Month: April 2021

SPRINGFIELD — Professionals from throughout Western Mass. will gather virtually as Western New England University (WNEU) convenes its 38th annual Social Work Conference on Wednesday, May 19 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:50 p.m. This year’s conference is being presented virtually in accordance with CDC recommendations at the time of planning.

Risa Silverman, director of the UMass School of Public Health and Health Sciences Office for Public Health Practice and Outreach, will be the keynote speaker for this event. Silverman’s presentation, “Bridge the Gap: Look at Race and Health Through an Intergenerational Lens,” will describe the work of the Western Massachusetts Health Equity Network and its latest project, creating a film with community members young and old, on conversations about racism and health in our communities.

“We will discuss what health equity looks like during and post-pandemic for our community members and how to move forward together by learning and identifying action steps,” said Silverman. The presentation will discuss working together to address racism as a public-health crisis and ways in which conversations can be productive in this space. Members of the Western Massachusetts Health Equity Network will join Silverman in the conversation.

Rosa Espinosa will be honored with the annual Jim Quinn Human Service Award at the conference. Espinosa is the director of family-based services at New North Citizens’ Council (NNCC), which provides advocacy, public, and human services to Hampden County residents with an emphasis on the Hispanic/Latino community.

“Human services saved my life,” said Espinosa, who describes her younger self, as a young mother with two children, the literal definition of the population NNCC serves. “After 30 years, I can honestly say that not only is this work fulfilling, but no matter how much I’ve done, I know I can do more because I will always remember what the agency did for me and my family.”

The daylong conference is sponsored by Western New England University’s Bachelor of Social Work program, the Social Work Advisory Council, and the Office of Enrollment Management, as well as more than 30 virtual sponsors.

Registration for this event is now open. If received before May 12, the registration fee is $120 and includes seven credit hours for full (100%) attendance. The conference fee after May 12 will be $135. Lower student rates are also available. Visit wne.edu/prodev to register online, or call (413) 796-2173.

UMassFive’s Lauren Duffy Named Board Chair of Member Advantage Mortgage

By BusinessWest Staff April 30, 2021

HADLEY — UMassFive College Federal Credit Union announced that Lauren Duffy, executive vice president and chief operating officer, was recently appointed board chair of the Credit Union Service Organization (CUSO) Member Advantage Mortgage LLC (MAM), a company owned and operated by credit unions across the country to provide major-lender options for home financing.

Understanding that home ownership can be a critical component to building wealth for any individual or family, UMassFive has built and sustained a purposeful partnership with MAM after investing in CUSO in 2009 to bring better home loan and refinancing options to its members. In fact, UMassFive is the single largest-volume loan producer of all MAM credit-union investors, making up more than half their volume year over year.

“The credit union is thrilled to have Lauren assume this role and further our relationship with MAM,” UMassFive President and CEO Rich Kump said. “Over her nearly 16-year career here at UMassFive, Lauren’s wealth of knowledge in so many areas of the credit union has granted her a valuable and unique perspective that she continues to use to serve our members. Having her expertise now overseeing MAM allows us greater input on the strategic direction for an organization already serving so many of our members, and it helps ensure accountability to our members’ needs and long-term success.”

The MAM board’s official charge is to set the strategic direction and execute its fiduciary responsibility on behalf of the credit union members’ investment in the company, including oversight of compliance policies and financial audits. As board chair, Duffy will help set the agenda for the board’s focus and work closely on strategy and business development with MAM CEO Jeff Leep.

“Member service is our top priority,” Leep said. “Today’s homebuyers demand easy and convenient access to information at all times, but also want the confidence of a trusted advisor to help them make the best decision. Our relationship with UMassFive has been instrumental in guiding our innovation roadmap and creating an overall lending platform capable of helping credit unions be the go-to source for their members’ home financing needs.”

Duffy was one of BusinessWest’s 40 Under Forty honorees in 2019.

STCC to Honor 2021 Graduates with Campus Drive-through Parade

By BusinessWest Staff April 30, 2021

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) will celebrate the class of 2021 with a drive-through parade on Thursday, June 3 at 4 p.m.

Because campus access is restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic, graduates must register in advance to join the parade. Visit stcc.edu/commencement to find a link to register.

All graduates and their guests must ride in a car. STCC will provide transportation for students who do not have access to a vehicle. Faculty and staff from STCC will line Mary Killeen Bennett Way, which is the main road on campus, to cheer on graduates.

“We are delighted to host a drive-through parade to honor our graduates,” STCC President John Cook said. “As students, they have faced tough obstacles over the past year. The faculty, staff, and I are proud of them. They deserve to be celebrated.”

Andrea Tarpey, coordinator of Student Activities at STCC, proposed the idea for a parade. “We know how important it is to celebrate graduation, and a parade is a wonderful and safe way to honor the achievement,” she said. “I think our graduates will love the experience, and we can’t wait to cheer them on.”

Graduates can wear their cap and gown and decorate their car. Only one car per graduate is permitted to participate in the parade. The parade will start at the Federal Street entrance to campus. If it rains, the parade will be rescheduled to Friday, June 4.

Separately, STCC is planning a virtual commencement on Friday, June 18 at 6 p.m. Graduates and their friends and family can watch the streaming event on the STCC YouTube channel, youtube.com/springfieldtechcc.

Linda Thompson Named President of Westfield State University

WESTFIELD — The board of trustees at Westfield State University (WSU) selected higher-education and public-policy leader Linda Thompson to serve as the university’s 21st president. Pending Board of Higher Education approval, Thompson is slated to begin her presidency this summer.

“Based on Dr. Thompson’s credentials and wealth of experience in influential leadership and collaboration, paired with her highly engaging campus visit with Westfield State’s varied constituents, the board voted to recommend her as the university’s next leader,” said Kevin Queenin, who chairs the WSU board of trustees.

Thompson has served as dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at UMass Boston since 2017 and previously held a similar position at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. At both institutions, she developed and implemented a comprehensive, five-year strategic plan to increase enrollment, expand partnerships and academic programs, secure funding, and increase diversity among students and faculty.

She has taught nursing and public health throughout her career at 10 different colleges and universities. Her administrative experience includes appointments as provost and vice chancellor at North Carolina A&T State University, dean of Nursing at Oakland University in Michigan, and associate dean at the University of Maryland School of Nursing.

Her extensive experience in public service includes serving as director of Occupational Medicine and Safety in Baltimore, where she developed programs and policies to promote the health of the city’s workforce. At the state level, she served as special secretary for Children, Youth, and Families in Maryland. There, she developed programs and policies to improve the quality of care for vulnerable populations of children. Many of these programs have been duplicated through her advisory and consulting roles in Brazil, China, India, Korea, and the Caribbean. She was the chief policy advisor to the governor of Maryland on all children and youth matters, managing an interagency budget of more than $350 million.

Thompson has published more than 100 articles, books, book chapters, and abstracts. She has received numerous awards, including induction into the American Academy of Nursing, Phi Kappa Alpha, and Sigma Xi, and was an invited participant in the White House Conference on Childcare and as the White House delegate to Brazil.

She earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing at Wayne State University in Michigan and master’s and doctoral degrees in public health from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

“In addition to looking forward to welcoming Dr. Thompson as Westfield State’s next leader, I offer sincere thanks to the hardworking and thoughtful members of the presidential search committee for their invaluable role in this important selection process,” said Robert Martin, Westfield State University trustee and chair of the presidential search committee.

Thompson will succeed interim President Roy Saigo, who has led Westfield State through the 2020-21 academic year.

Healing Racism Institute Receives $300,000 Grant from MassMutual Foundation

SPRINGFIELD — The Healing Racism Institute of Pioneer Valley (HRIPV) announced it has received a $300,000 grant from the MassMutual Foundation, serving as lead gift for the launch of a $1 million, three-year capital fund drive for the institute.

The Healing Racism Institute of Pioneer Valley was formed in 2012; since then, more than 1,000 people from Western Mass. and throughout Massachusetts have participated in its signature, two-day Healing Racism program. HRIPV was formed as a result of the City2City of Pioneer Valley visit to Grand Rapids, Mich. in 2011, where area leaders discovered a similar model embedded in the Greater Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce.

With the announcement of the MassMutual Foundation grant, HRIPV has reached $450,000 in commitments over the next three years, with substantial contributions coming from the Beveridge Foundation and the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation. The campaign is designed to help the institute become self-sustaining as it works toward its stated goal of “building a racism-free Pioneer Valley.”

“I speak for the board and for the larger Healing Racism community in expressing our thanks to the MassMutual Foundation for their critical support of our work,” said Frank Robinson, board chair of the Healing Racism Institute of Pioneer Valley. “We often speak of the toxic nature of racism; our approach of healing and understanding is making a difference in the communities and organizations where we are engaged.”

Robinson added that “racism is overcome by changing hearts and recognizing our common humanity. We expect that this lead gift from the MassMutual Foundation, and their demonstrated commitment to help build stronger, more vibrant communities, will inspire others to contribute. This lead gift will help HRIPV to build the critical infrastructure necessary to move toward a racism-free region.”

HRIPV recently established itself as a standalone 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and has also expanded its board, reflecting the diversity of the region. The United Way of Pioneer Valley serves as fiscal agent for the institute.

In addition to HRIPV’s signature two-day training seminars, HRIPV offers half- and full-day board and staff training and cohort development whereby the institute provides tools and training, allowing organizations to continue the internal process of examining racism and its impact on organizations and the larger community. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, HRIPV has developed a completely online curriculum to sustain and grow its reach and impact.

Funding from the capital campaign will help the institute identify a permanent home, add critical staff, expand facilitator training, and provide scholarships for individuals unable to afford participation in the two-day signature session and related programming. Holyoke Community College has served as a critical partner by hosting most of the two-day trainings over the past eight years of operation.

“The institute’s focus on delivering specialized education as a means to help eradicate racism is truly one of its strengths and why it has been such an effective partner for organizations in our community,” said Dennis Duquette, president of the MassMutual Foundation. “We are proud to support the capital campaign as a means to help scale the great work and positive impact of HRIPV throughout Greater Springfield and the Pioneer Valley.”

HRIPV is led by Vanessa Otero, one of its co-founders and an original member of the board until assuming the position of interim director in 2020.

“We have arrived at a pivotal moment in our nation’s history — a moment in which more people than ever before are willing to acknowledge, confront, and challenge the systematic oppression of people of color,” Otero said. “Race prejudice and racism are corrosive to people and to communities and deny the fullness of opportunity to people of color. We can, however, accelerate systemic change and create a more just society by building successive cohorts of change agents equipped to understand and eliminate the root causes and other elements of racism that characterize so many of our institutions today.”

STCC Professor Gary Mullett Recognized for Professional Excellence

Gary Mullett

SPRINGFIELD — Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) Professor Gary Mullett was named a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the highest grade for the professional organization for electrical and electronic engineers.

IEEE senior membership is an honor bestowed only to those who have made significant contributions to the profession. The grade reflects professional maturity.

Senior members have been engineers, scientists, educators, technical executives, or originators in IEEE-designated fields for 10 years and have demonstrated five years of significant performance.

Mullett is a professor of Electrical, Energy, Optics, and Mechanical Technology at STCC. He has been with the college since the 1970s.

Support from Local Businesses Allows Chikmedia to Award Four Scholarships

SPRINGFIELD — Thanks to the generosity of a number of local businesses, Chikmedia is now offering four scholarships as part of its Chiks of the Future annual scholarship initiative. The application deadline is Saturday, May 1.

Chikmedia, a boutique firm offering strategic marketing planning and creative PR, has launched its annual scholarship to support future generations of marketing professionals. Chikmedia will now be offering four $500 scholarships in 2021 as Summerlin Floors, Ryan McCollum of RMC Strategies, and the Springfield Thunderbirds have decided to match this scholarship amount. These scholarships will be awarded to four deserving female high-school seniors or college students of color pursuing a degree in marketing, public relations, communications, or business.

In order to see individuals succeed, the community needs to help them grow from the beginning. Last year, in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, Chikmedia did a little digging into scholarship opportunities and found that Caucasian students received 72% of all scholarships, while minority students received only 28%. Although a $500 scholarship doesn’t close the large gap, the company wanted to do its part in expanding available opportunities. The community involvement from local businesses has been welcomed with open arms. Four recipients will now be awarded a scholarship thanks to these partners.

Completed scholarship applications and all support materials must be submitted to Chikmedia by May 1. Scholarship recipients will be notified by e-mail and then announced publicly during the first week of August. Applicants can find the guidelines and application form by clicking here.

“This is something we as a team are very passionate about,” said Meghan Rothschild, president of Chikmedia. “We started the scholarship to combat the racial injustices we saw in 2020 and plan to honor it every year. We cannot thank our partners enough; their generosity is humbling and overwhelming.”

Nathan Costa, president of the Springfield Thunderbirds, added that “it’s been our mission these past few months to stay connected with our community and to participate in meaningful programs that will have a positive impact. This scholarship fits perfectly into our foundation’s mission, and we couldn’t be happier to help support Chikmedia and Meghan, who has worked tirelessly to give back and help support the next generation of women-led businesses.”

State Announces Plans for Continued Economic Reopening

BOSTON — The Baker-Polito administration announced that Massachusetts will reopen some outdoor phase 4, step 2 industries effective May 10 and put plans in place for further reopening on May 29 and Aug. 1, while relaxing the face-coverings order in some settings on April 30.

The administration continues to take steps to reopen the Commonwealth’s economy with public-health metrics continuing to trend in a positive direction. This includes drops in average daily COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Massachusetts remains first in the nation for first vaccine doses and total doses administered per capita, among states with more than 5 million people.

Effective Monday, May 10:

• Large venues such as indoor and outdoor stadiums, arenas, and ballparks currently open as part of phase 4, step 1 at 12% will be permitted to increase capacity to 25%.

• The Commonwealth will reopen some outdoor phase 4, step 2 industries, including amusement parks, theme parks, and outdoor water parks, that will be permitted to operate at a 50% capacity after submitting safety plans to the Department of Public Health (DPH).

• Road races and other large, outdoor organized amateur or professional group athletic events will be permitted to take place with staggered starts after submitting safety plans to a local board of health or the DPH.

• Youth and adult amateur sports tournaments will be allowed for moderate- and high-risk sports.

• Singing will also be permitted indoors, with strict distancing requirements at performance venues, restaurants, event venues, and other businesses.

Effective Saturday, May 29:

• Subject to public-health and vaccination data, gathering limits will increase to 200 people indoors and 250 people outdoors for event venues, public settings, and private settings.

• Subject to public-health and vaccination data, additional phase 4, step 2 industries will be permitted to open, including street festivals, parades, and agricultural festivals, at 50% of their previous capacity and after submitting safety plans to the local board of health.

• Bars, beer gardens, breweries, wineries, and distilleries will be subject to restaurant rules with seated service only, a 90-minute limit, and no dance floors.

• Subject to public-health and vaccination data, the restaurant guidance will be updated to eliminate the requirement that food be served with alcohol and to increase the maximum table size to 10.

Effective Sunday, Aug. 1:

• Subject to public-health and vaccination data, remaining industries will be permitted to open, including dance clubs and nightclubs; saunas, hot tubs, and steam rooms at fitness centers, health clubs, and other facilities; indoor water parks; and ball pits.

• All industry restrictions will be lifted at that time, and capacity will increase to 100% for all industries, with businesses encouraged to continue following best practices. The gathering limit will be rescinded.

Depending on vaccine distribution and public-health data, the administration may consider re-evaluating the Aug. 1 date. The DPH will also continue to issue guidance as needed, including guidance to continue requiring masks indoors.

Also, on Friday, April 30, the face-coverings order will be relaxed for some outdoor settings. Face coverings will be required outside in public only when it is not possible to socially distance, and at other times required by sector-specific guidance.

Face coverings will still be required at all times in indoor public places. Face coverings will also continue to be required at all times at events, whether held indoors or outdoors, and whether held in a public space or private home, except for when eating or drinking.

At smaller gatherings in private homes, face coverings are recommended but not required. The $300 fine as an enforcement mechanism will be eliminated.

Bulkley Richardson to Present ‘Buying or Selling a Business During COVID-19’

SPRINGFIELD — Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is on the rise, fueled by attractive market conditions and economic necessities. Buyers looking to increase their market share may see the pandemic as an opportunity to acquire a competitor and have access to record-low interest rates for bank-financed transactions. For businesses that have been hard hit by the pandemic, selling is a more attractive option than insolvency, bankruptcy, or dissolution, and a properly structured deal can allow the sellers to benefit from any post-pandemic growth.

On Wednesday, May 12, attorneys David Parke and Ryan Barry from Bulkley Richardson’s M&A team will present a virtual seminar, “Buying or Selling a Business During COVID-19: Unique Opportunities and Challenges,” in which they will discuss the unique challenges for M&A transactions during the pandemic, including:

• Achieving an accurate valuation of a business impacted by the pandemic;

• Structuring compensation and earn-outs in a way that fairly allocates the risks of current conditions and the benefits of a post-pandemic recovery;

• Issues posed by unforgiven PPP loans;

• Loss carryback refunds and deferred payroll taxes under the CARES Act;

• Impacts on material customers and supply chains;

• Addressing the risks of pandemic-related changes on the target business prior to closing; and

• Impacts on traditional representations and warranties.

The webinar will be held from noon to 1 p.m., and pre-registration is required at www.bulkley.com/ma-invitation.

Common Grounds Rotary Garden Looking for Volunteers

ENFIELD, Conn. — Common Grounds, located on property behind the Enfield Senior Center, was created in 2006 by the Enfield Rotary Club, with support from local businesses and the University of Connecticut’s master gardener program. The garden was donated to the town, and a board of directors established in 2007 has been responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the one-acre plot.

Now, 14 years later, thousands of pounds of food have been harvested and donated to local food-relief agencies. Pat Bleakney is the one remaining board member after one additional board member who led the group passed away in February from COVID-19. A volunteer since the group’s inception, Bleakney says she needs help in order to keep the garden alive. Volunteers have been the lifeblood of this effort.

The group needs donations of plants, along with individuals who are willing to give their time to planting, weeding, maintaining, and harvesting the crop. The group also needs community members willing to pick up the harvest at the garden and deliver to local agencies.

“We historically have picked on Tuesday nights, and the harvest has been delivered on Wednesday,” Bleakney explained. “It takes a couple of hours to pick. Most of the garden is black mat, so weeding is minimal, but it would be nice to have help. The biggest need is help kicking off the year by getting plant donations and gathering volunteers to help get the plants in the ground. We normally plant the first week of June but need to get requests into growers now.”

Those wishing to help or learn more can e-mail Bleakney at [email protected].

Big Y Reports 2.4 Million Meals Donated to Food Banks in November, December

SPRINGFIELD — To facilitate this past season of giving food to those in need, Big Y converted its Sack Hunger campaign from a $10 bag of groceries to a streamlined $5 donation to the five food banks within its marketing area. These regional food banks support local soup kitchens, food pantries, senior food programs, children’s programs, and more for the 2,100 member agencies they serve every day.

During November and December, Big Y customers and employees contributed almost $300,000 to help their friends and neighbors in their communities. In order to expand their support, Big Y matched this contribution bringing the total up to $600,000 or 2.4 million meals.

According to Big Y president and CEO Charles D’Amour, “we appreciate the generosity of our customers and employees in helping us to support our friends and neighbors in need. And we are grateful to our partnerships with our five area food banks for their heroic efforts in serving those most vulnerable in our communities. Being able to provide another 2.4 million meals through our Sack Hunger program helps us to fulfill our mission to feed families.”

This past year has seen dramatic increases in food insecurity throughout the region. Big Y’s Sack Hunger donation is part of its ongoing support throughout the year, including almost daily donations of meat, fresh produce, and bakery items, along with grocery, frozen, and dairy items. And based the pandemic challenges of the past year, Big Y had already contributed another $250,000 in support of the food banks for their work with vulnerable populations.

The five regional food banks are 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. This year’s virtual Sack Hunger bags were purchased from 71 Big Y supermarkets, Fresh Acres Specialty Market, and Table & Vine Fine Wines and Liquors.

The Pandemic Has Made a Big Problem That Much Worse

Architecture Special Coverage

Cover Story COVID-19

Help Wanted

Long before COVID-19 arrived in Western Mass., businesses across many sectors were struggling to find adequate supplies of good help. But now, just as the economy seems ready to surge, the problem, fueled increasingly by unemployment benefits that are conspiring to keep workers on the sidelines, is getting considerably worse, with no real end in sight.

Steve Corrigan has been in the landscaping business for more than 40 years now, and for most of that time, finding good help has been a challenge — to one degree or another.

But he says he’s never seen anything quite like this.

“Between our Chicopee location, a small branch we have in Wilbraham, and the office we have in Manchester, Conn., we probably have 12 to 15 positions we could fill tomorrow if we could find the people,” said Corrigan, president of Mountain View Landscapes and Lawncare, adding that this is a mighty big ‘if’ at the moment. “It’s crazy what’s going on — and it’s across the board.”

Indeed, his company is one of countless businesses across virtually every sector of the economy that are struggling mightily to fill positions, even as unemployment remains somewhat high in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are many reasons for this imbalance between open positions and adequate supplies of qualified help, but the main culprit comes in the form of federal unemployment benefits, including a $300 weekly bonus that is part of the American Rescue Plan. These benefits, say area employers, are serving as a strong deterrent to putting people back into the workforce.

“When you do the math, if you took a person making $20 an hour … with their normal unemployment, they’d be getting $500 to $600 a week,” said Corrigan. “Throw another 300 bucks on top of it … and why would you go to work for $20 an hour? It doesn’t make sense.”

Employers have been posing similar questions since the first stimulus-related unemployment benefits — complete with a $600 weekly bonus — were approved roughly a year ago. But the situation is even more precarious now, because the economy, after a slow to very slow 2020, depending on the sector of the economy, is starting to rev up again. And just as companies are looking forward to consumers going back out again and spending some of the money they’ve been saving over the past 14 months, businesses are being hit with pervasive hiring issues — and deep concerns about if and when the situation might improve.

As noted, the problem exists across the board — with landscapers, home-improvement companies, and pool installers; restaurants and banquet facilities; golf courses and local farm stands; manufacturers and service businesses.

In response to the problem, employers have tried a number of strategies — from sign-on bonuses to higher wages to rewards for referrals that lead to new hires. Meanwhile, most all forms of marketing for businesses in a variety of sectors now include references to looking for help, being a great place to work, or both.

For the most part, these strategies seem to be generating lukewarm results, with those unemployment benefits being just one of many issues to contend with. Another is the inability, or unwillingness, on the part of most states, including this one, to enforce the basic rules pertaining to unemployment eligibility.

Greg Omasta, right, seen here with his son, Chris, at the new Walsh Park in Springfield, says his company has responded to the ongoing challenge of finding workers by hiking wages above the average for this region.

“Most of the states have done away with the requirement that people on unemployment actively look for work,” said Meredith Wise, president and CEO of the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast, which has seen its hotline handle a number of calls related to this matter and a host of related issues. “In pre-pandemic times, if people were on unemployment, they had to prove that they were physically out there looking for work — applying for jobs, looking at the help-wanted ads, and actively seeking work. And those with the state would occasionally ask them to prove that they were doing all this. With the pandemic, the employment offices have been overrun, and states took away that requirement that you were looking for work.”

Perhaps the best hopes for area employers are that returning college students and area high-school students soon to be off for the summer might increase the pool of applicants — and that the unemployment benefits are due to expire in September.

But even those hopes are tempered by the realization that September is a ways off, and the benefits may well be extended by elected officials who have already shown a willingness to do that.

“It’s crazy what’s going on — and it’s across the board.”

So companies, some of them with the help of EANE and even area marketing companies, are honing their messages and updating their hiring strategies in the hope they will have enough warm bodies to take advantage of what is expected to be an uptick — if not a surge — in the economy.

For this issue, we look at what they’re up against and what they doing in the face of this growing challenge to their ongoing success.

Labor Pains

As they talked with BusinessWest about the hiring challenges they’re now facing, business owners, almost with one voice, said that COVID has simply exacerbated a problem that has existed for some time now.

Indeed, the phrase ‘skills gap’ has been a part of the local lexicon for years now, with many businesses, especially those in manufacturing, but in other sectors as well, struggling to find adequate supplies of help, with the degree of difficulty varying with the relative condition of the economy.

Chad Jzyk, HR business partner for Charter Next Generation (CNG), a Turners Falls-based manufacturer of plastic blown film for the medical industry, said the company has been challenged to find help for several years now. But the problem has reached a new level in recent months.

“There’s not a huge availability of workers — the pipeline of basic-skilled applicants is really non-existent,” he noted, adding that the company has been running with one and a half to two open positions monthly on an almost constant basis for some time now. COVID has made the situation worse, at a time when the opposite might be expected because of the number of people out of work, and for several reasons, he said.

“With the stimulus checks and unemployment extension, the availability of workers has been impacted in a negative way,” he said, referring to both the number of applicants in the pool and their willingness to accept an employment opportunity.

“We’ve tried to engage with a couple of temporary agencies,” he went on. “In the past, it was common that you would have an applicant pool of temporary workers of between 15 and 20 people that were already pre-screened and ready to go — you’d call the employment agency and, pretty much on the spot, get someone in 24 hours. Working with a few local agencies that we’ve traditionally worked with … there’s no applicant pool; they’re seeing the same thing.”

Jzyk said the company’s hiring challenges have yet to directly impact production or limit its ability to take on new orders. However, he said it does limit CNG’s ability to be more “proactive,” as he put it, and do more when it comes to training and flexibility with employees’ responsibilities.

For other employers, the shortage of workers represents a real threat to day-to-day operations and especially the ability to handle the larger volumes of business expected as the region returns to something approaching normal as vaccinations rise and consumers venture back out to restaurants, bars, museums, stores, and more.

Nadim Kashouh, owner of Nadim’s Downtown Mediterranean Grill in downtown Springfield, said he’s looking forward to the return of shows to the MassMutual Center and other forms of vibrancy, but he quickly, as in very quickly, changed to the subject of staffing and his ongoing concerns about whether he can find enough help to handle whatever surge comes.

Meredith Wise says the escalating challenges facing employers looking to hire are prompting wage skirmishes in some sectors.

“I hesitate to get too excited because one of the things we’re dealing with right now is the lack of people who want to work,” he told BusinessWest, gesturing to a lighted message board behind the bar. Among the many messages being delivered is that help is wanted — and that display is just one of many ways that point is being made.

“We have created a commercial that focuses on how our patio will be open soon,” he said. “But it also notes that we’re looking to hire people — we need to keep letting people know that.”

Fran Beaulieu, second-generation president of Phil Beaulieu & Sons Home Improvement in Chicopee, said the hiring crunch, which is certainly nothing new for that sector, has resulted from a number of factors, with COVID-related issues being only the latest additions.

Overall, fewer people have been getting into the trades, he said, and this has left the region with a shortage of carpenters and other specialists.

“You basically have an entire generation that didn’t get into the trade,” he noted, adding that, despite a wide-ranging effort involving social media and other strategies, the company has a workforce that is 30% short of what is needed. And this harsh reality is certainly impacting the firm’s ability to take on jobs — at a time when jobs are plentiful, again, due to COVID and people home so much and often of a mind to improve their surroundings.

“Finding projects has never been the problem; the problem has been managing your labor in accordance with how many projects you have sold,” Beaulieu said. “You almost have to stop selling after a while because you just don’t have the help.”

Hire Power

In the wake of the ongoing struggle to find adequate supplies of help, area businesses are taking a number of steps, with aggressive marketing of their staffing needs being just one of them.

Indeed, companies have initiated hiring bonuses and rewards for those who refer candidates who eventually sign on. Meanwhile, others are hiking wages, said Wise, adding that, in some sectors, wage skirmishes have arisen, the likes of which have not been seen in some time, if ever.

“What we’re seeing happening, and it’s a little scary, is that, for some positions, wage battles have ensued,” she said. “People are saying, ‘I’ll pay you $2 more an hour to come work for me because I need the help,’ and the employee goes back to his employer and says, ‘they’re willing to give me $2 more an hour; will you give me $3 more an hour to stay here?’

“There are some positions where people are willing to pay a premium to get individuals to come to work,” she went on. “And it’s starting to affect different kinds of businesses.”

One of them is the broad landscaping and lawncare sector, she noted, which has historically faced challenges to maintaining adequate staffing and is now seeing its problems escalate due to the many aspects of COVID.

Greg Omasta, owner of Hadley-based Omasta Landscaping Inc., said this has certainly been a trying year.

“Most of the states have done away with the requirement that people on unemployment actively look for work.”

“The government incentives allow people to stay home and get paid more than if they actually went to their job on a daily basis — so some of the problems small businesses are facing in this country are inflicted by our government,” he told BusinessWest, adding that some of those the company had to lay off at the end of last season have opted not to come back when offered the chance, instead choosing to collect unemployment. “But there’s a general lack of people out there in the labor force who want to work hard, like in the trade we’re in, the landscaping business. A lot of people want to sit beyond a computer screen and punch a keyboard all day.”

Historically, the company, like others in this sector, has relied heavily on legal immigrants, many from Mexico and Guatemala, he said, adding that even this pipeline has become less reliable in recent years.

As a result of this ongoing challenge, he said the company has changed the way it compensates employees, with the goal of attracting and retaining better candidates. By and large, it’s a strategy that has worked, although this year, given the many additional COVID-related challenges and responses within the industry, it is certainly being tested.

“We’re probably one of the higher-paying landscape contractors in the area,” said Omasta, whose company handles a number of large commercial accounts and municipal facilities, such as the recently reopened Pynchon Plaza in downtown Springfield, as well as residential customers. “We do that because we try to attract better people and keep those people here. Paying that higher hourly wage makes a difference in the people that we’re able to find, keep, and employ.”

Corrigan, who can certainly relate to all that, said his company hired someone to handle recruiting full-time just before COVID hit. To say her job has become difficult, and frustrating, in the wake of the pandemic and the various stimulus packages would be an understatement.

“She’s at her wit’s end with people right now,” he said, adding that, between a hesitancy to work among many people and drug tests often standing in the way of those do want to work, the talent pool has become increasingly smaller.

Chad Jzyk

“There’s not a huge availability of workers — the pipeline of basic-skilled applicants is really non-existent.”

And this shrinking pool has definitely impacted Mountain View’s ability to expand the commercial side of its business and grow.

“We’ve had discussions — heated discussions — in our budgeting processes,” Corrigan said. “We ask ourselves, ‘how can you grow if you can’t get the help?’ And the obvious answer is, ‘you can’t.’”

The Job at Hand

It is that obvious answer that is keeping many business owners and managers awake at night.

Indeed, at a time when the challenges seem to be mounting for businesses of all sizes and in most all sectors — Omasta referenced the rising cost of materials such as lumber, still-escalating fuel prices, the specter of inflation, and the very real possibility of higher corporate taxes — finding good help is the one that poses the biggest threat to companies at a time when many are poised to break out from pandemic-induced doldrums.

What will happen between now and September, and even after September, remains to be seen, but it seems clear that these scary times, as Wise and others called them, are certainly far from over.

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

The Region’s Colleges Are Moving Closer to That Goal

By Joseph Bednar April 28, 2021

Education Special Coverage

Back to Normal?

It’s hard to gauge what ‘normal’ looks like during the era of COVID-19, when normalcy is a moving target. For area colleges and universities, though, getting back to normal means one thing: bringing as many students back to dorms and classrooms as possible. Make no mistake, campus life this fall will still be different from the pre-pandemic college experience, but just opening those classroom and residence-hall doors is a big step — the result of many lessons learned during the most unusual academic year in memory.

Normalcy.

It’s an attractive concept these days, if an elusive one. Just ask the folks planning for the fall 2021 semester at the region’s colleges and universities.

“This fall, we’ll go back to some normalcy, with classes back in person full-time, students in the residence halls, and athletes on the fields,” said Jonathan Scully, vice president of Enrollment Management and Marketing at Elms College. “That’s the plan right now.”

Scully said Elms has long maintained a COVID-19 task force that meets every week to discuss public-health data, on-campus health metrics, current recommendations of the CDC and the state Department of Public Health, and, importantly, how faculty and staff feel about a full return. “That all played a part in making decisions for the fall.”

He noted that students seem excited about coming back to Springfield Street in Chicopee, even though the college’s ElmsFlex hybrid plan, by which students could learn on campus, remotely, or with a combination of both, has been well-received.

“We’re not fully remote; we had that ElmsFlex option, because some students learn better in person, and some did better virtually, and they had the ability to move between the two freely,” Scully said. “But everyone is looking forward to a return to normalcy.”

Western New England University (WNEU) was among just 27% of U.S. colleges and universities that opened to mainly in-person learning and residential living last fall and remained open through the 2020-21 year, having delivered about 75% of courses on campus and the rest through online and hybrid formats, said Bryan Gross, vice president of Enrollment Management and Marketing.

Jonathan Scully

“Because some students learn better in person, and some did better virtually, and they had the ability to move between the two freely. But everyone is looking forward to a return to normalcy.”

Two factors played into that success, he said: a culture of small class sizes (the average student-teacher ratio is 12:1) and plenty of space that made social distancing much easier to implement, and a commitment — a compact, really, among students, faculty, and staff — to make sure the campus could stay open.

“They adhered to that social distancing, we put up tons of signage, we brought in extra cleaning staff, we had plexiglass throughout … all those things contributed to the plan for the past year,” Gross told BusinessWest.

He noted that colleges and universities don’t have the luxury of making their fall opening plans in July or August; the shift on the fly to remote learning that happened last spring is not the preferred model for campus planning. So, while the course of the pandemic might still alter the plans before September, those plans still need to be made and set in motion.

At WNEU, that will mean all courses normally taught on campus will be, indeed, taught in person, with three-foot distancing in place and masks required, at least according to current guidance. While some hybrid options may be available, Gross said, “we feel Western New England is best with face-to-face classwork, and that’s what we’re moving forward with.”

American International College (AIC) is moving in that direction as well, said Matt Scott, vice president for Student Affairs.

For the current year, he explained, residence halls are open, and students are allowed to live on campus, but most classes are remote, and athletics have continued as normal. Surveillance testing for COVID is widespread, and other safety and sanitization protocols are a regular part of life.

For the fall, Scott said, the current plan is to go back to “whatever the new normal will look like,” but the goal being full residence halls and in-person instruction.

“We’re still waiting to see some state guidance — there’s K-12 guidance that came out in terms of desk distancing in classrooms and things of that nature, but they have not come out with specific guidance for colleges yet,” he added. “But that’s the plan.”

Chet Jordan

“Safety on our campus is paramount; one of the biggest considerations in our return to campus is how to utilize our space safely.”

The plan at most campuses, it turns out, is for normalcy, or, as Gross noted, whatever that term might mean come September. But optimism is high that college life will finally begin to look like it used to.

Safety First

Community colleges, for the most part, were more fully remote than most schools, and are being more cautious with their return to normalcy. For example, Greenfield Community College (GCC) will offer classes in a face-to-face or hybrid format, meeting at least once a week on campus with some possible online instruction as well.

“Safety on our campus is paramount; one of the biggest considerations in our return to campus is how to utilize our space safely,” said Chet Jordan, dean of Social Sciences and Professional Studies at GCC. “Our faculty and staff have been almost entirely remote for the past year, so their input in how we can phase in a slow reopening of the campus was essential to us.”

GCC brought together a group of faculty, staff, and administrators to talk through the complexities of a reopening, eventually crafting a hybrid model. “We want to make sure our faculty and staff feel safe when they return to campus,” Jordan added. “The situation is constantly changing, but we addressed the key questions as best we could.”

Students in GCC’s health-career programs will meet on campus in hands-on courses to best prepare them for essential jobs in the growing healthcare industry. Those in other professional programs, such as business and education, will also have on-campus options. In most programs, students will complete some of their coursework online and will participate in weekly experiential learning opportunities, including lab activities and field trips.

GCC will follow state guidelines on occupancy rates in classrooms and offices, mask requirements, and health screenings, as well as maintaining scrupulous air-quality practices and a thorough sanitizing schedule.

The class schedule is roughly 55% online and 45% in person, Jordan said, which allows time to space out the classes between sections to avoid a bottleneck of students entering and exiting, while maintaining appropriate distancing.

“It gives students who want to be on campus that in-person experience, but also flexibility the rest of the week to finish online,” he said, adding that the library will be available for students to access a virtual class between in-person sessions on any given day. “So they won’t have to jump between campus and home, we’re giving them space to do a remote class and then go to their next class on campus.”

Bryan Gross

“The long and short of it is, we’re hopeful to have a more normal, on-the-ground campus experience for our students and families.”

UMass Amherst also expects campus life to return to normal operations in fall 2021. That means an emphasis on face-to-face instruction, full residence halls — an expected 13,000 students will live on campus — and a complement of student events and activities.

Planning for summer orientation is well underway, as new students will be invited to participate in a series of synchronous and asynchronous orientation programs over the summer before they arrive for in-person welcome sessions at the end of August.

This past fall, many first-year students who would have experienced on-campus housing for the first time did not get that opportunity. So, in an effort to support these students, freshmen and sophomores will receive priority consideration to select on-campus spaces this fall. Still, based on current interest, UMass expects to be able to meet all housing requests, including all interested juniors and seniors.

Finally, UMass announced that its renovated Student Union is now open, offering space for events, student organizations, student businesses, and a ballroom.

The campus experience is more than academics, WNEU’s Gross said, noting that the university creative in finding ways to bring students together for small-group activities in the campus center. This fall, he expects larger outdoor activities, including intramural sports, to return, as well as indoor events as long as safety protocols are followed.

“The long and short of it is, we’re hopeful to have a more normal, on-the-ground campus experience for our students and families,” he said, including a big homecoming event inviting back the 2020 graduates, who were unable to have a traditional commencement experience.

Learning by Doing

In his first year working at GCC, Jordan said he has been “incredibly warmed and inspired by the creativity of the faculty, who do anything they can do make sure students have the best experience.”

For example, science classes have included more outdoor, experiential learning. Meanwhile, students in the health sciences have been on campus throughout the pandemic, due to the unique, hands-on needs of their training. “They paved the way,” he said. “They’re the ones who figured out how to open as safely as we possibly can.”

At AIC, students in those fields have been diligent about safety protocols and personal protective equipment, Scott said. “Because they’re health-science students, they tend to take it a little further than some of our other students. If they’re getting up close and personal, they’re wearing face shields and masks and such.”

Particularly during the 2020, he noted, constant pivoting was the order of the day for college faculty and administrators, who had to constantly monitor the development of the pandemic and guide a testing and safety plan for their campuses.

“But I think, overall, our plan stayed the same,” he added. “We thought it was safest this year to keep as many students remote as possible and have some in-person experiences that are kind of controlled for the pandemic-related protocols we had in place. That all stayed the same throughout the year, but the way we approached them adjusted as we needed to.”

Some of the lessons learned led to positive developments, said Kerry Cole, vice president for Admissions at AIC. For example, the college used to deliver its certificate of advanced graduate study (CAGS) programs for teachers at 11 physical sites. Once the program was forced online by COVID, administrators began to hear from the grad students that they loved it.

“So, beginning in the fall, we’re moving to a virtual format throughout the state, where we’re able to deliver licensing programs in a virtual format for all the programs we offer,” Cole said. “That came directly from students. They wanted virtual — not online, but virtual, synchronous, so they can communicate with each other.

“We’re very, very excited about it,” she went on. “Our teachers now need more flexibility than ever. They’re rock stars, and we need to be able to support them.”

Scott agreed, noting that there were many instances where he and others said, “wow, we didn’t realize this would work, that students would enjoy this.” One example is online counseling services, which are now much more accessible to commuter students.

That doesn’t mean students don’t want to return to in-person learning, of course; for the most part, they certainly do. But they’ve handled an unusual year well, he said.

“I am amazed every day how well our students are doing with these protocols. You’ll always have the occasional mask below the nose, and that’s going to happen, usually because they have a mask that doesn’t fit them well. But we have not really had any issues with students giving people a hard time when they’re entering the dining commons to get food. We planned for that; we asked, ‘how are we going to deal with the student who shows up and flat-out refuses to wear a mask?’ But we have not had that happen.”

In fact, the worst incidents have been the occasional group of students who head to the mall and don’t wear masks in the car.

“They’re not supposed to do it, but there are far worse things they could be doing and far worse ways they could be violating our protocols,” Scott said. “We try not to have a heavy hand; we try to take an educational approach and make sure they understand the potential impact, the ripple effect those actions can have on the community. But we’ve been very impressed with the way our students have responded this year.”

Waiting for the Return

Enrollment dipped last year at many colleges due to uncertainty about what the academic experience and college life would entail, but most area institutions see the application and enrollment numbers on the rise in 2021.

“Along with the rest of the community-college sector, we saw a decline over the past year, but that was an anomaly,” Jordan said. “In most recessions, community colleges do really well, but this was the reverse; this sector was the hardest-hit. The reason is that low-income students and students of color have been unprecedentedly hit by this pandemic, and those are our students.”

It’s especially important, then, for community colleges to offer a flexible model during these times, and that’s what GCC is aiming for, he added.

“We want to be sure we’re reaching students at home with kids, so those students can take classes online, and also opening the campus in such a way that students who need to be on campus will get that in-person instruction. Having more flexible classroom options will invite more people back.”

Cole said AIC successfully implemented the plan it thought best for 2020-21, and will now expand upon that.

“We’re very excited about it,” she said, noting that campus tours have begun again, and the campus hosted its first in-person admissions event of the school year in mid-April. “Graduate students love virtual info sessions and open houses. Undergrads are a mixed bag, but graduate students will take it all day. So we’ll likely keep some of that.”

Scully said nothing is set in stone when it comes to pandemic planning; the past 13 months at the Elms have been proof of that.

“We’re monitoring everything very closely, and our first priority is the safety of students and staff,” he said. “We know things could change on a dime.”

Elms, like many colleges, already offered some programs online before the pandemic, and has since bolstered the technology to conduct those, having purchased new cameras, microphones, and other equipment. “But, like everyone else, we’re looking forward to getting back to normal.”

And doing so safely, Gross said.

“I’ve never been so proud to be part of an organization as I’ve been of our students, faculty, and staff over the last year and a half,” he said. “I can’t stress how many extra hours our faculty and staff put into adjusting curriculum, adjusting extracurriculars, and changing everything we do, from open houses to the way we engage with current students, prospective students, and alumni. It was a group effort in flexibility, agility, determination, and energy.

That said, “the community is tired,” he went on. “We’ve been going non-stop; I can’t tell you how many faculty and staff have told me about the extra hours they’ve put in over the weekends. We’ve all been chipping in to do whatever it takes to keep things safe and enjoyable for students.”

But there’s no time to take a break. Not with the fall semester right around the corner.

“Things are constantly changing,” Gross said. “We’re all learning as we go. But we are a learning organization, after all.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Pandemic Slows — but Doesn’t Stop — Development and Regulation

By Joseph Bednar April 28, 2021

A New Environment

The world of development — and all the stakeholders who interact within in, from contractors to engineers; from regulators to municipal officials — have certainly been impacted by COVID-19, mainly because they weren’t able to meet in person anymore. But they adjusted to this new reality, and even learned from it — and continue to grapple with other changes as well, most notably in environmental compliance. To hash out some of these developments (pun intended), five leaders from several interconnected fields spoke with BusinessWest about the lingering effects of the pandemic and how they anticipate pivoting to the next set of changes.

When COVID-19 forced a shutdown of the economy 13 months ago, Jeff Daley said, the impact on development was immediate.

“Everything came to a grinding halt,” the president and CEO of Westmass Area Development Corp. told BusinessWest. “The first few days, watching the economy tank, people were scared — they didn’t know where this was going to go.”

It became clear over the next several weeks, however, that projects would continue, and Westmass ramped back up fairly quickly, even as the health implications of the pandemic remained daunting (and, of course, still linger, despite the availability of vaccines).

“It changed the way we did business, though,” Daley added. “Zoom calls with state agencies and local agencies increased from zero to 100% in the first few months. We had to adjust quickly to having meetings and approvals and denials with a different form of communication.

Jeff Daley

“We saw some hiccups at the beginning of the pandemic, but when things started ticking up again, it appeared state agencies really had their stuff together, as well as cities and towns.”

“I give credit to towns and cities across the Commonwealth; everyone adapted really quickly,” he went on. “We saw some hiccups at the beginning of the pandemic, but when things started ticking up again, it appeared state agencies really had their stuff together, as well as cities and towns.”

Daley recently took part in a wide-ranging roundtable discussion with BusinessWest about the impact of the pandemic on development and environmental regulation. Also taking part, each bringing a different perspective to the discussion, were David Peter, principal with Site Redevelopment Technologies; Ashley Sullivan, president of O’Reilly, Talbot & Okun Associates (OTO); Mike Gorski, regional director of the Western Regional Office of MassDEP; and environmental attorney Christopher Myhrum.

Peter, whose company cleans up contaminated sites for redevelopment — including, recently, the Games and Lanes brownfields site in Agawam — said the new paradigm of communicating has been a challenge.

“It’s difficult to move forward,” he said. “We rehab sites that have been dormant for many years due to contamination, and it’s very difficult for us right now because a lot of it is interpersonal relationships — meeting with regulators around a table with big maps — and we can’t do that anymore. We’re at a real slowdown for any project still in the planning stages.”

Projects in active development are a different story and, in some cases, have benefited from the pandemic, he added. As one example, last spring, the firm was hauling lightly contaminated soil from Beth Israel Hospital in Boston to a site in Rhode Island, and was able to conduct about twice as many trips as normal due to the lack of traffic on the road during the economic shutdown.

“If you owned, say, a restaurant when this happened, you were severely hit. But many essential businesses benefited, like our trucking situation,” Peter said. “But the biggest impact was not being able to sit down with regulators, politicians, and neighbors. It really slowed us down.”

Sullivan agreed. “In general, we did see a slowdown, and some of the logistics became difficult; there was definitely an adjustment period. But I’ll say we adapted pretty quickly, which was amazing to see,” she said, noting that the company had recently made some investments in technology that eased the transition into a different way of conducting business.

David Peter

“It’s very difficult for us right now because a lot of it is interpersonal relationships — meeting with regulators around a table with big maps — and we can’t do that anymore.”

And that transition was happening whether or not everyone was ready for it.

“If you had asked me two years ago if we could our job remotely, I’d have said, ‘absolutely not,’” Gorski said. “But we’ve been remote since St. Patrick’s Day 2020. It took a few weeks to figure things out, with staff working at home, and we made some long-term improvements in technology for certain staff.”

Since then, he added, the process has been smooth, if not ideal. For example, early on, “we were very, very lenient in terms of inspections,” but the office was able to conduct limited risk-based determinations and emergency-response actions. “Staff still needed to visit spills on the highway and other releases.”

MassDEP complemented any necessary in-person visits with virtual inspections through FaceTime video and submitted photos, Gorski added. And after the initial slowdown, the pace of activity has been relatively stable.

“We’ve been on par with past years with the number of inspections in the Western Region, with enforcement numbers being a little bit down,” he said. “I think we’ve done pretty well keeping a presence out there and, more importantly, keeping our staff safe and meeting COVID protocols.”

Myhrum knew any leniency wouldn’t last. “I think clients recognized the likelihood of reductions in inspections at the start of the shutdown order, but they were cautioned, at least by me, that inspections were likely to come back,” he said.

Myhrum, who also serves on the Westmass board, agreed with the other roundtable participants that various stakeholders in the development process, from developers to inspectors to municipal officials, handled the transition to remote operations remarkably well. And he believes the construction and development sector is on the rise after an unusual year.

“Yes, construction was deemed essential, but behind that are a lot of support organizations, and things necessarily slowed down,” he said. “And that has created a lot of potential energy for when things return to some semblance of normal. Beyond that, it has been something of a brave new world, but the adaptability to remote work has been striking.”

Holding Pattern

The most distressing pandemic-driven change in Gorski’s job is “the inability to collaborate on certain projects, to sit around a table and push those plans back and forth,” he said, adding that his agency and others have come up with some innovative ways to collaborate remotely. “We’ve become more productive in some ways. And there are some efficiencies with working from home. But we do miss out on the ability to build off collaborative ideas.”

Myhrum agreed. “Screen sharing cannot substitute for a 24-by-36, or larger, exhibit in terms of communicating ideas and demonstrating evidence of what one wants to do. It’s essential to not only understanding what a project is, but also building the trust that’s necessary among the parties to reach a goal together. I believe collaborative efforts within the office are very, very important.”

Some ways business was done in the past won’t completely return, he added, like the idea of people flying to and from California to attend a 15-minute pre-trial conference. “That’s gone; everything is done remotely, through Zoom or Teams or other platforms.”

But to undertake truly effective negotiations and other business, he went on, in-person meetings need to remain an important component.

Ashley Sullivan

“They were backing off enforcement a little bit, but it was unofficial. Some of it wasn’t clearly communicated.”

Everyone figured out the new normal together, Gorski said, and that included the DEP. “We were very lenient during the first couple months, recognizing that companies were under a tremendous burden in terms of staffing. Once they figured out how to do things remotely, we started getting back into a normal program.

“Now, while we’re certainly not normalized, our inspection numbers here in the Western Region are on par with past years,” he added. “Some of the enforcement penalty numbers were down as well — we were careful how we adjusted penalties because of COVID — but that’s getting back to normal, too.”

Daley noted that any slowdown in regulatory activity was matched by a curtailment of development. “Everyone was trying to figure things out in the first month or two; I don’t think anyone was trying to move projects forward at a rapid pace. It all played in concert; environmental programs were moving forward at the same pace developments were with COVID.”

Sullivan said it was natural for the pace of activity to slow down as the logistics became difficult. She noted that her firm performs many environmental site assessments, doing due diligence about what a project’s environmental concerns may be, which requires communication with fire departments, boards of health, and other municipal departments. “A lot of those were closed for a while, the process would get delayed, and that would, in essence, delay the whole project.”

Reviews on the regulatory side slowed down locally as well, she said, but grace periods became the norm. “They were backing off enforcement a little bit, but it was unofficial. Some of it wasn’t clearly communicated, particularly in the first eight to 12 weeks, and we wondered when things would start up again.”

No one was surprised when it did, Myhrum said. “Massachusetts certainly has a reputation for sound and aggressive environmental enforcement, as well as rigorous regulation, which has gone hand in glove with statutory and regulatory requirements.

“I know, during the pandemic, we had two different cases involving air permits, which can be among the most complicated DEP issues,” he went on. “Those two permit applications were turned around faster than any we’ve worked on. I’d like to think we did a good job on the applications, but the turnaround times were most satisfactory to our clients.”

It’s difficult to gauge how the pandemic has affected regulation on the national level, Myhrum said, adding that a change in presidential administration will likely have a greater impact.

Christopher Myhrum

“I think one would be in error to believe the EPA’s priorities and activities are going to continue the way they did under the previous administration.”

“The EPA under Trump was not known for being particularly aggressive, having a former coal lobbyist as its administrator. So I think one would be in error to believe the EPA’s priorities and activities are going to continue the way they did under the previous administration. I think it will be interesting to see how the situation plays out.”

Another issue impacting developers during the pandemic is the shift by so many companies to remote work, Peter said, noting that he does a lot of work in the seaport district of Boston, and commercial real estate there is worth about 50% of its pre-pandemic value, while suburban locations with plenty of fresh air and space have risen in value.

That trend may not last forever, Daley said, for some of the communication-related factors mentioned earlier.

“Once the pandemic subsides a little bit, I think people will go back to the office, if for nothing more than partnership and collaboration efforts,” he noted. “I know we do a lot of work on 24-by-36 paper and laying things out, and it’s hard to do that in a Zoom meeting, to look at plans and assess the true value of what you’re going to do.

“Not everyone will go back to work — I agree with that — but I do think, as time goes on and the pandemic hopefully subsides and we pass through this, people have to go back to the office, at least on a hybrid basis,” he went on. “I’m a firm believer in working together and collaborating, and Zoom doesn’t really produce that.”

Issues of Justice

Last month, Gov. Charlie Baker signed a new climate-change law that codifies a commitment to achieve net-zero emissions in 2050; authorizes the administration to implement a new, voluntary, energy-efficient building code for municipalities; allows the Commonwealth to procure additional offshore wind energy, and — most notably for urban developers — significantly increases protections for ‘environmental justice communities’ across Massachusetts.

SEE: List of Architecture Firms

EJ communities, as they’re known, are those which have, historically, been overburdened by poor air quality and disproportionately high levels of pollution; they are often low-income. The new law requires an environmental-impact report for all projects that affect air quality within one mile of an EJ neighborhood, and requires the DEP to conduct a stakeholder process to develop a cumulative-impact analysis as a condition of permitting certain projects.

“That’s needed, I think,” Daley said, noting that he hopes the environmental council the law calls for has adequate representation from EJ communities in Western Mass. “It’s important that we have representation on that council. Far too often, Western Mass. has one token person on a committee, and 17 from the Boston area. This is a great start, but our people need to have a say.”

Gorski said the emphasis on environmental justice is positive because people have a right to a meaningful say in what goes on in their neighborhoods.

“The DEP has had an EJ policy for some time, and we’ve had public involvement in the planning process, but the climate bill now makes that law, and we’re going to be proactively reaching out to various community groups to involve them and educate them, so when we have these public hearings for complicated permits and things of that nature, people understand what we’re talking about, and can come at it from a knowledgable viewpoint, rather than just ‘we don’t want that in our neighborhood.’ It’s important to give people a voice.”

Myhrum agreed. “EJ has evolved from policy to statutory law in Massachusetts,” he said. “People will have the opportunity to participate in an interactive way to discuss the impact and specific ways people are affected.”

It’s important to remember, Sullivan noted, that development projects in urban areas often have a positive impact on the environment, especially those that remediate brownfields and other contamination.

“I’d love to see more mixed-use revitalization and really cleaning up some of these issues,” she said. “At OTO, we love working on these projects, and we’re happy when there’s more funding and regulations pointing that way — if a development can be done in a way that could be responsible, with some thought behind it.”

While he believes there’s significant pent-up energy in the development community, Daley understands plenty of changes are coming related to energy and other aspects of doing business. In the short term, though, the way the pandemic has altered business as usual may have a broader effect.

“Is COVID going to be a transitional time for business, or is it transformational? It’s going to be both,” he said, answering his own question. “It’s going to be transitional in the way we do business, whether it’s the regulatory process or the actual development, lease, and sale of properties and the way they go to market. But it’s also transformational — an opportunity to rethink the way we do business, shifting us more into the digital age.

“I don’t think the office space will ever go away,” he went on, “but [technology] allows people to be more creative with their time and productivity and the way they do business.”

Moving Forward

Even though MassDEP is still working largely remotely, Gorski said, “we look forward to getting back to hybrid, or something approaching normal operations. We’re still available for technical assistance, and we still want to collaborate to move projects forward.”

Depending on the project, Sullivan said, OTO works with developers, property owners, other civil engineers, structural engineers, attorneys, regulators … the list goes on, and speaks to the importance of communication, and the ways in which it has been altered by COVID.

“Each of those has been impacted similarly during the past year,” she noted. “We did adjust to not being face to face, but there’s so much that can be accomplished face to face, meeting on site. When that goes away, things slow down, and your meetings aren’t as effective.”

But her firm, like everyone else in the broad, complex, cross-disciplinary business of development managed to adjust, and even learned a few lessons about pivoting and melding traditional and remote ways of doing business.

“This is the new way,” she said. “We’ll take the best of both worlds and hopefully move forward.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Remote-work Movement Presents Challenges, Opportunities in IT

Special Coverage Technology

Making Connections

After a chaotic start, the pandemic has proven to be good for business in the IT world, where professionals were deluged with requests from clients to set up remote networks for their employees, not to mention a flood of new clients seeking network services for the first time. More than perhaps anyone, these IT pros have seen first-hand how COVID-19 has changed the way companies are doing business. And some of the changes, they say, may be here for the long term.

By Mark Morris

As the world begins to emerge from the pandemic, many businesses that survived are trying to understand what the new landscape will look like.

Right now, many business owners are trying to figure out when and if their employees should return to the office or continue to work from home. Either way, access to technology plays an increasing role in getting the job done.

For example, said Delcie Bean, CEO of Paragus Strategic IT, before the pandemic, many businesses were getting by with outdated communication and collaborative tools and depended on e-mail and phones to support their working environment.

“When the pandemic hit, they had to suddenly adopt new technologies like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or other virtual platforms to keep doing business. Almost overnight, we had to set up about 4,000 people to work remotely who weren’t previously set up to do so.”

“When the pandemic hit, they had to suddenly adopt new technologies like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or other virtual platforms to keep doing business,” Bean said, noting that, as employees in many industries were sent home to work remotely, local IT firms saw a huge influx of work. “Almost overnight, we had to set up about 4,000 people to work remotely who weren’t previously set up to do so.”

Delcie Bean

Sean Hogan, president of Hogan Communications, said the last time businesses experienced this much disruption was October 2011, when a surprise snowstorm knocked out power for thousands across the region. This time, the disruption has had a more profound and lasting impact.

“The pandemic woke up a lot of people and forced them to understand they’ve got to change the way they do business,” Hogan said, explaining that, while the pre-Halloween storm a decade ago encouraged investments in backup generators, the pandemic has shown many the importance of storing data in a remote data center, commonly known as the ‘cloud.’

In Bean’s estimation, the idea of a business keeping a server at its facility to host its network is already a legacy model that was on its way to being phased out in the next five years.

“COVID dumped gasoline on that timetable and made converting to the cloud a much higher priority,” he said. With cloud-based technology, employees can more easily access their company’s network from multiple locations and devices.

Resistance to change comes natural to New England business owners as many prefer to keep their data on a server in their office. Hogan often explains to these reluctant clients that cloud-based data centers have spent millions of dollars to make sure there is a disaster recovery set up, as well as backup systems for power, internet and HVAC.

“The average business owner couldn’t afford to make that type of investment to keep their data safe,” Hogan said. “So when people say they don’t trust the cloud we point out how much more reliable it is compared to their office.”

BusinessWest spoke with a number of local IT providers about what several of them called the ‘roller-coaster year’ we’ve just had and what’s on the horizon. As business owners themselves, they, like their clients, have had to figure out how to keep things running during a pandemic and anticipate what that means in the long term.

“I’m looking at the service tickets we’re completing while working remote, and they are right on par with where they were when we were in the office. In fact, we might be a little more efficient.”

As an IT-services vendor, Bean believes firms like his should be a little ahead of the curve so they can test new technologies before they recommend them to clients. For example, Paragus employees have been on the cloud and set up to work from anywhere since June 2019.

“So when the pandemic struck, moving our staff remotely was pretty seamless,” Bean said. “About 80% of our people work remotely, and 15% to 20% come into the office on any given day.”

Jeremiah Beaudry, owner of Bloo Solutions, said his employees are working so well from home, it’s not necessary to come into the office. He noted that productivity has not suffered, and employees have less stress.

Jeremiah Beaudry

“I’m looking at the service tickets we’re completing while working remote, and they are right on par with where they were when we were in the office,” Beaudry said. “In fact, we might be a little more efficient.”

One important thing businesses have learned from the pandemic, according to Charlie Christianson, president of CMD Solutions, is that it’s OK to work from home.

“We can do a lot more than we thought we could outside of the office,” he said. “People are far more open to remote work, and there’s no mystery to it anymore.”

Change of Scenery

While some of Hogan’s employees have always worked remotely, the percentage has grown, and their efficiency allows them to escape the daily commute. “They don’t need to be behind a windshield for an hour and a half each day just getting to and from work,” he said.

When companies first sent workers home, IT providers spent most of their time helping clients integrate employees into their respective networks. While they suddenly had a huge amount of work, IT professionals did not see much revenue because many clients had contracts to cover this extra work. Increased revenue soon followed, however, as many new clients sought these services.

“We signed more new customers in 2020 than the previous two years combined,” Bean said, adding that much of the new business came from companies that found their dependence on technology had suddenly increased and their IT capabilities couldn’t meet these new demands.

In addition to new clients coming on board, Christianson explained that many of his current clients, who at first only wanted a “down-and-dirty” setup for remote access, were now looking for a more permanent solution for their network.

“We can do a lot more than we thought we could outside of the office. People are far more open to remote work, and there’s no mystery to it anymore.”

“Those of us in the IT industry are very fortunate,” he said. “We have done well during this time and were not hit hard like so many other industries were.”

With the end of COVID in sight, businesses have begun looking at what comes next. Those we spoke with agree on one thing: it will not be business like it was before or even during the pandemic.

“Most of our clients want some hybrid between those two options, where there is more in-person interaction than during the pandemic, but probably not as much as there was before,” Bean said. Once people started learning videoconferencing and Microsoft 365, he noted, they saw how helpful these tools can be even when everyone is in the office.

As IT providers continue to transition their clients from premise-based servers to the data cloud, they also predict other big shifts on the horizon. For example, with so many companies using smartphones and laptop computers to make calls, the company phone system may soon be a thing of the past.

“A few years from now, the idea of having both a computer and a phone on your desk at work is going to be a very strange concept,” Bean said, especially when companies consider the economics of supporting two systems that make phone calls.

While the demise of the office phone seems inevitable, office space itself could be in for a big reduction, Christianson added. “We’ve seen a lot of instances where people are moving from bigger spaces to smaller ones. They are making the calculation that some people are not coming back.”

Charlie Christianson

Even if it’s in a smaller space, Hogan asserted that an office presence is still vital. “I don’t think we’ll go back to the way it was before, but many people still want to return to their offices, even if only for collaboration and camaraderie.”

Because Zoom and other virtual platforms make it easy to meet with people anywhere, companies have begun to look more closely at their business travel budgets, too. CEO clients have told Beaudry they will not eliminate business travel, but will look to reduce it to only what is necessary.

“One CEO who used to travel 40% of the year said he plans to move most of his meetings to virtual platforms,” he said. “He figures to be 10 times more efficient and save his energy from traveling all over the country.”

As much as Bean would like to see some of the fatigue and expense of travel go away, he also admits that important interactions happen in person that just don’t occur in a virtual setting. He gave an example of logging on to hear a keynote speaker versus attending the event in-person.

“Oftentimes, the person sitting at my table is more valuable to me than the keynote speaker,” he said. “That person might lead to a great networking opportunity where they need my services, or maybe they have a service I need.”

Safe at Home

While working at home can provide many benefits for employees and their companies, IT providers say it comes with a whole new array of challenges. Looking at a business with 30 employees, Beaudry gave an example of how quickly technology issues change when working remotely.

“If half the employees work from home,” he said, “the company has gone from managing one network to dealing with the struggles of 15 home networks.”

Common issues when working at home include internet signal strength and the different types and capacities of home modems. Topping all those concerns, however, is the increased vulnerability to a company network getting hacked.

All it takes is one employee to click an attachment in a suspicious e-mail, and the whole network can be damaged by a cyberattack. When working from home, Beaudry said, employees are less likely to ask the simple questions when they confront something that looks suspect.

“You don’t have someone turning to their co-worker, saying, ‘hey, did you get this e-mail? It looks weird,’” he said, adding that he encourages his clients to call whenever they see anything suspicious. “If you take 30 seconds to call and ask, it can save you a week of losing your computer.”

Christianson said cybersecurity is a never-ending battle. “Hackers are always looking for ways into your network. They only have to be right once; we have to be right all the time.”

That’s where IT service providers come in. While today’s technology tools are better than ever, Bean said IT pros can set up a company’s system to make it work best for its needs and stay current on all the security threats.

Beaudry compares his work to that of a plumber. “People need computers for business just like they need water in their home and business,” he said.

And, just like plumbing, if security on a computer network isn’t handled properly, you can have a real mess on your hands.

Commercial Market Shows Movement, but Questions Linger

Commercial Real Estate Special Coverage

Progress Report

Roughly 14 months after COVID-19 arrived in Western Mass., the commercial real-estate market is showing some signs of life, especially with industrial properties, which are in considerable demand, with limited supply. But as companies start to return to their offices, questions remain concerning just how much space businesses will need long-term and how much demand there will be for the large inventories of space now, or soon to be, available.

Pat Goggins has been selling and leasing real estate in and around Northampton for almost a half-century now. It’s very safe to say that he knows that market better than anyone.

And he feels comfortable now, a full year and change after COVID-19 first arrived in this region, in saying that the Northampton market has “bottomed out, and is starting to work its way back to what it had become.”

He bases this assessment on a number of things — from new leases being signed for some vacated properties downtown to interest in some other buildings for sale and lease, to the lease rates themselves, which, he said, haven’t changed appreciably in 20 years now.

“We’re seeing some new activity that is creating some positive vibes,” said Goggins, president of Goggins Real Estate Inc., adding that, while challenges remain and COVID continues to take a toll on Northampton, there are many signs that a corner of sorts is being turned.

Using slightly different words and phrases, other commercial real-estate brokers and managers we spoke with said essentially the same as Goggins, that the market is moving back toward — here comes that phrase again — ‘something approaching normal, or a new normal.’ Meaning, they believe, that the worst is likely over.

“We still have a ways to go, but there is movement back to normalcy,” said Mitch Bolotin, a principal with Springfield-based Colebrook Realty Services, who is using, among other things, the parking-lot test when it comes to what’s happening within this market.

Pat Goggins

“We still have a ways to go, but there is movement back to normalcy.”

Indeed, he said the parking lots at the PeoplesBank building in Holyoke, 1441 Main St. in Springfield, and the Basketball Hall of Fame complex in Springfield, just some of the properties managed by the company, are more populated than they were just a few months ago, and much more full than last fall. The cars in those lots are evidence that businesses are, in fact, returning to their offices and the buildings are moving closer to pre-COVID levels of occupancy and vibrancy.

Still, hard questions remain about just how many more cars will be returning to those lots — and when. And these questions — which are being asked in urban areas across the Northeast and, indeed, across the country — will likely determine to just what extent the market fully recovers. Indeed, as leases have expired over the past year, some companies have downsized, said Bolotin, a few have actually upsized to give employees more space in the wake of COVID, and others are essentially standing pat.

Meanwhile, when it comes to negotiating new leases, most tenants have been able to take advantage of a market that favors them and secure a number that certainly isn’t higher, and in many cases is lower.

Ken Vincunas, president of Agawam-based Development Associates, which manages several office buildings in this region, including the Greenfield Corporate Center and Agawam Crossing, said that nearly 14 months after COVID forced many people to work remotely, questions linger about when and if businesses will summon employees back to the office, and how many will actually come back.

“I think people like to work at home,” he said. “Businesses want them to come back, but I’m not sure the employees will want to go back.”

Meanwhile, some segments of the commercial market, especially industrial properties, are vibrant, if not white-hot, said Vincunas, noting that there isn’t enough inventory to meet a growing need.

While COVID has slowed some segments of the commercial real-estate market, Ken Vincunas says, others, like industrial, have been very active, with inventories struggling to meet demand.

“The bulk of our portfolio is industrial, and that’s all pretty strong right now — inventory for that is very low, and prices are very high,” he said, adding that the market for medical real estate — and his company has some of it in the portfolio as well — remains strong.

For this issue and its focus on commercial real estate, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at what’s happening within the local market and what may happen as the region continues its pursuit of ‘normal’ — whatever that means.

Down on Main Street

As he talked about the Northampton market and what has happened within it over the past year or so, Goggins used the word ‘generational’ to describe the changes to the landscape.

By that, he meant many of the businesses that have become synonymous with Paradise City were started by people his age — Baby Boomers at or now approaching retirement.

“Downtown Northampton took off in the ’70s, and it was fueled by people who were contemporaries of mine who came into town or who were part of the community and decided to open restaurants and shops,” he said. “It was fueled by the Baby Boom generation.”

And what COVID did was push some of those entrepreneurs into retirement maybe a little sooner than they were planning, he said, adding that this led to some high-profile vacancies on Main Street, a phrase he uses to connote both that specific thoroughfare and the whole of the downtown. Those vacancies include the massive Silverscape Designs building, a former bank; 147 Main St., formerly Cathy Cross; 162 Main St., formerly Artisan Gallery; and others.

In recent weeks, though, new tenants have been secured for many of these properties, he said, noting that Rebekah Brooks Jewelry has moved into the Cathy Cross space, 25 Central has taken the Artisan Gallery space, and Cotton Gallery has moved into 153 Main St., formerly Thelo. This movement reflects his earlier-stated sentiments that the market has, in fact, bottomed out and is moving back up again, although there is still work to do.

“The vacancy rate is higher than what we would prefer, but we’re nipping away at it,” he said, adding that the emerging cannabis industry has played a factor in these efforts, and it could play a still-larger role moving forward, with nearly a dozen ventures at some stage of the permitting process.

As for the Silverscape property, he said there has been some interest expressed in it, but it is a large space with some accompanying challenges when it comes to a new use.

“It’s not for the faint of heart,” he told BusinessWest, adding that, while the former bank spaces, like teller windows, were imaginatively integrated into the jewelry store’s design, they may in some ways limit what can easily be done with the space now.

The Silverscape Designs building in downtown Northampton, now on the market, will present opportunities and challenges to its next owner, said Pat Goggins, adding “it’s not for the feint of heart.”

Assessing the office market, Goggins echoed others in noting that, while more businesses are returning to the spaces they completely or partially vacated last March, there are questions about whether businesses that had to rely on people working remotely will bring everyone — or anyone — back to the office.

Vincunas said he has a diverse list of tenants at the Greenfield Corporate Center, including some state agencies that he is not concerned about when it comes to downsizing or not renewing, but also some financial-services and technology-related tenants for which there are some questions moving forward.

“People have learned to work outside the office, so we can’t be sure what will happen long-term,” he said, adding quickly that, for the short term, the property has benefited from COVID in one respect — the regional jury-pool operation has moved into 25,000 square feet of space at the facility for at least a year.

SEE: List of Commercial Real Estate Brokers

“They couldn’t space people out for jury-pool selection at all the courthouses — there just wasn’t room — so they created an off-site central-clearinghouse type of space,” he told BusinessWest. “We had a big piece of space, so they took it.”

Boloton said he’s seeing some evidence that, while the experiences of the past year have shown that remote working can be effective, most businesses want their workers back together in one place.

“I’ve seen it with a number of businesses … they’ve said, ‘we’re working at home, we’ve figured it out, but there’s still a need to be in the office, and, over time, people want to be in the office,’” he said, adding that the parking-lot test, as unscientific as it is, provides some evidence that companies are working their way back to their office spaces. “It’s a matter of want to, and need to, and there’s a slow progression back. There’s a steady return toward coming back to the office; we’re not there, but we’re getting closer every day.”

For other evidence of progress, he cited the recent closing of a deal with a business to lease 27,000 square feet of office space in a property at 11 Interstate Dr. in West Springfield. He could not disclose the new tenant, but said it was an existing Western Mass. business that is expanding.

“It’s a market that has some areas of slowdown reaction to the pandemic,” he said, listing retail in that category. “But there are other areas that are busy, and we can’t find inventory. Industrial is very strong, and we have a lot of transactions for users buying buildings, so we have a number of properties under contract.”

Bottom Line

Between the parking-lot test, some new leases being inked, and tight inventories in the industrial market, the commercial real-estate landscape seems to be changing in this region — and for the better.

That said, many questions remain about the market and especially the office buildings that are not only home to many types of companies, but also generate business at neighboring service- and hospitality-related enterprises.

It may be some time before all those questions are answered, but for now, it seems the worst may well be over and, as Goggins and others noted, this sector is moving steadily closer to something approximating normal.

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

An Aging Baby Boomer Population Will Test the Healthcare System

Business of Aging

Wave Dynamics

Since they started entering the world just after World War II, the Baby Boomers have influenced society in general, and the business community in particular, in all kinds of ways. The same is true when it comes to the healthcare sector, especially as the oldest members of this huge and proud generation turn 75. The impact of such a large and aging group can be seen in everything from hearing practices to the many facets of the long-term care system. And in some ways, COVID has provided a preview of what it is to come.

As she talked about the massive Baby Boom generation, how its oldest members turn 75 this year, and about how almost all the Boomers could now be classified as senior citizens, Dr. Maura Brennan summoned a phase she attributed to her mother, but which she uses often as well: “No one gets out of life alive.”

She used those words to convey the thought that, while this Baby Boom generation may in many ways be healthier than those that preceded it — fewer smokers and more exercisers, for example — and it has enjoyed access to better healthcare and innumerable advances in treatment, from artificial joints to improved cancer care, its members will eventually see their health decline, and they will need increasing amounts of care. And many already do.

“I don’t believe this generation, which I am part of, will readily tolerate limited access to the best care.”

While Brennan — a 70-year-old geriatrician and palliative-care physician — says people being able to live longer is in itself a success story, it has also become a challenge, for today, and especially tomorrow.

Which brings us back to those oldest Boomers, those born just after World War II, who turn 75 this year. That’s the age when, statistically, people begin to see their needs for healthcare increase, said Brennan, adding that, as one might logically assume, when a large number of people hit that threshold all at once, the system will be taxed — in all kinds of ways.

“As one might imagine, it’s going to impact virtually every sector and specialty, with the possible exceptions of OB and pediatrics,” she explained. “We’re going to see increasing numbers of older people; not all those folks are going to be frail and complicated, but there will be an increasing number of people with multiple medical problems.

Dr. Maura Brennan says the healthcare system is struggling to meet demand for direct-care workers, and the situation might get worse.

“The numbers and the complexity will rise,” she went on. “And it will impact every area of healthcare, with probably the biggest impact being in home care and nursing-home care because, personally, I don’t believe this generation, which I am part of, will readily tolerate limited access to the best care that’s going to allow them to stay in their homes and communities as long as possible.”

Mary Flahive-Dickson, chief operating officer at East Longmeadow-based Golden Years Home Care, agreed. She said the milestone age being reached by the oldest of Baby Boomers provides an opportunity to look hard at what’s in store for the healthcare system and ask the question: is it fully prepared for the challenges to come? And, if not, what needs to be done so it might be better prepared?

In many ways, Flahive-Dickson said, the COVID-19 pandemic has actually provided a preview of sorts for what’s coming as this large generation ages, with regard to everything from telehealth to the way the overall healthcare system was tested by sheer volume of cases and even vaccination efforts, to the manner in which the need for home-care services is growing.

During the pandemic, this need was fueled by growing fears of nursing homes and other senior-living facilities. Many of those fears still persist, but for Baby Boomers, by and large, the greater issue is simply wanting to remain independent — and in the home — as long as possible.

Eric Aasheim, a certified senior advisor and owner of Oasis Senior Living of Western Massachusetts, agreed. Aasheim, who assists seniors and family members through the complex process of transitioning from home to senior-living communities across this region, said the entire long-term-care sector will be tested by the aging of this generation.

“What I see, and what I worry about, is that the long-term-care system — and that includes in-home care, nursing homes, and assisted living — is just not ready for the sheer volume of patients and residents that they’re going to have,” he told BusinessWest. “And even though these individuals living longer and their resources are being depleted, there are so few places that have any kind of programs for low-income seniors. Unless something dramatically changes in terms of the number of assisted-living facilities that can serve low-income residents, there won’t be needed options for seniors.”

Meanwhile, besides sheer size and that sense of independence and not wanting to rely on others, the Baby Boom generation boasts some other characteristics as well, including what could be described as denial when it comes to getting old and admitting some aspects of their health have deteriorated.

“That’s not a disaster or a tsunami. That’s one of the greatest success stories in modern history; people are able to live longer and enjoy their lives better.”

And that’s why, even though she is generally seeing more patients than she was years ago, Dr. Susan Bankoski Chunyk, an audiologist, says she’s seeing a continuation of, and perhaps even an exacerbation of, an annoying trend whereby people will put off seeking help for their hearing years after they acknowledge they have a problem, due to lingering perceptions about hearing aids making people look old and feeble, even though modern technology has changed that landscape.

And that’s just one example of why there are still many question marks about how and to what degree this generation will present challenges and opportunities moving forward.

Age-old Challenges

Before getting into any real detail about the Baby Boom generation and its advancing age, Brennan wanted to set the proper tone for the discussion.

Indeed, she told BusinessWest that years, if not decades, of talk about a ‘silver tsunami’ have succeeded in casting discussion about the aging Boomers — and, again, she’s a proud, card-carrying member of that generation — in often-negative tones.

Mary Flahive-Dixon says most Baby Boomers want to age in place, in their own homes.

“This notion of the silver tsunami makes the aging of the population sound like an impending natural disaster over which we have no control that’s going to sweep everything away,” she said. “It feels to me, and most geriatrics leaders, like we’re framing things wrong; we’re setting this up as ‘us versus them’ — us young healthy, productive people against those old people who are going to overrun the system. These people are … us. They’re our neighbors, our teachers, our relatives.”

That said, a lot of ‘us’ are getting on in years. Indeed, maybe half or more of all Boomers can now get a senior discount at the movies, the golf course, and the pharmacy. And large numbers of them are now over 70, which means many aspects of the healthcare system — from eye care to urology; orthopedics to hearing care — are certainly already seeing an impact, and it will only grow as more Boomers reach 70, 80, 90, and beyond.

Restating the matter (again, she doesn’t want to classify it as a problem), Brennan said the Baby Boom generation is indeed large (it’s estimated that, by 2035, 10% of the population will be 85 or older; it’s closer to 6% now), and its members are living longer than the generations that preceded them, again, because of better health and better healthcare.

“That’s not a disaster or a tsunami,” she said. “That’s one of the greatest success stories in modern history; people are able to live longer and enjoy their lives better.”

That’s true, but so is what her mother said so often: that no one gets out of life alive.

“Some period of decline is going to occur for virtually all of us — unless we die in our sleep from a funny heart rhythm or get hit by a truck crossing Main Street,” she told BusinessWest. “And the causes of death in recent years have shifted; if you look back 50 or 80 years, the causes of death were frequently things like trauma, infection, death in childbirth — things that take you rather quickly when you were reasonably functional prior to that. That is no longer true. And with the successes we’ve had, and with people living longer, they are increasingly likely to die of multiple progressing chronic diseases.”

What does all this mean? Increasingly, Brennan said, people will need more care from more people as they age and approach end of life — a team-based approach, if you will.

“We’re going to have to think about care a different way because it’s not all about the doctors and the nurses,” she explained. “People will need hands-on home care, they’ll need symptom management, they’ll need direct-care workers who are grossly underpaid and overworked, and who churn through the system, with tremendous turnover.

“We’re struggling to meet those needs now, and it’s perceived to be, and is, a major problem,” she went on. “And if we do not alter the way we are paying, recruiting, supporting, and respecting those people, it will be infinitely worse. We’re going to need to restructure things, pay people differently, and offer them different kinds of professional development and career ladders that will make those positions more attractive; otherwise, we have a self-perpetuating situation. It’s the classic axiom — the system produces exactly the kinds of results it was designed to produce. If we don’t change the system, you get what you’ve got.”

Another issue that will have to addressed regards the number of specialists that will be needed to care for this larger generation of older residents, said Brennan, referring to geriatrics doctors, general nurse practitioners, social workers, pharmacists, and more.

Dr. Susan Bankoski Chunyk says people still put off seeking treatment for hearing loss due to outdated perceptions about hearing aids.

“As the number of older folks is increasing, the number of experts is not increasing, not one iota,” she told BusinessWest. “And, in fact, in some fields, such as geriatric medicine, the number of certified geriatricians has actually probably declined somewhat because we’re not replacing people who are retiring with equal numbers of new grads.”

The Shape of Things to Come

Flahive-Dickson agreed, noting that among the Boomers now in or approaching retirement are large numbers of healthcare workers. Replacing them and making the kinds of systemic changes Brennan mentioned will be just some of the many challenges facing the healthcare system moving forward.

Several of the others involve the growing trend of people wanting to age in place — and especially in their own home.

And this brings her back to COVID and what has been learned during the pandemic.

“More care was moving toward the home, basically as a result of general anxiety about facility care — about being in hospital, about being in a skilled nursing facility,” she explained. “Because of this crisis, we’ve seen more people want to get their care in the home.”

And this is a trend she expects will continue into the future as more people from this huge generation confront questions about the care they need and how and where they want it provided.

But questions arise from this supposition — many of them, in fact, including whether there will be enough providers to care for all those people who will want to stay in their homes, and also whether the payers are willing and able to adjust to a changing landscape of need and pay for services they currently don’t cover.

Again, Flahive-Dickson said the pandemic has provided an intriguing lens for looking at the problem — and the future as well.

“If COVID has done anything for us, it has previewed what is to come,” she told BusinessWest. “The pandemic has shown us that this surge in home care is a glimpse of the future. And it has provided this glimpse not only to healthcare professionals and the general population, but also to regulatory bodies, such as Medicare and Medicare Advantage.

“They have had to relax a lot of rules,” she went on. “As the Medicare population is continuing to grow, Medicare benefits haven’t caught up to that, and this is a huge problem. There are fewer than a dozen states that even offer non-medical home-care services to be paid for by a plan, and that plan is a singular plan, and that’s Medicare Advantage. In Western Mass., no one has a Medicare Advantage plan that offers the benefits of non-medical support, so it’s either out of pocket, or you have to qualify for one of the few programs that cover this.”

As for home-care workers, she said a number of demographic trends (Boomers generally had smaller families than the generations that preceded them) and other issues point toward individuals needing someone outside the family to care for them — and real challenges when it comes to having a steady supply of workers to provide that care.

That’s another lesson from COVID, she said, referring to the law of supply and demand, which was certainly exacerbated by a pandemic during which many had apprehensions about working in others’ homes.

“Fewer and fewer family members are capable of being a caregiver, either because there are fewer families, period, or … because family members might be on a different coast,” she explained. “Just because you grew up in Springfield doesn’t mean you stay in Springfield.”

Aasheim agreed, noting that these demographic trends are just some of the challenges facing the Baby Boom generation. Another is their own lack of preparedness for what is to come — financially and otherwise.

He said that only one individual in 10 has long-term-care insurance, and this is a matter to be addressed — just not when someone is 75 or even 65; those products have to be bought much sooner. Meanwhile, not enough members of this generation (and it’s not exactly unique in this regard) have their ducks in a row when it comes to needed documents — and needed preparation for poor health that often comes on suddenly and without much warning.

SEE: List of Senior Living Facilities

“What I try to focus on with the Boomers are the things they can do now, before that eventuality,” he explained. “This includes having discussions with your family about what your preferences are in terms of long-term care, gathering the documents together, getting power of attorney and a healthcare proxy, all those things. That’s what I hammer away with them — get that stuff done now, while you’re still healthy and you have the energy and the mental capacity to deal with it, so your family doesn’t have to handle it in crisis mode a few years down the line.”

Unfortunately, he said, many don’t heed this advice.

“They all nod when I talk to them in these presentations, but are they going home and getting that stuff together? My thought would be, probably not,” he went on. “Because most of the calls I get are from people who are in crisis mode.”

Bankowski Chunyk is another who wishes that more Boomers would heed some advice. Or at least listen to family members telling them they can’t hear as well as they used to, and should do something about it.

She told BusinessWest that the hearing industry talked a lot about the Baby Boom generation years (make that decades) ago, and how its size and advancing age would comprise a great opportunity for audiologists, one they should be prepared to seize.

Bankowski Chunyk did prepare, but she said the wave hasn’t been nearly as big as all those experts predicted it would be, largely because of … well, human nature, as well as lingering perceptions about hearing aids and what they say about those who wear them.

She said data shows that, between 1989 and 2019, the average age of an individual being fitted for a hearing aid for the first time fell from 66 to 65.

“I’m not sure a lot of progress was made getting people to address their hearing,” she said with some sarcasm in her voice, adding that, while there are certainly more people of that age than there were several years ago, sheer volume is not creating the immense opportunity that was predicted back in the ’80s and ’90s.

Whether it will materialize eventually or not, she doesn’t know — but she does know the Boomers are perhaps more vain when it comes to hearing aids than the generations that preceded them, so her industry has some work to do to change those perceptions.

Bottom Line

Perceptions are not the only thing that will have to change if the Baby Boomers, and those in the healthcare system who will care for them, will adequately manage this sizable demographic shift.

Brennan is right when she warns about this challenge becoming an ‘us versus them’ scenario, but she’s also right (and her mother was right) when she said that no gets through life alive.

As this generation ages, it will present enormous challenges to a healthcare sector that in many ways seems unprepared for what’s coming. That’s evidenced by the number of comments that began with the words ‘if things don’t change’ — comments referring to everything from workforce to accommodations for low-income seniors.

Only time will tell if things will, indeed, change. What is known is that the Boomers, as they have at every other phase of their life, will alter the landscape as they reach 75 — and beyond. And in all kinds of ways.

Springfield Aims to Recapture Pre-COVID Vibrancy

Community Spotlight

Nadim Kashouh says the return of office workers will be critical to the success of businesses downtown.

The wording in the initial guidance that has come down on the $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, and, more specifically, the $130.2 billion designated for city and county fiscal relief, is somewhat vague and leaves a lot to the imagination.

“Funds can be used to respond to the COVID-19 public-health emergency and its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits, or aid to impacted industries, such as tourism, travel, and hospitality,” it reads, before going on to note that such funds may also be used for everything from investments in water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure to “providing government services in a way that covers the revenue gaps created by the COVID-19 emergency.”

As he reads this guidance, Tim Sheehan, Springfield’s chief Economic Development officer, draws immediate parallels to the federal money Springfield received nearly a decade ago in the wake of the June 1, 2011 tornado that tore through several parts of the city. Even the dollar amounts — roughly $100 million, in each case — are strikingly similar.

“Some of the outcomes resulting from the funding that came from the tornado assistance were transformative for Springfield,” he noted, adding that a reconstruction fund of $96.7 million was put to a number of uses, including business assistance, housing replacement and reconstruction, infrastructure, and more. “And we’re looking to similarly deploy, very strategically, the resources we have from the rescue plan so that we have a similar result.”

How, and how effectively, Springfield can put its American Rescue Plan funds to work will likely play an important role when it comes to how quickly and profoundly the city can recover from a very different kind of disaster. And, like many area communities, Springfield has been hard hit by the pandemic, with many question marks looming over the future.

A city that was in the midst of what many were calling a renaissance in the years leading up to COVID saw much of its momentum halted or certainly slowed by the pandemic. A central business district that was thriving and teeming with events, activity, and new businesses has been eerily quiet, with many constituencies — from office workers to hockey fans; beer garden attendees to concertgoers — absent or in far smaller numbers.

As for those office workers, there are now lingering questions about when they will return (the vast majority haven’t yet) and how many of them will return, casting the future of the office towers that dominate the skyline into doubt.

But there are some signs of life and abundant optimism for the balance of this year and beyond.

Indeed, as he talked with BusinessWest on a quiet late Tuesday afternoon, Nadim Kashouh was looking forward to the upcoming weekend — moreso than any time probably since last Father’s Day, when he struggled mightily to keep up with a flood of takeout orders.

Gymnastics — in the form of youth competitions featuring teams from across New England — were returning to the MassMutual Center for the first time in more than a year. And Kashouh’s eatery, Nadim’s Downtown Mediterranean Grill, located just a block from the convention center, always does well when the gymnasts come to town.

“If they turn right when they leave the building, they find us — and a lot of them do turn right,” said Kashouh, noting that not many people have been coming to town, as in downtown, since COVID changed the landscape in March 2020. “It’s exciting to have the gymnastics back.”

And there are other signs of life as well. The AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds are not playing hockey — they are one of three teams in the league to essentially opt out of play in a abbreviated 2021 season — but they are gearing up for the 2021-22 slate, and management is optimistic there will be considerable pent-up demand for their product (see related story HERE).

“Some of the outcomes resulting from the funding that came from the tornado assistance were transformative for Springfield. And we’re looking to similarly deploy, very strategically, the resources we have from the rescue plan so that we have a similar result.”

Meanwhile, in Pynchon Plaza, various works by the sculptor Don Gummer are now on display, yet another sign that the Quadrangle, one of the city’s tourism mainstays, is moving ever closer to something approaching normal (see related story HERE).

While COVID has certainly slowed the pace of progress in Springfield, it has also provided an opportunity to step back, look at some of the key development challenges and opportunities in the city, and work to be ready for the proverbial ‘other side’ of the pandemic. That’s been the case with two key areas downtown — the area around MGM Springfield, which is underperforming in many ways, and the so-called ‘blast zone,’ the area surrounding the site of the natural-gas explosion in November 2012 (more on these later).

“Our thought process throughout this has been to take the mindset, ‘once we’re through it, we want to be ready to go,’” Sheehan said. “And some of the funding that is coming will be able to help those initiatives be realized.”

For this latest installment of its Community Spotlight series, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at the City of Homes and its prospects for not merely turning back the clock to the vibrancy it enjoyed pre-COVID, but taking further steps forward.

Food for Thought

As the owner of one of the more prominent and visible restaurants downtown, Kashouh has long been a popular voice with the local media when it comes to commentary about business downtown and the impact of everything from the casino to the Thunderbirds; from concerts at Symphony Hall and the MassMutual Center to, yes, those gymnastics competitions.

As he did son again with BusinessWest, he first flashed back to the view in very early 2020, a time when, as he put it, “the pieces had fallen into place and everything was clicking.”

Over the past 13 months, of course, most of the pieces have fallen out of place, he said, adding that most of the key ingredients for success at his establishment — the shows on weekend nights; the hockey games, conventions, and other events at the MassMutual Center; and, especially, the downtown office workers — have been mostly missing in action as a direct result of the pandemic.

He said they’re all important, but perhaps the most critical is the office traffic, which consistently filled the restaurant at lunch and often the bar area after 5 o’clock. These days, the office crowd is a fraction of what it was, and the impact is profound.

“We saw a few of the old faces back in here today, and it was exciting — you’re seeing some of the regular faces back,” he said, referring to some commercial lenders once based downtown. “But we used to see them three or four times a week and sometimes twice a day; now, you see them once, and you hope to see them again next week — maybe.

“It’s going to be a while before things go back to where they were before,” he went on. “I was hoping that by summer things would be back to normal, but now it doesn’t look like it.”

Given this obvious trickle-down effect, the question of when, and to what extent, the office workers return to downtown looms large over the city and those in the Economic Development office.

Indeed, Sheehan, citing a story he read recently involving Citibank and its announced intention to downsize its office footprint in New York by roughly 40%, said it is becoming obvious that the pandemic will change the way businesses approach their real-estate needs moving forward, leading to endless speculation about the office market and the businesses that rely on it.

The former Willys-Overland building is now accepting lease applications, one of the first signs of redevelopment in Springfield’s so-called ‘blast zone.’

As for the present tense, the situation has improved — but only marginally.

“People are starting to come back to downtown to work, but it’s not fully engaged, and I don’t think it’s going to be until sometime late fall,” Sheehan said. “And I don’t think we’re really going to get back to 100% until the turn of the calendar to 2022. And that obviously has a ripple effect on all the businesses that depend on that population coming in every day, so that’s an ongoing concern for the city.”

This brings him back to that language in the guidance concerning the American Rescue Plan, which, he said, could and likely will extend to efforts to help keep existing businesses downtown and bring new ones there.

“Our objective, in terms of deployment of resources, is to keep as many leases in place and tenants in place as possible, and maintain, to the level that we can, the value of those leases,” he explained, “so that we don’t ultimately experience a huge negative devaluation in the commercial real-estate market.”

The process, already underway, starts with understanding the needs on both sides of the equation, meaning landlord and tenant, he went on, adding that some business sectors are doing better than others, with service and hospitality (those businesses relying on direct interaction with the public) faring the worst.

Overall, the city could access as much as $127 million in Rescue Act funds, depending on how the ‘county’ portion of the award is allocated, said Sheehan, adding that city officials are having discussions with the those at the Treasury Department about how they can be deployed.

Speaking in general terms, which is all he can really do at this point, he said the broad goal of this latest round of funding will be to provide a “softer landing” to the wild, turbulent ride COVID has given the city, which differentiates this round from the funding provided in the CARES Act in 2020.

“With the CARES Act funding, we were in the throes of the virus and the public-health orders associated with it,” he explained. “That funding was basically to alleviate the distress. With this round, it’s about how we’re going to rebuild after the virus and bring the economy back to … not necessarily what we had before, but, hopefully, even better.

“The CARES Act was wound triage,” he went on. “The funding that we’re dealing with in terms of the rescue plan is more post-operative care — that’s the analogy you would use.”

Forward Thinking

While the city has been mostly living within the moment during the pandemic and dealing with the day to day, planning for the future has gone on, again, with an eye toward enabling the city to emerge from the pandemic with an opportunity to seize whatever opportunities present themselves.

In recent months, there has been increasing speculation, as businesses realize they may not need to be in urban centers like New York and Boston with their (previously) sky-high lease rates, and individuals realize they don’t need to live in those cities to work for companies based in them, that there are opportunities for communities like Springfield.

Sheehan acknowledged the possibilities and, like others in recent months, said the city needs to market itself and otherwise position itself as a viable, lower-cost option to Boston.

Meanwhile, as noted, planning officials have used the COVID period to closely examine two potential-laden but challenged areas of the city, one identified as the ‘Northeast Downtown District,” a.k.a. the blast zone, and the area in and around the convention center and MGM Springfield.

The latter is the focal point of a master development plan created by Chicago Consultants Studio Inc. (CCS) and approved by the City Council in March. In it, the authors write, “MGM delivered a Casino District; the city must now drive the surrounding area development.” In the report, the consultants note what has become obvious: that, despite the city’s and MGM’s significant investment in time, design, money, and commitments to “integrate the casino into the urban fabric, the MGM complex has yet to foster important catalytic economic development and vibrancy outside the confines of the casino district.”

This unexpectedly stymied market, which prompted an urgent revisiting of the so-called Implementation Blueprint drafted for that area in 2018 as the casino was preparing to open, has resulted from a number of factors, they note, including:

• MGM’s decision to “overpay” for key properties critical to the project (an average of 240% over market) has driven an artificial increase in area property valuations, which has yet to correct itself;

• Resulting area rents do not reflect realistic market rates, which has turned away high-quality tenants interested in being adjacent to a casino anchor;

• News of MGM and potential future expansion created area-wide speculation, market inactivity, and a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude in anticipation of a buyout, which is clearly not in MGM’s plans; and

• Resulting property disinvestment, code violations, foreclosures, auctions, and growing blight in prime areas adjacent to the casino were all exacerbated on some levels by the pandemic.

Recognizing the pressing need and urgency for reinvestment in the immediate areas around MGM and the MassMutual Center, the city has narrowed the near-term focus of the Implementation Blueprint to a phase-one district generally bound by I-91/East Columbus Avenue, Harrison Street, Chestnut Street, and Union Street. Within that area, CCS has identified a number of properties that are in transition, vacant, or underutilized, including the Masonic Building, Colonial Block, Old First Church, 101 State St., 13-31 Elm St. (currently being renovated into housing and other uses), and the Civic Center Parking Garage.

The property across Main Street from MGM Springfield remains underutilized and largely vacant, despite expectations the casino would prompt greater vibrancy.

For this phase-one district, the city, through CCS, has advanced a three-part master development strategy that includes a Main Street and Convention Center Zoning Overlay District and other measures designed to stimulate and facilitate investment in that area, said Sheehan, adding that, while opportunities exist, COVID may in some ways be limiting what’s possible.

“We have to very flexible in terms of looking at what can be done with those properties,” he told BusinessWest. “My concern is that most of the foreclosed portfolio has office space above the ground-floor retail, for lack of a better word. Given the existing office market, I think we have to be very flexible with regard to adaptive reuse.”

Springfield at a glance

Year Incorporated: 1852
Population: 154,758
Area: 33.1 square miles
County: Hampden
Residential tax rate: $18.90
Commercial tax rate: $39.23
Median Household Income: $35,236
Median Family Income: $51,110
Type of government: Mayor, City Council
Largest Employers: Baystate Health, MassMutual Financial Group, Big Y Foods, MGM Springfield, Mercy Medical Center, CHD, Smith & Wesson Inc.
* Latest information available

As for the Northeast Downtown District, or blast zone, a master plan released in January and now still in the public comment period notes that, while that area, characterized by historic brick buildings and warehouses, has suffered a number of setbacks in recent years, including the gas explosion, it still “holds tremendous potential for redevelopment as a transit-oriented neighborhood.”

“We saw a few of the old faces back in here today, and it was exciting — you’re seeing some of the regular faces back. But we used to see them three or four times a week and sometimes twice a day; now, you see them once, and you hope to see them again next week — maybe.”

Elaborating, the report’s authors note that, “anchored by the newly renovated Union Station and the potential connectivity afforded by an anticipated increase in rail service in the coming years, the district is ripe for market-rate, multi-family residential development. And, in addition to a relatively affordable cost of living, the area benefits from being within walking distance of downtown amenities and cultural attractions, including the Springfield Museums.”

This potential is reflected in the ongoing renovation of the former Willys-Overland manufacturing facility on Chestnut Street into market-rate housing, said Sheehan, adding that more developments of this kind could follow.

One key to such efforts, as well as the revitalization of such areas as Apremont Triangle and the development of a needed “mixed-use commercial spine,” as noted by the report’s authors, is making Chestnut Street a two-way corridor, said Sheehan, adding that this change will dramatically increase traffic through the area and provide better linkage to other areas of the downtown, thus stimulating development activity.

Bottom Line

There is little doubt that COVID has slowed the pace of momentum in Springfield, a city that spent the better part of 20 years digging out of a deep fiscal morass and successfully reinventing its downtown as a vibrant hub for business, innovation, tourism, and nightlife.

The pandemic put much of that in what can best be described as a holding pattern, one that many see as thankfully coming to an end in the coming months and certainly by the end of this year.

When and how profoundly the city recovers from all that COVID has wrought remains to be seen, but with the gymnasts returning to the MassMutual Center, sculptures now adorning Pynchon Plaza, and the Thunderbirds selling season tickets for the 2021-22 season, there are now ample signs of life and sources of optimism.

Amd with them come more expressions of confidence that the city can not only regain what’s been lost, but surge even higher than in the days before the pandemic.

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

Small Actions in Energy Conservation Produce Big Impact

Education

Making Change

By Mark Morris

Students gather at a booth during the 2019 Sustainathon, the last time it was held in person.

One modest act can inspire others — and when that happens, the entire community benefits.

That’s the premise behind the Cooler Communities effort led by Uli Nagel, project director for Ener-G-Save, a program run by the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation.

Cooler Communities (the word ‘Cooler’ refers to reducing global warming) encourages school systems in Western Mass. to take on class projects relating to energy and energy efficiency. These projects are then displayed at a public exhibition in the community, where all attendees are asked to pledge one action they will take to conserve energy.

“Whether a person replaces standard light bulbs with LEDs or decides to buy an electric car, we encourage every action that saves energy,” Nagel said. Staff from Ener-G-Save keep a running total on pledged actions to measure their impact on the community.

For example, in 2019, Agawam schools held a Cooler Communities event in which 115 people took an energy-conservation pledge. Ener-G-Save estimated that follow-through by those Agawam residents would result in $87,600 in energy savings and 605 tons of carbon emissions eliminated from the air every year.

“Put another way, the energy-saving impact would be similar to removing 86 cars from Agawam roads every year,” Nagel said, demonstrating the impact from just one town.

The Cooler Communities efforts have continued this spring in the Berkshires and Agawam. This is the first year Springfield is taking part, as more than 1,000 high-school students have researched energy-related topics and recommended different actions they and their peers can take to make Springfield a safer, cleaner, and healthier place to live.

“Whether a person replaces standard light bulbs with LEDs or decides to buy an electric car, we encourage every action that saves energy.”

Nagel credited Springfield school officials for taking on Cooler Communities during the challenging year everyone has faced due to COVID-19 concerns. Ron St. Amand, director of Science for Springfield schools, appreciates the educational opportunity.

“It’s exciting to be able to help our students understand their choices have an impact,” he said. “This is a great opportunity to empower students to save energy, reduce carbon emissions, and slow climate change.”

To properly display all the student exhibits and invite others to take actions on saving energy, Ener-G-Save worked with Springfield to develop a dedicated website to make the effort accessible to everyone at a time when in-person exhibits are not possible.

From left, the 2019 Sustainathon, STCC mascot Rowdy the Ram, Reena Randhir, the three-student winning team from Springfield Sci-Tech School, and (back row) Springfield City Councilor Jesse Lederman and STCC president John Cook.

Nagel pointed out that setting up a virtual exhibit has definite advantages because more people can see all the student projects and pledge to reduce their energy usage online.

“The Berkshires Cooler Communities online event drew 600 visitors to the site, nearly double the number who attended the live event the year before,” Nagel said. “Keeping the exhibits and information online encourages more people to take part in the experience.”

Sustaining Momentum

A similar effort to raise awareness and take action on environmental challenges, known as Sustainathon, is happening at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC). This effort, now in its fourth year, brings together STCC students and high-school students to create awareness of environmental-sustainability challenges and how science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields contribute to finding solutions.

Reena Randhir, director of STEM Starter Academy at STCC, said Sustainathon was developed because many students are not aware of environmental efforts in their own backyard.

“While we certainly have environmental challenges, Western Mass. also has many success stories, like turning food waste into fuel,” Randhir said. “People from other countries are studying what’s happening here, so our students should also be on top of these innovations.”

Similar to Cooler Communities, students who take part in Sustainathon create exhibits relating to environmental issues and present them at a public event. Because of COVID concerns, the public event switched to a livestream on April 14 that attracted more than 800 registrants. While Randhir hopes to once again hold Sustainathon in-person, moving online this year turned it into an international happening.

“This is a great opportunity to empower students to save energy, reduce carbon emissions, and slow climate change.”

“Nearly 80 people from India participated in the live event, as well as smaller numbers of students from five other countries,” she said. “By livestreaming, we were able to reach classrooms around the world as well as our own students.”

The Sustainathon also encourages participants to pledge at least one action to benefit the environment, Randhir said. “We hope everyone is a champion of change in their life. Even the simple act of eliminating the use of plastic bags can make a difference.”

One of the actions she and her students had planned was a tree-planting campaign around Western Mass. timed for Earth Day on April 22.

The Grinspoon Foundation and the Community Fund of Western Massachusetts have come together to provide $5,000 grants to the school systems taking part in Cooler Communities efforts. Nagel explained that philanthropist (and recent BusinessWest Difference Maker) Harold Grinspoon started Ener-G-Save because, as a real-estate developer, he was always troubled by energy-inefficient New England homes that commonly leaked heat from roofs, windows, and walls.

“Harold made it his goal to raise awareness of energy efficiency to help people spend less money on energy that is, literally, going out the window,” Nagel said. At one point, Ener-G-Save took drive-by thermal images of 100,000 homes in Western Mass. and encouraged homeowners with the worst heat leakage to take advantage of free energy audits from Mass Save.

Every Bit Helps

Though a number of the energy-saving pledges are tied to home ownership, Nagel said one doesn’t need to own a home to find plenty of ways to make a difference. “Simple acts like stopping junk mail and including more meat-free meals in your diet are two easy things anyone can do that benefit you and the environment.”

She also suggested riding a bike for a short trip instead of driving a car and, when using a car to run errands, consolidating trips to save gas and time.

“Energy use and conservation are huge topics,” Nagel said. “When we see the simple things others are doing that make a difference, we are less likely to feel overwhelmed and more likely to act.”

Lead Engineer on NASA’s Perseverance Mission Started at HCC

David Gruel stands next to the launchpad

Education

Prepared for Launch

By Laurie Loisel

David Gruel stands next to the launchpad at the Kennedy Space Center on July 29, 2020, the day before NASA’ s Perseverance rover mission launch.

Not many people can say they’ve worked on every U.S.-led rover mission to Mars. One who can is David Gruel, a Holyoke Community College graduate from the class of 1991.

Five years out of HCC, Gruel was part of the Pathfinder mission that landed the Sojourner rover on Mars, the second Mars mission since the Viking became the first-ever U.S. mission to Mars in 1975. Sojourner had limited movement when compared to other rovers (most recently Perseverance) that travel across the planet, but it was a milestone nonetheless.

“Pathfinder was the return to the red planet some 20 years after Viking,” he said of the rover that launched in December 1996, landing on Mars in July 1997.

After that, through his job as an engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Gruel was among the crews working on the Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance NASA rover missions.

Considering that Gruel falls into a category of people for whom the maxim “it’s not rocket science” most definitely does not apply, the 50-year-old is modest and candid about his high-school years as an avid underachiever. He is equally clear about the role HCC played in putting him on a path to a career in rocket science. In fact, he flat-out declares that, if not for HCC, he wouldn’t be where he is today.

“I still have an incredible memory of the math and physics professors at HCC, and it was mutual. They went out of their way to know their students and to figure out where they could help.”

As a student at Westfield High School, Gruel spent more energy stocking grocery-store shelves, tending to the car those earnings bought him, and socializing with his friends than on academics. “I was looking for the easy road out at all times,” he admits.

After graduation, when many of his friends headed off to four-year colleges, Gruel continued working in the grocery store. “And then I realized I needed a different challenge in life,” he said.

That’s how he ended up at Holyoke Community College. Despite a less-than-stellar high-school transcript, he knew HCC “would actually give me a chance,” he said. “HCC was there to give people a second chance.”

Once enrolled, encouraged by his professors, he buckled down. He believes he had a better academic experience at HCC than he would have had he attended a four-year program right out of high school.

“The classes were small, and the teachers actually cared about you,” he said. “I still have an incredible memory of the math and physics professors at HCC, and it was mutual. They went out of their way to know their students and to figure out where they could help.”

It was not easy. He worked two jobs while a full-time HCC student, sometimes studying while logging third shift at a gas station.

“I was willing to work at it,” he said, “but there were people who were willing to support me, and that’s what I needed.”

Gruel graduated with honors and an associate degree in engineering, an accomplishment he remains proud of to this day. “This was something I had done for myself, and I had earned it.”

Up, Up, and Away

It also earned him acceptance at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., where he found he had a real affinity for engineering. And here is where his humility rears its head again.

“A lot of things went my way,” he said. “In addition to working hard, there’s a lot of luck involved in where we end up in our lives.”

In his senior year at RPI, he learned that two friends who also had gone to HCC were doing co-op semesters in the field, working at engineering jobs. He decided to pursue one, landing a co-op placement at the prestigious Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, a federally funded research and design center managed by Caltech, with the vast majority of its funding and contract work coming from NASA.

Dave Gruel’s favorite photo of Perseverance was captured moments before the Mars landing by one of the EDL (entry, descent, landing) cameras he installed on the rover.

Gruel thought the experience would spice up his résumé by adding that he worked on a team designing interplanetary spacecraft. Little did he know it would lead to his life’s work.

After eight months, he went back to RPI to finish school and graduate. Once on the job market, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was among the job offers he received, and though he always imagined settling down in New England, he found himself changing those plans when such an enticing job.

“The challenge of JPL massively dwarfed the benefits of being in New England,” he said.

Gruel’s role in the last two Mars missions was to lead the team known as ATLO (“I’m the boss man,” he said cheerfully.) ATLO stands for Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations. Essentially, the team takes all the parts for the rover and its spacecraft — tens of thousands of them — and assembles them.

“We get delivered to us a bunch of intricate Legos,” is how Gruel put it.

Next the team conducts endless tests to simulate launch, touchdown, and the harsh conditions on the ground. “So when it’s cruising from Earth to Mars, it works as designed,” he noted.

To simulate launch, the machine goes into a large vibe table; to mimic the Mars environment, it goes into a vacuum chamber that gets as cold as the red planet itself.

From mission start to landing, it takes about six to eight years, he explained. And timing is everything: because the planets align every 26 months in a way that creates optimal conditions for Earth-to-Mars travel, all assembly and testing must be fully complete when that time comes.

“The schedule pressure is intense,” he said. “We need to get our testing done and our design done in order for it to be ready to launch.”

In addition to finding a career at JPL, Gruel met his wife, Danelle, there when she was working in the Finance division, though now she stays home with their two boys, Dylan, 14, and Ethan, 11 (who also love Legos, as well as watching mission launches with their father).

Typically, once a mission has landed, Gruel’s role slows down quite a bit, but the Perseverance landing in February 2021 was different because he had installed a camera system to take video and still images of the descent, and he was responsible for it.

“Even after we launched, I was still intimately involved in making sure that system was going to function,” he said. “We continued to do testing on it to make sure it would reach its full potential, and it sure did. The images were amazing.”

Those images captured the spacecraft’s descent and landing, including video of the rover setting down on Mars and kicking up dust. “We joked it was kind of like our selfie cam,” he said.

Back to His Roots

In 1998, Gruel returned to HCC as the recipient of a Distinguished Service Award at commencement and delivered the keynote address, an invitation he seems to still find hard to believe to this day: “I spoke at commencement! Me, a flunkie out of high school!”

It’s a fact he mentions not to boast, but rather to inspire. If there’s anything he hopes people take away from his story, it’s that they should never underestimate their potential, even if they’ve had trouble living up to it.

“When you as a person make a decision to do something, the sky opens up,” he said. “The sky is no longer the limit.”

And that’s coming from someone who knows how to get to Mars.

Laurie Loisel is a freelance writer based in Northampton.

Avoid The Five Biggest LinkedIn Blunders

Technology

What Works, What Doesn’t

By Lisa Apolinski

Here’s a surprising statistic from Kinsta: LinkedIn has over 575 million users, and nearly half of those are active every month (meaning they post, comment, or like on the platform). If that isn’t impressive enough, LinkedIn has its sights on further investments into Latin America. What makes LinkedIn even more powerful is that users update their bios regularly, so the connections you are potentially requesting are in the roles they have listed on their bios.

LinkedIn is a digital goldmine, especially now in the post-COVID digital paradigm. Users post on career engagement, network with others in their industry, and share expertise and advice. Unfortunately, less professional engagement can and does happen on LinkedIn. Understanding what works in the world of LinkedIn for networking, and what hinders, can help remove obstacles for engagement. Here are the five biggest blunders that can hurt credibility and, potentially, career advancement.

“What makes LinkedIn even more powerful is that users update their bios regularly, so the connections you are potentially requesting are in the roles they have listed on their bios.”

Blunder #1: Being vague about why a connection is requested. Some people believe more connections are better. However, some connection requests come with a note that does not share why the sender wants to network. If there is not a clear reasoning for the network connection, many of these requests appear to not help or enhance the receiver’s network. A connection request with a note can help put the connection request into context for the receiver.

Try Instead: Clearly state why a request has been sent and how the connection benefits both parties. To get a connection request accepted, think about why you are requesting the connection.

Blunder #2: Focusing on selling versus connecting. Many LinkedIn users complain about this practice, and it seems to have become more common. After a connection has been accepted, the next message is a long selling pitch. What is even more surprising is the immediate request for a call or virtual demo. This is a request of someone’s time without taking time to connect first. A focus on selling will not help with lead generation or brand reputation. This type of communication does little for the recipient.

Try Instead: Thank the person for the connection and share something that might benefit the new connection, such as a video or article. Sharing knowledge can go a long way.

Blunder #3: Not investing in a current professional photo. One of the first digital impressions from a LinkedIn profile is the user photo. Using a photo that is casual, old, or provocative is missing a great opportunity to showcase a level of professionalism. A photo is a visual precursor to a job interview or lecturer. Investment in a professional photo is also a wise one as it can be used in a variety of digital ways. By keeping the photo current, network members are also easy to identify in other settings (remember those trade shows?).

Try Instead: Even a quick shot with your mobile can work. Use direct lighting, and natural light is best (morning or late afternoon). Capture yourself from the shoulders up and minimize distractions in the background.

Blunder #4: Posting on politics. While most people have an opinion on the current political climate, sharing political viewpoints may not be the best decision. Posts and articles on LinkedIn should highlight expertise, provide knowledge and leadership within an industry, and share resources that can help networks. Political postings do not fall into these three categories. These may also be offputting or polarizing to current and future networks.

Try Instead: If you wish to share political viewpoints, consider posting to another social-media channel. Keep your LinkedIn channel focused on how you can provide professional leadership and insight.

Blunder #5: The social channel is LinkedIn, not Love Connection. With so many other dating apps and websites available to find a soul mate, LinkedIn is not the place to request a connection with the purpose of asking someone out. Not only is this request unprofessional, it can easily come across as creepy, especially to women. LinkedIn users are using the platform for career and networking and expect others to do the same.

Try Instead: Use LinkedIn for its primary purpose, namely professional networking, and save the search for love to those websites or apps specifically created for that reason.

Bottom Line

LinkedIn offers amazing potential to connect with experts, learn about new trends in your industry, and discover new career paths and positions as you explore options. LinkedIn can work well for digital connection and professional networking, especially if these blunders are avoided.

These small modifications can unlock new networking opportunities and strong professional engagement now as well as in the future, and help establish your credibility within both your industry and your organization. By avoiding these five missteps, you will be able to more easily harness the power of LinkedIn in your professional practice and take your career to new heights.

Lisa Apolinski is an international speaker, digital strategist, author, and founder of 3 Dog Write. Her latest book, Persuade With A Digital Content Story, is available on Amazon. She works with companies to develop and share their message using digital assets; www.3dogwrite.com

Kimball Farms Promotes Dignity, Life Enrichment in Memory Care

Business of Aging

Peace of Mind

By Mark Morris

Heidi Cornwell says families looking for a senior-living community should consider its continuum of care.

Between now and 2030, 10,000 Americans each day, on average, will reach age 65. That type of growth affects all the industries that serve the senior population — and, not surprisingly, senior living is one industry paying close attention to this trend.

Kimball Farms Life Care provides independent and assisted living as well as dedicated memory-care services. In 2020, the Lenox facility received more inquiries about its residential offering than in any year prior. Heidi Cornwell, marketing and sales director for Kimball Farms, said potential residents are doing more online research to educate themselves about senior community living.

“Many people are ‘shopping around’ earlier because they saw their own parents ill-prepared for this part of their life journey,” Cornwell said. She also noted that, as people live longer, they are moving into senior at a later age.

As a continuing-care retirement community (CCRC), Kimball Farms offers increasing levels of care for those who need it. Residents can easily move from independent living to assisted living, giving the individual and their families greater peace of mind.

For residents who develop dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, Kimball Farms offers memory-care services through its Life Enrichment Program (LEP). Cornwell explained that the program is centered around a philosophy know as habilitation, which increasingly emphasizes a person’s remaining skills instead of the skills they have lost.

For example, if a sandwich is placed in front of a person with dementia, they may not be able to process what to do with it. “However, if someone sits across from them with a sandwich, picks it up, and takes a bite, that is the only queuing they need to understand what to do,” Cornwell said, adding that they can then enjoy their lunch without any further assistance.

“We are so grateful to our residents and their families because they worked with us to find creative and innovative ways to stay engaged and informed, while at the same time keeping everyone healthy.”

Singing is another good example of emphasizing a remaining skill. “The individual may not sing along to a song by themselves, but if an activities person or nurse sings with them, they can sing with pride and remember every word.”

The LEP puts its focus on maximizing quality of life for each resident. Regular routines and programs built around the interests of the individual keep them busy all day and into the evening. As a result, the residents thrive, Cornwell said, noting that the stimulation helps residents with dementia maintain the abilities they still have for as long as possible.

“We place no expectations on them, but encourage them to be the best person they can be,” she said. “We celebrate the good days, bolster self-esteem, and we treat them with the utmost dignity and respect.”

Safe Spaces

As research on dementia has evolved, caregivers have increased their understanding on how to manage the condition. Embracing the skills that remain for those with dementia can encourage feelings of acceptance and personal success. That’s important, Cornwell said, because, even though the disease can have an effect on a person’s ability to communicate or recall recent events, they still have a sense of the quality of life they desire.

Or, as she put it, “although they may no longer be able to dance, they still enjoy the music.”

Kimball Farms social worker Jackie Trippico leads what is known as Reminisce Group. This weekly activity begins with staff presenting a specific topic and asking residents to recall a significant memory related to that theme. Cornwell said one popular reminiscence involved talking about a trip to an ice-cream parlor.

Providing comfortable spaces is also part of the program. Kimball Farms’ memory-care neighborhood is a secure, self-contained community. Private apartments are modeled after a typical home with an open floor plan, while residents also have access to a secure outdoor courtyard so they can garden, see visitors, or take part in other activities. The staff ratio is higher than traditional assisted living, and they have all been trained in specialized dementia care.

When COVID-19 hit last year, families could no longer make in-person visits to residents in LEP. Cornwell said the activities professionals and nursing team quickly adapted to using tablets to arrange virtual visits or phone calls so families could stay informed on the care and well-being of their loved ones. Celebrating special occasions simply became virtual events.

“Zoom birthday and anniversary parties, as well as Skype holiday festivities, became our new normal,” she explained.

As COVID vaccine levels rise, Kimball Farms is able to welcome families to visit by appointment. Cornwell reported that residents and their families have been thrilled to resume the personal visits.

“We are so grateful to our residents and their families because they worked with us to find creative and innovative ways to stay engaged and informed, while at the same time keeping everyone healthy.”

As more Americans reach their senior years and live longer than previous generations, the demand for memory-care facilities to treat dementia and Alzheimer’s disease will continue to increase.

According to Seniors Housing Business magazine, from 2013 through 2018 (the latest figures available), the number of new memory-care units increased by 55%.

Cornwell advises those who are looking at senior-living options to consider the continuum of care a community offers. Healthy seniors who may choose independent living in senior housing to downsize from their homes need to think about future needs as well, she said.

“The community they choose should be a place that will provide them with the best quality of life, for the rest of their life, with increasing levels of care when and if they need it.”

For the T-Birds, All Eyes Are on the Fall

Nate Costa expects a great deal of pent-up demand

Features

Nate Costa expects a great deal of pent-up demand for professional hockey in the region.

“Baby steps.”

That’s what Nate Costa, president of the American Hockey League’s Springfield Thunderbirds, says the team is taking as it looks to return to the ice — and its place as a huge part of Springfield’s economic engine — this fall.

Such steps include selling season tickets, trying to secure some attractive dates from the league from home games, doing some preliminary planning of promotions, and putting together a new staff after most members of the old one — furloughed at the height of COVID-19 — found employment elsewhere. Most, but not all, of these assignments would be part of a normal late April for the team — but this is certainly not a normal April, nor a normal year.

Indeed, while 28 of the 31 teams in the AHL have been playing out an abbreviated 2021 season, the T-Birds are one of three franchises, all independently owned (the Milwaukee Admirals and the Charlotte Checkers are the other two) that have chosen to suspend play for the year and wait for 2021-22.

Costa doesn’t have any regrets about the decision not to play this winter and spring, saying the call was certainly the correct one from a business perspective — “at the end of the day, we made the right decision for the long-term solvency of the franchise; it was something we had to do” — and noting that his energies are completely focused on the 2021-22 season.

And as he talks about that upcoming season, he does so with a great deal of confidence about everything from pent-up demand for his product to what this new team he’s assembled can do between now and the time when the puck finally drops again in Springfield — October, by most estimates.

And that confidence emanates from the fact that he’s done this before.

Indeed, when a group of owners acquired a franchise in Portland, Maine and moved it to Springfield in 2016, Costa, then general manager, had to condense roughly a year’s worth of work into just a few months. It won’t be quite like that in 2021, but there are many similarities between the team’s start and what would have to be called a restart this year.

“We’re going to have to go back and redo this thing from scratch,” he explained. “And one thing I look at from a positive perspective is that I have the playbook; we did it that first year in a really short amount of time. We bought that franchise in June, and we had to play in October — we have that shotgun experience in our back pocket.”

Which brings us back to those baby steps. The team is taking many of them as it works to emerge from what will ultimately be more than 18 months of quiet at the MassMutual Center.

“We’re going through a normal renewal period with season-ticket holders — we’re folding those letters as we speak and just trying to get back to a little bit of normalcy,” he explained. “But it’s hard … we’re hopeful that, by October, we’ll be in a much better place. But you just don’t know; things change daily.”

Overall, he believes that, despite a year-long absence, the team is in a good place from a business perspective. Support from season-ticket holders and sponsors has been strong, he noted, and, from all indications, there will be a huge amount of pent-up demand for all the Thunderbirds bring to their fan base.

Meanwhile, with American International College going to the collegiate hockey tournament and UMass Amherst taking the home a national championship, there will likely be an even greater appetite for hockey locally, Costa told BusinessWest.

“I think people are excited about getting back to the arena, and I think that, when we have the chance to open the doors again, people are going to come, and they’re going to support us like they’ve never supported us before,” he said. “That’s what we’re hearing from people; we haven’t had a ton of outbound activity over the past few months, but recently we’ve finally been able to do some outreach, and there’s excitement.

“We’ve had some meetings with corporate partners, too, and there’s some support there as well — we’ve closed a few deals recently,” he went on. “We’re trying to be as proactive as possible … we’ve garnered a lot of support locally, and people are hopeful that we’ll be back to where we need to be.”

—George O’Brien

Quadrangle Expects a Bounce-back Year

Several sculptures created by Don Glummer now grace Pynchon Plaza

Features

Several sculptures created by Don Gummer now grace Pynchon Plaza, and many more will soon be on display at the Quadrangle.

Kay Simpson calls it “a sculpture takeover.”

That’s how she chose to describe a new exhibit, featuring New York City-based artist Don Gummer, that will take place within the galleries of the Springfield Museums, outside on its grounds, and also within the recently renovated Pynchon Plaza.

“He’ll have three works on display in Yertle the Turtle Garden; another four, and these are large sculptures, on the Quadrangle green; one near the Blake House; an exhibition in the D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts; and several more in Pynchon Plaza,” said Simpson, president and CEO of the Springfield Museums as she referenced “Constructing Poetry: Sculptural Work by Don Gummer,” which will be on display from May 1 to Sept. 12, with many pieces in place already.

She described the works with a number of adjectives, including vertical, dynamic, and soaring, the last of which is one she hopes to also use in conjunction with the Quadrangle itself later this year.

Indeed, the Gummer exhibit will be one of the cornerstones of what will certainly be a very important year for the Museums, which, like all cultural and tourism-related attractions, took a huge financial hit due to COVID-19, with Simpson projecting that revenues for the fiscal year that will end June 30 will be off by roughly 50% from the year prior.

Other upcoming exhibits include:

• “Wild Kratts: Creature Power!” opening May 29, an immersive, interactive exhibit where kids explore four animal habitats and the creatures within them, building STEM skills as they play;

• “Horn Man: The Life and Musical Legacy of Charles Neville,” from June 19 to Nov. 28 in the Wood Museum of Springfield History; and

• “Ai Weiwei: Tradition and Dissent,” an exhibit featuring selections from three decades of work created by the internationally renowned artist and social activist. It will run from July 17 through Jan. 2, 2022.

Simpson is expecting these and other exhibits and programs, combined with large amounts of pent-up demand for culture — and simply getting out — to inspire a huge bounce-back year for the Quadrangle.

This optimism is fueled by the country’s aggressive vaccination efforts and statistics at her disposal from the Greater Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau noting that 84% of Americans have travel plans for the next six months — the highest number since the start of the pandemic — and a good number of them will be focusing on day trips, which is what Springfield’s Quadrangle, a five-museum gem, specializes in.

“We attract people from all across the country and also international travelers coming to our museums,” she said, “but the biggest percentage of travelers are coming from the New England region.”

Simpson told BusinessWest that evidence abounds that people are looking to get back out and do the things they simply couldn’t do, or were certainly apprehensive about doing, during the pandemic. And that includes a trip, or several, to the Museums, which were closed for four long months last year before reopening to 25% capacity last summer.

The capacity limit was recently raised to 50%, and Simpson said numbers of visitors to the Quadrangle have been rising steadily over the past several months, pointing toward what she expects will be a very solid last three quarters of 2021 — and beyond.

“Once the capacity was increased to 50%, we’ve had more and more people come to the Museums,” she noted. “I think there is a real appetite for people to come out again, and I think our summer is going to be very strong, and summer will be a really good indication for us of how the rest of the year will unfold; it typically is. If we have a strong summer, we usually have a very good year.”

The Museums will not be able to conduct some of the popular family programs that have traditionally been strong draws during the summer months, due to restrictions on large numbers of people together in tight spaces, but those at the Quadrangle will make full use of its outdoor spaces and exhibits at all five museums.

That includes the the Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum, which, several years after its opening, continues to bring people from across the region and the country, and also from around the world, to Springfield.

“Dr. Seuss remains a huge draw — our highest attendance since we reopened in the summer was a ‘beep and greet’ we did on the weekend that followed Dr. Seuss’ birthday in March,” Simpson said. “We had 700 ticketed admissions; that’s about half of what we would typically get for a Dr. Seuss birthday party celebration, but it was a beep-and-greet — people were in their cars. That just shows the incredible drawing power he has.”

—George O’Brien

When Stimulus Backfires

By Editorial April 28, 2021

Opinion

Editorial

Let’s start by saying there is no debating that most of the economic-stimulus programs created by local, state, and federal governments have been extremely effective in helping businesses of all sizes and moving the economy forward at a time of extreme — as in extreme — duress.

Indeed, programs like the Paycheck Protection Plan initiative have provided an absolutely vital lifeline, without which many small businesses in this region and across the country would simply not be here. Other programs have benefited healthcare providers, specific sectors of the economy, and municipalities.

That said, some stimulus has actually backfired on business and the economy, and that’s especially true when it comes to federal unemployment benefits — checks that were designed to help those who lost their jobs to the pandemic, but have had serious unintended consequences in the form of people who are simply staying out of the job market because they can make more money by not working and are making the no-brainer decision to do so.

This is not a news flash; it has been going on for roughly a year now. What is a news flash — sort of — is the extent to which these unemployment benefits are stifling the economy just as the ingredients are there for it to start really taking off again.

Indeed, as the story on page 6 relates in great detail, businesses across a number of sectors are struggling mightily to find the help they need. And for some, the inability to find this help could threaten their ability to expand and take on work that could come their way.

Stories abound about pool-installation companies already booked solid for this season and simply unable to take on any more projects, even though they are there for the taking; home-improvement companies having to turn down lucrative projects because they just don’t have the workers; and restaurant owners looking ahead to better times with a mix of anticipation and dread, with the latter involving great uncertainty about whether they will have enough bodies to handle the surge in volume they hope — and believe — is coming.

Not all of this is the result of the unemployment payments contained in the federal stimulus package. Indeed, many employers were struggling to find adequate supplies of help before anyone had to think about hanging a mask from the rear-view mirror of their car. But these benefits have made the situation exponentially worse.

And it’s not just the benefits, especially the additional $300 per week contained in the stimulus package, that are causing the problem; it’s the inability, or the unwillingness, of state unemployment divisions to enforce the simple rules that pertain to unemployment benefits.

Unemployment was designed to help those who have lost their job and cannot secure another one. Those who receive these benefits are expected to maintain a vigilant pursuit of new employment opportunities, and accept one when a proper fit is found.

These days, that is simply not happening. People are staying on unemployment because, well … why wouldn’t they? Especially when they could earn as much, if not more, by not working.

Many employers are already counting down the days until September, when these benefits expire, thinking matters might then return to normal. This is wishful thinking — this Congress may well extend the benefits again, given the way things are going — and not where their energies should be placed.

Instead, business leaders should be lobbying those in power — both in Washington and Boston — to do something about this problem now, before things get worse and before the recovery from COVID becomes further stalled.

As we said at the top, most of the federal, state, and local stimulus has done what is was designed to do — help people hurt by COVID weather the storm. The unemployment benefits were designed to do the same, but the unintended consequences have now greatly overshadowed the good that’s been done.

This is a case of stimulus gone awry, and something has to be done.

People on the Move

People on the Move

Beth Zapatka

Springfield College announced that Beth Zapatka has been hired as the new vice president for Institutional Advancement, following a national and competitive search. Zapatka comes to Springfield College from Yale University, where she served as associate dean for Development and Alumni Affairs for the Yale School of Nursing. She will join the President’s Leadership Team on July 1 and oversee all institutional-advancement efforts, including the departments of Advancement Services, Alumni Relations, and Development. In a nine-year career at Yale, Zapatka held numerous roles that created a well-rounded set of experiences in institutional advancement that are directly transferable to Springfield College. In her most recent role in the School of Nursing, her accomplishments include securing significant new resources — nearly tripling contributions to the school — overseeing a rebranding campaign, building university-wide collaborations, broadening the use of social-media platforms, and reinvigorating the alumni and advisory boards.

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Slandie Dieujuste

Springfield College announced that Slandie Dieujuste has been hired as vice president for Student Affairs. She is currently vice provost for Student Affairs and dean of students at Massasoit Community College, a position she has held since 2018. She will start her new role at Springfield College on July 1. Dieujuste will join the Springfield College President’s Leadership Team and play a key leadership role in fostering a sense of inclusion and engagement in a diverse and vibrant community. Working with students, faculty, and staff, she will be responsible for developing a comprehensive co-curricular vision for life on campus. Prior to her current role at Massasoit Community College, Dieujuste was associate vice provost for Residence and Greek Life at Illinois Institute of Technology. She also held student-affairs leadership positions at Governors State University, Jackson College, Saint Mary’s College, and Northeastern University. She received her PhD in higher education administration from Andrews University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Boston College. Dieujuste will lead the Springfield College Division of Student Affairs, which includes the following offices and programs: Spiritual Life, Community Standards, Alcohol and Other Drug Education, Dean of Students, Student Orientation Programs, Career Center, Counseling Center, Housing and Residence Life, Student Activities and Campus Union, Campus Recreation, Center for Service and Leadership, and the Health Center.

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Western New England University announced the appointment of Basil Andrew Stewart as vice president for Finance and Administration after a comprehensive national search. Currently, he is vice president for Finance and chief financial officer for Lasell University and assistant treasurer and chief financial officer of Lasell Village in Newton. At Western New England, Stewart will serve as the chief financial officer for the university. Stewart will be responsible for the university’s finance and budgeting, internal audits, facilities management and construction, campus police, risk management, information technology, and auxiliary services. As CFO, he will serve as chief advisor to the president on financial and administrative matters and will have administrative responsibility to the board of trustees by providing administrative support to its finance, audit, and investment committees. Prior to his current post, Stewart served as chief financial officer and senior vice president for Finance and Administration at Merrimack College and held controller posts at such prestigious institutions as MIT, Northeastern, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Smith College, and Wentworth Institute of Technology. He held auditing posts for the Gillette Co. and Coopers & Lybrand. He earned his MBA and a BBA in accounting from UMass Amherst. He is a board member of the Boston Consortium for Higher Education and Boston Senior Home Care Inc. and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Inc. and the Massachusetts Society of Certified Public Accountants Inc. He holds designations as a chartered global management accountant and certified public accountant. Stewart, who joins Western New England University in June, succeeds retiring Vice President for Finance and Administration Richard Wagner, who also served as director of Institutional Leadership and Planning for 18 years.

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Alex Fullerton

Kristina Smith

Christina Reynolds

Tara Sanderson

UMassFive College Federal Credit Union announced four recent promotions. Alex Fullerton has been promoted to assistant vice president of Loan Operations. In this new role, he is responsible for providing leadership, oversight, and direction for all consumer-lending activities. Fullerton has been with the credit union for nine years and has held numerous roles, beginning as a teller, and most recently a supervisor of the Debt Solutions department. Kristina Smith has been promoted to assistant vice president of Retail Administration. Transitioning from overseeing retail branches, she now supports frontline teams to help plan and implement organizational growth projects; manage retail policies, procedures, and training; as well as assist with retail programs to ensure operational efficiencies are maintained. Beginning as a part-time teller after graduating from UMass Amherst, her assorted roles at the credit union over the past 12 years have prepared her for this new position. Smith’s UMassFive career includes working as the assistant to the former president/CEO manager of the Mercy Medical Center branch and senior branch manager in Hadley. Christina Reynolds has been promoted to Card Services manager. She began her career at UMassFive 10 years ago as a part-time online banking specialist in the Contact Center, eventually taking on other various branch assignments, including most recently the Northampton branch manager position. In her new role, she oversees the Card Services department, ensuring debit- and credit-card quality control and audit processes are in place while also maintaining policies to maximize efficiency and service to members. Tara Sanderson has been promoted to loan servicing manager. She began her career at UMassFive in December of 2017 as a loan servicing specialist. She was promoted to senior loan servicing specialist in mid-2019, shortly followed by a promotion to loan servicing supervisor. In her new position as loan servicing manager, Sanderson oversees both the loan-processing and loan-servicing aspects of lending to ensure compliance and maximize efficiency and service internally as well as for UMassFive members.

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Jean Deliso

Jean Deliso of the Connecticut Valley General Office of New York Life, an agent since 1995, has received the Agent of the Year Award for 2020. This award recognizes the agent who has achieved the top production among all agents at the company’s Connecticut Valley General Office. Deliso has developed an expertise in helping business owners and individuals protect and secure their own and their family’s future. Her extensive experience has led to a focus in certain fields, such as cash and risk management, retirement, and estate planning. She is committed to educating individuals regarding their finances and frequently conducts workshops advocating financial empowerment. She is a Nautilus Group member agent, an exclusive advanced-planning resource for estate-conservation and business-continuation strategies. Her access to this exclusive resource enables her clients to benefit from the group’s collective experience and insightful solutions as they apply to the protection, accumulation, and distribution of wealth to individuals, families, and business owners throughout the country. Deliso has also been a member of New York Life Chairman’s Council since 2012 and a qualifying member of the Million Dollar Round Table since 1999. Members of the elite Chairman’s Council rank in the top 3% of New York Life’s sales force of more than 12,000 licensed agents in sales achievement. Active in her community, she currently serves on the board of the Baystate Health Foundation and is the immediate past chairman. She also serves on and is the past chairman of the board of the Community Music School of Springfield and is the past chairman of the board of YMCA of Greater Springfield. She is a graduate of Bentley College.

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Cynthia Malinowski

Florence Bank named Cynthia Malinowski as this year’s Community Support Award winner. Malinowski, vice president and branch manager of the downtown Northampton office, joined Florence Bank in October 1999 and has 33 years of banking experience. The Community Support Award was established by the bank in 1997 as a means of formally recognizing employees who are active participants in community events and donate their personal and professional time to local not-for-profit organizations. Each year, the award recipient can select a nonprofit organization of his or her choice, and the bank will donate to that organization. At Malinowski’s recommendation, Florence Bank will donate $500 to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. The mission of the Food Bank is to feed neighbors in need and lead the community in ending hunger. Malinowski serves as an active member of the Greater Northampton Area Chamber of Commerce. She is also involved with the Easthampton Helping Hand Society and occasionally volunteers at the Easthampton Community Center.

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Kelly Partridge, founder of the philanthropic clothing boutique Contribution Clothing, recently published her first children’s book. How Owls Become Wise, a story that focuses on bullying and self-correction, is available for purchase online on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Walmart, with 10% of the book’s proceeds to benefit Unify Against Bullying. Contribution Clothing empowers women and supports the community through monetary donations to Western Mass. nonprofit organizations. Partridge has worked with Unify Against Bullying since the inception of Contribution Clothing and, when she decided to write a book about bullying, knew she wanted to use it as a way to show her support for the Unify mission. “Bullying is a topic that everyone has experienced one time or another in their lives, and I really wanted to bring awareness to it,” Partridge said, adding that she understands how victims of bullying feel, and she hopes her book can help both those who have experienced bullying and those who have inflicted it. To bring her story to life, the first-time author teamed up with illustrator Stephanie Hider, whom she met through a children’s book networking group.

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Greg Landry

Freedom Credit Union recently welcomed Greg Landry as a mortgage loan originator in its West Springfield branch. “We’re delighted to have Greg on our lending team,” Vice President and Chief Loan Officer Jeffrey Smith said. “In a way, it’s like he’s coming home, as he previously worked at West Springfield Federal Credit Union before it merged with Freedom in 2019. He has a long history in this community and is the perfect person to help our members in the area become homeowners.” A graduate of Framingham State University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, Landry has worked as a mortgage and home-equity loan originator for more than 24 years.

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All States Transport Inc. recently welcomed Bill Shibley, former president of Zip Carriers in Westfield. He comes to AST with 41 years of experience, including 26 years at Zip Carriers. When the owner of Zip Carriers announced his retirement early this year, Shibley was looking to merge the firm’s longtime client base with a local transportation broker, and AST was his first choice. “We’ve been friendly competitors for years, and AST has always had a great reputation,” Shibley said. “They’re very well-established, and it’s a similar culture to Zip Carriers — family-run, with a focus on excellent customer service. I’ve had some of my clients for almost 30 years. I couldn’t drop the ball. I knew I could count on AST to provide the same level of support, service, and expertise that I’ve always delivered. At 66, it’s a little funny to be starting out at a new place, but so far, so good.” All States Transport Inc. is a domestic freight broker and international freight forwarder offering customized shipping solutions across road, rail, ocean, and air.

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Andrew Harris

VHB recently welcomed Andrew Harris as senior project manager and senior geologist for its Connecticut Site Investigation & Remediation (SI&R) practice and the Southern New England markets. Harris brings extensive experience working with industrial and commercial clients to assess and remediate brownfield and legacy properties across the Upper Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, and New England. His environmental and redevelopment projects span the full project life cycle from initial due diligence and hazardous-building materials assessments, decommissioning, and demolition to remedial design, construction, and site closure. He has vast knowledge in assessing and remediating asbestos, lead, PCBs, petroleum, VOCs, and per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. In 2014, Harris was a member of the active working group for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to develop the department’s Guidance Document on Calculating the 95% Upper Confidence Level. In addition to being a licensed environmental professional (LEP) in Connecticut, a professional geologist (PG) in New Hampshire, and a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design 2.0 accredited professional (LEED 2.0 AP), Harris is also adjunct faculty at the University of Connecticut, teaching a class on how to conduct ASTM phase I and II environmental site assessments in Connecticut. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in geology from Ohio Wesleyan University and his master’s degree in geoscience from the University of Connecticut.

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Dennis Shockro

Jennifer Brown

Continuing a period of unprecedented growth, Pixel Health, a five-company, national healthcare-consulting ecosystem, appointed two seasoned IT professionals to fill new brand-level operations manager roles. Former Yankee Candle Chief Information Officer Dennis Shockro assumes the role of director of Operations at engineering consultancy VertitechIT. IT managed-services industry manager Jennifer Brown joins baytechIT as senior director of Operations. In addition to Yankee Candle, Shockro held senior operational roles at Brookstone and Northern Tool and Equipment. Brown has more than 20 years of customer-focused and technical experience, both in the human-services and IT managed-services industries. Pixel Health companies VertitechIT, baytechIT, Nectar Strategic Consulting, akiro, and Liberty Fox Technologies work with health systems, hospitals, clinics, and medical practices across North America. VertitechIT is the leading certified HIMSS Analytics INFRAM consultant in the world. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began a year ago, Pixel Health has expanded its overall workforce by approximately 40% across its U.S. operations.

•••••

Kayombo Kamawu

Kayombo Kamawu, a longtime administrator and advocate in the human-services field, was recently tapped by Pathlight to join its leadership team as vice president of Residential Supports. Prior to joining Pathlight, Kamawu served as vice president of Adult Services at the Kennedy-Donovan Center, where he was responsible for residential, day, and community Services, including shared living, family-support centers, and individual/supported living. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer and management information systems. Kamawu has also served in various leadership capacities in community-based day supports, employment, and day habilitation service lines. He prides himself in developing strong teams and enjoys the hands-on experience gathered while working with those teams. Pathlight, established in 1952, is a pioneer in services for children, teens, and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout the four counties of Western Mass.

Agenda

Agenda

Series on Workplace Violence Prevention

April 27, May 26, June 30: The Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast (EANE) and its training partners from Protective Advanced Safety Services (PASS), will present a three-part training series at EANE’s Agawam training center for regional employers on workplace violence prevention. The first workshop is slated for 3 to 5 p.m. Session topics include “Who’s Coming to Work,” “CALM: De-escalation Strategies,” and “Hire Right, Fire Smart.” All three sessions are designed to equip employers with the tools and knowledge they need to keep their workplaces safe from violence, including microaggressions, employee-relations escalations, and the worst-case scenario: an active shooter. Space in this training series is limited to 10 participants as EANE is following state guidelines on social distancing and capacity limits. The cost for the program is $331.50 for all three sessions. Interested parties can reach out to Allison Ebner at [email protected] or call (413) 789-6400 for more information.

HCC Women’s Leadership Luncheon

April 28, May 26: Dr. Sarah Perez McAdoo, population health capstone director at UMass Medical School, and Jessica Collins, executive director of the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, will be the featured presenters at the Holyoke Community College (HCC) Women’s Leadership Luncheon Series on April 28. They will lead a discussion titled “Courageous Actions” from noon to 1:15 p.m. The 2021 Women’s Leadership Luncheon Series takes place over Zoom on the fourth Wednesday of each month. Participants join a group of women leaders to discuss current issues and ideas to help their leadership development. They also have the opportunity to build a network of women leaders to help them navigate their careers. The May 26 event, called “Leading Through Change,” will feature Margaret Tantillo, executive director of Dress for Success Western Massachusetts, and Jess Roncarati-Howe, the organization’s program director. Sessions cost $20 each. Space is limited, and advance registration is required. To register, visit hcc.edu/leadership-luncheons.

‘Spring into Wellness’

May 4, 18; June 1: Springfield Technical Community College and the STCC Foundation will kick off a free learning series for the Western Mass. community that combines education and wellness in a fun and engaging format. Called “Spring Into Wellness,” the season begins with a three-part virtual series conducted on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. The sessions include: “Health Cooking at Home” with Nadim Kashouh, owner of Nadim’s Mediterranean in Springfield, on May 4; “Financial Wellness Checkup” with Anthony Rondinelli, associate professor of Business Administration at STCC, on May 18; and “Total and Holistic Wellness Practices” with Sheila Magalhaes, owner of Heartsong Yoga Center in East Longmeadow, on June 1. The STCC Foundation is offering community sponsorship opportunities for the series. E-mail Kelly Galanis at [email protected] for more information about sponsorship. To register to attend the event, visit www.stcc.edu/wellness.

Community Shred Days

May 8, 14; June 11: Just in time for spring cleaning, Freedom Credit Union will again offer the opportunity for Western Mass. residents to securely purge unwanted paperwork. In cooperation with PROSHRED Springfield, Freedom is offering free Community Shred Days at six of its branches in Springfield, Feeding Hills, Northampton, Greenfield, Chicopee, and Ludlow. The schedule is as follows: Saturday, May 8, 9-10 a.m., 1976 Main St. Springfield; Saturday, May 8, 11 a.m. to noon, 959 Springfield St. Feeding Hills; Friday, May 14, 9-10 a.m., 226 King St., Northampton; Friday, May 14, 11 a.m. to noon, 74 Main St. Greenfield; Friday, June 11, 9-10 a.m., 1976 Memorial Dr., Chicopee; and Friday, June 11, 11 a.m. to noon, 645 Center St., Ludlow. The public is invited to bring old bills, bank statements, tax returns, and other sensitive documents for free, quick, and secure on-site shredding. Members and non-members alike may bring up to five file boxes or paper bags per vehicle to the events. Masks are required, and social-distancing guidelines will be in effect.

VA Healthcare Virtual Summit

May 24-26: The Institute for Defense and Government Advancement (IDGA) announced plans for the IDGA VA Healthcare Summit. HCN is sponsoring this event, at which attendees will have the opportunity to meet with the leaders positioned to provide substantive change across the department, with a particular focus on advancing patient advocacy and experience, digital transformation, community and vendor engagement, e-learning, the VA’s innovation ecosystem, and more. IDGA’s summit will highlight these areas across the agenda, as well as include enabling VA initiatives currently underway to advance the most critical needs for veterans across the U.S. This year’s agenda, developed through indepth research by IDGA, covers a range of topics, including VHA innovation ecosystem initiatives, VA telehealth capabilities, financial management and business-transformation efforts, and a deep dive into clinical delivery. For more information and to view the agenda, visit www.idga.org/events-veteransaffairshealthcare-spring. To join and receive a 20% discount, register at bit.ly/3sts2FV and quote code VAH_HCN. All federal, state, and local government, as well as military and law enforcement, can attend at no cost.

Company Notebook

Company Notebook

Bulkley Richardson Launches Blockchain, Cryptocurrency Group

SPRINGFIELD — Bulkley Richardson recently launched a Blockchain and Cryptocurrency practice group to provide solutions for businesses adopting blockchain technology in a complex and changing regulatory landscape. The group’s attorneys have broad-based experience in key areas affecting blockchain technologies, including financial services and banking, intellectual property, securities regulation, emerging businesses, corporate law, mergers and acquisitions, taxation, and digital privacy and cybersecurity. Blockchain technologies like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are changing the way businesses operate. The rise of the blockchain has spurred a wave of innovation that is disrupting the market and spawning new areas of the digital economy. As blockchain innovation continues to grow and evolve, so do the legal, regulatory, and business challenges. The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency practice group includes attorneys Mark Cress, Dan Finnegan, Scott Foster, Bart Galvin, Lauren Ostberg, Ron Weiss, and Sarah Willey. With a cross-disciplinary approach, Bulkley Richardson aims to assist clients in capitalizing on new business opportunities and meeting the challenges in this rapidly evolving industry.

Whalley Computer Associates Named One of Tech Elite 250

SOUTHWICK — Whalley Computer Associates (WCA) has once again been named to the Tech Elite 250 list comprised of solution providers in the U.S. and Canada that have made the investments necessary to earn the highest level of certifications from the largest and most prestigious manufacturers of technology products and services, such as Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Nutanix, VMware, HPI, and HPE, to name a few. CRN, a brand of the Channel Company, named WCA to the Tech Elite 250 in 2016 and 2019 as well. WCA’s engineering team has earned about 125 certifications with nearly 30 different manufacturers by numerous dedicated engineers. Founded in 1979, WCA has been providing IT solutions and services to customers throughout New England and upstate New York for 42 years. While it boasts a diverse customer base from small customers to numerous Fortune 100 companies in a wide array of industries, WCA is one of North America’s leading technology solution providers to healthcare, retail, finance, K-12, higher education, and government agencies on both the state and local levels.

Darby O’Brien Advertising Launches Catch & Keep Initiative

SOUTH HADLEY — For more than 40 years, Darby O’Brien Advertising has created and executed innovative branding, advertising, and political campaigns. In recent years, clients have increasingly asked the agency to bring its same out-of-step approach to another important area of business: recruiting. Many businesses, especially in technology and manufacturing, are facing unique challenges in today’s job market. Many have plenty of well-paid positions open but are unable to find the right candidates to fill them. Then, when they find the right people, it can be a challenge to keep them. Traditional headhunters and online hiring services often fall short, offering boilerplate approaches to a problem that needs customized solutions — and offering no follow-up. The agency decided to launch Catch & Keep after developing successful recruiting campaigns for clients including VSS CNC Machining, the Mental Health Assoc., Paragus IT, and Berkshire Real Estate. Case studies and more information on Catch & Keep can be found at darbyobrien.com/recruiting.

National Science Foundation Grants $649,000 to WNEU

SPRINGFIELD — The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Western New England University (WNEU) $649,111 for a five-year grant to offer scholarships to students. The target populations are students who are high achievers in high school whose family demonstrates they will benefit from financial aid. The grant will create a community-outreach program to increase the number of high-school and middle-school students entering and succeeding in STEM fields. The grant, titled Sustainable Pathways to Success for Low-income STEM Students Emphasizing Research and Innovation, was awarded to Jingru Benner, assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering and a team of educators from the university including Dean Hossein Cheraghi, Michael Rust, and Anthony Santamaria from the College of Engineering; Raymond Ostendorf from the College of Arts and Sciences; and Bryan Gross, vice president for Enrollment Management and Marketing. Benner will serve as principal investigator and project director. The project will increase the number of high-school students who have access to enroll in the WNEU Mechanical Engineering program. The grant provides funding for an annual need-based scholarship that will be added on top of each student’s WNEU merit scholarship and can be combined with the university’s Women in Engineering or FIRST Robotics Scholarships. In addition, the grant will fund critical resources for students in the program to receive targeted support to help them successfully graduate.

Elms College Athletics to Join GNAC This Fall

CHICOPEE — Elms College and the Great Northeast Athletic Conference announced that the Blazers’ GNAC core membership will begin this fall with the upcoming 2021-22 academic year. Last October, both the institution and the league office issued a joint announcement indicating Elms would join the GNAC with the 2022-23 academic year; however, that timeline has since been adjusted. Elms had been a member of the New England College Conference since 2007, claiming 19 league championships while leading the way in All-Academic selections. The Blazers’ swimming and diving programs have been associate members of GNAC since 2006, last competing at the 2020 GNAC championships just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. Now all 17 sport programs will compete in the same conference, including baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, men’s golf, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, as well as men’s and women’s volleyball. GNAC Commissioner Joe Walsh, the conference office, and current members are working diligently to make scheduling adjustments to accommodate the Blazers’ programs, as Elms will now begin its GNAC journey this fall with men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, men’s golf, and women’s volleyball.

MCLA Receives $28,000 Grant from Massachusetts DHE

NORTH ADAMS — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) has received a $28,720 Higher Education Innovation Fund Grant from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education (DHE), which recently announced a slate of $1.7 million in grants for the state’s public colleges. These grants fund initiatives that help colleges work toward racial equity in Massachusetts public higher education. The grant will allow the MCLA Department of Public Safety to work with a consulting firm specializing in improving police departments’ relationships with their communities. The consultant will work with MCLA to develop an interactive training module for the Department of Public Safety with the goal of increasing cultural competency and engagement of its officers and staff with the MCLA community. Most of the grant proposals funded by DHE seek to provide faculty and staff equity training for transforming campus pedagogy, syllabi, curriculum, and campus life, with the goal of making the institution a truly nurturing environment for students of color.

UMass Board of Trustees Approves In-state Tuition Freeze for 2021-22

BOSTON — The University of Massachusetts board of trustees voted to approve UMass President Marty Meehan’s proposal to freeze tuition for all in-state undergraduate and graduate students at UMass Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, and Lowell for the 2021-22 academic year. The vote marks the second consecutive year of tuition and mandatory fee freezes at UMass for in-state undergraduate and graduate students. The Boston, Dartmouth, and Lowell campuses also froze out-of-state student tuition. The net price of a UMass education — price minus financial aid — remains consistent with other New England public land-grant universities and 31% below peer private institutions. In addition to a tuition freeze, the university increased its institutionally funded financial aid to a record high of $352 million this fiscal year. This aid, which is funded directly by the university, accounts for 40% of the total aid UMass students receive and is comprised primarily of scholarships and grants. Since 2015, institutional aid has increased by $116 million, or 49%. At least 25% of UMass students at each campus receive Pell Grants. The Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund is projected to provide $23 million to UMass to further support students, and last year’s CARES Act provided $23 million in direct aid to students. These grants are not considered or included as financial aid.

Brenda Cuoco & Associates to Open Second Branch in Longmeadow Shops

LONGMEADOW — Brenda Cuoco & Associates Real Estate Brokerage announced the addition of a new flagship office location opening soon in the Longmeadow Shops. The office is currently under construction, with a target opening date of May 1, and will be located at 714 Bliss Road, adjacent to Starbucks. The addition will support the steady and sustained growth that the brokerage has seen in the last several years and will complement the existing office located at 2442 Boston Road in Wilbraham. The brokerage will also actively recruit top-performing agents to help serve this new community. The firm sold 164 properties last year with a volume of $46.8 million.

AIC to Name Renovated Basketball Locker Room in Honor of Frank Oppedisano

SPRINGFIELD — The American International College (AIC) men’s basketball locker room will enjoy a much-needed makeover with help from friends in the community. Earlier this year, a group of alumni expressed an interest in doing something meaningful to help AIC men’s basketball in memory of their friend and former teammate, Frank Oppedisano, class of 1967. In addition to their fundraising effort, AIC Athletics engaged alumni and supporters during Athletics Giving Week last month. Donors were asked to consider giving to a general fund or team of their choice, with proceeds from the campaign earmarked to benefit student-athletes and athletic programs at the college. The new locker room will offer additional locker space, new flooring, and Yellow Jacket branding throughout, and will be named in honor of the Springfield native who was a four-year member of the basketball program. Before his passing in March 2020, Oppedisano was a regular at AIC men’s basketball home games and routinely provided congratulations after a win or unconditional support in defeat.

Bradley Debut Non-stop Service to Atlanta on Frontier Airlines

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. — The Connecticut Airport Authority (CAA) announced the debut of non-stop service from Bradley International Airport (BDL) to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) on Frontier Airlines. The service will commence on June 11 and will operate four times per week. To view flight times and booking information, visit www.flyfrontier.com. With the debut of non-stop service to Atlanta, Frontier Airlines will now offer five non-stop destinations from Bradley International Airport this summer. The airline’s other destinations include Denver, Miami, Orlando, and Raleigh-Durham.

Incorporations

Incorporations

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

AMHERST

Amity Street Alliance for New Arts Inc., 70 Columbia Dr., Amherst, MA 01002. Roman Yakub, same. It is the intent of this corporation to help artists, musicians, writers, and other creative individuals, to stage performances, display exhibits and carry on other cultural and educational activities for the public, and, in general, to do every other act necessary, incidental or appropriate to accomplishment of any of the above purposes.

CHICOPEE

Massachusetts Truck & Tractor Pullers Association Inc., 150 Fair St., Chicopee, MA 01020. Natalie Cowles, same. To maintain a non-profit organization in order to conduct tractor and trailer pulls and the like at fairs and other venues, including organizing and providing trucks and trailers for all classes, setting up competitions and events, and doing any and all other business related thereto.

NORTH ADAMS

Roots Teen Center Inc., 43 Eagle St. North Adams, MA 01247. Courtney Randall, same. To educate, engage, encourage, and empower youth; and to engage in any other lawful business that a non-profit or charitable corporation is permitted to engage under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

PITTSFIELD

Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy Professionals Association Inc., 82 Wendell Ave., Suite 100 Pittsfield, MA 01201. Yvette P. Ladd, 2344 Christiansburg Pike NE, PO Box 763 Floyd, VA 24091. The corporation shall be organized and operated exclusively as a business league, not organized for profit, and no part of the net earnings which shall incur to the benefit of any private member thereof, or individual as those terms are used in section 501 (c) (6) of the internal revenue code of 1986, as amended (the “code”). Notwithstanding any provision of these articles, this corporation shall not support or engage in any program or activity not permitted to be carried on by a corporation exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(6) of the code.

Strong Little Souls Inc., 113 Elaine Dr., Pittsfield, MA 01201. Madison A. Quinn, same. Helping families with children affected by cancer. The corporation is organized exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes, including, for such purposes, the making of distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under section 501(c)(3) of the internal revenue code, or the corresponding section of any future federal tax code.

Tech Kitchen Inc., 82 Wendell Ave., Suite 100 Pittsfield, MA 01201. Graeson Coughenour, same. The purpose of organization includes but is not limited to: Collection and disassembly of electronic equipment for the purpose recycling all components and materials that can be reused. In addition said organization is organized exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes, including, for such purposes, the making of distributions to organizations that qualify as exempt organizations under section 501(c) (3) of the internal revenue code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code.

SPRINGFIELD

Premier Building & Remodeling Inc., 1464 State St., Springfield, MA 01109. Anthony Nelson, same. Construction company.

Ratchette Industries Inc., 483 Forest Hills Road, Springfield, MA 01128. Andrew Racette, same. Plumbing and heating installation.

Shousha Inc., 8 Leyfred Ter., Apt. 1R Springfield, MA 01108. Abdilrahman Abdi, same. Long-distance trucking.

WARREN

SC Peters Restoration Inc., 61 O’Neil Road, Warren, MA 01083. Shaun Christopher Peters, same. Handyman services.

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Letendre Painting & Consulting Inc., 28 Herrman Road, West Springfield, MA 01089. Daniel Letendre, same. Professional coating consultants.

Ruslan Express Incorporation, 72 Jenson Circle, West Springfield, MA 01089. Ruslan Shvetsov, same. Transporting goods.

Satellite Auto Delivery Inc., 188 Riverdale St., Floor 2 West Springfield, MA 01089. Ruslan Malancea, same. Trucking.

WILBRAHAM

Unity Tech Solutions, Inc., 5 Sherwin Road, Wilbraham, MA 01095. Kevin Farrell, same. Staffing and recruiting service.

WILLIAMSTOWN

New Europe Review Inc., 54 Hall St. #2 Williamstown, MA 01267. Paul Olchvary, same. This corporation is organized to operate exclusively as a charitable organization with charitable literary and educational purposes.

Spoon Incorporated, 160 Water St. #25 Williamstown, MA 01267. David Little, same. Sale of food and beverages at retail.

Doing Business as Certificates

DBA Certificates

The following business certificates and/or trade names were issued or renewed during the month of April 2021. (Filings are limited due to closures or reduced staffing hours at municipal offices due to COVID-19 restrictions).

DEERFIELD

Carsons Cans, LLC
40 Hawks Road
Walter Kleeberg Jr.

Deerfield Car and Shuttle Services, LLC
78 Hillside Road
Vincent Traina Jr.

Korpita Masonry
165 Pine Nook Road
Paul Korpita Jr.

HADLEY

Bay Road Firewood
35 Lawrence Place
Kenneth Koehler

Benjamin Co.
2 Bay Road, Suite 200
Paul Benjamin

Cups & Stones Therapeutics
226 Russell St.
Heather Roberts

Healing Zone
58 Russell St.
Nanci Newton

Katie Ray Arts
81 Rocky Hill Road
Kathryn Richardson

Spruce Hill Motors
235 Russell St.
Randall Izer

Tim Perry Rocks
18 West St.
Timothy Perry

Ulta Beauty
351 Russell St., #40
Ulta Beauty

Zgrodnik Farm
12 Knightly Road
Joseph Zgrodnik

NORTHAMPTON

Advanced Holistic Health and Fitness Studio
80½ Maple St., Apt. 2R
Caren Figliolini

B Strategic Communications
45 Orchard St.
Elena Sharnoff

Beth A. Senecal
219 Prospect St.
Beth Senecal

Claim Resolution Forum
446 Bridge Road
Neil Darragh

Hampshire Myotherapy
16 Center St., Suite 222
Robert Anderson

Iconica Social Club
1 Amber Lane
William Swyers, Ximena Salmerón

JJ’s Tavern
99 Main St., Unit B
Jon Neumann

Northampton Family Acupuncture
51 Lincoln Ave.
Nora Kennedy

Northampton Transmission
245 North King St.
John Hunter

Simhai Solutions
210 State St.
Nili Simhai

Starlight Llama Bed & Breakfast
940 Chesterfield Road
Diana Boyle-Clapp

Sutajin Bileygr
73 Barrett St., #6201
José Gonzalez

Transhealth Northampton
10 Main St.
Katie Wolf

Well Student
166 Grove St.
Jessica Gifford

SOUTHWICK

AJ Stephans Beverages
395 North Loomis St.
Russell Jones

Berkshire Kitchens & Baths
8 Evergreen Ter.
Dean Porter

Mark’s Property Services
15 Hudson Dr.
Mark Kuchachik

WESTFIELD

Bombshelly Vintage
32 White St.
Lynn Wegiel

D & D Cleaning Services
322 Papermill Road
Deborah Gaudette

Father & Sons Hardscaping & Landscaping
32 Rosedell Dr. Ext.
Valeriy Mikhalinchik

Hang-Rite Gutter Installation Co.
37 South Meadow Road
CKG Gutters, LLC

Jay’s Property Services
33 West Silver St.
Jay Larsen II

Jolene Hamilton, PhD
571 Granville Road
Jolene Hamilton

LTW Custom Cosmetics
32 White St.
Lynn Wegiel

Katt’s Creations
35 Jeanne Marie Dr.
Yekaterina Panasyuk

Mam’s Creations Handmade
5 East Bartlett St.
Mayra Matos

MJH Carpenters & Contractors
41 Crown St.
Michael Helbling

Mr. Easy Shop Store
126 Union St.
Marianne Ramos

NE Billing
15 Noble Ave., Apt. 1
Brittany Gum

New England Ammonia Safety Inc.
29 Salvator Dr.
James Burke

Perrier Trucking
12 Madison St.
Jeremy Perrier

Pioneer Valley Property Services
87 Franklin St.
Mark Slayton

Scorzi’s Auto Detailing
270 Munger Hill Road
Richard Scorzafava

Squid Decals
30 Bush St.
Emily Anton, Jeffrey Anton

Susan’s Discount Travel
33 Woodcliff Dr.
Susan Williams

Susan’s Global Imports
33 Woodcliff Dr.
Susan Williams

Ultimate Floors
18 Cara Lane
Seth Lakin

Western Mass Irrigation Services, LLC
503 West Road
Robert Patenaude Jr.

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Absolute Fire Protection
87 Lowell St.
E. David Knapik

Balise Lexus
1385 Riverdale St.
Linda Texeira

Balise Toyota
1399 Riverdale St.
Linda Texeira

Batik Clothing Co.
123 Pine St.
Carrie Blair

DJ Prince Entertainment
80 Brush Hill Ave.
Brandon Naylor-Green

Eurofins Environment Testing New England
126 Myron St.
Thomas Mitchell

Friendly’s #20847
1094 Riverdale St.
Beth Moore

Good Gatherings
905 Piper Road
Lauren Gaffney

Main Auto Sales
842 Main St.
William Matte

Oakland Family Daycare
39 Glenview Dr.
Michele Robert

Smokin Scoops
1425 Westfield St.
Jonathan Goodhind

Teece Tax Solutions
24 Craig Dr.
Shawn Teece

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies

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

Ascioti, Lisa Beth
11 Bramble Hill Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/30/2021

Baker, Kevin Michael
71 Craig Dr., Apt. F2
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/25/2021

Byrne, Nathaniel A.
29 Tracy St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/30/2021

Cerveira Construction
Cerveira, Jack
Cerveria, Joaquim
P.O. Box 1634
Pittsfield, MA 01202
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/29/2021

Cordero, Irbian
146 Pearl St., Apt. 1R
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/19/2021

Eger and Associates
Eger, Michael
78 Mercury Court, Apt. R2
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/24/2021

Evans, Daniel N.
19 Yorktown Dr.
Springfield, MA 01108
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/29/2021

Environmentally Conscious Cleaners, LLC
Willow Tree Outdoor, LLC
Pacheco, Katie Ann
83 North Whitney St., Apt. 8
Amherst, MA 01002
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/26/2021

Gauthier, Johanna E.
114 Dubois St.
Indian Orchard, MA 01151
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/29/2021

Guzman, Fiordaliza
518 Amherst Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/29/2021

Hannigan, Karen A.
8 Lower Cove Road
Ware, MA 01082
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/24/2021

Hernandez, Nestor
Hernandez Calderon, Nestor H.
6 Mill Site Road, Apt. 1
Hadley, MA 01035
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/26/2021

Kamikaze Industries, LLC
Montel, Stephen G.
18 Burford Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/26/2021

Kenyon, Ernest R.
104 Maplegrove Dr.
Pittsfield, MA 01201
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/25/2021

Korchevskaya, Angela
235 State St., Unit 216
Springfield, MA 01103
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/23/2021

Lanney, Christopher Donald
18 Main St., Apt. 3D
South Hadley, MA 01075
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/31/2021

leveragedomains.com
Velez, Stefano P.
Velez-Morell, Stefano P.
Parodi, Carla M.
Parodi-Rullan, Carla M.
P.O. Box 1392
Barre, MA 01005
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/31/2021

Michon, Mary F.
a/k/a Altman, Mary
211 Protection Ave., Apt. 5
North Adams, MA 01247
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/25/2021

Mt. Tom Companies, Inc.
Mt. Tom Ski Area, Inc.
273 State St., 2nd
Springfield, MA 01103
Chapter: 11
Date: 03/25/2021

Naginewicz, Brenda Jeanne
15 Mitchell Dr.
Chicopee, MA 01022
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/31/2021

Reardon, Michael J.
42 Colony Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/17/2021

Rodriguez, Melvin Diaz
P.O. Box 1252
Westfield, MA 01086
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/24/2021

Soules, Gail M.
P.O. Box 712
Great Barrington, MA 01230
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/13/2021

Shepardson, Nicholas J.
P.O. Box 268
Barre, MA 01005
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/19/2021

Volcy, Kelly Marie
PO Box 416
South Barre, MA 01074
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/25/2021

Wheeler, Scott T.
19 Saab Court, Apt. 1206
Springfield, MA 01104
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/17/2021

Wisell, Michelle Marie
55 Waters Edge Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/31/2021

Zagame, Tyler A.
Zagame, Martha
a/k/a Mitchell, Martha
3 South High St.
Turners Falls, MA 01376
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/31/2021

Zinni, Amber Nicole
Zinni-Richer, Amber Nicole
210 Pleasant St., Apt. 2
Holyoke, MA 01040
Chapter: 7
Date: 03/23/2021

Real Estate Transactions

Real Estate

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

FRANKLIN COUNTY

BERNARDSTON

379 Fox Hill Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $229,000
Buyer: Mark E. Gilmore
Seller: Leslie J. Stevens
Date: 04/02/21

19 Harwood Dr.
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Susan Root
Seller: R. Brown TR
Date: 03/31/21

169 Shaw Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: William D. Cycz
Seller: Noah Deignan
Date: 03/31/21

BUCKLAND

4 Old State St.
Buckland, MA 01338
Amount: $198,000
Buyer: Laurie L. Laffond
Seller: Christopher D. Davenport
Date: 03/24/21

33 William St.
Buckland, MA 01338
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Jocelyn O’Shea
Seller: Thomas W. Archer
Date: 04/02/21

CHARLEMONT

495 Mountain Road
Charlemont, MA 01339
Amount: $206,000
Buyer: Nicholas R. Cerveny
Seller: Russell R. Risden
Date: 03/31/21

COLRAIN

411 Jacksonville Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $236,000
Buyer: Cody Strakose-Griffin
Seller: Jon Sonntag
Date: 03/23/21

DEERFIELD

24 Meadow Wood Dr.
Deerfield, MA 01373
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Julia Gates-Hartnell
Seller: Eggers INT
Date: 04/01/21

43 Snowberry Circle #A
Deerfield, MA 01342
Amount: $389,900
Buyer: W. A. & June A. Lundin IRT
Seller: Ragus LLC
Date: 03/26/21

43 Snowberry Circle #B
Deerfield, MA 01342
Amount: $324,900
Buyer: John W. Rees INT
Seller: Ragus LLC
Date: 03/26/21

GREENFIELD

26 Champney Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $144,000
Buyer: Michael Grover
Seller: Leonard F. Gould
Date: 03/31/21

163 Chapman St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $123,985
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Vanessa Arabia
Date: 03/25/21

294 Country Club Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Danielle C. Loynd
Seller: Caitlin R. Tela
Date: 03/31/21

77 Crescent St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Hugh B. Bales
Seller: Jacqueline A. David
Date: 03/31/21

112 Franklin St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Enoch Jensen
Seller: Ann M. Powers
Date: 04/01/21

82 James St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Camillo Archuleta
Seller: Wayne Garfinkel
Date: 03/29/21

342 Log Plain Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Taylor E. Neal
Seller: Kristin Knoll
Date: 03/26/21

479 Main St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Rikard R. Treiber
Seller: Women In Transition Inc.
Date: 04/01/21

73 Orchard St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $749,000
Buyer: Isaac Torrin
Seller: Brian E. Thompson
Date: 04/01/21

51 Thayer Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Christopher Damboise
Seller: Terry L. Gregory
Date: 03/31/21

28-30 Walnut St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Heather F. Stewart
Seller: Karen M. Truehart
Date: 03/31/21

LEVERETT

246 Long Plain Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Elsbeth L. Walker
Seller: Herbert, Marjorie P., (Estate)
Date: 03/24/21

LEYDEN

Greenfield Road
Leyden, MA 01301
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Shawna Pazmino-Brook
Seller: Deloretto, David, (Estate)
Date: 04/02/21

MONTAGUE

Federal St.
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Thomas Delvan-Dougan
Seller: James H. Clapp
Date: 03/31/21

472-476 Federal St.
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Andrei Taraburca
Seller: Stone, Richard K. Jr., (Estate)
Date: 03/26/21

433 Turners Falls Road
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $142,000
Buyer: Heather George
Seller: Quinones, Donna D., (Estate)
Date: 03/31/21

450 Turners Falls Road
Montague, MA 01351
Amount: $221,000
Buyer: Jake Curry
Seller: Marion, Edward E., (Estate)
Date: 03/26/21

NEW SALEM

377 Petersham Road
New Salem, MA 01355
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Todd Lanoue
Seller: David A. Pariseau
Date: 03/26/21

ORANGE

23 Cottage St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $159,575
Buyer: Michael Burch
Seller: Mignonne D. Davis
Date: 03/22/21

75 Daniel Shays Hwy.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $192,900
Buyer: John E. Bellar
Seller: Donald W. Knapp
Date: 03/23/21

154 Memory Lane
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Derek M. Salmi
Seller: FNMA
Date: 04/01/21

153 Quabbin Blvd.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $2,500,000
Buyer: 153 Quabbin Boulevard LLC
Seller: JGC RT
Date: 04/02/21

SHELBURNE

4 Mercy Anderson Road
Shelburne, MA 01370
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: Emily A. Tuthill
Seller: Raymond W. Tuthill
Date: 03/31/21

SHUTESBURY

196 Montague Road
Shutesbury, MA 01072
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Nora L. Gurley
Seller: Anne M. Kittredge
Date: 03/24/21

WHATELY

1 Sugarloaf St., Ext.
Whately, MA 01373
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Danielle Paley
Seller: Pamela Smith
Date: 04/01/21

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

62 Center St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $257,000
Buyer: Margarita Malyshevski
Seller: Vadim Nazarets
Date: 03/29/21

135 Edgewater Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $485,000
Buyer: Lissette Grimaldi
Seller: James E. Millot
Date: 03/25/21

74 Federal St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Fumi Realty Inc.
Seller: Carr, Ronald A., (Estate)
Date: 04/02/21

135 Franklin St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Zachary Lebreton
Seller: Edward P. Borgatti
Date: 03/31/21

1744 Main St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Anatolie Corja
Seller: Maxcine Cirillo
Date: 03/31/21

981 River Road
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: JMAC Realty Corp
Seller: Paul J. Traska
Date: 03/31/21

521 South West St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $279,000
Buyer: Nicholas L. Damours
Seller: Jessica L. Iacolino
Date: 03/31/21

700 Silver St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $2,350,000
Buyer: Igloo Cellulose Realties
Seller: Robert A. Fagin
Date: 04/01/21

173 Southwick St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $750,000
Buyer: Hillside Development Corp.
Seller: Longhi, Alfred J., (Estate)
Date: 03/31/21

1094 Suffield St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $1,150,000
Buyer: Tiernanoge Properties LLC
Seller: Work Opportunity Center Inc.
Date: 03/29/21

114 Wagon Wheel Dr.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $565,000
Buyer: Zachary Curtin
Seller: Michelle L. Reynolds
Date: 03/31/21

198 Walnut St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $202,000
Buyer: Lora Feeley
Seller: Louis Bonavita
Date: 04/02/21

215 Valley Brook Road
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Kubra Cayan
Seller: Nurcan Cayan
Date: 03/26/21

BRIMFIELD

50 Dix Hill Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Peter McQueen
Seller: Ryan C. Hurt
Date: 03/30/21

CHESTER

313 Abbott Hill Road
Chester, MA 01011
Amount: $550,000
Buyer: Timothy Hoffmann
Seller: Jeffrey M. Defeo
Date: 03/23/21

26 Taft Road
Chester, MA 01011
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Dennis L. Nolt
Seller: Henry J. Niemiec
Date: 04/01/21

CHICOPEE

14 Alfred St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Victor G. Burgos
Seller: Bowers, Charles C., (Estate)
Date: 04/01/21

70 Amherst St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $132,000
Buyer: Henry J. Niemiec
Seller: Frances S. Taborowski
Date: 04/01/21

42 Bemis St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Kaelyn M. Aponte
Seller: Mario Tedeschi
Date: 03/30/21

45 Chapel St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Steven Cole
Seller: Downie, Katherine D., (Estate)
Date: 03/26/21

1 Clifton St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $260,900
Buyer: Jade Elsamahy
Seller: Carl S. Williams
Date: 03/31/21

28 Douglas Circle
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $256,000
Buyer: Matthew T. Hewes
Seller: Suzanne M. Hemby
Date: 03/26/21

211 East St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Raymond O. Rodriguez
Seller: Renee A. Ashey
Date: 03/24/21

690 East Main St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Abdulmaged T. Aljashaami
Seller: Roxanne L. Bean-Riley
Date: 03/23/21

19 Fisher St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Carlton L. Thompson
Seller: Allen M. Caron
Date: 03/26/21

690 Grattan St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Agape Real Estate LLC
Seller: Wai P. Cheng
Date: 03/26/21

24 Henry Harris St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $226,000
Buyer: Kevin E. Baker
Seller: Christopher Przybyl
Date: 04/02/21

25 Honey Lane
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $261,000
Buyer: Paul Modelski
Seller: Charmaine Gazda
Date: 03/31/21

23 Jackson St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $203,000
Buyer: Jainis J. Colon-Vazquez
Seller: Kristal Hollimon
Date: 03/31/21

46 Leary Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Hanna Newberg
Seller: Cory J. Rodgers
Date: 03/24/21

34 Maple St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Kelly VanBuren
Seller: Celestino Montes
Date: 03/24/21

44 McCarthy Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Paul J. Leblanc
Seller: James Sabourin
Date: 03/23/21

285 McKinstry Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $6,553,109
Buyer: ARG NCD5PCK001 LLC
Seller: E&R Realty LLC
Date: 03/31/21

971 McKinstry Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Jose Rodriguez-Marrero
Seller: Nadine N. Curtin
Date: 03/31/21

Meadow St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $15,110,096
Buyer: ARG NCD5PCK001 LLC
Seller: E&R Realty LLC
Date: 03/31/21

705 Meadow St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $15,110,096
Buyer: ARG NCD5PCK001 LLC
Seller: E&R Realty LLC
Date: 03/31/21

725 Meadow St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $2,575,800
Buyer: ARG NCD5PCK001 LLC
Seller: E&R Realty LLC
Date: 03/31/21

739 Meadow St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $4,503,911
Buyer: ARG NCD5PCK001 LLC
Seller: E&R Realty LLC
Date: 03/31/21

751 Meadow St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $4,503,911
Buyer: ARG NCD5PCK001 LLC
Seller: E&R Realty LLC
Date: 03/31/21

30 Mount Royal St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Louis C. Correa
Seller: Nathan R. Alexander
Date: 03/31/21

90 Murphy Lane
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: William Cardinal
Seller: Mary Cardinal
Date: 03/23/21

18 Nash St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $230,625
Buyer: Harshman Singh
Seller: Ramon Alvarez
Date: 04/01/21

69 Olea St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Abigail Graffam
Seller: Riverbound Investments Inc.
Date: 03/29/21

90 Quartus St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Joel Maldonado
Seller: Beatriz Agosto
Date: 03/24/21

245 Rolf Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $287,000
Buyer: Amanda A. Long
Seller: Lisa M. O’Sullivan
Date: 03/31/21

1045 Sheridan St.
Chicopee, MA 01022
Amount: $5,623,439
Buyer: ARG NCD5PCK001 LLC
Seller: E&R Realty LLC
Date: 03/31/21

19 Sherwood St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Christopher M. Stortz
Seller: Diane T. Duval
Date: 03/26/21

405 Springfield St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $313,000
Buyer: Mario Rivera
Seller: Lisa Silva
Date: 03/31/21

463 Springfield St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $227,190
Buyer: Israel Estrada
Seller: L. A. Conner Inc.
Date: 03/26/21

26 Thaddeus St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $246,000
Buyer: Marta L. Zuluaga-Alvarez
Seller: Victor J. Monsalve
Date: 04/01/21

59 Watson St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Raymond Turgeon
Seller: Christopher M. Stortz
Date: 03/26/21

EAST LONGMEADOW

98 Colony Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $369,150
Buyer: Jaime R. Gonzalez
Seller: Emtay Inc.
Date: 04/01/21

7 Dearborn St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Timothy Leahy
Seller: Noonan, Joan M., (Estate)
Date: 04/02/21

38 Garland Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $228,700
Buyer: Sydney Slattery
Seller: Terry Peckham
Date: 04/02/21

34 Holland Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Jonathan D. Maciorowski
Seller: Patricia M. Rhodes
Date: 04/02/21

Jeffery Lane
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Vladimir Kulenok
Seller: Southern NE RE Development Inc.
Date: 03/24/21

48 Moore St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $261,500
Buyer: Michael White
Seller: Katie A. Miller-Murphy
Date: 04/01/21

14 Oak Bluff Circle
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $271,000
Buyer: Michael Ostrander
Seller: Thomas F. Connors
Date: 03/31/21

5 Redin Lane
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $347,000
Buyer: Bethany L. Charis-Molling
Seller: Nathan J. Martin
Date: 03/26/21

29 Wellington Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $719,000
Buyer: Robert J. Seer
Seller: Kevin J. Aliengena
Date: 03/31/21

35 Westernview Circle
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $339,000
Buyer: April S. Mills
Seller: Jaime E. Cabezas
Date: 03/26/21

HOLYOKE

30 Anderson Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $256,000
Buyer: Joshua A. Stark
Seller: Rachelle Encarnacion
Date: 03/29/21

177 Bemis Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $302,500
Buyer: Donald Stone
Seller: Lawrence W. Preston
Date: 03/22/21

17-1/2 Clark St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $209,000
Buyer: Janet Glenn
Seller: Jennie M. Padua
Date: 03/23/21

1020 Dwight St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $177,500
Buyer: Heather Messer
Seller: Kori Wilson
Date: 03/31/21

1021 Dwight St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Sarah A. DeAraujo
Seller: Erica L. Pelletier
Date: 04/01/21

1033-R Hampden St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $159,900
Buyer: DTA LLC
Seller: Ruby Realty LLC
Date: 03/23/21

598 Hampden St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: Blackrock SHM Group LLC
Seller: Holyoke 1 LLC
Date: 03/24/21

820 High St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $700,000
Buyer: OM Holyoke RE LLC
Seller: A&A Shell LLC
Date: 03/23/21

17 Holly Meadow Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $415,000
Buyer: Noel S. Sherman
Seller: Ryan Hamel
Date: 04/01/21

334 Linden St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $172,000
Buyer: Christophe Vaughn-Karney
Seller: Alan Elman
Date: 04/02/21

197 Locust St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: Shianne Padilla
Seller: EPB RE Services LLC
Date: 03/22/21

213 Locust St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Shaheen Sutterwala
Seller: David M. Cowan
Date: 03/31/21

25 Portland St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $263,000
Buyer: Anthony M. Stanfield
Seller: CIG 4 LLC
Date: 04/01/21

2 River Ter.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Zachary Goodwin-Boyd
Seller: Hepburn, Eleanor, (Estate)
Date: 04/02/21

523-525 South Bridge St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Donovan Parker
Seller: Nueva Esperanza Inc.
Date: 03/30/21

11 Steven Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $163,000
Buyer: Edward Cauley
Seller: Donna M. Gemme
Date: 03/24/21

LONGMEADOW

43 Burbank Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $365,000
Buyer: Danielle Hegarty
Seller: Dennis M. O’Connor
Date: 03/31/21

23 Chestnut Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Timothy M. Paltz
Seller: Mark W. Grimaldi
Date: 04/02/21

435 Converse St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $417,000
Buyer: Michael Agen
Seller: Michael P. Fritz
Date: 03/31/21

533 Laurel St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $437,000
Buyer: Alena Maple
Seller: Truong Vuong
Date: 04/01/21

144 Lincoln Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $237,700
Buyer: Kings Enterprise LLC
Seller: Christopher Evans
Date: 03/31/21

1399 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Christopher R. Fogelstrom
Seller: James O. Humphries
Date: 03/30/21

34 Primrose Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $452,000
Buyer: Scott R. Hanson
Seller: Ronald F. Conway
Date: 04/02/21

LUDLOW

603 Alden St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Melissa A. Archer
Seller: Stephen Ecrement
Date: 03/31/21

41 Berkshire St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $138,550
Buyer: Steffanie M. Rodrigues
Seller: Charles R. Summers
Date: 03/31/21

339 Chapin St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $279,900
Buyer: Prestin J. Torchia
Seller: Andrew Ferrier
Date: 03/26/21

74 Chapin St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $311,000
Buyer: Michael P. Ferzoco
Seller: Daniel J. Hague
Date: 03/25/21

677 Chapin St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $204,500
Buyer: Michael J. Bennett
Seller: Bennett, Judith C., (Estate)
Date: 03/29/21

296 Fuller St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: Randy J. Hevey
Seller: Noel S. Sherman
Date: 04/01/21

83 Hubbard St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $146,000
Buyer: David Summers
Seller: Donna G. Tarullo
Date: 03/26/21

101 Lavoie Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $237,000
Buyer: Nicole C. Riel
Seller: Gyu Y. Nam
Date: 03/31/21

38 Lyon St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $610,000
Buyer: Nancy Gesauldi
Seller: Kenneth A. Butts
Date: 03/25/21

52 Napoleon Ave.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $191,000
Buyer: Roberto V. Ciccarelli
Seller: Deutsche Bank
Date: 03/22/21

63 Prospect St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Citizens Bank
Seller: Richard J. Ziemba
Date: 03/29/21

17 Sunset Dr.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: William E. Reid
Seller: Elizabeth M. Sedelow
Date: 03/30/21

MONSON

177 Stafford Hollow Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $265,500
Buyer: Cheryl A. Lofland
Seller: Frank W. Hull
Date: 03/24/21

151 Upper Hampden Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $659,000
Buyer: Donato F. Del-Bene
Seller: Amy G. St.Germain
Date: 03/26/21

PALMER

26 East Palmer Park Dr.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Wendi Gross
Seller: Tippett, Anne M., (Estate)
Date: 03/22/21

46 Kelley St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Hanan E. Mohamad
Seller: Kevin Cruz
Date: 04/02/21

260 Peterson Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $292,475
Buyer: Joseph Milillo
Seller: Mary J. Banas
Date: 03/31/21

3003 Prospect St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $307,450
Buyer: Hugh C. Scott
Seller: Nelson A. Azevedo
Date: 04/01/21

125 Shearer St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $251,000
Buyer: Antone J. Motta
Seller: Jayne G. Heede
Date: 03/29/21

25 Ware St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $1,600,000
Buyer: NLCP 25 Ware St. Mass. LLC
Seller: G. M. Garabedian Inc.
Date: 04/01/21

RUSSELL

20 Blandford Stage Road
Russell, MA 01071
Amount: $152,500
Buyer: Ryan A. Fisk
Seller: Anthony L. Switzer
Date: 03/30/21

SOUTHWICK

21 Gableview
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $874,700
Buyer: Francis M. Potts
Seller: Robert T. Clayton
Date: 04/01/21

9 Pondview Lane
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $625,000
Buyer: Patrick E. Adamson
Seller: Wendy L. Williamson
Date: 03/26/21

11 Secluded Ridge
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $445,000
Buyer: Shawn S. Baker
Seller: Charles Snyder
Date: 03/30/21

SPRINGFIELD

293 Abbott St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Richard P. Gaviorno
Seller: William R. Nickerson
Date: 03/30/21

46-48 Acorn St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Maleke M. Cunningham
Seller: Caroline Torres
Date: 03/26/21

31 Acrebrook Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Joejoe Properties LLC
Seller: Stefanie Erickson
Date: 03/31/21

575-577 Armory St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: H. E. Valasquez-Hernandez
Seller: R. L. Thomas LLC
Date: 03/22/21

62 Barrington Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: William R. Nickerson
Seller: Dollymae Carnegie
Date: 03/30/21

41 Birch Glen Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $218,600
Buyer: Nicholas E. Holland
Seller: Aaron O. Butler
Date: 04/01/21

98 Bowles St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $334,000
Buyer: Josue Matos
Seller: Dubs Capital LLC
Date: 03/31/21

43 Caseland St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Wayne Corse
Seller: William J. Britt
Date: 04/01/21

276-278 Centre St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $465,000
Buyer: Mint Western Mass. Group LLC
Seller: Angeljoy Co. LLC
Date: 03/22/21

536-538 Chestnut St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Felix J. Figueroa
Seller: Norman Roldan
Date: 03/23/21

86-88 Clifton Ave.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $199,900
Buyer: Colin W. Hodgson-Smith
Seller: Clifton Ave. LLC
Date: 03/22/21

82 College St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $160,000
Buyer: Hunter Property Group LLC
Seller: WN Management LLC
Date: 04/02/21

50 Commonwealth Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Hilda M. Santa
Seller: MBC Properties LLC
Date: 04/01/21

17-19 Crown St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Detric Watkins
Seller: Helen Al-Mahrwuth
Date: 03/29/21

44-46 Dale St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $239,900
Buyer: Brandon J. Ward
Seller: Robert S. McCarroll
Date: 03/23/21

172 Davis St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $197,000
Buyer: Zenaida Figueroa
Seller: Eladio Pagan
Date: 03/31/21

39 Dearborn St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Christian Cherisclair
Seller: Roman J. Boiko
Date: 03/26/21

227 Denver St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: Abraham E. Torres
Seller: Rodolfo V. Espinosa
Date: 03/29/21

358 Dickinson St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $213,500
Buyer: Euripides P. Piatti-Rios
Seller: Hillary E. Smith
Date: 03/26/21

215 Dorset St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Dshawn O. Telfaire
Seller: Tanisha Cabezudo
Date: 03/31/21

295 Draper St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $207,000
Buyer: Justin B. Richardson
Seller: Marcella A. Pagliaro
Date: 04/01/21

174 Drexel St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $157,000
Buyer: Edwin Medina
Seller: Medina-Rivera, Genaro, (Estate)
Date: 04/01/21

202 Dunmoreland St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Jazmin Montes
Seller: Value Properties LLC
Date: 03/29/21

414 Dwight Road
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Kyeesha L. Weaver
Seller: Petit, Marcellin J., (Estate)
Date: 03/29/21

50 East Alvord St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $198,000
Buyer: Larry Lewis
Seller: Erica M. Jackson
Date: 03/26/21

221 Eddy St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Angelica Cotto
Seller: Della Ripa RE LLC
Date: 04/02/21

90 Elijah St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $166,400
Buyer: Celestino Montes
Seller: Brian L. Stasiak
Date: 03/24/21

25 Eton St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $242,000
Buyer: Nicole M. Patterson
Seller: SRV Properties LLC
Date: 03/26/21

47 Felicia St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Hedge Hog Industries Corp.
Seller: Chmura, Jane V., (Estate)
Date: 04/01/21

129 Florence St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Jailyne Torres-Figueroa
Seller: Mario B. Cruz-Garcia
Date: 03/26/21

68 Forest Park Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: AK&M Properties & Estates LLC
Seller: Marcelino Vazquez
Date: 03/23/21

21 Fort Pleasant Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $1,200,000
Buyer: Renaissance Springfield LLC
Seller: 30 Belmont LLC
Date: 03/31/21

43 Fresno St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $152,000
Buyer: Handyflippers Inc.
Seller: Nelson Perez
Date: 03/31/21

20 Gerald St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Daniel S. Paris
Seller: Chad T. Lynch
Date: 03/31/21

45 Greaney St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $180,700
Buyer: Adria Morales-Villalobos
Seller: Denis R. Picard
Date: 03/23/21

139 Groton St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Harmony A. Black
Seller: Christine A. Fitzell
Date: 03/23/21

58 Grover St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Wadenise Mezil
Seller: Carlos A. Morales
Date: 04/02/21

41 Hillside Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Richard Ringer
Seller: William W. Babcock
Date: 03/24/21

177 Jasper St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $191,000
Buyer: Elijah Saez
Seller: Felecia Yager
Date: 04/02/21

47 Juliet St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $298,000
Buyer: Jeremy Moore
Seller: Bukowski Construction LLC
Date: 03/31/21

28 Juniper Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $399,000
Buyer: Edras O. Ramos
Seller: Bruce L. Tetrault
Date: 03/23/21

101 Kensington Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Mint Western Mass. Group LLC
Seller: Angeljoy Co. LLC
Date: 03/24/21

107 Kensington Ave.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $510,000
Buyer: Mint Western Mass. Group LLC
Seller: Angeljoy Co. LLC
Date: 03/24/21

42 Kerry Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: Melanie Massiah-Gordon
Seller: E. Coast Contracting LLC
Date: 03/30/21

52 Kerry Dr.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $223,000
Buyer: Rene Santiago
Seller: Heather Chaiffre
Date: 04/02/21

38 Leitch St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $223,000
Buyer: Jose A. Oyola
Seller: Boisjoli, Daniel J., (Estate)
Date: 03/31/21

51-53 Leyfred Ter.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $148,374
Buyer: Jet Investments LLC
Seller: Mariano Bulted
Date: 03/29/21

99 Littleton St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Richard Santiago
Seller: Latonya Jerry
Date: 03/25/21

18-20 Lombard St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $191,820
Buyer: Hanati Lubega
Seller: Olmsted Realty LLC
Date: 04/01/21

12-14 Longview St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $236,000
Buyer: Hawo Ali
Seller: Vidal Cardona
Date: 03/26/21

63-65 Los Angeles St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $267,000
Buyer: Kirsten Helmer
Seller: Richard T. Pelchar
Date: 03/25/21

192 Maynard St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Rosa Dorsey
Seller: Victor Martinez
Date: 03/26/21

49 Mohegan Ave.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $212,500
Buyer: Daniel J. Garvey
Seller: Jesus Alicea
Date: 03/24/21

24 Mountainview St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $289,900
Buyer: Nathan Crocco
Seller: Eliezer Garcia
Date: 03/29/21

75 Morningside Park
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Home Staging & Realty LLC
Seller: John W. Drummond
Date: 03/22/21

34 Newhouse St.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Nicholas Ayala
Seller: Misael Rodriguez-Cruz
Date: 04/02/21

127 Newland St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Nathaniel Pace
Seller: Yevgeniy Rudenko
Date: 03/26/21

18 Norfolk St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: Oscar Barquin
Seller: Naida Irizarry
Date: 03/22/21

174-176 Northampton Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $217,000
Buyer: Omar Tuitt
Seller: Luis O. Tarraza
Date: 04/01/21

120 Orchard St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Mint Western MA Group LLC
Seller: Angeljoy Co. LLC
Date: 03/22/21

29 Parkin St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Juan Rios
Seller: Donna S. Martelle
Date: 04/02/21

44 Pascal Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $287,000
Buyer: Lewen Cotte
Seller: Charise Gonzalez
Date: 03/29/21

219 Pendleton Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $145,000
Buyer: Caty Rosario
Seller: Hilda Martinez
Date: 04/02/21

86 Pendleton Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $187,000
Buyer: Evangelio Gonzalez
Seller: Ana Zunilda-Jerez
Date: 03/31/21

31 Pheland St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Emmanuel Tete-Donkor
Seller: Techia L. Francis
Date: 03/31/21

51 Pine Grove St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Rafael Perez
Seller: Julio Ayala
Date: 03/29/21

112 Revere St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $197,000
Buyer: Oniel Ogando-Mejia
Seller: Xiomary Reyes
Date: 03/31/21

90 Revere St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Julian T. Kyndy
Seller: Andrea P. Richards
Date: 03/31/21

139 Rosemary Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Laura I. Gonzalez-Colon
Seller: Christopher M. Rancitelli
Date: 03/26/21

57 Superior Ave.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Joseph M. Anderson
Seller: Janessa Acquaro
Date: 03/22/21

57 Surrey Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $204,900
Buyer: David Williams
Seller: FNMA
Date: 03/29/21

119 Tavistock St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $147,000
Buyer: Lydia E. Torres
Seller: Ashey, Donald G. Sr., (Estate)
Date: 03/25/21

167 Thompson St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Shaina Curran
Seller: Carlo J. Dilizia
Date: 04/02/21

438 Tinkham Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $274,500
Buyer: Antoinette Filiault
Seller: Cornerstone Homebuying LLC
Date: 04/02/21

448 Tinkham Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $274,500
Buyer: Antoinette Filiault
Seller: Cornerstone Homebuying LLC
Date: 04/02/21

247 Union St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Bear Rock Properties LLC
Seller: Ameri-Trin Ltd
Date: 03/26/21

249 Union St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Bear Rock Properties LLC
Seller: Ameri-Trin Ltd
Date: 03/26/21

59 Vincent St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $169,000
Buyer: Luis D. Torres-Felix
Seller: Wendy L. Ashe
Date: 04/02/21

25-27 Virginia St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $264,000
Buyer: Shayvonne Plummer
Seller: Truong Nguyen
Date: 03/23/21

124 Wait St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Michael Pacheco
Seller: Erin L. O’Neill
Date: 03/22/21

139 West Allen Ridge Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Patrick Ralph
Seller: Craig R. Harmsen
Date: 03/22/21

55 Westbrook Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Ileana Garcia
Seller: Goodreau, Richard, (Estate)
Date: 04/01/21

238 Winterset Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Sanu Rai
Seller: John D. Slavick
Date: 03/30/21

775-R Worthington St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $336,345
Buyer: Clinical & Support Options
Seller: BSC Realty Inc.
Date: 04/01/21

780-800 Worthington St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $336,345
Buyer: Clinical & Support Options
Seller: BSC Realty Inc.
Date: 04/01/21

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Agawam Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $430,000
Buyer: Koch Real Estate Corp.
Seller: Steven Haddad
Date: 03/22/21

97 Ashley St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $180,000
Buyer: G&C RE Investments LLC
Seller: Lizbeth A. Scholpp
Date: 04/01/21

53 Bacon Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Jaime Rodriguez
Seller: CIG 4 LLC
Date: 03/26/21

78 Brookline Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Michele A. Dandy
Seller: Frank E. Charbonneau
Date: 03/29/21

125 Craiwell Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $341,000
Buyer: Matthew D. Rivest
Seller: Regina R. Perry
Date: 03/31/21

35 Duke St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $201,000
Buyer: Etabav RT
Seller: Ronald G. Batchelor
Date: 04/02/21

946 Elm St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $226,688
Buyer: 946 Elm Street LLC
Seller: Deli Dong
Date: 03/26/21

162 Front St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $163,313
Buyer: Peter E. Strniste
Seller: Mark S. Rolandini
Date: 03/25/21

52 Meadowbrook Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $135,000
Buyer: Custom Home Development Group LLC
Seller: Marian L. Giannetti
Date: 03/31/21

187 Monastery Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $309,000
Buyer: Harka Neopaney
Seller: Kevin Conroy
Date: 03/26/21

414 Morgan Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $139,900
Buyer: Ajax 2018-F REO Corp.
Seller: Joseph A. Davis
Date: 03/22/21

33 Old Westfield Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Elizabeth Battey
Seller: Richard C. Lovely
Date: 03/30/21

88 Partridge Lane
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: Eric Mancini
Seller: Maksim Loboda
Date: 03/22/21

811 Piper Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Christopher Rancitelli
Seller: Brian D. Seibold
Date: 03/26/21

42 Plateau Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Elizabeth A. Olinger
Seller: Adair V. Rivest
Date: 03/31/21

16-18 Southworth St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Christophe Rivera-Sierra
Seller: Emtay Inc.
Date: 04/02/21

28 Warren St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Zhong Chen
Seller: Patrick M. Hogan
Date: 03/22/21

22 West St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Alex Geas
Seller: Thomas J. Nault
Date: 04/02/21

758 Westfield St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $1,105,265
Buyer: Silktree Properties LLC
Seller: Archgate Townhouses LLC
Date: 04/02/21

53 Wilder Ter.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $226,000
Buyer: Charles Joyal
Seller: William J. Allard
Date: 03/26/21

286 Woodmont St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Richard M. Carnevale
Seller: Heather E. Danielle RET
Date: 03/31/21

35 Worthy Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: John Molinary
Seller: Bridget L. Nelson
Date: 03/24/21

29 York St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $297,000
Buyer: Colin Moll
Seller: Marc T. Bergeron
Date: 03/31/21

WESTFIELD

31 A St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $140,000
Buyer: Vitaliy Dubovoy
Seller: Sunlight Properties LLC
Date: 04/02/21

15 Casimir St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $560,500
Buyer: Paul Rubera
Seller: Brian W. Hoskin
Date: 03/23/21

14 Clark St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $247,000
Buyer: Samuel Rivera
Seller: Mechanic Man LLC
Date: 03/22/21

100 Dana St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $268,000
Buyer: Brian Callahan
Seller: Hugh J. Lannon
Date: 04/02/21

77-79 Elm St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $167,500
Buyer: Keenan Real Estate LLC
Seller: Sharon D. Pepel RET
Date: 03/31/21

7 Harvest Moon Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $635,000
Buyer: Chad H. Nelson
Seller: David A. Kowalski
Date: 04/02/21

2 Linden Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $134,480
Buyer: Wells Fargo Bank
Seller: Jamin Fuller
Date: 04/02/21

366 Loomis St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $342,000
Buyer: Heather A. Prouty
Seller: Matthew P. Farnsworth
Date: 03/23/21

26 Lozier Ave.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Anthony Matos
Seller: Martha A. Mastroberti
Date: 03/26/21

10 Maria Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $262,500
Buyer: Kimberley Gepfert
Seller: Shawn Baker
Date: 03/30/21

160 Munger Hill Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: Jeffrey C. Guarnieri
Seller: Jean M. Trader
Date: 03/25/21

103 Old County Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $359,000
Buyer: Richard Viernes
Seller: Robert E. St.Onge
Date: 03/26/21

123 Old Farm Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Michael Seklecki
Seller: Jeffrey C. Guarnieri
Date: 03/25/21

25 Pearl St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $238,342
Buyer: Alexandra M. Webster
Seller: Laurie Despard
Date: 03/31/21

70 Pineridge Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $520,000
Buyer: Michael P. Carley
Seller: Robert G. Herrick
Date: 04/01/21

25 Pleasant St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $231,802
Buyer: Wilmington Savings
Seller: Southbridge RE LLC
Date: 03/23/21

210 Pontoosic Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Thomas L. Bannish
Seller: Bannish, Anna M., (Estate)
Date: 03/30/21

232 Russellville Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $186,375
Buyer: Adam P. Gauthier
Seller: Viktor Lezhnyak
Date: 03/22/21

230 Southampton Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Sardinhas & Constante Realty
Seller: Mercer Island Realty Inc.
Date: 04/01/21

480 Southampton Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $880,000
Buyer: Marky Marc LLC
Seller: Elite Contracting Services
Date: 03/24/21

30 Sunset Dr.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Brittany J. Taylor
Seller: Angela M. Southwick
Date: 03/29/21

WILBRAHAM

2555 Boston Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Vital Days LLC
Seller: Atlantic Holding Group Inc.
Date: 03/31/21

23 Carla Lane
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $465,000
Buyer: Christopher J. Harley
Seller: Phillip Brousseau
Date: 03/29/21

80 Main St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Joseph D. Tranghese
Seller: Anthony J. Tranghese
Date: 04/01/21

575 Main St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Luke Langelier
Seller: Jean M. Dirico
Date: 03/26/21

20 Maplewood Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $446,500
Buyer: Ana C. Castellanos-Gomez
Seller: Charles W. Coscore
Date: 03/31/21

427 Soule Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Ali Javaid
Seller: William H. Kemple
Date: 03/29/21

196 Springfield St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: John D. Slavick
Seller: Ariel O. Bogoff
Date: 03/30/21

479 Springfield St.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $302,500
Buyer: Laura M. Quink
Seller: Custom Home Development Group LLC
Date: 03/31/21

7 Squire Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $670,000
Buyer: John M. Biela
Seller: Mark E. Loos
Date: 03/26/21

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

456 Flat Hills Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $570,000
Buyer: Eric A. Braxton
Seller: Ruby Realty LLC
Date: 03/25/21

40 High Point Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Fousseni D. Chabiyo
Seller: Rondina Acquisitions Corp.
Date: 03/26/21

86 Larkspur Dr.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $477,000
Buyer: Jarrett Man
Seller: Jesse McCoomb
Date: 04/02/21

26 Lindenridge Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $600,000
Buyer: Randy K. Rethemeyer
Seller: Peng Wang
Date: 04/02/21

28 Stagecoach Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: Elizabeth Brainerd
Seller: Allen H. Brainerd
Date: 03/24/21

83 Stony Hill Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Laurence Starn
Seller: Reva A. Rudman
Date: 03/25/21

BELCHERTOWN

15 Autumn Lane
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $172,500
Buyer: James Austin
Seller: Patricia R. Marsh
Date: 04/01/21

19 Brandywine Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $379,000
Buyer: Deborah Melendez-Otero
Seller: Richard R. Delvalle
Date: 04/02/21

11 Catherine Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $442,000
Buyer: Abigail E. Weeks
Seller: Stanley E. Jacobs
Date: 03/31/21

78 Clark St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $223,400
Buyer: FNMA
Seller: Christopher P. Bowen
Date: 04/02/21

10 Cottage St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $228,000
Buyer: Kellye B. Lupica
Seller: Peter R. Harbison
Date: 03/31/21

241 East St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Rachel Telushkin
Seller: Alan D. Slessler
Date: 03/25/21

109 Federal St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $196,000
Buyer: Michael F. Demarco
Seller: Billy Leung
Date: 04/02/21

296 Federal St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $425,150
Buyer: Kimberly Lodi
Seller: Henry R. Martin
Date: 03/24/21

279 Granby Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Heather R. Woodworth
Seller: Suzanne Reece
Date: 03/30/21

73 North Main St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Trevor J. Sims
Seller: Mary L. Beaulieu
Date: 03/23/21

CHESTERFIELD

46 Bray Road
Chesterfield, MA 01012
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Marie Kirk
Seller: Goyette, Gary G., (Estate)
Date: 03/26/21

EASTHAMPTON

2 Admiral St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Michael W. Buehrle
Seller: Diane S. Scott
Date: 03/24/21

14 Fairfield Ave.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $186,000
Buyer: Ye Zheng
Seller: Michelle Blouin-Burelle
Date: 03/26/21

10 Hannum Brook Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: New England Remodeling
Seller: Fisher, Janice, (Estate)
Date: 03/24/21

114 Line St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $242,000
Buyer: Jeffrey L. Lebeau
Seller: Jason P. Graham
Date: 04/01/21

325 Main St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $379,000
Buyer: Barra L. Cohen
Seller: Hayley M. Singleton
Date: 04/01/21

30 Pleasant St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $362,250
Buyer: Tyler M. Rocco-Chaffee
Seller: Bruce Harrison
Date: 04/02/21

GOSHEN

Loomis Road
Goshen, MA 01032
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: George D. Judd & Sons LLC
Seller: Peter F. Lafogg
Date: 03/30/21

GRANBY

16 High St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Brian Fournier
Seller: James R. Dufresne
Date: 03/31/21

16 Parish Hill Road
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $157,507
Buyer: John B. Gulbrandsen
Seller: US Bank
Date: 03/30/21

HADLEY

4 Colony Dr.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $170,500
Buyer: Feng Qiu
Seller: Valley Construction Co. Inc.
Date: 03/26/21

9 Indian Pipe Dr.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $640,000
Buyer: Bliss R. Scriber-Dubrow
Seller: Ronald Bercume
Date: 03/26/21

171 Rocky Hill Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Thomas E. Nasiatka
Seller: Maureen A. Porter
Date: 03/31/21

70 Russell St.
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Donald R. Dion
Seller: Mickey Long
Date: 04/01/21

HATFIELD

89 Depot Road
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $339,900
Buyer: Joshua Sprague
Seller: Lee M. Callan
Date: 03/22/21

HUNTINGTON

9 Birchwood Dr.
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $850,000
Buyer: Chad Lafrance
Seller: James K. Patenaude
Date: 03/23/21

NORTHAMPTON

274 Bridge St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $344,900
Buyer: Katharine J. Waggoner
Seller: John J. Ferriter
Date: 03/30/21

16 Chesterfield Road
Northampton, MA 01053
Amount: $404,000
Buyer: Kathleen M. Palmer
Seller: Wayne J. Blair
Date: 03/29/21

696 Florence Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $430,000
Buyer: Lesley-Ann Giddings
Seller: Daniel R. Crouss
Date: 04/02/21

23 Higgins Way
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $905,000
Buyer: Sunwood Development Corp.
Seller: Sturbridge Development LLC
Date: 03/24/21

43 Higgins Way
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $905,000
Buyer: Sunwood Development Corp.
Seller: Sturbridge Development LLC
Date: 03/24/21

Higgins Way #6
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $905,000
Buyer: Sunwood Development Corp
Seller: Sturbridge Development LLC
Date: 03/24/21

Higgins Way #15
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $905,000
Buyer: Sunwood Development Corp.
Seller: Sturbridge Development LLC
Date: 03/24/21

250 Jackson St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $281,000
Buyer: Steven R. Ferry
Seller: Thomas E. Kostek
Date: 03/22/21

25 New South St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $409,500
Buyer: Perry Friedman
Seller: Megan E. Handwerk
Date: 03/26/21

118 North St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $550,000
Buyer: Margaret Treloar
Seller: William M. Welch
Date: 04/02/21

147 North Main St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Martha Senser-Blair
Seller: Daniel A. Blair
Date: 03/29/21

36 Ridgewood Ter.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $454,000
Buyer: Elizabeth Roberts
Seller: Douglass, Christine C., (Estate)
Date: 03/24/21

101 Woodland Dr.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $505,900
Buyer: Christopher Adams
Seller: Kate Bagley
Date: 03/31/21

PLAINFIELD

197 Summit St.
Plainfield, MA 01070
Amount: $405,500
Buyer: Adrian Almquist
Seller: Jacob B. Morrow
Date: 03/22/21

SOUTH HADLEY

8 Bardwell St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Vadim Popovichenko
Seller: RGS Realty LLC
Date: 04/01/21

435 East St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $299,000
Buyer: Jacqueline Rosario
Seller: Michael V. Yonika
Date: 03/25/21

4 Hartford St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $195,000
Buyer: Dylan Graveline
Seller: Michael R. Daniele
Date: 03/31/21

80 Mountain View St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Kellen T. McCaffrey
Seller: A. Kenneth Root
Date: 04/01/21

5 Stewart St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $312,500
Buyer: Michael J. Gwynn
Seller: Jessica L. Falade
Date: 03/30/21

47 Susan Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Julian Jocque
Seller: Ronald N. Gendron
Date: 03/31/21

SOUTHAMPTON

9 Coolidge Dr.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Jose A. Figueroa
Seller: Panagiotis C. Sierros
Date: 03/23/21

30 Mountain View Circle
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Bryan J. Luszczki
Seller: Melissa E. Herrera
Date: 03/26/21

WARE

1 Fisherdick Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $236,000
Buyer: Cassidy D. Caravella
Seller: Carol A. Desantis
Date: 03/29/21

347 Monson Turnpike Road
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $255,000
Buyer: Corey Ingalls
Seller: Delia J. Butler
Date: 03/29/21

54 North St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: FJ Property LLC
Seller: Timothy J. Wrobel
Date: 04/01/21

94 West St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $224,000
Buyer: Owls Nest LLC
Seller: Jose A. Reyes
Date: 03/22/21

WILLIAMSBURG

152 Ashfield Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $1,250,000
Buyer: A. Lahm Heller 1999 TR
Seller: C. L. Bateman 1991 TR
Date: 03/31/21

44 Village Hill Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $200,500
Buyer: Robert F. Sherlock LT
Seller: William C. McAvoy
Date: 04/01/21

WESTHAMPTON

Blueberry Hills Road #2
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Maura L. McCarthy
Seller: Patrick Properties LLC
Date: 03/29/21

Blueberry Hills Road #5
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Rebecca Carriere
Seller: Patrick Properties LLC
Date: 03/30/21

134 Kings Hwy.
Westhampton, MA 01027
Amount: $298,400
Buyer: Berkshire Classics LLC
Seller: Wendy P. Blow
Date: 04/01/21

WORTHINGTON

22 Harvey Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $397,500
Buyer: Erica M. Salling
Seller: Evlyn H. Newell
Date: 03/31/21

1108 Old North Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $575,000
Buyer: Hundred Acres Woods RT
Seller: Robert K. Reinke
Date: 03/31/21

152 Witt Hill Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $146,000
Buyer: Jack Flynn
Seller: Anne M. Dickinson
Date: 03/23/21

26 Witt Hill Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Maureen Defalco
Seller: Judith A. Lyon TR
Date: 03/25/21

Building Permits

Building Permits

The following building permits were issued during the month of April 2021. (Filings are limited due to closures or reduced staffing hours at municipal offices due to COVID-19 restrictions).

CHICOPEE

Mitchell Nowak
14 West St.
$22,800 — Remove and replace plastic sprinkler pipe, replace old heads

Scott Raymond
45 Colonial Circle
$10,000 — Gut bathroom down to studs and rebuild

Sherroy, LLC
1408 Memorial Dr.
$5,000 — Open interior wall, frame new header and studs for installation of new window

LENOX

Trinity Church
88 Walker St.
$200,000 — Repair porch on parish house

NORTHAMPTON

39 Main Street, LLC
39 Main St., Suite 5
$15,000 — Interior renovation

Chamisa Corp.
25 Main St., #444
$10,605 — Remove drywall to update wiring, install new drywall

DBR Properties, LLC
270 Pleasant St.
$13,605 — Renovate second floor to be a residential apartment

Joe-Mae Realty Associates
147 Main St.
$9,995 — Illuminated sign for Rebekah Brooks Jewelry

Shalom Murray
153 Main St.
$1,180 — Wall sign for Cotton Gallery

Northampton Community Music Center
139 SouthSt.
$51,369 — Rooftop solar panels

Paul Serio
63 Center St.
$2,000 — Roofing

ZQHW Corp.
60 King St.
$58,400 — Repair damage due to car impact

PITTSFIELD

395 North, LLC
391 North St.
$15,000 — Roofing

Blue Chair Properties, LLC
101 Dan Fox Dr.
$20,000 — Demolish Bousquet ski lodge

Blue Chair Properties, LLC
101 Dan Fox Dr.
$10,000 — Install field-office trailer for Bousquet ski lodge project

Passardi Family Holding, LLC
160 North St.
$79,600 — Renovations and additions to existing fire sprinkler system

Robert Wheeler
71 Dalton Ave.
$1,200 — Install two thermally broken commercial aluminum windows

Stanley Wojtkowski
108 Summer St.
$4,800 — Roofing

SPRINGFIELD

1626 Bay Street, LLC
281 Cottage St.
$119,000 — Install a handicap bathroom in office

KS Cantor, LLC
606 Sumner Ave.
$101,657 — Alter interior of former restaurant for use as a dental office

Marrewa Realty Inc.
1440 Boston Road
$3,900 — Remove and replace seven duct smoke detectors at Walgreens Pharmacy

MGM Springfield Redevelopment, LLC
1 MGM Way
Remove decorative wall and section of vestibule wall and install glass storefront near poker room

Springfield Bridge Holding, LLC
146 Chestnut St.
$55,000 — Alter interior of mezzanine of first and second floor at Libertas Academy Charter School

Pride, LP
77 West St.
$126,000 — Remodel Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant; remove and replace millwork and siding

Summer Ave., LLC
752 Sumner Ave.
$10,000 — Repair roof

TMB Investments, LLC
563 Main St.
$98,597.88 — Roofing

Wyatt Quinn, Joline Seymour
36 Sabin St.
$1,300 — Install pellet stove in basement

WILBRAHAM

Monson Savings Bank
100 Post Office Park
$6,850 — Three signs on left, right, and front gables

Monson Savings Bank
100 Post Office Park
$4,950 — Sign at Post Office Park entrance

Monson Savings Bank
100 Post Office Park
$1,325 — Sign on Boston Road

Springfield Museums Announce Winners of Ubora Award, Ahadi Youth Award

SPRINGFIELD — The African Hall Committee of the Springfield Museums announced its annual Ubora Award and Ahadi Youth Award winners. Now in its 30th year of celebrating leadership by people of African heritage, the 2021 Ubora Award honors Robert Cee Jackson as an exemplary philanthropist and humanitarian. The 12th Ahadi Youth Award honors the remarkable energy and intent of Tigist Dawit Terefe, a junior at the High School of Science & Technology.

Robert Cee Jackson

As president of Jackson Security and Jackson Transportation, Jackson employs many community members and negotiates fees to help make his services affordable to all. As vice president of the African-American philanthropic organization the Brethren Community Foundation, he helps neighborhood youth with projects such as staging a celebration of Juneteenth that showcased remarkable community talent and providing college scholarships for youth.

Jackson’s community-minded leadership also includes the Urban League board of directors and the Springfield Partners for Community Action board of directors. In addition, he is an active member and distinguished leader of the Masonic Order.

For decades, Jackson has helped at the Stone Soul Festival, which is recognized as one of New England’s largest African-American festivals. He was a co-founder of the 5A football program, which is now called Springfield Youth Athletics. Its mission is to provide activities and opportunities for young people, regardless of race, religion, or economic status, in the urban Springfield community and surrounding area.

He volunteers with the Old Hill Neighborhood Council, which is dedicated to serving the needs and concerns of community members. And he was appointed in 2008 by Mayor Domenic Sarno to serve as a commissioner of the Community Police Hearing Board.

“This is such an unexpected surprise,” Jackson said. “I am honored to be the recipient of the 30th Ubora Award. The volunteer service that I do is because of my commitment to and love for my community. This is a prestigious award, and I am humbled and grateful to the African Hall Committee, Springfield Museums, and all involved in this honor.”

Tigist Dawit Terefe

Terefe maintains top grades while also pursuing difficult coursework, including advanced-placement classes. She has taken advantage of dual-enrollment opportunities with Springfield Technical Community College to earn college credits as well as the After Dark Vocational Program with Putnam Vocational Technical Academy, which allows her to graduate with both her high-school diploma and as a certified nurse assistant.

Terefe also works part-time at Pioneer Valley Life Sciences Institute, as an intern in the cancer-research lab, and looks forward to going into cancer biomedical research in the future. She participates in the Baystate Educational Partnership to expand her insight into the medical world. She is also one of the founders of the first-ever Springfield Leadership Advisory Council, which will work to connect students of Springfield public schools with district leaders.

Terefe is a member of District Attorney Anthony Gulluni’s Youth Advisory Board, which addresses issues facing today’s teens, researches effective prevention strategies, and works to give youth and residents in the City of Springfield a more powerful voice to make positive change. She is a tutor to other Youth Advisory Board members and leads the inclusion committee, which has created a series of podcasts to give insight on how people could be more inclusive, and what they have experienced as students in Hampden County.

“I am overjoyed to have received the Ahadi Award,” Terefe said. “I have always found people with an interest in their community impressive, and have worked in my academic ventures to do the same. I love working on topics of equity and inclusivity in the Springfield community and generally. I thank the committee for selecting me, and I thank my guidance counselor, Ms. [Amy] Quinlan, for nominating me. I hope I represent the award well throughout and after my high-school career.”

The Ubora Award and the Ahadi Youth Award are awarded to African-Americans from Greater Springfield who have demonstrated commitment, above and beyond, to the fields of community service, education, science, humanities, and/or the arts.

Elms College Welcomes Charlene Holmes, Jennifer Leon to Staff

CHICOPEE — Elms College announced the appointment of two staff members: Charlene Holmes, director of Diversity and Engagement; and Jennifer Leon, director of Residence Life.

Charlene Holmes

Holmes has a decade of experience in student engagement, student support, and programmatic development to ensure college access and success for under-represented groups. She has spent most of her career working with nonprofit organizations serving low-income, first-generation student athletes achieving post-secondary success, such as the East Harlem Tutorial Program, the Harlem Children’s Zone, and Door-A Center for Alternatives.

Most recently, she was president and CEO of Imana Borena in New York, where she oversaw the organization’s executive leadership programs, including diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. She holds a bachelor’s degree in health science from Mercy College and a master’s degree of professional studies in sports management from St. John’s University.

Jennifer Leon

Leon has six years of experience in higher education, serving in a variety of roles within student affairs, residential life, student activities, orientation, and parent programs. Most recently, she was assistant director of student life at SUNY Adirondack and was responsible for student-engagement opportunities, orientation, and leadership programming.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from SUNY Oneonta and a master’s degree in student affairs in higher education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Berkshire Regional Planning Commission Receives CARES Act Recovery Assistance Grant

PITTSFIELD — The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) awarded a $842,522 CARES Act Recovery Assistance grant to the Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) to develop and implement an economic recovery and resiliency plan and provide technical assistance to bolster the region’s ability to withstand future economic disruptions.

The two-year project will fund expansion of Berkshire County’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) to include regional resiliency planning, and will also help identify and support recovery projects; rebuild the region’s online data and economic-indicator tracking capabilities; provide technical assistance and capacity-building opportunities to local businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities; and support workforce and industry-building efforts to facilitate meaningful work toward economic recovery, growth, and resiliency in the long term.

“Positioning Berkshire County for the best possible recovery from impacts of the pandemic is a top priority for Berkshire Regional Planning Commission,” BRPC Executive Director Thomas Matuszko said. “This funding supports a wide range of efforts on behalf of our region, each critical to our future economic well-being.”

Work to overhaul an online data clearinghouse, www.berkshirebenchmarks.org, is already underway, with a focus on improving user experience and encouraging a broader range of agencies to access the site for a better understanding of existing conditions in the county and to support their own grant-writing efforts. Advisory teams from around the county are providing guidance on the most important indicators to measure progress in economic recovery as well as various quality-of-life factors.

BRPC staff will expand upon the county’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy to address long-term economic resiliency, working with members of the CEDS committee and additional stakeholders to develop new protocols for coordination during future disruptions. Staff will facilitate significant recovery-oriented projects from the CEDS priority project list, assisting municipal leaders and project managers in bringing projects to fruition, and will also seek to identity additional grant-eligible projects.

“We’re grateful to receive this investment in Berkshire County,” said Laura Brennan, Economic Development program manager at BRPC. “It allows us to take stock of how the region was impacted over the past year and play an important role in strategizing for the future.”

Local businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities will benefit from access to technical assistance through the EDA-funded initiative. These efforts will provide tools for businesses and organizations to better operate virtually if needed, as well as guidance on accessing state and federal assistance. Technical assistance for municipalities will support improvements to policies and operations for increased responsiveness to business community needs at the local level, including online permitting, revisions to zoning and other regulations, and improved communications with business owners.

The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission will work with 1Berkshire as the primary partner in coordinating technical assistance to local businesses. 1Berkshire will also take the lead role in industry-specific capacity-building efforts, primarily focusing on industry clusters identified in the Berkshire Blueprint 2.0. Additional partners will be identified for the delivery of specialized technical assistance to businesses and municipalities after needs are assessed through online surveys and other outreach.

“This is a fantastic opportunity,” said Jonathan Butler, president and CEO of 1Berkshire. “This level of federal investment into the nuts-and-bolts technical assistance our regional economy needs is critical, and we are excited to play our part to maximize the impact of this effort for businesses and organizations across the Berkshires.”

Registration Now Open for Summer and Fall at Asnuntuck Community College

ENFIELD, Conn. — Asnuntuck Community College will offer six- and eight-week online summer sessions beginning in June. Asnuntuck’s six-week session will run June 2 through July 14, while the eight-week session will begin June 2 and run through July 28. Medical, health, and manufacturing courses will begin on May 24, with most classes completed no later than July 19.

Students who are on summer break from their four-year institution should consider taking a course and then transferring the credits back to their institution. Prior to registering, students are advised to check with their home institution to determine whether the courses transfer. Course topics include many disciplines, including art, accounting, biology, business, chemistry, communications, early childhood, computer information systems technology, economics, English, history, human development, human services, manufacturing, medical assisting, philosophy, political science, psychology, and sociology.

Asnuntuck continues to offer admissions and financial-aid virtual information sessions to assist students interested in learning about the college’s affordable fall-semester opportunities. The fall semester begins on Aug. 26.

Upcoming sessions include Thursday, May 6 at 5 p.m.; Tuesday, May 18 at 3 p.m.; and Thursday, May 27 at 3 p.m. Potential students need to attend only one of the sessions. Participants will be able to learn about the admissions and financial-aid process during the 60-minute sessions. The sessions will include a question-and-answer time as well.

Register for the session and learn more about summer and fall options by visiting asnuntuck.edu/admissions/how-to-enroll. For information regarding academic advising, visit www.asnuntuck.edu/advising. To view the summer and fall course bulletins, visit asnuntuck.edu/moreinfo.

Financial aid may be available for those who qualify. E-mail Asnuntuck’s Financial Aid office at [email protected] for more information.

Visit asnuntuck.edu and click on the ‘make an appointment’ button to reach a specific department or make an appointment with a specific area.

Holyoke Gas & Electric Explores Offering Residential Fiber Internet Service

By BusinessWest Staff April 26, 2021

HOLYOKE — Holyoke Gas & Electric (HG&E) is studying the feasibility of offering high-speed internet service to residential customers in Holyoke.

This potential new service, called Fiber to the Home (FTTH), uses fiber-optic cables to bring internet into residential dwellings. While HG&E is capable of providing residential FTTH service, there must be sufficient interest and demand for the service in order for the venture to be economically viable and not have an adverse impact on utility rates. Preliminary estimates indicate that a citywide fiber internet build-out could cost upwards of $30 million.

HG&E would not offer television services as part of the FTTH service. Customers would be required to either ‘cut the cord’ — terminate traditional cable television service and subscribe to streaming services — or keep their current TV provider.

“As we continue to study and research the feasibility of this project, we want to hear from HG&E customers,” said Kate Sullivan Craven, manager of Marketing and Communications at HG&E. “Customers can go to our website and fill out a survey detailing their interest in potentially subscribing to a local, residential fiber internet service. The survey will also be included as an insert with their upcoming bill.”

Customers should visit www.hged.com/ftth to learn more about this potential new service or express their interest.

Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C. Hires Former Law Clerk Patrick Huse

By BusinessWest Staff April 26, 2021