Home 2022 (Page 3)

Year: 2022

‘We the Women’ Series at STCC to Feature Jacqueline Johnson Today

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Today’s “We the Women” series at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) will feature an in-person discussion with Jacqueline Johnson, chief operations officer of Caring Health Center Inc., which serves the state’s largest refugee community. The event will take place from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in the STCC Student Learning Commons (Building 19).

“We the Women” celebrates achievements by women leaders. Featuring local speakers, the series discusses women’s careers, accomplishments, and the barriers they face.

Johnson has more than 21 years of experience leading diverse teams in community-based organizations across the education and healthcare sectors. She began her career at Caring Health Center in 2008 and held roles there as program director for HIV prevention and insurance navigation programs prior to becoming chief operating officer in 2012.

Raised by a strong single mother, her upbringing motivated her to be her best self and instilled in her an unwavering determination that has guided her educational and professional journey.

Johnson holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and urban development from Mount Holyoke College, a master’s degree in social justice education from UMass Amherst, and a doctorate in higher education leadership and organizational studies from Bay Path University, where she is also a member of the faculty.

OneHolyoke CDC to Host Annual Community Dinner on Dec. 14

By
Daily News

HOLYOKE — OneHolyoke CDC will host its annual Holyoke Community Dinner celebration on Wednesday, Dec. 14 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Kelly School, 216 West St. All Holyoke residents are invited to celebrate the season with a free, Winter Wonderland-themed dinner that will also feature live performances and fun activities.

OneHolyoke has been hosting its free Community Dinner for the past six years. The event will return to its traditional in-person celebration this year, though residents also have the option to take their meals to go. During the pandemic, the organization continued to hold the Community Dinner as a contact-free event, providing more than 500 meal kits for the community.

The evening will feature live performances and fun activities, including arts and crafts and a holiday-tree contest. A committee of Holyoke residents and staff from Holyoke Public Schools, Enlace de Familias, and Vcare Medical have been working with OneHolyoke to organize this event.

The annual Community Dinner is also supported by many sponsoring community organizations, including Holyoke Health Center, PeoplesBank, Westside Finishing, Green Thumb Industries, Andy Ramos Electric, Polish National Credit Union, bankESB, Holyoke Mall, Holyoke Medical Center, Hope Worldwide, Homework House, MassHire, city of Holyoke, Mass in Motion, Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce, Holyoke Housing Authority, WestMass ElderCare, Pat Duffy for State Representative, Let’s Move 5210, Carlos Vega Fund, Witman Properties, Fallon Health, Westfield Bank, Holyoke Gas and Electric, Clayton Insurance, Holyoke Public Library, Nuestra Raices, Truelieve, Bresnahan Insurance, YMCA, Holyoke Tax Service, Blossom Flowers, Committee to Elect Tessa, and R&S Cleaning Service.

AIC Graduate Strength and Conditioning Program Receives National Recognition

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — The Division of Exercise Science at American International College (AIC) announced that its Graduate Strength and Conditioning Program has been approved for continued recognition through the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Education Recognition Program (ERP). The recognition renewal period is three years, lasting through Sept. 20, 2025.

Recognition through the ERP demonstrates that the AIC Graduate Strength and Conditioning Program meets the requirements to prepare students for the NSCA-CPT and CSCS certifications and is committed to quality.

“This accomplishment exemplifies all the hard work and dedication our faculty provides to students to set them apart from other students entering the field as young professionals,” said AIC Division of Exercise Science Director Susan Lachowski, adding that “this recognition also enhances our visibility and credibility within the field on a national level.”

The NSCA recognizes exemplary programs that provide the best education to students looking to become leaders within the field of strength and conditioning. “We look forward to this partnership while providing a proven network of professional support for students as they embark on their careers in the strength and conditioning industry,” Lachowski said. “We believe the NSCA is a valuable asset, and NSCA program recognition underscores our commitment to the strength and conditioning profession we serve.”

UMassFive Hosting Winter Coat and Cold-Weather Clothing Drive

By
Daily News

HADLEY — UMassFive College Federal Credit Union is running a winter coat and cold-weather clothing drive in its Hadley, Northampton, and Springfield branches throughout the month of December.

This drive, held annually, is part of an effort to ensure that all community members have access to cold-weather clothing this winter. Donations will be distributed in partnership with the Amherst Survival Center.

“We know that our neighbors in need have come to count on the coats and warm clothing our members donate during this drive,” said Cait Murray, UMassFive Community Outreach manager. “We are so grateful to partner with the Amherst Survival Center to ensure that donations are directed where they can have a significant impact.”

UMassFive thankfully accepts clean, new or gently-used coats, gloves, scarves, hats, sweaters, and blankets. Donations should be placed in a bag and may be dropped off during business hours to the Hadley branch at 200 Westgate Center Dr., the Northampton branch at 225 King St., or the Springfield branch at 233 Carew St. (Mercy Hospital Rehabilitation Building, Room 110).

New Cap Announced on Retirement-plan Contributions

By Contributor
Banking and Financial Services

Saving Grace

By Barbara Trombley, MBA, CPA

 

The Internal Revenue Service has announced one of the biggest jumps in decades to the cap on 401(k) contributions. Americans will be able to save 10% more in their plans by making pre-tax contributions if they take full advantage of the new cap. The new limit is $22,500, up from $20,500 in 2022, and is applicable to all 401(k), 403(b), and other tax-advantaged savings plans.

Remember, a pre-tax contribution to a plan lowers your taxable income by the same amount in the tax year the contribution is made. The new caps also apply to Roth 401(k) or post-tax contributions (if your plan allows). The tax benefits to Roth 401(k) plans do not occur in the year the contribution is made, but later, when distributions are taken tax-free after the age of 59½.

Barbara Trombley

Barbara Trombley

“Many contributors wonder about the future of Social Security; this future will have to be addressed someday by our government. Currently, according to the Social Security website, the trust fund will run out in 2037.”

If an employee is age 50, they can also make a catch-up contribution. This limit has increased to $7,500 from $6,500 in 2022. This means an employee over the age of 50 can put up to $30,000 in their retirement plan this year with federally approved tax benefits. The IRS seems to be responding to the wave of inflation that has impacted the world and is encouraging Americans to save more for retirement.

Contribution limits to traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs will increase $500 to $6,500. Catch-up contributions to those over age 50 are not subject to annual cost-of-living increases and will remain at $1,000. If the taxpayer is not covered by a retirement plan at their place of employment, traditional IRA contributions are fully deductible. If the employee is eligible for a retirement plan at their place of employment, then the deductibility of a traditional IRA contribution is subject to earnings limits that can be found on the IRS website. The contribution may be fully, partially, or not deductible. Income limits also apply to the eligibility of Roth IRA contributions if the employee is covered by a retirement plan at work.

Building a robust retirement plan takes time but is imperative to supplement Social Security or pensions in retirement. Taking risks at a younger age by investing mostly in equities has historically been the best way to beat inflation and take advantage of compounding.

Compounding occurs when investments in assets generate earnings, and those earnings are reinvested, and they generate earnings. For example, a $10,000 initial investment that generates 10% annually for 25 years would grow to almost $110,000.

Strive to save at least 10% of your paycheck in a workplace retirement plan to build a nest egg to supplement other streams of income in retirement. Diligently saving and investing over a long period of time by making regular, monthly contributions into a retirement plan that includes the appropriate allocation of equities for your age is a great way to save for the future.

Speaking of Social Security, most people have heard of the large cost-of-living increase coming in 2023. The Social Security Administration has announced an 8.7% cost-of-living increase for 2023. All recipients, including future recipients, will benefit from this raise.

It is imperative to understand that Social Security was never intended to be the main source of retirement income for retirees. It was signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was designed as a social insurance program to provide a minimum amount of security to workers that have contributed. It has evolved over the years to provide disability, widow’s and children’s benefits for a deceased earner, and other benefits.

Many contributors wonder about the future of Social Security; this future will have to be addressed someday by our government. Currently, according to the Social Security website, the trust fund will run out in 2037. At that time, current payroll tax collections will cover 76% of the benefits that will be paid out. Either benefits will have to be cut, payroll taxes increased, or the age at which a worker becomes eligible increased — perhaps a combination of all three.

Take responsibility for saving for your own retirement and utilize the generous tax benefits that qualified retirement plans provide.

 

Barbara Trombley, MBA, CPA is an owner and financial consultant with Trombley Associates. Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC. Advisory services offered through Trombley Associates, a registered investment advisor and separate entity from LPL Financial. This material was created for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as ERISA tax, legal, or investment advice.

Teri Skinner Serves Up Eclectic Menu, Atmosphere at Nosh

By
Nosh’s colorful menu boards
Women in Businesss

Dishing Out Something Different

 

Nosh’s colorful menu boards

Nosh’s colorful menu boards offer plenty of options for vegans, vegetarians, and carnivores alike.

Growing up in Monson, with a father who worked in auto-body services, a young Teri Skinner occasionally visited downtown Springfield with her mother to pick up parts or paint, and they’d make time to stop by Johnson’s Bookstore and other bustling shops.

“I remember loving downtown Springfield,” she said. “Coming from a small town like Monson, there were so many things to do here.”

In the early days of running her restaurant, Nosh, in the Shops at Marketplace — just a few steps from the former Johnson’s site — she recalls the streets downtown being much quieter than they were in her childhood.

Then, a few years ago, she noticed a change.

“It didn’t happen overnight, but leaving here, I started thinking, ‘wow, there are people downtown, just walking around.’ And it wasn’t just MGM, which is great asset, but a lot of community people who wanted to see Springfield become viable. And I just enjoy being down here — I love everything about it.”

Nosh, which just celebrated its sixth anniversary on Black Friday, wasn’t something Skinner planned to operate long-term when she started selling breads and pastries at Marketplace during the summer of 2016.

At the time, she was running a small catering operation out of her home, following a stint at a catering company in Worcester that had burned her out with 70- to 80-hour work weeks.

“What caught my eye was this big wall, and I could picture a menu on it. And I was like, ‘yeah, I can do something with this.’ I had no idea what the menu was going to be; I just knew I could pull it off.”

The owners of Simply Serendipity, a clothing boutique at the Shops, approached Skinner about selling her baked goods at a farmers market on Market Street, the alley that runs behind Main Street between Harrison Avenue and Bruce Landon Way.

“As the summer progressed, people were saying there’s not enough places to eat downtown, so I started bringing sandwiches and salads. Then, as the weather cooled off, I was bringing soups. It was basically a pop-up restaurant every week, with a little table and a tent outside. The BID provided us with small café tables, so people could actually sit out here and eat, which was nice because it’s such a cool space back here.”

She thought that would be the end of that enterprise, but as the cool weather approached, a small space opened up in the Shops, and one of the property owners approached Skinner about it. “She opened up this door, and it was a closet. But what caught my eye was this big wall, and I could picture a menu on it. And I was like, ‘yeah, I can do something with this.’ I had no idea what the menu was going to be; I just knew I could pull it off.”

Two weeks later, Nosh was born, with little equipment other than a commercial refrigerator and a panini press. “That’s how I built my menu, with those two items. I was making soups and sandwiches for the holidays. And during the holiday market, it was successful enough that I said, ‘all right, maybe we can do something with this.’ So we stayed.”

Six years later, Skinner is glad she did, not only growing and expanding her establishment, but getting ready to open up a second location in Gasoline Alley on Albany Street (more on that later).

 

Broader Palate

The expansion happened in 2018, when a pair of divided spaces became available, and Skinner contacted the property owner about taking over both sides.

“My small staff and I worked during the day, then worked at night tearing down walls and stuff. We opened a week before MGM opened,” she said. “It’s been great. The business continues to grow, even though we are so hidden back here. I still get people who come in and say, ‘I’ve lived in Springfield all my life, and I didn’t know this space existed, this whole street.’”

The larger space gave Skinner a chance to expand her culinary offerings, which still center on sandwiches, salads, soups, and baked goods, but a much broader variety of each.

“There were some good original eateries down here, like Nadim’s and the Fort, but not a lot of variety, or something that was our niche at that point,” she said, before recalling her stint working for a restaurant at the veterinary school at Tufts University when her former catering-company employer got the contract there.

“I’ve gotten some pushback on things; I got a one-star review because somebody didn’t like what was written outside. But I don’t want to put on a pretension that these aren’t things I hold dear to my heart. Sometimes, something triggers me, and it’s like, enough is enough.”

“A lot of first-year students would come in who were vegetarians or vegans, and that’s where I honed in on that aspect of the cuisine I present. We also had large-animal doctors who were carnivores, so I had to cook everything. And I felt a restaurant shouldn’t be limited to one cuisine, but should be able to serve all different palates. That’s what my vision was for this space.”

The restaurant has expanded over the years to Saturdays and a couple of evenings each week, but weekday traffic, especially foot traffic from the downtown office towers and surrounding businesses, have long been her bread and butter, as well as people visiting the MassMutual Center for events.

The pandemic posed challenges to all restaurants, but Skinner’s sister-in-law designed an online ordering platform, and Nosh switched to a delivery model, with the small staff doing all the deliveries themselves rather than use an entity like DoorDash. It also partnered with an intern from Baystate Health on a hospital-worker program, whereby people could donate $10 toward a meal for a local healthcare provider, which Nosh matched.

As restaurants reopened, patrons were once again able to enjoy Nosh’s decidedly funky interior design, bedecked in local art, antiques purchased by Skinner’s son and girlfriend, tables built by her husband, and the handiwork of a local woodworker who created countertops and the Nosh sign from reclaimed wood.

“I don’t like buying new things; I think we have enough abundance of things we can reuse and recycle,” she said. “So we try to be as mindful as we can in this industry about what we’re using for products and how they’re packaged and how they leave our establishment and what you can do with them afterward.”

The other dominant visual feature are the colorful, descriptive menu boards and the chalkboard paint covered with the staff’s thoughts — some amusing, some serious, especially around feminist values.

“I wouldn’t want a restaurant that looked like every other restaurant,” Skinner said. “I want my personality in here, and I think my personality is in here, as well as many of the people who work for me. It’s all coming through. We’re a team, so I want them to share their ideas.”

Outside Nosh, facing the alley, is a board that has been used for deadly serious messaging, from the transcript of the 911 call from the Uvalde, Texas elementary school to an angry quote from U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned.

“These are frustrating times we live in, and I just don’t think we can be quiet about it any longer,” she told BusinessWest. “I’ve gotten some pushback on things; I got a one-star review because somebody didn’t like what was written outside. But I don’t want to put on a pretension that these aren’t things I hold dear to my heart. Sometimes, something triggers me, and it’s like, enough is enough. Obviously, when Roe overturned, that was just devastating.”

Inside the eatery are other messages promoting acceptance of all individuals. “All people, no matter what your beliefs are, should be accepted, no matter who you are and who you love,” she said, adding that the bathroom is dotted with still more messages. “We’ve had people erase them. Then we just go back and write it again.”

 

Take Two

Speaking of redoing things, Nosh will soon open a second location on Albany Street, part of a collective called Urban Food Brood that includes Monsoon Roastery, Corsello Butcheria, Urban Artisan Farm, and Happy Man Freeze Dried. The overall concept is part café, part food manufacturing, and part retail, Monsoon Roastery owner Tim Monson recently told MassLive, adding that he expects the operation to open before the end of the year.

A new commercial kitchen is being built for Nosh, which will offer a similar slate of offerings as the downtown location, starting off with breakfast and lunch menus. In the evening, Skinner plans to bring in guest chefs to cook dinner and show off their talents.

“It will have a market feel, with a lot of businesses in there, and we’ll take new businesses just starting off and incubate them, get them going,” she said. “The property owner here did the same for me when I opened up my closet — gave me good rent and was super supportive. Someone might have a great idea or a product they want to sell, but can’t afford a brick-and-mortar place yet. So we’re trying to create that sort of space there.”

And perhaps help someone else who has always loved Springfield find long-term success in the City of Homes.

 

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Proponents Celebrate Successful Advocacy Push for Cliff-effect Legislation

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — On Wednesday, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Springfield WORKS, and the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council (WMEDC) hosted a celebration and press event for the cliff-effect pilot program included in the state’s economic-development bill in October.

Representatives from those organizations joined legislators in discussing the $1 million pilot program, which will mitigate the unintended consequences of the so-called cliff effect, which occurs when household earned income increases just enough that families precipitously lose eligibility for public-assistance supports like food, childcare, and housing services, resulting in lower income overall and weakened economic stability.

The three-year pilot program will utilize a monetary support to provide 100 households throughout the Commonwealth with benefits tailored to fill the gap created by the cliff effect as they work toward economic independence from public benefits programs.

Rick Sullivan, president and CEO of the WMEDC, noted that people will always make the best financial decision for their family. However, “if they went into the workplace and took a minimum-wage job for a few hours, or perhaps took a job promotion, their benefits began to almost automatically decline. There’s no incentive to work.”

The cliff-effect legislation, which was introduced seven years ago, is an effort to hold people harmless for moving up in the workplace.

“This is not charity work. This is not a handout. This is a hand up,” Sullivan went on. “It recognizes the importance of every individual in our region because if they’re doing better, then everyone is doing better, including the businesses.”

In short, the cliff effect discourages individuals from advancing in their careers for a higher wage due to the sudden loss of critical services, which ultimately leads to a decline in the standard of living, keeping individuals and families stuck in a cycle of poverty.

“Almost every public benefit we have, whether it’s childcare, housing, food vouchers, or direct financial assistance, is predicated upon income reporting and income requirements,” state Sen. Eric Lesser said. “And if you’re a dollar over — if you’re a cent over — the income threshold, almost all of it turns off automatically. What that means is, over time, people have to decline work, decline promotions. If they go from $15 an hour to $17 an hour, and it triggers losing their housing voucher, the logical and necessary decision is to decline that raise.”

Laura Sylvester, Public Policy manager at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, noted that “many of the households who receive emergency food at any of our 164 independent, local member food pantries and meal sites are directly impacted by the cliff effect. Fear of losing benefits prevents people from advancing in their careers, keeping them trapped in a cycle of poverty. It is a major cause of food insecurity and economic instability.”

Advocates for the legislation hope it’s a meaningful first step toward addressing the cliff effect on a much broader scale in Massachusetts.

“This pilot is a tremendous victory for workers and families throughout the Commonwealth,” said Anne Kandilis, director of Springfield WORKS. “To create economic opportunity, we must remove obstacles for people as they work to earn a livable wage by making sure that we do not strip away public benefits too rapidly.”

Children’s Advocacy Center Awarded Grant from Massachusetts Bankers Assoc.

By
Daily News

GREENFIELD — The Massachusetts Bankers Assoc. (MBA) awarded the Children’s Advocacy Center of Franklin County and North Quabbin (CAC) a $5,000 grant, thanks to a nomination from Greenfield Cooperative Bank.

The MBA Charitable Foundation awarded 52 grants, totaling $162,000, to nonprofits over eight geographic regions across the Commonwealth. Member banks were asked to nominate deserving organizations in their community.

“GBC has been with us from day one and have continued to support us when we needed it most. They have been a true community partner,” said William Benson, president of the CAC.

CAC Executive Director Irene Woods added that “the Children’s Advocacy Center of Franklin County and North Quabbin is so honored to receive the MBA award. This award will allow us to meet the mental-health needs of children that have experienced sexual abuse and have had their worlds turned upside down by trauma. Not only has the Greenfield Cooperative Bank provided financial support to the Children’s Advocacy Center since we came to Franklin County in 2015, but they have also served on our board of directors. With this support, we have served over 500 children and their families in Franklin County and the North Quabbin area.”

Amherst Area Chamber Announces Kwench Juice Café Ribbon Cutting

By
Daily News

AMHERST — The Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce invites the public to a ribbon cutting at Kwench Juice Café, located at 19 North Pleasant St. in Amherst, on Friday, Dec. 9 at 12:30 p.m. Attendees can enter a raffle for a $50 Kwench gift certificate and a $50 Amherst Area Gift Card, and sample some of Kwench’s fresh offerings between noon and 1 p.m.

Kwench Juice Café offers a selection of menu items made with nutritious, locally sourced ingredients, including freshly prepared juices, smoothies, and acai bowls, all served in a welcoming atmosphere in downtown Amherst featuring local art. The business is women-owned, Pacific Islander-owned, LGBTQ+-owned, and Asian-owned.

“We are excited to show the Amherst community our passion and spread love through fresh nutritious juices and foods,” co-owners Chandra Hart and Janice Samson said.

Women of Impact Class of 2022 to Be Celebrated Tonight

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Tonight, BusinessWest will host its fifth annual Women of Impact Gala at the Sheraton Springfield, located at One Monarch Place.

BusinessWest has long recognized the contributions of women within the business community and created the Women of Impact awards in 2018 to further honor women who have the authority and power to move the needle in their business, are respected for accomplishments within their industries, give back to the community, and are sought out as respected advisors and mentors within their field of influence.

The class of 2022 features Latoya Bosworth, program officer at Mass Humanities; Sr. Mary Caritas of the Sisters of Providence; Jodi Falk, executive director of Rachel’s Table; Anika Lopes, Amherst town councilor and president of Ancestral Bridges; Laurie Raymaakers, president of J.L. Raymaakers & Sons Inc.; Hilda Roqué, executive director of Nuestras Raíces Inc.; Ashley Sullivan, president of O’Reilly, Talbot & Okun; and Aelan Tierney, president of Kuhn Riddle Architects. Their stories are told in the Oct. 31 issue of BusinessWest and at businesswest.com.

Beginning at 6:30 p.m. tonight, a livestream of the event will be available at businesswest.com/womenofimpact.

The event’s presenting sponsors are Country Bank and TommyCar Auto Group, and the supporting sponsors are Comcast Business, Granite State Development Corp., and Smith Executive Education.

Meg Sanders Infuses Energy, Innovation into Canna Provisions

By
Meg Sanders
Cover Story Women in Businesss

Grass-roots Effort

 

‘Buy Weed from Women.’

That’s what is printed on the back of the coat

Meg Sanders

Meg Sanders

was wearing as she led BusinessWest on a tour of Canna Provisions’ Holyoke dispensary recently.

Those words cover a lot of ground. They’re a request, as well as a statement. They’re also an operating philosophy. And in some respects, they constitute hope for what people will be able to do more easily in the future.

Indeed, buying weed from women — as in women who own or co-own the dispensary in question — is not something easily done. The startup and operating costs for such an operation are extremely high and, for many people — and most women — simply prohibitive. And once one is in, it’s a challenge to stay in.

Sanders, CEO of Canna Provisions, is one of the rare exceptions.

She shifted her career from compliance in financial services to compliance in cannabis while living in Colorado at the time the industry was simply exploding and turning into what she called ‘the wild west.’ She is now a prominent player in the not-so-wild but very intriguing Western Mass. market, overseeing, with her partner, Erik Williams, two dispensaries (the other is in Lee) and a cultivation facility in Sheffield.

Moving forward, she envisions one more dispensary in Western Mass. — she and Williams are looking at several options for acquisition — and the buildout of another manufacturing facility in Lee. And from a bigger-picture perspective, Sanders is looking to hone a business model that will create more profitability in an industry where only a third of all busnesses are profitable.

“ I still believe the best thing in cannabis still has not been invented. We find new cannabinoids every single day; there are new ways to consume this product, new delivery methods, new formulations. Those are all really important parts of where this industry is going. Science is in it, and I am psyched to see the products we come up with to help people.”

When asked about what separates those who are profitable from those who are not, Sanders said it comes down to being smart — with everything from which products (and how much inventory) are carried to the training and development of employees.

“We invest in humans, and we train them,” she said, adding that people are the biggest and most important investment for a company in this sector.

It’s an investment she takes very seriously, and it’s one of the many reasons why she believes Canna Provisions is successful and on the cutting edge when it comes to everything from how products are displayed and sold in the dispensary to how employees are trained, groomed for advancement, and ultimately retained (more on all that later).

“I’m really proud of it — I think it’s the coolest dispensary in America,” she said of the Holyoke facility as she led the tour. “And I’ve been into a lot of them.”

Canna Provision’s dispensary in Holyoke

Meg Sanders says Canna Provision’s dispensary in Holyoke has been designed to resemble an art gallery — and even features works from local artists.

And as she surveys the scene, at that Holyoke location and within the broad cannabis industry, Sanders, who has been quoted in publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal to Northeast Leaf, sees a number of converging forces and trends, but especially innovation, the sector’s deep impact on the local economy and the local landscape, cannabis playing a growing role in the health and wellness of people of all ages, and the promise of much more of all of that in the future.

“Cannabis is a giant vote for freedom — it’s a giant vote for ‘you know what’s best for your body; it’s not the government’s job to tell you what to put in it, on it, any of that,’” she said. “From everyone that I know that uses cannabis, customers I talk to every day, their life is better. A recent study showed that 60% of Millennials use cannabis for wellness, and when you ask them to define ‘wellness,’ it was stress, relaxation, sleep, and anxiety. The fact that people look at cannabis as wellness is huge.

“And I still believe the best thing in cannabis still has not been invented,” she went on. “We find new cannabinoids every single day; there are new ways to consume this product, new delivery methods, new formulations. Those are all really important parts of where this industry is going. Science is in it, and I am psyched to see the products we come up with to help people.”

The wording on the back of Meg Sanders’ jacket

The wording on the back of Meg Sanders’ jacket is both a request and a bit of hope for what people will be able to do more easily in the future.

For this issue, BusinessWest talked at length with Sanders about her business, her industry, the words printed on the back of her jacket, and what she expects to come next with all of the above.

 

Joint Ventures

That aforementioned tour of Canna Provisions came the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It was late morning, just before noon, and the traffic in the store was still relatively light, with a handful of customers exploring the myriad product options or talking to customer-service providers, both behind the counter and on the floor.

But Sanders was expecting a huge day because cannabis, in her estimation, is becoming a growing part of Thanksgiving, especially to contend with the week’s large doses of stress.

“People will be in to get their coping mechanisms and their celebratory pieces so they can deal with Uncle Bob, who might be talking politics at the Thanksgiving table,” she explained. “We all have families, and they’re all very interesting and come with a lot of stuff; this is one way to cope, and it’s not new.”

Meanwhile, she was expecting even bigger crowds for the upcoming Black Friday and the holiday season in general. And such expectations, born from experience in both Colorado and this market, are evidence of the growing influence of cannabis — on the economy and in people’s lives.

Turning back the clock nearly 15 years, Sanders, as noted earlier, was working for a small financial-services company handling a few dozen traders when she approached a friend who was getting in on the ground floor of the exploding cannabis scene in the Centennial State and asked if he could find a place for her.

“I had definitely hit a glass ceiling — there was nowhere else to go and no more money to be made there,” she recalled. “That was happening at the exact same time as this brand-new industry was starting to explode; I reached out to my friend who was creating this cannabis business and said, ‘I’d love to help you guys; what can I do?’

“It took a while for us to find the right place, but I went basically from compliance in the financial industry to compliance in cannabis, and that’s how I got started,” she went on, adding that she became increasingly more involved and eventually become CEO.

Sanders would eventually exit that company — primarily because its board wanted to focus solely on Colorado, while she had larger aspirations for the venture — and work, along with Williams, as a consultant to states, municipalities, and individual businesses as they entered the cannabis business.

“We were helping companies and state regulatory bodies and local governments come up with ordinances that made sense, regulatory frameworks that made sense, and helping people get licensed all over, from Florida to Illinois to Nevada — everywhere,” she recalled. “And then, Massachusetts legalization happened, and we were intrigued by the model in that it wasn’t going to be this massive gaming of the system in a limited-license structure, where if you know the governor, or have the right lobbyist, or if you make donations to the right legislators, you get a license.”

Sanders and Williams eventually consulted for a venture called Canna Provisions and were invited to become part of its operations team. They became CEO and COO, respectively, and guided the company as it gained just the second license issued by the state for a standalone dispensary in Lee, right behind Caroline’s Cannabis in Uxbridge — where she bought her jacket from owner Caroline Frankel. The Holyoke facility, located on Dwight Street in a former paper mill, opened in July 2020, at the height of the pandemic.

In her role, Sanders is involved in all aspects of the business, obviously, but devotes much of her time to staff development and that broad term ‘culture.’

‘At Canna Provisions, we really believe that we’re not just growing plants and growing a business, we’re growing humans,” she explained, adding that the company invests considerable amounts of time, money, and energy to train and develop employees, and then give them opportunities to do different things and advance within the company.

Canna Provisions invests heavily in employee training and development

Meg Sanders says Canna Provisions invests heavily in employee training and development — and the customer experience.

She said she’s currently serving as a facilitator and working with a group of seven employees at the company on a course of leadership training.

“I’m reinforcing my skills by teaching them their skills in hopes of growing humans to become better leaders, which creates happier employees,” she told BusinessWest, adding that most all of these employees have experience in business and customer service but are new to this industry.

“We work really hard to train employees, we spend a lot of money training them, and it’s ongoing,” she went on. “We’ve been told multiple times by people from this industry, and also not from this industry, that they’ve never been to a company that invests so much in training, and they appreciate it.”

 

Down to an Art

While Sanders is certainly well-known within the industry and probably recognized by many she encounters (especially when she shows her ID), she still calls what she does ‘secret shopping.’

These are regular visits to dispensaries across this region and beyond, during which she is always looking at the product mix, the presentation, the staff, and how they interact with customers — all with an eye toward making her own operations better and her own employees ever more responsive to what clients want and need.

“I shop everybody — everybody,” she said, “so that we’re more accurate in our differentiation. I’m able to see what competitors around us are doing, and I can say, ‘that’s one business model — it’s not a bad business model, it’s just not my business model.’”

“We’ve been told multiple times by people from this industry, and also not from this industry, that they’ve never been to a company that invests so much in training, and they appreciate it.”

These secret shopping excursions are just a small part of a broad operating formula aimed at continuous improvement, setting the bar higher, and then clearing that bar.

Sanders believes Canna Provisions does all this in all aspects of its business — from product selection to presentation, but especially with how those on the floor and behind the counter interact with and effectively serve customers, some of whom may suffer from what she called “dispensary phobia,” and a fear of going inside.

And this is a product of all that intensive — and expansive — training that Sanders talked about earlier.

“People have to be on point because your customers expect a certain level of service — they have to know the products,” she said. “It’s training and role playing and practicing and coaching on the floor — teaching them to be more aware of the people who are in front of them.

“This is not a cheap spend, “she went on. “Our average ticket here in Holyoke is close to 100 bucks a pop. When I’m spending $100 or $200 at a location, I do have a bit of expectation to be treated well.”

Overall, she likened the cannabis-buying experience, at least at her dispensaries, to jewelry shopping in many respects, from the high cost of the products to the way that many customers need guidance, or education, on what they’re buying.

Overall, Sanders believes she and Williams have created a different kind of cannabis experience in their locations. The one in Holyoke resembles an art gallery in the way products are displayed, and there are even works of art on the wall. Meanwhile, it pays homage to the property’s roots as a paper mill by putting some of the equipment and office furniture to work in displays.

 

Impact Statement

As she talked about the broad influence that cannabis has had on the local landscape, and will continue to have moving forward, Sanders again flashed back to the early days in Colorado, which came in 2009, the middle of what became known as the Great Recession.

“They just ran with cannabis, and it was crazy,” she said of the rapid growth of the industry and its impact on real estate, cities, towns, and individual neighborhoods. “And this started right after that massive crash and its impact on real estate and mortgages … it was a nightmare. But in Colorado, the opposite happened because all these growers, all of these dispensaries, ended up leasing more than 1 million square feet of warehouse space that had been off the tax rolls for years, just in Denver.

“So, it immediately just infused the city with vibrancy, and it happened all over,” she went on. “It was just one of those interesting economic moments where Colorado did not feel that economic downturn, the bottom dropping out, nearly as much as other states; it was fascinating. And then we kept adding all these jobs, and we kept adding jobs, and building, and then science was involved; the industry just came a long way really fast.”

It continues to grow and evolve, and now, much of what was seen in Colorado is being experienced in other states and other region, including Western Mass., she said, adding that cannabis is having a profound impact on communities like Holyoke and Lee, where she has chosen to put down roots, especially the former.

Indeed, this was a city that rolled out the red carpet for this industry, with its former mayor, Alex Morse, jokingly — although it was no joke — wishing it to become known as Rolling Paper City, a twist on its original nickname, Paper City.

Few actually call it that, but Sanders said there is no disputing the profound impact that cannabis has had in this city, where hundreds of thousands of square feet of unused or underused former mill space has been converted into dispensaries and cultivating facilities.

“Bringing more people to Holyoke is the goal for all of us,” she said. “And I think Holyoke and its bones often get overlooked; I’m so excited that there’s a new art gallery opening on High Street, that there’s several restaurants that we frequent and another new restaurant going in across the way. We have Gateway City Arts, which does concerts all the time. So, there’s momentum, and we’re hoping to be a part of that and help a city that’s been struggling for a long time.

“Together, we’re all going to make Holyoke a better place, with more jobs, more places to live, more restaurants to go to, more shopping, art,” she went on. “I absolutely love this town, and that’s why we came here and spent $1 million to open this dispensary.”

Looking ahead, Sanders wants to see a day when more women can become business owners in this sector.

“It’s very much a closed door, and the numbers are actually going down, which is unfortunate,” she said, noting, again, the sky-high costs of opening and then operating a business in this sector, and the challenge to turn a profit when 70 cents of every dollar earned is returned to the government in taxes.

“Through initiatives at the state level and maybe even at the federal level with safe banking and other things they’re talking about, we need to give minorities and women an opportunity to win alongside all the rich, white money,” she told BusinessWest. “As a female leader in this space, I am super proud to be in this space as a leader and an owner, and I would say it’s one of my biggest motivators to talk about this and do something about it.”

 

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

Professional Offices Are Changing into Something More Comfortable

By
Ken Albano says businesses need to balance
Features Special Coverage

Dressing Down

Ken Albano says businesses need to balance

Ken Albano says businesses need to balance what works for employees with a certain level of professionalism.

If it wasn’t clear before, you know office-attire norms are shifting when the rules for dress-down Friday have to change.

That’s exactly what happened at MP CPAs in Springfield, one of many companies with a rule that, with a donation to a charitable cause (in this case, a $5 donation that the company matches), employees may wear jeans and other attire typically deemed too casual for the office.

“But we changed it slightly because of what ended up happening,” said Melissa English, senior tax manager. Specifically, “COVID came, and our dress-code policy went out the window.”

With jeans and other casual attire now acceptable all week, she explained, “for an incentive for people who want to contribute to charity, Fridays are now our ‘wear what you want’ day. Anything goes. There’s no dress-code policy on Fridays if you pay in.”

Flip flops on Friday? Sure, go for it.

“I started 21 years ago with the firm, and no matter what, whether you were in the office, with a client, whatever, you made sure you were professionally dressed,” English told BusinessWest. “Then, over time, it gradually did loosen up a little bit. It became a little more … business casual. When you went to a client, you still had to dress up. But in the office, you were allowed to have professional pants on but maybe not necessarily a suit and tie, just a button-down shirt, stuff like that.”

“I want to be comfortable when I’m working, and I think a lot of people feel that way. I think you’re more productive if you’re comfortable throughout the day. So I do think it was already moving toward business casual, but COVID definitely pushed it.”

If anything, the pandemic, and especially the summer of 2020, only accelerated that trend, she went on. As one of the first businesses back in Monarch Place, at a time when the downtown towers seemed nearly empty, it was easy to relax the dress code.

“At that point, it was wear whatever you wanted. You could show up in your pajamas; it didn’t matter,” she joked. “It was very casual. We had no dress-code policy whatsoever; we were wearing shorts all summer.”

What happened next — and this was something BusinessWest heard multiple times for this story — was that employees liked dressing down. And employers listened.

“Even after COVID, to try to get back to professional dress, I don’t think it’s going to happen,” English said. “For me personally, I want to be comfortable when I’m working, and I think a lot of people feel that way. I think you’re more productive if you’re comfortable throughout the day. So I do think it was already moving toward business casual, but COVID definitely pushed it.

Melissa English

Melissa English says workers have shown they can be both comfortable and productive at work.

“I do know a lot of businesses feel the same way,” she added. “A lot of the businesses we go to now are casual to business casual. You don’t see many people wearing suits and ties anymore. I think it’s more acceptable now, especially after COVID.”

As a law firm with five offices, Bacon Wilson’s workplace policies are generally driven by the main office in Springfield, Managing Shareholder Ken Albano said.

“We have a policy that’s been tweaked over the years. Now, business casual is acceptable throughout the firm. You don’t have to wear a sport coat. Corduroys, a gray sweater, and a button-down shirt — that’s my dress today. That’s deemed acceptable; I’d call that country casual or business casual. Wearing a sport coat every day is no longer required.

“That said, we’ve got old-school people here who just can’t change,” he went on. “They come to work in a suit every day. Even given the opportunity to loosen up their attire, they stick to it, especially some of the older guys in the Estate Planning department who meet clients daily and like to wear a suit and tie when they sit down with clients.”

He agreed that employees returning from long stretches of remote work, where they could get their job done in pajamas some days, grew to enjoy the comfort of casual dress, and the firm’s policy preserves elements of that while stressing appropriate wear.

“For a law firm of this size,” Albano said, “we try to be as flexible as we can without taking it too far away from the professional setting we’re trying to establish for our clients.”

 

Loosening Up

Casual dress has long been the norm in technology workplaces, and that revolution eventually spread to other, more traditionally formal workplaces in fields like law, accounting, and insurance. The shift toward a more casual dress code reflects, in one sense, a desire by employees to embrace comfort and individuality — and, over the past couple of years, a recognition by employers that comfortable employees are happier and, in many cases, just as productive as before, if not moreso.

Sue Cicco

Sue Cicco

“As we have instituted our new hybrid workplace approach, which balances in-person collaboration with personal flexibility to best meet the needs of our employees and customers, we’ve seen this level of comfort continue, and I believe it’s here to stay.”

Sue Cicco, head of Human Resources & Employee Experience at MassMutual in Springfield, told BusinessWest that the firm has continually evolved its culture to reflect the changing world, prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion; offering a flexible workplace; and, yes, moving away from exhaustive dress codes.

“In 2015, we instituted a two-word dress code: ‘dress appropriately,’” she explained. “This simplified guidance was rolled out as the company sought to reflect the more innovative and open workplace that was building, and was aimed at trusting and empowering employees while enabling them to be comfortable and express themselves.”

Those we spoke with, however, kept coming back to the importance of dressing for one’s audience and setting. For example, Albano said, a litigator would never appear in court in anything but formal attire. “The dress code is normally what you expect to see in front of a judge. You don’t show up in jeans and sneakers in a court of law; that never changes.”

Tanzi Cannon-Eckerle, chief legal and administrative officer at the Royal Law Firm in Springfield, agreed.

“In the courtroom, the attire has not changed since we stopped wearing the wigs,” she said, adding that law schools across the country instill in students the importance of formal attire. “Courtroom decorum won’t change, nor, in my opinion, should it change.”

In the office, however, she has seen some movement toward more casual dress. “But what might be considered lax for one person might be different for someone else. When meeting clients, you’re still wearing blazer and slacks or a cardigan and slacks. Or you have on a suit. In that setting, I believe you’re supposed to dress toward a more professional level.”

Before returning to Royal, Cannon-Eckerle worked as director of Human Resources for Auxiliary Enterprises at UMass Amherst, a tenure that spanned much of the pandemic.

“They decided to bridge the gap between frontline workers and C-suite folks and make business casual mandatory,” she recalled. “I was still wearing suits every day; they actually pulled me aside and said, ‘you need to relax a little bit and try for a more approachable persona in the workplace.’”

Tanzi Cannon-Eckerle

Tanzi Cannon-Eckerle says being overdressed and underdressed in certain settings are equally problematic.

She recognizes that a college campus during a pandemic is a different situation than a law firm, but stressed that all professional settings should strive for certain minimum standards.

“At the end of the day, there’s a baseline: you’ve got to be clean, your clothes can’t be wrinkled, and it has to make sense for the room,” she told BusinessWest. “I love to dress up; if I could, I’d wear a wedding dress once a week. But I’m pretty sure I’d be reprimanded by the judge. So, you don’t dress to stand out, but to fit in and make people at ease with you. You don’t want people looking at your clothes instead of you, ogling what you’re wearing and not listening to what you’re saying.”

English said it’s important to know one’s audience in choosing what to wear.

“People can be comfortable and productive, so does it really matter how somebody looks if they’re getting the job done even better than they did before? So I think employers are now more accepting,” she noted. “In the employers we talk to, so many now are going to casual to business casual, and everybody seems to be accepting of it.

“But, again, no matter what, it’s still knowing your audience. You might have that one client that you know dresses up all the time. Well, maybe you need to dress up a little bit more for that client because you want them to take you seriously, and sometimes you have to look the part.”

Albano said job seekers need to be careful with accessories like tattoos and piercings; both are fine at Bacon Wilson, as long as visible tattoos aren’t offensive and piercings aren’t too numerous.

Sneakers and flip flops are a hard no, but jeans are fine on occasional charity days, when, like at MP CPAs, employees can pay $5 to dress down a bit. “That’s always a positive thing,” he said.

 

Lessons Learned

Looking forward, Cicco said employers and employees both learned something about each other during the pandemic, and those lessons will inform dress codes at countless companies in the future.

“As much as we were apart while working remotely during the pandemic, we also became more personally acquainted with one another,” she said. “We were welcomed into each other’s homes as we took Zoom calls from our living rooms with family members and even pets debuting in the background, and with that came a different level of familiarity that further empowered people to dress how they felt most comfortable.”

Therefore, “as we have instituted our new hybrid workplace approach, which balances in-person collaboration with personal flexibility to best meet the needs of our employees and customers, we’ve seen this level of comfort continue, and I believe it’s here to stay.”

English said the managers at her firm have had meetings and talked to consultants about what’s happening throughout the industry and how it informs the dress code moving forward.

“Because we are so casual now, should we go back to a more business casual? What we came up with is the term ‘smart casual.’ You can come in the office in jeans and a polo, whatever, but if you know you are going to go out to a client, then you need to dress in more of a smart casual. You need to be able to dress up and be presentable and make a good impression.”

Having been a business owner and manager as well as a lawyer, Cannon-Eckerle’s take is that, “if you walk in the door and the first thing people think about is what you’re wearing, you might have to rethink it. But if you’re clean and pressed and not wearing a T-shirt that’s flipping the bird, most likely you’re OK.”

In short, read the room.

“Because of COVID, things have changed, and I think people have been more open to someone’s style, open to the fact that dress is part of their personality,” she added. “But that doesn’t mean you can be disruptive in the workplace.

“And, as attorneys, they pay you a hefty hourly rate. If you roll in with sweatpants and flip flops, that isn’t professional. What we see as professional may be changing, but not in all industries, I think.”

As Albano put it, “you don’t want someone to turn their head and say, ‘oh my God, what are you wearing?’ We’re trying to be flexible and make it a healthy work environment, but also a professional setting.”

 

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

UMassFive Charts a Course for Continued Growth, Expansion

By
Rich Kump, president and CEO of UMassFive Federal Credit Union.
Banking and Financial Services Special Coverage

Points of Interest

Rich Kump, president and CEO of UMassFive Federal Credit Union.

Rich Kump, president and CEO of UMassFive Federal Credit Union.

Richard Kump says he’s disappointed by — but quite philosophical about — recent statistics showing that credit unions are not faring as well as they have historically when it comes to customer satisfaction.

“For just about our entire existence, credit unions have always outperformed banks, particularly the big banks, but just a few years ago, credit unions dipped in our satisfaction rating compared to particularly the national and multi-regional banks,” he said, adding that there’s an obvious reason why.

“It used to be that satisfaction was coming into the branch, being met with a smiling face that was empathetic and there to help — that in-face, smiling employee,” he explained. “Now, satisfaction is defined a little differently; it’s defined by speed: ‘how quickly can I accomplish this?’ The Bank of Americas, the Wells Fargos … their ease of use has surpassed that of credit unions and small community banks.”

Getting up to speed — figuratively but also quite literally — is one of the broad strategic objectives identified by Kump, president and CEO of UMassFive College Federal Credit Union, and other members of the leadership team at this 55-year-old institution.

Others include everything from territorial expansion — Springfield and Westfield are among the areas at or near the top of a list of potential landing spots — to continued growth of an already dynamic niche in lending for solar-energy installations; from the building of a new and more highly visible branch in Hadley and consolidation of other facilities into the headquarters building in that town to the possible creation of an insurance agency to be operated by the credit union.

“Most of our members have Amazon — with one click, you can purchase something. And that’s what they expect from us, being able to accomplish whatever their need is quickly and without friction.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Kump, a 20-year veteran at UMassFive who took the helm in 2019, touched on these and many other points. Overall, he said the institution, which now boasts more than $625 million in assets, is in what he called a controlled growth mode, anxious to take advantage of opportunities that have arisen in recent years, including ongoing consolidation in the banking industry, advancing digital technology, and changing needs among customers — on both the consumer and commercial sides of the ledger.

Such opportunities enabled UMassFive to essentially triple the projected profits for what was expected to be a lackluster 2022, he explained, and these same forces, in addition to those aforementioned goals for expansion, are providing reasons for optimism as the calendar turns to 2023.

 

Developing a Game Plan

Kump, who grew up in New York, has been a lifelong, and extremely avid, Yankees fan.

The wall across from the desk in his office tells the story.

There, one will find a framed picture of Bucky Dent’s famous (infamous to Red Sox fans) home run in that one-game playoff back in 1978. It’s signed by both Dent and the Red Sox pitcher who threw the pitch, Mike Torrez, and Kump notes with regret that the signatures are fading.

As is the autograph of Don Larsen on a framed photo from his historic perfect game in the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers that sits just below the Dent picture. There’s other Yankee memorabilia on his wall, including a group of perhaps the four greatest players from that franchise — Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, and Mickey Mantle.

While the Yankees have always been a passion for Kump, or a “great failing,” as he called it, credit unions have essentially been his career. Prior to arriving at UMassFive, he worked at St. Mary’s Bank in Manchester, N.H. — founded in 1909, before such institutions were called credit unions — and, later, Cathedral Credit Union in Manchester.

UMassFive has developed a strong niche in the financing of solar-installation projects.

UMassFive has developed a strong niche in the financing of solar-installation projects.

With that background, he’s well-versed in what credit unions have been historically, and what has long differentiated them from banks, especially the larger ones — a high-touch operating philosophy and a strong focus on customer service.

These days, though, Kump is more focused on what credit unions can be — and must be — to continue to thrive and grow in a changing financial-services landscape.

And here, as noted, speed is an important part of the equation.

“While overall satisfaction with any local institution is high, this is a world of digital transformation and how quickly you can get your organization to deliver what the consumer is expecting,” he explained. “Most of our members have Amazon — with one click, you can purchase something. And that’s what they expect from us, being able to accomplish whatever their need is quickly and without friction.

“And that has been our focus on improving the member relationship,” he went on, adding that UMassFive is responding with online appointments, online loan applications that are simpler and what he described as ‘frictionless,’ the ability to join the credit union digitally — “that’s our primary branch; that’s how we serve” — fraud-prevention efforts, and other measures.

“We want to make the processes as simple and easy as they can be because that’s what the consumer is demanding today,” he explained, adding that this mindset will be applied to every aspect of the business, from credit cards to those loan applications.

And while improving its speed and ability to serve customers in the manner they are now demanding, UMassFive is moving forward aggressively on a number of other fronts, said Kump, including territorial expansion, new branches, and better, more effective use of its facilities.

Several of these goals are coming together in the planned move of the flagship branch inside the headquarters building off Route 9 in Hadley to a new building to be constructed just down the road at the border between Hadley and Amherst on the site of an auto-parts store.

The move will give UMassFive much greater visibility, said Kump — the current headquarters building is a few hundred yards from the street and behind other buildings — and it will also enable the credit union to consolidate spaces and ultimately save money.

“Branches are now less a transaction center and more of an advisory center. The things people want to come in for are lending — we do a ton digitally, but for loans, people still like to come in, especially on the commercial side — as well as investments and wealth management. Those are things people like to do in person.”

Elaborating, he noted that the credit union outgrew its headquarters building, which opened in 2001, several years ago, and has been leasing additional space in Hadley for its operations center, an expensive undertaking that ultimately led to the development of plans to build a new and much larger headquarters.

By moving the flagship branch to another location on Route 9, the credit union can now scrap those plans in favor of a far-less-expensive option: a new branch building. He added quickly that this new plan wouldn’t be possible if not the arrival of remote work forced by the pandemic.

“What we learned during COVID is that we don’t need to have everyone on-site,” he explained. “Other than our retail staff, we probably have 80% of employees on some type of telecommuting status, either hybrid or fully remote. With that, coupled with the move of our flagship branch and opening up that space, we’ll be able to bring the employees from our operations center over here and not have to lease space. And we’ll have the staff on site all under one roof and not have to worry about building a new headquarters building.”

 

Branching Out

Beyond Hadley, UMassFive is looking to add some new branches in the coming years and expand its footprint across this region, said Kump, adding that the leadership team has identified several different potential target areas.

At the top of the list is Springfield. UMassFive has one location in the city, in the rehabilitation facility at Mercy Medical Center, a branch that counts both medical-center employees and area residents as members. To attract more members, additional sites are being eyed, he said, adding that the Sixteen Acres neighborhood is a preferred landing spot.

Meanwhile, credit-union leaders are also taking a hard look at Westfield, a large community that boasts a state university and thus resembles, to some extent, the Five College area that UMassFive has long called home.

“Many of the demographics are similar to who we serve best,” he said of the Whip City and the surrounding area. “So that is a logical place for us to go.”

While expansion and additional branches are in the business plan, UMassFive will look for measured, controlled growth, Kump said. “At $625 million in assets, we’re not at a size where we can put up a branch every year. Break-evens on branches seem to be running seven or eight years now, so we need to careful with our expansion.”

Meanwhile, any new branches will be smaller in size than what has been built historically, simply because fewer customers come to such facilities and technology, such as ITMs, has changed how service is provided, and thus they require smaller staffs, said Kump, adding that the nature of the business conducted inside is changing as well.

“Branches are now less a transaction center and more of an advisory center,” he explained. “The things people want to come in for are lending — we do a ton digitally, but for loans, people still like to come in, especially on the commercial side — as well as investments and wealth management. Those are things people like to do in person.”

Another strategic objective at UMassFive is growing the commercial side of the ledger, said Kump, adding that, over the past decade or so, the credit union has built what he called a “commercial infrastructure” of products and services. With that infrastructure now in place, the credit union will work to build its portfolio of clients, he said, adding that there are new products planned as well, as well as a commercial credit card.

“For the first 50 years of our existence, it was consumers only — individuals and their families,” he told BusinessWest. “And what we found is that some of those consumers also own businesses, and in the past, we had to turn that business away. A number of years ago, we committed to the local business community, and we want to grow that side of the business.”

One segment of the commercial market that UMassFive is dominating — basically because few other institutions have considered it worthy — is solar energy.

Indeed, since 2017, the credit union has written more than $100 million in loans for residential solar projects, said Kump, adding that it has partnered with the Clean Energy Center to connect low-income households with solar air-source heat pumps.

“It’s a huge niche, and it’s mostly ignored by other financial institutions — when it comes to the true residential solar loan, I know of just one other institution in Western Mass. that offers it,” Kump explained, adding that the biggest reason why is that such offerings amount to unsecured loans, and few banks and credit unions have an appetite for such lending.

UMassFive has the expertise — its chief commercial officer is certified in commercial solar lending — and a track record of success in this realm that it’s looking to build upon.

“We find that they perform as well as equity loans,” he said, adding that, while the market for such loans has softened recently because the tax credits for such installations have diminished, their eligibility requirements have expanded to include nonprofit institutions such as churches, as well as municipalities.

“We were an early adopter, we understand the industry, we know how it works, we support that industry, and it’s a big piece of who we are,” he said, adding that the clean-energy portfolio extends beyond solar and into energy-efficiency projects, both residential and commercial, such as those administered by Mass Save.

 

Bottom Line

As he surveys the banking and financial-services landscape, Kump sees plenty of challenges ahead — from projections of a further slowing of the economy to rising interest rates in the housing market and growing competition for customers in this sector.

But he also sees opportunities for institutions that have the ability to adapt and respond to changing customer needs in a proactive, forward-thinking manner.

That has been the MO at UMassFive for more than a half-century now, and it is the pattern that will continue into the future.

 

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

HCC MGM Culinary Arts Institute Marks Five Years at New Location

By
Warren Leigh, co-chair of the HCC Culinary Arts program.
Education Special Coverage

What’s Cooking?

 

Warren Leigh, co-chair of the HCC Culinary Arts program.

Warren Leigh, co-chair of the HCC Culinary Arts program.

 

Restaurant work is not easy.

Maureen Hindle knows that, having graduated from Holyoke Community College’s (HCC) Culinary Arts program in 2013 and working as a sous chef before returning to work in the HCC program about seven years ago as a lab technician.

“It’s a challenging industry, but it’s all passion-based, and I think that’s a huge thing,” she said. “Our students come here because they have a passion for cooking, and they want to grow that, and this is a good place to do that. And we wouldn’t continue to work in the industry in some capacity if we didn’t love it as well.”

By ‘we,’ she meant the team at the HCC MGM Culinary Arts Institute, which occupies the first two floors of the Cubit building in downtown Holyoke. The $7.5 million, 20,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility opened in January 2018, so it will soon mark five years of growth and innovation, which included weathering the pandemic.

Chef and Professor Warren Leigh, who co-chairs the Culinary Arts program, said he’s surprised enrollment isn’t even higher, given the opportunities available in a restaurant industry that’s crying out for workforce help.

“Our students come here because they have a passion for cooking, and they want to grow that, and this is a good place to do that. And we wouldn’t continue to work in the industry in some capacity if we didn’t love it as well.”

“They can’t find employees,” he told BusinessWest. “Nobody knows why we’re not packed to the gills; we should be turning students away, but it’s not happening. Every industry is looking for employees, and especially hospitality. Most all the restaurants are hiring for some position.”

The fall enrollment numbers were encouraging, however, and spring looks strong as well, perhaps because more students are hearing about the needs in a field where pay typically starts in the high teens per hour and can move quickly into the twenties as they move into higher responsibilities. “There is that ability to grow, so you’d think they’d be busting down the doors here.”

Degree programs at the center have been described as ‘stackable.’ Students can choose a one-year certificate program in culinary arts, and if they want to go further, they can enter the associate-degree program and essentially build on what they started.

With that associate degree, a student could transfer to, say, Johnson & Wales, the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), or any college that offers a four-year program in the culinary field. But most of the time, they don’t pursue more education, because of the career opportunities already open to them.

Briana Marizan

Briana Marizan says instructors consider the unique qualities each aspiring chef brings to the program.

“Most of the time, they want to get their degree and go to work. That’s what we see,” Leigh explained. “The question is always, are you getting your money’s worth for this? Compared to other four-year schools and culinary schools, community colleges are inexpensive — a great value. And what we’re seeing is the students who have the associate’s degree tend to wind up in supervisory positions.

“The students who do the two-semester certificate and stick with it also end up moving fairly quickly, but most of the supervisors out there who are alums have associate degrees,” he went on. “That doesn’t mean if you don’t have an associate degree, you won’t get a supervisor’s job. Some of those have made it to some level of supervision, absolutely.”

At a time when career stability is important to so many, enrolling in the Culinary Arts Institute is certainly an attractive option.

 

Heating Up

The institute represents a big step forward in the realm of workforce development within the culinary-arts field, both locally and regionally, a segment of the economy that was already growing and now faces even greater pressure to retain workforce in the post-pandemic era, beset by the Great Resignation at the same time when most people have returned to their old dining-out habits.

“Every industry is looking for employees, and especially hospitality. Most all the restaurants are hiring for some position.”

There has a been a culinary-arts program, in one form or another, at HCC for about 35 years, though the program was more hospitality-related than culinary-focused years ago. It has had several homes over the years, none of them large or particularly well-equipped.

The facility at the Cubit, however, features a fully equipped demonstration kitchen; a production kitchen set up European-style, with the student chefs facing each other and communicating with each other as they work together to prepare a meal; two teaching kitchens; a bake shop; classrooms; a student lounge; and an 80-seat dining facility to host events. As a broad hospitality program, it also maintains a hotel lab with a mock front desk and bedroom.

Hindle, whose role includes food ordering, making sure classes run smoothly, supporting the students and instructors, and more, has seen the program and its physical home evolve since she graduated more than a decade ago, and she’s beyond impressed.

Chef Warren Leigh speaks with students at the start of a class.

Chef Warren Leigh speaks with students at the start of a class.

“It’s incredible. We went from one and a half kitchens to five. So that in itself is huge growth for us,” she said. “But seeing the students able to use this equipment, versus what we had when I was a student, it’s just incredibly beneficial to them because this is what they’re using in the industry. We’re not shoving six students around a range. In fact, this is better than they would see in most industry kitchens; they can learn on the best equipment possible.”

Briana Marizan is one of those current students, working toward her associate degree.

“I came here because I want to be a chef. I want to perfect my craft and then move up,” she said, adding that instructors are sensitive to the learning and work styles of each student. “Each chef brings something unique to the table, and they teach us not only what works best for them, but also what might work best for us.”

As part of its mission to support the region’s hospitality industry, the institute also regularly runs free, eight-week line-cook training and certification courses. Participants learn all the essential competencies they need to become successful line cooks: knife skills; how to prepare stocks, soups, sauces, desserts, poultry, fish, and meat; culinary math and measurements; moist- and dry-heat cooking methods; as well as workplace soft skills, such as building a résumé and presenting themselves at job interviews.

Maria Moreno Contreras, a culinary instructor who was administering a midterm test to one of those classes the day BusinessWest visited, said some participants are already in the industry and want to upgrade their skills, while others are exploring a possible new career in a high-demand field.

“With the non-credit training, many of them getting ready to get a very entry-level job, or it’s exploratory to see if they even want to go there,” Leigh said. “Their endgame is to get a job — but that’s everyone’s endgame here.”

 

Rolling Along

Five years since opening its new headquarters, HCC’s Culinary Arts program is evolving in some intriguing ways. For instance, it was awarded a $147,000 Skills Capital Grant by the state to purchase a truck that will be used as a mobile kitchen for community outreach and education.

“The mobile kitchen has nothing to do with raising income,” Leigh said, noting that it’s not going to set up on the corner and sell tacos. The main purpose is to engage the community while giving students experience in food-truck operations.

According to the award letter, HCC will use the $147,000 to purchase and outfit a mobile food lab that will support both credit and non-credit culinary-arts programs and also incorporate other areas of study, including nutrition, health, business, and entrepreneurship. HCC’s grant application notes that residents of Holyoke face a high level of food insecurity and that downtown Holyoke has been identified as a ‘food desert.’

Maureen Hindle

Maureen Hindle says the state-of-the-art facilities are a far cry from what she used as a student more than a decade ago.

“HCC will deploy the truck to bring food to neighborhoods of downtown Holyoke,” HCC wrote in its application. In addition, the college plans to connect this project to its downtown Freight Farms initiative with a focus on basic nutrition, local produce, and healthy eating.

Leigh envisions using the mobile food lab to engage community partners such as the Holyoke Boys & Girls Club and area food pantries. Students will meet with representatives from area organizations to create menus based on ingredients of their choice or what might be seasonally available.

Food trucks are one way to enter the industry more inexpensively than opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant, he added, citing the example of HCC culinary arts alumna Nicole Ortiz, who wrote a letter in support of the grant and started her own culinary career with her Crave food-truck business. She now also runs Crave restaurant on High Street in Holyoke.

Leigh also said the institute is working with Holyoke Medical Center on putting together some professional development for nurses and nutritionists, planning to package it as a non-credit course with possible grant support.

The facility also recently partnered with the Boys & Girls Club by helping lay out its new kitchen and hosting the club’s eighth-graders at the Cubit.

“We’re trying to be a community partner,” Leigh said, adding that the school started preparing Thanksgiving to-go packages — everything but the turkey for a family of four — to raise money for the President’s Student Emergency Fund at HCC, which assists thousands of students with basic needs.

The program is reaching out to the community in other ways as well, such as a plan to offer professional-development opportunities for culinary-arts teachers in several vocational and technical schools in the region. “It would clearly cost less than at Johnson & Wales or CIA,” he noted. “But maybe we can get grant funding for it.”

At the same time, Leigh and his team are trying to be more purposeful in recruitment, an ongoing effort, as he said, to get the HCC MGM Culinary Arts Center “packed to the gills.”

“We’re trying to tag-team a faculty member and an admissions person and go to those six or eight voke-tech schools, and we’ll try to do the same with the non-culinary students at the other high schools,” he said. “They might only hear about Johnson & Wales and CIA, where the price starts at $50,000 or $60,000.”

With the need for culinary talent more critical than ever before, and the cost of a community-college education within reach for most, he hopes HCC has a winning message for those young people.

As Hindle said, the work isn’t easy, but it’s a field where those with a passion can thrive.

 

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Legislation Continues to Impact Strategies for Individuals, Businesses

By Contributor
tax planning 2022
Banking and Financial Services Special Coverage

Year-end Tax Planning

By Kristina Drzal Houghton, CPA, MST

tax planning 2022

As another tumultuous year draws to a close, both individuals and small-business owners are advised to assess their current tax situation, with an eye on maximizing available tax breaks and avoiding potential tax pitfalls. Planning should be based on the latest laws of the land.

Just look at the significant legislation enacted in recent years. Following the massive Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act addressed various pandemic-related issues in 2020. In quick succession, the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) extended certain CARES Act provisions and modified others, while the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) created even more tax-saving opportunities in 2021.

This series of new laws culminated in the Inflation Reduction Act (the IRA), passed in August 2022. The IRA, which is generally effective next year, includes several provisions that could have a big tax impact on individuals and business entities.

Kristina Drzal Houghton

Kristina Drzal Houghton

“We still might not be done. More proposed legislation has been introduced in Congress. If another new law featuring tax provisions is enacted before 2023, it may require you to revise your year-end tax-planning strategies.”

And we still might not be done. More proposed legislation has been introduced in Congress. If another new law featuring tax provisions is enacted before 2023, it may require you to revise your year-end tax-planning strategies.

 

BUSINESS TAX PLANNING

 

Depreciation-based Deductions

As we head into year-end, a business may benefit from one or more of three depreciation-based tax breaks: the Section 179 deduction; first-year ‘bonus’ depreciation; and regular depreciation. In consideration of this, consider the following:

Place qualified property in service before the end of the year. If your business does not start using the property before 2023, it is not eligible for these tax breaks.

Section 179 deduction: under Section 179 of the tax code, a business may ‘expense’ (i.e., currently deduct) the cost of qualified property placed in service any time during the year. The maximum annual deduction for 2022 is $1.08 million and is phased out on a dollar-for-dollar basis when total additions exceed $2.7 million. Be aware that the Section 179 deduction cannot exceed the taxable income. This could limit your deduction for 2022.

First-year bonus depreciation: the TCJA authorized a 100% first-year bonus depreciation deduction through 2022. This includes used, as well as new, property. Be aware that most states do not allow this special bonus depreciation.

Regular depreciation: if any remaining acquisition cost remains, the balance may be deducted over time under the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS).

If you buy a heavy-duty SUV or van for business, you may claim a first-year Section 179 deduction of up to $25,000. The ‘luxury car’ limits do not apply to certain heavy-duty vehicles.

The first-year bonus depreciation deduction is scheduled to phase out over five years, beginning in 2023. Take full advantage while you can.

 

Business Meals

Previously, a business could deduct 50% of the cost of its qualified business entertainment expenses. However, the deduction for entertainment costs, including strictly social meals, was eliminated by the TCJA beginning in 2018.

The ARPA doubles the usual 50% deduction for allowable meals to 100% for food and beverages provided by restaurants in 2021 and 2022. This tax break is not expected to be extended.

 

Business Repairs

As more remote workers return to your regular workplace, the business may need to fix up the place. While expenses spent on making repairs are currently deductible, the cost of improvements to business property must be capitalized.

When appropriate, complete minor repairs before the end of the year. The deductions can offset taxable income in 2022.

As a rule of thumb, a repair keeps property in efficient operating condition, while an improvement prolongs the life of the property, enhances its value, or adapts it to a different use. For example, fixing a broken window is a repair, but the addition of a new wing to a business building is treated as an improvement.

 

State Income Taxes

Many states, including Massachusetts, have enacted so-called ‘work-arounds’ whereby flow-through entities such as Subchapter S corporations and partnerships can elect to pay the state tax at the entity level on behalf of the shareholders. The benefit comes from reduced federal taxable income flowing to the shareholder, which serves to circumvent the $10,000 cap for state and local taxes when calculating itemized deduction, which is discussed later. Most states do not give a dollar-for-dollar credit for the tax paid by the entity, but the federal tax benefit is typically larger than the reduced state credit.

The actual benefit will vary for each shareholder or parter and should be reviewed to determine the actual savings. If deemed to be beneficial, don’t miss any deadlines for electing to pay these taxes.

 

Miscellaneous

Stock up on routine supplies (especially if they are in high demand). If you buy the supplies in 2022, they are deductible in 2022 — even if they are not used until 2023.

If you accrue in 2022 but pay year-end bonuses to employees in 2023, the amounts are generally deductible by an accrual-basis company in 2022 and taxable to the employees in 2023. A calendar-year company operating on the accrual basis may be able to deduct bonuses paid as late as March 15, 2023 on its 2022 return.

Keep records of collection efforts (e.g., phone calls, emails, and dunning letters) to prove debts are worthless. This may allow you to claim a bad-debt deduction.

 

INDIVIDUAL TAX PLANNING

Itemized Deductions

Due to several related provisions in the TCJA, generally effective for 2018 through 2025, more individuals are claiming the standard deduction in lieu of itemizing deductions.

Make a quick analysis of your situation. Depending on the results, you may decide to accelerate certain expenses into 2022 or postpone them to 2023.

For instance, you may want to ‘bunch’ charitable donations in a year you expect to itemize deductions. (There is more on charitable deductions below.) Similarly, you might reschedule physician or dentist visits to provide the maximum medical deduction. The deduction for those expenses is limited to the excess above 7.5% of your adjusted gross income (AGI). If you do not have a reasonable shot at deducting medical and dental expenses in 2022, you might as well postpone non-emergency expenses to 2023.

Note that the TCJA made other significant changes to itemized deductions. This includes a $10,000 annual cap on deductions for state and local tax (SALT) payments and suspension of the deduction for casualty and theft losses (except for qualified disaster-area losses). Since a repeal or modification of this cap is unlikely for 2022, wait to pay state estimates or real-estate taxes until January 2023 if they are not due in December.

The standard deduction for 2022 is generally $12,950 for single filers and $25,900 for joint filers.

 

Charitable Donations

If you still expect to itemize deductions in 2022, you may benefit from contributions to qualified charitable organizations made within generous tax-law limits.

Consider stepping up your charitable gift giving at year-end. As long as you make a donation in 2022, it is deductible on your 2022 return, even if you charge the donation by credit card as late as Dec. 31.

Note that the deduction limit for monetary contributions was increased to 100% of AGI for 2021, but the limit reverted to 60% of AGI for 2022. Nevertheless, this still provides plenty of flexibility for most taxpayers. Any excess may be carried over for up to five years.

Furthermore, if you donate appreciated property held longer than one year (i.e., it would qualify for long-term capital-gain treatment if sold), you can generally deduct an amount equal to the property’s fair market value (FMV). But the deduction for short-term capital-gain property is limited to your initial cost. Your annual deduction for property donations generally cannot exceed 30% of your AGI. As with monetary contributions, any excess may be carried over for up to five years.

The CARES Act established a maximum deduction of $300 for charitable donations by non-itemizers in 2020. The special deduction was then extended to 2021 and doubled to $600 for joint filers. As of this writing, this tax break is not available in 2022.

 

Electric Vehicle Credits

The IRA greenlights tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids over the next few years. But certain taxpayers will not qualify. Map out your plans accordingly.

Notably, the IRA includes the following changes:

The credit cannot be claimed by a single filer with a modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) above $150,000 or an MAGI of $300,000 for joint filers.

The credit is not available for most passenger vehicles that cost more than $55,000, or $80,000 for vans, sports utility vehicles, and pickup trucks.

The vehicle must be powered by batteries whose materials are sourced from the U.S. or its free-trade partners and must be assembled in North America.

The current threshold of 200,000 vehicles sold by a manufacturer is eliminated.

In addition, the IRA authorizes a credit of up to $4,000 for used vehicles if you are a single filer with an MAGI of no more than $75,000, or $150,000 for joint filers.

 

Residential Energy Credits

The IRA generally enhances the residential energy credits that are currently available to homeowners. Under the new law, you may benefit from two types of residential energy credits:

1. The 30% ‘residential clean-energy credit’ can generally be claimed for installing solar panels or other equipment to harness renewable energy like wind, geothermal energy, and biomass fuel. This credit, which was scheduled to phase out and end after 2023, is preserved at 30% from 2022 through 2032 before phasing out.

2. The 30% ‘non-business energy property credit’ can generally be claimed for up to $1,200 of the cost of installing energy-efficient exterior windows, skylights, exterior doors, water heaters, and other qualified items through 2032 before phasing out. For 2022, the credit remains at 10% with a maximum of $500.

 

Miscellaneous

Pay a child’s college tuition for the upcoming semester. The amount paid in 2022 may qualify for one of two higher education credits, subject to phaseouts based on your MAGI.

Avoid an estimated tax penalty by qualifying for a safe-harbor exception. Generally, a penalty will not be imposed if you pay 90% of your current year’s tax liability or 100% of your prior year’s tax liability (110% if your AGI exceeded $150,000).

Minimize the kiddie-tax problem by having your child invest in tax-deferred or tax-exempt securities. For 2022, unearned income above $2,300 that is received by a dependent child under age 19 (or under age 24 if a full-time student) is taxed at the top tax rate of the parents.

Empty out flexible spending accounts (FSAs) for healthcare or dependent-care expenses if you will forfeit unused funds under the ‘use-it-or-lose it’ rule. However, your employer’s plan may provide a carryover to 2023 or a two-and-a-half-month grace period.

Make home improvements that qualify for mortgage-interest deductions as acquisition debt. This includes loans made to substantially improve your principal residence or one other home. Note that the TCJA suspended deductions for home-equity debt for 2018 through 2025.

If you own property damaged in a federal disaster area in 2022, you may qualify for quick casualty loss relief by filing an amended 2021 return. The TCJA suspended the deduction for casualty losses for 2018 through 2025, but retained a current deduction for disaster-area losses.

 

FINANCIAL TAX PLANNING

Capital Gains and Losses

Frequently, investors ‘time’ sales of assets like securities at year-end to produce optimal tax results. It is important to understand the basic tax rules.

For starters, capital gains and losses offset each other. If you show an excess loss for the year, it offsets up to $3,000 of ordinary income before being carried over to the next year. Long-term capital gains from sales of securities owned longer than one year are taxed at a maximum rate of 15% or 20% for certain high-income investors. Conversely, short-term capital gains are taxed at ordinary income rates reaching as high as 37% in 2022.

Review your investment portfolio. If it makes sense, you may harvest capital losses to offset gains realized earlier in the year or cherry-pick capital gains that will be partially or wholly absorbed by prior losses.

 

Net Investment Income Tax

Investors should account for the 3.8% tax that applies to the lesser of net investment income (NII) or the amount by which MAGI for the year exceeds $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 for joint filers. The definition of NII includes interest, dividends, capital gains, and income from passive activities, but not Social Security benefits, tax-exempt interest, and distributions from qualified retirement plans and IRAs.

Make an estimate of your potential liability for 2022. Depending on the results, you may be able to reduce the tax on NII or avoid it altogether.

 

Required Minimum Distributions

As a general rule, you must receive required minimum distributions (RMDs) from qualified retirement plans and IRAs after reaching age 72 (recently raised from age 70½). The amount of the distribution is based on IRS life-expectancy tables and your account balance at the end of last year.

Arrange to receive RMDs before Dec. 31. Otherwise, you will have to pay a stiff tax penalty equal to 50% of the required amount (less any amount you have received) in addition to your regular tax liability.

Do not procrastinate if you have not arranged RMDs for 2022 yet. It may take some time for your financial institution to accommodate these transactions.

Conversely, if you are still working and do not own 5% or more of the business employing you, you can postpone RMDs from an employer’s qualified plan until your retirement. This ‘still working exception’ does not apply to RMDs from IRAs or qualified plans of employers for whom you no longer work.

 

Installment Sales

Normally, when you sell real estate at a gain, you must pay tax on the full amount of the capital gain in the year of the sale.

If you sell it under an arrangement qualifying as an installment sale, the taxable portion of each payment is based on the gross profit ratio, which is determined by dividing the gross profit from the real-estate sale by the price.

Not only does the installment sale technique defer some of the tax due on a real estate deal, it will often reduce your overall tax liability if you are a high-income taxpayer. That is because, by spreading out the taxable gain over several years, you may pay tax on a greater portion of the gain at the 15% capital-gain rate as opposed to the 20% rate.

If it suits your purposes (e.g., you have a low tax year), you may ‘elect out’ of installment sale treatment when you file your return.

 

Estate and Gift Taxes

During the last decade, the unified estate- and gift-tax exclusion has gradually increased, while the top estate rate has not budged. For example, the exclusion for 2022 is $12.06 million, the highest it has ever been. (It is scheduled to revert to $5 million, plus inflation indexing, in 2026.)

In addition, you can give gifts to family members that qualify for the annual gift-tax exclusion. For 2022, there is no gift-tax liability on gifts of up to $16,000 per recipient (up from $15,000 in 2021). The limit is $32,000 for a joint gift by a married couple.

You may ‘double up’ by giving gifts in both December and January that qualify for the annual gift-tax exclusion for 2022 and 2023, respectively. The IRS recently announced that the limit for 2023 is $17,000 per recipient.

 

Miscellaneous

Watch out for the ‘wash sale’ rule that disallows losses from a securities sale if you reacquire substantially identical securities within 30 days. Wait at least 31 days to buy them back.

Contribute up to $20,500 to a 401(k) in 2022 ($27,000 if you are age 50 or older). If you clear the 2022 Social Security wage base of $147,000 and promptly allocate the payroll-tax savings to a 401(k), you can increase your deferral without any further reduction in your take-home pay.

Weigh the benefits of a Roth IRA conversion, especially if this will be a low-tax year. Although the conversion is subject to current tax, you generally can receive tax-free distributions in retirement, unlike taxable distributions from a traditional IRA.

Skip this year’s RMD if you recently inherited an IRA and are required to empty out the account within 10 years. Under new IRS guidance, there is no penalty if you fail to take RMDs for 2021 or 2022. The IRS will issue final regulations soon.

If you rent out your vacation home, keep your personal use within the tax-law boundaries. No loss is allowed if personal use exceeds 14 days or 10% of the rental period.

Consider a qualified charitable distribution (QCD). If you are age 70½ or older, you can transfer up to $100,000 of IRA funds directly to a charity. Although the contribution is not deductible, the QCD is exempt from tax. This may improve your overall tax picture.

 

Conclusion

This year-end tax-planning article is based on the prevailing federal tax laws, rules, and regulations. Of course, it is subject to change, especially if additional tax legislation is enacted by Congress before the end of the year.

Finally, remember that these ideas are intended to serve only as a general guideline. Your personal circumstances will likely require careful examination. Consult with your tax adviser.

 

Kristina Drzal Houghton, CPA, MST is a partner at the Holyoke-based accounting firm Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C.; (413) 536-8510.

PVPC Business Survey Examines Remote-work Trends Since COVID-19

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — In August and September, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission (PVPC) conducted a survey of businesses in the region to learn more about remote-work policies. The survey sought to understand trends in current remote-work trends in the region as well as how this has changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and what employers’ expectations are for the future of these policies in the next year.

Outreach for the survey was primarily focused on businesses in Hampden and Hampshire counties, but also included Franklin and Berkshire counties. The survey was conducted online. Requests for participation were sent to businesses through local and regional chambers of commerce, municipal leaders, the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council, MassLive, community-development corporations, and other economic-development committees and organizations throughout the region.

Businesses were asked to have the owner, human resources official, or another manager knowledgeable about remote-work policies fill out the survey. The survey resulted in responses from a total of 98 businesses. Among the key findings:

• Nearly three-quarters of respondents allowed remote work at least once per week.

• Services that require physical labor were less likely to allow remote work. Professional and technical services were more likely to go remote.

• One-quarter of firms did not have a remote-work policy before COVID but have since instituted one.

• Firms with less revenue were less likely to institute a different COVID policy or allow remote work at all, while large firms had more varied policy changes.

• Among firms that allowed remote work, larger firms tended to require at least one day a week at the office.

• Half of firms allowed employees to decide which days to come to work.

• Firms with more employees were more likely to require workers to work the same number of hours.

• Most respondents believed their firm’s remote-work policy would stay the same next year.

• Workers in small (fewer than 15 employees) and very large (more than 1,000 employees) firms were more uncertain about their company’s policy over the next 12 months.

Arrha Credit Union Promotes Robert Ciraco to Executive VP, Chief Lending Officer

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Michael Ostrowski, president and CEO of Arrha Credit Union, announced that Robert Ciraco has been promoted to the role of executive vice president, chief lending officer.

“Rob brings a lot of wisdom and experience to this role along with being a dedicated and valuable contributor at Arrha,” Ostrowski said. “The board of directors, senior team, and staff are thrilled to have Rob assume the EVP position.”

Ciraco joined Arrha in 2019 and served as vice president, chief lending officer for all aspects of residential and commercial lending. He has more than 25 years in the financial-services lending industry. During his extensive career, he has been responsible for all aspects of lending.

He was vice president of Residential and Consumer Lending for Rockville Bank, a $2 billion community bank, where he was in charge of loan processing, underwriting, loan closings, quality control, secondary market sales, loan servicing, and administration of all residential and consumer loan systems.

After leaving Rockville, Ciraco built a highly successful, high-volume wholesale lending operations center to support East Coast loan originations for a West Coast wholesale lender as director of Operations. He has been involved in youth hockey for more than 15 years, coaching and serving as a board member at several different hockey organizations.

AIC Receives Grant to Elevate Diversity, Equity Objectives

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — American International College (AIC) announced it has received a $30,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts to uphold the college’s commitment to embracing diversity and fostering a sense of belonging.

The 2022 Flexible Funding Grant will support the establishment of an Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) on campus to lead and facilitate the College’s DEIB Plan, outlined in AIC’s newly released five-year strategic plan, “AIC Reimagined.” The office’s focus will be on recruiting and retaining diverse students, faculty, and staff. AIC’s goal is to identify its structure and staffing needs by the end of the 2022-23 academic year.

“We are very grateful for the Community Foundation’s support,” said Joe Long, AIC’s interim vice president for Institutional Advancement. “They are investing in AIC, our mission, and our new strategic plan. We are fortunate to have such a respected partner as the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts show their belief in us. We will work tirelessly to reward that belief with a robust DEIB program that connects all students, faculty, staff, and community members and AIC.”

Founded in 1991, the Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts seeks to enrich quality of life for the people of the region. The foundation received nearly 250 applicants for the Flexible Funding Grants this year, about twice as many as in 2021. One of the priorities for its funding decisions was organizations where the leadership is racially diverse.

“These grants allow grantee organizations to continue their core mission-driven work and to improve their efforts around diversity, equity, and inclusion work while addressing community needs,” said Meredith Lewis, the foundation’s director of Community Impact and Partnerships.

Asnuntuck Open House Features Training for Careers in Under a Year

By
Daily News

ENFIELD, Conn. — Asnuntuck Community College will hold its Licensure Careers Open House on Wednesday, Jan. 18 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at its 170 Elm St., Enfield location. The event will showcase in-demand careers, live demonstrations, SNAP scholarship information, and the college’s expert instructors.

No registration is required. Students who attend the open house and register for a qualifying program will be entered for a chance to win a $500 scholarship from the Asnuntuck Community College Foundation.

Asnuntuck’s health-career certificate programs that can be completed in a year or less include certified nurse aide and patient care technician, dental assistant, electrocardiogram technician, emergency medical technician (fall 2023), medical billing and coding, medical interpreter, ophthalmic assistant, personal trainer, pharmacy technician, central sterile processing technician, and veterinary assistant. Information technology certificates include IT support, web developer, information security, and network/cloud maintenance. The college also offers certificates in cosmetology, esthetician, and nail technician.

Click here to register and get program details. For more information regarding programs, call (860) 253-3028 or email [email protected].

Chamber Corners

By
Chamber Corners

1BERKSHIRE

(413) 499-1600; www.1berkshire.com

 

Dec. 8: 1Berkshire Annual Meeting, 3 p.m., hosted by Berkshire Innovation Center, 45 Woodlawn Ave., Pittsfield. Each year in December, 1Berkshire hosts a special event for all members. Status and programming reports are given, fiscal analysis is discussed, and official board business is conducted. Learn about what has happened in FY 2023 and what is in store for FY 2024. Sponsored by General Dynamics Mission Systems, Berkshire Innovation Center, Adams Community Bank, Tricia McCormack Photography, Classical Tents and Party Goods, Berkshire Bank, and BusinessWest. Visit 1berkshire.com for more information.

 

AMHERST AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

(413) 253-0700; www.amherstarea.com

 

Dec. 14: Holiday Party Celebrating the Carle’s 20th Anniversary, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, 125 West Bay Road, Amherst. Hospitality provided by Savannas Bar and Bistro. Cost: $20 for chamber members, $25 for non-members. Reserve tickets at www.amherstarea.com.

 

GREATER HOLYOKE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

(413) 534-3376; www.holyokechamber.com

 

Dec. 15: Holiday Ugly Sweater Party, 5-8 p.m., hosted by City Sports Bar and Lounge, 352 High St., Holyoke. Deck the halls with us this season in your finest ugly sweater. There will be food, DJ, cash bar, sweater contest, raffle, and local vendors! Bring an unwrapped toy (for HPD) and/or a blanket (for Providence Ministries) to get an extra ticket sheet. Cost: $20, which includes a raffle sheet.

 

GREATER NORTHAMPTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

(413) 584-1900; www.explorenorthampton.com

 

Dec. 7: Arrive@5, 5-7 p.m., hosted by Cedar Chest, Thornes Marketplace, 150 Main St., Northampton. Connect with community and the Greater Northampton Chamber of Commerce. New to or nervous about networking? Join us from 4 to 5 p.m. for our Warm Welcome, where a group of chamber ambassadors will help you ease into the idea before the Arrive@5 begins. This month, we’ll gather at Tellus and the Satellite Bar in Thornes Marketplace before heading up to Cedar Chest for the main event. Sponsored by Florence Bank, Thornes Marketplace, and Transhealth. Cost: This is a free event, open to the public.

 

GREATER WESTFIELD CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

(413) 568-1618; www.westfieldbiz.org

 

Dec. 7: Mayor’s Coffee Hour, 8-9 a.m., hosted by Pottery Cellar, 77 Mill St., Westfield. Join Mayor Michael McCabe and hear about what’s going on in Westfield and ask questions. Cost: free. To register, visit www.westfieldbiz.org.

 

Dec. 15: Morning Brew, 8-9 a.m., hosted by Shaker Farms Country Club, 866 Shaker Road, Westfield. Introduce your business to the group and take advantage of this networking opportunity. Cost: free. To register, visit www.westfieldbiz.org.

 

Dec. 16: Holiday Breakfast, 7-9 a.m., hosted by East Mountain Country Club, 1458 East Mountain Road, Westfield. This is one of our most popular events, so don’t miss out on your chance to attend. Platinum sponsor: Mestek Inc. Gold sponsors: Westfield Gas & Electric and Berkshire Bank. Bronze sponsors: United Way of Pioneer Valley and Commercial Distributing Co. Inc. There will be holiday singing by Westfield High School Chorus members, and we will be collecting donations for the Share the Warmth coat drive. Cost: $35 for members, $40 for non-members. To register, visit www.westfieldbiz.org.

 

Local Executive Coach Writes the Book on Defeating Burnout

By
Jim Young
Features

Cooling Agent

Jim Young

Jim Young says the first steps in defeating burnout are admitting there’s a problem and seeking help.

“I had a major problem, and I needed a solution. Fast. So I decided to use the best strategy I had: outworking the problem on my own until either it was resolved or I collapsed. It was an easy choice, really. Up until this point, I had a 100 percent success rate in winning those battles. Besides, failure wasn’t an option. I’m a man. We don’t fail, and we don’t need help.

This time I was different. I knew that because of the carpeting.

Until that point in my life, I had never spent time inspecting the nuances of the flooring of my tiny, two-bedroom condo. But there I was, planted face down in the middle of my living room floor, drenched in sweat, tears streaking down my face, anguished groans occasionally escaping my writhing body. The abrasiveness of the matted Berber carpet felt harsh on my nose, forehead, and cheeks. Its aroma, stale and slightly chemical in nature, reeked of atrophy. It was not a pretty scene.

As I lay there uncontrollably sobbing, shaking from waves of stress pulsing through my depleted body, it was clear that I wasn’t OK.”

That’s a very powerful, and poignant, passage from the introduction to Jim Young’s recently released book, titled Expansive Intimacy: How “Tough Guys” Defeat Burnout.

Young, a Northampton-based coach who calls himself the “Centered Coach,” and before that an IT executive, has become an expert on the subject at hand — burnout — and defeating it. He’s been there and done that, as we can discern from his introduction, in which he talks about an assignment to revive a major client’s IT system, one that, coupled with other factors ranging from his grandmother lying on her deathbed to being six months into divorce, sent him nosediving into that aforementioned Berber carpet.

He’s also helped others defeat burnout, but only after they managed to find the strength to do what most men strenuously resist doing — first admitting that they need help, and then getting that help.

“I often describe myself as a men’s and organizational burnout coach,” he told BusinessWest. “Because that’s who keeps finding me; that’s the work I’m most compelled to do, to help men deal with this condition we call burnout.”

“The term has gained a lot of buzz over the past few years — the pandemic has pulled the curtains back on this topic, which has really been there for a long time. I think we conflate it oftentimes with being tired or exhausted. People say, ‘I’m burned out today’ … it’s a bigger issue than that.”

In a wide-ranging conversation about his book and the broad subject of burnout, Young said this term gets thrown out almost daily in the workplace, usually with little regard for its true meaning and symptoms.

Indeed, burnout is, in most respects, a technical term. It doesn’t mean tired, or exhausted, or exasperated, he said, adding that there are several symptoms, and also what he called the “burnout spectrum” in which individuals experience some but perhaps not all of these symptoms.

Expansive Intimacy

“The term has gained a lot of buzz over the past few years — the pandemic has pulled the curtains back on this topic, which has really been there for a long time,” he explained. “I think we conflate it oftentimes with being tired or exhausted. People say, ‘I’m burned out today’ … it’s a bigger issue than that.

“The World Health Organization finally, in 2019, recognized that burnout was a workplace condition of unmanaged stress with three components,” he went on. “Exhaustion, for sure, whether we’re physically, mentally, or emotionally exhausted, but also cynicism and a lack of effectiveness; we don’t feel like we can get things done anymore, and we can start taking a cynical approach that things are never going to get better — a mentality of ‘it is what it is.’ A true case of burnout involves all three of those symptoms, and there are people all across the burnout spectrum who might be dealing with one or two of those symptoms, but not all three.”

With that broad definition, and that list of symptoms, which a great many individuals in business can relate to, how does one go about defeating burnout and put it behind them?

It starts, as Young said, with admitting that there is a problem, something he finally did, and then doing something about it rather than trying (almost always unsuccessfully) to tough it out, which is what ‘tough’ guys usually try to do.

For this issue, BusinessWest talked with Young about burnout, his new book, and that concept of expansive intimacy, which, in his view, is the only way to get at the root of this problem.

 

When the Heat Is On

When asked how people know, or should know, if they are burned out, Young said that he — and probably many others — don’t actually know in the moment.

“I lived on the burnout spectrum for five to seven years, and I floated through different aspects of it,” he explained. “I didn’t know it when I was in it until I looked back at it and remember not wanting to get out of bed and go to work in the morning. I felt like I was moving in wet cement as I was trying to get things done.

“To me, a lot of it is the felt sense of it, but also, how are people around me responding to me?” he went on. “And if I could be honest with myself, I would ask people, ‘hey, was I difficult to be around? Was I less effective than I was before? Did I come across as someone who never had something positive to say?’ We’re feeling like we’re not getting things done that we’re capable of. That’s the best answer for me when it comes to knowing when we’re burned out. There are assessments we can take, but I always come back to how we’re feeling and getting some perspective from other people on how I am compared to when I’m at my best.”

Elaborating, Young said people and can and often do have bad days, bad weeks, and bad months. But burnout is longer-term. It’s a persistent feeling of simply not feeling like yourself, accompanied by some physical symptoms.

“There’s a ton of practical advice that you can Google; it will talk about exercise, it will talk about diet, it will talk about shifting your work schedule and maybe even changing jobs. Those are all valid things to do; however, they’re just putting Band-Aids on symptoms. They’re not actually getting to the root cause.”

These can include indigestion, lower back pain, and other ailments that cannot be easily explained, he said, adding that these problems equate to stress building up in the body — stress that, if not relieved, will lead to deeper issues.

It’s incumbent upon individuals, and especially men, because often, they don’t listen to what their body is telling them, Young went on, adding that, if they listen hard enough — and he eventually did — they will come to understand that the problem might be burnout.

And this brings us to the next step in this assignment — deciding what to do about it, be it taking time off, finding a new job or career, seeking counseling or coaching, or some mix of the above.

“And that often depends on how crispy you are,” said Young. “Some people, when they’ve had an extreme case of burnout, really need to decompress; I’ve dealt with people who have had to take long-term leave and just not do anything for a while, but that’s not something that a lot of people can do.

“For me, when I started looking at how I defeated burnout and what I wanted to share with others, there’s a ton of practical advice that you can Google; it will talk about exercise, it will talk about diet, it will talk about shifting your work schedule and maybe even changing jobs. Those are all valid things to do; however, they’re just putting Band-Aids on symptoms. They’re not actually getting to the root cause.”

Elaborating, he said the biggest problem he had with burnout — and the problem that most people have — is the isolation and the feeling that he had to deal with it alone.

“When I pulled back all he covers, when I rewound the story, I realized that the thing that got me out of burnout was to stop isolating myself and create intimate connections in all areas of my life so I always had a place to go when my stress was built up,” he told BusinessWest, adding that this is a difficult assignment for many men.

How do they get over that hurdle?

“I think the answer to that is to look at our shame, which is not a word that guys want to talk about, but it’s there,” said Young, who related his own experiences to drive home that point. “If the reason I got into burnout was because I kept comparing myself to the men around me, to my peers, to the people who were a few steps ahead of me on the path, and feeling that I don’t measure up, then I have to double down; I have to outwork everyone. I definitely can’t ask for help; I can’t reveal any of that to anyone because then I’m going to really hear it from the guys. And that’s not OK.

“So I suffered in silence and tried to tough it out,” he went on. “The problem is, the hole kept getting deeper, and so, when I wrote the book, I knew I wanted to write about burnout, because it was a horrible experience for me, but I also knew I wanted to write about intimacy and intimate connections in every area of my life, which was actually the real antidote that got to the root cause. But I didn’t realize that I was going to see shame come up so prominently; as I interviewed dozens of men about it, I got the same story — the fear of being called out by other guys because we’re not man enough to deal with our business and we got burned out is a huge obstacle.”

 

Bottom Line

Clearing this obstacle is difficult, Young said in conclusion, but it is the first big step toward defeating burnout and moving on from it.

It’s the first step toward picking oneself up off the floor — figuratively, or, as we saw in Young’s own case, and probably many others, quite literally.

 

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

Another Year of Challenge, Learning

By
Opinion

Editorial

 

Flashing back almost three years ago to those early and very difficult days of the pandemic — yes, it seems like forever ago now — we were writing about how everyone was looking forward to the day when things would return to the way they were, meaning late 2019.

It was probably by the end of that year, and certainly by the middle of 2021, that everyone in business realized that we would not be returning to the way things were. In many cases, it’s because that simply wasn’t possible. But in most cases, it’s because we simply didn’t want to.

Indeed, we had learned new, different, and, in many ways, better and more efficient ways of doing things. This applies to everything from Zoom meetings with clients instead of seeing them in person to having homebuyers fill out mortgage applications online, to having many employees — the ones without direct contact with customers — working remotely.

It’s been a learning process, and it has continued even as the pandemic has waned in many respects, and other challenges have emerged, such as supply-chain issues and the workforce crisis. These issues have prompted companies to become smarter with everything from what and how much to order to what kinds of clients and projects to take on, to how and when to staff an office.

The learning continued in 2022, another very challenging year for businesses, who are due for one that isn’t. This past year brought us sky-high inflation, more shortages of needed products, ‘quiet quitting,’ more retirements among Baby Boomers, more ghosting when it came to job interviews and people showing up for the first day of work, and more frustration when it came to just filling open positions.

All this has led to adjustments and, as we noted earlier, conscious decisions not to go back to the way things were in 2019.

Many restaurants, for example, have been forced to reduce the number of days they are open due to shortages of help. In many cases, they’ve learned that this helps with retention of existing employees, improves morale, lessens burnout … and all without sharp, if any, overall drops in revenue and profits.

Meanwhile, many banquet halls and meeting venues have learned that less can sometimes mean more. Some are closing for the slow months of the year, and all of them are becoming more selective when it comes to which events they take on, choosing those with better margins and more profitability and foregoing those that are less so.

The result is that, while overall revenues are down in some cases, profitability is up. Hotels, plagued by staffing shortages, were simply not able to clean rooms as often during the months after they were allowed to reopen. Now, such policies have, in some establishments, become the new norm, enabling facilities to improve profits even while serving fewer guests.

Meanwhile, businesses across virtually all sectors have found benefits to not having everyone working on-site. Some have been able to reduce their overall space requirements, while nearly every business with remote-work or hybrid-work policies have found it easier to hire and retain employees and increase the talent pool by extending opportunities to those living outside the 413, or even the East Coast.

Yes, 2022 has been another ultra-challenging year for businesses of all sizes and in all sectors of the economy. But it’s also been another year to learn, adapt, and, in many cases, do things better and more profitably.

We haven’t gone ‘back to the way things were.’ And in many respects, that’s a good thing.

Build Your Employees’ Motivation

By Contributor
Opinion

Opinion

By Allison Ebner

 

I get it. There is a lot on the plates of HR professionals and leaders in today’s organizations. From managing the continual COVID issues and absences to creating a sustainable compensation program to managing basic civility and respect in our organizations — the challenges just keep coming. But what if there was a culture and retention trick or ‘hack’ that we can use to help us build employee engagement, manage expectations, and help us build a high-performance team? Let’s take a cue from the neuroscientists that study human behavior for a living.

More specifically, they research motivation and what drives people to think and behave in a certain way. This research allows us to ‘peek under the hood’ of the human brain and help us understand how to pull the right levers that influence the behavior of our employees. Imagine the things we can accomplish if we could get everyone behaving the way we want them to!

So, what’s the key to unlocking the mystery? It turns out that why we work determines how well we work. Let that sink in for a minute. In the 1980s, professors Edward Deci and Richard Ryan from the University of Rochester concluded that there are six main reasons why people work.

Lindsay McGreggor and Neel Doshi adapted that thought process for the modern workplace in their book Primed to Perform: How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures Through the Science of Motivation. In fact, they break the six reasons into the following: play, purpose, potential, emotions, economics, and inertia or apathy. The first three of these motives tend to increase and enhance performance, while the other three motives hurt performance. They even have a name for all of this: ToMo, which stands for total motivation.

Their theory talks about adaptive performance as an extension of tactical performance. Tactical performance is about whether you can build the widget, write the code, or do the transactional thing. Adaptive performance is about asking people to transcend their knowledge and skills and adapt to a changing situation to achieve an outcome.

And here’s why this is important: the tools we’ve been using to motivate people don’t work anymore. You’re all seeing this in your own organizations, right? Aggressive and bottom-line-only-focused managers and leaders are actually driving people out of organizations in huge numbers. If we want to change performance outcomes, we’ll need to find a way to optimize the purpose, play, and potential ToMo in our employees.

What are some of the ways you can optimize the right ToMo in your organization? Here are just a few: well-designed roles and job descriptions, offering individual career ladders and paths, creating a sense of community and transparency, developing leaders who balance accountability and empathy, and redesigning your feedback and performance-management processes.

 

Allison Ebner is director of Membership & Partnerships at the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast. This article first appeared on the EANE blog; eane.org

Picture This

By
Marching Against Hunger
Picture This

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

 

 

Marching Against Hunger

For the 13th consecutive year, Monte Belmonte, radio personality at WRSI 93.9 the River, led a 43-mile, two-day march on Nov. 21-22 to benefit the mission of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts to feed neighbors in need. This year’s event has raised close to $500,000 and will help provide nearly 2 million meals across Western Mass. During the annual march, Belmonte, joined by supporters and civic leaders, pushes an empty shopping cart, as a metaphor for hunger, from Springfield to Greenfield while broadcasting live on WRSI to raise awareness about food insecurity, while inviting listeners to donate funds to provide emergency food assistance across Western Mass.

Marching Against Hunger

Marching Against Hunger

Marching Against Hunger2

Marching Against Hunger2

 

 

Revving Up

On Nov. 28, Balise Auto Group held a grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Balise Kia building at 635 Riverdale St. in West Springfield. Balise also announced a Giving Tuesday match to benefit the Boys & Girls Club of West Springfield.

West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt, flanked by Balise Auto Group owner Jeb Balise and Dan D’Angelo, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of West Springfield, cuts the ribbon

West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt, flanked by Balise Auto Group owner Jeb Balise and Dan D’Angelo, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of West Springfield, cuts the ribbon

the employee team at Balise Kia

the employee team at Balise Kia

 

 

Season of Giving

The Hampden County Bar Assoc. held its annual Toast to the Season on Nov. 17 at the Student Prince in Springfield. Members were asked to bring a donation to Toys for Tots, which resulted in a large donation to the Toys for Tots program. The toy donations were dropped off at Western Mass News, and cash donations were made directly to Toys for Tots. Pictured below: from left, Meaghan Murphy, Kathryn Crouss, Christopher Pierson, and Ryan O’Hara. At right: from left, Jonathan Allen, Judge Barbara Hyland, and Ellie Rosenbaum.

From left, Meaghan Murphy, Kathryn Crouss, Christopher Pierson, and Ryan O’Hara

From left, Meaghan Murphy, Kathryn Crouss, Christopher Pierson, and Ryan O’Hara

 

From left, Jonathan Allen, Judge Barbara Hyland, and Ellie Rosenbaum

From left, Jonathan Allen, Judge Barbara Hyland, and Ellie Rosenbaum

 

Court Dockets

By
Court Dockets

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

 

HAMPDEN SUPERIOR COURT

Pierre Grenier and Michelle Grenier v. City of Springfield and Bernard J. Calvi personally and in his capacity as fire commissioner of the city of Springfield

Allegation: Employment discrimination, violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, violations of employment under federal contracts, violation of Rehabilitation Act, age discrimination, veteran discrimination, disability discrimination, retaliation, intentional interference with employment, intentional interference with contractual relations, negligent interference with contractual rights, negligent infliction of emotional distress: $25,000

Filed: 10/14/22

 

Christine Adams v. Jennifer Hallowell, MD; and Baystate Ob/Gyn Group

Allegation: Medical malpractice, negligence, breach of express and implied warranties: $1,050,000

Filed: 10/17/22

 

Eileen Roach v. Nada Kawar, MD; Ziad Kutayli, MD; and Daniel Fish, MD

Allegation: Medical malpractice, wrongful death, negligence: $300,000

Filed: 10/18/22

 

Scott Hall v. John Doe, Brown Packaging Inc., and Pacific Packaging Products Inc.

Allegation: Negligence; slip and fall resulting in personal injury: $150,000

Filed: 10/19/22

 

HAMPSHIRE SUPERIOR COURT

Nicolaas La Guerre-Mercury v. Justincredible Cultivation LLC, Reginald Stanfield II, Chetoia Walker, and Jonathan Siberon

Allegation: Money owed for services, labor, and materials; violation of Massachusetts Wage Act: $99,787.89+

Filed: 11/3/22

 

Town of Ware v. 3M Co., et al.

Allegation: Product liability, negligence, breach of implied warranty

Filed: 11/7/22

 

Danielle Merlob v. Justincredible Cultivation LLC, Reginald Stanfield II, Chetoia Walker, and Jonathan Siberon

Allegation: Money owed for services, labor, and materials; violation of Massachusetts Wage Act: $144,158.92+

Filed: 11/7/22

 

Agenda

By
Agenda

Difference Makers Nominations

Through Dec. 10: BusinessWest is now accepting nominations for its Difference Makers class of 2023. This program, initiated in 2009, is a celebration of individuals, groups, organizations, and families that are positively impacting the Pioneer Valley and are, as the name suggests, making a difference in this region. As previous classes have shown, there are many ways to do this: through work within the community on one or many initiatives to improve quality of life; through success in business, public service, or education; through contributions that inspire others to get involved; through imaginative efforts to help solve one or more societal issues; or through a combination of the above. Nominations for the class of 2023 are due by Saturday, Dec. 10, and can be submitted at businesswest.com/difference-makers-nomination-form. For more information, call Melissa Hallock, Marketing and Events director, at (413) 781-8600, ext. 100, or email [email protected].

 

LumiNAMA Holiday Lights

Nov. 23 to Jan. 1: The North Adams Chamber of Commerce announced the first citywide LumiNAMA holiday lights initiative. LumiNAMA is intended to brighten up the city, give residents and visitors a memorable experience, and encourage foot traffic during the holiday season. All businesses, not just downtown businesses, in North Adams are encouraged to create a window display and illuminate their windows with holiday lights from 4 to 8 p.m. daily, coinciding with the city’s tree-lighting ceremony on the evening of Nov. 23. The LumiNAMA downtown holiday lights route will run along Marshall, Holden, Main, and Eagle streets, and Route 2 between Big Y and behind 85 Main St. Many downtown businesses have already committed to participating in the initiative, including MASS MoCA, MCLA, and Gallery 51. The city of North Adams will also assist in installing lights along Route 2. Additionally, the chamber is connecting commercial real-estate owners with local artists and community groups to activate unoccupied storefronts. Businesses interested in participating in LumiNAMA are encouraged to register their display by Nov. 18 at nachamber.org/luminama. Those who register will be considered for the following awards: Brightest Lights, Best Window Display, and Best Art Installation. Voting begins on Nov. 23 and ends on Dec. 14. Winners will be announced on Dec. 16.

 

Back to Business Career and Transfer Fair

Dec. 8: Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) will host a Back to Business Career and Transfer Fair with area employers seeking to attract and retain employees. The event, which is free and open to students, alumni, and friends of STCC looking for their next career move, will be held from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Ira H. Rubenzahl Student Learning Commons (Building 19). The fair is an opportunity for businesses in the region to connect with STCC students, alumni, and friends who are searching for their next career move. Attendees also will have a chance to meet with representatives from four-year colleges and universities who can discuss transfer options. During an employer breakfast, the college will host a moderated panel of industry experts discussing the future of work. Conversations will include focus on how managers are responding to such topics as quiet quitting, hybrid/remote work requests, losing women in the workforce, and more. Participants can visit stcc.edu/backtobusiness to find more information, including a link to download the CareerFair Plus app and links to register.

 

Women of Impact Gala

Dec. 8: BusinessWest has long recognized the contributions of women within the business community and created the Women of Impact awards in 2018 to further honor women who have the authority and power to move the needle in their business, are respected for accomplishments within their industries, give back to the community, and are sought out as respected advisors and mentors within their field of influence. The class of 2022 features Latoya Bosworth, program officer at Mass Humanities; Sr. Mary Caritas of the Sisters of Providence; Jodi Falk, executive director of Rachel’s Table; Anika Lopes, Amherst town councilor and president of Ancestral Bridges; Laurie Raymaakers, president of J.L. Raymaakers & Sons Inc.; Hilda Roqué, executive director of Nuestras Raíces Inc.; Ashley Sullivan, president of O’Reilly, Talbot & Okun; and Aelan Tierney, president of Kuhn Riddle Architects. Their stories are told in the Oct. 31 issue of BusinessWest and at BusinessWest.com. The fifth annual Women of Impact Gala will take place at the Sheraton Springfield, One Monarch Place. The livestream begins at 6:30 p.m. and is available at businesswest.com/womenofimpact. The event’s presenting sponsors are Country Bank and TommyCar Auto Group, and the supporting sponsors are Comcast Business, Granite State Development Corp., and Smith Executive Education.

 

Light UP the Fairgrounds

Dec. 9-11: Light UP the Fairgrounds, Franklin County’s drive-through holiday light spectacular, will run through one more weekend. The Franklin County Fairgrounds is the site of this holiday tradition. For a minimum donation of $5 per car (cash only), visitors are invited to drive through the main gates of the fairground and witness the light extravaganza starting at 5 p.m., with the last car allowed into the fairgrounds at 8 p.m. Queueing for the event will be via Laurel Street to Fairview Street and will wrap around the fairgrounds to the main entrance.

 

 

‘A Holiday Musicale’

Dec. 11: MOSSO, the Musicians of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, will present “MOSSO and Friends: A Holiday Musicale” at 4 p.m. at First Church of Christ, 763 Longmeadow St., Longmeadow. The family-friendly concert showcases the talents of violinist Marsha Harbison, cellist Boris Kogan, pianist Sofya Shainskaya, and baritone John Thomas. The program features selections from Bach, Beethoven, Beach, Broadway, and holiday favorites.The full program will be announced from the stage. Tickets cost $20 and can be purchased in advance by visiting www.eventbrite.com/e/mosso-and-friends-a-holiday-musicale-tickets-456534696567. Tickets may also be available at the door one hour prior to the performance.

 

 

Service Above Self Luncheon

Dec. 15: The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Rotary Club of Springfield announced the honorees for the Westfield Bank 2022 Basketball Hall of Fame/Springfield Rotary Service Above Self Luncheon, which will take place at noon on Center Court of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The public is invited to attend. This year’s honorees are Judy Matt, president of the Spirit of Springfield, and the V Foundation for Cancer Research, founded by the late NCAA championship Coach Jim Valvano and ESPN. In addition to these two honorees, a Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Jack Toner, a third-generation Springfield business owner and Rotarian. Tickets to the luncheon cost $75. To purchase tickets, contact Jeremy Therrien at the Basketball Hall of Fame at (413) 231-5521 or [email protected]m.

People on the Move

By
People on the Move
Britaney Guzman-Bailey

Britaney Guzman-Bailey

Sarah Federation

Sarah Federation

Joshua Goldstein

Joshua Goldstein

Bacon Wilson P.C. announced that three new associate attorneys have joined the firm. Attorney Britaney Guzman-Bailey is a member of Bacon Wilson’s Domestic Relations and Family Law practice group. She earned her juris doctor degree magna cum laude at Western New England University School of Law, where she served as a production editor of the Western New England Law Review, and earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut. Prior to joining Bacon Wilson, Guzman-Bailey served as a judicial law clerk at the Connecticut Superior Court. She received the CALI Award for Gender and the Law in 2021, the CALI Award for International Business Transactions in 2021, and the CALI Award for Family Law in 2020. She is a member of the Hispanic National Bar Assoc., the Hampden County Bar Assoc., and the Massachusetts LGBTQ Bar Assoc. She is licensed to practice in Massachusetts and will be working from Bacon Wilson’s Springfield location. Attorney Sarah Federation is a member of Bacon Wilson’s Business and Corporate Law practice group. She earned her juris doctor degree cum laude from Western New England University School of Law in 2022 and earned her bachelor’s degree cum laude from Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y. in 2019. Federation’s Bacon Wilson career originally began as a law clerk in May 2021. She received the CALI Award for Bioethics and Law in 2021 and was named Best Plaintiff’s Advocate in 2020. She is licensed to practice in Massachusetts and was officially sworn into the Massachusetts Bar Assoc. on Nov. 15. She will be working from Bacon Wilson’s Springfield location. Attorney Joshua Goldstein is a member of Bacon Wilson’s Business and Corporate Law practice group and the Banking and Finance practice group. He earned his juris doctor degree cum laude from Western New England University School of Law in 2022 and his bachelor’s degree in business economics from the State University of New York, Oneonta in 2018. Goldstein completed pro bono activity with the City of Homes Project under the direction of retired Judge Dina Fein. He also is a member of the Hampden County Bar Assoc. He is licensed to practice in Massachusetts and was officially sworn into the Massachusetts Bar Assoc. on Nov. 15. He will be working from Bacon Wilson’s Springfield location.

•••••

Shannon Gurek

Shannon Gurek

Jeffrey Markham Jr.

Jeffrey Markham Jr.

Marty Bongfeldt

Marty Bongfeldt

Sarah Guerin

Sarah Guerin

Ann Tweedy

Ann Tweedy

The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts recently welcomed Shannon Gurek as vice president for Finance and Operations. She will provide strategic leadership in finance, information technology, operations, and risk management during a transformative period for the foundation. She was selected after a national search conducted by Lindauer, a leading executive search firm serving foundation and charity organizations. Lindauer is also leading the foundation’s search for its next president and CEO. Gurek, who began her career in Springfield and is a life-long resident of Massachusetts, most recently served nine years as vice president for Finance and Administration and treasurer at Mount Holyoke College. While there, she also served as a member of the president’s cabinet and worked closely with the college’s trustees. In addition to overseeing the college’s operating budget, financial planning and reporting, and policies governing the stewardship of its $1 billion endowment, Gurek was responsible for key administrative areas that included human resources, facilities, risk management, and sustainability. Prior to joining Mount Holyoke, Gurek was the associate treasurer and director of the budget at Amherst College, and early in her career, she was an audit supervisor at Coopers and Lybrand. A certified public accountant, she earned her MBA from the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst and her bachelor’s degree from Nichols College. She is also a member of the board of directors of Holyoke Medical Center. Gurek will be joining Jeffrey Markham Jr., Marty Bongfeldt, Sarah Guerin, and Ann Tweedy, all of whom recently joined the Community Foundation as staff members. Markham began serving the foundation as program officer for Community Impact and Partnerships after 15 years in public-health research and community-based programming. His previous work was with the MOCHA (Men of Color Health Awareness) program in Springfield, where he directed its Disrupting Systemic and Structural Racism Initiative as well as its research collaboration with the UMass Amherst School of Public Health. Bongfeldt joined the foundation as its new Donor Services associate. She brings extensive experience as an executive assistant to chief-level leadership in both corporate and nonprofit organizations. Originally from Dallas, Bongfeldt relocated to Western Mass. after her acceptance to Smith College’s Ada Comstock Scholar Program. She earned her bachelor’s degree and master of fine arts degree from Smith. She is also a playwright member of the Dramatist Guild. Guerin joined the foundation as program assistant after serving the Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts for nearly five years. She served as Executive Services assistant to the organization’s CEO and COO. She brings with her a wealth of nonprofit and youth organization experience as well as a strong background in volunteerism. Tweedy joined the foundation as fund administration associate for Philanthropic Services. She comes to the foundation from Franklin/Hampshire County MassHire’s first upskilling navigator, in which she helped launch the first Career Technical Initiative (CTI) Commonwealth Corp.-funded Adult Vocational Education program at Franklin County Technical School in Turners Falls. She is the treasurer of a family foundation in Providence, R.I. and volunteers on several boards.

•••••

A dozen UMass Amherst researchers representing a wide range of disciplines have been recognized as among the world’s most highly cited researchers in 2022. The list is generated by the Web of Science database of analytics provider Clarivate. The highly cited papers rank in the top 1% by citations for their field and publication year, span 69 countries or regions, and are spread across a diverse range of research fields in the sciences and social sciences. The highly cited UMass Amherst researchers for 2022 are three food scientists, Professor Eric Decker, Distinguished Professor David Julian McClements, and Professor and Clydesdale Scholar of Food Science Hang Xiao; two microbiologists, Kelly Nevin and Derek Lovley; Distinguished Professor in Chemistry Vincent Rotello; Armstrong/Siadat Endowed Professor of Chemical Engineering Nianqiang “Nick” Wu; Director of Stockbridge School of Agriculture and Professor of Environmental and Soil Sciences Baoshan Xing; Silvio O. Conte Distinguished Professor of Polymer Science and Engineering Thomas Russell; Hospitality and Tourism Management Provost Professor Muzaffer “Muzzo” Uysal; Associate Dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs and School of Public Health and Health Sciences Professor Laura Vandenberg; and Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Qiangfei Xia.

•••••

Daryl Johnson

Daryl Johnson

Kevin Hassett Jr.

Kevin Hassett Jr.

Rachel Fancy

Rachel Fancy

Fitzgerald Law recently announced that attorneys Daryl Johnson, Kevin Hassett Jr., and Rachel Fancy have joined the firm. Johnson has a broad business-law practice advising clients on matters of commercial real estate, corporate finance, succession planning, and trust and estates. She has eight years of experience practicing as an attorney and has served as corporate counsel for an international importing business. She graduated summa cum laude from Elms College, where she earned a bachelor’s degree, and cum laude from the UMass School of Law in Dartmouth, where she earned her juris doctorate. She is a trustee of Springfield International Charter School, regularly fundraises to benefit Empty Arms Bereavement Support, and has served as a volunteer for Girls on the Run and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampden County. Hassett focuses his business-law practice on the areas of contract drafting and negotiation, commercial loans, commercial real-estate development including acquisition and sale, regulatory and government enforcement actions and investigations, and employment law. He is a graduate of UMass Amherst, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in legal studies, and Western New England University School of Law, where he earned his juris doctorate. He is a member of the Hampden County Bar Assoc. New Lawyers’ Section Executive Board and a member of the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield. Fancy advises business owners and leadership teams on the resolution of commercial disputes, litigation tactics and procedure, and land use, zoning, and permitting. She is particularly skilled at legal research and writing, as well as oral advocacy and negotiation. She graduated magna cum laude from Suffolk University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree, and cum laude from Western New England University School of Law, where she earned her juris doctorate. She represents the firm with the Westfield Chamber of Commerce. She has also volunteered with a small-business clinic while in law school, working with local startups.

•••••

Eli Freund

Eli Freund

Louis Burgos

Louis Burgos

Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) announced the hiring of Eli Freund as director of Marketing and Communications and Louis Burgos as Digital and Social Media manager. Freund comes to the college with experience in communications and journalism. In his new role, he will plan and execute strategic marketing and communications programs that promote STCC, among other responsibilities. He was previously the director of communications for the University of Connecticut School of Engineering, where he oversaw external and internal communications. He also managed the integrated marketing plan for the school, which included social media, email marketing, paid advertising, search-engine optimization, and media relations. In addition to his new role at STCC, he serves as an adjunct communications professor at Eastern Connecticut State University. Prior to his role at UConn, Freund worked as a reporter, covering education and town government for the Chronicle in Willimantic, Conn., and the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Conn. After leaving journalism, he worked in the mayor’s office in the town of East Hartford, Conn., as a communications officer, and worked for Clarus Commerce in Rocky Hill, Conn., coordinating all its public relations. Freund earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Connecticut and a master’s degree in communication from the University of Hartford. Burgos will lead a strong content strategy for STCC across its digital platforms, advancing the college’s brand, stakeholder support, and enrollment. In his new role, he will develop the college’s web content, social-media channels, and digital media and manage many creative projects, including writing digital copy. Burgos previously worked at the Center for EcoTechnology in Springfield as a bilingual Marketing And Communication coordinator, where he managed its social-media presence and also served as videographer/video editor. In addition to his position there, he has also worked as a wedding videographer. Burgos earned an associate degree in communication media and theater arts in 2018 from Holyoke Community College. In 2020, he continued his education and received a bachelor’s degree in communication from Westfield State University.

•••••

Deborah Stephenson

Deborah Stephenson

After a multi-state search, Brattleboro Savings & Loan (BS&L) recently welcomed Deborah Stephenson to the position of president. Current president Dan Yates will retire at the end of this year after 17 years in that role. Stephenson comes to BS&L from Berkshire Bank, where she served as senior vice president for Compliance and helped grow the bank’s assets from $2 billion to $13 billion. She first took her university degree in economics and finance into public service as a bank examiner for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Seeing so many banks from the inside helped her to learn the fundamentals of banking as well as to become an expert at risk management and compliance issues. Her first job out of the government was with Woronoco Savings Bank in Westfield, which was suffering from compliance issues that Stephenson helped clean up. This became a specialty that has followed her throughout her career, leading her to Berkshire Bank and now to BS&L.

•••••

Berkshire Money Management (BMM) recently welcomed Julia Lewis to a new position of compliance professional. Her arrival adds internal compliance capacity to the firm’s operations team. As compliance professional, Lewis is responsible for Berkshire Money Management’s internal compliance program, employee training, and processes and procedures. She brings to the team eight years of experience in the finance industry across the retirement, home-lending, and insurance sectors. Prior to joining Berkshire Money Management, she was the Technical Operations manager at PCS Retirement. She is happy to join the BMM team, where she can be a part of giving back to the community and supporting local growth.

 

Company Notebook

By
Company Notebook

Freedom Credit Union Opens Loan Production Office in Enfield

ENFIELD, Conn. — Freedom Credit Union, with 10 branches throughout the Pioneer Valley, announced the opening of its first location in Connecticut at 115 Elm St., Unit 214, in Enfield. The office, which recently opened, is dedicated exclusively to mortgage and business lending for the time being. The mortgage loan originator, Jackson Findlay, will help guide members through mortgage loan options, prepare and submit mortgage loan applications, and work with prospective homebuyers throughout the process of obtaining a mortgage loan. He earned his bachelor’s degree in international business from Newbury College and an MBA from Elms College. John Santaniello, assistant vice president of Member Business Lending, will work with businesses that are seeking loans including term, Small Business Administration, commercial real estate, and commercial vehicle loans. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. In 2020, Freedom expanded its charter from people who live, work, or attend school in Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, and Berkshire counties to also include people in Hartford and Tolland counties in Connecticut.

 

AIC Recognized in U.S. News Best Colleges Rankings

SPRINGFIELD — American International College (AIC) has been recognized as a top performer for social mobility in the 2022-23 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings. AIC’s ranking tied for 69th, placing the college second in Massachusetts in the report’s National College category, behind only UMass Boston. Economically disadvantaged students are less likely to finish college, according to U.S. News & World Report. However, some institutions, such as AIC, have shown an intentional commitment to increase access to education, and as a result are showing progress in advancing social mobility. This is done in part by enrolling and graduating large proportions of disadvantaged students who have been awarded federal Pell Grants as part of their financial-aid packages. Most of these federal grants are awarded to students whose adjusted gross family incomes are under $50,000. Of the 1,168 undergraduate students enrolled at AIC for the fall 2022 semester, nearly half received a Pell Grant. The overall rankings from U.S. News & World Report assess more than 1,800 bachelor’s degree-granting institutions on 17 metrics and place the largest emphasis on a college’s retention and graduation rates.

 

Smith College Campus Center to be Named for Julia Child

NORTHAMPTON — The trustees of Smith College unanimously voted to name the college’s Campus Center in honor of Julia McWilliams Child, who graduated from Smith in 1934. The 60,000-square-foot Campus Center, which serves as the heart of student life on campus, was partially funded by proceeds from the 2002 sale of Child’s home in Cambridge, which the famed chef donated to the college. It includes flexible meeting spaces, the Campus Center Café, and areas for studying and socializing. Since 2004, Smith has celebrated Child’s legacy on Julia Child Day, a tradition held each year on the Thursday before Thanksgiving. On Nov. 17, the dining halls and the Campus Center Café served many of her famous recipes, like coq au vin, fruit crêpes and French onion soup.

 

Breeze Airways Adds Flights at Bradley International Airport

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. — The Connecticut Airport Authority announced that Breeze Airways is once again growing its presence at Bradley International Airport and will be launching new nonstop service to Raleigh-Durham, N.C., in February. In the new year, the airline will also return nonstop service to Pittsburgh and introduce one-stop/no-plane-change ‘BreezeThru’ service to New Orleans. From Bradley, Breeze currently offers non-stop service to Charleston, S.C.; Columbus, Ohio; Jacksonville, Fla.; Las Vegas; Nashville, Tenn.; Norfolk, Va.; Richmond, Va.; Sarasota-Bradenton, Fla.; and Savannah, Ga. In 2023, the airline will also be introducing nonstop service to Phoenix and Vero Beach, Fla. Bradley International Airport is a national base for Breeze Airways.

 

Women’s Foundation of Boston Awards $25,000 to Girl Scouts of Central and Western Mass.

BOSTON — Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts (GSCWM) announced that it received a $25,000 Catalyst Grant from the Women’s Foundation of Boston. The grant will fund new donor technology software. GSCWM is one of 11 nonprofits that exclusively serves women and girls awarded the supplemental Catalyst Grant. According to Christina Gordon, co-founder and CEO of the Women’s Foundation of Boston, “this supplemental alternative grant offering allows us to deepen our impact and support a greater number of effective women- and girl-serving nonprofits. As with our annual multi-year grants, the rigorous process for choosing recipients of our Catalyst Grants is based on mission alignment and proven outcomes.” The grant will fund new technology software to improve fundraising efficiency, donor engagement, and volunteer awareness.

 

EDM Designing New Net-zero Fire Station for Williamstown

PITTSFIELD — EDM, an integrated architecture and engineering firm with offices in Pittsfield; Unionville, Conn.; and Troy, N.Y., in partnership with Mitchell Associates Architects, recently provided programming and schematic design for a new net-zero fire station in Williamstown. The station will be an example of sustainable design for public-safety buildings and will comply with the strictest requirements of the International Living Future Institute’s Zero Carbon Certification. This requires no burning of fossil fuels on site, 100% of energy to be created by renewable energy sources, and the achievement of a 10% reduction in the building’s embodied carbon. The new facility will be located at the corner of Main Street and Linear Park Drive and will feature state-of-the-art firematic design strategies. The current design is approximately 28,000 square feet and is set to have six bays with a two-story administration/training/bunk wing. The design will utilize innovative systems and materials such as an all-electric variable refrigerant flow HVAC system, building and ground-mounted photovoltaic panels, low-carbon concrete masonry units, 100% recycled brick, triple-glazed windows, high-recycled-content steel structure, and timber construction where allowed, to name a few strategies. The project is currently awaiting funding approval from Williamstown residents, with an official vote set to be held on Feb. 28, 2023.

 

Earthbound Trading Company Opens at Holyoke Mall

HOLYOKE — Earthbound Trading Company, a bohemian lifestyle brand, opened a 3,465-square-foot space on Nov. 15 on the upper level of Holyoke Mall near Macy’s. The company features gifts and fashion for hippies at heart. Earthbound offers a full range of home décor, meditation essentials, textiles, stones, accessories, clothing, and more. From humble beginnings in 1994 as a rock and mineral shop, Earthbound Trading now has 146 locations throughout the U.S.

 

Big Y Joins Massachusetts’ SNAP Online Purchasing Program

BOSTON — The Baker-Polito administration announced that Massachusetts residents who receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits can now use their electronic benefits transfer (EBT) SNAP benefits to buy groceries online from Big Y. Big Y is the latest retailer in the Commonwealth to accept EBT SNAP online. It joins Amazon, BJ’s, Daily Table, Geissler’s Supermarket, Shaw’s, Star Market, Stop & Shop, and Walmart, as well as Aldi, Brothers Marketplace, Hannaford, McKinnon’s Supermarkets, Price Chopper, Price Rite Marketplace, Roche Bros., Sudbury Farms, and Wegmans via Instacart. Across all eligible retailers, Massachusetts residents have spent more than $240 million in SNAP benefits to date, buying groceries online from eligible retailers. Big Y customers can now use their SNAP benefits when purchasing their groceries online through the Instacart marketplace. Shoppers must enter their EBT card as the form of payment on their Instacart account and select items from the list of EBT SNAP-eligible products as part of their Big Y order. Similar to using SNAP benefits to purchase food in a store, benefits can be used to buy SNAP-eligible foods online, including fresh produce, frozen foods, dairy, and eggs. For more information on using SNAP benefits via Instacart, visit www.instacart.com/ebt-snap.

 

Canna Provisions, Aruna to Offer Sun-grown Indoor Cannabis in Lee

LEE — Canna Provisions, a Lee-based, woman-owned, award-winning cannabis dispensary, announced it has entered into a product partnership with Aruna, the first legal cannabis-cultivation facility to launch operations in Lee. Aruna, located at 845 Pleasant St. in Lee, is a Desi-owned minority legal cannabis-cultivation business boasting a state-of-the-art, fully sealed greenhouse facility creating sun-grown indoor cannabis. Typically the choice is either to grow indoors for the controlled environment, or grow outdoors for greater sustainability while risking various contaminant risks. Harsh Patel, Aruna CEO, said the company’s approach, to do both, is the most difficult. He explained that the ability to harness the key strengths of both indoor and outdoor methods of cultivation means the aesthetics and plant expression from natural sun growth and the tight-knit controls of an indoor facility yields something fresh for the market that’s also focused on sustainability and avoiding various issues that plague outdoor and hybrid greenhouse grows. Aruna has just under 10,000 square feet of canopy in a building just under 20,000 square feet. Canna Provisions is headquartered in 300 yards off the Lee exit on the Mass Pike, and also has a retail store in downtown Holyoke. Canna Provisions cultivation is located in Sheffield.

 

Burkhart Pizzanelli Delivers Coats to 200 Square One Children

SPRINGFIELD — The team at Burkhart Pizzanelli, a regional certified public accounting firm located in West Springfield, is doing its part to spread warmth to 200 children in need of winter coats this season. The local accounting firm organized a campaign through Operation Warm to purchase the new coats for children served by Square One. The coats were distributed by Square One staff and employees of Burkhart Pizzanelli on Nov. 14 at Square One’s Tommie Johnson Child & Family Center in Springfield. Operation Warm is a national organization that provides brand-new winter coats to children in need, helping to improve self-confidence, peer acceptance, school attendance, and overall wellness. Funding support comes from businesses and individuals within the communities they serve.

Incorporations

By
Incorporations

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

AGAWAM

Ganpati Bapa Inc., 36 Yarmouth Dr., Agawam MA, 01001. Rishabh D. Rabari, 48 Yorktown Ct., Chicopee, MA 01020. Package store.

AMHERST

Zerka Foundation Inc., 24 Greenleaves Dr. No. 429, Amherst, MA 01002. Edward Schreiber, same. Social justice consulting services.

BROOKFIELD

Chaffee Tree & Construction Inc., 9 Lake Road, Brookfield, MA 01506. Richard Chaffee III, same. Construction services.

CHICOPEE

Iglesia Del Senor La Coraza De Justicia, 730 Chicopee St., Chicopee, MA 01013. Pedro J. Santana, 64 Westford Ave., Springfield, MA 01109. A church exercising all the rights and privileges given to religious organizations by the Constitution of the United States.

The Casiano Transportation Group Inc., 69 Quartas St., Chicopee, MA 01013. Silvia Lugo, 69 Quartas, Chicopee, MA 01013.Transportation services.

GREENFIELD

Madeline R Maxam Enterprises Inc., 64 Newton St., Greenfield, MA 01301. Madeline R Maxam, 19 Green River Road, Greenfield, MA 01301. Beauty salon.

HOLYOKE

S.E.R. Distribution Inc., 64 Hitchcock St., Holyoke, MA 01040. Sarah E. Rohan, same. Product sales and distribution.

LUDLOW

Chef-Aholics Inc., 28 Joy St., Ludlow, MA 01056. Keith Killian, 33 Gralia Dr., Springfield, MA 01128. Non-profit organization designed to provide a forum for hospitality industry professionals who have addiction/substance abuse/mental health issues.

PALMER

TWJ Trucking Inc., 1706 Park St., Palmer, MA 01069. Timothy Jacobs, same. Trucking business primarily devoted to snow removal.

PITTSFIELD

Findem Inc., 82 Wendell Ave., Suite 100, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Hariharan Govindarajan, 6650 Rivers Ave., Suite 100, Charleston, SC 00000. People intelligence staffing and talent agency.

Vitalaxis Inc., 82 Wendell Ave., Suite 100, Pittsfield, MA 01201. Sathish Kothandaram, 8000 Virginia Manor Road, Suite 170, Beltsville, MD 20705. Medical cloud and billing services.

SPINGFIELD

Next Tech Solutions Inc., 172 Birchland Ave., Springfield, MA 01119. Odaliz Breton MA, same. Technology specialist, network, telecommunication services.

Esfoma Supportive Services Inc., 1030 Worthington St., Kibbe House, Springfield, MA 01109. Richard Ross, 107 Daviston St., Springfield, MA 01108. The organization will work to provide supportive services to provide mental health, physical health and economic support to individuals, families, and primary communities.

Jea Inc., 747 Carew St., Springfield, MA 01104. Zachary A. Mouneimneh, same. Package store.

Saint Anthony Maronite Catholic Church of Springfield Inc., 375 Island Pond Road, Springfield, MA 01118. Bishop Gregory J. Mansour, 109 Remsen St., Brooklyn, NY 11201. Church.

WARE

Auto Direct Inc., 388 Palmer Rd., Ware, MA 01082. Daniel A Hevey Jr., same. Auto sales.

WEST SPRINGFIELD

447 Sumner Inc., 61 Appaloosa Lane, West Springfield, MA 01089. Hasmukh Gogri, same. Package Store.

Ray’s Liquidations Inc., 33 Kelso Ave., West Springfield, MA 01089. Ramon J. Sanchez III, same. E-commerce sales.

WESTFIELD

Facing Rock Machine Co., 109 Apremont Way, Westfield, MA 01085. Gerald Vanpelt, 9 Norman Avenue Granby, MA 01033. Manufacturing company.

Doing Business as Certificates

By
DBA Certificates

The following business certificates and/or trade names were issued or renewed during the month of November 2022. (Filings are limited due to closures or reduced staffing hours at municipal offices due to COVID-19 restrictions).

BELCHERTOWN

Strong Educational Advocacy
399 Stebbins St.
Jennifer Strong

EAST LONGMEADOW

ATI Physical Therapy
168 Denslow Road
Performance Rehabilitation of Western New England

Cloud 9 Publishing Group
444A North Main St.
Dylan Pilon

VIP Double Blades
389 Elm St.
Wilfredo Martinez

EASTHAMPTON

DCW Stairways
158 Line St.
Denis Shpak

Edward Jones
179 Northampton St., Suite B
Nersida Hozdic

Joy HaQQ
116 Pleasant St., Suite 320
Melissa Haqq

Red Eft Craft House
116 Pleasant St., #050
Rebecca Brody

Silver Spoon Restaurant
73 Main St.
Ana Diaz

ENFIELD

Brady Industries IFS
14 Grove Road
Rudolph Arthofer III

Galaxy Liquor Store
255 Hazard Ave.
AASAV LLC

Jam Travel Planners
21 Coolidge Dr.
James Dooley

Mad Hatter Auto Repair
14 Cranbrook Blvd.
Branden Leblanc

HADLEY

Maple Farm
10 South Maple St.
Ogulcan Toprak, Can Toprak

Maple Farm Fresh
10 South Maple St.
Togood Services Inc.

Mi Terra
48 Russell St.
Dora Sarvia

OcteVue
6 Kosior Dr.
Mark Ketchen

VentureWell
100 Venture Way
NCI & IC LLC

HOLYOKE

Edward Jones
1593 Northampton St.
Edward D. Jones & Co. LP

Expressions
2253 Northampton St.
Jako Enterprises LLC

Julio’s Auto Repair
775 High St.
Julio Quinones

SOUTH HADLEY

Mobil South Hadley
483 Granby Road
Ehsan Ul Haq Mian

Quality Roofing & Solar
17 Taylor St.
Brett Remillard

Rocky’s Hardware
487 Newton St.
Rocky’s Hardware Inc.

 

Sunset Grille at Ledges Golf Club
18 Mulligan Dr.
Michael Fontaine

Thirsty Mind Coffee & Wine Bar
23 College St.
Thirsty Mind

SPRINGFIELD

AJ’s Property & Construction
225 Orange St.
Anthony Daniele

Alaska Home
92 Johnson St.
Maralaisy Gil

Ampersand Healing
914 State St., #91105
Lb Marger Moore

Andino’s Drywall Finishes
53 Clement St.
Elvin Andino

Bosco
142 Hancock St.
Ellen Boynton

Christian Motors
337 Walnut St.
Garrett Forna

Collectibles Items
515 Tiffany St.
Thuy Tran

Collin’s Home Solutions
106 Naismith St.
James Girthiri

East Coast Soft Wash
24 Taylor St.
Angela Romos-Diaz

Griseliz Cleanings
33 Alberta St.
Jose Luna Reyes

Hernandez Pavers
131 Larkspur St.
Ermine Hernandez

​​HLN Publishing
84 Maryland St.
Richard Earle

Jorge Soto Productions
21 Van Horn Place
Jorge Soto

Jumbo Food Bazaar
932 Worthington St.
JF Bazaar Inc.

The Kingdom Barber Shop
85 Oakland St.
Franciso Pichardo

WEST SPRINGFIELD

Asian Halal Market LLC
20 River St.
Nazbutt Naji

Butterfly Beauty Yeraly
354 Memorial Ave.
Yeraly Aquino

Dollar Tree #1159
465 Memorial Ave.
Rosa Banks

Maaco Collision Repair & Auto Painting
78 Sylvan St.
Joseph Houghton

Rexel Commercial & Industrial
338 Memorial Ave.
Jonathan Plotkin

Bankruptcies

By
Bankruptcies

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

The Borelli Advantage
Borelli, George J.
a/k/a Borelli, Joe
HJL Style Cottage LLC
Borelli, Holly Hitchcock
a/k/a Hitchcock, Holly
100 Nelson St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Chapter: 7
Date: 09/29/2022

Daniel, Lonell
162 Jasper St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Chapter: 13
Date: 09/29/2022

Desmarais, Gary N.
Desmarais, Nancy E.
819 McKinstry Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Date: 09/30/2022

Diciocco, Gaetano T.
a/k/a Diciocco, Gaetano A.
PO Box 783
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Date: 09/28/2022

Parker, Jacob D.
473 College Highway
Southwick, MA 01077
Chapter: 7
Date: 09/30/2022

Reddick, Lukisha
239 Senator St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Chapter: 13
Date: 09/28/2022

Spring, Heather Lee
19 Bill St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Chapter: 7
Date: 09/29/2022

Stewart, Chad M.
238 Maple St., Apt. B-6
Agawam, MA 01001
Chapter: 7
Date: 09/28/2022

Suares, Jolene M.
a/k/a Cundiff, Jolene
19 Clinton St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Chapter: 13
Date: 10/04/2022

Real Estate Transactions

By
Real Estate

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

FRANKLIN COUNTY

ASHFIELD

447-A Watson Spruce Corner Road
Ashfield, MA 01330
Amount: $700,000
Buyer: Annelise J. Matias
Seller: John E. Madocks
Date: 11/02/22

BERNARDSTON

47 Gill Road
Bernardston, MA 01337
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: David E. Shippa
Seller: Powers, Sharon C., (Estate)
Date: 11/02/22

COLRAIN

161 Barber Hill Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $1,110,000
Buyer: David M. Owczarek
Seller: A. Hale Johnson RET
Date: 11/07/22

161 Franklin Hill Road
Colrain, MA 01340
Amount: $1,110,000
Buyer: David M. Owczarek
Seller: A. Hale Johnson RET
Date: 11/07/22

ERVING

4 Warner St.
Erving, MA 01344
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Valerie A. Duvall
Seller: Carmine A. Deprete
Date: 11/09/22

GILL

294 French King Hwy.
Gill, MA 01354
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: Kyle A. Demers
Seller: Paul D. Vassar
Date: 11/02/22

GREENFIELD

686 Bernardston Road
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Harry J. Larocque
Seller: Carpenter, Sheila M., (Estate)
Date: 11/04/22

56-58 Devens St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $286,000
Buyer: Muhammad Hamayun
Seller: Tony W. Young
Date: 11/03/22

81 Devens St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $242,500
Buyer: Brandy L. Black
Seller: Rebecca G. Devino-Shaw
Date: 11/03/22

22 Lunt Dr.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $284,000
Buyer: Roland J. Clack
Seller: Deborah S. Chown
Date: 11/03/22

61 Silver St.
Greenfield, MA 01301
Amount: $307,000
Buyer: Maureen Beeltje
Seller: Meghan S. Carroll
Date: 11/03/22

LEVERETT

218 North Leverett Road
Leverett, MA 01054
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Jennifer E. Jackowitz
Seller: Alexander Wise
Date: 11/02/22

MONTAGUE

114 Millers Falls Road
Montague, MA 01376
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Jasmine T. Ward
Seller: Larry J. Couch
Date: 11/03/22

NEW SALEM

206 West St.
New Salem, MA 01355
Amount: $575,000
Buyer: Robert L. Koonz
Seller: Robert A. Bergantino
Date: 11/02/22

NORTHFIELD

294 Birnam Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $313,000
Buyer: Debra Ryder
Seller: Emily J. Koester
Date: 11/04/22

54 East St.
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $170,000
Buyer: Michael Mitchell
Seller: Michele Wood
Date: 11/07/22

12 Fisher Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $520,000
Buyer: John P. Frangie
Seller: Valerie A. Duvall
Date: 11/08/22

201 Winchester Road
Northfield, MA 01360
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: Christopher Hinkle
Seller: Jane M. Kunhardt
Date: 11/01/22

ORANGE

27 Kelton St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Terrence Marks
Seller: Stanley Smith
Date: 11/08/22

57 Pleasant St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Michael B. Guilmette
Seller: Brown Stucco RT
Date: 11/07/22

11 Prospect St.
Orange, MA 01364
Amount: $286,000
Buyer: ECP Holdings LLC
Seller: Brown FT
Date: 11/10/22

SHUTESBURY

45 Shore Dr.
Shutesbury, MA 01072
Amount: $395,500
Buyer: Samuel Brody
Seller: Robert J. Lombard
Date: 11/10/22

SUNDERLAND

41 Amherst Road
Sunderland, MA 01375
Amount: $1,000,000
Buyer: MFBH LLC
Seller: Barbara A. Skibiski
Date: 11/01/22

WARWICK

909 Wendell Road
Warwick, MA 01378
Amount: $1,600,000
Buyer: Getaway Wagon Wheel LLC
Seller: Kimberly A. Smith
Date: 11/02/22

HAMPDEN COUNTY

AGAWAM

10 2 If By St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Timothy Aldinger
Seller: Thomas E. Boisjolie
Date: 11/10/22

24 Campbell Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Campbell Drive LLC
Seller: Adrienne N. Lachappelle
Date: 11/09/22

134 Channell Dr.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Luis A. Rojas
Seller: Veteran Stan LLC
Date: 11/01/22

20 Denise Lane
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Charles Scheehser
Seller: Kevin M. Wyman
Date: 11/10/22

11 Grant St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Michael Mull
Seller: Donna V. Modzelewski
Date: 11/04/22

692 North West St.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $307,000
Buyer: Thomas J. Girroir
Seller: Mary C. Lamson
Date: 11/02/22

77 Nicole Ter.
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $425,000
Buyer: William M. Anjos
Seller: Viktoriya Gladysh
Date: 11/04/22

112 Nicole Ter.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $610,000
Buyer: Adrienne N. Lachappelle
Seller: Hillside Development Corp.
Date: 11/04/22

20 Ottawa St.
Agawam, MA 01001
Amount: $151,000
Buyer: Campagnari Construction LLC
Seller: Town Of Agawam
Date: 11/07/22

114 Tobacco Farm Road
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $527,000
Buyer: Jeffrey R. Rovatti
Seller: Jeffrey N. Heinze
Date: 11/04/22

154 Tobacco Farm Road
Agawam, MA 01030
Amount: $505,000
Buyer: Kevin M. Wyman
Seller: Louis M. Garvin
Date: 11/10/22

BRIMFIELD

16 North Main St.
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $270,000
Buyer: Todd Hamelin
Seller: Ronald Nolette
Date: 11/07/22

59 Sutcliffe Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Sam Zhao
Seller: Christopher J. Hufault
Date: 11/07/22

36 Warren Road
Brimfield, MA 01010
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: William E. Morgan
Seller: 36 Warren Road RT
Date: 11/09/22

CHICOPEE

16 Alvord Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $550,000
Buyer: Sattva LLC
Seller: Robert Couture
Date: 11/10/22

159 Broadway St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Milestone Funeral Services
Seller: Carriage Funeral Holdings Inc.
Date: 11/09/22

9 Canal St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $155,000
Buyer: You & Me Investment LLC
Seller: 9 Canal LLC
Date: 11/07/22

11 Christopher St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Kasey Bunnell
Seller: Zaki-Jabbar Robinson
Date: 11/02/22

180 Crestwood St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $151,000
Buyer: Malia Homebuyers LLC
Seller: Anita Gondek
Date: 11/09/22

50 Edbert St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $345,000
Buyer: Sushilaben H. Patel
Seller: Dorothy Jacques
Date: 11/02/22

76 Edward St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Shannon L. Murdza
Seller: Richard L. Robitaille IRT
Date: 11/07/22

358 Grattan St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $261,000
Buyer: Hannah Cameron
Seller: David Roman
Date: 11/10/22

187 Hampden St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $168,000
Buyer: 3 Lions LLC
Seller: Allison M. Griffin
Date: 11/01/22

30 Hawthorn St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $370,000
Buyer: Jarelis E. Rodriguez
Seller: Real Estate Investments of New England LLC
Date: 11/03/22

48 Jones Ferry Road
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Enid V. Coleman
Seller: William H. Boucher
Date: 11/04/22

97 Lord Ter.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $525,000
Buyer: Tahir Habib
Seller: Debra A. Placzek
Date: 11/08/22

125 Marten St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Bay Flow LLC
Seller: Keene, Gordon E., (Estate)
Date: 11/08/22

147 Montgomery St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Jakob P. Talbot
Seller: Patricia A. Galletta
Date: 11/10/22

85 Park St.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Melha Temple Holding Corp.
Seller: William J. Stetson
Date: 11/09/22

41 Southwick St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Mitchell R. Nadeau
Seller: Jason W. Furr
Date: 11/07/22

65 Stebbins St.
Chicopee, MA 01020
Amount: $258,990
Buyer: M. Vallellanes-Laureano
Seller: Pauline T. Bourque
Date: 11/04/22

89 Wilson Ave.
Chicopee, MA 01013
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Catheryn L. McDermott
Seller: Pah Properties LLC
Date: 11/01/22

EAST LONGMEADOW

57 Euclid Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $382,500
Buyer: Kevin K. Pelissier
Seller: Michael S. Kisiel
Date: 11/10/22

8 Hampden Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $295,000
Buyer: Umut Ozkan
Seller: Courtlandt L. Kites
Date: 11/10/22

94 Lasalle St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Christian M. Bermudez
Seller: Paul W. Harrington
Date: 11/08/22

316 Maple St.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $470,000
Buyer: Blue Ridge Wilder LLC
Seller: Gina L. O’Connor
Date: 11/03/22

137 Mapleshade Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $123,255
Buyer: Amenadiel RT
Seller: Francine M. Ryan
Date: 11/02/22

16 Senator Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $480,000
Buyer: Michael R. Greene
Seller: Anthony C. Chapdelaine
Date: 11/02/22

20 Somers Road
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $405,000
Buyer: Hayley Talbot
Seller: Patti Damaddio 2019 RET
Date: 11/01/22

66 Tanglewood Dr.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $515,000
Buyer: Michael S. Kisiel
Seller: Brian Popovich
Date: 11/03/22

28 Terry Lane
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $560,000
Buyer: Matthew Johan
Seller: Michael A. Scibelli RET
Date: 11/10/22

65 Westernview Circle
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $267,000
Buyer: William Raleigh
Seller: Dolores M. Grant
Date: 11/07/22

3 Worthy Ave.
East Longmeadow, MA 01028
Amount: $480,000
Buyer: Anthony Amaral
Seller: Jeffrey Kuselias
Date: 11/03/22

HOLLAND

12 Forest Court
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Leontino Piecuch
Seller: Andrew Y. Tanaka-Reader
Date: 11/03/22

9 Park Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $375,000
Buyer: Elizabeth A. Howell
Seller: Chad E. Carter
Date: 11/01/22

8 Sandy Beach Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $148,000
Buyer: John Gousy
Seller: 8 Sandy Beach Road RT
Date: 11/01/22

89 Union Road
Holland, MA 01521
Amount: $405,000
Buyer: Brandon Wettlaufer
Seller: Lunshou Wang
Date: 11/09/22

HOLYOKE

89 Bowers St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $1,332,861
Buyer: Double K. Realty LLC
Seller: Inatl Immobiliare LLC
Date: 11/02/22

76-78 Chapin St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $1,036,670
Buyer: Double K. Realty LLC
Seller: Chapin Laurel LLC
Date: 11/02/22

12 Clinton Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $272,000
Buyer: Felix O. Colon
Seller: John J. Mastorakis
Date: 11/02/22

30 Franks Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Sammy A. Matos-Medina
Seller: Christopher Larose
Date: 11/10/22

106-110 Hampshire St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $1,555,005
Buyer: Holyoke SF 2 I LLC
Seller: Hampshire Walnut LLC
Date: 11/02/22

679-681 High St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $518,336
Buyer: Holyoke SF 2 I LLC
Seller: Chapin Laurel LLC
Date: 11/02/22

797-801 High St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $2,073,340
Buyer: Double K. Realty LLC
Seller: Jackson High LLC
Date: 11/02/22

801-805 High St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $2,073,340
Buyer: Double K. Realty LLC
Seller: Jackson High LLC
Date: 11/02/22

705 Homestead Ave.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $299,900
Buyer: David J. Duran
Seller: Diaz Properties LLC
Date: 11/02/22

84 Howard St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $249,900
Buyer: Mitchell J. Tilghman
Seller: Burns, Juliette Rita, (Estate)
Date: 11/09/22

93 Jackson St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $2,073,340
Buyer: Double K. Realty LLC
Seller: Jackson High LLC
Date: 11/02/22

3 Laurel St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $1,036,670
Buyer: Double K. Realty LLC
Seller: Chapin Laurel LLC
Date: 11/02/22

24 Linden St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: William S. Andrews
Seller: Joseph H. Moriarty
Date: 11/10/22

93-95 Lyman St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $1,332,861
Buyer: Double K. Realty LLC
Seller: Inatl Immobiliare LLC
Date: 11/02/22

385-R Main St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $1,400,000
Buyer: Gap Apt. Holyoke LLC
Seller: JJS Capital Investments LLC
Date: 11/04/22

393-399 Main St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $1,400,000
Buyer: Gap Apt. Holyoke LLC
Seller: JJS Capital Investments LLC
Date: 11/04/22

7 Memorial Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $293,000
Buyer: Jabet Lopez
Seller: Sammy A. Matos-Medina
Date: 11/10/22

1244 Northampton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $286,000
Buyer: Jennifer Ayala
Seller: Kokoleka RT
Date: 11/04/22

1691 Northampton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $342,500
Buyer: Simone A. Cristofori
Seller: Gallagher Cap Group LLC
Date: 11/01/22

1691 Northampton St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Gallagher Cap Group LLC
Seller: Rosemary O’Connell-Doyle
Date: 11/03/22

18 O’Connell Road
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Nicole E. Bondellio
Seller: James J. Kennedy
Date: 11/10/22

130 Sheehan Dr.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $247,000
Buyer: Benjamin Frutkin
Seller: Christine A. Jackman
Date: 11/04/22

21 Taylor St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $311,425
Buyer: Miguel Cuevas
Seller: Marissa M. Montemagni
Date: 11/10/22

30 Vadnais St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Emma Rodrigue
Seller: Fabienne D. Boisson
Date: 11/10/22

289 Walnut St.
Holyoke, MA 01040
Amount: $1,555,005
Buyer: Holyoke SF 2 I. LLC
Seller: Hampshire Walnut LLC
Date: 11/02/22

LONGMEADOW

47 Barclay St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Mark R. Mondani
Seller: Kylee C. Granfield
Date: 11/10/22

19 Eton Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $560,000
Buyer: Maria C. Dipentima
Seller: David T. Florian
Date: 11/01/22

39 Harwich Road
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $510,000
Buyer: Nicholas Sulham
Seller: Laurie B. Ernst
Date: 11/08/22

79 Leetewood Dr.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Zachary S. Schwartz
Seller: Loos FT
Date: 11/08/22

168 Longmeadow St.
Longmeadow, MA 01106
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Sheila E. Moriarty
Seller: Brian M. Douthwright
Date: 11/04/22

LUDLOW

151 Carmelinas Circle
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Scott Pio
Seller: John M. Chelo
Date: 11/02/22

151 Carmelinas Circle
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $280,001
Buyer: SM Carmelina Real Estate LLC
Seller: Scott Pio
Date: 11/03/22

39 Cypress St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Willie McGee
Seller: Andrew Collette
Date: 11/08/22

483-485 Holyoke St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $2,990,000
Buyer: Procon Group LLC
Seller: Black Diamond Development LLC
Date: 11/01/22

95 Prospect St.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: East Ludlow Propereties LLC
Seller: Steve J. McDaniel
Date: 11/09/22

44 Ridgeview Circle
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Haylea M. Hubacz
Seller: Antonio S. Brighenti
Date: 11/07/22

38 Stivens Ter.
Ludlow, MA 01056
Amount: $217,000
Buyer: Revampit LLC
Seller: David J. Ziemian
Date: 11/03/22

MONSON

Boston Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Felix L. Santana
Seller: Laura Allard
Date: 11/08/22

24 Hampden Ave.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Rachel Theriault
Seller: Daniel J. Haynes
Date: 11/07/22

5 Silver St.
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Felix L. Santana
Seller: Laura Allard
Date: 11/08/22

129 Stafford Road
Monson, MA 01057
Amount: $239,900
Buyer: Jesus F. Hernandez
Seller: 119 Broadway Newburgh Inc.
Date: 11/01/22

PALMER

26 Old Farm Road
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $412,000
Buyer: Anna Azizian
Seller: James J. Guilbault
Date: 11/01/22

1061 Park St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Wilmington Savings
Seller: Karl E. Sweikhart
Date: 11/03/22

405 Shearer St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Greg Ambrose
Seller: Sakowski, John S., (Estate)
Date: 11/10/22

407 Shearer St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Greg Ambrose
Seller: Sakowski, John S., (Estate)
Date: 11/10/22

19 Sibley St.
Palmer, MA 01080
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Kristen A. Coia
Seller: Dorothy M. Raymond
Date: 11/10/22

992 Ware St.
Palmer, MA 01069
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Nicholas Rogerson
Seller: SZF Properties LLC
Date: 11/04/22

SOUTHWICK

44 Birchwood Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $182,500
Buyer: Michael Werman
Seller: Ligenza, June E., (Estate)
Date: 11/10/22

35-R Hillside Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Oleg Kulyak
Seller: VIP Homes & Assocs. LLC
Date: 11/07/22

83 Mort Vining Road
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Erin Vermette
Seller: Yvon J. Vermette
Date: 11/10/22

114 South Loomis St.
Southwick, MA 01077
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Nicholas Anthony
Seller: Steven Tencati
Date: 11/10/22

SPRINGFIELD

226 Allen St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Marian S. Nunez-Martinez
Seller: MS Homes LLC
Date: 11/10/22

306 Arnold Ave.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $349,500
Buyer: Alexier Collazo
Seller: Maritza Rivera
Date: 11/07/22

21 Ashley St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Luz E. Melendez
Seller: Blossom A. Williams
Date: 11/08/22

93 Beaumont St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $221,000
Buyer: Riley Vanhuynh
Seller: Mary M. Hubbard
Date: 11/02/22

54 Bolton St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $279,500
Buyer: Anthony J. Monteiro
Seller: Thomas A. Mitchell
Date: 11/02/22

156 Buckingham St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $253,800
Buyer: Salomi Stewart
Seller: Todd W. Crosset
Date: 11/02/22

17 Calhoun St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $575,000
Buyer: 17 Calhoun Street LLC
Seller: Villar Real Estate Inc.
Date: 11/01/22

37 Campechi St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $223,000
Buyer: Tessa Colon
Seller: Paul F. Styckiewickz
Date: 11/01/22

459-461 Carew St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Jose M. Mercedes
Seller: Jose R. Vasquez
Date: 11/08/22

1037 Carew St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $215,000
Buyer: Marisol V. Rivera
Seller: Jose Perez
Date: 11/10/22

20 Clifton Ave.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Sandra M. Lemus-Ochoa
Seller: Springfield Ventures RT
Date: 11/08/22

37 Craig St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $317,000
Buyer: Elizabeth A. Lane
Seller: Freeman, Sandra Ona, (Estate)
Date: 11/10/22

13 Delano Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $320,000
Buyer: Wilfred J. Pelletier
Seller: Joshua E. Negron
Date: 11/04/22

625 Dickinson St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $115,000
Buyer: Yeslin Gonzalez
Seller: Gina M. Varandas
Date: 11/02/22

76 Fair Oak Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Jose L. Cruz
Seller: Mark P. Racine
Date: 11/02/22

87 Feltham Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Anastasia Bedinelli
Seller: Mark A. Noto
Date: 11/07/22

183 Florida St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Crystal White
Seller: Tristan Tash
Date: 11/01/22

385-387 Franklin St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Home City Development Inc.
Seller: Martin Vasquez
Date: 11/07/22

21 Fullerton St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: Gabriella Trzepla
Seller: Basile Realty LLC
Date: 11/02/22

63 Garvey Dr.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Keshia Maxwell
Seller: Wilfred J. Pelletier
Date: 11/04/22

70 Gary Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $251,000
Buyer: Monica J. Rahall
Seller: Przemyslaw Stelmach
Date: 11/10/22

11 Gates Ave.
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: Joel A. Fuller
Seller: Joann C. Pare
Date: 11/03/22

127 Governor St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Loyda Resto
Seller: Steven Nguyen
Date: 11/04/22

56 Granby St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $243,000
Buyer: Jason Marshall
Seller: Annette L. Flynt
Date: 11/02/22

25 Greene Place
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Maryellen Culver
Seller: JJJ17 LLC
Date: 11/08/22

50 Hermitage Dr.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $271,000
Buyer: Robin Bishop
Seller: Gladys Rivera
Date: 11/02/22

26 Hilltop St.
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Alvinelis C. Velazquez
Seller: Marian Cocchi
Date: 11/04/22

410 Holcomb Road
Springfield, MA 01118
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Nicole J. Stewart
Seller: Jablonski, Coleen M., (Estate)
Date: 11/09/22

120 Hood St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Yesenia I. Valentin
Seller: Kenny E. Manguinuri-Cuevas
Date: 11/04/22

43 Ingersoll Grove
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $204,000
Buyer: Matthew J. Beisler
Seller: Mutwakil Khalid
Date: 11/01/22

45 Juniper Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Carey S. Noonan
Seller: Kenneth P. Blanchard
Date: 11/04/22

12 Ladd St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $240,000
Buyer: Maurice Mattis
Seller: DFG Property Group LLC
Date: 11/09/22

35 Laurence St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Heather Arthur
Seller: Hector Rivera
Date: 11/10/22

95-97 Lebanon St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Daniel G. Gonzalez
Seller: Jose R. Ortiz
Date: 11/10/22

35 Ledyard St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Kenneth Tanon
Seller: Ruben Vazquez
Date: 11/04/22

75 Leitch St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $162,000
Buyer: Matthew C. Hegarty
Seller: Vincent M. Walsh
Date: 11/03/22

52-56 Loring St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Handyflippers Inc.
Seller: Victor L. Martinez
Date: 11/10/22

200 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $259,000
Buyer: Milestone Funeral Services
Seller: Carriage Funeral Holdings Inc.
Date: 11/09/22

1550 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Amount: $6,000,000
Buyer: Mittas Holdings LLC
Seller: Mass. Development Finance Agency
Date: 11/02/22

2684-2690 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $3,712,603
Buyer: Holyoke SF 2 I LLC
Seller: Main Sheldon LLC
Date: 11/02/22

2702-2708 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $3,712,603
Buyer: Holyoke SF 2 I LLC
Seller: Main Sheldon LLC
Date: 11/02/22

2882-2896 Main St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $1,500,000
Buyer: 2882 Main Street LLC
Seller: Villar Real Estate Inc.
Date: 11/01/22

28-30 Malden St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Ricangelo Faour
Seller: Luis M. Terrero-Calderon
Date: 11/08/22

137 Massachusetts Ave.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $190,000
Buyer: Elite Properites LLC
Seller: Cuffie, Gladys R., (Estate)
Date: 11/10/22

139 Maybrook Road
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $161,000
Buyer: Wilmington Savings
Seller: Nicholas J. Korniores
Date: 11/07/22

32 Maynard St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $181,000
Buyer: Delise Davis
Seller: Gloria Harrison
Date: 11/01/22

216 Middlesex St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $245,000
Buyer: Louis Dejesus
Seller: Chan Lin
Date: 11/10/22

65 Midway St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Nicholas V. Gay
Seller: Luz Feliciano
Date: 11/02/22

14 Naismith Place
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Maritza Rivera
Seller: Humberto Melero
Date: 11/08/22

100-102 Newfield Road
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $344,500
Buyer: Daniel Dones
Seller: Natanael Crespo
Date: 11/10/22

20 Northumberland St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $179,900
Buyer: Leonardo T. Otalvaro
Seller: Jillian E. McLeod
Date: 11/10/22

84 Northway Dr.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $307,000
Buyer: Ermelinda Cardona
Seller: Kaitlyn McLaughlin
Date: 11/10/22

75 Orleans St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,397,189
Buyer: Holyoke SF 2 I LLC
Seller: IMS Realty Corp.
Date: 11/02/22

1190 Parker St.
Springfield, MA 01129
Amount: $920,000
Buyer: H&I Demir Realty LLC
Seller: Norman, A. Thomas TR
Date: 11/02/22

23 Parkwood St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Mishel Ahualt
Seller: Round 2 LLC
Date: 11/10/22

66 Pheland St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $219,000
Buyer: Agustin C. Rodriguez
Seller: Joseph P. Demars
Date: 11/03/22

65 Pinta Circle
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $296,000
Buyer: Ellison Reyes
Seller: Tadeuz J. Chrostowski
Date: 11/10/22

69 Redlands St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Equity T. Co
Seller: Jose R. Bonilla
Date: 11/04/22

119 Revere St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Tanisha Salmon
Seller: Bianca F. Maynard-Williams
Date: 11/09/22

24-26 Rittenhouse Ter.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $230,000
Buyer: Jess J. Johnson
Seller: MPD RT
Date: 11/01/22

43 Sedgewick St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Elita J. Baker
Seller: Brittney M. Gonzalez
Date: 11/08/22

6 Sheldon St.
Springfield, MA 01107
Amount: $3,712,603
Buyer: Holyoke SF 2 I LLC
Seller: Main Sheldon LLC
Date: 11/02/22

47 Sierra Vista Road
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Michaelena Waite
Seller: Michael R. Sears
Date: 11/01/22

80 Slumber Lane
Springfield, MA 01128
Amount: $226,000
Buyer: Matthew A. Tresch
Seller: Craig A. Burger
Date: 11/10/22

140 Temby St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Robin Scott
Seller: MS Homes LLC
Date: 11/02/22

55 Thornfell St.
Springfield, MA 01104
Amount: $233,000
Buyer: Norberto Ramos
Seller: Jonathan W. Driscoll
Date: 11/07/22

343 Tiffany St.
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $131,000
Buyer: Kristen Dionne
Seller: James S. Gondek
Date: 11/04/22

528-532 Union St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,397,189
Buyer: Holyoke SF 2 I LLC
Seller: IMS Realty Corp.
Date: 11/02/22

529 Union St.
Springfield, MA 01109
Amount: $2,397,189
Buyer: Holyoke SF 2 I LLC
Seller: IMS Realty Corp.
Date: 11/02/22

21 Vann St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Cristian D. Rodriguez
Seller: Targaryen RT
Date: 11/09/22

201 Walnut St.
Springfield, MA 01105
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Martin Vasquez
Seller: Hedge Hog Industries Corp.
Date: 11/07/22

54 Washington Road
Springfield, MA 01108
Amount: $267,000
Buyer: Diversified Investments International LLC
Seller: Wells Fargo
Date: 11/09/22

45 Willow St.
Springfield, MA 01103
Amount: $42,600,000
Buyer: Stockbridge Ventures LLC
Seller: Stockbridge Court LLC
Date: 11/03/22

161 Wollaston St.
Springfield, MA 01119
Amount: $340,000
Buyer: Brittney Gonzalez
Seller: Confesora Mota
Date: 11/08/22

989 Worcester St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $235,000
Buyer: Riley Pontz
Seller: Shannon M. Burk
Date: 11/07/22

1402-1404 Worcester St.
Springfield, MA 01151
Amount: $285,000
Buyer: Jennifer Montalvo
Seller: Gregg Richers
Date: 11/04/22

WALES

50 Monson Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $210,000
Buyer: Cioccolate RT
Seller: Abby L. Hermanson
Date: 11/03/22

92 Stafford Holland Road
Wales, MA 01081
Amount: $134,469
Buyer: FHLM
Seller: Nelson D. Rodriguez
Date: 11/04/22

WESTFIELD

2 Bristol St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $250,000
Buyer: Amanda Lowe
Seller: John D. Pumphrey
Date: 11/07/22

61 Broadway
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Cory M. Babinski
Seller: Carrie T. Florek
Date: 11/03/22

1 Dubois St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $294,000
Buyer: Rudolph Sacco
Seller: Ewald Wrobleski
Date: 11/03/22

24 Fowler St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $222,500
Buyer: Robert E. Roy
Seller: KJA Properties LLC
Date: 11/03/22

72 Franklin St.
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Min Realty LLC
Seller: Howard W. Kane
Date: 11/02/22

1065 Granville Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $224,300
Buyer: Richard A. Warren
Seller: William E. Warren
Date: 11/08/22

209 Lockhouse Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Morais Enterprises LLC
Seller: Amerigas Propane LP
Date: 11/04/22

Medieros Way
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $175,000
Buyer: Sovereign Builders Inc.
Seller: Summit Lock Road LLC
Date: 11/02/22

109 North Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $700,000
Buyer: Brian J. Hayes
Seller: Yevgeniy A. Yunikov
Date: 11/02/22

604 North Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: 604 North Road Realty LLC
Seller: 604 North Road LLC
Date: 11/04/22

61 Plantation Circle
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Ronald R. Musterait
Seller: Stephen E. Schnopp
Date: 11/09/22

1144 Southampton Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $360,000
Buyer: 1144 Southampton Road Realty
Seller: 1144 Southampton Road LLC
Date: 11/04/22

1152 Southampton Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $435,000
Buyer: 1152 Southampton Road Realty
Seller: 1152 Southampton Road LLC
Date: 11/04/22

8 Winding Ridge Lane
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $630,000
Buyer: Greg A. Bevilacqua
Seller: William M. Anjos
Date: 11/04/22

14 Woodsong Road
Westfield, MA 01085
Amount: $484,000
Buyer: Kyle J. Beauregard
Seller: Anthony T. Nomakeo
Date: 11/08/22

WILBRAHAM

7 Belli Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $355,000
Buyer: Michael H. Thomas
Seller: Richard M. Ramos
Date: 11/10/22

13 Belli Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Jessica L. Nowak
Seller: Naomi S. Noyes
Date: 11/10/22

20 Blacksmith Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $405,000
Buyer: Andrew Martin
Seller: Ashley Pini
Date: 11/01/22

3281 Boston Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Felix L. Santana
Seller: Manomednet LLC
Date: 11/08/22

68 Crane Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $465,000
Buyer: Brendon M. Couturier
Seller: Anthony J. Amaral
Date: 11/01/22

7 Inwood Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $500,000
Buyer: Erik K. Frazier
Seller: Mary K. Campbell
Date: 11/04/22

8 South Park Dr.
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $306,500
Buyer: Nicholas R. Cafaro
Seller: Jan F. Binda
Date: 11/09/22

508 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $318,000
Buyer: Heather K. Wrisley
Seller: Kyle L. Page
Date: 11/02/22

796 Stony Hill Road
Wilbraham, MA 01095
Amount: $339,900
Buyer: Matthew J. O’Brien
Seller: Natalie A. Swiatlowski
Date: 11/08/22

WEST SPRINGFIELD

538 Amostown Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Linda Engel
Seller: William P. Garvey
Date: 11/04/22

1002 Amostown Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Kathryn Felsentreger
Seller: Kyle Felsentreger
Date: 11/09/22

53 Clyde Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Victor Sinigur
Seller: PAH Properties LLC
Date: 11/07/22

107 Galaska Dr.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $430,000
Buyer: Husam Noury
Seller: Simon J. Brighenti
Date: 11/10/22

92 Garden St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $265,000
Buyer: Seth N. Torres-Soto
Seller: Dora I. Chavez-Saravia
Date: 11/08/22

121 Garden St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $120,500
Buyer: Garden 121 RT
Seller: Edward E. Printz
Date: 11/02/22

36 Guy Place
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Mass Housing LLC
Seller: Tymofiy Andriychuk
Date: 11/01/22

106 Norman St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $220,000
Buyer: Aga Realty LLC
Seller: S&K Properties LLC
Date: 11/07/22

15 Pine St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $380,000
Buyer: Ahrayah M. Julian
Seller: Abdul M. Khadra
Date: 11/03/22

1211 Piper Road
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $317,500
Buyer: Connor Bryant
Seller: Jordan L. McConaha
Date: 11/10/22

431 Rogers Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $335,000
Buyer: Regina Burns
Seller: Desousa, Colleen M., (Estate)
Date: 11/09/22

31 Silver St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $300,000
Buyer: Alexander J. Ablianitis
Seller: Golden Gorillas LLC
Date: 11/10/22

74 Smyrna St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $275,000
Buyer: Christopher Whelihan
Seller: Marlene I. Lopez
Date: 11/10/22

71-75 Spring St.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Eduard Yanyuk
Seller: 71-75 Spring Street RT
Date: 11/10/22

203 Wolcott Ave.
West Springfield, MA 01089
Amount: $185,000
Buyer: West Co. Investments LLC
Seller: Walker, Ray Lester S., (Estate)
Date: 11/10/22

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY

AMHERST

82 Aubinwood Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $435,000
Buyer: Jenny E. Berggren
Seller: James, Robert J. Sr., (Estate)
Date: 11/07/22

1210 Bay Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: EV RT
Seller: Robert W. McAllister
Date: 11/01/22

237 Meadow St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $409,000
Buyer: Zachary Allred
Seller: Edward H. Axtell
Date: 11/01/22

27 Palley Village Place
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $610,000
Buyer: Jennifer Hines
Seller: Justin H. Smith
Date: 11/02/22

74 Potwine Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $490,000
Buyer: Nancy G. Reffsin
Seller: Robert C. Hawley
Date: 11/03/22

424 Potwine Lane
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $135,068
Buyer: Scott Tundermann
Seller: Bank Of America
Date: 11/01/22

71 Sand Hill Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $679,000
Buyer: Michael Messmer
Seller: Gilbert W. Lawall
Date: 11/10/22

1403 South East St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $435,000
Buyer: Hea Lee
Seller: Jon R. Whitney
Date: 11/10/22

36 Tanglewood Road
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $700,000
Buyer: Daniel Grindley
Seller: Shirley R. Vernick
Date: 11/10/22

245 West St.
Amherst, MA 01002
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Tauqeer Hassan
Seller: Good View LLC
Date: 11/10/22

BELCHERTOWN

171 Bardwell St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $499,900
Buyer: Andreea Rotaru
Seller: Andrey Korchevskiy
Date: 11/02/22

6 Ledgewood Dr.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $430,000
Buyer: Gregory Pion
Seller: Deborah L. Donovan
Date: 11/03/22

67 Magnolia Lane
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $130,000
Buyer: Evan Altman
Seller: Brent F. Walton
Date: 11/10/22

334 North Liberty St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $475,000
Buyer: Kimberly A. Anderson
Seller: Jason R. Ballou
Date: 11/07/22

26 Plaza Ave.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $527,000
Buyer: Zachary C. Almond
Seller: Josh E. Dufresne
Date: 11/10/22

57 Sabin St.
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Kelsey Bosselait
Seller: Matthew O’Brien
Date: 11/08/22

581 Warren Wright Road
Belchertown, MA 01007
Amount: $390,000
Buyer: Simon S. Byun
Seller: Robert P. Kunreuther
Date: 11/04/22

CUMMINGTON

6 Potash Hill Ext.
Cummington, MA 01026
Amount: $385,000
Buyer: Emily E. Michaelenko
Seller: Raymond L. Vandoloski
Date: 11/04/22

EASTHAMPTON

8 Arthur St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $299,500
Buyer: Lindsey A. Akers
Seller: James M. Duffy
Date: 11/08/22

49 Clapp St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $350,000
Buyer: Gunnar B. Jonsson
Seller: Warnock RT
Date: 11/03/22

14-16 Exeter St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Josue Colon
Seller: Michael J. Nartowicz
Date: 11/02/22

15 Kania St.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Cristina V. Mazzanti
Seller: S. P&Amy Jo Leblanc RET
Date: 11/09/22

10 Meadowbrook Dr.
Easthampton, MA 01027
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Jamie C. Paquette
Seller: David R. Kukucka
Date: 11/10/22

GRANBY

569 East State St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Benjamin J. Detour
Seller: Alfred L. Detour
Date: 11/08/22

61 North St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Malia Homebuyers LLC
Seller: Carrie L. Burke
Date: 11/07/22

4 West State St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Win Properties LLC
Seller: Ronald L. Harrop
Date: 11/10/22

6 West State St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Win Properties LLC
Seller: Ronald L. Harrop
Date: 11/10/22

8 West State St.
Granby, MA 01033
Amount: $420,000
Buyer: Win Properties LLC
Seller: Ronald L. Harrop
Date: 11/10/22

HADLEY

4 Adare Place
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $814,800
Buyer: Justin H. Smith
Seller: Rosemund LLC
Date: 11/04/22

231 Bay Road
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $760,000
Buyer: Claire A. Kelly
Seller: Linda Harris
Date: 11/04/22

5 Laurana Lane
Hadley, MA 01035
Amount: $530,000
Buyer: Emily Ike
Seller: Susan E. Garrett
Date: 11/07/22

HATFIELD

119 Depot Road
Hatfield, MA 01038
Amount: $400,000
Buyer: Katie L. Bodzinski
Seller: Shannon E. Whidden
Date: 11/10/22

159 West St.
Hatfield, MA 01088
Amount: $260,000
Buyer: Nathan Chavarie
Seller: James M. Motyka
Date: 11/04/22

HUNTINGTON

124 Norwich Lake
Huntington, MA 01050
Amount: $280,000
Buyer: Frank D. Delmonte
Seller: Patricia C. McLain
Date: 11/02/22

MIDDLEFIELD

131 River Road
Middlefield, MA 01050
Amount: $179,990
Buyer: Clinton J. Maxey
Seller: Eugene D. Honan
Date: 11/04/22

NORTHAMPTON

335 Brookside Circle
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $225,000
Buyer: Lawrence B. Laplante
Seller: Karen M. Laplante
Date: 11/09/22

583 Coles Meadow Road
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $803,000
Buyer: Michael E. Aleo
Seller: James Flynn
Date: 11/04/22

56 Crescent St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $1,540,000
Buyer: Peter B. Kassis
Seller: Renna Pye
Date: 11/04/22

301 Damon Road
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $200,000
Buyer: Ronald Gardner
Seller: Janet R. Krok LT
Date: 11/04/22

222 Elm St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $1,140,000
Buyer: Simon J. Salloom
Seller: Renee S. Wetstein
Date: 11/01/22

589 Florence Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $325,000
Buyer: Sam Pranger-Silvaine
Seller: Sullivan Real Estate LLC
Date: 11/10/22

9 Hayward Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $575,000
Buyer: Paul Weinberg
Seller: Brian Adams
Date: 11/10/22

195 Industrial Dr.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $4,259,315
Buyer: Isle Apartments LLC
Seller: Altera Northampton Investments
Date: 11/01/22

186 Jackson St.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $146,000
Buyer: Adia C. Johnston
Seller: P. R. & Mary H. Johnston TR
Date: 11/10/22

Lonsdale St. Lot 1
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Nu Way Homes Inc.
Seller: American Legion Post 28 Inc.
Date: 11/07/22

107 North Maple St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $410,000
Buyer: Anthony B. Kitchen
Seller: Mark C. Devlin
Date: 11/01/22

9 Park St.
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $823,000
Buyer: Christopher L. Jetton
Seller: Lynn L. Wagman
Date: 11/10/22

23 Prospect Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $750,000
Buyer: Fatimah Kabba
Seller: Peter B. Kassis
Date: 11/02/22

Riverside Dr., Lot 1
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $125,000
Buyer: Nu Way Homes Inc.
Seller: American Legion Post 28 Inc.
Date: 11/07/22

1040 Ryan Road
Northampton, MA 01062
Amount: $310,000
Buyer: Samuel I. Clark
Seller: Michael Klatsky
Date: 11/04/22

10 Sherman Ave.
Northampton, MA 01060
Amount: $729,900
Buyer: Stella Conyer
Seller: Nu Way Homes Inc.
Date: 11/10/22

PELHAM

6 Harkness Road
Pelham, MA 01002
Amount: $172,000
Buyer: David Rohde
Seller: James Fitzgibbon
Date: 11/01/22

SOUTH HADLEY

2 Birch Hill Road
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $495,000
Buyer: David Farnsworth
Seller: Priscilla White-Cole
Date: 11/09/22

2 Dove Hill
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $805,000
Buyer: N. Y. Chihombori-Quao
Seller: Alicia F. Magri
Date: 11/02/22

15 Lamb St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $330,000
Buyer: Chiara Leporati
Seller: French Property Management LLC
Date: 11/09/22

259 Lathrop St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $428,000
Buyer: Beth A. Markens
Seller: Michelle N. Theroux
Date: 11/10/22

 

2078 Memorial Dr.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $450,000
Buyer: LNT Properties LLC
Seller: Demers Family Realty LLC
Date: 11/09/22

3 Ralph Ave.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $199,900
Buyer: Anthony Traiforos
Seller: Kasey N. Bunnell
Date: 11/02/22

14 Taylor St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $291,300
Buyer: Christina Royal
Seller: Yury Viess
Date: 11/01/22

90 Woodbridge St.
South Hadley, MA 01075
Amount: $529,850
Buyer: Maggie Hwang
Seller: Timothy J. Luce
Date: 11/10/22

SOUTHAMPTON

85 Maple St.
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $150,000
Buyer: Peter B. Chlastawa
Seller: William J. York
Date: 11/01/22

3 Rattle Hill Road
Southampton, MA 01073
Amount: $205,000
Buyer: James C. Pascoe
Seller: Britt, Kenneth R., (Estate)
Date: 11/09/22

WARE

13 Cherry St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $120,000
Buyer: Felix L. Santana
Seller: Manomednet LLC
Date: 11/08/22

1-3 Laurel Dr.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $315,000
Buyer: Adam J. Senuta
Seller: Midura FT
Date: 11/09/22

22 Pine St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $128,500
Buyer: Nina Hristova
Seller: USA HUD
Date: 11/04/22

13 Williams St.
Ware, MA 01082
Amount: $182,000
Buyer: Erin Jorjakis
Seller: Miskiewicz, Helen J., (Estate)
Date: 11/01/22

WILLIAMSBURG

73 Old Goshen Road
Williamsburg, MA 01096
Amount: $475,000
Buyer: Abbott Gray RT
Seller: Misner, Margaret K. S., (Estate)
Date: 11/07/22

WORTHINGTON

Adams Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $600,000
Buyer: Kimberly A. TR
Seller: Paul A. Strasburg RET
Date: 11/07/22

Curtis Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $600,000
Buyer: Kimberly A. TR
Seller: Paul A. Strasburg RET
Date: 11/07/22

Patterson Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $600,000
Buyer: Kimberly A. TR
Seller: Paul A. Strasburg RET
Date: 11/07/22

175 Patterson Road
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $600,000
Buyer: Kimberly A. TR
Seller: Paul A. Strasburg RET
Date: 11/07/22

West St.
Worthington, MA 01098
Amount: $600,000
Buyer: Kimberly A. TR
Seller: Paul A. Strasburg RET
Date: 11/07/22

Building Permits

By
Building Permits

The following building permits were issued during the month of November 2022. (Filings are limited due to closures or reduced staffing hours at municipal offices due to COVID-19 restrictions).

CHICOPEE

U.S. Tsubaki Inc.
106 Lonczak Dr.
$3,000 — Pour concrete pad

HADLEY

Joseph Boisvert
8 Stockwell Road
N/A — Rebuild on existing foundation

LEE

South Lee Assoc. LLC
501 Pleasant St.
$134,550 — Modify sprinkler system to allow for rack storage

LENOX

Patrick Li
383 East St.
$3,828 — Fire-alarm system

Serge Paccaud
71 Church St.
$14,968 — Roofing

Willow Creek Corp.
51 Willow Creek Road
$454,000 — Addition and alterations to change use from single-family with garage to mixed-use with commercial garage

NORTHAMPTON

Cooley Dickinson Hospital Inc.
30 Locust St.
$45,165 — Illuminated wall sign

Dimension Realty LLC
395 Pleasant St.
$12,000 — Interior office renovations

Hampshire Educational Collaborative Inc.
97 Hawley St.
$32,752 — Accessory structure to be used as office space

Lathrop Community Inc.
680 Bridge St.
$14,000 — Enclose porch

The Nettler-Green Living Trust
20 Bridge Road, Unit 42
$8,638 — Roofing

Rankin Holdings LLC
115 Conz St.
$13,600 — Reface signs for Fairfield Inn

Smith College
138 Elm St.
$34,000 — Roofing

Smith College
25 Henshaw Ave.
$186,000 — Interior demolition of boiler house

St. John’s Episcopal Church
48 Elm St.
$4,872 — Replace four basement windows

PITTSFIELD

Berkshire Two LLC
40 Perrine Ave.
$85,000 — Roofing and siding

Casella Waste Management
500 Hubbard Ave.
$79,000 — Install retaining wall

Stephen Miller
79 East Housatonic St.
$54,055 — Roofing

Three Eleven Partners LLC
34 Depot St.
$16,457 — Miscellaneous membrane EPDM repairs

SPRINGFIELD

90 Tapley LLC
90 Tapley St.
$64,483 — Perform selective interior demolition for future buildout

Baystate Medical Center Inc.
759 Chestnut St.
$224,132 — Alter interior space, scope cleaning room for new equipment

Caring Health Center
473 Sumner Ave.
$1,273,073 — Remodel interior space for new tenant, remodel exterior facade

Zahoor Ul Haq
679 Main St.
$43,000 — Gas station remodel to include new utility room, storage room, and bathroom; erect fire-rated wall for new tenant space; install two doors and six windows

International Brotherhood of Electrical Local 7
95 Liberty St.
$17,957 — Enclose existing exterior stairway from basement

Mittas Hospitality LLC, DD Development LLC, Rudra Realty LLC
1500 Main St.
$86,800 — Alter interior tenant office space on ninth floor of Tower Square

Wason Avenue Partners II LLC
80 Wason Ave.
$440,000 — Shields MRI replacement on first floor

Eppendorf Group Donates Nearly 700 Pounds of Food to Enfield Food Shelf

By
Daily News

ENFIELD, Conn. — The staff at Eppendorf Group, a life-science company that develops and sells instruments, consumables, and services for laboratories worldwide, recently donated 682 pounds of food to the Enfield Food Shelf, which provides food assistance to local families. Enfield Food Shelf estimates that the donated food will provide an equivalent of roughly 800 meals.

“Our employees once again came together to express their gratitude and thanks by supporting this annual tradition,” said Kirti Patel, president of Eppendorf Manufacturing Corp. “We are very grateful to organizations such as Enfield Food Shelf for supporting families in need in our community.”

The mission of the Enfield Food Shelf is to ensure that no Enfield family in need is without food assistance. Its programs include weekly and monthly food assistance, SNAP enrollment, a hunger action team, and Healthy Meals=Healthy Minds initiatives.

Freedom Credit Union Hosting Cherish the Children Holiday Giving Campaign

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — Freedom Credit Union is again helping to make holiday wishes come true for area children through its Cherish the Children 2022 campaign, held in cooperation with the local Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF). Through Dec. 22, Freedom invites its members, staff, and the entire community to select a child’s wish from the tree inside each of its branches and return to place the requested gift under the tree.

“Over the years, our generous members, employees, and credit-union partners have brightened the holidays for many area children,” Freedom President and CEO Glenn Welch said. “We are grateful to have the opportunity to make a difference again this year and look forward to making even more Christmas wishes come true.”

DCF provided Freedom with wish lists that included children’s names, ages, and gift ideas. Freedom staff members created a tag for each child’s wish and hung it on their branch’s Christmas tree. Members of the public are encouraged to take a tag, purchase the gift the child requested, and then bring it back — unwrapped and with the tag attached — to place under the tree.

“Our goal is to provide gifts for a total of 500 area children this year,” Welch said. “We are also accepting monetary donations, which our ‘elves’ will use to round out the effort with a shopping spree. Children add the real magic to the holiday season, so we’ll make every effort to ensure every child receives a present they will truly enjoy.”

To participate in the Cherish the Children campaign, visit one of the Freedom branches in Chicopee, Feeding Hills, Greenfield, Ludlow, Northampton, Turners Falls, West Springfield, or Springfield.

Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield to Host SantaCon Networking Event

By
Daily News

HOLYOKE — The Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield (YPS) will bring joy to the holiday season with its SantaCon networking event on Thursday, Dec. 15 at various locations in downtown Springfield, including BarKaya, Jackalope Restaurant, Dewey’s Lounge, and White Lion Brewing, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

SantaCon will focus on building community through supporting and encouraging young professionals to become more involved in their local communities by spreading holiday cheer. The event encourages attendees to dress in Santa- and holiday-themed costumes, supporting camaraderie and connection this holiday season.

The SantaCon event is free for YPS members and $10 for non-members. Attendees are encouraged to bring an unwrapped, unused toy to contribute to a toy drive hosted by Springfield’s Gray House, which helps neighbors experiencing hardships by providing food, clothing, and educational services. The event will kick off at BarKaya (278 Worthington St.) at 5:30 p.m.

Throughout the holiday season, YPS also encourages volunteerism through its partnership with the Springfield Rotary Club by supporting Springfield’s Friends of the Homeless (FOTH) chapter. Volunteers can sign up to assist in serving food at the FOTH Worthington Street shelter location in Springfield by registering at www.springfieldmarotary.org/events/calendar.

“YPS events help retain individuals who are enthusiastic about the future of the community and their personal endeavors,” YPS President Heather Clark said. “YPS is here to exchange ideas, share common interests, and cultivate membership to serve as local leaders of tomorrow. We’re hopeful that our monthly events will make it easier to make meaningful connections that will help local young professionals thrive.”

To register for SantaCon, visit www.springfieldyps.com/events.

Home Depot Names FastenMaster’s Cortex Decking System an Innovation Award Winner

By
Daily News

AGAWAM — FastenMaster’s Cortex hidden fastening system has been named as one of the top three innovation award winners for 2022 by the Home Depot.

Cortex is a fast and easy way to build a deck with fully hidden hardware and fasteners. The product comes with a proprietary drive bit that sets the screw to the perfect depth every time in composite, cap-stock, and PVC decking boards.

“We are honored to be named as a recipient of the 2022 Innovation Awards from the Home Depot,” said John McMahon, vice president of FastenMaster, a division of OMG Inc., and a brand of fastening solutions for professional contractors. “The list of top winners and finalists is impressive, and having our brand as the second runner-up overall is both highly rewarding and humbling. We want to thank the Home Depot for this honor and congratulate all the companies identified in the process.”

The Cortex hidden deck-fastening system features fasteners with a Torx T-Tap drive system that is nearly impossible to strip out and comes with a strong setting tool that enables both pros and DIYers to install up to 350 fasteners with one tool. Cortex plugs are made from the same material as the decking board being installed.

Country Bank Announces Four Promotions

By
Daily News

WARE — Country Bank recently announced four promotions.

Lisa DiMarzio and Scott Emerson were promoted to first vice presidents. DiMarzio oversees the bank’s Compliance and Community Reinvestment area. She has worked in various positions as a long-tenured team member with 36 years at Country Bank. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Anna Maria College. In addition, she is a graduate of the New England School for Financial Studies and the American Bankers Assoc. Stonier Graduate School of Banking, where she also earned a Wharton leadership certification.

Emerson has more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry and has been an essential part of the Innovation and Technology team at Country Bank for the last 17 years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UMass Amherst and has completed several technology-related certifications throughout the course of his career.

Dianna Lussier, who oversees the Risk Management area, has been promoted to vice president. She has been with Country Bank for 18 years and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Worcester State University with a concentration in finance and accounting. She is also a graduate of the Massachusetts Bankers New England School for Financial Studies. She is currently attending the American Bankers Assoc. Stonier Graduate School of Banking and completing her Wharton leadership certification.

Jason Bourbeau was promoted to Technology Architecture officer. He has been with Country Bank for eight years, earned an associate degree in computer systems engineering from Springfield Technical Community College, and is certified as a Cisco network professional.

“We are excited to announce these promotions, not just in recognition of these team members’ contributions to the bank’s success, but also because each individual’s history with the bank demonstrates the various career paths available in community banking,” said Miriam Siegel, first senior vice president and chief Culture and Development officer at Country Bank. “We are committed to helping each team member identify their career goals and work with them to reach those objectives. Their actions contribute to the bank’s overall success, and we’re pleased to be able to promote these individuals for their dedication to the organization.”

Community Foundation Welcomes Three New Trustees

By
Daily News

SPRINGFIELD — The Community Foundation of Western Massachusetts (CFWM) announced the appointment of three new trustees. Charlie L. D’Amour, Gregory Thomas, and Aaron Vega, each of which began their three-year terms in October, will provide guidance and leadership during a pivotal time for CFWM, which embarked on a national search for its next president and CEO earlier this year.

“We are delighted to add to our trustees three members of our community with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and skill sets who will improve our ability to fulfill our mission and to advance our strategic initiatives,” said Paul Murphy, trustee chair.

D’Amour is the president and CEO of Big Y, where he is responsible for the successful development and execution of long-term strategies for the company. Throughout his tenure at Big Y, he has been instrumental in the development and growth of all aspects of the business, including its World Class Supermarkets, its other retail-store formats, distribution and facilities-management capabilities, and support functions. D’Amour is board member and serves on the public affairs committee for FMI, the national food-industry association. He is also a member of the board and executive committee and former chair of Topco Associates Inc., a member-owned, $16 billion buying consortium headquartered in Chicago. He has served as the chairman of Baystate Health and serves on the board and is a former chair of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council.

Thomas serves as executive director and lecturer at UMass Amherst. Thomas has an extensive background in business as both a strategic manager and a professor. Since 2018, he has been at UMass Amherst, serving in a dual role as a lecturer at the Isenberg School of Management and executive director of the Berthiaume Center for Entrepreneurship. Additionally, since 2008, he has served as a manufacturing strategy manager for a multi-national technology company. His volunteer experience includes roles on the Northampton Chamber of Commerce, Beta Sigma Boule Foundation in Springfield, and the Corning Children’s Center in Corning, N.Y., where he served as both president and treasurer.

Vega was appointed director of the Office of Planning and Economic Development for the city of Holyoke in 2020. Prior to his appointment, he served as state representative for the 5th Hampden District. He continues his focus on providing constituent services, education policy, and economic development. Over the past 10 years, he has been involved in several local nonprofit boards and volunteer projects.

Business Confidence in Massachusetts Rises to 14-Month High

By
Daily News

BOSTON — Business confidence surged to a 14-month high during November as Massachusetts employers saw signs of growth despite inflation, persistent labor shortages, and passage of a new income tax that could affect thousands of Bay State businesses.

The Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) Business Confidence Index gained 7.8 points to 58.7 to end the month comfortably within optimistic territory. The Index is now at its highest level since September 2021 and 0.8 points better than a year ago.

Economists cautioned against reading too much into monthly changes to the Index, but said the numbers provide some evidence that the Massachusetts economy appears to be riding out the broader national economic slowdown.

“Friday’s report that U.S. employers added 263,000 jobs during November underscores a continued demand for workers despite the Federal Reserve’s push to increase interest rates. Even though interest-rate-sensitive sectors such as real estate have slowed, employers remain remarkably confident in the prospects of their own companies,” said Sara Johnson, chair of the AIM Board of Economic Advisors (BEA). “Industrial commodity prices have fallen by one-third from their early March peak, so manufacturers are seeing significant easing of cost pressures. Continued slow growth in China is also helping to reduce energy prices. Businesses may see light at the end of the tunnel and are focusing on market growth and investment opportunities beyond 2023.”

Participants in the Business Confidence Index survey reflected the balance of optimism and challenge faced by employers. “I anticipate a ramp-up in bid opportunities with the federal infrastructure bill passing,” one participant wrote.

Another commented that “costs continue to be a major challenge, specifically in energy, utilities, health insurance, general insurance, overhead. Demand is steady, but it’s difficult to contain costs and maintain growth in profitability.”

The AIM Index, based on a survey of more than 140 Massachusetts employers, has appeared monthly since July 1991. It is calculated on a 100-point scale, with 50 as neutral; a reading above 50 is positive, while below 50 is negative.

The constituent indicators that make up the Index were mostly higher during November. The confidence employers have in their own companies rose 9.2 points to 62.8, ending the month 1.2 points better than in November 2021.

The Massachusetts Index assessing business conditions within the Commonwealth gained 5.6 points to 56.2, down 1.1 points from a year earlier. The U.S. Index measuring conditions throughout the country rose 5.7 points but remained in pessimistic territory at 48.6.

The Current Index, which assesses overall business conditions at the time of the survey, increased 8.2 points to 60.7. The Future Index, measuring projections for the economy six months from now, gained 7.4 points to end the month at 56.6.

The Manufacturing Index rose 5.6 points to 56.3 compared to a 53.8 reading for non-manufacturing businesses. The Employment Index rose 5.2 points to 58.5 as employers continued to scour a tight labor market for qualified workers. Large companies (58.0) were more optimistic than medium-sized companies (54.0) and small companies (52.6).

Elmore Alexander, dean emeritus at Ricciardi College of Business, Bridgewater State University, and a BEA member, said employers were encouraged by the results of the November midterm elections, which left the federal government divided and thus more predictable.

“That, coupled with a belief that, while sticking to its guns, the Fed is moderating interest-rate hikes, portends a positive economic outlook,” Alexander said.

AIM President and CEO John Regan, also a BEA member, noted that the widespread concern among employers about the effect of the new income surtax means Massachusetts must redouble its efforts to make itself an attractive place to work and live.

“Behaviors around workforce are changing. Businesses can now draw talent from throughout the country and hire workers who live in lower-cost states. Businesses themselves can locate and invest elsewhere with greater ease and flexibility than in the past. These decisions by businesses and workers alike about where to locate is often spurred by a desire to reduce costs while retaining a good quality of life,” Regan said.

“We used to think about a state’s economic health in terms of competitiveness. Though previous notions of competitiveness are still relevant, it is important that we engage in a more expansive discussion about what constitutes economic health. This more expansive view includes conversations around whether a state is an attractive place to locate, live, pursue a career, raise a family, and buy a home.”