Month: June 2020

SPRINGFIELD — BusinessWest, in partnership with Living Local, the area nonprofit dedicated to promoting locally owned businesses, will launch a podcast on Monday, June 15 called “Business Talk,” a name that speaks volumes about its overall mission.

“We’ll be talking about business — and with business owners and managers,” said George O’Brien, editor and associate publisher of BusinessWest, who will be one of the show’s co-hosts, along with Thom Fox, a strategy consultant and former host of “The Engine,” aired on WHYN NewsTalk 560.

Elaborating, O’Brien said the twice-weekly podcast will feature guests from across the broad spectrum of business — from CEOs of major corporations to the owners of small businesses on Main Street, to leaders of business-focused agencies such as area chambers of commerce and the Economic Development Council of Western Massachusetts — all talking about the issues of the day

“And as the region and its business community confront the COVID-19 pandemic, there are many issues to discuss,” said O’Brien, adding that the podcast’s first installment, sponsored by UMassFive College Federal Credit Union, will feature an interview with Nancy Creed, president of the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce. O’Brien and Creed will discuss a wide range of issues, from the reopening of the economy to the impact of the pandemic on downtown Springfield, to the future of chambers of commerce.

As noted, the first episode will premiere on Monday, June 15 and can be accessed at businesswest.com/business-talk-podcast-series. It will also be available to stream on radio.com (WMAS, WEEI, Nash Icon, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts).

Way Finders Names Keith Fairey President and CEO

SPRINGFIELD — Way Finders’ board of directors announced that Keith Fairey will serve as its next president and CEO, succeeding Peter Gagliardi, who will retire on June 30 after nearly 30 years of service with the organization.

Way Finders began a national search for its new CEO following Gagliardi’s retirement announcement in December. The search process was led by six members of Way Finders’ board of directors in partnership with consultants from Marcum LLP.

Fairey most recently served as senior vice president at Enterprise Community Partners Inc., where he led the management, oversight, and strategic guidance of Enterprise’s 11 regional market teams across the U.S. Fairey has extensive experience in community development and real-estate finance, organizational development, and strategic planning. Enterprise Community Partners is a national nonprofit organization that brings leaders in policy and investment together to advance local affordable-housing development. Since its inception 35 years ago, Enterprise has created more than 660,000 homes nationwide with more than $50 billion in investment.

Prior to joining Enterprise, Keith was chief operating officer of Mount Hope Housing Co. in the Bronx, N.Y. He has also served as the assistant director of Community Pride, the community-building program of the Harlem Children’s Zone.

Fairey has a master of public administration degree with a concentration in public finance and financial management from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, and a bachelor’s degree in history education from the University of Delaware.

“I am thrilled to be joining Way Finders as its next president and CEO,” he said. “I am also extremely grateful to Peter Gagliardi for his tireless, compassionate, and transformative leadership in the region and Commonwealth. I look forward to working with the exceptional staff and committed board on furthering the organization’s mission of lighting pathways and opening doors to homes and communities where people thrive. I believe our programs and services that support housing stability, economic security, and upward mobility are critical during this time of crisis and will be essential to an equitable recovery for our clients and communities.”

Royal, P.C. Clarifies Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020

NORTHAMPTON — Now that the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Flexibility Act of 2020 has been signed into law by President Trump, companies may have questions about how to modify their approaches while staying in compliance. Royal, P.C. is offering guidance to help with that.

This new act amends the original PPP by providing additional flexibility in how and when loan funds are spent while retaining the potential of full forgiveness. Changes under the new act include new extension periods, loan-use requirements, payroll-tax deferrals, loan forgiveness, and extension of repayment.

Under the new amendments, borrowers of the PPP loan now have 24 weeks to spend the funds provided to them by the loan, up from eight weeks under the original act. To be eligible for full loan forgiveness for such funds, borrowers must spend at least 60% of the funds toward payroll cost, down from 75%. For borrowers who use less than the required 60%, partial loan forgiveness will remain as long as the loan is spent toward payroll costs. Furthermore, borrowers of these loans are able to defer payroll taxes as provided under the CARES Act with potential deferral dates extended to 2022.

Additional extensions included under the act include the time period in which employers who have obtained a PPP loan must either rehire or eliminate positions to reduce their workforce. The new extension period grants an additional six months to employers with an end date of Dec. 31.

Moreover, extensions of repayment have been extended to five years, up from two years, from the minimum maturity date for the loan balance for loans made after June 5. Borrowers may also be able to defer loan payments until their debt-forgiveness date has been determined. For borrowers who do not meet the requisites for loan forgiveness, the first loan payment will become due 10 months after the last day of the covered period.

The deadline to submit PPP loan applications is June 30.

If you have any questions about the Paycheck Protection Program, or any other labor and employment-law matters, feel free to contact the attorneys at Royal, P.C. at (413) 586-2288.

Holyoke Medical Center Welcomes Mark Dunn as Health Information Management Director

HOLYOKE — Holyoke Medical Center announced the appointment of Mark Dunn as director of Health Information Management (HIM).

“With nearly 20 years of experience, Mark brings a broad range of knowledge to the organization, and we are glad he has joined us,” said Michael Koziol, chief financial officer of Holyoke Medical Center. “As the director of Health Information Management, he will ensure efficient and compliant handling of all patient records and related documents.”

In addition to his role at Holyoke Medical Center, Dunn is also an adjunct instructor of Health Information Management at both Manchester Community College and Charter Oak State College in Connecticut.

“I am honored to have been selected to join the Holyoke Medical Center team and am looking forward to ensuring that the privacy and accuracy of our patients’ records are maintained at all times,” Dunn said.

Most recently, Dunn served as corporate director of HIM and privacy officer at Masonicare, a senior-health and retirement-living organization in Connecticut. His prior experience included information-management positions with Cornell-Scott Hill Health Corp., Yale New Haven Hospital, and Smart Document Solutions, all in New Haven, Conn.; Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y.; and Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y.

Dunn is a registered health information administrator. He received his bachelor’s degree in administration from SUNY University at Stony Brook, N.Y., and his master’s degree in health services administration from Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y. He also holds a post-master’s certificate in long-term post-acute care, and a post-baccalaureate certificate in health information administration.

Alumni Achievement Award Nominations Close on June 12

SPRINGFIELD — When BusinessWest launched its 40 Under Forty program in 2007, it did so to identify rising stars across our region — individuals who were excelling in business and through involvement within the community — and celebrate their accomplishments.

In 2015, BusinessWest announced a new award, one that builds on the foundation upon which 40 Under Forty was created. It’s called the Alumni Achievement Award (formerly the Continued Excellence Award). As the name suggests, it is presented to the 40 Under Forty honoree who, in the eyes of an independent panel of judges, has most impressively continued and built upon his or her track record of accomplishment.

To nominate someone for this award, visit businesswest.com/40-under-forty/40-under-forty-alumni-achievement-award. Only nominations submitted to BusinessWest on this form will be considered. The deadline is Friday, June 12 at 5 p.m. No exceptions. Candidates must be from 40 Under Forty classes prior to the year of the award — in this case, classes 2007 to 2019. Past winners include: 2019: Cinda Jones, president, W.D. Cowls Inc. (40 Under Forty class of 2007); 2018: Samalid Hogan, regional director, Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (class of 2013); 2017: Scott Foster, attorney, Bulkley Richardson (class of 2011), and Nicole Griffin, owner, ManeHire (class of 2014); 2016: Dr. Jonathan Bayuk, president, Allergy & Immunology Associates of New England (class of 2008); 2015: Delcie Bean, president, Paragus Strategic IT (class of 2008).

The 2020 honoree will be announced at the 40 Under Forty gala later this year. The presenting sponsor of the Alumni Achievement Award is Health New England.

Area Nonprofits Receive $230,000 from Harvard Pilgrim Foundation for COVID-19 Relief

WORCESTER — A total of 25 Central and Western Mass. nonprofits have received nearly $230,000 from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation for COVID-19 relief efforts.

Most organizations in the region received a $10,000 grant for supporting community needs during the pandemic, such as food access and meal delivery, services for older adults and immigrant families, social and community services, and emergency response.

“Now more than ever, it is so critical to support our communities and organizations who are providing services to those residents of Central and Western Mass. impacted by COVID-19,” said Patrick Cahill, vice president and Massachusetts market lead for Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, the foundation’s parent company. “The impact of this pandemic is enormous, and right from the start, we responded to the immediate needs facing nonprofit partners and communities. We are very grateful to all who are helping to feed and care for our community members, and we are committed to supporting them in the weeks and months ahead.”

Among the 25 recipients, the following 10 Western Mass. organizations received funding as part of the Harvard Pilgrim Foundation’s COVID-19 Assistance Fund: Berkshire County Arc (Pittsfield), Gardening the Community (Springfield), Greater Springfield Senior Services (Springfield), Grow Food Northampton (Northampton), Just Roots Inc. (Greenfield), Lorraine’s Soup Kitchen & Pantry (Chicopee), Nuestras Raices Inc. (Holyoke), Rooting Rises (Pittsfield), Stone Soup Café Inc. (Greenfield), and UMass Amherst.

The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Foundation committed more than $3.5 million in initial grants for COVID-19 relief efforts in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.

Help Women Cross the Digital Divide Through a Day of Giving on June 18

SPRINGFIELD — When Dress for Success Western Massachusetts was forced to shut down its boutique due to social distancing, staff and volunteers sprang into action to see how they could continue to serve the women in their programs. They quickly learned that many of the women were at a distinct disadvantage because they either lacked connectivity or did not know how to use the tools needed for things like Zoom meetings or online learning.

To remedy this, Dress for Success put together a digital-literacy task force to provide outreach and individual support during this critical time. On Thursday, June 18, the organization will host a 24-hour Day of Giving. The goal of the Day of Giving is to purchase at least 20 laptops — complete with software and internet access — to help women bridge the digital divide.

“Not surprisingly, those who are already challenged by socioeconomic barriers are being even more severely impacted by this pandemic,” said Jessica Dupont, Dress for Success board president. “While we are all transitioning to a heavily digital world, we want to make sure women who do not have the financial means to own a computer or have internet access are not left behind.”

Dress for Success Western Massachusetts is part of a worldwide nonprofit organization dedicated to the empowerment of women as they take control of their personal and professional lives. Programs include Foot in the Door, a professional women’s mentorship group, and the Margaret R. Fitzgerald Mentoring Program. At the completion of such programs, each woman receives free professional attire and accessories at the Dress for Success suiting boutique at Eastfield Mall in Springfield. Prior to the pandemic, women were also referred to the boutique by social-service agencies throughout the region.

People can visit Dress for Success Western Massachusetts at westernmass.dressforsuccess.org and donate online at any time, but the organization hopes they will do so on June 18 during the Day of Giving. Call Margaret Tantillo, executive director, at (860) 638-8980 for additional details.

Janice Beetle Books to Launch Series of Free Podcasts for Children and Families

EASTHAMPTON — Janice Beetle of Janice Beetle Books will launch a 20-day series of free podcasts for children and families on her website, janicebeetlebooks.com, starting June 22.

Called Poem Pods, the homegrown broadcasts are narrated by Beetle and her feisty 11-year-old grandson Eli.

A blog that will post on June 22 will offer a complete Poem Pod schedule, outlining posting dates, the names of interviewees, conversation topics, and that day’s activities. The pods themselves will begin on June 23 and post daily through July 12.

“As Eli and I say in our homegrown broadcasts, Poem Pods are fun poems and fun stories for fun people,” Beetle said. “My hope is that they give children encouragement, entertainment, and inspiration to get them thinking creatively as a summer without camps and public swimming pools begins.”

Poem Pods are theme-based and explore concepts like family, friendship, inspiration, vulnerability, fears, and asking for help. When the day’s poem is about family, for instance, Beetle and her grandson discuss the importance of family, and they interview a family.

At the start of each segment, Beetle and Eli talk about Beetle’s writing inspirations and education, starting when she was 6 years old and her grandmother gave her a notebook.

The poems, written by Beetle years ago for her two daughters, are short and silly and cover topics from dogs and cats to family, raindrops, love, and friendship. They follow the introductory conversation and are in the middle of the podcast — “much like a pea is in the center of a pea pod,” she said.

After the day’s poems are read, Beetle and her grandson have lively and interesting conversations on that day’s theme and offer children an activity. In 11 of the pods, they bring on a guest, and Eli conducts an interview that extends the discussion.

The interviews also offer a closer look at the inspirations of others, along with an education into what it’s like to be a writer, a medical professional, or an air-traffic controller, for instance.

Along with each audio post, each episode will also feature a written transcript in the blog feed for those who would rather read than listen. Or, some could choose to listen while reading along.

To receive an e-mail when the Poem Pod schedule posts, and to receive each day’s new Poem Pod post, sign up for the blog at janicebeetlebooks.com.

COVID Stories

Coronavirus Cover Story

Shell-shocked Businesses Respond with Grit, Determination

The COVID-19 pandemic has rocked businesses large and small in virtually every sector of the economy. The individual stories vary somewhat, but there are several common themes — lost revenue streams, struggles to make payroll and pay the bills, and large amounts of uncertainty about what the future holds. But there are other commonalities as well, including a willingness, born of necessity, to respond to this crisis — the worst situation any of these business owners have faced — with determination, imagination, and the will to find a way to get to the ‘other side.’ For this issue, BusinessWest talked with 10 business owners about what has happened since the pandemic arrived with brutal force three incredibly long months ago, and how they’re battling back. These are their COVID stories.

Pandemic Will Change the Look of the Modern Office

Modern Office Special Coverage

The Shape of Things to Come

Mark Proshan says predicting what’s coming next in his business — office furniture and design — has always been a difficult assignment.

But now … it’s even more of a complicated guessing game.

Indeed, in a sector where the landscape can change quickly and profoundly, and for a number of reasons — from a declining economy to changing tastes — the pandemic has produced an even greater sense of uncertainty about what lies around the bend, said Proshan, president of West Springfield-based Lexington Group.

“For the first time ever, I don’t even pretend to be smart enough to see what’s coming down the road,” he told BusinessWest, noting that this applies to both the short and long term. “We don’t know when bigger places of business will open back up, what their attitude is going to be toward spending money, and what things will look like down the road.”

Tyler Arnold, a principal with Holyoke-based Conklin Office, who spoke with BusinessWest from the company’s office in Northern New Jersey, agreed. He noted there are many variables that will affect decision making at individual companies when it comes to if and when employees return to work, how many return, and how much space they’ll take up when they do return.

“The number-one priority for people right now is to bring back fewer people, spread things out … and then see what happens,” he explained. “They might look at their footprint and say ‘we’ve got 1,000 employees, and we’re occupying 100,000 square feet.’ They may decide to only bring back 500 employees — but does that mean they need 50,000 square feet or 75,000 square feet? I think there will be a lot of that going on.”

But there are some things that are known. It seems certain that the collaborative, open spaces that companies have developed over the past several years will change — perhaps significantly.

Arnold said the old 10-by-10 private offices that dominated the business landscape years ago and are still favored by some banks and law firms won’t make an immediate comeback — they’re very expensive and still somewhat impractical. But there will certainly be a move to create more privacy and shield employees from one another and the public.

Mark Proshan sits at benching sporting a higher divider than models popular just a few months ago. He says these units are among the items now in demand as businesses work to increase privacy in the workplace.

This has been made apparent by the number of calls both companies are taking from business owners and managers looking to adjust their spaces for a pandemic.

That’s especially true in New York City, said Arnold, where many financial-services companies and corporate headquarters had moved to benching to place as many people in as small an area as possible. Now, many of those benches are being outfitted with dividers, or higher dividers, as the case may be.

“Right now, the immediate demand is for adding privacy screens, be that acrylic material or fabric,” Arnold told BusinessWest. “So much that has been built out over the past 10 years has an open plan, open feel to it. What’s the easiest, quickest, least costly way to give people a sense of detachment from the person sitting next to them? It’s some kind of privacy screen.”

“A lot of people are continuing to stay home, and I’m not sure if that will continue to be the case.”

Proshan agreed. “We do have inquiries from people as to how to modify their spaces to make them more private, making walls higher, making plexiglass partitions and glass partitions, where possible,” he noted. “Meanwhile, a lot of people are continuing to stay home, and I’m not sure if that will continue to be the case. If it is the case, the need for higher-end furniture will likely not go hand in hand with staying at home; it may well be the Staples of the world and the Costcos of the world that will be selling those items because people might be paying for it out of their own pocket.”

As for companies bringing people back, the plan of action for many companies is not to put anyone immediately next to or across from someone else, even if there is a screen, said Arnold, adding that many businesses are ramping up slowly and in waves. How big the waves will get remains to seen.

Actually, that’s just one of many things that remain to be seen, as we’ll see as BusinessWest talks with these experts about how the pandemic might reshape the modern office as we know it.

Space Exploration

As he talked with BusinessWest about the physical changes that will come to the modern office in the wake of COVID-19, Proshan said it would probably be easier to do a little show and tell.

With that, he walked to the front lobby of the company’s spacious headquarters on Union Street. There, two workstations are outfitted with what would have to be called pandemic-era features.

Before discussing them, though, Proshan reached for his phone and scrolled to images of what used to be there, because this is where the discussion had to start (see photos, page 24). Before, there were fairly low structures that were wide open. They’ve been replaced by units of similar height topped by plexiglass panels on two sides, with narrow openings in front to keep those behind them safe.

“This is the kind of thing we’ll be seeing — this is the direction we’re going in,” said Proshan, adding that, for the foreseeable future, the focus will be on privacy and keeping people safe. Collaboration? Well, not so much.

Tyler Arnold

“People will see where the economy goes; they’ll want to see how it comes back before they make any big decisions.”

At least not as much face-to-face collaboration, he went on, as he took BusinessWest on a walk to the showroom, where he sat down at benching that sports those higher walls that can’t be seen over and are designed with privacy and protection in mind.

While orders for such products come in, the larger questions looming over the industry concern the longer term. But while contemplating the future, those we spoke with are also coping with the present, which is challenging on many levels.

Indeed, Proshan said a number of projects that were in the pipeline have been paused as companies and institutions try to absorb what has happened and what it all means moving forward. He mentioned a $1.2 million library project at one of the area colleges and several other initiatives that have been put on hold because the plans that were blueprinted months ago may no longer be viable in the COVID-19 world.

“When you think about what may change when people go into a public space like that, you can certainly understand how and why these institutions might want to pause,” he said. “We have lots of repurchased and paid-for inventory that, because the colleges and universities are shut down, we can’t even get in to deliver this product.

“And the policy for a lot of these places is that they can’t pay for product until it’s delivered and installed,” he went on. “But, unfortunately, my manufacturers insist on getting paid once the product is received by me — so you can see the dilemma when you’re talking about a large volume of merchandise.”

There are other challenges to contend with as well, such as reopening their own offices, which were ‘essential’ in some cases — Lexington earned that designation in West Springfield because it delivers to healthcare providers — and also dealing with various employment issues, and trying to serve customers in remote fashion, a somewhat difficult task when many consumers like to see, touch, and kick the tires on the products they’re contemplating.

Arnold, like Proshan, said the phones essentially stopped ringing during the month of March. Then commenced a period of speculation and webinars about when offices would reopen and how. And then, things got busy again as companies started gathering information and proposals for those protective shields and dividers for benches, with a decent percentage of those proposals turning into orders.

The new workstations in the lobby at Lexington Group contrast sharply with what existed before, and speak volumes about current efforts to keep workers and visitors safe and increase privacy.

What concerns Arnold at this point is what happens when this ‘bubble,’ as he called it, is over and companies, now getting comfortable as employees slowly return to the office, contemplate their future needs, and their footprint.

Indeed, his company is currently working on projects involving leases that were signed months ago. The question is, will new leases be signed?

“I think that, when we get to the middle of the summer, there will be a pretty good slowdown at that point,” he said. “People will see where the economy goes; they’ll want to see how it comes back before they make any big decisions.”

There are already strong signs that some companies will not go back to their former offices, and if they do, they’ll probably do it gradually, with many seeking smaller footprints for fewer employees, which means less office furniture to be sold, said those we spoke with.

Arnold said he’s seeing a lot of this in New York, which is still very much in lockdown mode.

“Initially, people couldn’t wait to get back to work,” he noted. “But at this point, many corporations are taking their time and making decisions. The mentality is that, ‘we’re turning a profit, everyone’s working remotely, everybody’s safe; until we’re really comfortable that we can put them in an environment where we can minimize risk and people can focus on what they do, we’re in no rush to return to the office.’”

Mass transit certainly plays a big role in what’s happening — or not — with people returning to the workplace, he went on, adding quickly that, in many markets, and with businesses across many sectors, the question concerning such returns is increasingly ‘if,’ not ‘when,’ and also ‘how many will return?’

Whether this changes or not in the short or long term is yet another of those questions that are difficult to answer at this juncture.

Again, about the only thing that’s relatively certain is that the past will become prologue when it comes to privacy and how the office might look and feel moving forward.

“Ten years ago, everyone had tall walls, lots of privacy — people had their own space,” said Proshan. “‘Collaboration’ became the buzzword the last few years, and the walls came down, and shared space became the big thing. And while I think people will still have the need to collaborate, I think they’re going to be doing it in a much more enclosed environment.”

Bottom Line

Returning to the place where they started this discussion, Proshan and Arnold said that, while some things are known at this juncture, many more are not. And speculation might not be a fruitful exercise at this point.

“I don’t think there are whole lot of crystal-ball gazers who really know what’s going to shake out from all this,” Proshan said. “No one really knows.”

Arnold concurred. While the focus for now is on privacy and spreading people out, he noted, the landscape may be altered again. “All this can change on a dime if there’s good news about a vaccine or something like that. For now, everyone’s planning like this a year or so off.”

A year seems a long way off in a business where predicting the future is difficult — and has now become much more so.

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

Zasco Productions

Construction Special Coverage

Event Company Works to Pivot, Position Itself for the Long Term

Mike Zaskey says his ‘spreadsheet of doom’ includes more than $1.2 million in lost events for this year, but he’s pivoting with virtual events and other initiatives.

Mike Zaskey calls it his “spreadsheet of doom.”

And for good reason.

It chronicles what he estimates to be $1.2 million in lost business since early March, when the phone started ringing … and kept on ringing. On the other end were representatives of corporations, colleges and universities, and nonprofits calling Zaskey to let him know they were canceling or postponing — in most all cases, the former — the large events his company, Chicopee-based Zasco Productions, has come to specialize in.

“After a while, I was afraid to answer the phone, because every time I did there was a cancellation,” said Zaskey, noting that more than 40 major events, including 20 college commencements, have been erased from the calendar. In fact, when he talked with BusinessWest just after the Memorial Day weekend, he was lamenting how what was normally a very busy week for him — clients Holyoke Community College, Springfield Technical Community College, and the Rhode Island School of Design traditionally schedule their commencements for the final days in May — was now anything but.

Indeed, a business leader who rarely has time on his hands, especially at this time of year, now has way too much of that commodity. And he’s devoting it to everything from finding ways to somehow pivot — some more successful than others, as we’ll see in a minute — to advocating for an industry that is large and impactful, but often flies under the radar.

“The Live Events Coalition has put together some interesting statistics, and by their estimates, the live-events industry employs 12 million people and contributes more than $1 trillion into the U.S. economy,” he said, adding that few understand the size or importance of a sector that includes everything from venues to caterers to companies like Zasco. “If live events were a state, we’d rank seventh in population.”

Turning the clock back to early March, Zaskey said that’s when he first started getting calls from “six-figure clients,” as he called them, inquiring about cancellation terms in their contracts.

“It was around Friday the 6th,” he recalled, noting that some dates stick in his mind, for obvious reasons. “I got a few e-mails before that, but things really started to get scary on March 6. We had a team meeting at the end of that day, and I said, ‘something’s going on here, and we all need to be aware of this.’ And it just ballooned from there.”

The calls kept on coming, he went on, adding that the events, as noted earlier, have been canceled, not postponed.

“Most of these events are not being postponed — it’s revenue lost; it’s not coming back,” he told BusinessWest. “If there’s an annual event, a 2020 gala or conference, the 2020 event is not taking place, and they are going to have one in 2021. But the event in 2021 is the 2021 event.”

Despite these losses, one of the first decisions Zaskey made was to work with clients when it came to deposits and existing balances.

“A number of clients have multi-year contracts with us, so their deposits were paid two or three years ago, depending on the terms of the deal,” he explained. “Technically speaking, our contract says that, when an event is canceled, the deposits are non-refundable, and, in some cases, the client would still be liable for the cost of the event. But, in looking at the situation going on in the world, we decided that the right thing to do would be to apply those deposits to future events for clients, and that’s exactly what we did across the board.

“Most of these events are not being postponed — it’s revenue lost; it’s not coming back. If there’s an annual event, a 2020 gala or conference, the 2020 event is not taking place, and they are going to have one in 2021. But the event in 2021 is the 2021 event.”

“While it’s not the greatest for our financial position,” he went on, “it’s the best for our customers, and we’re looking to build long-term relationships with those customers and keep those customers.”

And a few customers have returned the favor by essentially paying balances due for next year’s event now, to help the company with cash flow.

Faced with its spreadsheet of doom, Zaskey said his company, which eventually had to lay off most of its 12 employees, looked to pivot in an effort to create some revenue streams. And upon taking a hard look around, he said one early option that presented itself was to put Zasco’s large fleet of trucks to work as couriers.

“But it doesn’t generate as much revenue, and we would probably actually lose money if we tried to turn into a delivery company — we’re not set for that,” he told BusinessWest. “We did actually try it — a friend of my owns a courier service, so we did a day of deliveries. But the revenue we generated versus the hassle of trying to pivot into an industry we weren’t suited for just didn’t work out.”

The company has had more success pivoting toward the staging of virtual events.

“A virtual event is more than just a video webstream or livestream,” he explained, adding that he’s now working with several clients on such initiatives. “We’re trying to capture the elements of a live event that can be held across multiple sites and make them feel like they’re at the actual event.”

Summing up what’s happened and what might happen moving forward, Zaskey summoned a phrase put to use by just about every business owner in Western Mass.: “we’ve never experienced anything like this before.”

Indeed, and while the short term (and that spreadsheet) looms ominously, this company, which put itself on the map by pulling off big events, continues to position itself for the long term — and, more specifically, a time when Zaskey won’t be afraid to pick up the phone.

—George O’Brien

Contractors Adjust to Pandemic and Strive to Keep Workers Busy

By Contributor June 9, 2020

Constructing a New Way Forward

By Mark Morris

Essential.

Brightwood-Lincoln Elementary School is an $82 million project currently being built by Daniel O’Connell’s Sons.

That one word made all the difference for the construction industry as most sectors of the economy shut down, except for a handful deemed ‘essential’ by the state, construction among them, and thus able to continue working.

But to do that work, they had to quickly adjust to a new reality, as construction managers adopted new guidelines and procedures to prevent workers from catching the virus on the job site.

“At that time, building the project became secondary,” said Joe Imelio, project executive for Daniel O’Connell’s Sons. “The first item on our list was the health and well-being of everyone on the job.”

On March 25, Gov. Charlie Baker issued an order outlining COVID-19 guidelines and procedures for donstruction sites. In addition to reinforcing CDC guidelines on frequent handwashing, wearing face masks, and maintaining social distancing, the guidelines detailed specific procedures for construction sites.

In addition to providing workers with personal protective equipment (PPE) such as face masks and face shields when social distancing is impossible, the mandate also imposed a “100% glove policy” while on the job site.

Another guideline emphasized zero tolerance for sick workers on the job. The guidelines stated in all caps: “IF YOU ARE SICK, STAY HOME!” Every day, each person reporting to work is expected to self-certify their health status by completing a brief questionnaire to confirm they are healthy enough to work for that day. If the construction work is inside, known as a “closed building envelope,” a medical professional must take everyone’s temperature before they can enter the building.

BusinessWest spoke with several construction managers about the adjustments they have made to maintain a safe environment for workers and keep their projects moving.

David Fontaine Jr., vice president of Fontaine Brothers, said he began preparing pandemic protocols in February, before the guidelines were established, to make sure his company could continue to operate safely.

Joe Imelio

“At that time, building the project became secondary. The first item on our list was the health and well-being of everyone on the job.”

“In our industry, many of the products in the supply chain come from overseas, so we saw ripples of this a little earlier than others,” he noted.

In early February, Nate Clinard, vice president of safety for Daniel O’Connell’s Sons, began purchasing more PPE than the normal stock, as well as hand sanitizer and disposable rags and towels. He also tried to buy hand-washing stations for outdoor job sites, which were selling fast.

“Because they were difficult to get from vendors and suppliers, we built our own portable wash stations,” he said.

But, despite the hurdles, at least firms were working, and continue to work, although the long-term economic impact from the pandemic and the shutdown — and what that means for the volume of projects contractors will compete for down the line — remains to be seen.

Starts and Stops

Within some niches, the pandemic offered opportunity. For example, in mid-March, as much of the state began shutting down, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (DOT) accelerated its scheduled projects for the roadwork season that was about to begin in a few weeks.

Janet Callahan, president of Palmer Paving, which has many DOT contracts, said her crews would normally work on large road projects at night when traffic is lighter. As stay-at-home orders resulted in empty roads across the state, the DOT allowed paving crews to switch to daytime construction.

“For the same number of hours, we are able to work safer and more efficiently,” Callahan said. “You just get more done in daylight.” She noted that daytime paving is a big reason DOT projects across the state are 25% ahead of schedule.

Other construction managers saw several projects delayed at the outset of the coronavirus. Stephen Killian, director of New England Operations for Barr and Barr, said a number of his company’s projects were pushed back by as much as 12 weeks.

“Our people worked on the jobs as best as they could remotely, but if you can’t put it in the ground, you’re not moving the project forward.”

Killian added that, even when projects begin again, it’s not as simple as bringing all the workers back and resuming the job. Among the governor’s guidelines is a mandate that construction managers devote one day as a “safety stand down” to make sure everyone understands the new protocols. Combined with CDC guidelines restricting meetings of no more than 10 people, restarting a job can become a logistical challenge.

David Fontaine Jr.

“In our industry, many of the products in the supply chain come from overseas, so we saw ripples of this a little earlier than others.”

“If you have 130 people on a job site, the ramp-up is slow because everyone needs to have the stand-down meeting to understand their responsibilities,” Killian said. “Doing that for all 130 workers in one day isn’t possible now because you can’t meet in groups larger than 10 people.”

One concern cited by several managers involves the uncertainty and anxiety about a virus that everyone is still trying to understand.

“Everyone seems rattled, and tempers are shorter because people constantly feel under pressure,” said John Rahkonen, owner of Northern Construction Services.

Callahan agreed. “Managing people’s anxiety and insecurity is something we work on every day, even before workers start their shifts.”

To try to ease some of the anxiety, Clinard and his staff made themselves available at all the company’s job sites to answer questions and listen to concerns.

“Early on, a lot of people just needed to talk,” he said. “We were there to help educate and provide an ear for them.”

As the owner of his company, Rahkonen said he feels a real responsibility to his employees. He described the decision to continue working during the pandemic as a scary one.

“There were a lot of people who thought we should shut down, but I don’t think that would have been beneficial to the families of our workers,” he said. “So far, knock on wood, we’ve been right.”

Trial and Error

As might be expected, suddenly adapting to new protocols is a process of trial and error. Killian noted a problem with getting accurate temperature readings back in March when it was still cold outside. “People were running temperatures of about 86 to 90 degrees because they were walking to the site after they parked their cars.”

To get more accurate readings, Killian said they changed the protocol to a drive-up system where everyone’s temperature is taken while still in their vehicles.

On face masks, Killian said his safety director found a contradiction in the state regulations. Guidelines for the construction industry say masks must be worn when social distancing is not possible. The regulation that covers all businesses, however, says face coverings must be worn by all workers. While Killian supports wearing masks near other workers, requiring masks at all times may cause problems. He’s concerned about worker fatigue and potential health issues on those summer days when 90-degree temperatures are common.

“We have to be mindful that the average age of the tradesmen and construction workforce is over 45 years old,” he said, adding that he has reached out to state officials seeking clarification on the requirement.

As more people stayed home and off the roads, Palmer Paving crews switched to daytime work.

Clinard said his job sites are using technology to make the daily self-certifying questionnaire work better. By assigning a QR code to each project, workers simply hold their phone cameras to the code to launch the questionnaire. Once completed, the information is loaded to a master document for that project.

“This gives us a real-time read of who’s on site and that they are healthy,” Clinard said.
“If any responses to the questionnaire suggest issues with that person’s health, they are not allowed on the job site that day.”

Requiring people who aren’t feeling well to stay home contributes to what Imelio called a “culture change in the construction industry,” adding that, “for many of the workers, if they stay home when they’re sick, they don’t get paid.”

On the flip side, Killian said many healthy workers who would normally be on the job are instead filing for unemployment out of a concern they may bring the virus home. “Unfortunately, that affects the daily number of men and women on site. Even the union halls are having a difficult time getting additional staff.”

Several managers addressed the real costs that come with COVID-19 mandates that didn’t exist a few months ago. Fontaine said his company’s staff is able to address many of the requirements but not all of them.

“There are definitely additional costs associated with COVID, such as the increase in labor to sanitize the site and bringing in medical professionals for temperature screening,” he noted.

Killian said building owners have agreed to pay for many of these extra costs, but they’re not happy about it because it’s an added expense they could not have anticipated when budgeting the project.

Factoring in all the added expense from the COVID-19 protocols creates another challenge when bidding on future projects as well. “If you bid on a job and put the cost of all the mandates in your bid, you may not be competitive,” Killian said.

In recent meetings on future projects, Imelio said he was asked about the impact of COVID-19 going forward. “It’s like asking, ‘what do you think interest rates will be in a year?’”

Fontaine’s company is currently building South High Community School, a $200 million project he described as the largest public project in the history of Worcester. He’s concerned that projects like these, which depend on tax revenue from state and federal sources, will be hit hard in the future. In the past, the company has adjusted by taking on more private construction when public projects slow down.

“The biggest question for us is how will COVID affect the 2021 and 2022 workload,” Fontaine said. “We may have to refocus our project mix for a couple years if we go through another significant downturn.”

Hit the Road

If nothing else, Callahan said, the pandemic is a reminder of the important role infrastructure plays in the region’s safety and economy. “Essential service providers such as hospital workers, firefighters, power-company crews, and delivery people all depend on our road system to get to their jobs and to help people.”

Despite the extra steps to start each day, all the managers said they are adapting to the new requirements. The trick now is to stay diligent.

“Our processes are in place, and they work well for the personal protection of all our employees,” Imelio said. “It’s different than the old way of doing business, but we’re making progress.”

“Managing people’s anxiety and insecurity is something we work on every day, even before workers start their shifts.”

Even though their work is outdoors, Callahan said it’s important for her crews to remain diligent. “It would take only one person to affect the jobs of 25 people, and that’s only one crew. We’ve made it clear to our staff, there is no relief from these guidelines.”

Strict compliance is worth it, she went on, because it gives her company the opportunity to repair roads for the DOT and municipalities around the state.

“We are so grateful to be working and employing people,” she said. “We are not part of the 41 million people who have suffered a job loss during the pandemic.”

Fontaine said his workers have had a great attitude during a time of difficult adjustments.

“Being in an essential industry, you know it’s important to be cognizant of your safety and the safety of those around you,” he told BusinessWest, “and you know it’s important to keep moving forward.”

Go Graphix

In a Sign of the Times, This Company Has Pivoted into New Products

Jim White says business at Go Graphix is down considerably because major clients like MGM Springfield have shut down, but he’s managed to pivot and get work like these social-distancing signs.

Jim White says it took him 15 years to go from zero to 60 with his business. And 15 days to go from 60 to zero.

That’s how the co-founder of East Longmeadow-based Go Graphix, a maker of signs, vehicle wraps, and a host of other marketing products, described that two-week period back in March when business came to a near standstill.

That’s because most all of the company’s major clients — MGM Springfield, the MassMutual Center, sports teams like the Thunderbirds — came to a complete halt.

It seems like years ago now,” White said of those days in March. “It was tough — probably the toughest times I’ve experienced in business.”

With many of those businesses still shut down, Go Graphix has pivoted into other niche products that could be described as ‘COVID-related,’ said White, adding that it now has what could be called a line of ‘back-to-work’ products, including social-distancing graphics — those ‘Please Stay 6 Feet Apart’ signs now appearing across the region — as well as the protective barriers that are also appearing almost everywhere.

Still, revenues for April and May of this year are down roughly 80% from their levels of a year ago. The company, which had to lay off a few workers and cut most employees back to four days a week, has been helped by federal assistance, specifically the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) — and White’s ‘save for a rainy day’ philosophy, passed down by his parents.

“That’s what you get with the son of a commission-only heavy-equipment sales rep,” he said. “We knew every recession, because it was a depression. And my parents saved, and I learned from them.”

Flashing back to early March, White said that’s when a number of major clients had to shut down operations, which brought operations at the Benton Road facility to something approaching a standstill.

Those clients include MGM Springfield, for which the company makes a wide variety of promotional items, from signage for upcoming events to the dasher-board advertisements for the skating rink.

“That’s what you get with the son of a commission-only heavy-equipment sales rep. We knew every recession, because it was a depression. And my parents saved, and I learned from them.”

“They’ve been one of our best customers,” said White, noting that his company was one of many fortunate local businesses to become vendors for the casino operator. “Throughout the casino, you see a lot of promotional graphics, and we were doing things on a weekly basis — work that came to screeching halt.”

But even clients that weren’t shut down and were actually doing well had put work given to Go Graphics on hold, said White, citing the example of beer distributors, for which the company provides vehicle wraps.

“They were so busy, they couldn’t leave the trucks with us for a day to be wrapped — they needed them on the road,” he explained. “They were hitting all the package stores, which were doing really well during all this. That was tough one for us; we’re thinking, ‘even the guys who are doing great can’t do any business with us.’”

Beyond the PPP loan, what has helped the company through the crisis has been its ability to adapt and create new product lines. White calls this the “great pivot.”

It involves making plexiglass shields for a number of clients, including Baystate Health, Monson Savings, J. Polep, Hartford Hospital, and others, as well as social-distancing signage now seen in virtually every sector of the economy.

As he talked with BusinessWest at the plant, he stopped to display the round ‘Please Stay 6 Feet Apart’ signs bound for Staples’ corporate headquarters, a contract that has provided a good amount of work for the company.

As for the plexiglass partitions, most of them are custom orders, and the work is intricate, which is why a number of businesses across several sectors have decided on Go Graphix for the work.

“We’re not just providing an off-the-shelf solution,” he said, while pointing to some models bound for Baystate Health. “And the orders keep coming in — we’ve pivoted, and we’re going for it.”

And White has to hope that the orders keep coming in, because plexiglass is now a commodity; amid fears that short supplies would become even shorter, he ordered a lot of it.

“It’s kind of toilet paper in the early days of this pandemic,” he said with a laugh. “Everyone’s looking to get it, and it’s becoming harder to find. But we have some good suppliers, and I’ve made the investment in a good amount, even though it scares me to the core. I figured, ‘I’d better be the guy who has it on hand,’ and just pray that we sell it.”

All indications are that he probably will as companies scramble to take the necessary steps to reopen, a process likely to play itself out over the next several months.

As White said repeatedly, this isn’t work he could have imagined doing just four months ago, but he’s very grateful to have it — an attitude that’s understandable after watching a company go from zero to 60 to 15 years, and 60 to zero in just a few painful weeks.

—George O’Brien

Why Working from Home Can Increase Cybersecurity Threats

Cybersecurity Special Coverage

Risk and Reward

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught businesses anything, it’s that employees, in many cases, can do their jobs from home — which can, in theory, lead to cost savings. But also expenses — the type of expense that, if ignored, can lead to much bigger losses.

We’re talking about data security. And what remote workers need depends, in many cases, on how long they plan on staying home, said Sean Hogan, president and CEO of Hogan Communications in Easthampton.

“We have some clients investing in the home office and planning on shrinking their bricks and mortar, so they’re going to save money on bricks and mortar or the lease,” he told BusinessWest. “But then they have to invest in bandwidth and security for the remote office. It’s a huge issue.”

And a sometimes messy one. In a shared workplace, Hogan noted, “you might have great security, firewalls, routers, you have security installed, you make sure all the security is updated, you constantly have the latest patches and revisions.”

But working from home poses all kinds of issues with the unknown, the most pressing being, what programs are running on home devices, whether those devices are loaded with viruses, and whether they can infect the company’s servers when they connect remotely.

“We’re trying to control security at someone’s own bandwidth at the house, where three, four, or five people may be trying to jump on at the same time,” he added. “It’s not shaped at all; it doesn’t prioritize any applications or traffic. Now, there are ways to do that — we can install SD-WAN software that allows us to monitor the connection and prioritize traffic like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or GoToMeeting. That way, you don’t have everyone breaking up and having issues.”

Sean Hogan

“We have some clients investing in the home office and planning on shrinking their bricks and mortar, so they’re going to save money on bricks and mortar or the lease. But then they have to invest in bandwidth and security for the remote office. It’s a huge issue.”

But that doesn’t solve the issues of security holes in the home wi-fi — which have weaker protocols, allowing hackers easier access to the network’s traffic — as well as the human element that makes workers vulnerable to phishing scams, which are the top cause of data breaches, and insecure passwords, which allow hackers easy access to multiple accounts in a short period of time.

“The Internet has become the Wild West over the last 10 years,” said Jeremiah Beaudry, president of Bloo Solutions in Chicopee, starting with scam e-mails — from phishing attacks to realistic-looking but nefarious sites that try to wrench passwords and data from users and install malware on their computers.

“I get e-mails from clients three or four times a day — it used to be once or twice a week — saying things like, ‘I got this e-mail asking me to wire money to a client,’” he noted. “You can’t stop people from pretending to be someone else, and the language is getting more and more clever.”

That combination of possibly flawed technology and human errors make the home office a particular concern in the world of cybersecurity.

“Nobody has the exact answers right now for how to make the most secure connection at a remote office,” Hogan said, adding that going to the cloud has been an effective measure for many businesses, while others have taken the more drastic step of setting up physical firewalls at remote sites for key employees — say, for the CEO or CFO. “We’ll lock them down if they’re actually connecting to files and servers that are really confidential.”

Possible solutions are plenty, he said — but it all begins with knowing exactly what equipment remote employees are dealing with, and what threats they pose.

Viral Spread

COVID-19 isn’t the only fast-spreading infection going around, Hogan said. In fact, “45% of home computers are infected with malware. That’s an eye opener for many people. It’s a huge issue, and removing it is a huge challenge.”

One problem is the human element — specifically, how users invite threats in by not recognizing them when they pop up. Take the broad realm of phishing — the setting in which people receive such pitches can actually make a difference in how they respond, Beaudry said.

“It’s harder to sift through it when working from home; it’s not natural. You’re out of your element when you’re sitting at our desk in your pajamas, as opposed to being in your office at work. You may not be reading your e-mail as carefully as you normally would. You may not be on alert.”

A big piece of the puzzle is end-user awareness, he said. “You want to have your employees educated about what’s out there, so they know how to spot forgeries.”

Alex Willis, BlackBerry’s vice president of Sales Engineering and ISV Partners, recently told Forbes that companies trust their employees to do the right thing, and workers are generally honest, but trust can be a dangerous thing.

“The problem with just trusting people is that employees don’t always do this on purpose,” Willis said. “Sometimes, it’s just purely unintentional. They are working on a home machine that’s riddled with malware. They need access to corporate data. For instance, if the company issues a slow laptop to an employee and the employee has to get their job done, they are going to use their home computer that is faster to do the job. In that scenario, the home computer might not be as secure.”

Jeremiah Beaudry says home networks aren’t typically built to run as efficiently — or safely — as those in a workplace.

Again, it’s that issue of the unknown, Beaudry told BusinessWest. “You don’t know what they have going on with their home networks. We didn’t set up the home connection, we don’t know what they have, and everyone has different people on it. Some are borrowing it from their apartment complex or sharing it with the neighbors, and they expect the internet to work perfectly. It’s not going to.”

In an office, on the other hand, everyone is using the same network, running at the same speed, with the same level of security and firewall protection. “Then, when they go home, there are so many variables.”

The best-case scenario is to give employer-owned devices to employees so they can remotely manage information.

“You can put antivirus on an employer-owned device; when they’re using their own devices, you don’t know what they’re doing to protect it,” Beaudry added. “And if the employee is laid off or fired, you would have the ability to control any employer-owned data.”

At the very least, he said, companies should encrypt the traffic between their network and individual users’ home computers.

“We put monitoring agents on remote clients that monitor for any viruses or malware and will update their antivirus and malware protection in some cases,” Hogan added.

Vigilant Approach

None of this completely addresses the speed and efficiency issues of home devices. “Usually, in a home office, they pay for their own bandwidth, and the business can’t say, ‘we don’t want your kid playing Fortnite,’” Hogan said. “That’s the challenge.”

“I get e-mails from clients three or four times a day — it used to be once or twice a week — saying things like, ‘I got this e-mail asking me to wire money to a client.’ You can’t stop people from pretending to be someone else, and the language is getting more and more clever.”

“Some clients will pay for a second, business-only connection for remote workers, he added. “But that’s pretty extreme; not many are doing that.”

More popular — and effective — is the move to a virtual environment. Working in the cloud, he noted, means not worrying about the hub-and-spoke relationship between physical servers and computers that’s the biggest weak point for security. “Most of my clients have eliminated that weakness.”

For some clients, the cybersecurity issue is especially critical — take medical businesses, for whom privacy is paramount in the HIPAA era. “That changes the game completely,” Hogan said, noting that one resource for companies handling sensitive data is a SOC, or security operations center.

“Clients who really value security can sign up with a SOC team that responds in case of a breach,” he explained. “It’s a lot of monitoring, detecting, and responding.”

Delcie Bean, CEO of Paragus IT, said any investment in platform migration and remote work has to be accompanied by investment in strong security tools — and education.

“The legacy tools and technologies used to secure networks for the past 10 years need not apply for this next wave of mobile workers,” he told BusinessWest. “Security of the future will be a lot more about multi-factor authentication, deep encryption, and will involve a lot more end-user training as well as testing than the command-and-control style approach of the past.”

Hogan agreed. “Password management is so massive,” he said, noting that people resist simple protections like multi-factor authentication, or even just using complicated passwords, or different passwords for different sites.

“We are also dark-web monitoring pretty consistently,” he added. “The dark web has been on fire lately — a lot of breaches.” Once data fall into those hands, the damage is done, he added, “but the important thing is to know what got breached, and if you can tell what credentials are out there, so you can change them.”

The bottom line, Beaudry said, is to make sure employees use unique passwords and encrypt connections remotely, and not using tools that are potentially vulnerable.

“And there’s a long list of tools known to be exploited by hackers, so it’s good to check with an IT professional before using any remote desktop method,” he added. “Some methods require you to open firewall ports that can leave you vulnerable to ransomware and all sorts of awful data breaches. The main thing is to make sure your firewall is locked down and no unnecessary ports are open, and you have backups of all data.”

That’s a lot to consider when moving into an era of expanded remote work — some of which comes at a cost. But the cost of ignoring it is much higher.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Lenzy Dermatology

Practice Owner Says Many Patients Still Wary of Returning to Her Office

Dr. Yolanda Lenzy, like many healthcare practitioners, says many of her patients are reluctant to come to the office out of fear of contracting COVID-19, leaving overall volume down considerably.

Dr. Yolanda Lenzy admits to not knowing exactly what would happen when she officially reopened the doors to her Chicopee-based dermatology practice on May 18.

She knew what she was hoping to see — that patients who had put off coming to see her for more than two months out of fear of the virus would start scheduling appointments and getting their concerns and even routine checkups addressed.

And while that’s happening to some degree, the numbers are not what she hoped, although Lenzy would be the first to say that two weeks’ worth of data is probably not enough to make a definitive statement on what it all means.

“Last week was better than this week,” she said toward the tail end of May, adding quickly that she wasn’t sure just how this was attributable to the Memorial Day holiday or other factors. “We’re still not reaching the numbers we set as a goal — even the reduced numbers we established by limiting the number of office visits to half what they would be normally to allow social distancing.”

Lenzy, who opened her practice in 2014 and quickly built up a clientele of some 30,000 patients, believes her venture is typical of most others in the broad healthcare realm when it comes to the impact of the pandemic and the ways in which it has changed business — in some cases for the long term.

This is true of everything from the emergence of telehealth as a way to evaluate patients remotely (more on this later) to the manner in which the crisis brought the practice to a precarious place, where Lenzy, who has a staff of nine, wasn’t sure if she was going to able to make payroll.

With some relief from the CARES Act, specifically in the form of a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, Lenzy has been able to pay people and keep all her staffers employed — although that money can only be used for another few weeks.

She — like just about every small-business owner who has received such a loan — is already starting to think about what happens when that money runs out. That’s because normal, as in life in mid-February before the pandemic reached Western Mass., still seems a long way off.

Flashing back to the pre-pandemic days — that’s a phrase all business owners and managers have added to their lexicon — Lenzy said hers was a very busy practice. And while deemed essential because of the services it provides, the office closed on March 18 — again, like most all healthcare practices in the region — and shifted to seeing patients virtually.

And, for the most part, this move to telehealth went smoothly.

“It was definitely a generational piece,” she explained. “Some of our older patients had some difficulties, but they were able to get people to help them; some people don’t have smartphones or don’t have computers with cameras, so we did so some phone visits. But some people preferred to wait until we were back in the office.”

As for the business, while Lenzy she kept all her employees on, she cut back hours from 40 to 30 a week. “That was still a stretch,” she said. “But I wanted to keep everything going.”

“Even with seeing people virtually, we were barely able to meet payroll, let alone all our other expenses. That program did exactly what it was designed to do.”

The PPP money arrived her account in the beginning of May, and it provided some desperately needed breathing room.

“Even with seeing people virtually, we were barely able to meet payroll, let alone all our other expenses,” she said, adding that there are many of those, including rent and supplies. “That program did exactly what it was designed to do.”

The practice reopened exactly two months after it closed, but this was and is a phased reopening, she explained, noting that, to maintain social distancing, roughly half the staff works at home a few days each week and continues to see patients virtually.

“There’s always one provider in the offices at a time to see patients,” she said. “And we’re limiting the number of patients per hour that are in the office; with our specialty, we do a lot of procedures, like biopsies and freezing, so a lot of the patients that we’ve seen virtually needed to come into the office and have something done.”

They’re coming in, but, as noted earlier, not in the numbers this practice needs to get back on secure financial footing.

“We cut our volume in half, but we haven’t been able to even do that,” she said, adding, again, that she’s working with a small sample of data. “In talking to our front desk, we have some people who still don’t want to come out, so we’re trying to convert those people to virtual care.”

As for when things will get better and those numbers will improve, Lenzy said that will happen when and if more people feel comfortable enough to go back to the office.

“Our success and how we fare depends on peoples’ comfort levels,” she told BusinessWest. “And right now, it’s too early to say when people will reach this comfort level. My front desk is telling me that now, many people are saying, ‘I just want to wait.’”

—George O’Brien

Working from Home Likely to Continue to Flourish After COVID-19

Modern Office Special Coverage

Views from a Distance

In the middle of March, employees of companies across Massachusetts — and many other regions of the U.S. — suddenly began working at home. In some cases, it was a matter of setting up a team of four or five people in their home offices.

Then there’s MassMutual, which suddenly had to do that for 7,500 employees.

“We communicated the transition on a Thursday, and by Monday, we had gone from about 20% of our workforce being remote to more than 95%,” said Susan Cicco, MassMutual’s head of Human Resources & Employee Experience. “On top of the need for that speed and agility, this particular situation created unique challenges in that employees are working remotely while, in many cases, fulfilling many additional roles — as employees, caregivers, and even teachers.”

But the experiment — if one can call it that, since the government was forcing the company’s hand — has been largely successful, to the point where, with the COVID-19 pandemic still a threat, MassMutual has told its employees to keep working remotely, at least into September.

“We decided to share with employees that we would start returning to the office no earlier than the beginning of September as we continue to focus on their health and safety, as well as allow them to be able to plan family and life commitments amidst continued uncertainty around things like childcare and camps,” Cicco told BusinessWest. “I’m not sure anything particularly equates for the scale and magnitude of this crisis. That said, we relied on and built upon our strong cultural foundation and focus on flexibility, balance, and well-being.”

“This particular situation created unique challenges in that employees are working remotely while, in many cases, fulfilling many additional roles — as employees, caregivers, and even teachers.”

Which brings up a question many companies of all sizes are likely asking — once the pandemic is in the rear-view mirror, what have we learned about the potential of remote work in the future? And how many employees do we really need under one roof?

“I am sure that just about every business is going to be impacted both positively and negatively by this COVID-19 pandemic,” said Delcie Bean, CEO of Paragus IT. “My sincere hope is that the negative impacts are short-term and the positive impacts are long-term. In terms of those positive impacts, I think the most obvious is that many businesses learned that is it possible to conduct business remotely.”

Elaborating, he noted, “I know many companies that, ahead of the pandemic, said it wouldn’t work for them, but when push came to shove and they were forced into it, they found that it actually did work better than they could have imagined. That said, I know many businesses are finding that their technology is not well-suited for a predominately remote workforce, and therefore if they wish to make those changes permanent, they will need to make further investments in their technology platforms.”

The big takeaway, however, is that it’s possible, and the technology Bean mentions is widely available. But other questions need to be answered as well.

Lives in the Balance

One deals, quite simply, with employees’ mindset, Cicco said.

“Our colleagues have been amazingly resilient and committed through all this, and a major focus has been on ensuring we are keeping a pulse on employee well-being — physical and emotional — to provide the relevant support and resources,” she noted. “We’ve also been working to communicate continuously as things evolved — both when we had answers and, as importantly, when we didn’t.”

They learned that employees’ biggest stressor was the ability to effectively balance their work and personal lives, whether that’s caring for elderly loved ones, helping children with school, or taking time for themselves while still maintaining work commitments.

Susan Cicco says the biggest stressor for those working from home has been balancing their work and their personal lives, whether that’s caring for an elderly loved one or helping children with school.

In response, the company rolled out additional tools and resources for employees. In addition to existing benefits, time off, and leave policies, employees could access up to 80 hours of additional paid time off related to COVID-19.

“This time is not limited to those who are sick or taking care of kids or loved ones, although those circumstances apply,” Cicco said. “The intent is really to help everyone work through personal challenges that come up in dealing with the pandemic.”

To promote wellness in the home, MassMutual launched online fitness classes, webinars dedicated to dealing with stress, meditation programs, as well as virtual yoga, stretch breaks, and more.

It also expanded its Employee Assistance Program, which offers free sessions with counselors to help people through a range of needs, from managing anxiety and stress to juggling the demands of parenting, to grieving the passing of a loved one.

“And, working with our eight Business Resource Groups, we’ve continued our commitment to diversity and inclusion,” Cicco continued, “providing a safe space for employees to share what’s on their minds and connect through online conversations on how different segments of society are impacted by the pandemic.”

If companies decide they can manage employees’ needs remotely and see no reduction in efficiency, they might indeed move in that direction permanently, at least for some workers, Bean said.

“The impact of this, or the ripple effect, is what is most interesting,” he told BusinessWest. “In talking to clients, peers, and friends, I know companies that will forever reduce their physical office space — focusing more on meeting rooms and less on offices, with the philosophy that the office is somewhere we come to collaborate or meet up, but when we are working independently, we do so from home. Changes like that will have all kinds of effects on traffic, real estate, even the carbon footprint of an organization.”

However, at the same time, businesses are starting to realize that the technology required to make this work, and to make it work securely, is different than the tech they have been investing in for the past 10 years, he explained.

“Platforms like Microsoft 365 become essential, but not just for e-mail; it is my opinion that, during this pandemic, while we were all running around applying for PPP loans and trying to learn Zoom, somewhere over in a corner, the concept of having a file server died a quick and quiet death,” he explained. “Businesses will need to move to platforms that are much more device-agnostic, where control, management, and data are decentralized and largely migrated to the cloud, and where collaboration is dramatically enhanced through tools like Microsoft Teams.”

Expanding those tools will need to be accompanied by enhanced cybersecurity at home, Bean added.

Best of Both Worlds

Taking the broad view, Bean said the potential clearly exists for more remote work and home-based employees.

“In the end, everything that is going to happen was going to happen anyway,” he noted. “However, five years was just shaved off of the schedule that was otherwise going to play out, dramatically accelerating that process.”

After all, he added, the core value of technology today is that it moves quickly — often before people are ready.

“It’s hard for anyone to truly know the future when still in the midst of something unprecedented like this,” Cicco added. “I have no doubt that this forced work-from-home experience has validated the potential of flexibility and how productive an organization can be working remotely, while, at the same time, reinforcing the importance of people coming together in the same space to achieve common goals.”

So maybe there’s room for both models.

“I am certain the learnings from all this will undoubtedly move us forward in providing the best of both worlds,” she said, “supporting employees working from home when it makes sense for them and their work, along with continuing to foster the right work environment that safely draws people together to collaborate and innovate.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

The Toy Box

Shop Owner Finds Ways to Share Joy at a Time When It’s Badly Needed

Liz Rosenberg says customers appreciate the messages on the front door of the Toy Box, as they wait for her to reopen that door.

One of Liz Rosenberg’s favorite games — to both play and sell — is called Lion in My Way.

“It’s for ages 5 and up,” said the owner of the Toy Box in Amherst. “You’re presented, in card form, with obstacles, like a lion in your way, a giant wall, all sorts of things. And then you have a hand of cards that are ideas how to get past this obstacle — maybe a catapult or balloon or a sandwich to feed the lion. You have to create the story. I feel like this is the greatest game.”

And not just because she feels like she’s living it every day.

“It’s a great lesson in, ‘ugh, yes, this is awful, but what do I have in my pocket that I can use to get past the awful part and start making progress?’” she continued. “It’s all here in this game.”

Retailers across Massachusetts being told, three months ago, to close their doors indefinitely? That’s no game — but Rosenberg has been playing some effective cards.

Like morphing into a delivery service.

She recalls shuttering her shop on Sunday, March 15. “But I knew I was going to be in the next day to figure something out, and by the end of Monday, I was delivering toys,” she said. “I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘building the airplane as you fly it.’ It felt a lot like that.”

The strategy was to offer delivery within 20 minutes of the store — which gave her some solid territory to cover without infringing too much on similar stores in the region.

“It allowed me to get in my car in the morning and drive to the store and open it up, work all day, and at 2:00 make a route map and deliver to people’s driveways, and then go home,” she explained. “I didn’t have to interact with anyone.”

She soon found this model was actually functional, and used the Toy Box’s Facebook page to showcase as many items as possible to keep customers engaged. “My website is under construction, and now isn’t the time to focus on that, and people require visuals,” she said of her Facebook photo albums.

She also spends plenty of time offering gift ideas over the phone. “I find myself absolutely cracking up, standing here trying to describe something, my hands moving, hoping they get a visual on this. It’s really entertaining.”

The result hasn’t been anywhere near normal sales volume, but it has kept the shop afloat.

“But I knew I was going to be in the next day to figure something out, and by the end of Monday, I was delivering toys. I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘building the airplane as you fly it.’ It felt a lot like that.”

“I didn’t know what it would bring in; I didn’t really think about success,” Rosenberg told BusinessWest. “I just thought about day by day, and at the beginning of this, that’s where everyone’s head was — ‘it’s 10 in the morning; where is life going to be at 11?’”

Another card she drew on was humor — “because that’s how I live.” For example, the first day the doors were closed, she arranged a group of stuffed animals in the store window, with speech bubbles offering messages like “we miss your faces” and “we will deliver toys” and “we love you!”

“I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve seen from behind the register, taking pictures outside the front door. It makes me giggle.”

In the past couple of weeks, Rosenberg has played the curbside-pickup card — well, parking-lot pickup, “because we don’t have a curb” — and continued a popular gift offering known as ‘mystery bags,’ for which customers provide the recipient’s age and pay a discount price for a surprise assortment of goodies, such as putty, markers, stickers, mini-games, bouncy balls, and more.

“People trust our judgment on things their children or grandchildren or friends’ children might like,” she explained. “People tell me the age of the child and a couple things about them, and I put together little activities to keep them busy, keep them curious, and keep them educated. It’s gone over really well.”

Rosenberg is hoping to reopen the Toy Box in mid-June, depending on the guidance she gets from Boston, and is mulling ideas like shorter hours — perhaps half-days, or full days by appointment only — so she can manage staffing and sanitizing in a safe manner.

“As much as we’d like to be open for business, I only want to do it safely — against the virus and against unnecessary worry and anxiety,” she noted. “Anxiety is a real thing, and I don’t want people feeling forced to come into the store. So I will continue with deliveries and parking-lot pickup because, in my mind, that’s the safest way.”

One of the speech bubbles in the window reads, “we are essential.”

That may not be true in the eyes of Gov. Baker, but Rosenberg is quick to note how important it is for kids — who have, after all, been cooped up in their homes for about three months now — to experience joy through play.

“We are essential — not necessarily from the government’s perspective, but from families’ perspective. Parents are being required to stay home and work and be parents at the same time. That’s a challenge beyond all challenges. To be able to assist with that … that’s my job. I’m lucky to be in a position where I can bring some joy.”

—Joseph Bednar

Teddy Bear Pools

During Peak Season, This Area Fixture Is Making Up for Lost Weeks

Ted Hebert surveys the line outside his store — well, roughly one-third of it, anyway.

When BusinessWest recently caught up with Teddy Bear Pools and Spas owner Ted Hebert, he was surveying a line of customers around his Chicopee property that ran roughly 40 deep.

The wait to reach the premises was about 45 minutes — typical on most days recently, Hebert said, although it can reach an hour or more. And it would be longer still if the store was still letting just 10 customers in at a time, but Teddy Bear was recently approved for 20.

“We worked with the Health Department and got it up to 20 customers at a time, and we have not seen a letup since we opened on March 18,” he noted. “I’ve never seen it like this. It’s nuts.”

Compare that to the middle of March, when the governor’s orders forced Teddy Bear to close its doors.

“That didn’t really kill us because it wasn’t pool season yet. But it hurt us a little bit — we have hundreds, if not thousands, of spas and hot tubs out there, and those people do need water chemistry.”

So customers would leave water samples outside the door, and Teddy Bear employees would conduct the water chemistry and then deliver whatever products they needed to their homes — sometimes 70 or 80 deliveries a day. Hebert jokingly referred to this period as ‘TedEx.’

“We weren’t making a lot of money; we were charging 10 bucks per delivery, as far as Palmer and Monson, and we grouped them up,” he recalled. “We had a lot of fun meeting customers.”

From a safe distance, of course. In fact, Hebert put off the start of pool-installation season, which usually begins in April, out of concern for customers — not just their physical health, but their anxiety about being around other people.

“Our reputation means more to me than money, and I didn’t want to have my trucks out there,” he recalled. “A lot of customers — a lot of citizens — are scared of the unknown, so I didn’t want my trucks out there, guys doing construction, and we held off. We probably could have been out there, but we didn’t want to take a chance. So we started in May, four weeks behind.”

May brought a gradual opening of the retail store as well. “We were trying to figure out how to open, and we were able to do curbside for a few days, but it was still a lot of work. People had to go online and pay for it,” he explained.

“Our reputation means more to me than money, and I didn’t want to have my trucks out there. A lot of customers — a lot of citizens — are scared of the unknown, so I didn’t want my trucks out there, guys doing construction, and we held off.”

But then he started working with local officials — entities like the City Council, Mayor John Vieau, the Health Department, and the Police Department — on what it would take to be deemed an essential retailer so he could open the store to foot traffic. Through the city, he appealed to the governor’s office and was indeed deemed essential. The key selling point, he said, was the water-chemistry testing service.

“We ended up putting together what you see at the store now — this line with every six feet marked,” he said. “We have signage everywhere and a sanitizing station as you go in and go out.”

Meanwhile, carriages are sprayed with disinfectant after every use, employees interact with customers from behind plastic shields, Hebert himself greets people in line to answer their questions before they enter, and everyone, of course, must wear a mask. “If you don’t have one, which is seldom, we’ll offer you a free mask,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to make it safe for them — the customers and my employees. We just want them to be healthy and safe.”

The first few days, traffic was parked up to a quarter-mile away; it didn’t help that roadwork narrowed East Street that first week. “Traffic was bad the first week, so we rented the church parking lot around the corner,” he added, noting that the store plans to make a donation to the church.

Sales of new pools are slightly down, partly because people were buying hot tubs and pools online during the shutdown — “I’m old school; I never thought I’d see that day,” he said of this more impersonal sales experience — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as the late start has installers scrambling. “I’m paying my guys extra to work Saturdays. I’m running 60 people servicing pools.”

And 2020 could see some later-than-normal action — as families cancel vacations, they might be inspired to invest in a backyard experience. “Even if you get a pool at the end of July, you still get four to eight weeks out of it.”

As noted earlier, the traffic subsided a little when the state approved a 20-customer capacity, but lines still regularly stretch into the dozens, as BusinessWest discovered.

“I’ve never in my life seen anything like this,” Hebert said. “But I have very considerate customers. No one’s fighting. It amazed me. They’ve been very patient and understanding.”

—Joseph Bednar

Main Street Hospitality

Hotel Group Continues to Grow Through an Uncertain Time

Sarah Eustis says the Berkshires has plenty to offer, even when arts and culture attractions are closed, and the Red Lion and other hotels await whatever uptick in business arrives this summer.

Sarah Eustis has some visions for the Courtyard, an outdoor dining area at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge.

“It will be a really active force — we’re thinking of new, creative ways to use it,” she told BusinessWest. “We’re ramping up menus, we’ll have music outside, maybe screen movies with a projector, ping-pong, cocktails … just some relaxation and fun for people in a world that isn’t very fun right now. That’s our goal.”

It’s an ambitious goal for Eustis, CEO of Main Street Hospitality, and her team as they navigate how to move forward with the group’s roster of Berkshire-area hotels while launching two more in Rhode Island, at a time when hotels are just starting to fully reopen, and no one knows how the traveling public will respond.

That’s especially true in the Berkshires, whose economy is so reliant on tourism. Several major players, including Jacob’s Pillow, Tanglewood, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Shakespeare & Company, have canceled their summer season, and more might follow. Others are planning shortened seasons, like Barrington Stage Company, which will open on Aug. 5 with social-distancing practices in place.

Hence, Eustis’ emphasis on the other Berkshires draw: being outdoors, whether it’s hiking in nature or enjoying a breezy meal at the Courtyard.

“All the demand drivers, from a cultural standpoint, at least — with a few exceptions — have been moved to next year,” she said, adding, however, that some theaters are still looking for ways to accommodate performances, and museums are considering creative options like open, timed visitations.

But with vacation planning on hold for so many, Eustis knows she has to be realistic.

“The traditional reasons for coming to the Berkshires are massively impacted this summer, so that means we have to focus on other reasons people might come, and look at how we can provide a great experience,” she said. “We can play to the strengths of the Berkshires, which have a lot to do with being outdoors and natural beauty — we’ve got that in spades, and we will be well-served to promote that as a reason to come out and spend some time.”

Hotels weren’t forced to close by the mid-March mandate from Gov. Charlie Baker’s office, although business certainly dried up almost immediately across the country. Main Street Hospitality made decisions about its Berkshires properties on a case-by-case basis. For example, Hotel on North in Pittsfield, with its proximity to Berkshire Medical Center, has been used regularly by essential healthcare workers.

On the other hand, the Porches Inn in North Adams shut its doors completely. With little business expected there during the pandemic — it’s located across the street from the pandemic-shuttered MASS MoCA — the closure was an opportunity to tackle some needed construction and maintenance, and that site will reopen later this summer.

Meanwhile, the Red Lion Inn has maintained a robust, popular takeout program, as well as preparing meals for essential workers throughout Berkshire Health Systems and for Main Street employees who had been laid off.

“The traditional reasons for coming to the Berkshires are massively impacted this summer, so that means we have to focus on other reasons people might come, and look at how we can provide a great experience.”

Briarcliff Motel in Great Barrington and Race Brook Lodge in Sheffield were effectively closed, but have partnered with Volunteers in Medicine Berkshires to provide housing for essential workers and also people recovering from COVID-19.

“So, we’re trying to deploy each property within the mandated guidelines and leverage the characteristics of each property to the best of our ability,” Eustis said.

It wasn’t enough to keep about 300 employees working, however; layoffs reduced the company to about 25, with the discomfort spread throughout all properties and the administrative office.

“It was definitely the hardest thing I’ve ever been through as a leader, to be sure,” she said. “However, we took it week by week, with a very thoughtful approach.”

The plan now is to begin ramping the team back up again. On June 12, Main Street plans to reopen the Red Lion and Briarcliff within the safety parameters mandated by the state, as well as expanding reservations and culinary service at Hotel on North. Porches will reopen, somewhat refreshed, on Aug. 1, while two new Rhode Island properties are set to open as well: Hammetts Wharf Hotel in Newport in June 26, and the Beatrice Hotel in Providence on Aug. 9.

So, the company certainly sees a strong future.

“We are all trying to develop our strengths and skills without knowing what’s going to happen,” Eustis said. “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do, but I do believe it will make us stronger as business people and hospitality providers.”

Part of that is reopening in a safe manner, with attention paid to everything from the cleaning and sanitizing strategy to what kind of voice and body language to use with guests from behind those ubiquitous masks.

“We’ve got a 40-page COVID manual guiding our preparation,” she said. “We want to check all the boxes, so when guests visit with us, they don’t have to give it a second thought. We’ve got you covered.”

As summer approaches, this should be a time of happy anticipation at a hotel group synonymous with visiting the Berkshires — but this is totally uncharted territory, Eustis said, so optimism must be tempered by reality. But she’s still optimistic.

“We will come out on the other side, although there are days it doesn’t feel that way,” she told BusinessWest. “It’s such a massive tactonic shift. But we’ve got a really talented team that’s super committed, and we will be here to tell the tale.”

—Joseph Bednar

Lenny Underwood

For This Photographer and Sock Maker, the Pandemic Is a Developing Story

Lenny Underwood says both his photo studio and sock business have been greatly impacted by the pandemic.

Lenny Underwood started off by talking about how the COVID-19 pandemic has put a huge dent in both his businesses — a photography studio and an intriguing venture called Upscale Socks, which has become one of the many intriguing stories of entrepreneurship being written in the region. But then he put those losses into their proper context by changing the subject to his grandmother.

“She died from this virus,” he said slowly and deliberately for additional emphasis, as if it were needed. “Her name was Queeie Brown, and she died late last month [April] — it was awful.”

So Underwood, a member of BusinessWest’s recently announced 40 Under Forty class of 2020 — honored for his entrepreneurial exploits as well as his work within the community, such as donations of socks to area groups — has seen the virus alter his life in probably every way imaginable. Right down to his socks.

His designer socks, a venture he started dreaming about in 2014, became a reality the following year. He now has several dozen styles, including a popular ‘Springfield Firsts’ sock that came out last year and continues to draw orders. The products are manufactured by a partner in China, said Underwood, adding that production had to be halted for a time earlier this year when the virus was spreading through that country.

“I don’t foresee people having the kind of birthday parties they want to have — the sweet-16 parties or graduation parties they want to have with large amounts of people. Maybe down the road, but I’m not sure when.”

But as this year has progressed, that setback has turned out to be just one of many ways the pandemic has changed the landscape for Underwood — and perhaps one of the more minor ones.

Indeed, like most all photographers, Underwood has seen the virus rob him of a number of jobs and reliable revenue streams — everything from proms to weddings to family gatherings.

“Most of my photography is event-based, but I do some head shots and senior portraits as well,” he told BusinessWest. “Mainly, though, I’m on the scene, on location for different celebrations.”

And there certainly haven’t been many of those over the past three months, and those that have been staged have been smaller and decidedly different, he went on; after searching his memory bank, he determined that the last event he worked was the second Saturday in March.

The following Tuesday, he recalls getting seven cancellations for jobs that day alone. “I was looking forward to four proms, a lot of graduations, and weddings,” he went on, adding that he has one wedding still scheduled for late in July — and he’s somewhat dubious about that — but everything else has been wiped off the calendar.

Overall, he estimates that business is off 65% to 70% from what it was a year ago, a precipitous decline that has forced to him to seek — and eventually receive — unemployment benefits. However, they are due to run out in 20 weeks. He has also applied for a number of grants through various agencies, and is awaiting word on whether he’ll receive any.

Underwood has managed to find some work — a few of those ‘parade birthdays,’ for example, a photo shoot for a newborn, a few ‘senior-announcement photos,’ as he called them — where soon-to-be high-school grads announce where they’ll be going to college — and some other scattered assignments.

Meanwhile, the virus has generated some needed, but somewhat macabre work. Indeed, there has been a noted increase in funerals across the area, and for some of them, Underwood has been hired by families to scan photos of the deceased for slideshows and memorial tributes.

Still, like most photographers, he has seen his business devastated by the virus and doesn’t have any real idea when things might start turning around.

As for his socks … he’s still getting orders — someone recently purchased 20 pairs of the ‘Springfield Firsts’ style, for example — and some specials he’s been running have helped to generate more of them. But overall sales volume is down because he’s not able to sell them at large events, which generated a good deal of sales prior to the pandemic. Overall, sock sales are down by roughly 50%.

As he talked with BusinessWest near the tail end of May, Underwood said he had a few events on the books — an outdoor church service, for example. But the longer view is clouded by uncertainty and some doubts about whether the large events that have become his livelihood will be staged any time soon.

“I don’t foresee people having the kind of birthday parties they want to have — the sweet-16 parties or graduation parties they want to have with large amounts of people,” he said. “Maybe down the road, but I’m not sure when.”

For now, he’s maintaining his focus and looking for opportunities whenever and wherever he can find. For him, the pandemic is a developing story — in all kinds of ways. u

—George O’Brien

Mercier Carpet

Pandemic Poses Challenges, Opportunities for Flooring Company

Doug Mercier, right, with brother and partner Chuck, says that, while business is off because of the pandemic, the crisis has led to some opportunities on the commercial and residential sides of the ledger.

Doug Mercier was talking about how sales for March, April, and May are off probably 30% from what they were a year ago at the flooring company started by his parents a half-century ago.

And while that’s certainly not what he had in mind for quarters one and two, he quickly put those numbers in perspective.

“Look at restaurants,” said Mercier, president of the company that bears the family name. “Many of them are down … 100%; they’re not seeing any business. This has hit us hard, certainly, but it’s actually created a few opportunities as well.”

Indeed, some institutions and businesses — from area colleges to some of those aforementioned restaurants, most already in the portfolio of clients, but some others as recent additions — have taken advantage of unwanted time and a closed building to do some work on those properties, including new flooring.

“We’ve done work for a number of restaurants in this area,” said Mercier, listing projects in several area communities. “They were sitting idle; the business was empty. Then they started cleaning and painting, and realized that the flooring really needed to be replaced.”

Meanwhile, several medical facilities have been forced to renovate or repurpose space, creating other opportunities, and on the residential side, time at home has convinced people that they need to move ahead with some planned projects, said Mercier, adding that, at this time, there are a good number of projects (again, not as many as in a typical year, but a good number) in the proverbial pipeline.

“Residential clients are calling — they’re trying to see what we can do to enable them to see samples online,” he said, noting another change in how business is being done as fewer people are willing or able to visit the showroom on Riverdale Street. “With people spending more time at home, they’re paying more attention to those jobs that need to be done.”

“We’ve done work for a number of restaurants in this area. They were sitting idle; the business was empty. Then they started cleaning and painting, and realized that the flooring really needed to be replaced.”

But, as noted, there have been a number of challenges to contend with, including the matter of taking on these commercial and residential assignments while keeping crew members safe, Mercier told BusinessWest, adding that social-distancing requirements necessitated some adjustments when it comes to when and especially how work is done.

There is also the matter of keeping those trained installers — valued employees that were a challenge to find and retain before the pandemic hit — on the payroll.

“We don’t want to lose installers,” said Mercier, noting that, thanks to a Paycheck Protection Program loan secured early last month, the company has been able to rotate crews in and out — as a safety measure, but also because there is less work overall — but still manage to pay everyone. “We’ve been doing a ‘week on, week off’ kind of thing and have kept everyone on.”

Meanwhile, Mercier, like many service businesses of this kind that are sending crews into the field, started offering employees hazard pay, an additional expense largely covered by the PPP loan funds.

Mercier was quick to note that a number of projects planned by commercial clients were shut down as the pandemic hit, including some at colleges and prep schools in this area and just outside it — Assumption College in Worcester, for example, as well as a large job at a housing project. And they are being handled now, creating more work for crews.

Meanwhile, new projects are coming into the pipeline, many in response to the pandemic itself. Indeed, he cited the example of a cafeteria in one of the area hospitals.

“They’re trying to rework the space so it will be more conducive to halting the spread of disease and bacteria,” he explained. “So they’re taking out the carpeting and putting in a more resilient surface. The pandemic has created some business for us.”

Looking ahead, Mercier sounded an optimistic note when he said he expects a relatively steady supply of work in the pipeline. He said the company recently took a few residential orders, and some on the commercial side as well.

“Since these businesses have been sitting idle, a lot of plans and blueprints have been worked on, and, looking forward, it seems like there will be an uptick in projects,” he said, adding quickly that there are number of question marks concerning the longer term, especially when it comes to the colleges.

Perhaps the best sign that better times are ahead comes in the form of the delivery trucks pulling in almost daily at the company’s storefront and showroom.

“They’re coming in fuller, and we know that’s a good sign with what’s going on with the economy,” Mercier told BusinessWest, referring to vehicles that would make several stops on a route delivering product that’s been ordered. “When the trucks arrive and there’s very little in them, you know no one is ordering. But when you see the trucks stacked pretty full … that’s a good sign.”

—George O’Brien

Cuts Plus

Salon Owner Says He Missed the Relationships the Most

Bernie Gelinas said his appointment book has been full, but he can’t see as many customers in one day as he used to because of strict sanitizing rules.

It may be a song lyric and a cliché, but for Bernie Gelinas, the waiting really was the hardest part.

“After we closed in March, it was hard because we really didn’t know what to expect — what the governor was going to say, and what we needed to do to reopen,” said Gelinas, owner of Cuts Plus, a small hair salon in South Hadley. “From that aspect, it was frustrating, so it was nice when he came out said they’re going to open us up.”

The nine-week closure was, in one sense, an opportunity to take on projects that had been back-burnered — a common story we’ve heard from other business owners deemed, fairly or unfairly, non-essential during the pandemic.

“While we were closed, we took advantage — we painted, we had some things done to the shop we wouldn’t have been able to do, kind of update it a little bit, because the shop is basically open six or seven days a week,” he explained. “We tried to use the time as effectively as we could.”

Gelinas wasn’t the only one affected, of course — three full-time stylists and two part-timers in his salon were out of work, too, and while he was able to access a tiny piece of the federal stimulus, it wasn’t nearly enough to make up for the lost weeks. So May 18 — the day Gov. Charlie Baker said salons could open the following Monday — was a good day.

“We got the news like everyone else,” he said. “We watched the governor’s press conference online. On our time off, I listened to his briefings every afternoon and tried to read into what he had to say. And when we learned we were going to reopen, we had a week to somewhat prepare.”

“The big test will be in three or four weeks, once we’re caught up, to see where business goes from there. We’ll see at that point how many clients we have back and how many are holding out. It’s a wait and see.”

And prepare he did. There’s no waiting area at Cuts Plus right now — the furniture is gone — because no one is allowed to wait; only one customer per stylist is allowed inside. The bathroom is closed off, too.

“We put reminders on the walls — that was part of the protocol, to post things to remind people to be aware of their surroundings; we complied with that,” he said. “And we took out the magazines and anything else that would encourage customers to touch things that other people touch. We realigned the shop as much as we could.”

Part of that realignment was moving one booth — typically used by one of the part-timers — to a different room, one normally used for nails, a service that salons can’t offer yet. “There’s more planning involved, more careful scheduling to have the minimum amount of people here,” he said — and keep as much distance between them as possible.

That doesn’t apply to the stylist and his or her customer, of course — no one’s cutting hair with six-foot-long scissors. That’s why everyone wears masks, and why Gelinas can’t trim facial hair, for the most part. He says working around the mask straps while trimming was an adjustment, especially since masks come in several different configurations, but he has adjusted.

When asked if he’s been busy, he offered a measured “yes, but no.”

Elaborating, he explained, “when we reopened, we had to spread people out — it takes longer in between customers to follow the protocol, which is fine because it’s for the safety of all. We’re always wiping down things, and every three to five haircuts, I’ve got to take everything out and sanitize the whole station. I sanitize the doorknobs throughout the day, wipe down any common areas, wipe down the tables.”

At the same time, a good deal of his customer base has been clamoring for haircuts after more than two months away, so his schedule has been packed.

“We’re trying to get people in and take care of them and get them back on track,” he told BusinessWest. “The big test will be in three or four weeks, once we’re caught up, to see where business goes from there. We’ll see at that point how many clients we have back and how many are holding out. It’s a wait and see.”

That’s because not everyone has called back, and older customers in particular may be hesitant to sit in the chair. “That’s perfectly sensible,” he noted.

That said, customers have been “phenomenal” when it comes to following the new guidelines. And they’ve made Gelinas consider what he was missing during the weeks when he couldn’t cut hair.

“The beauty of coming back to work is you realize all the relationships you build throughout the year. You miss those people, and when you finally see them and talk to them, you realize that’s what this business is all about — it’s not just giving haircuts, but more the one-on-one. It’s more than a professional relationship; it’s very personal. You kind of miss that.”

In fact, it made him realize that, when he eventually retires from his full schedule, he’ll still want to cut hair.

“So it was a learning experience for me also. Yes, we used those weeks as best as we could, to do different projects. But it was a mental project, too — to kind of answer the question of what the future will bring. It’s one of those things where you don’t miss it until it’s gone.”

—Joseph Bednar

Eastside Grill

Restaurant Owner Says Reopening Will Be Exciting, but Scary, Too

A new mural starts to take shape in Eastside Grill’s new outdoor seating area, as restaurants anticipate outdoor seating becoming much more prominent under state reopening guidelines.

There’s a little alleyway beside Eastside Grill in Northampton that used to hold a few dumpsters and parked cars, but not anymore — it’s been converted into an outdoor dining space. Last week, local artists painted a mural of the Big Easy there, to reflect the restaurant’s New Orleans influences.

Reopening the restaurant’s doors is certainly big. But nothing about it has been easy.

“When they shut us down, I’ve never been so anxious in my life,” owner Debra Flynn said. “This is my life. This is my employees’ life; they depend on this income to pay their bills. It was really scary at first, and it still is, actually, because we don’t know what’s going to happen once we open up. We won’t be making as much money as we once did, and there are so many restrictions. What’s going to happen when we open?”

For that outdoor seating area, Flynn has a bistro feel in mind, with eight high-top tables, spaced at least six feet apart, that seat two diners each; she doesn’t want more than two to a table at first. The space is adorned by large donated urns, and local landscaper Justin Pelis donated some plants.

“Everyone has really come together,” she said. “I have an incredible staff. The executive chef has refined the menu to keep costs down, yet it’s creative and inventive, and my general manager has been running back and forth to Restaurant Depot to get things we need.”

They’ve both been multi-tasking for some time; in fact, a team of only four, including Flynn, have been maintaining a robust curbside-pickup and delivery service five days a week since early in the shutdown.

“It was very popular,” she said, before drawing on some hyperbole. “We went from zero to a million in two seconds. We’ve never done anything like that, and that first week we opened, we were going very quickly.”

At first, the restaurant offered its fare through curbside pickup — the customer would pay over the phone, and the food would be handed through the passenger-side window — or delivery, to Northampton destinations initially, but that’s being expanded to Hatfield, Florence, Leeds, and Easthampton.

“I don’t know if delivery is ever going to go away,” she added. “For people who don’t want to sit at a table, they can take it home. Especially for the elderly, it’s been great.”

Flynn was able to access a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan, but even that was fraught with anxiety.

“No one was telling us how it worked; nobody knew anything,” she said, adding that she was thrilled when the PPP guidelines were changed last week, extending their use by an additional eight weeks — which is critical for restaurants that had little or no work available for their teams over the first eight weeks of the loan.

She had the aforementioned skeleton crew making and delivering takeout, but what about the bartenders? “The bar is closed right now — sure, you can take out beer and wine in bottles, but you don’t need a bartender to grab a bottle. The bar won’t be open until phase 3 — maybe phase 4. No one’s allowed to set up a bar.”

When the governor says restaurants can open, Eastside’s hours will shift again, to Wednesday through Sunday, with a longer day on Sunday: noon to 8 p.m., marking the first time Eastside Grill has effectively served lunch.

“I cannot wait to reopen, even if it’s going to be 16 seats on one side of a small patio. It just generates people being out and being happy and being able to have a drink again — come in, have a cocktail, have an appetizer and dinner, and relax.”

It’s all part of being creative at a difficult time, one she knows isn’t exclusive to restaurateurs.

“Retailers are having it bad, too,” Flynn said. “With curbside pickup, nobody can try anything on because they can’t go into the building. So retailers have it as bad as restaurants do.”

Still, she noted, the restaurant industry is in many ways unique in the challenges it will face when it can once again serve guests.

“I cannot wait to reopen, even if it’s going to be 16 seats on one side of a small patio,” she said. “It just generates people being out and being happy and being able to have a drink again — come in, have a cocktail, have an appetizer and dinner, and relax.”

After all, dining out is an experience, one that can’t be replicated by takeout food, no matter how tasty.

“It’s the feeling of being served — that’s what it’s all about,” she told BusinessWest. “We were never a takeout business, and it took a while to make the food look nice. We’re used to putting it on a plate and making it look appetizing. Takeout is a whole different ballgame; people eat with their eyes, and a lot of times takeout doesn’t look as pretty.”

Flynn was quick to add, however, that the takeout ‘plating,’ if one could call it that, did begin to look nicer as the weeks wore on. Not as good as reopening the doors will look, when she and her team can begin serving up that New Orleans culinary spirit in person once again.

—Joseph Bednar

BusinessTalk with Nancy Creed

Business Talk Podcast Special Coverage

We are excited to announce that BusinessWest, in partnership with Living Local, has launched a new podcast series, BusinessTalk. Each episode will feature in-depth interviews and discussions with local industry leaders, providing thoughtful perspectives on the Western Massachuetts economy and the many business ventures that keep it running during these challenging times

Episode 1: June 15, 2020

George interviews Nancy Creed, president of the Springfield Regional Chamber

George O’Brien interviews Nancy Creed, president of the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce. O’Brien and Creed will discuss a wide range of issues, from the reopening of the economy to the impact of the pandemic on downtown Springfield, to the future of chambers of commerce.

Sponsored by:

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Editorial

By Editorial June 9, 2020

Opinion

PPP: The Feds Need to Do More

As you read the accounts of individual companies grappling with the pandemic in the June 8 issue of BusinessWest — we call them ‘COVID Stories’ — a number of themes and similarities emerge.

The first is that virtually every business in every sector of the economy was hit, and hit extremely hard by this. We talked with people in healthcare, service, tourism and hospitality, the sector known as ‘large events,’ marketing, retail, and more, and all of them said the same thing — that the floor was virtually taken out from under them back in mid-March.

Another theme is that businesses have responded with imagination and determination, finding new revenue streams, new products to develop, new ways to do things, and new opportunities wherever they arise.

Still another theme is that these new revenue streams and opportunities haven’t produced results that come anything close to what these companies were doing before the pandemic, a time that now seems like years ago, but was really only three short months ago.

Which brings us to one more common thread among the stories presented this month in a series that will continue into the summer — the fact that these companies needed help, received it, and will very likely need more help if they are going to fully rebound from this crisis.

Indeed, most all the companies we spoke with received support in the form of loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, an acronym now very much part of the current business landscape.

“Most of the companies we spoke with are not even close to being out of the woods. In fact, some are counting down the days until the PPP runs out with a certain amount of dread and a painful question: ‘what happens then?’”

Some struggled to get it and waited nervously for the money to land in their accounts. Others haven’t really touched it yet and don’t know exactly what to do with it because they can’t bring their people back to work because there is, as yet, no work to do.

The program isn’t perfect, and there are some bugs to be worked out, but overall, this measure has done exactly what it was designed to do — provide a lifeline to businesses that desperately need one. PPP has enabled companies to meet that most basic of obligations — meeting payroll — at a time when so many would not have been able to do so.

But as these stories make painfully clear, most of the companies we spoke with are not even close to being out of the woods. In fact, some are counting down the days until the PPP runs out with a certain amount of dread and a painful question: ‘what happens then?’

What should happen is the government offering another round of support to companies that can demonstrate real need — and, again, that’s most of them. The recovery is not going to be V-shaped or even U-shaped. It may be several months before there is, in fact, real recovery.

And the federal government has an obligation to help businesses get to that point. When the PPP was first conceptualized, the thinking was (we presume) that, in eight weeks, the worst would be over and things would start to return to normal. It’s still early in the game, but mounting evidence suggests that is not the case.

‘Normal’ is still a long-term goal, and it’s clear that companies will need additional support to be able to keep paying people and staying upright until better days arrive.

As one business owner we talked with said, and we’re paraphrasing here — ‘the government caused this problem by ordering a shutdown … so now, they own the problem.’ He’s right.

Already, there are far more ‘for sale’ and ‘for lease’ signs on properties across the region than there were three months ago. A number of businesses, many of them in the broad realm of hospitality and tourism, have already failed. Many more will fail in the months to come if they don’t get the support they need — not only from local consumers, but from the federal government itself.

PPP isn’t perfect, but it works. And we’ll likely need at least one more round of it to enable businesses to survive this pandemic.

Picture This

Picture This

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

Summer Fun

The law firm Pellegrini, Seeley Ryan & Blakesley donated $3,000 and employees’ time to provide and distribute summer-activity backpacks to 300 children for the Boys & Girls club of Greater Westfield. The backpacks were stuffed with art supplies, puzzles, games, soccer and gym balls, and other items for children.

Attorney Patrick McHugh stuffs a backpack

Ayame Anthony is pleased with her haul

Feed the Fight

Peter Pan Bus Lines and the Bean Restaurant Group recently teamed up with U.S. Rep. Richard Neal to show appreciation for first responders. On May 26, as part of the “Feed the Fight” project, Neal helped deliver more than 300 meals to Mercy Medical Center in Springfield. Supported by a donation from Neal’s campaign and organized by Peter Pan and the Bean Group, the project rewards the hard work of frontline healthcare workers while also supporting local Western Mass. restaurants.

Bridging the Gap

bankESB recently donated $5,000 to the Easthampton Community Center to support the Kid’s Bag Pantry program, which typically provides each child up to age 18 with a bag of food monthly during the school year and weekly during the summer months. This year, the weekly program began in March due to school closures, contributing to a shortfall in funding. Pictured: Easthampton Community Center Executive Director Robin Bialecki (left) receives the donation from Natalie Didonna, assistant vice president and branch officer at bankESB’s Easthampton office.

Opinion

By Editorial June 9, 2020

Opinion

Riots Reflect Deeper Issue of Racism

Editor’s Note: In the wake of recent incidents in Minneapolis and other communities, MassMutual chairman, president, and CEO Roger Crandall issued the following letter to employees.

In response to the racist acts that have come to light over the past several weeks, I wanted to directly address the deep frustration, anger, and sadness weighing heavily on all of us, especially the African-American and black community. The tragic and senseless deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd and the delays in bringing justice against those responsible, as well as the ugly confrontation in Central Park, have been vivid reminders of the prejudice and bigotry that continue to exist in our country.

Importantly, while we mourn for each of these victims, our hearts ache for many others previously killed under similar circumstances, including those whose names we don’t know, simply because there was no video or witness. These losses of human lives are staggering, unjust, and incomprehensible — and are taking a painful, emotional toll on our country.

The violence and riots of the past weekend are symptoms of the deeper issues of racism, inequality, and hopelessness that continue to exist in America today, and reflect the expressions of a community that feels its voice is not being heard. These issues have shaped everything from where people live to the healthcare they receive, to their access to education, to their treatment by the justice system. We see the results of this today during the COVID-19 pandemic, as people of color have shouldered a far greater impact, with the African-American and black community accounting for a higher proportion of deaths compared to other racial groups.

This is a vast, systemic problem, and I wish I was writing to you today with a crisp, detailed plan for how we will fix it. I don’t have this plan, and frankly no one does. But I can tell you instead what MassMutual is doing and what is on my mind.

First and foremost, I want to voice my — and the executive leadership team’s — support for our colleagues in the African-American and black community. Your voices, perspectives, and feelings matter to us. While I can’t begin to understand the full extent of your pain and hurt — how fear and discrimination are part of your everyday activities, or how you may worry as a parent when your child goes for a jog or enters a store — I want you to know we firmly stand with you as allies and advocates. Each of us can make a difference simply by asking how others are doing and spending time listening to their experiences, fears, and concerns, so we can learn more about what we can do as allies to take meaningful action and offer our support.

Secondly, at the heart of who we are and who we have been since our founding nearly 170 years ago is a company of people helping people. I want to reiterate that MassMutual’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is non-negotiable, and part of our core values and our promise to Live Mutual to make our world better. We will honor the memories of the victims of these senseless acts by influencing real change, and we are working with a cross-functional team, including representatives from our Passages Business Resource Group, to identify the best way to engage and act as an organization to advance how we address these complex issues.

Most immediately, Passages hosted a ‘Brave Space’ discussion recently to talk about these recent events and consider ways we can work together to build a sustainable, lasting effort to fight inequality and recognize and value the differences among us. While outside our walls, we are also actively working to unify business leaders to use our collective voices to drive change in our communities and workplaces.

In the meantime, I promise you this: MassMutual will stand with the victims of racism and hate crimes of any kind, with the people fighting oppression, and with everyone seeking to turn their sadness at recent events into actions that will build a better world. This is not the country I want to leave to my children and grandchildren. We can — and must — do better.

Agenda

Agenda

Alumni Achievement Award Nominations

Through June 12: When BusinessWest launched its 40 Under Forty program in 2007, it did so to identify rising stars across our region — individuals who were excelling in business and through involvement within the community — and celebrate their accomplishments. In 2015, BusinessWest announced a new award, one that builds on the foundation upon which 40 Under Forty was created. It’s called the Alumni Achievement Award (formerly the Continued Excellence Award). As the name suggests, it is presented to the 40 Under Forty honoree who, in the eyes of an independent panel of judges, has most impressively continued and built upon his or her track record of accomplishment. To nominate someone for this award, visit businesswest.com/40-under-forty/40-under-forty-alumni-achievement-award. Only nominations submitted to BusinessWest on this form will be considered. The deadline is Friday, June 12 at 5 p.m. No exceptions. Candidates must be from 40 Under Forty classes prior to the year of the award — in this case, classes 2007 to 2019. Past winners include: 2019: Cinda Jones, president, W.D. Cowls Inc. (40 Under Forty class of 2007); 2018: Samalid Hogan, regional director, Massachusetts Small Business Development Center (class of 2013); 2017: Scott Foster, attorney, Bulkley Richardson (class of 2011), and Nicole Griffin, owner, ManeHire (class of 2014); 2016: Dr. Jonathan Bayuk, president, Allergy & Immunology Associates of New England (class of 2008); 2015: Delcie Bean, president, Paragus Strategic IT (class of 2008). The 2020 honoree will be announced at the 40 Under Forty gala later this year. The presenting sponsor of the Alumni Achievement Award is Health New England.

Healthcare Heroes Nominations

Through July 1: Since the phrase COVID-19 came into our lexicon, those working in the broad healthcare field have emerged as the true heroes during a pandemic that has changed every facet of life as we know it. And over the past several months, the world has paid tribute to these heroes, and in all kinds of ways — from applauding in unison from apartment-complex windows to bringing hot meals to hospital and nursing-home workers; from donating much-needed personal protective equipment (PPE) to people putting hearts on their front lawns and mailboxes to thank first responders, healthcare workers, postal workers, and others. BusinessWest and its sister publication, the Healthcare News, will pay tribute in their own way, by dedicating their annual Healthcare Heroes program in 2020 to those who are have emerged as true heroes during this crisis. Healthcare Heroes was launched by the two publications in 2017 to recognize those working in this all-important sector of the region’s economy, many of whom are overlooked when it comes to traditional recognition programs. Over the years, the program has recognized providers, administrators, emerging leaders, innovators, and collaborators. For 2020, the program will shift its focus somewhat to the COVID-19 pandemic and all those who are working in the healthcare field or helping to assist it at this trying time. All manner of heroes have emerged this year, and we invite you to nominate one — or several — for what has become a very prestigious honor in Western Mass.: the Healthcare Heroes award. To assist those thinking of nominating someone for this honor, we are simplifying the process. All we desire is a 400- to 500-word essay and/or two-minute video entry explaining why the group or individual stands out as an inspiration, and a truly bright star in a galaxy of healthcare heroes. These nominations will be carefully considered by a panel of independent judges, who will select the class of 2020. The deadline for nominations is July 1. For more information on how to nominate someone for the Healthcare Heroes class of 2020, visit businesswest.com/healthcare-heroes/nomination-form. Videos can be sent via dropbox to [email protected].

Submission Period for Virtual Art Show

Through Aug. 13: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NAMI Western Massachusetts will present a virtual art show this year, and is now accepting artwork for the show. Submissions are limited to individuals living with a mental-health diagnosis, and the artwork will be displayed on the organization’s website and social-media pages for a limited time, then switched out for new artwork. To submit, e-mail a picture of the art to [email protected]. Note the size of the piece, the medium, and the price if it is for sale. The artist should also specify if they want their name used. The deadline for submissions is Aug. 13.

People on the Move

People on the Move

Paul Belsito

The directors of the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation announced the appointment of Paul Belsito as executive director of the foundation, succeeding Mary Walachy, who has served in the position for the past 23 years. Belsito will begin his new role on June 1. Belsito most recently worked for the Hanover Insurance Group in Worcester, where he served as president of the Hanover Insurance Group Foundation and assistant vice president for Community Relations. In his nearly eight years at Hanover, Belsito led charitable giving, community relations, and employee giving and service in the company’s efforts to improve the lives of Worcester’s youth. The Hanover Insurance Group Foundation places special emphasis on programs designed to strengthen schools and propel youth to higher levels of success. One of Belsito’s signature initiatives was supporting the Advancement Via Individualized Determination college readiness program in Worcester Public Schools. During her tenure, Walachy guided the foundation in establishing several signature initiatives, including Cherish Every Child, the nationally-recognized Reading Success by 4th Grade initiative, the 413families/familias community texting initiative, and the advocacy group Springfield Business Leaders for Education. Most recently, she led the effort to establish and build the innovative Educare Springfield early-education center, which opened in the fall of 2019 near the campus of Springfield College and Brookings Elementary School. Walachy will continue to represent the Davis Foundation in its role as philanthropic lead for Educare Springfield, the 24th Educare in the country and the first in Massachusetts, through the end of 2020. A native of Worcester, Belsito has long been deeply involved in his community, serving on numerous nonprofit boards, including corporator of the Greater Worcester Community Foundation, associate trustee of the Nativity School of Worcester, and presently as chair of the board of the EcoTarium. In the last few months, he co-led the city of Worcester’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in support of COVID-19 pandemic response. Belsito brings a diversity of professional experiences across higher education, politics, and government to the Davis Foundation in addition to his significant experience in philanthropy and community engagement. Prior to joining Hanover, he served in the Office of the President at Assumption College as executive assistant for Government and Community Relations, and as a district director in the Massachusetts State Senate. He holds a bachelor’s degree in management and an MBA, both from Assumption College.

•••••

Vanessa Otero

The board of directors of the Healing Racism Institute of Pioneer Valley (HRIPV) announced that former board member Vanessa Otero has been named interim director through the end of the year to support and move forward the work of the institute. The institute also announced it has become a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. As part of that move, the HRIPV board has appointed Baystate Health executive and longtime social-justice advocate Frank Robinson as the organization’s first president. Otero is among the co-founders of HRIPV that grew out of a City2City Pioneer Valley visit to Grand Rapids, Mich. in 2011, where a Healing Racism Institute was formed and housed at the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. Grand Rapids has also established institutes in its community’s faith and higher-education sectors. Otero is currently director of Smith College’s Urban Education Initiative. She has deep roots in the community, serving on state and regional boards, including being appointed to the Governor’s Latino Advisory Commission. She is also the chair of the Springfield Water and Sewer Commission. Mostly recently, Otero was asked to join the Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 Health Equity Advisory Group, advising Commissioner Dr. Monica Bharel and DPH on health-equity issues related to and exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and providing suggestions on solutions to be implemented at all levels. Otero graduated from Smith College as an Ada Comstock Scholar. She has a master’s degree in public policy administration from UMass Amherst.

•••••

Brenna Breeding

Brenna Breeding has joined the bankESB Marketing Department as its digital marketing manager. In this role, she will be responsible for providing strategic, tactical, and analytical support for online and digital marketing initiatives for bankESB and across the member banks of its parent company, Hometown Financial Group. Prior to joining bankESB, Breeding was the marketing communications associate with VentureWell in Hadley, and before that was the communications and marketing specialist for the Center for Responsive Schools. Breeding earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware. She is an active volunteer in the Greater Springfield community and has been a member of the Junior League of Greater Springfield for seven years.

•••••

Jessica Colon

Kim Bruno

DiGrigoli Salon, located in West Springfield, officially opened for business on May 26, included in the phase 1 reopening plan for Massachusetts. At the same time, two stylists, Jessica Colon and Kim Bruno, have been promoted to ‘the Artist’ level, the highest recognition of experience, due to their dedication, loyalty, and improvement throughout their careers. Colon joined the DiGrigoli Salon artistic team upon graduating DiGrigoli School of Cosmetology in 2008 and has grown into a stylist with a large and still-growing clientele over the past 12 years. She is particularly skilled in color formulation, precision cutting, and blow-drying curly hair types. In addition to a full appointment schedule, she has also performed demos and worked with upcoming stylists and students, all while continuing her own education at beauty shows such as Premiere Orlando in Florida and the Beauty Experience in New York. Bruno, also a graduate of DiGrigoli School of Cosmetology, became a stylist at the salon in 2011, and her skills and clientele have grown exponentially since then. With expertise in vivid colors and makeup, she has become one of the most sought-after stylists and makeup artists in the area. Frequently appearing on local lifestyle TV programs, she demonstrates standard makeup, special-FX makeup, and hairstyling techniques to a wide audience. Much like Colon, Bruno takes the time to educate others while balancing a booked schedule and pursuing her own education at the aforementioned beauty shows. DiGrigoli Salon is currently booking appointments and taking all recommended precautions necessary for the health and safety of both clients and the stylists. Appointments with Colon, Bruno, or any experienced DiGrigoli stylist can be made by calling (413) 827-8888 Tuesday through Saturday.

•••••

Richard Meelia

The Elms College board of trustees appointed Richard Meelia, principal of Meelia Ventures, LLC, as a new member of the board. From July 2007 until his retirement in July 2011, Meelia served as chairman, president, and CEO of Covidien, an $11 billion global healthcare-products company, following its separation from Tyco International in June 2007. Prior to that separation, Meelia served in a variety of senior leadership roles, including CEO and president of Tyco Healthcare. In addition to his business experience, Meelia has a passion for student experiential learning. He funded the Meelia Center for Student Engagement and Volunteerism at Saint Anselm College and has provided support to establish the Srs. Kathleen Keating and Maxyne Schneider Experiential Learning Fund at Elms College. Meelia is the chairman of the board of Haemonetics, a global provider of blood and plasma supplies and services located in Braintree. He is also a member of the board of directors of several organizations, including St. Francis House in Boston, the largest day shelter in Massachusetts; Por Cristo, a Brighton nonprofit dedicated to improving the health of poor children and their families in Ecuador; and Conformis, a knee-replacement manufacturer in Billerica. He has served on the board of trustees of Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H.

•••••

The West Springfield franchise of Visiting Angels announced that Michele Anstett, co-founder of the business, has transitioned to full ownership and assumed the role of president and CEO. Visiting Angels offers in-home care services to elderly and disabled adults throughout Western Mass. Anstett started the business in 1999 with her business partner, Joe Arduino, and served as the chief financial officer (CFO) for the past 20 years. Arduino recently retired, and Anstett has since assumed the role of full ownership, president, and director. Since 1999, the home-care landscape has changed dramatically in the Pioneer Valley. Anstett’s experience growing the business for the past 20 years in an evolving sector equips her to handle the modern challenges of the industry and successfully direct the business. Anstett’s franchise was the ninth franchise in the Visiting Angels network, which has since increased in size to more than 400 agencies internationally. With her guidance as co-director and CFO, the franchise has grown to provide more than 70,000 hours of care annually, helping seniors to maintain a sense of independence, dignity, and quality of life in their own home setting. Anstett brings dedication, compassion, experience, and attention to detail to the role — fundamental skills for successful leadership in the ever-evolving home-care industry. Particularly now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Anstett has taken rapid action to increase caregiver training and certification to establish effective strategies to ensure client safety under the current circumstances.

Company Notebook

Company Notebook

Olver Design Building Receives Architecture Institute’s Highest Honor

AMHERST — The American Institute of Architecture’s (AIA) Committee on the Environment (COTE) announced recently that the John W. Olver Design Building on the UMass Amherst campus is a winner this year of its highest honor, the COTE Top Ten Awards. Projects “illustrate the solutions architects have provided for the health and welfare of our communities and the planet,” the AIA citation says. Called the most technologically advanced CLT building in the country, the Design Building opened in 2017 to house the campus’s Department of Architecture, Building and Construction Technology Program (BCT), and Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning. The BCT program developed some of the CLT technology used and has since been testing native Massachusetts wood species for CLT suitability. The building is named for former congressman and UMass Amherst Chemistry professor John Olver and was designed by Boston architectural firm Leers Weinzapfel. In 2014, Olver attended a talk by associate professor of Environmental Conservation Peggi Clouston of the BCT program. She noted how CLT construction using lower-quality wood was enjoying a comeback. Olver, recognizing an expanded use for regional wood, encouraged campus officials to consider adopting the new technology. Built of CLT timber and glue-laminated columns, the 87,000-square-foot Design Building saves the equivalent of more than 2,300 metric tons of carbon compared to a traditional energy-intense steel and concrete building. It uses 54% less energy than a typical campus building and is one of two in North America to use CLT for wind and seismic resistance. Its footprint once a parking lot, the building now includes a rooftop garden and rain-garden landscaping. A central courtyard highlights natural light while reducing heat loss. Its open central stairway invites visitors to take the stairs instead of an elevator.

Whittlesey Achieves Blue Partner Status with Datto

HARTFORD, Conn — Whittlesey announced it has achieved exclusive Blue partner status with Datto, the world’s leading provider of IT solutions delivered through managed service providers (MSPs). Datto Blue status represents the top 5% of the company’s partners worldwide. “We’ve been partnered with Datto since 2014,” said Mark Torello, partner in charge of Whittlesey Technology. “We’ve been growing with them as they’ve branched out from data backup and recovery products to networking, cloud continuity, and device management. The reliability of their products and services and outstanding customer and technical support have been consistently top‐notch and provided us the resources to accelerate our business growth. It’s an honor to be acknowledged for putting these products and tools to use and demonstrating success.” Whittlesey has exceeded high standards of performance to qualify for Blue status within Datto’s Global Partner Program, the highest classification provided by Datto. Blue status includes many exclusive programs and benefits designed to support further enablement and business growth.

TRE Olive Wins Two Awards at International Olive Oil Competition

EAST LONGMEADOW — TRE Olive, located in East Longmeadow, is both a Gold and Silver award winner at this year’s 2020 New York International Olive Oil Competition. The NYIOOC is held each spring in New York and is the world’s largest and most prestigious olive oil contest. Its annual listing of award winners is considered the authoritative guide to the year’s best extra-virgin olive oils, according to Joe Maruca, co-owner of TRE Olive. TRE Olive won the Gold Award for Campo Dieci “Terra dei Nonni,” which means ‘land of our grandparents.’ The Silver was awarded for its TRE Olive Select. In addition to its award-winning extra-virgin olive oil, TRE Olive also offers a tree-adoption program. When an olive tree is adopted, the recipient will receive an adoption certificate, a gift box, a photo of their tree, a welcome brochure, and three tins of olive oil to get started. The tree is also tagged with the adoptee’s name for one year.

Paragus IT Named to Forbes ‘Small Giants’ List

HADLEY — Every year, Forbes publishes its “Small Giants” list highlighting 25 businesses “whose commitment to greatness over fast growth has enabled them to best serve their customers, employees, and communities.” This year, Paragus IT was recognized as an innovator in the small-business world, with Forbes citing the Hadley-based firm’s employee-ownership structure and mission to make IT fun, among other features. “It’s an honor to be included on such a diverse and amazing list of other small businesses around the country,” said Delcie Bean, CEO of Paragus IT. “And it’s great that a magazine as prestigious as Forbes is committed to appreciating what makes small businesses great. As an employee-owned company, our employees, or partners, as we call them, were so excited to be recognized for our passion for making IT fun.”

Bacon Wilson Donates $10,000 to YMCA of Greater Springfield

SPRINGFIELD — Bacon Wilson announced that the firm has recently completed a $10,000 contribution to the capital campaign for the YMCA of Greater Springfield. The pledge originated in the fall of 2019, as Bacon Wilson supported the YMCA’s transition from the former Chestnut Street location to the new Tower Square facility in downtown Springfield. “My partners and I are very pleased to be able to support the Springfield YMCA at this critical moment,” said attorney Kenneth Albano, Bacon Wilson’s managing partner. “Bacon Wilson is pleased to know our contribution will boost the mission and continuing good works of the YMCA of Greater Springfield.”

Bay Path Launches Master’s Program in Learning, Design, and Technology

LONGMEADOW — As an onslaught of complex challenges, and the urgency to develop innovative solutions to meet them, promise to reshape higher education, Bay Path University announces the launch of a new master’s program in Learning, Design, and Technology (LDT) this fall. The fully online program will tap into Bay Path’s long-standing position as a leader in the use of emerging technologies, creative curricula, and learning analytics to train professionals looking to shape the ongoing evolution of higher education by applying technology to the development of innovative, accessible, and impactful learning processes. Designed by a broadly representative team of Bay Path faculty and staff, the LDT program was launched to give students a students a deep foundation in the tools and theory of learning design, technology innovation, learning analytics, and higher-education leadership, a foundation on which they can create engaging and innovative learning experiences for all students. Students will also have the opportunity to enroll jointly in Bay Path’s doctoral program in Higher Education Leadership and Organizational Studies (HELOS) and carry out applied, real-world learning design projects. While the launch comes at a time when the coronavirus has transformed campuses, Bay Path has used technology to pioneer unique teaching and learning formats and offer flexible, dynamic, and personalized educational experiences for 20 years. The university’s diverse student population includes its traditional on-campus undergraduates, online graduate students, and online adult learners obtaining bachelor’s degrees through the American Women’s College.

Food Insecurity Prompts Big Y to Make Second Round of Donations

SPRINGFIELD — With regional food banks experiencing unprecedented demand, Big Y is providing an additional $125,000 in support to address the rise in food insecurity. With the donations made in March, Big Y has provided $250,000 in financial assistance to area food banks in addition to the healthy surplus food it provides to them on a weekly basis. Using the estimate that every dollar donated provides four meals, the Big Y financial assistance amounts to 1 million meals. The donation will be split equally by the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, the Worcester County Food Bank, and the Greater Boston Food Bank in Massachusetts, as well as Foodshare and the Connecticut Food Bank in Connecticut. As part of its commitment to hunger relief in its neighborhoods and ongoing partnerships with regional food banks, Big Y provided an estimated $11.5 million of healthy surplus food to these organizations in 2019. This food donation amounts to an estimated 5.7 million meals, two-thirds of which include donations of meat and fresh produce as well as bakery and non-perishable grocery items. Frozen food and dairy products account for one-third of the annual donation.

MCLA Innovation & Entrepreneurship Challenge Announces Three Winners

NORTH ADAMS — Although this year’s Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) Innovation & Entrepreneurship Challenge, held May 4-8, was a virtual affair, the college community still came together to view and vote for the three finalists’ pitches. The finalists, all seniors, who pitched their business ideas via video, were David Flight, Kimberly Granito, and Sierra Lamonde. The students were coached through a series of deliverables — determining a solution to a problem, developing a budget and business plan as the road map for the project or business, and presenting before a panel of judges. Granito’s Detailing Dream won first place, which came with a $7,500 award. Lamonde’s Pyrography Crafts placed second, for a $5,000 award, and Flight’s Settling the States won the $2,500 third-place award. The startup funding awards aim to cover inventory, equipment, and marketing costs for the three new businesses. Granito’s winning business, Detailing Dream, is a car-detailing service meant to cater to people who may think they don’t have the time or money for such a service. Granito’s packages include lower-cost options that other companies don’t offer because they usually cater to luxury cars. Unlike most of her competitors, Granito’s business would also include a mobile option where she would come to the customer, so they could take advantage of the service without leaving their home or office. Second-place winner Lamonde said her business, Pyrography Crafts, aims to bring joy to customers by creating one-of-a-kind, handcrafted wood burnings of people, pets and other animals, cartoons, and more. Flight’s Settling the States is a company that designs legacy board games inspired by the geographical regions of the U.S. The company’s first product, Settling New England, has players compete against each other to survive the changing seasons to become legend settlers.

Monson Savings Bank Announces New Loan & Operations Center

MONSON — Because Monson Savings Bank continues to grow by adding new positions and new personnel, and has outgrown some of its spaces, some employees are moving this week into a new, 12,000-square-foot office space on the top floor at 75 Post Office Park in Wilbraham. This location will be the new Monson Savings Bank Loan & Operations Center. The following departments will be moving: Commercial Lending, Residential Lending, Collections, Compliance, Retail Administration, Retail Operations, Business Development, Municipal Banking, and E-Banking. The main branch and corporate headquarters will still be located in Monson.

Taylor Real Estate Moving to Liberty Street in Easthampton

EASTHAMPTON — Taylor Real Estate, which is celebrating 65 years of operation this year, announced it will move to a new location on Liberty Street in Easthampton this month. Chuck Conner, a third-generation owner of the business founded by his grandfather in 1955, said the new office space offers convenient off-street parking for clients and staff as well as on-site storage for the firm’s plentiful ‘for sale’ signage, and a newer, brighter workspace for staff. He noted that the move is symbolic of moving the firm into the future, when ownership and operations will be assumed by his daughters, Megan Conner and Danica Achin, both licensed Realtors with the firm. In addition to working with buyers and sellers, Megan handles administration and advertising, and Achin is the rental division manager. Additional change has come in the form of new technology that allows a digital approach to marketing and communication and the execution of documentation. Houses can be shown to potential buyers via virtual visits made possible by professional photography, and closing papers can be signed electronically.

Incorporations

Incorporations

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

ASHFIELD

Ginevra Corp., 245 Main St., Ashfield, MA 01330. Sally G. Sasso, same. Media/video production and other lawful activities.

CHESTERFIELD

GRS Equipment Services Inc., 526 Main Road, Chesterfield, MA 01012. George R. Sturtevant, same. Heavy equipment repair.

CHICOPEE

Fruit Life Inc 398 Front St., Chicopee, MA 01013. Jared Newell, 44 Buckingham St., Springfield, MA 01109. Grocery store.

EAST LONGMEADOW

Hilltop Wood Products Inc., 27 Helen Circle, East Longmeadow, MA 01028. James M. Cummings, same. Manufacturing wood components.

EASTHAMPTON

Haven Body Arts Inc., 31 High St., Easthampton, MA 01060. Penelope Silverstein, same. Body piercing, tattooing, and other body modifications.

GREAT BARRINGTON

GB Hospitality Inc., 249 Stockbridge Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230. Chrisoula D. Mahida, same. Hospitality/hotel management.

HADLEY

Happy Valley Nutrition PC, 3 Phillips Place, Hadley, MA 01035. Amanda K. Mittman, same. Professional dietician and nutritional services.

HARDWICK

Hardwick Auto Inc., 2583 Greenwich Road, Hardwick, MA 01092. Jake E. Luzi, 139 Bartlett Ave., Wilbraham, MA 01095. Auto sales, repair, parts, dismantle, disposal.

LUDLOW

First Action Cleaning Inc., 15 Canterbury St., Ludlow, MA 01056. Tatiane Bruna Da Silva Mendonca, same. Cleaning services.

H & J Group Inc., 12 Lakeview Ave., Ludlow, MA 01056. Hang Wu, same. Food services.

SPRINGFIELD

Gary’s Auto Repair and More Inc., 167 Denver St., Springfield, MA 01109. Gary Leyden, same. Auto repair, gasoline sales, state inspections.

Home Service Electrical Inc., 980 Bay St., Springfield, MA 01109. Todd E. Hickman, 34 Moody St., Ludlow MA 01056. Electrical contractors.

Human to Human Inc., 37 Chestnut St., Springfield, MA 01103. Douglas John Fisher, 1900 Home Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230. Serve as an umbrella for the programs and ministries of the episcopal diocese of Western Mass. committed to meeting people facing economic, social support and service challenges where they are in their personal journey of health, recovery and discovery.

WESTFIELD

FEK$AD Home Improvement Inc., 12 Conner Ave., Westfield, MA 01085. Anatolii Federiuc, same. Window installer.

G7 Bridge Inc., 21 Dana St., Westfield, MA 01085. Dmitriy Girich, same. Trucking.

Herd of Help Inc., 16A Herold Ave., Westfield, MA 01089. Aleksandr Abashin, same. Provide aide and support to communities in east Africa through continued mission trips.

WORTHINGTON

Healing Hearts Sanctuary Inc., 241 West St., Worthington, MA 01098. Tracy McManmon, same. Providing a sanctuary for the community. Such as offering classes, education, around all faiths. A healing spiritual sanctuary.

Doing Business as Certificates

DBA Certificates

The following business certificates and/or trade names were issued or renewed during the month of May 2020. (Filings are limited due to closures or reduced staffing hours at municipal offices due to COVID-19 restrictions).

BELCHERTOWN

M & N Homes
3 Stadler St.
Neil Jackson

Pelham Auto Service
1315 Federal St.
Barney Dashiell

Shumway Farm
95 Old Amherst Road
Cory Shumway

WESTFIELD

B-Clean Home & Office Cleaning Service
50 Pequot Point Road
Carol Iwanski

Ideal Health & Body
41 Court St.
Kristen Hook

New England Title Examiners
1076 East Mountain Road
Jacqueline Brown

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies

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

Barnes, Anita June
43 Point Grove Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/13/2020

Bates, Odessa S.
a/k/a Carbonell, Odessa S.
24 Silver St., Apt. D-5
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/15/2020

Colon, Sugeily
211 Laurelton St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/12/2020

Commisso, Frank J.
Commisso, Martha A.
39 Cooley Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/08/2020

Denino, Scott M.
62 Franklin St., Apt. 23
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/01/2020

Dowd, Nicholas J.
392 Meadow St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/01/2020

French, Donna Lynn
6 Pearl Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Chapter: 7
Date: 04/30/2020

Galvagni, Amanda N.
12 Meadow Lane
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/15/2020

Germain, Robert Lee
Germain, Amanda Jean
366 Lincoln Ave.
Athol, MA 0133
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/04/2020

Greylock Sand & Gravel
MJD Real Estate LLC
Dellaghelfa, Norman
56 Orchard St.
Adams, MA 01220
Chapter: 7
Date: 04/30/2020

Hardy, Jessica Elizabeth
265 Roy St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/13/2020

Hunte, Aretha
107 Memorial Dr.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/07/2020

LaPlante, Ronald J.
LaPlante, Kirstin M.
2 Thomas Circle
Southampton, MA 01073
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/04/2020

Lapomardo, Elaine M.
23 Rivercrest Way
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/06/2020

Laventure, Joseph Paul
Laventure, Rebecca A.
139 Valley Road
Barre, MA 01005
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/11/2020

Leone, Tina
5 Kania St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/08/2020

Long, Marie B.
329 Pinedale Ave.
Athol, MA 01331
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/08/2020

Marren, James M.
235 State St., Unit 409
Springfield, MA 01103
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/12/2020

Meuse, Terese Laraine
6 Crown Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/13/2020

Moberg, Eric Matthew
139 Union Road
Wales, MA 01081
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/01/2020

Sticco, Thomas A.
424 Dwight Road
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/15/2020

Terrero, Ana F.
672 Alden St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Date: 05/12/2020

Wilmot, Patricia A.
16 Church St.
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Date: 05/13/2020

Real Estate Transactions

Real Estate Real Estate

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

FRANKLIN COUNTY

BERNARDSTON

24 Gill Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $293,500
Buyer: Steven F. Duffany
Seller: Douglas R. Fish
Date: 05/15/20

CHARLEMONT

456 Zoar Road
Charlemont, MA 01339
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Benjamin H. Gagnon
Seller: Ivan J. Gould
Date: 05/11/20

GREENFIELD

661 Bernardston Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: MCK 2017 Descendants TR
Seller: Wheaton Mahoney
Date: 05/11/20

303 Davis St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Paul Szczepanek
Seller: Kathleen N. Forster
Date: 05/15/20

58-60 Elm St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $147,000
Buyer: Veaceslav Falceanu
Seller: US Bank
Date: 05/13/20

37 Norwood St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: David Cheptea
Seller: Ellen L. Rawson
Date: 05/15/20

289 Wells St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $562,500
Buyer: ACCSS 1 LLC
Seller: Timber Commercial LLC
Date: 05/15/20

291 Wells St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $562,500
Buyer: ACCSS 1 LLC
Seller: Timber Commercial LLC
Date: 05/15/20

61 Plantation Circle
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: William D. Connelley
Seller: Archer, Charmaine R., (Estate)
Date: 05/08/20

ORANGE

620 East Main St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $750,000
Buyer: Wayne Whitmore
Seller: Mitchell Enterprises Inc.
Date: 05/08/20

107 New Athol Road
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Jake Stevens
Seller: George H. Newcomb
Date: 05/15/20

SUNDERLAND

679 Amherst Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Chandra K. Gurung
Seller: Alfonso Cumplido
Date: 05/18/20

50 Claybrook Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $284,000
Buyer: John G. Hansbury
Seller: Thomas L. Hollingsworth
Date: 05/18/20

258 North Main St.
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $187,500
Buyer: Amanda L. Hanley
Seller: Ciak, Louise M., (Estate)
Date: 05/14/20

114 Old Amherst Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $252,000
Buyer: Toni L. Dolan
Seller: Carol M. Krimsky
Date: 05/11/20

WENDELL

87 Bullard Pasture Road
Wendell, MA 01379
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Kristen Wilson
Seller: Sharon A. Gensler
Date: 05/08/20

WHATELY

8 Dickinson Hill Road
Whately, MA 01093
Amount: $324,000
Buyer: Daniel Lapenta
Seller: John P. Imhoff
Date: 05/08/20

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

127 Colemore St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $213,675
Buyer: Santander Bank
Seller: Pauline V. George
Date: 05/14/20

102 Country Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $282,500
Buyer: Thomas A. Walker
Seller: Nicholas D. Rau
Date: 05/15/20

15 Farmington Circle
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $459,000
Buyer: Erin Hurley-King
Seller: Hillside Development Corp.
Date: 05/06/20

67 Highland St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $201,000
Buyer: Mohammed E. Abdul-Baki
Seller: Melhem F. Salloum
Date: 05/11/20

48 Horsham Place
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $230,322
Buyer: Oleg Shevchenko
Seller: Jury, Renee Odette, (Estate)
Date: 05/15/20

13 Pierce St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $147,500
Buyer: Kate S. Menard
Seller: Felix M. Losito
Date: 05/08/20

44 Royal St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $248,000
Buyer: Paul Versace
Seller: Aleksandr Katykhin
Date: 05/07/20

86 Sunset Ter.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Richard Gomez
Seller: Robert W. King
Date: 05/06/20

BLANDFORD

1 Kaolin Road
Blandford, MA 01008
Amount: $128,000
Buyer: Matthew Gogal
Seller: Nicholas A. Saltmarsh
Date: 05/18/20

BRIMFIELD

108 Cubles Dr.
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $191,000
Buyer: Shaun McLaughlin
Seller: Douglas R. Alfreds
Date: 05/12/20

CHICOPEE

96 Arnold St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Socrates Caminero
Seller: Sabri Bajrami
Date: 05/15/20

93 Bay State Road
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Gabriel A. Diaz
Seller: Joshua M. Dupuis
Date: 05/12/20

7 Campbell Place
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $259,999
Buyer: Sabri Bajrami
Seller: Tascon Homes LLC
Date: 05/15/20

118 Clairmont Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Henry S. Gottardi
Seller: Wilmington Savings
Date: 05/08/20

105 East St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Prem LLC
Seller: Thomas Fotiathis
Date: 05/15/20

52 Grattan St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Haider Abdulridha
Seller: Timothy J. Czerwiecki
Date: 05/18/20

47 Harvard St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Josue X. Colon
Seller: Gregoire, Maurice, (Estate)
Date: 05/08/20

24 Lafayette St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $610,000
Buyer: 24 Lafayette Street LLC
Seller: Henry F. Dabek
Date: 05/19/20

25 Leclair Ter.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Juan A. Rodriguez
Seller: Elizabeth A. Girouard
Date: 05/15/20

82 Madison St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Conor J. Patrick
Seller: HLR Home Inc.
Date: 05/11/20

20 Olea St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $177,500
Buyer: Jossimarye Melendez
Seller: Joshua Figueroa
Date: 05/15/20

53 Ondrick Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Luis Rodriguez
Seller: Gale A. Ascioti
Date: 05/19/20

744 Pendleton Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $172,000
Buyer: Teresa Doyle
Seller: Joseph R. Lecuyer
Date: 05/18/20

178 Prospect St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $252,000
Buyer: Thomas Tetrault
Seller: Eddie Martinez
Date: 05/19/20

63 Silvin Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Tommy R. Ruiz
Seller: Edward A. Rivera
Date: 05/14/20

EAST LONGMEADOW

6 Amaretta Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $307,500
Buyer: Tuan M. Tran
Seller: Samuel J. Stoughton
Date: 05/15/20

7 Callender Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Curtis B. Frick
Seller: Elizabeth A. Clarke
Date: 05/14/20

14 Crescent Hill
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $176,800
Buyer: Alexander Sneirson
Seller: US Bank
Date: 05/08/20

35 Dorset St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Tiffany M. Velazquez
Seller: Joseph M. Santaniello
Date: 05/11/20

51 East Village Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Gary D. Lynch
Seller: Margaret M. Sullivan
Date: 05/14/20

33 Evergreen Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $430,000
Buyer: Peter A. Drane
Seller: Carol M. Kalmbach
Date: 05/08/20

253 Maple St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $228,000
Buyer: Amanda L. Joyce
Seller: Timothy A. Provost
Date: 05/15/20

674 North Main St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $243,750
Buyer: Teamwork Realty Group LLC
Seller: Steven E. Rovithis
Date: 05/06/20

141 Nottingham Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $601,000
Buyer: Ryan T. Morton
Seller: Joseph A. Champigny
Date: 05/08/20

51 Oak Brook Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $329,900
Buyer: Cynthie Poon
Seller: Stephanie A. Griggs
Date: 05/08/20

152 Prospect St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Kevin M. Shippee
Seller: Ruby Realty LLC
Date: 05/18/20

64 South Brook Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $590,000
Buyer: Lindsey E. Price
Seller: Daniel P. Garvey
Date: 05/07/20

12 Speight Arden
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $130,278
Buyer: Pennymac Loan Services
Seller: Richard E. Renaud
Date: 05/11/20

7 Townview Circle
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $390,000
Buyer: Brock I. Gaspar
Seller: Allison W. Li
Date: 05/14/20

57 Tufts St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Andrii Fedosh
Seller: Eric Johnson
Date: 05/19/20

HOLLAND

28 Evelyn Dr.
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $206,000
Buyer: Joshua D. Thomas
Seller: Jay C. Demartino
Date: 05/06/20

1 Forest Court
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Alexander Noonan
Seller: Tiffany M. Letendre
Date: 05/15/20

HOLYOKE

32 Edbert Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Etabav RT
Seller: Serge J. Odabashian
Date: 05/15/20

319 Elm St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $187,500
Buyer: Arnold Aleanu
Seller: Tina Laflamme
Date: 05/08/20

61-63 Elmwood Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $187,500
Buyer: Cangialosi Group LLC
Seller: Cangi 5 Properties LLC
Date: 05/12/20

44-46 Gilman St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $148,350
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Jorge A. Burgos
Date: 05/12/20

52 Gilman St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Tiffany S. Thurston
Seller: Thomas F. Moriarty
Date: 05/13/20

76 Hillview Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Jess H. Dods
Seller: Susan B. Church
Date: 05/15/20

27 Linden St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $187,000
Buyer: Maria M. Negroni
Seller: Marcos A. Marrero
Date: 05/11/20

12 Roosevelt Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $119,000
Buyer: Best4u RT
Seller: Bank Of America
Date: 05/08/20

640 South East St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Sage Group LLC
Seller: Maurice, V. Spear Jr., (Estate)
Date: 05/11/20

2-4 Shawmut Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Sarah Boisvert
Seller: Corbin H. Chicoine
Date: 05/07/20

15 Vadnais St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Alex J. Kim
Seller: Amy C. McDonough
Date: 05/15/20

6 Western View Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $451,000
Buyer: Kyle R. Pouliot
Seller: Paul J. Digrigoli
Date: 05/06/20

LONGMEADOW

48 Colony Acres Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Michael V. Adamski
Seller: Howard A. Dickstein
Date: 05/15/20

18 Dunsany Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Alexander Giles-Eaton
Seller: David A. Andre
Date: 05/15/20

190 Kenmore Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $303,000
Buyer: Patrick J. Dawes
Seller: Joanne Leboeuf
Date: 05/15/20

1497 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Carol A. Watts
Seller: Corey Neal
Date: 05/11/20

7 Robin Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Corey C. Neal
Seller: Vineyard Partners Limited
Date: 05/12/20

LUDLOW

39 Andrew St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $227,000
Buyer: Matthew G. Gilman
Seller: Cornerstone Homebuying
Date: 05/15/20

64 Brook Hollow Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Paulo J. Cruz
Seller: Americo G. Dacruz
Date: 05/14/20

162 Cady St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $118,500
Buyer: Michael L. Roberts
Seller: Roberts, James M., (Estate)
Date: 05/13/20

659 Center St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Erin L. Lepage
Seller: David C. Smith
Date: 05/13/20

39 Chapin St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $318,000
Buyer: James R. Carvalho
Seller: Paulo J. Cruz
Date: 05/14/20

35 Fox Hill Road
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Steven Cassesse
Seller: Derek Sipma
Date: 05/14/20

36 Higher St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Amanda J. Purchase
Seller: William E. Duquette
Date: 05/14/20

11 Inwood Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01095
Amount: $329,000
Buyer: Phillip E. Russ
Seller: Elizabeth Zirakian
Date: 05/18/20

142 Loopley St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $248,000
Buyer: Nicholas Sharon
Seller: Frank N. Roda
Date: 05/18/20

47 Pondview Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $184,500
Buyer: Carrington Mortgage Services
Seller: Anita Teece
Date: 05/12/20

Turning Leaf Road #22
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $141,500
Buyer: Efrain Mendoza
Seller: Whitetail Wreks LLC
Date: 05/08/20

MONSON

123 Bethany Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Ian Q. Tatro
Seller: Frederick McDonald
Date: 05/11/20

47 Blanchard Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Brandon T. Ford
Seller: Jennifer A. Braman
Date: 05/15/20

102 Brimfield Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $237,000
Buyer: Peter G. Sias
Seller: Scott E. Malo
Date: 05/11/20

68 Cote Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Janet B. Moorman
Seller: Mark E. Russell
Date: 05/06/20

40 Paradise Lake Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $292,000
Buyer: April Perez-Moore
Seller: Francis P. Roach
Date: 05/08/20

32 Zuell Hill Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: William B. Freeland
Seller: Robert L. Carlson
Date: 05/19/20

PALMER

9-11 Bond St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Kayla M. Turowsky
Seller: Milestone Rentals LLC
Date: 05/15/20

1042 Circle Dr.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Samuel Houle
Seller: Kathleen Skowyra
Date: 05/15/20

573 Old Warren Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Dylan Bachand
Seller: Daniel Fisk
Date: 05/15/20

1400 Park St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Erin L. Ruggiano
Seller: Corinne F. Hulse
Date: 05/15/20

18 Sasur St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Jennifer A. Braman
Seller: Claire E. Rebello
Date: 05/15/20

172 Shearer St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $173,000
Buyer: Rachel M. Lynds
Seller: Dylan J. Bachand
Date: 05/18/20

1397 Ware St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Bryan Ouellette
Seller: Home Point Financial Corp.
Date: 05/08/20

SPRINGFIELD

402 Allen St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Ivan Diaz-Vazquez
Seller: Matthew L. Palatino
Date: 05/11/20

66 Ambrose St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $194,000
Buyer: Jimmy Cardona
Seller: Ericka L. Winslow
Date: 05/07/20

74 Ames St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Cagdas Yilmaz
Seller: US Bank
Date: 05/08/20

132 Amherst St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $196,000
Buyer: Wayne A. Harris
Seller: Okabbs Properties LLC
Date: 05/18/20

79 Armory St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $137,500
Buyer: Ronilo Anglo
Seller: JJS Capital Investment
Date: 05/18/20

27 Ashley St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $138,000
Buyer: Madelaine Castro-Acevedo
Seller: Kiplin R. Samuels
Date: 05/15/20

57 Avon Place
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $136,900
Buyer: Safia Siidali
Seller: SLC Associates LLC
Date: 05/06/20

9-13 Baldwin St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Cagdas Yilmaz
Seller: US Bank
Date: 05/08/20

39 Balfour Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $161,000
Buyer: Hector V. Garcia-Alvarado
Seller: Antonio Palermo
Date: 05/15/20

93 Bartels St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $224,000
Buyer: Amanda Begin
Seller: Revampit LLC
Date: 05/15/20

89 Brookside Circle
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $239,900
Buyer: Rupert R. Gordon
Seller: Christopher Tokas
Date: 05/15/20

70-72 Burr St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $137,000
Buyer: Junior Properties LLC
Seller: Emtay Inc.
Date: 05/13/20

15 Cambridge St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Molly Realty LLC
Seller: Aliciah M. Porter
Date: 05/08/20

126 Carroll St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $197,000
Buyer: Carole A. Colon
Seller: Viktor Smolnikov
Date: 05/12/20

38 Cherrelyn St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $122,000
Buyer: Carlos Cruz-Cedres
Seller: Justine T. Frazier
Date: 05/14/20

16 Colchester St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $158,000
Buyer: Abigail Martinez
Seller: Anchor Moore Investings
Date: 05/12/20

196-198 College St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: G. A. Hernandez-Montes
Seller: AAD LLC
Date: 05/11/20

162-164 Commonwealth Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Patricia Meshack
Seller: Riccardo Albano
Date: 05/08/20

206 Corcoran Blvd.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Kimberly A. Santiago
Seller: William T. Raleigh
Date: 05/19/20

44 Curve St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $209,000
Buyer: Walter S. Barlow
Seller: Tascon Homes LLC
Date: 05/11/20

87-89 Curve
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Gariel Cruz-Rodriguez
Seller: AJN Rentals LLC
Date: 05/08/20

134 Draper St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Luz I. Rodriguez
Seller: Alexandr Carapunarli
Date: 05/08/20

1604 Dwight St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Yitzahak Rosario
Seller: JJJ 17 LLC
Date: 05/11/20

103 Duryea St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Raymond Deneault
Seller: Bachir Saleh
Date: 05/18/20

55 Dutchess St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Erin A. Prickett
Seller: James C. Forsberg
Date: 05/15/20

143 El Paso St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Jose Rosado
Seller: Timmy J. Begin
Date: 05/15/20

329 Forest Hills Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Dwayne C. Burey
Seller: Jonathan Docanto
Date: 05/15/20

158 Fountain St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Melanie Jefferies
Seller: Prime Partners LLC
Date: 05/15/20

123 Hanson Dr.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $134,620
Buyer: Tascon Homes LLC
Seller: PHH Mortgage Corp.
Date: 05/18/20

48 Homestead Ave.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $161,000
Buyer: Nathan Shea
Seller: Mamba Capital LLC
Date: 05/06/20

450 Island Pond Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $196,000
Buyer: Richard G. Henry
Seller: Thomas J. Masotti
Date: 05/08/20

80 Jennings St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Marcus Garner
Seller: Bretta Construction LLC
Date: 05/19/20

82 Jasper St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Marcus L. Whitley
Seller: William H. Russell
Date: 05/15/20

167 Lamont St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $299,900
Buyer: Eddie Martinez
Seller: Bretta Construction LLC
Date: 05/15/20

112 Lancaster St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Michael G. Robie
Seller: Susan E. Raimer
Date: 05/15/20

186 Louis Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $213,000
Buyer: Lymari Diaz
Seller: Elizabeth Hernandez
Date: 05/12/20

112 Lyons St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $165,000
Buyer: Madeline Cortes
Seller: Feranando F. DaSilva
Date: 05/15/20

171 Marsden St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Elizmabel Colon
Seller: NRES LLC
Date: 05/08/20

95 Maynard St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Brian Donah
Seller: Pearlie L. Pitts
Date: 05/15/20

24-26 Mazarin St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Altagracia Valdez-Garcia
Seller: KEC Properties LLC
Date: 05/07/20

180 Mildred Ave.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Joseph Santana
Seller: Elvin Gonzalez
Date: 05/11/20

19 Milton St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Hector L. Colon
Seller: Nicola S. Williams
Date: 05/11/20

383-385 Newbury St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Gustavo A. Olivio
Seller: TFO Properties LLC
Date: 05/08/20

103 North Branch Pkwy.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Bruce L. Tetrault
Seller: Vincent Poon
Date: 05/15/20

100-102 Newfield Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Natanael Crespo
Seller: Sylvia Bethea
Date: 05/14/20

92 Osborne Ter.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $179,000
Buyer: Luis A. Deleon
Seller: Ashley M. Caron-Burey
Date: 05/15/20

182 Overlook Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Joseph A. Lemoine
Seller: Ashleigh Malinowski
Date: 05/15/20

38-40 Parallel St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Adalberto Colon
Seller: Bank New York Mellon
Date: 05/08/20

66 Pendleton Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $163,000
Buyer: Idalia Ojeda-Torres
Seller: Zuleika Rivera
Date: 05/11/20

158 Pendleton Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $159,500
Buyer: Peter Cortes-Soto
Seller: Aquarius Real Estate LLC
Date: 05/15/20

85 Pheland St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Jodanne St.George
Seller: Johannah E. Marcoux
Date: 05/11/20

35 Pinta Circle
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $251,400
Buyer: George E. Golderesi
Seller: Carrie L. Ramos
Date: 05/07/20

1360 Plumtree Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Mark A. Gayle
Seller: Rosanne T. Lyons
Date: 05/08/20

49 Ranney St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $167,500
Buyer: Luis Cruz
Seller: Inci Kavraz
Date: 05/18/20

16 Ravenwood St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $292,000
Buyer: Chris J. Anderson
Seller: Kimberly A. Goldsmith
Date: 05/15/20

56 Rosedale Ave.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Jonathan M. Westbrooks
Seller: Paul C. Macdonald
Date: 05/11/20

140 Slumber Lane
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Steven Al-Husseini
Seller: US Bank
Date: 05/19/20

110 Spikenard Circle
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $162,800
Buyer: MTGLQ Investors LP
Seller: Gary Fortune
Date: 05/12/20

110 Spikenard Circle
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Paul Plante
Seller: MTGLQ Investors LP
Date: 05/15/20

163 Spikenard Circle
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: CIG 4 LLC
Seller: Joseph A. Wandolowski
Date: 05/12/20

257 Spikenard Circle
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $229,900
Buyer: Diamante Seguin
Seller: Baystate Restoration Group
Date: 05/11/20

15 Sylvan St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Caleb A. Rozwenc
Seller: John J. Poirier
Date: 05/08/20

268 Talmadge Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: Amneris Serrano
Seller: Dwain P. Devine
Date: 05/07/20

16-18 Trillium St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $234,000
Buyer: Juliana M. Evans
Seller: TFO Properties LLC
Date: 05/11/20

291 Tyler St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Yeidi Cartagena
Seller: Elnora Larry
Date: 05/08/20

79 Wait St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Solimar Colorado
Seller: Lindsay Carpentier
Date: 05/07/20

24 West Colonial Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $352,400
Buyer: Emmanuel Nava
Seller: Brenda A. McGaffigan
Date: 05/15/20

747 White St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $269,000
Buyer: Anthony Charles
Seller: Mark Wedderburn
Date: 05/15/20

200 Windemere St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $202,000
Buyer: C. A. Morales-Nieves
Seller: Chris Wiernasz
Date: 05/15/20

163 Winterset Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $222,000
Buyer: Matina S. Geanopoulos
Seller: Basile Realty LLC
Date: 05/08/20

115 Woodside Ter.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $221,000
Buyer: Verleane Webb-Harris
Seller: Natasha Polite
Date: 05/07/20

1440-1442 Worcester St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $189,900
Buyer: Robert Caudle
Seller: Artur Formejster
Date: 05/06/20

SOUTHWICK

757 College Hwy.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: Donald J. McClellan
Seller: Guy Stanhope
Date: 05/06/20

18 George Loomis Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Andrew S. Brower
Seller: Allissa A. Nugent
Date: 05/18/20

50 George Loomis Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $510,000
Buyer: David D. Eichstaedt
Seller: Howard P. Kelley
Date: 05/15/20

33 Gillette Ave.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $123,000
Buyer: Peter J. Theodorowicz
Seller: Robert N. Tingley
Date: 05/15/20

61 Hastings Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: PHH Mortgage Corp.
Seller: Consuelo M. Carlson
Date: 05/08/20

353 North Loomis St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Phillip Price
Seller: Seth Girace
Date: 05/14/20

151 Point Grove Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Frank Grillo Enterprises
Seller: Ransford W. Kellogg Post
Date: 05/07/20

WALES

4 Cordially Colony
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $277,000
Buyer: Cynthia L. Price
Seller: Robert J. Pierce
Date: 05/08/20

WESTFIELD

109 Apremont Way
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $3,700,000
Buyer: Triple 7 LLC
Seller: DMA Associates LLC
Date: 05/08/20

2 Bristol St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $138,600
Buyer: Home Team LLC
Seller: Bank New York Mellon
Date: 05/15/20

22 Canterbury Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $399,900
Buyer: Cole Skinner
Seller: Oak Ridge Custom Home Builders
Date: 05/13/20

58 Day Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Oscar N. Naranjo
Seller: Berdahowski, Stanley F., (Estate)
Date: 05/18/20

9 Dickinson Place
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: Therese Burdick
Seller: Stephen J. Bouffard
Date: 05/19/20

723 Holyoke Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: First Tennessee Bank
Seller: Kerry A. Little
Date: 05/11/20

15 Laro Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Francis B. Marsh
Seller: Raymond K. Broderick
Date: 05/15/20

11 Pineridge Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $197,000
Buyer: 11 Pineridge Drive RT
Seller: Swiecanski, Henry S., (Estate)
Date: 05/19/20

1335 Southampton Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Armor Fire Technologies
Seller: Judith E. Hoey
Date: 05/15/20

WILBRAHAM

3068 Boston Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $202,000
Buyer: Manuel Santos
Seller: Peter Baruffaldi
Date: 05/11/20

3116 Boston Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Nicholas A. Ouano
Seller: Steven A. Maiolo
Date: 05/08/20

4 Danforth Farms Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Brian M. Chapdelaine
Seller: Dan Roulier & Associates
Date: 05/08/20

2 Judith Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Timothy A. Provost
Seller: Shashi D. Desai
Date: 05/15/20

3 Millbrook Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $356,000
Buyer: Robert E. Dooley
Seller: Kelnate Realty LLC
Date: 05/19/20

19 Scenic Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Daniel J. Gomez
Seller: James M. Lagodich
Date: 05/15/20

24 West Colonial Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $352,400
Buyer: Emmanuel Nava
Seller: Brenda A. McGaffigan
Date: 05/15/20

WEST SPRINGFIELD

530 Bear Hole Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Joseph A. Judge
Seller: Amy L. Mendrala
Date: 05/15/20

99 Brookline Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Jason S. Phillips
Seller: Michael Lastoria
Date: 05/15/20

64 Hill St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Turian L. McCollum
Seller: Ruslan Kuychiyev
Date: 05/08/20

16 Jensen Circle
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Christopher R. Shain
Seller: John Bielanski
Date: 05/18/20

108 Jensen Circle
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $219,400
Buyer: Ellen C. Shaw
Seller: Samuel Spinazzola
Date: 05/18/20

600 Kings Hwy.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Bernice McKenna
Seller: Kaydoke RT
Date: 05/14/20

72 Lower Beverly Hills
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $196,000
Buyer: Joshua Daly
Seller: Wilmington Savings
Date: 05/15/20

149 Lower Beverly Hills
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $159,000
Buyer: Steven T. Sullivan
Seller: Stephen V. Zambelli
Date: 05/08/20

990 Piper Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $271,000
Buyer: Riteshkumar R. Patel
Seller: Clara P. Calabrese
Date: 05/07/20

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

58 Belchertown Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Neal B. Patel
Seller: Keith O. Kaneta RET
Date: 05/15/20

86 Lindenridge Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $824,900
Buyer: Gregory S. Vorderstrasse
Seller: Catherine M. Cullen
Date: 05/13/20

3 Overlook Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Andrew J. Spracklen
Seller: Hubert, John F., (Estate)
Date: 05/08/20

10 Pine St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Pine Street Partners LLC
Seller: Smith Frank A., (Estate)
Date: 05/06/20

24 Tracy Circle
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Andrew T. Brace
Seller: Quyen Nguyen
Date: 05/13/20

100 University Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $5,175,000
Buyer: Gleason Johndrow Investments
Seller: Elysium LLC
Date: 05/08/20

3 Wildflower Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $438,000
Buyer: Matthew T. Hoyle
Seller: Dolly G. Jolly
Date: 05/18/20

45 Wildwood Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $410,900
Buyer: Donna C. Heussler
Seller: Elizabeth H. Alcaide
Date: 05/15/20

44 Woodlot Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: Steven Palatt
Seller: Feldman, Barbara P., (Estate)
Date: 05/15/20

BELCHERTOWN

267 Barton Ave.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: Maxwell Mayer
Seller: James G. Aberdale
Date: 05/18/20

44 Boardman St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Kayliegh J. Hodgen
Seller: Michael B. Mackay
Date: 05/18/20

Michael Sears Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Stephen Rock
Seller: Daguiar, Joseph L., (Estate)
Date: 05/18/20

59 Underwood St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $290,000
Buyer: James W. Gelinas
Seller: James L. Beaumont
Date: 05/14/20

CUMMINGTON

32 Clark Road
Cummington, MA 01026
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Bo Guyer-Carpen
Seller: Heywood Farms NT
Date: 05/15/20

28 Porter Hill Road
Cummington, MA 01026
Amount: $122,800
Buyer: Shelby L. Ellison
Seller: Douglas Noel
Date: 05/08/20

EASTHAMPTON

22 East Green St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Timothy J. Garceau
Seller: Geoffrey P. Rice
Date: 05/07/20

176 Main St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $348,000
Buyer: Timothy A. Brault
Seller: Kara Y. Wood
Date: 05/15/20

GRANBY

92 East St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Harvey J. Lafleche
Seller: Anne M. Knox
Date: 05/15/20

72 West St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $162,500
Buyer: Nathan M. Henry
Seller: Joanne Henry
Date: 05/08/20

HADLEY

66 Stockbridge St.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Amy E. Chapman
Seller: Morton, Bruce N., (Estate)
Date: 05/08/20

HATFIELD

14 Chestnut St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Adam J. Barker
Seller: DMP T
Date: 05/11/20

King St.
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Walter R. Thayer
Seller: Harriet M. Tetrault
Date: 05/15/20

24 North Hatfield Road
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $348,000
Buyer: Jacklyn M. Szawlowski
Seller: Thomas J. Wickles
Date: 05/15/20

NORTHAMPTON

19 Arlington St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $625,000
Buyer: Leeor Jaffe
Seller: Simone Topal
Date: 05/15/20

122 Florence St.
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $305,000
Buyer: Elizabeth M. Burnworth
Seller: Robin M. Larochelle
Date: 05/07/20

8 Fox Farms Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Zachary M. Lipkin-Moore
Seller: O’Connor FT
Date: 05/11/20

60 North Elm St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $650,000
Buyer: Michael Chill
Seller: Joseph R. Gaubinger RET
Date: 05/18/20

126 North Maple St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: John & Doris Szawlowski FT
Seller: Jacklyn M. Szawlowski
Date: 05/08/20

117 Olander Dr. #10
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $550,792
Buyer: James A. Glickman
Seller: Sunwood Development Corp.
Date: 05/08/20

117 Olander Dr., #11
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $464,518
Buyer: Susan Hogan
Seller: Sunwood Development Corp.
Date: 05/08/20

19 Pine Brook Curve
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $322,500
Buyer: Michael Lesley
Seller: Wilmington Savings
Date: 05/07/20

375 Rocky Hill Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: David A. Toone
Seller: Barbara C. Dunn
Date: 05/19/20

12 Winslow Ave.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $523,000
Buyer: Felice Lesser
Seller: Nu-Way Homes Inc.
Date: 05/06/20

PELHAM

328 Amherst Road
Pelham, MA 01002
Amount: $560,000
Buyer: Gregor S. Semieniuk
Seller: Patricia Millington
Date: 05/15/20

PLAINFIELD

54 South Union St.
Plainfield, MA 01070
Amount: $251,000
Buyer: Lyla Rozelle
Seller: John G. Hanhardt
Date: 05/08/20

SOUTH HADLEY

285 Brainerd St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $257,000
Buyer: Mary K. Carroll-Bowlick
Seller: Hector L. Santiago
Date: 05/07/20

20 Chestnut Hill Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $344,000
Buyer: Benjamin Sabbs
Seller: Kenneth B. Minor
Date: 05/15/20

148 Old Lyman Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $337,000
Buyer: April B. Bellafiore
Seller: Todd W. Perkins
Date: 05/11/20

28 North St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $209,900
Buyer: Gregory Pandoli
Seller: Michael Ermold
Date: 05/14/20

11 Silver St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $289,000
Buyer: Patricia Stefanelli
Seller: Joseph A. Stefanelli
Date: 05/18/20

SOUTHAMPTON

5 Gilbert Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $263,000
Buyer: Douglas L. Schonlaw
Seller: Jennifer C. Leveille
Date: 05/15/20

69 Moose Brook Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $271,900
Buyer: Jesse Coughlin
Seller: Kathryn R. Riel
Date: 05/14/20

90 Pleasant St.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $469,900
Buyer: Alex S. Engelson
Seller: Chester J. Kellogg
Date: 05/08/20

WARE

158 Osborne Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Ann M. Votta
Seller: Julia A. Critelli
Date: 05/13/20

10-12 Pleasant St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $178,000
Buyer: Douglas P. Gauthier
Seller: Brian T. Hatch
Date: 05/08/20

60-62 Pleasant St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $180,500
Buyer: Arielle V. Day
Seller: Melanie C. Dodge
Date: 05/08/20

3 Walter Dr.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Melissa Hancock
Seller: Michael Huse
Date: 05/06/20

WESTHAMPTON

242 Kings Hwy.
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Thomas Raschi
Seller: Jason T. Novak
Date: 05/11/20

WORTHINGTON

140 Cudworth Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Douglas A. Noel
Seller: Heywood Farms NT
Date: 05/08/20

Building Permits

Building Permits

The following building permits were issued during the month of May 2020. (Filings are limited due to closures or reduced staffing hours at municipal offices due to COVID-19 restrictions).

CHICOPEE

Chicopee Property
443-445 Chicopee St.
$5,000 — Demolish metal building

Christy Real Estate, LLC
390 Burnett Road
$150,000 — Roofing

Elms College
291 Springfield St.
$98,995 — Roofing

New England Tel. and Tel. Co.
29 Riverview Ter.
$188,772 — Remove and replace existing air-conditioning system

Tabernacle Baptist Church
603 New Ludlow Road
$30,000 — Repair sills and floor joist, replace entry door and windows, repair handicap ramp

LENOX

Berrydale, LLC
7 Hubbard St.
$40,000 — Repair front porch of building

Jaki Nominee Trust
12 Housatonic St.
$9,000 — Outdoor dining awning

MRG CRW Holdings, LLC
55 Lee Road
$7,543 — Replace fire-alarm panel and tie into fire-alarm network

SPRINGFIELD

Mittas Hospitality, LLC; DD Development, LLC; and Rudra Realty, LLC
1500 Main St.
$326,173 — Remodel first-floor lobby, bar, kitchen, and restaurant at Tower Square Hotel

For Those Who Keep the Shelves Stocked, Many Lessons Have Been Learned

By George O'Brien June 8, 2020

Supply Chain of Events

By George O’Brien

Supply chain.

That’s a two-word phrase that had rarely made its way into the lexicon of most area residents before the COVID-19 pandemic; it was generally assumed that the shelves in the stores would be crammed with product — because they always had been.

But in a year when there have been shortages of cleaning supplies, surgical masks, beef, fish, hair coloring, paper towels, ice cream, rice, frozen pizza, and, yes, toilet paper — a product that has become a metaphor for a crisis — people can no longer take supply chain, and full shelves, for granted.

This has been a learning experience — on a number of levels.

So too for those who work to keep the shelves stocked. For them, it’s a time of relationship building, finding new ways of doing things, and providing ongoing proof that, while the supply chain has been bent — severely and repeatedly — it hasn’t, in their minds, been broken.

Michael D’Amour

“The supply chain has definitely been tested through all this, and there have been shortages of some things, as everyone knows,” said Michael D’Amour, chief operating officer at Springfield-based Big-Y, the fourth-generation, family-owned grocery chain. “But, overall, I think this crisis has shown just how resilient the supply chain is.”

Doug Baker, vice president of Industry Relations for the Food Marketing Institute, (FMI) agreed.

“Almost weekly we’re getting back numbers, and we’re still seeing double-digit growth across many categories — and you can’t have double-digit growth if inventory is not available,” he said, referring to specific product lines ranging from cleaning supplies to frozen foods. “It’s just a matter of matching inventory with consumer demand, and that’s been the challenge.

Doug Baker

“And that’s why we’ve seen shortages — because that inventory output hasn’t been able to rise to the level of consumer demand,” he went on, adding that recent numbers show a slowing of demand that is giving many producers at least a chance to catch up.

In March, on average, the industry was seeing 35% to 40% increases in overall sales volume, Baker said, while in late May, the number was closer to 20% to 25%.

“We’re seeing sales slow, which is helpful because it allows the supply chain to catch up to an extent,” he explained. “But we also have to understand that those are still pretty significant increases, and we’re not going to go back to pre-COVID days, because the public still has yet to engage in a livelihood that they engaged in before the pandemic, and that’s based on where you see them spending their food dollar.”

D’Amour agreed, noting that, as May turned to June, a good number of people were still in something approaching lockdown mode. They were eating most meals at home because restaurants were only open for takeout. They were also still working at home and, therefore, eating lunch at home. Meanwhile, children are home from school, and college students are home as well. This all adds up to people buying more at the supermarket.

As phase 2 of Gov. Charlie Baker’s reopening plan takes effect on June 8, restaurants will be opening for curbside dining, and preschools and day camps will be reopening. And as more and more people go back to their offices — the ones they left in March for space on their dining room table — the ratio of food dollars spent out of the home will start to rise higher.

How long it will take to reach pre-COVID levels — when 54 cents of each dollar was spent outside the home — remains to be seen, said Baker. However, what is certain is that the situation is fluid at best and it could change in a hurry if cases start to surge, a second wave arrives, and people start spending more time working — and eating — at home.

Meanwhile, this new normal has essentially forced chains like Big Y to forge new alliances with suppliers, said D’Amour, noting that as restaurants, colleges, and schools of all kinds closed earlier this year, this created an enormous surplus of inventory, but put the demand on grocery stores, while also creating an opportunity to redeploy goods and resources to grocery retail to meet demand and reduce waste.

One such alliance, one that typifies how suppliers and grocers are working together to forge solutions, involves Little Leaf Farms in Shirley, a local partner and grower of lettuce that saw demand decline dramatically as schools and restaurants closed a few months back and was looking for new opportunities to sell product and reduce the kind of waste that was seen almost nightly on major news broadcasts.

“They’re one example of so many local partners who have sat down with us and worked to figure out how to maximize business between us and keep their stuff growing and moving through the pipeline when the restaurants were shut down,” D’Amour explained. “We worked with them on supply and hotter deals and pricing to keep it moving through the grocery channels.”

For this issue, BusinessWest talked with several players involved with supply chain about the lessons learned to date and how they will help the broad food industry through the uncertain months to come.

Food for Thought

As noted earlier, the laws of supply and demand generally take care of shortages on store shelves — in normal times.

But these are not normal times, said those we spoke with. Still, those laws have applied to items like surgical masks. Hard to find only six weeks ago, they are now seemingly everywhere, and in large quantities, as a number of companies started making them — and more of them.

“Everyone’s getting into the mask business now,” Baker explained, adding quickly that it’s much easier to convert machines to make those products than it is to supply more canisters of Lysol or make more rolls of toilet paper, as simple as that might sound.

“Paper manufacturers have been putting in additional lines,” he said. “But the challenge the industry is facing now is that there two types of fiber used to make toilet paper — there’s recycled fiber and there’s virgin fiber, and with recycled fiber, the supply is low, and not every machine can be converted to use virgin fiber, so you’re going to have less output if you can’t convert.”

And sometimes, because of the pandemic, producers simply cannot meet demand.

That was the case for several weeks — although matters have improved — when it came to supplies of meat and chicken, said Baker, noting that, early on, plants were shut down temporarily. And when they reopened, to keep workers safe, production lines were altered in ways that actually slowed production.

Such specific cases help explain shortages of particular items, said those we spoke with, adding that, overall, many of the empty shelves result from unprecedented demand and panic buying that is starting to wane in many instances. But as the year continues, more lessons will certainly be learned, said D’Amour, adding that there have been plenty of learning experiences already.

Elaborating, he said that, from the beginning, those at Big Y have been watching what’s happening globally, anticipating, and “trying to get on top of things” — a phrase he would use many times — when it comes to everything from employee and customer safety to creating efficient traffic flow in the stores, to keeping items on the shelves.

This has obviously led to new policies and procedures — from the directional arrows on the floors to special hours created for seniors to the plexiglass screens at the check-out counters.

“For us, the biggest component is the people part, and that continues to be stressed by our suppliers, wholesalers, and others,” he said, adding that, while much of that panic buying and hoarding is being talked about in the past tense, the need for diligence remains, and chains like Big Y can’t let their guards down.

Getting back to the supply chain, D’Amour said it has been a struggle in some well-documented areas, but suppliers are responding by trying to increase supply and also reduce the number of overall SKUs to help put some product on the shelves.

“Where people are used to walking down the paper aisle and seeing 150 different choices of bath tissue and paper towels, now they’re seeing far fewer,” he said. “But products are coming back; we’re working with all our partners to get them back in.”

Perhaps the biggest key to providing quality service to customers during the crisis has been efforts to forge new partnerships and stronger relationships with those within the food-service industry, said D’Amour. He mentioned ongoing work with Springfield-based Performance Food Group as one example.

“They’ve done a phenomenal job working with us, working together, to figure out what food they have stuck in the pipeline that we can use,” he explained, adding that, over the past several months, PFG, as it’s called, has even helped with trucking and labor for either Big Y’s warehouse or at wholesale partners. “Most of these partnerships we’ve had have been mutually beneficial, but there are strategies and tactics that we’ve never done before; everyone’s been very open and ready to fight the battle, work together, and think of new ways to partner for the benefit of the consumers.”

Paul Sellew

Which brings him to Little Leaf Farms. Paul Sellew, owner and founder of that facility, which began operations just four years ago, said it is now part of a larger local-food movement that not only puts fresher produce on the shelves, but in many ways helps ease flow of product through the supply chain.

“People don’t realize that 95% of the leafy greens that you see in the grocery store are grown in California and Arizona,” he explained. “And when you have this global pandemic, an unprecedented situation, that puts stress on the supply chain, so imagine managing a supply chain from Selinas, California to Springfield, as opposed to my supply chain, from Devens, Mass. to Springfield.”

Little Leaf has historically seen much of its business fall into the broad category of food service — restaurants, schools, and other institutions. But with the pandemic and the sharp decline of demand on that side, the company, like many other suppliers, has shifted into retail grocery, which has been a win/win/win, for those growers, the grocers, and, ultimately, consumers.

“When you get these unprecedented events, you really want to make this region stronger and more resilient, and food is such a strong, fundamental component of that,” he went on. “And that’s why we’re so grateful for partnerships like the one we have with Big Y, which has supported us from day one.”

Overall, there is a ‘new normal’ within the grocery/food-service industry, a phrase now being heard in virtually every sector of the economy. It involves a landscape that could change quickly and profoundly depending on the pandemic and its impact.

No one really knows when there will be real light at the end of the tunnel, said D’Amour, adding that Big Y, like all those it is partnering and working with, needs to remain nimble and flexible, and continue to work in partnership with others to not only keep the shelves stocked, but also keep people safe.

Bottom Line

Summing up the past several months, those we spoke with said it’s been a challenging and in many ways difficult time, where, again, many important lessons have been learned that will serve consumers, suppliers, and retailers well in the uncertain months still to come.

“The United States is a country of abundance, and the supply chain is a beneficiary of this abundance,” Baker said. “Yes, the supply chain is strained, and some shortages will be experienced, but it’s not broken — there are not critical disruptions in the supply chain.”

The hope, and the expectation, said D’Amour, is that things will stay that way.

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

State Transitions to Second Phase of Economic Reopening

By BusinessWest Staff June 8, 2020

COVID-19 Daily News

BOSTON — The Baker-Polito administration announced that phase 2 of the Commonwealth’s reopening plan begins today, June 8. Businesses and sectors set to begin opening in phase 2 are subject to compliance with all mandatory safety standards.

The following businesses will be eligible to reopen immediately, with contingencies:

• Retail, with occupancy limits;

• Childcare facilities and day camps, with detailed guidance;

• Restaurants, outdoor table service only;

• Hotels and other lodgings, but no events, functions, or meetings;

• Warehouses and distribution centers;

• Personal services without close physical contact, such as home cleaning, photography, window washing, career coaching, and education tutoring;

• Post-secondary, higher education, vocational-technical, and occupational schools for the purpose of completing graduation requirements;

• Youth and adult amateur sports, with detailed guidance;

• Outdoor recreation facilities;

• Professional sports practices, but no games or public admissions;

• Non-athletic youth instructional classes in arts, education, or life skills in groups of less than 10;

• Driving and flight schools;

• Outdoor historical spaces, but no functions, gatherings, or guided tours; and

• Funeral homes, with occupancy limits.

The following businesses will be eligible reopen later in phase 2, at a date to be determined:

• Indoor table service at restaurants; and

• Close-contact personal services, with restrictions, including hair removal and replacement, nail care, skin care, massage therapy, makeup salons and makeup-application services, tanning salons, personal training (with restrictions), and tattoo, piercing, and body-art services.

A full list with safety protocols is available at www.mass.gov/reopening.

Healthcare providers may also incrementally resume in-person elective, non-urgent procedures and services, including routine office visits, dental visits, and vision care subject to compliance with public health and safety standards. All other in-person medical, behavioral-health, dental, and vision services may also resume on June 8, except for elective cosmetic procedures and in-person day programs, which will be included in phase 3. Telehealth must continue to be utilized and prioritized to the greatest extent possible, whenever feasible and appropriate.

Limited reopening of visitation will also begin, and all visitation is subject to infection-control protocol, social distancing, and face coverings. Given the diversity of facilities and programs, there are specific timetables for visitation, and congregate-care programs will be reaching out to families with specific details on scheduling visits.

On May 18, the administration released a four-phased plan to reopen the economy based on public health data, spending at least three weeks in each phase. Key public health data, such as new cases and hospitalizations, has been closely monitored and seen a significant decline, allowing for phase 2 to begin.

The public-health dashboard designating the progress of key COVID-19 data metrics has been updated to reflect the number of COVID-19 patients in Massachusetts hospitals to green, indicating a positive trend.

Since mid-April, the seven-day average for the positive COVID-19 test rate is down 82%, the three-day average of hospitalized patients is down 55%, and the number of hospitals in surge is down 76%.

A total of 630,000 viral COVID-19 tests have been completed, and testing continues to increase throughout the state.

The Zoo at Forest Park Announces Reservation-only Reopening Today

By BusinessWest Staff June 8, 2020

SPRINGFIELD — The Zoo in Forest Park & Education Center has received approval from the city of Springfield to open for the 2020 season. The zoo will reopen to the general public today, June 8 at 10 a.m. In accordance with Gov. Charlie Baker’s guidelines for the state’s phase 1 reopening plan, all zoo guests, including members, are required to have a timed ticket to enter the zoo.

To make a reservation, visit The zoo’s virtual box office at buytickets.at/forestparkzoo and select the date you would like to visit. From the drop-down menu, select the time of your visit. Tickets will be honored only for the time indicated on the ticket. Select how many adults, children, and/or seniors are in your party. Each time slot is limited to 10 visitors. Then, proceed to the checkout screen.

Current zoo members should also use this system to reserve time slots, utilizing the special member code sent out via e-mail; there will be no admission charge for members.

All guests should plan to arrive 15 minutes prior to the time indicated on their pre-purchased ticket. This ensures they are at the zoo ticket booth, awaiting entry, at their scheduled time. All guests over age 2 must wear a mask at all times while inside the zoo, unless prevented by a medical condition. Guests who are unable to wear a mask are asked to skip all feline exhibits in accordance with USDA regulations. Guests must remain six feet apart from other parties at all times and follow the one-way path around the zoo, avoiding sectioned-off areas and the inside of the barn.

For more information on purchasing tickets, visit www.forestparkzoo.org, or e-mail Gabry Tyson at [email protected].

West of the River Chamber to Host Virtual Annual Meeting, Town Updates

By BusinessWest Staff June 8, 2020