Care, LLC v. Kevin Coughlin, DMD

Allegation: Breach of contract: $25,000+

Filed: 7/22/19

A & G Contracting Inc. v. 3 Chestnut, LLC

Allegation: Breach of contract: $1,915,340.64

Filed: 7/24/19

Robert P. Williams v. Peter Pascal, MD

Allegation: Medical malpractice: $137,866+

Filed: 7/26/19

Agenda

Agenda

‘Life After Clutter’ Workshop

Sept. 7: For people who are struggling with clutter in their homes and lives, hope is within reach. A free workshop, “Making Space for Hope: Life After Clutter,” will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. at the UMass Amherst Campus Center. This program offers empowerment, support, and education for people who are struggling with clutter, and for their family members and friends. Keynote speaker Beryl Singer will share her own experience of clutter and recovery in a presentation titled “It Started with an Eggcup.” Other presenters will include Dr. Randy Frost, a professor of Psychology at Smith College and internationally recognized expert on hoarding disorder; Lee Schuer and Becca Belofsky of Mutual Support Consulting; and Tara Ferrante, director of ServiceNet’s OCD and Hoarding Disorder Program. This program is made possible thanks to support from the Western Massachusetts Hoarding Disorder Resource Network, ServiceNet, Mutual Support Consulting, and MassHousing. For more information, visit www.mutual-support.com.

Car-wash Fundraiser for Chris Thibault

Sept. 7-8: Mercedes-Benz of Springfield is hosting a car-wash fundraiser benefiting Chris Thibault and his family. Thibault helped Mercedes-Benz get its start in Western Mass. more than two years ago, producing all its local commercials. “He is a very talented filmmaker and storyteller,” dealership owners Michelle and Peter Wirth said. “He touched our lives, and we want to help him as much as we can as he battles cancer.” Chris Thibault and his wife, Missy, own and operate Chris Teebo Films, a local production company. Chris has been diagnosed with stage-4 cancer and is fighting hard for his life. He recently lost his younger brother, Brandon, to cancer as well. So far, his cancer has been unresponsive to the past three treatments. He is currently undergoing a fourth treatment as well as alternative treatment options. The car wash will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days at Mercedes-Benz of Springfield, 295 Burnett Road, Chicopee. If you would like to donate time or services to the event, contact Michelle Wirth at [email protected].

RVCC Golf Tournament

Sept. 13: River Valley Counseling Center (RVCC), a multi-faceted mental-health agency, will hold its fourth annual golf tournament fundraiser at 10:30 a.m. at East Mountain Country Club in Westfield. The event is presented by Action Ambulance Services. The funds raised will help RVCC to continue providing mental health and other essential supportive services to more than 7,000 individuals yearly throughout the Pioneer Valley. The cost per golfer is $100 and includes greens fees, a golf cart, gift bag, lunch, and dinner. Golfers will also be able to participate in a raffle and silent auction. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. with a 10:30 a.m. shotgun start. There will also be contests on the course, with prizes donated by Marcotte Ford and Teddy Bear Pools. Other tournament sponsors include HCN, Unidine, PeoplesBank, CINTAS, Goss & McLain Insurance, Marsh & McLennan Agency, BMC HealthNet Plan, and Jefferson Radiology. To register, contact Angela Callahan at (413) 841-3546 or [email protected].

United Arc Annual Gala and Auction

Sept. 14: The United Arc will host its annual gala and auction from 6 to 9 p.m. at Hadley Farms Meeting House, 41 Russell St., Hadley. The evening will feature a cocktail hour with open bar and hors d’ouevres, silent and live auctions, live music by Chris Eriquezzo, and dinner and program. Included once again in the raffles will be the ‘mystery box,’ valued at $400. Tickets cost $70 each. Proceeds support for the work of the United Arc, helping people living with intellectual and developmental disabilities to achieve the universal goals of inclusion, choice, and independence. Tickets may be purchased online at theunitedarc.org/auction.

Children’s Study Home Art Show and Sale

Sept. 19: The Children’s Study Home welcomes all to an art show and sale on Thursday, Sept. 19 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Carriage House at the Barney Estate in Forest Park, Springfield. Artwork from all mediums, including acrylic, watercolor, colored pencil, chalk, and sculptures, from the students of Mill Pond School in Springfield and Curtis Blake Day School will be shown, as well as artwork from the children of the Children’s Study Home’s residential programs and local area artisans. The art will be displayed for the evening and sold to raise money for the Children’s Study Home’s art and cultural programs. The event will include light hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar. RSVP by Friday, Sept. 6 to Colleen at [email protected] or (413) 739-5626, ext. 232.

Discussion of Trauma in Athletic Communities

Sept. 24: Springfield College will welcome William Parham, the inaugural director of the National Basketball Players Assoc. Mental Health and Wellness Program and professor in the Counseling program at Loyola Marymount University, to the campus at 7:30 p.m. in the Fuller Arts Center. Parham’s presentation, titled “The Ink Used to Indelibly Etch Lasting Impressions: Invisible Tattoos of Trauma within Athletic Communities,” is part of the 2019-20 Humanics Triathlon project led by Distinguished Springfield Professor of Humanics Judy Van Raalte. Parham has consulted with the National Football League, Major League Baseball, United States Olympic Committee, United States Tennis Assoc., and Major League Soccer.

Source to Sea Cleanup

Sept. 27-28: Registration is now open for the Connecticut River Conservancy’s (CRC) Source to Sea Cleanup. This annual event, now in its 23rd year, has grown into one of the largest river cleanups in the country. There are three ways for volunteers to get involved in the Source to Sea Cleanup this year: report a trash site in need of cleaning, find a nearby cleanup group to join, or organize and register a local cleanup group. For more information or to register, visit www.ctriver.org/cleanup. If your group wants to get involved but needs a cleanup site, if you have questions, or if you know of a trash site in need of cleaning, e-mail Lennard at [email protected]. Learn more about the event at www.ctriver.org/cleanup.

Jazz Brunch

Oct. 6: Tickets are now on sale for the 2019 Northampton Jazz Festival Brunch, a fundraiser to benefit the Jazz Artists in the Schools Program at John F. Kennedy Middle School, which exposes Northampton’s student musicians to the valuable mentorship of professional jazz artists. The DeChamplain Quartet, based out of Hartford, Conn., will perform their gypsy-style music from noon to 2 p.m. with Atla DeChamplain on vocals, Matt DeChamplain on piano, Chris Morrison on guitar, and Matt Dwonszyk on bass. Thanks to donations from the Davis Financial Group of Hadley, the program has been able to offer unique workshops with professional jazz artists to the jazz-band students at JFK and Northampton High School. The jazz brunch will be held at the Delaney House, 3 Country Club Road in Holyoke, starting at 11 a.m. Tickets to the brunch cost $40, and $10 from each purchase will benefit the Davis Financial Group Jazz Artists in the Schools Program at JFK Middle School for the 2019-20 school year. The brunch will wrap up the 2019 Northampton Jazz Festival, set for Friday, Oct. 4 through Sunday, Oct. 6. The event features three days of live music at various venues in downtown Northampton, including the main-stage act, the Kurt Elling Quintet, which will perform on Oct. 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy of Music. For more information, to purchase tickets, or to donate to the Jazz Artists in the Schools Program, visit northamptonjazzfest.org.

Healthcare Heroes Gala

Oct. 17: The third annual class of Healthcare Heroes will be honored at the Sheraton Springfield from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Healthcare Heroes, a recognition program involving the Western Mass. healthcare sector, was launched in 2017 by BusinessWest and HCN. 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 people providing that care. The class of 2019 in this issue of BusinessWest, and will be feted at the Oct. 25 gala. Tickets cost $90, or $900 for a table of 10. To purchase tickets, visit businesswest.com/healthcare-heroes-2 or e-mail [email protected]. Healthcare Heroes is sponsored by American International College and Baystate Health/Health New England (presenting sponsors), Behavioral Health Network, Comcast Business, and Development Associates (partner sponsors), and Bulkley Richardson, Design to Finish, Elms College, Keiter Builders, the Loomis Communities, and Mercy Medical Center/Trinity Health (supporting sponsors).

Women of Impact Luncheon

Dec. 4: The keynote speaker for the 2019 Women of Impact luncheon will be Lisa Tanzer, president of Life Is Good. Tanzer has more than 25 years of consumer brand experience. Prior to becoming president, she served as the company’s head of Marketing after spending more than 20 years on the board of directors of the Life is Good Kids Foundation. She’s held executive positions in the entertainment, e-commerce, and education sectors. Earlier in her career, she held marketing and strategy roles at Hasbro, Staples, Gillette, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The 2019 Women of Impact honorees will be announced in the Oct. 14 issue of BusinessWest and feted at a celebration on Dec. 4 from 11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. at Sheraton Springfield. Tickets cost $65 per person, or $650 for a table of 10. To purchase tickets, visit www.businesswest.com/women-of-impact or e-mail [email protected]. The Women of Impact program is sponsored by Country Bank and TommyCar Auto Group (presenting sponsors), Comcast Business (supporting sponsor), New Valley Bank & Trust (speaker sponsor), and WWLP 22 News/CW Springfield (media sponsor).

Chamber Corners: Upcoming Events

www.easthamptonchamber.org

Chamber Corners

FRANKLIN COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.franklincc.org

(413) 773-5463

• Sept. 17: Business After Hours at the United Way of Franklin County’s Taste & Toast ’Round the County, 5-8 p.m., hosted by Franklin County Fairgrounds. Join us at the historic Round House at the Franklin County Fairgrounds for the United Way of Franklin County’s Taste & Toast tournament. Mixologists are invited to face off for the chance to be named the ultimate in crafting cocktails. Register at (413) 772-2168 or uw-fc.org.

• Sept. 27: Monthly Breakfast and United Way Kickoff, 7:30-9 a.m., hosted by Franklin County Technical High School, 82 Industrial Blvd., Turners Falls. The United Way of Franklin County is kicking off its 2019 campaign. Learn about the upcoming campaign and how you can participate. Sponsored by Melanson Heath. Cost: $15 for members, $20 general admission. Register at [email protected] or franklincc.org.

GREATER CHICOPEE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.chicopeechamber.org

(413) 594-2101

• Sept. 12: Business After Hours, 4:30-6:30 p.m.. hosted by the Red Fez. Sponsored by Polish National Credit Union. Networking fun at a Chicopee staple, featuring a full Portuguese buffet and cash bar. Space is limited for this annual event. Cost: $10 for members, $15 for non-members. Register at www.chicopeechamber.org/events.

• Sept. 18: Salute Breakfast: “Maintaining the Work-Life Balance,” 7:15-9 a.m., hosted by MassMutual Learning and Conference Center, Chicopee. Sponsored by Westfield Bank, Holyoke Medical Center, N. Riley Construction Inc., Polish National Credit Union, USI Insurance Services, Spherion Staffing Services, and PeoplesBank. Featuring state Rep. Aaron Vega (chief greeter) and Kathy Anderson of Holyoke Medical Center (keynote speaker). An interactive opportunity for small businesses and startups to learn how to tap into state and local support. Cost: $23 for members, $28 for non-members. Register at www.chicopeechamber.org/events.

GREATER EASTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

(413) 527-9414

• Sept. 12: Networking by Night, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Nini’s Ristorante, 124 Cottage St., Easthampton. Sponsored by Polish National Credit Union. The event will include food provided by Nini’s, a cash bar, and business-to-business relationship building. This event is free to members and their employees; however, pre-registration is required. Non-members are invited for $20. For more information and to register, visit www.easthamptonchamber.org or call the chamber at (413) 527-9414.

• Sept. 27: “Women and the Art of Risk,” 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., hosted by the Log Cabin, 500 Easthampton Road, Holyoke. This year’s women’s leadership event will feature workshops, discussions, and career-development opportunities, all led by distinguished women from the Pioneer Valley. Hear personal and professional stories of how taking calculated risks led these women to new adventures and made them stronger leaders. Keynote speaker: Jody Kasper, chief of Police, city of Northampton. Cost: $119, which includes breakfast and lunch. A table of 10 may be purchased for $875. Pre-registration is required. No tickets will be sold at the door. For more information and to register, visit www.easthamptonchamber.org or call the chamber at (413) 527-9414.

GREATER NORTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.northamptonchamber.com

(413) 584-1900

• Sept. 11: September Arrive@5, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Northampton Survival Center, 265 Prospect St., Northampton. Sponsored by Gove Law Office, LLC, and New England Public Radio. Cost: $10 for members. For more information and to register, visit northamptonchamber.com.

• Oct. 2: October Arrive@5, 5-8 p.m., hosted by Northampton Chamber of Commerce, 99 Pleasant St., Northampton. Sponsored by Florence Bank, Copy Cat, and Pioneer Training. Cost: $10 for members. For more information and to register, visit northamptonchamber.com.

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.westfieldbiz.org

(413) 568-1618

• Sept. 9: Mayor’s Coffee Hour, 8-9 a.m., hosted by the Arbors, 40 Court St., Westfield. Join us for coffee with Westfield Mayor Brian Sullivan. The event is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is requested so we may give our host a proper head count. Register online at www.westfieldbiz.org/events or call (413) 568-1618.

• Sept. 10: Lunch & Learn: “Marijuana in the Workplace,” 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., hosted by Western Massachusetts Hospital, 91 East Mountain Road, Westfield. This seminar, presented by attorney Timothy Netkovick of Royal, P.C., will discuss the impacts of legalized marijuana in the workplace. Small-business owners, managers, upper management, and human-resource managers will learn about maintaining a drug-free workplace, enforcing drug-free workplace policies, and when drug testing is appropriate. Box lunch provided by Peppermill Catering. Cost: $25 for members, $40/ for non-members. Pre-registration is required to secure lunch and a seat in the workshop. For more information and to register, visit westfieldbiz.org/events or call (413) 568-1618.

• Sept. 16: After 5 Connections, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Polish National Credit Union, 1 Parkside Ave., Westfield. Refreshments will be served, and a 50/50 raffle will benefit the chamber scholarship fund. Bring your business cards and make connections. Cost: free to both chamber members and non-members. For more information, call the chamber at (413) 568-1618, or register online at www.westfieldbiz.org/events.

• Sept. 20: September Breakfast, 7-9 a.m., hosted by the 104th Fighter Wing ANG, 175 Falcon Dr., Westfield. Platinum sponsor: Baystate Noble Hospital; gold sponsors: Westfield Gas & Electric/Whip City Fiber; silver sponsor: A Plus HVAC Inc.; bronze sponsors: BHN/Carson Center, Governor’s Center, and the Arbors. Cost: $28/ for members, $43 for non-members. For more information and to register, visit westfieldbiz.org/events or call (413) 568-1618.

• Sept. 21: September Breakfast, 7-9 a.m., hosted by the 104th Fighter Wing ANG, 175 Falcon Dr., Westfield. Platinum event sponsor: Baystate Noble Hospital. Gold sponsor: Westfield Gas & Electric. Silver sponsor: A Plus HVAC Inc. Bronze sponsors: Behavioral Health Network/the Carson Center, Governor’s Center, and the Arbors. For sponsorships or registration questions, e-mail [email protected] or call (413) 568-1618. Cost to attend: $28 for members, $43 for non-members. Register online at www.westfieldbiz.org/events.

SPRINGFIELD REGIONAL CHAMBER

www.springfieldregionalchamber.com

(413) 787-1555

n Sept. 4: Rise & Shine Business Breakfast, 7:15-9 a.m., hosted by Sheraton Springfield, One Monarch Place, Springfield. Sponsored by United Personnel (breakfast series sponsor) and Wolf & Co. Featuring Josh Kraft, president of the New England Patriots Foundation and Nicholas president and CEO of the Boston Boys and Girls Clubs, on “Taking Social Justice Beyond Social Media.” Cost: $25 for members in advance ($30 at the door) or $35 general admission in advance ($40 at the door). To register, visit www.springfieldregionalchamber.com, e-mail [email protected], or call (413) 755-1310.

WEST OF THE RIVER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

www.ourwrc.com

(413) 426-3880

• Sept. 4: Wicked Wednesday, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Partners Restaurant, Agawam. Wicked Wednesdays are monthly social events, hosted by various businesses and restaurants, that bring members and non-members together to network in a laid-back atmosphere. Cost: free for members, $10 for non-members. For more information about this event, call the chamber office at (413) 426-3880, or register online at www.westoftheriverchamber.com.

• Sept. 17: Legislative Breakfast, 7-9 a.m., hosted by Crestview Country Club, Agawam. Presenting sponsor: Health New England. A panel of legislators, featuring state Sens. James Welch and Donald Humason and state Reps. Nicholas Boldyga and Michael Finn, will provide updates from Beacon Hill, followed by a question-and-answer session. Sponsorship opportunities are available. For sponsorships or to register online, visit www.westoftheriverchamber.com. For more information on ticket sales, contact the chamber office at (413) 426-3880 or [email protected].

People on the Move

People on the Move

Michele Feinstein

Gary Fentin

Carol Cioe Klyman

Timothy Mulhern

Steven Schwartz

James Sheils

Steven Weiss

Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C. announced that seven of its attorneys were listed in Best Lawyers in America for 2020. Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer review publication in the legal profession, and its peer-reviewed listings are published in almost 75 countries around the world. The seven Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin lawyers listed for inclusion this year are: Shareholder Michele Feinstein, in the fields of elder law and trusts and estates; Shareholder Gary Fentin (banking and finance law and commercial transactions/Uniform Commercial Code law); Shareholder Carol Cioe Klyman (elder law); Managing Partner Timothy Mulhern (corporate law and tax law); Shareholder Steven Schwartz (business organizations, including LLCs and partnerships; closely held companies; and family business law, as well as corporate law); Shareholder James Sheils (commercial transactions/Uniform Commercial Code law); and Shareholder Steven Weiss (bankruptcy and creditor/debtor rights, and insolvency and reorganization law). Feinstein concentrates her practice in the areas of estate planning and administration, elder law, probate litigation, health law, and corporate and business planning, including all aspects of planning for the succession of business interests, representation of closely held businesses and their owners, and representation of physicians in their individual and group practices. Fentin concentrates his practice in the areas of commercial and real-estate finance and development, industrial revenue bonds, affordable-housing development and finance, business law, and business foreclosures and workouts. He manages the firm’s tax-exempt bond practice and has acted as bond counsel and/or purchaser’s counsel in hundreds of such issues since 1978. Klyman concentrates her practice in the areas of elder law, estate planning, special-needs-trust planning, estate settlement, guardianships, trust and estates litigation, and MassHealth appeals. Mulhern concentrates his practice in the areas of family-business planning, taxation, corporate law, commercial real estate, and estate planning. Schwartz concentrates his practice in the areas of family-business planning, mergers and acquisitions, corporate law, and estate planning. His practice involves representation of principals in family-business planning (including exit planning for business owners), representation of individuals and corporations in the purchase and sale of business enterprises, strategic planning for the future of clients’ businesses, and providing advice on alternatives in financing through loans and venture capital. Sheils concentrates his practice in the areas of commercial finance law, creditors’ rights, banking law, and telecommunications siting matters. Weiss concentrates his practice in the areas of commercial and consumer bankruptcy, reorganization, and litigation. He supervises the firm’s bankruptcy, reorganization, and workout practice and represents creditors, debtors, and others in both commercial and consumer bankruptcy cases throughout Massachusetts. Weiss has been a member of the private panel of Chapter 7 Trustees for the District of Massachusetts since 1987.

•••••

Attorneys Michael Burke, John Pucci, and David Parke, partners at Bulkley Richardson, were each named 2020 Lawyer of the Year recipients in their respective practice areas by Best Lawyers in America, in partnership with U.S. News Media Group. Burke was honored in the area of Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants, Parke in Corporate Law, and Pucci in Criminal Defense – General Practice. Lawyer of the Year rankings are awarded to one lawyer per practice area and region. In total, 12 lawyers from the firm were selected by their peers for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America 2020. They include Peter Barry (recognized in the field of construction law), Michael Burke (medical malpractice law – defendants and personal-injury litigation – defendants); Mark Cress (banking and finance law, bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law, and corporate law); Francis Dibble Jr. (bet-the-company litigation, commercial litigation, criminal defense – white-collar, litigation – antitrust, litigation – labor and employment, and litigation – securities); Daniel Finnegan (administrative/regulatory law and litigation – construction); Robert Gelinas (personal-injury litigation – defendants); Kevin Maynard (commercial litigation, litigation – banking and finance, and litigation – construction); David Parke (corporate law); Melinda Phelps (medical-malpractice law – defendants and personal-injury litigation – defendants); John Pucci (bet-the-company litigation, criminal defense – general practice, and criminal defense – white-collar); Elizabeth Sillin (nonprofit/charities law and trusts and estates); and Ronald Weiss (corporate law, mergers-and-acquisitions law, and tax law).

•••••

Patricia Rapinchuk

Robinson Donovan, P.C. announced that attorney Patricia Rapinchuk, a partner at the firm, was recently selected as her region’s Lawyer of the Year for 2020 in the field of Litigation – Labor and Employment, by Best Lawyers in America. Rapinchuk a successful track record as a trial lawyer and concentrates her practice in employment law and litigation. She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Assoc., the Hampden County Bar Assoc., the Hampshire County Bar Assoc., and the Women’s Bar Assoc. of Massachusetts. She is regularly honored by Massachusetts Super Lawyers, being selected as a Top 50 Woman in Massachusetts in 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2017. Additionally, this is her fourth Best Lawyers Lawyer of the Year recognition in Litigation – Labor and Employment, being previously honored in 2016, 2018, and 2019. Rapinchuk earned her bachelor’s degree from Mount Holyoke College and her juris doctor from the University of Connecticut.

•••••

Timothy Murphy

Skoler, Abbott & Presser, P.C. announced that one of its partners, Timothy Murphy, was recognized by his peers as a 2020 Lawyer of the Year in Springfield for his work in Labor Law – Management. Only a single lawyer in each practice area and community is honored with this award. In addition, Murphy is recognized in the 2020 edition of Best Lawyers in America for his work in Employment Law – Management, Labor Law – Management, and Litigation – Labor and Employment. Focusing his practice on labor relations, union campaigns, collective bargaining and arbitration, employment litigation, and employment counseling, Murphy has been included in Best Lawyers in America every year since 2013 and was also Lawyer of the Year in 2015 and 2019. In 2017, he was named Man Enough to Be a Girl Scout by the Girls Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts. Murphy is also active within the local community, sitting on boards of directors for several area organizations, such as the Springfield Regional Chamber and Community Legal Aid. He is also a member of the World Affairs Council and the Finance Committee in Wilbraham.

•••••

William Granger

William Granger has been named chief information officer at Greenfield Savings Bank. He will oversee the operations of the Information Technology (IT) Department, support the operation of the bank, and develop a long-term strategy for IT for the bank. He joins Greenfield Savings Bank with more than 20 years in IT and eight years working in the financial and banking industry. He served for six years in the U.S. Air Force and then earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting at George Mason University. After graduation, he became a CPA. He also completed the Artificial Intelligence course at the MIT Management Executive Program.

•••••

Alissa Mariano

Catherine Cagino

EMA Dental recently welcomed two new doctors to the practice: Alissa Mariano, DMD, and Catherine Cagino, DDS, MS. Mariano completed her doctorate at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in 2016 and completed her post-graduate specialty residency in advanced prosthodontics at Tufts in 2019. As a prosthodontist, she has focused her education on comprehensive rehabilitation and reconstruction of complex dental needs and implant dentistry. She is currently working both in Western and Eastern Mass., limiting her practice to prosthodontics. She is board-eligible and will be completing the final part of the American Board of Prosthodontics National Exam to become a board-certified prosthodontist this fall. Cagino graduated from the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine in 2013 and continued her education there in the Advanced Education in Prosthodontics residency program, earning her certificate in prosthodontics in 2016. During her residency, she also completed a master’s degree in Oral Sciences. Her master’s research thesis evaluated a new processing method for denture base acrylic resin. After graduation from residency, Cagino pursued sub-specialty training, completing a one-year fellowship in maxillofacial prosthetics at UCLA. Maxillofacial prosthetics focuses on treatment of patients with defects of the head and neck region due to cancer, surgery, trauma, and birth defects. Cagino’s clinical interests include the dental management of pre- and post-radiation and chemotherapy patients as well as treatment of maxillectomy and mandibulectomy patients.

•••••

Dietz & Co. Architects Inc. announced that Laura Davis has been promoted from architectural associate to job captain. Davis joined the firm in April and specializes in commercial renovations and fit-outs. She is currently working on design for renovations to a casino. Prior to joining Dietz, she worked on various retail tenant-improvement and restaurant projects nationwide. Davis graduated from Ohio State University with a bachelor’s degree in Interior Design.

•••••

Kayce Babinksi

DiGrigoli Salon announced that Kayce Babinksi, who has been a member of the artistic team for just over a year, was promoted on Aug. 1 from a junior stylist to a senior stylist. Babinski specializes in vivid colors, balayage, and braided updos. She earned this promotion by being a dedicated and loyal stylist, increasing her clientele, and continuously staying educated on the latest trends and techniques. She is a graduate of DiGrigoli School of Cosmetology and has attended several national hair shows and classes in Orlando, Fla. and New York City to make sure her clients are getting the best possible service. She has also been integral in supporting and promoting DiGrigoli’s own hair-product line, Paul Joseph Professional.

Company Notebook

Company Notebook

Tufts, Harvard Pilgrim Announce Plan to Merge

MASSACHUSETTS — Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan recently inked an agreement to merge, a marriage that would bring together the Commonwealth’s second- and third-largest insurers, creating a powerhouse to rival Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Tom Croswell, president and CEO of Tufts Health Plan, will serve as CEO of the new organization. Michael Carson, president and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim, will serve as president, overseeing the organization’s diverse business lines and subsidiaries, according to a release. “Our communities and consumers today face four major hurdles in health care: affordability, access, quality of health, and a fragmented healthcare experience across various stakeholders and health systems. Through our shared vision, we believe we can tackle these issues and bring more value to the communities we serve,” said Croswell in a statement. The plan was unanimously voted on by the boards of both organizations. The new combined entity does not yet have a name. The deal would bring together Tufts Health Plan’s 2,841 employees and approximately 1.16 million members with Harvard Pilgrim’s 1,182 employees and approximately 1.16 million members. Together, the insurers will have members in Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.

Elms College Will No Longer Require SAT, ACT Scores for Most Admissions

CHICOPEE — Starting with the class entering in the fall of 2020, Elms College will no longer require scores from standardized tests such as the SAT or ACT for admission to most majors. The move to a test-optional policy is intended to make higher education accessible to students from all backgrounds, including from underrepresented populations. Elms admission counselors will review applicants’ essays, letters of recommendation, and transcripts. They also will talk with prospective students to get to know them as full people. The test-optional policy will give all students, including those from underrepresented populations such as racial and ethnic minorities or those with economic disadvantages — groups who traditionally earn lower scores on standardized tests because of systemic social inequities — a greater chance to access the educational and experiential opportunities Elms offers. The School of Nursing at Elms will still require test scores, however, because nursing majors are required, upon graduation, to take the NCLEX exam to become licensed as nurses, and the college needs to know that its nursing students can succeed on such exams. Students or families with questions about test-optional admission, academics at Elms, or the application process are encouraged to contact the Office of Admission at (413) 592-3189 or [email protected]. More information is also available online at elms.edu/testoptional.

UMassFive to Bring Employees Student-loan Repayment Benefits

HADLEY — UMassFive College Federal Credit Union announced it is bringing student-loan repayment benefits to its employees via a new partnership between Student Choice and FutureFuel.io. Student Choice teamed up with FutureFuel.io earlier this year to better help credit unions address the growing challenge of student-loan debt faced by the emerging workforce. Participating in this new perk allows credit unions to offer their employees and employees of select employee groups access to FutureFuel’s online portal of automated tools that can help reduce the impact of student debt.

Monson High School Golfers, Monson Savings Bank Support Shriners

MONSON — Monson High School graduate Cam Kratovil, sophomore Mason Dumas, and varsity golf coach Paul Nothe, in cooperation with Monson Savings Bank, teamed up to raise money for Shriners Hospitals for Children – Springfield. Kratovil and Dumas collected pledges for a marathon golf round they recently played at Quaboag Country Club. They were escorted in golf carts around the course by Nothe and his wife, Nicole, as they completed their goal of playing 100 holes between the hours of 6 a.m. and noon. All the money pledged to them will be given to Shriners Hospitals for Children – Springfield. In addition, Monson Savings Bank sponsored the 2019 Pro-Am Golf Tournament at Quaboag Country Club on Aug. 17 and 18 to benefit the hospital.

Tighe & Bond Climbs in ENR’s Ranking of Environmental Firms

WESTFIELD — Tighe & Bond, a Northeast leader in engineering and environmental consulting, climbed six spots this year to number 142 on Engineering News Record’s (ENR) “2019 Top 200 Environmental Firms” ranking. ENR ranks its list of top 200 envi environmental firms nationally based on the percentage of their 2018 gross revenue from environmental services. Earlier this year, Tighe & Bond also climbed 19 spots to number on ENR’s “2019 Top 500 Design Firms” ranking, moving up a total of 38 spots in the past two years. ENR ranks its list of top 500 design firms nationally based on design-specific revenue from the previous year. Tighe & Bond provides comprehensive engineering and environmental services to hundreds of public and private clients across the Northeast, with emphasis on the education, energy, government, healthcare, industrial, real-estate, and water/wastewater markets. A staff of 385 work from nine offices in five states.

People’s United Community Foundation Grant Boosts JA Summer Program

SPRINGFIELD — Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts, which provides workforce-readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial-literacy programs to K-12 youth, recently received a $5,000 grant from the People’s United Community Foundation to support its Summer BEE (Business and Entrepreneurial Exploration) program for middle- and high-school students. The funds will be used to provide out-of-school educational experiences for youth from grades 6 to 12, focusing on financial literacy, entrepreneurship, career exploration/work readiness, and STEM education. The program includes in-class learning, hands-on learning, and experiential out-of-school learning experiences, such as lessons about the water ecosystem with presentations, videos, and techniques to test the water in the nearby Connecticut River. To learn problem solving, decision making and teamwork, students form companies, create a product, and market and sell the product, with the goal of earning a profit. Students have several opportunities to sell their products and pitch the companies to business people, family, and friends.

ESB Foundation Donates $5,000 to Hilltown Community Health Center

EASTHAMPTON — Matthew Sosik, president and CEO of bankESB, announced that the Easthampton Savings Bank Foundation awarded a $5,000 grant to the capital campaign for the John P. Musante Health Center of Hilltown Community Health Center. Located at 70 Boltwood Walk in Amherst, the John P. Musante Health Center provides accessible and affordable healthcare for primary and preventive medical, dental, and behavioral healthcare services. The center’s service area includes Amherst, Hadley, Northampton, Hatfield, Belchertown, Ware, South Hadley, Sunderland, South Deerfield, and Leverett.

WNEU Teams Up with Comcast to Offer Xfinity on Campus Service

SPRINGFIELD — Comcast announced it will bring its Xfinity on Campus service to Western New England University, allowing students to watch live TV and on-demand and recorded content on their IP-enabled devices, including laptops, tablets, and smartphones. The service is included with room and board for students living in on-campus housing. Xfinity on Campus offers more than 100 live channels and access to thousands of current TV shows and hit movies via Xfinity on Demand. While off campus, students can use the Xfinity Stream app to log in and access TV Everywhere programming that’s part of their subscription.

Eversource Upgrading Electric System in Western Mass.

SPRINGFIELD — Eversource is investing $4 million in upgrades to electric-distribution systems in the towns of Plainfield, Cummington, Chesterfield, Worthington, Windsor, Savoy, and Dalton. These enhancement projects include replacing more than 130 utility poles with stronger, thicker ones and installing more than 21,000 feet of more resilient power lines. ‘Smart switches’ are also being added to the system to help restore power outages more quickly in the event they happen. These devices can limit the number of customers affected by an outage and restore power with computer-assisted technology from the energy company’s operations center even before sending a crew to inspect the line and make repairs. A major component of this upgrade project is connecting two electrical circuits, creating a loop. Once the two electrical systems are tied together, it will make substations on either end accessible when needed, boosting the company’s ability to deliver reliable power. Customers may experience short power interruptions during the project, so crews can safely perform the work. Any customers affected will be notified by the company in advance. The project is expected to be complete by this fall.

Holyoke Medical Center Expands Services in Westfield

WESTFIELD — Holyoke Medical Center announced expanded healthcare services in Westfield, including family medicine, women’s services, gastroenterology, walk-in care, and more. Holyoke Medical Group Family Medicine, an affiliate of Holyoke Medical Center, has relocated to 140 Southampton Road in Westfield. The office offers care for the entire family, including pediatrics, adult primary care, women’s health, and geriatric care. Dr. Thomas Graziano and Deborah Pisciotta, MS, PA-C, are accepting new patients. The office is open weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. To make an appointment, call (413) 535-4800. In addition to Holyoke Medical Group Family Medicine, Holyoke Medical Center plans to offer walk-in care, lab draw, imaging services, and physical therapy at the 140 Southampton Road facility starting this fall. Holyoke Medical Group Women’s Services also has an office in Westfield, located at 94 North Elm St., Suite 102, in Westfield. Holyoke Medical Center Gastroenterology will also open a new office at 94 North Elm St., Suite 206, in Westfield on Oct. 21.

Massachusetts Unemployment Drops Slightly in July

BOSTON — The state’s total unemployment rate dropped one-tenth of a percentage point to 2.9% in July, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development announced. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) preliminary job estimates indicate Massachusetts lost 3,500 jobs in July. Over the month, the private sector lost 4,100 jobs as losses occurred in leisure and hospitality; education and health services; professional, scientific, and business services; construction; and financial activities. Manufacturing jobs remained unchanged over the month, while trade, transportation, and utilities; other services; and information added jobs. Government added jobs over the month. From July 2018 to July 2019, BLS estimates Massachusetts added 37,300 jobs. The July unemployment rate was eight-tenths of a percentage point lower than the national rate of 3.7% reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Over the year, the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate dropped four-tenths of a percentage point. The labor force decreased by 4,400 from 3,838,800 in June, as 2,100 fewer residents were employed and 2,400 fewer residents were unemployed over the month. The state’s labor-force participation rate — the total number of residents 16 or older who worked or were unemployed and actively sought work in the last four weeks — dropped one-tenth of a percentage point over the month to 67.6%. Compared to July 2018, the labor-force participation rate is up one-tenth of a percentage point. The largest private-sector percentage job gains over the year were in other services; education and health services; information; and leisure and hospitality.

SPARK EforAll Holyoke Seeks Volunteer Mentors

HOLYOKE — SPARK EforAll Holyoke is actively seeking volunteers to participate as mentors in this winter’s business-accelerator program. Accelerator mentors come from a variety of backgrounds and use their business and leadership experience to guide new entrepreneurs through the process of turning their idea into a growing business. Mentors work in teams of three and are matched with an entrepreneur based on schedule availability and the desire to work together. The team meets as a group to help reaffirm topics and themes raised during classes, while also strategizing with the entrepreneur on how to reach their specific goals during the program. This is a high-touch, year-long commitment. Mentor teams have 90-minute in-person meetings for three months and then meet once a month for the following nine months. Anyone looking for an interactive and meaningful volunteer opportunity and interested in learning more about EforAll should e-mail [email protected].

Court Upholds Dismissal of Class-action Special-ed Suit

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno announced that the Federal Appeals Court upheld the dismissal of a class-action suit that had been brought by special-education advocates against the city of Springfield and Springfield Public Schools. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit Court entered judgment on Aug. 8 affirming the decision of Judge Mark Mastroianni to dismiss the class action. The underlying suit alleged that the city of Springfield and Springfield Public Schools (SPS) violated Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act by unnecessarily segregating students with mental-health disabilities in a separate and inferior school, the Springfield Public Day School (SPDS). A student brought the suit on his own behalf and on behalf of a class of all students with a mental-health disability who are or have been enrolled at SPDS. Two associations, the Parent/Professional Advocacy League (PPAL) and Disability Law Center (DLC), joined as plaintiffs seeking injunctive and declaratory relief, including an order that defendants provide the class plaintiffs with “school-based behavior services in neighborhood schools to afford them an equal educational opportunity and enable them to be educated in neighborhood schools.” The U.S. District Court, in an opinion by Mastroianni, denied class certification. The court later ruled that the associations had standing but granted the defendants’ motion for judgment on the pleadings as to the associations. The plaintiffs’ appeal challenges the district court’s denial of class certification. The city appeal argued that the district court erred in concluding that PPAL and DLC had standing. The Court of Appeals agreed that these organizations lack standing to pursue the claims in the complaint, and affirmed the district court’s grant of judgment on the pleadings as to PPAL and DLC on that ground. The case was argued by Deputy City Solicitor Lisa deSousa and attorney Stephen Holstrom, with whom City Solicitor Edward Pikula and attorney Melinda Phelps of Bulkley Richardson were on the brief.

Incorporations

Incorporations

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

AGAWAM

Hydropolis Inc., 65 Springfield St., Agawam, MA 01001. John Eaton, 4 Rising Corner Road, Southwick, MA 01077. Sale of product known as the Butter Brewery.

AMHERST

Honeycrisp Chicken Co., 1 Boltwood Mall, Amherst, MA 01002. Joe Deng, 37 Ridgemont St. Allston, MA 02134. Restaurant.

HARDWICK

Hinternet Inc., 235 Czesky Road, Hardwick, MA 01037. Robert Martin, 475 Old Petersham Road, Box 152, Hardwick, MA 01037. Internet service provider.

HATFIELD

Ikart Us Inc., 10 West St., Suite 6, West Hatfield, MA 01038. Ryan B. Bouvier, same. Family entertainment and events.

LANESBORO

Jogi Inc., 705 South Main St., Lanesboro, MA 01237. Vipul Patel, 82 Blake St., Taunton, MA 02780. Gas station.

NORTHAMPTON

Jake’s Eggs Inc., 17 King St., Northampton, MA 01060. Christopher Ware, 14 Drewsen Dr., Florence, MA 01062. Operation of a restaurant.

PITTSFIELD

International Association for Senior Care and Education Inc., 82 Wendell Ave., Ste 100, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Fang Feng, 1907 Main Line Blvd, Unit 102, Alexandria, VA 22301. Organized exclusively for improving senior care and education.

SPRINGFIELD

Iglesia Centro De La Familia Cristiana, 42 Crystal St., Springfield, MA 01108. Elmis Sanchez, 50 Bristol St., Springfield, MA 01109. Church.

J&J Care Transportation Corp., 71 West Alvord St., Springfield, MA 01108. Giovany Perez, same. Transportation-passengers.

Jamaica Spice Paradise Inc., 156 West Alvord St., Springfield, MA 01108. VerniceJ. Christian, same. Restaurant.

JCL Home Improvement Inc., 183 Maynard St., Springfield, MA 01109. Maria C. Cunin Guaman, same. General residential construction

Doing Business as Certifcates

DBA Certificates

The following business certificates and trade names were issued or renewed during the month of August 2019.

AMHERST

Bueno y Sano
1 Boltwood Walk
Robert Lowry

Elements Hot Tub Spa
373 Main St.
Todd Thibodeau, Susan Thibodeau

Globemed at Amherst College
220 South Pleasant St.
Martin Bonscok Koo, Shreya Venkat

Infused Way, LLC
48 North Pleasant St., Suite 200
Junaid Ijaz

Mom’s House Chinese Food Market
318 College St.
Fred Wang, Sandra Wang

Speedway #2419
468 West St.
Joey Allen

BELCHERTOWN

PW Home Improvements, LLC
45 Jabish St.
Pierre Willems

Quality Renovations
76 Orchard St.
Roger Watrous

Roadhouse Café
178 Federal St.
Michael Fusia

Snow’s Enterprises
746 Bay Road
Kenneth Snow, Linda Snow

Swift River Gunworks
450A State St.
Douglas Everett

CHICOPEE

Auto Optics
72 Carew St.
Dawid Janik

Mr. Cone
1048 Granby Road
Charlene Coelho

Woodworks by Janik
101 Front St.
Gregory Janik

EASTHAMPTON

Beetle Press
31 McKinley Ave.
Janice Beetle

New England Video Depositions
28 McKinley Ave.
Daniel Lohaus

EAST LONGMEADOW

Berkshire Facial Surgery Inc.
265B Benton Dr.
Stephen Paoella

Eyesight and Surgery Associates
382 North Main St.
Andrew Jusko

Quarry Road Publishing
37 Old Farm Road
Debra Pacheco Artenstein

Tom Kopyto Music, LLC
80 Denslow Road, Suite 230
Tom Kopyto

HADLEY

Hadley Concrete Service
35 Middle St.
Chris Baj

Hadley Picture Framing
44 Middle St.
Thomas Vachula

Here We Grow
123 Russell St.
Doug Andrews

Leon’s Auto Sales
64 East St.
Leon Szymborn

Liquors 44
458 Russell St.
LEFHA Inc.

HOLYOKE

BZD Dental Associates
610 South St.
Badri Debian

Kmart
2203 Northampton St.
Transform KM, LLC

Ponce Family Store
319 High St.
Efrain Resto, Leonor Sanchez

Target Store T-1232
50 Holyoke St.
Janine Brown-Wiese

LUDLOW

Discount Auto Repair
135 Carmelinas Circle
Todd Hanks

Gary Manuel General Contracting
217 Church St.
Gary Manuel

Law Offices of Sarah M. Pascale
52 Skyridge St.
Sarah Pascale

NORTHAMPTON

Conference Planning Associates
36 Bedford Ter.
Jeffrey Lefforts

Damon Road Rentals
96-108 Damon Road
William Mock, Evelyn Mock

Friendly Neighborhood Builder
170 West St.
Sean McCarvel

Katherine Kennedy
155 Main St.
Katherine Kennedy

Kris Thomson Carpentry
26A Liberty St.
Kris Thomson

Pho Boston
311 Riverside Dr.
Maruone Sothi Thach

Pine Box Studios
221 Pine St.
Alan Schneider, David Cowan Jr.

PALMER

Alpha Home Improvement
1310 South Main St., Apt. 5
James Peterson

Baystate Aerial Photography
414 Springfield St.
Jon Kurowski

Colby Academy of Dance
6 Springfield St.
Shelly Colby

Complete Truck & Auto Repair
543 Wilbraham St.
Robert LaRose

Donna J. Mead Graphic Design
4041 Pleasant St.
Donna Mead

Gotta Dance
1240 Park St.
Kelly Jordan

Gutter Cleaning USA
161 Stinson St.
Max Matsuk

Healing Body Solutions
2053 Main St.
Christine Wilson

SPRINGFIELD

Chef Turner Twin
7 Cornell St.
Brian Turner

Clip & Go Barber Shop
2625 Main St.
Ronald Lopez

Craftydoll
197 Allen St.
Christie Hester-Moore

D & J Snacks
251 Shady Brook Lane
James Lage

Domyana’s
540 Union St.
Yvelle Anderson

Happy Valley Pizza
14164 Sylvan St.
Happy Valley Café, LLC

JS Career Solutions
53 Pidgeon Dr.
Jayson Sanchez

Joyes Mart
164 Woodlawn St.
Buddhi Gurung

Kennedy Fried Chicken
1003 St. James Ave.
Waleed Neamah

King She
177 Belvidere St.
Brianna Wright

MedExpress Urgent Care
430 Cooley St.
MedExpress Urgent Care

Nervicia
24 Taylor St., Apt. C219
Antono Roberto

OD Trucking
34 King St.
Oscar Davila

Quality Cleaning Services
34 King St.
Yesenia Rodriguez

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

T. Thomas Properties
6 Annawon St.
Tasheena Thomas

Uptown Fashions
21B Rutland St.
Shawn Hillman

WARE

Canterbury Tails
40 East Main St.
Leah Greenberger

Debbie Wong Restaurant
54 West Main St.
Ho Mak

Fourth Dimension Sound Studios
15 Castle St.
Christopher St. Germain

Needle Therapy Tattoo and Body Piercing
49 Main St.
Philip Olivera

Nicco Marino Electrical
133 Bondsville Road
Nicco Marino

Rustic Knacks
256 Greenwich Road
Douglas Koczur

The Sharpest Edge
80 Pulaski St.
Nelson Rivera

Talk of the Town
85 Main St.
Keith Chouinard

Wayne Jones and Son Plumbing & Heating
12 Charles St.
Joshua Jones

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Michael’s Stores #9540
1081 Riverdale St.
Theismon Giles

Price Rite of West Springfield
1106 Union St.
James Dorey

Red’s Towing
1528 Riverdale St.
Gary Sheehan

Sunny’s Convenience
2240 Westfield St.
Sunil Patel

Top Truck Services Corp.
165 Bliss St.
Carl Augsberger Sr.

WILBRAHAM

All-Terior Painting & Powerwashing Services
15 Shirley St.
Marcia Long

Art-Tec Signs
2694 Boston Road
Terry Liberatori

Gray Hawk Corp.
24 Devonshire Road
Radu Moraru

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies

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

Alejandro, Juan A.
Alejandro, Mariel
99 Cooley St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/26/19

Audet, Ernest Reageant
Audet, Gina Marie
P.O. Box 908
Bondsville, MA 01009
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/26/19

Bearce, Susan M.
33 Chiswick St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/26/19

Bermudez, Tiffany L.
34 Davenport St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/26/19

Bernard, Daenia
96 Appleton St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/18/19

Bolduc, Alicia
20 Hartwell St.
Bernardston, MA 01337
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/23/19

Del Toro, Irving
1671 Wilbraham Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/24/19

Duquette, Sharon Lee
189 Michael Sears Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/17/19

Elite Paralegal Services
Meher, Steven Kenneth
Meher, Cheryl Ann
59 Bradway Road
Monson, MA 01057
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/29/19

Fein, Donna G.
60 Tecumseh Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/30/19

Gagnon, Mary C.
765 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/24/19

Green, Barbara J.
18 Willmark Ave.
Turners Falls, MA 01376
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/25/19

Holland, Betty F.
1475 Roosevelt Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/25/19

Hodge, Kent G.
60 West Silver St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/30/19

Judicki, Gordon
44 Governor Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/23/19

Kender, Constance M.
PO Box 501
Brimfield, MA 01010-0501
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/29/19

Kent, Marian
46 Clark St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/18/19

LaCross, Stephen W.
34 Plateau Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/17/19

Konton, Phinit J.
40 Bartlett Ave.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/26/19

Liberatore, Nathan Mark
Liberatore, Adina Scarlett
a/k/a Barron, Adina Scarlett
15 Gill Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/17/19

Marchese, Chloe M.
15 Winthrop St.
Millers Falls, MA 01349
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/25/19

Mohamed, Saprenia A
a/k/a Mohammed, Saprenia A.
a/k/a Jewell, Suprenia A.
82 Switzer Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/18/19

Perez, Maricelys
100 Hampshire St., Apt. 4A
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/26/19

Przystas, Steven J.
Przystas, Dorothy M.
125 Ward St., Apt 1
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/25/19

Quagliano, Joseph M.
41 Yarmouth St.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/19/19

Remedy Aesthetic Distribution
Ohlund, Robert Neil
51 Fiske Hill Road
Sturbridge, MA 01566
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/19/19

Rivera, Eric G.
25 Burke St.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/26/19

Rivera, Manuel
248 Sibley Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/26/19

Rose, Natalia
389 Springfield St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/27/19

Shea, Karen E.
1540 Memorial Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/23/19

Soucy, Gretchen Ward
a/k/a Ritchie, Gretchen Ward
48 Berkshire Ave.
Southwick, MA 01077
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/23/19

Stansfield, Daniel W.
PO Box 29
Adams, MA 01220
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/23/19

Torino, Anthony B.
11 Highland Ave.
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/29/19

Trottier, Jared James
Trottier, Michelle Ruby
16 Clarke Ave., #1
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/23/19

Yard, Gary Lionel
56 Norman St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 13
Filing Date: 07/22/19

Yordt, Jenny L.
1180 Amostown Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Filing Date: 07/26/19

Real Estate Transactions

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.

FASHFIELD

10 Norton Hill Road
Ashfield, MA 01330
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Yohah Ralph
Seller: Ashfield Holdings LLC
Date: 08/05/19

BERNARDSTON

9 South St.
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Barbara L. Ferrante
Seller: Mark A. Dearborn
Date: 07/31/19

BUCKLAND

26 Avery Road
Buckland, MA 01338
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Martha Taft-Ferguson
Seller: Garfield-Wright INT
Date: 08/07/19

120 Elm St.
Buckland, MA 01338
Amount: $305,000
Buyer: Jesse Shapiro
Seller: Stuart R. Parmett
Date: 08/08/19

COLRAIN

48 Reils Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $267,900
Buyer: Richard J. Davitt
Seller: Steven Derscha
Date: 08/01/19

CONWAY

468 Ashfield Road
Conway, MA 01341
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Alisia E. St.Florian
Seller: Thomas Shaw
Date: 07/31/19

DEERFIELD

Crestview Dr. #18
Deerfield, MA 01342
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Joann Sherman
Seller: John F. Barry
Date: 08/09/19

23 Juniper Dr.
Deerfield, MA 01342
Amount: $253,600
Buyer: Matthew A. Mourovic
Seller: Marlene Buckowski
Date: 08/01/19

165 Lower Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
Amount: $308,500
Buyer: Marc Dedinas
Seller: Ameer A. Whitmyer
Date: 07/31/19

225 Upper Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
Amount: $267,000
Buyer: Robert W. Griffin
Seller: Raymond D. Burnham
Date: 08/02/19

GILL

6 Set Back Lane
Gill, MA 01354
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: PDV Inc.
Seller: Peter E. Bassett
Date: 08/06/19

GREENFIELD

16 Arnold Lane
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $143,000
Buyer: PDV Inc.
Seller: Michael K. Newell
Date: 08/08/19

49 Cleveland St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Nicholas M. Wells
Seller: Scott J. Rae
Date: 07/31/19

285 Conway St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: David A. Rich
Seller: Paquin IRT
Date: 07/31/19

15 James St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Andrew M. Curran
Seller: Corey D. Carpenter
Date: 08/07/19

67 Laurel St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $167,500
Buyer: Cara J. Cusson
Seller: Joseph E. Crone
Date: 08/09/19

15 Phillips St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Big Foot Food Forests LLC
Seller: Richard A. Avonti
Date: 08/01/19

214 Silver St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $161,000
Buyer: Troy S. Butler
Seller: Thomas N. Gingras
Date: 08/02/19

125 South Shelburne Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Theodore A. Hanna
Seller: Kinner, Richard L., (Estate)
Date: 08/09/19

LEVERETT

15 2 Mile Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Umassfive College Credit Union
Seller: Maria L. Kilfoil
Date: 07/31/19

LEYDEN

174 Kately Hill Road
Leyden, MA 01301
Amount: $376,000
Buyer: Martha D. Hopewell
Seller: Ramona A. Tomlinson
Date: 08/01/19

MONTAGUE

25 Bernardo Dr.
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $165,370
Buyer: Jake R. Archambault
Seller: Rau, Shirley M., (Estate)
Date: 07/31/19

108 J St.
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $187,500
Buyer: Michael E. Fleming
Seller: Air Associates LLC
Date: 07/31/19

396 Montague City Road
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Alexander W. Towne
Seller: Kenneth G. Morin INT
Date: 08/01/19

411 Turners Falls Road
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $279,900
Buyer: Alyssa J. Leclerc
Seller: Renee L. Belleville
Date: 08/09/19

NORTHFIELD

1059 Millers Falls Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $342,000
Buyer: Nancy Hrynyshyn
Seller: Wayne F. Whitney
Date: 08/02/19

ORANGE

100 Adams St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $164,000
Buyer: Frances D. Hadsel
Seller: Robyn M. Parmenter
Date: 08/09/19

26 Beacon St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $142,000
Buyer: Christopher S. Murphy
Seller: Burkley Properties LLC
Date: 07/31/19

28 Beacon St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $142,000
Buyer: Christopher S. Murphy
Seller: Burkley Properties LLC
Date: 07/31/19

2 Cheney St. Ext.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $192,000
Buyer: Laura Liebenow
Seller: Martin W. Hastings
Date: 07/31/19

50 Hamilton Ave.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $163,000
Buyer: Rebecca J. Eklund
Seller: Herve R. Maillet
Date: 08/05/19

15 Maynard St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Mark Costello
Seller: Ryan A. Piragis
Date: 08/01/19

72 Mechanic St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $172,400
Buyer: Raymond C. Bousquet
Seller: Pioneer Valley Redevelopers
Date: 08/07/19

233 North Main St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $169,900
Buyer: Rachael A. Bassett
Seller: Norman E. Bartlett
Date: 07/31/19

123 Sandrah Dr.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Chris Rushford
Seller: US Bank
Date: 07/31/19

218 South Main St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Kari L. Brunette
Seller: Stanley R. Smith
Date: 08/08/19

99 West Orange Road
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $129,191
Buyer: Nationstar Mortgage LLC
Seller: Pamela A. Merritt
Date: 08/09/19

SUNDERLAND

54 North Plain Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $539,300
Buyer: Thomas A. Ehrgood
Seller: Leonard B. Quesnelle
Date: 08/01/19

WARWICK

544 Old Winchester Road
Warwick, MA 01378
Amount: $284,000
Buyer: Brian Farrington
Seller: Donald Keith
Date: 07/31/19

625 Old Winchester Road
Warwick, MA 01378
Amount: $186,500
Buyer: Gordon Glier
Seller: Wendy L. Warner
Date: 08/06/19

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

90 Clover Hill Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Ethan J. Nassar
Seller: Srinivasa Gutta
Date: 02/14/19

78 Hall St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $217,000
Buyer: Laura J. Fox
Seller: Darryl Ledoux
Date: 02/19/19

68 Maynard St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Mark Rogerson
Seller: Alan B. Olbrych
Date: 02/15/19

232 Rowley St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $157,500
Buyer: Anthony M. Santaniello
Seller: US Bank
Date: 02/20/19

178 School St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Dmitriy Brutskiy
Seller: Ruby Realty LLC
Date: 02/13/19

BRIMFIELD

65 East Hill Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Christian Collins
Seller: Denton, Jean M., (Estate)
Date: 02/22/19

31 Echo Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $209,000
Buyer: David Muir
Seller: Jay Mooney
Date: 02/14/19

CHICOPEE

67 Basil Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Judd Jackson
Seller: Cartier, James R., (Estate)
Date: 02/19/19

30 Bemis St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: Adrian P. Vega
Seller: Breire IRT
Date: 02/25/19

421 Broadway St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Sycamore Homes LLC
Seller: Broadway Street LLC
Date: 02/14/19

96 Catherine St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $179,000
Buyer: Tracy A. Lafreniere
Seller: Candace Ribeiro
Date: 02/21/19

585 East Main St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Jayne S. Price
Seller: Carol A. Konarski
Date: 02/14/19

25 Fairview Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Kimberly Devine
Seller: Anthony Eichstaedt
Date: 02/22/19

50 George St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $181,500
Buyer: Elly J. Rozell
Seller: Richard R. Carbonneau
Date: 02/25/19

20 Gill St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Kevin Dragon
Seller: Edward G. Furnelli
Date: 02/22/19

164 Joy St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $152,000
Buyer: Gregorio Rosario
Seller: Ferenc, Chester E., (Estate)
Date: 02/22/19

90 Loveland Terrace
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $158,100
Buyer: CIG 4 LLC
Seller: Robert L. Hall
Date: 02/19/19

123 Newbury St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $189,900
Buyer: Jennifer L. Weisgerber
Seller: Brahman Holdings LLC
Date: 02/15/19

18 Pickering St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $198,500
Buyer: Gabriel M. Jaworski
Seller: BHR Properties LLC
Date: 02/21/19

15 Piquette Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $267,000
Buyer: Kassem Z. Kabbout
Seller: Roland H. Jodoin
Date: 02/15/19

10 Tolpa Circle
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $278,000
Buyer: Frank F. Vezina
Seller: Roxanne Asselin
Date: 02/21/19

EAST LONGMEADOW

385 Chestnut St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Gerald J. Celetti
Seller: Marc Mamoun-Dulaimy
Date: 02/14/19

70 Fairview St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $152,000
Buyer: Cbatts Properties LLC
Seller: Michael B. McCarthy
Date: 02/25/19

10 Jennifer Lane
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Melissa A. Duprat
Seller: Robert W. Jergensen
Date: 02/21/19

50 Mill Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Mario Gallo
Seller: Margaret K. Trase
Date: 02/15/19

102 North Main St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Jessica E. Thomas
Seller: Richard L. Gardner
Date: 02/19/19

428 Porter Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $209,000
Buyer: Megan E. Leahan
Seller: Kelly Rider
Date: 02/26/19

46 Putting Green Circle
East Longmeadow, MA 01108
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Cang Huynh
Seller: Vincent G. Laduke
Date: 02/15/19

316 Westwood Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $116,500
Buyer: Frank A. Demarinis
Seller: MTGLQ Investors LP
Date: 02/19/19

GRANVILLE

384 Water St.
Granville, MA 01034
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Matthew J. Pomeroy
Seller: No Place Like Home Properties
Date: 02/20/19

HAMPDEN

382 Allen St.
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $283,000
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Linda J. Whitaker
Date: 02/14/19

54 Ames Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $247,000
Buyer: Jeffrey P. Bramucci
Seller: Sawx Holdings LLC
Date: 02/25/19

190 Stafford Road
Hampden, MA 01036
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Brandon M. Laux
Seller: William Lang
Date: 02/15/19

HOLLAND

233 Homestead Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Andrew W. Bzdel
Seller: Elizabeth M. Martin
Date: 02/22/19

85 Jackson St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $129,000
Buyer: Magali Trabal
Seller: E&L Properties LLC
Date: 02/22/19

326 Mashapaug Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Michael A. Breor
Seller: Penelope L. Hill
Date: 02/15/19

7 Old County Way
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Jonas Putz
Seller: Doreen D. Andrew
Date: 02/15/19

HOLYOKE

Chestnut St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Holyoke Housing Authority
Seller: Roman Catholic Bishop Of Springfield
Date: 02/14/19

264 Elm St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Holyoke Housing Authority
Seller: Roman Catholic Bishop Of Springfield
Date: 02/14/19

214 Knollwood Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $625,000
Buyer: Eric W. Cromwell
Seller: Marie E. Cromwell
Date: 02/20/19

240 Locust St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $184,500
Buyer: Matthew S. Kay
Seller: Merrill C. Desrosiers
Date: 02/15/19

6 Taylor St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Jason Ferreira
Seller: John S. Gay
Date: 02/19/19

LONGMEADOW

207 Coventry Lane
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $449,000
Buyer: Alexander M. Aiken
Seller: Mary K. Lewonchuk
Date: 08/09/19

60 Crest Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Lisa Roque
Seller: Jared D. Hudson
Date: 07/31/19

7 Englewood Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $460,000
Buyer: Jeremy F. Edwards
Seller: Richard Roque
Date: 07/31/19

341 Farmington Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $390,000
Buyer: Caroline M. St.Clair
Seller: Wayne M. MacDonald
Date: 08/02/19

1083 Frank Smith Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Jeffrey Sesko
Seller: M. M Briggs TR
Date: 07/31/19

108 Greenmeadow Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Rohit Rattan
Seller: Carol R. Rossi
Date: 08/07/19

20 Laurel Ln
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $445,000
Buyer: Elaine Dullea
Seller: 88 Casino Terrace LLC
Date: 08/08/19

26 Lees Lane
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $535,000
Buyer: Erik Peterson
Seller: Patrick Deveau-Malloy
Date: 08/09/19

551 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Valdimir Ruha
Seller: Timothy C. Beaulieu
Date: 08/09/19

664 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $625,000
Buyer: Cuda Family Partnership
Seller: Khushboo Gupta
Date: 07/31/19

891 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $368,000
Buyer: Robert L. McKeown
Seller: Thomas P. Kietzman
Date: 07/31/19

1134 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $337,000
Buyer: Michael J. McGravey
Seller: Benjamin J. Reardon
Date: 08/09/19

1183 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $319,000
Buyer: Emily M. Lange
Seller: Virginia E. Yohe
Date: 08/01/19

417 Maple Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Roderico Acevedo
Seller: Kennison D. Martin
Date: 08/09/19

52 Pinewood Hills
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $799,500
Buyer: Spencer Martin
Seller: Laura A. Stevens
Date: 08/09/19

17 Porter Lake Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $279,000
Buyer: Abigail S. Katsen
Seller: Erik Peterson
Date: 08/09/19

7 Robin Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $244,000
Buyer: Vineyard Partners Ltd
Seller: John C. Joyal
Date: 08/01/19

95 South Park Ave.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Nathan Reynen
Seller: Peter M. Buscemi
Date: 08/06/19

200 Tanglewood Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $463,000
Buyer: Jennifer J. Maloni
Seller: Jay L. Leib
Date: 08/02/19

300 Tanglewood Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $404,500
Buyer: Jessica L. Mack
Seller: Lester L. Halpern
Date: 08/01/19

104 Williston Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: 88 Casino Terrace LLC
Seller: Susan J. Szela
Date: 08/09/19

PALMER

2252 Baptist Hill Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $268,000
Buyer: Sean C. Winterson
Seller: Ann E. Tencza
Date: 02/15/19

121 Bourne St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Sean P. Sweeney
Seller: George S. Milkowski
Date: 02/20/19

129 Jim Ash Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Conner Harris
Seller: Lauren J. Cox
Date: 02/15/19

2286-2288 Main St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $127,000
Buyer: Anthony J. Busigo
Seller: Aime J. Lamontagne
Date: 02/21/19

3088 Pine St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Heather A. Marek
Seller: Cathy A. Barnes-Masztal
Date: 02/15/19

1213 South Main St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $143,000
Buyer: William J. Bernat
Seller: Mark Baldyga
Date: 02/25/19

SOUTHWICK

10 3rd St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $161,000
Buyer: Michael B. Jones
Seller: Dylan J. Tracy
Date: 08/12/19

128 Feeding Hills Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $194,000
Buyer: Justin M. Marcoux
Seller: Kaitlyn N. Daysh
Date: 07/31/19

12 Matthews Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $136,500
Buyer: John Devine
Seller: V Mortgage REO 2 LLC
Date: 08/07/19

110 Mort Vining Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $201,000
Buyer: Matthew G. Gomes
Seller: Shirley Pace
Date: 07/31/19

19 North Pond Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Lisa M. Bailey
Seller: George R. Lucier
Date: 08/13/19

27 Sefton Dr.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $291,200
Buyer: Roland A. Vigneault
Seller: Interstate Building Supply
Date: 08/13/19

SPRINGFIELD

237 Allen St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $123,000
Buyer: Marcus H. McClure
Seller: Debra A. Dowers
Date: 08/07/19

68 Alwin Place
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $390,000
Buyer: Argenis Ramos
Seller: Jeannette Torres
Date: 08/07/19

125 Arcadia Blvd.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Christopher Suarez
Seller: Harry E. Santiago
Date: 08/09/19

35 Audley Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Greg Rooke
Seller: Matthew J. Mahan
Date: 08/05/19

136 Berkshire St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $176,000
Buyer: Willie Roman
Seller: Roger A. Gallagher
Date: 08/07/19

90 Braddock St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $123,000
Buyer: Latoya T. Donawa
Seller: Eric C. Cassidy
Date: 08/06/19

158 Bridle Path Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Bryony Parker
Seller: Paige M. Coelho
Date: 07/31/19

18-20 Burke St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $176,000
Buyer: Oksana Arbuzov
Seller: Steven T. Desilets
Date: 07/31/19

56 Burnside Ter
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $151,000
Buyer: Tiffany S. Jones
Seller: Coughlin, Francis J., (Estate)
Date: 08/09/19

72 Burt Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Scott Castle
Seller: Mark J. Russell
Date: 08/02/19

84 Campechi St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Diana C. Pagan
Seller: Daniel G. Audette
Date: 08/08/19

27-29 Carlisle St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $149,900
Buyer: Stanley A. Ekpong
Seller: Lamar Wright
Date: 08/01/19

57 Castle St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Thomas M. Eaton
Seller: Thomas L. Eaton
Date: 08/12/19

194 Centre St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $175,900
Buyer: Henry Torrey
Seller: Maksuda Begum
Date: 08/08/19

108-110 Cherrelyn St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Juan Ramos
Seller: Braulio Fontanez
Date: 08/01/19

84 Chesterfield Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Jacinto Diaz
Seller: Robert M. Gleason
Date: 08/09/19

120 Dayton St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Abaigeal S. Hillyard
Seller: Jennifer M. Rademacher
Date: 08/09/19

71 Dearborn St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Benfry Espinal
Seller: Reynaldo D. Rodriguez
Date: 08/02/19

30 Delaware Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Huguette Williams
Seller: Jaclyn R. Carbonneau
Date: 08/01/19

116 Denwall Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Jeffrey A. Zapata
Seller: Patricia A. Menard
Date: 08/02/19

57 Denver St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $149,900
Buyer: Cesarina J. Veras
Seller: Patrick J. Sands
Date: 08/08/19

160 Derryfield Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $185,099
Buyer: Celeste A. Racicot
Seller: Dennis E. Nelson
Date: 08/09/19

681 Dickinson St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: 413 Real Estate LLC
Seller: Bedard, Matthew T., (Estate)
Date: 08/07/19

166 Dwight Road
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $187,500
Buyer: Vu VanTran
Seller: Ramesh Biswa
Date: 08/02/19

204 Eastern Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $146,400
Buyer: Arleen Salgado
Seller: R. M. Blerman LLC
Date: 07/31/19

98 Eddy St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Miguel A. Calderon
Seller: Henry G. Clay
Date: 08/12/19

6 Elaine Circle
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Phillip A. Borras
Seller: Grahams Construction Inc.
Date: 07/31/19

44 Emerson St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $178,000
Buyer: Christopher M. Fraser
Seller: James J. Goodreau
Date: 07/31/19

48-50 Ferris St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Donna Franceschina
Seller: Kari Franceschina
Date: 08/09/19

351 Forest Hills Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Alley Bonemery
Seller: Ashley L. Rogers
Date: 08/12/19

65-67 Forest Park Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Luis O. Diaz
Seller: Vladimir Krokhmalyuk
Date: 08/02/19

45 Gail St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $173,000
Buyer: Timothy Kelleher
Seller: Villalobos, Jonathan J., (Estate)
Date: 08/07/19

110 Genesee St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Miguel E. Rodriguez
Seller: Mer Realty LLC
Date: 07/31/19

198 Gifford St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Madeline Rivera
Seller: Ann Balbi
Date: 08/09/19

61 Greaney St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Sarah Mattey
Seller: Evelyn S. Beer
Date: 07/31/19

26 Groton St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $141,000
Buyer: Kylie T. Schmuck
Seller: Lisa R. Crouser
Date: 08/01/19

160 Groveland St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Janiah Alamo
Seller: Laurie A. Caracciolo
Date: 07/31/19

31-33 Grover St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $139,100
Buyer: Anouk RT
Seller: Shernet A. Reid
Date: 08/02/19

130 Harvey St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Jasvinder Arora
Seller: Orlando Rivera
Date: 08/09/19

63 Haumont Ter.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Yazmin Ayala
Seller: Jose Morales
Date: 08/13/19

16 Hickox St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $310,900
Buyer: Chankyna Aribo
Seller: Chang Li
Date: 08/02/19

19 Jerilis Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $177,000
Buyer: Maria M. Rodriguez
Seller: Kevin J. Czaplicki
Date: 08/07/19

18 Jonquil Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $147,000
Buyer: Kathleen T. Mellano
Seller: Pamela A. Obrien
Date: 08/02/19

15 Jordan St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Roman Varakuta
Seller: Denali Properties LLC
Date: 08/05/19

45 Kathleen St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $167,000
Buyer: M. K. Carmichael-Landry
Seller: Patricia J. Poindexter
Date: 08/12/19

10 Leitch St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Vida Tete-Donkor
Seller: Alex Owusu
Date: 08/07/19

177 Marion St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Osamah A. Kherat
Seller: AAD LLC
Date: 08/02/19

192 Marsden St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $139,000
Buyer: Windsor Park REO Owner
Seller: Anthony B. Gamble
Date: 07/31/19

60 Massreco St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $178,500
Buyer: Ivelisse Bruno
Seller: Mass Solutions LLC
Date: 08/09/19

88 Melrose St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Lorainna Baez
Seller: James A. Moore
Date: 07/31/19

61 Methuen St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: Tamika K. Walter
Seller: Eagle Home Buyers LLC
Date: 07/31/19

74 Michigan St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Angel L. Rosario
Seller: Laura Mansfield
Date: 07/31/19

91 Mildred Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $184,845
Buyer: Austin J. Urkiel
Seller: Richard J. Graveline
Date: 08/09/19

20 Miner St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $132,900
Buyer: Ector L. Acevedo
Seller: Mary L. Curley
Date: 07/31/19

78-80 Mooreland St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Diomedes D. Chavez
Seller: KG Holdings Inc.
Date: 08/07/19

3065 North Main St.
Springfield, MA 01101
Amount: $275,100
Buyer: Salmar Realty LLC
Seller: Bank Of America
Date: 08/05/19

107-109 Noel St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Persia A. Jimenez-Reyes
Seller: Elba L. Casiano
Date: 08/05/19

171 Northampton Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Resolute RT
Seller: James J. Natle
Date: 08/09/19

490 Page Blvd.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: River Valley RE LLC
Seller: Zgdg Realty LLC
Date: 08/06/19

40 Parkwood St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Felicia Lockwood
Seller: David Givans
Date: 08/07/19

18 Pebble Mill Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $161,900
Buyer: Karena L. Dejesus
Seller: Teresa Sanchez
Date: 07/31/19

172 Phoenix Ter.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Lachenauer LLC
Seller: Mantzoros, Peter C., (Estate)
Date: 08/09/19

21 Pine Hill Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Eton E. Reid
Seller: William Houldson
Date: 08/08/19

1559 Plumtree Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $189,000
Buyer: Victoria M. Alessi
Seller: Pham Tien
Date: 07/31/19

222 Redlands St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Rafael R. Maldonado
Seller: Sara E. Maldonado
Date: 07/31/19

138 Rollins St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Michael Gatanio
Seller: Linda P. Gibson
Date: 08/12/19

10-12 Sanderson St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $292,000
Buyer: Luther Pettway
Seller: Hedge Hog Industries Corp.
Date: 08/09/19

49 Slater Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $173,900
Buyer: Robert I. Minto
Seller: Humboldt Realty LLC
Date: 08/13/19

1189 South Branch Pkwy.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Peter G. Demetriou
Seller: Robert O. Russell
Date: 08/05/19

43 Sedgewick St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $140,294
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Shirley V. Collins
Date: 08/06/19

49 Sherman St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $204,000
Buyer: Jonathan Cruz
Seller: Good Living Properties LLC
Date: 08/02/19

187 Starling Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Brendan E. Sunter
Seller: Jacqueline E. Hanko
Date: 08/08/19

43-45 Stockman St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: C. Acajabon-Sanchez
Seller: Yuveri S. Guzman
Date: 08/09/19

1169 Sumner Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $122,000
Buyer: Yaritza Tancredi
Seller: Alan E. Bruso
Date: 08/02/19

1179 Sumner Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: Tatianaleney Vazquez
Seller: Monzer Ali Saleh
Date: 07/31/19

46 Tinkham Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $123,820
Buyer: Freedom Mortgage Corp.
Seller: Shaki L. Wheeler
Date: 08/06/19

88 Warrenton St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: Said Pardo
Seller: Booker, Patrina V., (Estate)
Date: 08/08/19

2341 Wilbraham Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Jacqueline L. Goldthwaite
Seller: Patricia T. Powers
Date: 08/05/19

115 Wilton St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $173,040
Buyer: Felix J. Perez
Seller: Manchester Ent. LLC
Date: 08/02/19

40 Wing St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $133,000
Buyer: CIG 4 LLC
Seller: Winford Richard
Date: 08/08/19

9 Woodcliff St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Jeffrey Jean-Charles
Seller: James R. Robichau
Date: 08/02/19

97 Woodside Ter.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $169,000
Buyer: Angel L. Garcia-Jimenez
Seller: Juan L. Gonzalez
Date: 08/01/19

838-840 Worthington St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Andrey Khromets
Seller: Alfred D. Shattelroe
Date: 08/02/19

TOLLAND

101 Owls Nest Lane
Tolland, MA 01034
Amount: $183,000
Buyer: Joshua D. Ilnicky
Seller: William N. Magni
Date: 08/13/19

73 Pinewood Dr.
Tolland, MA 01034
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Jeffrey S. Gillis
Seller: Gregory Schlenk
Date: 08/09/19

WALES

31 Shore Dr.
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: William F. Venezia
Seller: Henry F. Decoteau
Date: 08/09/19

WEST SPRINGFIELD

861 Amostown Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Mary C. Curran
Seller: B&B Properties LLC
Date: 08/09/19

43 Exposition Ter.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Petro Levchyk
Seller: David H. Ruelle
Date: 08/09/19

128 Galaska Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Jay M. Passerini
Seller: Kennedy, Brian M., (Estate)
Date: 08/06/19

105 Greenleaf Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Angela M. Boisvert
Seller: Nancy Whitehead
Date: 07/31/19

83 Herrman St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $254,500
Buyer: Nancy J. Whitehead
Seller: MAA Property LLC
Date: 07/31/19

1071 Memorial Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $765,000
Buyer: PSM LLC
Seller: Shreeji Sayona LLC
Date: 08/07/19

1207 Morgan Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Andrea L. Oliveira
Seller: Shelby D. Mason
Date: 08/01/19

113 Mount Pleasant Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Donald Bain
Seller: Vincent R. Bain
Date: 08/08/19

38 Nelson St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $216,000
Buyer: Ryan Booher
Seller: Christine M. Cyboron
Date: 07/31/19

764 Riverdale St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $520,000
Buyer: Desai & Sons Inc.
Seller: John Huang
Date: 08/09/19

2255 Westfield St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Mahmoud Jnaed
Seller: NRZ REO 6 LLC
Date: 08/01/19

WESTFIELD

75 Alexander Place
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $349,000
Buyer: Nicholas L. Connor
Seller: Christine M. Germain
Date: 08/02/19

13 Avery St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $119,000
Buyer: Danelle F. Daly
Seller: Claire D. Bailey
Date: 08/09/19

324 City View Blvd.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Ryanne K. Shea
Seller: David R. Boudreau
Date: 08/12/19

22 Dry Bridge Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $184,000
Buyer: Daniel J. Gelina
Seller: James Walsh
Date: 08/02/19

9 Ellis St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $197,000
Buyer: Sandra L. Robinson
Seller: Ryan C. Bengle
Date: 08/06/19

84 Ely St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $157,718
Buyer: Citizens Bank
Seller: Michael E. Coach
Date: 07/31/19

10 Franklin Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $175,500
Buyer: US Bank
Seller: Angela A. Cooley
Date: 08/09/19

7 Hanover St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Tasos FT
Seller: Robert A. Daigneault
Date: 07/31/19

9 Hanover St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Tasos FT
Seller: Robert A. Daigneault
Date: 07/31/19

200 Hillside Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $163,000
Buyer: Ernesto Nolasco
Seller: JMN LLC
Date: 07/31/19

50 Holland Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Sarah L. Williams
Seller: David A. Simmons
Date: 08/09/19

305 Holyoke Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $236,000
Buyer: Heather D. McMahon
Seller: Theresa M. Broderick
Date: 08/09/19

74 Montgomery St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Allison M. Gogol
Seller: Thomas E. Fredette
Date: 08/02/19

69 Old Farm Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Alicja U. Lonczak
Seller: Second Phase Homes LLC
Date: 08/07/19

110 Old Stage Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $305,000
Buyer: Benjamin D. Berchulski
Seller: Brian Brown
Date: 08/05/19

13 Pine St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $205,696
Buyer: FHLM
Seller: Patrick J. St.Lawrence
Date: 08/09/19

21 Rider Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Alina Gurt
Seller: Kerry L. Savoy
Date: 08/09/19

50 Ridgecrest Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $293,000
Buyer: Mark Senecal
Seller: Kimberly K. Cooper-Smith
Date: 07/31/19

1 Saint Paul St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $204,000
Buyer: Trisha M. Garcia
Seller: Keith Cromack
Date: 07/31/19

537 Southwick Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $431,000
Buyer: Jacob Violette
Seller: Andrey N. Novenko
Date: 08/08/19

60 Westwood Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: James V. York
Seller: Stephen E. Delusa
Date: 07/31/19

WILBRAHAM

48 Beebe Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Zachary Adams-Dietz
Seller: Lisa M. Strobridge
Date: 08/02/19

26 Brookside Circle
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $372,500
Buyer: Dennis E. Nelson
Seller: Lisa M. Fritz
Date: 07/31/19

5 Brookside Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Brian D. Coelho
Seller: BK Invest LLC
Date: 07/31/19

Dipping Hole Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Darrell A. Fronczek
Seller: Robert A. Heyman
Date: 08/05/19

Highview Circle #7
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Rudolf Kroisi
Seller: Joseph Chapdelaine & Sons
Date: 08/02/19

19 Leemond St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $282,000
Buyer: James J. Goodreau
Seller: Peter G. Donaldson
Date: 07/31/19

8 Pidgeon Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $201,000
Buyer: Custom Homes Development Group
Seller: Richard P. Shepardson
Date: 07/31/19

13 Ruth Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $369,000
Buyer: Daniel J. Manning
Seller: David Mendrala
Date: 08/01/19

787 Tinkham Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Suzanna Frati
Seller: James S. Dewolf
Date: 08/05/19

17 Victoria Lane
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $455,000
Buyer: Stephen M. Heath
Seller: David Calkins
Date: 07/31/19

37 West Colonial Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $455,000
Buyer: Michael A. Dean
Seller: Robert F. Little
Date: 08/13/19

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

1141 Bay Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Donald M. Stevens
Seller: Amit Sharma
Date: 07/31/19

30 Blue Hills Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $520,900
Buyer: Jeffrey R. Davis
Seller: William H. Ewell
Date: 08/02/19

187 College St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: College Street 1957 LLC
Seller: Ting FT
Date: 08/02/19

90 Cottage St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $312,500
Buyer: Alan P. St.Hilaire
Seller: Lynne Chase
Date: 08/01/19

43 Country Corners Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $567,500
Buyer: James David
Seller: Christopher J. Hutchins
Date: 08/06/19

176 Heatherstone Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $381,000
Buyer: Michael C. McDermott
Seller: Michael H. Hakim
Date: 08/09/19

44 Hedgerow Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $393,950
Buyer: Eric W. Heinzman
Seller: Holly J. Nelson
Date: 08/01/19

27 Kendrick Place
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Thomas A. Bergeron
Seller: 27 Kendrick Place LLC
Date: 08/07/19

23 Owen Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $599,900
Buyer: Mary C. Averill
Seller: Arya Mazumdar
Date: 08/01/19

1 Tuckerman Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $505,000
Buyer: Darryl V. Harper
Seller: Christopher Duncan
Date: 07/31/19

15 Wentworth Manor Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Dianne A. Weisselberg
Seller: Jonathan T. Sikes
Date: 08/09/19

297 West St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Erica Larner
Seller: Farzad Seihoun
Date: 08/08/19

30 West Pomeroy Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $231,000
Buyer: R&R Andrews RET
Seller: Matthew J. Turcotte
Date: 08/01/19

BELCHERTOWN

Bardwell St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: M&G Land Development LLC
Seller: Kenneth I. Hislop
Date: 08/06/19

100 Barton Ave.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $257,000
Buyer: Amaz Cleveland
Seller: Karen R. Henning
Date: 08/01/19

216 Bay Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $136,120
Buyer: Freedom Mortgage Corp.
Seller: Aaron M. Avery
Date: 08/06/19

11 Ledgewood Circle
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $282,000
Buyer: Nicole B. Rosenthal
Seller: Collins, Kasie D., (Estate)
Date: 07/31/19

110 Ludlow St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $367,350
Buyer: Sarah Courchesne
Seller: J. Jeffrey Yelle
Date: 07/31/19

North Washington St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: M&G Land Development LLC
Seller: Kenneth I. Hislop
Date: 08/06/19

50 Poole Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Julie I. Hammond
Seller: Du Con Properties LLC
Date: 08/02/19

25 Trillium Way
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Thondup Tsering
Seller: James C. Pijar
Date: 07/31/19

221 Ware Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: John F. Bonafini
Seller: David Fredenburgh
Date: 08/09/19

CHESTERFIELD

369 Main Road
Chesterfield, MA 01012
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Lisa D. Martineau-Shaw
Seller: Kevin Mccarthy
Date: 07/31/19

EASTHAMPTON

38 Briggs St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Donald L. Merand
Seller: John P. Bonin
Date: 08/08/19

11 Division St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Michelle C. Geoghegan
Seller: Houle, Gertrude E., (Estate)
Date: 08/05/19

Fort Hill Road #2
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $1,252,500
Buyer: Birch Family Farm LLC
Seller: Thomas A. Koziol
Date: 08/13/19

Fort Hill Road #3
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $1,252,500
Buyer: Birch Family Farm LLC
Seller: Thomas A. Koziol
Date: 08/13/19

Fort Hill Road #4
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $1,252,500
Buyer: Birch Family Farm LLC
Seller: Thomas A. Koziol
Date: 08/13/19

51 Holyoke St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: LBA Properties LLC
Seller: Autumn Management LLC
Date: 08/01/19

125-151 Laplante Circle
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $3,000,000
Buyer: Easthampton Amba LLC
Seller: David A. Cole Funding TR
Date: 08/01/19

156 Park St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $312,000
Buyer: Kathleen L. Emet
Seller: Shaler, George Alan, (Estate)
Date: 08/06/19

255 Park St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: John L. Morin
Seller: Henry A. Mathieu
Date: 07/31/19

6 Peloquin Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $222,500
Buyer: Sakeiun Sinn
Seller: Peter L. Galenski
Date: 08/09/19

2 Townhouse Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $3,000,000
Buyer: Easthampton Amba LLC
Seller: David A. Cole Funding TR
Date: 08/01/19

12 Vadnais St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $239,100
Buyer: Mark Passa
Seller: Donna L. Glacken
Date: 08/01/19

5 Wilton Road
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $230,725
Buyer: Duncan W. Crane
Seller: Lorraine V. Smith
Date: 08/01/19

GOSHEN

46 Bissell Road
Goshen, MA 01096
Amount: $358,000
Buyer: Taylor A. Granger
Seller: Benjamin C. West
Date: 08/06/19

124 Spruce Corner Road
Goshen, MA 01032
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Talon J. Zdaniewicz
Seller: Taylor A. Granger
Date: 08/06/19

GRANBY

32 Amherst St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $243,500
Buyer: Nathan T. Mercer
Seller: Benjamin Rosenthal
Date: 08/01/19

350 Batchelor St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Jennifer Wilson
Seller: Jonathan W. Laporte
Date: 08/02/19

124 Maximilian Dr.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $560,000
Buyer: Thomas R. Zumbruski
Seller: Deanne M. Payne-Rokowski
Date: 08/01/19

6 Pinebrook Circle
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $221,000
Buyer: Cody Gadreault
Seller: Tomasz Ludkiewicz
Date: 08/07/19

51 Porter St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: Casey A. Siok
Seller: Thomas R. Zumbruski
Date: 08/01/19

171 Taylor St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Cathleen A. Benben
Seller: Colin Brooks
Date: 08/09/19

177 West State St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Glenn Martin
Seller: John P. Tetreault
Date: 08/01/19

170 West St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Druk Zom
Seller: Penny T. Gill
Date: 08/02/19

HADLEY

88 Hockanum Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $281,000
Buyer: Maureen L. Chase
Seller: Cathy A. Morgan
Date: 08/09/19

4 Nikkis Way
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $695,000
Buyer: Trisha L. Andrew
Seller: Bercume Construction LLC
Date: 08/08/19

350 River Dr.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Carolyn M. Waskiewicz
Seller: Peter M. Bemben
Date: 08/08/19

HATFIELD

50 Dwight St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Harry C. Lightfoot
Seller: Michalowski, Jean C., (Estate)
Date: 08/01/19

471 Main St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $485,000
Buyer: John J. Place
Seller: Jonathan A. Lackman
Date: 08/07/19

480 Main St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $560,000
Buyer: George H. Baldwin
Seller: Rebecca Mcdaniel
Date: 08/09/19

35 Pantry Road
Hatfield, MA 01088
Amount: $335,065
Buyer: M&T Bank
Seller: Noel N. Morris
Date: 08/02/19

HUNTINGTON

4 Bean Hill Road
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $339,000
Buyer: Alison Klejna
Seller: Kathryn S. Hicks
Date: 08/01/19

24 Upper Russell Road
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Christopher Arbour
Seller: BD Asset Co. 1 LLC
Date: 08/13/19

MIDDLEFIELD

58 Chester Road
Middlefield, MA 01243
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Brian M. Stevens
Seller: Stanley J. Bandoski
Date: 07/31/19

NORTHAMPTON

26 Barrett Place
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $1,100,000
Buyer: Donald D. Anderson
Seller: Thomas P. Caine
Date: 07/31/19

235 Bridge St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $414,000
Buyer: Kilerine Properties LLC
Seller: William Yenner
Date: 08/13/19

15 Brierwood Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $136,000
Buyer: SA Capital LLC
Seller: Kimberly Riopelle
Date: 08/05/19

279 Brookside Circle
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $209,000
Buyer: Mariah S. Leavitt
Seller: Nicole Rainville
Date: 08/09/19

78 Coles Meadow Road
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $654,500
Buyer: Joan E. Dalin
Seller: Brian D. Hoffman
Date: 08/02/19

63 Dryads Green
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $799,000
Buyer: Khahtee V. Turner
Seller: Simon J. Salloom
Date: 07/31/19

134 Emerson Way
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $585,375
Buyer: Kent Pecoy & Sons Construction Inc.
Seller: Emerson Way LLC
Date: 07/31/19

140 Emerson Way
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $585,375
Buyer: Kent Pecoy & Sons Construction Inc.
Seller: Emerson Way LLC
Date: 07/31/19

148 Emerson Way
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $585,375
Buyer: Kent Pecoy & Sons Construction Inc.
Seller: Emerson Way LLC
Date: 07/31/19

206 Emerson Way
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $585,375
Buyer: Kent Pecoy & Sons Construction Inc.
Seller: Emerson Way LLC
Date: 07/31/19

217 Emerson Way
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $127,500
Buyer: Ries FT
Seller: Emerson Way LLC
Date: 08/01/19

226 Emerson Way
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $585,375
Buyer: Kent Pecoy & Sons Construction Inc.
Seller: Emerson Way LLC
Date: 07/31/19

1 Glendale Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: David J. Mell
Seller: Natalia E. Munoz
Date: 08/01/19

151 Greenleaf Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: Kathryn Hicks
Seller: Edward J. Sayer
Date: 08/01/19

13 Gregory Lane
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $311,000
Buyer: Karina B. Swenson
Seller: Lisa Barondes
Date: 08/12/19

65 Hastings Heights
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Meredith R. Bertrand
Seller: Carol R. Bertrand
Date: 08/12/19

51 Higgins Way
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $613,400
Buyer: Eric J. Gouvin
Seller: Sturbridge Development LLC
Date: 08/01/19

114 King St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $865,000
Buyer: Caltess LLC
Seller: William Yenner
Date: 07/31/19

8 Kingsley Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: John W. Kowalski
Seller: Samuel Welson
Date: 08/12/19

15 Nonotuck St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $294,500
Buyer: Brian D. Waldron
Seller: Rachel C. Baker
Date: 08/01/19

227 North St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $571,000
Buyer: Caroline E. Raisler
Seller: Stephen E. Williams
Date: 08/12/19

3 Olive St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $317,000
Buyer: SBC Property Mgmt. LLC
Seller: G&S Sandler Acquisition
Date: 07/31/19

16 Ridge View Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $550,000
Buyer: Ashley A. Laksa
Seller: Ridgeview Development LLC
Date: 08/09/19

82 Ryan Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Jacob R. Gordon
Seller: Eileen M. Baker
Date: 08/09/19

226 South St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $395,000
Buyer: Joseph C. Martinez
Seller: Robert H. Beede
Date: 08/07/19

242 South St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $399,000
Buyer: Scott K. Veggeberg
Seller: Lawson Reed-Wulsin
Date: 08/07/19

103 State St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $890,000
Buyer: Kilerine Properties LLC
Seller: William Yenner
Date: 07/31/19

95 Straw Ave.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $349,500
Buyer: Clare Wolfendale
Seller: Patrick Boughan
Date: 07/31/19

66 West St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: Caltess LLC
Seller: William Yenner
Date: 07/31/19

106 Whittier St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $812,000
Buyer: Ethan C. Kramer
Seller: Amy S. Goodman RET
Date: 08/05/19

14 Winslow Ave.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $337,700
Buyer: Nu Way Homes Inc.
Seller: Patricia A. Duffy
Date: 07/31/19

SOUTH HADLEY

22 Bolton St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Melissa Laurin
Seller: Rogowski, Janette S., (Estate)
Date: 08/02/19

4 Central Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: James T. McNamara
Seller: Michael A. Dean
Date: 08/13/19

12 Glenn Dr.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $257,000
Buyer: Robert R. Duprat
Seller: Deborah J. Smith
Date: 08/12/19

8 Grandview St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $239,000
Buyer: Samantha Crowley
Seller: Scott C. Larochelle
Date: 08/08/19

120 Lyman St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $282,500
Buyer: Dennis Croll
Seller: Pamela J. Linscott
Date: 08/01/19

38 Mountain Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $337,900
Buyer: Dylan J. Tracy
Seller: Alan F. Beaudry
Date: 08/12/19

3 Overlook Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Suleyman Demirhan
Seller: George W. Francis
Date: 07/31/19

59 Searle Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Aaron M. Gaudette
Seller: Stacey Jarmuzewski
Date: 07/31/19

8 Skinner Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $269,900
Buyer: Nancy Pessia
Seller: Joseph G. Lugo
Date: 08/09/19

12 Sullivan Lane
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $530,000
Buyer: Steven C. Laplante
Seller: Kenneth C. Leblanc
Date: 07/31/19

28 Viviani St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $351,000
Buyer: Brian S. Langevin
Seller: Irene L. Fisher RET
Date: 08/09/19

SOUTHAMPTON

114 College Hwy.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $1,700,000
Buyer: Easthampton Amba LLC
Seller: Letitia A. Cole TR
Date: 08/01/19

9 Susan Dr.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $352,900
Buyer: Brian P. Selgrade
Seller: Paul R. Bessette
Date: 08/12/19

WARE

198 East St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $700,000
Buyer: Reenergy Ware LLC
Seller: 198 East Street LLC
Date: 08/09/19

5 Highland St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Henry W. Whitford
Seller: Doris C. Mazur
Date: 07/31/19

18 Prospect St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Julie A. Burton
Seller: Mark J. St.Laurent
Date: 08/13/19

15 Warebrook Village
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $134,900
Buyer: Bonnie E. Blais
Seller: Stewart A. Terrien
Date: 07/31/19

WILLIAMSBURG

10 East Main St.
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $505,000
Buyer: Jonathan A. Gregory
Seller: Kathleen M. Ventre
Date: 08/05/19

21 Hatfield Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Jerome Haines
Seller: Martina A. Kopka
Date: 08/09/19

WESTHAMPTON

23 Pine Island Lake
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $239,000
Buyer: Stephanie O’Keeffe
Seller: Madalyn J. Kirejczyk
Date: 07/31/19

52 Stage Road
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $248,000
Buyer: Nicole Rainville
Seller: Daniel Parker
Date: 08/09/19

WORTHINGTON

98 Ridge Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $465,000
Buyer: David Roemer
Seller: Maria P. Bebee
Date: 07/31/19

Building Permits